The couple kissing in the vineyard in the afternoon sun

Wedding venues in the hills around Casale Monferrato

Wedding at Cascina Faletta, Casale Monferrato

Casale Monferrato, among rows of Barbera and Grignolino

Guests waving their napkins at dinner on the terrace.

Ten hectares of vines around the celebration

At Cascina Faletta the vineyard is not a backdrop you have to drive to: it starts a few steps from the terrace. Ten organically farmed hectares of Barbera, Grignolino and Pinot Nero, which in the late afternoon catch the low, warm light of the hills.

We moved into the vine rows for the portraits, through the tall grass, then came back to the terrace for the aperitif, dinner under the parasols and the cake cutting by the pool.

A wedding at the farmhouse in the hills of Casale Monferrato

Cascina Faletta stands in Regione Mandoletta, in the hills just outside Casale Monferrato. The ceramic plaque dated 1881, the year its construction is traced back to, is still on the entrance gate; the restoration brought the original floors and ceilings back to life, and the bedrooms keep the exposed beams you can see in the getting-ready photos.

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Here the whole day can stay in one place: getting ready in the bedrooms, the civil ceremony, the aperitif on the terrace overlooking the hills of Monferrato, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2014, then dinner and the party around the pool. For wedding photography that means less travelling and more time with the people.

I stay a step back during the ceremony and the speeches, and move closer when the party calls for it: the friends tossing the groom in the air, the grandmother pulling him onto the dance floor, the cake arriving among the sparkler fountains.