The things couples marrying from abroad actually ask me.

For a wedding of forty guests or more in high season — late May through September — twelve to eighteen months is realistic. The good Ravello and Positano venues take one wedding a day and the best photographers and the strongest catering teams are booked a year out. Saturdays in June and September go first.

For twenty-five guests or fewer, or for a date in April, early May, October or November, six to nine months is usually enough, and I have pulled together beautiful weddings in three.

Elopements are different: with two people and a symbolic ceremony I can work in a matter of weeks. A legal ceremony sets the floor, because the consular and comune appointments have their own lead times — plan on two to three months minimum.

The honest version: it is not the venue that runs out first, it is the combination of venue, photographer and date. If you have a fixed date and a specific place in mind, book earlier than feels comfortable.

May, June, September and early October are the strongest months. Warm days in the mid-twenties Celsius (mid-seventies Fahrenheit), long light, the sea warm enough to swim by June, and evenings you can sit out in without a jacket until late.

July and August are hot — regularly above thirty degrees Celsius (upper eighties Fahrenheit) — and the coast is crowded. Weddings still work, but I move ceremonies later, plan shade and water, and avoid midday photographs on stone terraces that hold heat. Traffic on the coast road in August is genuinely difficult and changes the whole transport plan.

April and late October are lovely and unpredictable in equal measure. Wisteria in April is spectacular; so is a two-day rainstorm. If you marry in the shoulder season you need a covered option you would actually be happy with, not a marquee bolted on in panic.

November through March: quiet, moody, often bright and clear, with dramatic light. Many venues close, but the ones that stay open give you the coast almost to yourself. It suits small weddings and elopements more than large ones.

Rain plan is not a formality here. Every wedding I run has a written wet-weather version with a decision time, usually the morning of, so nobody is arguing about tarpaulins at four in the afternoon.

Fewer than the photographs suggest. Ravello sits on a ridge and its gardens are terraced, so the usable flat area is smaller than the view implies. As a rough guide: intimate terraces and cloisters seat twenty to forty; the mid-size villa gardens seat sixty to ninety comfortably; and only a handful of properties in and around Ravello genuinely seat a hundred and fifty or more with a dance floor and a working catering area.

Capacity also depends on format. A venue that seats eighty for a long-table dinner may only seat sixty once you add a band, a bar and a dance floor. Ceremony capacity, dinner capacity and party capacity are three different numbers, and venue brochures often quote the most flattering one.

Access matters as much as square metres. Some of the most beautiful spots are reached by stairs or by a footpath a van cannot use, which affects elderly guests, catering logistics and what time the flowers can arrive.

My venue pages list the honest seated numbers for each property, and Villa Mariella — my own — seats up to twenty-five. Tell me your guest count first and I will tell you which places are genuinely possible, rather than sending you to fall in love with somewhere that cannot hold your family.

Naples Capodichino is the arrival point for almost everyone. Ravello is roughly ninety minutes to two hours by road, depending on traffic and season; Positano and Praiano are similar; Sorrento is a little under an hour and a half.

By road is the default: private cars for small groups, minibuses for eight to sixteen, coaches for larger blocks. I use my own vehicles and drivers, so the schedule is mine to control, not a broker's — if a flight is delayed, I already know, and nobody has to call anyone to approve a change.

By sea is the better option in summer. A private transfer to Salerno or Sorrento and then a boat along the coast avoids the worst of the coast-road traffic and gives guests the arrival they came for. I own boats as well, which is why I can be honest about when the sea is the right choice and when it is not.

Practical advice I give every couple: ask guests to book arrivals before mid-afternoon, warn them that the coast road is winding, and do not schedule anything less than four hours after the last landing. I build the transfer manifest for you, match guests to vehicles, and track the flights on the day so a delay does not become your problem.

For a symbolic ceremony, no. You can arrive two days before, and many couples do.

For a legal civil ceremony, yes — you need to be here for at least a few working days beforehand. The sequence is: the consular appointment for the Nulla Osta (Naples or Florence), legalisation at the Prefettura, then the Dichiarazione di Matrimonio at the comune where you marry, which both of you must attend in person with your interpreter. In practice I ask couples to arrive three to four working days before the wedding, and to avoid arriving on a Friday or into a public holiday, because offices close and the chain stalls.

For a Catholic ceremony there is usually a meeting with the parish priest a day or two beforehand, but the heavy paperwork happens between your parish and the diocese in the months before, not while you are here.

I book every appointment, tell you the exact days you need to be free, drive you there, and come in with you. Most couples turn those days into the start of the holiday rather than a chore.

Not always. If you are eloping with two people and a photographer, you can do it yourself and I will happily point you at the right comune.

For anything larger, the honest case is this: almost everything here is arranged in Italian, by phone, with people who work on relationships rather than contracts. Venues answer differently depending on who is asking. Book online and you are often several steps away from the person who will actually be there on the day. The paperwork is unforgiving of small errors, and a rejected document three days before the wedding is not something you can fix from another country.

What you are paying for is not a spreadsheet. It is someone who grew up in Ravello, who has worked with these florists, caterers, drivers and priests for years, who can call a venue owner directly on a Sunday, and who is standing on the terrace at seven in the morning when the flowers arrive.

And if you have already done most of the work yourself, do not hire me for full planning — take the on-the-day coordination and keep your budget for the wine.

Because a ten-person elopement and a hundred-guest wedding with three days of events are different businesses, and any number I put on this page would be wrong for most people reading it. What I can tell you: there is a realistic floor below which I can't do this properly — see the next question for that — and above it, my fee is quoted on its own, never folded into what a venue or a supplier charges you, and there is no package you are pushed toward. Tell me your guest count and the shape of what you want on the call, and I will give you real numbers for your wedding, not a starting-from figure designed to get you in the door.

For an exclusive venue on this coast, the realistic starting point is around €1,000 per guest, all-in — the venue, the catering, and everything around the table: music, flowers, a celebrant if you need one, the cake, favours. That is not my fee, it is what this coast costs at the level most of my couples are working at. Below that, the venues and suppliers worth using start to disappear. Tell me your guest count on the call and I will tell you what is realistic for you specifically, not a number pulled from a brochure.

Ravello itself is small, so a group usually ends up across a few properties — a hotel for the ones who want a pool and room service, apartments and villas for everyone else, sometimes a whole building taken over for the week. What I do not do is scatter people across different towns. Distances here are short on the map and long in real life, and a guest who has to cross the coast at the end of the night is a guest who leaves early. Everyone stays within reach of where the day happens. I know which places actually deliver on their photos and which take on more guests than they can comfortably serve. If you want it handled, I can take the blocking and the booking on myself, so your guests are dealing with one person and not fifteen separate reservations. We decide that together on the call.

It happens — a boat needs unexpected maintenance, a florist has a family emergency, a delivery gets stuck behind a landslide closure. Because I work with these people directly and have for years, I usually have a second option within a phone call, not a search. On the day itself, problems get solved before you hear about them; you are not the one making calls. What I cannot fix is the weather, so every wedding I run has a written wet-weather version agreed in advance, with a decision point on the morning, so nobody is arguing about it at four in the afternoon.

Deposits and balances are paid by international bank transfer, in euros. I agree a payment schedule with you early — usually a deposit to hold suppliers and dates, with the balance due closer to the wedding — so there are no surprises and no request for a large sum with a week's notice. If your bank charges heavily for international transfers, tell me early and we can usually find a better way to send it.