Italian Lakes Wedding Planner

Villa D’Este… it’s impossible to utter the name without a wistful sigh.
Apart from being stupendous and undeniably the epitome of Italian sophistication, this villa is world famous. It has literally witnessed history, being well known as one of Mussolini’s preferred locations in which to receive important guests.

So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I met Janet and Ian, who were staying at the Villa before and after their ceremony. To be there in the evening was an experience reminiscent of a Hollywood film from the 1950′s. A jazz pianist and singer serenaded snappily dressed clientele sipping cocktails in the beautiful grounds while gazing dreamily out towards a lake illuminated by fireworks. A newly married couple waltzed romantically around a large interior ballroom beneath the gaze of a thousand crystal eyes of an antique chandelier… It was the stuff that dreams are made of and the ceremony was still to come!

The day of the blessing boasted perfect weather conditions with glorious sunshine and heat relieved by a fresh breeze. The blessing took place in the latter part of the afternoon, always a good time for photographs. The floral arrangement was simply stunning with lemons and sunflowers as the dominant theme. The most amazing mosaics I had ever seen decorated the entrance to expertly manicured gardens, much loved by Sir Winston Churchill during his many holidays spent at the villa during his career as English PM. He spent many hours on the veranda engaged in his passion for painting. He would have loved the scene that day.

As the guests arrived to take their seats I wondered about the many historic public figures and famous celebrities that had also been spellbound by this enchanting and majestic villa. It was a very surreal moment… ‘The Flower Duet’ from Lakme initiated the proceedings, which was a fitting accompaniment to such a creative floral arrangement. Janet began to make her way towards me accompanied by her father. Her hairstyle was captivating and creative, reflecting the bride’s personality and was the subject of much discussion amongst the guests. The groom was without doubt one of the most relaxed I have ever seen! However he was clearly moved and I found myself also overcome with emotion during the mutual swearing of their vows. The bride had told me that they had chosen the villa because they had fallen in love with one another here during an early trip taken together, thus proving that Villa D’Este casts a powerful spell… Continue Reading »

It is our great pleasure to welcome and introduce Diane Wheeler as a new author to our blog. She is an English Literature graduate and ex-teacher who has lived in Italy for many years.

Diane is a co celebrant and works with us, arranging blessings and symbolic ceremonies liaising with Italian Lakes Wedding. She has a gentle manner, a good sense of humour and is very passionate about her work. She demonstrates great skill in collaborating with the bride and groom, constructing their dream ceremony in close dialogue with them. She has considerable experience of scripting and performing blessing ceremonies in Italy.
Diane takes great care to ensure that every couple feels supported and guided every step of the way. She also complements the ceremony with expert recitation of some of the most beautiful poetry and moving readings of the English language. Continue Reading »

One of the most beautiful weddings I worked on was Victoria and Daniel’s one last year. Victoria herself talked about it in a post she wrote for Italian Lakes Wedding site.
It is with pleasure that I come back talking about Victoria and Daniel’s wedding just in occasion of their first anniversary. I still recall the real satisfaction I felt for that event as floral designer.
On my website www.lapiccolaselva.it you could also see Victoria and Daniel’s photo gallery realized by Felix Segovia coming from Madrid.

Victoria is an kind English girl, very nice and simple. She is literally in love with Italy and its lakes. This was the reason because she choose to organize her wedding in our lovely country. It took almost a year, traveling across all lakes to take the final decision for her destination wedding. At the end she picked up Lake Maggiore.

Religious ceremony was held in San Martino church in Lesa, a tiny village on Piemonte side of Lake Maggiore, between Stresa and Arona. San Martino church is beautiful cosy and intimate and it is just few steps from the lake.
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Villa Muggia was elected as reception venue. It was simply stunning! Villa’s park was embellished with all spring blooming that bridegroom and their guests really loved. Villa Muggia ‘s park is full of azaleas and camelias. These are all lake plants that are exceptionally beautiful in Spring.

As floral designer I would like to tell you the most importan part as far as my job is concerned of Victoria and Daniel’s wedding: floral arrangements!
From the very first meeting Victoria was really decided on her wedding theme. She wanted a solar theme that really could recall Italy.
So we choose together LEMONS as main theme of the wedding. I think Lemons could be the right element for all that Victoria was looking for!
Since the color theme was really strong, I decided to smooth it a little in order to match wedding feeling of such a wonderful day.
I suggested Victoria some pastel colors she agreed with me.I picked up Vendela roses and peonies. I love peonies they make me think about vintage style, romanticism, Belle Époque, fascinating ages and elegance.
This flower is really delicate and it has a limited blooming period: April/May until mid June. Of course nowadays we can have flowers like this in every single period of the year, but consider that ordering them out of season could be very expensive and most of all the flower itself will last for very few time. Peonies cannot stay for long time under summer sun and in just 2 hours they will be totally burned. Continue Reading »

After our article for a lovely civil wedding on Isola dei Pescatori, we would like tell you someting more about another venue for civil services on Lake Maggiore: Villa San Remigio in Pallanza – Verbania.

