Under the golden Spanish sun, Cassidy and Eric’s wedding was nothing short of a dream – an effortlessly chic celebration set against the breathtaking backdrop of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea. The festivities began with a stylish welcome party in the heart of the city, setting the tone for a weekend filled with love, laughter, and unforgettable moments. For the ceremony, the couple chose a stunning 14th-century villa in Sitges, perched above the sea. A breathtaking floral altar framed the endless blue horizon, creating the perfect setting for their heartfelt vows. Cassidy embodied timeless elegance in a strapless corset gown from Wed Studio. Step into the couple's magical day, filled with beauty, emotion, and celebration.
Our Welcome Party
Location
Our wedding welcome party was held at Soho House Barcelona with the moody and eclectic décor.
Our Style
The wedding was bright and colorful, so this was our opportunity to incorporate a moodier, sophisticated palette. Our guests showed up in black, so our all-white outfits purposefully stood out. The idea was to honor the style of the historic, ornate architecture in the Gothic Quarter adjacent to Soho House, and there was no better way to do that than a Wiederhoeft corset. We also made sure to have Spanish tapas, Iberian ham, and a DJ to set the mood.
Our Love Story
The Day We Met
Eric whisked me away on a motorcycle ride on our first date. It was a beautiful spring day, cherry blossoms in full bloom, along Washington Memorial Parkway in Washington D.C. We ended the date with two sloppy burgers from our favorite local spot, and a first-date kiss goodnight on the stoop of my Dupont Circle townhouse. Five years later, we did our engagement photoshoot on the back of a motorcycle.
The Proposal
My family has deep ties in Wyoming, both my grandfather and great-grandfather were true western cowboys, and my mom still rides horses professionally. This made Jackson Hole the perfect location to pop the question. 
Eric’s sister feigned that she wanted family photos with her new baby and got me behind the camera lens. When she took the camera to “check the lighting,” Eric surprised me with the ring. My family was proud to see that the cowboy hat stayed on during the engagement.
The Engagement Ring
I had no idea that Eric was proposing and had no say in the ring. My two criteria for an engagement were always that I wanted to be truly surprised and that I wanted photos. He coordinated with my best friends to pick a ring, and with another longtime friend’s jeweler. Safe to say he picked something classic and timeless (like me, he jokes).
Our Wedding
The Vision
Our relationship has been defined by travel. We first said “I love you” at the top of Ecuadorian mountains in a hostel called the Llullu Llama Mountain Lodge. A year later we summitted Mount Kilimanjaro together. We have been lucky enough to travel across Australia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America together. It only felt natural that we got married abroad. Eric’s one criteria was that we be by the water. Barcelona felt right, especially with the nice people, the reliable weather, delicious food, and late-night energy!
Our Team of Vendors
So much of the beauty of our wedding we owe to our vendors. Becca Mader and Alyssa Johnson made me feel prettier than I ever have (they also did my courthouse wedding, which ended up going semi-viral). I had to have Soline from TheYesMaker and Rhapsody Planner for their creative vision that so exceeded other wedding planners.
For florals, we entrusted Elena at Tepeesauvage to create the beautiful organic floral arrangements and an arch that both blended with the surroundings and stood apart. La Robe Club did our cute, quirky stationary all the way from Australia. As for the footage, we cannot wait to see what the sweetest couple, Romavera Films, created for us. And of course, Silvia Poropat, with the help of Samantha Rivieccio, captured the absolute joy of the day in a way that I will forever be grateful for.
Location
Masia Casa Del Mar is a 14th-century villa located in Sitges, about thirty-five minutes from downtown Barcelona. Upon entering, you are immediately greeted with expansive ocean views in every direction - it sits on the edge of a cliff on the sea. We felt that the venue was stunning enough to justify the trip overseas for our guests. Luckily, we were greeted with perfect weather the week of our wedding (it had rained the whole week prior), and the day turned out to be absolutely breathtaking.
The Ceremony
It was important to me to have live music during the ceremony, as I think it adds to the emotion of the moment. We hired a three-piece string group led by Rafael of “Old Violin 1755” to play upbeat music - Ed Sheeran and the Beatles and, for my walk, Duomo’s “Wildest Dreams.” My 15-month-old niece, Joni, was the perfect flower girl. We were initially worried that she would attempt to eat the flowers rather than throw them, but she ended up loving the crowd’s reaction to her throws. My two-year-old nephew, Hudson, was equally adorable as the ring bearer, perfectly executing the hand-off after having practiced with my cousin Hannah for weeks leading up to the wedding.
My brother Dane officiated the ceremony, and one of my best friends Bridget gave a personalized reading. Both absolutely crushed it. We read our vows for the first time in front of everyone, something I was scared to do because I thought I would bawl my eyes out. Luckily, I was on such a serotonin high that not a single tear was shed! Eric and I kissed to Beyonce’s “Love on Top,” and we all quickly beelined for cocktail hour.
The Reception
After the ceremony, our guests were escorted up to the pool deck for specialty cocktails by Saporeando and 12(!) different appetizers by Delokos Soul Catering. Delokos was one of our best vendor choices, and we loved the fact that it is a smaller, independent catering company run by a lovely, artistic couple. I got more compliments on the appetizers than almost anything else at the wedding. When it comes to food, Delokos knows how to wow.
