It’s your wedding. You only need to please yourself & your fiance!

We are planing a wedding about 80-120 guests, I would love to hear about the other places you visited and know the name of the place you chose. Thank you in advance!

Hi Sue,
Thanks for your help to put me onto this posting. Was the weather good in October? Also do you have your wedding photos posted so I can get a better feel of the venue. I feel pretty overwhelmed at the minute but have email Seamus so hopefully the ball will start rolling.

You are a star for helping everyone. Thanks a million!
Jo

Hi Sue,
Your pics look fab! Congrats!!! Thanks for your reply, to be honest I just really wanted to see how it went with Seamus? Also, when you visited barca to choose a venue did you feel you got enough of a choice? Seamus has suggested a villa for us but we’l see what happens when we visit him in Feb. My other obvious concern is a budget, at the moment we are not sure how much we should really expect to pay. We are having around 70 guests. Did most of the venue’s you went to see have a hire fee?

My email address is [email protected] if you’d prefer to mail that.

Thanks again,
Suzie x

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply. We are looking at around 70 guests.At the moment we havent got a clue about what type of venue we should go with. Seamus has suggested a villa where we would hire a catering company. We are going to meet him in Feb so it will hopefully all become alot clearer. Then we can start getting excited. I’m sure you must fel the same. My email address is [email protected]. I would really appreciate if you can let me know how it goes.

Thanks
Szie

cool – in the meantime check my wedding mapper profile page as i have uploaded some photos of the venue and church. let me know what you think?

Hi Sue, many thanks for your message, my e-mail address is [email protected], would be great to hear from you

Great, thanks Jared!! I was trying to figure that out. : )

Hey Sue,

Now that you’re married you can create a profile of your wedding and add photos, vendor reviews, etc. If you click on “My Tools” at the top of the page and then click the link for “Post-Wedding Settings” you’ll be able to create a more complete profile of your wedding with as many photos as you like and more advice for people getting married in the area.

No need to if you would prefer not to, but just wanted to make sure you knew the options was there.

Congrats on your wedding 🙂

Weird – it does not seem to allow to upload a photo. I tried twice? I’ll attach it again with this message and see if it works?

Hi Mark,

We’re back now and the wedding was amazing! Castell de l’Oliver is the most incredible venue with the most amazing food, service, setting, etc. It was better than we expected. People at our wedding were blown away by everything and many said it was the best wedding they’d ever been to. The rooms are fantastic so I would definitely recommend taking all 8 rooms so you have the venue to yourself. That way you can keep it all going until 2.30-3.00 am with no worries about noise.I think you said you are getting married in the summer – is that right? The only thing I will say is that because we got married in October it was starting to get dark as we arrived to the aperitif and Castell looks incredible at night! They had lights all around the trees leading up the drive, little lights hanging outside (we had our aperitif and reception all upstairs on the top level) and the view was beautiful. So I don’t know what time it gets dark when you are getting married but it’s worth thinking about. Anna, one of the owners., speaks perfect English and was a great help with anything we needed. Everyone was so impressed by how lovely and efficient the waiters and bar staff were also. The way the costings work it is like having a free bar for almost the whole night – none of our guests could believe it considering how expensive and impossible that would be to do in Ireland!

We are waiting on the professional photographer’s photos so I don’t have a lot of photos to share yet but if you email me I can send you some. I’ll try to post a few here. We seem to have a good few from the church part and not many from the reception yet. What church are you getting married in? We chose Basilica de la Merce and I have to say it was amazing! It is a stunning church in the city centre of Barcelona and we then had a bus that took everyone out to Castell for the reception and then back to their hotels or villas at the end of the night. Where are most of your guests staying?

By the way, in the church we were married in there is a special area that only newlywed couple are allowed to go. After the ceremony while the guests are still there you are taken behind the altar and up some stairs into a little area. From down in the church you look like little dolls up in a picture frame – it sounds crazy but it was one of the things people loved the most! I’ll attach a photo. Also before I forget, I would highly recommend paying to have a “flower petal carpet” (photo attached) leading up into Castell. It may be a girl thing but it was possibly the thing people mentioned most about how impressive the arrival at the venue was and I am so glad we did it!

Mark – send me your email address and I can send you more photos and info. Let me know what other questions you have.

Suzie – let me know if you want to ask me anything? I’m glad to help because I know how stressful trying to plan a wedding is so if I can help I’d be glad to!

***Ok, I tried and it will only let me upload one photo here so I’m going with one I have of Rodi’s parents because it is at the venue and has the lovely flower petal carpet! I’ll try and upload a few more on other postings maybe?

Sue

Hi Suzie, no problem at all in letting you know of our details to date, we are flying out to see Seamus in November for menu tasting, he’s away on holiday now until mid november, what kind of figures are you looking at for guests.
Regards
Mark

Hey guys.
We’re hopefully getting married in Barca in 2010. Up untill we found this site and your comments we were very lost. We found it very difficult to find details on venues. However, we have now contacted Seamus and will be meeting with him in Barca in Feb. We are unsure what type of venue to go with, Seamus has suggested a villa with outside caterers. Alot will depend on cost to be honest. I would really appreciate if you guys could let me know of your experiences. Sue, I hope your day went as well as you had hoped. I would really appreciate your advice also, since you’ve now been there done that!!!

