Two churches, two very different Roman wedding days

We ask the practical questions first. Where is it in relation to your hotel and your dinner? What ceremony times are free on your date? Can you bring your own photographer, florist and musicians? Will it feel full with your guest list, or empty? Will the day stay connected to the city afterwards, or will everyone need another transfer? A church can look perfect in photographs and still make a difficult day, which is why we choose it together with the rest of the plan.

The intimate one: twelfth-century mosaics, doors that open straight onto a living piazza, and dinner a short walk away.

Santa Maria in Trastevere puts the wedding inside one of Rome's most atmospheric neighbourhoods. When the ceremony ends, you step out into the piazza, the cafés and the narrow streets, and the day continues from there. For couples who want the wedding to feel like one Roman evening rather than a sequence of venues, it is hard to beat, and we particularly like it for smaller weddings.

The church itself. Santa Maria in Trastevere is probably the first place in Rome where Christians worshipped officially. Legend gives its foundation to Pope Callixtus I in the third century, and it was completed in 340. Much of what you see today dates from the twelfth century, when Innocent II rebuilt it: the bell tower, and the apse mosaic of around 1140 in which the pope holds a model of the church. Below it, Pietro Cavallini's mosaics of the life of the Virgin date from 1291. The twenty-two ancient granite columns probably came from the Baths of Caracalla, and the gilded coffered ceiling was designed by Domenichino in 1617. It is a church dedicated to Mary, and you marry beneath her story told in gold. (Source: Turismo Roma.)

Ceremony times. At the time of writing, weddings are celebrated Monday to Saturday at 10:15, 12:00 or 15:00, and on Sundays and religious holidays at 15:00 only. We reconfirm for your date. We usually prefer the afternoon, so the ceremony flows into photographs, aperitivo and dinner without a long gap.

For couples from abroad. The Basilica accepts reservations and follows the Diocese of Rome marriage procedure, so you do not need to be parishioners. Modello XIV must reach the church before the wedding.

Music. You may bring your own musicians, and the Basilica can provide a keyboard. Its own organist and singers can be arranged through the church's music contact. The repertoire is agreed in advance.

Photographers of your choice are allowed, as long as they do not disturb the celebration. We brief them on the church before the day.

Flowers are welcome but restrained by rule: nothing in the chancel or around the altar beyond a small altar arrangement; no pins, tape or nails on the pews; rice, petals and confetti only outside in the square, never inside or under the portico. Your florist agrees the set-up time with the church in advance. In practice the Basilica needs very little: its mosaics do the work.

It is not a private venue. The church stays open during the wedding and its doors cannot be closed, though tourist visits are suspended during the celebration. For many couples that is part of the beauty: you marry in a living Roman basilica, not a building borrowed for the afternoon.

Arrival. The piazza is pedestrian and the area sits inside a limited-traffic zone. Cars carrying the couple, elderly guests or guests with reduced mobility have normally been able to approach for drop-off, but there is no church parking. We plan everyone else's arrival on foot, by taxi or by arranged transport, especially when dinner is outside Trastevere.

A day around Trastevere: preparations at a hotel or apartment nearby, the ceremony, family photographs in the piazza, portraits through the surrounding streets while guests walk to aperitivo, and dinner a short walk away, in the cloister and orangery of Donna Camilla Savelli, a Borromini convent on Via Garibaldi. See the venue and its budget → The mood is relaxed, social and of the neighbourhood.

The date and time, whether it accepts international couples, priest arrangements, music, photography and flower rules, the church contribution, accessibility and drop-off, guest transport, the distance to the reception, and how the ceremony sits in the day. These are the details that decide whether the wedding feels easy for you and your guests.

Marina was married in a Catholic church in Sicily in 2016 and Katerina on Lake Como, so we know this process from the couple's side as well as the planner's. We speak to the churches in Italian and check each one's current rules before we recommend it, then connect the ceremony to everything around it: the priest, music, photography, flowers, transport, timing and dinner.