If you love colour and on-trend moments, Emma & Ciarán's impeccably styled Spanish destination wedding at La Farinera Sant Lluís will soon be on your Pinterest board.  Along with the design team at Creative & Love, stationer Kaylora, and florist Maite Mach the couple dreamt about bringing a relaxed, colourful destination wedding weekend with a splash of modern design to life. After brainstorm sessions and mood board drafts, they landed on the perfect garden party design—refined, yet playful. With a vibrant palette of warm colours ranging from pink to fuchsia and orange, bright and bold blooms, stylish stationery and modern signage to pop against the venue's terracotta exterior, guests were surrounded by joyful details all the while sipping drinks and dancing all night long. If you’re a fan of the latest wedding trends, their fun table-plan-meets-wedding-favours idea, bridesmaid basket bouquets and custom Bespoke Bridal wedding dress are just a few details you’ll love. Wonderfully captured by Nicole del Rey of The Ivory Roses their sun-kissed destination wedding will provide plenty of inspiration to those dreaming of tying the knot abroad.

Today's lovely couple Emma and Ciarán both hail from Dublin, and are currently based in the Capital. The pair are childhood sweethearts, meeting when they were teenagers, and now together for over years.

The couple were on a trip of a lifetime to South Africa when they got engaged. Emma fills us in, "With a few glasses of wine in him for courage, Ciarán got down on one knee at Babylonstoren Wine Estate in the Franschhoek wine valley. Despite being together so long, we had never gone ring shopping together so I was shocked when Ciarán proposed with the ‘real’ ring – very brave and thankfully it was more beautiful than I could ever had dreamed for. After the proposal we had fun talking about how Ciarán went about picking the ring; he went shopping for the ring in New York with his sister who lives there but the ring nearly didn’t make it home to Ireland in time for the trip to South Africa!".

Once engaged the couple set about planning the vision for their dream destination wedding day which to them looked like "An experiential day with lots of personalised touches".

The bride adds, "We wanted to curate the day (and weekend) so that our guests felt like the trip to Spain was worth it – I think we succeeded!".

And the perfect venue for their Spanish destination wedding celebrations? The incredible La Farinera Sant Lluís in Girona, Spain which was originally an old flour mill built in 1913 that has now been transformed into an exclusive wedding and events venue. The couple tell us, "we always knew we wanted to get married abroad so when we got engaged we started looking in both Italy and Greece. After weeks of searching the internet and having virtual meetings with wedding planners and venues we just couldn’t settle on ‘the one’."

The couple were feeling a bit bewildered by their destination wedding choices until one day, Emma was targeted with an ad on Instagram from a venue in Northern Spain, "from then the search was easy because we were instantly taken with the beauty of that region. In April 2023, we went on a ‘scouting’ trip and visited about 7 venues in 3 days. La Farinera Sant Lluis was the third venue we visited, and after that none of the others stood a chance. We were first taken by the natural beauty of this protected site; from the various lakes, to the canal, to the luscious green gardens and forests, not forgetting all the animals that call the venue home – horses, donkeys, geese, ducks, turtles, coypu."

"When we were arrived we were greeted by Marina whose family own the venue. We instantly clicked with Marina and knew she would be a dream to deal with – which she absolutely was! Marina showed us around the various properties on site. The main house, an old flour mill built in 1913 which has been so beautifully and tastefully restored, sleeps 20 people. The other properties on site sleep an additional 40-50 guests which, in our experience, was rare to find in this region so that was a big plus. At that point, there was only one weekend still available for early summer 2024 so we didn’t hesitate and locked in the date – we never looked back!"

A gorgeous venue, great food and drink, and a fantastic guest experience were all at the top of the list when it came to Emma and Ciarán's main planning priorities for their June 2024 wedding. "Being able to do everything on site and have guests stay there, it meant people could stay and party with us until the early hours… which they did! We didn’t get to bed until 6am on our wedding night, we were having too much fun!".