We already talked about Villa San Remigio telling the history of this beautiful 1800 villa. It is now owned by Piemonte region and it is available for marriage thanks to Pallanza town hall.

We would like to tell you about Antonella and Tommy’s wedding.
They choose for their wedding Villa San Remigio, Italian Lakes Wedding Team and Raffaello Mazzoleni photographer one of the more active photographer of the site.
He followed them with his professionalism and experience giving as final result a wonderful whole day reportage full of solar colors right in the perfect frame of Villa San Remigio’s ancient rooms and park.

His quick post processing allowed us to see his work just 3 days after the wedding! Raffaello put on our disposal the entire wedding PHOTO GALLERY. Today we show you some images we choose to describe the beauty of the place: baroque facade of the villa, rich and big and well furnished rooms and stunning park.

White and red was bridegroom color scheme and it was underlined by some lovely details such as bride and groom dresses.

As you can see bride wore a pretty 60s style prom dress.
She had a lot of style for sure!
Have a look at the red details she matched such as red shoes!
Just very pretty!

Floral arrangement included 2 big compositions with white lily callas in room’s entrance in order to create a sort of arch.

Bridal bouquet had mini lily callas and Carte Blanche roses in with some variations of light yellow and ivory. Continue Reading »

The Lake Garda is the second biggest lake of the Italian Lake district after Lake Maggiore. This lake is unique not just because of the size of the territory, but also – and mainly – due to the variety of its characteristic ambient: large beaches exists perfectly together with vineyards and olive branches, and towards the north the hilly scene gives its place to the imposing backgrounds of the high mountains. To this spectacular nature, you can add the ancient art, rustic culture and a bit less known, but not less wonderful villas than those of Lake Como, so you find a perfect mix for a dream ambient to realize your very special wedding event.
The Lake offers really a wide choice of splendid places, but nothing is comparable with its peninsulas.

To give you the feeling of an island, but still remaining on the mainland – which can be an important factor when you organize the logistics of your wedding (!) – the Lake offers you 2 very special peninsulas.

The first one, and most known of them is the ancient town of Sirmione, located on the very south of the lake. This really popular touristic target is an incredible mix of the past and future with all the contrasts one can imagine. The rests of the roman Villa called “Catullo’s Cave” is just one of the signs the rich past left to us. Walking around the historical center, one can feel a growing curiosity inside to discover the tenacious past, that is hidden and present at the same time in the architecture, the decoration of the buildings, the small details of every little street….

But in Sirmione all this can be in a perfect harmony with modern shops, designed bars, inviting restaurants and a complex spa center to pamper your body and relax your mind. To complete the picture and make Sirmione a perfect place for a dream wedding, there is the splendid Palace Hotel Villa Cortine just on the lakeshore with its centenarian park full of rare essences and lively colored flowers.
The old Villa completely renovated with its precious marbles and symbolic frescos gives the opportunity to celebrate a very special wedding with the splendor of the past and the pleasure of the art, with the breathtaking lake view as background. In this way, you can be really close to the dynamic life of Sirmione center, but still have your privacy and intimacy of the wedding reception within the walls of this splendid hotel.

The second peninsula is less known, and offers a completely different style, far from busy turistic centers. At the extremity of Garda’s Golf, at the last south-western point of the Baldo Mountain, you can find Punta San Vigilio, one of the most celebrated, but also the most romantic places of the Lake Garda. We know very little about the origins of this location, although it is sure that was inhabitated already in the roman’s time.

The Point of San Vigilio is a wonderful little treat of sophisticated beauty, enclosed between the mountain and the lake. The splendid lake panorama, and the mountain just behind creates a unique mix of rich colored scenes, so that you can feel yourself as being in a painting. Continue Reading »

The ones that are reading us noticed that we’ve just add a new feature to our blog: Ask The Expert. This is actually not a reallly new feature because the section was already included in our main website. We really wanted to enlarge its presence to our blog which is the most visitited area of www.italianlakeswedding.com.
We want to make this important and totally free service usable for a wide audience that may need information and suggestions for their wedding on the lakes.

Our Italian Lakes Wedding experts are all multi-language speaking people, Italian or foreign mother tongue all living in Italy across Lake District. Continue Reading »

If you want to celebrate your wedding on one of the most beautiful town on Lake Maggiore, Stresa is the right place for sure.
But we would like to suggest something more just close by it!
This could be a special venue for a legal civil ceremony which will be unique!

