Shannon & Craig's Romantic Beach "i do's"

When Shannon first emailed me she told me she would be one of the easiest brides I ever had. Well, that can always go one of two ways ... either she really WOULD be the easiest bride EVER OR things would be a bit more detailed than that ;). Turns out, Shannon was by far THE most laid-back, relaxed bride I've ever had and I've had some really relaxed brides! Every time I tried to schedule something Shannon was like "oh, that's okay, we'll just decide when we get there" ;);). Of course, part of it could be that Shannon & Craig were renewing their vows after 20+ years of marriage ;).

Place: Casa Guillermo

Caterer: Casa Guillermo
Minister:  Tamara Bradley de Morales

Staff Photographer: Soko

There were a few things Shannon told me she wanted ... one of which was candles on the beach. I loved that entire idea! She knew she wanted the color plum, but was open to whatever suggestions I might have. This is what I came up with :).

THE CEREMONY

I knew the biggest attention would be going into the ceremony, because they really wanted a simple cocktail arrangement for dinner. We lined lanterns down the walkway to the beach and I had the guys make some papel picado bags, as I wasn't quite sure the lanterns would make an impressive enough walk-way ... which they did! So, we put the papel picado bags around the ceremony area.

I wanted the ceremony to look a bit more like you took chairs down from the house and used them as part of the ceremony, so I chose the Versalles, instead of the Chivari. I thought the phrase "From this Day Forward" was really fitting, considering the renewal of vow ceremony - I suppose like a marker ... a continuation :).

Shannon's bouquet was a mix of roses, lisianthius, calla lily, a bit of delphinium and purple filler. I made the bridesmaids bouquets out of white roses and lisianthius.

I'm not entirely sure where the maraca idea came from, but I stumbled across it as I was doing research and I loved the look of it - I think Omar did an incredibly beautiful job with this talavera like flower.

COCKTAIL/DINNER

After the ceremony, everyone walked back up to the villa and we had a small cocktail party underneath the palapa. We had a couple of cocktail tables draped with plum and light blue fabric with a small, beach-like floral arrangement in the same flowers as the bride's bouquet. We strung some Christmas lights up above, placed some floating lanterns in the pool and, wa-la, ready to relax and party :).

We did have a small surprise for the bride and groom at the end of the night with a small firedancer show - but I don't have pictures of that - it involved a lot of fire and dancing :):). Shannon and her group were sweet, kindness personified and completely chill. We are very honored to have been part of their renewal ceremony.

I do have some shout-outs and the photos from Jessica's wedding are burning a hole in my computer and her wedding blog will be coming-up right around Christmas time - nice eye candy to view while you're cuddled around the fire :). Don't forget to enter the WINWIN contest and have the opportunity to win 20 of our hand-painted maracas - the drawing is less than a month away!