Sanyu & Deke's Beach Bohemian Wedding

Wow - I honestly don't even know where to begin :). When Sanyu and Deke first approached me about their wedding it was to be held at Dreams. Then a few months out it changed to El Dorado. And, then, with a week to go, it turned into Casa Garza Blanca. If I told you how this all happened you would think it was from a movie, so we'll just skip all of that and say that I have never ever seen a couple more calm, patient and simply going with the flow as Deke and Sanyu ... and the end result turned out to be even better than I had imagined. I knew it was going to be beautiful but, quite honestly, sometimes I even surprise myself ;). (Our staff photographer, Soco, took all these photos by the way! Woohoo!)

INSPIRATION BOARD

Every once-in-a-while I get a couple who send me a couple of images and seem very content to just let me create whatever, and Deke and Sanyu were such a couple. As I discovered more about them and asked them to send me some images of themselves what really struck me was that the photos they sent me, they were always smiling - looking so content, happy and at peace. One image in particular stuck out and that was this one up above - in front of the Love sculpture in New York City, which was one of their favorite places to go. I knew we had to have that image in the wedding ... I also knew that Sanyu really liked orchids ... from there, the rest was easy ;).

THE CEREMONY & COCKTAIL

The only real comment Sanyu and Deke made about the decor was that they wanted things to be more natural and neutral with pops of color. I absolutely adore Sanyu's bouquet which was filled with orchids, roses and hydrangae. It looked beautiful against her dress.

As the guests entered the ceremony area, we had a poster designed and drawn just for Sanyu and Deke which they later took with them as a memento. We then lined the ceremony aisle with strung orchids and roses as well as strung orchids and roses on the back of the chuppah. A beautiful gold fabric was draped across the front of the chuppah to give it a bit more of a regal air to it. In the middle of the spiritual ceremony, Sanyu's mother performed a traditional Ugandan wedding basket ceremony and brought baskets from Uganda for that purpose ... I heart heart the fans - perfect blend of romance and elegance and Antonio did an amazing job of hand-painting them. Before concluding the ceremony, everyone did a tequila toast which was sweet! This was just a beautiful ceremony set-up for an absolutely beautiful couple.

After the ceremony the cocktail was held on the wooden deck next to the ceremony area, with tables decorated in green with bright pops of magenta.

THE RECEPTION

After cocktails, the guests were invited up to the pool area for the reception. So much going on here! Tables were decorated with amazing purple orchids from Holland in painted adobe bases. Napkins were a rich chocolate gold with place cards tucked inside. Traditional Mexican toys were provided for the children. We can't rent wooden tables here but were fortunate enough to have Stewart from Plush (who also did the yummy food) provide them for us from the new El Dorado restaurant. We made paper screens for the candles in chocolate brown and creams to give a more natural feel to the tables and the candlelight. In the grass, we placed a small replica of the Love statute, which I'm happy to say had a lot of photos taken in front of it ;). We filled the pool with paper lanterns which had the word "love"written in Spanish, English and Sanyu's native dialect, Luganda.

THE PHOTOBOOTH

Patrick Malloys was a bar where they first "met"so to speak :). I knew I wanted the sign created but didn't really know what we were going to do with it until I learned that their photographer, Nate Broshot, wanted to do a photo booth - I heart heart heart this sign and think Omar did an absolutely amazing job!

THE DANCE FLOOR

Wow, this was seriously pretty at night ... the floor, of course, had a replica of the Love photo which was awesome to watch people dancing on ... 3 different shades of gold chiffon fabric encircled the floor and Chinese lanterns were in tones of magenta, purple, golds and green. I know I'll probably put up way too many photos but it was soooo pretty ;). We passed out maracas as everyone was dancing which we did-up in true Bohemian fashion with the words "Truth, Love, Beauty and Freedom"printed in both Spanish and English.

THE CAKE

Sanyu wanted cupcakes, so cupcakes she had! They must have been yummy because every last cupcake was gone, as well as the cutting cake - Memo made red velvet topped with cream cheese - num!

THE SURPRISE

Sanyu & Deke had originally wanted fire dancers but it was just not in the budget. With some creativity, I managed to squeeze enough money together to surprise them with firedancers at the end of the evening ... my ideas are usually bigger than my budgets so I'm not usually able to do this, but I'm always thrilled when I can :).

Honestly, while the journey had been rocky, the wedding was a picture perfect fairy-tale day filled to the brim with love, laughter and joy - who could ask for more than that?! One word for this wedding .... Love.