Other things we chose during our Easter trip to Spain…

The flowers

Flowers play a big role in Spanish church weddings. Floral decoration is, I dare to say, "compulsory" inside many churches; and once the ceremony is over, flowers usually stay in the church for the church.

I believe this is a mixture of tradition, aesthetics and business (like any other wedding topic). It may seem ok at first, but not after receiving a budget of around 800 euros for just church decorations… what the hell! (And people complain about the cost for translating and legalising documents! At least that will make your marriage legal!)

My mum did check prices with several flower shops before Dele and I went to Spain for Easter and they all seem to have a similar standard package for around the same price (or even higher).

In the end, a friend recommended a shop that will prepare some wonderful floral arrangements and decorations at a competitive price. Our colours are green, white, bronze and cream.

This florist will also deal with the decorations at the venue (which are included in the venue price), on the bride and groom cars and my bouquet, which is going to be a present from an old friend. These will however need to be confirmed later on. My head was getting really busy with flowers!

The rings

Weeks after Dele and I got engaged, my parents told us that they would like to buy our rings as their wedding gift to us; and we thought… why not? As my aunt and uncle already got us the honeymoon, it seemed like the next best present!

It took 10 minutes to choose our wedding rings - 15 at most. We went straight to an old neighbour's jeweller’s where we had shopped for many years and, although we tried various rings, we knew what we wanted and stuck to that: simple white gold rings with a very fine darker line round the centre.

We had our measurements taken and decided on the inscription inside, which will be each other’s name and the wedding date. Mine will read "Dele 23-02-13". I can’t wait to wear it!

To be continued...

As I mentioned previously, Dele and I used our second visit to Spain as an engaged couple to choose “the basic wedding stuff”:

The honeymoon

I know I should start with the actual wedding preparations, but the honeymoon just happened to get sorted first, so it is first on my list.

When Dele and I arrived at my family home after a tiring journey, my aunt and uncle joined us for dinner and gave us a very pleasant surprise: they were going to pay for our honeymoon! But I’ll tell you a little secret, we already knew this. My mum had told us a few weeks before, so we had to bring on our acting skills and look very surprised (and I think we did just fine!).

Still, it was all quite exciting, and we were glad someone had offered to pay for this. In Spain (not sure if it’s the same in the UK) close relatives and friends usually pay for some of the wedding preparations as a gift, my wedding story will give you some examples.

Before we got the news, we had been looking at Brazil, Mexico and the Caribbean. My uncle and auntie and cousins had recently been to a fantastic resort in Mexico and they suggested we go to the same one: http://www.palladiumrivieramaya.com. They gave us a brochure and told us all about the great time they had. That night we knew we didn’t have to look any further!

The wedding venue

Finding the perfect venue has been one of the hardest tasks so far, as you will have probably guessed if you read my previous blog covering this topic.

As we could only visit a few places while we were on holiday and had to book a venue quite soon to avoid disappointments, we trusted our online research and what friends and relatives knew about those places. We visited 4 places in total, the last of which quickly became “the one”: Hotel Envía Almería,

My wedding dress

Surprisingly, choosing this was quicker than I thought. My mum (bless her) had been browsing at some of the bridal shops in Almería and booked appointments at three of the shops for me to attend during Easter.

Luckily for me, my dress was another wedding gift, this time from my grandmum. Although she asked me not to worry about the price, I tried to look for the ones with the least zeros on the price tag.

I more or less knew what style I wanted, so it wasn’t hard to be selective until I had to choose between two dresses, each from a different store. With the help of my mum, my sister and my aunt (the one that’s getting us the honeymoon), as well as my critical thinking, I finally chose my wedding dress, in less than a day! I am, however, keeping this top secret, so I can “wow” everyone while walking down the aisle.

My wedding shoes

Straight after I chose my dress, me and my wedding team (my mum, aunt and sister) went in search of shoes.

I wasn’t very impressed with what I was seeing, until we went to the shoe shop where I’ve bought most of my shoes for years. My wedding shoes were waiting for me there!

There were a few I liked, but I knew comfort was the key ingredient this time. So I chose the most beautiful and comfortable wedding shoes ever (also a secret till the W Day!).

To be continued…

I am the luckiest bride-to-be in the World. Not only because I am marrying my perfect man, but also because I really do have the best family and friends to help me with all the planning – despite the occasional little disagreements.

