Real weddings, wedding inspiration and style, gorgeous ideas,

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Stylist Stalking :)


One of my favourite stylists is Selina Lake, I was first introduced to her work via my sister, who works for Ryland Peters and Small. My sister brings me the most beautiful books when she visits, for me to study and do lots of oohs and ahhs :) One of my favourite recent books was one styled by Selina called Bazaar style.
My coveted books are studied from page to page for me personally to use as decoration ideas for my own home and of course inspirations for our weddings.
I love this inspiration board, it is filled with divine colours, I know my two older daughters love this style as their bedrooms are decorated in these colours. LIttle Twinks is still lurid pink and princesses at the moment but we are working on her!
Again we are moving away from the very pale washed out tones of the vintage that has been so popular and moving to slightly bolder sorbet colours to brighten everything up slightly just in time for the Spring weddings.

I am just dying to know where that last photo of the pastel coloured fairground ride came from, in fact I am desperate to do a fairground themed wedding after seeing the fabulously glorious one on Preston Bailey's website, you must go and check this amazing wedding out, it is jaw dropping!

I was toying with feria ideas last week for events and weddings here :) A seed was sown which is always dangerous!

Alternative Guest Book Ideas for Weddings


As a Wedding and Event Stylist, I am always looking for different ideas and love this one sent to me of a fingerprint wedding tree :) What a fabulous alternative idea to a guest book and rather than put it in a cupboard after your wedding, you can frame it and proudly hang this on your wall as a piece of wall art.

These trees are made by Love from the Thumb on Etsy, they are the unique idea of Ricky and Ashely after they created one for their own wedding and you can order your own personalised tree and some really cute sets of inkpads for your guests to personalise your tree.

What I also like about this idea, again if you are planning a destination wedding, is that this is easily transportable back home.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Almond Blossoms in Andalucia


After a dismal winter last year with months of rain, the Costa del Sol is living up to its name this spring with fabulously sunny days and we are being truly spoilt at the moment.

I am in love with Andalucia, I decided I was going to live here as a small child when my parents first bought me here, I have been in love with Spain from year dot and moved here permanently 10 years ago and my parents live next door.

Spring here is beautiful and I wanted to share these gorgeous photos with you from Anna Gazda of the almond blossoms that are springing up all over the countryside in this sunny weather, they are beautiful and everytime I see them my heart leaps with joy as it signifies the summer is coming!

Last year we were involved in the decoration of the Haiti Fundraiser night and used the almond blossoms to decorate this event, it was a fabulous evening that raised a huge amount of money for this disaster and we were thrilled to be involved.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Soft Romantic Inspiration Board


I realised tonight I had lots of lovely photos hoarded in my blog file here which were all soft romantic images, so I have just made up a quick mood board of them all to share with you.
I will have to add the credits in the morning for all the talented people I have been stalking but slightly tired now and off to bed :)!

Tulip Love


You must head over to one of my favourite blogs, The Wedding Chicks, to see this gorgeous, yet very simple, photo shoot.
Often it is the simplest ideas that are the best, and this is rather cute but the reason I love it, is I love tulips, they are one of my favourite flowers.


Sorbet colours are definitely the way forward this year, I dashed past Mango earlier, one of my favourite clothes shops here, I was in a hurry and did not have time to pop in, but it did not go unnoticed that pale teals and mango colours were leaping out from the clothes rails ;)!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Reviva Weddings Latest Press on Facebook

We are delighted to work with some fabulous publications here on the Costa del Sol.
The now well established Confeti Magazine which is embarking on it's second year here on the Costa Del Sol and has quickly become a must have bible for any couple planning a wedding in Spain or Gibraltar with many of the talented suppliers here advertising and producing editorials for this beautifully produced magazine.
Confeti are also heading over to the National Wedding Show in London's Olympia on the 18th to the 20th February and you can find them on stand B63.
We were also featured this week in the Olive Press, a fabulous newspaper here again covering the Costa Del Sol and what I love about this particular paper is the fact it covers the more rural Andalucia rather than just the coast.
Both these press features can be found on our Facebook page

Sunday, February 13, 2011

New Google for Weddings

How cool is this, I have just seen it on Facebook, Google have launched a new free wedding tool in time for Valentines Day, Simplifying Wedding Planning.





