What can be more romantic than two beautiful people madly in love deciding to have a dream Rome elopement?
Imagine being surrounded by some of the world’s most beautiful art, history, culture, and it’s just the two of you.
That is what Amber and Joe did. They had the fairy tale wedding in the exquisite eternal city of Amore. All that was needed was just the two of them and the crazy beautiful backdrops that only Rome, Italy has to offer (and the Italian food, wine).
They decided to Elope to Rome and avoid all the stress that comes with planning a large wedding.
Doesn’t sound amazing?
Below are some highlights of their day. Amber and Joe also share how they designed their dream Rome elopement – with some elopement advise for future couples.
What inspired you to choose to do a destination Rome elopement?
We originally planned a full destination wedding (with over 100 guests) to New Orleans, but after everything was set, our reception venue suddenly went out of business (after 125 years!). We tried for over a month to find an alternative that would work with our budget and guest count (to no avail). Eventually, we gave up and decided to elope to Rome and have a memorable day just the two of us (or that was our hope at least—our luck with wedding planning had not been great so far).
In what ways did you personalize your dream Rome elopement?
When we planned the original wedding, much of our focus was on other people (Would they have a good time? Would x decision upset anyone? Were we putting anyone out? Etc.). When we finally decided to elope, it became about the two of us (which meant we could make the entire day completely personal!).
For us, the destination was one of the most important decisions for setting the tone, and Joe said it best when we picked Rome as a top choice out of all the options—something about the ruins and how something beautiful still comes out of it all seemed really fitting for our story.
What were your favorite wedding day details?
There were so many things we loved about that day, like starting the morning at the flower market (Campo de Fiori), which set a relaxed mood for the rest of the day.
And the entire team was amazing—so fun. It felt like they were all family and friends. We could have never done it without them (especially Rochelle!).
Then when we arrived at Villa Borghese, there was a man playing jazz at the temple (completely random, but fitting given the New Orleans thing). He played for the entire ceremony (and we even had a champagne toast with him after).
Overall, we just loved the unstructured nature of the day. We had an agenda, but no timeline, no place to be, and we loved the warmth and friendliness of bystanders and crowds around Rome throughout the day (yet, in hindsight, it somehow felt like we had the entire city to ourselves, including our dinner that night at a castle—so crazy!).
The short of it, the sun was shining, we were surrounded by wonderful people the entire day, and we had beautiful Rome as a backdrop. Kind of hard to beat.
Did you have any DIY (do-it-yourself) details?
The closest thing might have been picking the flowers for the bouquet and boutonniere at the flower market in Rome (with a florist who didn’t speak English and with us who didn’t speak Italian!). We just found something we thought would work on Pinterest and picked the closest flowers we could find from the flower stand’s selection. There was a lot of pointing and miming, but it all worked out in the end! The flowers were perfect.
