Real weddings, wedding inspiration and style, gorgeous ideas,

Monday, July 23, 2012

Mini Pinatas as Wedding Favors





I am always looking for Spanish themed ideas for our weddings and parties (or in this case Mexican) and I love this idea I came across tonight on this gorgeous blog, The Sweetest Occasion.

 How cute are these individual mini pinatas for each place setting :) 

What a fun and fabulous idea for weddings and parties or even a company event.

Now of course I have already worked out how to make these using my little girl´s water balloons, paper mache and tissue paper, I am sure she is going to love me if I suggest this is our next summer holiday activity.

Now the next question is...if you were a guest at a wedding or party and had one of these on your plate what would you want to see in these delightful packages?

Hop over to our Facebook page to let us know!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Stylish Ideas for Favours and Weddings in Spain

Here at Reviva HQ we have been very busy over the past few months and have created so many new and lovely ideas for our weddings we wanted to start to share these with you as they were such fun and perhaps an idea for you to easily create at your wedding to bring that extra dimension and a bit of fun to the celebrations.


We have and still do candy bars, we just get better everytime, and of course are still famous for our twinkly lights and candles but this year we have had a lot of fun creating very different ideas for our weddings.


Our olive bars have been a huge hit, just buy some large loaves, cut the top off and scoop out, fill with olives, placed on some cut off tree slabs with some gorgeous signs and wooden spoons and treat your guests to an olive bar :)  You can give out olive oil and olive favours too to share the Andalucian flavours with your guests!


We now hire out gorgeous lemonade dispensers should you wish to create a fresh lemonade bar, or indeed a pimms bar or a fresh juice bar, complete with paper straws and our very retro glassware this is a refreshing welcome for any hot wedding guest as you welcome them to your ceremony. 

We do stock paper straws and many other gorgeous party items at our shop in Elviria.





Our dressing up boxes have been a huge hit, whether you are having a photo booth or not it is amazing what a glittery hat and large sunglasses can do to your grandfather :)!

We supply dressing up boxes for weddings in vintage style cases full of stupid and fun dressing up things to bring out the child in every guest, we have endless photos of our weddings revisiting their youth :)!


Dancing shoes baskets, we started last year and they continue to be a welcome hit this year for sore feet, supply a basket of flip flops for your guests and they will love you forever. 

I dread to think how many times I have seen guests wobble out the church clutching their gorgeous shoes in their hands.

I think it is due to the heat here and whilst the shoes may feel fine in the UK or Ireland, the heat in Spain makes many peoples feet swell. 

The sight of a dancing shoe basket I think for many of these women I witness must be a godsend!

Our very popular spanish fans are still a must at every ceremony, we can provide plain or decorated fans to match your style of wedding and again are a godsend and a useful accessory for any wedding in Spain.  My advice is give them out at the ceremony and do not keep them for the reception :)


For our September weddings we have even more fabulous props and ideas, including fairground attractions, Alice in Wonderland style games, in fact we cannot wait to share all these with you.

Lawn croquet, coconut shies, candy floss, signage and dressing up boxes are all available now to hire from us to make sure your wedding turns into a party that your guests will love and remember.

Add a fun element to your wedding whether it be maracas and castanets to get your guests into the flamenco mood, or perhaps a more elegant foodie experience of hosting an olive bar, lemonade bar or a themed candy bar which again can double up as favours for your guests to take home or just have some serious fun with games, dressing up and chilling in one of our gorgeous Moroccan styled chill outs.


Images courtesy of Jeremy Standley, the famous sweet hogger (be warned if you have a candy bar) Anna Gazda who never looks like she has eaten a sweet in her life but has bought me some lethal vodka!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Romance & Butterflies at the Beautiful Lake Vinuela

























Well what can I say about this gorgeous wedding of Laila and Frank :) 

What fun we had and are still having with this amazing couple!!

Laila and Frank met with us last year as they had found out about us via Jeremy Standley who was already booked for their photography. 

Laila had fallen in love with one of the images on Jeremy´s website of a wedding I had created a few years ago and wanted this same styling for her special day and they needed a super efficient wedding planner.....enter Carla, the perfect package and we were hired!

We had such fun organising, planning and styling Laila and Frank´s wedding day which was held at the breathtaking setting by the lakes at the Hotel Vinuela.

