Chris & Tracy's Sayulita Vintage Chic Wedding!

(this photo by Cody Raisig)

Wow.  Where do I begin?  When you work with a bride and groom for over a year planning their wedding, it's always hard to say "farewell" and to close a chapter of your life that was so important!  We were truly honored to be a part of their big day and I will miss Tracy's great ideas and input and CJ's quiet and positive "you go girls" from the sidelines.  This event would not have been possible without the help of these amazing vendors...

Place:  Don Pedro's Palapa
Caterer:  Don Pedro's Restaurant, Sayulita
Co-Coordination & Transportation Experts Extraordinaire:  Kerry & Enrique from Sayulita Wave
Bride Photographer:  The amazing Cody Raisig
DJ:  Reuben, from Sayulita
Flamenco Guitarist:  Latcho & Andrea
Cigar Roller:  Lourdes Ponce
Band:  The Traveling Band (truly awesome, btw!)
Staff Photographer:  Soko the Great
Cake:  Memo of Charme

INSPIRATION BOARD
Tracy sent me a design inspiration document and she had key words listed.  Some of those were:  Backyard BBQ, Clean and Simple, Vintage, Chic, Mexican stitched, Nature and Eco-Friendly.  I was like, "Okay, I can do that" :).

THE CEREMONY
The only real direction Tracy gave me for the ceremony was that she wanted the round chuppah we had used once before for Rose's wedding and some bamboo chairs.  I knew we wanted to really keep this simple and focus more on the natural beauty of the surroundings and I found this awesome "artichoke" ceremony aisle when I was out and scouting for ideas and fell in love with it :).  Tracy & CJ's family came out a bit before the ceremony and made a huge heart in the sand and filled it with bougainvillea and I loved that they got involved:).  One of my favorite touches was the antique looking lemonade stand ... and the red maracas with Tracy & CJ's logo (Omar created!) ... and I loved the red bridesmaid dresses which I had nothing to do with but didn't they look awesome?  And, oh yes, I also loved the groom's outfit and the groomsmen ... the bottom line is - CJ and Tracy have excellent taste on their own which only complimented everything we did :).

(this photo by Cody Raisig)

THE COCKTAIL
After the ceremony on the beach, everyone got into golf carts and taxis and headed up to Don Pedro's Palapa which overlooks Sayulita and the little bay.  We had lounge furniture and cocktail tables decorated with reds and oranges and blues and some spots of black and white and yellow.  We set-up one of my favorite pieces we've ever done, the gazebo swing for people to take pictures on and swing on together over-looking the amazing view and sunset.  Cucumber mojitos and fresh squeezed lemonade was waiting the guests upon their arrival.

THE RECEPTION
As everyone entered the palapa, we hung glass paned panels along the sides with people's names and table markers - it's one of my favorite "escort card" ideas ever :) and Yazmine has an amazing hand to paint them out by name!  Tracy had requested vintage, clear bottles with just single stems of daisies - we did a combination of daisies and matsumotos with sand and candles.  Since CJ loves sailing, we decided to put a "nod" in there with the sailing boat table markers (Omar made these and I LOVE them!).  Gaby sewed-up some beautiful vintage looking, eclectic napkins and I found these amazing little cork bottles which I filled with flavored tequila and we used those as place cards.  The kids got "virgin lemonade" ;).

THE DANCE FLOOR & Pinata
Tracy loved the Chinese star lanterns so we used those but added-in a bit more red and orange to the mix.  She also requested the biggest pinata EVER and that's exactly what we did - unfortunately I don't have a great picture of it but it was MASSIVE ... and I've never seen a group have so much fun breaking it as this group did at the end of the evening.

CHURROS & Dessert Bar
After cocktails, we took down the swing and put up a sign and, wa-la, the gazebo swing became our late night Churros and Dessert Bar.  Yummy cake pops and chocolate covered strawberries were served, and we also served Cafe de Olla with this late night treat.

CIGAR ROLLER
Lonce graced us with her presence and rolled some mean Cuban/Mexican cigars!  Cigar roller sign and mason jars filled with lights decorated this little scene :).

THE PHOTOBOOTH aka "Photo Boto"
When I first saw this photo when looking for a unique photobooth I was super excited and I wrote Kerry and said, "Hey, do you think anyone has an old wooden boat they don't use that we can have?"  Kerry laughed - seriously?  Okay, that's alright, we'll BUILD ONE.  My crew is quite use to my unusual requests and no longer bats an eyelid - although I do think I saw a bit of "you want me to build WHAT?" at the design meeting.  But, hey, guys it doesn't have to FLOAT.  haha!  I think Antonio did an amazing job and I absolutely LOVED watching the guests pop in and out of the boat all night long with the various hats and props we had provided for the fun.

THE TRAVELING BAND
We're a pretty small town and all of us use pretty much the same vendors so I was surprised when Tracy said she had heard about this band and could I please track them down?  I was a bit nervous, to be honest, that they would perform and do a great job when I had never heard of them before - but they were honestly AMAZING and blew me and everyone away.  We recommend them hands down for a wedding with a beach/rock vibe to it.

At the end of the evening, CJ & Tracy's friends performed a group fire performance - I'd never seen anything like it - it was amazing and scary (please don't set the groom on fire! ;) but absolutely entertaining and something nobody at the wedding will ever forget!  A job really well done!

So sad to have to close this wedding out and wish our newlyweds "farewell" and "may your life be full of beauty and love" but, alas, that's how these things work!  Next up, some more maraca shout-outs and coming-up our trip to Cancun to decorate Taryn & Matt's wedding - we are so excited about it and things are coming together so well -I can't believe it's nearly here!