Getting married in Desenzano del Garda
Desenzano del Garda is a harbour town on the south-western shore of Lake Garda, in the province of Brescia, and it is the part of the lake that is easiest to reach: the town has its own railway station and its own motorway exit, so guests can arrive without a long plan. For a wedding that matters. The old harbour, the castle on the hill, the cathedral and the piazzas along the lakefront are all within a few streets of each other, and most of a wedding day can be walked.
The town is older than its postcards. The castle was built around the year 1000 to protect the shore from raids, follows the plan of the old Roman camp and was enlarged in the fifteenth century. The Venetians rebuilt the old port in 1454 to make Desenzano a trading harbour, and the harbour basin is still the centre of the town, lined with arcades. The baroque cathedral of Santa Maria Maddalena, designed by Giulio Todeschini, was built between 1586 and 1611 on the site of the old parish church. On the edge of the centre lies the Roman villa, built in the first century BC and covering about eleven thousand square metres, one of the most important Roman villas in northern Italy, which was discovered only in the 1920s.
In summer Piazza Malvezzi and Piazza Matteotti fill with café tables, shops and ice-cream stands, and three long beaches run along the shore. For a bride it means a lively town, a lot of light off the water and a lot of people on the pavement, which is worth knowing before the photographer plans a walk from the harbour to the cathedral.
Wedding makeup artist in Desenzano del Garda: at a glance
- Artist
- Elena Potapenko, bridal hair and makeup, 18+ years of experience
- Based in
- Veneto, Italy; travels to Desenzano del Garda for weddings
- Specialty
- Bridal hair and makeup by one artist, with a trial before the day, plus hair and makeup for the mother of the bride and the bridal party
- Languages
- English, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian
- Booking
- Check whether your date is free
Where weddings happen in Desenzano
Desenzano gives a couple a civil registry, a castle, a harbour and a long waterfront within walking distance. Each one asks something different of the morning.
The town hall and the civil registry
Civil ceremonies are arranged with the civil registry office of the Comune di Desenzano. The room is booked through the commune’s online service, up to twenty days before the ceremony, and the ceremony can only take place once the marriage banns are complete. Couples who live abroad and are not Italian citizens are exempt from the banns, but they send their documents at least ten days ahead and make a verbal declaration at the registry office at least two days before the wedding. The commune asks the couple and the two witnesses to arrive about thirty minutes before the time, and a couple who do not speak Italian bring an interpreter with a valid identity document. This is the practical side that decides your morning, so ask the registry which room you have been given.
The castle on the hill
The castle above the old town is the landmark that frames Desenzano in photographs: stone walls from the year 1000, enlarged in the fifteenth century, with the roofs and the lake below. It is a place to photograph the couple, and the ceremony rooms the commune uses are agreed with the registry. The climb is on foot, so the dress, the shoes and the veil come into the plan.
The old harbour and Palazzo Todeschini
The old harbour, rebuilt in 1454, is where Desenzano looks most like a postcard: a basin ringed by arcades, the arcaded Palazzo Todeschini on its edge, and a lighthouse at the end of the mole, begun in 1806 in a northern style. In the last hour before sunset the stone and the water take the same warm light, which is when most couples take their photographs here.
The lakefront, the piazzas and the beaches
Piazza Malvezzi and Piazza Matteotti are the places for a first toast with friends and for a walk through the town, and the beaches of Desenzanino and Spiaggia d’Oro are where the shore opens up. Early morning and late evening are the quiet hours. In the middle of the day the lakefront is full of visitors, which belongs in the timeline from the beginning.
These are places where couples marry in and around Desenzano, not a list of Elena’s past jobs. If your ceremony is at a villa, a restaurant or a hotel elsewhere on the shore, the plan works the same way: write the venue and the time, and the morning is counted back from there.