This take on Minted was made by undefined from , a member of Minted's community of independent artists.
With a love story that followed them across two coasts, Erica and Fred tied the knot last year at a Spanish castle in fairytale style. Erica, Minted’s own Director of Marketing, shares how she brought her dream wedding to life.
We met at work, but didn't become close until we kept bumping into each other at different bars and events in NYC, most notably on a Saturday at the Standard Biergarten when it was 70 degrees in February! However, it is an infamous story that our respective teams saw us slyly holding hands one night at Bathtub Gin (a speakeasy) and unraveled the whole mystery at the office.
Fred proposed to me in a crayère or champagne cave at Veuve Clicquot in Reims, France. He was ready to go with a vintage bottle (from the year my parents got married!) to taste and celebrate the moment after I said yes. I am a champagne fanatic, so it was truly the most perfect, on-brand proposal I could have had. After that, we traveled to his home, Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, where we met up with both of our parents to enjoy the moment together.
After we got engaged, we knew that we wanted to get married in Europe because of the number of historical and beautiful settings that you can have access to and because we wanted to give people an excuse to travel! Fred is Spanish so we quickly homed in on Spain, and opted for Barcelona because of its accessibility and vibrant nightlife and food scene, which we both love dearly. Once we had the city, we got down to a shortlist of venues from a combination of "deep googling" and asking our planners for their favorite picks. I couldn't get off of work, so I sent Fred to Spain alone to go tour our final 5 and come back with his pick. I was actually leaning toward a different one than he suggested, but he and our planners kept insisting it was amazing and had a fantastic progressional flow for guests. In the end, I trusted him and he was totally right!
Our aesthetic was very romantic without being overly floral. The property itself had interesting, strong architectural elements, so it was fun to dress them up and soften them a bit with chandeliers, flowers, and candlelight. This has been my favorite aesthetic for as long as I can remember, so it didn't take long to land on a vision!
I knew that given the verdant green and muted stone tones of the space I wanted something to punch through, so I visited the Pantone site and looked at every turquoise, indigo, pink, plum, and fuchsia that I think exist and kept comparing it against photos of the venue. The purple tones were the most complementary, so from there it was easy to pick something that I liked. That being said, I knew from the get-go that minimalism or all-white just wasn't my taste. You don't actively seek out castles in Spain if it is!
I knew I wanted something that was modern and floral to compliment the space, but basically just scrolled through and favorited designs that I liked! Then, my husband and I sat and played with comparing a few to find what we liked best. I was also pretty lazy and half filled out the personalization elements but knew that I could work with a Dedicated Artist on the back end to make everything perfect.
I had a custom Pantone for the purple and green because those were my exact wedding colors so I knew everything would match. It looked and felt just like the venue. The cherry on top was that we recreated the design for our seating chart display!
First off, the designer did almost all of the work for me, even when I was going multiple rounds to get my perfect shade of fuchsia. The customer service team was also amazing when I accidentally approved my proof before my addresses were ready! They immediately cancelled the order and reloaded my cart with the finalized design (complete with my personalized text and colors). I was able to check out again so I could wait for the last few addresses to come in.
I absolutely loved our seating chart display. Our florist actually saw our invitations and wanted to recreate the circular wreath effect. We had a Spanish guitarist play next to the display and it looked stunning. My other favorite was the structure with five chandeliers that we created behind the head table at our dinner. I love glamorous touches and actually drew it up on a cocktail napkin in terms of what my "dream" was for our planners. I didn't think it would be possible to make a reality, but sure enough, it was there on my special day!
Don't stress about small details. Big, interesting elements are what people actually remember! And, get married in Europe, the amount of quality food you get for your budget is so much better than what you get in the States. We had a guy walking around our reception shucking oysters for everyone!
We uncover design genius through ongoing design competitions. At Minted, all that matters is good design. Designers submit, and the Minted community votes to tell us what to sell.
