Ultimate romance: A wedding in Italy

Walk up the aisle in an ancient church or ornate town hall and feel like your wedding is the event of the moment in a little hilltop town in Umbria or Tuscany.

Then enjoy course after course of fabulous Italian food accompanied by delectable local vintages.

The wedding season is about to get under way and happy couples all over the country are searching for their perfect wedding destination.

An idyllic romantic setting, a meaningful ceremony, delicious food and wine and a predictably balmy climate - these are all important requirements for a wedding to remember.

Sometimes the most difficult decision is where to have your wedding in Italy. With gorgeous destinations like the Amalfi Coast, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Umbria, Verona, Rome and Sicily to choose from where do you start?

Whether you want a Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes-style extravaganza or a simple wedding ceremony with a handful of guests, there is a castle or a village in Italy that will be perfect for your big day.

There are even some destinations where you can have a wedding outdoors - on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean or in the garden of a beautiful villa, filled with cypresses and rambling roses.

A good wedding planner will not only handle all the necessary legal paperwork and bookings for you, including flowers, photography and music.

They will also be knowledgeable and interested enough to provide detailed advice on locations and organisation.

Different regions of Italy have different legal requirements and a wedding planner will be able to advise here but in a number of places it is a very simple process and you can arrive at the destination as late as the day before the ceremony.

Wedding costs seem to spiral ever upwards these days, particularly in the UK, and a wedding in Italy can surprisingly be a way to keep the wedding budget under control without compromising on quality.

Of course there are plenty of potential honeymoon holiday options in Italy. After all it is one of the most romantic countries in the world.

Whether you want to be pampered in a spa overlooking the Tuscan countryside or stay in a castle, you won't have to go far to find your perfect honeymoon holiday.

Talk to the chief wedding coordinator Rossana Sapori of Weddings in Italy and let her take all the worries out of your hands, leaving you to concentrate on important details like what you are going to wear.

Natasha von Geldern