How to get married on the Amalfi Coast on a budget

Once upon a time, my now husband, David became fascinated by the Romans and said he wanted us to go to Rome. I agreed if we could spend time elsewhere in Italy. The trip was in July and I thought Rome was going to be crazy (I was right). So, flicking through a ye olde guidebook, I stumbled upon the Amalfi Coast and we decided to spend some of our Italian adventure there.

I tried to book an apartment near Amalfi, in a village called Pogerola. The owner, a local called Gerry, responded to say that it wasn’t available but to tell him our budget and he would find something for us – and he did. So, we explored the beautiful Amalfi Coast for a week, basing ourselves in a little village called Pogerola. Gerry also owns the local bar, so we spent a lot of time there chatting to him and his family, while drinking Aperol Spritz and Birra Moretti on his pub’s terrace.

Sitting enjoying those views one day, we said if we were ever getting married, it would be there. Four years later, we got engaged and decided to try to make that a reality. We got in touch with Gerry (“I’m not sure if you remember us, but…”) who helped to make our dream wedding come true – relaxed, informal, in one of the world’s most beautiful locations. We had 32 guests and it was so special that they had all made the effort (and braved the coastal roads) to come all the way to Italy for us.

Ours was the first wedding hosted at Gerry’s Pub and he went out of his way to help us and our guests. For our cake, we wanted wheels of cheese and he drove miles to Salerno to find the best selection. I said that I’d love a vintage Fiat 500 to take me down to the ceremony in Amalfi. “Leave it with me” he said. By that evening, he had found a man called Giovanni, with a beautiful blue Fiat 500 to drive us for €100. We really couldn’t have done it our way without Gerry.

There were some official procedures and documents that were difficult without official help. Gerry passed me the name of Raffaele Dipino, aka Mr Raf, an Amalfi Coast wedding planner. We paid for a minimal package with Mr Raf for him to organise all the legal side of things and he kept us right about what forms were needed in the UK and Italy. He also provided us with a list of vendors that we could hire – for music, photography etc. During the ceremony itself, Mr Raf translated the service by the Mayor’s delegate, Lilly Petrillo.

Initially, we wanted to get married outside but that proved to be quite tricky for Italian laws, so we scrapped that idea.

Duomo di Amalfi, the cathedral in the centre of Amalfi, is beautiful and was surprisingly reasonably priced. However, we’re not Catholic (to get married there at least one partner must be baptised Catholic), and we didn’t want to get married in a church.

We wanted a civil ceremony, and there are three options for civil weddings in Amalfi: Amalfi Council Hall, Arsenale della Repubblica and the Former Convent of Cappuccini. See the Città di Amalfi website for up-to-date information (only available in Italian so you may need to translate the pages).

A quick look at photos of each and we soon decided to get married at the Arsenale della Repubblica. The Arsenale was the ancient shipyard of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi. Nowadays it is a museum and gallery space that also hosts weddings. We went to Italy a few months before our wedding for ‘planning’ (mainly sampling the food/drinks) and tried to see the L’Arsenale di Amalfi. It wasn’t open, so we didn’t actually see our wedding venue until a few days before our wedding. We weren’t disappointed when we did see inside – it is stunning! Another plus was that the old stone building kept nice and cool during a very hot July day (our ceremony was at 3.30pm).

As I mentioned, we had a beautiful little Fiat 500 for me to travel from Pogerola down to the wedding. The owner put some ribbons on the front and it was the cutest little wedding car, absolutely perfect for the location. David travelled down with his ushers in one of their hire cars (we had a delayed start to the ceremony while he tried to find a parking space!). Our guests were all leaving from Pogerola and we arranged for a bus to transport them. After the wedding, we had group photos and then the guests had some time to enjoy Amalfi before the bus went back to Pogerola.

Our friend and David’s usher, Steve, was our chauffeur after the wedding. He took the job very seriously, buying himself a chauffeur hat for the occasion! He drove us around (following the photographers’ car) to a few photo stops before we headed back to Pogerola to meet everyone.

We hired a big villa in Pogerola – Villa Knight – which has a 2 bedroom apartment upstairs, 3 x individual double bedrooms downstairs, big gardens and a big pool (which I’ve found is quite rare on the Amalfi Coast). David and I stayed here with family and friends.

Almost all of our wedding guests stayed in Pogerola and Gerry helped to find apartments around the village for everyone. If you’re looking for accommodation in Pogerola, contact Gerry (info@gerrysamalfi.com) quoting BOLDTRAVELLER and he will give you 5% off your booking.

Aside from apartments, a few people stayed in a lovely little guest house on the main square which offers bed and breakfast – Villa Maria. I haven’t visited it, but there’s also a hotel just down the hill from Pogerola called Grand Hotel Excelsior. It is a 15 minute walk up the road to Pogerola, and there’s a hotel shuttle bus to Amalfi. The hotel has about 100 rooms the reviews look good but say that it is a bit dated.

