A Spanish Wedding at a Mediterranean Mansion

The grounds of an expansive Mediterranean mansion by the Balearic sea were the setting for Nina and Mattias’ Spanish wedding. Situated on a hillside surrounded by greenery on Alicante’s ‘Costa Blanca’, the 1924 finca’s tranquil garden made for a magical reception. Two decadent candlelit tablescapes unfolded along the central path through trees leading up to the palace facade beneath a celestial canopy of string lights. Hundreds of hypnotic white candles encased in glass framed the walkway, leading to the house and dance-floor inside.

The poetic Spanish wedding was masterfully captured by photographer Bring Me Somewhere Nice.

Our Story

Names / Mattias Eklund & Nina Okhotnikova

Location / Altea, Spain

Wedding Date / June 23rd, 2023

Guest Numbers / 150

Budget / €150,000

Mattius & Nina Wedding

How We Met

Mattias, who at the time lived in a small town outside Umeå in the north of Sweden, was in Alicante for a golf trip with a friend in December of 2017. On the last day of his trip, he and his friend went out to a restaurant called El Portal. After a couple of hours, Nina and her cousin, together with a friend, came into the restaurant and as soon as Mattias saw them, he turned to his friend and asked if he saw these girls that had just come in. Shortly thereafter, Mattias went to the toilet and was stopped by the cousin of Nina, who was very outspoken. She asked about Mattias, who he was, where he was from, and if he wanted to date her cousin. Mattias didn’t really know what to say but he laughed and went to the toilet. After a while, he also spoke a few words to Nina. He found out that she was from Russia, but lived in a small Pitoresk town outside Alicante called Altea with her son Roberto, who was around 3 years old at the time, but nothing more.

He followed Nina on Instagram, and the next day, he asked about her Facebook. They talked a little, but both thought that there was a bit too much of an age difference between them. Then in the middle of February 2018, Mattias, a little drunk, saw a picture of Nina on Instagram, and he said, “You are so beautiful”. Nina saw this and was flattered and said “thank you”, and they started talking. After a few hours of chatting, Nina invited Mattias to come to Spain to meet. Mattias bought a ticket and flew to Altea a few weeks later. They spent 5 nights there and after that, Mattias invited Nina to Paris for a weekend in April. Then he came back to Altea at the end of April, he bought a house and moved to Altea that same year. In December 2019, their daughter Matilda was born and the rest is history.

Our Engagement Story

It was Valentine’s Day 2022 and Mattias was going out to buy something for Nina. They were going to a dinner with their children in the evening. Mattias didn’t really know what to buy, but he went to a jewelry store and started looking. Since he had thought about proposing to Nina at some point, he wanted to ask about how to do that. After a while, he decided to buy a ring right there and maybe ask Nina that evening. He went to buy a big bouquet of flowers and with that and the ring in his hand, he walked the 15 minutes to their house.

Nina was getting dressed for the dinner and when they where just sitting outside, Mattias opened a bottle of Champagne and gave her the flowers. Mattias told Roberto – Nina’s son who was then 7 years old – to take some photos of them. After a while he said “You know how much I love you?” And Nina just said, yes and gave him a kiss, but she was looking out the window and didn’t know what Mattias was planning to do. After a while, he went down on his knee and held out the ring. Nina was in shock, first she yelled out “NO” but it was more of a surprise NO than the actual answer. She was in shock and very happy.

What we love most about each other…

Mattias: I love that Nina is a very honest and caring person, I trust her with my life. She is an amazing human being, the best mother, very strong, and she has a beautiful soul.

Nina: I love that Mattias is a very humble person, smart, honest about everything, and such a kind and caring person to everybody. He’s my dream husband and the best dad for our children.

The Setting

Wedding Location

We live in Altea, just in front of this beautiful venue called Finca Montemolar. It is a fantastic place where people get married and we really wanted to have our Spanish wedding there. Nina wanted to get married on 23/6/2023, because the date sounds good. So we asked about this date and luckily it was the only date that week available. It is such a beautiful place, so it was perfect for us.

Aesthetic

We hired Paloma Cruz to do all the planning. They did such a wonderful job. Without them, we don’t know what would have happened.

The aesthetic we wanted was a rustic feeling with dimmed light and candles. The setting was more than amazing, you can see in the pictures, it is so hard to describe in words.

Preparation

Mattias: I stayed at a nearby hotel and pretty much just waited to go to our Spanish wedding.

Nina: We got ready in our house together with my best friends Irina and Anastasia, my mother, my mother in law, my children Roberto and Matilda, the makeup artists Anita Pushkar & Anastasiya. It was a very beautiful day with a lot of emotions.

