Design in a Box - Rehearsal Dinner, Cancun

Well, I kept hoping I would be able to get some real pictures of this project, which we sent to Cancun but I know photographers can take a while to edit :) and didn't want to end the season without a shout-out to Cathy whose son tied the knot with his bride this past March :). Cathy was quite persuasive and I loved her ideas, so we agreed to do a "design in a box" for the rehearsal dinner which she hosted at the Grand Velas in the Riviera Maya. I heart the invite, which was designed by Flights of Fancy.

And I heart the design of this event and can't wait to ramp it up a bit and actually do a whole wedding based on it :).

The Cocktail

We sent cocktail overlays of "yute" - a fabric similar to burlap but a lot softer, as well as wide turquoise ribbon to tie around, along with silver tin stars which we recommended she tie the escort cards to (the photo is an example :) and recommended that they be placed in middle of the cocktail tables as centerpieces. We also recommended scattering yellow mum heads around the stars to complete the look :).

The Reception

I found this picture, I think at the Knot, of a cigar box with this beautiful floral display. So, that was the inspiration photo :). We sent her the cigar boxes and we used the tops of the cigar boxes as the table markers. Table overlays were also sent and they were for the table runners which was also yute. Included in the "package" ;) were glass vases and candles wrapped with yute and saffron colored napkins, as well as tall, skinny Moroccan lanterns, complete with candles :).

We also sent along some "bride" and "groom" signs as well as a beautiful lasso to hang on the two chairs - I took a photo of it but it didn't turn out well ;).

We also had little gift bags for the kids filled with goodies and an awesome donkey pinata which my daughter fell in love with and I think would have kept if she'd had an option :).

We also sent hand-painted maracas for the guys, special painted maracas for the kids (pictured up above) and fans for the girls. I'm including a photo of my favorite fan but the sandalwood fans were the ones actually requested :).

It was a super fun project, although admittedly difficult to not be able to control the execution of the design as I love for everything to be perfect :). We can't wait to see the final photos and thank Cathy for challenging us with this fun opportunity!

Kris & Luke's Vintage Beach Wedding!

Kris & Luke had a small, intimate affair at the beautiful Casa Guillermo this past May 4th. Hailing from Australia, you would think the planning would have been difficult but it wasn't at all and Kris was a sweetheart from start to finish :). Kris had oodles of inspiration photos and her own little blog of ideas and it didn't take me long to figure out what we needed to do and I was so very excited...

Villa: Casa Guillermo

Bride Photographer: Amanda Forbes Photography

Staff Photographer: Soko

Catering: Casa Guillermo

INSPIRATION BOARD

Key words that Kris mentioned over and over were "vintage", "beach", "romance", "vintage valentine's", "vintage posters." Heart all those words!

THE CEREMONY

I know I say this all the time but I can't help it - I love weddings and flowers and all things Vallarta brides - okay, so, with that said, I heart heart this white/cream peony bouquet. I added-in a touch of scabiosa and dusty miller and, seriously, hearts! For the groom, I again choose some scabiosa, a small purple peony head and a tad of dusty miller. The other bouts and posie bouquets all had similar touches with a tad of white hydrange. The bridesmaid's bouquets were white hydrangae and sterling silver roses and we sewed some of the beautiful beaded fabric we used for the napkins (which you will see later on) to their wraps.

Kris had sent me a really amazing, romantic picture of a couple sitting on pillows on the beach and I knew this had to be our ceremony set-up. I was over the moon happy when I presented the idea and Kris was like "oh yes, let's do it" because I knew it was a tad avant garde and not for everyone ;). We painted the chuppah a white-washed white and decorated the front with purple hydrangae and a beautiful embroidered vintage looking lace fabric hung in the background. Purple peonies and dusty miller lined the ceremony aisle in hanging glass jars.

We also had hand-cut papel picado inspired fans (based off the bride's invite) waiting in a basket by the stairs. And a pretty foot washing station, complete with rose scented water.

CUTENESS ALERT!

I couldn't resist putting in these two pictures of the cute ring bearers and little flower girl - they were awesome!

THE COCKTAIL/DANCE AREA

The cocktail area was decorated with silver crystal chandeliers, flowing purple chiffon fabric and the cocktail tables themselves draped with cream chiffon and my sister-in-law, Jazmine, took my idea a bit further and sewed purple embroidered embellishments to the top. Floating purple peonies made-up the tables.

Kris' mom had brought us some vintage little valentine's from the States. I thought it would be sweet to make escort cards out of them, so, we cut them up a bit and created some very vintage looking large valentines which we hung on ribbon with each person's name on them and the name of their table on the back. We were also given some vintage photographs of the family which we also created into our own version of vintage Valentines and hung between the escort cards. Here in Vallarta we don't have access to all the cool scrapbooking paper and tools you have up north. So, I had to create my own paper and I love how this project turned out :). After dinner, we moved the tables and opened the space up for some fun dancing!

THE RECEPTION

Lanterns dotted the pool, the pattern, again, cut in a similar pattern to their invite. Kris' mom also brought us these amazing travel posters and, since they had sent the measurements ahead of time, we knew how to mount them :). I draped the tables with a light blue chiffon and my other sister-in-law, Gaby, sewed the embroidered fabric to wrap around the candles in hues of green, cream and purple. The napkins were a soft cream and wrapped with a beautiful beaded purple strip of fabric. Floating white peonies were interspersed between the candles. Place cards were hand-punched to resemble doilies to complete the vintage feel.

I did the kid's table a bit different. We had bags waiting for them on each chair with their name on it with coloring books, crayons, a Mexican toy, some fun party string and Luke's parents brought the kids a few toys and mementos as well from their native Australia :). We also placed a fun, balloon inspired centerpiece to the kid's table to make it a little less "adult" and a bit more kid friendly ;).

The maracas were brought-out during the dancing - sunsets seemed to be fairly important to my bride and groom so we decided to do something that would represent Vallarta with a sunset painted behind one of our most famous historic landmarks - the church of the Virgin de Guadalupe :). Omar pulled out all the stops on this design!

THE CAKE...and ICE-CREAM

Memo, of course, never ceases to amaze with this beautiful rendition of the bride and groom's favorite cake design. Unfortunately, we don't have a picture but, as the cake was being cut, we also had a hand-pushed ice-cream cart come out with yummy cold Mexican paletas (ice-cream bars) in flavors ranging from strawberry to coffee to lemon and beyond....

I loved every notion about this wedding and the intimacy of it only made everything that much more endearing. Absolutely amazed that Kris was doing her finals while we were planning the last details of the wedding and was such a complete sweetheart through-out - that is multi-tasking at its finest :).

Coming-up we have Rose & Miguel's wedding blog and a few more maraca shout-outs, so stay tuned ;).