Italian Lakes Wedding Planner

Villa Rusconi in Pallanza, is a beautiful setting by any standards for a Blessing Celebration. The famous and stunning Lago Maggiore glistened in the warmth of an exceptionally strong September sun on the day, much to the delight of the wedding party from England, who had been suffering from a washed out summer!

Nicky and Chris appeared perfectly matched bright young things. The groom had previously written to us, describing his bride as a typically English Rose and when Nicky arrived by boat to greet an eager crowd our first impression was just that. Tall, slim and blonde, Nicky looked stunning in a simple but elegant dress worthy of a film star… talking of which, the groom reminded us of a younger dashing English actor named Charles Dance!

An expert guitarist performed the Wedding March and the ceremony was beautifully punctuated by an original poem composed and recited by Amy, a dear friend of the happy couple. The weather was beautiful, the grounds of the Villa absolutely gorgeous and the guests elegantly attired. A curious Italian boat crew waved and cheered ‘Auguri’ (an Italian wish for happiness.) Continue Reading »

As floral designer one of the most important moments during a wedding planning is the decision to take for floral arrangements and colors to use. During first contacts I always try to understand bride and groom’s tastes and needs to suggest the best solution for them.
Sometimes they have very clear ideas in their minds. Basing on this and on my experience and creativity i try to develop a floral arrangement project that will be just perfect the day of the wedding.
This is what happened with Jennifer and Oliver a British couple whose wedding was planned for September 2009.

One year before Jennifer told me about the floral scheme she had in her mind. All was based on purple matching with ivory. The very good hint arrived in following emails when Jennifer mentioned about the idea of adding Mediterranean aromatic herbs among flowers.

I was delighted with the design and colours they were truly beautiful. One of my many memories from our special day is the scent of the mint and rosemary in the flowers. I kept getting scents of the mint throughout the day and it is something that will always remind me of my wedding day.
All the guests commented on the amazing table displays – it was better than how I’d imagined – romantic and elegant with the candles and petals.
I even managed to fly home with my bouquet and we are drying it out to keep as a memento of the day!
Thank you once again for your fantastic work – the flowers were truly beautiful.
Jenny and Oliver

This was planned to recall Italian style and the wonderful scents she loved in her childhood. Just a little great idea that gave me the occasion to work on a floral arrangement based on purple and ivory with fresh and perfumed Mediterranean herbs such as rosemary, sage, mint and lavender. They could be a perfect green base to create the bouquet on but also centerpieces and ceremony decorations. Aromatic herbs offer an evocative range of colors from green to silverish of sage and lavender up to deep green of peppermint. Last but not least little lilac-blue lavender blooms could be the trait-d’union between purple and ivory flowers of the compositions.

This was my proposal for Jennifer and Oliver’s’ wedding floral arrangement. Jennifer feed back came back very quick. She was really excited for that: she loved all details of my proposal, she was literally looking forward to see and smell the flowers on her wedding day.

We started a planning that lasted few months and leaded to final result that you can see in this post.
Everybody and especially bride and groom loved the floral arrangements. Jennifer and Oliver after their honeymoon sent also a lovely email to thank us for all. You can read a piece of that here.

But I also want to tell you something more about Jennifer and Oliver’s wedding!
They arranged all in Pallanza on Lake Maggiore. Ceremony was held in Villa San Remigio while reception was arranged to Grand Hotel Majestic where almost all guests spend their Italian days.

Wedding coordinator was Valentina Lombardi who is part of Italian Lakes Wedding Team. Photographs were taken from Photo27 from Milan that I thank you for giving us the beautiful images you can see here.

The civil ceremony has been celebrated in wonderful Music Room (Sala della Musica) of Villa San Remigio. String quartet classical music created a wonderful romantic atmosphere.

Big Jennifer and Oliver’s day begun with a cloudy day but after few hours sun decided to come back again turing into a wonderful summer end day!

Villa San Remigio wide park and its secular tress, fountains and statues are the perfect settings for wonderful wedding pictures. Have a look to the natural style and great impact of the picture here below, simple but wonderful!

At the end of the ceremony Jennifer hanged on her bouquet a funny “Just Married” sign with two hearts, what a funny idea! Continue Reading »

After Suzanne and Christopher, Loretta and Scott, Nicky and Chris we are on Lake Maggiore again to tell you about another magic wedding: Simone and Stephans’ wedding. They were such a lovely couple coming from Zurich, Switzerland.

