Castello Brancaccio — Attraction in San Gregorio da Sassola

We hosted our wedding weekend at Castello Brancaccio in June this year. Although the venue is very beautiful, the wedding ultimately went very well, and we enjoyed working with Maria & Riccardo, we have a hard time energetically recommending the venue because of issues with communication and coordination leading up to the wedding weekend. Posting a long review to provide detailed context since this is a newer venue.

Throughout the planning process we encountered many unnecessary obstacles and issues. There were frequent instances of nickel-and-dime behaviour - it felt as though management was seeking every opportunity for an upcharge (for example, adding many staff cost hours when we asked about moving a few terrace tables). Another example was a surprise upcharge for a different version of the dinner menu, which was not communicated upfront. Additional charges such as a landscaping fee for maintaining the grounds were simply annoying. In general, the coordination between our day-to-day coordinator and management was inconsistent. It felt as though “the rules” were often changed based on the preferences of management, and staff would overpromise because they were not informed about the latest. Receiving information about the wedding packages and options took way too many repeated requests and phone calls. Topics such as changes to the menu, vegetarian/vegan alternatives, table cloth & seat cover options took weeks to resolve.

We used Farmhouse La Cerra to accommodate our extra guests. It is marketed as “Villa Brancaccio”, but in reality this is an independent business with a loose affiliation (third-party supplier). The castle management promised a number of things but the Farmhouse management would reject these options or chose to opportunistically upcharge us. The response from Brancaccio management was that the Farmhouse had a “right to run their business as they see fit” - not a true partnership and not a nice way of doing business. Simply put, we were promised many things by Brancaccio management which turned out not to be possible, or were possible only with significant added cost.

The hotel check-in process at Brancaccio and La Cerra was not the best - a few of our guests ended up having to usher people in and help them find their rooms because there was not an organised check-in system. The rooms at Brancaccio are clean and nicely furnished, but housekeeping was inconsistent and did not follow the set schedule that you might expect at a normal hotel.

Day-of wedding coordination was just ok. Some things went well because Brancaccio staff did a good job, others went well only because our external vendors (DJ, photographer, videographer) had to prompt the staff (e.g. we moved our guests to the dining room at the agreed-upon time but the staff was not fully prepared).

In the spirit of fairness, here are the things that did go well: Catering staff was amazing - many thanks to Fabio and others for being so attentive and providing such good service The venue is a beautiful facility for a wedding, many of our guests commented on this part The quality of the food at Brancaccio and La Cerra was very good The hotel rooms were clean and comfortable The bridal and tower suite were nicely furnished and great for the bride/groom parties to get ready Management did upgrade our room at no charge when we were staying at the castle prior to the wedding

If you do decide to pursue Brancaccio as a wedding venue, we would recommend: Not using La Cerra for any events, accommodation only if needed for extra guests Consider hiring a wedding planner/coordinator to work closely with staff on day-of. We were able to handle this ourselves and with the help of our family, but if you want to do it properly a dedicated coordinator would be useful. Pay very close attention to contract line items and confirm all assumptions and promises in writing early in the process, to avoid surprises later when you are...

0* Review

Our experience with this Italian wedding venue has been nothing short of a nightmare.

We had high hopes for Castello Brancaccio, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a huge disappointment. After paying a near €4000 deposit to secure a date two years in advance, we flew to Italy to visit the venue with the intention of touring the grounds & experiencing a private menu tasting with the head chef as promised. Upon arrival, it became clear that this wasn’t the dream location we had envisioned, nor were we going to sample their cuisine that was promised during their ‘sales’ video call.

Still, as a rational and understanding couple, we gave the venue multiple chances to impress us. Sadly, they failed to meet even basic expectations on every occasion during our 1 evening stay with them, during somebody else’s wedding celebration. We made a conscious effort to request that our visit did not impact or collide with another couples celebration. Due to the poor organisation and the intimate nature of the venue, we found ourselves having breakfast with the wedding party on the morning of their ceremony. This was particularly embarrassing for us and upsetting for the affected family involved.

However this was yet another example of how we were met with poor customer service, a lack of care, and chaotic management.

When we politely asked for our deposit back (minus any reasonable expenses), the venue’s response was unprofessional and insulting. We were ignored, given the runaround, and treated with disrespect. Despite not signing a contract and their terms not indicating that the deposit is non-refundable, they have unjustly held our money and dismissed our cancellation reason. Despite our visit being a shambles from start to finish, including being locked out of our room and having to stay in an alternative room without any of our personal items or luggage. Now, after months of trying to resolve this issue amicably having emails ignored, they’ve stopped responding altogether.

If you’re considering Castello Brancaccio for your wedding, we urge you to think twice. The management’s refusal to engage with us in a civil manner and their blatant lack of professionalism is alarming. We even wrote a detailed 10-page document at their request, only to have it completely ignored with their only acknowledgement a reply claiming the office was closed for a month in September, management are yet to respond 6 weeks after their office reopened, convenient…

Avoid at all costs if you don’t want to be told that you’ll plan your wedding ‘a month prior to the event via email’.

We are pursuing legal action and have reported their unethical conduct to British Trading Standards. Please, do yourself a favor and avoid this venue at all costs. There are many reputable options out there, Castello Brancaccio is not worth the risk!

If anyone would like to hear more about our experience, we’re happy to share the full document privately. Don’t let your wedding dreams turn into a nightmare like ours did.

You’ll be left feeling disappointed and...

We got married at Castello Brancaccio in October 2023. While the location is definitely a breathtakingly beautiful, historical location with impressive views, the owner and the management has still much work to do to organise decent weddings. While it is easy to get charmed by the location, it is important to also provide quality services in line with what you pay, and be considered of important details that the couple and the guests will definitely notice in a wedding. We definitely appreciated the effort of the staff during the planning period, and there were things that worked very well (the cocktails and the party setting, the breakfast in the medieval kitchen and the setting. But there were too many situations of discomfort and misalignment with agreements taken that would deserved to be listed one by one, if there were enough characters to use. But the worst was during the dinner. The time between courses was SO SLOW. Many guests came up to us and checked if there was more food coming. And the main course, although the chef is really kind and hardworking, was very disappointing. Both the meat and fish dishes were cold, dry, and uninspiring. There was no bread, no sparkling water, no ice buckets for the white wine. The wait staff seemed young and inexperienced and didn’t cater to many of our guests’ needs. Many of our guests- and we as the married couple- did not see, let alone taste any of the desserts. We asked that they were served on the terrace before/during the wedding cake cut and expected waiters to bring them and hand them around to our guests downstairs. We even had a previous agreement to bring leftover desserts down to the party hall, but eventually it was also ignored, wasting money and food. After we cut the wedding cake and started dancing, it just sat there for 40 minutes until we had to ask the management to bring plates and cut slices for our guests. This should be obvious, especially when there were no desserts passed around! Maybe a foreign couple just looking for a destination wedding may not care- but we had 2 days of wedding events in a location, with one side of the couple being from Italy, so we noticed things that could be improved on. We recognize that the lens through which family members and friends, particularly those rooted in Italian traditions, viewed the event might differ. However, we wanted to bring to light several areas where we noticed a lack of transparency in the communication, overcharging for things, and last-minute changes. We just felt that as a wedding venue, there should have been more open communication, understanding, and collaboration with us as a couple to ensure we had the event of our dreams, whereas most of the time we felt like two parties battling over things we previously agreed on and couldn’t meet a peaceful...