Advantages of Small Weddings & Destination Wedding & Small Wedding Venues in Seville, Spain.
Small weddings and destination weddings are becoming more and more popular.
When you’re guaranteed great weather, incredible venues and combine all the loveliness of your wedding day with a sensational honeymoon experience it’s easy to see why more and more brides are choosing destination weddings.
Read on to find advantages of smaller weddings and destination weddings followed by a closer look at some wedding venues in Spain, Seville and tips on how to make it happen. I will also follow up from this article on my next blogpost and take it further with a destination wedding checklist.
Let’s start this mama of a blog by having a quick look at advantages of small weddings:
- By having a small wedding you’ll be inviting your nearest and dearest rather than begrudgingly inviting guests who you really don’t care that much for. You’ll have a much more intimate experience by only inviting key friends and close family relatives.
- ZING it and tick all your boxes. Literally with smaller weddings you can spend more on your overall day because there are less guests to cater for and therefore you can really ramp it up and create a luxury event. Make it more about you a s a couple and thread what makes you special as a couple throughout your event, from the welcome bags, thank you gifts, to the food.
- You get to include everything you’ve been dreaming about, whether that’s a sensational contemporary gastronomy experience with an orchestra and harp player, to that flower dripped stage, fire performers, your dream photographer or your designer wedding dress.
- Smaller venues not only cost less than the average city hotel, but you’ll also have way more choice. There are hundreds of large villas that are scattered through cities and the countryside throughout the whole of Portugal, Spain and Italy, you’re really spoilt for choice, whether it’s going for a villa amongst the rolling vineyards or a converted hotel in the midst of a historical city centre.
- If possible why not opt for an out of season date the prices will be more competitive too. Many of the locals that I spoke to in Portugal actually avoid getting married in the holiday season as they know that all the main hotels and venues bump up the prices sky-high, so they often choose to get married outside the busy summer months (and I’m sure this is a view shared throughout the Mediterranean).
Next let’s look over some advantages of a destination wedding:
- Family politics. I feel terrible in saying so, but we all know that there are people and friends we all have that we’d rather knock off the list and certainly not feel obligated to invite. A destination wedding gives you exactly that option. You’re whole family and plethora or friends simply won’t be able to all book tickets, hire cars and make it, so this is a great excuse to be selective and only invite those that truly matter.
- Big city weddings venues plus all the other expenses quickly mount up. A couple can fly off to an all inclusive resort including all the lodgings, meals and trimmings for a fraction of the price of a normal big city wedding that cost anywhere from around $20,000- $90,000.
- Less headache. Take all the stress out of planning your wedding. With destination weddings, there are actually many wedding planners out there with all inclusive wedding packages, including everything from handling your entire weddings décor, catering, flowers, sourcing the best vendors as well as handling all the legal bit and bobs. Be sure to contact these wedding planners way, way in advance so that you can vet out the best ones and check testimonials. I’ve found that when I check testimonials, often clients are embarrassed that I’ve contacted them and don’t want to answer any of my questions about the vendor, not a good sign!
- Old Friends. You’ve always wanted to have a reunion with old friends and family. But they’ve moved way out of town, heck some to the other countries. This is the perfect opportunity to get together.
- The Mediterranean and many other destinations have excellent whether pretty much all year round. Be sure to research this keeping in mind which months you’d like to visit.
- From the moment you arrive at your destination, you are pretty much on a honeymoon. Make an extended weekend of it, or stay for a few days. Make this not only the wedding of your dreams but you have a chance here to make some incredible memories.
Small wedding venues in Spain:
Spotlight : Hotel Casa Imperial
I recently visited Seville, Spain and stayed at The Casa Imperial Hotel.
Seville is a stunning city, with a rich cultural background influenced by incredible Moorish and Roman styles. I recently stayed in a breathtakingly city of Seville, south of Spain and for me that city was like an eclectic mix of Rome and Sintra. Literally in the city centre, every single street was paved with stunning regal high townhouses, that were adorned with regal castle door entrances to be envied.
The venue was like a hidden gem within the many winding paved back roads. From the first moments when I walked through the entrance with enormous castle like doors the hotel, which used to be a palace impressed me greatly. The 4- star Casa Imperial was a former palace built in 1530 which was renovated in 1994 and converted to a hotel. The property lies just five minutes walk to the shopping malls of the city, less than ten minutes walk to the cathedral and the Alcazar, the royal palace. The hotel features twenty six rooms each decorated in an unique style, but in keeping with the history and architecture. If your big on cultural diversity, history, antiques, hot weather, tropical plants and fountains and colourful tiles, this is your paradise.
