Ramarossi’s one-week planning trip transforms destination wedding planning from remote guesswork into confident decision-making. Over seven days in Antalya, Turkey, couples visit venues in person, sign contracts with chosen locations, build and approve sample tables with actual décor items, taste wedding menus, complete hair and makeup trials, meet photographers and videographers, and finalize nearly every wedding detail. Couples return home with ninety percent of their wedding confirmed.
The traditional approach to destination wedding planning involves choosing venues from photographs, selecting menus from written descriptions, and trusting that everything will come together on a day you’ve never seen in a place you’ve never been. Some couples are comfortable with this approach. Many aren’t – and their discomfort is reasonable.
Photos lie. The wide-angle lens makes small spaces look grand. The photographer captured the perfect moment on the perfect day. What you see in marketing images may not represent what you’ll experience on your wedding day. The venue that looked magical in photos might feel cramped in person. The garden that seemed intimate might sit next to a noisy road.
Ramarossi’s planning trip eliminates this uncertainty. You see venues with your own eyes. You taste actual food. You meet the people who will make your wedding happen. When you fly home, you know exactly what you’re getting – not because someone described it convincingly, but because you experienced it yourself.
Why Does the Planning Trip Matter?
The planning trip exists because we believe couples deserve certainty. Your wedding is too important for hope-based planning, where you hope the venue looks as good as photos suggest, hope the food tastes as good as described, hope the vendors deliver what they promise.
Certainty requires experience. Seeing venues in different light conditions. Standing where you’ll say your vows. Tasting the dishes your guests will eat. Meeting the photographer who’ll document your day. These experiences create confidence that remote planning cannot match.
The week also accelerates decision-making. Choices that might take months of email exchanges and photo comparisons happen in days when you’re seeing options in person. The efficiency benefits everyone – decisions made during the planning trip don’t require revisiting later.
And the trip itself becomes part of your wedding story. A week in Antalya, Turkey, exploring your options, imagining your celebration, sharing the experience as a couple – this memory adds richness to your wedding journey that purely administrative planning lacks.
What Happens Before You Arrive?
The planning trip doesn’t begin at the airport. Ramarossi works with couples in advance to understand your vision, preferences, budget, and priorities. This preparation ensures the week focuses on options genuinely suited to your celebration rather than generic tours of every venue in Antalya.
Before arrival, we’ll discuss your aesthetic preferences, guest count, budget parameters, must-have elements, and anything else that shapes venue and vendor selection. We research options that fit your criteria and schedule visits accordingly. The week is customized to your wedding, not a one-size-fits-all itinerary.
We’ll also coordinate logistics: hotel recommendations near planned activities, transportation arrangements, and scheduling that makes efficient use of your time while allowing space to enjoy Antalya itself.
Day One: Arrival and Orientation
Your first day focuses on settling in and orienting to Antalya, Turkey. After arriving and checking into your hotel, you’ll meet with your Ramarossi planner for an introductory session.
This meeting reviews the week’s schedule, confirms your current thinking on key decisions, and addresses any questions that have emerged since your last conversation. We discuss what you’re hoping to accomplish and adjust plans if your priorities have shifted.
The evening is yours Рperhaps dinner in Kalei̤i, the charming old town, or a relaxed meal at your hotel. The intensive days ahead benefit from arriving rested rather than launching immediately into venue visits.
Day Two: Venue Visits
Day two is typically dedicated to venue exploration – the most important decisions of your planning trip. Depending on your preferences and shortlist, you might visit three to five venues over the course of the day.
Each venue visit is substantial, not a quick walk-through. You’ll see ceremony locations, reception spaces, guest facilities, and behind-the-scenes areas. You’ll meet venue coordinators. You’ll understand how the space works for weddings – where guests gather, how catering operates, what the acoustics are like, how sunset light falls.
Your Ramarossi planner accompanies every visit, providing context you wouldn’t have independently. We know each venue’s strengths and limitations. We can point out considerations you might not notice – noise from neighboring properties, logistical challenges for specific setups, opportunities for beautiful moments you might not imagine from marketing materials.
By evening, you’ll have seen your options in person. For most couples, a clear preference emerges. Some need overnight reflection before deciding. Either way, the guesswork of photo-based selection is eliminated.
Day Three: Contract and Deposit
With venue preference established, day three moves toward commitment. You’ll revisit your chosen venue if helpful – seeing it a second time often confirms or occasionally changes your decision. Morning light differs from afternoon light; experiencing both prevents surprises.
