ITALY WEDDINGS - VILLA BALKE

As you may remember, I was very lucky to a chosen few to go and view a few venus over in Napels and Florence to experience their hospitality and venue spaces for weddings. I apologies for the lateness of the blog posts but it has been a busy few weeks! I know that for you brides next year will be searching for your special venue so I keep an eye out for all my posts regarding the most beautiful venues in the South of Italy!

First starting with the quaint Villa Balke!

Monday 13th April 2015 - Tuesday 14th April 2015

Today we have arrived in Napels and are staying at the quaint Hotel Marid. This is a beautiful little hotel situated within the mountain ranges of Southern Italy.

This is a perfect spot for you and all your guests to stay during the run up to the wedding day as it directly links with the wedding venue Villa Balke.

The hotel itself is surprising, from the outside the hotel is of traditional architecture but as you walk inside it incorporates a beautifully modern style complete with luxury furnishings.

During our two day stay we were given a complimentary tour of Napoli's ancient town so that we could get to know more about the locations history. One thing that has always intrigued me was Roman architecture, in every city and town I visit I take note of their buildings and their architectural style, as I believe it can tell you a lot about the cities culture and people.

I have always been obsessed with the ancient periods in history such as Egypt, Greece and Rome. In the town of Napoli you can really feel the history of the ancient Romans as if it was still thriving within the modern world.

Although not having very much money, the buildings are unfortunately not in the best condition, however each street all have personality and continuity within their style, once upon a time, when the ancient Romans ruled the world; this you can certainly feel down the old cobbled streets and side roads of the buildings.

During our tour we were taken to an old palace in the centre of the town which was utterly breath taking, with old painted ceilings and marble staircases. With a large rounded terrace at the back, all I could imagine was a grand wedding ceremony taking place outside with floral arches and roman styled draping across the building.

Unfortunately this palace does not offer space for weddings, but if you or your guests are just as in love with history as I am, this is certainly something to see.

My favourite site during our stay was up Mount Vesuvius. This is the most famous landmark of Napoli history as it was responsible for destroying the entire city of Pompey leaving behind a fossil shell of real people cast in stone from the larva and the ruins of a once thriving city.

Everywhere you go in Napoli, Mount Vesuvius stands tall and prominent in the background, it is such a spectacular site to see, a thing of nature, a thing of beauty and power.

Our fist stop on our tour of wedding venues was to a stunning traditional Catholic Church, originally housing monks and nuns, however when the civil war hit, the premises was used as a hospital for soldiers and stayed a hospital all the way until the First World War, when the Germans took over parts of Italy, this church was one of the only ancient sites that was not taken over, it was used as the perfect look out for attacks on the Italian people as it over looks the entire of Napoli with Mount Vesuvius behind it as it's protector.

This church is a grand white structure that offers a large terrace outside for your wedding reception, which consists of an ocean view where you can see for miles across the coast. As you enter the church for your ceremony, inside, it is very bright with incredible religious paintings across the walls and a stain glass window at the very front above the door that beams light directly onto the alter.

The premises does offer a room that you may hold your dinner, however I would recommend to take your guests elsewhere that can offer more of dance space with a more modern touch. Go from tradition to modern Italy and this gives you and your guest’s variety throughout the day.

Ok so enough about the city, I know you have come to read up on Villa Balke, the perfect Italian wedding venue in Napoli where you and your partner can have the perfect European wedding.

This is THE venue to host your wedding day for everything from ceremony right through to dinner. If you decide to marry in the church first, your dinner can be held at Villa Balke. Nevertheless if you choose not to go for the church, Villa Balke can offer you the venue for the entire wedding.

As you and your guests enter into the villa, do not be deterred, the villa is set on lower ground, as you descend the pathway you are greeted by a stunning outdoor space that has had a recent facelift, the layout is something you would expect from the Caribbean, pearl white marble flooring, beautifully clean tables adorned with flower centrepieces of your choice, and of course a clean white canopy that covers your guests from the sun and heat.

Villa Balke offers various spaces in which to hold your wedding, or any event should you be interested to try the venue before the wedding, say for a birthday or anniversary. Each space varies in size and view, inside you will find a modern dinning space that can seat up to 170 guests with a back window view that looks out onto the ocean. Outdoors there are three large spaces, which you are able to use for various sections of the wedding, from ceremony, dinner to dancing and even cutting of the cake. Both locations both offer a large swimming pool should you choose to have a pool party themed wedding. If not, both pools are well looked after and face glorious views of the mountains and ocean, imagine large candle lanterns dotted around the pools edge reflecting off the water, a perfect spot for your cake cutting and bridal pictures.

So if you are considering Napoli for your destination wedding you can sure that Villa Balke is deluxe certified! (Note: We are not an official certification) for those of you that are looking to hold an intimate destination wedding and are not wanting your budget to double in size, Villa Balke offers a very reasonable hire price based on your guest numbers and date of the wedding.