Italian Lakes Wedding Planner

Lake Maggiore area is a wonderful area with many different characteristics. It is surely known all over the world for Borromeo Gulf scenery and pretty villages on the coast.
If you are planning your wedding on Lake Maggiore why don’t you take in consideration another opportunity… A country wedding.
We are pleased to give you some ideas. A monk ancient abbey close to Arona, Massino Visconti Castle, a medieval fortress on Stresa hills with amazing view on the lake, an agritourism on Monterosso, or even Verbania mountains with horses ranch and typical production of sausages, cheeses and a 360 view on the lake.

Today we would like to tell you about a place a little far from here. Going up on Lake Maggiore towards Switzerland, passing wonderful coastal towns of Ascona and Locarno you can reach to extreme North Lake town of Bellinzona is.
This is the country wedding destination on the lake we would like to tell you about.

Raffaello Mazzoleni photographer was there for Italian Lakes Wedding Team. He gave us the entire footage in few days, quick as he usually does.

Even if Raffaello Mazzoleni is a WPJA member, sometimes he also loves taking posed photos when couples ask for them. This service is the right combination between reportage style and a classical wedding service.

Natascia and Paolo are the main characters of the event. They celebrated their civil ceremony to Bisca town hall and arranged their reception to follow in the wonderful scenery of Castles of Bellinzona, in Canton Ticino.

Castles of Bellinsona are divided in three fortress.
First one is closer to Castelgrande town and it has two towers Torre Bianca (WhiteTower) and Torre Nera (Black Tower) On highest hill there is Castle of Montebello. Most of the pictures Raffaello took show this lovely spot. The biggest castle is Castle of Sasso Corbaro that overlooks all the others. It was built by Duke of Milan in 1479. View here is wonderful and it embraces entire Lake Maggiore area.
Natascia and Paolo choose the restaurant inside the lovely castle for their wedding reception. Buffet reception was held under vines pergolas in the courtyard of the castle itself. Food was very good and 4 heart shaped cakes were just delicious. Bellinzona wines are very special!
Right coast of Canton Ticino is exposed to sun rays and this makes grape production very easy. Among the most famous wines of the area we remember Red Merlot DOC of Ticino and White Chardonnaly Doc of Ticino.

Bellinzona Castles are a sort of barrier between Alps and Lake Maggiore. Duke of Milan decided to build this complex during 1400 to contrast Swiss troups invading the territory. They still have high walls, towers and battlements and they still represent a good testimony of medieval architecture on Alps. In year 2000 the entire area has been declared World Umanity Patrimony by Unesco.

Raffaello Mazzoleni was able to capture in his pictures the dramatic atmosphere of the area: castle, cloulds, sky, cliffs and green all around. Continue Reading »

Are you looking for a smart lakeside restaurant for your wedding reception? Is your budget on the low side and not up to the extravagant Italian wedding organised by Tom and Katie Cruise?
Are you on the look out for a restaurant that will go a long way to finding the right solution for you, with a gift for the bride and groom, a gesture that makes all the difference?
Picture this: the hotel motor boat taking you to the Island of San Giulio for your wedding photos. And, on request and according to your budget, the hotel will arrange the room for you, with chair covers and big bows, if that is what you wish for.

If you have chosen Lake Orta, then the Approdo at Pettenasco is the right place for you with its a restaurant with a fine garden on the lake shore, well known for its excellent cuisine, and with the assistance of a native English speaker, and a large sunny banqueting room overlooking the lake.
Last week, Laura and Michele chose the Ristorante L’Approdo for their reception, while they chose the professional work and life-long experience of Raffaello Mazzoleni for their photos: We have selected just a few of the magnificent shots he took in the lovely Calle Room, beautifully dressed up for the occasion.

Raffaello Mazzoleni is an experienced photographer who has specialised in weddings and has state of the art equipment to assist him: the award-winning Olympus E3 with superb accessories such as the Olympus Zuiko 7-14 mm wide-angle lens.

The last picture shows Laura and Michele on board the motorboat made available for their use free of charge by the Hotel Ristorante L’Approdo:
a gift offered to all newly-weds so that they can immortalise their magic moment on the lake, a superb reminder of their truly perfect day on Lake Orta.

Regarding the order in time, Alessandro Balossi is the last photographer entered in the Italian Lakes Wedding team. Although personally I know him very well – as i had the opportunity to work with him for numerous weddings , for the occasion of his official presentation I’ve asked him to write few words about himself.
I supposed that it’s a “mission impossible” being Alessandro a quite shy and reserved guy… In fact, it wasn’t easy, but at the end he could manage to give me a short text, that – I think – describes perfectly his personality and the way of interpreting the world of wedding photography.

Here is a short extract:
“I love the images of the smiling brides, shot spontaneously at the moment, catching the real happiness of that day without any pretence in rigid poses and fake expressions of the face. I like to give a dynamic cut to the photos of my weddings, inspired by the most actual fashion images.
I love to catch details and moments to create a real reportage of that very unique and special day.
Above of all, I like to “stop” in time those particular expressions and situations that are lived absent-mindly on the big day amongst all the emotions, so I can show and revive them again with the bride and groom in my studio later on”.

In fact, this is absolutely true: Alessandro Balossi is the photographer of the smiling brides!
It’s enough to see his photo gallery to understand this. But what strikes the most, is the absolute spontaneity and naturalness of the photos, despite the fact that majority of them shows portraiture images.
Alessandro in fact was “grown” as fashion photographer and has a consolidated long experience behind: this for sure helped a lot his carrier as a wedding photographer.
The portraits of his brides and grooms seems really natural, without any camouflage like if they would have been seized upon.