The creative designs throughout this fabulous new tool were created in collaboration with the reknowned wedding and event planner, Michelle Rago, one of my inspirational creative people I watch for trends and styles I love along with Preston!
You can create a website, use all the Google planning tools to collaborate with your wedding guests on schedules, guests lists, addresses and travel arrangements plus much more.
Access and edit your planning documents from anywhere and create online albums.






Well worth heading over to Google to check out this fantastic idea, a must for any bride to be and I think I will be playing around with this as well today to see what it can offer our brides and clients, that is yet another Sunday taken care of!

An Ice Blue and Coral Mood Board

Again the coral tones for a wedding this time combined with an ice blue, we did create this board for one of our lovely clients getting married here in June, but we are also considering this colour combo for our photo shoot with the gorgeous white peonies, creating these fabulous tassle garlands that will be the rage this year for garden settings and loving the slightly rustic feel to this style.
Images courtesty of Martha Stewart and Reviva

If you like this colour combination and wish us to recreate this for our fabulous photo shoot, let us know!

A Mango Mood Board

I had a great dilemma with Mango last year, it is a difficult colour to translate and even harder to find the perfect shade, some are very pink and others are more peachy in tones.
It is a hugely popular colour still for weddings this year and combined with black, silver, white, teal blue or even a hot magenta it is a stunning colour to work with.
Another idea for our Spring photo shoot, so please cast your vote on your favourite colours you wish to see us use.
Again a thank you to Wolf and Whistle for some of the images within this inspiration board.

A Sorbet Colour Palette

A stunning combination of colours for 2011 wedding colours is the kaleidoscope of soft sorbet colours, champagne, cornflower, lemon, watermelon, raspberry and peppermint, all divine romantic colours and all good enough to eat :)
Think of hot Mediterreanean summers with these cooling pastel colours and the endless possibilities of creating icecream and cocktail bars or even serving iced yoghurts such as Snogs, which apparently Kate Middleton has requested for her wedding.
This mood board was created as we are currently planning a spring photo shoot here with some of the most talented, artistic suppliers involved, so lots excitement and a fair amount of brain storming to be done over the next month for our favorite colour combos.
Please do leave us comments as we post our colour inspiration boards to vote for your favourite one, we would love to know the most popular colour scheme our readers would like to see us feature for our Spring photo shoot here in the charming countryside of Andalucia.
I would like to thank Wolf and Willow for many of these gorgeous images on this board, I have spent hours on their blog tonight being truly inspired :)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Fabulous Classical Vocalist for Weddings

I decided a while back that I was embarrassed by my lack of Spanish, I know all the words, most of the verbs, plus all the rules about masculine, feminine, los, las, etc but can I string a sentence together, well no, unless I have had about 5 vodkas and inhibitions go out the door, which is rare! So I decided to make a New Year's resolution to start Spanish lessons again.

However, I am half deaf, so a class, as I did last year just does not work for me, so having been investigating I am recommended a fabulous teacher called Amanda.

I cannot even remember who recommended Amanda to me but we met up for a coffee and hit it off instantly and it turned out she is also a most talented, beautiful classical singer (as well as being able to put on some fabulous more upbeat entertainment!)

Little did I know that this amazingly talented lady is not just the best Spanish teacher (I now have lessons twice a week with her and love them) but she also possesses the most glorious voice and sings some hugely emotional arias and melodies for ceremonies, can bring down a crowd with a storm for more funky stuff and has recently been recording some wonderful spanish flamenco repetoires with our favorite spanish guitarist Matt McGuirk.

