Kat & Adam planned THE MOST AMAZING Lake Como wedding the world has ever seen. And that’s saying something given that their ceremony took place at Villa Balbianello (where Anakin & Padme were married in Star Wars episode II, if you wondered). Determined to create a day that was anything but “simple and elegant”, they poured their hearts into elaborate invitations, beautiful welcome packs and a whole host of activities for their guests. Jen and I spent 5 days at Lake Como with these incredible people and I cannot think of a better time. Another time I will share images from their legal ceremony and subsequent couple shoot, but today it’s all about their dramatic spiritual ceremony at Villa Balbianello, beautiful reception at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni and the after party at Lido di Lenno.

Here’s what Kat & Adam had to say about their Lake Como wedding…

You and Jen are most definitely stand-outs for us, who we miss desperately since returning home. Apart from being brilliant photographers and fantastic company the whole trip, you doubled up superbly as on the day, on the fly planners! We can’t thank you enough for everything you both did to make it as memorable and successful as it was. It was a real struggle planning a one-foot-outside-the-box wedding in Italy, which we ended up doing a lot of ourselves in the end – venues, caterers, celebrant, musicians, florist, – right down to designing the décor at home, shooting videos of the set-up, and sending poor Hayley and Paul across the Alps in a “car” with it all! Doing a lot of the planning ourselves, we found that what we wanted was often lost in translation even with English vendors, so it wasn’t necessarily a language barrier that made for hard planning – more a “they can’t possibly mean they want “insert strange wedding choice”! Still we’re glad we went for it rather than play it safe for our Lake Como wedding, even if we did end up with a yellow mutant cake – definitely not what was ordered! When it was right it was really right, and really worth it – like our awesome photographers-planners-pals duo!

Other stand-outs were Josh & Yohaan from Kitebox, who captured some incredible shots, most of the time without us knowing they were there which is exactly what we wanted. Neither of us are terribly comfortable being the focus of the cameras attentions (you may have noticed), but they blended perfectly amongst our wedding party and were a real pleasure to have around. Kat’s costuming co-conspirator, Clem Short, also deserves a mention for wholeheartedly getting on board with the idea of reworking a Vera Wang dress, when everyone else thought Kat had lost her mind. Adam’s bespoke Ironwood, meteorite ring combination from Jewellery by Johan (not the Kitebox dude), and our last minute save the day florist Mario Fiori who took our wide colour palette, our collection of candlesticks and vases, and things like book bouquets all in his stride. Also worthy of a mention are Petillant who created the bespoke headpiece & shoes using various brooches & embellishments Kat had collected (they were on the dress too). ChiChi London supplied the bridesmaid dresses and Peter Casey Jewellery made Kat’s rings (which we designed ourselves).

Of course we wanted the whole experience to be romantic and magical and all that wedding stuff that Lake Como is made for, but also wanted it to represent us, to be imaginative and surprising for our guests. We remember thinking “nailed it” and giving ourselves virtual high-fives when we boarded the boat with them from Bellagio after dinner, and the accordion and tenor struck up as we took them for one last surprise to a dessert party on the beach with (of course) a prosecco tower. We hadn’t planned to do our speeches there but thanks to the genius suggestion from our brilliant photography duo, thought it was the perfect place for them in the end, thanks again ladies!

Jen and I would absolutely love to return to the Italian Lakes so if you’re looking for a Lake Como wedding photographer – please do get in touch!