Designing and Inspiration Boards

Design is creating a space, a product or a function with harmony, balance and style.

Whether you are designing your home, a wedding, a work space or a product there are basic principles applied to make it work plus of course an eye for balance and style.

One thing I find always works is to gather various collected elements together to create an inspiration board and tonight I created this with some photos I have pinned on my interiors file on Pinterest.  

Working on a design project is always exciting whether it be a re-decoration of a room or the design of your wedding, party or event.

It is always a good idea to gather the colours, images and swatches together and you will quickly see a cohesive look and colours leaping out at you.

This time of year I am updating my own living spaces and as an interior designer and stylist I apply my own principles to my own home and thought it would be interesting to gather the images I have collected over the past few months, of interior spaces, together on one board.

It appears now I have to go out and buy lots of mint green and soft turquoise paints!

With storms predicted here in southern Spain tomorrow this actually sounds like a good plan.

Christmas In Malaga

 

 

 

This might sound dreadful but in all the years I have lived here I have never visited Malaga.  Usually I have been flying past the city either on route to the airport or to a wedding and have never been a tourist.

 

  We have hosted many weddings in Malaga at some gorgeous venues, including the Castillo de Santa Catalina, which has involved me whizzing through the very hot city centre in the summer at an alarming speed with ribbons, confetti and flowers streaming behind me :) 

 

We are also very much looking forward to planning and designing a fabulous 2 day wedding in Malaga this coming summer which is very exciting.

 

This week, however, I had the luxury of finally being a tourist embarking on a festive  pre Christmas day out with my good friend Loraine who runs Dream Weddings in Spain and our fabulous tour guide Kris McGuirk who incidently is a wonderful wedding photographer by day!  You can see we mix business with pleasure! 

 

I am fortunate to have met so many amazing people through my business who have since become good friends. 

 

What can I say, what a wonderful city Malaga is and I was completely spoilt with two fantastic hosts prepared to show me the sights, lights and tapas bars in Malaga´s city centre.

 

Loraine and I started off by hitting the Larios Shopping Centre and it was a big highlight to visit Primark, aren´t they fab for cosy socks and pj´s plus kids things!!  I had heard about this store but never visited one so was rather overawed by how busy it was!

 

After clutching a few too many shopping bags, full of cosy socks and glittery pink ugg boots for Twinks, Loraine and I then drove into the main city centre to be greeted by Kris, the hostess with the mostess!   

 

Kris then proceeded to whisk us off to many tapas bars with lots of copas de vino involved and the odd break to do a bit of sightseeing, it was amazing, there was so much to see. 

 

Kris truly won the tour guide award dragging us very reluctantly into gorgeous tapas bars and Moroccan tea shops and then proceeded to show us some fascinating cathedrals, churches, the brotherhoods displaying their Christmas nativity scenes along with the stunning processional floats they use at Easter and of course the Calle Larios for some festive Christmas lights, they were beautiful and the street was lined with entertainers and street vendors just like Barcelona. 

 

The day went far too quickly and we ended up at the top of the Marriot hotel on the roof terrace enjoying a very civilised vodka and tonic whilst admiring the rooftops of Malaga, the port with a cruise ship in and being startled by the occasional random firework being set off!

 

What can I say apart from I had such a wonderful day.  I now realise I need to go back to Malaga many times to see all the sights and more of this city and it´s history and do need of course to visit a few more of the wonderful tapas bars!

 

Tonight though I would like to express my deepest sadness at the horrific tragedy that has unfolded in the US, I have cried at the loss of so many innocent victims, it beggars belief to be honest and we send our thoughts and prayers to everyone who is suffering.

 

 

Swedish Christmas Inspirations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is that time of year where I have time to inspire myself as our wedding season comes to an end, Christmas is on it´s way and the rains have arrived in true spanish style, full force bucket fulls of water accompanied with flash floods, thunder, lightening and tornedos!

