Italian Lakes Wedding Planner

I really can say that the wedding planner job is never boring.
One of the things I really adore the most is discovering the best locations where organizing our beloved special and unique events.
Lake Garda is very vast and plenty of Hotels and reception venues, but this Lake is always interesting and ‘in ferment’.

One of the most famous area is Gardone Riviera where tourists come from all over the world to visit Il Vittoriale (ancient complex of houses, museums, gardens and theaters built from Gabriele D’Annunzio, who lived there, together with the architect Maroni) and the fascinating surroundings.
Gardone Riviera is located on the west side of Garda Lake and close to the well-known Salo’ Town. This small lovely village is one of the few where both civil and religious ceremonies can be celebrated.
In fact, the general rule of Lake Garda Churches is that non – resident couples aren’t allowed to get married here.
So this place has a huge privilege. Its Church is romantic and lake view and its Town Hall located in the center is also charming and classy: can hosts up to 70 guests.

In case your desire is having a personalized and symbolic ceremony, I’m happy to tell you that this can be celebrated directly in the wonderful gardens of the fabulous location I’m going to introduce you today: Grand Hotel Fasano.

This luxurious hotel is immersed in a romantic scenery of water and hills.
Originally, this building was one of the hunting lodges of the Austrian imperial family: the “faisanderie”.
The hotel beauty and lake view is astonishing and completed by a 12.000 sq. meters private park all around. A perfect set for an extremely chic wedding. Continue Reading »

Silvia, the bride. Giorgio, the groom. Angela, their pretty daughter.
They are the main characters of an intimate wedding on Lake Orta.

Silvia and Giorgio both come from Rome.
For their civil ceremony they were looking for a romantic and intimate destination to celebrate this special day. What’s better than Lake Orta?

A wonderful idea. Lake Orta gave to this lovely couple a great Spring day, warm and sunny.
They choose for a week day ceremony so atmosphere was even more intimate and cosy.
During week days village of Orta is very quiet and relaxing with very few tourists.
Very different from week ends on July and August which are much more busy!

As floral designer I had to create bridal bouquet, buttonhole and ceremony floral arrangements.
Enrico Mocci of ArteFotoArona, a wedding photographer specialized on Orta weddings, and with many years of experience, was the photographer of the day.

For their Orta staying Giorgio and Silvia choose the best: Hotel Villa Crespi.
Villa rooms are just enchanting and they were the perfect frame for stunning pictures.
You can see the bride and the bouquet I created for her. It was made of a long and wonderful fall of Phalaenopsis orchids.

Civil ceremony was held to Villa Bossi, Orta San Giulio town hall. Continue Reading »

On the 21st of October 2009, Sandra and John get married at Villa D’Este.
Their story is very romantic and the atmosphere that rainy day brought to their special day was magical and incredibly touching. We were all excited and the time went so fast!

The ceremony was originally organized outdoor, but because of bad weather, it was moved inside the beautiful Column Room.
While Sandra was getting ready, all of us were waiting in the room welcoming the guests and John, the groom.

He reached the altar accompanied by the music of great song La vita è bella.
The florist made an incredible job, we were all astonished…

Finally Sandra appeared, she was beautiful and radiant as John’s son who had the honor to lead her to his father.

Thanks to the great job of our lovely celebrants celebrants Diane and Giuseppe, the whole ceremony was touching and real, and the newlyweds were very happy and surprised!

After the ceremony Sandra, John and their guests had a long walk inside the Hotel to take unforgettable pictures, before coming back to the room for a delicious reception dinner. Continue Reading »

Dear readers,
we are happily proud to announce a new web site born from the experience of Italian Lakes Wedding Team, this is a real spin off and it is called Italian Country Wedding!
Italian Countryside seemed to us another lovely idea side of the lakes for the ones who are are looking for a different, romantic, relaxing and pleasant kind of wedding.

On Italian Country Wedding web site you will discover a multitude of choices for unique ceremony and reception, an intimate elopement, sites, small town hospitality, and a variety of activities for you and your guests in the Italian countryside
Surfing on Italian Country Wedding you will undiscovered and unspoiled places to create the perfect setting for a special and real country wedding: gardens, vineyards, country villas, traditional Italian restaurants, agriturismos or farm houses, or even in a wonderful castle!

Italian Country Wedding is specialized in weddings across Piedmont region and Langhe and Monferrato country side areas….just have a look at it we are sure you will be amazed by the charm of countryside!

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 »

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 »

In summer 2008 I had the pleasure to meet Amy and Tom for the first time. She is a lovely Irish girl and he is a handsome English guy. Such a great couple! After visiting many venues across Northern Lakes area they reached Orta San Giulio and they fell in love with that immediately. Amy and Tom thought that Lake Orta incorporated the precise idea they had for an intimate and romantic wedding on the lake.

