Elegant & Intimate Ibiza Destination Wedding

Elegant and Intimate Ibiza Destination Wedding – Gypsy Westwood Photography 9

What’s my best bit of advice when choosing a wedding destination when your friends & family hail from all over the world? Invite your guests to a dream vacation. When Chika & Daniel picked Ibiza off the map for their intimate & elegant nuptials, they did just that.

Guests from Tokyo, Barcelona, Bangkok, Singapore, New York, San Francisco, Budapest, Berlin, Valencia and more converged on the Mediterranean island for the most idyllic cliffside ceremony. Chika dressed in stylish Alexandra Grecco, with simple white blooms about, the scene is absolutely stunning. With friends and family enjoying the best views & time that Ibiza has to offer, it seemed nothing could go wrong.

But being just at the end of summer, the rains arrived. Chika, arriving at the ceremony by boat with little cover other than her best friend, was rightfully panicked to be at sea in her gown for the twenty-minute ride. Luckily, by the time the boat docked, the two elegant ladies were greeted with a double rainbow and joyous group of guests – after all, rain can’t spoil a beautiful Mediterranean adventure.

The day was filled with breathtaking beauty, and sparks of fun (you have to see the cake cutting!) Leaving Chika with sage advice, “Don’t overthink too much about every single detail of how you want your wedding day to go. Nothing will ever be perfect even if you plan it perfectly.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Our Love Story

I (Chika) had been living in San Francisco for about a year after moving from New York, and it was Daniel’s third year living in the Bay Area and he was thinking of moving to the city. We met one night at a cocktail bar in Hayes Valley, a very cute and trendy neighborhood that I wasn’t too familiar with at the time. I enjoyed talking to him right away and we had been inseparable since then. Unfortunately, I had an international work trip for a month right after I met Daniel, so I wasn’t so sure how that was going to go, but he visited me in Turkey at the end of my trip (it was Thanksgiving so I decided to stay extra) which made the trip very special. Funny enough, Daniel decided to move into an apartment in Hayes, and I joined him a year later.

Our proposal was in the summer of 2017. In April that year we went to Japan together (I’m originally from Japan) and he asked my parents for approval. So I knew it was coming at some point but had no idea on the timing. I was thinking sometime later that year (we had a trip to Spain together in the fall), but to my surprise, he proposed to me during our summer trip to Cabo. We were having a nice romantic meal on the beach at my favorite spot in Cabo known for beautiful sunsets (Sunset Mona Lisa) and he asked me to marry him!

The Photography

We worked with our wedding planner Monica to figure out our photographer and videographer options in Ibiza. We fell in love with Gypsy’s photography style and her use of color that created elegant yet natural pictures, and also loved the fact that she is a local. At the time we weren’t sure about hiring a videographer until we found out that Gypsy’s brother Jake works with her as a videographer. I knew they would be great for our wedding when I cried watching random couples’ wedding video Jake created.

We absolutely love the pictures and videos of our wedding!

The Destination & Venue

Ever since we started planning our wedding, we both knew that we wanted a beach wedding. I grew up in Thailand and Daniel in Spain, and so it was a pretty easy decision to narrow down to these two countries. After traveling and visiting venues in Koh Samui and Ibiza, we both really liked the venue in one of the most beautiful coves in Ibiza, Cala Conta. It was simply breathtaking – the view, the atmosphere, the setup, and of course the food & drinks!

The venue, Ses Roques, introduced us to a wedding planner Monica – we visited her that week in Madrid, and we communicated for a year over emails and facetime to plan our dream wedding.

Blue, white, and gold were our color scheme – a perfect match for beach and Ibiza – we didn’t want to overdecorate since the venue was already so beautiful, it really didn’t need much. And we’re so glad we kept it simple.

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Favorite Moments

The thing we loved the most about our wedding was how it made us realize we have loved ones all over the world. As both of us went to international schools, we had friends visiting from everywhere (Tokyo, Barcelona, Bangkok, Singapore, New York, San Francisco, Budapest, Berlin, Valencia, etc…). We feel so blessed to have every one of them in our lives and to celebrate such a special day with them.

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The Important Details

Instead of decorations we focused our time and effort on other unique items that we cared about, like having a pre-wedding get-together at our villa, arriving at the venue on a cute fisherman’s boat, having a live saxophonist whom everyone fell in love with, a sunset ritual with balloons to make a wish, and tapas appetizers with lots of yummy Spanish dishes.

Advice to Other Couples

Don’t overthink too much about every single detail of how you want your wedding day to go. Nothing will ever be perfect even if you plan it perfectly. For example, it started drizzling right before our ceremony as I was getting on a boat with my best friend to get to the venue. We had no umbrella, nothing to cover our dresses, and had a 20-minute ride to the venue! I almost started crying. Luckily it stopped halfway and when we got there we were greeted with double rainbows.

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The Honeymoon

We had an amazing time in Italy and Greece for our honeymoon. As we were coming all the way to Spain for our wedding from San Francisco, we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were in Europe. Italy has always been my dream destination, and Daniel’s only visited Rome once in the past, so we decided to do a road trip all over Italy, starting from Venice, ending in Almafi coast. We also wanted to have some relaxing time on the beach so we flew to Santorini afterward and splurged for an awesome honeymoon suite that I still dream about today.

As much as I loved exploring Italy, we would visit fewer cities and spend more in each city if we could do it all over again. That way you can really get to know each city and relax without feeling rushed.