Wow Wow Wedding: #Mexipino2014 Part 3

An insight into getting married in mexco

We are now rolling on to Part three!  This part I will concentrate on what it was like organising a wedding abroad and working with our amazing Wedding Organiser Helena from Casa Los Sueños.

Having a wedding in another country is no joke, many things you might take for granted become bigger issues and working with different languages and currencies are tough to navigate.  You are not versed in the Country’s tax structures, attitude to business, response times and basically the culture is completely different…but that’s why you have chosen to get hitched abroad, you wanted something different.  Don’t forget that.  At the time of our engagement, as an Office Manager and PA by trade I was used to organising things including events, nothing as big and extravagant as a Wedding but the elements were there.  You are used to making bookings, liaising with suppliers, trying to get best deals and knowing the timings and schedule of everything.  On top of that I am one crafty son of a gun and DIY Queen, these two things could make it a dream to organise a unique wedding having a hand in everything but I had to let that go when we chose to get married in Mexico.  If in London I would of burned a hole in Google search to find independent caterers, cool DJ’s and dining tables, I would have Etsy’ed my way through the décor categories and found some nice florists.  Though my husband speaks Spanish I wouldn’t put us both through the faff of contacting individual Mexican vendors, with him doing all the work and me pestering him if they responded and to translate what they said.

We were blessed with an Angel in the form of Helena!  A family friend of Chris who actually runs a Wedding organising business called Casa Los Sueños.  Her rate was very fair and she was good to communicate with as she speaks fluent English.  We emailed, Skyped and Whatsapped throughout the year until we met the week before the wedding at her office to try all the food we spoke about months before, and see the flowers and table arrangements.  She even drove us around Cancun to find our wedding cake which meant stopping off at a bunch of bakeries and eating cake from each place.

The Riviera Maya Coastline is home to many towns and islands suitable to hold a wedding.  We independently looked at private villas and hotels and Helena sent us some options too.  When we decided we wanted a beach wedding not attached to a big hotel we focused more on the Private Villa idea.  The coastline stretches from the well-known Cancun to recently popularized Tulum which is about 1.5hrs-2hrs drive from Cancun International Airport.  In between the two cities are numerous towns, private beaches and the second biggest part of the coast; Playa Del Carmen.  Playa del Carmen is the “New Cancun” and is popular with visitors who want a beach town not as overly developed but still with amenities and nightlife.  From Cancun Airport it is very easy to get a coach into Playa del Carmen, and thought this might be a good base for guests not staying in our Villa to book their stay.  With more Googling I came across a beautiful Villa of appropriate size that allows weddings, called Villa Sol y Luna.  As it wasn’t on the list Helena gave prior I asked her to look in to it, and as it happened she had done a wedding there before!  After some checking the Villa was free for the time we wanted it, and there was no cost of hiring it as a separate venue as it was our accommodation for the week so…we booked it!  As Helena was now managing the bookings she just told us what to pay, and when, it was quite simple with online banking and using Money transfer site Transferwise.

(We also rented the Villa next door too which ended up being where Chris and his boys got ready)

Now that the Venue was booked it was time to work on the styling of the ceremony and the reception area.  Choosing a picturesque venue cuts down a whole load of décor needs as nature or the architecture of the space (if beautiful) already do that for you.  We were having our wedding ceremony on the beach by the sea and the reception under a marquee nearer the house but still on the sand.  On our initial Skype meetings with Helena she sent over her companies portfolio of work but also said if there was anything we wanted they could sort it out.  Taking into consideration that I have a strong opinion on décor I thought I would cut down a bunch of to and froing and create a PDF document of what we wanted so that she could understand the essence of what we were going for.  I think it is important to try and create a visual guide for others if you want them to recreate it for you, with lots of different examples of seeing your style in use and not to copy one wedding cloth by cloth, or flower by flower.  Leave your coordinator the tools to know what is important but with the freedom to present options from their associated vendors within your style guidelines.  Here are some pages from the PDF I made:

After receiving the PDF Helena was awesome in the fact she would send over all different budget options within the different categories all in the same style and we just chose what we liked.  We wanted a nice arch for the beach ceremony and she recommended us having glass bottles to hold the flowers that lined the aisle.  We had asked for Pipel Picado (a traditional Mexican paper bunting) and she was able to find a vendor who included fairy lights with them so having extra lights!  When we would get frustrated with other people not replying to our other enquiries she assured us that it was fine as the coastline was re known for having a Mañana attitude which meant they replied late but it would definitely get done.  It was great working with her and her team.

There were some things we decided to organise and book ourselves.  Mostly due to cost or if we wanted to book something quickly, or needing some specific factors that we felt we understood most.  We did cut these things a little fine, but in the end it all worked out.  Here are some of the things we booked/sorted on our own.

Bride & Bridesmaids Bouquets- I love flowers.  I love looking at them, I love having them,smelling them and I just think they are beautiful.  However, the kind I like looking at in Magazine and blogs are the kind I can't afford, and are simply put; expensive.  I aways knew I was going to go DIY with these flowers and just assumed I could just pop over to the supermarket and pick up a few bunches and re bundle them like I did for our registered wedding in London the week before (good old Marks and Spencer!)  However over the first few days in Mexico I was having a silent panic as every supermarket we casually went to for other supplies did not have any.  The day before the wedding I was pinning my hopes on the large supermarket we hadn't checked yet, and they didn't have any either!!!  I was looking around with my sister and brother in law when we decided on defeat and go home.  Driving away I was looking out of the window and saw a teeny tiny sign on the other side of the road that said Floreria.  I thought, "wait...flor means flower...eria is the ending of panaderia which means bakery, maybe it's a bakery of flowers....a FLOWERSHOP!"  I told my Brother i.l to stop the car and me and my sister investigated.  BINGO, it was a nice little shop that had nice simple flowers.  We bought 8 bunches of flowers and all it cost was £10.  Later my bridesmaids bundled them all up on the day of the wedding. Flowers, done. 

The Mariachi band- There was no way we were going to have a wedding in Mexico and not have a Mariachi band.  All the quotes we got for bands before we arrived were more than we knew we could get locally.  We went into town four days before the wedding for dinner and a band were going from restaurant to restaurant playing for diners, for tips.  We got their card and asked them to do the wedding and they said SURE!

The Minister- I found Pastor Noe Camacho online.  We originally were hoping our friend who is a Pastor back in London could do it but due to diary clashes couldn't.  Chris and I met at Church and are Christians so it was important to us to find someone we felt could deliver a spiritual and sincere service, but still accessible to our guests of different faiths or beliefs.  I relied heavily on the good reviews Pastor Noe received on various platforms online, and read as much as I could about him before I approached him to do the ceremony.  Once I did he was a dream to communicate with.  Speedy and concise.  We provided him with all the information about us that he needed, and he showed us the basic script of the ceremony for us to have a look through to see if we were comfortable, which we were.  He conducted the ceremony in both English and Spanish with such ease that it did not break the fluidity of the service.  Many of our guests, Christian or not were really impressed with him too and commented on Pastor Noe's sincere delivery.

Ok, so that's part 3 done.  Sorry for the late post of it.  I am back now from my Asian adventures and still processing it all.  But, more of that later.  Look out for Part 4, it's gonna be about... CLOTHES.

Photos by Marc Ash