While all the different real weddings we share on the blog go a long way to giving you visual ideas and style inspiration for your big day, there’s equally lots to learn when you read between the pictures, about how couples plan their weddings too.
And today is one of those weddings that shows you how picking the right planner, someone you can trust, who’ll totally understand your vision, can make wedding planning so much smoother.
Vaida & Gareth are a couple from Lithuania and South Africa respectively, who live in London and chose to get married in beautiful Cordoba, in Spain.
Their day, at La Vieja Cigarra, was romantic, flower-filled, fun and entirely personalised, even though they did all the planning online and only saw the venue the day before the wedding (pretty impressive, right!).
Planned by Open the Door Events and captured by Sttilo Photography – this gorgeous wedding has lots of ideas; the romantic venue and ceremony set-up, the elegant style and decor, and the cool wedding VW and ‘Just Married’ bike.
But what we love the most is that it’s shown us how sometimes, (particularly with a destination wedding!) trusting your vendors and being a little more hands-off, can give you the most authentic, meaningful, and beautiful results…
The Destination
The wedding was intimate, romantic and chic.
We decided we wanted a small wedding with only our closest friends and family. As I’m from Lituania and Gareth originally from South Africa, it made sense to have a destination wedding.
A friend of ours, Opi owns Open the Door Events in Cordoba Spain and we kept seeing pop-ups of gorgeous venues via her Facebook page and decided we wanted to get married in Spain and for her to plan the wedding for us.
We had no idea of costs or anything so on New Year’s Day we got in touch with her and asked her for a rough budget plan, when she sent it over it started to feel very real and our heart became set on the idea of a authentic Spanish wedding.
The Inspiration
We looked at a few venues but fell in love with La Vieja Cigarra.
It’s a beautifully styled venue, set on a hillside in the Andalusian countryside. We saw the pictures of the Pergola covered in vines and flowers and imagined getting married beneath it.
The colour palette and décor were blush and there was a rustic feel to whole event. It perfectly suited the venue as well. For the rest of the planning we trusted Opi and worked closely beside her in choosing the food, music and flowers using her trusted vendors.
We both have a love for bicycles and it’s been a recurring theme throughout the wedding, being on the save the dates and invites.
We managed to get a vintage cruiser bike for the event that Opi decorated.
The Photography
Our wedding planner Opi recommended us a few photographers and we instantly fell in love with Sttilo.
They have such a natural and artistic approach of capturing spontaneous moments.
We love our wedding pictures and are so glad we followed our gut to choose them.
Advice for Other Couples
Get a wedding planner and enjoy yourself, the day goes so fast. We ended up having a great party surrounded by friends and family and it was exactly what we wanted.
Don’t sweat the small stuff like timing and rehearsals, just go with it.
Decor & Details
We had the first letters of our names V&G as illuminated letters as a backdrop fro the dancefloor. When we had our first dance they went on and we danced in the courtyard that was really special.
The romantic candlelit dinner with the closest people in our lives, listening to the speeches and eating delicious food and just feeling blissfully happy.
We only actually saw the venue a day before the wedding so the whole planning and organising on our part was done via email, we put all of our trust in Opi and the whole day was even more amazing than we had imagined, the way everything came together in the exact style we wanted.
From the VW campervan adorned in blush garden rose and foliage to single blush rose on each individual place setting.
I would have to say, my favourite detail was the bicycle, it was a personal touch and really captured our love for the outdoors.
The Honeymoon
We went to Tenerife, rented a scooter and explored the island. It was really fun from volcanic mountains to sandy beaches and water parks. I would recommend it to anyone.
