Siobhan and Stuart will forever feel the same, bound by the emotional experience of their early Spring ceremony, which was held in the perfectly manicured gardens of the charming Villa Bossi. It is the seat of the Comune in Orta and therefore famous for holding legally binding Civil Weddings in the area.

Lake Orta appears to be a particular favourite of couples who appreciate unique northern Italian lakeside charm and who are obviously seduced by its mystical powers and religious history. The area is famed for its spiritual tranquility and previously named after its fourth century Patron, Saint Julius.

The intimate wedding party was comprised mainly of guests hailing from Scotland, enjoying a well earned break from recently insistent Scottish rain. A tiny tot sported a most becoming tartan kilt and spencer, very nearly stealing the show!

There is no more romantic arrival of a bride than by boat and Siobhan arrived as not only a stunning ‘sposa’ but a true Lady of the Lake, escourted down an open air aisle adorned with colourful rose petals, towards the 16th century facade of Villa Bossi, boasting an attractive loggia with a beautifully frescoed ceiling.

Siobhan was incredibly moved and in tears, even before the ceremony began but thankfully the ceremony contained humour as well as profundity, capturing the true spirit of what a wedding day should be… a joyously memorable and moving experience.

The ceremony was perfectly punctuated by the soft strains of a harp, which seemed the perfect choice given the delicate emotion of the ceremony. The fine notes resonated out beyond the confines of the wedding party towards the lake itself, enchanting all nearby.

If this wasn’t enough, temperatures soared to around 22 degrees celsius and the whole scene was illuminated by a gorgeous azure sky and brilliant sunshine. The Bride and Groom really couldn’t have been luckier considering that it was early April and the fortunate photographers expertly took advantage of the glorious light to immortalise the occasion.

The happy couple were delighted that they were able to have the flexibility of a Civil Ceremony held in combination with a romantic Blessing Ceremony, while still maintaining a religious theme. Rather than being constrained by bureaucracy or religious protocol they were able to achieve a wedding day that truly reflected their their own personal wishes.

Siobhan and Stuart were a pleasure to collaborate with and we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to them for allowing us to have played a part in fashioning their ceremony and wish them lots of love and happiness for their future lives together.

Diane Wheeler is an English Literature graduate and ex-teacher who has lived in Italy for many years. She has considerable experience of scripting and performing blessing ceremonies and will individualise your blessing by composing a script especially for and in close dialogue with you. Diane takes great care to ensure that every couple feel supported and guided through the process. It is more a passion than a job for her as you will soon see! Diane also complements the ceremony with expert recitation of some of the most beautiful poetry and moving readings of the English language.

For any information about blessing ceremony in Lake Orta please contact our Italian Celebrants – Blessing from Italy.

All images: © Independent Pictures, Torino. All rights reserved.

A wonderful day in Orta with a mild temperature, almost like summer, pretty unusual for this period considering that Spring has just arrived!
This was the perfect frame for Siobhan and Stuart’s wedding!
As tradition wants Siobhan arrived to Villa Bossi by a rowing boat with her father. The civil ceremony had also a special touch with a wonderful blessing conducted by our celebrants Diane and Giuseppe.
After a pretty walk in the medieval village of Orta bride and groom had a wonderful aperitif in the gardens of Villa Gippini part of San Rocco Hotel, where Siobhan and Stuart also had a delicious dinner with all their guests.

We would like to thank Independent Pictures photographers who gave us in few hours the first wonderful shots of this sweet event.

Nicole is Australian and Euan is from Scotland. It is just for Euan’s home country that the couple decided for a blue and white schemed wedding.

Blue and white recalls the legendary St. Andrew’s Cross national flag of Scotland. This is one of the most ancient flags in the world dated back to 800 a.c. Flag is made of a diagonal cross representing St. Andrew Martyrdom’s cross on a blue background. St. Andrew is the patron saint of all Scotland. Blue and White are in all national sports wears of Scotland starting from national soccer team.