 

Days now seem incredibly short and it gets dark early which I find incredibly frustrating but keep telling myself now after 5 weeks the days will start to get longer again.

 

There seems so much to pack into such a short space of daylight hours at the moment.

 

But at night, I am lucky to still be sat outside tucked up on my cosy terrace, drinking lots of hot chocs as I spend long evenings looking at ideas, fashions and inspirations.

 

I do love the Northern European Style.

 

I sometimes wish I had two houses, one Scandinavian style as well as my Mediterranean style home. 

 

My Mediterranean home, is very Bazaar style, bright colours, white washed walls and flashes of bright colours, mainly olive greens, turquoises and pinks, sometimes perhaps a bit too much pink but I love it, albeit I am at the moment painting my kitchen a fabulous blue so there is a god :)! 

 

My home is a mess of things I have collected over the years that I am constantly trying to assemble into an order.  I am famous for binning things if they do not work so many items from my house have been dumped recently at our local bins as I minesweep our home yet again!  My family get rather worried when I am in this mood!

 

I have tried the Scandinavian style in my own home when I first moved here with dark grey walls, mixed with whites, gingham and white twigs and I just could not live with it, it was too sombre and just did not lift me at all. 

 

Yet I do love the style, perhaps it is something to do with the light, lifestyle, I am not sure.

 

When I worked in Display design, I had the most fabulous mentor and boss who was German and she certainly stamped her style on me as we were very good friends and worked together for years, it was not just her style but her lifestyle that shaped me without me realising how much, until now. 

 

Often when I am doing things or cooking some of her recipes handed down to me I can see how much I am like Hannah.  I have been thinking about her a lot this week as I decorate my home and turn out recipe after recipe that she taught me.  There are so many of her influences that I have continued into my adult life and I owe her for many a fabulous recipe, beautiful home and inspiration!

 

I have an affection for the wonderful simplicity the Northern Europeans have design wise and the fact they still use a lot of natural materials within their homes, styles and designs. I found this gorgeous website from Sweden to share with you Olsson and Jensen and I just love the style and photography along with their beautiful Christmas decorations to inspire you with a Swedish Christmas.

 

I am afraid I will be sticking to my silvers, vintage glass, shoe and handbag theme which is now mixed along with cupcake baubles in hot pinks ;)!  We are in Marbella after all!

Adding Pinterest to Blogger

I am bouncing around tonight with excitement as finally I have worked out how to add the coveted Pinterest buttons to my blog :)!!

 

Not just a follow me Pinterest badge, which I did quickly tonight as this is easy, but to add Pin It to every image on my blog.

 

 

I have posted a lovely image of one of my obsessions, ribbons :) just so you can see the Pin It in action!

 

 I was not bought up with computers, so everything I know and continue to learn has been self taught through many hours of googling, watching tutorials, and really just finding my way around.  Plus I do find my daughters very helpful as from the ages of six they were teaching me how to do predicitive texting and more recently uploading apps to my iphone for me :)  I am beginning to sound like a Geek!

 

 I have spent years learning how to create websites, studying online social marketing and keeping up to date with trends, it is a subject I find hugely interesting and fascinating, I could never have started my business without the wonderful world of worldwide web.

 

Technology, as far as I am concerned, is still rocket science but I am hooked and do love finding out how to do things and always love a challenge.

 

 Tonight having added the very popular Pinterest buttons to the photos on this blog I thought I would share how I did it with you.

 

 There are many creative people out there with fabulous blogs that are probably the same as me and spend hours googling to find out how to do teccie things on their blogs! 

 

 

Having been googling for hours tonight and reading goodness knows how many tutorials with many what seemed hugely complicated HTML things to do I finally fell upon, you guessed it, a wonderful blog written by a woman, in woman terminology, Code it Pretty. 

 

Call me biased but men seem to make things seem more complicated!

 

Everything I wanted to do on my blog was here, it was so easy to follow.

