Villa Le Fontanelle wedding

Villa Le Fontanelle goes back to the fifteenth century, and it was restored to keep that age visible.

A crenellated tower rises over the house. Around it runs a centuries-old park, with an Italian garden, a pergola, a chapel and a winter garden, and the whole of Florence laid out below.

The old greenhouses that once sheltered the citrus trees from the frost are now the Citrarium, the villa’s restaurant, which takes its name from them.

Villa Le Fontanelle is a four-star boutique hotel, and the owners’ family still lives in part of the house.

A Villa Le Fontanelle wedding has its indoor and outdoor spaces from three in the afternoon until one in the morning, and the day moves from the garden to the salon as the evening goes on.

The chapel and its gazebo, the Italian garden and the lawns carry the ceremony. Symbolic and non-Catholic religious ceremonies are held here, and we put the aisle where the city sits behind the couple.

The main floor and the pergola, looking out over the garden, carry the aperitivo or a long table for dinner. This is where we seat a summer dinner.

The main salon seats 70 and is the rain plan for dinner. After half past ten it is where the dancing goes, until one.

The restaurant, in the old citrus greenhouses, with a terrace looking over Florence and room for 130 across its indoor rooms. It is open to the public for lunch and dinner, and taking it for the day costs just over €6,000, VAT included. We book it closed for the wedding, or held as the rain plan, well before the date.

A seasonal outdoor pool, for the afternoon before the ceremony and the day after.

A Villa Le Fontanelle wedding starts from €150,000, and for optimal results we recommend budgeting €250,000 all-in for 40 to 70 guests.

Villa Le Fontanelle sells five packages, from €6,000 to €30,000 with VAT included. Each covers the indoor and outdoor spaces from three in the afternoon until one, and all but the first take the seven rooms for one, two or three nights.

The price rises with the guest count up to 140, and from November to April it falls well below summer. Four of the packages run Monday to Thursday. A weekend wedding takes the fifth, with three nights.

The Citrarium caters weddings of up to 60 itself, and larger ones when its kitchen is free on the date. The alternative is one of the villa’s two partner caterers. No food or drink comes in from outside, and catering is budgeted on top of the package.

The catering, the marquee above 70 guests, the Citrarium closed for the day, extra beds, the flowers, the music, the lighting and the photography. Public holidays carry a supplement.

Outdoor music stops at half past ten.

That is the villa’s rule, with volumes held to the Municipality of Florence’s limits, and it is the only curfew. The event itself runs until one, and the dancing goes on in the main salon.

So the night runs in two halves. Dinner on the pergola and the first dances outside until half past ten, then the salon. We set the ceremony at five so dinner is served by half past seven, and the move indoors comes after the cake rather than in the middle of the speeches.

Villa Le Fontanelle sits inside the city’s own boundary, a garden villa on the hill above Florence rather than out in the countryside.

Florence airport is twelve minutes away and the middle of Florence fourteen. A guest can land at two in the afternoon, check into a hotel by the Duomo and be in the garden with a drink by five.

That decides the accommodation. Fourteen beds will never house a wedding of seventy, so the guests stay in the city, where there are hotels at every level, and one coach loop at one in the morning brings everyone back.

Villa Le Fontanelle has seven bedrooms, each different, sleeping 14 as standard and up to 25 with sofa beds.

The Limonaia, the Orangerie, the Garden Room, the Pool Room and the Tower Room each take two, and two more on a double sofa bed. The Colombaia takes three, with its bathroom up a short stair, and the Fortress two. The Tower Room’s bed is reached by its own steps, and the Pool Room has a mezzanine.

Every room has air conditioning, a minibar, a kettle and a coffee machine, and breakfast is included. We give the tower and the Limonaia to the couple and the parents.

The villa is at Via di Careggi 26, on the hill at Careggi, in the comune of Florence on the city’s northern edge.

Florence airport is twelve minutes away and the city centre fourteen.

Florence Peretola is twelve minutes by road, the shortest airport transfer of any Tuscan venue we work with. Bologna is an hour and 13 and Pisa an hour and 27, and both take more long-haul flights than Florence. Siena is an hour and 18 and Rome Fiumicino three hours and 42.

For an international guest list this is as easy as Tuscany gets: one airport twelve minutes away and a city full of hotels fourteen minutes away.

A city wedding with a garden, and the timings and the shared spaces decide how it feels.

Keep it to the salon.

Seventy is the number the salon seats, and below it the rain plan is a room rather than a marquee. Above it a marquee is compulsory for bad weather and through the winter months, and we cost it from the first budget.

The family shares the garden.

The owners’ family lives in part of the villa and uses the pool and the gardens. We reserve sole use of the pool for the wedding day. Four friendly dogs live at the villa too, and we let guests with allergies know well ahead.

Book the Citrarium early.

The restaurant takes the public by reservation, and unbooked it may not be free. Taking it for the day costs just over €6,000, VAT included. We reserve it at signature, closed for the wedding or held as the rain plan, and use it for the welcome dinner the night before.

Midweek costs less.

Four of the five packages run Monday to Thursday. A Thursday wedding with a Friday in Florence costs less than the weekend package, and the city is quieter for it.

Magic Day plans weddings at Villa Le Fontanelle from the first conversation to the final farewell, for 20 guests or for 140 with a marquee in the garden. The villa lets its salon, its gardens and its seven rooms from three in the afternoon until one, and the food comes from its own restaurant or one of its partner caterers.

That leaves the marquee above 70, the flowers, the music, the lighting, the hotel blocks in Florence, the coaches at one in the morning and the civil ceremony at the Comune di Firenze with the planner. We know how Villa Le Fontanelle runs: the outdoor music over at half past ten, the move into the salon after the cake, the Citrarium booked well before the date, and the package matched to the season, the nights and the guest count.

Tell us the dates you are considering and how many people are coming, and we will tell you what the days come to.