Inside a Lake Como wedding with secret tunnels, fireworks and a plunge into the lake

Patel, whose favourite colour is white, chose a colour palette featuring gold and white against the emerald garden and sapphire lake. “I wanted the entire ceremony to feel like a continuation of the dreamiest garden we were in and to feel like we were on clouds,” she explains. The mandap became an ethereal installation of baby’s breath cascading in abundance while she carried lily of the valley down the aisle. Classic white Italian iron chairs flanked the aisle, and her mother selected Indian flute music. In her final act of connection to the sacred ground, Patel kicked off her Louboutin flats and walked barefoot to meet Ekhlassi.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds boarded a classic Riva boat as daytime colour-bomb fireworks exploded in brilliant bursts over the lake. Without warning a soul, both bride and groom launched themselves into Como’s crystalline waters with their wedding attire on.

That evening, the black-tie reception transformed Villa Gastel, a 12th-century Benedictine convent still owned by the Gastel family. Cocktail hour on the front lawn gave way to dinner in the candlelit courtyard, where Chef Gaurav Anand of CGA Events orchestrated a feast honouring both cultures: Gujarati specialities, a Persian station with fragrant chicken joojeh kebab, lamb koobideh, and golden tahdig rice with its signature crispy crust, plus a cigar bar and hookah lounge.

Patel made two wardrobe changes. First, she wore a Seema Gujral white and silver lehenga styled with Jennifer Behr Zena crystal earrings and custom moon and star crystal brooches that transformed her odhni into a cape. Matching hairpins studded her hair, while Larroude silver sandals completed the celestial theme. Ekhlassi wore a custom Suit Supply tuxedo with a white jacket, the wedding date embroidered inside the collar. Later, Patel changed into the Vivienne Westwood Galaxy Satin gown from her Persian ceremony, elevated with Manolo Blahnik pumps and custom Cornelia James gloves. Most precious was her necklace, a piece her mother-in-law had discovered in Iran and preserved for thirty years to gift to Ekhlassi’s future wife.

The most meaningful part of her wardrobe was a bespoke Olympia Le Tan clutch. For a decade, Patel had collected the Parisian designer’s signature embroidered pieces. Her best friend worked with the Paris atelier to create one embroidered with Lake Como and Villa Pliniana’s image. “It was, hands down, the most thoughtful gift anyone gave me,” Patel says. “It was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted or needed.”