A Colorful Outdoor Wedding in the South of Spain

Alicia Cabra first met Alvaro Sierra Lopez at a Halloween party in 2013, and she admits that she developed a crush on him that very night! Alicia held onto this feeling for nearly six months before she and Alvaro officially started dating. “It was May of 2014, right around the Champions League final, when we fell in love,” she recalls. After a few years of dating, the couple traveled from Madrid to Paris, heading up to Sacré Coeur to take in the views of the city. “There was a boy playing guitar, surrounded by a huge crowd,” says Alicia. “He started to play ‘Pretty Woman,’ and that’s when Alvaro grabbed my hand and I realized he was on his knees asking me to marry him!”

The couple headed back to Spain for their June 23, 2018 wedding in Málaga, a beautiful port city in the south of Spain. They invited 250 guests to join them for a traditional church ceremony, followed by an Andalusian celebration in a subtropical garden. “We actually had planned to have our reception in a different spot on the property, but when we got to town, there was a huge crane in the middle!” Alicia says with a laugh. The couple used the property as inspiration nonetheless, infusing even using its colorful flowers in their decor. "We wanted something tropical but with a touch of elegance and manor of its Andalusian patio," Alicia explains. "The lilac vegetation of its entrance already gave a clue to the guests of what they were going to find."

Take a trip to southern Spain for this couple’s colorful outdoor celebration, as photographed by Juan Trujillo of 4Events, below.

Alicia visited a number of designers before selecting the one who would create her custom wedding gown. “I chose Belén Barbero of Beba's Closet because she was so attentive and eager to help me, even before she knew whether I’d be hiring her,” says Alicia. She and the designer created a romantic lace gown with a boat neckline, lace sleeves, and a plunging back.

The bride paired the gown with customized Just Ene sandals that were designed to match the green and coral tones of her Suma Cruz headpiece. Even the bride’s colorful bouquet of petite blooms matched the wedding day's bright color palette.

Alvaro wore a navy-blue three-piece suit by Sagaz, which he paired with a paisley tie. The flower girls wore white dresses with pale blue sashes, and topped their curls with crowns of spray roses and baby’s breath.

The couple’s traditional Catholic ceremony took place in Parroquia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. The pews were filled with Alvaro and Alicia’s loved ones.

After her father escorted her to the altar, Alicia and Alvaro exchanged traditional vows. The couple’s ring bearer, in red shorts and a blue jacket, took his job of presenting the rings very seriously!

Once the ceremony was finished, guests tossed confetti while the newlyweds made their way from the church to their getaway car.

As mentioned earlier, the entrance to the couple's reception venue made quite an impression on the couple (and their guests!). The newlyweds made a photo-worthy moment as they drove off in a vintage white Mercedes.

“We spent ten months planning our wedding, and I fell asleep dreaming about it every night,” says Alicia. The couple put an elegant spin on Finca Carambuco’s more organic, natural style.

Table assignments were tied to a tree laden with orange blossoms. Each sign featured illustrations inspired by Málaga.

At dinner, guests were seated at round tables topped in a combination of gold and leaf-printed linens. Between the tables, lamps stood on pillars to cast a glow over the celebration and give the reception a homey quality.

“We had over a dozen appetizers, from salmon tartar with mango sauce to a taco bar with frozen margaritas,” says Alicia. There was also a buffet serving cold soups and an Andalusian display of cheeses and Iberico ham. “We wanted the celebration to be very lively, so we only had guests sit for their main course, beef confit with truffled mashed potatoes,” says Alicia.

Guests were ready to party from the very beginning, dancing through a photo montage of the couple and crowding the dance floor as soon as the music started.

Guests waved sparklers as Alvaro and Alicia shared their first dance as husband and wife. “The last guest didn’t leave until 7:30 in the morning, but we’d planned for it,” says Alicia with a laugh. “We had more cocktails and food at 4 a.m. to help people regain their strength to keep dancing! If I could, I’d have a wedding again every year—I loved every moment of it!”