Considerations when choosing a wedding venue in Spain

Finding the right wedding venue can be a daunting task, especially when you are trying to get as much information as possible whilst organising a destination wedding in a different country.

Here is a bit of professional advice before you commit to booking a venue here in Spain.

1. Plan B Weather

In the event of high winds or rain does your venue have a back up space?  

If your venue does not have enough space to move an entire wedding inside, i,e, ceremony, dinner and dancing then you must factor in the cost of installing a marquee, perhaps with heating, lighting, etc and do check out the available spaces in your venue to make a wedding work if you cannot host it outside.

You must also factor inside spaces into your arrangements if the venue does not allow music outside after midnight, see no 2.

Do bear in mind this will apply even if your wedding is organised in the summer months, i,e June, July and August as often here we suffer from high winds, particularly if you are planning a beach wedding.  I can recall two weddings we had last year, one in June and one in August where it was blowing a gale.

2. Can you play music outside?

Here I find this is one of the most crucial factors for our couples wishing to host their wedding here in Spain.

Often it is assumed that as we lead a very outdoor Mediterranean lifestyle we can party outside until all hours, but sadly no.  There are very strict noise regulations in place in venues and private villas which are located in built up areas.

Noise has to be kept to a minimum during the evening and after midnight it is forbidden, hence you are going to have to move your party inside.  There are a few venue exceptions but over this past year I have met with many couples who have booked a private villa only to subsequently find out about the music curfews and are faced with having to work around these restrictions for their celebration, which of course they had not anticipated.

Do be careful, many private villas want bookings and are not going to enlighten you with this information until they have received your deposit and you are locked into a rental agreement with them.  Ask them before you book if there are any music restrictions.

3. Decoration of your Spaces

Many of our venues here in Spain are already stunningly beautiful which is a bonus and only require a few elements of decoration to add some style and personalise your wedding.   

However do consider if you are hosting a wedding which has a plan b room that you may need to spend extra on providing some more decor to liven the space up.

4. Catering and a Kitchen at your Venue.

If you have chosen a stunningly remote venue for your wedding do check that there are facilities installed, i,e kitchens and toilets.  It sounds quite a basic thing but if there is not a lot at your venue you are going to have to pay to bring them in, for example mobile kitchens and mobile toilets.  This is quite a cost as off premises caterers will have to build adequate kitchens to cater for your wedding on site.  So do get quotes and check with suppliers how much it is going to cost to bring everyone to your wedding before you commit to your beautiful but secluded venue.

5. Access to the Venue.

You have fallen in love with a venue, it ticks all the boxes and it is set in the stunning hills of Andalucia. You can play music outside all night and it is perfect, it has adequate kitchens and toilets, but it is accessible for all the suppliers who will be arriving to create your event?  
Calculate the amount of suppliers who are going to come to your venue to create your wedding, they arrive in cars!   

You will have catering trucks, coaches or mini buses bringing guests to your venue and all the other suppliers, hair and make up, photographer, videographer, entertainment, wedding planner, etc so do check the access roads are suitable and there is adequate parking available for all the trucks and cars who will be there attending to your event and make sure they can park out of sight.

I hope this helps you with a little bit of advice and of course you can always enlist our pre-wedding consultation service with our expert knowledge before you confirm your perfect venue.

Cake Trend, Drip Cakes, Love them!

This week I was alerted to the latest cake trend by Sweet Things by Fi.  

I had seen a few of this style drip cake starting to pop up on my feeds, one in particular was from the Crumby Bakery based in Godalming, Surrey who shared a rather impressive photo of their drip cakes.

It was beginning to sink in that this was fast becoming the latest trend but nothing confirms it better than our fabulous Fi sending me images of gorgeous cakes in exactly this style and asking me my thoughts.

Now, anyone that knows me understands I am a complete sucker for scoffing cakes, really not fussy what they look like, give me chocolate, vanilla, lemon, every cake is totally welcome but these new style drip cakes are really to die for and absolutely love the rather decadent toppings that are seemingly and effortlessly thrown on the top, which of course we know they are not, they would have been painstakingly designed and put together.

The toppings are just divine and it seems can be anything, from a beautiful display combining fresh fruits, mini macarons and meringues, adding in flowers, chocolate drops, etc, it is really up to the creativeness of each cake maker.

Forget the naked cakes, decadent drip cakes are the big trend this year and we cannot wait to see more designs and creativity as this trend takes the cake world by storm and I cannot wait to eat them!

A Bit of Valentine's Sparkle from Spain!

As a complete addict to all things pretty and the fact that this is Valentine's weekend I thought I would wish everyone a fabulous few days and share this gorgeous styled table with you.

For me these images are totally evocative of Valentine's day with one of my favourite colour combos, hot pinks and reds, always makes me happy.

I love seeing these images pop up on my Facebook and Instagram feeds as it reminds me that winter is almost over and we can look forward to sunnier brighter days.

