The word “intimate” gets used about weddings in a way that has lost its meaning. An intimate ceremony in Rome doesn’t mean less. It means more deliberate. Two people who chose this city, this day, this moment — not because a venue had availability, but because they wanted exactly this.
What to skip
Skip the locations everyone else photographs. Skip the Trevi Fountain entirely — there is no hour, day or night, when it isn’t crowded, so no clever timing fixes it. The Roman Forum works, but only around 7am, before the tour groups arrive. So does the Gianicolo Hill, above the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola — Romans call it il Fontanone — with the whole city laid out below and almost nobody there that early. The difference was never the monument. It’s who else is there and what the light is doing.
Skip the details that exist to be seen in photographs rather than felt on the day. The overly styled bouquet, the matching luggage, the choreographed reveal. Bring what you would actually bring on a day that matters.
“Two people who chose this city, this day, this moment — not because a venue had availability, but because they wanted exactly this.”
What to keep
Keep the dinner. Whatever else you strip from the day, end it at a table somewhere in Rome with food and wine you actually want, not a prix fixe negotiated as part of a package. So Rome is one of the great eating cities in the world. Use it.
My approach
I design and photograph intimate elopements in Rome. I know the locations, the timing, and when to step back and let two people have their day. Start with a conversation — tell me what you don’t want, and we’ll figure out what you do.
Planning an intimate Rome ceremony?
Tell me where you want to be, and I’ll tell you how to make it yours.
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