Many people ask us how the Fiestasol story began. Running a successful wedding planning business in Spain is not easy; it requires a serious amount of determination, adaptability, ambition and good old-fashioned hard work.

Fiestasol actually started from a 2nd-hand laptop bought on Ebay, a moped and a childhood obsession with weddings. Back in 2004, my husband Alex and I had recently moved to Marbella. We had been in London for many years working our socks off and feeling stressed. Alex had worked his way up through the chef ranks at various restaurants and I had been at GQ magazine. Marbella was the perfect antidote; a happy and familiar place for us both, bursting with opportunities.

We had nothing: no money, no car, no friends! Capitalising on Alex´s culinary skills and my interest in business strategy, we decided to start at the beginning. We bought a moped, set up a (terrible) website and started to network. Speaking the language was a huge help and soon doors started to open. We zoomed around on our dodgy wheels, catering for neighbours´parties, making contacts at hotels and asking for advice wherever we went. I met my first bride by overhearing her talking to her friends about her engagement at a sandwich shop in Puerto Banus. I went over to chat to them and gave her my card. 15 years later we are still friends and have 5 children between us.

Fiestasol team catering a wedding in Marbella

Back in 2004 the wedding industry in Spain was a much less competitive arena than it is now. We quickly began to grow and soon we identified a key niche for Fiestasol. We had been coordinating many weddings in local restaurants and hotels but became frustrated with the limiting regulations in these kind of venues. We began to develop a model for promoting weddings in private venues – villas, fincas and cortijos.

We realised we could provide all the major wedding services under one umbrella  -wedding catering, wedding styling and wedding coordination, in a way that would give our clients complete flexibility. From then, things really began to take off. We built Fiestasol HQ from scratch – taking an empty warehouse and putting in everything from walls, kitchens, tiles, the office space and our beautiful showroom and tasting room. A few years later we had to rent the warehouse next door as we were bursting at the seams.

Our family was also growing. During the first 7 years of Fiestasol, all 3 of our boys were born and life became a real juggle. At this point we were growing enough to be able to delegate and set up our wonderful Fiestasol team – with more employees joining us every year: planners, stylists, catering coordinators, cleaners, chefs, van drivers and warehouse assistants.

We have managed some amazing events over the years: multi-million-Euro Indian weddings, Google conferences, celebrity weddings and we even catered the whole 3-month shoot for Love Island Finland last summer. We love our work, even through the ups and downs and the stressful moments. Above all, we are hugely grateful for the whole journey and we know that there is still so much in store for Fiestasol.

Heather and Alex Spinola are the Directors of Fiestasol Weddings & Catering www.fiestasol.com