I have to admit not being even able to croak, I sound worse than a frog! I am hugely in awe of anyone that can sing and as beautifully as Amanda, it really is quite haunting to listen to her angelic voice and brings tears to my eyes. If you need a classical singer for your wedding Amanda is definitely the one to contact, she has some fabulous new ideas, is willing to learn new songs despite already having a very extensive repetoire and has been established down here for over 15 years singing for weddings, parties and corporate events.

You must take a peek at her website for more information.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Romantic Sweetheart Tables for Valentines

I love this beautifully romantic sweetheart table set for a Valentines dinner found tonight on the delightful and inspirational Elizabeth Anne Designs.
For me, it is all the gorgeous little details that make this table setting so special, from the flower decoration on the cutlery to the vintage lace design tablecloth (and of course the strawberry tartlet!).
My childhood was spent observing my parents host fabulous dinner parties for their friends and clients and memories of visiting two aunts in particular that used to relish entertaining.
I do remember travelling back to Surrey, from London, always feeling absolutely stuffed with very fond memories of my Aunty Doreen's raspberry mousse :)
On all these occasions, and there were many, lunches at Christmas and Easter as well, my mother and aunts would always have their special table linens, glorious Wedgewood crockery, beautiful silver cutlery, or Denby, in my mother's case as she was not into polishing her silver! It was always an occasion.
The attention to all the details for our occasions was always very apparent in our family.
The Harrods van used to show up delivering the food orders and the kitchen used to be mayhem for about 24 hours. My parents were very hands on though and I do remember my father always taking charge of the starters and my mother never letting him near her dessert creations. Goodness knows who was in charge of the main course, we were always kept at the other side of the house, with my grandfather, watching the Generation game and being fed sandwiches and fruit cake!
Perhaps this is why my little sister is now a food and cookery editor and I make tables look pretty?! Who knows what childhood experiences lead to where :)
I do think for any 'special' occasion, these basic elements can make or break it.
Fine table linens are a must and so often these are overlooked with the classic white table cover...ok smart and classic, but boring, do we ever see these plain white hotel linens on glorious photo shoots or fabulous dinner parties, rarely, and yet we put up with them for our wedding day?
How fabulous to have a white lace table cover over the top or some luxurious colour bought into your wedding or party, perhaps your napkins making a statement.
Why not decorate your napkins, a fresh flower is delightful, or here in this photo shoot, the red flower tied onto the cutlery for me makes this table.
How many weddings have you been too with the preverbial white table cloth and napkins?
They are lovely, but we see these gorgeous tables on some fabulous blogs and they do not have the hotel look, they are creatively dressed with beautiful linens, napkins and details.
Flowers popped into jugs or empty jars are simple but beautiful, that 'just picked out the garden' look which my parents often did and still do now, so do I.
I am always in my garden in the summer collecting bouganvilla, jasmine, and anything else my little girl has decided to pick and popping them into a jar for my terrace table, it is simple but so enjoyable.
Elizabeth, my little girl, has become rather good at raiding people's gardens which is rather worrying, but luckily she has mastered that cat out of Shrek look which normally means we get away with stealing flowers!
Presentation is so important, it can make an occasion a truly special occasion, with a few more details and thought into the table settings and how they look.
If we cannot stretch to crockery or cutlery for most weddings, we can at least stamp our style with the linens and gorgeous table details, your guests will be sitting at them for at least 3 hours so it will not go unnoticed!
I think I should start a let's get tables glam mission!
I have a few weddings this year that are breaking away from convention and ditching the white table linens for much more stylish affairs so very excited about this, I feel like the Ikea advert from a few years back where they are ditching the chintz, bring it back in is what I say, but without the Austrian blinds, were they ever the worst thing invented!?

Our Creative Neighbours in Portugal with Vintage ipad covers!


It is with a huge excitement tonight that I have been looking at some fabulous blogs from our neighbours in Portugal.
All thanks to Fi, fabulous cake maker extraordinaire, who has a way of completely sidetracking me by sending me links!!!

