How to have a small, intimate, cost effective wedding in Lake Como, Italy
It’s undeniable that Italy is one, if not the most beautiful place in the world, be it the people, the architecture, the food or landscapes, you leave Italy a changed, more content person every time. I’ve done numerous trips to Italy from my university years, working on yachts and living in the UK after school, we recently moved back to London and got engaged on The Amalfi coast so it made sense to organise our wedding somewhere in Italy, being so close to the UK and given the history.
We are South Africans living in London and it made for an elopement with close family and friends and opened up everyone coming from South Africa and around the world a European summer holiday which incorporated our wedding as part of it. What better way than to force everyone to make amazing travel memories and make your wedding the excuse for it. Best decision we made. Once we had settled on Italy, We needed to work our where in Italy. Amalfi coast for us, as beautiful as it was, was a logistical nightmare with the steep drops down to the water.. A lot of Italy’s coast line is like this so I began to look at lake options. We wanted a natural source of water, as we are water babies at heart so that ruled the Italian countryside out. Lake Como came up first as one of the most beautiful and popular places to get married and it didn’t take long for my heart to be set.
Once we settled on Lake Como I quickly discovered it was expensive and all the usual weddings and villas you see in all the internet wedding photos seemed exorbitant money for venue hire and for just one night. I quickly started doing more research into Airbnb, Airbnb is always my choice of travel accommodation, you get the personal service, no staff costs and value for money always. I thought I was clever in trying to find a Airbnb where everyone could stay that would double up as a free wedding ceremony venue and then find a place that did not charge a venue fee and rather charged a per head 6 course reception dinner, a restaurant perhaps.
Once I managed to find the most perfect venues for affordability, beauty and luxury we had one problem. The reception venue and Accommodation villa were at the 2 furthermost ends of the lake from each other. This was where the boat idea originated and we justified the extra costs to the fact that it served as a pre-drinks venue, fun and we took our guests on a tour of the whole of Lake Como, past all the famous villas, towns and landmarks. A boat trip of a lifetime.
This is how the Intimate Lake Como all inclusive wedding package formed, from a place of wanting not to be ripped off in one of the most popular wedding towns in the world but keep the standard of luxury, add some fun and keep it to intimate time spent with family and friends who were most important to us. It also came from a place of meeting our wonderful suppliers who made our trip insanely easy in a place where English is not widely spoken and a wedding is difficult to plan. The other most important thing for us is we wanted to cut the wedding “show” crap. We didn’t want to cut a cake or throw a garter or bouquet, we didn’t end up even doing a first dance or a daddy daughter dance and this immediately takes off so much unnecessary pressure. We took what was important for us, a nice dress and to look good for each other, some kind words from close family and friends in speeches, good food and wine and a fun time spent with everyone. We also had my brother in law do our ceremony as we had already got officially married in London months before so this took off the disappointment of finding some random officiant to “marry” us. Again one of the best decisions we made.
Once we decided where and what our wedding would look like, we quickly called our immediate family to see if they were all on board, and they were! We invited 35 people for 3 nights as the reception venue had a limit of people for their garden venue so we cut it off at just immediate family and close friends and we decided a 10 month engagement was more than enough time to give everyone to commit. The small number of people and perfect planning time made for no unnecessary drama and everyone committing but a few with legit excuses of having a baby and work trips planned. We covered everyone’s expenses for the 3 days in terms of food and drink and we subsidised everyone’s accommodation to make it very affordable for them and to help us out financially. We self catered and the moms helped with the cooking. This also gave it a more intimate, personal feel of a holiday rather than being served . The last day we organised pizza and salads on the lake with wake boarding and swimming, this was a highlight of the trip to spend a day relaxing on the lake.
Another important thing to remember about Lake Como is that its a tourist hot spot so avoid at all costs a lot of time spent in towns like Bellagio, Verenna and Como, a day trip is more than enough on the ferry to these places. Another thing to note is that a lot of the towns have limited access to “walk along the lake” and have a sheer drop down with some private residence only having access to the lake. The town we based ourselves in was quiet but lively enough with a few bustling streets, ferry terminal, restaurants and large flat access to the lake which was great.
All in all, Italy, I would say is the most romantic place in the world to whisk everyone away to for a fairy-tale wedding and it can be done on a somewhat affordable budget and the money is spent in the right places for a wedding holiday of a lifetime, our package is ‘tweakable’ in terms of costs for certain things, shared accommodation costs with guests and we are there to work out the best package for every couple to suit their needs. We are excited to extend our package to others with a personal planning service for each step to make your wedding as smooth and relaxed as possible. If Italy and intimacy is what you want with no sacrifice to luxury and fun, Lake Como is the perfect place to be.
Jo Stuart-Fox
xx
