M&N Villa Catalina Wedding: Interview

We loved working with Maddison and Nick, our last wedding of 2023 for their beautiful Villa Catalina wedding. And it’s such a pleasure to include these amazing photos from Jake and Genessa, and interview from our lovely bride. Planning and design by Barcelona Brides at Villa Catalina, Sitges.

Describe your Barcelona wedding day in 3 words!

Personalized, thoughtful, & joyful! 

What was your favourite memory from your Villa Catalina wedding?

There are too many amazing memories to count! My favorite memories are our first looks (one with my Dad and one with my almost husband) because it really made the day feel real. It was so special to see their reactions and made walking down the aisle more fun instead of stressful. Nick and I also really enjoyed adding in all of the personal touches – we had luggage tags as escort cards that led guests to a handwritten note at their seat, personalized disposable cameras for guests, sunglasses for photos, in lieu of bridesmaids my friends became my “Something Blue”, and instead of cake we did a champagne tower and cigar bar which very much fits our personalities! 

Why did you choose Barcelona and Villa Catalina for your wedding?

Nick and I are from the US and had gotten engaged then married almost a year prior to our wedding date. We knew he was moving to Spain and being in the military, it would be difficult to go to the US for a wedding. We always said we wanted all of our friends to go to a beach house for the week and Barcelona/Sitges was the PERFECT combination of beach, culture, and introducing our friends to our new country was priceless. It was also extremely accessible to fly from the East Coast to Barcelona and we knew there would be plenty of activities for all of our guests! We stumbled upon Villa Catalina on Wedinspire and it perfectly fit the amount of people we wanted to invite, was incredibly romantic for our intimate wedding, and had an amazing caterer in house. We did a tasting and a venue visit that exceeded our expectations and decided the photos truly didn’t do Villa Catalina justice – it is tenfold even more beautiful in person! 

What did you love most about your wedding dress? How and where did you find it?

My dress was special because I picked it out with two of my best friends, my grandmas, my mom, and my sister all in attendance. It was my first appointment and the day before I moved to Spain and everyone there said my face lit up when I put it on. It was difficult to alter given the material and fit but I was obsessed with the glitter and the train! I really wanted a dress with straps that I could move around easily in, this dress did not have that so I actually ended up purchasing a second wedding dress at an incredibly reduced cost from a neighbor on Facebook that had everything else that I wanted from the first dress! I knew Nick would be changing out of his uniform and into a suit so I figured, why can’t I do an outfit change too! The first dress was purchased at La Bella Bridal Boutique in Virginia and the second off of Facebook while I was briefly living in San Diego this summer. 

If you did it all again what might you change?

The only thing I would change is prioritizing photos earlier so we had more time to enjoy the canapes and 22duo during cocktail hour. The rest was absolutely perfect! 

Tell us about the blooms. What was your favourite thing about your flowers at your Villa Catalina wedding?

At first, I was very hesitant to add flowers because I wanted very simple decor, didn’t want to take away from the natural beauty of the Villa, and I was concerned about cost but the floral arrangements truly elevated the day beyond belief! My bouquet was a perfect combination of greenery and white flowers which is exactly what I wanted. The bouquets matched the greenery and candles on the table which gave the wine cellar a romantic glow, and the pop of blue in the ceremony arrangements perfectly pulled the scenery together to match my friends’ “Something Blue” individual stems that they held for part of the ceremony. I was absolutely blown away by the pops of color, the size of the arrangements and how seamlessly they pulled together my vision! We also reused them for decor the following day during brunch! 

What is your advice for other couples getting married in Barcelona?

My advice would be to take it slow on planning an itinerary for guests – we had one event planned for each day over the span of 5 out of our 7 days, mainly because we felt the need to host. It turns out, many of our guests wanted to spend more time exploring the city and the wonders Barcelona had to offer so it became complicated to adjust who was attending which event. We ultimately lost time with a few guests because they were exploring while we hosted. I felt some guests felt obligated to stay with us who would have rather been out in the city as well. It all worked out in the end but I created a lot more stress for myself feeling the need to host when I could’ve been relaxing and seeing all the sights! Another helpful tip specific to our venue is it really helped to have even just one large vehicle in the event that taxis were unavailable. It’s in a relatively remote location which we loved, but there were a few instances where our friends tried to call a taxi and couldn’t get a hold of anyone. 

What cultural aspects did you include in your Villa Catalina wedding?

Our wedding was pretty nontraditional but followed more cultural norms of US weddings. We did want to include some of the Spanish culture so we had our guests participate in napkin twirling when we entered the reception, ensured our musicians would include Spanish music, and our food was almost exclusively based off of Spanish cuisine. We had paella, tapas, added a dew familiar favorites for pickier guests but also opted for patatas bravas, pulpo, and jamon iberico for guests to try as well. 

What song brings you back to the day and why?

“No matter where you are” by Us the Duo. This is the song I walked down the aisle to and took extra care choosing. I wanted the perfect song that represented how much time Nick and I have had to spend apart because of his big move to Spain and remind him that no matter where he is in the world, I’m there with him. I actually wanted a slower version played and am SO grateful the faster version was used because it really lightened the emotions and made me giggle down the aisle! I loved that we chose the combination of acoustic artists with 22Duo and then DJ Marian for the dinner and reception because throughout the day we heard literally every single one of our favorite songs and guests had an absolute blast!

We are so grateful to M&N for their review:

The Barcelona Brides team truly went above and beyond to create the most PERFECT wedding day for my husband and I! It was incredibly stressful to plan a wedding while we were living in two different countries and the BB team was there every step of the way throughout the entire process. Becky was essentially in constant contact with me the months leading up and I am so grateful for her patience with me being an incredibly stressed bride who couldn’t reach her groom at times, and for the exceptional level of organization and planning to make this day possible.

We had already chosen a venue, caterer, and photographer and assumed that was all we needed for our big day. Thankfully Becky and her team stepped in to find us the most INCREDIBLE music, floral, hair/makeup and transportation vendors as well as emergent aestheticians the week of! All of the vendors they recommended and helped us book were well beyond our wildest dreams and made our day even better than expected. We loved the organization of the website we used to communicate and plan everything too!

They took extra care to ensure we had all of the perfect touches to our match our exact vision – from the signage they created, to the programs, the champagne tower and photo book, all of the smaller details made our wedding so much more special. Maily even met with us when we arrived in Sitges the week of to ease some of our stresses and make sure everything would run smoothly day of.

Maily and Claudia attended the wedding and were diligent in making sure we stayed on schedule, ensured everything was exactly as we had pictured, and allowed no room for confusion from our guests! They advocated for us with vendors to make adjustments day of and we are so thankfully for all of the behind the scenes work to make our wedding perfect!

Thank you all so much for all of your hard work and for making our vision come to life in the most beautiful way!