My first wedding of Summer Season 2009 was Amy and Tom’s: 3rd July 2009. Amy arrived some days before to settle in Orta and define some last details.

She spent some lovely days before the event, with her parents and family in a lovely villa on the lake that I often suggest to my couples. It is just in front of Ortello Gulf.

And finally the wedding day came!
Amy and her father took a nice walk from the lovely house on the shores to reach village church. Tom, flower girls, purple dressed bridesmaids and all guests were all waiting for her there. Lilac was the theme of whole wedding.

Amy choose this wonderful color for her main theme and Monika Andenmatten from La Piccola Selva created wonderful arrangements to accomplish her desires. She based her work on a color palette going from white to purple-lilac. Monika created wonderful church arrangements for the balusters and external columns of the church itself.

At the end of the ceremony… just a lovely kiss of bride and groom! Photographer Andrea Dapueto took a wonderful shot of it. Andrea Dapueto was the perfect reporter for such a wonderful event. Continue Reading »

We’ve told you many times about wonderful medieval Orta village and how cosy and intimate it is.
Now let’s imagine a more intimate, cozier and more romantic place just mystic and legendary:
here you are San Giulio Island.

St. Julius reached this land for first around 1600 sailing on his mantel. He arrived here and found it haunted by dragoons and snakes.
He sent them all away and built a little church that after become the nowadays cathedral.
This is what the legend tells….

After that a castle, Bishop Palance and villas for priests.
About half of 1800 a convent was built and it cancelled the last symbol of a powerful past let the island becoming more religious.
Today a small group of nuns live in the convent. They are Benedectines and they are totally dedicated to manual works and spiritual hospitality.

St. Julius Island is a silent an mystic place rich in history and traditions.
If you take a look to the island from the hills high tower bell, gardens and ancient roads look like a fairly tale castle born from ancient ruins of a castle.

On this very Italian corner of paradise we would like to suggest a unique opportunity to arrange your wedding reception: a little cosy restaurant with terrace on the lake inside one of the most ancient villas of the island.

We love to imagine a romantic civil ceremony to Villa Bossi or a lovely religious ceremony in one of Orta churches (Maria Assunta or Sacro Monte) with a pleasant trip on the boat to follow.

You and your guests will have the opportunity to completely know and savor the beauty of the lake.
Cruise from Orta to St. Julius Island is a show you can not miss.
From the waters could admire ancient villas on the shores and their aristocratic and alter appeal.

After this lovely trip you will arrive directly on the pier of a little restaurant just on San Giulio Island or you could get there from the little road that goes across the Island.

Ristorante San Giulio (St. Julius Restaurant) is located inside Villa Tallone date back to 1700.
It is well know to host a rich summer concert season in which you could listen to great concerts in such a wonderful frame. Continue Reading »

Welcome to part 4 of our Summers Season Wedding in Orta appointment.
I will give an overview on some of the events we followed during 2009 summer in 5 posts.
The thing Summer Season Weddings have in common brides and groom choice to opt for Villa Bossi and its wonderful garden to celebrate their civil ceremony.
Every single couple personalized and made their event different and unique in all senses.
And so Maria and Chris did.

Maria and Chris chose to celebrate their ceremony in the garden of Villa Bossi first and the in the wonderful church of Assunta for a moving blessing.

Maria and Chris’ wedding was a simple and cosy event, they just wanted to have it this way! They came here with few friends and close family from United Kingdom.
Maria and Chris decided to arrange a different event but at the same time it was really really romantic!

For once in Orta history bride did not arrived by boat but from narrow and medieval roads in Orta village.
She was with her father and at their arrival a lovely flower girls was waiting for her as a surprise! Continue Reading »

Third appointment with our summer season wedding is again about a red themed wedding.
A trendy color in the last few years.

Shawn and Raul are a nice couple who fell in love with Italy. After taking in consideration some marine venues in Portofino and Zoagli on Italian Riviera, they finally opted for Lake Orta’s romantic atmosphere. A great achievement for us who always try to let the world know how wonderful this place is.

Shawn and Raul arrived directly from United States to find this cosy village’s appeal. they defined it as Just a Fairy Tale.

Shawn arrived by herself to Villa Bossi with a motorboat.
On the town hall pier her maid of honor and sister was waiting for her. They sang together a moving traditional american song.

Shaw took her walk on the aisle of Villa Bossi that was literally covered with colored rose petals.

For the ceremony Shawn decided for a very glamour dress with a crystals collar and little veil on her face. Her shoes were red and matched perfectly her bouquet made up of 24 red roses and Swarovski pins. Continue Reading »