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Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

Everyone likes scary, spooky, ghoulish stuff on Halloween and we will be no exception this evening!

 

But as we also love stylish pretty things, we had to share these gorgeous pumpkin inspirations with you found on one of our current favourite blogs Heart And Handmade facebook page, if you love pretty images you really should hook up to them. 

 

I really wish I had seen these images before, as this would work perfectly in my own home, but now stored in the ideas file for next year!

 

These images via Heart and Handmade are from Chatelaine, another fabulous website I have just discovered and now will be spending even more time on the computer, sigh!

 

Happy trick and treating and I am hoping for chocolate :)

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.

 

tuesday shoesday

'tis the season.

A Southern Bucket

What's more Southern than monograms and burlap? That's why we couldn't wait to introduce you to A Southern Bucket, where you'll find a slew of charming Southern accents for your event, complete with personalization.

As mother to two creative little girls, shop owner Suzanne Bowman was inspired to "make beautiful things". She was searching for the perfect baby gift for her best friend's baby shower, when she thought, "What would be more useful than a bucket full of baby things?" It was a great idea, but she thought it might be a little too simple. She added burlap wrapping and her friend's baby's monogram, giving her gift a delightful prettiness.

"I have always been enamored with simple textures like burlap and galvanized metal," explains Suzanne, "so I married the two together and added a beautiful monogram. I now had a meaningful gift ready to fill with baby necessities and hopefully a treasured keepsake for her baby." Suzanne's gift was so well received that it inspired her to create her shop, A Southern Bucket, for brides. "I think every bride looks forward to seeing her new monogram and what better way to use it than for wedding decor, or to receive a charming, practical gift with her new wedding monogram?"

A Southern Bucket offers a full line of personalized burlap accessories for weddings, showers and gifts for the newlywed couple. We've included images of a few of our favorite pieces below, but visit ;A Southern Bucket to pick out your own. From monogrammed buckets to burlap covered candles, table runners, and chair markers, you'll find an array of Southern pretties at A Southern Bucket.

Images courtesy of A Southern Bucket.

Different Sort of View

Had the day off yesterday and went for a hike from Loveland Pass.  Heading West on the Divide, there are some really nice views of The Basin, including a good view of The Beavers.

A Beautifully Chic and Elegant Wedding in Marbella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been a chilly day here in Marbella, well my version of chilly is below 20 degrees and tonight is a meagre 14 degrees, so I have taken up residence on my terrace in my cosy socks, pj´s and my hugely cuddly and warm dressing gown in which apparently I resemble a polar bear according to Twinks ?!

 

I love this time of year as we gather in photos from our weddings and actually have time to sit down and enjoy them, it is wonderful to be curled up looking at so many beautiful images of our gloriously hot and balmy Mediterreanean weddings we created this year.

 

This very chic and elegant wedding was held in June at the Finca de la Concepcion for one of our favorite clients, Niamh and Brian, who were such a delightful couple to meet and work with.

 

Niamh and Brian contacted us and after our initial meeting with them, we were hired as their wedding planners and stylist and had a lot of fun organising and decorating their very elegant wedding.

 

Niamh and Brian are a professional couple whom once they had hired us, trusted us implicity to organise all the details and translate their vision into reality as apart from flying in for the odd visit they really did not have time to devote to creating their day here and wanted to hire someone who would take over every detail and plan their day.

 

Which we did of course! and exceeded their expectations as we created a truly stylish and beautiful wedding day for them.

 

The ceremony was held at one of the lovely local churches in Elviria and after a beautiful and emotional ceremony, the guests were then transported in luxury air conditioned coaches to the Finca for a party to remember!  The Finca is one of my favourite venues and just oozes style.

 

Niamh had chosen a very elegant colour scheme of ivory, navy and blush with silver grey accents.

 

We created many beautiful details from a very magical and twinkling atmosphere with lots of our fairy lights and candles to gorgeous bridal flowers using white peonies, quicksand roses and white orchids.

 

The detail and attention to the five star food and catering from LePanto was outstanding, overseen of course by Carla.  The tables were dressed with polished silver cutlery and sparkling glassware, crisp white napkins decorated with silver grey satin ribbons and white orchids.

