Helen & Adams Wedding Blog: 2010

Monday, 28 June 2010

The Big Day is Booked...

We had decided on a venue to get married, the church of Encarnacion and a venue to celebrate our marriage with friends and family, the El Oceano Beach Hotel, now all we needed was a date...

We spoke with Franz, the Church Administrator and Glen, the Hotel Oceano Manager, who both confirmed our date was available...

We will be getting married on Thursday, 2nd June 2011

We will be getting married at La Encarnacion in Marbella's Old Town, then moving onto the El Oceano to carry on the celebrations.

Spain with the Parents...

We had been over to Spain a few weeks before hand to look at possible venues and whittled it down to a shortlist, it was now time to go over with our parents to make the decision...

We all arrived in Malaga Airport at roughly the same time, some of us on flights from the Liverpool, others from Birmingham. We collected the Hire car, went to our accommodation and got ready for our planned night out, a beach front evening meal at the El Oceano hotel, one of the shortlisted venues.

The next day we went to view the last 2 other shortlisted hotels in Old Town Marbella, right on the beach front, although they were approved several weeks before hand, this time we didn't get the same feeling, these 2 where out...

Our next stop was the church... a visit to La Encarnacion right in the middle of Marbella's Old Town, next to a medieval castle, We had already decided this was the church we where to wed in 2011, so no parents could change our mind on this one... luckily they didn't have to, they too where drawn in completely by its romantic setting and charming spanish character, now we just need a date!

After a wonderful evening at the El Oceano and a breathtaking experience in the La Encarnacion, it was decision made...

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Our first Wedding Planning trip to Marbella...

We had just 4 days to view a long list of venues, sort out the church and try and sneak in some sunbathing!

Our flight landed in Malaga Airport at 11am on Saturday 10th April we headed straight to Calahonda, to visit our first venue, a beach front hotel with an infinity edge pool.

After a whirlwind tour we went into Marbella to visit venues number 2 and 3, modern hotels on the beach front right outside Marbella's old town, both had lovely beach front restaurants, fantastic disco rooms and modern swimming pools.

Saturday afternoon it was time to head into Marbella's old town, our objective to sort the church...

We spoke to the Franz, the parish manager, responsible for both churches in the old town and entered what only can be described as 'The Da Vinci Code', as we were instructed to meet at 5:30 by the virgin Mary fountain outside of the Santos Christo church...

We met Franz and sorted the church out over a nice cup of coffee sat in a rustic old street in Marbella but not before we went to a Spanish mass!

The Church is a beautiful 600 year old building next to the Marbella Castle right in the heart of the old town, and minutes from the orange square.

That night we stayed in Marbella Old town for a traditional tapas meal.

On Sunday we went back into the old town and Marbella to look around for hotels near by that were nice options for our guests who come over to join us in June 2011. We have found several hotels all of which are really nice... details in the wedding invite / info pack!

On Sunday night we went for a meal in one of the Costa Del Sol's most famous restaurant's... Da Bruno in Cabopino! We walked along the beach front from the hotel to the restaurant at sunset for a relaxing meal before the big day looking at more venues...

Our first appointment on Monday was with a modern five star, in central Marbella however this was not on the beach so wasn't for us...

We then went across to a beautiful hotel built around a roman bridge dating back to 1AD, The hotel has lovely gardens and is on the beach, its potential number 4!

Our last appointment was with another modern 5 star hotel that backs onto a beach, the venue was very nice but did not really have the facilities to host a wedding.

In true Spanish style on our last day we went shopping...

Before flying home and finding entertainment in Malaga Airport...

Thursday, 8 April 2010

I have my dress!

The day was perfectly project managed... of course...
4 appointments, 3 ladies accompanying me (Mum, Liz the Maid of Honour make no mistake! and Jayne), a 2 car convoy and 1 amazing dress!

As soon as "the one" went over my head I just knew, I didn't even need to look in the mirror before turning to my audience and blubbing "I really like this one....". No-one said a word, jaws dropped and then everyone was in tears - I figured it must be a pretty amazing dress if it could even silence Liz and Jayne!

Earlier that day, I surprised Jayne by asking her to be one of my bridesmaids! I'll never forget the look on her face nor the shocked silence which followed for quite a few hours! lol. I could not ask for a more caring and amazing friend to stand by my side sharing my big day and the fun we will have in the run up to it!

A big thanks to my Mum for my dress...

Although she did insist that I try hers wedding dress on first........

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

The Stag Do is Sorted...

The best man & I have put our heads together thrown some ideas around and have finally decided where we shall have the stag do...

It begins with L, has 2 words and is about 10 hours flight away....

Thats right, the glitz and glamor of LAS VEGAS BABY!

We have permission off the girls to venture to this party capital and have opened a savings account for attendees to pay into each month to make it easier to get there!

So far we are an 11 strong cast for the Hangover 2, including:

The Groom
Ian (Groom's Dad)
Barry (Uncle)
Big Al (Eastender)
Rob (Best Dude)
Joe (Manchester Massive)
Ricky (Manchester Massive)
Brendon (Bristol Massive)
Ant (Old Skool Manchester Massive)
Git (Super Bro)
Ross (Leigh Massive)

I have a best Man!

I have a best man to stand by my side on the big day, look after the rings for both Helen & I and most importantly organize the stag do...

I consider myself a very lucky person, not only do I have a wonderful fiancé, I have many people in my life that I would like to stand next to me, not all can but all of them will go through this experience with me and you guys know who you are, I also have a wonderful brother that is going to miss a majority of the planning due to his tour of Australia and he would of made a perfect best man, I promise one of you can be Best Man next time ;) I have decided to go with someone who my friendship has grown alongside my relationship with Helen.

To make my decision I created criteria that was a big deal to me and marked accordingly...

Some who can handle drink:

Someone who ensures a toilet is always near by:

Someone Helen really likes:

Someone I can rely on:

Someone Sophisticated:

Someone my Dad Likes:

And finally, someone sensible:

IT'S ROB!!!

We have decided on Spain!

On about our 4th date, being swarve I decided to whisk Helen away to Marbella, Spain for a weekend break. We sunbathed, drank sangria (Adam) & San Miguel (Helen) and went out for some lovely meals in Marbella Old Town, Benalmadena, Estapona and Puerte Banus.

We had a really nice time and decided to do the trip again in January, the weather was not as hot so we spent a lot more time venturing around, we stumbled across Marbella's Old town and in particular Orange Square and decided at that point that one day when we get married we would have the whole celebration here, Helen even picked the church!

Since then we have been back many times, with family and friends including a 1 week break with 8 people in attendance!

We are booked to go out and look at hotels and churches on the 10th April 2010 and hopefully book the whole event!

Our Engagement Party!

1 Month after getting engaged we decided to celebrate the occasion with our family and friends by holding an engagement party at Chorley Cricket Club!

We hired lights and speakers and did all the music ourselves and got the food from Costco including a huge engagement cake from Adam's Mom.

The night was a great success and a really nice way for our families and friends to meet.

Many thanks to Rob for the strip tease and thank you to all those that came...