A Beachside Wedding in Ibiza with Jimmy Choos & Bouganvillia

This amazing Ibiza wedding will have you dreaming of summer! It's a stunning example of a destination big day. Simple, chic, and perfect. The great thing about getting married abroad is that the venue usually speaks for itself - you don't need stacks of extra wedding decorations. Plus all your friends feel like they're on holiday, so they come ready to party!

We hosted our wedding in Ibiza!! We both went to Ibiza a few years ago for my birthday with a group of friends. Back then, we were just friends but during the week, we started to feel differently about each other – the magic of Ibiza made us fall in love!

I went on a recce with my maid of honour and made appointments with lots of venues on the island over 3 days – and visited lots of beautiful churches! It was a tough job but someone had to do it! ;) Our ceremony took place at San Agustin Church, and we chose the Elixir Shore Club for our reception venue.

We kept it really simple as the venue was so beautiful and had the most beautiful backdrop of Es Vedra – the magical island of love.

My wedding dress was the 'Amelie' by Gemy Maalouf from Secret Dress House. I had tried on lots of the traditional-style gowns in other boutiques and really didn't feel like 'me'. Then, following the recce with my maid of honour, we knew I needed something a bit different – and suitable for the HOT weather!  

A friend had recommended Secret Dress House and as soon as I met Kelly and checked out her beautiful and more 'fashionable' collection, I knew this was the boutique for me! I knew I didn’t want a strapless dress {partly due to it being a church wedding} but other than that, I was open to options – but it had to be cool!

When Kelly picked 'my' dress I wasn't sure at first but as soon as I tried it on, I knew! I finally felt like me – and as it was made of pure silk, it was so breathable and perfect for the Spanish heat! I loved Grecian feel, the detail, the train…and the lace back! I asked for the longest veil they had – I wanted a statement veil for the church!  

Jonny & I love our House Music – so I walked down the aisle to a live piano version of Penguin by Avicii. On our way back up the aisle as man and wife, our church band played an acoustic version of 'We Found Love' by Calvin Harris & Rhianna – another song that means a lot to us. 

My hair and make-up was done by Jaime Bravo. Ok, I’m lucky, Jaime is my sister-in-law {and bridesmaid}, but if she wasn't I would still pay for her to come to Ibiza to beautify the wedding party – she is simply the best! She is so 'on trend' and knows what looks would suit each girl. She is super quick, yet a perfectionist – what a winning combo on your wedding morning! She even converted girls reluctant to have their hair & make-up done into them wanting to use Jaime every day!

Jonny knew he wanted to wear a suit in a blue/grey colour - and something quite relaxed. Burton has a great range and he opted for skinny fit trousers and a waistcoat, with braces for the evening.  

Jonny and his ushers' blush bow ties were custom made from Kraft 2 Kotton 1 Korner on Etsy. He also wore blue shoes from Dune, a white skinny fit shirt and pink socks from Charles Tyrwhitt.   

Our wedding flowers were created by Florist Dreams, who came highly recommended to us via a contact we made in Ibiza. 

Gary and Holly were a pleasure to deal with. I knew I wanted a simple blush rose bouquet and gypsophila for the bridesmaids and buttonholes – I love the simplicity and how the colours worked together.

Without a doubt, my shoes had to be Jimmy Choo! They were the first pair I tried on and I fell in love. They were classic white, peep toe with sparkles and a comfortable heel size. For the evening - dancing and shots on the beach – I changed into bespoke Swarovski Crystal Havianas flip flops.

Our wedding photographer was Ily Grantham. We met Ily when she did our engagement shoot in Arizona and we fell in love with her! 

We were quite nervous about doing a photo shoot and felt a bit uncomfortable at first but within minutes, Ily had us relaxed, enjoying it – and the photos were incredible!!! We knew we had to fly Ily out to Ibiza!

