This is part of a series How to Plan A Destination Wedding in Italy: A Step-by-Step Guide. Read the full guide here.
We exchanged vows June 24, 2023 for our destination wedding in Italy at Grand Hotel Majestic on Lake Maggiore—my Italian hometown. I walked down the aisle to “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley. The happy hour took place on an old steamship ferry and the Italian reception took place lakeside and featured a sax player and DJ duo, a 4-course wine and food pairing. The night ended with a dip in the private beach lake of Grand Hotel Majestic. The whole weekend was an out-of-body experience. The immense beauty of Lago Maggiore and Grand Hotel Majestic coupled with the presence of all of our loved ones created an energy like no other. For the first time, I’m allowing everyone who wasn’t able to attend the destination wedding in Italy, to relive every moment with us.
~ Rehearsal Dinner ~
To get the party started the day before the destination wedding in Italy, we booked our small rehearsal dinner just for close family at a trendy fish restaurant on the Borromean Island of Isola dei Pescatori. That evening, the restaurant boat came to pick us up. They would’ve picked us up from Grand Hotel Majestic‘s private boat docks, but the wind and waves were too rough. We had to walk 5 minutes down the road to the docks of Pallanza. The boat took us to Isola dei Pescatori were we had a long dinner at the lakeside restaurant.
When we arrived, we were seated on 2 long tables. Pat and I each took a head of the table. Sure, not typical, but Pat and I are not typical people. We will spend the rest of our lives together, why not share the love with our loved ones on separate tables? We feasted, we dined, we shed tears with our loved ones and got ready for the big day. The wine kept pouring and the flushed faces made people more and more verbose. It was beginning to get a bit unruly, so I’m glad when it was time to get back to Grand Hotel Majestic! We had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
When we returned to Grand Hotel Majestic, we all walked over to L’Estremadura, a cool cocktail bar with some of the best mixologists on Lago Maggiore to meet up with our friends who had flown in to see us. “How long do we have to stay there?” I asked Patrick sleepily. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to see my friends, but the anticipation, planning, and energy of the last few days had really started to weigh down on me. I was feeling very worn down. I didn’t know if I could make it to my wedding day without being sick quite frankly. I felt absolutely drained and dizzy just being at the cocktail bar. We stayed an hour or so before heading back to the hotel where I drifted off to sleep.
~ The Big Day ~
See my full wedding video at the bottom of this article.
It was 9:30 a.m., June 24, 2023, and I woke surrounded by palm trees and a cloudless, sunny blue sky overlooking a serene lake in one of my favorite places in the world—Lago Maggiore at the Grand Hotel Majestic. This place embodies my youthful, calm, yet restless spirit as the birds chirp and I hear the gentle ripple of the water that lap at the lake edge. My heart is always at peace when I’m in Lago Maggiore. I firmly believe you cannot go there without experiencing what I’m referring to. For Patrick and I, there was no more meaningful place to celebrate the change in our lives and our new beginning. It was our wedding day. Luckily, I got the restful sleep I needed and wasn’t feeling worn that morning – thank god! My destination wedding in Italy was a go.
Patrick and I chose the Small Luxury Hotel of the World, Grand Hotel Majestic, on Lago Maggiore for our destination wedding in Italy. Our aim was to find a refined, but intimate hotel, with a lovely garden, luxury amenities, private beachfront access and a private pier for sunbathing, diving off into the cool lake, or getting picked up via private boat.
The next few hours went by quickly. We had breakfast and went for a swim with some of our close friends down by Grand Hotel Majestic’s private lake beach. We paddle boarded, splashed around. Unfortunately, the time came for me to tear myself away from the lake and my friends in time to go get ready.
I got up to our suite and swapped my swimming costume for my bridal dress. A pro of having a destination wedding in Italy at Grand Hotel Majestic is that they offer you a complimentary night at the hotel for free the night of your wedding. My mother, bridesmaid, and I started getting ready. There was a lot of talking and laughing as we got our hair and make-up done and got dressed. There were a few impromptu visits along the way. Our family friend stayed with us a for a while we got ready, our Italian friend stopped for a visit, and Patrick had to make an impromptu visit to pick up his suit and shoes. I had to hide in the bathroom while that happened.
