In 2019, Dorey and his best friend (the couple’s future wedding officiant), Punam Patel, took a long trip to Spain, including a stop in Menorca.“I fell in love instantly, to the point where I turned to Punam and said, ‘I’m going to get married here.’”
The island made sense for a few reasons: it wasn’t overwhelmed with tourism like some other Mediterranean islands, it was small enough that it wouldn’t be challenging for their group to navigate, and because of its UNESCO status as a Biosphere Reserve, it had retained a low-key authenticity free of too many high-rises or chains. “What really attracted me to Menorca was its wild rustic charm, but with a very understated luxury,” says Dorey.
Make sure guests know it’s not Mallorca
While the flight path from the US was easy enough, even from Los Angeles (with direct flights to Barcelona, then onto Mahón Menorca Airport), the tough part was making sure everyone remembered which island was their final stop. “The biggest hurdle we had to get over was reminding people that this was Menorca, not Mallorca. I feel like every time we said the word Menorca, people said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Mallorca!’” Damir says.
Build around the venue
When plotting the wedding weekend, the couple wanted each event space to reveal a different aspect of Menorca, and they wanted them all to be relatively close together. “I think you can get from one end of the island to the other in 50 minutes, so we knew nothing was going to be too far, but we wanted everything to feel very convenient,” says Damir.
They knew it made the most sense to plan around the wedding venue itself, and in Dorey’s typically deep research he found that one of the most lauded eateries on the island, Nonna Bazaar, had recently hosted a few weddings in their farmhouse restaurant. “The color of the building was so dramatic, and we love a bohemian vibe. We had been to Morocco a couple years prior and [were] very much leaning into a Moroccan-meets-Mediterranean aesthetic,” says Dorey. “The Mediterranean villa as a whitewashed building with the bougainvillea is such a ubiquitous image, this felt much more intimate and unique.”