Planning a wedding in Ibiza

I don't think 5pm is too late, it suits us. This is our time plan:

Ceremony at San Carlos: 5pm (couldn't have it any earlier as high season, plus we couldn't get into our venue until 7pm, as high season also)

5.30pm to 6.30pm: drinks on the lawn at San Carlos

7pm: canapes at Pura Vida

7.45: sit down to dinner/ start speeches (we've allowed 30 mins for speeches)

8.30: dinner starts

10 ish: dinner finishes

10ish onwards: party!

Bar closes at 2.45

I know it's not traditional wedding time plan, but I think 4 hours of dancing is fine! Just hope things don't overrun too much on the day!

Jenny, I think that looks like a great plan. Most Spanish weddings run along those lines, they wouldn't dream of eating dinner before 8.30, it's just us British people that insist on an early feed! You must be really excited, I know I am!!

ours sounds very similar jenny, when is your wedding? 4.45 hours of dancing and over 7 hours of drinking sounds good to me

Tue Aug 28th – three and a bit months to go – so excited!

My cousin is getting married in the UK at midday and I'd much rather have a later start – more time to relax and get ready. I'm sure the day will fly by no matter when it starts!

wow that will fly by! were getting married next year and the reception at pura vida so you will have to tell me all about it when you return!

are you having a dj? were renting the equipment and bringing a mate to dj (one of the ushers), saving quite a bit doing it this way!

Ooh exciting another Pura Vida wedding! We had our food tasting over there last week and it was AMAZING.

Yes we're having a DJ – the same couple who are helping organise the church, Sam & Johnny Hocking. Will be sending them a list of songs we definitely want soon! This cost us 600euros (including them doing some live music) so it's good that you've made a saving!

I don't think so, our ceremony is at 4.30. I don't want the ceremony to be in the middle of the day and the heat. Plus it goes me a more chilled out start to the day.

Great, I think I will be booking with Smack as they seem to haave a good reputation and alot of brides choosing them! I did have a quote from Gary and Holly for flowers, obviously I have expenssive choice in flowers ha ha their quote completley blew what I thougth was a good budget, so Im back to the drawring board looking for idea's. Will Vickki be arranging the flowers for you, or is she providing a supplier? I really wanted a saxophonist but Ive had 2 totally different prices for the same person wich is a bit worrying :s I cant imagine how excited you must be, seems like forever ago this forum started.

My trial with Corina at Smack was brilliant, I'm sure you won't be disappointed! Gary and Holly have been brilliant too – flowers are expensive in general I think. We had to cut back on things we wanted as the price was getting too high. Didn't want to pay a fortune for flowers that we can't take home with us! Why don't you give Gary and Holly your budget and they can suggest how to stick within it? They've been really great in terms of ideas for us.

Feels like I've been on this forum for years! It's been amazing! Only 97 days to go now!

Can someone give me the contact details of gary and holly or perhaps where they are locatd in ibiza? I will be there this weekend and thought I might check some florists out.

Can you give me any idea of how expensive you are talking? Like does anyone know how much for a nice bridal bouquet and some smaller but similar bridesmaid bouquets... because right now I pretty much have no clue how much it costs. I also wanted to do flower centerpeices, but something simple. Are there any other florists I should check out?

I'm actually using Vickky for my wedding but she will not really talk to me about planning things yet until fall. My wedding is this time next year. Has anyone done their flowers through Vickky? Are the prices the same as if you find the florist yourself?

Kirsty, I'm using Mireya http://aurea-flores.blogspot.com/ and she's been great so far - really professional and happy to work around your budget. I met her in Ibiza a couple of weeks ago and she's lovely, plus I think she has really original, interesting ideas (not the typical wedding stuff). Have a look at her website and see what you think.

Contact Gary and Holly at: Gary Dart <****@*****************.***> They're there now and I'm sure would be happy to meet you. We met them over there last week. They don't have a florist shop, they work specifically for events out of their workshop. My bouquet is costing £110 and smaller versions for BMs £45. Flowers we're having include hydrangea, freesia, million star gypsophila, veronica, anemone (if in season) and avalanche roses – we're going for a boho, rustic, wild-flower look. I also had a quote from Ramos de Flores in Santa Eulalia, and it was a similar price, so we went with Gary & Holly as they're so easy to communicate with and had been so helpful.

I didn't shop around to be honest as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, lazy bride that I am!!!! I can check what I'm paying for flowers though to gove you an idea if you like?

