The point of our extensively long Spanish hol has been to attend the wedding of our lovely friends L&S who got married on Saturday at the very beautiful Hacienda de San Rafael, about 45km south of Seville.

I was thrilled to be able to give my new fascinator from Carlos an outing. Extra points awarded to him for the fact that I was able to unceremoniously shove it in to my hair just before dashing out the door…and despite dancing ‘til dawn (literally, the last bus laid on to ferry people back to their hotels came at 6am) it stayed firmly wedged on my head until my 4am dance moves finally dislodged it.

The venue was idyllic and the service was held in a little courtyard decorated with pink bougainvillea and sunflowers at around 8pm (so still beautifully sunny and warm but no longer boiling).

Flower girls wore cotton Flamenco dresses and were adorable:

Post service champagne, sherry – served straight from the barrel by a chap with a long stick, see pic below – and an impressive leg of jamon iberico was wolfed down by all.

I am proud to say that since this Spanish trip, I have become something of a sherry convert –  fino only of course, eeeeuuugh to the sweet stuff.  Manzanilla really is delicious and so unfairly maligned in Britain due to its crusty old man image which needs serious rectifying (I will have to attempt to do this single handedly on my next trip over).

Dinner – Spanish style, we didn’t eat until about 10pm – was among the estate’s olive grove and consisted of about 10 tables of 10, each beautifully decorated with lavender, rosemary and olive branches.

…To the happy couple.