Getting married in Italy: your own love song, composed by an Italian composer

You have chosen Italy for your wedding. Perhaps to return to your roots, perhaps for its ancient churches, its lakeside villas, its villages by the sea. You will go home with photographs, a film, a few keepsakes for your friends. But there is one memory that can only come from here, and it is the most precious of all: a love song composed for you in Italy.

Ilarion, an Italian tenor and composer, listens to you, and from that listening your melody is born. On your wedding day he sings it live, you dance to it, and you take it home with its recording and sheet music.

Why it is a brilliant idea

You came to Italy for its beauty. And Italian beauty is not only in its landscapes: it is in its music. This is where Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano and the first violins were made. Here Guido d'Arezzo gave music the staff and the names of the notes, and here bel canto was born, the voice that sings of love like no other.

Getting married in the homeland of melody and letting your music be borrowed would mean missing what matters most. Flowers fade, the dress ends up in a wardrobe; a song born here, just for you, will bring you back to Italy every time you hear it.

First he listens, then your melody is born

Everything begins with listening. Ilarion meets you, remotely too, wherever you live: he asks how you met, which places matter to you, the people you love, why you chose Italy. He listens to your words, your voices, your smiles and your silences too. From that listening a melody is born that did not exist before you and could belong to no one else.

Your first dance in Italy

The lights go down, guests who have travelled from all over the world step aside, and a melody begins that no one has ever heard. Ilarion sings it live and you dance to it for the first time as a married couple: the most personal first dance you could imagine, under the Italian sky.

A moment for your videographer

The first live performance of your song is a moment your photographer and videographer look forward to: your faces, your guests' faces, the first dance. And the recording of the song can become the soundtrack of your wedding film. Ilarion is happy to coordinate with your videographer on timing and on the best moment to film.

Lyrics in Italian or English

Ilarion writes the lyrics for you, in Italian, the language of love and bel canto, or in English, so that every word reaches you and your guests directly. During the rest of the day he also sings in English, Spanish and Greek.

A piece of Italy to take home

You will receive the recording of your song and its sheet music: a lead sheet with the melody in treble clef, the chords and the lyrics, so anyone who plays the piano or the guitar can accompany it, at home, in any country. One day your children will play it, sing it at one of your anniversaries, and let their own children hear it. It is the memory of your wedding in Italy, handed down from generation to generation.

And for your anniversaries

Your song will be waiting for you at every anniversary. And if one day you come back to Italy to celebrate, you can hear it live again where it all began. A song can also be composed for an anniversary: for ten, twenty-five or fifty years together, or to renew your vows in Italy.

How it works, from any country

1. You write to us with the date, the wedding venue and a few words about yourselves.
2. Ilarion listens to you, remotely too: your story becomes the beginning of the music.
3. Your song is born: melody, harmony and lyrics, in Italian or English.
4. On your wedding day he sings it live, and you dance to it.
5. You take it home, with the recording and the sheet music.

There is no fixed time: some songs are born in a few weeks, others take a few months. It is best to write as soon as you have your date.

Where in Italy

In Sicily, from Taormina to Syracuse and Palermo, and in Calabria; on Lake Como, in Tuscany, in Venice and on the Amalfi Coast. The areas are listed on the church wedding musicians page.

With your wedding planner

If you are working with a wedding planner, Ilarion coordinates with them, the venue and your photographers and videographers: how he works with wedding planners and event managers. For one more emotion, your friends can sing the song in a surprise flash mob. All the details about the song are on the custom wedding and anniversary song page.

Listen to his compositions

Below you will find some of Ilarion's compositions: press ▶ to listen. Your song will be unlike any of them, because it will be born from your own story.

Tell us about yourselves and your wedding in Italy.