Wedding at Villa del Balbianello, Lake Como

Today I am going to tell you about a wonderful American couple, Angelina and Tyler and their wedding at Villa del Balbianello, Lake Como. A place with a graceful and familiar name, suspended between the land of the promontory on which it stands and the blue waters of the lake. To call it enchanting seems inadequate, approximate, how unreal its beauty seems. And Tyler and Angelina’s choice, she moreover of Italian descent, is explained.

Getting married in Italy in recent years has become a real trend. There are so many locations sought by foreign couples: art cities like Rome, Venice or Florence, beautiful islands like Sicily or Sardinia and locations with breathtaking landscapes like Puglia or the Amalfi Coast. Probably the most coveted right now, however, is Lake Como.

That evocative suggestion of being able to live as protagonists, even for just one day, one’s own story ‘shot’ in the same location of some famous movies. So it was the extraordinary beauty of this corner, jutting out over the lake, almost hidden and unexpected so precious, like a pearl enclosed in an oyster, that convinced these young people to want their wedding at Villa del Balbianello.

The building, which dates from the 18th century but was built on a pre-existing Franciscan convent, was originally the typical villa di letizie of the man of letters and patron Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini. Built on a heavily wooded promontory, the villa features a magnificent loggia and two pavilions flanking it. A spectacular garden that, defying the geomorphic conformation of the very rocky and steep terrain, looks like a miracle of nature and man’s wisdom.

A multitude of different botanical species coexist there, from alpine to Mediterranean flora and an incredible variety of flowers. One can well understand the intention of its owner to make it a ‘buen retiro’, an ideal place for meetings between cultured and literate men.

Thinking of celebrating one’s wedding at Villa del Balbianello can have an extra value: giving support to an organization as indispensable and valuable as FAI is for the protection of our artistic and cultural heritage.

In the 90′, probably to self-finance itself, the FAI decided to “lend” it as a location for the filming of some movies, now of cult status, and as a wedding location because a wedding at Villa del Balbianello is an unquestionable guarantee for the success of an elegant and classy celebration. Getting married on Lake Como offers several advantages and the possibility to diversify the settings for the photo shoot.

At Balbianello for example, the villa’s exterior with its magnificent garden and numerous views of the lake from numerous terraces, its interiors furnished with refined taste and embellished with antique furniture, the ceremony and banquet arrangements surrounded by so much beauty, all lend themselves to making the wedding unique.

And the moment of light-heartedness and carefree sharing comes once again from the lake with a trip on boats that take the bride and groom and guests, almost in an off-schedule or off-script, around it to admire it from a different and certainly more exciting view. One only has to look at the photos to realize the involvement of the bride and groom and how much carefreeness can be read on their faces.

A wedding at Villa del Balbianello, in an almost magical arrangement and in the harmony of experiences and emotions, manages to combine elegance and lightheartedness, refinement and simplicity, taste and cheerfulness. That is why Tyler and Angelina experienced Balbianello as a place of enchantment, with such fullness and such joy.