In some ways, it seems silly that it would be necessary to spend so much time and energy planning for what ended up being a week-long event with 30 of our closest friends and family. But it was a labor of love, and the end result really was everything I had hoped for. My #1 rule for wedding planning was that there would be no rules; we would not feel obliged by tradition/expectations for what we should do, and instead focus on what felt important and authentic to our personalities. I also wanted to make sure we had no regrets; that looking back on our wedding thirty years from now, we would feel like we had checked all the boxes on what would make it truly feel like our wedding day.
What follows is not so much a recap of the entire planning process, but more of a summary of the elements of our wedding that I am most proud of, and the memories that we will cherish the most for years to come. I wanted a place to organize all these things not only for myself, but also for our friends and family who weren't able to attend the wedding, and for all those brides out there who are looking for ideas/planning resources like I was last year.
Not having planned a wedding before, I really didn't know where to start (yes, I know, there are tons of magazines/websites out there, but they are just all so ridiculous and tell you that you need to make twenty list and follow a strict calendar, etc. etc. - basically a bunch of "rules" that I was determined not to follow). So, at the recommendation of one of my friends, I checked out the very awesome and totally my style, A Practical Wedding blog, which let me to the book with the same name, which proved to be a nice introduction on how to approach the whole process. Highly recommended.
After much web searching/contemplating and a few on-site visits to local venues, we thought we had found just the place - 128 South, a nicely done event space in the historical downtown of Wilmington, NC overlooking in the Cape Fear River. However, after tallying up the "bare bones" guest list with "only" our aunts/uncles/cousins/good friends, we realized the guest list was quickly approaching 100+, and the idea of planning an event for that many people (and having all of them looking at us) was just a bit too overwhelming. So, we went back to the idea of a destination wedding. Kevin suggested Vegas, but I quickly veto'ed that idea (I wanted something a little less, - ahem- tacky). In the end, we decided on Isla Mujeres, Mexico due to it (1) being located reasonably close to a "commodity destination" (Cancun), which meant that flight options for our guest would be reasonably priced and easy to come by (most major airports have direct flights into Cancun, and the prices are comparable to what it would have cost for guest to fly to a destination within the U.S. ), and (2) being a quaint fishing village with authentic charm that would be easy for our guest to navigate and less "touristy" than Cancun.
Selecting the actual venue on Isla Mujeres was not as strait forward as I would have hoped - there are lots of great venue options on the island, each with its own pro/cons. We decided that we wanted to have our wedding at the same place our guest were staying to make logistics less complicated (and hopefully take advantage of some volume discounts). Kevin and my Dad both wanted an all-inclusive hotel to allow for easy visiting/socializing without the hassle of pulling out your wallet every time you want a drink. That narrowed down our choices quite a bit since there are really only two all-inclusive hotels on Isla Mujeres: Privilege Aluxes (our venue of choice), and Isla Mujeres Palace (which is quite a bit more spendy and also located on the southern tip of the island away from the town).
I could go on and on about all the decisions that we made leading up to the big day, but what I really set out to do here is to share a few of my favorite details from our wedding day, along with a couple videos that our guest captured that day. Enjoy!
Video of our wedding ceremony: M&K's Wedding
A little dancing later in the evening: Dance with my Dad
The Dress - HB6622 by Saja
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| HB6622 by Saja - Photo by Susan Pacek Photography |
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"Mexican Wedding Flags (Papel Picado)" by Señor & Señora
[our full names are marked out for public internet-posting ;-)]
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| Vintage Mexican-inspired program timeline. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
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| [our full names are marked out for public internet-posting ;-)] |
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| Maraca placecards for vintage mexican-inspired wedding. Photocredit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Menus - designed by Madeline on Zazzle, and you can buy a copy here
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| Vintage Mexican Wedding Menu. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Centerpiece & Table Numbers - designed by Madeline on Zazzle, and you can buy a copy here
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| Vintage Mexican Wedding - Tablecard & Centerpiece. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Bouquets - our wedding coordinators Elba Machado & Alejandra Izaguirre did a great job coordinating this element of the wedding with very little instruction from me.
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| Bridesmaids Bouquet - Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
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| Bridal Bouquet - Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Hair & Make-up - by the seriously fabulous Anne-Marie Cote from Make Me Beautiful - Mi Secreto Salon. She did a great job and was super easy to work with - just sent her a picture of my dress before and hand we chatted a little bit about what I wanted and she did the rest with very little instruction from me. Made getting ready for the wedding so easy and relaxing!
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| Showing off my gorgeous hair and gazing off over Privilege Aluxes grounds. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
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| A rare occassion: me with full make-up on. Love the view of the eyelashes here. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
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| Anne-Marie works her magic as I enjoy a mimosa with the girls and look out over the Caribbean Sea. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Our Mariachi Band - sadly, I don't even know their name(s). It was a bit of a splurge, but totally worth it - all our guest had such a fun time, and so did we!
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| Posing with our mariachi band! Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
Papel Picado / Mexican Wedding Flags
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| Papel Picado/Mexican Wedding Flags. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography |
