Rustic chic styled shoot at Villa Garibalda

With beautiful soft lights and colours and an early Italian summer, our styled shoot would like to show you a hidden gem, an undisclosed spot in Northern Italy. 

As destination wedding photographers, we at L&V Photography are quite used to travel in and around Italy and Europe to the most particular and renown locations and venues: but we know the talents and the beauty we also have next to our doorsteps. Lombardy is not just busy and bustling cities like Milan, with its industrial and frenetic life: the countryside can leave you speechless. 

This could represents a new perspective of what our hills could offer for your wedding day or elopement. 

Our countryside is just as beautiful as other sweet Italian hills that you are used to admire in so many wedding blogs. Still having those “Tuscan Vibes” that in general Italian countryside can really offer.

So here we are, we gathered an amazing group of creative vendors in this beautiful villa up in the hills between Lombardy and Piedmont, near Tortona, just roughly 70 kilometers form Milano and its airports. 

Ourselves and the rest of this amazing team of creative vendors wanted to tell a story, reflecting the romantic vibes that Villa Garibalda gifted us with. 

The project was inspired by the soft tones, the beautiful garden, the gorgeous details for an “al fresco wedding”. But also, thanks to that beautiful conservatory and the flourishing rose garden patio: those pretty details allowed us to have a traditional english touch to the shooting. Not only, the beautiful hills and countryside we were surrounded by inspired all of us: this rustic-chic styled shoot was held at the beginning of June, when early summer is at its best in Italy.

The light and the stunning landscape put accent on the charm of the bride and her dress by “Le Spose di Andrea”: Andrea choose his very romantic dress Biancospino, that we complemented with the always so oh-stunning sparkly shoes by Anniel. If you’re looking for something particular but extremely versatile for any style of dress, have a look at their beautiful shoes!

Her hair and make up were elegantly done by Lina Pagano: we choose a natural style, to highlight her beauty in such an enchanting and delicate way.

The rings, so quirky and stylish but still very romantic with a vintage touch, were by Golden Age Lab  one of our favourite craftsman in Italy: Luca creates stunning pieces, not only as wedding bands but also gorgeous engagement rings. Definitely worth a visit to his website too!

As for the flowers, the lovely design was made by La Fioreria: they opted for a composition of "Blow of cream” Peonies, Tulips, Muscari, Lisianthus, Rose “Mundial", Poppy bulbs Eucalyptus leaves and we all absolutely adored it. 

Hello Sunshine Party Wedding Planner set up the beautiful sweet table and as you can see the design and display is just gorgeous! And talking about sweets...we got a sweet tooth thanks to Didi’s Cake who provided us with the cake, macarons, donuts and all the other bonbons. The sweet design was, as you can see, an important part of the shooting, as we could have many details in light blue. So lovely and...delicious! 

Photography: Leti | L&V Photography

Venue: Villa Garibalda

Wedding planner: Hello sunshine party

Floral design: La fioreria

Bridal dress: Le spose di Andrea

Make up and hairstyle: Lina Pagano

Rings: My Golden Age

Cake design: Didi’s cake

Shoes: Anniel

Model: Lavinia Restano

Giulia + Marcello - engagement

Well, you know how much we love to work in our beloved hills. With Giulia and Marcello we decided not to go too far from home, in a quiet field where we could see the countryside from above. They simply made all the rest: they danced in a wheat field, laughed hard sitting on the ground, with their back against a pile of wood ready for winter time, they listened to a sweet tune, holding each other and looking in each other's eyes... and we were there, shooting and getting emotional, for a love that we had the privilege to see growing day by day.

Soon their wedding will be on the blog, and in the meantime, enjoy this summer afternoon with them

Ormai lo sapete quanto ci piace lavorare sulle nostre colline. Con Giulia e Marcello abbiamo deciso di non fare troppa strada, e di cercare un posticino tranquillo, panoramico, vicino a casa. Loro hanno fatto tutto il resto: hanno ballato in un campo di grano, riso come matti seduti per terra, di fronte a una catasta di legna già pronta per l'inverno, ascoltato una canzone romantica abbracciandosi e guardandosi negli occhi... e noi eravamo lì a scattare, commuovendo per questo amore, che abbiamo visto nascere, crescere e fiorire giorno dopo giorno.

Fra poco pubblicheremo il loro matrimonio su queste pagine, ma nel frattempo, godetevi questo pomeriggio d'estate in loro compagnia.

Letizia - Branding

How we love to portray someone in their natural environment! For Letizia it was between brushes and lipsticks, eyeshadows and glosses. All of her weapons are made for one single purpose: to make women even more beautiful than what they already are, to empower them and let them feel confident, to highlight their best features and make them discover new ones.

That's exactly what every bride would need on her wedding day! A makeup artist you can trust, and feel at ease with. And if she has Letizia's lovely smile, it's even better to make you feel welcomed and relaxed.

Discover Letizia's work on her page.

Francesca + Filippo - couple session in the hills

You know how much we love to shoot couples: love sessions are just our fav, and we are even happier when our couples open the door of their houses to let us into their world. We really have the chance to know them better, and that's vitally important for our work. This time we couldn't be more at ease with this easy going, cat lover, tv series freak pair. And as they love the place where we live as much as we do, we just took the car and drove around the hills to find the best spots. And believe us, it was worth it.

Sapete quanto ci piace fotografare coppie: le love session sono fra i nostri servizi preferiti, e siamo ancora più felici quando le nostre coppie ci aprono le porte della loro casa, e ci lasciano mettere piede nel loro mondo. Riusciamo a conoscerli meglio, a diventare qualcosa in più di fotografi e clienti, e questo per noi è fondamentale per fare bene il nostro lavoro. Questa volta non potevamo trovarci più a nostro agio, con Francesca e Filippo: rilassati, divertenti, amanti dei gatti e delle serie tv, proprio come noi. In più, visto che anche loro adorano le nostre colline, non hanno avuto da ridire alla nostra idea di salire in macchina e semplicemente guidare senza meta, in cerca dei posti migliori. E credeteci, ne è valsa la pena.

Valentina + Domenico - a winter engagement

We are always a bit worried when planning an engagement session during winter. We know very well that light plays the most important role in our work, and winter round here can be foggy and moody: not exactly the light we love! Anyway, with Valentina and Domenico, we completely made up our minds: winter light can be beautiful, soft and dreamy as in the best summer sunsets, and we couldn't be happier with the way the photos turned out!

Of course, we also need to thank our subjects: the shared laughs, the way they look at each other, and their easy going mood really allowed us to connect with them. And in our work, connection with our clients is the key. 

Siamo sempre un po' in ansia quando programmiamo un servizio di coppia in inverno. Sappiamo molto bene che la luce gioca un ruolo fondamentale nel nostro lavoro, e l'inverno da queste parti prevede solitamente nebbia e grigiore: non esattamente il tipo di atmosfera che preferiamo! Eppure, con Valentina e Domenico, ci siamo dovute ricredere: la luce invernale può essere splendida, dolce e delicata, come quella dei migliori tramonti d'estate, e non potremmo essere più felici del risultato di queste foto.

Ovvio, dobbiamo ringraziare anche i nostri soggetti: le risate condivise, il modo in cui si guardano, la loro disinvoltura davanti all'obiettivo, ci ha davvero permesso di stabilire con loro una bella connessione, e questo è il vero segreto per far bene il nostro lavoro.