For dinner, we enjoyed gazpacho, steak, and brownie sundaes and listened to a live roast of Eric from some of his best friends. After full bellies and belly-laughs, we were ready for the dancing. We flew our band, Truly Medley Deeply, in from the UK. We had been debating between a larger nine-piece traditional wedding band or TMD, a three-piece band that specializes in mashups, a unique hybrid of live act, saxophone, DJ, and jukebox. We made the absolute best decision, because they blew us out of the water. One of our favorite moments of the entire day was the “Boys vs Girls” dance-off that TMD initiated. Eric is notorious for loving the Step-Up movies, and the boys vs girls dance battle we had was very Step-Up coded.
The Special Touches
Above anything else, we wanted our wedding to feel intentional, intimate, and authentic to us. When guests arrived at the hotel, they were greeted with a newspaper with our love story, the events of the weekend, and suggestions for activities in Barcelona. The boutique hotel we rented out, Hotel Casa Bonay, was incredibly special because it had a gathering area for breakfast and late night that all the guests could linger within. So many people said they loved that they could continue to connect and bond with other wedding guests in this way.
For months prior to the wedding, we also worked on crafting individual letters to each and every person. The idea was to greet guests before the ceremony with a handwritten letter, a specialty cocktail, and a refreshing appetizer. I was able to spy on people from my perch in a bedroom on the second floor of the venue as they arrived and read their letters, many of them wiping their tears as they did so. That feeling was one I’ll treasure forever.
Eric and I are also huge dessert people. We knew that we wanted to serve a full course of dessert after dinner, but we weren’t going to stop there. When we had lived in New York City prior to business school, we had spent $800 on cookies from Levain, an embarrassing fact made even worse by the fact that we had lived there for just one year. As a result, we needed to find a way to fly Levain to the wedding. One of Eric’s best friends received a delivery of 70 cookies an hour before leaving for the airport, and checked an extra bag entirely filled with cookies to Barcelona. Needless to say, we were pumped to enjoy our favorite dessert with all of our favorite people, even halfway across the world.
Our Favorite Moment
Avicii’s song “Levels” is an undeniable banger, and our favorite moment of the entire wedding was when we concluded the live music with this song. Who knew our wedding would devolve into a mosh pit of men in various states of undress. It was a feeling I can only describe as pure ecstasy.
Our Style
The Bridal Looks
For the first ceremony look, I chose a strapless corset gown from Wed Studio, complemented by vintage Chanel heels and earrings. For the reception, I wore a custom Lillian Khallouf design, styled with vintage Chanel mesh "CC" slingbacks. To dance at the party, I opted for a vintage Mandalay dress from Happy Isles Salon, paired with Stuart Weitzman platforms.
The Bridesmaid Look
I only had one bridesmaid, my Maid of Honor Sahar, who wore Nana Jacqueline dress and shoes from Tony Bianco.
Our Advice
For the Planning Process
There were moments of stress in the planning process, especially because it was a destination wedding. I found that Europeans are more laissez-faire about everything. For someone who is quite type A, this was a challenge, but it also forced me to get more involved in the process. I took the initiative to think through the details and often over-communicated, something that I think is good to do no matter the circumstances. It really helped me to unplug the day of the wedding, because I knew that I had done as much as I possibly could to ensure that things went smoothly.
Eric’s advice is more practical. Whatever you think you are going to spend, add 20%. We knew this going in, but there are vendors and items that you don’t even think about if you are not an event planner. We also ended up dealing with wire fraud, which may be a risk with international weddings that you should be hyper-aware of.
For On the Day
Even though we ended up sleeping separately the night before the wedding, the first thing we did when we woke up was meet for coffee at a cute Spanish café. It was a moment for just us to share ahead of the hectic activity of the day, and something that I would recommend to anyone. Eric gave me a sweet note and left to go about his normal routine, hitting the gym and getting some alone time prior to the ceremony. In his words, it was just another day because he knew he was marrying his best friend.
We all know that glam does not permit the same schedule for the bride, and instead I played music and had a blast with my glam squad before the content team and more girls arrived. Becca and Alyssa remarked that I was one of the chilliest brides they had done makeup for, something I attribute to my heavy involvement in the details throughout the process. It was finally time to unplug, and there was nothing I could change at that point. Luckily for me, everything ended up working out perfectly.
For Post-Wedding
After all of the events of the week (Rehearsal Dinner, Welcome Party, Ladies Brunch, Wedding), we decided to not host a Sunday brunch the day after the weekend. Knowing this, we left it all on the field the night of our wedding. It was great to escape on Sunday to Mallorca without all of the goodbyes (we are famous for Irish exits anyways!)
Because we had a destination wedding, it was also great to have a honeymoon that was convenient and proximate. We chose Mallorca because it was less than an hour away, and it was so wonderful not to have to spend a whole day traveling. We would both highly recommend doing that for any future destination-wedding couples out there.
Vendors
Photography: Silvia Poropat, Samantha Rivieccio
Videography: Romavera
Wedding Planner: The Yes Maker, Rhapsody Planner
Venue: Masía Casa Del Mar
Welcome Party Venue: Soho House Barcelona
Florist: Tepee Sauvage
Stationary: La Robe Club
Cookies: Levain Bakery
Catering: Delokos Soul Catering
Live Music: Truly Medley Deeply
DJ: Nico Casaux
Hair: Becca Mader
Makeup: Alyssa Marie
Style
Welcome Party Corset: Wiederhoeft
Welcome Party Skirt: Cinq à Sept
Welcome Party Bag: Lucia Zolea
Bridal Dress: Wed Studio
Second Dress: Lillian Khallouf
Third Dress: Happy Isles
Wedding Ring: Mejuri
Groom's Attire: Reiss, Berle, Rothy's