Everyone must be wondering how I can say this when I live in one of the most sunniest countries in the world but trust me tonight is blowing up a storm and I am surrounded by cloud, winds and rain and Spain is apparently being plunged into a cold snap on Sunday which I will try to embrace with a smile!

My weekend won't be about the usual Valentines stuff, it will just be spent with my family, making nice things and memories.

My recently widowed mother will be spoilt with some spring flowers to cheer her up, my gorgeous youngest daughter and I will be spending time together baking some fun Valentine's love cookies and we will just poodle about enjoying each other's company.
I will also be constantly checking my phone and behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof as my eldest daughter is about to present me with my first granddaughter which is really quite nerve racking!

I love this tablescape and I have a confession that I saved these images to my phone a few days ago and despite my best endeavours have not been able to back track to find who to credit them to so please if they are your images do let me know and I can pop a link on this blog post to you.

They are fabulous and I love the floral styling and the accessories, as of course they include a bit of sparkle and sequins which can never do wrong in my eyes!

If you are planning your wedding in southern Spain and wish to hire some sparkle, we do stock a wide range of accessories such as gold and silver sequin table runners, gold and silver tealights, charger plates in some fabulous colours, gorgeous table linens, the list is endless but for now I will leave you to drool over these fabulous florals and wish you all a weekend filled with lots of love and lovely things.

Pantone's Rose Quartz and Serenity Colour for Weddings

We have been watching the wedding colours recently with great interest and dare I say slightly relieved to see the back of the blush!  

I know many brides still love this colour and are sticking with it as it is so perfect for weddings but for us wedding pros we like a change!  

Do bear in mind now we have been doing blush for over 2 years so it is refreshing to see other colours coming into the grand scheme of things and finally taking over.

When Pantone announced the colours of the year as a rose quartz and serenity soft blue, I was at first a bit dubious, I felt they were too reminiscent of the classic boy, girl baby colours but having seen how many designers have interpreted these colours I am beginning to embrace them.

As with all colours you have to be exact, we cannot go too baby pink or too baby blue, they are soft and surreal colours, reflecting the other craze about to hit wedding world by storm of geological rocks and geometric shapes, Edison hanging light bulbs and botanical florals.

Mix these colours with copper geometric shapes and you are bang on in 2016 wedding trends!

All images courtesy of Pinterest.

Sparkly Winter Wedding, Villa El Cid, Marbella

When Elaine and Kevin first contacted us it was to help them style and decorate their wedding day, the rest was pretty much booked from the church ceremony to the cocktail and reception at the villa they had hired for the week and Elaine had been picking my brains during her wedding planning to get some help and direction when she was booking suppliers.

Elaine had some gorgeous ideas for decorating her dream day using purples and deep grape colours mixed with some softer pinks, silvers, lots of sparkle, fairy lights and twinkle, I was in heaven as we worked on the details together and very excited when Elaine finally hired us as knew this would be a beautiful wedding.

Elaine then hit what I call a wedding planning wall.

As we had got on well chatting decoration she then hired us to finish off her planning and oversee the actual wedding day.

We took over her wedding arrangements, which was easy as we already knew all their suppliers, and made sure that every element of her day was covered and finalised so she could relax and enjoy the day.

It started as a typical November day, slightly cloudy, some showers threatening and everyone looking up to the skies all day and checking their weather apps!  We had a touch of rain in the morning but soon the skies cleared and the rest of the day was beautiful.

Elaine and Kevin got themselves ready in different parts of El Cid villa and it was lovely to see them so excited and nervous at the same time.  

The ceremony was quite early for Spanish standards, at 1pm at the Encarnacion Church in the Orange Square, so after a busy morning everyone set off to Marbella for the wedding.

I left my capable team at the villa waving their wands to create Elaine and Kevin's dream day, Pedro Navarro's team were working their magic in the conservatory hanging up white drapes, decorating the tables with some gorgeous florals and hanging beautiful glass bulbs with tealights.  

Everything was being overseen by Rocio making sure each detail was finalised from the addition of our silver charger plates, the chairs decorated with deep grape sashes and secured with diamante brooches, menus set on each place setting and finished off with our grape napkins decorated with diamante napkin rings.

Gusto catering were whipping up a culinary storm in the kitchens ready for when the guests arrived back to the villa starting with a cocktail and canapes and then a fabulous 3 course meal finished off with expresso martinis and a dessert station.

I was overseeing the church ceremony and have to admit I had to walk out during one song as tears welled up, I was thinking of the recent loss of my father, it was an emotional day and a beautiful ceremony.

Afterwards everyone popped into the bar opposite the church for a drink and Elaine and Kevin had some fabulous photos taken around Marbella with Jeremy Standley.

Once back at the villa, the guests were treated to a fantastic reception during the afternoon and evening followed by dancing well into the night with the Midnight Mechanics.

We finalised all Elaine's arrangements after the wedding to make sure her paperwork was registered and she left Spain with her marriage certificate.

Our thanks to Jeremy Standley for sharing such fabulous photos with us and our congratulations to Elaine and Kevin.