A Rustic Spanish Castle Wedding

Hello lovely ones. I do have a soft spot for Spain, especially the Catalan region, the setting of today’s wedding, and I will actually be bringing my little boy on his first holiday there later this year. The area is absolutely stunning, it’s not a wonder that Becky and Paul chose to have their wedding at Castell d’Emporda in Girona. A fresh colour palette, gorgeous outdoor ceremony and romantic styling will have you swooning to the bottom of the page.

Wedding + Film by Wedding’s Art

“We knew that we wanted to get married abroad, but were really open to locations. We found Castell d’Emporda online and we absolutely fell in love, although we were convinced it would be out of budget. When we received outline costs, we booked a flight to Spain within a week or so and when we arrived it was a done deal. The venue was just stunning, the food was amazing and the setting was literally what dreams were made of.”Becky fell in love with her Margaret Lee dress at a wedding fair early in their engagement. Seeing it on the catwalk, she knew it was the dress for her, even though they had only gone to the fair for a bit of fun.

“I have a real love of shoes so I loved the design being higher at the front. Perfect for showing off my gorgeous Kate Spade shoes, but still a traditional long dress.”

The bride got her dress and veil from Bromley Brides, added an Ivory & Co. hair accessory and sapphire earrings from Thomas Sabo. Her mum got a beautiful diamond necklace made for her from her late nan’s engagement ring and her husband had a bracelet of interlocking circles made for her with their initials on.

Both the bride and groom wore delicious scents from Jo Malone, Blackberry and Bay for Becky and Wood Sage and Sea Salt for Paul.

“We met about six years ago, through mutual friends and at first became friends through our joint interest in running a business. Paul had recently left his full time job to pursue a career in building and marketing lead generation websites and I was on the cusp of quitting my job to start my own digital marketing agency.”

“We went to Spain about 18 months before the wedding to find a florist and Paukebana was the obvious choice. Mari Pau was fantastic – she completely understood what I wanted and was excited about the ideas. With English as a second language it was always going to be a little difficult, but through images we worked together to ensure we had the perfect flowers.”

“She completely encapsulated my brief and the flowers on the day were absolutely stunning. So much so that I’m having part of my bouquet made into a paper weight by Flower Preservation Workshop.”

“In April 2011 we finally got together and after about 18 months, Paul joined Reflect Digital as Sales and Marketing Director.”

“That was the point we both knew this was long term. Paul proposed in August 2014 on our balcony at home, overlooking the river. We were engaged for two years all but one day to our wedding date.”

“Once we had the venue, I pinned things I loved to a Pinterest board and quickly realised the colour scheme had to be yellow, navy and grey. Already a fan of lemons (mainly desserts), I was inspired by the way they could be used throughout the wedding and how they fitted with the Spanish theme. A fresh feel but also regal and fit for a castle.”

There were major dramas with Paul’s made to measure suit falling through which meant that the plan to have the boys in grey and the girls in navy didn’t work out. Paul had one weekend to find a suit for himself and Becky’s dad, with time for them to be tailored.

They gave up the colour scheme and Paul found a gorgeous blue suit in William Hunt, where his groomsmen also got bespoke floral backed waistcoats. Becky gave Paul a beautiful Mont Blanc pocket watch as a wedding gift to complete his look.

Having to to give up on the original dress choice, Becky ordered samples from For Her and For Him, for her bridesmaids. They picked three colours that worked well together and fit the colour scheme and the ladies got their new dresses with plenty of time to spare.

“In the end, this very stressful situation worked out to be absolutely perfect as we actually preferred the dresses and the men’s suits. When looking at the photos, the colour of the suits absolutely pop and I cannot imagine them ever having been in the grey.”

Becky’s dad accompanied her down the aisle to ‘Tenerife Sea’ by Ed Sheeran. She walked back up the aisle with Paul to ‘Dreams Come True’ by Hall and Oates.

“We actually got married two weeks before the wedding at a very simple registry office in Tunbridge Wells, attended only by a few people. This allowed us to make the Spanish day exactly what we wanted it to be without being constrained by formalities.”

