Suppliers in Marbella for Weddings

Whilst on my last post I mention the A team of weddings, there are a huge amount of fabulous suppliers here in Marbella that were not involved in our last weekend, but nevertheless are fantastic, and we use and work with them all the time.

There are too many to mention really, from amazing photographers, caterers, cake makers, entertainment and music, the list is endless. 

The suppliers that spring to mind, who I love, are the fabulous Ian Preston, DJ, and a wonderful toastmaster and Fi our slightly mad cake maker :) Mark for his die for cupcakes, Rosemary for her beautiful traditional wedding cakes and Cornel Catering.

We will eventually cover them all within this blog as we do work with many more.

Simply stylish weekend

We have just had the most amazing weekend with four fabulously stylish weddings all over Andalucia.  I have to admit it has been hard work with the temperatures here in the south of spain reaching the late 40's, as we have been enduring a heatwave in Spain, and trust me a heatwave in Spain means hot!

We have plodded along slowly, giving ourselves enough time to make sure we have created these beautiful days for our delightful brides.

I am still amazed as to how gorgeous all our brides have all looked despite the heat!

The professional photos will follow but having decided to buy a decent digital camera, combined with a talented daughter Maddie, here are some of our snapshots of the weekend.

We started on Saturday with a long drive up to Las Cabezas de San Juan, near Seville, for the beautiful wedding of Claire and Rob in the Hacienda San Rafael. 

There are times when you meet some people and you walk away feeling they have enriched your life and Anthony, the proprietor at the Hacienda is one of them.

Anthony is truly the most enchanting host you could ever wish to meet, a most interesting and lovely character with such a family history that I really would love to hear more about, and I am sure I will as this venue is truly fantastic but perhaps not at the end of August!!!

We have another wedding there next weekend as well so hoping it will be cooler for Imogen!

Carla was, in the meantime, with Julia and Jamie in Frigiliana, looking after them with a lovely ceremony in the church at Frigiliana, followed by a reception at the beautiful Cortijo Bravo in Velez Malaga, photos to come soon as Jeremy and Jenny were photographing this fabulous wedding.

We drove back on Saturday night, from Seville, past a huge, raging forest fire in Sotogrande.  We had to be back in order we were ready for the wonderfully stylish wedding of Michelle and Harry at the Cortijo de la Perdiz the next day. 

Michelle was a fantastically creative bride and had incorporated many, very personal ideas for her wedding including cute labels dotted around the foliage, with love quotes on, to get her guests in the mood :)  A wishing tree, plus fabulous favours and gifts on the tables for all her guests including some diamante napkin rings, heart shaped placecard holders and heart shaped favour boxes filled with sweets. 

 Michelle had even designed her own wedding dress, photos above, which was so Audrey style, she looked beautiful.  Her amazing hair and make up was created by the hugely talented Kathryn Parr.

Heather from Fiestasol was the wedding planner for the day.  Heather, I absolutely love, as she is just so charming, along with her professional catering team she had again organised this wedding to perfection. 

Lizzie Marriage, to my delight, appeared as she was officiating this wedding, Lizzie is the most delightful character who makes a room or a garden light up.   She and I were chatting crystals and she, I have to say, and I hope she does not mind, said the most loveliest thing to me, that no one here does weddings like you do, they are so stylish with such beautiful attention to details, I was really taken back. 

Today was onto the Villa Bancales, one of my favourite venues, as it is so unshowy, unlike many Marbella villas, for the lovely wedding of Bonnie and Bryan. 

Bonnie, I have to day to date, was one of our most laid back brides, she was certainly not going to get stressed in any shape or form about anything and looked amazing today. 

Bonnie, without realising it, had booked what we call the A team, mostly on line, and just needed someone to oversee the day so Carla from Reviva Weddings was on hand to make sure it all ran smoothly, Heather and her fabulous catering, Jeremy and Jenny taking the photos, us creating the flowers and decoration, Matt on guitar, Rob Rocks the House as the DJ, and the lovely Natasha officiating the wedding ceremony.

Most of the A team were out tonight making sure Bonnie has the most perfect day.

A long hot weekend but thorougly enjoyed it and an even busier weekend to look forward too next weekend, just hoping the heat dies down! 

