Villa di Ulignano, nestled in the hills outside of Volterra Italy is a dream wedding venue for anyone planning a destination wedding in Tuscany or Italy. If you have the dream of hosting your friends and family in an Italian villa complete with views of the Tuscan countryside with a pool then this place is for you. It is quintessentially Italian, rustic and charmingly beautiful, even in the rain as this couple found on their wedding day.

They had hoped to have their ceremony outside with dinner under festoon lights in the courtyard in front of the villa, but the Italian weather (which is fickle in May) had other plans! But even in the rain, Villa di Ulignano was still the most breathtaking space to play host to their day. And thankfully, it has plenty of choice for locations indoors for them to use. Their expert wedding planner, Danielle at Wiskow and White ensured that everything went smoothly and was handled perfectly even with last minute choices had to be made regarding the ceremony location when the rain didn’t let up.

So, a destination wedding doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a rain free wedding day, but a Villa di Ulignano wedding does guarantee you a spectacular backdrop! Have a scroll, to enjoy the incredible scenery Tuscany and Ulignano has to offer.

A huge thank you to my dear friend Claire Penn for having me along.

Getting Ready…

Villa di Ulignano has lots of bedrooms and accomodation for your guests either onsite in the villa itself or the borgo which is a short walk down the track past olive trees and fields. The bride and her bridal party got ready on the top floor of the villa spending the morning chatting and laughing, and watching the weather from the windows.

The Groom

The Groom and his friends made use of the space downstairs, complete with pool table. I love these candid shots of his friends helping him with his bow tie and the detail shots below of his cuffs, which were embroidered with monograms.

An indoor ceremony at Villa di Ulignano

As the rain continued and put stop to their outdoor ceremony plans the chairs were arranged indoors, Danielle from Wiskow and White wedding planners ensured the whole thing was managed seamlessly. The beautiful, modern flowers by Winston & Winston still gave them an amazing backdrop for their ceremony.

The Cocktail Hour – aka time for an Aperol and Italian food!

After the ceremony it was Aperol Spritz all round and the usual Italian aperitif. Italian weddings almost always feature a large buffet of cheese, cold meats, vegetable tempura and other snacks. It’s generally a lot more than is usually served during a drinks reception in the UK and lots of the guests filled up assuming this was their dinner! If you can’t feast at a wedding in Italy when can you?

As well as the food, the Bride and Groom spent time mingling and chatting while we captured relaxed natural and candid photographs of them and their friends enjoying it all.

Photo backdrops at Villa di Uliganano

Villa di Ulignano has plenty of choice for incredible backdrops for photographs and thankfully the rain held off for long enough for us to sneak this beautiful couple outside for some photographs. You don’t have to venture far to find a beautiful backdrop and in typical Italian fashion even the most bland spaces like the garage doors, are beautiful for photographs. The roses climbing the walls and the old iron gates were two of my favourite spots the villa had to offer.

Golden Decor in the Ballroom at Villa di Ulignano

The ballroom at Villa di Ulignano was transformed for dinner. I absolutely loved the table runners of dried gold gypsophelia. I’ve seen LOTS of gypsophelia at weddings over the years but never like this, and the gold worked perfectly with the cutlery and glass rims as well as the duck egg blue tapered candles. The whole room looked stunning and even though the original plan was for dinner under the festoons in the courtyard, this was an amazing back up space and every bit as beautiful.

Golden Hour in Tuscany

Finally, after rain showers for most of the day the sun came out for us. We sneaked off for some photographs between the starter and main course and finally caught the incredible golden Tuscan sunset. Golden hour in Tuscany really does hit different and the view across the fields towards Volterra was just incredible. Taking a few minutes out to capture these photographs was amazing.

The Party

After dinner, the chefs made up a traditional Italian wedding cake, and the DJ got the party started! The prosecco flowed and the bar looked amazing with this custom neon sign. The guests all danced on the outdoor dance floor under fairy lights and a huge disco ball which set the perfect party vibe. It was an amazing end to this incredible wedding in Italy.

If you enjoyed this Villa di Ulignano destination wedding, check out my other destination weddings here. Over my years I’ve been thrilled to travel to New York, Italy, Denmark, Norway, France and Luxembourg to capture weddings. I’d love to chat to you about capturing your destination adventure! Drop me a line, ask me a question, or tell me all about your plans here. I can’t wait to hear all about it!