Buckle your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff to sunny Marbella, Spain, where UK couple Natasha and Adam held their fabulous Jewish wedding!
The couple’s venue, Finca La Concepcion, was the perfect spot for their romantic summer garden wedding, and they found the perfect partner to bring their dreams to life in Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Dyana Dessar, who they found right here on STG! In Natasha’s words, “Straight away we knew it was a perfect match as she completely understood my vision. I have always wanted an all-white wedding, ultra-romantic wedding with a lot of candles and sparkly lights. Dyana made sure all my visions came to life.”
Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Emily & Jo carried on that vision in their beautiful wedding stationery, featuring simple, classic designs in white with highlights of gold. Natasha and Adam loved working with Emily & Jo, and they were thrilled with the results – don’t miss them in the fabulous photos by Bloomfield Photography.
Also on theme was Natasha’s exquisite Berta gown, which fit perfectly with the surroundings – and was light and comfortable enough for the Spanish summer weather!
There’s so much more we want to tell you about this absolute fairy tale of a day, but we’ll let Natasha take it from here…
Natasha, the bride: We first met nearly 10 years ago, I was 18 years old it was the night I finished my last A-level and Adam had just got back from his gap year. We are both from Manchester and went to the same high school but never bumped into each other before then. Adam proposed towards the end of lockdown, almost 8 years of being together. We were renovating our 1st house and he had decorated the house full of white roses and candles and I said yes!
A Wedding in Spain
Looking for a venue wasn’t that easy as we were still in the middle of covid restrictions. I knew I always wanted to get married in Spain but with the concern of when travel would be allowed again, we decided to have a look in the UK first. We didn’t fall in love with any of the venues so we took the risk and started to search in Marbella. We both have spent a lot of time there growing up so it felt special to look at locations over there. I found our venue almost straight away, Finca La Concepcion.
The venue took my breath away in pictures and when we were able to fly out after restrictions were lifted it didn’t disappoint. It feels like a secret garden as its hidden down a private road. I always knew I wanted a romantic, garden feel wedding and the venue was perfect. I had seen the giant tree lit up and night in pictures and became obsessed with the idea of having this all hit up with a circle bar around it! There are so many different areas of the venue which we made us of throughout each part of the wedding day.
Theme & Wedding Planner
As soon as I saw the venue I contacted Smashing the Glass for planner recommendations and was put in touch with Dyana Dessar. Straight away we knew it was a perfect match as she completely understood my vision. I have always wanted an all-white wedding, ultra-romantic wedding with a lot of candles and sparkly lights. I really obsessed over every detail to make sure this came to life – even to the amount of candles sticks we managed to fit in the fountain. Dyana made sure all my visions came to life.
Invitations / stationery
Emily & Jo did a beautiful job on our invites, they were simple and classic. I found them through Instagram and they were so easy to work with, the result was stunning. Again I wanted white with the addition of gold to make it pop, just as the theme of our wedding.
Hair + Make-up
When it came to hair and make up I knew I wanted to use someone I knew. I wanted the morning of my wedding to be relaxed with familiar faces. For my hair we decided to fly out my hairdresser from the UK, Katrina from Terence Paul knows exactly what I like. It was slightly stressful as she nearly didn’t make it out as there were strikes and her flight the night before was cancelled!
She managed to jump on the 1st flight out on the morning of and I couldn’t have been more relieved. One of my guests and close friends, Emma Chloe Beauty is a make-up artist and has done my make up before so it was perfect. I wanted to my whole look to look effortless and still look like me!
A Berta Dress
With an abroad wedding I knew I wanted a dress that was not too heavy and I also wanted it to feel almost Spanish. I went down to London with my mum and sister to start trying on dresses, I went with a few ideas and I knew I loved Berta dresses but I wanted to keep an open mind. I tried on a few and had some contenders but couldn’t commit. When we got back to Manchester I saw there was a Berta trunk show at Knutsford Wedding Gallery so we went over and I tried on every dress.
As soon as I put on my dress I knew it was the one, it felts perfect – it wasn’t like anything I had seen on any other bride. It felt romantic, Spanish and dramatic due to the low cut out on the back. I picked a 2m long veil to go with my dress which worked out perfectly! For the evening I got changed into a short dress with a huge bow on the back which draped to the floor so I could really enjoy the party.
Accessories & Shoes
For our shoes we both went with Jimmy Choo, we wanted shoes that we loved and would wear again. I decided not to go with white as knew the venue had a lot of sand and grass so it was asking for disaster! I ended up going for a sparkly shoe, being short they had to be very high!
The handsome groom
I wanted to keep the men in the wedding party in a classic look so that the photographs looked timeless so we chose for them to be in black tie. Adam wore a Boss suit, we went back and forth about him wearing a bow tie. On the day he surprised me, he wore his grandpa’s old bow tie so it was really special.
