Photography: Viktoria Vasilenko
Videography: Bogdan Sameliuk
Event Planner: @wowitaly_events
Venue: Villa Balbiano, Lake Como, Italy

When people imagine a wedding on Lake Como, they tend to picture the same things. Bright sunlight, deep blue water, mountains fading into a pale horizon. August at Villa Balbiano looked different this time around. The sky sat low all morning, clouds settled heavily over the peaks, and by the time the bride was getting ready inside the villa, it was already clear that the day was going to ask something of everyone involved — a particular kind of calm, a particular kind of flexibility, and a team that knew how to solve problems without the couple ever needing to know a problem existed.

That is exactly what happened.

The Villa

Villa Balbiano is one of the most selective venues on Lake Como. It hosts very few weddings each year and approaches every aspect of event planning with a level of precision that leaves very little room for last-minute changes. Timings, positions, transitions between spaces — all of it is discussed and agreed upon well in advance, because the villa operates with the kind of standards that simply do not accommodate improvisation on the day itself.

So when it became clear that the weather would require adjustments, the WOWITALY team began working immediately — coordinating with the villa remotely, in real time, renegotiating the ceremony timing through calls and messages while the bride was upstairs with her hair and makeup, thinking about nothing except how her dress felt and how the morning was unfolding around her. The ceremony time was moved. The details were rearranged. By the time anyone who mattered needed to know, everything had already been resolved, and there was nothing left to do except enjoy the day.

This is what coordination actually looks like when it is done properly. Not the version that is visible and loud, but the version that the couple never feels, because everything difficult has already been quietly handled before they step outside.

The Photography

Viktoria Vasilenko knows what to do with overcast light, and she knows it well. A soft sky without direct sun removes the harsh shadows that make outdoor portraits technically difficult, it gives white fabric a luminosity that bright sunlight often flattens, and it makes faces look warm and alive in a way that midday summer light rarely manages. She moved through the villa with the kind of focused quiet that good photographers bring to difficult conditions — finding the right angles, waiting for the right expressions, understanding that some of the most beautiful images of the day would come from moments nobody had planned.

Bogdan Sameliuk filmed everything with the patience and attention that the occasion deserved. The rain on the stone pathways of the villa, the long train of the dress catching the damp air near the entrance, the couple sharing a transparent umbrella in the doorway of the main building — all of it became part of the visual language of their wedding, and not a single frame of it looks like a compromise.

The Ceremony

Villa Balbiano is not simply a beautiful backdrop.

It is a complete world.

Once the timing had been adjusted and the sky had lifted enough to make the terrace feel right again, the ceremony took place exactly where it had always been planned — overlooking the lake, surrounded by white florals, with the people who had traveled from different countries to be present for this specific moment standing close together in the garden.

The parents were nearby. The groom watched the bride walk toward him with the expression of someone who has been waiting for something for a long time and can barely believe it is finally happening. The ceremony script had been written entirely from the couple’s own answers to questions about their relationship — their memories, their habits, their words about what it means to belong to each other — and that specificity came through in every sentence that was spoken. After the ceremony came aperitivo in the garden, then dinner, then the part of the evening when nobody is watching the time anymore because the conversation is too good and the night is too warm and nobody particularly wants it to end.

What the Bride Said

Kristen sent a message to the team late in the evening, while the wedding was still happening, before the dress came off, directly from the villa.

“Thank you guys so much! You are the absolute best!!!! Are you kidding me!!!! You guys 😭😭 Thank you so much ❤️🥹”

There are many kinds of thank-you messages that arrive after weddings. The ones that come the same evening, while everything is still unfolding and the emotions have not yet had time to settle, are the ones that stay with a team the longest. It means that in the middle of the most significant day of her life, she stopped, picked up her phone, and wrote because she simply could not not write. That is the kind of response that makes the early mornings and the complicated negotiations and the real-time problem-solving feel entirely worth it.

Wondering what a wedding at Villa Balbiano or another iconic Lake Como villa actually includes — and what it costs? We have put together a full guide to our wedding packages, with everything laid out clearly and honestly.

See our Lake Como wedding packages →