Anyone who reads RMW regularly will know that I’m (still) waiting for my other half to pop the question – we’ve been together for over five years and have a 15 month old daughter together – so weddings that are all about family really pull on my heart strings, because I’m *hoping* that one day, my other half pops the question and our little girl will get to watch her Mummy & Daddy cement our family unit. And the gorgeous Kate and Tim did exactly that – their little ones were heavily involved in their big day and it has made my heart swell with joy.
The images by Violeta Minnick are just beautiful, and something their family will treasure forever. Kate’s words made me cry and if you’re in a similar situation to me, they’ll probably get you too! It’s a wedding that’s full of heart, fun AND lots of stylish decor – don’t think just because there are little ones involved the wedding can’t be gorgeous to look at! (And if you’re having a wedding where there will be lots of children to keep occupied, check out our sister blog, Rock My Family, where we shared loads of ideas for entertaining kids at a wedding).
Our Wedding
Kate The Bride: Tim and I got engaged in February 2014 and very swiftly got wedding planning. I was eight months pregnant with our second child at the time so it’s fair to say it wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone! We have been together for eight years so had a pretty good idea of how we wanted to tie the knot. We wanted a relaxed wedding that was brimming with romance that would allow two very busy parents to take the time to indulge in one another a little bit. Ok, we wanted to indulge a lot but we’ve always felt very lucky we found each other and our life is so full of fun yet utterly chaotic – it was worth celebrating our little family unit and one another in the most special way we could.
We would never have been comfortable with a big, formal wedding and wanted to do something with only our close family and friends so a destination wedding was perfect. After toying with Italy and France we decided on Mallorca because we have had some really amazing holidays there and the not-too-cool and not-too-swanky vibe of the island suits us as a couple pretty well. We both work in creative industries, Tim runs his own content marketing firm and I run my own PR consultancy so between our businesses and children, we couldn’t let wedding planning take over our lives.
We were blown away by how many people made the effort to travel all that way to celebrate with us and it just gave us that push to make the day extra special as our way of saying thank you.
The Bride
Like so many brides the dress I had in my head was just so wrong when I tried it on. I had wanted an oh-so stylish 1920’s style dress with lots of lovely beading but after having two children (I was still breastfeeding my youngest when trying dresses on) my hips just wouldn’t play ball. I tried on lots of styles in way too many boutiques, lace-covered, mermaid, ballgown – everything, but just nothing seemed quite right. Then I arrived at Kathryn Trueman in Morpeth and I knew as soon as I walked through the door I would buy my dress there as the gowns were like nothing I had seen anywhere else. My Cymbeline ‘Indienne’ gown couldn’t have been any more different to what I originally thought I would wear. Very simple but timeless and a flattering shape with such lovely back detail. It was a real leap of faith to wear such a simple wedding gown as the urge to go dramatic is so strong but I wanted to wear a wedding dress, not have the dress wear me. On the day it was perfect – light and breathable and perfectly in keeping with the slightly rustic feel of the venue.
I added a pair of Kurt Geiger shoes and a custom-made headpiece by an online designer I found on Etsy called Blue Brocade. I knew I wanted to wear a flower in my hair so I sent some pictures of flower clips and pearl chains and the designer created a lovely, unique headpiece. My veil was my favourite bit and it was created by another Etsy seller – Couture Wedding Veils. I had already decided on an English net material for a much softer drape so they created a beautiful long veil with just a slight lace trim on the bottom – I loved it. I think a few people were surprised I wanted to wear a veil given that I was trying to stay away from too heavy a bridal ‘look’ but how often do you get to wear a veil in your life? Once. I was going to take full advantage of the opportunity!
My make up and hair was done by Jenn Anstead a Mallorca based hair and make-up artist.
The Groom
Tim wore a beautifully cut Paul Smith suit from Jules B with tie and shirt from Reiss. In fact, Tim had two shirts because we were advised by our wedding planner that on very hot days it’s best to have a ceremony shirt and a photo shirt!
The Venue
We did a trip to the island in May 2014 with our parents to search for a venue as I really wanted them to be involved in the process. I was leaning towards a traditional finca over a hotel as I wanted to bring the character of Mallorca to our wedding in our venue choice.
There is a hidden side to Mallorca beyond the high rise cheesy holidays of Magaluf – the mountains of the Sierra de Tramuntana hide some stunning villages and Pollenca (my favourite spot) in the North is just beautiful. We were spoiled for choice. It came down to a rustic vineyard in the mountains or an olive farm just outside of Palma called Finca Son Mir. In the end, we chose Finca Son Mir as it has been beautifully renovated to retain the traditional character of the estate and we had exclusive use of the venue plus five recently renovated bedrooms so guests with young children could stay at the venue overnight.
