Getting Married in Marbella

This week we are creating a blog post and guiding you through the legalities of getting married in Marbella and Spain.

We will be helping you with any questions you need to know about getting married in Spain and the paperwork involved. Whether you wish to hold a catholic church ceremony, a registry office in Gibraltar or a blessing here we will be answering your questions here on this blog this week.

Carla, our head of planning and coordination will be here to answer any questions you have so if you would like to submit a question please send an email to info@reviva-weddings.com.

Comments from Wedding Planners in Marbella

As expected I have received many responses to my recent blog posts and today was no exception as it is such a contraversial subject.

Lisa from Bella Weddings sent us her comments and felt by blogging about this subject, that we were damaging the reputation of many honest wedding planners that are working hard to bring integrity to the wedding industry here on the Costa Del Sol.

This is not the case at all and there are many fabulous wedding planners here, including Lisa, that offer a fantastic service to her clients.

Lisa also felt that as we were not in her suppliers list that she was insinuated as being one of those planners.

There are so many talented people here all offering a wide range of services for weddings and parties that it would be short sighted to think if a supplier is not on a wedding planner´s preferred list of vendors is purely based on the commission policy.

There are many planners here that use the suppliers they know and trust, will deliver a good service and work within their client´s budgets, a good planner will maximise the wedding budget and select the right supplier and gain as much added value as they can for their clients.

Whilst I have covered this sensitive subject, the commission structure that is in place is a dying breed now thanks to the wedding industry recognising it´s professional obligations to clients and the competitive nature of the business.

Hiring a Wedding Planner in Marbella Part 2

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about hiring a wedding planner in Marbella and bought up a very controversial subject covering the whole business of brown envelopes and commissions, referral fees, whatever you would like to describe them as.

I have been trail blazing this subject here in Marbella.

I am not the most popular person here at the moment with some people, but today I received so many messages and emails about this sensitive subject I thought I would do a follow up post with some of the feedback I have had. It has to be honest been very interesting and I was not expecting this sort of response.

One of our 2010 brides sent me this interesting email today which stood out and sums up the sorts of messages I have received today, it is edited of course to avoid naming and shaming. We decorated this wedding but did not plan it and have since become good friends, as I do with many of my brides.

Hi Laura
I read your blog post last night on Wedding Planners in Marbella and was super impressed by your honesty, it took guts to write that blog and well done to you for unveiling what is truly a hideous reality with wedding planners. I was nodding my head in agreement with every word you wrote. This is exactly why I fell out with one planner and the other left me with a bad taste in my mouth......the merry go round of wedding industry commissions and brown envelopes is so incredibly unfair on the person who is keeping everyone in business and that person is the bride, so that is what I call integrity, well done to you.

I do understand the other viewpoints to this subject that have been argued with me and so I will raise them as it is only fair to do so.

If you are new to this business and an established wedding planner is promoting you, then perhaps you need to pay them or reward them with a referral fee, it is another form of advertising and marketing, no different to paying for an advert in a magazine or perhaps paying for an online sponsorship on a blog, internet site, etc.

Perhaps a planner wants to keep their fee down in order to get business, so when the client contacts them initially they seem affordable, but they are making their money through the supplier bookings.

All the above I think are acceptable if the planner is transparent and tells the client this is how they run their business and makes their money, it is then left up to the client if they are happy to proceed with their services.

What I do disagree with is when it is all hidden, when the planner is selecting suppliers for their client based purely on how much money they will make and not because it is the right supplier for that wedding. When they do not disclose to the client that they are taking commissions, I cannot possibly see how this would be conducive to a good client relationship and is not in the clients best interests at all as many good suppliers are completely sidelined in favour of who pays the most.

Do all these planners really think their clients are that stupid?
Do the clients really think they are getting a fabulous wedding planner for 500 euros?
Perhaps it is the two parties combined that prefer to move on with their eyes shut, I am never sure!

There is the other side, as a supplier when you start to realise your business is being controlled by a planner, they start to tell you what they want for their clients and you are also paying them for the privilege? You find yourself eventually just running a bolt on company for them and making their weddings look amazing!

I suppose 4 years down the line, I am lucky, I run a unique business that has been very successful and now do not need to rely on referrals, I am able to stick my neck out and say enough is enough.

I am grateful to all the planners that choose to still continue to recommend us but it does work both ways, we make their weddings go from Ok and average, to looking amazing and this is what sells their company, without the fab flowers, decorations and details and the fantastic photography they would have nothing to show their clients, perhaps they need to start paying us instead!!!!

Tomorrow I promise I will be back with pretty inspirations, I guess after a fairly interesting year I have had to get this off my chest.

My final note with this whole commission thing is that in the very busy month of June when we had over 20 weddings and I was literally working an 18 hour day and sleeping and dreaming weddings and on a hugely excited creative roll, I had one planner who had probably 2 weddings in June, chasing me for 15 euros constantly every day, I was gobsmacked and found it really quite draining and sad, I think it was this that made me throw the towel in and start to think about things, can you blame me!!!

