Love Padlocks in Spain

Attaching a padlock to a bridge and throwing the key into the river is seen as a symbol of enduring love and this rather romantic idea of love padlocks, otherwise known as love locks, is proving a popular craze in most cities across Europe after the publication of the 2007 cult best-seller Ho Voglia De Te (I Want You) which saw a young couple attach a padlock to the city's Milvian Bridge and throw away the key into the river, as a sign of their love.  

This trend has spread, but not of course without controversy. 

Whilst it is a lovely romantic idea, it does appear sadly that in some cities it has caused problems with the weight of thousands of padlocks threatening structures and historical monuments, the Rialto bridge in Italy is one such structure that has suffered, I guess due to it´s already popular romantic setting. 

The not so romantic authorities of many cities have been apparently dismantling the padlocks with cutters, but in Moscow they have built metal trees instead on Luzhkov Bridge, giving a designated area for friends and lovers to express their love and affection.

Wouldn´t it be fabulous to have these in Marbella!

I was quite intrigued by this idea though and found out there is a bridge in most of the Spanish cities where this latest craze has developed including Malaga and Sevilla and even now in Madrid.

Perhaps Spain should now build some romantic structures to attract what I think is rather a romantic idea but in the meantime this could be perhaps bought into your wedding day either in the ceremony, stationery or even in the props.

I do love an inspiration so thought I would share this with you!

Eco Friendly Rice Butterfly Confetti

Traditionally rice is thrown at the bride and groom to bring them fertility and good luck and the word confetti comes from the Italians who traditionally threw sweets at the lucky couple, confetto.

All this, however, sounds painful and as we are always searching for eco friendly alternatives to our weddings, we were delighted to find this new product, rice butterflies which we will now be stocking in our shop.

These gorgeous butterflies are currently available in white, red, yellow, green and blue but shortly will be available in pink.  As they are so lightweight they stay in the air for longer ensuring your photographer will capture the magic and give your photos the wow factor.

We love them and with all the symbolic meanings behind throwing rice at the happy couple, we cannot think of a better way to start your married life than to be blessed by fluttering butterflies!

Couples wanted for a Stylised Engagement Session in Madrid

The Jason Groupp from NYC are heading over to Madrid at the beginning of March and are looking for newly engaged couples for a stylised photo shoot.

A signature of their studio is I Heart New York and they have some stunning stylised takes for an engagement session, take a look here to find out more, a touch of NYC Madrid Style!

So if you are heading to Madrid on the 1st and 2nd March and would love an engagement photo session with this fabulous team do contact them or perhaps this could be a good excuse to plan a pre wedding romantic getaway!

Due to the fact this is rather short notice they are also considering anyone with a special occasion, perhaps an anniversary or a celebration.

We are also hugely excited too as NYC comes again later this year in the form of another amazing photographer, to visit Reviva and photograph some of our weddings to take back across the Atlantic!

Getting Married in Marbella

This week we are creating a blog post and guiding you through the legalities of getting married in Marbella and Spain.

We will be helping you with any questions you need to know about getting married in Spain and the paperwork involved. Whether you wish to hold a catholic church ceremony, a registry office in Gibraltar or a blessing here we will be answering your questions here on this blog this week.

Carla, our head of planning and coordination will be here to answer any questions you have so if you would like to submit a question please send an email to info@reviva-weddings.com.

A Sevillian Orange Theme for Weddings

I love Sunday mornings and this morning is no exception as I get some quiet time to spend designing our weddings for next year.

Blues surged in popularity as a wedding colour this year and will be a trend colour again for 2012 along with orange which of course reflects the wonderful Sevillian orange theme for weddings in Spain.

I am currently designing a tablescape for one of our weddings and loved this styled photo shoot I found on Elizabeth Anne Designs.

We are designing a long U shaped table for an early May wedding and tulips are in season here which will keep the floral costs down quite dramatically, which is great as we can use an eclectic mix of glass jars and blue water bottles filled with tulips and white hydrangeas along with all sorts of different height candles and tealights and finish the dressing of this tablescape with small oranges and foliage. We are planning to use succulents as well in small pots to place the guests names in and tie blue napkins with raffia and a button detail :)

I am on a mission now to find orange crates and start washing and collecting jars!

As we create and design our weddings we will share our ideas and inspirations with you and of course we still have many beautiful weddings of our own to post over the coming months.

A Stunning Peacock Themed Wedding at Finca de la Concepcion, Marbella

I am not sure where to start with this stunning Peacock theme wedding we created here at the Finca de la Concepcion.

We were working with such a fantastic couple and we had so many fabulous details incorporated into this wedding it has taken me two days since Jeremy sent me these gorgeous images, of delighted oohs and aahs as I decided what photos to blog and share with you. I do like to portray the day as it unfolds so I hope I have done this here for you and can share all the fabulousness with you! You must head over though as well so see the fantastic slideshow Jeremy has put together as well.

After months of planning and lots of work, sometimes we feel like the couple themselves where the day has whizzed by and we have not enjoyed seeing all the details as we have been so busy setting everything up and quite often very hot, so it is wonderful for us to receive the images of our weddings to see all our hard work and efforts in action.

I would love to describe all the wonderful ideas we put together in the hope you will see it is the attention to details that truly pull a delightful wedding together, we created everything to coordinate with Jen´s Peacock theme from the peacock confetti cones, brilliantly created by Anoulka, to the stationery, table seating plans, our fans were decorated with coordinating ribbons and peacock themed tags as were the napkins.

If you are currently looking for your wedding stationery you must check out our hugely talented Anoulka´s website which was born out of creating stationery, table seating plans, etc for our weddings. Anoulka is beyond fantastic and if you are looking for something very different you must head over to her website for any stationery requirements.

The bridal flowers were created with green cymbidium orchids, purple alliums and peacock feathers and finished with the beautiful turquoise ribbons that matched the bridesmaids dresses to a tee.

Green hydrangeas were used in the centrepieces along with purple orchids and more peacock feathers just enough to add an accent and we created our lovely themed candy bar to coordinate with the wedding, as much as you can with marshmallows! But we had turquoie chocolate hearts and our themed and personalised candy bags.

We decorated this stunning venue with a lovely chillout area and dressed the tables and chairs with our turquoise linens and sashes, added in our famous lanterns and candles for the late night twinkling and the end result was stunning.

Our hugest big hugs to Jeremy as always for understanding me and the fact I love my work and glorify in seeing it all come to life afterwards, it makes my day ;)

My big thanks also to Heather at Fiestasol and her team that are just fantastic, time and time again with their fabulous catering team and have to say die for food! Heather for her trust in me as well when the tough gets going!

Last but not least my wonderful friend Fi and her gorgeous cakes, do I sound like the Oscars!

A fantastic wedding run by a very professional team and we are delighted to share this to you.