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.

Moroccan Style Pumpkins for Halloween

As Halloween approaches I thought I would share this photo I found tonight on pinterest of decorated pumpkins Moroccan style, a style that is close to my heart as we use it a lot for our wedding styling.

I am sticking with glittery pumpkins but if any of you are feeling adventurous this idea looks amazing, however, I am sure if I created a pumpkin masterpiece like this I would not want to be turning it into pumpkin soup or pie!

Stunning September Weddings in Marbella

I have just realised we are almost at the end of September and I have not created one blog post since August so hugest apologies to all our followers.

Working in the Destination Wedding Industry here in Marbella, we do have incredibly busy months, predominently May, June, July and September. Needless to say September has whizzed past leaving little time for me to indulge in my blogging.

We have been frantically waving our famous magic wands over Andalucia and have some fabulous weddings to share with you over the next few months plus some very exciting news, so do keep an eye out for our announcements coming shortly.

We have been thrilled to again receive many testimonials from our brides and would like to share this one with you received tonight for a wedding we planned, executed and designed at the beginning of September.

I think the importance of this email is that our lovely bride works for one of the largest event companies in London so we were up against a real test of our planning and decoration skills with this fabulous wedding set in a stunning monastery in the hills behind Sotogrande.

Hi Laura and Carla

We really wanted to thank you guys for you amazing hard work and commitment to make the wedding so beautiful and such a success. We absolutely loved every minute of it and are both still on a total high from it all and buzzing.

Every detail was perfect and when we arrived at the both the church and the venue we were really blown away by how fantastic they looked and all those months of work and deliberating had delivered something beyond what we expected.

All our guests remarked on how stunning the venue looked and how fab everything was from the food/drink to the disco and laser lights were, people really felt this was something unique and special and the wedding of all weddings!

Sad that it is all over but we have such fantastic memories and cannot wait to see the photos and videos which we will of course pass onto you.

Thank you for making it such a memorable day.

Very Best Danielle and Ed

Our thanks to Danielle and Ed for choosing us and allowing us to plan, design, decorate and manage this fabulous wedding and we thoroughly enjoyed working with them and their lovely family and wish them a future filled with fun and happy times.

Moroccan Inspired Wedding Decorations

This morning I fell upon a fabulous blog called Bridal Musings which you must head over to take a look at, gorgeous weddings and inspirations.

Being established in the South of Spain many of our weddings have a slight element of Moroccan styling and we love the ideas on here using my favorite Moroccan colour combos.

For more information on these inspiration boards head over to Bridal Musings, I guarantee you will be there for a while!

A Beautiful September Wedding in Mijas

All of our weddings just ooze style and Katie and Scott's wedding at the end of last year was no exception. It was a delightful day in one of my favourite venues here in Mijas and beautifully organised as always by our 5 star Carla!

Sometimes we have photographers that do not send us photos despite much nagging!

It is always a huge disappointment for us but it is normally because they are just busy and moved onto the next wedding, so it is delightful when we do hear from our couples, whom after the wedding excitement has settled down, like to share their wonderful memories with us.

Katie and Scott recently sent me over their wedding photos, we were so excited to see them as we had planned, organised and decorated this fabulous wedding with the brightly coloured bridesmaids and their gorgeous bouquets to providing lots of details for the wedding day
at this very stylish villa in Mijas. The handsome men in kilts were a bonus as well!

With our ever super efficient Carla planning and organising the wedding details nothing could go wrong, apart from the weather of course. Unfortunately as this was a late September wedding the summer broke here and the storms started to arrive. It was on and off all day with dashes in and out the villa and me scowling at the black rolling clouds.

Luckily the rain stayed away for the ceremony and it went ahead as planned in the gardens with the wonderful violinist Naiara.

However once the ceremony was over it was a quick rethink and the whole wedding had to be set up inside the villa, but all was not lost as the guests got a Masterchef class from the talented Alex from Fiestasol along with drinking lots of cava and cocktails!

The rain, thunder clouds and lightening eventually stayed away for the guests to mingle back outside later but our beautiful Moroccan chill out was soaked and had managed to die the poolside purple. Katie and Scott are coming to meet up with us again next week, we cannot wait to see them again, I will always remember Katie for buying me a box of chocolates as I was so upset at the weather, I do always think it should have been the other way round!

Perhaps next week I can return the favour to Katie!

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!

