Franciacorta · Villas and wineries, seen by a photographer

Wedding venues in Franciacorta:
the ones we love most

In this guide

Villa Calini

Villa Monte Rossa

Due Colombe

Villa Fassati Barba

Bersi Serlini

Vivilo al Priore

There are plenty of guides to wedding venues in Franciacorta. Almost all of them tell you how many guests fit and how big the park is. Useful, no doubt.

But there is a part nobody usually tells you: what actually happens in there on the wedding day. Where the sun hits at six in the evening, where you go if it rains, how far you have to walk for a few couple photos without disappearing for an hour.

That is the part I can tell you about. This isn’t a catalogue: these are six historic villas and wineries in Franciacorta that Ilaria and I are particularly fond of, described through the eyes of someone who works there on the day.

Before you choose

Five questions to ask the venue

I won’t tell you to pick your venue based on the photographer. That would be like choosing a house based on the sofa.

But when you go and see one, there are five things worth asking, because they are the ones that end up making a difference in the photos too.

1. Where the ceremony takes place, and at what time. At four in the afternoon and at half past six the light is completely different, and you can see it in the photos.
2. What the rain plan is. Knowing that “there’s a hall” is not enough: go and see it, and ask if you can look at photos of a few receptions held in there. In some places it is as beautiful as the outdoors, in others it is a fallback.
3. How far apart the spaces are. If you need the car to get to the couple photos, ten minutes become forty, and your guests are left without you.
4. What the lighting is like in the evening. Fairy lights, candles, lamps: after sunset they are what makes the photos, far more than people think.
5. Whether a civil ceremony can be held on site. Not every venue is licensed for it, and in Italy today more than half of all weddings are civil.

Coccaglio

Villa Calini

“Those lights shouldn’t be corrected. They should be followed.”

It is one of the venues we are happiest to go back to. We have photographed many weddings here, and every time we have found a new corner.

The civil ceremony can be held in the kitchen garden, under a pergola of climbing plants. It is a special spot, and the light there changes a lot within a few minutes. When the low sun hits the couple straight in the face, photographing them gets harder; just before or just after, the light becomes almost unreal. If you choose the kitchen garden, the time of the ceremony is worth thinking through.

For the couple photos you don’t need to go far. In front of the gate, in the right season, there is a wheat field: towards evening you work against the light, and it is one of our favourite spots anywhere. Then there are the villa’s staircase, the main portico, the interiors and the garden around the kitchen garden. Many spots close to each other, so the couple photos take a few minutes, without taking the couple away from their guests.

Dinner is served at one long table under the climbing plants, with unusual lighting. At first it seemed to us a difficult place to photograph. Then we understood that those lights shouldn’t be corrected but followed, and some of our favourite evening photos came out of that. If the weather doesn’t hold, the reception moves into the villa’s rooms, which are beautiful in their own right: it has happened to us, and nothing was missing.

The kitchen is that of Alessandro Cappotto’s restaurant, and there isn’t much to add on that front.

It suits couples looking for an elegant historic villa, with generous spaces that never feel dispersive, and precise organisation. The day is run by Rossella, with a precision and punctuality that help everyone, suppliers included.

Bornato

Villa Monte Rossa

“It’s one of those places where all you need to do is wait for the right moment.”

Another of the places I love most. What I like above all is that it is a real winery: you can feel that wine is made here all year round, not just on the wedding day.

The civil ceremony is often held at the foot of an avenue of cypresses that climbs gently towards a small church. Behind the couple is the avenue and, at the end of it, the church: one of the most beautiful backdrops in Franciacorta, with no need to add anything.

We use that avenue afterwards too. We usually have the couple walk up to the little church for a few photos up there, but we don’t set ourselves limits. Then there are the vine rows, of course, and a wall covered in Virginia creeper in front of which, at sunset, the light turns warm and enveloping. It’s one of those places where all you need to do is wait for the right moment.

Coordinating everything is Laura: easy-going, always available, professional and punctual, for both the ceremony and the reception. The food is very good and, as you can imagine, the wine is even better.

The couples I have met here wanted a truly beautiful place, but a practical one too: no huge, dispersive spaces, rather an intimate setting where beauty and practicality go together.

Borgonato

Due Colombe

“For me it’s a place close to the heart.”

For me it’s a place close to the heart, for two reasons. The first is that this is where I worked on my very first wedding, Mina and Enrico’s, back when I was still an assistant. The second is that a few years later, Ilaria and I got married here.

