Purple, Orange, Red and Yellow and Into the Sunset They Go!

A big shout out goes to Emily who was married Saturday in Las Caletas and Liz who tied the knot in Zihuatanejo!!

Emily wanted our ever popular lacy romance maracas in festive colors of orange and purple and some "shake me tags" to boot .... this was the result! :)

Liz sent us her invites - I've never seen orange so vibrant before and what an inspiration! She wanted some menus and place cards for the rehearsal dinner and, then, maracas with name tags for the wedding the following day. The colors were orange and yellow for the rehearsal dinner and orange and red for the wedding. Because the orange was so vibrant, I decided that a grey tone to the menu and place cards would look better and really make the orange and yellow stand-out - I think it worked! :)

Liz's Invites

Menu & Place Cards for Rehearsal Dinner

Maracas

I'm still working on the photos from Panida & Greg's wedding - should be up tomorrow! hurray! :)

Palm Trees and Tropical Flowers....

A big shout out goes to Kirsty & Colin who were married yesterday at Dreams and to Sayulita wedding coordinator Kerry's mystery bride who was married yesterday as well in Sayulita!!

Kirsty came to us with their wedding logo which was just awesome!

We decided to invert the colors and I think it turned out pretty good!

We don't know who Kerry's mystery bride was, but she got some pretty rockin' palm trees!

I just got the pictures back from Panida & Greg's wedding, so those will be posted in the next day or two!!

Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm Wedding!

This Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

First of all, where do I start with this wedding at Casa Cosmos?!! I will admit that this was a super fun wedding to plan - Jennifer and Matt have such great energies and spirit (well, who am I kidding - I didn't realize Matthew was so great until a few day's before the wedding because, Jenn girl, you rocked the communication!) .... Jenn had a lot of ideas flying around but it became very evident to me early on that what she wanted was something old-world yet elegant and all I could think was "what fun!"

Before getting started on all the wedding detailed goodiness, I couldn't just select from one photo from Paulina's photo shoot with the bride and groom, so I just had to share these other shots - sooo amazing!

These Photos Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

Pre-Cocktail

This is where I would usually start with the bouquet, but we had a pre-cocktail to start things off with before the ceremony. I had asked Jenn several things about their relationship through-out our correspondence and caught-on to these two GREAT stories - one about how Matt and their two kids had used a little toy giraffe to bring her the engagement ring, and another about how they met at the Belevedere in Houston and, afterwards, Matt made Jenn and her friends grilled cheese sandwiches - as we were planning on incorporating all of those elements into the wedding, I thought it would be a good idea to share that with their guests so, in case they didn't know those two particular stories in that particular way, they would be in on the surprises as well! (all other amazing photos below are by our photographer, Soco!!)....




The Bouquet

Jenn wanted red rose and touches of green in her bouquet so we mixed-in black magic roses, green roses, green mums and dark red roses .... I found this awesome ribbon and pretty crystal buttons which were a very close match to Jenn's engagement ring and accented the wrap ... one of my favorites ever! The bout was also accented in the same ribbon with crystal accents.



Ring Bearer and Flower Girl

I wanted to surprise Jenn & Matt with another giraffe bringing the wedding ring and brought Matt's son into the surprise as well - he was sooo cute about keeping it a secret ... we painted the giraffe silver, to match the accents and gave him little crystal spots - sooo sweet! For Jenn's daughter, we created a green chiffon flower girl basket with crystal and silver accents - her face at seeing her little basket made it completely worth it! Aren't the kids just beautiful?!!

These photos courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

The Harpist

Just a great photo really - beautiful harp playing in the background as everyone walked down the aisle....



The Ceremony

Because we were going to use the ceremony area later on for the dancing floor, I wanted to make this space into something that would look great during the day and then transform slowly into the nighttime and be romantic and pretty as well. So, first Omar built two wooden trellaces and I accented them with black magic roses and hanging votive candles. Then we draped the entire ceremony area into alternating apple green and chocolate brown chiffon fabric - which was not only beautiful but also served to provide shade - it was cooler in the evening and felt great but, at ceremony time, it was a trifle warm! The chocolate chivari chairs had hand-crafted, hand-painted red fans by Omar with the design from their invite burned into it and chocolate brown handles. Up above we had strung red roses and christmas lights tucked away that, as you will see, would light up the dance floor in a beautiful glow later on in the evening.