First of all a big thank you to Andrea and Marcus a great couple of Swiss photographers that kindly put on disposal their great images of Simone and Stephan’s wedding. A vintage and really unconventional service that we found really unique. The yellow shade gives to images a sense of warm and cosy brightness.

Simone and Stephan wanted a unique and unforgettable wedding. They looked for a real elegant and Italian style event to give their day a touch of glamour. After visiting many venue they choose Lake Maggiore and little town of Pallanza.

Bride and groom opted for a religious ceremony to Sacro Monte church in Ghiffa and a wonderful reception to Villa Rusconi Clerici in Pallanza just few minutes far from the church.

For all guests Simone and Stephan wanted a week end long event.
They started with a lovely dinner on friday night in a traditional pizzeria facing the lake.
Saturday the day of the wedding they decided for a big party to Villa Rusconi sipping champagne, delicious Italian cuisine and fun dances up to early hours of Sunday.

The big day of Saturday begun early in the morning to Grand Hotel Majestic where the group stayed for all the wedding week end.
Dividing herself among make up and hair trial Simone spend some hours with her mother and maid of honor Rachel.
On late morning they all reached Ghiffa where all guests and Stephan were waiting for them.

Simone and Stephan got married in the tiny romantic 1600 church of Sacro Monte of Ghiffa.
Floral decorations were arranged by Manuela the floral designers who works in partnership with La Piccola Selva.
Roses were main flowers. Arrangement at the church included external columns, pews, balusters, and aisle to the altar totally covered with rose petals. Continue Reading »

I’ve already told you some months ago about the wonderful hotels on Lake Maggiore. These are ideal venues for an elegant wedding on these magic shores.
Chris and Suzanne choose Grand Hotel Majestic for they big day.

They came here with relatives and friends from United Kingdom to celebrate a wonderful event that was studied in every single detail.

Suzanne choose a theme inspired on lilac and café au lait enriched by many little crystals.

Suzanne designed personally Bridesmaids and flower girl dresses just thinking about these details.

Flower arrangement Suzanne wanted was very detailed.
All arrangements were created by Manuela one of the floral designer who work in close collaboration with La Piccola Selva. Basing on the theme Suzanne wanted, Manuela created a rich vintage arrangement.
She used Freesias blooms and Aqua Girl roses for lilac, and Cofee Break rose for cafe au lait shades. Purple was made with wide Trachelium and classic Vendela roses and Stephanotis made the white accent.
Little fabric Stephanotis were on all wedding stationery Suzanne and Chris had on their tables: invitations, names card, table chart and trivia boxes.

Crystals were on the tables to match Kartell chairs rented for the occasion and crystal vases supporting flowers decorations.

Some other little crystal were inside the Stephanotis flowers in centerpieces and bridal bouquet, just a little compact and rounded jewel.

Suzanne matched crystals on her dress too. There were crystals on the veil, on the dress and the wonderful vintage pin she had on her waist. Bridal dress was italian by Spose di Gio. Continue Reading »

Here I am again to talk about Villa Rusconi Clerici, this time I will describe the gorgeous symbolic ceremony of Nicky & Chris. As flower designer, I have had the great pleasure and honour of handling the decoration of this special event, which took place in September in Verbania Pallanza on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

I would like to start by thanking the photographer Carlo Conti, who has kindly provided these fabulous images of the day. After many years of experience as a fashion, still life and architecture photographer, Carlo Conti has founded RPS Studio – Reportage Per gli Sposi – choosing to continue his career as a specialist wedding photographer. His style is characterised by a great ability to capture the most natural and spontaneous moments of any event in order to compose a fresh, modern and lively album…the pictures of Nicky and Chris’ big day are a very good example of his creativity.

Nicky & Chris are both born and bread in London. Nicky is pursuing a successful career in human resource, while Chris owns a recruitment agency focusing on the sports sector.
Being two very busy young professionals, they did not have a lot of free time to dedicate to the organisation of their wedding and decided to rely on the expertise and professionalism of Chic Weddings, a leading wedding design agency that works with the team of Italian Lakes Wedding.

Nicky and Chris were dreaming of a wedding by the water, informal and elegant at the same time. An event that matched their personality, not too flashy but very fun. After evaluating various options, they opted for Villa Rusconi Clerici for its wonderful position right on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

The colour theme chosen by Nicky & Chris focused on ivory and lilac, with a hint of purple. This successful combination is very much on trend recently and is often requested by my clients.

The ceremony at Villa Rusconi Clerici started with the arrival of the bride, Nicky, by speedboat. She was accompanied by her father and her lovely bridesmaids. The location benefits from a private jetty which offers the possibility of organising an extremely scenic entry as well as lake tours for the guests during the cocktail reception.

