WEDDING BLOG

By the time Susie and Justin’s ceremony began, the celebration had already been unfolding for days.

Guests had watched the sun dip into the Mediterranean at Experimental Beach Club, danced until morning at Pacha, and eased into an intentionally unscheduled recovery day before the festivities picked back up. By the time everyone gathered beneath the olive trees at Las Cicadas, introductions were no longer necessary. Their Ibiza Finca wedding had already done what they hoped it would: turn friends from different parts of their lives into one community.

That rhythm came naturally to the couple. They met on a 50-person snowboarding trip to Lake Tahoe through mutual friends, where Justin’s American flag onesie was impossible to miss. They became friends first, then spent the years that followed saying yes to travel, concerts, festivals, and collecting experiences instead of possessions.

“Looking back, it wasn’t one single moment that made us realize we were meant to be—it was the life we naturally kept creating together.”

What We Love About This Ibiza Finca Wedding

• Designing the celebration as a week in Ibiza instead of a single wedding day
• Building a recovery day into the itinerary after a night dancing at Pacha
• Handwritten notes waiting at every guest’s place setting
• A symbolic unity cocktail instead of a traditional unity ceremony
• Serving “TiramiSusie” in an oversized martini glass
• Throwing out the seating chart the night before the wedding after new friendships had already formed

Giving Guests Time To Become Friends Before The Wedding

Destination weddings often bring together people who have never met. Susie and Justin simply gave everyone enough time to stop feeling like strangers. The welcome party took place at Experimental Beach Club, where guests watched their first Ibiza sunset together before the night naturally continued at Pacha. Music has always been part of the couple’s relationship, so beginning the week on a dance floor felt less like entertainment and more like introducing everyone to their world. 

They also resisted the temptation to schedule every hour. The following day was left completely open. Some guests slept in after the late night. Others headed to the beach, explored the island, or spent the day by the pool. Without another event to rush to, conversations stretched longer, different friend groups mixed naturally, and people settled into the slower pace of the week.

By the ceremony, introductions had become unnecessary. “By the time the ceremony arrived, everyone already knew one another, friendships had formed across different groups, and the entire weekend felt less like a wedding and more like one big group of friends sharing an unforgettable experience together.”

The Details That Couldn’t Have Belonged To Anyone Else

The ceremony reflected the same mix of personality and playfulness that had defined the rest of the week. Instead of a unity candle or sand ceremony, Susie and Justin created a unity cocktail. Each added ingredients that represented different parts of themselves—Justin’s sweetness, Susie’s spiciness, and the balance they’d found together. They shook the cocktail side by side before pouring themselves a shot to toast the beginning of married life.

The personal touches continued into dinner. Susie designed the signage, menus, and paper goods herself, sourced the table runners and fabrics from the United States, and even joined Artnatur in selecting individual flower varieties for the reception. Her second reception look included pearl chokers and anklets she hand-beaded herself.

None of those details, however, generated as much conversation as the seating chart. Every guest found a handwritten note waiting at their place instead of searching for a printed seating plan. The notes were personal, but the seating arrangement itself almost didn’t happen.

Around midnight the night before the wedding, Susie looked around at the people who had spent the week together and realized her carefully planned seating chart no longer made sense. Friends from different parts of their lives had already become friends with each other. The original plan was scrapped. Tables were rearranged.

People who had arrived in Ibiza as strangers shared dinner together the following evening. “It ended up being one of the best decisions we made because it reflected exactly what we had hoped the weekend would become: a celebration where everyone left feeling like part of one community.”

Fashion That Invited Everyone To Join In

There wasn’t a strict dress code waiting in anyone’s inbox. Instead, Susie created inspiration boards. The men were encouraged to swap predictable navy suits for linen, color, and patterned shirts. The women took inspiration from Mediterranean sunsets, textured fabrics, and sculptural silhouettes. The goal wasn’t for everyone to match—it was for everyone to look like themselves. “My favorite moment was seeing everyone arrive on the wedding day,” Susie says. “They completely embraced the vision while still looking like themselves.”

Finding her own dress took considerably longer. Everything she tried reminded her of something she’d already seen until she came across a two-piece Saint Bridal gown. The structured corset gave the look a modern edge, while the silk skirt kept it timeless. Pearl armbands added another personal detail.

For the reception, she kept the corset and swapped the skirt for a bubble mini she’d paired with pearl chokers and anklets she had hand-beaded herself. Justin met the moment with a white tuxedo jacket, black lapels, velvet loafers, and a feather bow tie that felt just formal enough without taking itself too seriously.

Featured Vendor:
Stephanie Shenton Photography

A 600-Year-Old Finca That Set The Pace For The Day

Susie first came across Las Cicadas while scrolling Pinterest. The photos caught her attention, but visiting in person was something else entirely.

The white finca sat among olive trees, stone courtyards, cacti, and winding garden paths that barely seemed to ask for decoration. Rather than covering the property with elaborate installations, the couple added details that belonged there: draped linens, candlelight, sculptural florals, bowls of grapes and pears, soft neutral tones, and long tables that encouraged lingering conversations over dinner.

The venue also inspired the flow of the celebration almost without trying. Guests gathered beneath the trees for the ceremony before drifting toward the pool for cocktails. Dinner unfolded under café lights as the sky darkened, and later everyone found their way into the converted barn, where the dance floor stayed full until nearly five in the morning.

Las Cicadas also became home for ten of the couple’s closest friends in the days leading up to the wedding. Mornings around the pool and quiet breakfasts together meant the venue remained part of the celebration long after the ceremony ended, making the Ibiza Finca wedding feel like an extended stay with friends rather than a venue guests simply passed through.

A Reception That Never Stopped Raising The Bar

Dinner arrived first. As self-described food lovers, Susie and Justin had always planned to invest in the meal, and La Grande Bouffe delivered one that guests would continue talking about long after they returned home. Dessert didn’t come as slices of cake. Instead, servers carried out an oversized martini glass filled with tiramisu, affectionately named the “TiramiSusie.”

Then came another surprise. While guests settled in after dinner, Susie disappeared to change into her second outfit. Moments later, she appeared at the top of the staircase singing. Even Justin didn’t know it was coming. She made her way downstairs, microphone in hand, before joining everyone on the dance floor as Berlin-based DJ Nico Stojan took over for the rest of the night.

Espresso martinis made another round through the crowd. Local Ibizan Hierbas shots followed. Nobody seemed particularly interested in checking the time. The dancing continued until sunrise, bringing the Ibiza Finca wedding to a close in much the same way it had begun days earlier—with music, friends, and everyone in the same place.

Letting Go Of The Timeline

There were a few inevitable hiccups. Internet issues delayed getting the ceremony music to the sound team, and the schedule slowly drifted later than expected. After nearly two years of planning, there wasn’t much left to do except trust the people around them. “Watching every detail come together, even more beautifully than we had imagined, gave us complete confidence that everything was going to work out exactly as it was meant to.”

Looking back, Susie says she wishes she had delegated a little more before the ceremony so she could have spent those final hours simply enjoying the people around her.

Everything else has become part of the story.

The week is remembered less for timelines or perfectly placed details than for the conversations that stretched late into the night, new friendships that formed between people who had never met, and a dance floor that stayed full until sunrise.

For Susie and Justin, that’s exactly what made the celebration worth traveling for.