It has been some months that Stresa mayor gave his availability to conduct civil legal ceremonies on wonderful Isola dei Pescatori of Borromean Islands directly. We have already mentioned this lovely archipelagos in some of our previous articles we posted, telling you about wonderful Botanic garden to Isola Madre and extraordinary Borromean Palace to Isola Bella. Isola dei Pescatori (fishermen’s Island) is the third one of this group.

The small harbor of the island is well protected from wind, preserving a few left fishermen boats made exclusively of wood. The main street of the island is very picturesque, short, narrow and full up with shops, small cafes, restaurants and beautiful stone houses.

Must be very interesting living here, where everything looks so friendly and easygoing. Some terraces are decorated with fishing nets or equipment telling us who is living in. Houses, decorated with lots of greenery, are congested making a kind of wall, which protect the inner street from cold northern winds.
Ancient Church of San Vittore is definitely worth a visit whilst you are there.

Italian Lakes Wedding Team will be pleased to help you arranging a wonderful event on this spot of Lake Maggiore. Groom and guests could reach islands with a ferry boat leaving from Stresa or Baveno or other lovely town on lakeshore. Right after will come the bride on a decorated boat for her own. Everybody will wait for her on Island pier.

After a romantic and rich ceremony, bride and groom will enjoy a touristy trip on the lake to take their wedding pictures directly on the boat or the wonderful islands and corners of Borromean archipelagos. Guests could enjoy a bot trip too, admiring and knowing better this lovely lake. They will also have a nice aperitif directly on the boat. Continue Reading »

Last week I mentioned about Ivonn and Giorgio’s wedding to Castello di Miasino on Lake Orta.
Today I would like to tell you more on this, thanks to Federico Fasano photographer’s images.
He kindly gave his images to let us enjoy the wedding atmosphere.
This lets you appreciate good and quick post production phase and the great skill to catch details such as my floral arrangements.
Federico Fasano‘s photos I show you today show some nice details of the work I did for Ivonn and Giorgio. First image is a wonderful detail of bridegroom’s table with some rose petals that created a big heart.

Again rose petals with many heart shaped confettis. Guest threw them as good luck wish to bride and groom after the ceremony. Confettis and petals were preserved in lovely cones realized with music sheets with a wax rose on.

Third photo on the left is one of my favorites. You can see groom’s button hole I created with Avalanche white rose on a leaf and a tulle ribbon. Forth picture on the right shows a view of Castle’s rooms with two arrangements I realized. They are laid on the iron columns that are at the base of the big staircase that leads to big window with mosaic glasses.

Last pictures is a wonderful detail of one of the centerpieces. For their realization I used big vases with little pink stones, Bear Grass and Avalanche white roses.

In order to see entire Ivonn and Giorgio’s photo set to Castello di Miasino please visit photographer Federico Fasano’s PHOTO GALLERY. These are just some first details! Continue Reading »

I’m sure that I won’t exaggerate telling that Bevin and Steven’s symbolic wedding to Villa Gippini was a wonderful event for a wide range of reasons.
First of all the wonderful sunny day that delighted bride and groom and their guests coming from US. Valentina Lombardi was the wedding coordinator, Monika Andermatten was the floral designer for ceremony and centerpiece to San Rocco Hotel reception.
In the next days Valentina and Monika will tell you more about the event. Just as soon as photographers Estella and Diego from Photo27.com will give us images of Bevin and Steven’s wedding.
Today I just wanted to give you a little detail that I was able to “steal” during the symbolic ceremony in Villa Gippini’s garden. Some of the guests decided to to take away their shoes to enjoy the wonderful garden, just leaving them under the big kaki tree. Isn’t it fun?

From the start of 2009 Lake Orta can boast a new and spectacular location for weddings: Villa Ortea, situated close to Pettenasco, in one of the most picturesque corners of the eastern lake shore and just a short distance from Orta and the island of San Giulio.

Ortea Villa is not just any old location: originally built in the early eighteenth century and has recently been restored with the aim of turning it into a structure dedicated to receive any type of event, with an internal capacity of up to 250 seats and completely functional in all respects: the large service areas for catering, private parking and above all the possibility of arranging the reception outdoors, taking advantage of the large terraces overlooking the lake or the beautiful park that surrounds it.

It has it’s own garden, the “pride and joy” of Villa Ortea, able to bestow the wedding couple and their guests a true “full immersion” into the greenery that few other locations are able to offer.
The park, which is structured over multiple levels covering a 20,000 square meter area, after decades of neglect has taken life again, thanks to the deep rooted passion for nature that owner Ms. Ariella and her sons Aron and Federico joyously share. Quickly becoming a kind of important botanical garden full of hundreds of different species, occasionally rare, to mention the more important, there are collections of Camellia, Rhododendron, Azalea and Kalmia, typical plants of the prealpine lake area of Piedmont that are shown by the virtue of their spectacular spring blooms.

