As this 2011/2012 season comes to a close, I cannot believe how seriously LUCKY and fortunate I am to have THE most amazing, caring, sweetest clients EVER. Being part of a multi-cultural relationship myself, I have a soft spot for other multi-cultural relationships and with Lili from Querertaro and Kieran from England (but lives in Spain - I know - go figure!), well, let's just say we all understood each other from the start :). As usual, I don't do these events on my own, but had help from these amazing vendors:
Villa: Casa Chocolate, Chacala
Villa Agent: Casa Helga
Caterer: NAEF by Pierre
Cake: Memo of Charme
Staff Photographer: Eder Acevedo
Cuban Band, Violinist, Saxophone: Azucar Latina
Legal Documents: Patty of Chic Concepts
Minister: Lisandro P. Ghione of Ceremonies to Remember
INSPIRATION BOARD
As many of you know, I do a lot of things I've never done before ... which, this time around, included creating the inspiration board on a client visit and presenting the design in person :). I have to give Lili & Kieran A LOT of credit because I know my chicken scratchings aren't always the easiest to understand but they both fell in love with the vision and gave me a "go go go" from the start :). They had a few things they knew for certain - they wanted the wedding to be in red, white, silver and black and they wanted it to be romantic. That I can do!
Lili wanted to infuse some Catholic traditions into the ceremony, as that's very important to her and her family. But we were having the ceremony on the beach, as that was important to them both as a couple. So I thought creating an "out door" chapel would be perfect - with hand-created, hand-painted stained glass windows (drawn by Omar and painted by Israel - great job chicos!) and an archway to add to the illusion of a beach chapel - I absolutely HEART SMASH this ceremony set-up.
Lili wanted a red bouquet - just something pretty and flowing. We did a mixture of red peonies and black magic roses for her bouquet and black magic roses for the bridesmaids which looked amazing against their silver dresses. Add a touch of drama with a red rose petal aisle right before they were to walk down ;).
We had maracas and fans in red and silver with alternating words of "love" in both Spanish and English laid out on the chairs (and, of course, shake me tags ;) along with wedding bubbles to be blown at the kiss.
THE COCKTAIL
Following the ceremony, guests walked or drove back to the house for the cocktail, which was held out by the pool. Cocktail tables draped in red and silver chiffon were placed by the pool with a floating rose and a white starfish in a fish bowl :). Guests were directed to their seat with table assignments in black/white frames and the table markers were hanging hand-painted glass candle vases with "love" printed in different languages and floating hand-painted lanterns in the pool.
THE RECEPTION
I really wanted red to be a "pop" of color - so we chose to do a gray silk tablecloth and clear glass vases with floating red dendrobidiums and white starfish and seashells in the bottom. The napkins were white tafeta with embroidered red orchids. We strung hundreds of red orchids and hung from the ceiling and added additional glass vases with floating tea lights.
The bride and groom had their own table, so we switched it up a bit and had a silver runner with their initials embroidered in red :).
THE DANCE FLOOR/CAKE/GUEST WISHES
We made a little canopy out of white floral lights and intertwined it with curly willow to give it a more "natural feel." I think it turned out very soft and romantic. For the cake, Lili and Kieran both had fallen in love with a cake we had done "way back when" for Jennifer & Matthew, so we copied it almost exactly :). For the guest wishes, we took a big glass jar, painted red blossoms and made little cards that said "advice" or "consejo" for guests to print out and place in the jar.
Lili & Kieran both loved music so we had one of the most musical weddings I've ever had ... a violinist for the ceremony, Mariachis for the cocktail, saxophone for dinner, live Cuban band for dancing and a DJ for the after party! Whew!! And off they ride into the sunset - off to Spain and adventure, love and laughter... I can't wait to hear about it all!!
What I absolutely, truly love about our clients is how everyone has their own unique vision for their wedding and each wedding is completely about them from head to tippy toe ... coming up Rene & Steve's vintage French garden inspired wedding in Punta de Mita and shout-outs to some of our maraca brides!
