In 2023, Brian and I got engaged during our epic adventure in Spain. When we returned to the states, we started thinking about wedding planning.

I’d never been one to dream about my wedding. Frankly, the idea of a whole day where I’m the center of attention always made me uncomfortable. Bachelorette parties, walking down the aisle, having a first dance, wearing a fancy wedding dress… it always felt… fake to me. Like I was role playing “bride”.

Finding an Alternative

But, weddings are what you do! So we moved forward in planning. We googled some venues, I started a Pinterest board, and UGH it felt like such an unexciting CHORE. I love Brian, we’ve been together for 10 years already… why do we have to do all this silly, EXPENSIVE showboating? At least that’s how it felt to me. According to The Knot, the wedding planning site’s 2023 Real Weddings Study surveyed 12,000 couples and found the national average cost to be $30,000.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just go back to Seville and get married in the plaza?

It’s a thought we both had, but in a joking, obviously that’s ridiculous, kind of way. But one morning while walking the dog, I googled, “Can Americans get married in Spain?” I read a bunch of stuff about how to get legally married in another country – translating documents, all that kind of stuff – and was immediately out. Then I thought, what if we just… eloped for the fun of it? Get married in the states, then do a ceremony in Spain? So I googled, “Eloping to Seville” and the first thing that came up was Love Gracefully.

The rest is history.

Connecting with Love Gracefully

I sent out some feeler emails, which was the start of my communication with Lorena Moreno. Lorena would be our coordinator and we would email and zoom many, many times over the next 8 months.

After looking at their several ceremony options, we decided on the Diamond Package for 4246 Euros (but they often have discounts, so we got our Diamond Package for 3,660 Euros, or $4,054). The Diamond Package comes with…

• Tailor-made Ceremony including your own vows & texts
• English-speaking officiant
• Free assistance per phone or email
• Free locations available (up to 15 guests)
• Bouquet Of Flowers
• Photographer 3 hours
• Horse carriage ride
• Complimentary bottle of champagne
• Videographer 3 hours
• Symbolic Certificate (without legal value)
• VAT TAX included
• No hidden fees

I mean, that list sounds INSANE to me. A photographer and a videographer? That’s worth more than $4000 already. What Love Gracefully truly gave us, though, was the confidence and peace of mind that YES, we actually could have a ceremony in Spain.

So we went for it! We paid a deposit in February for our October 10th wedding and got to planning from there. And this wedding planning was SUPER EXCITING to both of us, because we were essentially planning a 10-day Spanish vacation with the people we love the most.

Brian and I both brought along our immediate families, plus we brought Brian’s cousin, Jacob, to be our ceremony’s officiant. He married several people in the family, so we knew he had to be the one to marry us, no matter where or how we did it.

Legally Married

Before Spain, we got legally married here in Texas. We didn’t do a Justice of the Peace wedding, we didn’t get dressed up, I didn’t wear a wedding dress, none of our family was there. We just signed some papers and were married. Honestly, it was a dream wedding.

A few days later, we gathered our families, the people that would be traveling together, to celebrate at El Raval. El Raval is an INCREDIBLE Spanish restaurant in Austin. 11/10 would recommend. We feasted and celebrated and it was truly wonderful.

Getting 13 people to Spain

We created an extensive spreadsheet detailing exactly what we would be doing every single day. With 13 people, we did everything in our power to avoid the, “What should we do next?” question. And the planning payed off. We didn’t have a single slip up or booking error, or family fight. It did take us a few days to find our groove (meeting in the lobby at 9am means 9am. Not 9:10, don’t make us wait for you!) but overall, we did an exceptional job traveling together.

We started from 4 different locations – Denver, Austin, San Antonio, and DC – but most of us were able to meet up at JFK and take the same overseas flight together! It was perfect. We had a group chat to organize everything and we made it to Barcelona seamlessly.

Barcelona

We stayed at the same hotels Brian and I stayed at last summer. We also prepaid everything when we booked them, so that we weren’t racking up huge bills as we traveled. Instead, when we booked a hotel, I paid it immediately. So when we were actually there, everything was already paid for. We booked the hotels for everyone in our group, which made check-in super easy.

After Barcelona, we took a train to Seville. We arrived the day before our wedding at 2pm, which gave everyone bit of time to settle in and explore the city before the ceremony the next morning.

Seville

The hotel situation in Seville was epic. Again, I reached out to the hotel Brian and I stayed in last year about booking 7 rooms. They responded with a quote that included several room types, so I said, “Great! I’ll take 7 basic rooms.” And they reminded me that, the boutique hotel is actually SO boutique, there are only 7 rooms in the whole hotel. So I booked them all! Suddenly, we had a private hotel just for our family in Seville, the city where we would get married. It was a dream scenario.

