A Romantic & Intimate Montenegro Wedding at Villa Shah, Inspired by ‘La Vita Nobile’

Anna and Ilya were married early September 2025 at Villa Shah on the Bay of Kotor, with just twelve guests and a week spent together with them at this seaside villa.

Their elegant wedding was shaped around the concept of La Vita Nobile, a phrase they translated as the noble pleasures of life: good food, beautiful surroundings and unhurried time together – think long dinners, Italian food, golf on the pier and space to slow down and the beautiful Montenegro gave them the setting they wanted without the pace and scale of Italy.

Anna wore a gown by Belarusian designer Rara Avis, chosen for its structure and detail, and the couple appointed The Choice Wedding Agency to assist them in planning and bringing their vision to life – the team did a wonderful job of creating a real sense of celebration whilst keeping things intimate and personal.

The evening included an Italian menu, golf balls hit into the sea from the pier using biodegradable balls that dissolve into fish food, a spontaneous piano duet between the couple, and dancing that went on well past the sunset. Enjoy!

Our wedding took place at Villa Shah on the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. We chose the villa because its refined architecture and elegant atmosphere perfectly reflected the concept of our celebration, which was inspired by an Italian aesthetic.

The venue created the feeling of staying at a private villa somewhere in Italy – a place where family and close friends could gather and spend time together rather than simply attending a one-day event. For us, it was important that the wedding felt like a shared experience rather than a single evening.

One of the most important things about this wedding was the intention to create not just a single-day event, but a shared experience for us and our closest friends and family. Instead of focusing only on the ceremony itself, the entire celebration was designed as a week together at the villa, where everyone could slow down, enjoy the surroundings and spend meaningful time with each other.

This idea shaped many elements – from the intimate guest list to the relaxed atmosphere, the long dinners, the activities like golf by the sea.

Since we both love Italy – its atmosphere, aesthetics, and way of life, we chose Italian holidays (but Montenegro-based) as the main inspiration for our celebration. Montenegro felt like the perfect choice. It offers landscapes and architecture that strongly resemble Italy, while being less crowded and more intimate. It also allowed us to create the atmosphere we envisioned without the intensity and high costs of Italy’s most popular wedding destinations. In addition, the country’s travel requirements made it easier for guests arriving from outside Europe.

We wanted our wedding to be less about creating a traditional wedding spectacle and more about creating a beautiful moment in time that everyone present could truly experience together.

Our wedding planners were The Choice Wedding Agency, who are based in Montenegro.

My father accompanied me down the aisle. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a live musical duet of piano and cello, which created a beautifully emotional atmosphere. Interestingly, the two musicians had never performed together before our wedding.

hey rehearsed specifically for the occasion, preparing a dedicated playlist for the ceremony.

As I walked down the aisle, they performed the classic Mendelssohn Wedding March, which made the moment feel especially timeless and moving.

Our ceremony was lead by celebrant Julia, who is also the founder of our wedding planner’s agency.

We wrote our own vows and heard them for the first time on the wedding day. Ilya began his speech with: ‘Now I officially have a wife, and today I love her even more than yesterday.’

I started mine with a joke: ‘I hope you didn’t marry me just for the medical insurance.’ The rest of our vows remained a private moment shared only with our guests.

We chose classic Cartier wedding bands, drawn to the brand’s timeless elegance and understated sophistication. It was important to us that the rings felt effortless and refined – pieces we would feel comfortable wearing every day.

We selected the rings during our trip to Italy shortly after the proposal, which made the moment feel even more special and symbolic as we began planning our future together.

I chose our photographer very quickly – I discovered Natalya Obukhova on Instagram and didn’t consider anyone else. I loved her style — natural, lively, and unstaged. Each couple in her portfolio seemed to have its own atmosphere and character.

We received preview photos very quickly, and the full gallery arrived even earlier than expected.

Ilya and I met in 2018 through mutual friends. We later discovered that we had studied at the same university and even lived in neighbouring buildings, yet had never crossed paths before. Our relationship began when Ilya invited me on a bike ride.

A few months later, Ilya moved to Paris.

He proposed in 2024 in Italy, in the Dolomites at Lake Braies. He planned to propose while we were sitting in a small wooden boat on the lake, while I was asleep and he was secretly trying to take out the rings. However, the ring box turned out to be too large to hide properly.

We also travelled to Milan and Venice to collect the final set of rings in my size. We decided to schedule our wedding for 3 September 2025, allowing ourselves enough time to prepare without rushing.