Hi,

We met with Cardamom and wanted to thank you buzzybeeuk!! Something didn't quite sit well with us, they were quite pushy and, even on first meeting, kept pushing for more and more extras..and money!! Reading your post has convinced us of our intuition! They also told me they'd organised loads of weddings on the island, so its interesting to read that they only started out last year. I found them to be quite abrasive on email and didn't generally get a great feeling about them. Im not sure who we'll go with, but certainly not Cardamom!!

I should say that I was told by someone else in the wedding industry that they'd really just started organising events last year. I can't say for sure when they started! The restaurant closed last year though so they could concentrate on events. Ana Lui rates them mind you.

Dx

Evissa_bride, I am delighted my posting has helped someone already!

Did you meet Navine? We wanted to buy our own alcohol and she kept telling us that she'd get better prices from the suppliers and with lots of extras thrown in. Total rubbish. Luckily we resisted and it saved us a fortune, since the prices they quoted us were way higher than what we paid. Wine is cheap in Spain!

Another big one was when we first interviewed her we asked about kickbacks cos we know that these are very common on the island. Vendors often pay 10-20% commission to whoever sent them the customer. We asked about these commissions because we wanted Cardamom getting us the best deals and not just going to the vendor that paid them the best commission. Navine promised that any commissions go straight through to us. A couple months from the wedding we asked about the commissions and they told us there had been none, which we thought was weird. A few days after the wedding we saw an invoice to Cardamom from a supplier and there was a commission on it, so now we know it was all lies.

The frustrating thing is that they really insult your intelligence. It is not hard to figure out their tricks, yet they do them anyway.

maybe we see you there as we were there last sunday to pay our deposit?!

Hey I can recommend a really good and cheap florist. Kristin at www.flowersibiza.com, in Santa Eulalia. She was cheap, really nice, and did a great job. One of the best suppliers we used.

I have other recommendations if people are looking for them, just ask!

How strange! Yes! We were there last Sunday from 3pm to around 5pm having our tasting. Small world

I think I should speak up and defend Cardamom too!

They have worked on many weddings over the years, although not always as the overall planner. They certainly have the right experience and contacts to do a wedding properly.

I have not worked with them recently, but I can certainly remember working on a wedding 3 or 4yrs ago that they planned, so it's definitely not fair to say that they only started last year. I'm not surprised that you've heard that from someone in the industry here though, as some of my wedding couples have mentioned that they've been told that about several different suppliers and it's generally not true!!

Craig and Navine are lovely and very professional so it's a shame to see that one or two of you have had a bad experience. I know that many people rate their wedding cakes as being the best, but I guess they are focusing more on events now so the cakes may have taken a back seat even though the demand is still there.

As someone else quite rightly pointed out, the wedding catering market here is very cut-throat so don't listen to anything that competitors say about one another - make your own decisions and don't let anyone convince you to cancel meetings or make a decision before you have met everyone and compared properly.

Personally I would always recommend using an independent planner anyway, rather than having the caterer or venue help with the planning - it's a big job in itself, especially if you want to personalise your wedding and have a choice of suppliers.

It also makes a huge difference when things go wrong and an independent person will be in a position to put pressure on your suppliers to do extra things for free or cheap if something has been forgotten. You will struggle to do this yourself as you will only be getting married here once (I hope!) and if your planner is also your supplier then they certainly won't be shouting at themselves ;-)

You can still have Cardamom or Eat do your catering if you go through a wedding planner, but you will also have the choice of restaurant venues and other caterers which can only be a good thing. Regardless, you should always pick your location first and food second. Saying that though, if you are sure of your caterer, and they work in a venue that you like, then it may make financial sense for you to use their suppliers and planning assistance.

Sorry for the rant - just thought some of you might be interested in an opinion from someone who has a ringside seat at a lot of Ibiza weddings.

b.

Ibizabride, that would be amazing if you could give me the prices..

Girls thank you so much for all the help reguarding flowers

Thanks blue_moon for the link, her flowers are beautifull I really love her style, do you have a contact for her?

BeezwaxIbiza, am I right to assume that you are a vendor in Ibiza and not a customer?

Perhaps you have witnessed lots of successful weddings with Cardamom involved but that is not the same as going through the actual planning process with them as a client. Not to mention dealing with how they bill! You might find them reasonable and professional but that was not our experience as a customer.

