Candy Bars and Chaos!

I have had to edit this post slightly but one day, when old and retired I will publish a book about our weddings here in Spain and our funny renditions. It is already in the making and I think will outsell the Driving over Lemons about life in the sometimes not so real part of Andalucia, the famous Marbella!

We have had an extraordinary start to 2011 with some beautiful weddings which we will blog as soon as we get the photos but also a chaotic time as well as we headed into our busiest time of year. Our wings have been flapping frantically and our magic wands have been waved to death as we suffered one disaster after another.

Firstly a not so old car of mine decides to die, apparently it needs a new engine and is now gracefully retired, we hope in Guaro with Mick the Mechanic. So I am going to become a proud white van man now and am planning on a pimp the van shortly with fairy wings and glitter dust :)

Lo and behold, things come in threes and Marbella decides in it's full glory before the summer starts to have the most horrendous storm I have ever seen here, deluge is putting it mildly, but the unfortunate thing for me is I live with a Frank Spencer, for those of you that are too young to remember this character you need to google him.

So in the middle of the night at 2am last week, with 12 inches of icy water against our upstairs terrace doors, he decides to open them?! Needless to say a mini tsunami swept through our house, I don't think I have ever seen so much water apart from on the beach, so many mops, buckets of water and towels later at 4am in the morning I left him to it and went to bed as we had a wedding the next day.

Reeling from tiredness, but excited, we swept off to our storeroom to load up everything and guess what, another flood, our store room was full of brown muddy water, 20cm high and raining down on our parasols, fabrics, you name it, it was soaked. But weddings cannot wait so off we went to the Hacienda San Jose to create a lovely wedding but back that evening to start cleaning up. We had three more weddings last week and I had a house and garden completely full of parasols being cleaned, fabrics drying out, wet cardboard boxes, you name it and it was hell for me being such a clean organised freak!

Anycase all normality has been restored with much wand waving and very helpful parents :)

We loved our candy bar this week we set up in the Cortijo Bravo, I drove past Elviria this weekend to see another one of our weddings in full swing which was a lovely feeling and we created a fabulous shabby chic wedding for Sarah with some die for centrepieces filled with peonies and pink hydrangeas.

The Fairy Godmother of the Costa Del Sol has certainly been up against it this past week but the magic has finally been restored as we move forwards into June to create some spectacular weddings so watch this space :)!

Fun Begins on the Costa Del Sol!

I have to confess I love weddings, now there is a surprise! The fun and silly season is here on the Costa Del Sol and has begun in earnest, which is hugely exciting.

We have got off to a wonderful start with some fabulous weddings, photos to come, and all our new ideas that we have all been working hard on all winter are now coming into fruition.

I just had to share this photo with you though, from Jeremy's new photo booth which BTW was supposed to be a 5 minute pop up job, but having watched Jeremy and Jenni on Sunday, I am sure it took at least 10 minutes of wrestling but sure it will be a sleek job within the next month ;)

But well worth the 10 minute wait as the photos are brilliant and such fun, you must check out the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeremy-Standley-Photography/54532672389 to see what fun was had with this photo booth, a must now I think for any wedding here!

We also created a fabulous candy bar, amongst many other things, and did make the hotel staff, I am sure quite alarmed when we started jumping and clapping excitedly as we switched the fairy lights on, it was a bit like the Oxford street Christmas lights, perhaps not quite the same but we were thrilled.

I have to also mention whilst on this blog subject, that this wedding was at the Cortijo Bravo in Velez Malaga, the staff at this hotel were absolutely charming and helpful.

Our thanks to Moira at Perfect Spanish Weddings for being a huge supporter of our wedding styling, flowers and decoration service and to Rob the DJ for constantly and tirelessly keeping our weddings on their feet, in fact I have yet to meet a man that can eat so many liquorice allsorts in one night along with Jeremy ;) That is a feat believe me!

A Lovely Testimonial As Our Weddings Start for 2011 in Marbella

Carla and Laura

Where do I start, I want to thank you both so much for a fantastic day, but not just that, also for a wonderful and enjoyable planning experience, which I must admit I am missing now it is all over!

From your ideas right through to your reassuring presence on the day, everything you did was efficient, discreet and our day passed off without a glitch. I smile when I think back and I am sorry it is all over, I would do it all again in a flash.

Both of you were super speedy with responses to my late night emails and whacky requests. You were in immediate contact from our arrival at Finca Maroc and a great support in the build up to the big day. Although I did not see you Laura on the Sunday- you definitely made your mark and when I came back from my beauty session the place looked almost as pretty as me :) !!

Carla, you were never far away, all day you were a supportive presence and I never had to think about anything that you had not already managed to perfection.

One of my favorite wedding moments was the look on your face, Carla, when a glass got broken on the table, my friends and I are still laughing about it as it was priceless!!! It was the only time you looked like you weren't in control all week - but so funny!!

Caroline and Karen made me look and feel beautiful, so beautiful in fact my own children did not recognise their mum! I appreciate their very hard work, their patience with our wacky requests and last minute extras - like Grandma's hair. They went so far to help me into my dress and a multitude of other jobs beyond the norm, so cool and calm and nothing was a problem.

Fiestasol were a big hit, everyone loved the food, all our guests savoured new things and enjoyed the perfectly mastered favourites. Heather and her staff looked great, again so cool and calm, informative about the food they were serving and so unobtrusive, even when they came to collect the tables the next day in what looked like an Aqua Park!

I will email the other suppliers, Natasha, Gary and Mijas Villas and copy you in and send some photos on when I get my act together :)