Fabulous Indian Wedding in Marbella Part One

It seems such a long time ago in a cooler April that we planned and styled the fabulous Indian Wedding of the utterly charming Shamir and beautiful fun Jigna.

We are now delighted to receive the most amazing photos from Nani de Perez who beautiful documented all the events leading up to the big day.  

We have so many wonderful images we are going to share them over two blog posts starting with the Welcome Evening, Sangeet, and pre-wedding Garba party with plenty of spectacular outfits, dancing and, deep sigh, many pairs of fabulous shoes and very sparkly jewellery!

When I first spoke with Jigna and Shamir they were already underway with their wedding plans, they had booked the venue, two stunning villas located just near Villa Padierna hotel, and were looking at various suppliers to help them put together all their wedding details.  

We were first hired to oversee the decoration but as my relationship with Jigna developed she decided to hire us to oversee the wedding planning and organisation as well. Jigna and Shamir are based in the States and Canada and they had hit what I call the planning wall, it was becoming difficult for them to finalise all the suppliers and put an cohesive itinerary into place and this wedding did need on site management to see it through smoothly as well.

After one pre wedding visit to do food tastings, hair and make up and meet with the suppliers everything else was finally put into place for a 4 day wedding extravaganza!

The first day was spent having a pre-wedding photo shoot in the charming old town of Marbella and down on the beach.  Then it was back to the villa to welcome the first of their guests with a cocktail and canapes by the pool serenaded by a jazz duo.  

Luckily this was due to finish quite early as having been keeping an eye on a rather dark cloud, the heavens decided to open so the amazing Fiestasol catering team, quickly whipped in the dessert buffet inside of the villa and everything else had pretty much wrapped up allowing the last of the evening to continue whilst it poured outside.

The next morning the sun was out and Jigna was up early for her Mendhi, resplendent in a gorgeous pink and gold Indian outfit.  We decorated the conservatory of the villa with the same colours and created lots of areas for the girls to have their henna art.  This day was more relaxed with a casual brunch and a family BBQ and I think the younger ones headed down to Puerto Banus for some partying!

The following day was the pre-wedding Garba party accompanied with plenty of drumming and dancing in the marquee, it was a fabulous evening starting with a beautiful Indian dance by Shamir's sister, we were quite entranced by the whole evening and thoroughly enjoyed watching the events.  

Tomorrow we will share the amazing culmination of these days of celebrating with the actual wedding day, we cannot wait to share these photos with you!

Our thanks as always to our brilliant team of suppliers who helped us pull everything together including Nani de Perez for these photos and Fiestasol Catering for their rather fabulous Indian food.

A Spanish Fiesta Style Wedding

We love any Spanish Inspired shoot so I was delighted to see this pop up this morning from Burnett's Boards, Spanish Fiesta Wedding Ideas so had to share!

This lovely shoot is described perfectly as paying homage to romantic summer days with a Spanish inspired colour palette and props, we love the vibrant colours and eclectic mix of accessories.

To see the whole shoot do pop over to Burnett's Boards.

Bridal tips - Are you up to Speed with the Wedding Social Media?!

My life is weddings... bride chats, chatting about flowers, decoration, timings of the day, food, drinks, entertainment, you name it we chat about it!

So unsurprisingly we are what we like to think, up to speed, with all the latest wedding technology that is out there.

I am lucky I have 3 daughters who make sure I am completely up to speed!

So thankfully I am able to chat hashtags, Instagram, have you got your Wedpics account set up, do you wish us to promote your Instagram wedding hashtag, Wedpics photo app ID, Appy Couple, etc and surprisingly many of my brides have not heard of these.

I was chatting to one of my brides about her wedding and I suggested the Wedpics website, she had not heard of it and thought it was a great idea so is currently setting up her account ready for her wedding in a few weeks.

It is these times which allow me to ruffle and plump up my wedding peacock feathers and feel slightly more ahead on the teccie front!  Well I like to think so!  But it made me realise this blog post could be useful to many brides about to host their wedding.

