Thinking about getting married in beautiful Morocco? This wedding is for you. Casa Abracadabra in Marrakech was the backdrop to Lucynda and James’ laid-back yet elegant celebration, a warm, joy-filled gathering that brought together friends and family from across the world.
The couple, who live in Dubai, are known for their love of bold style and great parties, and their day reflected both beautifully.
The Moroccan sun set over centuries-old olive trees as guests dined under fairy lights and soaked up the vibrant, welcoming atmosphere. The décor was rich in colour – hot pinks, reds and oranges – and Lucynda’s show-stopping couture gown brought all the drama. James looked sharp in a classic white tux.
We’re so proud this celebration was captured by the ever-talented Bernadeta Kupiec, whose inimitable, artful photography we’re honoured to recommend through our Wedding Directory.
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Venue & Location
Our venue was Casa Abracadabra in Marrakech, Morrocco. We travelled nine hours from Dubai to Morrocco and had two days to pick a venue.
When we arrived, it was the worst rain and sandstorm in fifty years and we had eight venues booked on whirlwind trip. We had originally discounted Casa Abracadabra when researching on line as it didn’t have enough rooms to accommodate our whole party. However, we ended up driving past the venue on the way to view another and as we were early thought why not stop and see. It was the first venue we saw and even in the rain we fell in love with it – none of the other venues compared.
On our way back to the airport we stopped by and had lunch to sample the food and drink and booked the our date immediately we just knew it would be perfect.
We knew we wanted a destination wedding and have been to some incredible weddings in Europe where a lot of our friends got married, so we wanted to try something different. Living in the Middle East we love the Arabic vibes and wanted to pair that with my love of bright colours. We were also conscious of attempting to make it easy for guests so Morocco ticked a lot of boxes with four-hour flights from the UK and being a location central to Asia and the Middle East.
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Getting Ready
Tracey Baden did my hair and make-up – I wanted a glam look without being too heavy and a sleek hair style. My hair and makeup was perfect from ceremony to afterparty. Holly Bee did the bridesmaids hair and makeup and was just as amazing.
We wanted sexy glamour vibes for the makeup but keeping a classic overview – I would definitely recommend.
I ended up visiting a few stores in Dubai and a few back home in Liverpool I had an amazing experience at Liverpool bridal boutique and would definitely recommend them for the experience and helpfulness of the staff. But I ended up picking my dress from Mary Trufel in Dubai who have an amazing selection of dresses.
My vision for the dress was glamourous and dramatic. I wanted a wow factor and something that no one would be expecting. I would say my usual fashion vibe is quite alternative, so I wanted to keep everyone guessing and kept the dress a secret from my bridesmaids. I wanted a big reveal to everyone.
James was convinced I wouldn’t wear white!
I wore a full cathedral veil covering my face when walking down the isle for added dramatic effect, I actually bought the veil on Etsy from a local supplier and I kept it on until the first dance!
I wore Valentino platforms for the pictures and changed into Hermes trainers for the rest of the day, it was perfect as my dress covered by feet so I was comfy all day and night.
We decided we wanted a signature scent for our wedding day, something we could both wear and it could remind us of our day in the future. We spent an afternoon trying scents and selected a Penhaligons London unisex scent called Balm of Calm, we loved the smell then saw the name and it fitted perfectly.
As my dress was such a big statement I wanted to keep accessories and jewellery simple; my ‘something borrowed’ were my Maid of Honour’s diamond earrings which was a nice touch.
I am lucky that my bridesmaids went along with my vision. I mentioned red, orange and pink tulle – and ruffles – the bigger the better! I wanted my bridesmaids to feel sexy and glamorous all day. They surprised me by changing into matching animal print pyjamas for the party which was also such a glamorous move. I asked them all to wear low heals so they were not towering over me ha!
The Ceremony
We completed our legal ceremony in Liverpool earlier in the year with only twelve family guests, including my grandmother, who at 86 couldn’t travel to the destination wedding, so it was really nice for her to get to see us get married. She wrote a poem for the Morocco wedding which my brother read out at the main ceremony. My brother walked me down the isle which was really special, he also did a great job of his speech!
I am a massive Liverpool FC fan and wanted to get ‘YNWA’ into the wedding in a classy way, so I had the bridesmaids walk down the isle to an acoustic version played by the violinist. But as this was a surprise, only about half of the ceremony realised what was being played! I then walked in to the traditional wedding march – I thought you don’t hear that enough these days, so why not!
