Most brides who choose Andalusia picture a whitewashed hacienda outside Seville, a cortijo in the hills near Granada or a beach on the Cádiz coast, and only later realise that the Costa del Sol, where so many hair and makeup artists work, is two or three hours’ drive away. The question that follows is whether anyone will come that far for the morning, and on time.
Besides the weddings on the coast, I have got brides ready in Cádiz, Granada, Seville and Córdoba, and every one of those journeys was settled long before the day. Once I know the exact place where the bride gets ready, I work out when to leave, whether to sleep nearby and what the travel costs, so on the morning itself the distance is no longer her concern.
Do you travel to weddings in Seville, Granada or Córdoba?
Yes, to any province of Andalucia. What shapes the trip is not so much the province as the exact place where you will get ready, because a street in the old town of Córdoba and a cortijo at the end of a dirt track can be the same distance away and still need very different timings.
If the place is less than an hour and a half’s drive from Fuengirola, I drive there and back on the day. Further than that, as with most weddings in Seville or Córdoba, staying nearby the night before is weighed, so at the agreed time my kit is already set up and nothing depends on that morning’s traffic. All of it is in the quote from my first reply, with no surprises later.
How is travel priced for a wedding away from the coast?
When you write to me with your date and venue, I reply with the dossier, and in it the travel is listed apart from your own service, so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
Your bridal service includes your hair and makeup on the day, the trial, a touch-up kit in the shades chosen at the trial, and advice all year round, by WhatsApp or email, until the wedding. Travel is charged by the kilometre from Fuengirola, and when the team has to stay nearby, the night, meals and accommodation are added. Before anything is booked I explain each cost to you, I book it once you agree, and it is paid with the deposit, because the deposit is what pays for those bookings.
Your mother, your godmother or your friends each have their own quote. And if the ceremony time means starting before dawn, a small supplement is added for the early hour.
Where is the trial if I don’t live near Málaga?
The trial happens wherever you choose, and choosing the place also means choosing who travels. If you come to Fuengirola or somewhere close by, there is no travel to pay, because you are the one making the journey. If you would rather have it at your home or at the finca where you are marrying, I come to you, and that trip is charged by the kilometre, like the one on the day. In return, the makeup is tried in the room and the light where you will actually get ready.
Ideally it takes place one to two months before the wedding, when your hair length and your tan are close to what they will be on the day. By then you will have sent me the photos you love, so I arrive at the trial already knowing your style quite well. If you would like to meet me first, our first conversation can be a video call.
What time do you arrive for a morning ceremony?
To know when I arrive, I start from the ceremony time and count backwards: how long each person takes, the order everyone is done in, and the moment you need to get dressed. That gives the start time, and I take another half hour off it, the time I need to park, carry the kit up and set it out calmly.
For a wedding far from Fuengirola I have already spent the night nearby, so a noon ceremony in Seville is prepared as calmly as one in Mijas.
Can you get me ready at the hotel, a villa or the hacienda?
You get ready wherever you feel most at ease: a hotel room, a rented villa, your family’s house or a room at the finca. All I really need is a large table and a socket nearby. I bring the lighting and the extension leads myself, because not every room has good daylight and makeup cannot be judged in the dark.
If you are getting ready in a hotel, it is worth asking beforehand what table the room has. Often there are only the bedside tables, and working with the kit spread across the bed is not the same.
Will my makeup last through an August wedding in Seville or Córdoba?
An August wedding in Seville or Córdoba starts hot in the morning and stays hot well into the night. It is a dry heat, and what moves makeup is not the heat itself but the sweat and oil the skin produces to defend itself from it. So the skin comes first: I cleanse it, hydrate it and prepare it for how it is that day, because on balanced skin the base stays where it is put. On top I work in thin layers, set only the areas that tend to shine, and fix the makeup so sweat cannot shift it. In the hair, heat loosens the shape, so the style is built with structure from the root, without making it stiff.
On the Cádiz coast the challenge is different. Humidity, which softens hairstyles, adds to the heat, and so does the levante, the easterly wind that can blow hard all afternoon. There I work the hair with dry products, which give grip without weight, and pin the style and the veil at the points the wind will pull on, because a hairstyle is held not by hairspray but by where the pins go. Your hair will move a little, and that is fine: built properly, it moves with the wind without coming apart.
Can you bring a team for my mother and bridesmaids?
Yes. While I get you ready, the team looks after your mother, your godmother, your sisters or your bridesmaids, and the morning stops being a queue in front of the mirror and becomes time spent together. If someone is staying in another room, part of the team goes to her.
If two people besides you are getting ready, I do them myself within the same schedule. For more, I count one artist for every three people, and there is no upper limit, in Fuengirola or in Córdoba: the team is as large as the morning needs. I choose every artist carefully, and each of them does both hair and makeup, so whoever sits in their chair has one person looking after her from start to finish.
Weddings in each province of Andalusia
I work from Fuengirola, and what shapes the trip is the time it takes to drive there rather than the kilometres. Up to an hour and a half away, the lightest area of the map, I drive there and back on the day even if getting ready starts at six in the morning: that covers Ronda, Antequera, Sotogrande and Algeciras. Between an hour and a half and two and a half hours, a night nearby starts to be worth weighing, and it depends on the wedding. I have got two brides ready at Finca La Esperanza, in the Lecrín Valley near Granada, over an hour and a half away along a tricky road. Both weddings were in the afternoon, so I went and came back on the day; a morning wedding would have meant sleeping there the night before. More than two and a half hours away, as in Huelva or Almería, I always stay nearby. That is why every wedding is worked out in the quote, and the hotel is usually cheaper the earlier it is booked.
- Up to 1 h 30
- 1 h 30 to 2 h 30
- More than 2 h 30
Approximate driving times from Fuengirola, without traffic.
| Time by car | Travel |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 h 30 | On the day, at any time |
| 1 h 30 to 2 h 30 | A night nearby is weighed, depending on the wedding time and the budget |
| More than 2 h 30 | The night before |