The closer the time came, the more nervous I got. Not sure why…I was very calm about everything until now. I looked outside my window, down at the guests gathering around for some refreshments by the lake prior to the ceremony. I guess the wedding jitters were not about getting married, but rather having all this attention and love directed at us. It feels like everyone is giving you such positive energy and vibes, you thrive off of it. But it can also feel unsettling for those who don’t like having too much attention on them. While I can’t say I’m not an attention hog, I don’t particularly like it when I actually deserve it – weird, I know!
Patrick, on the other hand, was being Patrick. Being a guy, he got to spend an extra hour and a half chilling with our friends lakeside. The perks of being a guy I guess. He paddle boarded, grabbed a toast or panino from the bar downstairs with our friends, and got prepped in his best man’s room on the other side of the hotel. He then proceeded to join our friends for some refreshments before waiting for me by the altar.
The dress fit perfectly. I guess the nerves from the days prior and the lack of working out made me lose some weight, therefore the dress was less snug than before—but still perfect. As we drew closer to the ceremony, everyone left the room, it was just me. They told me to come down in 5 minutes. As I looked out the window, all of a sudden I went from super nervous to calm. I had such a sense of peace come over me. This is it. We were finally here – our destination wedding in Italy was coming true. I was filled with joy. Sveva – actress mode on. Put on a show I told myself. I had always wanted to be an actress growing up, let’s think of this as my glamorous audition!
5 minutes late – I walked down to the holding area to meet my dad and bridesmaid. This was it. The moment! In full transparency, originally I was considering in the usual untraditional manner of walking down the aisle alone, but decided against it. In the moment, I was so happy with my decision. Between the nerves, the attention on me, and walking on grass, I was glad I could lean on my dad so that I didn’t fall flat on my face. Alessandra, my bridesmaid on the other hand wasn’t as lucky – haha! She was supposed to walk down the aisle with our best man, Ben, but my wedding planner had a last minute change of heart and decided to have her walk down alone. Luckily, Alessandra managed to make it down in one piece without any stumbles an very elegantly may I add.
The Grand Hotel Majestic front lawn can be privatized for events, such as weddings. You’ll feel as if you have the entire hotel to yourself. It’s hot in the summer, so ensure you’re ceremony takes place close to 4PM like we did. Trust me, you’ll still get plenty of sun…the sun here sets at 9:30PM in June! We said our vows and our I do’s against the backdrop of Lago Maggiore and it’s mountains with the occasional boat passing by behind us. The view on the lake from this spot is truly breathtaking as you take your vows. Grand Hotel Majestic truly is the most idyllic and Italian fairytale setting for a destination wedding in Italy.
My bridesmaid, Alessandra, walked down the aisle to Girls Like You instrumental version by Maroon 5 – one of my favorite bands. I walked down the aisle with my father accompanied by the sweet sound of the cello and violinist to the tune of Can’t Help Falling In Love With You by Elvis Presley. My father handed me off to Patrick at the end of the aisle, which was decorated with the perfect and minimalist amount of white and pink roses. Nothing to overly done, perfectly tasteful. I didn’t notice anything behind the scenes, but apparently we did have a quick snag during the ceremony. At one point, a bird flew overhead and took a poop on my brother and someone else. My mother rushed to the side to get it off his suit haha! In my culture, that brings us luck – so I feel like Pat and I were secretly blessed by this incident.
Our Italian officiant was also a former priest. He was bilingual and did the ceremony in both languages. Because we didn’t do the ceremony in a church – due to the complications and lengthy process it would take to do so in Italy – we decided to still bring some symbolic religiousness to our ceremony. What’s a destination wedding in Italy without a little religion? It’s a must! Our officiant recommended we do a ring blessing, where we each hold each others rings in our hands, close them and say a prayer and intention in them. Even if we weren’t in a church, that was all I needed to feel like we were bringing in something larger than all of us, a force, a positive intention, into these rings and onto ourselves.
The wedding attire was summer colors and Italian chic. I am bohemian in that sense. This is a wedding, not a funeral. Patrick and I didn’t want people dressing in all blue or black or gray, we wanted everyone to show off their style and their colors and bring happiness to our destination wedding in Italy. The guests got the memo and understood the assignment – they killed it. From yellow dresses to hot pink suits, they nailed it.
