Rene & Steve's French Garden Wedding!

When Priscilla of Prisar (one of my favorite Vallarta coordinators ;)  first approached me with doing a French Vintage Garden themed wedding - here in Vallarta - I thought to myself "Oui Oui!!"  We didn't have a lot of time and there were still things not quite finished (the bride's dress was being made, the invites not quite done) but when a bride is responsive you can get a lot done in a very little amount of time and Rene was great about answering emails! :)  

Coordinator:  Priscilla of Prisar Weddings
Villa:  Not mentioned because it's no longer for rent - no need to torture you ;).
Cake:  Memo of Charme (of course!)
Staff Photographer:  Angel (thank you Angel!)
Big Thanks to:  Tamara from Chic Concepts for helping me decorate day of wedding!  You're a love!

THE COCKTAIL
The ceremony was held off-site and Francisco (who is awesome ;) did the ceremony florals which I would show if I had pictures but I do not ;).  All we had to take care of was the cocktail and reception - fun!   The villa was pretty, but very sparse and minimalist - so no real "garden" to speak of and definitely no florals and when I think "French Garden" well, I think flowers!!  So, the first challenge was to bring florals into the sparse area ... we twined curly willow around the big statue in the courtyard and interspersed purple dendrobidium orchids (there were also curly willow up top overlooking the courtyard but we didn't get any pictures of that ;).  We floated pretty pink, white and lavender roses in the fountain pool.  The cocktail tables were draped with a pretty purple/pink chiffon and tied with a light pink ribbon. I found some vintage looking photo frames and pictures of the couple (who love to travel!) in various locations around the world served as the cocktail centerpieces :).

THE RECEPTION
While the term "French Garden" brings to mind lush, beautiful vintage flowers, when you add in the term "French Vintage" what one gets is opulence!  We had the doors from the courtyard to the reception area closed because I wanted it to be breathtaking when the guests entered :).  When the doors were opened, the walkway was lined with fleur-de-lis accented silver lantern stands filled with flowers and interwined with more flowers.  This led guests directly to the reception table which was decorated to the hilt with large mercury glass containers filled with roses, hydrangae, trachellium, limonium, lavandula, hyacinthus, orchids, eustoma, astilbe, aganpanthus and allium - try saying all of that fast 5 times! ;)  We overlaid the table with a light blue chiffon, had chiffon chair covers with curly chiffon ties, beautiful rose pink napkins accented with pink/gold ribbon (and a beautiful crystal brooch for the bride and groom) and monsieur and mademoiselle vintage signs.  Candles, more flowers in mercury vases, ties on the corners - and let's not forget the 3 silver chandeliers also wrapped with florals hanging over the top :).

THE CIGAR LOUNGE
We had a small cigar lounge on the grass with a few pieces of lounge furniture, some colorful pillows, a vintage looking French inspired hand-made lamp and big beautiful floral pieces.

THE EXTRAS .... Tequila Station, Dessert Station, Floating Lanterns, Maracas...
Tequila station complete with sign, vintage table and vintage frames describing each of the tequilas was located down below the pool ... We had a pastry section filled with Memo goodies - like the cake, cake pops, chocolate covered strawberries and petit fours.  And, of course, what wedding isn't complete without some floating lanterns dotting the pool with the bride and groom initials and accents from their compass/travel inspired invites?!  Maracas were handed-out during dance, as were flip-flops which were provided by the bride (but sign by us, of course ;).

All in all, French, Garden, Vintage, Lavish was all achieved and I will readily admit that I loved the final look of this event from A-Zède!

Next up, June maraca orders, Elizabeth & Matt's blog, Pelin & Kevin's blog and July maraca orders - I am a BIT behind but am getting there, I promise!! :)

Design-in-a-Box - Lorena & Brad!

Huge congratulations go to Lorena & Brad who tied the knot this past May 6, 2012 in Soliman Bay at Las Ranitas Hotel!  I had so much fun working with Lorena on her design - we did a full design first and then made recommendations as to what she could do on her own and what we could send to her to complete her look - I cannot wait to see the final pictures!  I can't believe we were just down the road at Taryn & Matt's wedding in the very same bay!

DESIGN BOARD
Old Mexico meets Spanish Morrocco - what could be more vibrant and romantic than that combination?!

INVITATIONS
I would be super remiss if I didn't point out that LizzyBLoves did Lorena's invites and she did a FANTASTIC job.  Definitely worth going over there and taking a look.  In case you are lazy, I've included the picture of her invites down below :).  I absolutely adore Lizzy and highly recommend her work :).

DESIGN-IN-A-BOX
So, here's what Lorena selected:  maracas, novia/novio signs, papel picado "place cards" to be put on the back of the chairs, paper flowers (they were for the backs of the chairs - I hope they came out okay!); punched hole tin baskets (for the cocktail); escort card tiles with guest name and table number written on back; and talavera table numbers to be propped up against Morrocan lanterns that Lorena was bringing from the States.  You may notice that the table numbers match Lorena's invites - I found someone to paint them to match and was so excited!

MARACAS

Novia/Novio Signs

Talavera Escort "Cards"

Talavera Table Numbers

Paper Flowers and Punched Tin Basket

Papel Picado Placecard Banners

The Whole Enchilada!

Definitely a fun project, a beautiful bride and I couldn't be happier with the end result.  Up next, Taryn & Matt's wedding blog - strangely enough on the same day, also in Soliman Bay - I can't make these things up! :)

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!