Nicky chose a sleek and modern bouquet, in perfect harmony with her dress: to design it I mixed mini white Calla Lilies, purple Lysianthus and Rose Tibet, enhancing the long shape of the bouquet with a few leaves of Beucarnea. Continue Reading »

It’s the most voluptuous place in the world that I’ve ever seen. The surrounding nature enchants with thousands of hidden seductions which give the sensation of being immersed in the rarest sensuality and refinement.
This is how Gustave Flaubert described this part of the Piedmont coast where the Lake Maggiore opens up into the Borromean Gulf, a green bay between the centers of Stresa and Pallanza, the two most brilliant gems of the Verbano.

The Grand Hotel Majestic is located in Pallanza, which faces the Island of St. Giovanni, the thirty-year summer residence of Arturo Toscanini. It is a fascinatingly beautiful Belle Epoque hotel distinguished by its incomparable architectural dignity, grand frescoed rooms and extensive lakeside English garden. Its construction became the impetus for the city’s booming tourism in 1870.

The optimal motivating attraction for nobles and the elite to choose to construct their luxurious villas in this region was primarily the agreeable situation amongst the exceptional panoramic peacefulness of the cape complete with surrounding mountains and mild climate.

From many of the hotel’s 99 rooms and 4 suites the dreamlike view of the lake’s serenity, surrounded by the mountains and the captivating beauty of the Borromean Island’s architectural and botanic artistry, can be marveled at. On the Isola Madre and the Isola Bella, just a few minutes away from the hotel by boat, the Borromeo Dynasty buit two luxurious domiciles in the 600’s surrounded by some of the most beautiful gardens of the Lake Maggiore. Of all the gardens in the world, these gardens are surpassed in the beauty only by the magnificent botanical gardens of Villa Taranto housing 20.000 plants species, 1.000 of which had never been cultivated in Italy before. The garden is within walking distance from the Grand Hotel.

Enchanted by the aquamarine panorama of the lake, as seen from the terrace of Majestic, Eleonora Duse had her tailor fashion a dress “…in the same color as the lake”. Among an array of illustrious artists who have been accommodated in the ambience of the Grand Hotel are Grazia Deledda and the composer Claude Debussy. To name a few, the boats of the Stuarts, the Queen of Romania, the monarchs of Italy, the noble families of Germany, Indian Princes and Maharaja were docked here…In short, the personalities symbolizing “bon vivre” of the 800’s have enjoyed the splendor of the hotel.

After some decades of decline, the Grand Hotel Majestic underwent a long restoration period and was returned the dignity of its past. Its rejuvenation brings the true value of its classical style to life and gives the impression of being immersed in an atmosphere of times gone by, all the while offering its guests adequate services with attention focused on today’s comforts. Continue Reading »

It has been now some time that we told you about Grand Hotel Majestic on our Lake Maggiore Grand Hotels post. We are glad to announce that Grand Hotel Majestic decided to join Italian Lakes Wedding web site.
Grand Hotel Majestic is one of the most beautiful hotels on Lake Maggiore. A lot of important people spent their vacations in its wonderful belle epoque styled rooms, such as Italian Royal Family, writer Grazia Deledda, music writer Claude Debussy, Imperial German Family, and many Arabian prices and maharajahs.

Grand Hotel Majestic is located in Verbania Pallanza just in front of Borromeo Gulf and Isolino San Giovanni. The hotel is one of the few hotels on the shores of Lake Maggiore.
It is very close to Pallanza town center, lovely church of San Leonardo and wonderful Villa San Remigio that can be rented for amazing civil ceremonies with stunning view on the lake.

We will come back soon telling some more about Grand Hotel Majestic.
All Italian Lakes Wedding Team would like to welcome management and staff of Grand Hotel Majestic and thank you for join our group.

As a flower designer, we have to admit that the wedding of Loretta and Scott were one of the most stimulating ones. It was months of work, 3 meetings with the bride and groom, lots of emails with decisions and re-decisions before arriving at the final go.

Loretta and Scott are a very nice couple from England who decided to get married at Lake Maggiore. Both have origins in Italy, both are born in London but the bride’s parents are from Parma and Piacenza and the groom’s father is British but his mother is from Salerno.

Both have Italian origins, that’s why they met for the first time in St Peter’s Italian church in London. After 9 years finally they wished to become husband and wife. Their decision to come to Italy for the wedding was crystal clear, but where? They wanted somewhere which is neither near his or her family backgrounds, so it was the beautiful setting of Villa Rusconi Clerici and the fantastic landscape around Lake Maggiore.

