Tuscan Pledges
ABOUT US
When work becomes fun
Jo and her team of professional celebrants take pride in highlighting the milestones and commitments of your lives, at the time same acknowledging and honoring important transitions and events.
Please ask for our advice on readings to include in the ceremony, writing your own vows both for your wedding and your vow renewal, music, and tips and details to make your celebration a great success. As celebrants, we will collaborate in guiding you in the choice of the rituals, readings and music to fulfill your ideas for your symbolic wedding in Tuscany and Italy.
Together we will discuss your idea of the ceremony, through Skype, email and phone consultations, until you reach the ceremony that meets your needs. You may want to rehearse the day before, but we will also be there before the ceremony to go over the final details, and present you with a beautiful parchment as a keepsake of the day.
Jo and her team of professional celebrants will celebrate and help you create personalized ceremonies such as symbolic weddings; vow renewals; commitment ceremonies; baby welcomings and adoptions; survivor tributes, in Italian, English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Jo Bertolino
Languages: English – Italian
Description
I was born near Rome, Sicilian father and American mother, and I have lived in several Italian cities including Palermo, and for short periods in Colorado, the state where my mother was born, and where my brother and part of the family now live. I arrived in Florence in 1979 when I was 19 years old, so this is the city where I have lived the longest, which does not necessarily make me a Florentine! Immediately after high school in Palermo I went to live in Boulder, I was actually taking time to decide what to do with my life! At the University of Colorado I met Angela, a girl from Milan who told me about the interpreting school, and that's how I realized that I wanted to go back to Italy, in particular to Florence, which I loved so much that I made it my city. In the meantime I met Franco, the father of my two children who are now over 30 years old, and I am a grandmother of two granddaughters. I work a lot in Florence, all year round. I basically have three jobs, not a moment's respite, which doesn't leave much for social life! Until recently I sang music from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance in an a cappella choir, The Merry Maidens, which is unfortunately on standby at the moment. I miss singing so much! I am an IRECA certified operator, a method that applies energy to certain points of the human body, real energy receptors, and the application lasts a maximum of 5 minutes. Very useful with brides in crisis! Then I took a Harmonic massage course and I love offering massages to friends and family.
Curiosity
A good friend of mine asked me to fill in the Proust Questionnaire, here are my answers:
The main aspect of my personality: generosity
The quality that I desire in a man: determination
In a woman: being welcoming
My main fault: being impatient
The quality I would like to have: flexibility
What I appreciate most about my friends: their ability to forgive my absence during the wedding season
My favorite occupation: drawing, singing, dancing
My dream of happiness: learn to idle away, when I can
My favorite authors: Neruda, Ann Tyler, Barbara Kingsolver
What would be my greatest misfortune? Losing my eyesight, I hope never!
My heroes and heroines in history: M.L.King, Rosa Parks
The country where I should like to live: New Zealand (even for a short while)
My favorite color: all shades of purple
My favorite flower: tulips
My favorite classical composer: J.S. Bach
How I want to die: like my Dad did, in peace
My present state of mind: open-mindedness
Faults for which I have the most indulgence: those linked to old age
My favorite motto: life is short, eat dessert first
Links
Recently, my photographer friend Gabriele Forti dedicated a page in his website to an interview by the journalist Alessandra Conforti on symbolic ceremonies, you can read it here
Sofia
Languages: Spanish – English – Italian
Description
Sofia started working for TuscanPledges in 2015, and has loved it ever since. Her first wedding was very intimate: a vow renewal for just the couple. An elopement is as challenging as when you have 150 guests looking at you. I remember her call after her first experience; she was crying tears of joy, as she felt she had really found her call! Sofia is so dedicated to her job as a celebrant, to the point that she “organized” her two pregnancies around the wedding season, lucky her and me! Sofia celebrates in Spanish, English and Italian, and will work with you from the beginning to your wedding day.
Janneke
Languages: Dutch – English – Italian
Description
Janneke was the first one to join the team; she started working for TuscanPledges in 2010. At first, she only worked with our Dutch couples, but it was a real waste because she is so good that I asked her to celebrate in English as well. I can trust her completely with everything, her way with people is so pleasant and lovable, and I love the way she can be very professional and fun at the same time.
Katrin
Languages: German – English – Italian
Description
Kathrin is German but has lived in Italy several years now. She started working for TuscanPledges in 2012 holding our German weddings, but has also celebrated for mixed German and English, or German and Italian couples. True to the stereotype, she is as dependable as you would expect a German and will bend over backwards to make sure our couples are happy with their ceremony script. Her soothing voice puts everyone in a very good mood, and this is not her only great quality!
Irene
Languages: French – English – Italian
Description
Irene joined the team when I realized that my French was too rusty and I was lucky enough to meet her! Irene loves being a celebrant; she just wishes more French-speaking couples chose to get married in Italy, so she could dedicate herself entirely to being a celebrant. Irene celebrates in French, Italian, and English, and is very accurate in anything that concerns the ceremony, from the preparation to the actual wedding day, leaving nothing to chance.
Camilla
Languages: Norwegian – English – Italian
Description
Our Camilla celebrates in Norwegian, English and Italian. She is Norwegian but has lived in Italy for several years and has already worked in the wedding industry. We are happy to offer this service for our Norwegian, English-speaking, and Italian couples, adding prestige to our work.
Annika
Languages: Swedish – English – Italian
Description
Our Annika celebrates in Swedish, English and Italian. Annika was born in Sweden but has lived in Italy for several years and is thrilled to be part of TuscanPledges team, four Swedish, English-speaking, and Italian couples.
Francesca
Languages: English – Italian
Description
Our Francesca celebrates in English and Italian. An artist at heart, she adds her special creative touch to our team, bringing further prestige to our work.
Davide
Language: Italian
Description
Davide is Italian, he started working for TuscanPledges in 2013, when very few couples were aware of the possibility to get married in a symbolic ceremony. Since then, due to word of mouth, and to Davide’s skill in touching our couples and their guests when he speaks about their love, more and more couples have decided to choose symbolic ceremonies to seal their relationship.