As the wedding will take place in Spain and I have an amazing wedding coordinator there (my mum… with the help of my sister, my aunt, and a couple of friends), Dele and I decided to keep things easy and use local wedding suppliers in Almería.

Now that I have read the last sentence above twice, it does sound like we are just lazy and want people to do everything for us! Really, it's them that want to take on all the organising without us even asking! And who would say no to that…

There are certain limits, though. The fact that we are far away from our "wedding destination" doesn’t mean that my team of organisers can do what they want. From the beginning, Dele and I agreed on the type of wedding we both wanted, based on what was feasible and affordable and obviously, we made our team know.

Since then, it has been a combination of ideas and research from everyone, with my mum playing a great role speaking to people, visiting suppliers and keeping me updated at all times.

We were so excited and at the same time concerned about the fact that Dele and I couldn’t go to Spain much before the wedding, that she almost organised the whole wedding in a month!

However, thanks to all her hard work, when Dele and I went to Almería for a week just after Easter, my mum had already selected some of the best suppliers and products making our decision process easier. To give you an example, I chose my wedding dress in less than a day!

Without all the help we’ve had I'm sure there would be a lot more disagreements and a lot more stress, so thank you, mum!

Choosing our wedding date wasn’t our only struggle. While Dele and I were trying to make up our minds, we also had to decide on the number of guests in order to see what we could and couldn’t afford.

Our idea of a "simple" wedding implied, amongst other things, a reduced number of guests – Good luck with that if you are Spanish! Or Nigerian! I don’t think I have yet convinced my mum, after 4 months of engagement, that I don’t want to invite family members/friends that I have never met just because "they are family, Ana!" or "they invited us to their son’s wedding 8 years ago!".

It’s not that I don’t want to spend the money (which is obviously a plus), I just want my day to be intimate: Dele, me, our close family, and our close friends.

However, what bride-to-be wants to fight with her parents over guests day in and day out? It is a special day for them too, and it is understandable that they want to invite some of their friends. For that reason, Dele and I have agreed to grow our guests’ list a little bigger, but to a certain extent, so everyone is happy.

Deciding on the wedding date wasn't an easy job. Dele and I agreed that it would be better to get married in 2013 and not 2012, as he has to find a job closer to where I live and we have to save a lot of money.

Something else we agreed upon was having the reception somewhere where you can see the sea and our guests (especially the ones coming from abroad) could appreciate what we love the most about my town: its coast and natural splendour.

Even though Almería has a mild climate all year round, we thought a wedding outdoors would be gorgeous and most enjoyable during the summer. As summer 2013 seemed too far away, I suggested the 5^th of May 2013. The weather would definitely be good and it is a UK bank holiday, which makes it easier for those coming from England.

When it seemed we had decided on the date, Dele had the interesting idea of checking the calendar to see what day of the week was our birthday in 2013 (yes, we share the same birthday, February 23^rd, cute uh?). He saw it was a Saturday, which is perfect for our wedding!

However, February 23^rd would change our "outdoors" wedding plans and everyone in Spain seemed to be against it: "it's gonna be cold!", "you won't find a place by the sea!", "it'll be hard to find nice clothes!", they said.

Nevertheless, the more they complained and Dele and I looked at the advantages and disadvantages of both dates, the more we leaned towards February. Our birthday has always been a very special day, so why not make it more special by starting the rest of our life together on that same day.

After two months of battling against those who wanted us to marry in May and our initial plans, we have finally decided to say "Sí quiero" ("I do") on February 23^rd 2013.

Without going into too much detail, I will say that I met Dele, the groom, about six and a half years ago. I came to the UK from Spain to study for a year and he was doing a Master´s in the same university where I was.

We spent a wonderful year together (and even managed to get good grades in our studies!), but after that, we have been mostly apart. I had to go back to Spain to finish university and then worked in different places in England.

It is funny how you can always find a good side to things if you really want to; no matter how difficult those things are. In Dele´s case and mine, we have had (and still have) a long-distance relationship which has been really hard work, but which has made us and our love even stronger.

You may be wondering, what kind of name is "Dele" anyway? Well, it is a Nigerian kind of name. A Spanish-Nigerian couple, let the fun begin!