"We love good food and wine so that was super important. We had tapas served during our cocktail reception – they were so tasty and so plentiful that people were already full by the time dinner was served! To keep our guests fueled into the early hours we had McDonald’s delivered at about 1am – this was such a novelty, our guests loved it!"

"We had lots of live music and a ‘hora loca’ or crazy hour, where our bridesmaids and groomsmen dressed up in inflatable dinosaur costumes, sombreros, masks, glasses, fairy wings, and administered ‘shot syringes’ to the guests when the DJ started. Another surprise to our guests and it made for really fun photos. We found that these planned little lifts throughout the day and night really worked to keep guests entertained! It’s amazing the alter egos that the disguise of a mask and novelty glasses can bring out in people!".

With their main planning priorities sorted, the couple then looked to the look and feel of the day. Taking inspiration from the beautiful natural surroundings at the venue, as well as their love of colour, the couple along with Imma and the team at Creative & Love, stationer Kaylora, and florist Maite Mach brought their vision for a relaxed, colourful destination wedding vibe with a splash of modern design to life with stylish stationery, bold blooms flowers, and artistic details.

"We were very much inspired by the natural beauty of the venue and decided to work with that by going down the ‘country garden’ route. However, I (Emma) still wanted a bit of a modern edge so found ways of blending the two. When choosing the colour palette, I was conscious of choosing a scheme that would complement our colouring first and foremost so warm peaches and rusts were always going to feature. I came across a bridal bouquet on Instagram that blended these colours with pinks and purples and fell in love with that mix. That was one of the first ‘aesthetic’ decisions we made and I think it worked out so well. It gave us so much to play with and wasn’t overly restrictive!".

"We wanted our wedding to feel very experiential for our guests, with little touches that may have been
unexpected or that they may not have seen before. Thankfully, we both come from very creative, hands-on families so we had lots of help and inspiration."

"Wedding stationery is one of the first things we started with. As a save the date or invitation is usually the first part of the experience for guests, I (Emma) wanted to create something with a bit of personality that would set the tone and look beautiful hung up on our guests fridges and notice boards in the lead up to the wedding. Working with Kaylora, I could bring that vision to life, creating an entire suite of stationery from scratch; from invitations, to the wedding website, menus, place cards, bar signs, the seating plan, right down to our reserved seat signs and booklets to hold ceremony readings and speeches, having all of these elements tie in with each other and the overall colour scheme brought a subtle cohesiveness that had such impact. It was great to be so hands on with the design, and the stationery we created with Kaylora really set the tone for the overall wedding."

The bride continues, "our floral designer Maite Mach was way more than a florist, David is an artist. He brought our vision to life in ways I didn’t think possible and made for such an experiential day for us and our guests. I am still in awe of what we managed to achieve together!"

One moment in particular from their day ended up being their favourite. Emma reminisces, "our dear friend Shauna officiated our wedding which was more special than we could have imagined. Shauna has always had a way with words and captured the essence of our relationship so perfectly. The ceremony was light-hearted and humorous yet intimate and heartfelt. Every single guest commented on how unique, and how perfectly ‘us’, it was."

For their ceremony reading, the couple incorporated the One Fab Day reader favourite Wedding Poem by Whitney Hanson.

For their Spanish destination wedding Emma worked with Irish bridal designer Niamh Lynch of Bespoke Bridal to create her divine custom-made silk dress and veil. She completed her bridal look with white barely-there heels from Stuart Weitzman, 3D floral earrings by A.B. Ellie and a diamond tennis bracelet gifted by Ciarán on the morning of the wedding.

The bride complimented her modern Bespoke Bridal wedding gown with a beautiful colour pop bouquet featuring Coral Charm and pink peonies, roses, scented stock, dahlias and lisianthus.

