I knew Danielle was an en route bride 10 seconds into our first meeting in a tiny cafe in London. It was love at first sight, and I literally couldn´t wait to photograph her wedding in Almiral de la Font in Sitges, 40 minutes outside of Barcelona. I asked her to tell us a bit more about their story and the big day:
How/when/where did you first meet?
We met 13 years ago when I was only 17 working togther in a local restaurant. Matt had just qualified as a chef and I was working part time as a waitress whilst studying. Since then we have been inseperable, and have pretty much grown up together, travelled the world together, bought a house together etc.
How/when/where did the proposal happen?
The proposal happened after a looonnnggg time together (10 years to be exact) in Santorini. I’m pretty sure that Matt wasn’t nervous at all, as I was hardly going to say no after a 10 year wait.
What was the vision for your wedding, the style/color/scheme?
As the venue is already so beautiful and has so many natural colours, we wanted to keep it as simple and as light as possible. I have always dreamt of an all-white wedding so this ended up working out perfectly. I would probably say the overall theme was white, laid-back, simple and chic.
How many guests?
80
Why did you choose your wedding venue?
We both knew we wanted to get married abroad, the main reason being the idea of spending as much time as possible with family and friends and turning it into a whole weekend celebration. Many of the weddings in the UK start in the afternoon and end by 11pm so we couldn’t imagine only having a few hours to celebrate with everyone.
Sitges was an obvious choice for us; my family has been holidaying here for 20+ years and we have brought countless numbers of friends with us over the years. Matt and I then started to holiday here every year and it has become a special place for us. We wanted everyone to experience the town and why we fell in love with it which is why we organised the wedding weekend in different venues across the town. The feeling of having everyone you love in your favourite place in the world is completely indescribable.
For the Friday we chose drinks and tapas at El Vivero due to the amazing sunset setting and laid back feel.
The choice of Almiral de la Font for the main event was perfect; as it allowed our immediate family to stay on site with us for the weekend and doubled up as the venue for the main wedding event on the Saturday. The building is a beautiful old masia in the hills above Sitges and the remote loaction from the town meant everyone could fully relax (and that we could continue the celebration until the early hours).
For the Sunday, we held a traditional paella and sangria dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, La Santa Maria, where we have been eating for over 20 years. It ended the weekend perfectly and gave us time to say proper thank you’s and goodbyes before everyone left.
Describe the ceremony, what made it unique/special
Walking up to the top of the ceremony area and seeing all of your friends and family waiting and smiling is such an amazing feeling.
Toby our celebrant was amazing and was the highlight of the ceremony. Still to this day we have comments from our guests telling us how personal and relaxed the ceremony was. Toby managed to tailor it completely to us (with only a few Skype calls and emails to go by) and managed to make us feel completely at ease throughout. No nerves in sight.
Describe the reception, what made it unique/special
To be completely honest, all of our vendors made it special. I think our only initial reservation about getting married in Spain was that we didn’t know what the quality of the suppliers would be like. But everyone completely surpassed our expectations.
Everyone was the best of the best, and I am not being biaised as our friends and family have all praised each and every one of our suppliers whether it be the food, the band, the surprise drummers, the wedding photos, the wedding video, the list goes on. People are still talking about it 3 months down the line.
The best decision we made througout the whole experience was hiring Philippa as our planner. On the day she was cool, calm and collected and we didnt have to worry about anything. She was involved in everything; sourcing the suppliers, the set-up of the venue, the flowers, the cake, the event styling, managing the timeline on the day (and making sure we stuck to it), and the not so fun part-the clearing up. I’m not entirely sure when she has time to sleep. We couldnt have done any of it without her.
Describe the flowers used for floral arrangements
All of the flowers and arrangements (incl. the bouquets) were sourced and arranged by Philippa and again, were all an all white theme. She was amazing – I gave her a few photos of the ideas I wanted and she brought it all to life.
What was the inspiration of your wedding cake?
We had A LOT of food going on that day, and our worry was that the cake would get wasted. We both love cheese so thought the idea of a cake made of cheese would be a much more sensible idea. This was then served alongside the evening food for our guests. The cake was sourced and put together by Philippa.
Describe the favors for guests
We personally didn´t see the point on spending money on favours that people tend to just leave on the table from my experience at other weddings, and also the transport out to Spain wouldn’t have been the easiet.
We therefore decided to donate the money we would have spent on 2 animal charites that are close to our hearts. We have 3 rescue cats at home so it was our way of bringing our love of animals to the day (Matt wouldn’t let me being the cats to Spain).
Planner Philippa Events / Location Almiral de la Font / Photography En Route Photography / Video Ankerprod / Catering Sensacions / Celebrant Toby Harper / Musician Sinead Savage / Band The Funk Boss Brothers / MUAH Teresa Snowball / Bride´s Dress Suzanne Neville / Veil Blackburn Bridal / Jewellry Lord of London / Groom´s Attire Roy Cain Tailoring / Bridesmaids dresses Reiss / Film Dev & Scan Carmencita Film Lab
