“If anyone is thinking about doing a “micro” destination wedding, do it!” said the bride, Catherine, of this fabulously intimate lake Como wedding.
“It was undoubtedly the best decision we made. We never thought this is how our wedding would end up, but after realizing that we had a monstrous guest list and we saw the price tag of a big wedding, we talked with our families and decided to do a small wedding with just family in Italy.”
Instead of a venue and hotel, we rented a villa with a view and enough rooms for everyone. Instead of a catering company, we were able to hire a private chef. Instead of spending a bunch of money on people who “should” be invited but aren’t close with us, we spent 4 days in Italy with only our closest family
I still got my dream dress!
I still found an amazing photographer! I’m still throwing a giant house party for friends and family next June! I don’t feel like I missed out on my “dream wedding,” because this was more perfect than I could have ever imagined.”
Documenting this intimate celebration of love in Lake Como for Catherine and Dylan who travelled from the US was a truly remarkable and touching experience. I hope if you’re reading this you can experience it for yourselves with some of our pictures below…
When you’re done here, if you’d like to see more Lake Como and Lake Garda Wedding Photography, click the links.
Full supplier list in the footer of this post.
Some very lovely words from Catherine and Dylan:
“My husband and I searched high and low for a photographer to capture our 9-person destination wedding, and we are SO incredibly grateful to have found Barney. To say that he captured our day perfectly would still be an understatement.
Barney was extremely easy to work with from start to finish. He was transparent, communicative, answered all of our many questions, and treated us like an engaged couple rather than a paycheck. Even all the way up until the wedding day, I always felt like Barney cared about us as a couple, cared about our relationship, and cared about our success in a way that a friend would.
He took the time to get to know every person at our wedding, even before he started taking photos. He knew everyone’s name and their relationship to us and made sure they knew him too. It put everyone at ease around him and translated into some beautiful photos of everyone with their guard down.
Barney also knows how to blend in. I wouldn’t think he could’ve done that with only 9 of us, but even during the ceremony, where only 6 people sat in chairs facing us, we totally lost track of Barney. And it wasn’t because he actually disappeared, but he somehow blended in and captured the most incredible shots.
Picking a photographer to capture your once-in-a-lifetime, probably-cost-five-figures, a magical wedding day can be SO intimidating. There are so many unknowns, so many things to think about, and so many decisions you didn’t even know you had to make. The level at which you need to trust your photographer is, or was for me, much higher than anyone else you’ve ever paid services for since the photos cannot be re-done without re-doing the wedding (fat chance!). But I would truly hire Barney to shoot anything at this point. He was so professional, so talented, so kind, so helpful, and so enthusiastic. It made a huge difference in our day and I will never be able to thank Barney enough.” – Catherine and Dylan
Supplier List
Photography: Lake Como Wedding Photographer, Barney Walters
Ceremony Venue: Private villa (booked through VRBO, now listed on TripAdvisor)
Catering Team: Johann Desnoues, Chef a Domicilio
Florist: Figli dei Fiori
Wedding Rings: Birde – Pave Jewelers Groom – Zales
Dress Designer: BHLDN