The Cocktail/Tequila Tasting

Mariachis played at the kiss and into the cocktail hour which we also combined with a tequila tasting with special tequila shot glasses from Guanajuato for the guests .... I always try to include Don Julio (if you have never tried it, it's a must!) but I also wanted to play around with the couple's love for all things Halloween and the fact that the wedding was on Dia de Los Muertos and I found this awesome labeled tequila called "Chamucos" ("devil") - I mean, who could resist?! Signs explaining the different types of tequila were posted in silver painted frames.




The Escort Cards

Also in the cocktail area, we had put-up a chocolate brown hand-crafted tree with guest's names on the front and hand-drawn accents based on their invites and the table assignments on the back. Below the tree were green apples...



The Reception

Jenn had told me that she envisioned seeing lots of red at her wedding, only she wasn't sure how! So, "lots of red" I thought, "ah-ha!" .... we draped red chiffon fabric all around the reception area, from rafters to floor! She had also mentioned that she would love to see apples adapted into the centerpieces somehow as she kept calling it a "apple green" wedding ... so, I thought it would be great to intersperse green apples into the black magic rose centerpieces which were set into chocolate brown painted adobe bowls. Silver based lanterns lined down the center of the tables. The napkins were a green tafeta and doubled as the table markers - all the names on the tables were based on places important to the couple - Houston for where they met, San Juan where they honeymooned (before the wedding - we know!), Paris where the engagement was to take place, Rome where - well, that one's a secret and, of course, Vallarta where they got married! Lanterns in beaded colors of cream, chocolate brown, red and green lined the reception area.





Dia de Los Muertos

As Jenn had a brother who passed away when he was little, she asked us if we could do a small altar in his memory - We put-up a sign explaining the significance of the various details on the altar so the guests would know and understand that each thing on the table had a representation. We also had a Dia de Los Muertos area for the kids in a private room upstairs with a huge giraffe pinata and a movie on a big screen but everything was so busy we forgot to take photos!



The Kids Table

Speaking of the kids, we had a special table just for them which had black cats as centerpieces and little toy giraffes and tags with their names on them, and jack-o-lanterns filled with toys and goodies to keep them happy and occupied through-out the evening!



Lanterns

I must admit I knew the lanterns would look pretty in the pool, but was a little surprised myself at how beautiful they looked during the day!



The Cake

Ahh - the cake - there's always one thing that a bride just really has to have and, for Jenn and Matt, this was the cake! They saw one they loved one night on The Cake Boss and took a picture of it with their cell phone to send me the picture. I think Memo from Charme improved on the idea (no offense to the Cake Boss - I LOVE his cakes - but this cake -ooooh!!) and this was the result...



Nightscapes

We flipped the pre-cocktail area, cocktail area one last time to make it the cigar lounge complete with a hand-painted sign Omar rocked! based on the famous Belvedere where the couple had first met as well as a groom's cake for the groom's favorite soccer team. Candles sprang to life, twinkle lights came up and it was time to boogie and party - and boogie and party everyone did!! I just realized that we don't have a picture of the maracas we did - such perfect timing - just as the bride and groom finished their first dance the DJ put-on I Gotta Feeling, maracas were passed out as everyone surged onto the dance floor and proved that song right! Later on we had tacos with mexican salsas and, of course, grilled cheese sandwiches!



Fire Dancers

The night ended with an amazing performance by the fire dancers - there was a girl there I'd never seen before and she was absolutely AMAZING!! Seriously unbelievable!!

These photos courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

Next week we will have photos up of Greg & Panida's Romantic Vintage Wedding!

Panida & Greg's Before and After Ceremony & Cocktail Video!

I'm so excited, as we have the photos back from jenn & matt's wedding (nov 1st), but while I'm working on putting those photos up here, I thought I would share real quick a before and after video of Panida & Greg's ceremony and cocktail from yesterday! I have been nothing but blessed so far this season with amazing brides/grooms and guests! So, for a little sneak peek while you are waiting, here you are.....

Colorful, Festive and Fun!

A big shout out goes to Jaclyn who was married yesterday at the Dreams Resort PV! Jaclyn sent me two pictures when she was talking with me about her maraca inspirations....

