Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland theme

Isn't it strange, last year we were looking at the Alice in Wonderland theme for parties and weddings with the fun elements of 'eat me' and 'drink me', the tea party set up and slightly quirky ideas you could incorporate into this theme.

Now with the much anticipated Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland just about to hit our screens, some fabulous ideas are popping up on the blogs we watch and love.

I found these posts on Green Wedding Shoes and the Wedding Chicks of an Alice in Wonderland styled shoot for a bridal shower and it is fabulous. Cannot wait to see this film!

Verdict of the Perfect Wedding Expo

Just got back from a long weekend at the Perfect Wedding Expo. The first English speaking wedding show in the Costa Del Sol, my thoughts.....

Having paid a deposit for our stand and initially been excited by this innovative event, we were subsquently disappointed with the handling of the exhibitors of this show, whilst I appreciated there was a lot of work involved, I had expected more communication with the organisers and a decent website and marketing to be done.

Having realised this was not the case I opted out and was prepared to lose my deposit.

However, I was contacted by Gary Tapp, the photographer who said he would share the cost of my stand (which had gone up) and would help me man it for the weekend so after much deliberation I decided to go for it, nothing to lose.

My verdict, it was a good weekend, Saturday was busy, today was quieter, but overall, a brilliant job and exhibition put together and the organisers pulled it off. A good way to network with other suppliers in the Wedding World without having to arrange hundreds of cups of coffees for the next few months and nice relationships forged.

It is a shame that there were some people that let Wendy down with all the hard work she put into this, in particular the website designer, but as it was the first exhibition I would personally give it a 10 out of 10 for a wonderful weekend and hope it has set a precedent for more, which I am sure from the feedback this evening it will. Next year a lot more organisation from the communication and website point of view and I can see this becoming a very large featured show each year, it has my full support.

Well done to the Perfect Wedding Expo team for pulling this off despite some small grey areas. We will post some photos of the exhibition as soon as Gary sends them to me!

Summer vintage style wedding

I have managed to do a bit of scouring the internet this morning before I head back to Nerja today and stumbled upon these fabulous images of a vintage style summer wedding taken by Rachel Whiting
I adore all the details with that fabulous bouquet, David Austin Roses no doubt, the flowers on the bumper and those cute summery cocktail umbrellas, wonder what the cocktail was it looks delicious! It is so refreshing to see colours used in weddings, I am amazed as much as I love ivory, how many brides do not add in a touch of colour to their weddings.

Preston Bailey - My Idol!

More fabulous table settings from the amazing Preston Bailey, I love his approach of thinking outside the box, my favourite is this water centrepiece, submerging the flowers in a huge container on the tables. Such a simple yet effective idea.

Photo Shoot from Bride and Bloom Magazine

On one of my daily reads this morning, Brenda's wedding blog, I saw these fabulous images of this beautiful table setting which was inspired by one of Kathryn at Snippet and Ink inspiration boards. This was a photo shoot for the Spring 2009 Bride and Bloom so perhaps a preview! Created by a team of extraordinarily talented people headed up by Maria of Ritzy Bee and Janie of Brides Cafe. To see more visit either of their blogs, wonderful :) Again I notice the lovebird theme is incorporated on top of the cake. Whilst I love this one of my pet hates is the smell of gypsophilia so I would have to replace this with something else or leave it out!

Jade Goody Wedding

I have been thinking about this all day as to whether it was appropriate to mention this wedding on my blog, but it is a subject that hits my core and I have just watched the day's events covering Jade Goody's wedding on the news.

I guess I can relate to this more so having watched my younger sister battle with cancer over the past 3 years and to watch this young woman's fight is inspirational.

Jade Goody has displayed the most amazing courage and ferocious appetite for life which will be taken away from her within the next few weeks, she is only 27 and yet her strength and determination to raise enough money for her two sons has been nothing less that extraordinary, truly admirable.

I hope her and her family, especially her two young sons, had the most magical day today which will never be forgotten by those that were there to share such a poignant day.

