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Tucked away between the rolling hills in the countryside of Italy, we found a little hamlet. It’s considered a hamlet because there’s more than one villa on the property. The property spreads across 350 hectares, aka 864 acres. The main villa, Casa Bruciata, dates back as far as the 14th century. The other three villas were built in the 18th century.
Due to the position of where the main villa is situated, you can overlook the rolling hills. These rolling hills are covered with olive trees, ancient oaks, and far away hamlets in the distance. It’s easy to fill your days here at the infinity pool, hunting truffles, or sip wine at any of the wineries down the way.
Justin and I visited the little hamlet October 2023, and we never felt more certain that this is the setting for our wedding in October 2024. There are a total of nine apartments on property; housing approximately 40 guests. We stayed here with our wedding guests for five nights (October 2-7, 2024.) We held the wedding on property on Saturday, October 5th, 2024!
Transportation to Casa Bruciata
In full transparency, this is not the easiest place to get to. The quickest way would be to rent a car, something we did when we visited the property in 2023. This is a great option, but maybe not the most comfortable for guests traveling from out of the country. Renting a car may not be the most comfortable financial option either. When it was time for our wedding, we opted to arrange public transportation for all 40 of us.
There were two groups coming to our wedding; one group from Florence and one group from Rome. We had both groups train into Perugia, one of the closest train stations to the hamlet. We worked with an agent directly from Trentitalia for this. If you have 10 or more people, the agent can help arrange the trains and seating near each other. Once at the Perugia train station, Luigi, Casa Bruciata’s wedding planner, helped arrange shuttles to take us up the mountain to Casa Bruciata. There were drivers with our names on them waiting upon our arrival into the station!
If guests opt to rent a car, there is parking on-site at Casa Bruciata. If guests without cars want to leave the property throughout your wedding week, Luigi can help arrange shuttles and/or taxis. Note: the taxis down the mountain can be around 50 one way.
For the winery day that I’ll talk about later in this post, Luigi arranged round trip shuttles for the group to alleviate any logistical pain. If you are planning for anyone to leave the property, working with Luigi to plan transportation ahead of time is encouraged.
Communication tip: I recommend creating a whatsapp group BEFORE the wedding week starts, as many guests have the same questions leading up to travel. Instead of answering the same questions in different text threads, the whatsapp group can serve as an info forum and allow guests to help each other and relieve some of that burden off your plate. This will save any added headaches the week of your wedding.
Lodging at Casa Bruciata
As you’ll find on the website, there are nine apartments among four buildings. If you can’t see the property in person, Luigi can send you a YouTube video of all the apartments. This can help you get an understanding of where to assign guests. Casa Bruciata provides a rooming list and Luigi will show guest to their assigned rooms upon arrival.
I spent too much time overthinking the rooming assignments. I felt that i needed to have the perfect room assignment; most of the apartments can fit two couples. At the end of it all, the rooming assignments were great and even if they weren’t, you don’t spend much time in the apartments when you’re at a place like Casa Bruciata.
I do recommend that the largest villa that’s three-bed, three-bath is where the ?party animals” of your group should be assigned. It has the largest living room and was the after party location every evening during our wedding week.
For guest off property: We only had one couple stay off property, and they sorted their own logistics. I recommend providing a few suggestions for them, but that can get overwhelming.
Food at Casa Bruciata
Breakfast: We paid the additional cost to have breakfast each morning for all guests, which consisted of supplies where guests could come and make breakfast. Our parents and some friends naturally took turns each morning in preparing breakfast for the group – scrambled eggs, toasting bread, and brewing coffee. There is also an assortment of pastries offered as well.
Dinner: The in-house chefs at Casa Bruciata are wonderful. Everything they crafted for our guests each evening was delicious. We paid the additional cost to have dinner all five nights; the welcome dinner, pasta night, pizza night, and the BBQ. I think everyone’s favorite was the pizza, but the BBQ following the wedding day was a life saver.
Wedding Details at Casa Bruciata
Vendors: I wouldn’t change a thing about my vendors! Please note these vendors are not included in the Casa Bruciata cost.
Photographer/Videographer/Content Creator: Originally from my hometown and first connecting abroad in 2019, I was thrilled to work with Jada (Instagram: @jadaflanaganphoto) and her husband (Instagram: @franksyfilms) for all the lush photos and videos of this special day. We actually hired Jada and Franky to stay on property with us a few days early to capture some of the week’s moments. They are professional, dedicated, and willing to travel wherever your wedding is. We can’t thank them enough!
