A Lake Como Wedding at Relais Villa Vittoria

Same-Sex Celebration

Wedding Photographer: David Azurmendi

Wedding Venue: Relais Villa Vittoria

Flowers: Caterina Florist

Make Up: Angela Di Gioia Make Up

Hair: We Are Hair Lab

There is a particular kind of light that exists only on Lake Como in early autumn. It arrives gold and unhurried, catching the cypress trees before sliding across water the color of aged glass. It was within this light that two brides exchanged vows at Relais Villa Vittoria, a property that seems less built than grown from the landscape itself, terraced gracefully into the hillside above the lake.

A Lake Como wedding carries expectations. Centuries of aristocratic history, villas that once hosted European nobility, a lake so cinematically beautiful it has become shorthand for romance itself. What often goes unmentioned is how quietly it delivers on those expectations. There is no need for embellishment when the setting already offers cypress-lined terraces, Belle Époque architecture, and water that shifts color with the hour.

"My style can be described as timeless, elegant and romantic, with a touch of nostalgia woven into every frame. I see myself as a visual storyteller. I believe in capturing not just moments, but also the emotions, laughter and tears that make every wedding day so special."

Why Lake Como Remains Italy's Most Coveted Wedding Destination

Ask any wedding photographer who has worked across Italy, and they will tell you Lake Como occupies singular territory. It is not simply beautiful. It is beautiful with restraint, elegant without trying, romantic without artifice.

The lake sits within a bowl of mountains that rise directly from the water, creating natural drama no stylist could replicate. Villages cling to the hillsides in terracotta and ochre, visible across the water from nearly every vantage point. This is a landscape that photographs itself, though it rewards a photographer who understands how to work with light bouncing off water, how shadows move differently here than elsewhere in Italy.

For couples seeking a wedding photographer in Lake Como who understands this specificity, the region demands more than technical skill. It requires someone who recognizes that the lake itself becomes a character in every image, not simply scenery behind the subjects.

Relais Villa Vittoria: An Intimate Villa With Unobstructed Lake Views

Relais Villa Vittoria occupies a particular niche among Lake Como’s wedding venues. Smaller and more intimate than the grand palazzo hotels that dominate the region’s reputation, it offers something increasingly rare: genuine privacy alongside uninterrupted lake views.

The property terraces down toward the water, its manicured gardens and pale stone architecture creating a sequence of spaces that feel simultaneously grand and personal. An emerald swimming pool sits close enough to the water’s edge that guests seem to float above the lake itself. Iron railings and stone balustrades frame views toward the village across the water, its rooftops catching afternoon light.

What distinguishes this property for wedding photography is its verticality. Ceremony spaces, garden terraces, and private jetties exist at different elevations, each offering a distinct relationship to the water below. A couple can move from an intimate courtyard ceremony to portraits taken directly at lake level, their reflection catching in the water beside them.

Inside the Ceremony: Vows Exchanged Beneath the Mountains

This particular celebration began with a ceremony held on the villa’s terrace, positioned so that the mountains across the lake formed a natural backdrop behind the officiant. White floral installations, dense with garden roses and hydrangea, flanked the aisle in soft ivory and blush tones that echoed rather than competed with the landscape.

The two brides walked toward each other along a gravel path, their guests seated in wrought iron chairs beneath the villa’s colonnade. One father walked his daughter down the aisle in a moment of quiet emotion, captured just before the ceremony’s more public joy took over.

What made this particular Lake Como wedding photography approach effective was restraint. The florals complemented the setting without overwhelming it. The ceremony structure allowed for genuine emotional moments, vows read aloud, a first kiss met with immediate applause, rather than choreographed perfection. This is where editorial sensibility meets documentary honesty: creating images refined enough for publication while preserving what actually happened.

Golden Hour on the Water: Portraits That Capture Lake Como's Signature Light

No Lake Como wedding is complete without portraits taken as the sun begins its descent behind the mountains. This is when the lake performs its most reliable magic, water turning to liquid gold, distant villages softening into watercolor silhouettes.

For this celebration, portraits were taken at a private jetty extending into the water, the Italian flag catching wind beside the couple as they stood together, lake and mountains stretching behind them. These images, shot from a distance to include the full scale of the landscape, demonstrate why couples specifically seek a Lake Como wedding photographer rather than simply hiring whoever is available. Understanding when and where this light appears, and how to position couples within it, separates competent documentation from genuinely exceptional imagery.

Black and white portraits captured the couple in quieter moments, a forehead kiss beneath cypress trees, laughter shared while walking along garden paths. The absence of color in these frames draws attention to expression and gesture, timeless in a way that will outlast any trend.

The Reception: Where Italian Elegance Meets Genuine Celebration

As evening settled over the lake, the celebration moved toward dinner service on an outdoor terrace strung with bistro lights against darkening sky. Long tables dressed in white held towering arrangements of garden roses alongside slender taper candles, the kind of tablescape that feels effortlessly composed rather than overly styled.

