Umbria Weddings and Events

The green heart of Italy, planned by someone who lives in it.

Marsciano, Umbria, Italy

The region that never learned to charge like Tuscany.

Umbria has no coastline and no international border, which is why it stayed off the itinerary, which is why it is still affordable, which is why a couple can have a twelfth century abbey to themselves on a Saturday in June. Fatima Palomares moved here from Spain, found nobody specialising in destination weddings, and built the specialism. Twelve years later she is still working the same two regions rather than the whole peninsula, and the depth shows in the venues she can open.

Fatima Palomares

She was born and raised in Spain, felt out of place in a small hometown, and left after a degree in International Business. Before the agency there were tourism agencies in the United Kingdom, Dubai and France, and there was Prada, and there was Louis Vuitton. That is where the eye and the service standard both come from, and she says so herself rather than leaving it to be inferred.

Italy was not the plan. She arrived, was taken by the art and the food and the way people live, and then went to Umbria and found the venues nobody was using. The rest is a decision rather than a story: as a foreigner she knew exactly what a foreign couple needs in a country whose language they do not speak, and she built the agency around that gap. The Italian part came in 2017, on a site inspection for an American couple, at an estate between Umbria and Tuscany that had been in Alessandro's family for decades. He had hidden a bottle of wine in the vineyard for the end of the tour. He proposed later, in New York.

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Umbria Weddings and Events: A Wedding at Abbazia di San Pietro in Valle

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Umbria Weddings and Events: A Wedding at Abbazia di San Pietro in Valle

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A Wedding at the Abbey of San Pietro in Valle

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A Wedding in Umbria and Tuscany

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The Italian Wedding Manifesto

The Specialism

Two regions, not twenty.

Most Italian planners sell the whole country and subcontract the half of it they do not live in. She publishes two regions in her own footer, Umbria and Tuscany, and she lives on the border between them. That is why she can tell you which venue has a serious plan B for rain, which one has an internal kitchen worth using, and which hamlet the town hall will marry you in.

Consultation, proposal, then the work.

It starts with a consultation, in person or on video, about the vision and the budget and the constraints. What comes back is a written proposal with the costs and the timelines broken down, which is the document worth reading twice. Then the venue: she shows you a curated few rather than everything, because navigating what is online is the part that defeats couples. Vendors come from a list she has already filtered. She handles symbolic ceremonies, the paperwork for a civil union, and the liaison with an English speaking priest. Between all of it she builds the Italian part on purpose: a pizza evening, a pasta lesson, folk music, gelato served from an ape car, because guests who have flown a long way remember the week and not only the Saturday.

Full-Service Planning

Consultation, then a written proposal with costs and timelines broken down, then twelve to eighteen months of work ending with her team on site directing the day. No package tiers and no percentage of your budget.

Venue Scouting

She visits before she recommends, and she shows you a shortlist rather than a catalogue. Half her venues are unnamed on her own site, described only as an abbey, a borgo, a farmhouse, because the owners prefer it that way and she respects it.

Ceremonies and Paperwork

Symbolic ceremonies anywhere on the estate, civil unions with the documents a foreign couple needs, and religious weddings including the liaison with an English speaking priest. Two of her venues can hold a legal civil ceremony on site.

The Italian Week

A pizza evening, a pasta lesson, an olive oil tasting, folk music, gelato out of a traditional ape car. Guests who have flown for a day are not there for six hours on a Saturday, and the programme is built accordingly.

Abbeys

The Benedictine abbey of San Pietro in Valle, twelfth century, with a cloister that takes a full seated dinner and a religious ceremony available in the original church. A second abbey, thirteenth century, has been appointed casa comunale, which means the mayor can legally marry you inside it.

Castles and Borghi

Castello di Petrata was begun in 1340 on the Franciscan path between Assisi and Gubbio, and is now a relais with twenty rooms and a terraced garden looking at Assisi. La Badia di Orvieto has marble mosaic floors, frescoed vaults and a twelfth century tower.

Umbria

Assisi, Todi, Orvieto, Spoleto, Perugia, Gubbio, Spello, Montefalco and Bevagna, with weddings on Lake Trasimeno, Piediluco and Corbara. Sunflower fields, vineyards, olive groves and hill towns, and no coast anywhere, which is the whole reason it is still quiet.

Tuscany

She works over the border as well, and says so in her own footer. Villa Monaciano near Siena takes a hundred guests on site and two hundred for dinner across its gardens. An eighteenth century villa set in a twelfth century borgo sits a few kilometres from Florence. Antico Podere Siliano straddles the two regions outright.

Reece and Kerry

Google Review, 5 Stars

Luxury Wedding Directory

Editorial

Investment

A Proposal Written After the First Conversation.

Weddings at This venue typically represent a total investment of Bespoke, depending on guest count, season, and the level of bespoke elements chosen.

Fatima Palomares publishes no planning fee and no package menu. Her stated process is an initial consultation, in person or on video, followed by a tailored proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs and timelines. The fee arrives after she knows the wedding rather than before. What she does publish, separately and at length, is a benchmark for the total budget of a wedding in Umbria: from around 25,000 euro for a complete celebration, and 25,000 to 30,000 euro for about fifty guests. That figure is the whole wedding, venue and catering and flowers and photography included. It is not her fee and should not be read as one.

All pricing is indicative. Final investment varies by date, guest count, menu, and bespoke requirements. Contact the venue directly for a tailored proposal.

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Umbria Weddings and Events