An antique lace dress for a chic bride

Meritxell and Oriol met eight years ago in Barcelona and wanted to celebrate their wedding in the Catalan capital. They married at the Eixample district headquarters, next to their home, and organized a relaxed and elegant party in the modernist Eixample neighborhood where they live. They walked to the civil ceremony and beforehand had a drink at Bar Cugat, where they are regulars. Meritxell wore a vintage lace wedding dress from the 1920s , and Oriol wore a dark suit with a bow tie and a boutonniere.

They both love to travel: Oriol proposed to Meritxell one night in Bukchon Hanok, Seoul’s oldest neighborhood, in one of the traditional houses where they were staying. “We had always talked about getting married in the future, but that day was completely unexpected for me. For our honeymoon, we went to Japan, a place that fascinated us four years ago, so we went back and extended our trip.”

An antique lace wedding dress

From the very beginning, Meritxell knew she wanted a dress from L’Arca. They had walked through the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter many times, and she had shown Oriol the shop because she liked the idea of wearing one of their antique lace dresses for a special occasion.

Luckily, Oriol didn’t remember and was able to surprise her with the dress; “Everyone was thrilled with the dress, with how delicate and beautiful it was.” Meritxell immediately knew which dress she wanted because she had discovered it in the Stories section of l’Arca, in passing, and “although Nina, the designer, showed me many more and things got complicated, in the end I went with the first one, which I fell in love with.”

It was a midi dress with ruffles, made of embroidered tulle, finished with buttons down the front and several geometric lace ruffles. We restored the original 1920s dress, which was originally a walking dress, by hand in our workshop.

For her styling, Meritxell drew inspiration from Rodarte’s 2018 Spring collection, in which models walked the runway in dresses covered in spring flowers. A pearl clutch, pointed-toe flats, and a Lito y Lola headpiece atop her shoulder-length hair completed her look.

A wonderful garland bouquet

Meritxell loves baby’s breath for its small, delicate blooms, but she didn’t want a traditional bouquet. She envisioned a nod to 1920s brides with an element reminiscent of a splendid feather boa, capturing its elegance while subtly softening its sophistication. The bouquet, designed by Nice Flowers— a large garland of white flowers—was the perfect finishing touch to her look. In fact, the flowers in the bouquet seemed to have been plucked from an antique lace wedding dress.

A ceremony in an industrial setting

The reception was held at Espacio Tuset in a New York loft-style setting. This building, formerly a taxi garage, has been converted into studios. It was decorated with large wooden tables and organic floral arrangements in a single color, following the theme chosen for the bouquet. Marta from Umami captured the couple’s essence with a fresh and luminous photograph.

Caravan Made handled the catering. “I already knew them because we had a catering event with them at my company, and it was fantastic. Everything was incredible; for many, it was a unique and practical wedding.” In short, “An unforgettable day that I would repeat a thousand times over!”

Photos: Umami