So Fi decided to send me a link this morning to one blog called Brancoprata, which of course then opens up many more fabulous blog doors and one thing leads to another and another hour is out my day, well night really as it is at night I go on my blog crusades ;)

So whilst all our lives are now governed by hi teccie accessories that we cannot live without, I have to admit they do appeal to the teccie men and perhaps not the women. All very sleek, black and shiny for a change!
It is only with Accessorise on our doorstep, we can buy pink diamante iphone covers and we thank heaven for small mercies!
So you can imagine my delight when I found this fab idea from Panopramangas for a vintage ipad cover, I love it and will have to now order one albeit I am still saving for an ipad!
Cars, three kids to feed and a family come first as normal, oh and handbags, least forgetting shoes!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Valentines Glam and Glitter

I love this gorgeous glittery Valentines shoot by Forget Me Knot Weddings and Sitting in a Tree Events, so girly and fun with lots of glitter, mini meringues and cupcakes, what more could a girl ask for apart from flowers and shoes of course ;)
This setting would be perfect for a bridal shower, birthday party for a girlfriend or just a good excuse for a bit of girly glamour.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Valentines Flowers and Decorations


As we approach Valentines day, we thought we would share a little inspiration with you and we love this photo shoot found on Postcards and Pretties by Jenny Haas photography.


This gorgeous mock tea party set up has inspired us particuarly as it has one of our birdcages in it, well not one of ours literally but we have the same!
One of our birdcages at Sharon and Michael's wedding in Mijas, image courtesy of Jeremy Standley

As always, the attention to the details, the garlands made out of pale pink doilies I love, pink lemonade and swirling cream just make this photo shoot divine and gorgeous.

Currently we are decorating the shop ready for Valentine's day, which is the busiest day of the year for Loraine.

Loraine has stunning flowers ordered, which is very exciting with the most fabulous red roses, and this year we have some gorgeous heart decorations and garlands, Cath Kidston style fabric hearts, mirror and glass hearts, LOVE and heart plates, love candy, cupcakes from the amazing Mark at Cake Marbella, a Valentines dream is awaiting our clients! Loraine and I are rather hoping there will be some of Mark's cupcakes left so we can scoff them :)

In fact when I was in the shop earlier today there were some gorgeous flowers being delivered from some stunning amaryllis in a beautiful coral colour and some deep red ranunculus, I can only imagine the bouquets and displays that Loraine will make with these this week, they will be divine, in fact I should take some photos and post them for you, as she is such a talented stunning florist.

Heather from Fiestasol and I were talking today about our flowers and weddings and Heather said she thought our flowers were the best here by a long way and Loraine is the the most creative florist here by far here on the coast.

Her clients and our brides will lay testimony to my statement and it is a joy working with her to provide all our flowers for our weddings along with my staff. I strive for perfection and have worked with a few florists here but none can match Loraine's skill and artistic eye.

If you do wish to pre order flowers, decorations and cupcakes please do call us on 952 839 830 at the shop or my mobile 618 021 172.

I do advise preordering in order not to be disappointed as from what I saw last year there was a queue outside the door for about 10 hours!

If you wish to order balloons as well for your Valentines party or restaurant or wish us to dress your venue ready for this occasion, please do contact me as we do also now offer balloons to compliment our flowers and for venue dressing, although they do have to be pre ordered with notice ready to collect from our shop or for us to come out and set them up.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Weddings in Benahavis, Marbella



Reviva Weddings is currently expanding at a very fast pace this year, we are taking on more staff and currently branching out into different areas which is very interesting and are meeting many talented and devoted people that are really working hard on promoting the wedding industry here.
At Easter we are launching our Russian wedding and party planning which we hope will cater for the increasing amount of Russians living and visiting Marbella. If you would like more information about our Russian services, then please do contact us. There will be a Russian contact on our website shortly as well.

