Villa Erba Wedding Videographer, Lake Como

Villa Erba sits on the western shore of Lake Como in Cernobbio, a short way along the lake from Villa d'Este. It is one of the few places on the lake that can take a wedding of a hundred guests or many more without anyone feeling squeezed, and it still looks like a private villa rather than an event hall.

We filmed Anna and Marc's wedding here in July 2026: around a hundred guests, a ceremony at five in the afternoon, a boat out on the lake before dinner, a live band and burgers at midnight. This guide is what we learned from that day, plus the background you will want before booking.

A villa with a film history

The villa was built in 1897 by Luigi Erba, on land that once held a fifteenth century Benedictine monastery. It is a square building with arcades on all four sides, a tower, and a wide staircase that runs down to the water.

In 1922 it passed to Carla Erba, the mother of the director Luchino Visconti, and Visconti spent part of his childhood here. In 1986 a public consortium bought the estate, and since then the grounds have also held a modern exhibition and congress centre, kept apart from the historic villa. Film crews keep coming back: Ocean's Twelve shot scenes here in 2004, and more recently The Old Guard 2.

The park covers around ten hectares of English garden along the shore. That space is the main reason couples choose it.

Size and capacity

Most Lake Como villas top out somewhere between eighty and 150 seated guests. Villa Erba plays in a different league. According to the venue's own brochure, the ground floor of the villa seats 450, the central hall takes 500 for dancing, and gala dinners can go up to 1,200 using the pavilion. There is a private dock for boats and parking for 360 cars, and the A9 motorway exit is about a kilometre away.

For a wedding of eighty to two hundred guests, that means you can use the villa's historic rooms for dinner and still have separate spaces for the aperitivo, the dancing and a late-night bar, without moving anyone off site.

Ceremony rules are worth checking early. Symbolic ceremonies in the park are common. If you want a legal civil ceremony, confirm with the villa and the Comune di Cernobbio whether it can be held on site or needs to happen at the town hall first.

How Anna and Marc's day ran

Their planners, Endevents, built the day around the light and the lake, and it is a good template for Villa Erba.

• Getting ready. The groom got ready at Villa d'Este with his mother and sister, so we started the day a few minutes along the shore before moving to Villa Erba.
• Ceremony at 5pm. Late enough that the worst of the July heat had passed, early enough to leave the evening light for later.
• Aperitivo from 5:30 to 7pm in the garden, with family photos around 6pm.
• A 45 minute boat ride at 6:30pm. The couple went out on the lake while guests carried on with the aperitivo. That half hour on the water gave us the calmest footage of the day.
• Dinner at 7:30pm in the villa's dining room, with a live band between courses and speeches around 9pm.
• First dance and cake in the club area, followed by a dress change and dancing from 9:30pm, a photo booth, and burgers at midnight to finish.

The short clip at the top of this page is from their first dance in the club area. The band played live, Anna and Marc danced and sang along with them, and the camera kept circling the two of them through the whole moment.

Two of us filmed the day, with a drone for the wide shots of the villa and the shore. For a wedding of this size, two videographers are the minimum: one stays with the couple while the other covers the guests, the speeches and everything happening in parallel.

What Villa Erba looks like on film

The villa faces east across the water, so the sun sets behind the building and the hills rather than over the lake. In practice that means warm light on the facade and the far shore in the last hour before sunset, and the lawn falling into soft shade earlier than you might expect. We plan portraits on the lakefront and the staircase for that window, and use the boat for the moment the light is best on the water.

The park is the other big asset. A ten hectare garden lets us film couple portraits in quiet corners while a hundred guests carry on around the villa, which is very hard to do at smaller properties. The arcades give shade and structure in the harder afternoon light.

Inside, the rooms are large and high-ceilinged. They make good dinner spaces, but they need proper lighting design for the evening. Talk to your planner about warm light in the dining room, because it changes how the film looks after dark more than any camera setting.

Practical notes

Getting there. Villa Erba is about ten minutes from Como station. Milan Malpensa is roughly 45 minutes by car and Linate about an hour, according to the venue.

Villa d'Este next door. Many couples put guests at Villa d'Este or other Cernobbio hotels. The two estates are close along the lakefront road, which makes getting ready at one and marrying at the other easy, as Anna and Marc did.

Budget. Recent guides put the evening rental at around €26,000 to €30,000 plus VAT, before catering. Our Lake Como wedding cost guide breaks down the rest of the budget.

Season. May, June and September are the most comfortable months. July works, as Anna and Marc's day showed, if the ceremony moves to late afternoon.

Frequently asked questions

How many guests can Villa Erba host for a wedding?

Far more than most Lake Como villas. The villa's ground floor seats around 450, and with the pavilion the venue lists gala dinners for up to 1,200. Most weddings we see there are between eighty and two hundred guests.

Can you have a wedding ceremony at Villa Erba?

Symbolic ceremonies in the park are common. For a legal civil ceremony, check with the venue and the Comune di Cernobbio whether it can take place on site.

Is Villa Erba near Villa d'Este?

Yes. Both are in Cernobbio on the western shore of the lake, a short drive or boat ride apart, so couples often use one for getting ready or guest rooms and the other for the wedding.

How many videographers do we need at Villa Erba?

For around a hundred guests, two. The estate is large and things happen in parallel, so one camera with the couple and one with the guests is what keeps the film complete.

Planning a wedding at Villa Erba or elsewhere on Lake Como? Get in touch with your date, and see more of our lake weddings on the work page. For more venues, read our list of the top Lake Como wedding venues.