Aelish & Paul

As I'm sat here putting together this gorgeous sun filled destination wedding, snow is falling outside my window, and whilst it looks absolutely magical I can't help but wish I was at this poolside ceremony. The clear blue sky and flower filled arbour are literally taking my breath away. Then there's the fashion. Bride Aelish looks truly stunning in a fitted Suzanne Neville Bella gown, loose curls, and a flower crown of dreams. And have you seen the low backs of the bridesmaids Kelsey Rose dresses yet? Wow. Not to be forgotten are the groomsmen in Reiss black tie suits, which is fast becoming my favourite attire for men. Honestly this wedding party is screaming squad goals. Make sure you look out for all the perspex signs and fairy lights too whilst you devour all the immensness planned by Ibiza Weddings, and captured by Gypsy Westwood Photography, because believe me you're not going to want to miss them.

Venue

Aelish the Bride : Our wedding took place in the beautiful venue Atzaro, Ibiza. If you haven't visited Atzaro before it should be on your bucket list!! It is a place of natural beauty, filled with flowers, greenery, orange trees beautiful gardens and running water, All of my favourite things!! There is a special energy and beauty at this venue that is indescribable and one of the main reasons we chose the venue to stage our special day.

Wedding Planner

Doing the wedding abroad I knew I was not going to be able to do it alone (I take my hat off to couples that do!!! ) so I began searching for wedding planners in Ibiza- I found Ibiza Weddings quite simply from a google search - They say you should always trust your gut and my gut told me this was the company I needed to help me plan my special day. I just fell in love with their website, it was personable, the fact they were two best friends working together, following their passions and making couples dreams come true drew me in and their previous wedding gallery was sooooo dreamy!! I contacted Gemma who was brill and got back to me that day on all my queries and she passed me to the wonderful Kerry who was my point of contact for the rest of our planning stage, Kerry is awesome, she has the memory of an elephant, the patience of a saint and can crack the whip when needed too!! As a company they exceeded our expectations I was genuinely blown away by their professionalism and attention to detail- nothing was too much trouble and the day ran seamlessly as a result of their hard work. IMO the best duo in the business.

Ceremony

The ceremony took place outdoors at the ceremony pool area in Atzaro. It was a truly breath taking experience. We decorated the arch above where we said our vows in beautiful white flowers it looked like something from a fairytale. Melchior Arnold was our celebrant on the day who gave us the most sincere and meaningful blessing ceremony- Our guests all said that they had never experienced anything quite like it, Melchior has a wonderful energy and the words of the ceremony focused on Love, happiness and togetherness. I also loved that we were able to give the Mothers of the bride and groom a part in our ceremony in blessing the rings as often the mums are forgotten about in more traditional ceremonies. We picked two beautiful modern poems that we connected with as soon as we read them and these were read by my mum and chief bridesmaid.

Colour Scheme/ Decor

I would describe our wedding theme as stylish chic and whimsical. My initial mood board was based around different heights of glassware and vases, single elegant white flowers, twinkly lights and perspecs features. I love flowers so wanted the ceremony arch to be a real showstopper. Dani from Velvet Circus who was in charge of our theming and decor was amazing she let us have full creativity but guided us overall and pulled it together so so beautifully with her experience and attention to detail on the day. We bounced ideas off each other especially with regards to the guest book area. I wanted to create a focal point area in the cocktail reception where guests could take photos on a polaroid and add to a guest book for our keeps, my initial thought was to have a flower wall but with the flowers I wanted this was going to be punchy so my next idea was to create a backdrop of large white balloons with a string of green foliage hanging from each. Dani was all for this and on the day it really added something special to the cocktail reception area. We chose to have A perspex welcome sign, seating plan and personalised menu for each guest this was super chic and worked as a keepsake for the guests to take home if they wished. The table decor included mixed height cylindrical vases with single white flowers, glass tea light holders and floating candle holders on stems. After sunset I wanted the venue to be twinkly and romantic we had fairy lights draped above and all the floating candles and tea lights were lit on the tables, and the huge disco ball above the dance floor really came into affect. Just Magical! We kept the the indoor disco area after hours fun and young with large neon signs and a very entertaining prop box!

Flowers

Flowers were organised by El Ramo de flores who were wonderful. I adore flowers, my favourite being Juliet roses so I had a mix of these and similar pinky-peachy roses for my wedding bouquet. As my dress was chic and stylish I wanted to keep my bouquet clean with just flowers and no foilage. I chose to follow suit with the bridesmaids and keep their bouquets clean but with white roses, Avalanche and Lisianthus. The button holes were a single mini rose. On the table we had elegant flowers in cylindrical mixed height vases these included single stem Phalenopsis Orchid, white peonies and hydrangeas.

Personal Touches

We wanted the day to be a celebration of our love for each other so we added personal touches that took people through our journey as a couple. Our table numbers were special dates we have experienced together, on each table we left a note with the number explaining why this date was special to us. With these dates and a lot of help from my mum (who is a whizz at writing poems) we created a love poem about our relationship to date and this featured in the cocktail reception for all our guests to read and enjoy. We also had quotes from our favourite songs which lined the walkway to the ceremony area.

