Venue Tour of Villa Balbiano

I want to walk you through Villa Balbiano as if you were a guest arriving at an event. So this is the boat dock, which is a spectacular place to get guests to arrive by boat. It's got views up towards Villa Balbianello and down towards Como. Upon arrival, guests enter into the garden, which is totally lakeside. There are vast spaces here and the flow options are pretty endless. But I'll take you through a flow that's worked for us many times before. So this area here, we would often serve a welcome cocktail as people arrive and gather pre-taking them to the ceremony area. One of the reasons a welcome cocktail works really well here is because it's immediately adjacent to the ceremony space or the space that's most often chosen as a ceremony space. Again, as this part of the garden is lakeside, it's another space that we very often use for the aperitivo immediately after the ceremony. Where I'm standing now is the area that we most often use for the ceremony because we've got the lake immediately behind us and we've got the villa as a phenomenal backdrop the other side. Also, this space here is quite a blank canvas, so it allows us a lot of scope with decor. This area that I'm walking now is usually the aisle walk, and it may be worth pointing out that it's late July and it's six o'clock in the evening, which would be a time that we would very often have ceremonies, so you can see where the sun is. It's not in full sun, it's not in full shade, but it's a comfortable time of the day. I just wanted to point out from the bride's point of view and the entrance into the ceremony area and down the aisle starts here, so we've got a beautiful staircase into this hallway and down these steps, which is a phenomenal photography opportunity. I'm now standing at the front of the property, which is another arrival option for guests. We've got this fantastic gate behind us, which is on the roadside of the property, so if guests arrive by car, they can be dropped there and have this amazing walk down by the rill to this section of the garden. We often use this for aperitivo as well. Again, this is six o'clock in the evening, so you can see it's in partial shade, so it's a comfortable place for people to sit and enjoy a cocktail. This space here is the area that we always use for dinner. It's possible to do dinner inside, but for much smaller groups, up to 40 people. Here we transform it, putting up a structure, always a floor, sometimes a simple framework, but more often than not, a full marquee structure. This villa not only offers the possibility for the event itself, but it has accommodation in the main villa of six suites, so sleeping up to 12 people. It's got another villa in the garden, which sleeps a further eight, and an extension onto the main villa itself of a further four bedrooms. There are six suites inside this villa. This is the master suite, which comprises of three rooms, this sitting room, the bedroom, a dressing room, a terrace, and a bathroom, so four rooms if you count everything. It's very often used for the bride to get ready, and can be used in isolation, so you don't have to take all of the rooms in order to have these spaces available. This is on the first floor. It's one of the additional living spaces, and it can be emptied and used for dinner space for up to 40 people. It can also be an additional ceremony space in the event of bad weather, and we have to come inside. This villa is one that if you take it for multiple days, not only can it host the wedding event itself, but it's got such huge gardens, and they're all divided up into really interesting little sections that it's possible to do pre and post events there as well. One of the most often used spaces is here by the pool, where we've done some phenomenal post-wedding pool parties. Just to help you orientate yourself a little bit with the whole property and the flow, the route I'm taking now would ordinarily be from the dinner tent back to the villa for the after party, which cuts across through the top of what was the ceremony space. During dinner, we typically dismantle the ceremony area, and if the aperitivo was at the front of the property, what we do is transfer the lounge space to here, as a lakeside lounge space late in the evening is a nice place to have to drink a cocktail, to come and smoke a cigar, and it connects immediately with the dancing space inside. This is the main room on the ground floor, and it's the room that we use for the after party, because it's big enough to have dancing, it's big enough to have a DJ. What you're seeing today is with its original furniture, which we take out, which obviously creates some more space.