 

I have to admit when I hit the edit HTML code I always freeze and having had a few disasters in my time I always expect to lose five years of work and my heart is in my throat whilst tweaking away at these computer things!

 

Reassuringly I am told to do a back up of my blog which I dutifully do before making any changes and then with lump still in throat I hit the save HTML template button and view blog, nothing?! 

 

I go through the whole process again and wham the buttons have appeared, I am delighted, another achievement under my belt!

 

Do head over to Code it Pretty if you want Pin It´s on each photo on your blog it really is very easy.

Hats Off to Google

I just wanted to shout out to Google who have been amazing this week.

 

I was alerted to a Copycat blogger earlier this week by

 Joseba Sandoval.

 

 

This blogger was copying my blog posts as if they were their own, word for word, picture for picture.  It is always very intrusive when this happens and very disconcerting especially when they are copying personal posts about events in my life.

 

So much work and effort goes into creating my blog posts, which occasionally include personal references as I waffle on about my life in Spain, share inspirations, often my own designs, talk about creating our weddings and sharing our weddings, and to see this sprawled across someone else´s blog is upsetting to say the least.

 

Anycase this is not the first time it has happened to me and will not be the last, I have  unfortunately had previous copycats.

 

I must shout out though about how brilliant Google have been from the moment I was alerted to this blog by Joseba , I was shocked and swiftly reported it that same evening to Google.

 

 Within 24 hours I had an email from the Google Team asking me for more information so they could investigate my infringement and copyright complaint. 

 

I sent Google more information which was not easy as there were so many pop ups on this particular blog it shut down my computer whilst I was trying to copy the copycat links.

 

 But having sent the Google Team more information late last night and informed them that over 50 of my blog posts were on this blog with some examples, I received an email tonight telling me they had investigated my infringement copyright complaint, and the offending blog has now been shut down :)

 

I am thrilled and all I can say to this person is go and find something else to blog about that is your own material and stop trying to copy others, that is not what blogs are about, we care, share and love what we do.

 

Tutus and Tea

Gosh, as I type this blog post I am sitting curled cosily up on my terrace listening and watching some pretty serious rain! 

 

 

When it finally decides to rain here in Spain it really does chuck it down, hundreds of litres of the wet stuff is currently pouring out the skies along with a bit of lightening and thunder thrown in for good measure.

 

The weather here in Spain is never what I would describe as mild, it is either gloriously sunny or dramatically torrential rain!

 

Many of my clients, past and future, I have noticed are emailing me at the moment asking what I am up to and what we get up to in the winter :)  I thought this was rather sweet so sharing some of my ´what I get up to in the winter months with you!´

 

 

Well today the weather was grotty, and still is so it has been a day of working on wedding designs, blog and new ideas and inspirations, putting quotes together and it seems numerous cups of tea, tea first thing, tea with biscuit, tea with a chicken sandwich and tea with a cake! 

 

I have a dog that hates the rain so have had a day of trying to ply him out his hiding place and put him outside. I also have two cats I hate, they are a nuisance and of course with the rain they have been hanging around all day meowing and driving me insane.  However I ended up with all these animals is due to my two older daughters, pleading with me as children to get pets, now they have both left home and muggings here is left feeding and looking after them?!

 

Currently I am contemplating duck egg blue for my long neglected kitchen and considering making a tutu for Twinks, not sure why would just be fun! 

 

I have new lights and taps for the house but need to find a good handyman to put them all up, bedrooms need tidying up, reorganising and a freshen up and generally some housekeeping is going on!

 

 

We have a Halloween party planned for next week at Twinks´s school and of course now decorating the house with spooky things, so perhaps this is a good excuse to make a tutu for a Halloween party, if not it will be for Christmas fairy things! :)

 

It is a month for me of birthdays, me and my wonderful mother, friends and family visiting us, my aunt arrived last night and so far has not been blessed with the best weather Spain has to offer but nevertheless remaining cheerful!  We will see how she is on Saturday ;)!

