Ramona Avitabile Wedding Planner

Ramona Avitabile grew up on the Amalfi Coast and has planned weddings from no other base. Her office stands in Amalfi, a few minutes from the Duomo, on the one coast road that every supplier, hire company and guest coach has to use. Living on that road is a practical advantage: she knows which deliveries must arrive early, which venues are reached only by boat and which town halls take calls in August.

Her work is measured in effort as much as in packages, at between 60 and 250 hours per wedding depending on the formula. It covers location scouting, introductions to suppliers and the negotiation of their contracts, a budget held to the figure agreed at the outset, civil and religious paperwork for couples marrying from abroad, site tours and menu tastings attended with the couple, floor plans, the rehearsal and a team on the day.

There are three formulas. Full planning takes a wedding from the first idea to the last dance, with unlimited consultations. Planning on demand picks up one service or several for couples who have already begun and are stuck on something they cannot manage from another country. Coordination is advice alone, on etiquette, mise en place and the running order, for couples who run their own day.

The portfolio spans a ceremony laid down the vaulted stone hall of the Arsenale of Amalfi, dinners in formal gardens above the sea, elopements arranged within days and a vow renewal in a lemon grove with a celebrant and a guitarist. Amalfi, Ravello, Positano and Conca dei Marini recur, along with Sorrento and the quieter Cilento to the south.

Her services extend to hotel room blocks, guest transfers and boats, floral design, honeymoon planning, and invitations, menus and place cards on handmade Amalfi paper.