Monday 16 November 2009

Panida & Greg's Romantic Vintage Wedding




End of January this year, Panida & Greg were all set to get married in May at Villa Mia and we rushed in a whirlwind of planning .... only to be derailed a few days before the wedding date by the Swine Flu that Never was (here in Vallarta!). I know they were disappointed, but they took it all in stride, the vendors all agreed to postpone the date to November and we waited - and it was worth the wait!! I knew Panida was funny as all get out from our email correspondence but I had no idea what a firecracker she was until we met a few days before the wedding (and, of course, still funny as anything!)
Greg was the initial contact and he and Panida wanted something vintage in black and white with red accents - of course, I adore all things vintage so I was completely smitten from day one! Panida sent me their invites and we were all smitten again!
After answering some questions and going over some private on-line galleries with Panida, I had the inspiration I needed for their design board!

The Bouquets & Bout
While I realized this wasn't a crystal, crystal, bling-bling type of affair, I realized that a few accents could go a long way. I wanted to do something simple yet elegant for Panida's bouquet and decided to use all black magic roses with just a few well-placed crystal accents along the bottom. Panida's sister was her MOH and she wore a black dress - so the perfect compliment was an all-white bouquet with white roses and statice flowers. Greg's bout had a crystal accent from Panida's bouquet (and we also utilized this accent later on for their cake!). (all photos by our own photographer, Soco!)





The Ceremony

Greg had mentioned that he came from a Christian background, so we decided the perfect thing to do would be to recreate an open-air chapel - especially since the surroundings were so beautiful - I had seen one once in Arkansas - made of glass - and that was our inspiration! I hand-painted a stained glass cross for the top, we used white chivari chairs, and white roses and statice lined the aisle in tall glass vases. We accented the ceremony with a black magic rose petal aisle and hand-made black paper fans with red handles served as both a decoration and to cool the guests from the setting sun. They had told me that "Georgia on My Mind" was one of "their songs" and, as they weren't using it for their first dance, I thought it would be appropriate to have Omar paint a few lines in white - I loved them (and I think the guests did too - it was hot at ceremony time!)

The Cocktail

We placed cocktail tables, covered with white chiffon and tied with black ribbon around the pool. Serving as centerpieces, Panida had requested place cards for her guests that they could take and place themselves at whichever table they chose to sit at. We used a similar design from her invite and accented the clips with crystals. As a nod to Panida's Thai heritage, I found a Buddhist tradition wherein guests would tie a white ribbon around the couple's wrist and bestow a blessing upon the newlyweds - so we incorporated that into the cocktail area as well and left them out so guests could continue to bestow blessings all night long!

The Reception

When I think 40's vintage, I think lounge, elegant, posh, glamour without going over the top - I knew right away that lighting would be important and then "whammo" the "light" went on and I knew we had to do some fab lamps! We were going to paint designs onto the lampshades but, as luck would have it and as the wedding was now postponed, it gave me time to go up North and find that amazing fabric as well as those amazing large crystals which hung down from the middle of each lamp!

Panida had just asked that the bridal table be different, somehow, than the rest of the tables, so we inverted the color scheme - white on black, in lieu of black on white. Each of the hand-painted vases had crystal accents which sparkled with the candlelight and were filled with black magic roses. Embroidered napkins based on the invite drawing made for a dramatic tablescape, I think! I LOVED the mr. and mrs. ribbon I saw once online and had our embroidery shop make a matching pair and it looked just the way I wanted it to! I do think, over-all, this is one of my favorite reception designs - I loved the smaller 6 top tables, the draping chiffon to give a more elegant, simple feel - adored the bold design of the vases and the napkins and I think the lamps were the cherry on top ;). But enough blah blah from me - you be the judge!

The Pool

Of course, we had to have lanterns floating in that amazing pool! The view was absolutely beautiful and the lanterns just accented something already amazing all on its own!

The Cake

What wedding would be complete without an amazing cake from Memo of Charme?! When Panida told me how much she loved this cake I was super happy .... we were planning on surprising her with some sock monkeys as they were an important part of Panida & Greg's story ... and, then, Panida said, "Can we have the sock monkeys" and I'm all "shhh - you just leave all that to me!!" ;) I think Omar did an amazing job - we put sunglasses on them because, I'm not sure if you can see it, but Panida had sent me a great photo of she and Greg in sunglasses and I remember thinking "that is a GREAT photo - MUST use it!" You can't really see it from the photos, but the same accent from Greg's bout and Panida's bouquet is on the top hat ;).