Dress

My plan was to do a big day in London with my two best friends trying on dresses and drinking champagne but in reality this never happened. I was caught off guard while trying to source my bridesmaid dresses in a beautiful little bridal boutique in Baildon (Bridal Boutique Baildon) I remember I was looking a bit worse for ware that day, my hair was in a scruffy bun on top of my head, I was still recovering from having a baby so a little out of shape and I hadn't had time to shave my legs in weeks (TMI sorry lol) anyway I wondered over to the wedding dresses in the shop just to have a nosey and came across a collection of dresses from Suzanne Neville. Long story short I tried on the Bella gown by Suzanne Neville and it was an instant say yes to the dress moment. I fell in love and that was that! As the dress was a fitted fishtail style and I am only 5ft 2ins I wanted to find the highest shoes possible to help the proportions of the dress look better. In the end I went for a classic white satin Louboutin sky high platform. Warning these shoes are not for the faint hearted!!! I once read that Christian Louboutin says his shoes are made for fashion purposes and not comfort and boy is he right about that, my feet were on fire after an hour of wearing them, luckily I brought a high wedge to swap into later in the evening so I could enjoy the party pain free!!

Bridesmaids

I chose a white gold Kelsey Rose dipping back number for my beautiful bridesmaids. Note to any brides getting married in the sunshine if you pick a dress with a sight sheen your bridemaids will literally sparkle while walking down the isle !!!!!

Groomsmen

I love my man in a Reiss suit so we chose Reiss for both Pauls groom suit and the groomsmen and ushers attire. The fit of their suits is perfect and they offer a fab tailor service! As it was going to be a hot day we chose not to have the groomsmen and ushers in full suit just black trousers, a white dinner shirt, dickie bow and braces. Paul wore a full three piece dinner suit and black patent Louboutin shoes. Handsome chap! Our mini pageboy (and beautiful son) wore a Patachou beige linen suit with dickie bow from Children Salon accompanied with white leather Converse, he looked so adorable and the outfit was also cool and practical for him on the day.

Jewellery

My husband picked my wedding jewellery with a little help from me :) I love Fope Jewellery. A gorgeous Italian fine jewellery brand. I hinted that I would love a set from their collection for the wedding and he picked out a beautiful white gold bracelet and necklace which he gave to me on the morning of the wedding. For me if you're going to spend money on jewellery you have to be able to wear it all year round, this brand allows for that. It is so elegant and iconic yet wearable, I wear my wedding jewellery most days now which makes me very happy!!

Hair and Makeup

Louise Maxwell worked her magic on my hair and makeup. I chose her because of her natural/flawless finishes. I don't wear a lot of makeup and Louise painted my face enough to give me that wow on the day but not too much where I felt over done. Louise also has a lovely calming influence and is so easy to talk to which really helped to keep me relaxed on the day. My makeup was soft with a rose gold and shimmer smokey eye, feline flick and a peachy nude shade on my lips. Most of the makeup used was Charlotte Tilbury which I adore and the lip colour was shade Pillow Talk. My hair was done in soft pin curls which complemented my dress and veil- I have long thick hair so it was nice to just to have it natural and flowing.

Photography

There were many talented photographers available in Ibiza to chose from but I had had already chosen Gypsy long before our wedding planner sent the list of photographers that were available on our day. I had flicked through her website so many times adoring over all her wedding shots, I just loved her natural romantic style. Gypsy is the master of candid photography each of our wedding shots captured such beautiful moments that were like a mini time machines taking us back to the emotions felt at that exact moment. On the day Gypsy was non invasive she just stood back and did her thing - It was one of the hottest days of the year in Ibiza and there were times when I felt so hot and flustered but Gypsy was calm and reasuring and didn't pressurise the shot she just let the moment be.

Videography

Before I got married one piece of advice I was given by most brides before me was to make sure to put money aside for a good videographer so this was quite high up on my priority list! Gary Mcmanus Infin8 is a creative genius and a pretty cool guy too! Again we chose him based on his previous work but I could never have imagined just how good our final edit would be. His work speaks for itself! We received our wedding film back only recently and Paul and I over a large glass of red watched it together and relived what was the best day ever. We laughed, we cried and we were just blown away at how he had put everything together seamlessly, capturing so many beautiful moments, he also did a super cool highlights short film and Instagram edit- as I am a social media junkie I just loved being able to share the mini films with friends and family too!

Entertainment

Entertainment was a biggie for Paul and Me. We love music and all different genres at that and really wanted to show our appreciation to our guests for flying out to Ibiza by giving them one hec of a party. We chose the La de dah Girls to sing during our wedding reception with a bongo player. These girls have a beautiful sound and set a cool and vibey atmosphere for the reception. After the meal we had a fire show which was a great closing to the first section of the evening and opening to the disco. We flew a friend out from England to kick of the evening disco DJ Charlie C he played a mix of cool RnB and Motown. We had the In Your Dream girls in the background putting glitter and sparkle on our guests faces. Everyone loved these girls and even all the men got involved! To finish the party on a high we had Sax player Lovely Laura and her bf Ben Santana on the decs they brought such a high energy to the end of evening and had all the guests including the grandmas up dancing all night.