Elena & Øyvind

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful and natural? The Hacienda La Colora olive grove in Southern Spain makes the most beautiful location for this rustic, eco friendly wedding. Making full use of Olive branches and local white flowers to produce a truly incredible and intimate outdoor ceremony and reception with zero waste, and more impressively coming way under budget. Even the bride's gorgeous lace wedding dress was pre-owned! There' no denying she looks a million dollars though. I think photographer Ernesto Villalba is undoubtably going to become my new photography crush with his dreamy way of capturing key moments and gorgeous details. So get yourself comfortable, and prepare to swoon and sigh your way through this delightful day.

The Dress

Elena the Bride: I bought the wedding dress from a webpage for pre used wedding dresses. The girl who wore it before me got married on a beach in Australia. The dress is also produced in Australia. It was important for me to buy something that was used before and not something completely new. Thinking about the environment is important to me and I buy a lot of our stuff secondhand. I also donate old clothes and things we don’t use anymore. I wanted my dress to be a dress with that in mind. I will probably put my dress out for sale, hopefully someone else will be able to use it as well. The blue shoes are from e-bay and the earrings are the ones I wear every day. I wanted to keep it simple and without too much accessories.

The Grooms Fashion & accessories

The groom’s tuxedo was custom made at a tailor in Oslo called Royal Menswear. Øyvind and his best man bought them together and they are the same design. The got a good deal since they bought everything they needed there. We spent more money on his attire since this is something he will be able to use again. He and his best man have already used them twice. His cufflinks were borrowed from his best friend and best man Henrik.

The Venue

When we decided to get married in Spain we thought about which cities we enjoyed the most and the choice stood between Jerez and Cordoba. So I started looking for wedding planners that suited our needs, I was so thankful when I found my wedding planner Opi from Open The Door Events, she had exactly the same philosophy as us about sustainable and eco friendly living and she had a lot of stunning venues in the Cordoba region. We wanted a rustic place with rooms for the guests to stay. After communicating for a few weeks via email we decided upon Hacienda La Colora and we have never regretted that for a second. We booked it without even seeing it, we knew It was the perfect place to get married! No restrictions of any kind, it was the perfect place to share special moments with friends and family.

Colour Scheme/Decor

The colour scheme was white and green. We wanted the décor to be simple but beautiful. All white flowers and olive branches. The invitations, menus and place cards all have olive branches on them. My wedding bouquet was made from white roses and olive branches with olives on them. It was the like Opi knew exactly what I wanted, all the decoration and DIY was a surprise to me, it was so lovely to enter another space and see a little detail that reflected us as a couple. One of my favourite details was the organic cotton sign that was placed at the ceremony entrance, it said ‘It’s amazing how one day someone walks into your life and you can’t remember how you ever lived without them’ As soon as I saw that, the tears started running.

Flowers

I told Opi that I wanted natural and minimalist floral arrangements that included olive leaf and white flowers. When I saw my bridal bouquet it was like my mind had been read...it was the perfect size with lovely olive foliage and and white garden roses...all the floral decoration was inspired by my bouquet. The olive tree I got married under had a glass jars hanging from it, filled with pretty white flowers, there were little bouquets having from the aisle seats and on every seat was a kraft bag filled with olive leaves which was the confetti that was thrown over Øyvind and I as we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife. The groom, bestman and my father wore sweet buttonholes with the same flowers and the reception tablescape was overflowing with a olive leaf table runner. The white and vacs greens under the candlelight was so romantic. It made the meal taste even better.

The Wedding Party Fashion

My maid of honor and sister Maria wore a blue dress from the Danish designer SamsøeSamsøe. The shoes are from a shop in Oslo called Shoe+Shoe.

Ceremony

When I walked down the aisle with my dad the song Marry me by Train was played. This was a perfect moment with lots of emotions. My dad tells me he can still feel my hand clinging to his arm as we approached the aisle. The ceremony was held outside in the garden, under the oldest olive tree. Our friend Elisabeth gave a speech and we exchanged rings. Two of our friends Morten and Monica surprised us with a song that Morten wrote when he was only 11 years old. Our daughter Nora sat on my lap during the ceremony and it was the perfect ceremony. At the end we played “Signed Sealed Delivered” by Stevie Wonder to kick of the festive mood.

Entertainment

Our first dance was beautiful, there seemed to be sparklers everywhere and all I could see were those sparks and my husband, the temperature was heavenly, the smell of nature and the candles everywhere. Morten and Monica’s song during the ceremony, the rest of the night one of our friends played music.

Food

The food. where do I start, we had been on holiday in Spain many times before so we knew the food was amazing, but at the wedding we were spoiled with so much selection of both food and alcohol and when it seemed to be over, there was more! Literally some of the best service and quality we’ve ever experienced. The guests are still talking about how delicious everything was. We decided not to go with a wedding cake as I am allergic to both gluten and lactose...however the chefs were kind enough to make lactose free mandarin ice cream.

Photographer

Initially we decided not to have a photographer, we wanted to keep our wedding under the average budget and we thought it was an unnecessary cost. But Opi managed to twist our arms about Ernesto, she said we wouldn’t be disappointed and she was right. It was definitely one of the best decisions we made, when I saw the photos I was so surprised and emotional, every photo is like a piece of art...it tells a story. I had never seen photography in this way before and we are so so happy that is was Ernesto Villalba that told our story.