Contract review happens with your Ramarossi planner present. We explain terms, ensure you understand what’s included and excluded, and address any concerns before signing. The deposit secures your date – and provides the certainty that your venue is confirmed rather than tentative.
This day might also include secondary venue decisions if your wedding involves multiple locations – perhaps a welcome dinner venue or a day-after brunch location. These visits follow the same pattern: in-person experience leading to confident decisions.
By day three’s end, your venue is locked. The foundation of your wedding is no longer theoretical.
Day Four: Sample Table and Décor
Day four transforms your wedding aesthetic from concept to reality. This is when Ramarossi builds your sample table – an actual table setup using real items that will appear at your wedding.
We gather linens, charger plates, glassware, flatware, napkins, and centerpiece elements based on your discussed preferences. The table is assembled exactly as it will appear on your wedding day. You see colors together, textures combined, the overall effect of design choices made from catalogs or photos.
This is where adjustments happen. The napkin color that looked perfect in photos might clash with the linen in person. The centerpiece height might block sightlines across the table. The gold chargers might feel too formal for your vision. You see these issues and solve them immediately rather than discovering them on your wedding day.
Photographs of your approved sample table become the definitive reference for setup. Vendors recreate exactly what you’ve seen and approved – no interpretation, no improvisation, no surprises.
Décor discussions extend beyond the table: ceremony setup, entrance styling, lighting concepts, and any special elements you’ve envisioned. By day’s end, your wedding’s visual identity is defined and documented.
Day Five: Food Tasting
Food matters at weddings. Your guests will talk about what they ate. The tasting day ensures you know exactly what they’ll experience.
The tasting isn’t a few sample bites – it’s a comprehensive experience of your wedding menu. You’ll taste canapés for cocktail hour. You’ll eat the actual courses you’re considering for dinner. You’ll try desserts and wedding cake options. The quantities are smaller than reception portions, but the dishes are real.
Your planner guides the tasting with questions: Is this the right level of spice? Should the sauce be adjusted? Does this starter work before that main course? The feedback shapes your final menu. Dishes can be modified, substituted, or confirmed based on what you actually taste.
Dietary accommodations are also sampled. If you’re planning vegetarian options, kosher-style preparation, or other specific requirements, you’ll taste those dishes too. You’ll know that guests with dietary needs receive excellent food, not afterthought alternatives.
The tasting typically includes wine sampling if wine pairing matters to your celebration. You’ll select specific wines rather than accepting generic ‘house wine’ descriptions.
By evening, your complete menu is confirmed – every course, every option, every dietary accommodation tasted and approved.
Day Six: Hair, Makeup, and Creative Meetings
Day six focuses on the people who’ll make you look your best and document your day. For brides, this typically means hair and makeup trials – actual styling sessions that preview your wedding day look.
The trial isn’t a brief consultation; it’s a full application. Your hair is styled as it will be on the wedding day. Your makeup is applied completely. You see the result in photographs and mirror, in natural and artificial light. You provide feedback, request adjustments, and refine until the look is exactly right.
This trial creates a documented plan that your stylist will replicate on the wedding day. There’s no guessing about what ‘natural makeup’ means to you or how you want your hair to frame your face. The trial establishes exactly what will happen.
Day six also typically includes meetings with photographers and videographers. You’ll see more of their work, discuss your priorities for coverage, talk through timeline and must-capture moments, and establish rapport with the people who’ll document your celebration.
These meetings matter beyond logistics. Photography is personal; comfort with your photographer affects the images they capture. Meeting face-to-face builds the relationship that produces natural, beautiful photographs rather than stiff posed shots.
Entertainment discussions – DJ, musicians, or other performers – might also happen on day six, depending on your celebration plans.
Day Seven: Final Review and Departure
Your final day consolidates everything accomplished during the week. You’ll meet with your Ramarossi planner for a comprehensive review: venue confirmed, contracts signed, décor approved, menu finalized, styling planned, vendors met.
This meeting addresses any remaining questions and outlines what happens next. The few decisions that remain – final guest count confirmation, seating arrangements, playlist details – are documented with timelines. You’ll know exactly what’s needed from you and when.
The review also previews the wedding week itself: arrival logistics, timeline for events, what to expect during your actual celebration. The week that seemed distant when you arrived now feels tangible and close.