It has a perfect outdoor breakfast area that could be conveniently used as the perfect small wedding venue space. The hotel has a fairly good medium sized inside breakfast room which could be used by caterers to set up and manage the food and serve beverages/cocktails or even a luxurious Tapas inspired buffet.
The hotel has many surprising treasures to wow your guests. The walls are covered by a blanket of thick foliage, framing pretty tiled artwork. The stairs are truly magnifice
nt and left me in a state of shock, as I have a love for tiles and the wide luxury wooden stairs where completely engulfed in a sea of spectacular, vibrant patterns. It has a inside courtyard of gardens, mini orange trees, perfectly preened hedges finished off with a romantic fountain in its centre . Around the edges in this courtyard oasis are comfortable seating areas with free wifi.
The hotel boasts many rooms that are on different floors and can be in completely different areas of the building. You should be able to have enough room for about 40-50 guests comfortably and many rooms are so large that the hotel could work with you to bring in extra beds. Some rooms even though on polar opposites can actually link together through an adjoining door. There can be many steep stairs so you’ll need to think about who stays where in advance and ask the hotel for advice. Couples with young children and elders can stay on the ground floor.
The hotel has a parking lot that they will help navigate you too. It’s actually easier to get around Seville with a taxi which is pretty reasonable when you need to get from A to B.
What were the details that made a lasting impression from this hotel?
The ancient details- old Moorish details preserved and built into the walls
Decorate whole hotel had that antique, regal feel. You literally felt as though you were living in an old palace in Seville and as you walked around you absorbed all the sights, uniquely decorated passages, the exceptionally tiled wide stairs, the little paddling area and most of all the peace and coolness of your own air conditioned room.
Things to do for guests:
Seville as a city has a wealth of things to do, amazing affordable food to eat and an enormous array of places to visit, so your guests can go out for plenty of short walks, grab some ice-cream and eat it on the square nearby, in short, they will never get bored!
Eating out. The restaurants are surprisingly affordable and tapas is a super concept that I wish was introduced to all the restaurants in the world. Tapas allows you to order either a tiny taster amount, a medium amount of a large serving that could easily feed 3-4 people. As a family we chose 4-5 different tapas to taste the dishes before we ordered the main dish. The smallest Tapas is only 2-3 Euros. After eating about 4-5 of the smallest most utterly delicious tapas, we were surprisingly full! There are many ice-cream parlours with the tastiest authentic ice cream that is to die for in the hot summer months.
Seville has so many place to visit and the best form of transport is by taxi. It’s convenient, air conditioned ( it gets so hot!!!) and it’s very affordable for couples or families. A short hop will cost you about 4 Euros. We walked it one way and caught the taxi back.
Places you must visit, there are plenty!!!! In your visiting during holiday season make sure you get there early, there will be a little queue otherwise.
- Alcazar of Sevilla
- Plaza de Espana
- Maria Luisa Park with horse drawn carriages
- Seville Cathedral
- Casa de Murillo are all fantastic places to stop off, not to mention the world famous flamenco dancers.
Destination Wedding Planners in Seville Spain.
Here are some links to some wedding planners in Seville for you to contact and ask for wedding packages. Make sure you vet them carefully.
- Have a checklist, I will be writing one for destination weddings soon, but you can already find them on the internet for free.
- Ask for past clients that they’ve worked with, look at the photos of their previous weddings to get a feel for their work.
- Contact previous clients and check out the testimonials, approach them and ask them what they would have done differently and if there’s anything they could change if they could do it again.
- Ask for a video conference call and see if you click with your planner. Is he/she the one for you?
- Do their packages offer the whole shebang as well as covering legal issues and organising the ceremony?
These wedding planners are in Seville.
Wedding planners in Spain (not Seville).
http://www.abruzzoitalywedding.com/ This companies wedding planner is called Alessia Odoardi, I have worked with her on a style shoot and I highly recommend her. She was highly competent and able to recommend a wealth of venues.
Please share and comment on a destination wedding or a small wedding that you've planned, or had a nightmare with. Or perhaps you've visited Seville?
I'd be happy to hear from you.