In Nicole and Euan’s wedding blue and white were just everywhere: in floral arrangements, on flower girl’s dresses and in Nicole’s bridal bouquet. This was a special cascade bouquet that Monika – La Piccola Selva Floral designer – created with white roses and blue gentianas.

The event was coordinated and planned by our wedding planner Valentina Lombardi who works on Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore. Valentina will tell us more about this event.

A very special interesting and sweet couple!
Euan is Scottish and beautiful Nicole is Austalian they both live and work in Dubai. For their special day they opted for Italy because they simply love the food the rustic and quaint atmosphere and also because Euan worked here for about one year.
Nicole also wanted a wedding by the waters of the sea or the lake. Putting all these elements together we thought that Orta could be perfect, so intimate, medieval, romantic and just on the lake shores!

Nicole for her wedding wanted something classical and chic with a timeless elegance theme just like Grace Kelly times. Orta architecture touched their hearts with its facades, narrow roads, pastel colors of houses and little details like the iron gate of the town hall and coat of arms.

When Nicole and Euan looked at Black and White Orta article with Alfonso Longobardi’s photos the finally decided that Orta was more than perfect and Alfonso was going to be the one taking care about their wedding pictures!
A couple who did care about details and historical settings for their wedding!
Valentina – wedding planner

As usual civil ceremony was held in the garden of Villa Bossi. Groom and groomsmen wore their traditional kilt, white and blue were everywhere for a day Lake Orta become a little strip of Scottish Highlands!

Have a look to wonderful white little dress of the flowergirls with a blue belt and ribbon on their waist.

After the ceremony bride and groom had a lovely boat tour with a motorboat reaching St. Julius Island. Alfonso Longobardi took a lot of portraits. Great shots from the very famous photographer coming from Naples.

The reception has been set in the garden of Villa Crespi with famous Lake Orta Moorish Villa on the background. Frescoes and decorations and the high minaret are the perfect setting for an elegant reception like Nicole really wanted.
Villa Crespi is also well known for its 2 Michelin Stars restaurant a dinner you cannot forget!

A fairly tale wedding for Nicole and Euan on the music of Scotland the Brave….

Towering in gallant fame, Scotland my mountain hame, High may your proud standards gloriously wave, Land of my high endeavour, Land of the shining river, Land of my heart for ever.
Scotland the brave.

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.

Nicole and Euan’s wedding was held in the romantic garden of Villa Bossi in Orta San Giulio.
Nicole’s color scheme was white and blue because she loved blue but also to celebrate St. Andrew’s Cross Scottish flag.

White and blue were just everywhere: in bridesmaids and flower girls dresses and in all floral arrangements. Have a look to Nicole’s bouquet, a long teardrop bouquet with white roses and blue gentianas.

To our couple who decided to not care about Friday 17th Italian superstition our best wishes for a new life full of joy and happiness!

Images © Italian Lakes Wedding. All right reserved.

You already know Fiona and Scott. We introduced them at the end of July in our Just Married section with some photo preview of their wedding.
Bride and gromm wanted Studio Artefoto Omegna by Raffaello Mazzoleni as their photographer helped by skilled photographer Moreno Nicoloso.

Today we are showing you the best images of Fiona and Scott’s wedding.
Do not miss the PHOTO GALLERY with many other shots of this fantastic event on Lake Maggiore.

Now let Fiona introduce herself!

My family are from Scotland although I grew up in London, and Scott’s family are from England. We lived very close by to each other, and even went to the same school, but didn’t meet until 6 years ago!

Fiona and Scott’s wedding took place on Isole di Brissago entirely.
It is a group of Islands located just 5 minutes cruise from Porto Ronco.
There is the little Island of St. Apollinare (closed to public but kept as natural park) and Isola Grande (or St. Pancrazio) that at the beginning of 1900 has been transformed in a wide botanic park by German trader Max Emdem. The view here is grand: a 2.5 hectares park with more than 1500 species of plant coming from all over the world!

