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!

Chris & Jessica's Vintage Fiesta Wedding!

I love this wedding design so much and the couple involved that it's hard for me to post and say "adios" to the whole experience ;). Jessica was big into fashion and that whole world so patterns and visualization was a very big deal to her and she taught me A LOT with her own wedding dress selections (she had 2!), her daughter's flower girl dress (so super cute), the varied patterns and designs for her bridesmaid dresses and the amazing decorative ties the groomsmen and groom carried off. It's not often I have a bride who says "let your creative self go - I'm all for it" - much like letting an artist into a studio and giving them thousands of colors to choose from in order to create their picture.  I knew we would hit it off when Jessica sent me their invites - a replica of Frida & Diego Riviera's wedding photograph!  And, of course, to top it off, Chris & Jessica are completely heart people - when I first met Chris, the day before the wedding, the first thing he did was give me a huge hug and tell me how happy he was to meet me. Sweet! And Jessica is just light and warmth incarnate.

 Place: Hacienda Camino del Mar
Caterer: Andres of ByB
Bride Photographer: Vallarta's very own Elizabeth Lloyd aka photographer rockstar
DJ: Hombres del Negro
Flamenco Guitarists:  Latcho & Andrea
Staff Photographer: Soko the Great
Minister: Tamara Bradley de Morales of Chic Concepts
Cake: Memo of Charme

INSPIRATION BOARD
We needed something vintage, something colorful, something artistic and artesanal, a nod to Frida Kahlo but not about Frida Kahlo ... and this is the end result design board...

THE CEREMONY

Jessica had really loved a scene in the movie Frida where Frida and her friends are having a dinner party - once we established that this was going to be the feeling we wanted for the wedding, I realized that I wanted to have pops of color for the ceremony but utilize a variety of chairs and chair colors - to continue the feeling that you just brought down the chairs from your house to have the ceremony.

I love this chuppah - painted a bright turquoise blue with beautiful handmade papel picado - Omar did an amazing job of incorporating some of the elements popular in Frida's paintings as well as popular Mexican folk art.  I asked my sister-in-law, Yazmine, to paint the stained glass circular centerpiece and blew me away how close it came to the original idea.

I had ordered some special wedding bubbles from Etsy but they didn't arrive in time so the team swung into action and my other sister-in-law, Gaby (I did mention, right, that the business is a family affair ;) created these awesome cloth covered bubbles with cute heart tags.  Antonio worked hard on the milagro heart wooden fans and we had a picture perfect ceremony set-up.

Jessica had sent me this amazing photograph of a big red floral bouquet and I knew I wanted that deep rich, red color but a bit more wild floral look to it.  I found the heart charm on her bouquet on a trip to Tonala in Guadalajara.  I don't think we have a picture of the matching heart we also placed on Chris' bout.

Jessica had told me that she didn't care if the bridesmaids held flowers or not or if they just had flowers in their hair and I thought having them carry signs, representative of the signage we had through-out the wedding, would be perfect.  When they lead Jessica to the ceremony the signs read "Here Comes the Bride" and when they left, they flipped their signs around to read "Happily Ever After."  ;)

Ruby looked beautiful in her flower girl dress - Jessica had mentioned wanting a butterfly bouquet for her and I found these amazing beaded butterflies and we created some butterflies made out of loteria paper - Omar did an amazing job and I heart heart the end result.

THE COCKTAIL

After the ceremony, we led everyone back up to the Hacienda for cocktails up at the main house.  Jessica had brought a pretty poster which we laid out for guests to sign.  We hung memory boards along the cocktail area and placed pictures which Jessica and her family had brought to share.  I do believe it was as much fun for us to see as the guests :).  We had hand punched metal tins with bright paper flowers for cocktail centerpieces.  That was actually a last minute purchase I saw when I was out and about and fell in love with.  And, of course, colorful papel picado banners.

THE RECEPTION

After the cocktail, we led everyone up to the roof top - I've always wanted to do something up there - it's so beautiful - but just never had the right event.  We used mismatched tables and couches to create a very intimate dinner scene.  Centerpieces were bright talavera pots filled with miniature roses, ranunculus, mums zempazuchil and alstromeria.  We had colorful wine bottles topped with colorful candles and spots of talavera tiles laid on the table.  Tables were covered with lace table runners.  And, of course, mismatched chairs and sofas covered with pillows representing the bride's colors and love for pattern.  Dinner was set-up in stations so that people could go and get tacos al pastor or carne asada quesadillas right as they were made.

 

 

We did have a bride and groom table created especially for Jessica & Chris - I love how colorful it was and how intimate - right in the midst of a big dinner party :).

We had been talking about a scene from The Princess and the Frog (seeing that we both had 3 year old daughters, well, it makes sense ;), and we both had loved a scene with bright colored bottles hanging in the trees.  I had some beautiful colored bottles made and then asked Yazmine to put her artistic touch on some of them with various patterns and colors.  We turned them on just as they started their first dance and the "oohs" were awesome to hear :).  As the dancing went into full gear, we passed out colorful maracas with a gold painted milagro heart and their names and date on the back.

They wanted a cake that looked absolutely edible (even though, in reality, is not real ;) and Memo did a fantastic job - both with the cutting cake and the actual cake which was absolutely delicious!

THE PHOTOBOOTH
I heart heart this photobooth - it was a lot bigger than I had imagined it to be but that worked out well as people loved to cram into it all night long and take wild and crazy pictures.

This wedding was so much fun to design and create and the open heartedness of the couple, along with their guests, was the cherry on top of this yummy ice-cream sundae.

Coming-up I have OODLES of shout-outs to maraca brides so more maraca pictures will be here soon, I promise!  And don't forget to enter the WINWIN contest to win 20 of our hand-painted maracas - contest drawing is January 15th!