One note though from Reviva to all brides is please do make sure you have not missed any of the men out with the buttonholes.

I have had so many last minute panics this weekend it is really quite alarming, we have had two fathers of the brides forgotten, plus even a groom, so please do double check this, as although it might seem small in the grand plan, on the actual day it can become upsetting for all involved, as of course everyone is hugely important on such a special day.

I did not like seeing the father's of the brides, this weekend, asking where their buttonholes were...when there were none booked.

Luckily we were able to quickly resolve these both times but there maybe a time when we won't be able to, so check and double check as you get nearer to the day that everyone is accounted for.

We will be back with some fabulous photos of this weekend plus of course some of our July weddings that we are currently waiting for photos of.  

We don't just do weddings!

Whilst Reviva Weddings are obviously associated with planning, styling and creating fabulous weddings, we are stylists for all occasions and often turn our hands to other celebrations.

Last night was no exception and we were hired by a family vacating here in a private villa situated in the Marbella Club.

Our brief was to descend upon the villa last night whilst the family were out having a celebration dinner at the fabulous restaurant Babilonia at Olivia Valere, and turn the villa into a beautifully decorated birthday surprise for when the mother returned with her family.

I have to confess we felt like stalkers creeping in at 10pm and within 2 hours the transformation was completed!

We had completely decorated the villa with flowers, lanterns and candles and fabulous balloon displays.

Here is the text message we received in the early hours of this morning after the family had returned.

Hello Laura!  Thank you so much for the lovely decoration.  My mother was overwhelmed with joy when we got back home.   The flowers, candles and balloons are amazing!  Thank you, the both of you, for this breathtaking setting.

This is unforgettable birthday and I shall definitely be contacting you for any future events.

I hope to see you again real soon.

I could never do this solo so a huge thank you to my fantastic team of professionals, Loraine for the fabulous flowers and to Silvia for the wonderful balloons :)  I was playing the skivvy, sweeping up and fetching and carrying :) 

Anna Gazda Photography

 

I get contacted a lot by suppliers offering their services to us. 

I am also astounded by how many hugely talented people there are out there offering such a diverse range of goods and services to the event and wedding industry here in Spain and have made friends with some really lovely, professional characters who I work with to create events and weddings.

I do sometimes wonder who else is lurking out there ready to launch their business and their skills ands it is a joy to find dedicated and talented people. 

There are some that stand out though from the crowd, dare I say.

I was recently contacted by Anna, who introduced her photography business to us. 

I read her email and then took a look at her website and was completely taken back by her fantastic photography. 

I think an artist, in the real sense, can spot another creatively minded person straight away, this was one of those moments.  I see many people trying to enter the creative world, but they just don't have the artistic brain, skill or talent to pull it off.  To be honest I am not sure why they bother, they are up against stiff competition!

Anna is a professional wedding photographer and a member of WPJA, who currently lives in Frigiliana near Nerja and is covering Andalucia and Spain.

Again I am humbled, Anna is Polish but speaks English, French and get this Chinese!  Plus updating her spanish.....could we shoot her!

Anna's work can be seen on her website www.limelight.pl or her blog at www.limelight.pl/blog.

A hugely, creative fantastic photographer that I hope we will definitely see more of over the next year as she establishes her business here in Spain.

Floored yet again by Preston Bailey!

Preston Bailey has recently changed their website and now have a fantastic new blog as well, a must daily read for anyone in the event and design industry.   I was floored by this fantastic wedding, truly on an amazing scale!

To take a look check out http://www.prestonbailey.com/slideshow/bride-spotlight-tania/

I have also noticed as I browse through the most amazing venue decoration photos that lighting plays a huge key factor in all his events.

Hacienda San Rafael

I do always love driving through Spain and today was no exception, although I have to say in August I would rather be on the beach! 

I was intrigued as I have two weddings booked at the Hacienda San Rafael in the next 2 weeks so it goes without saying I had to make the trip up to visit this charming venue, firstly to make sure we knew where we were going on the actual day and secondly to check out the decoration plans! 

