A Magazine Cover Wedding in Catalonia
A magazine cover wedding in Catalonia starts with the details, and Lavater and Peter’s day at Castell de Sant Marçal had them everywhere. A monogram with their initials, designed for the wedding, marked the mirror that welcomed guests at the castle entrance, the white aisle runner that led to the fountain, and the cake later that night. Paper parasols and engraved fans waited in baskets against the Mediterranean sun, and each guest found their table on a travel tag printed with their name, a nod to the long trip so many of them had made. Lavater and Peter, a couple from the United States, said their vows in front of the fountain under a curved four-arm altar that overflowed with flowers, with a crystal chandelier at either end.
At the cocktail, guests stepped into a vintage phone booth and left voice and video messages instead of signing a guest book, a keepsake the couple listened to in the days after the wedding. Dinner took over the castle’s greenhouse, dressed for the night as a ballroom: a gold dance floor with the monogram at its centre, two baroque chandelier trees rising between the tables, and the wedding cake beside the couple’s table with handmade flowers and the same gold initials. Their entrance came after the bridal party, to cheers from every table. A Vogue-style photobooth with its own lightbox turned guests into cover models for the night, every printed photo carrying the wedding monogram, and Lavater moved through several dress changes as the party carried on late.
Castell de Sant Marçal: a 13th-century castle near Barcelona
Castell de Sant Marçal sits between Sant Cugat del Vallès and Cerdanyola del Vallès, about twenty minutes from Barcelona. Its documented history goes back to the twelfth century, when Ramon Berenguer IV granted it to his seneschal Ramon Guillem de Montcada, and it later passed to the Plegamans family, who kept it for centuries. The estate has held on to its gardens, its pond, part of the old moat and a small church, and it is rented to one wedding at a time. The castle also keeps a restored bodega in its cellars, used for appetisers or late-night dancing.
That exclusivity is what makes the castle work for a day like this one: a ceremony by the fountain in the afternoon, dinner in the greenhouse after dark, and the dancing never more than a flight of stairs away, so the whole celebration stays on one estate from the first toast to the last dance.
As a Wedding Planner, Vanessa Serrani’s role for Lavater and Peter was to hold the castle’s scale together, so the fountain ceremony, the greenhouse dinner and the after-party each kept their own atmosphere as the evening moved through them. It is the kind of layered, single-venue celebration her destination weddings service is built around.
If a castle wedding is the idea you keep coming back to, you might also enjoy this wedding at Castell de Caramany in Empordà, another celebration built around its own historic grounds. You can also see a Chinese tea ceremony wedding at the same castle.
What couples say about working with Vanessa Serrani
“Truly world class. She does everything very well. She is organised and is always available to answer all your questions. She did everything exactly like you want it.”
Prajwal Moras
“Vanessa did an incredible job planning our wedding at Xalet Del Nin. We are from the United States and she was able to arrange meetings around our schedule. She took into account everything that we asked for.”
Paige Silva
And if you are picturing your own wedding somewhere like this, Vanessa would love to talk it through with you. Feel free to get in touch, and you can start planning at whatever pace feels right.