The Wedding Planner
I don’t speak Spanish and I knew I needed someone on the island to help me source some suppliers and set up on the day so I hired a wedding planner who came very heavily recommended called Mandy Lago from Alago Events. The moment I spoke to Mandy it was clear that she just got the style I was going for as we have very similar taste. Mandy has different services available and as I wanted the freedom to find some of my own suppliers, Mandy was very flexible in offering a partial planning package to give me freedom to use her (extensive!) experience, contacts and excellent set-up abilities.
The Decor
It was a bit of a joke that my colour scheme was so obvious as I’m not really into bright colours – I prefer pastel pinks and sea greens and in fact when I first discussed the colour scheme to my husband I said ‘lets do it the colour of the kitchen!’ I had always wanted to get married in a garden which for me meant a complementary colour scheme of lots of herby greens with subtle pastel flowers. I had different proposals from a few different florists but Vanda Flower Studio were way ahead of the game. As my maiden name is Tulip, the florist was very keen to get tulips in somewhere on the centrepieces – even though they aren’t the easiest flowers to source in Mallorca in August!
I initially thought I wanted a more rustic and vintage style but actually when it came to making decisions, my taste leaned much more towards the romantic which worked wonderfully against the backdrop of the venue. Mandy has a sister company called Something Borrowed where you can hire pretty much anything you can think of – and if she doesn’t have it, she will find it. I had researched different décor styles extensively so I could pick and choose what I needed to get the look I wanted. I trusted her completely and on the day I could just relax and enjoy the build up knowing that Mandy and her brilliant team were setting up the venue in exactly the way we had planned and deliberated during our many email exchanges, skype sessions and meetings over 12 months.
The overall effect was very elegant yet romantic against the backdrop of the lovely gardens and olive groves of the Finca. My favourite pieces were the beautiful pink charger plates which added lovely colour to the dinner tables and of course the billowy petal covered drinks tables. It turned out to be quite breezy on the day and the petal covers on the tables fluttered beautifully in the wind – although the wind caused us a few problems elsewhere. There was a lovely vintage ladder decorated with photo frames featuring images of Tim and our children and also our parents on their wedding day. We also had a table with a guest book featuring a vintage suitcase where guests could write messages on cards and clip them on. However, the wind was tipping over the photo frames so they couldn’t stand upright and the cards were in danger of flying off into the countryside!
The Outside Space
My main wish from the outset was to make a real feature of the lovely courtyard at Finca Son Mir as it was the courtyard that made me really fall in the love with the venue. In the end it looked way better than I could ever have dreamed it to be. As the sun set the space just came alive with romantic lighting and candles from just about everywhere – the tables, the trees, the sky and even the stairs. Also, I was really keen to have a local touch – hence the rustic Mallorcan flower baskets filled with foliage and the green glass urns bringing starlight to the staircase.
I was lucky in that my parents drove all the way to Mallorca so I was able to bring some extra bits of decor with me. For instance, the wigwams are actually from the children’s bedrooms. Also the name cards were sourced from a supplier on notonthehighstreet.com and I bought two big bunches of dried lavender for just £5 to make each place setting in the days leading up to the wedding. One of my bridesmaids, Amy, is also a dab hand at designing artwork so the black and white posters, order of service, menus and the speech sweepstake cards were designed by her and they perfectly matched our colour scheme and wedding stationery. We didn’t actually have wedding favours as such but we gave all our guests personalised sandalwood fans which I sourced online.
The Wedding Party
My two best friends and my sister were my bridesmaids and they wore dresses from For Her and For Him. I thought it would be easier to just let the bridesmaids choose their own dress. I didn’t mind what style so long as it was long and in the same colour so they each chose a dress and supplied their measurements and a custom dress arrived a month later. They looked really stunning. Hair and make-up was again done by Jenn Anstead with flower clips from Blue Brocade.
When I said I wanted the wedding to be informal, this very much extended to the dress code and the groomsmen really got on board with their look. The blazers were from Zara and the trousers from Next but the ushers provided their own shirts and shoes. Each of the groomsmen put their own twist on the outfit, my brother in particular was quite keen to have his trousers as skinny fit as possible, and they wore pink pocket squares made from extra fabric from the bridesmaid dresses.