Our friend Kyle Johnson officiated the ceremony. I went to school with Kyle and James lived with him so he knows us both well and was the perfect choice. We were nervous asking him as we know he doesn’t like public speaking, but on the day he was amazing – it was perfect! My bridesmaid Vicky and her Husband Rob also did a reading from the bible the book of Ecclesiasticus 26:1-4, 13-16. We are not particularly religious but it was nice to have a blessing.
My Grandmother Margret May Jensen wrote a poem tiled True Love, it was read at the ceremony and was the perfect gift so we felt her presence with us on the day.
We wrote our own vows, where we had a mix of traditional and personal moments. We really wanted to capture us as a couple, while keeping traditional promises so we mixed up our most favourite and our most annoying things about each other and vowed to ultimately always work together as a team to make each other happy
Our wedding bands are from Cara Jewellers in Dubai, Roger who always helps me with jewelry is brilliant would recommend, I have him on speed dial!
The photographer was really important to us, we wanted to capture the theme of the wedding, dramatic and glamorous it took us a few months to pick a photographer we spoke to a few different ppl but when we had a call with Bernadeta Kupiec we instantly knew she would make us feel comfortable and give us the shots we wanted without it being too contrived.
She made the formal pictures fun and we LOVED every single picture, her on line set up is also really easy to use and categories the pictures to the different parts of the day so really easy to share online with the wedding guests. Mehdi Mounir was our videographer and he also took pictures at our welcome meal. The video is incredible – we love it. He also had a drone so we got some amazing arial shots of the venue and my dress too.
We had been doing long distance for four years between, London, Singapore, Vietnam and Dubai, when we finally moved in together in Dubai in 2022. After around sixteen months of living together, we got engaged, which came as a complete surprise to me! We got married thirteen months later as we knew we wanted to give poeple at least a year notice for our destination wedding.
Shop Items We Love
James has previously used Suited & Booted for custom suits in the past and we knew they would be the best place to get his wedding outfit. They were extremely helpful and really user friendly with a personalised service.
We would definitely recommend. James wore Christian Louboutin patent leather dress shoes, which he ordered the day after we got engaged. His best man bought him some socks with the wedding date on which was a really thoughtful touch
The Reception
My Mum and Grandmother made my bouquet from silk flowers, it was a waterfall bouquet, I knew I wanted something bright to add a splash of colour to my white dress and it looked perfect in all of the pictures! They did a great job and it was nice to have something personal with meaning, to walk down the aisle with.
I bought 1000 red, orange and pink paper pom poms from Temu and luckily my bridesmaids helped put them all together the day before. The venue organised bright orange tablecloths and pink napkins. The Venue and the outfits were the main event we didn’t need to do much.
Casa Abracadabra the venue arranged all catering and the food and drinks were amazing, brilliant quality and quantities perfect. They did a great job!
We didn’t have a cake; we went with expresso martinis to get the party started!
In place of ‘favours’, we asked for donations to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Evening & Dancing
Sally, our entertainment manager, did an amazing job with this – we wanted something to match our music taste, we love festivals and Ibiza so didn’t want a slow/band style song.
We had ‘You & Me’ by Disclosure as we love the song and the words are really fitting, for the first 2-3minutes then Sally mixed this into Robin S Show me love which is the classic National Scouse Anthem!
At this point the party really started which is exactly what we wanted, it was perfect. My advice would be pick a first dance song that fits your vibe, not just the typical list of slow songs, if that’s not you.
We also had one kiss by Dua Lipa as our walking in song to the meal this is a massive Liverpool song and really got the party started, we couldn’t get our guests to sit down to eat at one point – which was perfect for the video
Words of Wedded Wisdom
It’s your day, focus on you as a couple and what you want to get out of it!
Also make sure you spend time together on the day, we made a mental note before to keep holding hands and engaging as a couple so we had the same memories of the day!
I am a Project Manager so I set the budget on day one, along with the programme for when things needed to be done by and I also made some value engineering savings so we came in spot on budget.
I can see how its easy to get swept up with extra spending, but you just need to focus spend on what’s going to set the atmosphere and vibe – no one cares about a photo booth or after dinner mint if that’s going to push you over budget don’t do it, you want the memories of how amazing the day was so focus on what’s important to you not what you think is expected.
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