We meet many fabulous potential suppliers and companies and being a complete devotee to weddings I can spot another devotee miles away, I can also spot the fakes riding on the back of the industry as well!

To be in the wedding and event industry, you have to be completely committed.

I have seen people here throw their hands up and say this is not for me, they have no idea what they are in for until they enter what I call Wedding World, we live, eat, breath and sleep it. There is an A team here already based in Marbella but constantly we find new talents, fab people to work with and I have just found another partner in crime with Rachel.

Rachel is one of our brides that is getting married this year, in June, and has been rather resourceful, as well as having fab business brains and she lives in Benahavis. It is thanks to Rachel that we are now able to offer the Benahavis park for wedding ceremonies.

It is free of charge, currently, although I am sure when the local council get the jist of how many weddings we can organise there this will change :)! The park is fabulous, it has a lake, amphitheatre, which is where Rachel is getting married, and this rather cute ruin that they have also now offered for ceremonies, photos above. We love it and again these photos were taken by us, not professionals, on a sunny January day.

All we need to organise for ceremonies here is a minister to conduct your ceremony, chairs, perhaps a cocktail in the park, anything is possible but we cannot guarantee that you won't get an onlooker as it is a park. But to be honest cannot really see this as a potential problem, possibly the odd skateboarder:)!

Rachel has informed me today that she is in negotiation with a fabulous villa that sleeps 20 people just nearby so watch this space. We have also decorated a beautiful wedding in the Casa del Rio located nearby plus there is the Benahavis hotel and the Hotel Amanhavis as well, all very charming venues within walking distance.

If you would like to organise your wedding in this fabulous park please do contact us to find out more details.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Two New Stunning Beach Villas for Weddings in Marbella


Villa at Los Monteros
Yesterday we had an extremely busy day with lots of meetings and visits to new wedding venues here in Marbella and we are hugely excited to share with you our new properties available for your wedding here in southern Spain. We had a very productive day and there is more to come on the next blog post about weddings in Benahavis as well :)
We went out for the day, yesterday, to visit these new venues with the vision that these could be potential wedding venues for our clients and what really excited me with these two new stunning properties is that they are located right on the beach.
We get so many enquiries for beach style weddings, that up until now we could not really accommodate as the venues were not available or were hotels situated on the beach which is not the same when you wish to create your very personal day.
However, with the recession and property owners now looking at other revenue streams, we are delighted that they are contacting us and putting their trust in us to showcase these amazing properties and making them available for weddings and events. There is a silver cloud to every lining!
Stunning is a word that can only describe both of the properties I visited yesterday and what I loved was the fact you could hear the waves, one of my favorite past times is to sit on the beach listening to the waves, there is nothing more magical :) I could think of nothing more romantic than getting married by the beach but perhaps I am biased! I am known for heading to the beach in the summer even if it is for an hour to sit and listen to the waves and people watch :)
Both the properties we viewed yesterday are now on our books as wedding venues and the first property is situated in the Los Monteros area, east of Marbella. It is ideally located near the Los Monteros hotel, the Vincci hotel and the Don Carlos hotel and is available on a daily rental basis meaning you do not have to commit for a minimum amount of days.
The second property below is situated in the Guadalmina side of town, near Puerto Banus and next door practically to the Guadalmina hotel, again right on the beach. Again you do not have to commit to a certain amount of days. It is set in fabulous grounds with an orange grove to host a cocktail in and then leading through the property to the 'back garden' with the pool and stunning gardens.
Both properties are stunning locations and sleep 10 people and we work with excellent caterers and a whole host of suppliers that can move into the properties to create your dream day, including us of course :)
If you would like more information about either properties please do just send us an email for more information on laura@reviva-weddings.com or call me on 0034 618021172.

Villa at Guadalmina

All these photos were taken by us yesterday in January without the help of a professional photographer so if they look good here they will be even more stunning if done professionally in the summer!