I had done my homework and realised, I think, the reason for this sudden popularity of this venue might have been based on the fact it was featured in a UK bridal magazine last year, I cannot remember which one, but I had read the article and when we were booked for this sudden flurry of weddings there, I put two and two together:)

It is a two hour journey to this venue from Marbella, along to Los Barrios and then heading up past some fabulous lake settings and then into what I can only describe as a War of the Worlds slightly eerie setting with the absolutely enormous wind turbines blotting the landscape.  I kept expecting them to start moving and along with what seemed to be a huge amount of eagles buzzing around waiting for goodness knows what on this very arid, dry land, I was relieved to finally get up to Jerez.  From here I headed out towards Seville and finally managed to find this venue after a phone call and having quickly dodged some traffic and done a sort of spanish style dog leg across a main road!

I was greeted with a freshly made lemonade, a fabulous venue bursting with pink bougainvilla along with a very charming Anthony who showed me around and nothing was too much of a problem as we discussed our forthcoming weddings.

My only concern is having been sweating the whole time whilst there, I was told that it was pleasant there today with a gentle breeze and this weekend the temperatures are set to rise again well into the 40's?!    If I survive this coming weekend there, I have no doubt will be some fabulous photos of these weddings :)  A definite party venue for sure with a fantastic host!

Cortijo de la Perdiz Villa Wedding

We were delighted to decorate Natalie and Simon's fabulous wedding at the Cortijo de la Perdiz at the end of July.  Natalie's day began at the elegant Villa Padierna hotel and then onto the Cortijo for a night of celebrating and fun.

Beautifully organised by Heather at Fiestasol and Alex, as always, coming up trumps with his fabulous food and amazing team effort.  Even though I work on many weddings with Fiestasol I am always astounded by their professionalism time and time again :)

Natalie and Simon's theme was white and lime green and we used our white birdcages decorated with lots of butterflies and a lime green candle in each one for the table centrepieces. 

Natalie's wedding bouquet was to die for with white roses and white freesia, by far one of our most favourite bouquets this year.

Our thanks to Becky Sharpe photography for these fabulous images, we love them, and by the way Becky we did go there the next day and saw the pants, they were Calvin Klein and the owner had not showed up to reclaim them!  A truly horrible sight so you did not miss anything :)!

New Confeti Magazine out for August

We love this beautifully produced magazine, designed for the wedding industry here in Southern Spain it is a bride's must have bible. If you are planning a wedding here it is essential reading, but not just for weddings in Spain, it is full of fabulous ideas and the most up to date news on wedding trends.

The latest August issue features Actress Emilia Fox as the cover girl, enjoy features such as John Gallianos niece getting married in Gibraltar wearing a couture Galliano gown, bridal fashion by John Rocha, advice on Jewish weddings in Spain, a Gibraltar special and check out page 72/73 for a feature on one of our fabulous weddings here in June at the Puente Romano Hotel.

Copies of this magazine are widely available throughout the Costa Del Sol including our shop in Elviria.

Los Monteros Hotel has reopened

The Five Star Los Monteros Hotel here in Marbella has finally reopened it's door after 15 months of closure, bringing an end to many months of misery for the staff and the local community.  We decorated the last wedding there at the end of May 2009 just before it's shock closure under the Russian Owner.

Now this hotel has been bought out and is reopened we are all very excited that it will eventually start to host weddings there again, although I can imagine some confidence will need to be installed back into the public before they start paying up deposits again.

Interestingly enough though, this week, I met up with one of my couples from last year who were caught out by the sudden closure of this hotel and lost a substantial deposit.  At the time they moved their wedding to the Finca Cortesin and carried on with their wedding plans, but having seen the hotel opened, they contacted them and were offered a few week's accommodation during their anniversary stay here.

Perhaps an idea for many other couples that were gazumped last year.

The reopening of this hotel along with our recent visit from Michele Obama has certainly lifted the spirits of this area after a very tough year.

Wedding Colours for 2011

Looking at the trends that are still emerging this year and will continue into 2011, there are two colour combinations that are really standing out. 

Firstly we have the lavender and sage colour combo and then a vibrant hot pink and lemon, both very different and both equally divine.

We have found some lavender inspiration from The Wedding Chicks and Country Living for you and we are loving this rustic feel using old clay pots, raffia and string, little pots of lavender dotted around and the linen table covers. 

Whilst the lavender colour scheme works well with vintage silver, which has been hugely popular this year, gold is making a comeback for 2011, so watch this space as we find our gold inspirations to share with you!

