Gemma and Jamie may live in England, but they love spending time in the south of Spain – so when it came time to plan their Jewish wedding, Marbella was a natural fit.
They found the perfect venue in Casa De La Era, overlooking the mountains and sea, and incorporated touches of Spanish culture and tradition into just about every aspect of the day, from the chuppah – decorated with lemons, pink bougainvillea and leaves – to the food: Gemma and Jamie found a caterer who was able to provide kosher renditions of traditional Spanish dishes including paella! Don’t miss all the gorgeous details in the luminous photos by David Luque.
The favors were mini bottles of the pair’s favorite Spanish olive oil, and even the bride’s gown came from Santos and Eva in Marbella. Read on for the rest of the story in Gemma’s own words…
How We Met
Gemma, the bride: Jamie and I, met when we were living in Nottingham. I (Gemma) was at university in my 2nd year and Jamie was already graduated, he was living and working in the city. Myself and Jamie were on a group on Facebook called Yid Lifts, where Jewish students exchange lifts home, from university. Jamie posted to say he was driving to London on X date and I replied to say I needed a lift. I never ended up taking the lift as I wimped out but Jamie kept on talking to me over Facebook. He then asked me on a date and the rest is history!
A Wedding in Spain
The wedding was held at Casa De La Era which overlooks the mountains and sea in the distance. The venue has a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre, which is where we had our ceremony. We absolutely love the south of Spain and go there on holiday a couple of times a year, which is why we wanted to get married there. We visited a few venues but this was the first one we saw and we fell in love with it. We knew it was the one for us. We couldn’t get it out of our head at every other venue we visited.
Spanish Vibes
We love Spain, the people, the culture, the food, scenery, everything! and so we were really keen to incorporate both Spanish and Jewish traditions. The decor and chuppah was inspired by Spanish architecture and florals, which included: lemons, pink bougainvillea and leaves. We managed to find a caterer who was able to provide kosher catering but still keeping in with Spanish traditions and so we had paella! and lots of other Spanish style food.
Keeping in with the Spanish theme, we ordered personalised mini olive oil bottles with all our guests names on, from our favourite olive oil in Spain. The olive oil is from a place called Jaen which is famous in Spain for olive oil. We placed the bottles on the table so they everyone knew where they were sitting.
Invitation + Stationery
Everybody was talking about our invites as they looked great but it was so easy. We bought a PDF template off Etsy. They’re lots of small businesses doing it, you chose your design and then you buy the template. You then just input your information – it’s so easy!! Nobody thinks to do it.
Hair + Makeup
Hair by Olivia Banus did my hair, she was amazing!! Kiera Louise MUA did my makeup, she was amazing! Kiera is one of my closest friends and so it was an honour to have her do my wedding on my wedding day.
Dress
The dress was from Santos and Eva in Marbella. They were amazing as they helped me totally make it my own! The original dress was a fish tail dress underneath but that wasn’t really for me and so we cut it, to make it shorter and added feathers to the bottom. They then made me socks and sleeves out of the glittery fabric on my dress. I wore the long dress for the ceremony and over dinner and when the dancing started, I took the skirt off and my dress became the shorter dress underneath.
Accessories + Shoes
The veil I wore was made by Nola Grey. My pearl necklace was lent to me by my grandma. The shoes were Carvela – £40 in the outlets!
Bridesmaids
I had 5 bridesmaids – they wore sage green dresses from Rewritten Bridesmaids!
Ceremony & Chuppah
I wanted to incorporate Spanish traditions for the chuppah which is why I went for the lemons, pink bougainvillea and leaves. We also flew out our chuppah singer Serge and our pianist Shai – they were both amazing!! We also flew our local rabbi out (Daniel Sturgess, St Albans Synagogue). Our Ketubah is a United synagogue Ketubah.
Flowers
For the bouquets and buttonholes, I went for wild flowers and then for the table centres lemons, pink bougainvillea and leaves.
Photographer and videographer
It took me ages to find a photographer and videographer as I work in TV so I am very picky. David Luque and Yes&Tonic were just perfect!!
Kosher Paella
We managed to find a caterer who was able to provide kosher catering but still keeping in with Spanish traditions, we had paella! It was actually our caterers first Jewish wedding – we hired a shomer (Rabbi Aaron Levy) who worked with Smart Catering Malaga to oversee the kashrut process. The caterers loved it so much they’re now offering kosher catering as an option and have a 2nd Jewish wedding soon.
Entertainment
We had fire dancers at our wedding which we thought was something really special and different to anything else we’d ever seen at a before. We also had the olive oil bottles made up with everyone’s name on it. I also had my best friend MC the evening which worked so well as she made it really personal and wrote a lovely little speech about us when she intro’d us in. We also had an after party! After midnight everyone headed in doors for a DJ set until 2am.
Honeymoon
I stayed at The Hard Rock Hotel in Marbella before the wedding with my girl friends and then also the night of with Jamie. It was great for a wedding – the morning of the wedding put on a whole breakfast in the room on 2 long tables. We then did a bit of travelling the north of Spain after and stay in these amazing pods under the stars – Miluna This was just a minimoon – we won’t be going on honeymoon until later on in the year. Yet to be decided where!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Pinterest is your g-d! It gave me soo many good ideas for the day.
GEMMA & JAMIE’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – David Luque
Videography – Yes&Tonic
Venue – Casa De La Era
Planner – Marbella Wedding Angels
Bride’s dress – Santos and Eva
Bride’s shoes – Carvela
Bride’s accessories – Nola Grey
Bridesmaids – Rewritten Bridesmaids
Hair + Makeup – Hair by Olivia Banus, Kiera Louise MUA
Flowers and Deco – Lemon Face Deco
Band – Stereo Starband
Catering – Smart Catering Malaga
Chuppah singer – Serge
Pianist – Shai
Firedancers – Cris Evolutiongroup
Olive oil bottles – Oleicola Jaen
Rabbi – Daniel Sturgess, St Albans Synagogue
Shomer – Aaron Levy
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