Clair & Cheng — A Baroque Villa Wedding at Villa Cetinale, Tuscany

The Villa Cetinale wedding, in pictures

The photographs above tell the story of a real Villa Cetinale wedding in Tuscany, photographed by Fotoclip Studio. We kept the gallery close to the day: the people, the light and the villa itself — frescoed rooms, formal gardens and long views over the Sienese countryside.

If you are considering the same venue, here is our practical view of it — the setting, the light and how to plan a relaxed destination wedding in Tuscany.

About Villa Cetinale

Villa Cetinale was built between 1676 and 1678 for Cardinal Flavio Chigi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII, to designs by Carlo Fontana, a pupil of Bernini. The Chigi family kept the estate for three centuries, until it was bought in 1977 by Lord Antony Lambton, who spent decades carefully restoring the house and its gardens.

The villa sits at the end of a long axis of cypresses, with a double staircase leading to a marble portal crowned by the Chigi coat of arms. Around it are formal Italian gardens with citrus pots and clipped box, an English rose garden, the wooded Thebaid park and the Romitorio, a hermitage on the hill above. Edith Wharton included Cetinale in her book Italian Villas and Their Gardens, and it remains one of the most photographed private estates in Tuscany.

How we photograph a Villa Cetinale wedding

We work in two ways on the same day. For portraits we often use flash against the sun — bold, glossy, editorial images with deep skies and sharp colour, even in the strong Tuscan midday light. For everything in between we use soft natural light, so the ceremony, the dinner and the guests look exactly as they felt.

At Cetinale the villa does a lot of the work: the cypress avenue, the staircase and the frescoed interiors give portraits a timeless, almost cinematic backdrop. We plan portraits around the light and keep them short, so the couple spends the day with their guests.

4 essential tips for a Villa Cetinale wedding

• Plan guest transport. The villa is in the countryside outside Siena, so shuttles from Siena or from guest hotels make the day much easier.
• Use the whole estate. The gardens, the cypress avenue and the interiors each work for a different part of the day — ceremony, aperitivo, dinner and portraits.
• Respect the summer heat. In July and August, schedule the ceremony and portraits for late afternoon and keep the hottest hours for getting ready indoors.
• Leave time for golden hour. Twenty minutes before sunset over the Tuscan hills is often the moment for the best portraits of the day.

When to plan a wedding in Tuscany

Late spring (May and June) and early autumn (September and October) are the favourite months for Tuscany weddings: warm days, softer light and green or golden countryside. High summer is beautiful but hot, so a later timeline works best. Popular estates like Villa Cetinale are often booked well in advance, so it is worth securing the venue and your photographers early.

Building a relaxed timeline

If you would like, we help couples shape the timeline around the light: when to do portraits, where the sun will be during the ceremony and how much time to leave between moments. A relaxed schedule shows in the photographs.