Elegant Sophistication in a Stunning Sevillian Setting

Patience, patience, I know I nag the photographers until they must dread the site of my email address and glaze over, but I was so excited about receiving these stunning photos from Jeremy of the most beautiful wedding we created here in September at the charming Hacienda San Rafael in Seville. 

Imogen was a delight to work with as she knew exactly what she wanted and after a few consultations in the shop, with flower samples checked for colours and lots of lovely swatches of fabrics and lace we were ready to create Imogen's special day. 

Due to the Hacienda being located near Sevilla and a 2 hour drive away, we were not able to leave the coast as we were so busy, so after some detailed preparations and schedules in place we were able to create Imogen's wedding from afar!

The lantern and candles were already at the venue from a wedding the week before (which was good timing) and the utterly charming owner, Anthony, insisted on helping us by watching where everything had been placed and getting his staff to painstakingly reinstall everything again for the following weekend.  I have never met such a helpful venue and they were a joy to work with. 

Jeremy, bless him, was then put in charge of taking all the flowers to the venue, so meeting on route, we carefully transferred all the flowers to his car!  A nail biting moment until I heard that everything had arrived safely and in one piece so another big thank you to Jeremy for being our courier for the day :)

We had worked with Imogen to create a beautifully designed wedding featuring ivory and sahara roses, with lace and bead details.  The bridal flowers were absolutely divine and our table centrepieces (yes Jeremy had all this in his car!) were the same roses set on gold vintage style plates Loraine had found on a trip to London.  The end result as you can see where absolutely divine, a balance between elegant sophistication and the rustic charm of this breathtaking venue.

Imogen emailed us recently

Hi Laura Just wanted to say a big thank you for everything. The venue looked stunning and Loraine did the most beautiful job with the flowers. Thanks again xxx

The adorable flower girl with her mini bouquet has to be my favorite photo, she is too gorgeous for words :)  I also laughed when I saw the final photo of the three wise monkeys!  All stunning, and a huge thank you to Imogen and Lindsay for allowing us to create such a beautiful wedding, to Jeremy for such amazing photos yet again and to Anthony for being one of the most charming people I have ever met.

Confeti Winter 2010 is out now

We are delighted the new Confeti Winter 2010 magazine is now out.

Enjoy an exclusive interview with celebrity milliner Philip Treacy, an old school Hollywood glamour fashion shoot, winter wedding trends and fashion for the little ones. The latest features include a Nerja special, same sex wedding in Spain, the Confeti team at the National Wedding Shows and honeymooning in the Maldives.

Read features about Reviva in the Sparkly Shabby Chic in Marbella with Michelle and Harry's wedding at the Cortijo de la Perdiz and one of our weddings planned by Carla of Julia and Jaime March in Frigiliana and the Cortijo Bravo in Velez-Malaga.

A Spanish version of this beautifully produced magazine will be out next week.

Confeti will also be at the Celebra Wedding Show in Malaga on the 26th-28th November on Stand H4.

To view this fabulous magazine online visit www.confetimagazine.com

A lovely testimonial received this morning

We are always thrilled to hear from our weddings afterwards and here is a lovely email received this morning from Marina and Juan who celebrated their wedding here on the beach and were hugely lucky with such fabulous weather here in November.

"Morning ladies!

We´re just back from our honeymoon and getting through heaps of lovely messages from everyone, all full of compliments on everything about out wedding weekend, including amazing flower arrangements and bouquets, the decoration, the venue, the cake etc!!

So we wanted to send you a HUGE thank-you for helping us put it all together, everything was fantastically organised, so much attention to detail and the lovely generous "extras", like the wedding cake that was 3-tier instead of 2-tier, which was a really lovely surprise and, of course, your very kindly and lovingly prepared gift of our gorgeous flowers for our Gibraltar ceremony.

We´ll have the official photos soon and will send you a pic or two to your shop :-)

Thanks a mil again for exceeding our expectations and going "beyond the call of duty", you´re all a fantastic team!!

Marina & Juan xx"

Thank you Marina and Juan and we are looking forward to seeing the official photos :)!

Restaurant Cervantes Orange Square Marbella

It is not often I go to other restaurants outside of my favourites, but I was persuaded to try this restaurant by my sister, a food and cookery editor, who visited this restaurant this summer and has raved about it eversince and has nagged me to try it when I was not so busy working here in the summer.

My sister was so enthusiastic about the food and assured me it was perfect for me as it was delightfully prepared food in smaller portions as I hate being presented with huge platefuls of food. 

It also brings back memories of when we were children and our parents often took us into Marbella to eat out in the townhouse style restaurants of Marbella, including the Meson Pasaje, the Old Creperia, which is now Cervantes, and another wonderful restaurant that sadly is no longer there but it was like sitting in someone's dining room, in fact we probably were and being served the most delicious spinach a la creme by a Harry Worth lookalike !

So busy summer over and time to try these fabulous restaurants out, I booked a table and went with Loraine, a huge food and wine connoiseur, and the owner of the Arte Cafe and Earthscent.  We booked a table on the terrace and luckily on this November evening it was beautifully warm and mild and the view over Orange Square was just how I remembered it and magical.

 The menu choice was wonderful and it all sounded delicious, Loraine was stumped for choice which apparently is rare!  Loraine eats out most nights and is a real foodie, she had also been recommended this restaurant as well from another one of our clients,  so she was very excited and is still talking about the marvellous meal we had even now, so that says something!