One of the most memorable parts of the celebration was a golf activity, which reflected an important part of our lifestyle. While golf is often associated with luxury and the classic ‘old money’ aesthetic, for us it is simply something we genuinely love and enjoy together. We play regularly and even have our own golf equipment, so our friends and family strongly associate us with the sport.

Including golf as part of the wedding entertainment therefore felt very personal. Guests were invited to take part in a playful activity set up on the pier, where they could try hitting golf balls out toward the sea. To keep the activity environmentally responsible, we used special biodegradable golf balls that dissolve when they touch the water and turn into fish food.

The decor was designed to reflect our wedding concept, La Vita Nobile – a refined yet relaxed interpretation of the Italian art of living.

Rather than creating elaborate installations, the styling focused on atmosphere and natural elegance. The long dinner table became the visual centre of the celebration, dressed in soft ivory linens and decorated with sculptural white floral arrangements placed in delicate glass vessels.

Classical stone urns filled with hydrangeas framed the ceremony space overlooking the Bay of Kotor, allowing the dramatic mountain and sea landscape to remain the true backdrop of the moment.

The tablescape incorporated subtle Italian-inspired details, including clusters of dark grapes placed along the table as an organic decorative element, adding texture and a sense of abundance reminiscent of a Mediterranean feast.

Candlelight played a key role in the evening atmosphere, with numerous candles illuminating the dinner and creating a warm, intimate glow once the sun set.

Our floral designer was Serafima Pavlova. The floral design was created as part of our overall wedding concept, ‘La Vita Nobile’ – The Noble Life. The idea was to capture the feeling of an elegant yet relaxed Italian lifestyle: refined, timeless and effortless, rather than overly decorative.

Instead of elaborate installations, the flowers were chosen to feel natural and harmonious with the surroundings. The arrangements were light, airy and slightly unstructured, as if they could have been gathered from a garden at an Italian villa. The palette stayed soft and restrained, focusing on whites, greens and delicate natural tones to complement the atmosphere of the location and the understated elegance of the celebration.

The goal was to create an environment that felt authentic and intimate, as though we had simply invited our closest people to spend a beautiful evening together in Italy.

Although our wedding took place in Montenegro, we intentionally chose not to focus on local cuisine. Instead, we wanted the catering, provided by Paul Amasov, to fully reflect the overall concept of the celebration, which was inspired by Italy and the idea of La Vita Nobile – the pleasure of life, good food and beautiful moments shared together.

For this reason, the entire wedding menu was designed around Italian cuisine. From the welcome reception to the final course of the dinner, every dish followed the spirit of an Italian feast, celebrating flavour, simplicity and the joy of gathering around the table.

Our cake, by Cinnabon Tut Monte, reflected the spirit of our wedding concept; Italian hedonism, indulgent yet elegant. It featured generous layers of cream and cherries, inspired by classic European patisserie, with traditional elements presented in a refined and timeless way.

Visually it felt both luxurious and playful, perfectly fitting the atmosphere of the celebration. But beyond its appearance, it was also incredibly delicious and became one of the highlights of the evening.

As I’m lactose intolerant, the team also prepared separate desserts for me that contained no lactose, allowing me to enjoy the sweet part of the celebration without any concerns.

As our celebration was very intimate with only twelve guests, we decided not to create a traditional stationery suite. Instead, we chose a few playful and personal elements that suited the relaxed atmosphere. One of the details was a wedding photo bingo game. Guests received bingo cards with small tasks throughout the evening, capturing certain moments or scenes during the celebration and crossing them off once completed. The winner received an inflatable flamingo. Another activity invited guests to write letters to us. Each guest placed their letter in a special envelope, signed it, and wrote a specific future date indicating when we should open it.

Instead of traditional seating cards, the table settings featured small bows attached to the glasses, each with a thermal sticker displaying the guest’s name.

From the very beginning, this wedding was conceived as something more than a single-day celebration. Together with Anna and Ilya, we wanted to create an experience that would feel deeply personal and immersive – a week shared with their closest family and friends in a beautiful place by the sea.

The concept we developed for the celebration was La Vita Nobile, which translates loosely as ‘The Noble Life.’ For us, it wasn’t about luxury in the obvious sense, but rather about the refined pleasures of life – beautiful food, meaningful conversations, elegant surroundings and time spent together without rushing. The idea was to recreate the feeling of an intimate Italian villa gathering, where everything feels natural, understated and effortless, yet every detail is carefully considered.