 

Yesterday was spent decorating a corporate cocktail party and we are looking forward to a wedding in November so making lists and getting ready for this as well.

 

This evening I made a rather yummy beef curry, it seemed Mercadona had predicted the entire population would all want beef tonight and had a vast amount of it proudly displayed on their fresh meat counter so along with some very yummy Indian green chillis given to me by a lovely caterer this week, I was on a roll in the kitchen this afternoon.  It was delicious and we ate on our terrace albeit we are under cover and garden is currently waterlogged so did not venture out there!

 

We are currently refurbing the shop and also putting together a new very exciting spanish vintage stationery range with one of our brides from this year, updating all our products and planning marketing strategies so it is all very exciting times that we only have time for in the winter.

 

Many new clients are visiting us and we had 4 weddings book with us in the past week including a wedding in Girona which is very exciting as we expand across Spain :)  I have also noticed we are taking bookings for the entire year rather than isolated popular months which is interesting.

 

Life is a strange one though and you have to live it whilst you can, we had some rather tragic news today which I will not blog about as it is not appropriate at this time but life is there for today, make the most of it, I am, you never know what is around the corner x

 

Spring Inspirations

I love our 'wedding' blog and adore running our fabulous wedding planning and styling business here in Spain, but I started life as an interior stylist and designer.

I am fortunate that the wedding business I own takes up all my time now, but of course I still have a keen eye for what is new in interiors and styling.

It is this time of year I love scanning through ideas, for my own home, and to keep up with trends, ideas and inspirations for our weddings.

I had an interesting day today reading through my blog (I was actually trying to find one particular post!)  but I was quite intrigued as to how we were predicting trends last year that are only just emerging this year.

Two sprang to mind, one was the metallics and the other was the more formal romantic look of the feather and jewels coming back into weddings and stepping away slightly from the vintage look. 

Decadence is making a comeback albeit slowly and bit by bit we will see more luxurious weddings emerging with a few more jewels and florals. 

I just wanted to share this gorgeous photo with you as this is my bedroom inspiration from Zara Home and how I have decided to spend my much pleaded for Christmas vouchers but what a fabulous inspiration too for a fresh and floral wedding design :)

Design Finds

I have finally worked out how pinterest works, so now of course another time consuming past time and am in heaven :) I have two likes already and still not entirely sure how this works but only loaded up a few photos tonight!

It has been a strange week for me, my beloved father is in hospital and I have been on a bit of a standby really, just doing hospital visits, worrying about him and my mother and generally trying to be useful but finding it hard to concentrate and not really knowing how to pass the odd few hours.

So, what does a girl do when under this sort of predicament, I have been just clearing clutter that has built up over the summer and filling my mind with ideas for decorating and design, which of course is therapeutic in itself. When I spoke to my sister in London earlier, she was doing exactly the same thing!

I have a certain design style I love but of course I cannot stamp my personal taste onto my weddings or interiors, I have to make sure I translate what the client wants, whether I like it or not!

Some of my posts are not directly wedding related but they are researching design, colour, balance and style, all commodities that are applied to our wedding design.

You would be amazed what images are stored in the back of my head somewhere and are hauled back out when I meet with a client that has their own vision.

I love these images I found this evening on a fabulous design blog.

More inspiration for my decluttering and decoration plans and of course perhaps for a future wedding.

Sharing a Few Inspirations

Top 2 Images Selina Lake Bottom 2 Images by Rebecca Newport via Lobster & Swan

We have had a fabulous time over the summer creating our beautiful weddings and now it is time for me to recharge, relax and look forward to some down time.

What should be an idyllic life in my little white washed townhouse set in a village in the mountain overlooking Marbella is indeed slightly chaotic, to say the least! I have been told today, on three occasions, that I should write a book, but that will be work in progress!