I personally don't think you need a wedding planner to have a good wedding in Ibiza, as most of the vendors do their job very well, and once you hire them they know how to work with the other suppliers. Many of them are very experienced. For example, our ceremony rehearsal was managed by our minister. Cardamom showed up for literally 2 minutes and then left without even remembering to pay the minister, which created an awkward situation when he had to ask us for payment, with all the family around.

We hired Cardamom to save us time to locate the best vendors, but much of the time they'd only offer one vendor and we had to push them for more options.

The other thing about Cardamom (and possibly other planners)

- they take commissions from vendors.

- they pay their vendors in cash to avoid the tax, but still charge the tax to the clients

I don't want to totally slam Cardamom because I think Craig is generally pretty reasonable and he's a decent chef. They should have stuck with catering.

For people who really need a planner, my advice is to ask up front for all receipts for payments made to vendors (watch them squirm when you ask for that), and don't pay 100% before the wedding. Once the money is paid, they don't want to know you.

i always invoice my clients direct, even if the wedding planner collects payment on the day.

thanks for your feedback anyway and great username :-)

Hi Kirsty, it's

*************@*****.*** -

mob:****9

She's very helpful and will work with you to find flowers that fit your budget. I've been impressed so far!

120 Euro for my bouquet

65 Euro for the bridesmaids

15 euro for buttonholes.

Not having floral centrepieces as I wanted to spend the money elsewhere.

buzzybeeuk - you really have helped, thank you for the tips - much appreciated. I fully expect to pay a slightly inflated price for wine etc (verses a supermarket), as they'll have to ship it in, keep it cool etc - and make money somehow! However, another planner (Deliciously Sorted) advised us that any wine not opened could be returned to the supplier, which I think is a great way of managing it!

I wasn't aware of the kick backs either.. Im guessing those are in addition to the % fee they put on top of everything? Very cheeky... I might PM you to get some recommendations, if thats OK?

beeZwaxIbiza - thanks for providing a balanced view, it certainly wasn't my intention to give Cardamom an undeserved kicking! We just had a niggle that they're weren't right for us, and some of buzzybee's experiences validated our concerns about bumping up the price, being a bit pushy etc.

Glad you like the username! and thanks for being impartial. I think everyone hates it when they see vendors giving 'recommendations'.

BTW, we still loved our wedding! it would take a tsunami to spoil our special day!

Yes it is in addition. Kick-backs go from around 10% to 25% in the tourism industry depending on what the service is. Don't forget the tax thing as well! Many vendors will not charge you tax if you pay cash. Cardamom were paying the vendors cash but charging us the tax! So their total cut is: management fee + tax + kickback! All up they are making around 30% of your wedding as profit! And that excludes all the the things they rent you for massively inflated prices.

For the record, we're not against people making a profit at all, we just don't want to be tricked or lied to. Cardamom should quit the games and just charge a higher management fee.

feel free to PM me but if possible ask questions on the forum so everyone can see the answers, I want to expose the truth!

Interesting! I wonder why we never heard about you when we were looking for a DJ! We were offered one DJ and then when we asked for more options they introduced us to another DJ who was not a local and had never done a single wedding on the island, but was looking to get into the business.

But he was nearly 3 times as expensive! Not much of a choice, so we had to go for the first one.

Absolutely - I'll happily pay anything that I'm made aware of and I think reasonable, but sneakily adding profit lines in, especially with cash payments is wrong. Funny you mention the inflated prices - we asked about renting chill out furniture and we were told it STARTS at 700E for the night. Crazy.

Where did you have your wedding and how many guests did you invite? Also, have you got any advice about timings for the day? Thanks!

Don't get me started on inflated prices... it is really out of control. It will blow your brain trying to control all of them, and it is not worth it, you just have to let go and expect to get overcharged a fair bit. 700 Euro for lounge furniture is just a beginning! we paid double that for some lounge furniture. the original proposal by Cardamom was several thousand euros!

The best way to do it, I think, is find the nicest possible hotel or restaurant that already has as much as possible. furniture, sound system, lighting, deco, etc. If you have to rent every little thing then it is going to cost a fortune, and you end up making more sacrifices. For 40k you should have an AWESOME wedding, if done right. We had 80 people. For timings, we started at 3pm, dinner/speeches at 6pm, party till late. felt like a mad rush but worked ok. tell your bridal party to keep the speeches short!

The most expensive way to do a wedding is to pick a location that has absolutely nothing, like an empty beach or piece of land, and bring everything in. Then the wedding planners are going to have a great time with you!