Important note re accommodation on the Amalfi Coast – there is often a LOT of steps leading to the entrances. If you or your guests have any accessibility requirements, please ensure you check how accommodation is accessed.

In the days before and after the wedding, our guests came to hang out at the pool at Villa Knight. After the wedding ceremony, everyone came to the Villa gardens for a drinks reception. I mentioned to the villa owner we were planning this, and he showed up the day before to cut the grass and make sure the gardens were looking their best.

When David and I arrived in Italy and drove down to the Amalfi Coast from the airport, we stopped at a big supermarket and loaded up on drinks for the reception. I asked my lovely cousin, Cait if she would be bar manager and she did a fantastic job, with support from Kev and Adam.

After relaxing outside at the villa, we all walked the five minutes to Gerry’s Pub at 7pm.

During that earlier wedding planning trip, David and I had selected menu options with Gerry – 3 starter and main course options and gelato for dessert. Plus our cake – wheels of cheese! When we gathered RSVPs, we asked people to select their meal choices. This was a few months before the wedding so I imagined people would forget what they ordered. I made menu cards for each person which doubled at place settings.

Neither David nor I are wine drinkers, so we didn’t put bottles of wine on the tables. Instead, we gave each guest drink vouchers so they could get their preferred drinks at the bar. We had agreed prices with Gerry for drinks, and he totaled up the drink costs for us to pay the next day.

Gerry was happy for us to have the whole of Gerry’s Pub exclusively for our wedding but we said we didn’t mind if people came into the indoor section later on. We had the terrace (and views!) all to ourselves. Gerry had set the tables up with table clothes, flowers and balloons. I had bought some other decorations that I had posted over in advance and my friends set these up for us, narrowly avoiding falling off the terrace to hang bunting (thanks pals!).

After a few speeches, the food was served. Gerry’s sister and wife, Silvy and Maddy did a fantastic job cooking delicious food for us all. And then gelato and cheese for all!

I can’t remember what time the night ended but I know there were shots and Flip Cup after the ‘grown ups’ had turned in for the night.

We booked musicians from the list of recommendations Mr Raf gave us. During the ceremony, we had a musician playing the mandolin in the corner. I can’t remember requesting any songs for this or what I walked down the aisle to, but I remember him being very chilled out and liking the soft background music.

In order to play music at the ceremony, we had to pay a music licence which cost €250. The SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) is a mandatory tax for using copyrighted music at events.

At Gerry’s Pub, in the evening we hired a singer with an acoustic guitar. To be honest, this was the only part of our wedding day that I’d change. He seemed to spend most of his time serenading the table my parents were sitting at and I don’t think anyone else noticed him. He also brought a date and told Gerry that we’d agreed to buy them both dinner! Gerry had recommended a singer that often sings at his pub and I wish we’d gone with her instead.

Our wedding location was gorgeous and I wanted to get great photos to remember it. We had a list of photographers to choose from and decided on Enzo Campitelli. I don’t think Enzo himself was there on the day, but we had two of his team from the time I left the villa (with my dad and wonderful wee flower girl, Karis) to about 8pm at Gerry’s Pub (after speeches). I didn’t want to capture any ‘getting ready’ photos so we had a bit more time in the evening.

We opted for digital images only and they posted images to us on a USB after the wedding. I didn’t actually do anything with these until 2020 lockdown when I got round to making a wedding album.

My biggest top tip I give to anyone getting married is to write down a list of the photos you want captured beforehand. I wanted to get a selection of different groups in shots and also I wanted each couple/family to get their photos taken. During the drinks reception at the villa, I gave my friend Keri the list and she rounded the relevant people up for each snap. When we got home and posted thank you cards, I included prints of their photos from the wedding day.

Fun fact – the day before the wedding, Gerry’s son Lorenzo arranged for a game of football for all the guys. David got kicked in the face during the game (thanks Steve!) and had a black eye for our wedding day! David thought I was going to be really annoyed but I figured if that was the worst that happened, we were doing fine.

Wedding dress

I bought my wedding dress, pre-loved, from eBay and got it altered in Edinburgh. It was tea-length (far too hot for full-length!) and quite poofy. I took this to Italy by squishing it into a hand luggage suitcase. When we got to Italy, a local drycleaner steamed it for me.

Hair and make-up

Gerry put me in touch with a local hairdresser who came to meet me when we had our wedding-planning trip a few months earlier. She didn’t speak any English so Gerry translated our discussion. She came to the villa before the wedding to do my hair.

For make-up, I just did this myself. My friend, Lou, helped with a steady eye-liner hand and to change my hair a little bit to get it how I wanted.

My friend, Bex, gave me eyelash extensions before the trip and topped them up the day before the wedding.

Plan your wedding

If you fancy a very chilled wedding on the extremely beautiful Amalfi Coast, get in touch with Gerry (info@gerrysamalfi.com) and he will go out of his way to make your dream day a reality. Tell him BoldTraveller sent you!

You can also contact me via Instagram (@boldtraveller) or email carolebold@hotmail.com.