When the daughter of the founder of Spain's biggest bridal house gets married, the wedding isn't just a family event - it's a shop window. Gabriela Palači, daughter of Alberto Palači, founder of Pronovias, has just marked ten years of marriage to Turkish businessman Ediz Elhadef. Their wedding in July 2016 gathered around 400 guests from all over the world at the family estate in Puigcerdà, in Girona, with an „enchanted forest" theme.

Pronovias, naturally, was at the centre. Creative director Hervé Moreau designed two exclusive gowns. The main one was in beige silk chiffon and tulle, with intricate embroidery of silk and gold thread paired with white crystals - birds, dragonflies, bees and butterflies among the branches, inspired by Japanese prints. The cut had a pencil silhouette, delicate gathering, a bustier neckline and romantic dropped sleeves, with a two-metre train and an embroidered cape-veil of three metres.

For that one dress, six seamstresses in the atelier put in around 400 hours of handwork. That's a figure worth pausing on: for some, four hundred hours are two months of work; for others - one wedding dress worn for a single evening. The second gown, revealed at the cutting of the cake, had pastel embroidered flowers in lavender, blue and pink on bare tulle, with a sensual open back and a train of a metre and a half.

The pre-wedding celebrations were split by measure: a formal dinner at a hotel for the older guests and a flamenco party at the port of Barcelona for the younger ones. The ceremony was held under a pergola decorated with flowers, overlooking the valley, and the groom wore a dark-blue tuxedo. The bride arrived to instrumental music, accompanied by her father G.

The reception marquee was built to look like a glass garden, and the entertainment was run by the cabaret troupe El Lío, directed by a family friend. Everything was thought through, expensive and perfect - just as the shop window of a bridal empire should be. But behind the splendour stands something simpler too: a relationship that lasted ten years, which in the end matters more than any embroidery in gold thread.