I will continue to wave my magic wand here and spread lots of glitter and fun over our weddings in Marbella.

Gorgeous Flamenco Style Wedding at El Oceano, Marbella

On a gorgeous day in September we were thrilled to be overseeing and decorating the stunning wedding of Sarah and Michael.

A moving church ceremony was held at the Encarnacion Church, just near the Orange Square in Marbella Old Town followed by cocktails in the square and then the wedding party headed to the fabulous Oceano Hotel for a beachside reception.

Sarah is actually a neighbour of mine as her mother lives near me, and I was delighted when they approached me to ask if we could finalise their wedding details and take over their files to look after them on this very special day.

Carla of course immediately took charge and Sarah visited our shop a few times to finalise the flowers and decor details for her flamenco styled wedding.

Loraine created gorgeous bridal bouquets in vanilla roses to compliment the bridesmaids dresses and Anoulka designed flamenco dancer stationery to compliment the stunning cake that Fi created for Sarah and Michael. I have to also admit we are all in love with Sarah´s dress so I will ask her next time I see her where it is from, as I know I will be asked!

A truly fantastic day was had by all and of course it could not be complete without Sarah entertaining her guests with her fantastic singing Wonderwall was sung especially for Michael.

Our thanks to Jeremy Standley for allowing us to share these fabulous photos.

Our congratulations to Sarah and Michael and hopefully see you both soon!

A Stunning Wedding in Sotogrande

This is one of my favourite weddings this year for a few reasons.
The main one is that Danielle and Ed´s family are wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed working with them, the second is that Danielle works for a large event company in London hence we were under scrutiny! thirdly we had a fabulous venue to work with and I do love a challenge, lastly but not least this was a very emotional wedding.

We came recommended to Danielle´s parents who then made an appointment to come and see us at our studio and hired us on the spot to help them plan and organise their daughter´s wedding.

As Danielle´s parents live here they had already booked the church in Sotogrande and the beautiful venue, a monastery in Sotogrande, but needed someone to take over the organising including liaising with the caterers and suppliers, filling in the gaps, finalising all the other suppliers required, organising the budget sheets, styling and decoration of the wedding and someone to take charge and oversee the wedding planning details and be there on the day.

Battles were fought however as we were working with a venue that tried to insist on using certain suppliers, but we won, drafted in our team and were finally we were set for the big day.

It was fantastic, we organised a hummer to pick Danielle up and deliver her to the beautiful church in Sotogrande. Danielle looked stunning as she arrived at the church in a beautiful Jenny Packham dress that glittered as she moved. We all did that big gosh sigh moment when she stepped out the car and I am still in love with her shoes!

The church was simply decorated with ivy heart pew ends and we created some large floral displays at the altar. We even hung around to redecorate the church for the next wedding as all Danielle´s ivy hearts were then taken down to use as decoration in the marquee.

The reception at the monastery was stunning with a huge marquee and the fantastic 5 star catering by LePanto caterers was remarkable.

The monastery is such a beautiful venue that not much is needed to be honest to give it a wow factor but with all these venues lighting is important.

We organised extra lighting, lots of wow factor candles and large Moroccan style lanterns around the pool, created a fabulous chill out area in the dance area using white chill out furniture with a blue, green and silver theme as decoration.

The marquee area was kept clean and fresh, it was a large wedding party and too much clutter would have been overwhelming, so we kept it simple, decorating the tables with white and green floral arrangements and lots of tealights which we complimented with a fresh lime on each place setting sporting the guest place name on a little white flag stuck into each lime, the smell was glorious as we were setting out the tables!

The highlight for me was Danielle was inheriting the surname of Gay so all the tables were named after gay icons, fabulous!

My other very special moment, for all of us, which deserved a standing applause and many tears in the church, was the fact that Danielle´s lovely father had been ill in hospital and despite the odds made it out in time for the wedding. It was a very magical day for everyone involved.

A fantastically beautiful wedding and here is our testimonial from Danielle and Ed.

Our thanks to Anna Gadza for these wonderful photos and our congratulations to Danielle and Ed and a big thank you for allowing us to organise, style and share such a fantastic day with you both x

Destination Wedding in Barcelona by Reviva Weddings

Earlier this year we were contacted by Sharon and Eoghan to ask for help with planning their wedding in Barcelona. Sharon had become overwhelmed with trying to plan her destination wedding and realised she needed some help in order to get her up to and through her day.

After a few emails we were booked and Carla flew to Barcelona to familiarise herself with Sharon´s wedding including a visit to the venue, introducing herself to the booked suppliers, finalising all the details and make sure no stone was left unturned.

At this time as well Carla took the opportunity to make sure all the suppliers were up to a high standard and found some new ones as well to add to our Barcelona Weddings portfolio.