So have you got your Instagram wedding hashtag ready?

Have you set up your Wedpics account ready for your guests to download all their photos and videos to your dedicated wedding Wedpic account?

If you have just started your wedding planning, have you set up your Appy Couple wedding website?!!

If you haven't, do, they are great fun and a brilliant way of sharing your wedding details and all your photos on one social media site so go and check them out.

If you are planning your wedding in Spain we also have a useful information guide so do contact us if you would like this to share on your wedding website.

Olives and Oleander in Olvera

What a fabulous few months we have had travelling around Andalucia to create some truly amazing weddings and memories for our wonderful couples.  

Ches first emailed me last year and said she wanted to hold her wedding at her mother's house in Olvera, between Ronda and Seville.  I of course immediately took on the challenge as can never resist these ones and off we shot to Olvera to do a reccie.  

Actually I cannot use the expression 'shot' as it took me a good few hours to get there but it was so worth it with such spectacular, stunning views across the Sierra de Lijar and La Harinas mountains.  

Since then I have travelled up a different route every time, not quite sure how this happened, but one took me over 3 hours but it was very picturesque!

We rallied up our most stalwartly suppliers for this task to set up camp in Olvera to create this fabulous wedding for Ches and Scott.  What fun we had!

We arrived the day before just as the heatwave started and checked into the most charming tiny Airbnb house in the town which rather invoked some curiosity amongst the locals as we landed complete with wedding paraphernalia of ribbons, baskets, lanterns and vintage furniture!   We were talk of the town by breakfast on the day of the wedding and all the locals knew about La Boda de Extranjeros.

We particularly drew attention to ourselves when I took a wrong turn out the town and found myself completely wedged in a narrow street, a wing mirror and wheel arch less and a few scrapes later I was out the rather alarming predicament of streets becoming so narrow you held your breath in the hope the car would shrink but sadly it got a bit of damage.  It is not the first time and won't be the last but just pleased I don't drive an expensive car!

We set too early knowing it was going to get shockingly hot and put together all the finishing touches to the day.  Many things such as the flowers could not be put out until the cocktail was underway and we created the cheese wedding tower too at the last minute due to the heat, never have I had to stand in a fridge as often as I could to admire the cupcakes!

Ches's mother had been busy too creating all sorts of wonderful things for the wedding including having a gazebo built, making confetti cones, ordering in haystacks and assembling a very quaint, eclectic mix of furniture, throws and cushions to create a really cool chill out. 

Aunt had been drafted in to make the cupcakes, it did of course help she was a professional baker and gradually the whole day came together with some wonderful suppliers such as the local Spanish guitarist and flamenco dancers all showing up to create a fabulous evening.

We would like to thank the suppliers who enabled us to do this wedding, Julia and her fabulous team from Gusto Catering providing some very mouthwatering food.  Silvia from Marbella Parties setting up all the lighting and background stuff, as I call it, from catering marquees to parasols and to Agata Jensen for these rather cool images.

One comment that summed the wedding up from a guest, as she launched herself upon me, was it was effing awesome as they rocked into the night with DJ Godoy!

Our congratulations to Ches and Scott and thank you to everyone who played a part in this effing awesome wedding!

Hosting a hot wedding in Spain

As the UK sees the hottest weather for 12 years with temperatures reaching over 30 degrees it appears the country is going into a meltdown as people suffer the heat to carry on with their daily lives, working, travelling, commuting, etc.  

I have read the news tonight and seen images of commuters proudly displaying the fact it is over 30 degrees in the tube stations and people are being treated at Wimbledon for heat stroke. 

This seems an ideal opportunity to do my blog post about hosting a wedding here in Spain during the summer months as our temperatures throughout the late part of June, July and August never really drop below 30 degrees.

Inland such as Seville, Cordoba, Madrid, etc can often be over 40 degrees or even hit 50 degrees during August.