We chose Isole di Brissago because we come to Ticino often as my parents have a house in Locarno. We can see the Islands from the house, and knew it would mean we could see the place of our special day each time we visit. We felt very relaxed during our visits to the Island and this was very important to us.

On Isola Grande there is grand Villa Emden. This is a luxury palace built in Neoclassic style. It was built in 1927 with 30 rooms, a winter garden (organgerie), Roman bath (33 metres long) and a pier, all still existing.
Today Villa Emden host an exclusive restaurant and an exhibition, cultural and entertainment area which can host different kind of events.

Fiona and Scott’s big day begun early in the morning.
Bride and groom and all guest were to Hotel La Meridiana in Ascona. They all took a lovely motorboat to reach Brissago Islands.

All event took place to Villa Emdem: from the civil ceremony, the aperitif in the garden and the dinner in the wide golden room with huge windows with lake view.

The Islands are so beautiful and we could have the whole Island to ourselves from 6 O’Clock in the evening. We had a choice of areas in which to have our drinks reception, so chose to have two, one before the ceremony and one afterwards.
All of the staff on the Island, both from the office and the restaurant, were very helpful and friendly, which was important to us.
Charlotte from the restaurant, Mascia and Brigitte from the office on the Islands were amazing, and helped very much with the planning. Brigitte gave our guests a talk about the history of the island during our welcome drinks reception which we had in the Roman Garden. We couldnt’ have managed our day without Charlotte – she was on hand all day to help us, and was very organised and good fun throughout. Our friends and family also played a huge part in helping us to organise getting everything to the Island and back again.

Musical entertainment, from ceremony to dinner was arranged by wonderful voice of English singer Gemma Turner.

Our singer was called Gemma Turner, she’s from England but was happy to travel to Switzerland for the wedding and said she’d love to go back and visit again.
She is a classically trained singer, and gave us lots of suggestions for songs she could sing, her repertoire was mainly classical but with some ballads which we knew were much loved by our family. For my entrance to the ceremony she sang O mio babbino caro. Our family and friends were very complimentary about Gemma, and she helped to make our day and our guests day very special. She has a beautiful voice, and was lovely to deal with all the way through.
You can hear her singing through her website www.gemmaturner.co.uk.
I hope you enjoy her voice!

Floral arrangements were very special starting from Fiona’s bouquet!
It was made with different dimension of several shades of pastel roses together with a fall of Bear Grass.

Our florist, Fiori di Flora from Locarno, was very creative and made some beautiful flowers for my bridesmaids, myself and also our decorations. She was very friendly and helpful, even though we only decided on the flowers 5 days before the wedding.

Have a look to bridesmaids’ bouquets made with little fuchsia roses in a heart shape.

Last but not least a special note for the photographer of the event, Moreno Nicoloso from Raffarello Mazzoleni – Studio Artefoto Omegna’s team.

Moreno, was brilliant during the day. He spent a lot of time to look for the right light for some of our pictures, but also was very unobtrusive in taking the pictures. We’ve seen three of the pictures already (on Italian lakes Wedding’s post Just Married on Brissago Islands) and love each of them. He was a very lovely man, and all of our guests liked him too!

Fiona and Scott’s wedding went on until late at night: dances, music and lot of fun!

We were very lucky that the weekend of our wedding there was a fireworks festival, so after our meal we went outside to watch these before starting our party. After our wedding, Scott & I stayed at Garni La Meridiana in Ascona and drank some vintage champagne on our terrace, which one of our guests had given us as a gift, whilst opening some cards from our friends and family. This made the perfect end to a very beautiful and special day.

My parents also hosted a drinks evening at our house the night before the wedding, which many of our guests came to, and we spent lots of time with our guests the night after the wedding too. My dad helped by taking friends and family to airports and train stations to make their journeys much easier, and spending all of this time with people meant that we got a whole weekend to enjoy our wedding rather than one day!

Visiting Ticino in the future will now be extra special for us both.