The trick of Alessandro is simple: all is based on his relaxed and calm approach as he works, like in front of the fashion models making feel the brides very special and at ease. Continue Reading »

Italian Lakes Wedding is proud to announce that few days ago Raffaello Mazzoleni, member of our team, was awarded with an important worldwide prize. WPJA (Wedding Photo Journalist Association) decided to assign our photographer the important acknowledgment of photojournalist, a qualification that not every Italian Photographer has.

WPJA is an association located in Madison, Connecticut, USA: it was founded to support the excellence of wedding reportage photography and it is worldwide recognized as a guaranty of professionalism.
In order to receive this important qualification each photographer has to give an exam, WPJA judging commission evaluate characteristic and qualification of the photographer web-site’s pictures. WPJA will examine the quality of the pictures, the lack of manipulation and the spontaneous and real nature of them. After that WPJA will be able to give to the author the qualification of “Photojournalist”.
Wedding photojournalism is just telling with images events of the day: without forcing or faking poses, but in a natural and spontaneous way, just like they happened.
In this sense Raffaello Mazzoleni is a real forerunner: his images are lots of little stolen shots taken with experience and delicacy. His photos catch joy, emotions, deep sights, and sometimes even funny expression! In just few words: a wedding told in a realistic and authentic way, far from old fashioned styles and schemes that lots of Italian photographer are still using.

Please have a look to the wonderful Raffaello Mazzoleni wedding photojournalism photo gallery.
Italian Lakes Wedding Team really want to express to Raffaello Mazzoleni its wishes for the great goal achieved, good luck and lots of Real Weddings!

Over the last years in the area of wedding photography the style of photojournalism in particular has become more and more trendy and fashionable. Photojournalism significates spontaneity and naturalness. It also means to tell the story of the wedding day through images exactly the way it evolved without constrain and fiction, mainly avoiding those posed pictures which make couple and guests look like imbalmated mummies.
The photographer Raffaello Mazzoleni is without doubt one of the leading exponents of the specific sector in wedding photography at the Italian Lakes district.
Only recently Raffaello has updated his Photo Gallery at www.italianweddingphotojournalist.com
This new photo gallery currently disposes of 60 extraordinary images in genuine photojournalism style.That means many little shots of stolen moments, discretely done with great experience during weddings he worked at over the last months.
Those images capture joy, emotion and those special intense gasps, sometimes funny and entertaining expressions too. In a few words, in these images the wedding day gets narrated very authentically and spontaneously in a rare unique and innovative way.
Absolutely not to be missed!

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 »

We always love playing at Villa Bossi in Lake Orta, and Niamh and Jon’s wedding was no exception, particularly as we had met the couple in advance and knew it would be a lovely day! We played special arrangements of Pachelbell – Canone in Re magg. and a tune called ‘O’ (from the famous Cirque de Soleil) which Niamh and Jon had chosen to personalise their ceremony. We moved outside to the terrace at Hotel San Rocco to play for guests during the drinks reception, and despite the threatening black clouds the weather stayed dry just long enough for some photos!

We hired Estella & Diego for our wedding in Varenna, lake Como in July 2008. They really worked hard for us all day long and were very discrete. Their charm, quick thinking and patience immediately put us at ease.
We received our photos and were delighted; they captured every detail of the entire day.
The quality and creativity of their photographs were very impressive. I would highly recommend them.

For our wedding in Stresa and Isola dei Pescatori – Lake Maggiore – we had special ideas of the art of photos. The photos should be taken very natural, many close-ups and moment-shoots from us but also from all our guests.
By good references we found Estella & Diego. Young, very nice and friendly and all the time professional they accompanied us the whole day – up from the early morning by dressing up until the wedding-dance at night. As they work as a Duo they take photos with two aspects. Both are working with a lot of passion, special feelings to catch the rights moments and a lot of gorgeous details. Their manner of work is very discreet, like chameleons. We and none of our guests had never the situation of being disturbed in close moments and it was fun having them around us.
The result of their work was breathtaking – and we are very, very happy and thankful to had them as our photographers. After 2 months we are looking the photos quiet often and keep these beautiful memories of our important day in our hearts – and images!

View more pictures about Barbara and Daniel wedding in Lake Maggiore.

Our wedding was in spring which I thought should be reflected in the floral scheme. I had some very unique and specific ideas regarding what I wanted which unfortunately meant I couldn’t simply show a florist a photograph and ask her to copy it.
I spent a lot of time with Monika explaining my vision and I think the challenge of trying out something new appealed to her. She was prepared to follow my requests but wasn’t afraid to give her input. We had to have a contingency plan in case the flowers I wanted weren’t available at the time of the wedding so it was nice to be given updates as to what was in the bloom the weeks before the big day.

The result was spectacular – my first tears on my wedding day was when I saw my bouquet! Monika is a perfectionist and I could tell on the day that he too was pleased with her work.

Of course, I couldn’t have achieved such results without Clara who firstly introduced us and secondly spent endless hours translating between the two of us and coordinating with the other suppliers so they would know how their products (car, wedding cake etc.) would be presented. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I arrived back from honeymoon to see that mine was bouquet of the month!

We were so scared our wedding would fly by that we decided to have a weekend of celebrations instead of a day. Felix worked tirelessly the entire weekend so that we now have an excellent reportage of the entire time, from the preparations right through to the celebrations. By the end he had lots of new friends (he was more of a guest than a photographer!) and we have some of the most amazing photos.

Continue Reading »