How to make the most of your trials trip
Hair & make-up: Bridal Luxury Bridal Services. Photo: Sasa Adamovic
Halfway through planning, 12-6 months out from your wedding, you may wish to go on another trip to Italy. The agenda for this trip could consist of a food tasting, hair and make-up trial (if your artist is Italy based) and décor planning/venue re-visit.
Before you dive headfirst into organising, read our tops tips below on how to totally nail your trials trip.
Keep your agenda clear and short
Like with all parts of planning, this trip should be enjoyable! Take your time to soak it all in and enjoy it. Keep your agenda short and snappy and don’t try to fit too much into one day. One to two appointments per day is plenty! Make sure you have time for a Spritz in the sun.
Get to know the area.
Try out the local restaurants/cafes/bars so you can make some personal recommendations to your guests. Make a visit to the guest accommodation if you’ve block booked and check that you are happy with everything. You can add any additional details and recommendations to your wedding website so your guests have all the necessary information at their fingertips.
Tackle those areas of anxiety
Have meetings with anyone that covers areas that you’re concerned about – planner, florist, etc. Meeting people will calm any nerves you have; it always helps to put a face to the name and its much easier to discuss any concerns face-to-face.
Pre-make-up trial, make-up trial
Have a trial before your Italian hair and make-up trial. Once you’ve got your dress, have a trial at home with someone local and nail your look or at least test some looks. Going into an Italian trial with just 2-3 hours and the pressure of getting it perfect is a lot for you and the artist (although they can handle it!). Being relatively clear on what you want before you go in, is a huge help and means you’re more likely to come away feeling on top of the world and ready to boss your wedding day. Share images from your first trial at home with your Italian hair and makeup artist before your trial so they have time to prepare.
Menu tasting experience
Tastings are different for different caterers. Some offer a sample menu, some let you try a couple of dishes per course and others don’t offer tastings at all. Before you set off on your trip, define your tasting menu (if you have a choice) and spend some real time thinking about how to pair your dishes and drinks. For our advice on how to build your menu and choose your tasting options, check out our top article here.
Second venue visit + décor planning
Visit your venue, checking that the décor you’ve planned will work with the spaces and you still like the colour palette etc. You can even time the length of the walk down the aisle. Things that you’ll look back on and wish you’d done when you were there. You can also plan your room allocations if you have guests staying at the venue.
Confirm all your appointments
It’s important to give all of your suppliers as much notice of your trip as possible. During wedding season, most suppliers are exceptionally busy and can’t host tastings. Some venues only host visits on changeover days when no one is staying at the location. So to avoid disappointment, pairing up your needs and agenda with the availably of suppliers is key before booking a trip.
We do hope this is useful. If you’re going on a trials trip soon we would love to see what you get up to - tag @_lalista in your Instagram stories so we can repost and get involved!
Worried about your wedding ceremony being too hot to handle?
Check out our latest article How to Handle the Heat at your Italian Wedding, packed full of industry-insider tips and tricks.
Written by Lucy White, Founder of La Lista & Wiskow & White, with over 5 years and 150 weddings worth of experience.