For his wedding wardrobe, Ciarán worked with Henry and team at Irish suitors Paul Henry Tailoring for a dapper double-breasted custom suit. He completed his look with a brown Gucci tie, Aspinal of London cufflinks, Magnanni shoes purchased from Brown Thomas, a personalised handkerchief and a spritz of Tom Ford aftershave - all gifts from Emma to Ciarán on the morning of the wedding.

The dreamy on-trend lilac bridesmaids looks were tiered ruffle dresses from Reformation paired with heels from ASOS, while the groomsmen were all suited and booted by the team at The Groom's Room at Diffney on Mary Street, Dublin. "I fell in love with the bridesmaid dresses the moment I saw them. I thought the colour was so unique and the frills gave them a subtle Spanish flair. The wonderful team at Paul Henry Tailoring did some alterations to the dresses so they fit each of the girls perfectly. All my bridesmaids looked so beautiful in them, and they all said they felt beautiful in them too which was so important to me. They were a special part of our day and I wanted them to feel it."

For little piece of home Emma gifted each of the bridesmaids some personalised baskets filled with goodies and Irish-made gifts on the morning of the wedding which included personalised linen pyjamas and flip flops, lipstick and powder for touch-ups from Aimee Connolly and custom, hand-made glass-bead earrings by Caoimhe Murphy Design.

For wedding favours, the couple created a custom made seating plan with a personalised Spanish-inspired instrument for each of their guests, with the inscription “make some noise for the newlyweds” on the installation. "We knew we wanted something interactive so worked with our wedding planner and Kaylora to bring our crazy idea to life. In the week leading up to the wedding, we spent an afternoon with my sister and both our mum’s preparing the instruments with ribbons and name tags – it was really nice bonding time and went down a treat on the day! Our guests used the instruments to welcome us to the reception, and some took them home to their kids which is really sweet."

Their evening reception went on to include a champagne tower with Magnums of Moet in place of a wedding cake and a first dance to Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers. "This was an easy choice. We are both fans of 70s funk/soul music and wanted something up beat that our guests could sing and dance along to. It’s also a song that is often played when we are out and about, every time we hear it it serves as a lovely reminder of the best day of our lives and an excuse to bust out some of the moves we learned from the lovely Alison at Viva Dance School."

Later, they surprised everyone with a late night fast food fix from McDonalds before send off!

With the venue to themselves for a week, Emma and Ciarán's celebration began with a welcome party inside this breathtaking estate, and finished up with a relaxed Day 2 pool party. "We had exclusive hire of La Farinera Sant Lluis for a whole week which was really special. The venue slept about 50 guests, so we stayed there with immediate family for a few days before the wedding which was really nice. By the time the wedding, and all our guests, arrived we had really relaxed into it. We did everything on-site; ceremony, cocktail reception, dinner, party and our Day 2 pool party. We are still in awe that 100 people flew all the way to Spain, some from Australia, Toronto and Washington DC, to celebrate with us."

After planning such a stylish Spanish destination wedding celebration, Emma and Ciarán have this advice for couples on their own wedding planning journeys, "When people offer help, take it and give them jobs! And when the day itself arrives, leave all the to-do lists and worries to other people. It all happens so fast so try and be present with your future husband or wife and enjoy everything the day brings."

After the epic week of celebrations, the couple and their pals set off on a buddymoon, before enjoying some time alone as newlyweds. "We honeymooned in Spain and Andorra directly after the wedding. We spent the first week after the wedding with about 20 family and friends in a nearby town called Begur, then had the remainder of the time just the two of us. It worked out perfectly; having family and friends around for the extra week helped with the ‘wedding comedown’ that everyone warns you about, and by the time the week was up we were ready for some alone time."

A very special thank you to Emma, Ciarán and The Ivory Roses for sharing their dreamy Spanish destination wedding with One Fab Day. There are also plenty more gorgeous photos from their special day to check out in the gallery below!

Dreaming of having your own destination wedding? Find more real wedding inspiration from couple's who tied the knot abroad here.