If you think it is hot in London, come to Seville in August!  Most of the residents have left the city and are on the coast!  It is currently past midnight here and still 33 degrees in Marbella.

Which brings me onto my blog post about hosting a hot wedding.

To ensure your guests do not remember your day at that awfully horrendous hot wedding in Spain you do need to consider their needs, often I get brides telling me we cannot wait for hot weather it rains all the time here and we will be fine, our guests will love it?!  

I have just completed a run of weddings where we have had quite a few guests suffering from heat stroke and had to leave due to feeling ill so here is what you can do to protect the damage.

1. Do make sure your guests are comfortable and if travelling, book air conned coaches and transport to your wedding.  Also often I see brides book vintage cars, whilst they look fantastic for your photos, do check if they have air con, you don't want to turn up at the church looking like you have just run a marathon.

2. Think about offering bottles of cold water to your guests as they travel to your wedding or wait for your ceremony to begin.  

A lovely idea as guests assemble at your wedding venue is to have a ice cold lemonade and water station offering refreshing drinks to keep them cool as they wait for you to rock up.  

Whilst this is practical if you are hosting your ceremony at a venue this may not always work for a church service so providing small bottles of water are the way forward.

3.  You must provide shade for your guests. If the venue does not naturally have shade do make sure you have parasols provided.  I could not think of anything worse than being asked to stand for an hours cocktail in searing sunshine.

4.  Many of our weddings in Spain like to incorporate the Spanish fans, abanicos, as either favours or just to hand out at ceremonies.  Do consider these as not favours but necessities to hand out as your guests gather for your ceremony.  Spain is notorious for fans and there is a reason why!

5. Whilst we are inundated with beautiful ideas on Pinterest do be practical about what is achievable for your wedding in a hot country.

A good example is you cannot have a buttercream icing cake, flowers will have to be considered carefully so do take advice of your florist, make sure the bridesmaids and groomsmen are dressed in cool fabrics, etc and consider that any chocolate favours will melt, sweets will become sticky messes and your guests fingers will be semi permanently glued together for the evening if you offer anything slightly sweet or sticky!

6. Do consider your ceremony time, there is a saying and it is for a reason, Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.  

A ceremony at 2pm in the afternoon here in Spain during the summer will be a killer heatwise.  Try to organise your ceremony from about 5pm, even later in mid summer, it is not unusual to host a ceremony here in Spain at 7pm when the heat of the day has dispersed.

7. Lastly but definitely not least do not keep your guests waiting.   

Whilst it is fashionable for the bride to be late, if you are asking your guests to be seated in a hot climate do not keep them sitting there for longer than they have to.  

We had this recently at a wedding near Ronda where the bride got lost travelling to her mother's house, having already reiterated to her not to be late sadly she was 30 minutes late.  

By the time she arrived her guests were so hot we had to open up the bar and take them out the ceremony area until she arrived, later a few of the guests became unwell and had to leave the reception.

We know you come to the Mediterranean to enjoy the sunshine and hot weather but do also consider many of your guests are just not used to the heat.  They are wearing formal clothes and have no means of cooling themselves down unless you provide it.

Finally do also bear in mind your suppliers are working for you in what is considered extreme conditions, although to be fair we are used to it, but do take time out to make sure they are catered for with drinks and snacks. 

We saw a soldier pass out today in the UK looking after Prince Charles, you don't want your photographer or wedding planner doing the same on the most important day of your life so do look after the team behind your day.

I hope this advice helps with hot weddings in Spain!

Weddings in Spain

Wow, I have just realised our last post was the beginning of May and what a hugely busy wedding season we have had since then with many fabulous weddings throughout May and June in Marbella, Malaga, Seville and Barcelona.

We cannot wait to start sharing our wonderful weddings with you and here is a sneak peek of the amazing wedding yesterday of Orla and Boju with some beautiful images from Anna Gazda.

Congratulations to Orla and Boju as they start their married life together.