Nautical Themed Wedding in Gibraltar

Napkin & Flowers Brides.com Wedding Yacht Toast & Tables Dress Oscar de la Renta

Bouquet & Table Setting Fresh Picked Weddings Boat Favours Reviva Weddings Cake & Flags Brides.com

The first Gibraltar Boat Show will take place in the New Marina and Leisure Island of Ocean Village on the 9th to the 12th April. We are very excited to be involved as the organisers search for a bride and groom prepared to have their wedding on one of the yachts. Here we have put together a nautical wedding theme ready for the big day. I have had such fun with this theme as there is so much you can do with the preppy blues, whites and reds. Flags, ropes, starfish the list is endless!

A Big Hello!

Shabby chic board from Brendas Wedding Blog

Wow! a big hello to all my followers, I am thrilled you have all added me to your lists, I hope to continue to find and publish interesting ideas for wedding and event design and decorations plus anything else I come across. I am also planning to feature more and more interviews, articles and any other things that my readers would like to suggest! We are also hoping to cover more real life weddings this year across Europe.

Thank you to you all for encouraging me

Laura x

Indian Weddings in Marbella

It is with great excitement we have been asked to decorate some Indian weddings here in Marbella this year. We have been researching all the amazing ceremonies and decorations that are involved in putting together such beautiful and meaningful weddings. We came across this wonderful Indian wedding from Karen Wise, one of Americas top wedding photographers. The attention to detail with the stunning colours really do create the wow factor.

Snow in Marbella

You may have noticed I have decided to keep the festive snowfall on my blog for now, it is -10 in the UK tonight and it is snowing here in Spain within 500 metres inland of the Costa del Sol so thought is apt to keep the winter wonderland theme for a while, I love it in any case! I think I found this fabulous image on Snippet and Ink, one of my favourite blogs.

Three Kings in Marbella

Top & Image Cox & Cox, Bottom Image It's a Jaime Thing

It seemed appropriate tonight to mark the epiphany here in Marbella, with the three kings arriving, with these fabulous crowns, a wonderful idea to theme a party or wedding or indeed just use as a decorative details.

Sweet and treat tables for weddings

I have created some sweet and treat tables this year for some weddings and have some to create for some of my weddings in 2009 so am constantly looking for inspiration for creating these wonderful, decadent displays. I fell in love with this fabulous french style table with the feather displays and the colours found on {casando ideias}. The matching wallpaper helps!

Winter Wonderland themes

Although we are only just out of a very hot August I am now working on some Christmas themes for a client in Ireland who is organising a white week event, so having decided to visit the land of ice, snow and crystals I came across these fabulous designs from the designer Tord Boontje, who ironically designed the fabulous lights I love in Habitat. His website is well worth a visit for anyone who is interested in hugely creative fabulous designs http://www.tordboontje.com/

When I have designed the white Christmas theme and finished it I will post it!

Saudi Royal Family Party Al Riyad Palace Marbella August 2008

Our most prestigious event of this year was to design and decorate a family party for the Saudi Royal family at the Al Riyad Palace here in Marbella. We were commissioned by Puente Romano to provide the decorations for this event as they were supplying the catering which was amazing

I had a few sleepless nights and have never rushed around so much to get this party ready in time.

The theme for this party was a peppermint green colour and we used lots of crystal candles, crystals, swarovski table crystals couried in by USP on an overnight delivery!

Cream Moroccan lamps, lanterns, organza table cloths in peppermint and whites and it was certainly the night of candles and lanterns I have never seen so many

The princess was charming when she came down to see us and check over the progress, she changed a few things and instantly the party was a much more pared down low key family event and her taste was perfect and the result was beautiful.

It was an amazing day and such a fabulous venue to work at, the palace is exquisitely decorated, unfortunately it has made my little townhouse here in Marbella look rather drab!

I am hoping I might get some better images, if I do I will post some more as these photos do not really do justice to the setting and the grand scale of the event.

