Top Ten Wedding Locations In Europe

                                                              No.1  Villa Del Balbianello

The Villa del Balbianello is a villain the comune of Lenno(province of Como, a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy, overlooking Lake Como. It is located on the tip of the small wooded peninsula of Dosso d’Avedo on the western shore of the south-west branch of Lake Como, not far from the Isola Comacina, and is famous for its elaborate terraced gardens.

No.2 Château de Versailles

Your questions might be: “Can you get married at the Chateau de Versailles?”

Yes, you can get married at the Palace of Versailles. You no longer need to be royalty to get married like a royal – when you choose our luxury wedding planners to plan your celebration at Palace of Versailles, you‘ll have an exclusive venue that hosts fewer than 5-6 weddings each year.

The Palace of Versailles was the principal royal residence of France from 1682, under Louis XVI, until the start of the French Revolution in 1789, under Louis XVI.

 It is located in the department of Yvelines, in the region of Île-de-France, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the center of Paris.

A simple hunting lodging and later a small château with a moat occupied the site until 1661 when the first work expanding the château into a palace was carried out for Louis XIV. 

In 1682, when the palace had become large enough, the king moved the entire royal court and the French government to Versailles. Some of the palace furniture at this time was constructed of solid silver, but in 1689 much of it was melted down to pay for the cost of war. 

Subsequent rulers mostly carried out interior remodeling, to meet the demands of changing taste, although Louis XV did install an opera house at the north end of the north wing for the wedding of the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette in 1770. The palace has also been a site of historical importance. 

The Peace of Paris (1783) was signed at Versailles, the Proclamation of the German Empire occurred in the vaunted Hall of Mirrors, and World War I was ended in the palace with the Treaty of Versailles, among many other events.

The palace is now a historical monument and UNESCO World Heritage site, notable especially for the ceremonial Hall of Mirrors, the jewel-like Royal Opera, and the royal apartments; for the more intimate royal residences.

The Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon located within the park; the small rustic Hameau (Hamlet) created for Marie Antoinette, and the vast gardens of Versailles with fountains, canals, and geometric flower beds and groves, laid out by Andre le Notre.

The Palace was stripped of all its furnishings after the French Revolution, but many pieces have been returned and many of the palace rooms have been restored.

No.3 Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the “largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”.

 Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park in Middlesex, England, its living collections includes some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens.

The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. 

It is one of London’s top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.

Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst in Sussex are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs over 1,100 staff and is a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the  Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Kew site, which has been dated as formally starting in 1759, though it can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Henry, Lord Capell of Tewkesbury consists of 132 hectares (330 acres) of gardens and botanical greenhouses, four Grade I listed buildings, and 36 Grade II listed structures, all set in an internationally significant landscape.

See this beautiful family session I did at Kew Gardens.

 It is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

No.4 Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

Also called villa Île-de-France, is a French seaside villa-located at Saint – Jean – Cap – Ferrat on the French Riviera.

The villa was designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah and constructed between 1905 and 1912 by Baroness Beatrice de Rothschild (1864–1934).

A member of the Rothschild banking family and the wife of the banker Baron Maurice de Ephrussi, Béatrice de Rothschild built her rose-colored villa on a promontory on the isthmus of Cap Ferrat overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Baroness filled the mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objects d’art, and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain. The gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.

On her death in 1934, the Baroness donated the property and its collections to the Academie des Beaux-arts division of the Institut de France and it is now open to the public.

No.5 Villa Balbiano 

The villa is in the small town of Ossuccio, one of the oldest on Lake Como. The first historical trace of the name Balbiano is found in a document dated 941.

The historian  Paolo Giovio(1483–1552) wrote of the place where his family possessed magnificent houses and lands planted with mulberries and olives.

In 1596, Ottavio Giovio (Paolo’s great-nephew) sold the villa to Tolomeo Gallio, who later became the first Duke of Alvito. The idea began to take shape in his mind of building a villa at Balbiano worthy of the family’s new status. 

In 1637 the owner was Marco Gallio. When he died, on August 13, 1638, the four outer walls of the villa with their gneiss, plinth course and most of the partition walls on the three floors had been built, but the finishing work had not been done. Only the cornice had been built for the roof. 

Ownership of Balbiano then passed into the hands of Carlo Gallio!

As we read engraved on an eighteenth-century plaque at the villa, it was Carlo, Marchese of Isola, who continued construction.

Another plaque, also from the eighteenth century, says that in 1680, the Marchese Giacomo Gallo celebrated the completion of the building, which he had enriched with fine stuccowork and elaborate frescoes, gardens, and fountains.