Mattius & Nina Wedding

Mattias & Nina Wedding

Photography

Dani Rodriguez is his name, he has a company called Bring Me Somewhere Nice. We got a few options off Paloma for good photographers, and we decided to talk to two of them, that both were very good. But there was something about Dani that drew us to him. His style is very natural and he seemed to capture those important moments and people in a way that just felt natural and very beautiful. We loved his work, it is amazing, exactly what we were looking for.

Videography

Mattias:
I was in L.A to make a recording in a music studio with my company Toontrack, and usually when we do these kinds of recordings we hire a videographer and photographer. So this guy that I already knew, Beau Austin, was there and we talked about my Spanish wedding, and he said that he has a company that films weddings. It was really cool, he uses a 16mm film camera for some parts etc. So I fell in love with it and asked him if he could come to film our Spanish wedding. He came all the way from San Diego to Altea to shoot the weeding. We haven’t seen the finished film yet, it is coming now any day, hopefully.

Style Notes

Ceremony Décor

We designed 2 structures with different volumes to framing the sea views of Altea. We deconstructed the shapes to create similar flower dunes and we used the ghost glass chair to make the floral decoration the protagonist.

The decor revolved around the pearls, so we thought of covering the anthuriums with pearls, it was done by hand, one by one. It took 2 people 3 working days. They were used in all the flower arrangements.

The flowers included roses, orchids, carnations, dahlias, baby’s breath, peonies, amaranthus, hydrangeas, anthuriums and pearled anthuriums, ranunculus, tulips, and spray roses.

Reception Décor

We designed the lighting for the dinner to be a fundamental element in the structure of the decoration. We placed it outside of the corridor to leave the tables clear, and to be able to place spotlights according to the effect we wanted to create different atmospheres. This way the tables were illuminated with the candles and the spotlights, combining the microled curtains in complementary decoration in the space. The photos from the drone show the dimensions.

We filled the front of the house with candles leaving only 2 corridors accessible, giving a very dramatic effect to the whole complementary area.

Wedding Planner & Stylist

Paloma Cruz and her team made it possible. They proposed the overall aesthetics and we loved it. They just fitted it all in our budget.

Mattius & Nina Wedding

Stationery

Entirely handmade paper in landscape format with a very modern layout, decorated with antique pearls. This all matched the place-cards.

Cake

Carrot cake filled with caramel mouse with lotus biscuits.

Food & Beverages

The 2 Michelin-starred chef Ricard Camarena prepared a cocktail party with champagne stations, cocktails, several showcooking stations and a menu where the protagonist was the seafood.

For the cellar we had chivite white wine (Chivite colección 125 from Navarra), champagne, Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, red wine Alion bodegas vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero. All accompanied by 100% acorn-fed ham.

“We filled the front of the house with candles leaving only 2 corridors accessible and giving a very dramatic effect to the whole complementary area.”

Mattius & Nina Wedding

Fashion & Beauty Notes

Wedding Rings, Jewelry & Accessories

Engagement ring:
An artisan jeweller called Sendra.

Wedding rings:
Rabat.

The Details

Transport

Mattias: I drove a motorcycle from the hotel and then walked alone up to the reception to meet all of my beautiful friends that were there.

Nina: I took a car with my best friend Irina, and waited inside, with the air conditioning on, until it was time to go up.

Honeymoon

We haven’t planed it yet but we are thinking of going to the Maldives, maybe with a stop in Dubai. Both of us want to play a little golf while we honeymoon. If possible, we would like to go for three weeks.

Mattius & Nina Wedding

Wedding Songs

When she walked up the aisle it was “When I Fall In Love” by Nat King Cole.
After the ceremony it was “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley.
First dance was “All of Me” by John Legend.

Entertainment

During the dinner it was a playlist we made with a lot of golden oldies such as Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra etc. During the dance it was all kinds of great songs, all from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and then some more modern songs from now.

Celebrant

It was a person that Paloma introduced us to, he did a great job.

Mattius & Nina Wedding

Our Advice

A memorable moment…

Mattias: This whole day was just amazing, I cannot even imagine having a better day of moments. To see Nina for the first time that day with her beautiful dress, and to see her walk the aisle, and all our friends and family that came from far away to see us for this special day, it was the most amazing experience. It was like a dream, a dream Spanish wedding.

Nina: All day beforehand I was really calm, without stress, until I got out of car in front of our guests and started walking down the isle. Then all emotions and happy tears came. It was a beautiful moment to see my future husband standing there and to see all our friends and family, and the setting of the ceremony was the best you can imagine. A dream come true.

One thing I wish I knew before I started my wedding plans…

Since we had Paloma, everything went so smooth and it was perfect. So there is nothing really that was hard, because they did everything, planned everything into the smallest detail. We would not change anything, except maybe slow down time so we could experience it even more.

If I could give other couples one piece of advice…

Just be honest and listen to each other. Do things alone without children sometimes, go away, a hotel night in the city, a dinner, whatever. These things are very good for our relationship and it is always something we look forward to.