I have a few blogs I follow, well actually quite a few, but in the summer I don´t get time as we are so busy but now, in the autumn, I recharge the design batteries and love spending time looking at these hugely talented stylists work.

At the moment I am searching for inspiration for decorating a few bedrooms as it is this time of year I start reorganising, clearing clutter and creating lovely spaces.

I have to admit today I have been slightly thrown off my path for personal reasons but I know by absorbing these beautiful images and inspirations that some fabulous bedrooms will be forthcoming and I also noted that all these images have Christmas baubles in them which is perhaps telling me something?!

Perhaps tomorrow I will be digging out my Nigella and Delia cookbooks!

A Destination Flamenco Styled Wedding in Spain

Currently we are working on some gorgeous weddings for next year in Marbella, Sevilla, Jerez and Ronda.

We are really enjoying our flamenco styling using ivories, burnt oranges, blues and purples, colours that are featuring a lot in our designs.

We have travelled Andalucia extensively and now work with some fabulous venues that have not been showcased as wedding venues yet in Spain, from 10th century Moorish farmhouses, beautiful private villas and fabulous monasteries.

As we broaden our horizons, we offer something truly Spanish and unique, not only in Andalucia but in Barcelona, Madrid and the Balearic Islands.

Below is a photo of some invitations that Anoulka has just designed for one of our brides next year. Despite many hours of tea dying lace the end result was definitely worthwhile!

These images are copywrited by Anoulka, so whilst we hope this gives you inspiration please do bear in mind that these are not to be copied.

Above are images from a wedding styled by Lisa Vorce in Northern Spain and we love the rustic appeal of this wedding from the lavender to the baby kumquats, along with the terracotta pots which of course is very reminiscent of Spain and also reflects some of the ideas we are using for next year´s weddings with an eco friendly theme.

I am a great avocate of eco friendly wedding decorations and if I can plant it, it is biodegradable or if it has come from sustainable source then for me this is perfect.

We will be promoting this ethic much more for our weddings and making them as eco friendly as possible.

Albeit most of our weddings use up their carbon footprints for probably about 10 years to fly everyone over here the least we can do is make is sustainable when they get here!

A Reflective Week

I am fortunate that I spend my days here planning and creating beautiful and enormously happy occasions and we have many gorgeous weddings to share with you over the coming weeks and I am very excited about blogging them along with all the fantastic testimonials we have received.

This week however, I was floored last Sunday by the sudden and very unexpected death of a very good friend, whilst it has not sunk in, it has taken up a lot of my thoughts and yet again made me realise how precious life is and you should spend it with family and friends and show them you care.

It has been a reflective week and I will be back posting and updating our blog plus we are very excited to be working on our new branding and website so I will keep everyone updated but I am also taking out some quieter times at the moment as well.

A huge hug though to all our beautiful brides we have had the past few months and for trusting us to work with them on their special day and to our future brides, I will be back soon with my wand waving and creative head whirring ;)

A bit about us!

We are now bustling through, in the middle of our popular wedding season and I don´t think we have ever had such a busy month before, with many beautiful weddings being created, decorated, planned and coordinated here at the moment. Wings are flapping frantically, magic wands are being waved and ribbons are flying around as we create beautiful and magical days for our clients here!

We are having a lovely time and are thrilled to be receiving so many testimonials, cards, and emails from our clients, it currently feels slightly like Harry Potter! There are a lot of letters coming through the post box and magic in the air!

Here are a few thanks yous and testimonials we have received just this week from Puente Romano Hotel, the Butterfly Ball, and some of our recent weddings.

First was a beautiful card from Ingrid who got married yesterday at the Ritz Carlton Villa Padierna.

"I just wanted to say a big thank you, throughout the organising and run up to the wedding you have been amazing, you are brilliant at your job and I know you will never be short of business. All the best in your future again appreciate all your hard work and help"

Carla received this lovely testimonial from Antonia and Fady whose wedding we ´took over´ at the end of May, so they could relax on the day.