Their choice of photographer was also made with the highest attention, he had to be professional, very special and with a photo-reportage style. Indeed, it is very important to select a good photographer, because what he is producing will last forever.

So it was Luca Rajna, one of the most appreciated and best photographers in the lakes area.
Have a look yourself www.ajn.it.

The church for the wedding was San Leonardo’s at Pallanza, built in 1537, it overlooks the Piazza San Leonardo and the lakeshore.
For the flowers Loretta wanted a focus on the main altar with 2 large compositions of ivory Rose Vendela on some high basements of metal.

Then some smaller compositions combined with tulle and organza in white, emerald green and ivory on the ends of each row of pews. This was the colour theme throughout all the decoration, sometimes added by a touch of lilac.

The bridal bouquet of Loretta was round and very compact and resembled the colours used in church, from the white and ivory of the roses into the emerald green of the ribbons that hold it all together, decorated with some pearls here and there.

A fantastic advantage of this church was the small walking distance to Villa Rusconi Clerici, just 300m.
For Loretta and Scott it was easy to decide for the Villa Rusconi Clerici, they were in love with the location from the beginning. It is really a wonderful place as the villa is situated directly on the shore of the lake, has splendid views and a huge garden. As the wedding day was very warm, the welcome drinks were prepared outside on the lakeshore. Accompanied with some wonderful music from a string quartet.

The dinner itself was inside the white gazebo, this is an elegant structure of tents finished with metal that was normally used at the beginning of the 19th hundred century. Continue Reading »

If you want to arrange your wedding on Lake Maggiore, one of the possibility could be choosing one of the wonderful hotels on the coast.
Welcoming tourists coming from all over the world is a long tradition here, begun back in 1700 and 1800. During Belle Époque times many aristocrats coming from Europe used to come to Lake Maggiore to enjoy wonderful view and deep Italian savour.

The ones who read Hemingway know that one of his most famous novel – Farwell to Arms – has been set on Lake Maggiore. Many other artists and intellectuals loved this place and have been inspired by deep waters surrounded by Alps and stunning vegetation. We can remember Flaubert, Wagner, Goethe, Oscar Wilde, G.B. Shaw and many others.

Nowadays remembering this wonderful period, these lovely places on the coast are still a perfect destinations for glamour weddings. We would like to suggest you an elegant and charming event in one of these historical hotels on the lake.
Let’s go discovering them thanks to wonderful images taken by Claudio Fogli and Piero Gatti photographers. They both know very well the area and they have a long experience for weddings on best venues of the area.

Our trip discovering historical hotels on Lake Maggiore begins from Stresa. The most famous destination is Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées for sure. It faces lake shore right into a wide secular park. From its rooms you will enjoy a wonderful view on Borromean Islands and Alps. The hotel garden host a famous and wonderful marble fountain one of the most known places in Stresa.

Regina Palace Hotel is very famous too. It was opened in 1908 and recently renewed. Regina Palace is a leading liberty style hotel that was able to keep the same appeal and atmosphere of fin de siècle. A wonderful garden surrounds the hotel, the ideal set for stunning wedding pictures.

Grand Hotel Bristol is the only neoclassical building on Stresa Lake sidewalk. Hotel Bristol is very elegant and fine. It has all luxury and leading hotel features: boiserie, rich tapestries, crystal and marble chandeliers and even glass domes and wonderful carpets. Outdoor swimming pool is right into a rich park overlooking Isola Bella.

Lido Palace Hotel, opened in 1857, is located in Baveno – between Stresa and Verbania. Hotel has an amazing past, a magic view over Borromeo Islands and a tasteful cuisine. It combines modern structures comforts to traditional and romantic style that has delighted visitors for more than a century. Queen Victoria stayed here during her visit in 1879 and Winston Churchill choose it to spend his honeymoon.

Going North we would like to suggest a wonderful Hotel. It is one of the few with direct access to the lake. It is located in Pallanza just in front of little Island of San Giovanni. Grand Hotel Majestic is just few steps from Pallanza center walking distance or boat distance from town hall where you could set your lovely civil ceremony.

You will enjoy a lovely aperitif in the garden of the hotel or on one of the terraces and a gourmand dinner to follow in beautiful Toscanini Room that can host up to 150 people. This room takes its name from famous Maestro that spent some time here and also took the occasion to direct a little orchestra. A very elegant destination! 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 »