Bridesmaids
I really wanted to keep it simple when it came to my bridesmaid’s so I decided to just have my sister as maid of honour. Her dress from Maria Lucia Hohan was light and flowy and looked effortless and romantic. I had my nieces as flower girls, they even did a dress change. They had dresses made for the ceremony by Vicky Martin, they were so cute with a big bow on the back.
Ceremony and Chuppah
For the ceremony the flowers were so important to me and the music for Adam. Our florist was incredible, the reference picture I showed her from Pinterest was her own work. To make my all white wedding a knew I wanted a really full chuppah so I picked to have only gypsophila and have it packed in with a slight trail on the ground.
For the music we had our chazan sing whilst the violin was being played, it was emotional and romantic. It was really special that Adam carefully picked each song for the ceremony with one of his best friends, they spent days back and forth deciding on who should walk to what, Noiky sang them all so beautifully.
Our Music Choice
Music was really Adam’s number one priority for the wedding. For the ceremony we gave the chazan a list of some of our favourite songs and picked one for each group going down the aisle. Between the singing and the violin it was really emotional, I remember walking down the aisle and seeing tears streaming down everyone’s face.
We went back and forth about having a band fly over for the wedding but ultimately we decided to have the evening slightly less formal. For the day we had a sax during the reception, which was such a nice relaxed atmosphere. For the Israeli dancing we had our chazan singing and on the keyboard, as well as the violinist. Everyone got involved even in the 30 degree heat.
We had singer during dinner, it made of the perfect background whilst everyone ate. We had an electric violinist and DJ for the evening, it got everyone involved. There was not one point the dance floor wasn’t full – all the way until the end of the night.
Flowers
The florals were one of my favourite things about my wedding, Berta at Unique by Roberto Silvosa did the most incredible job. All the florals at the wedding were white to fit my theme, to look soft, romantic and like a fairytale. The Chuppah was filled full with gypsophila, as well as lining the aisle with bunches. The top table had a nearly 4m run of gypsophila with candles running along the edge.
Each table had gypsophila scattered in the centred with different sized candles throughout. My maid of honour also had gypsophila, whilst I had white peonies for my bouquet. One of the most special additions were the candle pillars that were set throughout the fountain which made the perfect backdrop at night.
Photographer and videographer
Like the florist I went to Dyana with a photographer and videographer in mind and they were her actually her top suggestions. Our photographer’s Sam and Helen from Bloomfield Photography were a dream to work with, they made it effortless on the day. We discussed some of the key spots of the venue I wanted to capture and the pictures came out even better than expected. He even got us to spray champagne at the end of the night, it was such a great photo to have.
Our videographer Jeremy Standley was great, again it was effortless on the day we didn’t even know he was there. The footage we got back was amazing to watch, we even had a drone on the day so it was great to see the venue and the party from that angle.
Food
We had Goyo to do our catering and the whole experience with them was incredible. We did the food tasting a few months before the wedding and it felt like a 5* experience, it was if we were the judges on master chef. Both the taste and presentation of the food was amazing. I think the canapés were the biggest hit – we had 8 that went round include truffle mushroom balls serve on a branch like little tree’s, tuna tarte and spring rolls served on a chess board.
Extra details
There is always a funny story when it comes to Adam and his dad. During the tish they ended up putting each other’s suit jackets on. Before they walked down the aisle they both said that one felt a bit big and the other too tight. They didn’t realise until half way through the wedding they had each other’s on!
We were so lucky we had such amazing wedding guests, including all our closest friends that flew out. Our Israeli dancing was so much fun, we ended up skipping over the sheet together which we managed to do without tripping up even in my dress with its train. Our wedding was the 3rd of July so it was 30 degrees whilst we were dancing but everyone has the best energy and the pictures are some of my favourite of the day.
Honeymoon
We decided to go to Singapore and Bali, it provide the perfect balance of exploring and relaxing. We did just over 2 weeks which meant we could travel round Bali staying both in the jungle and by the beach – it was the perfect balance.
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
My advice for the build up would be to try and not let anyone else’s view or opinions negatively impact your experience. People will always have something to say but it’s your wedding. For the day it would be to relax, the day flies, make sure you spend as much time with your other half as it’s easy to separate amongst all the guests.
NATASHA & ADAM’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Bloomfield Photography
Stationery/Invitation – Emily & Jo {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Wedding planner – Dyana Dessar {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Jeremy Standley
Venue – Finca La Concepcion
Bride’s dress – Berta found at Knutsford Wedding Gallery
Bride’s shoes – Jimmy Choo
Bridesmaids – Maria Lucia Hohan, Vicky Martin
Hair + Makeup – Terence Paul, Emma Chloe Beauty
Flowers – Unique by Roberto Silvosa
Catering – Goyo
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
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