If, however, you are thinking of getting married during the summer, given that the Villa Ortea park will delight you and your guests with a series of colourful blooms: from Hibiscus to Oleander and even to Hydrangea’s and some fine varieties of Lagestroemia that bestow you with the perfect setting for your wedding photographs, along with magnificent views of Lake Orta that stands in the background.

A beautiful and evocative walk lets you visit the whole park with extreme comfort, whilst meandering through the paths and discovering the most beautiful sights. At the top of the garden, a small romantic lake, sealed by a beautiful waterfall set among the rocks, calls for moments of tranquility and contemplation.
Villa Ortea is a unique location for weddings: come and discover it and you will be fascinated!

Italian Lakes Wedding Team is made up of several professional wedding planners and floral designers with a long experience on Italian Lakes locations.
The Team knows the territory in every single detail and will be able to follow you on every important choice you will take.
Our coordinators are based locally in the areas we serve so whether you decide for a wedding in Rome or Bracciano, a wedding in Como or Stresa, or a Wedding on lake Garda or Lake Orta, we will grant the same level of service.
Our Team will be able to provide you every kind of supplier, florist, photographers, musicians, designers celebrants, witnesses and help as far as your documents are concerned, and anything you may think of.
Italian Lakes Wedding Team will literally pamper you!

For any information about wedding on Lake Orta please CONTACT US.

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Once upon a time the Milanese marquis Giorgio Clerici, decided to move in a magical place between lake and mountains, facing the Bellagio peninsula.
He dreamed of a Villa with Italian gardens, sculptures, stairs and fountains everywhere….and here begins the never ending story of Villa Carlotta…

This Villa is a place of rare beauty immersed in 70000 square meters of gardens and museum.
Since this location was built Love seems the ‘fil rouge’ that accompanies its history.
An example? Eros and Psyche and the last kiss of Romeo and Juliet are only some of the masterpieces that enriches the extraordinary collection.

But this is not the only coincidence: in 1843 Princess Marianne of Nassau, Albert’s of Prussia wife, gave it as a present to her daughter Carlotta in occasion of her wedding with Georg II of Saxen-Meiningen. Hence the name Villa Carlotta.
As if this Villa was predestined to welcome weddings one day…
Well, this day is arrived! Because starting from this spring, this authentic jewel opens its doors to civil legally recognized weddings.

This venue is really incredible for open air celebrations and one of the few to allow outdoor ceremonies all over Lake Como.
The celebration can be performed on the stunning outside terrace overlooking the lake surrounded by thousand flowers like rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and roses of over 150 different sorts, with the chance to have in front of you one of the most beautiful landscapes of the area.

But the great news aren’t finished: after the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds and their guests have the fantastic opportunity to arrange directly at the Villa, inside the greenhouse a rich aperitif or a simple champagne toast before reaching the wedding reception venue.
The view and the gardens are unbelievable so don’t miss this experience at all! Continue Reading »

As floral designer last week end I took care of the two first weddings on Lake Orta.
First one was held in Castello di Miasino and the other was arranged at Villa Bossi. Both of them were with civil ceremonies.
While we are waiting for official images taken by Federico Fasano, to Castello di Miasino and Enzo Franza, to Villa Bossi, I would like to show you some first detail of my first two weddings of the year, today.

Ivonn and Giorgio’s wedding at Castello di Miasino had a pink and white color theme. I matched Avalanche and Plaza roses with white Dendrobium orchids. In order to enrich the floral arrangement on ceremony table, I plaited some Bear Grass leaves giving them a heart shape to recall love symbol.

As for centerpieces, I used high flute glasses filling them with pink little stones and Avalanche roses. All was emphasized by Bear Grass leaves that went up the composition: a simple and good rate solution that has great effect!

Roses are also Laura and Carlo’s wedding main theme to Villa Bossi, Orta San Giulio town hall, one of the most evocative venue in Italy to celebrate a civil ceremony on the open air.
Their color theme was white and orange. I used lovely white gerberas and roses together with long Lilies Longiflorum. The arrangement matched reception venue’s one too. Reception was held to San Rocco Hotel, one of the most exclusive venue of Lake Orta, recently charmingly renewed and reopened.

Laura’s bouquet was something really nice too! It was a round vintage bouquet colored by many pastel shades, that went from cream white to orange and ochre. All flowers were wrapped in the same fabric of bridal dress. Continue Reading »