My bridesmaids gowns are the convertible 'Annabelle' in blush by Jenny Woo for BHLDN. I came across these first on Pinterest and was obsessed – I then visited the BHLDN boutique in Beverley Hills {love that place} and tried them on with my {bridesmaid} sister-in-law. I loved the fact that they could be styled in so many different ways to best suit the girl. 

For more on this wedding, click for Part 2!

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Totally Tropical Boho Bridesmaid Dresses

Random fact of the day - I'm planning a tropical themed New Year's Eve party {long story}. As part of my research for fun ideas, and what to wear, I stumbled upon the most incredible bridesmaid dress company E-V-E-R. If you're a boho bride, or fun-spirited, or just love a good print, you're going to fall head-over-heels for this brilliant brand called Show Me Your Mumu. Created by two fabulous girls who live in New York, their website is stuffed to the rafters with fantastic gowns, playsuits and getting ready robes. Be warned - you'll come away wanting an Hawaiian themed big day!

Here are just a few of my favourite gowns.....

{Sources} Top picture from Green Wedding Shoes Blog, all other shots from Show Me Your Mumu

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A Colourful Bali Destination Wedding

Okay, I need to come clean straight away. Despite my heading, this isn't actually a real wedding. It's a rehearsal dinner held by the bride and groom to welcome their guests to Bali, but it's so gorgeous, I couldn't resist publishing. Sherry and Ben hosted their dinner on a private beach a mile from their wedding resort, and if you've ever thought of having a destination wedding, this one is enough to make you book your ticket pronto. Event designer, Lisa Vorce, created this effect with local products sourced from local markets, which is why I love shopping in Bali - it's so colourful and so cheap! When Sherry and Ben arrived they were greeted by traditional Balinese flower girls, and they even hired a traditional rain stopper {the serious-looking chap in the last picture} to scare away the showers. More favourite stealworthy ideas? The tropical fruit, woven palms, comfortable cushions for lounging, colourful petals and bamboo flags. But the best feature is the turquoise sea and white sand - beach weddings are the best. Heavenly pictures published with thanks to Aaron Delesie Photography.

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My Secret Garden Wedding in a Provence Chateau - The Reception

Our wedding reception passed in a flash! I think every bride and groom feels that their big day passes too quickly, partly because you have to step away at one stage for your wedding photographs. We were thrilled with our portraits by Chloé from Caught the Light, and it's definitely worth making time for your photographer. You'll see in this blog post, all the little extras that I added to personalise our big day. We chose a Secret Garden theme, as we hosted our reception in an historic walled garden. Our colour palette was soft grey, pink and sage green, and I chose a key motif, which appeared on all the stationery, place-markers and we gave each guest a vintage key as a wedding favour. I bought grey and white striped straws, and made little drinks flags to go in our signature cocktails. Looking back - I can't believe how many details I managed to squeeze into one day! These are the reception pictures, you can see the ceremony pictures here.

We celebrated our wedding on 28th May 2011 in a tiny French village called Puyricard, just outside Aix-en-Provence. We hired a private house called Château Grimaldi for three days.

The walled gardens inspired me to choose a secret garden theme, with a key motif. Our colour palette was soft grey, dusky pink and sage green.

We chose a local florist called Stéphane Tévenin to create our wedding flowers. My wedding bouquet was a massive bunch of pink peonies, tied tightly together with white ribbon. My sister gave me a Tiffany key on the morning of our wedding, and I sewed it into the bouquet.

The buttonholes were simple little clouds of baby's breath, tied with sage green gosgrain ribbon I ordered from the US! My husband's included a little vintage key, in keeping with our theme.

My husband wore a linen suit we bought from a shop in Bicester Village in Oxforshire. It was a huge bargain! He teamed it with one of his white work shirts, and a grey and white striped tie from Mr Start in Shoreditch.

I can't even remember how I found Chloé from Caught the Light, but she was our best decision ever! It's scary when you book your wedding photographer, because it's often one of the first wedding things you do, and it's an expensive step. Chloé was worth every penny.

