Lakshna & Neil / Villa Bologna Wedding

Day three of Lakshna & Neil’s Malta wedding, and the biggest of the lot: a Hindu wedding ceremony at Villa Bologna wedding venue in Attard. The baraat came first — Neil arriving by vintage open-top car, dhol drums, blue smoke and a street full of dancing family. The road outside had been closed for the procession, which tells you most of what you need to know about the scale of this one. The villa itself was once home to a former Prime Minister of Malta.

Villa Bologna at a glance

Villa Bologna is an 18th-century country house in Attard, in the centre of Malta, built in 1745 and classed as a Grade 1 National Monument. It was later inherited by Sir Gerald Strickland, who served as Prime Minister of Malta. Weddings take place in its terraced gardens, which have a dolphin fountain, a sunken pond and vine-covered pergolas. The gardens can be dressed to suit the size of the day, and there is an indoor back-up if the weather turns. The estate also has its own pottery and a restaurant in the gardens.

Villa Bologna Wedding Photographer

Inside Villa Bologna’s walled gardens, the ceremony unfolded under a white floral arch set against the villa’s famous blue doors — garlands exchanged, Lakshna in deep red, three hundred years of Maltese baroque doing the backdrop’s work. For a destination wedding photographer, Villa Bologna Wedding Venue is about as good as a venue gets: courtyards, citrus trees and that honey-coloured limestone light.

From Attard to Valletta

The evening moved to the Malta Conference Centre, where a sixteenth-century vaulted hall was dressed in red silk and candlelight — speeches (including the presentation of an Arsenal shirt, to loud approval), a starlit dancefloor, and dancing that outlasted my batteries. This was the final chapter of a three-day celebration that began with a Haldi ceremony at the Hilton Malta.

If you’re planning an Indian wedding in Malta — a baraat, a mandap in a baroque garden, a multi-day run across the island — this is exactly the work a Malta wedding photographer should show you before you book. Tell me about your plans and I’ll reply the same day.

With thanks to the brilliant team: Perfect Weddings Malta · Sempre Films · DJ Rish · LNL Sound System · Mattea Formosa · Meera MUA

Photographing a Villa Bologna wedding

At Lakshna and Neil’s wedding the story started outside the walls. The road in Attard was closed for the baraat, so I could work the procession from the middle of the street. Inside, the ceremony arch stood against the villa’s blue doors, a strong, simple backdrop for the vows and the garland exchange. Afterwards the walled gardens, citrus trees and honey-coloured limestone gave me shade and soft light for family groups and for portraits of Lakshna in red.

Villa Bologna wedding questions