When The Bride Doubles as The Planner! Here’s How Sade Planned Her Destination Wedding in Lake Como!

BNW March 13, 20230 Comments

When the planner plans her wedding, you expect something absolutely magical! 😍

The beautiful Sade said “I do” to the love of her life, Afam in the most dreamy destination wedding at Lake Como. The exciting thing about their lovely wedding is that Sade doubled as the wedding planner! From the breathtaking ambience to the magnificent decor and the stunning details, their wedding was indeed a truckload of love and beauty. Sade gave us some insights into how she planned her wedding and it was super exciting! Keep scrolling to see how Sade brought all the magic to her big day.

Here is how Sade planned her destination wedding in Lake Como:

For my wedding day, I drew so much inspiration from Italy. The first time I travelled there I completely fell in love with the country, the food, the scenery, and the architecture. It was my dream to get married there. When it was time to plan the wedding I compared a wedding in Italy to a wedding in France. But discovering Lake Como made the choice a no-brainer for me. I knew Lake Como with its romantic and idyllic views was the perfect place for an enchanted garden setting.

My theme was vintage elegance, I made it a point to not add any glam elements as I didn’t want anything that would take away from the scenery and all the natural beauty that Lake Como offered. A backdrop only God could create. The colour palette for the ceremony was white and greenery and the palette for the reception was blush, white, greenery and gold.

For religious traditions, it was very important to me to incorporate Worship Music. We are Christians and Worship is a major part of my spiritual life. We hired a talented musician based in Atlanta, Veronica Odegbami, to bless us with a worship session that really set the tone for the day. It was such a beautiful moment and I really felt the presence of God with us.

We got 2 different venues for the wedding. Villa Erba & Villa Gastel. For the wedding venue, I fell in love instantly with Villa Erba, it spoke directly to the elements I was looking for with its waterfront lake view, the architecture, the historical value, and even the climbing vines growing on the building. It was PERFECT! I initially wanted to use the same villa for the ceremony and reception, but right next door was Villa Gastel which had the perfect courtyard for a reception. I was able to have the lakefront ceremony and garden-style reception and it was a dream come true. History Fact: Villa Erba and Villa Gastel were owned by the same family since the 1800s but eventually sold Villa Erba to a public consortium in 1986, it is now an expo and convention centre.

For the reception decor again I only wanted decor that would enhance the space and not take away. Villa Gastel has these incredible climbing vines all around the courtyard space that literally made us feel like we were whisked away to an enchanted garden in the middle of Italy. We avoided tall centrepieces & an oversized sweetheart backdrop. We instead opted for two pillars on either side of the sweetheart table that was wrapped in greenery and florals, with floral arrangements in the front of the sweetheart table. For guest tables, we did lush table runners on the rectangular tables and short to medium floral arrangements on the round tables. And the palette for the reception was blush, white, greenery and gold.

To really bring together the enchanted garden feel we really invested in lighting, we had production lighting, fairytale string lights across the top of the space, and twinkle light chandeliers to frame the sweetheart table. This really brought in the romantic & whimsical vibe. Lighting technicians stayed throughout the event to adjust the lighting as the night went on.