Glamorous Lake Como Wedding at Villa del Balbianello

Melissa Baran
March 23, 2019
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Lake Como, you are lovely. I will never, ever, ever tire of experiencing weddings set on those dreamy cerulean waters against the foothills of the Alps. Alison and Frankie vowed their forevers to one another in this timeless setting, with AF Atelier, Terrain Styles and Tearose Events handling all of the delightful details. Le Secret d’Audrey and AG Studio Videography joined in to document the day for a collection of images and a film that will fill your heart with magic.

From the Bride… I have always been a fervent lover of European culture and civilization (having studied in Europe for a few months on European music, history and philosophy during my US college years), that Frankie has proposed to me at the beautiful Schloss Belvedere. Our parents are very open minded that we are allowed to host a very intimate celebration with immediate family at home so that we could spend most of our effort organizing a wedding of our dreams.

Lake Como is definitely one of the most picturesque places in Europe and since our wedding date coincides with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (which is very important for families and friends to gather together on the day which the moon is supposedly to be the roundest on this date in the year), we decided upon the most special villa – Villa del Balbianello – for the wedding that our dearest friends and parents could watch the full moon with us over the lake, and with fireworks also. Our wedding was an intimate and cozy one that we were very fortunate to have 40 guests who fly over and celebrate with us which we wanted to share this special moment with our most treasured people. We had decided to have an attire of ‘Cocktail Festive’ that our guests can dress to impress with festive details, that they were in other colors as well but not only pastel.

Thanks to our event stylist, Terrain Styles, who understands our vision of holding a timeless event, we concluded to go with the color theme of different shades of pink and blush and a splash of burgundy (since it is a fall wedding) with hints of foliage. Our vision for the wedding was to take every guest from the real world to enter into a romantic dream for the day. Le Secret d’Audrey was my wedding photographer as she knows how to bring out the elegance and femininity and she has been our pre-wedding photographer as well. Being a fan of romantic European elements, we chose Grand Hotel Tremezzo for its history and elegant decor, which was best for getting ready shoots to match well with the wedding venue. The romantic European elements were also founded in the reception table set up that there were tall copper candles and golden cutlery. The Galia Lahav veil also had hints of vintage European style with the lace and beaded fringes and long train. I had picked a princess style gown ‘Gia’ from Galia Lahav that had a corset in the trunk and lots of floral appliques along the whole dress. When I first tried in on at Trinity Bridal @trinitybridal in Hong Kong, I did have the feeling of ‘this is the one’!

As all of our guests including us were not Italians, we reckoned it was best for our wedding stationer to create a map of Lake Como including the important spots; for instance, villa d’este, grand hotel tremezzo and of course our wedding villa!

While having a wedding in Italy, we simply have to hire a gelato cart from our Catering, Class Eventi, which all of our guests had enjoyed including our staff crew. To keep our guests entertained, we had prepared a first dance performance which Frankie did not have any experience in dancing before. Luckily, we did it so smoothly with the lifting that nobody believed we only took a 5 hour class! We also had our stationer to prepare a message card for every guest that our closest friends were to write down advice for us newly weds. We had the most amazing fireworks from Blunotte Eventi who also played the song of ‘Time of my life” from the Broadway Show Dirty Dancing during the performance. My evening Watters gown, from Miss Bride Wedding Shop, was very much fitted into the scene with its sparkly top and flowy tulle that allowed me to walk around the guests tables and talk to them easily! All our guests were very excited about it that they were comparing this to the official fireworks in Hong Kong. Blunotte Eventi was also responsible for the lighting and music that day, which we hired their harp plus violin duet for our ceremony.

Holding a destination wedding which is so far from home is not the easiest thing. But we were very glad to have organized the wedding smoothly. Logistics was well planned by AF Atelier that our guests were either placed at Sheraton Lake Como or at the town Como itself, which shuttle buses were organized and there was a boat taking the guests from Como and Sheraton Lake Como respectively. It also served the purpose as a boat tour for them since it was the first visit at Lake Como for most of our guests. We hope this wedding will remain dearly in everyone’s memories in the years to come, spending Mid Autumn together in a foreign country at one of the most beautiful villas.

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