Wa.Lab Events begins a wedding with questions rather than a package. Anthea, the founder and designer, and Cristina, the planner and strategist, run the studio from Treviglio, in the province of Bergamo. The method is named Wa.Lab Therapy: a conversation with the couple that comes before any design, any venue or any supplier. Nothing is pre-packaged, and the portfolio shows where that leads, from a wedding on Capri to a Liberty villa in Bergamo and a reception in a limonaia in Brescia.
A name with two halves
Wa is the Japanese word for harmony, peace, sum and totality. Lab is short for laboratory: a place for tailored creativity, research and collaboration, where art and people come together. Joined, they describe a studio that works as a creative and organisational laboratory for weddings, private parties and corporate events.
Anthea leads the design and Cristina the planning and strategy. Elisa works as the studio’s graphic designer and Simone as its social media manager. What the four have in common, in their own list, is determination, professionalism, authenticity and a touch of madness.
Tell, ask, dream, live
Wa.Lab Therapy has four stages, each with its own name. Tell is the couple’s account of their story, their wishes and their values. Ask is the studio’s turn: every question has a purpose, and the aim is to clear doubts and open possibilities before a solution is built. Dream is the creative stage, where ideas become experiences made for that couple. Live is the wedding itself, with the studio handling everything from design to the day so that the couple can enjoy it without worrying about the detail.
In practical terms the sequence runs from the couple’s story to a design in their own style, then to the coordination of suppliers, timings and logistics, and finally to the day, with the planners on hand for the couple, the guests, the suppliers and whatever turns up unplanned. Each project is followed in person rather than handed on, and the studio builds every one tailor made, with care, empathy and passion, for a wedding or a corporate event alike.
What the planning covers
Full planning is the core service. It includes the creative design of the event, management of the budget and timeline, the search for suppliers and their coordination, and the direction of the wedding day. Partial planning, design and styling, and day of coordination are also offered.
Design runs alongside logistics rather than after it, so tablescapes, florals and spatial design follow a single visual idea. The range extends to destination weddings, elopements, micro weddings, multi day celebrations and cultural and religious ceremonies, and guest numbers run from elopements to celebrations of 150 or more.
The planner as architect
The studio’s blog compares a wedding planner to an architect rather than to an extra on the budget. A room can look right and still work badly, and so can a wedding that photographs well but runs chaotically. The planner’s work is the timing of the day from the ceremony to the cutting of the cake, the seating of guests so that everyone is comfortable and included, the logistics of suppliers so that each service arrives on time, and a layout that is attractive and also functional. Problems that arise are solved without the couple noticing, and surprises are added on purpose: small unexpected details chosen for the couple.
Weddings built from a personal story
The portfolio is where the method shows, because each wedding starts from something particular to the couple. Giosia and Luca’s began six years before their wedding on Capri, with a kiss under the arch of the Faraglioni, a legend and a sailor’s promise. They came back to marry on the island, and the day was designed around the place: the blue of sea and sky, the milk white of the island’s houses and the sand tones of the land, with Neapolitan tradition as the inspiration.
Ilaria and Joseph’s wedding brought two cultures together. She is cosmopolitan and closely tied to her roots; he is English and in love with Italian culture. They chose a Liberty villa in Bergamo, and the design took its theme of books and travel from the history and memory held in the villa’s rooms. Federica and Francesco’s wedding, called Tropical Vibrations, mixed the warm shades of autumn with the liveliness of South America, and the setting, flowers, materials and stationery all carried it. Sara and Mauro’s travel theme used maps, postcards, polaroids and cocktails with an international flavour, in bright colours.
Sara and Luca met at a venue called Twist and Shout, and their wedding in Brescia took its music from that first meeting: vintage sounds, personalised vinyl records and disco balls as place markers, with music and dancing setting the pace from the ceremony to the reception in the limonaia. Greta and Federico married in an eighteenth century villa among hills and old parkland. Their tableau de mariage ran to five metres, with a life size illustration of the couple, and sunglasses served as escort cards. The dinner took its cue from The Balminati, a name made from the couple’s two surnames and a tradition they share with close friends.
Some of the detail is practical. Elisa and Roberto’s wedding, titled Ethereal Union, took the image of joined hands, with its sense of delicacy, strength, love and mutual support, and a palette of lilac and peach. On the morning the sky was grey and drizzling, and the team began setting up without knowing whether the aperitif and cake cutting would use plan A or plan B. At three o’clock, as guests waited outside the church for the bride, the sun came out, and nothing that had been organised was given up. At Gabriela and Riccardo’s wedding at Torre Fornello in Ziano Piacentino, the couple’s large dog took part from the church entrance onwards, and the team helped look after him through the day. The wedding, titled Echoes of Childhood by Moonlight, was set where the bride and groom’s hearts lived as children, and its romantic scheme of birdsong, tulle clouds and glowing stars kept guests dancing until the moon was at its highest.
Italy for couples from elsewhere
Lombardy is home ground, with lake estates, countryside villas and city venues. The studio also plans in Piedmont, including vineyard weddings and country estates, and in the Veneto, from Venice to the countryside. It works across Italy, from mountain locations to the art cities and the coast, and couples looking elsewhere in the country are welcome.
International and mixed nationality couples are a named part of the work. Support covers planning at a distance, the search for and management of hotels and transfers, and personal suggestions for places, experiences and itineraries around Italy, for the couple and for their guests. There is one condition. The studio works with couples in which at least one partner speaks Italian, so that communication with the team and with suppliers stays clear.
Parties, events and a magazine
The same approach runs through the studio’s other work. Wa.Lab Party plans birthdays, anniversaries, proposals, graduations, christenings, communions, baby showers and themed parties, at home, in a restaurant or in a villa, with one package for styling and graphics and another that adds supplier coordination and supervision on the day. Corporate events are planned as strategy as much as celebration: the work starts with the event’s objectives, its audience, the company’s values and the messages to be communicated, and the concept, location, setup, guest experience and timing are then designed to serve them. For an event called GuessIt the studio filled clubs with about ninety real plants, among them monstera, ficus, calathea, kentia and strelitzia, to make a park inside a nightclub. For parties the studio advises starting four to five months ahead, with a minimum of one month for simple or last minute events. The studio also publishes Wa.Lab Magazine, a collection of real weddings, styles, colours and details that can be downloaded from its website, and the 5 Star Weddings issue on Wa.Lab Events follows its work too.
Planning your wedding with Wa.Lab Events
The studio takes on up to nine weddings a year, so dates and attention are limited and it is worth starting the conversation early. The studio has nine years of experience behind it. Ask at the first conversation what the planning fee is for your wedding and what it covers. The profile on 5 Star Weddings sets out the fees, the services and a fuller gallery.
A planner for couples with a story to tell
Wa.Lab Events suits couples who want to be asked a lot of questions before anything is decided, who want design to be part of the plan, and who would rather have a wedding that follows their own story than a standard format. Weather plans, a dog at the church and a five metre illustration all appear in its portfolio, which ranges from Capri and Brescia to Bergamo and the hills of Piacenza. The practical points are the small number of weddings each year and the need for at least one Italian speaker in the couple. Couples with a date in mind can check your date with the studio directly.
