A Roaring 20's Extravaganza Themed Wedding in Barcelona

We absolutely love every single detail of this destination wedding in Barcelona and could not wait to share it with you! Miguel and Gabriel rounded up their closest friends and family for a unique celebration on a beautiful lakeside verandah in Barcelona. Due to their love for The Great Gatsby, they decided on a beautiful resort where all of their friends could gather for a whole weekend and party like it was 1920!

The ceremony was like its own little fairytale, with the Barcelona mountains greeting them in the distance. All of their guests embraced the theme of the roaring ’20s, and there wasn’t a dry eye in sight as they exchanged their vows. And to be honest, that just shows how much love there is for this couple! Every single detail of the wedding reflected love.

And there were plenty of surprises making their way around the reception. Guests even got to enjoy dancefloor lessons with their own private instructor. Make sure you scroll all the way down to read all about Miguel & Gabriel’s inspiration in their own words.

A huge thanks to Ana Pastoria Photography for capturing and sharing these gems with us.

Q&A with the Grooms

What is your proposal story?

On a trip to Brussels, Gabriel asked me to marry him at the foot of the Atomium and gave me a ring engraved with the date and the place. I reacted with fear and started to say repeatedly: “No, no no no, noooo”. Saddened, he accepted my answer and I kept the ring. A year passed and I understood that if I wanted to enjoy my life with Gabriel and he was looking forward to marrying me, it was selfish of me not to do so. So I took action. I contacted all our friends and family and asked them if they wanted to participate in my proposal, they should record themselves reciting Pablo Neruda’s poem 14 from the book ’20 Poemas de amor y una canción desesperada’.

With all the videos received I made a montage in which I appeared saying: “Gabriel I have to tell you something” and then all our loved ones appeared reciting the poem. Once the video was edited, I contacted a friend who would send him the video at a certain time. We went to Granada and visited the Alhambra. Walking through the gardens we sat on a bench and Gabriel received a message. While watching the video, which looked great, I got down on one knee and offered him a ring engraved with the date and place. At that moment he had the right to say no, as I did… but he smiled, looked at me, said yes and kissed me.

Tell us a little a bit about your wedding vision

We wanted a unique wedding in which our guests would not have to make a big financial investment because it was all about sharing the moment and enjoying themselves. We also invited people from different parts of the world so we wanted a place where we could spend at least a weekend. Finally, we wanted our wedding to be our own in the sense that our presence would be felt in every detail.

With these premises we first looked for a place to host 150 people for a weekend and we found the wonderful mountain village of Ligüerre de Cinca. The place defined the style, it is a rural village and it was a perfect fit for a 20’s style vision, something like “Peaky binders” as an idea. The guests loved the idea. They were also able to find a lot of inexpensive costumes that made the wedding very colourful, glamorous and glamorous. Finally we decided to do without a weeding planner and we took care of all the details of the wedding putting our point in each one of them.

Tell us about your attire choices.

For clothing, 1920s, we first looked at photographs and series/movies. From there we started to look around, we looked at film clothing rental companies but finally we decided to customize our own clothes in a tailor’s shop based on our ideas. The husband and wife were going to dress differently depending on their tastes but we went to buy the costumes together to go combined.

For all the elements we looked for fabrics and tones reminiscent of the 20’s. So we opted for earthy and chocolate colors for one and light blue and wheat green for the other. High trousers, waistcoat, braces and bow tie, but the cut of the suits had modern points. We also had shirts made to measure with retro collars, one with a round neck and the other with very long collar points.

Finally we looked for specific accessories: We bought the shoes in a shop specialized in shoes for swing dancing, made of leather with a combination of colors. A cloth cap for one groom and a Boater hat for the other. Chain watches, gold for one, silver for the other, and cufflinks. One groom wore a tie to match the ribbon on the other’s hat during the ceremony, later both wore bow ties.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning?

The most important thing was that everything showed our essence/personality. That it was noticeable that we were us and that there was participation from all the guests and that everyone was integrated into the event and felt that they were part of it. Honestly, it went better than we expected and we wouldn’t change anything, well maybe one more day… it was too little 😀

What were your favorite parts of the day?

The ceremony was like a fairytale. The lake, the sun, the flowers, the complicity and the emotion in the atmosphere… We have never seen so many people crying with joy at the same time. It was perfect. Although the whole wedding was great.

Tell us about your wedding flowers.

There was floral preparation for the ceremony. Wild species were chosen with an abundance of greenery and small flowers in yellow, violet and white. Something very simple and unostentatious to give a relaxed and country atmosphere.

Tell us about your wedding cake.

There was no wedding cake. Where we live it’s not very popular. In our case we decided to replace it with a reinvention of a traditional dessert: Torrija with pepper and cardamom ice cream.

What did you do for favors?

We gave all the guests turkeys that we made out of fabric and stuffed with sweets. During the wedding we gave different gifts to the guests who participated in the wedding and to steady couples of friends. We gave: Board games, a necklace, bouquets of flowers, a fruit tree, rubber duckies, a rubber band, photo frames, Tibetan bowls, photo albums, customized bride and groom dolls and a spa session.

Please describe any DIY, handmade, or personal details.

We did all the details of the wedding. For the “remember the date” we made a hieroglyphic that people had to solve. We made a wedding invitation which was a cut-out drawing of the two spouses in which they could dress up in different 20’s costumes. For the wedding favors we made turkeys filled with sweets. We made all the banners to decorate the village. We decorated the dining room with black, white and gold balloons. And we made the centerpieces with feathers we bought, pearl necklaces, gold candle holders and we painted some bottles gold where we put the feathers in a floral composition.

We made a newspaper for the assistants in which we explained our history and the organization of the day. The newspapers were handed out by children with bells in their hands shouting “extra extra”. In the newspaper there was also a game to find out which table you had to sit at. In order to find out where to sit, the participants had to solve a crossword puzzle. Each question of the crossword was related to a guest, so the guests had to talk to each other to solve it. We made dolls for the bride and groom, albums for our sisters, photos for our parents ….

Do you have any advice for couples planning their destination weddings now?

They should enjoy it, give it personality and make that time their own because it will be fondly remembered.

What was the best part of having a destination wedding?

If guests come from many different places, it is a way to make it easier for everyone to manage. In addition, having your guests move around also ensures that those guests who are “less willing” will refuse to attend your wedding.

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