Carla took over Sharon´s paperwork, budgets, deposits to be paid, etc and
shortly after this Carla was back on a plane, clutching as many decorations as she could from our shop, and settled in ready for the wedding day.

Despite a stressful start to planning her wedding, Sharon was calmed by the fact she had the ever efficient Carla next to her side and a fabulous wedding day was had by all. You must click on the link below to see this wonderful wedding in all it´s glory!

Here is the link to Sharon and Eoghan´s slideshow
www.loughranweddings.com/eoghanandsharon.html

Here is a lovely email received from Sharon and Eoghan shortly after their wedding upon return from their probably well deserved honeymoon!

Dear Carla

Would you believe this is the first evening I have bought my laptop home since the honeymoon as I overdosed on gmail coming up to the wedding so I had enough for at least a few weeks!

I had a fantastic time and would not change a thing, but I can honestly say it was more stressful and so much more work than I ever thought it would be, I don´t know how you do it dealing with stressed out brides everyday?

The fact we had to organise everything vs having a hotel was immense but to be honest I could not imagine a more perfect venue and god must have been smiling on us to have such a perfect day - we really were blessed.

Our guests are still raving about the day, it was fantastic and we both loved it. Having you there was such a relief and to be able to share the pressure with you was what got me through the days beforehand.

You were fantastic Carla, I know I was stressed out of my mind but we really did have a magical day. I will be singing your praises to all who will listen!

I will send on some photos when the official ones are through,
all the best Sharon and Eoghan xxx

Our thanks to Loughran Wedding Photography for the wonderful images and our congratulations to Sharon and Eoghan.

Stunning September Weddings in Marbella

I have just realised we are almost at the end of September and I have not created one blog post since August so hugest apologies to all our followers.

Working in the Destination Wedding Industry here in Marbella, we do have incredibly busy months, predominently May, June, July and September. Needless to say September has whizzed past leaving little time for me to indulge in my blogging.

We have been frantically waving our famous magic wands over Andalucia and have some fabulous weddings to share with you over the next few months plus some very exciting news, so do keep an eye out for our announcements coming shortly.

We have been thrilled to again receive many testimonials from our brides and would like to share this one with you received tonight for a wedding we planned, executed and designed at the beginning of September.

I think the importance of this email is that our lovely bride works for one of the largest event companies in London so we were up against a real test of our planning and decoration skills with this fabulous wedding set in a stunning monastery in the hills behind Sotogrande.

Hi Laura and Carla

We really wanted to thank you guys for you amazing hard work and commitment to make the wedding so beautiful and such a success. We absolutely loved every minute of it and are both still on a total high from it all and buzzing.

Every detail was perfect and when we arrived at the both the church and the venue we were really blown away by how fantastic they looked and all those months of work and deliberating had delivered something beyond what we expected.

All our guests remarked on how stunning the venue looked and how fab everything was from the food/drink to the disco and laser lights were, people really felt this was something unique and special and the wedding of all weddings!

Sad that it is all over but we have such fantastic memories and cannot wait to see the photos and videos which we will of course pass onto you.

Thank you for making it such a memorable day.

Very Best Danielle and Ed

Our thanks to Danielle and Ed for choosing us and allowing us to plan, design, decorate and manage this fabulous wedding and we thoroughly enjoyed working with them and their lovely family and wish them a future filled with fun and happy times.

Mediterranean Wedding Colours at Hacienda San Jose in Mijas

Louise and Adam contacted us last year to help them organise their wedding here in Spain.



After our first meeting with Louise and her parents, we were hired and Louise fell in love with the gorgeous Hacienda San Jose for her wedding venue.



Louise looked stunning and we personally were completely smitten with the lovely little bridesmaids :) They were all beautifully behaved and loved being part of this intimate family wedding. It was a hugely fun and relaxed day for all involved.



I personally love the photo of Louise´s parents, it sums up for me the emotions at weddings which are always lovely and make people connect in a way they would never do at another event.



The colour scheme for this wedding was chosen by Louise with a stunning combination of bright pinks and turquoise and being a very hands on bride, had raided Ikea to create the centrepieces, we are still wondering what she did with all those candles!



Our thanks to Heather and her wonderful team at Fiestasol for the fantastic catering, I have to mention I went to the food tasting and it was divine, and to Jennifer Jane Photography for allowing us to share these images with you.



Here is our lovely testimonial from Louise



Dear Carla and Laura



My apologies for not getting in touch sooner to thank you for making our wedding day so special.



I really appreciate the hard work that goes into organising such an event.



The venue looked stunning and certainly impressed all our guests.



It was an amazing day that I will cherish forever and thanks to you guys for making my dreams come true. Carla having you there on the day was such a relief knowing you had everything under control, you are a true professional.



It has been a real pleasure knowing you and working with you both this past year. Good luck with all your future endeavours, you are both amazing at what you do.



Lou xxx