Hannah O'Neil and Daniel Ayala - Dapper & Bride Showcase

“It blew our guests away and was such a lovely touch.”

It goes down in the DMs

Aside from wedding exhibitions and fairs, Instagram is such an amazing place to meet couples who are looking for vibrant and adventurous wedding stationery!

This particular month had been something a little different though. My DMs included two bridal squad besties who wanted to gift a Dapper & Bride wedding magazine package to their bestie bride to be. Come to think of it, it does make for a fantastic wedding squad gift… Those girlies were on to something here. You can look out for the gift card launching very soon.

Onto the Tea…

The lovely Vanessa DMs me. Tells me she works for Hannah (who after poking around a bit, I learn that not only is she marrying Middlesbrough Footballer David Ayala, she is also a queen of personalised gifts herself eeeeekkkk). She runs this truly wicked business; HA Designs – personalising bridal PJs, wedding party sets, leather goods and hats and, also has her hand in florals too! You should really check it out!

The Ayala’s: English and Spanish versions of their feature story in Dapper & Bride

So, what wedding present do you get a bride to be who loves all things personalised? [Insert cheeky grin here] A Dapper & Bride print of course! I mean really, this was surely a match made in Heaven, right? Now, excitement levels were on 10, because 1) this thing was supposed to be a surprise (I love surprises and I am a human vault) and 2) I knew the level of appreciation for a wedding favour of this nature would be sky high – purely because it was from one lover of personalised goods to another.

The bride and groom have been together for 10 years and counting and have two little adorables running around. Daniel is Spanish (Hannah is from the UK) and this, what I knew would be a beautiful wedding, was to be in Marbella, Spain. With family members attending from both sides, here’s where the set up gets even better. Vanessa thought it would be amazing to have two versions of their wedding magazine– one English and one Spanish. I was sold!

Translation: Spanish

Now, although my very first personalised magazine couple - Patience and Ben were French, their stunning nuptials took place in a castle outside of Paris and featured some French translations in their issue of Dapper & Bride, one of my dreams since I started this brand was to have an full issue in print that was in a completely different language! And It was about to come to life.

A full Spanish version of their magazine was such an incredibly thoughtful idea. There are so many couples who are getting married where two different and amazing cultures are about to come together, whether it be two different religions or ethnic backgrounds and, in this case, different languages.

At such a central celebration like a nuptial throwdown -especially where there would be a language barrier, I’ll toot my own horn and say it - an all-inclusive guest wedding favour is fantastic. Everyone gets to share and appreciate the same wedding experience. I always believed D&B mags function as a great conversation starter, so I can only imagine the role they played on Hannah and Daniel’s big day.

The Glitter Bomb of Pressure

At one point, Vanessa really had me clutching my pearls for a moment, because the wedding day was approaching faster than Usain Bolt sprints to a finish line and for a minute there, it was radio silence! Usually, I work together in tandem with the couple, so I have a better idea of where things are, but this time around, working without the couple, I knew there was many conversations going on to get this thing in place, so there was this teeny tiny glitter bomb of pressure ready to go off, as I truly wanted this gift to be a great one.

Understandably, it was headless chickens over on their side of the fence (the final days of wedding prep almost always is – especially when it’s overseas), but once we got to work it, was on like Donkey Kong! I had Vanessa finalise the English version first and then she sent over the translations for the Spanish content, taking a single day’s turnaround for each version. Complete smooth sailing. Thank the stars for my printer buddies who I knew would not let me down last minute!

As always, my file copies came and I was so happy to see them! A gazillion emails and a phone call later and now all I had to do was wait for the wedding day to arrive. I don’t know why, but I always find it so nerve racking working in wait! The first tag alert comes and I fell instantly in love with the visuals. A guest (with a serious rock on her finger) had filmed a flick through of the mag from her seat at the table - sharing it on The Gram with the caption “How do you think of these things?” Another guest had posted with the caption “It’s in the details”…

Wedding Vibes

I was blown away by the amazing wedding décor. Outdoor weddings just ooze lux and wedding goal vibes and I just couldn’t stop glaring at the photos. The white aisle and florals were just perfect – so simple. The gold cage style chairs for the bride and groom, with natures blue sky serving as the perfect backdrop – oh my! It was beautiful. 

The couple’s colours were white and gold, so I ensured that their magazine favours were in sync throughout each page. Their wedding issue, as it was a gift from the girls, featured the squad Charlotte, Vanessa, Natalie, Fiona and Mel as the ‘Editors-at-large’ and included a welcome message from them to the couple and other guests. They featured the list of the full wedding party, the couple’s ever so cute feature story about how they met one night in Liverpool to the building of their family with their two little boys. There were touching messages from both sets of parents (Daniel’s parents’ Spanish notes translated into English for the English version), a mini gallery, word search puzzle as well as the special dates from the couple’s life together. 

#WeddingGoals

How gorgeous do these magazines look on the gold textured place settings? They were placed next to each guest’s personalised napkin. I mean – this is just goals goals goals here. My eyes popped out of my head on those. Absolutely stunning!

The bride wore an off the shoulder stunning Pallas Couture gown and Daniel’s white and black tux was a complimentary match. Their custom gold name sign was a stand out piece for me! Such a nice touch. 

The Ayala’s got married at Finca La Concepcion, Carretera Istan, Marbella. This place has palm trees to die for (please excuse my thing for palm trees – there’s even a huge one in our garden lol – and I live in London lol). World renowned performers The Function Band had everyone on their feet singing classics throughout the day to night – The whole thing just looked amazing.

As always, I’m exceptionally thankful for being asked to tag along in a couple’s wedding journey and this one was no different. A big shout out to Vanessa for jumping on this! A huge congrats to the couple, I can tell by the snaps they had a fantastic time and will be a day to remember for many years to come.

Best Always,

Kysha x