Live music carried through the evening, a vocalist in sequined black performing alongside saxophone, transforming the terrace into something between an intimate club and an outdoor ballroom. Guests raised glasses in unified toasts, their faces illuminated by string lights and candlelight in a scene that photographs with genuine warmth rather than staged perfection.

The evening included traditional Italian catering, elaborate cheese boards, charcuterie, and fresh seafood presented with the casual sophistication that characterizes the best Italian hospitality. Staff moved through the crowd in formal white service jackets, adding to the sense of occasion without introducing stiffness.

What Makes This Wedding Photography Distinctly Editorial

Throughout the celebration, photography moved between documentary observation and more intentional composition. Candid moments, guests laughing during cocktail hour, a groomsman-equivalent walking with a plate of appetizers, an elderly guest studying his notes before a toast, sat alongside more formal portraiture that echoed fashion photography’s attention to composition and light.

This dual approach reflects what many couples now seek from wedding photography in destinations like Lake Como. They want images that feel authentic to their actual celebration, not manufactured moments, while still receiving photographs with genuine artistic merit. The black and white images throughout this gallery demonstrate particular editorial sensibility: a bride adjusting her veil while walking through garden gates, two brides sharing a quiet exchange on a lakeside dock, silhouetted against water and distant village lights.

Planning Your Own Lake Como Wedding at Relais Villa Vittoria

For couples considering Relais Villa Vittoria specifically, several practical realities shape planning. The property’s intimate scale suits celebrations of moderate size rather than sprawling guest lists, allowing genuine attention to detail throughout the day. Its terraced structure means ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception can each occupy distinct spaces with their own character, all while maintaining lake views throughout.

Timing matters considerably. Early autumn, as seen in this celebration, offers warm days without summer’s peak heat, along with foliage beginning its seasonal transition across the surrounding hillsides. Late spring provides similar advantages, gardens in full bloom before summer’s crowds arrive.

Access to the property typically involves boat transfer or careful coordination with ground transportation, given Lake Como’s topography. This logistical layer benefits significantly from working with vendors who understand the region’s particular rhythms, including a wedding photographer in Lake Como who has navigated these logistics previously.

Why Same-Sex Couples Continue Choosing Italy for Destination Weddings

Italy has increasingly become a preferred destination for same-sex couples seeking celebrations that honor both their relationship and their aesthetic vision, even as Italian law itself has not caught up with full marriage equality. Symbolic ceremonies, like this celebration at Relais Villa Vittoria, allow couples to exchange vows in stunning settings surrounded by loved ones, with legal registration handled separately in their home country.

This particular wedding exemplifies why the workaround has become so popular. The ceremony itself carried full emotional weight and formal beauty, indistinguishable in significance from any legally binding celebration. What mattered was the commitment witnessed by family and friends, documented with the same care and artistic attention any couple deserves.

Working With a Photographer Who Understands Both Editorial Vision and Genuine Emotion

David Azurmendi is an international wedding photographer that brings particular sensitivity to celebrations like this one: a fluency in both fashion-informed composition and unguarded documentary observation, developed across years photographing weddings throughout Italy’s most demanding luxury destinations.

His approach to Lake Como weddings specifically reflects deep familiarity with how light moves across the water at different hours, which terraces and jetties offer the most compelling backdrops, and how to work within a venue’s architecture rather than against it. This is knowledge built through repeated experience in the region, not something improvised on arrival.

For same-sex couples, David Azurmendi offers something equally important: a photographer who approaches every celebration without assumption, documenting love exactly as it presents itself. His editorial work, published in National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, and Lonely Planet, demonstrates a sensibility attuned to genuine human connection regardless of who is being photographed. Two brides sharing their first dance receive the same artistic attention, the same careful composition, the same commitment to capturing authentic emotion as any other couple.

This combination, refined visual language paired with genuine inclusivity, makes him particularly suited to luxury destination weddings where couples want images that feel both timeless and true to who they actually are. Whether documenting a ceremony beneath Lake Como’s mountains or a reception illuminated by string lights and candlelight, his work remains grounded in one consistent principle: sophisticated photography should never come at the expense of authentic emotion.

The magic of an eternal story

MEET DAVID

David Azurmendi began as a travel photographer before specializing in weddings, and that background shaped everything about how he works. He doesn’t see a celebration as an event to document. He sees it as a story unfolding within a specific place, whether that’s Ibiza’s Mediterranean light, the Tuscan countryside, or a Mexican coastal town. The location becomes a character. The couple becomes the protagonists. His work captures the interplay between them.

His published work in National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, and Lonely Planet reflects an editorial perspective he brings to every celebration, regardless of location. This means refined composition, thoughtful light management, and genuine visual sophistication. It also means the images feel true, because editorial discipline and authentic storytelling aren’t opposing forces. They work together.