The venue was so beautiful, we didn't need many more decorations - we just added white bunting, large white helium balloons, DIY'd tissue pompoms, and huge clouds of baby's breath. 

We placed garden games around the reception area to keep our guests occupied, while the grazed on canapés, champagne, and our signature cocktail Georgia Peach Bellini. 

We saved pennies by buying all our champagne and wine from a local supplier, La Cave Aixoise {Puyricard: 04 42 92 06 83} discovered by our wedding planner, Kerry from Lavender & Rose Weddings. She saved us a fortune! 

We had tonnes of DIY projects. We were on a budget, but I was determined to have as many wedding details as possible. The wedding stationery, the fortune teller menus, the white pompoms, the place cards, the programmes - everything! 

As a wedding present, my sister bought me a polaroid camera and a beautiful album. We encouraged all our guests to take a shot of themselves and write a message in the book.

Our table plan was a bit of a last minute decision. It's an Ikea frame, with vintage vegetable wrapping paper, and handprinted lists. I named all the tables after vegetables, in keeping with our garden theme, and created the table plan on the morning of our wedding!

My husband's brother made all our wooden signs, and our lovely wedding planner, Kerry, bought and arranged the baby's breath for the chapel. My family and bridesmaids and their lovely boyfriends helped decorate the venue, and I'm eternally grateful for their pompom pouffing, candle placing and bunting hanging.

We were so lucky with the weather - it was warm enough to eat outside, and our incredible wedding caterers, Marrou, provided everything we needed for a sit-down dinner.

I tried to keep the budget for our wedding flowers down as much as possible, by choosing all white blooms. These were put in a mixture of tiny vases. I chose white peonies and roses, along with cheaper hydrangeas and baby's breath. I couldn't have been more thrilled with our florist, Stéphane Tévenin. 

I bought grey and white striped straws, and made little drinks flags out of grey gosgrain ribbon to go in our signature cocktails - it's an easy DIY - check out my blogpost on drink flags here.

For place-markers I bought little blank wood tags and stamped them with the name of each guest using a roller stamp. I printed keys with a stamp on the other side. The napkins were tied with green gosgrain ribbon.

Our wedding favours were a labour of love! Every person had a vintage key and a fortune teller at their table place. The fortune tellers contained fun facts about me and my husband, and folded inside was the dinner menu. You can read the blog post on how to DIY fortune tellers here.

Everyone also had an envelope containing an invitation to the drinks party the next day, and a fake stick-on moustache. The moustaches were a hilarious ice-breaker - we had everyone wearing them by the end of dinner. 

We also gave all the girls grey pashminas at the start of dinner to ward off any chill. I managed to find a job-lot of them on eBay! We wrapped these in white ribbon, with a key tag. Everyone also had an envelope containing an invitation to the drinks party the next day, and a fake stick-on moustache. The moustaches were a hilarious ice-breaker - we had everyone wearing them by the end of dinner. 

I didn't enjoy the whole process of planning my wedding. I got really stressed at times. The evil Icelandic ash cloud nearly ruined the wedding by stopping all flights out of London, but luckily it stopped spouting ash just in time. Also we had problems with the owner of our venue {who has now sold the Chateau}. 

That said, planning my wedding was also a fantastic experience. I discovered a creative side to myself which I didn't even know existed, and my husband discovered he is very good at making pompoms!

My advice to brides planning their big day? Read the wedding blogs! Scroll through tonnes and tonnes of real weddings and save pictures or make notes about your favourite wedding ideas and details. Then try to narrow them down to one unifying theme or colour palette. Then get creative! You'll be amazed at how much fun it is doing wedding DIY projects. Rope all your friends and family in to help you out, and try to stay organised. 

Finally, have a real think about how to make sure you enjoy our wedding day. You don't want to have a headache or a tummy-ache, or to be worrying about when the caterers are going to arrive, or to forget to eat. If necessary, hire someone to coordinate your wedding day. But make sure you enjoy yourself!

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