Our best wishes to Fiona and Scott for a lot of happiness from all Italian Lakes Wedding Team.

All images © Raffaello Mazzoleni’s photographers team.

For more information about weddings on Brissago Islands, Ticino – Lake Maggiore – please CONTACT the Italian Lakes Wedding team.

An evocative arrival for the bride on rowing boat accompanied by wonderful and vibrant sound of pipes bag playing traditional Scottish songs.

The special touch was the floral arrangement based on yellow shaded Calla Lilies with some orange and red too. Calla Lilies were on bridal bouquet, a very simple but elegant bunch for flowers which perfectly matched Yvonne’s wishes.

This is a special preview of a new great event on Lake Orta held on late afternoon today.

Congratulations and our best wishes to Yvonne and Stephen from all Italian Lakes Wedding Team!

Gillian and Louis chose as theme color pink and apple green but what made the event special were multicolored kilts of guests.

She is Scottish and he is Italo-Scottish and they both chose Orta San Giulio for Louis’ family Piemonte heritage.

Sweet and lovely Gillian look like a pretty princess when she walked on aisle of Villa Bossi Garden.

Her father was by her side wearing a kilt, but he wasn’t alone!
All guests had it on to bring a corner of Scotland in Orta.

As all the other weddings that I mentioned in Summer Season Wedding in Orta session, Gillian and Louis had a great sunny day. It was the perfect weather for an outdoor civil ceremony in the town hall of Orta San Giulio.

Floral arrangements were created by Paola one of the florist designers of La Piccola Selva.
She created fresh and natural bunches of flowers for the decoration of the gate and the columns of Villa Bossi.
Bridal and bridesmaid bouquet had the same style Gillian wanted. A perfect match between baby rose, apple green and white.

After the ceremony Gillian and Louis walked along ancient pedestrian roads of the village.

A wedding in Orta is not complete without a tour on the lake to discover the landscapes and beautiful St. Julius Island.
Here you can find amazing spots for unforgettable wedding pictures.

Reception centerpieces Paola created were wonderful too. Reception was held on the terrace of the Hotel San Rocco. Paola used Sophia roses, white orchids, lysiantus and pom-pom daisies for a colorful composition that bride, groom and guests simply loved.

After the dinner the wedding cake cut! Wedding cake was prepared by Gillian’s uncle and arrived directly from Scotland!
And to follow traditional Scottish dances for everybody!

This is the last of our 5 posts dedicated to our Summer Season Weddings in Orta.
We are glad that we had the possibility to meet colors, countries and people on Lake Orta.
This is a special place to live a unique and special experience….just on the shores of one of the most romantic Italian lakes.

Valentina Lombardi is the Italian Lakes Wedding coordinator for Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore area. She follows Italian and foreign bridegrooms who wish to celebrate their wedding in Piemonte and Italian Lakes area.
Valentina is Italian; she has worked in event organization business for years before becoming a wedding planner.

For more information about weddings in Orta San Giulio – please contact us.

From Scotland to Ireland in few days!! This is what happens on Lake Orta.
Right after Cristina and Derek Scottish style wedding with pipes and kilts, it’s time for Niamh and Jon’s one! Niamh and Jon are a young irish couple that chose charming Orta San Giulio to get married.
Orta San Giulio is a beloved place for Anglo-Saxons. Every year many couples come here from England, Scotland and Ireland with lots of guests. Thanks to weddings local tourism too has the opportunity to let world knows how beautiful this place is.
For Niamh and Jon’s wedding around 100 people came from Ireland. Every single detail should be followed with care. So, many of Italian Lakes Wedding operators were involved: Koiné String Quartet, photographers Diego and Estella from Photo27.com as photographers, flower arrangements by La Piccola Selva and amazing San Rocco Hotel. All was coordinated by Valentina Lombardi from SposiamoVi wedding planners.

