Barcelona: Drink, Eat, and Be Married

Six weeks ago, we had a lovely Eurotrip. It began in Brussels, continued to Madrid, and culminated with our wedding celebration in Barcelona. This is the last installation on the blog about that wonderful journey. Many people asked us "why Barcelona for a wedding site?" as we do not have any family ties to the city. We answered "why not?".  It is easily accessible by plane or train, the sun is always shinning, and fantastic food. We were fortunate enough to travel to Barcelona last October to scout a location for our party and were completely sold with the city for the celebration, especially since most of our guests were coming from Europe.

At Bar Rosso at Hotel Market Photo by Italo Morales

We had friends arriving from as far as Beirut, Atlanta, and Vienna and as close as Madrid and Barcelona. The goal was to spend as much time with our friends and family whether it was their first or tenth time in the city.  Thankfully, the Dutchman and I have been to Barcelona several times and have had our doses of La Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas.  We wanted to spend time eating, celebrating, and spending time with our friends who traveled from so far.

The Cellar of Jaume Giro i Giro Photo by Carlis Sanchez

Drink:  Given 95% of our guests came from outside Spain, we wanted an affordable and well situated hotel. We found that in Hotel Market, lovely boutique hotel nestled in a residential street of Eixample neighborhood. One of the features we enjoyed the most was the hotel bar, Bar Rosso. The bar is a popular spot for locals with its carefully crafted gin and tonics, beautifully upholstered furniture, and dark red interior. There, we had a lovely cocktail party with our guests, shipping on their signature mojitos and gin and tonics.

New Friendships Over Cava

As many of our guests have been to Barcelona before, we wanted for them to have a unique experience. Given the tips of local friends, we planned a tour of the Cava cellar of Jaume Giro i Giro in Sant Sarduni d'Anoia in the Penedes region. We had a private tour of the winery by the owner, Ramon Giro. He passionately went into detail about their artisan method of cava making and gave us a tour of the grounds. We had planned to go to other cellars bur ended up spending the afternoon drinking cava at the beautiful garden of the winery.

Dish from Little Italy BCN Photo by Little Italy BCN Website

Eat: One of the main reasons we chose Barcelona is the food. From tapas at a bar to haute cuisine, Barcelona has an amazing culinary culture. One of my favorite places to eat is El Born. We met up with friends and had tapas at Mercat Santa Caterina.  I love the open location and the diverse menu from traditional tapas to Asian noodles. One of our most memorable dinners was at Little Italy BCN.  Funny enough, I found it via Instagram and love how cozy and welcoming this restaurant is. We dined on a Thursday night, when they play live jazz during dinner hours. Although we had a large party, we had a lovely time on the lower dining area with great live music in the background. We sampled tuna tartare and risotto, which was to die for. One of my friends kept on raving about the yummy mojitos.


Walking the Streets of Barcelona Photo by Italo Morales

Be Married:  In my previous post about Ca la Nuri, I raved about the the delicious meal we had at the restaurant. One of the highlights of that special day was taking pictures with Italo Morales, a friend and amazing photographer. We walked around the inland neighborhood leading to Barceloneta to take pictures. Not only did we take lovely pictures, but we felt so much love from the people of Barcelona. We received well wishes from the twenty-somethings having their Cañitas at the bar to a couple celebrating their 45 years of marriage. We made it to Ca la Nuri close to sunset where we were met by the sound of the Spanish guitar and our friends and family sitting at the terrace to witness our exchange of vows. 


Getting Marriage Advice From the Experts Photo by Italo Morales