Aoife's wedding in Tuscany

Aiofe contacted me to order some fans and we had a great time via email helping her create and source other ideas for decorations for her wonderful wedding in Tuscany. Here is the end result, isn't it beautiful, what a fabulous venue and fantastic photos of them all. I was really touched so see such beautiful photos.

Butterfly Ball Puente Romano

The Butterfly Ball is a charity event held in Marbella every year in order to raise money for the Daniel Rhys Trust. Having tragically lost both their children to Late-Infantile Batten's Disease, Barry and Carmen Daniels created the Rhys Daniels Trust, which provides much needed accommodation for families of very sick and sometimes terminally ill children when they are in hospital and a long way from home.

This event is becoming more and more popular every year and now raises in excess of £125K, Reviva Weddings were delighted to donate decorations to this event this year.

We worked with Patti the organiser and Lorna at Deseos to create a beautiful fuchsia and turquoise butterfly theme and Reviva Weddings supplied nearly 400 beautifully decorated napkins and fuchsia and turquoise butterfly table confetti to compliment Lorna's fabulous floral table arrangements.

Wedding Design for Tuscany Bride

Blossom Garland LMLMK, Flowers & Table Setting MS, Lace Bunting LMLMK

Cake, Main image bride's own, Venue Poggioaimerli

Butterfly cage, Button Heart LMLMK

Tree The Knot, Table Setting MS, Flowers bride's own image, Italian Wedding Cake www.2000ad.org/oscar/wedding.htm

Table Setting Artfool, Night Scene brides own image, Placecards Tiffany Cannis, Bridesmaids the knot. Second Row Placecard Artfool, Main Image traveldk.com, Fans Reviva Weddings Third Row Lantern image from another bride, Table Setting Artfool Fourth Row Olive oil kaboodle, Bouquet and Tree The Knot, Venue Poggioaimerli

I was contacted recently by a bride who is getting married in Tuscany at the end of this month as she wanted some white fans for her wedding. She has some lovely ideas and sent me some of her images for her wedding designs and we created these lovely inspiration boards for her.

The real life photos will be ready in June, can't wait to see them.

Fans arrived in Ireland and she has decorated them with pale, shell pink organza ribbons and written the names and date on in silver, sounds lovely.

Urban Garden

Here is some more of Preston Bailey's work, the Urban Garden theme created for an event in New York, don't we just love this man :)!

Easter decorations

Top Row Easter wreath lillian vernon, bridesmaids & cake The Knot, Tulips MS

2nd Row Lanterns and table MS, Marshmallows oswegotea, blossom walkway

3rd Row Easter table confetti.co.uk daisy cupcakes random house, easter egg wreath lillian vernon

4th Row Easter tree, easter arrangement, basket and flowers MS

The Spanish Santa Semana processions get underway this week, they are very spectacular processions and can be quite frightening, I remember watching them as a small child and being scared of the hooded men! Here is something I prefer about Easter, albeit not the real meaning, all the lovely decorations available and of course chocolate:)

A wonderful spring theme for weddings with the pastel colours and of course an excuse to use marshmallows in your decorations or as favours :)

Biznagas in Malaga for weddings

Images from www.biznagas.com

The biznaga is a symbol associated with Malaga, Andalucia. It is made by taking the separate flower heads off jasmine plants in placing them onto a natural spike head.

Thanks to the legacy of the Arabs, and the mild climate, jasmine is abundant in Southern Spain and it is rare that a house with a garden, courtyard, or a balcony, does not have jasmine to decorate and perfume the surroundings.

Wedding shops in Malaga and southern Spain sell biznaga gifts for the wedding guests http://www.joyeriahago.com/
and many brides give them as a souvenir of the wedding.

When the guests arrive at the wedding, the biznaguero gives one biznaga to each lady

as a reception detail and you can imagine, dining in the open air on a hot spanish night with the smell of jasmine is an amazing experience.