We flew half of our guests in from America and Patrick and I are avid travelers. We couldn’t let our wedding go-by without at least a little bit of sightseeing of the local area involved. Following our ceremony, we held the aperitivo, or happy hour, on an old school steamship ferry that took guests around the Borromean Islands. A live sax player joined us onboard, playing both classical and modern music such as Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus, and Titanium by David Guetta. We stole inspiration from our friends, Ian and Melissa’s wedding, and had a polaroid onboard for people to use. They could take pictures for themselves and put them in an album for us where they could write us a cute wedding note.
Grand Hotel Majestic was taking care of the aperitif on board. Foods included local delicacies and plenty of finger food and crudites. Grand Hotel Majestic’s bartender was on board with us. His name is Blendi, I swear that’s his name. His father liked drinking blended whiskey when he was younger, so named him Blendi. We got along great with him. He also won an award as one of the top 10 bartenders/mixologists in Italy! We can attest to the fact that he deserved that award. He was onboard making us classic Aperol Spritzs and my favorite “Purple Spritzes” – which he created exclusively for me the day prior! We had spent some time with Blendi at the bar the day before and I had mentioned I wasn’t the biggest fan of Aperol Spritzs. Therefore, he made me this special spritz with a purple alcohol only available in Italy. From then on, the running joke became – Purple Spritz, Purple Spritzzz – Purple Rain, Purple Rainnn.
Lago Maggiore has several islands, the most important being the Borromean Islands of Isola Bella, Pescatori and Madre. From the water, their splendor is completely enchanting. Exquisite Italian terraces and gardens slope down the lakeside from the palace. Isola Bella is surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, local and exotic plants creating a real park in the middle of the lake. While Isola Pescatori is a nod to it’s down-to-earth fisherman roots. The old steamship ferry made it’s way around the islands as we danced the afternoon away, working up an appetite for dinner.
We got off the steamship ferry and led guests inside for dinner. While our guests were getting settled inside, we took some time for some special shots amongst Grand Hotel Majestic‘s gardens and plants with the awe-inspiring background of the lake and it’s mountains. A friend of my mom’s is a photographer and as a wedding present gifted us a black-and-white old school photoshoot that she would try and do every year for us so we could have an album of photos of every year together. We have yet to see those photos, but I can’t wait!
The wedding reception was help in Sala Toscanini at Grand Hotel Majestic, an elegant Baroque style room with plenty of natural lighting and big enough to fit a dance floor and one long table for 50. The long table had white and light pink roses in charming glass vases in between votive candles. The magical atmosphere was enhanced by the crystal chandeliers, creating a special atmosphere on Lake Maggiore that night.
Once settled at the table, guests feasted on a four-course wine and food pairing hand-selected by Pat and I and all made using locals ingredients and wines. Given the time of year. We wanted something light and airy given the heat. We ended up doing a mix of the Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre menu to make both Pat and I happy. I got my fish and pasta and he got his meat. The menu included:
In the middle of dinner we had speeches done. One from my bridesmaid and mom and one from our best man and Pat’s sister (my sister-in-law). A problem with a destination wedding in Italy could be translating for different guests. Because 50% of the people at the table were Italian and 50% English, we didn’t know how to go about the translation. Our solution was having my brother, who is bilingual and an Italian professor, translate the speeches in the moment. This ended up being lengthier than we expected…we probably should’ve cut down speeches or not done the translation at all. But it was definitely a form of entertainment with plenty of laughs that came not only from the speeches, but the translation interpretation as well.
We were running very behind schedule at this point. We were about an hour behind! Reason being was that we were having so much fun on the steamship boat, that he ended up going around for an extra 30 minutes. We also ended up spending more time than expected taking pictures outside during sunset…so that led to us being one hour behind. The original idea was to move everyone from the Sala Toscanini dining room to the terrace for the cake cutting. But that would’ve added an additional 30 minutes to the evening and music and dancing had to end promptly at 12AM because of other guests in the hotel. Therefore, we decided to keep the cake cutting exclusively to best man and bridesmaid in order to get more time in for dancing and drinking.