*All photos in this post are from Jada Flanagan Photography*
Flowers: Luisa (Instagram: @luisagervasi_floralevents) was a delight to work with. She’s a local vendor, and honestly I didn’t have a vision for the flowers, or the table settings. We chatted about some ideas, and she created more than I could ever come up with!
DJ: Instagram: @lorenzozanobetti
Hair and makeup artist: When I got engaged, I was struggling with intense acne for the first time in my life. I knew that I wanted to feel confident on my wedding day, and was going to invest in a hair and makeup team that could help. Alena (Instagram: @bezal_makeup) is based in Italy and has earned many accolades, including multiple features in Vogue Italia. On my wedding day, I still didn’t have flawless skin. You couldn’t tell with the talent of Alena’s makeup.
Other details: Less is more at Casa Bruciata. We ordered personalized cocktail napkins that shipped directly to Casa Bruciata for us. They already have a lot of the decorations you’d need, so we didn’t add on anything else besides the cocktail napkins with our dog on them!
As it’s customary to give your bridal party gifts as a thank you, we went with something a little different and customized crewnecks. My vision was to make them look like tourist crewnecks, but with odes to our wedding. The “Umbria” in bold lettering, followed by our favorite drinks, Casa Bruciata written below, and “love and wine” in Italian. These were shipped directly to Luigi and were well received with our friends and family. [Etsy seller: ShopxMood, ask her for the Casa Bruciata template from Alexis]
Our final personal touch, was creating newspapers for the wedding day. We shipped those directly to Casa Bruciata and my friend delivered them to the apartments the morning of the wedding. We felt this was a personal touch and gave the guests something to read while the bridal party got ready. [Etsy seller : theFavorLoft]
Activities at and Near Casa Bruciata
Winery
There are several wineries to choose from near Casa Bruciata, but for us, Vineria del Carmine was the winery we wanted to go to. When we went, each guest paid 50 euro. This covered the wine tasting and a three-course meal. For some guests, their truffle pasta dish was arguably the best meal they had in Italy. We were there for at least three hours; we enjoyed several wines, a property tour, and a three-course meal.
This is a thirty minute drive and you will be there for at least three, maybe even four hours. Luigi arranged shuttles to pick us up from Casa Bruciata and bring us back after the tasting.
Property
There are small walking trails on the property, and a big yard filled with yard activities like volleyball, soccer. For October it was cooler, but we still used the pool a few days we were there.
Q&As
Q: Can other people stay on property if you didn’t need all the rooms during your wedding week?
A: The package includes exclusivity of the entire property.
Q: Why did you stay for five nights?
A: You have the choice of booking 3, 5, or 7 nights. We felt with our guests traveling from the USA to Italy, 3 nights was too short and 7 was too long.
Q: What’s part of the wedding package?
A: This is outlined fairly clear on the sheet Luigi will send over but exclusivity for however many nights you’ve decided, the wedding planner fee, wedding dinner, ceremony, standard package decorations.
Total Cost at Casa Bruciata
A few brides have reached out asking what the total cost breakdown was, and I’m unsure if it would be fair to share this. The cost increases for the new year, and there are differences in each time of year. I will say we chose the least expensive season to get married at Casa Bruciata. I believe thereare three different seasons at Casa, October was in the season priced the cheapest of the three.
I will tell you that what we paid for the five night stay, with all the added food and accommodations, is cheaper than most venues in the USA . Our total was cheaper than most venues in the USA(!!!) I am happy to share the full cost with you if it’s important, please DM me on Instagram.
AS A THANK YOU….
I’d love for you to shop through some of these links below (at no additional cost to you) as I earn a small percentage and it helps me continue doing what I love, which is this blog!
Destination Wedding: Our Packing List MUSTS!
Amazon Wedding Finds: Hold out for prime day if you can!
Amazon Storefront: shopping through this link would be so kind <3
If you’re traveling:
For Rome, I have a full blog on Rome in general, but I really encourage to stay one night at this hotel. (I have a whole blog post on the hotel, lol) This was an affordable accomodation in Rome, great location, and one of the best views I’ve ever had. Spoiler alert: You have a view of the Trevi Fountain from your room!
I had my bachelorette party in Florence, and my bridesmaids worked so hard to have the best few days there together. (Highlight was by far the cooking class.) I’ve been to Florence three times, and shared my favorites here.
If you have guests that are new to travel, this post can help! 10 steps for packing and planning a trip simplifies the ways to plan your trip. With your guests already knowing the travel destination, the post will help with the rest (packing, flights, etc.)
If I missed anything, I will make edits throughout this post, so check back often if you’re a fellow Casa Bride, and reach out if there’s anything you’d add, or like added, to this post.