Mina and Enrico had their civil ceremony at the monastery of San Pietro in Lamosa, which looks directly onto the Torbiere nature reserve, and then the reception at Due Colombe, ten minutes down the road. We copied the idea without any shame: as an alternative to a ceremony at the venue, it is a hard combination to beat.

Today Due Colombe can host the civil ceremony too, which wasn’t possible when we got married. The ones I have photographed took place in the olive garden, an intimate spot with a close, quiet atmosphere.

The place is shaped like a small village, and the whole day unfolds inside it: the aperitif under the portico, between the veranda and the garden, then dinner in a deconsecrated church. It is a tall, airy space, and in the evening, with the candles, it always makes an impression. Since dinner is indoors anyway, rain is not a problem here.

For the couple photos there is the olive garden at the back and, if they let us in, the barrel cellar, which is stunning. There is also the production area with the machinery: a more industrial image, but it is a real part of the winery and I like it a lot.

Then there is the kitchen of Stefano Cerveni, a Michelin-starred chef: in my opinion one of the best restaurants in the whole province. And there is Denise, who runs the day with great experience and punctuality.

Passirano

Villa Fassati Barba

“For the couple photos, you’re spoilt for choice.”

It is probably one of the best-known venues in Franciacorta, and it is easy to see why. Every time we are called to work here we are glad: it is a fairly unique place of its kind.

In front of the villa the garden is on two levels: a higher, raised one, and a larger one a little further down, under a canopy of fairy lights. In good weather dinner is usually served down there, sometimes in the upper garden. Either way it works beautifully.

Next to the garden is the lemon house. It’s used for the dancing, but also for the ceremony, and it is gorgeous: the light comes in sideways from both ends.

Then there are the interiors, which for photos are a goldmine: the frescoed rooms, the windows, the period furniture and above all the indoor staircase. If you have seen our photos, you have already met that staircase.

For the couple photos you’re spoilt for choice. They can be done in the garden, perhaps under the fairy lights as it starts to get dark and the guests haven’t sat down yet; or inside the villa, on the staircase, by the windows, in the frescoed rooms or in the lemon house.

If it rains nothing is lost: it is one of those places where the indoor option is as beautiful as the outdoor one.

The venue is run by Agnese, who is very kind, easy-going and above all able to make everything work. Catering is external, so the food depends on who you choose.

Provaglio d’Iseo

Bersi Serlini

“The couple from behind, and in front of them all the guests under the lights of the courtyard.”

In Franciacorta, Bersi Serlini is a name that speaks for itself: a well-known winery, visited by many foreigners who come specifically to taste the wines. And you can tell: there is an international feel to it.

It is also one of the most interesting places in the area architecturally. Wood and glass blend together and leave a modern courtyard at the centre, where dinner is usually served under the fairy lights. At one of the weddings we photographed here, the aperitif was held indoors, in the glazed section.

The opening toast, on the other hand, takes place down in the cellar, under soft lights: one of the most evocative moments of the day, and one of the best to photograph.

All around are the vineyards, and that is where we take the couple for their photos. If you manage to catch the sunset hour, the result is worth the wait.

The cake is cut on a small grassy mound, a couple of metres high. From there you can take a photo I like a lot: the couple from behind as they cut the cake, and in front of them all the guests under the lights of the courtyard.

Rain is not a problem: at the first wedding I did here, dinner moved inside the building without a hitch.

The venue is run by Sebastiano and Carlotta, two really kind people.

Cazzago San Martino

Vivilo al Priore

“Modern, almost Scandinavian interiors, and spaces designed for today’s weddings.”

It is a new venue, part of the Vivilo group, and compared with the historic villas of the area it goes in a different direction: modern, almost Scandinavian interiors, and spaces designed specifically for today’s weddings.

Simona and Federico got married in church and came here for the reception. The aperitif took place in the lower part, with buffet islands and even a craft beer counter. Dinner was in the upper garden, under the fairy lights: in the evening, for a photographer, they are a real help.

The spot I liked most is a kind of greenhouse with a wooden floor. At our wedding it hosted part of the aperitif buffet and then the dessert table. It is not a huge space, but in front of that greenhouse, in the warm light at the end of the day, we took some of my favourite couple photos from that wedding.

It suits couples looking for something more contemporary than the historic villa, with a relaxed, well-curated reception.