Anna and Ilya were deeply involved in the creative process. From the very first conversations they had a clear understanding of the atmosphere they wanted to create – elegant but relaxed, intimate yet visually striking. Our role was to translate these ideas into a cohesive concept and give them a clear visual and experiential form. The planning process became a true collaboration, with many conversations about aesthetics, lifestyle, music, food and the overall emotional tone of the celebration.

The choice of Villa Shah overlooking the Bay of Kotor played a key role in shaping the experience. The architecture of the villa, with its refined Mediterranean character, allowed us to evoke the atmosphere of an Italian setting while remaining in Montenegro.

One of the most important ideas behind the celebration was that guests would stay together at the villa, turning the wedding into a shared holiday rather than a one-day event.

Creating a seamless and elevated experience in Montenegro can sometimes be challenging, as the destination wedding industry there is still developing. For our team, it was important that the level of service felt truly effortless and refined, similar to what guests might expect from a five-star hotel. This meant carefully coordinating every logistical detail behind the scenes so that the celebration itself would feel natural and relaxed.

The design approach followed the same philosophy. Instead of elaborate installations, we focused on creating atmosphere through proportion, texture and carefully chosen elements. The long dinner table became the central visual gesture of the evening – a symbol of gathering and shared experience. White floral arrangements, candles, soft linens and subtle Mediterranean references such as grapes placed along the table created a sense of abundance while remaining elegant and restrained.

Throughout the celebration, the intention was always the same: to create a setting that felt timeless, intimate and authentic to the couple. Nothing was meant to feel overly staged. Instead, the design allowed the surrounding landscape, the architecture of the villa and the natural rhythm of the evening to become part of the experience.

Ultimately, this wedding was less about spectacle and more about atmosphere – about creating a beautiful moment in time where everyone present could feel part of something meaningful, relaxed and deeply personal.

One of the most memorable moments of the day came completely unexpectedly.

According to every weather forecast and radar we had checked in advance, the day was supposed to be perfectly calm with no sign of rain. And indeed, during the ceremony the weather was absolutely clear, blue sky, no clouds and no indication that anything might change.

However, shortly after the ceremony, just as the outdoor celebration was about to continue, a sudden and incredibly intense rainstorm arrived. It was one of those rare moments when heavy rain falls while the sun is still shining, creating a spectacular rainbow over the bay, almost like a natural special effect.

For the team it became an immediate exercise in crisis management. Although we had a Plan B indoors, the couple had always dreamed of celebrating outside, so our goal was to preserve that vision if possible.

The rain itself lasted only a short time, but it was powerful enough to soak the entire dinner setup. While guests were invited to enjoy a spontaneous moment by the sea, including the golf activity on the pier – the team quickly reorganised the space. New linens were urgently sourced and delivered, and with the help of everyone involved, from the decor team to the musicians, the entire dinner setting was reset in an incredibly short time.

When the rain stopped, the celebration continued exactly as the couple had imagined: outdoors, overlooking the bay, with candlelight and music filling the evening.

In the end, what initially seemed like a challenge became one of the most magical parts of the day. The rain, the sunlight and the rainbow created photographs and memories that no amount of planning could ever have designed — a reminder that sometimes nature itself becomes the most beautiful part of the celebration.

For the evening celebration, we decided not to hire a DJ, preferring live music provided by the Vozduh Band throughout the entire event.

We didn’t prepare a traditional first dance. Instead, we shared a spontaneous dance to ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’

Later in the evening we also attempted to play ‘City of Stars’ on the piano, even though neither of us sings or plays professionally. We made a few mistakes along the way, but this only made the moment feel more genuine — full of laughter and emotion, almost like a scene from a film.

The lighting design was intentionally kept simple to preserve the intimate and relaxed atmosphere of the celebration. Most of the evening’s ambiance was created by candles placed along the dinner tables, which gave the setting a warm, soft glow.

For the later part of the evening, when the celebration shifted towards dancing, the team added basic stage lighting with standing lights and light bars to illuminate the dance area and create a more lively mood.

My evening dress was more playful: clean, minimal and slightly girlish – perfect for the evening and for having a bit of fun on the dance floor.

Plan your wedding and celebrations for yourselves, not for your guests.

Although we initially asked guests not to bring gifts, our friends insisted on having a wish list. We therefore created a registry using a Russian service similar to Followish. The platform allowed us to attach links to items we wanted, while guests could anonymously reserve gifts. It made the process easy for everyone and ensured we received things we truly needed.

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