Departure happens with confidence rather than anxiety. You’ve seen your venue. You’ve tasted your food. You’ve met your team. The theoretical has become concrete. When you return for your wedding, you’ll recognize everything rather than encountering surprises.
What’s the Outcome of the Planning Trip?
Couples leave Ramarossi’s planning trip with approximately ninety percent of their wedding finalized. The specific elements confirmed typically include venue booking with signed contract and deposit, complete décor scheme with approved sample table photographs, full catering menu tasted and confirmed, hair and makeup look trialed and documented, photographer and videographer selected and met, and timeline framework established.
The remaining ten percent – final guest counts, seating charts, detailed run-of-show – happens remotely over subsequent months. But the major decisions, the ones that shape your wedding’s character, are complete.
The emotional outcome matters as much as the logistical one. Couples return home feeling excited rather than anxious. The destination wedding that seemed complicated now feels manageable. The uncertainty that accompanies remote planning has been replaced by first-hand knowledge of exactly what’s coming.
What If We Can’t Do the Planning Trip?
Not every couple can visit Antalya, Turkey before their wedding. Distance, work constraints, family obligations, or budget limitations make the planning trip impossible for some.
Ramarossi accommodates remote planning when necessary. We conduct live video venue tours, walking through spaces in real time while you watch and ask questions. We photograph sample table setups and review them with you via video call. We facilitate video meetings with key vendors.
Remote planning works. Many couples have beautiful Ramarossi weddings without visiting before their wedding week. But the planning trip offers advantages that remote alternatives cannot fully replicate: the texture of a venue in person, the taste of actual food, the intangible sense of a place that video cannot convey.
Couples who can do the planning trip generally should. Those who cannot can trust that Ramarossi’s remote planning process, developed over years of experience, delivers excellent results.
When Should the Planning Trip Happen?
Timing matters for planning trip effectiveness. Too early, and venues might not have your date available for confirmation. Too late, and preferred options may have booked.
Ramarossi recommends planning trips eight to twelve months before your wedding date for most couples. This window allows venue confirmation while leaving comfortable time for remaining planning. Earlier is fine for couples with very popular dates or specific venue requirements. Later is possible but compresses the timeline unnecessarily.
The trip itself requires five to seven days. Shorter visits don’t allow adequate time for all elements. Longer stays can incorporate more leisure time but don’t significantly improve planning outcomes.
Consider scheduling your trip during a season similar to your wedding month. Visiting in January for a September wedding means different weather, different light, and different venue atmosphere than you’ll experience on your wedding day. Whenever possible, visit during conditions that approximate your celebration.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of the wedding is finalized during the planning trip?
Approximately ninety percent. After Ramarossi’s planning trip, couples have confirmed venue with signed contract, approved décor with sample table photographs, finalized menu after tasting, completed hair and makeup trial, and met key vendors. Remaining details like final guest counts and seating are completed remotely.
How long is Ramarossi’s planning trip in Antalya?
The planning trip typically requires five to seven days. This allows time for venue visits, contract signing, sample table creation, food tasting, beauty trials, vendor meetings, and final review. Shorter trips don’t allow adequate time for all elements.
When should we schedule the planning trip before our wedding?
Ramarossi recommends scheduling your planning trip eight to twelve months before your wedding date. This timing allows venue confirmation while leaving comfortable time for remaining planning. Earlier works for popular dates; later is possible but compresses the timeline.
Can we plan a Ramarossi wedding without doing the planning trip?
Yes. Ramarossi offers comprehensive remote planning with live video venue tours, photographed sample tables reviewed via video call, and virtual vendor meetings. Many couples have beautiful weddings without visiting before their wedding week. The planning trip offers advantages but isn’t required.
What happens on the food tasting day?
You taste your complete wedding menu Рcanap̩s, all dinner courses, desserts, and cake options. Dishes are the actual recipes your guests will eat. You provide feedback, request adjustments, and confirm final selections. Dietary accommodations and wine pairings are also sampled if relevant.
What is a sample table and why does it matter?
A sample table is your actual wedding table setup built with real items – linens, chargers, glassware, flatware, napkins, centerpieces. You see exactly how design elements work together, make adjustments in person, and approve the final look. Photographs become the definitive reference vendors recreate on your wedding day.
If you’re planning a destination wedding and want to see your celebration take shape in person, Ramarossi’s planning trip brings you to Antalya, Turkey to make confident decisions with your own eyes. A conversation about your timeline, vision, and how the planning trip fits your situation costs nothing – and could transform your planning journey from uncertain to exciting.