I was lucky enough to spend four amazing days in Florence and the Tuscan countryside, the culmination of which was Jonathan and Natalie’s mind-bogglingly beautiful destination wedding at Villa Cora.
I had met Jonathan & Natalie exactly a year before at their friend’s wedding the year before! You can view the engagement photoshoot in Rome, and also their amazing Rome wedding where I’d also been the wedding photographer!
The weather was spectacular from dawn to dusk, as you can see above with the friends and family of Jonathan and Natalie bathed in gorgeous Tuscan sunshine! Although it was late September, it was extremely warm, which is why the couple had a ceremony at 4 pm – the perfect time for sunset photos on the roof terrace (below) – I’d highly discourage any destination wedding couples from the UK from having an Italian wedding in July or August due to the heat and humidity – unless the ceremony was held in the evening.
Bride and Groom Villa Cora wedding photo on roof top terrace overllooking florene
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Villa Cora sits up above Florence with the whole city laid out below it. Built in the 16th century, restored since, and about as far from a barn in Nottinghamshire as I’ve ever worked.
The gardens are Giampietro Campana’s, and they’ve been kept immaculate ever since. Lovely to walk through. Better to photograph in the hour before dinner, when the light drops behind the hedges and everyone drifts outside with a drink.
The roof terrace is the thing though. That’s where the photo above was taken. If you’re getting married here, protect the half hour before sunset and let the rest of the day move around it — that’s the one I’d fight for.
There’s the Grand Ballroom — high ceilings, chandeliers, the lot — and enough terraces and gardens that nobody ends up stuck in the sun holding a warm drink. Big or small, formal or not, it flexes.
You get the whole place to yourselves. No other guests wandering through the back of your photos, nobody you don’t know propping up the bar. That’s rarer than you’d think, and it’s a big part of why the day ran the way it did.
Don’t get married here in July or August. I mean it. Jonathan and Natalie went late September and it was still warm enough that a 4pm ceremony was the right call — which is exactly what handed us the roof terrace at sunset.
Go mid-summer and you’ll spend your own wedding melting, your guests will spend it hunting for shade, and every photo of your dad will have him holding his jacket. If your heart’s set on July, do an evening ceremony and thank me later.
Most couples who bring everyone this far don’t waste it on one day. Jonathan and Natalie’s ran across four, and the wedding was the middle of it rather than the whole of it — which meant by the time the ceremony came round, nobody was meeting for the first time.
Those are usually my favourite frames anyway. The dinner the night before, the slow morning, the hungover walk into town. Nobody’s braced for a camera yet and it shows.
You could photograph a wedding in a car park in that light and it’d still look good. Step outside the gates and the city’s right there — which is why I spent four days in Florence and the Tuscan countryside rather than flying in the night before.
Worth knowing if you’re weighing up guest numbers: people will travel for this. They’ll grumble about the flights and then spend the whole weekend telling you it was the best wedding they’ve been to.
It’s an expensive way to get married and I won’t pretend otherwise. But I’ve photographed a lot of weddings, and this one’s still near the top — partly the villa, mostly the fact that Jonathan and Natalie treated it like four days with their favourite people rather than a production.
Villa Cora’s own site is here if you want to ask them about dates.
And if you’ve already got the date, that’s where I come in.
I’ll travel for a wedding like this one, and I’d do it again tomorrow.
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Destination Wedding Photography in Italy
You’ll find a small selection of wedding venues here, where I have also been destination wedding planning guide
I’ve shot weddings in Florence, Rome and a fair few places in between. Same way I work at home — no posing, no line-ups, I just follow the day.
Rough date, rough plan, or nothing more than a venue you’ve got your eye on. Fill this in and I’ll come back to you properly — no auto-reply, no brochure.
You can find more relevant examples and planning information in my destination wedding photography portfolio guide.
