wedding & FAMILY photographer

Hacienda San Jose, Your perfect luxury private villa

If you are after a rustic luxury venue for your outdoor Spanish wedding with great mountain views and a true Spanish feel to it, then Hacienda San Jose is your venue! Set in the hills of Mijas with views of the iconic white village in the mountains in the background.

During your search for your perfect rustic venue you probably saw the word hacienda describing many venues in Malaga and Spain. Just for a bit of information and to help you understand the difference between a villa and an hacienda. Haciendas are houses on large agricultural estates or farms. Most now will have sold a lot of the farm land but others still have the orchards attached to them. Haciendas tend to have quite a few rooms so most of the time you can have your family or main wedding party all stay there together!

Views from the tower at Hacienda San Jose Mijas

The perfect rustic venue in Malaga

Hacienda San Jose boasts beautiful gardens on different levels, with typical Spanish plants like bougainvillea and fig trees to name but a few as well as a large swimming pool and an olive orchard! You can have your welcome drinks in one garden, your ceremony in another and your meal in another, making full use of the beautiful gardens and views!

Hacienda San Jose is the perfect private venue, no sharing with other hotel guests as you may have to in a cortijo or hotel wedding. You can stay there for several nights and create the perfect destination wedding experience. You could have a pre-wedding party and a post wedding BBQ! How often are you going to have all your friends and family in one place? It’s a family run venue and really has that wonderful homely and welcoming feeling.

Not only are the gardens, views and the exterior of the house picture perfect but the interiors are stunning too! With thea luxury wedding suit which has direct access to the tower with 360 views and a great spot to watch the sun set. There is a beautiful interior courtyard surrounded by rooftops that have the perfect Spanish look.

Why do I love Hacienda San Jose?

As a photographer, why do I like this venue so much? It simply has so many possibilities! I have been working as a professional wedding photographer for 14 years and have worked with hundreds of couples with very different needs and wants for their photography. Some want lots of couple photographs and feel very comfortable in front of the camera and others are very shy and only want a few couple photographs. Hacienda San Jose has so many photographic possibilities that it is a very easy venue for couples that want lots of stunning photos or couples that only want a few. Tall cypress trees along the drive give it a real Mediterranean feel and if you time it right there is some lovely sunset light that shines there too!

There is a great olive orchard too and the sun sets behind it so if positioned well it creates some great light behind you shining through your hair or vail. There’s the big wooden front door perfect for silhouettes and let’s not forget the tower! The tower is best at sunset when the sun hits the mountains in the background!The great thing about this venue is that there are so many locations we can do them all or pick and choose just a few and you will still get stunning photographs. I don’t like to have my couples stand still and just look at the camera, I like them interacting with each other and to keep moving and Hacienda San Jose allows you to keep moving and do different things in different locations so you won’t end up with the same poses in different places.

Dusk is just stunning here too. You can make it even more magical adding twinkle lights across the dining area or the dance floor in the courtyard. To be fair, when it comes to decoration the possibilities are endless and it really is up to you.

Visiting the iconic white village, Mijas Pueblo.

So now that you have chosen Hacienda San Jose as your wedding venue and your friends and family are staying for a few days or even a week, what can you do in the area? Well visiting Mijas Pueblo, the iconic white village, is a must! Its picturesque streets surrounded by white houses decorated with flower pots is the perfect place to spend the day.

There are three main squares to Mijas pueblo. Take a stroll up the three different levels and walk through the picturesque streets. Then once at the top take in the views from the walls that surround the village. If you fancy a short hike in the mountains there is a signed walk you can do that takes you up to the Hermita, the little white house you can see not too far up the mountain behind the village. From there you can carry on to the old roman marble quarry and then back down to the village!

Recommended restaurants in Mijas Pueblo

There are also some great bars and restaurants to visit. If you are a chocolate fan then you must go to the Mayan Monkey Chocolate Factory! Book a chocolate making session or just indulge in their own hand made chocolates and ice creams! Alboka Gastro Bar is another favorite of mine, with great tapas located next to the town hall. Koco Bistro across the street is another lovely restaurant I can recommend. El Mirlo Blanco is another great resturant located on the second square.

Take a look at other venues in my blog choosing your wedding venue in Malaga

Hacienda San Jose