A Moroccan Affair

Images above courtesy of Reviva Weddings

Images courtesy of Wedding Chicks and Chelsea Nicole

I think you can tell I am on a Moroccan week here, not sure why! Perhaps I am having a Moroccan affair, highly unlikely I think! But it is all the vibrant colours that remind me of the summer. I love creating Moroccan events and parties, in fact it really is a very easy theme to recreate as it is predominently based on the vibrant colours of blue, purple, orange, reds but I Iove to throw in a saffron, turquoise and hot pink to bring it up to date.

Here are some of the parties we have created and decorated here in Marbella with my good friend Carlos at the Marbella Club and Puente Romano plus a few more inspiration boards I have found on my internet searches.

From a small chillout area to a large society event we have a store room full of Moroccan decorations and also steal them from others!

I also love adding in that element to our weddings here with our lanterns and candle packs and offer lots of beautiful white Moroccan style lanterns to add that detail to the day. We have also just purchased some fabulous tiny silver ones which I am very excited about which is rather sad!!!

January Inspirations

I have been scouring the internet tonight, which I love to do, searching for hugely talented and stylish inspirations, not necessarily wedding related.

Being a designer it does not really matter what the subject is, it is finding out the trends and latest styles that I can then portray into my work and creative thought processes which is important for me to progress and refresh as I call it!

It is awful to see so many hugely tacky websites with double wedding rings and doves :( and a rare breath of fresh air to see some truly stylish ideas and designs which I have decided this year to share with you even if it is not to do with weddings as it does at the end of the day all tie in together. In fact I am considering starting a separate blog about design and interiors as I know that most of my readers are looking for wedding inspirations and do not want to see the latest cushion trend unless of course they are having a chill out area!

I have my favourite blogs I read, as and when I have time, which is not often in the summer, but a real passion of mine in the winter to refuel and recharge.

One of my favourite blogs is A Bun Can Dance by Denise, I am not sure why, maybe I miss the UK at times (subconciously!) but I just love stopping by to see what Denise is up to, she has for me an ideal life, I am sure she would argue this one, and is a hugely creative dressmaker and craft extraordinaire plus a very deep thinker which I love. Another one of my favourite blogs is Decor 8 for contemporary design inspirations which lead me tonight to this fabulous blog about Morocco.
Secretly I am planning a trip there next month on my own as need some time out and creative space to plan and think (plus maybe some shopping!) so I fell upon this beautiful venue in Morocco that I think I will be heading for shortly. You must take time out to visit this fabulous blog if you are interested in Morocco. I could do with a travel mate as I am nervous about Moroccan's having been attacked here on the beach once by a nasty one, so if anyone is interested in coming along with me for a 3-4 day trip let me know!!!

An Idyllic Wedding in Ronda

I met Andrew earlier this year when he was organising and designing his fabulous wedding to Rafa in June of this year.  I desperately wanted to be at his wedding but had already been booked for one of my busiest weekends here in Marbella, my hands were tied and there was no foreseeable way I could get to Ronda for the day, albeit I did many times look at my diary and try to reshuffle the weekend, it was not happening.

However we met, planned, chatted, had lots of inspirations and I dragged Andrew to my candle warehouse and he dragged me to the most fabulous tapas bar I have ever been to and we drank lots of champagne and created the dream day albeit I had bought my sister along and goodness knows we could not get a word in edgeways!!  Another story but my sister is definitely worth her weight in gold for a rent a friend :)

Andrew, is for me, an awesomely inspiring man, with a huge zest for life that is completely contagious and there are times when you meet certain people that they bring an enthusiam into you life and make you see things with different eyes, Andrew did just that for me and it has been a pleasure to meet him and subsequently work with him.

Andrew and Rafa had a wonderful wedding day shared with their closest family and friends with their beautiful Andalucian slightly bohemian style wedding.  The Hand of Fatima was used as a theme and lots of shabby chic styling with fabulous long tables styled with country style arrangements and coloured glass and candles, my favourite style:)  I am addicted to coloured glass and always have been!

Andrew has a fabulous blog about living here in Andalucia and tells it as it is.  He is a man of impeccable taste with style and food and he even goes out cycling with hangovers, which is something I would never even consider!  Andrew's blog is well worth a visit for anyone who is considering visiting or travelling around Southern Spain.

 His wonderful diary of life here and his travels are detailed on this fabulous blog,
 the Andalucia Diary 

Our congratulations to Andrew and Rafa and hope to see you both soon!:)