“We wrote a skeleton for the service and then a good friend of ours, George Harvey, worked on it further and delivered our service. This meant so much to us, as it made the wedding so personal.”

“We also wrote our own vows and I was sure to get Paul to promise in public that he would always catch spiders for me, which has come in handy since!”

“We visited Spain 18 months before the wedding to meet with a few photographers and videographers. Weddings Art were the last we saw and we absolutely fell in love with their work. They are a wonderful team, so passionate about what they do and so fantastic at capturing the most amazing moments. They work so well together, which is really important when having photos and video together.”

“On the day, we had no idea they were there most of the time and the turnaround for the first shots was so super quick that it helped stop any wedding blues! For us, the photos and video were a huge part of the day and they really captured our day in a way I did not know was possible. The film really does sum up the whole day in three minutes.”

“Music was really important to us, so we actually paid for Masterclass, a local band in England to travel to Spain for the wedding and they were truly amazing. We hired them a van and they had a road trip through France to get to us in Spain, though they did break down in the middle of nowhere in France at about 1am! They played the night before at a BBQ celebration, played acoustic songs whilst canapés were served and then did an amazing set until 3am of awesome music spanning the decades. They were absolutely brilliant.”

“Our family have had a number of battles with cancer, some they have won some they have lost, so based on this we decided to do Cancer Research Wedding Favours.”

Initially the couple weren’t going to have a cake but when Paul’s mum offered to source and pay for their cake in Spain, they decided to go for it. Unfortunately the baker let them down with just six weeks to go. A Facebook call for help led them to A Cookie Shop in Benidorm who we were happy to make a gorgeous cake for them at short notice.

“The cake was one of my favourite features of the wedding meal. It tasted amazing and looked beautiful behind the top table. Transporting it 400 miles from Benidorm to Girona was very scary and we were very pleased to arrive with it in one piece.”

“We both have a love for photos, so ensured this became a real theme for the day. Every single person had a photo as their table setting which was also used in the table plan. We numbered the tables with the years we have been together plus our birth years and a couple of in between years, with photos from that year as part of the centrepiece. The top table was 2016 and our own place setting pictures were taken on a polaroid as we were getting ready.”

“We gave out sparklers and personalised matches and to add to the Spanish theme we had a lady carving jamón which was a really nice addition. We also made a photobooth with a frame that people could write their own messages on. We got lots of great photos from this.”

“Our first dance song was ‘Lucky’ by Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait. It’s a song very close to our hearts as we do both feel so lucky. We do often sit back and think how lucky we both are. We had a sparkler entrance for the dance, followed by confetti cannons whilst dancing.”

“There was not a single moment where I did not feel like I was a princess, getting married in a castle. Everything about the day was perfect. There were moments getting ready with my girls and mum which were lovely, through to walking / skipping with excitement down the aisle! Chatting to everyone throughout canapés and dinner was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed the band. I don’t think I left the dance floor for more than a minute or two at a time.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Enjoy every second, from planning through to writing your thank you notes. I ran the whole thing via spreadsheets and was organised down to running through the set up plans in my head a week before to ensure if there was anything we could prep in advance we did. We had a box per table all organised so that it was very quick to set up. 

I would suggest spending good money on photographers and videographers, our photos and videos are amazing and really are the memories that last. Ensure you give a very detailed brief of photos you want, and check this with key people in the wedding. My mum and I didn’t think to include her and my dad in the shot list on their own and now don’t have a photo of the two of them, which is a shame.

If you know someone with a drone, beg them to bring it. Our friend offered to bring his and to film on it, so some of the angles we have are amazing – it looks like we hired a helicopter for aerial shots.

At all times remember it is yours and your new husband’s day, therefore it has to be everything you both want it to be and everyone else should respect that.”

Thank you so much Mr and Mrs Simms for sharing your special day with us. We are also delighted to be showing the beautiful work of Weddings Art. If you’re dreaming of your own sun-drenched ceremony, look no further than our delectable destination weddings archive.

Love Caoimhe xx