Eco friendly freeze dried petals coming in for September

We are delighted to be expanding our range of wedding decorations in our shop in Marbella and from the beginning of September, Reviva Weddings will be stocking eco friendly freeze dried petals. 

A beautiful range of peony, rose, hydrangea and delphinium petals will be available from our store. 

Perfect for scattering aisles and tables or filling our stylish confetti cones, biodegrable, non slippery and do not discolour.  A wonderful range of colours available from hot pink, raspberry ripple peony mixture to the fresh green hydrangea, lavender and ivories.

Also available in our new 5 litre stylish boxes which can be used as a keepsake after your wedding to store those precious wedding memories in.

Another email :)

As I am working here tonight on updating our blog I have literally just received an email from one of our July weddings at the luxury venue, Finca Cortesin.  It was a beautiful setting for a lovely couple and Susan looked absolutely stunning, we always knew she would as she was stunning in anycase!

Here is our email and it is always so lovely to hear from our brides when they return home, we cannot wait to see the photos as Susan picked a fabulous hot pink and yellow colour scheme for her wedding.   Not putting the pressure on Jeremy of course :)

Hi Laura
Sorry I haven't got in touch soon, got back home last Friday and straight back into work which has been chocca block!Just a little note from both myself and Sean to say thanks soooo much for everything you did for us at the finca cortesin on our wedding day.

The table flowers were gorgeous and the whole colour scheme looked beautiful! Can't wait to see some photos, if you get any before me then can you let us have a look!

Stylish Wedding in El Padrastro Mijas

El Padrastro in Mijas was the stunning venue for one of our weddings here in June organised by Loraine at  Dream Weddings in Spain.

Lisa and David, both very creative people, wanted an Art Deco style to their wedding which was held outside in the restaurant's garden with a fabulous view over the coast from Mijas.

We created some beautiful white orchid bridal flowers for Lisa and her bridesmaids and added in the style with Art Deco style table seating plans, beautiful table centrepieces with hurricane style lanterns surrounded with white floral arrangements, white hearts hanging from the trees and lots of candles and tealights and pool lanterns to set the scene for a romantic evening.

Lisa and David had a fabulous wedding starting with their ceremony in the beautiful Mijas church and many of their guests are still commenting on what a wonderful evening they had.

Here is Lisa's email to us

Hi Laura

Thanks so much for all your help.

It was an amazing day and everything looked gorgeous. Around the time when the sun went down and the candles went on everything took on a magical glow and so many of our friends said it was the best wedding they had ever been to.

I am sure a lot of people get told that but they seemed genuine!

Everyone raved about the venue and the decor.

If you want an official testimonial let me know. But thanks again hugely for making it look absolutely lovely! L xx

Our thanks to Bob Long for these lovely photos and for allowing us to feature them on our blog.

A Happy Ending at the Finca de la Concepcion

I first met Catriona last year as she had booked us to create her decorations and flowers for her wedding.  She was due to get married in Nerja but as time transpired it appeared her wedding planned for Nerja was turning into a fiasco and was unlikely to be held the weekend she had planned. 

Eventually Catriona wiped the slate clean and started again using us as not only her wedding decorator but her planners. 

An action planned was drawn up by Carla and the San Pedro church was booked for the weekend she had planned, then a venue search was underway, Catriona settled on the fabulous Finca de la Concepcion as her setting for her beautiful day. 

Having secured these two elements of her wedding all the other suppliers were booked and the wedding details were underway.  LePanto caterers were astounding and the food was to die for, Naiara the violinist with her beautiful church music, a truly talented lady, the  hair and make up girls were brilliant and a fabulous vintage car was booked.

We created fabulous white puff ball pew ends set on stands for the church and matched the table centrepieces.  Every detail was organised from the name tags on the napkins to the beautifully designed cake from Fi.  We used a green and purple theme to lift the white puff balls and of course lots of tealights and lanterns everywhere to turn the venue into a magical evening.

Having had a bad start here, the Fairy Godmother of the Costa Del Sol waved her magic wand again to create a perfect day!

Our thanks to Jennifer Jane, associate photographer at Jeremy Standley for yet again providing us with such fabulous photos.