Setting the table before dinner, Ravello — not a portrait sitting
About Francesca
I was born in Ravello, and I still live here.
I grew up on this coast and never left it. It is not a place I travel to for work — it is where I live, and where I have been planning weddings professionally for over ten years.
That matters because planning here is not a checklist of pretty suppliers. It is a network of unwritten permissions: whose terrace can take a tent, which priest will marry a non-Italian couple, who answers the phone early when a florist is stuck in Positano traffic. I deal with those people directly.
How I started
I started working in weddings at fifteen, training alongside people who had already been doing this for years. Then I spent time abroad — mostly in London — to see how weddings and events were run elsewhere, before coming home in 2015 to found Chic & Fabulous and do it my own way. I learned the practical side first — then I shaped the business around the way I actually wanted to work.
The six steps I now call Sei Porte came out of those years — Ravello and London both.
What I do
I plan weddings across the coast, and at my own villa.
Villa Mariella is my property. I hold weddings there, and I plan them in churches, cloisters, private terraces and gardens from Sorrento to Capri. The boats, cars and vans that move you and your guests are mine as well, so the timing of the day is something I control rather than something I book and hope for.
Most of the couples I work with are planning from abroad and have never been to the Amalfi Coast. My job is to make sure their first visit is not their first lesson.
Working with me
One person, accountable from the first call to the last car.
If something goes wrong, you call me directly and I fix it. There is no account manager, no call centre, no handover between departments. Two people work alongside me on every wedding, from an elopement to a hundred guests — one on the ground with me, one in the office keeping calls and emails moving — so nothing depends on one pair of hands. But the decisions, and the person you call if something goes wrong, are always me. We speak when something needs deciding — not every week, but never out of reach.
The process itself is six steps, and I set it out in full on its own page.
What I refuse to do
Trust is built by saying no as often as yes.
There are easier ways to run a wedding business. I could subcontract every supplier and take a cut, double-book the weekends I cannot handle, or promise a romantic view of a terrace that is actually a parking lot in August. I do not do those things because the couples who come to me are usually planning one of the most expensive and emotional trips of their lives. They deserve to know exactly who is doing what, and why.
I do not take on more than I can run myself
I am not a large agency with associates. If your date is in my diary, I am the one standing next to you on the terrace.
I do not bundle my fee into someone else's quote
Villa Mariella is my property. Every other venue I work with directly, and my fee is quoted on its own — never folded into what a venue or a supplier charges you. You see what each thing costs, and you know exactly what you are paying me for.
I do not promise what I cannot deliver
If a church does not allow outdoor confetti, if a boat cannot hold your whole party, if your paperwork is too late for a civil ceremony — I will tell you early, so we can plan around it.
I do not bring in outsiders for what this coast already does well
Every supplier I work with is local — the same florists, drivers and kitchens I have known for years, not flown in from Rome or Naples to save a day. It keeps the coast doing what it does best, and it means someone is always five minutes away, not five hours.
I do not talk about your wedding to anyone who doesn't need to know
Some couples want a signed non-disclosure agreement before we talk details — press, public figures, or simply people who value their privacy. I'm glad to provide one; just ask on the call.
The best weddings are the ones where guests leave saying the whole trip felt easy. That ease is the result of work that happens weeks before: a boat at the right pier, a photographer who knows the exact moment the light hits the terrace, a caterer who has already made the dish the bride's mother loved. My job is to make all of that invisible.
What couples say
"It must have been fate we stumbled on Francesca when looking for a small private villa venue. Little did we know the perfect place (Villa Mariella) also happened to be managed by the perfect wedding planner. Francesca's expert advice helped guide our vision to reality from planning entirely remote during the pandemic, to last second changes due to guest drop out, to all the extra time she devoted to us once we arrived, to surprising us with sweet little videos she recorded throughout the big day since we didn't have a videographer. She is professional, thoughtful, an amazing problem solver, and best of all a wonderful person. You know someone is incredible when every single guest mentions how great they are! We can't thank her enough for making our dream day a reality and can't wait to return to Ravello!"
"Would you like a wedding that is unique, romantic, refined, elegant, and cared for down to the smallest detail — the kind guests are still talking about months later? Francesca was our answer, and our certainty. She has many gifts, but the best one is knowing how to listen and stand by you like your closest friend. I will never stop thanking her for guiding us through this wonderful journey."
As featured in
A couple from Florida and Alabama found their planner first, then asked me to find a setting that matched them. I suggested Villa Mariella for its privacy, intimacy and the view. The full story is in Destination I Do — January 2025.
If you want a straight answer before you commit to anything, that is what I do.
Tell me the date you have in mind, the number of guests you are thinking of, and the kind of wedding you are hoping for. I will tell you honestly whether it is possible, and what it is likely to take.