Gin Palaces for Weddings

I have always enjoyed watching the world of fashion and forseeing what is next as this is part of my role as a designer and stylist.

My wedding business has a strong emphasis on style and creativity, as this is my professional background, and I do like to make sure we create trends and are leaders, not followers within our industry.

 I am also very fortunate that I am able to keep up-to-date with the very latest trends coming out of London, the forefront City of contemporary design.

This is mainly due to the fact that I have a wonderfully stylish sister that lives and works in London in Publishing.   As a Director of a Publishing House she commissions beautifully styled and photographed books about the latest food, drinks and interiors.

 So you can imagine I often pick her brains over a nice beach lunch when she is here in Marbella and how lucky am I !

So after a bit of brain storming on her last trip here, for a particular wedding, I was asking what the latest trends were in London that we could apply them to our weddings for 2014 and also to my Alice in Wonderland themed wedding we created and designed recently.

One thing we both loved was the latest arrival of the Gin Bars or Gin Palaces.

We have all done the Lemonade Bars now with our cute glass dispensers and paper straws and of course the Mojito Bars with our pots of mint and crushed ice, so what is next, well it is time to become more sophisticated and embrace the Gin Palaces!

There is a wonderful array of gin based cocktails out there from the classic Gin and Tonic to a Blush Punch, The Bramble, The Bronx, Gin Fizz and The Negroni.

I have been looking on Pinterest and generally researching this idea to bring into our weddings next year, let´s ditch the rustic vintage lemonade for a more glamorous affair as this recession finally leaves us!

Sophisticated and stylish Gin Palaces I predict will now storm wedding world!

I, for one, cannot wait to do some testing over the winter and have found this fabulous company in London who have many gin based cocktail recipes called the Travelling Gin Company.  All I have to do now is work out how to style this trendy new idea for 2014 weddings and like gin !

I have many more ideas and trends up my sleeves that I will share with you over the winter months so do follow us on Facebook or our blog to keep up to date with our latest 2014 wedding trends.

Rustic Romance in Ronda, Spain

Squeaking with excitement yet again as we receive the professional photos from our weddings, lots of oohing and ahhing as we so enjoy seeing all our styling and designs come together beautifully to create a truly personal and magical day.

Here is a sneak preview of a few of our gorgeous wedding details for a beautiful wedding we planned and designed, for our music mad couple, in a fabulous location in Ronda.

From our handmade origami ombre crane garlands gently swaying over the ceremony area under the tree, fabulous florals, Izzi´s famous handwritten signs and plenty of sparkle and twinkle all created a perfect day.  The stationery template was created by Lindsey over at Splash of Silver and with this beautiful template we created the table seating plan, paddle fans, wedding signage, place cards and table names.

We will tell the whole story soon with more gorgeous images from the talented photographer Anna Gazda but wanted to share a sneak preview of this pretty wedding :)

We have many more weddings to post up soon from our rustic romance styles to gloriously glittery and glam!

Next week we will be working on two amazing weddings, a Moroccan fusion of purples, blues and golds and a very unusual wedding which is going to be amazing but we have to keep this fabulous theme a secret for a little bit longer!

Twilight Wedding at the Monasterio de San Martin, Sotogrande

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Stunningly gorgeous bride, cool funny groom and a wonderful family is what sums up this wedding for me.  

We had such a lovely time working with Nikki and Martin and her parents to plan, organise and design their dream wedding here at the Monasterio de San Martin in Sotogrande.

It was a gloriously June day and finally after a very iffy May and beginning of June the weather looked better, we even had wind plan b in place before it finally died down and the famous Mediterranean sun was out in full force.  It was a strange start to the year weather wise.

The ceremony had been planned outside in the grounds of this beautiful venue but on the actual day of the wedding a swarm of flies had hatched and a quick plan b had to be made the night before to move everything around and cover the entire marquee with a mossie net.

It is the first and probably last time I have ever seen Carla up a step ladder and she did the most amazing job of covering the marquee, fab wedding planner reigned again!

The ceremony was moved inside and we all loved the final effect of this beautiful twilight style, candle lit ceremony, it was ideal and kept the guests cool.  I always bring extra decorations to weddings just in case and on this occasion it was candles, raiding a local beach for asparagus ferns and generally quick thinking.

The result I think was better and a wonderfully romantic ceremony was accompanied by a string quartet and Nikki radiated in her beautiful dress and gorgeous Spanish style veil.

I am still giggling at this image of a nervous waiting groom as Martin was such a cool and funny man and could not wait to marry Nikki, it was wonderful and happy days :)

Cocktails and canapes were served in the inner courtyard, which was not affected by the swarm out by the pool.  The guests were entertained with a fabulous band jazz style band and we set up a very cool Mojito bar with mason jars, paper straws and props.

We love the beautiful cake created by Sweet Things By Fi.

Afterwards the guests moved to the comfort of the by now mossie covered marquee and enjoyed a lovely dinner and reception.  We are still giggling at the stories of the speeches and the wonderful framed photo Nikki and Martin presented to her dad of the Father of the Bride poster.

Fly swarm gone and party underway in a beautifully decorated and lit venue with a Moroccan chill out, fabulous lighting courtesy of Nigel at Chez Vous Events, whom I call a Willy Wonka of parties, albeit he does not know this yet!

We are helping Nigel with his own wedding in a few weeks time and are very much looking forward to creating, styling and providing organisation for his wedding!

Fabulous details, signs, a jamon y queso table for later to keep guests going during the dancing and apparently, although not recorded, father of the bride jumping into the pool at 4.30am!

A wonderful day and year spent with a gorgeous and charming family who we hope to see and keep in contact with.

Our thanks to Andreas Holms for sending us such beautiful images telling the story of Nikki and Martin´s special day which we are delighted to share with you.