The hotel staff are charming and were lovely to deal so combined with the setting by the lakes is to die for, as I drive to this venue the turquoise colours of the lakes never ceases to take my breath away, I love this part of Spain east of Malaga.
So the team descended and the wedding preparations were quickly underway, Laila whilst being made even more beautiful by Kathryn Parr, had spies out taking photos of us preparing her wedding day and keeping an unbeknown eye on us all!

The ceremony was amazing complete with a sand ceremony followed by a butterfly release which we have never done before but loved it.  I have to admit I was slightly worried about the butterflies but once they woke up, from the dark box, they were very sociable and happy to flutter about charming everyone, the tired ones seemed to like resting on Paloma :)

After a very romantic ceremony the guests were treated to an evening of fine dining and I think the star of this wedding was the magical sky lanterns over the lakes.

I know they cause contraversy, but used sensibly they are an amazing, magical sight and very romantic.

The evening soon moved up a pace with Rob the DJ entertaining, our candy bar, groom disappearing and reappearing, photographer found sneaking sweets from the candy bar and being caught red handed, it was a chaotic night!

My favorite photo of this year though has to be Laila´s dancing shoes, I love this photo :)

Our thanks as always to our amazing wedding mates, Jeremy we love you, Kathryn, can you make me look pretty?!  Rob, do you ever sleep?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A Fabulous Wedding at the Marbella Club












At the end of last year we met with the delightful Alexandra and Kevin who were visiting Marbella as they were interviewing a few wedding planners in order to establish who they felt would deliver an excellent service and help them plan, coordinate and style their special day and they decided to hire us :)

Alexandra and Kevin had already booked the prestigious Villa Del Mar at the Marbella Club Hotel as the venue for their wedding and a handful of suppliers.

What they required was a professional team behind them to manage and coordinate all their wedding day details, add in the suppliers that were missing and oversee their celebrations.

Carla put together their wedding schedule, budget sheet and organised the rest of the suppliers and details needed and the end result was a beautifully organised and planned wedding ceremony held in the stunning gardens of the Villa Del Mar.

The delightful ceremony was followed by a fantastic dinner reception in the idyllic gardens overlooking the Mediterranean sea and and some real show stopping entertainment provided by Larry Jazz and Yanela Brooks.  Yanela had us boogingy away when she was rehearsing, so I can imagine how fabulous her night time show was!

Although we do create flowers we do feel it is fair as planners to offer a variety of suppliers so our clients can make choices, including florists.

 We do not like our couples to feel they have to use us for everything, so on this occasion the gorgeous flowers were provided by Virginia including the very stylish decoration of the wedding canopy, the divine bridal flowers and the tall table arrangements which consisted of large floral balls sat on tall glassware using white hydrangeas, roses and gypsophelia. 

We had fun creating and styling the rest of this gorgeous day :)
 We provided white chill out bracelets for their pre wedding party at Los Monteros Hotel.

The table seating plan was hand written on a shabby chic style white mirror and the fan shaped table names and placecards created by Anoulka were gorgeous with tiny pearl details. The placecards were tied to the napkins with ribbons and the tables were scattered with pearls to finish the overall look of the tables and the very yummy cake was provided by the Marbella Club Hotel.  We dressed the chairs with white organza ribbons and placed white pashminas on all the ladies chairs.

Our lanterns, candles and fairy lights lit up the gardens and provided a gorgeous, twinkly  and very romantic seaside back drop :)

Our thanks to David Toms for this selection of wonderful photos from this delightful wedding, and to see more of this very romantic day we have a short video to share with you from BodaKids.

Here is our lovely testimonial for Carla and her superb wedding planner skills
from Alexandra and Kevin, thankfully she has not been shoved into a suitcase and is still with us!

"When we decided upon Marbella as a location for our wedding the one concern was the weather (given the venue was outside) and the second was organization, given the Spanish are not know for their skills in this department! (I can say that because by mother is Spanish).
You could say it was love at first sight.
The first time we met Carla we knew she was the one.
Personable, organized and full of suggestions she filled us with confidence and that confidence was well placed as she enabled us to have the most magical wedding.
She was always on call, responsive and even reminded us of our own timeline.
We could not have organized such a special day without her. She is one in a million.
We wish you could have become back with us in our suitcase.
Thank you
Alexandra and Kevin"
Our congratulations to Alexandra and Kevin and our huge thanks to the Marbella Club and all the suppliers whom without their dedication, professionalism and devotion we could not do our job!