No.6 Château de Villette

The Château de Villette is a château located in Condécourt, France 40 km (24.8 mi) northwest of Paris. There are numerous outbuildings including a chapel and adjacent reception room, horse stable, and greenhouse!

More than 185 acres of garden were designed by André Le Nôtre and spread out behind the château in the central axis with two rectangular lakes filled with swans, ducks, birds, and fishes, as well as a cascade and fountain that resembles the one at Louis XVI’s Château de Marly, surmounted by Neptune.

The grounds provide outdoor activities for the château guests, including jogging, biking, and hunting. There is also a swimming pool and a tennis court. 

Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Le Nôtre designed the Palace of Versailles at the same time as they designed the Château de Villette in the 1680s. Therefore, Villette was nicknamed Le petit Versailles (“the little Versailles”).

No.7 Rocabella Santorini, Greece

Santorini is one of the best destinations for a honeymoon in Europe and one of the best destinations for a wedding in Europe. Different wedding planners organize ceremonies on the island. You can also organize your wedding yourself by contacting the teams of the hotel of your choice.

Once you’ve picked your wedding destination, planning your wedding is easy and effortless, with the expert help of the people of Rocabella Weddings.

For them, utter happiness comes in six simple steps, six steps you will follow under our guidance to create the Santorini wedding of your dreams.

Leave all the details to the hands of our professional planners; then all that is left is for you to have the best time of your life in Santorini!

No.8 Peleș Castle

Peleș Castle in Romanian: Castelul Peleș is a Neo-Renaissance castle in the Carpathian Mountains, near Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, on an existing medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia, built between 1873 and 1914.

Its inauguration was held in 1883. It was constructed for King Karol I.

The complex is northwest of the town of Sinaia, which is 48 kilometers (30 mi) from Brasov and 124 kilometers (77 mi) from Bucharest. In the southeastern Carpathian Mountains, the complex is composed of three monuments: Peleș Castle, Pelișor Castle, and the Foișor Hunting Lodge.

When King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914), under whose reign the country gained its independence, first visited the site of the future castle in 1866, he fell in love with the magnificent mountain scenery. In 1872, the Crown purchased 5 square kilometers of land near the Piatra Arsă River. 

The estate was named the Royal Estate of Sinaia.

The King commissioned the construction of a royal hunting preserve and summer retreat on the property, and the foundation was laid for Peleș Castle on 22 August 1873.

Several auxiliary buildings were built simultaneously with the castle: the guards’ chambers, the Economic Building, the Foișor hunting lodge, the royal stables, and a power plant.

 Peleș became the world’s first castle fully powered by locally produced electricity.

No.9 Villa Astor, Amalfi Coast

Overlooking the Bay of Naples, this majestic property rises sheer above the sea on a cliff. With arguably one of the greatest views in the world and a splendor rarely seen, both inside and outside, Villa Astor has quite rightfully been labeled “Paradise”. 

With a long history that can be traced back to the 1st century A.D., when Agrippa Postumus, grandson of Emperor Augustus, first made it his residence, Villa Astor has long been a home and a destination for the rich and noble. 

Purchased by one of the wealthiest men at the time, Lord William Waldorf Astor, in 1905, the Villa became his passion project as he enlarged the territory and designed a splendid garden at the back of the house where a Dominican monastery once stood.

His final addition to the property was the “Pompeiian” villa, which he decorated with Ionic columns and neo-classical frescoes by a Roman artist, Mario Spinetti.

 After his death, the Villa underwent a period of obscurity, though even during this time it still attracted notable figures, such as Benedetto Croce, the revered Italian philosopher, and politician, who lived there during the Second World War. 

In the 1970s, Villa Astor was acquired by a wealthy family, Mariano Pane and his wife, who welcomed many illustrious guests including Princess Margaret, Rudolf Nuriev, Gregory Peck, Sofia Loren, Franco Zeffirelli and Gianni Agnelli. 

Today, Villa Astor sets the benchmark for luxury accommodation on Amalfi Coast and has been named as a dream vacation home by many luxury lifestyle and travel publications such as Town & Country, Quintessence, Forbes, Bloomberg, and the Telegraph.

No.10 Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane

Hyde Park corner in central London. It was built in 1970 as the Inn on the Park London.

Until 2007 the hotel was owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Hotel Investments.

Then the royal family of Bahrain, Al Khalifa, bought it recently.

“We pride ourselves on curating seamless personalized experiences from start to finish, with a passion for service and excellence, and creating unforgettable moments.”

SASHA TAYLOR DIRECTOR OF EVENTS

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