monika on Dec 30th 2008 Wedding Flowers

What is the perfect flower for a Winter Wedding?
According our opinion there is no doubt! Helleborus Niger: the Christmas Rose!
It is romantic, elegant, old fashioned. It is the ideal choice for a perfect winter wedding bouquet. It is made up of five petals around a golden corolla.
Helleborus is an ancient flower for its medical characteristics, there are many legends about this. One of those tells that those flowers come out the first time from the snow by a Bethlehem young girl’s tears that could give any present to Christ Child.
Christmas Rose is sometimes called the Snow or Winter Rose. It was very used in 1800 in Great Britain and then forgotten. It was re-discovered in the last few years becoming a symbol of stile elegance but also simplicity and naturalness.
Helleborus’ flowers boom right in Winter between December and February and the last for long time on its plant. Most know color is white but there are also beautiful hybrid rose, purple and violet. They are just perfect for a bridal bouquet or bridesmaids ones. Those flowers could be also used for refined and little centerpieces. Continue Reading »
monika on Dec 20th 2008 Wedding Flowers

Among the wedding venues of the Italian Lake District the Castello di Miasino (Miasino’s Castle) is one of the most well known and requested ones by Italian couples. Some of the reasons might be its panoramic position (with a view to one of the arms of lake Orta), its parking facilities for guests and the possibility to celebrate your wedding with a civil ceremony.
Being a highly attended venue I often happened to work there in my function as floral designer. Visiting my website www.lapiccolaselva.it you can easily find a whole section dedicated to my floral arrangements at Castello di Miasino with hundreds of photographs. My decor proposals are ranging from centre table ones to the big staircase leading to the upper apartments and finally to the hall where the wedding ceremonies are celebrated with civil rite. Please also have a look into the garden where my floral compositions might beautify your reception buffet , not forgetting the entrance area of the Castle with the statue of Santa Sofia. To her feet I would advise a creation consisting of flowers, ferns and rose petals. 
I have recently updated my photo gallery of floral arrangements at the Castle of Miasino including a selection of the most beautiful ones from all the weddings I realized there during 2008. Please take a look and enjoy!
martha on Nov 21st 2008 Wedding Music

Eleonora and David got married on the 27th of September. This was a special event planned in association with Italian Lakes Wedding Team. You can have a look to DAVID AND ELEONORA’S PHOTO GALLERY realized by Diego & Estella Photographers - Photo27.com.
The Ceremony took place in the beautiful setting of Villa Rusconi Clerici in Verbania Pallanza, lake Maggiore.
I would need very few words to describe what happened at their wedding (beautiful, romantic, full of joy and feeling, with everything going as planned…). Much longer is the description of the effort and the lovely care and attention to every detail that Eleonora and David put in the planning of their special day, and to the music in particular!
Eleonora contacted me by email some months before the wedding date, in May to be exact.
She and David decided almost at once that my jazz repertoire was exactly what they wanted for the aperitif. But they were undecided for the music for the ceremony: “I don’t remember if I mentioned it” writes Eleonora in one of the many emails we exchanged, “the ceremony will be Catholic and Jewish together…”.
Therefore not only we needed to find music that Eleonora and David liked, that could accompany their ceremony, underlining the special moments, giving everybody emotions and so on (as usual!). We most of all had to find pieces that were not too closely connected to one of the two religions or traditions represented during the ceremony, songs or music that could be impartial. Continue Reading »
monika on Oct 1st 2008 Wedding Testimonials

We love Italy: we love its people, its language, its food, its culture, its nature, etc. Therefore, getting married in Italy was the obvious choice.
But where? After thorough research and multiple research weekends in Italy (oh, the sacrifices one has to make…) we came to the conclusion that it would have to be in the picturesque Orta San Giulio. This lovely town even has its town hall on the lake (Lago d’Orta), allowing the bride and groom (or in our case: bride and bridesmaid) to arrive in a (rowing) boat!
We (bride, groom and guests) all stayed at hotel Leon d’Oro, that is situated right in the heart of the town (Piazza Motta) on the lake. Our rooms were immaculate and the friendly assistance we received from the staff really made us feel very welcome! We had welcome drinks for our guests on one of the terraces of the hotel overlooking the lake and the Isola San Giulio. Just perfect!
When the flowers arrived on our wedding day, we knew for sure that La Piccola Selva had been the right choice for the floral arrangements. We had had quite specific ideas about what the bouquet and corsages would have to look like and were very happy to see that La Piccola Selva had been able to bring it all together so beautifully. As per our request, it had also provided us with a special flower decoration for the stroller of our little niece. Great Paola, thank you! Continue Reading »
monika on Sep 20th 2008 Wedding Flowers
Thinking about getting married on the Italian Lakes area? You love flowers? You want a bright wedding theme? You like the sun? “Chiste o paese do sole,” says a popular old Neapolitan song, Italy is the land of the sun! So why don’t you use sunflowers for your main wedding theme? Since the flower itself reaches up to the sun, it symbolizes warmth, happiness, adoration and longevity, a sunflower wedding theme is perfect! What more can you wish for your marriage? If you want to have a bright-yellow sunflower wedding, be aware that the best time to get real sunflowers is July to October.
Probably the most sunny cheerful flowers you can find for your wedding. Sunflowers are big, bold, cheerful and brash and have summer written all over them. Bright, vivid colour and long, strong stems make the Sunflower a fantastic focal flower for summer and autumn events, wedding bouquets, table centrepieces and floral arrangements.
If you want to see my floral works with Sunflowers, please take the time to browse my portfolio at La Piccola Selva’s Wedding Flowers Gallery. The florist La Piccola Selva has been creating innovative and exclusive designs for over 20 years, supplying flowers to the leading hotels and wedding venues on Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore. Continue Reading »
monika on Mar 21st 2008 Wedding Flowers
Whatever the season of your wedding, you’ll want to make sure that the flowers you choose are in season.
I know sometimes brides struggle over which flowers to choose for their bouquets and centerpieces. If you don’t have a favorite flower, your best bet is use the flowers that are growing in that particular season. Two reasons why: they are plentiful and they may be less costly than a flower that is not normally grown during the Spring. Lucky for you, Spring has some of the most gorgeous flowers of the year. The old-fashioned Peony it is one of these.
If you are planning on getting married in the Italian Lakes area - lake Orta, lake Maggiore, lake Como and lake Garda - peonies offer a showy and fragrant option for a bridal bouquet for a late May or June wedding.
Peonies grow best in areas with cold winters and summers that are not too hot.
In the right climate, peony plants produce an abundance of flowers, which may eight or nine inches across. Colors range from white to cream to yellow, and from the palest of pinks to reds to the deepest maroons. Some varieties have deep accent colors in the brown and maroon range at the base of the petals.
The fragrance of peonies is reminiscent of an intense rose scent. Continue Reading »