HER INVITE

DRESS INSPIRATION

Jaclyn loved the look of Britt's maracas, so we kept it fairly close to that design in her colors .... ALTHOUGH once again we had a turqouise problem, convincing me that I need actual ribbon samples or big blocks of turqouise samples because turqouise down here is not the same as up north! :) But, in the end, we fixed the problem and, of course, everything ended happily ever after!

Next week I will have photos of Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm wedding that you are not going to want to miss!

Mindi & Morgan's Candlelit Wedding

Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

Mindi & Morgan were married on a GREAT day to get married, October 23rd (which just happens to be my birthday!) ... in spite of a few hotel glitches, everything went off without a hitch - the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome and the guests all ready to get down and celebrate! With an extra added bonus that the iffy weather the week before coroporated and was beautiful beautiful!

Both Mindi & Morgan just wanted a more relaxed, elegant feel and, as they started sending me photos of the things they liked, it became apparent to me that they were more into a zen, simplistic, naturalistic feel with oodles of candles! This was Mindi's invite which I just loved!!

So, after talking a bit more with them, this was their design board....


Their requests were quite simple - colors of chocolate brown, green touch touches of fuschia, elegant, candlelit, .... The original idea was for calla lillies but we ended-up going with cymbidium and dendrobium orchids and grasses and I'm so glad we did! I loved Mindi's bouquet - we added a touch of green buttons with the grass from her invite painted onto them - a slight twist from the bouquet she loved with raffia and buttons. The one tricky aspect of this bouquet was that she wanted a hand-held look and not a holder - so, we did a little creative thinking and the before and after photos of the bouquet can be seen here.


They wanted their ceremony to be very naturalistic but, at the same time, have some sort of a romantic touch to it .... and, wa-la....




I chose mums and grasses to line the ceremony aisle and Mindi really wanted a rose petal aisle but it wasn't quite in the budget - I did some refiguring so we could surprise her with it when she walked down the aisle! I love the fuschia touched fans Omar painted as the pop of color on the chairs (and, yes, sortof insisted on the fans - but it was hot! plus they looked so pretty :) ....

After the ceremony, everyone walked up to the Seaside Restaurant to enjoy a cocktail (or two!) ... we chose to leave the sofas in the cocktail area and fill-it with hand-painted pillows and candles and oodles of orchids ....

Now it was time to start the reception - we decided to take advantage of the sunset and the view when you could really enjoy it, and placed everyone along the edge of the restaurant - it was truly breathtaking!

As I was in Canada this past summer, I came across the most amazing chocolate brown, green detailed fabric and brought some of it down for their napkins ... the centerpieces were hand-painted vases with the green leaf design from their invites, along with some grasses, floating candles and sumerged orchids - I wish I could take credit for the entirey of their creation, but Tamara and Patti of Incredible Weddings came in at the last minute when we were having a few little difficultites with timing with the hotel and gave us a lending hand! Good job ladies (and the deepest gratitude). We also had little vases with floating cymbdium orchids....

Some of the other details we had on the tables were place cards with the grass detail from the invite on the front and the leaves from the invite on the back, grass detailed hand-painted maracas and a sand dollar charm attached to the wine glasses. Mindi had told me that, when Morgan had proposed to her on a beach, she had found her first sand dollar as well as one of her favorite gifts from Morgan had been a charm he gave her when they moved-in together - so I thought it would be a great touch to combine the two things!

Still following along the theme with the sand dollars, we hand-painted some sand dollars we brought from the U.S. and accented the cake (done by Charme) with them (along with a few beautiful cymbidiums, of course!).

This Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

I would love to take credit for the sunset, as it was beautiful that day ... but, alas, am not nearly that great of a designer.... Although this is a perfect place to acknowledge our detail photographer, Soco, who took amazing pictures of this event for us!

The cocktail area didn't have oodles of candles for nothing - over 40 candle vases with sumberged dendrobiums were hung up above and later on the area became the dance/party area really lighting-up the night and ending the party in a romantic glow....

Next week we will have photos of Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm wedding in chocolate browns, reds and greens and detailed to the hilt!

FB - Before and After Ceremony for Jenn & Matt's wedding...

Pictures of Mindi & Matt's wedding will be forthcoming tomorrow ... but, until then, I do have a little video of Jennifer & Matthew's Rustic Charm wedding which happened yesterday - the decoration was beautiful but, must admit, was not nearly as beautiful as the bride - both inside and out! See you back tomorrow!