Thanks, hopefully hear from you all soon.
Suzie

Hi sue, you helped me out at the beginning of the year about a wedding in Barcelona and you recommended Seamus and Silvia, I see you get married next week and wanted to wish you both well and good luck, once you’re back would you mind e-mailing me as we’re having our wedding in Castell D’el Oliver also and wanted to pick your brains on a couple of things, hope all goes well, regards Mark

Hi Sue,
Events seem to be picking up a pace now thanks to seamus, we are trying to organise a trip out to meet him and silvia and to have a look at some venues, you’ve mentioned can cortada and said you visited it, seamus has also mentioned this, was it any good? We’ve also picked out a venue in Montjuic, I dont suppose you visited there did you?, Any places you visited that you can safely say stay away from?, How’s your preparations going, all well I hope. What time are you getting married because it seems as though they have it later over in spain, is this the norm? Finally did you visit santa maria del mar and if so what did you think
Regards
Mark
Mark

Hi,

What did that 30k include??? That sounds realistic one you add in other things like invites, wedding bands, a dress, etc but not just for the wedding bit! Seamus has been great and his wife Silvia is lovely as well. She is from Barcelona and he is Irish. We live in Dublin and met them at a wedding fair here. We dealt with him through emails at first and he sent us images, web links and costs for numerous venues and then we arranged a trip over to Barcelona a few weeks ago. He & Silvia drove us around on the Saturday to about 5 different venues and a few churches and we made a decision from there. He seems good at negotiating deals and he’s not tied to just a few particular venues where he gets a commission or anything like that.

Of the venues we saw Can Cortada (just on the edge of Barcelona city) was lovely but was too small for us. Randomly I met a girl at the dentist’s office yesterday who was married there and she raved about it. For 80 people it would be great. http://www.gruptravi.com/espanol/bodesinterior.asp?pos=cortada

We went for something out of the city – a villa/castle up on a hill overlooking a lovely small hot springs spa town 35 minutes north of Barcelona on the coast. The town is Caldes de Estrac (also called Caldetes) and the venue is Castell de l’Oliver. http://www.castelldeloliver.es/eng/index.html

We will get married in Barcelona city and then get a bus to take everyone out to the reception (although there is a local church in the Caldetes as an option as well). We have recoomended that people at least stay in Caldetes the night of the wedding as it will go on quite late but many are choosing to book their entire stay in the town as it’s only a 35 minute train journey into Barcelona so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. There is accommodation right on the beach and it’s a lovely town. Castell de l’Oliver is a 10 minute drive up into the hills above the town. It was too pricey for us in the summer but we got a good deal for October. Definitely check it out – the owners are lovely and you get an overall deal with a per person price for an aperitif, cocktail/champagne reception, full meal, dessert, wedding cake, free bar for 3 hours, table linen, etc.

Mass Coll is another venue that we saw that was nice – I don’t have a link though.

As for churches check out Santa Maria del Mar if you want a unique, amazing, impressive large church and Santa Anna for a quaint, small beautiful 11th century church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_del_Mar_(Barcelona)
http://lemoinestar.imeem.com/playlist/NhOu7cTA/iglesia_de_santa_ana_barcelona_photo_playlist/

Hope that helps – let me know what you think!!

Sue

Hi Sue, The one company we looked at in Barcelona have quoted us 30k euros and apparantly thats not even a lavish wedding. This was also the company that got my partner to go to London to visit him and he never even exhibited there. Seamus has sent us an e-mail and it does seem as though you get more for your money out in BCN. Have you booked with him , if so whats he like? I like the idea that he gives out references if you wish. Have you looked at many places out there and if so have any really stuck out?

Hi,

We are having our wedding this October for 120 people with a Catholic church wedding in Barcelona and then the reception afterwards in a villa overlooking a village on the coast about 35 minutes north of Barcelona. I think you should definitely talk to wedding planners over there in Barcelona not in London. You need someone with definite local knowledge and connections. Seamus in Catalan Weddings will be able to help you as it sounds like you’re looking for what we were looking for. What kind of quotes are you getting? I did a lot of research on costs for weddings in Italy, Spain and Ireland before we decided on Barcelona and it is still costly but we found that you get a lot more for your money – free bar, more food, etc.If you want to tell me what kind of prices places are quoting I can tell you if it seems far off what we found? We decided to have our wedding in October to get costs down a bit as it won’t be high season but should still be good weather!

Sue

Hi Sue, Many thanks for replying. At the moment were looking at around 80 people however this could change, I’d be very surprised if its more than 100. Looking at a catholic ceremony with reception afterwards. The idea of outskirts appeals as I’m thinking the nicer venues are there, however there is then the travelling for all the guests to take into account. We’re looking at end of July – beginning of Aug. I think what is making us very aware at the mo, is a couple of quotes we’ve had and I feel we could get quite a lavish wedding in the uk for whats been quoted. Don’t know whether some people are trying it on !!

Hi Mark,

How many people in your wedding and where are you looking to have it? In Barcelona city or the outskirts? What type of wedding are you having – church or civil – and what sort of venue were you thinking? Also what time of year? I’ll give you any tips I can!

Sue