Earlier this year I was contacted by Paul and Joy, an utterly charming couple looking to host their wedding in Spain with their family and a couple of close friends.
Paul and Joy had already booked a stunning villa in Ronda for the week of their wedding but were set on a beach blessing and then wanted to head up to the hills for a Mamma Mia style dinner party with plenty of good food and wines at their villa.
After we met for a coffee, they were sold and so was I!
During our meeting I suggested a few beach venues that I thought would fit their criteria perfectly. They took down the details and directions and spent the rest of their holiday having a nosey, some lovely laid back beach lunches and checking out my suggestions!
As we had to bring the wedding party down from Ronda and back up after their ceremony, I suggested they concentrated on the San Pedro area and they were sold with El Ancla restaurant.
El Ancla is a long established, charming, family run restaurant located on the beach, to die for views over the ocean along with great food and atmosphere, we have hosted quite a few smaller events here including corporate dinners and romantic proposals 🙂
As their wedding day dawned I could not believe the weather, it was a perfect day.
A clear blue sea and sky, no winds at all and a crystal clear view across to Gibraltar and Morocco. I was so happy for Paul and Joy as I drove up to Ronda to prepare their villa for their evening celebrations, leaving my brilliant assistant Rocio in charge of the ceremony and tapas reception at El Ancla.
A wonderful ceremony was conducted by Lizzie Marriage followed by plenty of tapas and paella washed down with cava, beers and sangria to the sounds of a Spanish guitar played by Matt. Could life be more perfect :)!
As you can see from the photos a lot of emotions and fun were had and after a couple of hours everyone was driven back up to Ronda to enjoy a superb meal prepared by Diana and Ian from Where Ever Next.
I knew Joy was in love with the Mamma Mia film (as we all are!) and had hosted a Mamma Mia singalong for her pre-wedding girls night, so with this in mind I was excited to recreate a similar beautifully lit ambiance for their dinner party.
I decorated the terrace at the villa with lots of hanging glass baubles with tealights in and plenty of silver candle light and lanterns. The table was beautifully decorated with some gorgeous napkins I found in Zara that matched perfectly with Joy´s vision of her table, they were a white and blue design resembling a Spanish tile design.
I created personalised pebbles I bought from a local garden centre and wrote each guests name on, finished off with a slightly silver glitter spray to seal them, had to get the glitter in somewhere!
The napkins were dressed with olive sprigs and the table was completed with some gorgeous white floral arrangements and lots of Zara Home silver mercury tealights. My storeroom looks like Zara Home, I just love that shop!
My heart sung when I heard the guests expressing their delight as they entered the terrace area, I could hear them saying this is just amazing, I was a happy girl and my afternoon´s hard work had paid off!
What particularly struck me that night, in the darkness surrounding Ronda without light pollution, were the amount of stars in the sky, it was a spectacular sight.
A magical evening along with a lot of fun was had by all including me in the kitchen testing out the seafood bisque, beautifully cooked roast lamb with an olive and pomegranate jus, some to die for Sevillian orange cake with homemade orange ice cream and the dessert wines 🙂
For this wedding Paul and Joy agreed to use an up and coming photographer who is keen to build up his portfolio, he is a partner of one of my daughters close friends so I was delighted to give Max the opportunity to shoot a real wedding, and the results you will agree are brilliant.
You can see more of Max´s work on his Instagram CMPhotos. Go Max!! you did a wonderful job and we love supporting up and coming young professionals and giving them an opportunity in the industry here.
Here is a lovely testimonial received from Joy and Paul this weekend 🙂 Congratulations to you two and looking forward to seeing you on your next visit! xx
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