11th February 2009-Mamma's doing dinner!

I've just realised how little i've told you all about the place we're holding the wedding reception, and as this is one of the most important aspects of the day i decided it's time to give it a bit of a mention. After all, this is where all the real celebrating will take place.

As i've mentioned before, i searched for months to find somewhere that we really felt was right. In the end, choosing the place (as in, the Amalfi Coast) came down to the beautiful area and the out door wedding terrace at the town hall. I thought after that finding a venue would be easy. There are so many to choose from. I spent months talking to wedding planners and other brides about places that are popular for holding weddings and it's true to say they were all lovely! Almost every restaurant and hotel has a sea-view and can serve a delicious dinner on an outside terrace. The choice was endless.

But what struck me as i rifled through menus and photos was that most of these places serve 'typical' restaurant food in similar settings to those we could all have for our weddings at home. And it seemed silly to travel all the way to Italy to have the wedding we could have at home. The alternative was to book a table in a small local restaurant and eat real Italian food, but without any sort of special 'wedding' treatment. This too seemed a bit of a let-down after going all that way.

So what was the answer? We wanted to get married in Italy, and we wanted something a bit special and different, and above all, Italian-did such a place exist in an area that has essentially become a wedding mecca for Uk and Irish brides over the last few years?

It took a while but eventually i started to hear about this place in Ravello (a town close to Positano, which i had already fallen in love with) called Mamma Agata's. It's actually a cookery school and is run by a family who have all been involved in either the wedding or cooking industry for many years. I spotted a couple of reviews about weddings that had been held there and they sounded amazing! Pretty much exactly what we had been searching for!

When we saw the pictures on the website we both fell in love all over again! The views are wow! and everything is so simply but beautifully done. It's the family's own home-a villa right on the cliff-side-and they grow many of their own fruit and veg, even making their own wine and limoncello! Everyone in the family has a role and together they create this whole wedding experience and it all sounds perfect to me!

Dinner is all made up of really Italian local dishes, and their home-produced wine is matched to your menu selection, this is all served out on their garden terrace which looks down onto the sea. They serve cocktails over on the garden and produce a beautiful Italian wedding cake! Most of all the whole place is privately ours for the day and they will make sure everyone is looked after and treated well. It's exactly what we both hoped for and we can't wait to get over there and visit!

When i imagined in my head what i wanted the wedding to be like, this is exactly what i saw, so i'm thrilled that such a place really exists! Then perhaps in years to come we'll be able to go back again and learn to cook on Mamma's cookery course, while celebrating some special anniversary back in the place where we married!