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!

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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.