"We are so glad we had Carla as our wedding planner, she is utterly reliable and dependable, always responding quickly and thoroughly to our requests. Carla also has plenty of contacts so finding a great band or photographer is trouble free. Most importantly she is really lovely and flexible making organising our wedding hassle free, personal and as pleasant as possible. Even if you can manage without a wedding planner to help you organise your wedding, I´d really recommend having someone like Carla there on the day itself. She takes the hassle out of being the host, from dealing with suppliers, timings, to dealing with the inevitable unexpected issues, it just meant we could enjoy our wedding and not worry about a thing.

The Butterfly Ball that we decorated and sponsored on Saturday sent us this lovely email this week.

The flowers were beautiful thank you and the biscuits were divine and the giant cupcake was delightful and won by the 6"9 boxer Tyson Fury who planned to carry it all the way back to the UK to give to his wife and daughter! He was over the moon and a big thank you!

Fi was an absolute star and supported me to provide all these delightful goodies for the Butterfly Ball with a giant cupcake decorated with butterflies and 250 beautifully decorated butterfly cookies for our goody bags, I am indebited to her, the most talented and gifted cake maker and decorator here on the coast!

Finally last but not least is an email I received this morning from the Marbella Club for the Suite del Mar opening party

Thanks Laura it was a beautiful party and looked amazing

Fi was with two clients of ours this week and also sent us this email to us about two separate clients we have booked for September

Lastly I was speaking to Mairead and Sarah, both of them sang your praises and said they would be lost without you and sang your praises

Finally and I have to share this with you is my beautiful little daughter, Twinks aka Elizabeth at her school show the Feria del Verano last night, I did have to leave a wedding with Anoulka in charge to shoot off to see her La Bamba dance and it was such a lovely evening apart from her wedgie!

¡

We are now embarking on our busiest week of June with some fabulous weddings we have worked very hard on with a very dramatic spanish theme, a gorgeous vintage style theme with peaches, ice blues and silvers, a silver shell theme at Los Monteros and the list is endless so pop back to see our lovely weddings being uploaded as we receive the photos.

New website and cool new photo booth from Jeremy Standley

We are loving Jeremy Standley's new look website, it is clear and very user friendly and just fab to be honest, although I am sure there has been sweat, blood and tears long the way as the rebranding was taking place but well worth the finished result.

Being in the creative industry means a constant change, developing a strong brand image that you can live with is never easy as we are always changing our minds (I am a Libran as well which is a double whammy!) so I am personally impressed with this very well thought out, clear and dynamic website.

Even more excitement and we are soooo looking forward to a demo, is Jeremy's new photo booth, we cannot wait to have a go and really must blog the photos when the A team get in it, I can imagine us all jostling for space ;)

Knowing Jeremy as well as I do now, a lot of thought has gone into getting the right product and this new photo booth sounds amazing and great fun for weddings. High quality images (of course knowing Jeremy) online and on Facebook within 48 hours, a neat and attractive set up and no electricity needed (always a good thing in Spain!)

We are all getting geared up now for our wedding season and with all these new products and my cutting of the jelly wedding we really are very excited!

A Magical Moroccan Wedding

Since starting my wedding and event business here in Marbella, I have been extremely fortunate to meet some hugely talented and charming people.

An interesting observation I have made along the way is the difference between the way creative people approach their work to the non-creative brains. The creative people I work with are completely devoted to their professions, it is not a job, it is a passion.

Andreas Holm is one of these people, he is an amazing photographer based in here Southern Spain and has photographed some of our weddings and will be photographing more this year which we are excited about. I am in love with these stunning photos Andreas took of a wedding in Marrakech, Morocco. They capture a beautiful day and many details evocative of the country and the couple, you have got to visit Andreas Holm's blog to see all these photos, they are beautiful.

Another reason for me to go to Morocco, the day I do go will be a big celebration as I have been waffling on about this now for ages and I look at it everyday from my house!