Villa Erba wedding photography

Villa Erba is a nineteenth-century estate at Cernobbio, at the southern end of the western shore, and it is the largest wedding property on the lake by some distance. The historic villa sits in a park of around ten hectares with mature trees, lawns running to the water and a modern exhibition pavilion alongside, which is what makes a guest list of two hundred or more straightforward here when it is not straightforward anywhere else nearby.

The park is the photographic asset. Most Como venues are a terrace and a view, and when there are two hundred people on that terrace the terrace is where the portraits have to happen. Here there are avenues, lawns, a lakefront and the villa’s own façade, all far enough apart that a portrait session does not take place in front of the drinks reception. That separation is worth more on a large wedding than any single beautiful backdrop.

Cernobbio is close to Como town and to the motorway, which makes guest logistics and late departures considerably easier than at the villas further up the lake. The trade is that the setting is parkland rather than cliff and water; the lake is present but it is not the whole picture. For a large wedding that wants room to move, that is usually the right trade.