 

White hydrangeas, peonies and quicksand roses created elegant centrepieces surrounded with glass tealight votives.

 

A white and silver Moroccan chill out area was set out under the trees and our dancing shoes, aka flip flops proved yet again to be a huge hit.

 

The whole day and night was fabulous and went without a hitch and we love these gorgeous images from Jeremy Standley.

 

Here is an extract from our wonderful testimonial from Niamh and Brian, do take time to read it as the comments about trying to get the drunk friends on the bus did make us giggle!

 

It is strange actually I chose tonight to blog this wedding as shortly after their wedding Niamh and Brian moved to New York for Brian´s work, so we are thinking about them tonight as the storms rage over the city and hope they are safe, as well as our other lovely clients based there.

 

Dear Laura, Carla and Anoulka

Following Friday 15 June, we decided that, once our honeymoon was over, it would be a number one priority for us to take the time to sit down and write you an email to express our heartfelt thanks and admiration for the truly magnificent job you did with our wedding in Spain. I thank my lucky stars that I came across The Wedding Decorator blog in late 2010 ... and that it then turned out that Laura was free to meet us on a sunny day in January 2011 in Arte Cafe .... That much felt like fate! From the moment we met you both, we felt very comfortable having you help plan our wedding in Spain and that feeling only increased and multiplied as time moved on and the wedding day grew closer.

Laura: your taste and vision brought our wedding to a different level. The unique style of the wedding was always very important to me, even though I struggled at times to articulate precisely what that style was, but I can honestly say it was just 100% us. The bouquets for myself, the four bridesmaids and the two flower girls were the prettiest I have ever seen, while your decoration and lighting turned Finca la Concepcion into a more magical place than we could ever have imagined: the venue was so dreamy, beautiful and very, very classy. The table plan, the place settings and the displaying of the table names in their frames were all perfect and I literally could not find a single fault or think of how any of it could have been done any better. We absolutely loved every bit of it. THANK YOU so much for all your work, interest and infectious enthusiasm - you have a true gift for style and it is inspiring to see you using that talent and being successful doing something you love.

Carla: what can we say? Both Brian and I have always been deeply impressed by, and had a lot of respect for, your professionalism, organisation, attention to detail and dedication to our wedding; but even so, we were blown away by your performance on the day itself. You were extremely discreet and observant, always there in the background, watching what was going on, looking after everything (including, at various points, my dress - which involved you doubling as a fifth bridesmaid) and our wedding would simply not have happened or worked without you. Neither of us will ever forget the stress you strove to take away from us, or the fact that you were at Finca la Concepcion until well after 4am (when you had another wedding the next day in Seville!), herding Brian's drunk friends onto the last shuttle. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. You are simply brilliant at your job.

Anoulka: we wish that we had come to you on day one to help us with our invitations. We couldn't have been more pleased with how you stepped in at a very late stage, recreated (and, in our opinion, improved) an existing design and produced a set of stationery of such beautiful quality and style. You were always extremely thorough and responsive and you instilled great confidence from the start. Our guests kept commenting on all the "little touches", including the various items of stationery. Thanks also for bringing our flowers to Le Papillon the day after the wedding: we had hoped to meet you then but Nic, the manager, said you had been and gone already. It was really great to have the flowers the next day as they added to the ambience of the restaurant - so we are very appreciative that you took the time to do that.

Just to let you all know that the feedback from our guests has been exceptional. "Best wedding I have ever been at" was uttered to us numerous times throughout the night and the next day. One of Brian's friends took it even further and told us it was the "best day of his life" (Carla - this may have been one of the guys you were trying to get on that bus ....). The overwhelming message was that people had a very unique and memorable experience - and this is down to all your work.

Reviva Weddings looks like it is deservedly going from strength to strength and I can promise you that I will actively seek out opportunities to promote your company to anyone who will listen in New York, London or Dublin! 

 

So, the best of luck with the rest of the summer - I hope you have a little break in July and August - and THANKS AGAIN for a job amazingly well done.

Love from,

The new Mr and Mrs Maher

xxx

 

Halloween Costume Party