Amanda & Andre’s Intimate Villa Cipressi Wedding on Lake Como

There is something especially beautiful about an intimate wedding on Lake Como. With only your closest family and friends around you, the day can unfold at a slower pace — leaving space to enjoy the setting, spend time together and experience each part of the celebration without feeling rushed.

For Amanda and Andre, that meant gathering just ten guests in Varenna for an intimate destination wedding at Villa Cipressi, one of Lake Como’s most beautiful historic wedding venues.

Their wedding day was simple and elegant: getting ready at Hotel Royal Victoria, an intimate ceremony overlooking Lake Como, portraits through the gardens of Villa Cipressi, an hour on the lake by boat, and an evening celebration complete with dinner, a champagne tower and cake.

Getting Ready at Hotel Royal Victoria in Varenna

Amanda and Andre began their wedding day at Hotel Royal Victoria, in the heart of Varenna and just moments from Villa Cipressi.

Keeping the different parts of the day close together made the entire celebration feel incredibly relaxed. Rather than spending hours travelling between locations, the morning could unfold naturally before everyone made their way to Villa Cipressi for the ceremony.

We photographed the quieter details of the morning alongside the anticipation of getting ready — the dress, final touches and those last few moments before the celebration officially began.

For couples planning a destination wedding on Lake Como, Varenna is particularly beautiful for this kind of intimate experience. The lake, historic architecture, narrow streets and surrounding mountains are all within a remarkably compact area, allowing the location itself to become part of the wedding story.

A Private Boat Ride on Lake Como

Before the ceremony, Amanda and Andre stepped aboard a boat for an hour on Lake Como.

A private boat ride is one of our favourite additions to an intimate Lake Como wedding timeline.

Beyond being an experience in itself, it gave Amanda and Andre a little time together before the ceremony and added a completely different setting to the first part of their wedding day.

And photographically, Lake Como looks completely different from the water.

Varenna gradually disappears behind you, the mountains open up around the lake, and the villas and villages along the shoreline become part of the backdrop. The resulting photographs feel less like traditional wedding portraits and more like a record of travelling through Lake Como together.

With an eight-to-ten-hour wedding timeline, an hour-long boat ride can fit naturally before the ceremony without taking over the entire day.

An Intimate Wedding Ceremony at Villa Cipressi

After the boat ride, the celebration continued at Villa Cipressi, where Amanda and Andre gathered with their ten guests for the ceremony, surrounded by botanical gardens and panoramic views across Lake Como.

With only ten guests, the ceremony felt incredibly personal.

There was no need for anything overly elaborate. Lake Como provided the backdrop, while the gardens and terraces of Villa Cipressi created a naturally elegant setting around Amanda and Andre and the people closest to them.

Villa Cipressi is particularly well suited to intimate Lake Como weddings. Its terraced botanical gardens descend toward the lake, creating a collection of beautiful spaces for ceremonies, portraits and celebrations without ever losing the feeling of privacy and intimacy.

For photography, it also means there is enormous variety without needing to leave the venue. Stone pathways, greenery, historic architecture, open terraces and views across the water all create distinctly different settings within a short walk.

An Intimate Evening Celebration

Back at Villa Cipressi, the celebration continued with Amanda and Andre’s ten guests. The smaller guest count created a completely different atmosphere from a traditional large reception. Everyone could sit together, talk, celebrate and genuinely spend time with the couple.

The evening included two classic celebratory moments: a champagne tower followed by cake cutting.

Against the elegance of Villa Cipressi and the surrounding Lake Como landscape, neither needed to be complicated. They simply became fun, celebratory moments shared with the people who had travelled to Italy to be there with Amanda and Andre.

It was exactly what an intimate destination wedding can be — beautiful without feeling excessive, thoughtfully planned without being over-scheduled, and centred on enjoying the experience together.

Planning an Intimate Wedding at Villa Cipressi

Amanda and Andre’s wedding is also a great example of how much can comfortably fit into a relatively simple eight-to-ten-hour Lake Como wedding timeline.

Getting ready, a private boat ride, an intimate ceremony, family photographs, couple portraits, dinner, a champagne tower and cake cutting could all happen without turning the day into a race between locations.

Having Hotel Royal Victoria and Villa Cipressi in Varenna also kept the logistics simple, while the boat ride added another side of Lake Como without requiring a complicated transfer or second venue.

For couples considering a small wedding or micro wedding on Lake Como, this kind of timeline gives you the best of both worlds: enough time to create beautiful photographs and film while still leaving plenty of the day to actually enjoy with your guests.

Villa Cipressi Wedding Photography & Videography

Lake Como has become one of our favourite places to photograph and film destination weddings in Italy, and Villa Cipressi captures so much of what makes this part of the world special.

There are the obvious things — the lake, mountains, gardens and historic Italian architecture — but what we particularly love is the variety available within a relatively small area. A wedding can move from an elegant hotel room to a private boat on the lake, then into botanical gardens and a ceremony overlooking Lake Como, all within the same day.

For Amanda and Andre, the result was a wedding that felt intimate, effortless and unmistakably Lake Como.

If you’re planning a Villa Cipressi wedding, an intimate wedding in Varenna or a destination wedding anywhere on Lake Como, we’d love to hear what you’re planning.

We are Mark & Kali, a destination wedding photography and videography team documenting celebrations throughout Lake Como and across Italy and Europe.