Today’s article is a little different from our usual guides. It is a personal reflection by Barbara Miele — founder and destination wedding planner at Romantica Italia — inspired by an experience that took her to Sicily, where familiar traditions met new perspectives. Through her eyes, we rediscover the delicate balance between Italian and destination weddings — between heritage, culture, and the invisible art that makes beauty seem effortless.
I haven’t shared much in the last few weeks — the end of the 2025 wedding season has been truly vibrant, with the final celebrations unfolding one after another and a series of new site inspections for the venues already confirmed for 2026.
Among these intense days, one experience stands out: a journey to Sicily to support a Colleague in the coordination of a wedding. The event was led by Anna Reina, AIWP Ambassador for Sicily, and for me it represented an invaluable moment of continuous professional learning — one of the privileges offered by being part of AIWP, where collaboration and growth go hand in hand. It was also my first Italian wedding, and that alone made it an experience of great meaning — a chance to observe familiar traditions from a different perspective and to reflect on how they coexist, and sometimes contrast, with the world of destination weddings.
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Rediscovering Italy through the eyes of Italians
Beyond the beauty of the setting — the kind that only Sicily can offer — what struck me most during this experience was observing how couples relate differently to Italy depending on their origins.
Foreign couples often arrive in awe — each view a discovery, each sound a promise. Italian couples, instead, are deeply familiar with this land. Their affection for it runs deep but is rarely accompanied by surprise.
And that difference reshapes the Planner’s approach: when the landscape is already known, beauty alone isn’t enough. The task becomes more introspective — not to reveal Italy, but to reinterpret it through meaning, detail, and emotion. To help couples, and their guests, fall in love again with what they already know.
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Tradition and Folklore
This Sicilian experience also reminded me of the fine line between tradition and folklore. In many destination weddings, local folk performers are featured as “entertainment” — adding a splash of colour that delights international guests.
But in this wedding, the group of performers from Siracusa carried something deeper: echoes of the ancient cantastorie — the itinerant storytellers once found across Italy, who travelled from village to village preserving the collective memory of their people through words, songs and music. It was joyous yet intimate, festive yet profound — not mere entertainment for the guests, but a celebration of identity shared with sincerity and pride.
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A question of Taste
Cuisine is another key point of contrast. For international couples, Italian food is part of the dream — a symbol of authenticity and sensory indulgence. They often say that the best pizza at home would be the worst pizza in Italy, a way of saying that here, quality food isn’t a luxury, it’s a way of life.
Italian couples, on the other hand, approach food from another perspective. Their expectations are much higher, rooted in experience and belonging. They are not simply seeking “good food,” but a meal that expresses refinement, identity, and home all at once.
Simplicity and complexity
Local weddings tend to be logistically simpler: familiar areas, short distances, guests who know the territory.
Destination weddings, however, open an entirely different landscape. They turn Planners into true conductors of movement — coordinating multiple venues, accommodation clusters, transfers, and the cultural expectations that couples and guests carry with them from their Countries of origin, shaping how each celebration is lived and felt. A Destination Wedding Planner must translate not only languages, but also expectations, habits, and sensibilities, turning all these differences into coherent, creative choices that reflect the couple’s story.
It’s a role that blends precision and hospitality, strategy and empathy — a kind of concierge of experiences where every decision — from accommodation and service standards to timing, design, and emotional flow — must feel effortless yet meticulously designed. Each event becomes a web of logistics, timing, and human connection stretching across languages, cultures, and time zones.
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The hidden depth of Destination Planning
To define destination wedding planning as complex is accurate, but incomplete. What makes it truly demanding is not the quantity of tasks — it’s the quality of the responsibility.
A Destination Planner carries the weight of distance — not only geographic, but emotional, linguistic, and cultural. Every choice must bridge worlds: translating expectations, reconciling habits, understanding international laws and formalities, adapting traditions without distorting their meaning.
It’s not simply about moving a celebration abroad; it’s about creating a sense of belonging where nothing feels foreign. The Planner becomes the interpreter of a Country — its systems, its rhythm, its codes — transforming its local essence into a universal language of welcome.
This requires far more than organisational skill. It calls for intuition, empathy, and resilience: the intuition to anticipate what could go wrong before anyone notices; the empathy to make couples feel at home even when they are oceans away; the resilience to hold steady when circumstances shift — because they always do.
There is also a persistent cliché that some foreign couples bring with them — the idea that weddings in Italy are effortless and inexpensive, that beauty here happens naturally and organisation follows with ease. The reality, instead, is that quality always has its cost, and the seamless charm of a destination wedding depends on a carefully built structure of work, coordination, and expertise that often remains invisible to the eye.
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And perhaps this is the greatest truth about destination planning: the more seamless the result, the more invisible the effort behind it. Every moment of harmony rests on layers of unseen work — silent hours, careful diplomacy, and the calm assurance that, in the end, everything will appear effortless.
Professional perception and visibility
The role of the Wedding Planner in Italy still has a shorter history than abroad. For this reason, it sometimes meets cultural hesitation or misconceptions that foreign Planners rarely face. While in many Countries relying on a Planner is standard practice, in Italy we still sometimes need to explain why our role exists — and how it differs from what loving mothers, aunts, or friends might do out of goodwill.
On the other hand, Italian Planners often work through word of mouth, building reputation locally through relationships and trust.
In the destination market, however, the context changes entirely: unless one belongs to the small circle of globally recognised names, visibility is achieved through digital presence. The first filter that determines whether a professional even enters the selection process is, more often than not, their social image. In this field, communication often precedes reputation — which makes authenticity and consistency even more essential.
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The value of continuous learning
Like all professions, also ours demands continuous learning. Trends change, technology develops, cultures intersect, couples’ expectations shift — and our role is to remain interpreters of all these movements.
Training, observation, and exchange are not optional; they are the foundation of quality in our work, for the benefit of both the industry and the clients we serve. This journey to Sicily was a vivid reminder of that truth: growth happens in the field, side by side with other professionals who share the same passion and ethics.
Acknowledgements
My heartfelt thanks to Anna Reina, AIWP Ambassador for Sicily, and to AIWP, for this inspiring opportunity — one that perfectly embodies collaboration as one of our profession’s highest values.
My gratitude also goes to the Bride, Jessica Lo Giudice, and the Groom, Simone Zito, for allowing me to be part of such an important day in their lives — a celebration that took place in the timeless setting of Commenda di San Calogero, a place that truly captures the soul of Sicily.
Because in the end, weddings — like our work — are built on trust, shared vision, and the unwavering belief that beauty is never accidental.
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