A Wedding at Comassema, Bunyola, Mallorca

Getting ready at Hotel Catalonia Majorica

Alex got ready at the Hotel Catalonia Majorica, in Palma, with the bay in front of the balcony and his family coming in and out of the room. Ana was already up in the mountains.

The bride, at Comassema

Comassema is a seventeenth-century estate in the valley of Orient, above Bunyola, and the morning there runs at its own pace: a dress hanging in a whitewashed passage, hand-painted fans laid out on the stone for the guests, and then Ana walking out through the bougainvillea.

A ceremony in the courtyard

A hundred and eighty people had come over from Barcelona and filled the courtyard, with the Serra behind them. The fans turned out to be the best idea of the day. Seen from the terrace above, the whole thing sat inside the old walls like it had always been there.

Up to the cocktail in a yellow Beetle

Straight out of the ceremony they got into a yellow VW Beetle and drove up to the cocktail, which is a short distance and a very good minute.

Cocktails under the paper parasols

White paper parasols over the tables, the bougainvillea coming down the wall, and the valley dropping away behind. People stayed out on the grass until the light went long.

A seating plan of old tennis rackets

The seating plan was a row of old wooden tennis rackets, one table per racket, with the names set inside the strings.

The two of them, in the clastra

We took twenty minutes in the clastra, the walled courtyard at the heart of the house, where the stone holds the heat and the ivy covers most of the facade.

Dinner under the marquee

Dinner was under a marquee on the lawn, long tables, speeches that ran over, and the kind of noise a hundred and eighty people make when they already know each other.

A giant ensaimada instead of a cake

Instead of a wedding cake they cut a giant ensaimada, which is what you do in Mallorca when you want everyone to be happy at once.

An acoustic trio, and then the night

An acoustic trio played while the tables were still full, and the party carried on into the dark, out under the trees, with one of the paper parasols lit up and going home with the bride.