Dance Floor and Nightscapes....

One final detail - we lined the dance floor with big, black magic rose balls with a hanging crystal and twinkle lights - it looked absolutely beautiful for their first dance! There were three other elements that didn't make it into pictures - the Cuban band (which did an amazing job!), a flaming coffee station and fire dancers - it was a lot packed into a wondrous evening and it was a joy for us to see everyone sitting around tables later on in the evening happily talking about the night!

We really couldn't have ended this crazy month in a better way - all of our couples this month - from Mindi & Morgan to Jennifer and Matthew to Panida & Greg - were absolute joy and their guests were seriously GREAT guests - when everyone is so wonderful, it makes us want to work harder and do more so a big thanks really is due to our brides and grooms and their guests for helping us love and enjoy what we do - from coordinating to the designing to the decor and beyond!

We have a little break before our next event, so I do think I may be able to sneak-on an inspiration color scheme or something next week! So, keep your eyes peeled....

Purple, Orange, Red and Yellow and Into the Sunset They Go!

A big shout out goes to Emily who was married Saturday in Las Caletas and Liz who tied the knot in Zihuatanejo!!

Emily wanted our ever popular lacy romance maracas in festive colors of orange and purple and some "shake me tags" to boot .... this was the result! :)







Liz sent us her invites - I've never seen orange so vibrant before and what an inspiration! She wanted some menus and place cards for the rehearsal dinner and, then, maracas with name tags for the wedding the following day. The colors were orange and yellow for the rehearsal dinner and orange and red for the wedding. Because the orange was so vibrant, I decided that a grey tone to the menu and place cards would look better and really make the orange and yellow stand-out - I think it worked! :)


Liz's Invites




Menu & Place Cards for Rehearsal Dinner





Maracas


I'm still working on the photos from Panida & Greg's wedding - should be up tomorrow! hurray! :)


Friday 13 November 2009

Palm Trees and Tropical Flowers....

A big shout out goes to Kirsty & Colin who were married yesterday at Dreams and to Sayulita wedding coordinator Kerry's mystery bride who was married yesterday as well in Sayulita!!

Kirsty came to us with their wedding logo which was just awesome!




We decided to invert the colors and I think it turned out pretty good!


We don't know who Kerry's mystery bride was, but she got some pretty rockin' palm trees!

I just got the pictures back from Panida & Greg's wedding, so those will be posted in the next day or two!!

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm Wedding!







This Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa




First of all, where do I start with this wedding at Casa Cosmos?!! I will admit that this was a super fun wedding to plan - Jennifer and Matt have such great energies and spirit (well, who am I kidding - I didn't realize Matthew was so great until a few day's before the wedding because, Jenn girl, you rocked the communication!) .... Jenn had a lot of ideas flying around but it became very evident to me early on that what she wanted was something old-world yet elegant and all I could think was "what fun!"







Before getting started on all the wedding detailed goodiness, I couldn't just select from one photo from Paulina's photo shoot with the bride and groom, so I just had to share these other shots - sooo amazing!



These Photos Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa





Pre-Cocktail

This is where I would usually start with the bouquet, but we had a pre-cocktail to start things off with before the ceremony. I had asked Jenn several things about their relationship through-out our correspondence and caught-on to these two GREAT stories - one about how Matt and their two kids had used a little toy giraffe to bring her the engagement ring, and another about how they met at the Belevedere in Houston and, afterwards, Matt made Jenn and her friends grilled cheese sandwiches - as we were planning on incorporating all of those elements into the wedding, I thought it would be a good idea to share that with their guests so, in case they didn't know those two particular stories in that particular way, they would be in on the surprises as well! (all other amazing photos below are by our photographer, Soco!!)....




The Bouquet

Jenn wanted red rose and touches of green in her bouquet so we mixed-in black magic roses, green roses, green mums and dark red roses .... I found this awesome ribbon and pretty crystal buttons which were a very close match to Jenn's engagement ring and accented the wrap ... one of my favorites ever! The bout was also accented in the same ribbon with crystal accents.



Ring Bearer and Flower Girl

I wanted to surprise Jenn & Matt with another giraffe bringing the wedding ring and brought Matt's son into the surprise as well - he was sooo cute about keeping it a secret ... we painted the giraffe silver, to match the accents and gave him little crystal spots - sooo sweet! For Jenn's daughter, we created a green chiffon flower girl basket with crystal and silver accents - her face at seeing her little basket made it completely worth it! Aren't the kids just beautiful?!!