My daughter and niece were flower girls and wore dresses and headpieces from Monsoon. My son and nephew were our pageboys but my son is just too permanently dishevelled to look anything but a mess at all times of the day so the pageboys wore a more playful outfit of a linen shirt from Monsoon and shorts and braces from Zara Kids. We did try to get him in a waistcoat but his belly was too big and the buttons wouldn’t close! The little bow ties were made by the mother of one of my bridesmaids using cast offs from the bridesmaid dresses.
The Entertainment
We had a fantastic Spanish guitarist called Pablo who played ‘heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez as I walked down the aisle with my Dad and entertained the guests during the drinks reception. My son wouldn’t leave him alone! We hired nannies to keep the children entertained with pirate and princess games and I had brought lots of super-sized garden games for the children to play with. The nannies were also able to stay with any children who dropped off to sleep in the bedrooms upstairs so their parents could carry on with the party knowing their children were well looked after.
We had a fantastic DJ who kept the dancing going until the bus arrived at 2am. One of my main memories was seeing two of my friends doing a full flamenco routine to the gypsy kings – it was such a fun party but again, very relaxed. Some people stayed at the tables in the courtyard talking into the night, some danced and some propped up the bar – it was all very laid back.
The Ceremony
We got married legally in the UK one month before our ceremony in Mallorca as UK residents can’t have a legal wedding in Spain unless you are having a Catholic service. Being already married, it did mean we got to have a bit more fun with our blessing ceremony which was led by Paul Betts from Mallorca Celebrants. We had worked on the ceremony details with Paul beforehand to make sure it reflected us and had written our own vows. We included readings from our mothers – although it was touch and go with my mum as she nearly didn’t finish her reading for the tears! There were some nice touches to the ceremony as we put letters to each other into a wooden box with a bottle of Mallorcan wine and nailed the box shut – not to be opened until our 10th wedding anniversary. One of my favourite songs, ‘Sweet Disposition’ by Temper Trap played as soon as we had our first kiss to walk back up the aisle which was a lovely moment in a day filled with so many wonderful moments.
The Food
We knew when we started planning that the food needed to be the central event and we put quite a large portion of our budget into this part of the wedding. Tim and I are big into food and so many of our first dates were spent sampling everything we could fit into our bellies at Borough market in London. We wanted our love of street food markets to be reflected in the catering style for the wedding. The caterer we really wanted to work with was Marc Fosh and by our very good fortune, they just happened to be the exclusive caterer at our venue. Fosh have a couple of restaurants on the island and their food and level of service is renowned so we knew the menu was going to be spectacular.
Fosh created a range of fresh fruit ice lollies to give to guests on arrival to cool everyone down and a vintage lemonade stand with a selection of soft drinks. Guests were welcomed to the drinks reception with my favourite Capirinihia cocktails and the Spanish-style canapés were out of this world – seabass and guacamole ceviche, vitello tonnato, gazpacho with strawberry and chilli, black olive macarons to name but a few – delicious! Too delicious actually as we hadn’t warned our guests just how much food was coming and they over indulged a bit on the canapes!
Dinner was very relaxed and after Tim and I made our entrance to the sounds of ‘Friday I’m in Love’ by the Cure the food was brought to each table in a very non-structured way so guests could just dig in however they liked. There was tapas to start (when in Spain…) with selections such as Coca De Trampo, Calamari and piquillo peppers and then for the mains a selection of monkfish, lamb and vegetable skewers with some deliciously colourful salads. To add the street food touch, we had a giant mixed paella cooking in front of all the guests. Dessert was a buffet including strawberry gazpacho and chocolate brownies. One of our guests asked me if we were trying to kill everyone with food (as she ate her second plate of paella!) but it was all so good we just couldn’t stop eating!
The Photography
Choosing the right photographer is so important as it’s a day that rushes by incredibly quickly. Tim isn’t hugely comfortable getting his photo taken and I was very clear that I didn’t want very structured or rigid photographs as it is a bit too formal for us. Violeta’s portfolio just leapt off the page. Her style is very relaxed which perfectly matched our wedding and she is someone who captures the whole picture – not just the people within it. The light, the setting, the emotions – I knew her pictures would capture the personality of the day and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s the imperfect moments that I love rather than posed shots and Violeta certainly captured them. I work with a lot of photographers through my job and she was just so calm and professional and actually just a very cool person to be around. As my cousin said afterwards ‘what a beautiful soul she has’ – that about sums up Violeta and it’s very much reflected in the quality and beauty of her photographs. I just wish I could hire her every year to take pictures of my family – but then there is always another holiday to Mallorca next year…
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