A Liz Martinez Bride for a Summer Chic Jewish Wedding with an Epic Dance Party in Marbella, Spain

Wow wow wow. This duo is just beyond… Stunning couple Claudia, who works in recruitment, and Nick, who works for Diageo, had the most exquisite outdoor summer destination Jewish wedding. The London-based pair opted to wed in sunny Marbella, Spain, and with guests coming in from every continent but Antarctica, the pair made a weekend of their celebration, with a full calendar of activities–including a henna party!

Claudia and Nick found the ultimate romantic setting for their chuppah in Villa Padierna Palace. Calling this breathtaking spot a hotel doesn’t do it justice; the place looks like a Tuscan palace that’s been airdropped in to the Costa del Sol.

Following the emotional ceremony, the pair threw an epic all-night dance party at one of Marbella’s top nightclubs, LOV Olivia Valere. Their guests were totally on board, dancing into the morning–with a break for the gorgeous sparkler-studded cake the couple arranged to have brought out at 1 a.m. to keep everyone going.

Bride Claudia said when she and Nick walked down the aisle with everyone clapping, she felt like she was at a celebrity wedding–and that’s exactly the vibe we got from this fab celebration. Claudia really did look like a movie star in her dreamy Liz Martinez gown, and photographer Barney Walters and videographer Gione Da Silva captured the day in all its glamor. Now over to the gorgeous Claudia!

It was all in the details. We had a lot of personalized goodies – water bottles, flip flops, Panama hats, parasols, fans, cold towels, kippahs, the logo at the back of the room, etc. We wanted to follow the Sefardi traditions as well as mix in some Ashkenaz ones – we had the henna party and Shabbat dinner Sefardi style, with some Israeli music on the Sunday too. We kept with English traditions for speeches, and we had crazy Jewish dancing!

 

The ceremony was very romantic and full of emotion and the party was a proper party, which was exactly what we wanted! The table names for the party were all the cities we have visited together and that mean something to us. Our wedding planner was amazing – Karen Valere at Poppin’s Dream went above and beyond. She organised the henna party on Thursday, the Friday night under the stars, and of course the party at LOV Olivia Valere on Sunday. She thought of every detail and is an expert party planner, so we couldn’t have been luckier to have her! When we visited the venue a few months before to discuss the plans, she had prepared a whole dining room of different table arrangements with flowers, candles, tablecloths, plates, etc. for us to pick and choose exactly what we wanted! She is really amazing!

 

Karen Valere had so many unique ideas, and the venues we chose were really special. The chuppah was beautiful and like a fairy tale, and the party was at the best nightclub in Marbella (and one of the best in Europe). They were fully equipped to put on the best events and parties! Karen pulled out all the tricks for us, from offering up her own terrace for the reception to suggesting that we light the white carpet that led everyone from the terrace to the main hall with candles, flowers, and lights. The venue was perfect during sunset, which is why the reception began at 9pm and the chuppah was at 7pm. We had coaches to transport from both venues. We had huge family photos after the chuppah. Claudia’s family was over 100 people and they had a photo on the steps at the Villa Padierna. All our guests enjoyed watching these photos and the timings went really well! 

 

Yasmin Doud looked after us at the Villa Padierna and helped us to organize the ceremony and make sure it went according to plan. She also recommended our florist, Pedro Navarro, who did the most amazing job of decorating the chuppah and ceremony space.

 

 

Shelley Greenham did my makeup and used her amazing products from Mishel Makeup. She was amazing – did a trial before and made sure my makeup lasted the whole night till 4am! She does a lot of TV makeup so knew exactly what would work for the pictures and video as well. Louise Hill did all the hair. She did an amazing job and I couldn’t recommend her more!

The bridesmaids and pageboys looked adorable! We had 12 – the girls had dresses that were almost mini versions of my dress, and the boys wore waistcoats and shorts! They were all tasked with throwing rose petals as they walked down the aisle – as well as keeping them entertained, it was also extremely cute to watch!

A Fairy Tale Floral Chuppah

We scoured pictures from Smashing The Glass, Pinterest, Google, etc. for months and knew we wanted something that was quite green but also with some hydrangeas and roses (my favorite flowers). Pedro Navarro had to source our dusty pink roses from Valencia, and we flew out to Spain one weekend to check that the color was right. He did an incredible job of creating a fairy tale with the flowers and petals.

An Emotional Ceremony

 

Our first dance and the song for Claudia walking down the aisle was A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. Nick walked down to an Israeli song by Shwekey and the rest of the family/procession and bridesmaids/page boys came down to Hallelujah. All the songs were played by our musicians on the violin and piano and sung over in Hebrew by Chazan Yossi.

Our band, Groupe Love, came from Paris, and they truly made the entire party. They played music from all over the world and switched between five languages seamlessly. So many people commented on how amazing they were. They kept everyone dancing the entire night. They had a violinist and saxophonist who played the tables and also at the reception. They played songs to get everyone on the dance floor for our entrance, which was done to their remix of Bomboleo by Gipsy Kings. They then played three party songs to warm up the atmosphere even more before starting in on the Israeli dancing. Nobody ate until midnight but nobody cared as we were too busy dancing! We recommended some songs we liked to Groupe Love but told them to take the reigns, and we were so glad we did. They knew exactly what songs to play to get the crowd going!

Flowers for Days

Pedro Navarro did our flowers for the ceremony. He made me a bouquet of roses and peonies based on a picture I had shown him. Karen Valere organized our flowers for the party. She had an array of trees with hanging candles, hydrangea and rose arrangements, and more. Both florists did the most amazing job!

Our fabulous photographer…

Barney Walters was our photographer and he was amazing! He was recommended to us by a friend because he lives half the year in Marbella and half the year in London. He was so much more than a wedding photographer; he went to every effort to get to know our family and friends on the Thursday and Friday evening and captured the entire weekend. He also organized a pre-wedding shoot with us when we were in Marbella in May before the wedding and really went above and beyond. He transported things for us from London to Spain, had some amazing creative ideas (like the sparkler photo, which you’ll see), and was an absolute pleasure to have around. He fit in so well that people thought he was part of the atmosphere and didn’t even realise he was taking photos.

…and videographer

 

The cake was amazing! Not only the beautiful design, which matched my dress with little butterflies, but Omaya Bellavoine at Cake Couture Marbella organised for us to have a 7-tier cake delivered to the dance floor at 1am mid-party. It was an event in itself. Lov Olivia Valere had arranged for us to have sparklers and an amazing song for the cake to be brought in to. When we cut into the cake it was bright pink inside – raspberry and white chocolate flavor – and it tasted amazing as well as looking epic!

Non-Stop Dancing

Groupe Love, our band, truly made the entire night. We had a trickle of rain at about 1am on the dance floor, which felt almost like it was organized as everyone was so hot from dancing. Everyone embraced the rain as it fell, and Groupe Love put a cover over their dj set and continued playing like normal – this was one of the best parts of the night, and everyone danced even more! 

 

 

Claudia & Nick’s little white book