We love Garlands!

One of the key elements to any event dressing or design is to work overhead, (above 6ft in my old terms of learning the display basics :)

Any decorations that are above eye level immediately capture the attention of your guests and create a convivial atmosphere whether it be party, spooky or festive.

If you want to add impact to decorating an event or a room there are a few key elements and this is one of the most effective to date, as well as lighting an event.

What I love at the moment is the creativity that is appearing with garlands and decorations, taking it away from the rather tacky foil 70's decorations we all knew and possibly loved, with the Retro 70's fashion back in style this could be now forgiven and almost classed as tasteful, although not in my book :)

However I do love these new ideas emerging from the tissue pom poms and then the hanging garlands strewn around venues to create a lovely party atmosphere from paper hearts to buttons on a string, the theme for this idea is endless and I think really it kicked off in 2009 with the fashionable bunting idea and has progressed from there.

Definitely a trend worth creating from photos strung up on strings of your loved one and your courtship, to paper hearts, tassels really the possibility is endless and one garland would make such a difference to your event, personalise it and make it more fun.

Reviva Weddings are now offering paper heart garlands from as little as 5 euros for 2 x 3 metre lengths in their shop and can make bespoke garlands and pom poms to fit in with your wedding theme, we also advocate the use of your photos to string on a washing line at your wedding to create that truly personal touch to your wedding and have the cutest clothes pegs and washing lines ready!

I have stolen these fabulous photos from Elizabeth Anne designs one of my inspiration blogs I visit constantly, for more inspirations head over to take a look.

A wonderful idea for kids parties too that could easily be made up with favorite characters, in my case princesses!

In fact many moons ago when I decorated my sister's 21st birthday party (yes I was doing it then!) I created pink baskets of dolly mixtures as well suspended from the ceiling for the guests to help themselves, all I recall from this party was pulling out the staples from my parents ceiling the next day with a delightful hangover before they arrived back from Spain, they were none the wiser!

We don't just do weddings!

Whilst Reviva Weddings are obviously associated with planning, styling and creating fabulous weddings, we are stylists for all occasions and often turn our hands to other celebrations.

Last night was no exception and we were hired by a family vacating here in a private villa situated in the Marbella Club.

Our brief was to descend upon the villa last night whilst the family were out having a celebration dinner at the fabulous restaurant Babilonia at Olivia Valere, and turn the villa into a beautifully decorated birthday surprise for when the mother returned with her family.

I have to confess we felt like stalkers creeping in at 10pm and within 2 hours the transformation was completed!

We had completely decorated the villa with flowers, lanterns and candles and fabulous balloon displays.

Here is the text message we received in the early hours of this morning after the family had returned.

Hello Laura!  Thank you so much for the lovely decoration.  My mother was overwhelmed with joy when we got back home.   The flowers, candles and balloons are amazing!  Thank you, the both of you, for this breathtaking setting.

This is unforgettable birthday and I shall definitely be contacting you for any future events.

I hope to see you again real soon.

I could never do this solo so a huge thank you to my fantastic team of professionals, Loraine for the fabulous flowers and to Silvia for the wonderful balloons :)  I was playing the skivvy, sweeping up and fetching and carrying :) 

Magical Moroccan Night at Puente Romano Hotel

We had a fabulous time decorating this Moroccan party at the beautiful Puente Romano hotel. One of my favorite venues here in Marbella.

This party was the start of a 3 day event last weekend to welcome guests for a wedding weekend to the Marbella Club.

 It was quite short notice, about 3 days! but we managed to pull it off, only just though as we had another 100 chairs added in on the day so a quick visit to the shops to finish this off, thankfully the rain held off although the following day on the 3rd July here it rained? 

We were allowed in to photograph this before the guests arrived but I did get a phone call at 11.30 that night from one of the suppliers to tell me how fabulous and beautiful it looked once it had got dark, we are hoping we may get a few photos of this in darkness as I had some fabulous lighting and millions of candles here.

Our thanks to the forever cheerful and patient Jennifer Jane from Jeremy Standley for coming along again to photograph one of our events, always with a last minute panicked request from me!

My thanks also to my brilliant team, Izzi and Maddie my long suffering daughters, Susana that has now worked with me for 3 years and our new team member Anoulka, without these fabulous ladies I could never pull off an event like this and thank them for their hard work, reliability and tireless efforts.  Also to Carlos from Lipara Productions, a lovely man I work closely with all the time, without Carlos there would be no staging, lighting and sound!

Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland theme

Isn't it strange, last year we were looking at the Alice in Wonderland theme for parties and weddings with the fun elements of 'eat me' and 'drink me', the tea party set up and slightly quirky ideas you could incorporate into this theme.

Now with the much anticipated Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland just about to hit our screens, some fabulous ideas are popping up on the blogs we watch and love.

I found these posts on Green Wedding Shoes and the Wedding Chicks of an Alice in Wonderland styled shoot for a bridal shower and it is fabulous. Cannot wait to see this film!

Calling all vampire lovers!

As Twilight and True Blood are hugely popular and the latest rage and of course it is Halloween, we found this fabulous board on It's a Jaime Thing for a vampire style wedding!

Deep reds and blacks, truly goth, and how about some ghoulish cupcakes thrown in!

Image found on www.twilightfangs.com

Fancy hosting a Twilight Party check out the Hostess Blog for more vampish ideas!

Vampire Chic for Weddings and Parties

This red and black wedding is perfect for a Gothic celebration and we love the spanish style cake.

The table names are in elaborate ornate blackframes with the names Dracula in this image, I can imagine, with all the vampire hype at the moment, of all the other table name possibilities you could come up with! Twilight springs to mind of course!

A vampire themed night would be amazing, getting away from the usual pumpkins with the orange and black theme, this theme would be far more stylish for a Halloween soiree. Image found on www.swankytablesblog.com

More from the Chopard Morrocan Party Marbella Club

Ok so my small Pentax is not doing the trick, I was delighted when Carlos sent me this pro photo of the Moroccan Night, more to come! Here you can see how amazing this evening was for the Chopard Gala Night. We do really need a before and after shot though as this is a white beach bar!

Chopard Moroccan Party at Marbella Club

Hot or what!

Here we are decorating the Marbella Club's Chiringuito for the Chopard Jewellery Morrocan Night.

Just when we thought we were going to have a quiet August, the phone starts ringing!

Carlos from Lipara Productions needed our help with putting this amazing Moroccan party together, not only completely covering the chiringuito with fabrics but needed a stylist on board for the day plus our team to complete this party within 4 hours, by the time our team had finished it looked amazing. We were thrilled and the decorations Carlos and his wife has supplied for us to use were really something else. A huge effort and we have to go back tonight to clear down so drinking lots of coffee! x

Fabulous Table Settings

Whilst surfing yet again I paid a visit to the Grace Ormonde Site and found these fabulous table settings, again the use of twigs for centrepieces, beautiful coloured linens and those chair covers are amazing. I love the aqua setting perfect for a romantic dinner for two and yet more inspiration!

Lanterns we love them!

Two images above Hanging Lanterns and Sky lanterns at Los Monteros Images courtesy of Jeremy Standley

Our new product for 2009 floating water lanterns

One of our most popular products are our lanterns, we love them, they create such beautiful atmospheres for our weddings and parties on hot balmy Mediterranean nights.

Water lanterns, sky lanterns and a whole host of hanging lanterns,

we cannot stock enough of them!

Winter Wonderland themes

Although we are only just out of a very hot August I am now working on some Christmas themes for a client in Ireland who is organising a white week event, so having decided to visit the land of ice, snow and crystals I came across these fabulous designs from the designer Tord Boontje, who ironically designed the fabulous lights I love in Habitat. His website is well worth a visit for anyone who is interested in hugely creative fabulous designs http://www.tordboontje.com/

When I have designed the white Christmas theme and finished it I will post it!

Saudi Royal Family Party Al Riyad Palace Marbella August 2008

Our most prestigious event of this year was to design and decorate a family party for the Saudi Royal family at the Al Riyad Palace here in Marbella. We were commissioned by Puente Romano to provide the decorations for this event as they were supplying the catering which was amazing

I had a few sleepless nights and have never rushed around so much to get this party ready in time.

The theme for this party was a peppermint green colour and we used lots of crystal candles, crystals, swarovski table crystals couried in by USP on an overnight delivery!

Cream Moroccan lamps, lanterns, organza table cloths in peppermint and whites and it was certainly the night of candles and lanterns I have never seen so many

The princess was charming when she came down to see us and check over the progress, she changed a few things and instantly the party was a much more pared down low key family event and her taste was perfect and the result was beautiful.

It was an amazing day and such a fabulous venue to work at, the palace is exquisitely decorated, unfortunately it has made my little townhouse here in Marbella look rather drab!

I am hoping I might get some better images, if I do I will post some more as these photos do not really do justice to the setting and the grand scale of the event.