It was a lucky one!
Unfortunately after Cristina and Derek wedding, weather conditions got worst bringing rain and storms. According to weather forecasts we all thought that Niamh and Jon’s wedding would be under pouring rain but it wasn’t! A pale sun just came out…leaving the scene for Niamh and Jon.
From sadness to happyness, everything could be done as planned.
Niamh arrived to Villa Bossi with a romantic rowing boat, walked slowly in the path of the villa accompanied by a sweet violin up to Jon and guests all waiting for her.
A short but moving ceremony with Koiné String Quartet music in the backgrounds.
The sound of violin kept on staying the newly weds and guests for a little walk in narrow roads of Orta up to famous “piazzetta” where Niamh and Jon took their motorboat to reach San Giulio Island for a idilliac and romantic walk on Lake Orta shore.
After that… the wonderful party to Hotel San Rocco with cocktail on lakeshore and a gala dinner prepared by famous chef Paolo Viani.

Right after the ending of the event… a huge storm came…
How lucky was Niamh and Jon’s day!

Lake Orta has always been one of the best destination for bridegrooms coming from all over the world. But not only!

Often is the trait d’union between different culture, very far from each other.
This is the case of Cristina and Derek. She comes from Genova and he is from Scotland.
A long love story and then the decision to getting married. Considering the wonderful places they both come from it is not easy making a decision. Portofino, Five Lands, Porto Venere or even some legendary castle in green Scottish country side.
What a difficult choice! And here it comes Lake Orta. They immediately fell in love with it. The perfect destination for their wedding.

Considering the distance it was not easy organizing all the event: ceremony, reception, flowers, music, invitation, guests coordination coming from Scotland and Ligura.
They decided to hire a wedding planner specialized in Lake Orta area. Their natural choice went on Valentina Lombardi from SposiamoVi – Torino. Valentina is a wedding planner with long experience on Lake Orta and she works with skillful professionals on the territory.

The photographer is Raffaello Mazzoleni who is the author of beautiful photojournalistic pictures that you can see in the SCOTTISH WEDDING PHOTO GALLERY for Cristina and Derek.

Floral arrangements are from La Piccola Selva thanks to the fantasy and creativity of floral designer Monika Andenmatten. La Piccola Selva has been leader for more than 20 years in floral arrangements and bridal bouquet creation for churches and best venues on Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore.
Cristina and Derek for their reception venue decided for Hotel San Rocco in Orta San Giulio.

After almost an year of planning here is the wedding day. It is a hot day of the end of August. Everything is planned in every single detail. Theme for wedding is a good combination between Italian culture and Scottish one.
Scotland is everywhere, beginning with pipe sound that is the perfect background of the party, and then color of flowers and most of all Derek and his brother’s family kilt.
This is the traditional Scottish suit for ceremonies; it is a heavy wool skirt in tartan fabric with a unique design of fabric coming from Scotland Highlands with the sporran a little leather bag used for carrying money and whiskey!

Civil ceremony is held at Villa Bossi, town hall of Orta San Giulio.
Bride arrival with rowing boat is very charming with solemn pipe sound in background.
Pipe and its player is the main actor of the delightful little walk that newly weds and their guests had up to Orta Main Square. It will follow Cristina and Derek also during their trip on motorboat on the lake.
Cristina and Derek will also dance on pipe sound for their first touching dance a Gay Gordon.

Just as in any traditional wedding theme planning, you need to look at each aspect of your bridal plans and decide how and what cultural traditions could be included. From colors to bridal attire to accent decorations, there’s much to choose from.

Hotel San Rocco served a gourmand lunch with perfect service.
Every table is enriched with a whiskey bottle, one for each region of Scotland, from Northen Highlands up to Islay Island.

The day after for bride and groom and their guests was still party time!
Every one was invited on a boat trip to watch the fireworks in Omegna at the World Championship of Fireworks.
The finest part of the shoe is the famous “fire falls”, a real lightful fall that cross the lake from side to side of Omegna bay.
A real sparkling closing just like Cristina and Derek’s wedding!