Thinking back, we should’ve at least have invited our family to join quickly…I feel bad, but in the moment I wasn’t thinking. Regardless, while the pictures look stunning – because they are! – I promise it was actually much darker than the pictures led on. You couldn’t see much, so I don’t think people missed out on much. Although the setting was beautiful!
We came back in and the cake was rolled out into room as we began our first dances. Pat and mine’s first dance was to Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, I Love You Baby by Frank Sinatra under a tapestry of reds and crystal chandeliers. We had talked about whether he would be picking me up extensively at any point since that’s the classic approach to the dance. But Pat didn’t want to blow out his back. He wasn’t planning on lifting me off my feet, but in the moment he picked me up and spun me around. I was so surprised and delighted! What a heaven-sent moment that was. To have the man I love twirling me on the dance floor surrounded by all the people we loved.
Next, we did our respective father-daughter and mother-son dances. I danced to My Girl by The Temptations with my dad and Pat danced to Days of Wine & Roses by Frank Sinatra. We kept the dances under a minute so that people wouldn’t have to sit through it all and could join us up on the dance floor. The music turned to Uptown Funk out of nowhere, the lights went out, the sax player reappeared, the open bar opened up, and the after party began.
We opened up the dance floor for about an hour of dancing. If you know me, you know I LOVE to dance. There is nothing more I love to do than to dance – but just to good music. I was a dancer after all for 9 years of my life. So I made sure we had the perfect playlist, made sure the sax player could play along to the modern songs, ensured there was a song for all ages and may I say – I got everyone dancing. Even people who said they would not dance. They were dancing.
Our friend Max had been wearing a straw fedora all day. Somehow, the straw fedora became the center of the evening. I swear, I have a picture or video of almost every single person who attended the wedding wearing the hat. So that’s what you see pictured above. The sharing of the hat, a communal gesture that showed how close we all were. It brought us even closer together. The evening included a short guest appearance from a Golden Retriever from one of the hotel guests. The dog heard the commotion and ran into the room to dance with us. Another great addition to the evening.
Of course, we had to do the traditional bouquet toss. The first time, I completely botched it and hit the chandelier and it fell flat on the floor. But the second time was the charm. My bridesmaid ended up catching it, hope she’s next!!!
The clock struck 12 and the party was over. Our destination wedding in Italy had come to an end. But not completely…Pat and I bid our sweet adieus to family and friends who weren’t staying at the hotel and who we wouldn’t see the next day. As a parting gift, we gave them a local jar of honey to signify these sweet memories and a quick tie to our “honeymoon” that was to follow in France.
After sweating to death – but actually – we were all drenched (thank you Emma for carrying around one of those small fan misters and sharing it with us), we all of course had to go for a customary 1AM dip in the lake too cool down. We all ran upstairs to get into our suits, grabbed some last minute drinks, and headed down to the lake for a swim under the moon. I couldn’t have imagined ending the night any other way. I used to end the night this way back in my youth with my friends in the nearby town of Feriolo on Lago Maggiore. And now I got to share this same emotion and experience with my American friends.
That night, Pat and I couldn’t fall asleep for the life of us. We were way too jazzed up on energy. But at 3AM, we managed to try and get some shut eye. We were waking up at 8AM the next morning to say goodbyes at breakfast at Grand Hotel Majestic and packing and leaving for our honeymoon in France that day.
The next morning we said our really bitter-sweet goodbyes. Why couldn’t this last longer? Why didn’t we force people to stay for 3 days so we could all hang out together? When would be the next time we had all the people we love in one place together? Our highly-anticipated destination wedding in Italy had finally come to an end. We went from being on an utter high to an utter low for the next 5 days. As people kept sharing pictures and videos of our wedding with us over the next few days, Patrick and I ended up falling into what is called a post-wedding depression. It was short-lived, about a week or so, but it’s real thing and something I didn’t know existed. However, we eventually turned a page and were able to see it for what it was – the most amazing and unforgettable loving day of our lives thanks to Grand Hotel Majestic, Lago Maggiore, the guests, and all of our vendors – hands down.
~ Full Wedding Video By Studio Dolce Vita ~
Read my article on why you need to book Studio Dolce Vita as your videographer, here.
>> Next: Grand Hotel Majestic: The Magic of A Lake Maggiore Hotel Review
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