These photos courtesy of Paulina Ulloa



The Harpist

Just a great photo really - beautiful harp playing in the background as everyone walked down the aisle....



The Ceremony

Because we were going to use the ceremony area later on for the dancing floor, I wanted to make this space into something that would look great during the day and then transform slowly into the nighttime and be romantic and pretty as well. So, first Omar built two wooden trellaces and I accented them with black magic roses and hanging votive candles. Then we draped the entire ceremony area into alternating apple green and chocolate brown chiffon fabric - which was not only beautiful but also served to provide shade - it was cooler in the evening and felt great but, at ceremony time, it was a trifle warm! The chocolate chivari chairs had hand-crafted, hand-painted red fans by Omar with the design from their invite burned into it and chocolate brown handles. Up above we had strung red roses and christmas lights tucked away that, as you will see, would light up the dance floor in a beautiful glow later on in the evening.




The Cocktail/Tequila Tasting

Mariachis played at the kiss and into the cocktail hour which we also combined with a tequila tasting with special tequila shot glasses from Guanajuato for the guests .... I always try to include Don Julio (if you have never tried it, it's a must!) but I also wanted to play around with the couple's love for all things Halloween and the fact that the wedding was on Dia de Los Muertos and I found this awesome labeled tequila called "Chamucos" ("devil") - I mean, who could resist?! Signs explaining the different types of tequila were posted in silver painted frames.




The Escort Cards

Also in the cocktail area, we had put-up a chocolate brown hand-crafted tree with guest's names on the front and hand-drawn accents based on their invites and the table assignments on the back. Below the tree were green apples...



The Reception

Jenn had told me that she envisioned seeing lots of red at her wedding, only she wasn't sure how! So, "lots of red" I thought, "ah-ha!" .... we draped red chiffon fabric all around the reception area, from rafters to floor! She had also mentioned that she would love to see apples adapted into the centerpieces somehow as she kept calling it a "apple green" wedding ... so, I thought it would be great to intersperse green apples into the black magic rose centerpieces which were set into chocolate brown painted adobe bowls. Silver based lanterns lined down the center of the tables. The napkins were a green tafeta and doubled as the table markers - all the names on the tables were based on places important to the couple - Houston for where they met, San Juan where they honeymooned (before the wedding - we know!), Paris where the engagement was to take place, Rome where - well, that one's a secret and, of course, Vallarta where they got married! Lanterns in beaded colors of cream, chocolate brown, red and green lined the reception area.





Dia de Los Muertos

As Jenn had a brother who passed away when he was little, she asked us if we could do a small altar in his memory - We put-up a sign explaining the significance of the various details on the altar so the guests would know and understand that each thing on the table had a representation. We also had a Dia de Los Muertos area for the kids in a private room upstairs with a huge giraffe pinata and a movie on a big screen but everything was so busy we forgot to take photos!



The Kids Table

Speaking of the kids, we had a special table just for them which had black cats as centerpieces and little toy giraffes and tags with their names on them, and jack-o-lanterns filled with toys and goodies to keep them happy and occupied through-out the evening!



Lanterns

I must admit I knew the lanterns would look pretty in the pool, but was a little surprised myself at how beautiful they looked during the day!



The Cake

Ahh - the cake - there's always one thing that a bride just really has to have and, for Jenn and Matt, this was the cake! They saw one they loved one night on The Cake Boss and took a picture of it with their cell phone to send me the picture. I think Memo from Charme improved on the idea (no offense to the Cake Boss - I LOVE his cakes - but this cake -ooooh!!) and this was the result...



Nightscapes

We flipped the pre-cocktail area, cocktail area one last time to make it the cigar lounge complete with a hand-painted sign Omar rocked! based on the famous Belvedere where the couple had first met as well as a groom's cake for the groom's favorite soccer team. Candles sprang to life, twinkle lights came up and it was time to boogie and party - and boogie and party everyone did!! I just realized that we don't have a picture of the maracas we did - such perfect timing - just as the bride and groom finished their first dance the DJ put-on I Gotta Feeling, maracas were passed out as everyone surged onto the dance floor and proved that song right! Later on we had tacos with mexican salsas and, of course, grilled cheese sandwiches!



Fire Dancers

The night ended with an amazing performance by the fire dancers - there was a girl there I'd never seen before and she was absolutely AMAZING!! Seriously unbelievable!!





These photos courtesy of Paulina Ulloa



Next week we will have photos up of Greg & Panida's Romantic Vintage Wedding!

 
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