What can I say, the food was to die for, it was beautifully presented, fabulous flavour combinations and just perfect.  The chef, who apparently is only 25 years old, is a genius.  I was in heaven at this restaurant.  I had a quail and chestnut salad to start, Loraine and I both had the lamb followed by some amazing bread puddings with passion fruit icecream for me and a parmesan icecream for Loraine.

This restaurant has only been open 5 months and is so worth a visit if you are a foodie, masterchef style diner.  For me it is already now on my list of special restaurants to visit and my sister and I are planning to go at Christmas.  It has an open fire as well so perfect for winter dining, with a lovely shabby chic feel to it, just hoping they have lots of candles there throughout the winter and the fire raging!

I get asked all the time for restaurants I recommend and this is certainly one of them, the owner, Phillipe, is charming and dropped off some leaflets to our shop the next day offering our clients a free glass of french champagne to anyone that wishes to visit this fabulous restaurant, so if you are looking for a real food heaven restaurant to visit this is definitely on our list, the quality of food and the service was outstanding.

Next time you are in Orange Square in Marbella, dont' fall into one of the tourist restaurants that charge you the earth for nothing spectacular, take the time to book a table at Cervantes and have a fabulous meal at the same prices prepared by the most extraordinary chef.

Their telephone number for bookings is 952 776 759

A Peacock Themed Wedding

We have had a very exciting 2010 and an are looking forward to an even more exciting 2011 as we become increasingly busier.  We are being booked up with at an alarming pace and have many wonderful weddings to plan, create and look forward to.

We are now busy here working on next year's wedding designs, details and planning many fabulous days for our brides. 

 

Our wedding planning and coordination service has also become increasingly busy for brides looking for that stylish element to their weddings combined with Carla's super organised skills.  Our clients this year are raving about Carla and the effort she puts into our weddings.  She is a star and works tirelessly, I am sure I have seen someone before like Carla and am thinking it is probably a James Bond film where she clicks her heels! 

I have to admit I have had a creative brain block this past few weeks, I am convinced my brain just shuts down on wedding overload, but finally today, after much fretting, the creative streak came back!!  It happens to me occasionally and I always panic but am beginning to understand that this seems to be a natural process in order to clear my mind and concentrate on the next projects I have.

As I start to work on our designs I will post them in the hope they will inspire your own wedding design or event.

Here we are creating a peacock theme for a wedding at the Finca de la Concepcion next year in June.  I am toying between the dark gothic look and the slightly more garden design for this wedding as it is set in the most amazing gardens.

I think a combination and balance of both will work well, not too dark and not too fluffy.

There are 7 bridesmaids so imagining them in varying colours of the peacock feather, purple, emerald greens and teal colours with a paler bouquet and then the bride in ivory with a darker bouquet. Men in dark navy suits with some fabulous ties.  We have even found peacock ties :)

I would welcome any comments or feedback as we showcase our wedding designs, I do think feathers are going to play a big part in weddings for 2011 as the vintage style takes on an 80's twist and gets bigger and bolder.

A Stunning Winter Beach Wedding in Marbella

A few of my not so good photos from a beautiful wedding we organised and decorated here in Marbella on Saturday with the most wonderful ceremony conducted at sunset on the beach in Marbella.

Following the official wedding on Gibraltar, our lovely bride from Madrid had booked the beach restaurant for her reception and then contacted us to put the rest into place.

We organised a lovely Spanish minister of ceremonies, a fabulous dulce leche wedding cake and of course the decorations, flowers and a helping hand. 

It was an interesting ceremony as the bride is Russian and the groom is Argentinian, so the service was conducted in Spanish and then a Russian tradition of eating salt and bread was performed by the mother using a beautifully embroidered linen cloth featuring love birds. 

I was fascinated and then the parents threw coins and jewels at their feet.

The weather here was amazing, it was 26 degrees, no winds and a stunning sunset to be enjoyed by not only our wedding party but many onlookers on the beach watching the proceedings.  How lucky they were as it is a lottery here in the winter but we do get some amazingly beautiful winter sunny days.

More photos have been promised which I hope are better than mine!

Our Exclusive Winter Wedding Offer with Los Monteros Hotel

With the welcomed reopening of one of the finest 5 star hotels in the world here in Marbella, Los Monteros Hotel remains a stunning venue, one of our absolute favourites and is now brimming with excitement as the staff recently started working again with renewed vigour and spirit to put this fabulous hotel back on the map, where it should be.

Reviva Weddings are delighted to be working in association with Los Monteros Hotel to offer our clients an fabulous exclusive winter wedding package created especially for us to offer our clients.

Our Reviva Winter Wedding offer at Los Monteros Hotel starts on the 1st January 2011 and runs until the 30th May 2011, it will then run from the 16th October to the 15th December 2011.

Our offer includes

Reception Drinks and Canapes (3 per person)

Menu

Fish Consomme with Sun dried tomato ravioli

or

Green salad with asparagus, pistachios and figs vinaigrette

***

Pan fried sea-bass with celery mousse and tarragon sauce

or

White veal steak with foie-gras and pine nuts with vanilla from Tahiti sauce

***

Praline Charlotte with rum sauce

Drinks: Gran Feudo White and Red Wine, national beer, soft drinks, juices and mineral water

Glass of cava and Coffee

2 Hours Open Bar (Standard brands)

Printed Menus

Bridal Suite with a special surprise and a second room free of charge

Price per person: 100€ (including VAT)

If you are planning a winter wedding here in Marbella, please do contact us for more information about this offer by emailing info@reviva-weddings.com

If you are thinking of planning a wedding here, Reviva Weddings have negotiated many offers and discounts with some fabulous venues here in Southern Spain, so please do contact us for more information as to how we can help you create your dream day.