Nic and Tim, from the UK, married beneath beautiful dappled sunlight against the backdrop of the amazingly blue reservoir of Lake Viñuela in Spain. They chose the white village of Los Castillejos (an authentic ancient Andalucian town which is now a holiday resort) for their street party destination wedding, taking over the entire village for a whole week. The creative couple have a superb eye for detail and did most of the decor themselves with help from their guests, decking the village streets with garlands and lanterns. We love that they connected their civil ceremony they had conducted previously in Yorkshire by making fans for each guest displaying a photo from that day. More from the bride below on the day itself, but first these lively colourful images by Susie Lawrence.

DECIDING ON A LOCATION

I had always wanted to get married abroad (having a love of the sunshine as we live in Leeds in Northern England where there's not always so much of it). I had lived in Spain for a year before and Tim had travelled a lot around Spain. A friend's wedding abroad in France was the final decision maker: after we travelled to that Tim was convinced it was the way to go for our own wedding. We wanted to really involve our friends in the whole process so having the wedding abroad allowed us to do this, booking the village for a week and having the wedding in the middle.

THE PERFECT VENUE

We scoured the internet for the perfect venue: our criteria were firstly that we didn't really want anything too traditional and secondly I had a "Mamma Mia" style wedding in mind. We found Los Castillejos and hit gold! We viewed other venues on a few trips out on weekends but this was the only place that felt perfect. We had a year and a half to plan our wedding and within that year we flew over a few times to stay at the village and discuss plans with the owner. He organised everything for us including all the flowers and the cake as well as providing the wedding meal.

PLANNING A DESTINATION WEDDING

It was quite stressful planning a wedding abroad, especially in Spain with the manna attitude. We just had to let go and put faith in the people doing the organising. We decorated most of the village ourselves which all the guests got involved in and which ended up being great fun. The final little details were added by the venue. The day was amazing and we wouldn't have changed a thing, from the music to the weather, to the dancing and the unofficial midnight swim for the groom.. it was perfect.

Photography: Susie Lawrence Photography | Ceremony & Reception Venue: Los Castillejos | Wedding Dress: Abigail Bridal Boutique | Bride's Shoes: Nine West | Parasol: Ebay | Bridesmaid Dresses: Topshop | Flowers: Los Castillejos | Hanging Wooden Hearts: Steven Smith Garden Centre | Photo Booth Props: Hobbycraft | Paper Candle Holders: Notonthehighstreet | Fairy Lights, Blackboards, Tea Lights: Ebay | Bunting: Etsy | Paper Lanterns: The Paper Lantern Company | Hanging Lanterns: Lantern Lights