The Wedding Day

The day before our wedding, there had been a huge wind storm. The weather was not looking good overall (I of course tracked it every day as soon as it showed up on my weather app) and we were anticipating rain at the very least. However, the wind storm was not expected and a lot of the city apparently had lost power before we got there.

I got a 7:30am text from our photographer, Alejo Tosca, the point person for our wedding ceremony, saying Maria Luisa Park was closed so they could do safety inspections on the trees, and the main roads to the plaza were closed, BUT, we could still access the plaza through this one very specific set of stairs. He actually sent several video clips of exactly where to go. Alejo was AMAZING, looked out for Brian and my family to arrive at the plaza, and got everyone in order. He sent me a voice message saying, “I have everyone, not to worry” and I was just SO relieved. Alejo also messaged me the day before, saying he was so excited to meet us all and that he was ready to have an awesome day. It just made us feel so comforted.

Love Gracefully also handled all of our flowers. I had a bouquet and Brian had a boutonnière. Lorena asked me to send photos of what I wanted and I was like… Honestly, Lorena, you just choose. Something with some greenery, something that looks nice. And she delivered! The flowers were beautiful. They were also delivered straight to our hotel the night before our wedding.

My dad and I got picked up by a driver in a fancy Lexus (all arranged by Love Gracefully) and were taken to a meeting point where we transitioned into a horse drawn carriage (again, all arranged by Love Gracefully). It was at this point that we met Bibiana. She is usually the officiant, but since we had our own, she said she was just there to see all the family members we brought. She said, usually, when couples elope like this, it’s just the two of them. Bringing 11 family members along was extremely rare and she wanted to see it for herself. How lucky are Brian and I to have SUCH AMAZING FAMILIES?

We all walked into the plaza and because the plaza was “closed” with just that one opening, it was practically EMPTY. Totally unexpected and absolutely incredible. We all just arranged ourselves in a little V-formation, the musicians were playing, the ducks were quacking, and Jacob started the ceremony. It was short and sweet and PERFECT. We ended with a bottle of Cava (again, thanks to Love Gracefully) and that was that!

You might also notice from these photos that there was no rain or wind. Not a cloud in the sky! Just clear, beautiful skies. A wedding day miracle.

Alejo and Marcos (our videographer, also SO amazing) took us all around the plaza and the park (which had opened, thankfully!). We had such a blast running around with Alejo and Marcos after the ceremony. They were a complete joy and if you have the chance to work with either of them, I highly recommend them both. Marcos even put out a same-day teaser reel and Brian and I DIED. It was so amazing!!

Photographer: Alejo Tosca
Videographer: Marcos Ruiz

The whole day as a dream. The ceremony was perfect, thanks to the Love Gracefully team. Our photos were amazing and FUN thanks to Alejo and Marcos. The rest of the day, people shouted “Viva la Novia!” and clapped and cheered as we walked through the streets in our wedding get-up. Our families were there, sharing in the joy and celebration with us and UGH, I just can’t say enough good things.

To end the night, we had a BIG dinner on the patio of Restaurante El Giraldillo, next to the Seville Cathedral, under the bell tower, La Giralda.

Continuing the Party in Madrid

By the time we made it to Madrid, we were traveling like a well-oiled machine. We even took a day trip to Toledo!

Our families left Madrid all on the same day and flew back to the states after 10 days in Spain. Brian and I continued on from Madrid to Tenerife in the Canary Islands to begin our honeymoon.

Final Costs

So to recap, for Brian and I to get married in abroad, it cost:

• $4,054 for the ceremony
• $443 for musicians at the ceremony
• $33 for Brian’s boutonniere
• $3,200 for two round-trip plane tickets
• $575 for our hotel in Barcelona
• $700 for our hotel in Seville
• $604 for our hotel in Madrid
• $800 for a wedding day dinner feast

For a total of: $10,409

Brian and I were incredibly lucky and my parents paid for most of those costs and Brian’s parents helped us out on the honeymoon. We paid for Jacob’s expenses, as our invited officiant, but then asked our other family members to pay their own ways. So, it’s not a great 1-to-1 comparison, because you wouldn’t ask your family members to pay for their own food at your wedding or something, BUT, most weddings don’t come with a 10-day tour of Spain, either.

Final Thoughts

If your heart isn’t in it, don’t do it.

Our hearts were NOT in planning a traditional wedding for 100 of our closest friends and family members. That route was not US, but we felt pressured to because… that’s what people do. But guess what? YOU are in charge of what YOUR wedding looks like.

Instead, we chased what felt more US – small, relaxed, and as a part of an international trip. Love Gracefully gave us the confidence to take the leap, and then made it so easy from there. For that, we are eternally grateful!

I would love to share more about my experience getting married abroad! Post comments and questions below and I’ll answer everything I can.