A wedding for thirty guests is not a shrunken banquet or an enlarged elopement. It is its own kind of work, and in the hills of Piedmont it is the work Letizia T. Events is built around. Based in the province of Alessandria, Letizia plans micro weddings of two to about forty guests across the Monferrato and the Gavi hills, and destination weddings of around fifty in Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy. Her argument for the small wedding is that it is more work to plan, not less, and that the work pays back in how the day feels.
Why the small wedding takes more planning
Fewer guests do not make fewer decisions. They make each decision visible. With forty people at one table there is nowhere for an indifferent glass of wine or a generic centrepiece to hide, so Letizia treats the food and wine as choices to be made with care rather than a menu to be selected from a list. The same smallness opens doors. Venues that are closed to larger parties open up when the guest list is short, so a wedding can take place somewhere that a larger celebration could not.
The format runs from a ceremony for two, an elopement with an officiant and witnesses, up to a gathering of about forty built around the people closest to the couple. Destination weddings run a little larger, typically around fifty. Between the two ends there is room for a great deal of variety, and her portfolio shows it: a village church dressed with garlands and loose flowers, a garden ceremony lined with painted paper hearts, a white aisle runner laid through a farmhouse courtyard.
The hills of Monferrato and Gavi
Her ground is the south-east of Piedmont: the hills around Alessandria and Asti, the vineyards of the Monferrato, and the Gavi hills, the home of the Cortese grape. The settings she works with range from vineyard estates and castles to period villas, lakeside lawns and, further afield for destination couples, the coast of Liguria and the lakes of Lombardy.
One wedding in the Gavi hills shows how she thinks about a place. The ceremony was symbolic, held under a large tree on the shore of a lake. Afterwards came a long banquet table with a runner of flowers down its length, and the vineyards as a backdrop. Nothing in that sequence needed more than a few well-placed elements: a tree, a lake, a table, the hills. The planning was in choosing the spot and making sure that the table, the flowers and the light all agreed with it.
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Letizia T., Letizia T. Events
One planner, one conversation
Letizia works as the couple’s single point of contact, and she speaks for the project to every supplier herself. The first conversation is about the couple, what the day should feel like and which places mean something to them, and it can take place by phone, by email or through her contact form. From there she proposes locations and suppliers that suit the style, tests whether the couple’s ideas can be done within the budget, and finds solutions where they cannot quite be.
Design is part of the same conversation. She develops the mood, the colours, the flowers, the tables and the stationery together, so that the venue, the table and the printed details read as one wedding rather than a set of separate purchases. A peach and cream invitation suite on textured linen, a seating chart pinned inside a vintage suitcase with a posy of bright flowers: the details are small, and they are chosen to belong to the same day as the ceremony.
Marrying in Piedmont from abroad
Many of her couples live outside Italy, and for them the practical side of marrying here is a large part of the job. Letizia handles the location search, the choice of suppliers, accommodation for guests and the transfers between hotel, ceremony and dinner. She also suggests excursions in the area, so that the wedding doubles as a short holiday and the guests who have travelled are given a reason to stay a few days. Those who plan from a distance can do all of it by telephone and email, with Letizia on site to carry out what has been agreed.
Piedmont suits that kind of wedding. It is a region of vineyards, castles and period villas, within reach of the Ligurian coast and the Lombard lakes. The Wedding Atlas has the regional guide for Piedmont, and the estate in the aerial view above, with its pool and ceremony lawn, was used for a wedding in Gavi.
The day itself
On the wedding day Letizia is on site to run the day, so that the couple can enjoy it. The same coordination is offered on its own, for couples who have already booked their suppliers and want a professional planner to carry the day on their behalf. She also offers bridal styling for the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids and close family.
Evenings in the portfolio are as considered as the ceremonies. A live saxophone plays under the arcade of a villa while dinner is served; a cake is cut on a flower-dressed cart with cold-spark fountains behind; a long table is laid under autumn trees with candles and greenery. The pattern is consistent: a single idea, carried through, rather than a crowd of competing ones.
Beyond weddings
Letizia also organises marriage proposals, private parties such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, baby showers and communions, and corporate events in the Asti, Alessandria and Monferrato area. The same attention to a small guest list applies, and it is a useful sign of how she works: the wedding is one kind of celebration among several, each planned around the people who will be in the room.
Planning your wedding with Letizia T. Events
Fees are quoted on request. Each proposal is prepared individually, according to the type of service, the location, the number of guests and the complexity of the celebration, so the practical first step is an enquiry. She works mainly in Piedmont, around Alessandria, Asti, the Monferrato and the Gavi hills, and for destination weddings also in Liguria and Lombardy, including the Lombard lakes and the Ligurian coast. Letizia plans each wedding personally, and the couple’s conversation is with her throughout.
Who it is for
This is a planner for couples who want a small, carefully made wedding in northern Italy: an elopement with a handful of witnesses, a long table for thirty among the vines, a destination weekend for fifty. Her specialty is the small wedding, so the principal consideration is guest numbers: couples planning a large banquet should ask whether it falls within her usual range. Check your date with Letizia T. Events to see whether it is free.
- Planner: Letizia T. Events
- Based: Alessandria, Piedmont
- Specialty: Micro weddings and elopements, from two to about 40 guests
- Also plans: Destination weddings in Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy
- Instagram: @letiziatevents
