I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was fabulous, but WHOA did the weather change quickly between Friday and Saturday. Usually I am all about the colder weather (snow!), but for some reason this year, I am just not ready for it yet. Maybe it’s not wanting to say goodbye to Fall or perhaps it’s the 6 hours we were outside in 32 degrees & flurries yesterday; regardless, I feel the need to hold on to the warmth just a BIT longer.
So what more perfect way to do this, than to blog a wedding in Mexico?! Monica & David actually live right here in the Washington, DC metro area, but decided to have their wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and they did a lot of cool and creative things for their gorgeous destination wedding! So sit back and relax on our post-Thanksgiving Monday (with a full work week ahead, woof!) and jet off to the beautiful Mexican beaches.
Monica & David’s Creative, Gorgeous Playa Del Carmen, Mexico Destination Wedding
Images submitted by bride, captured by Del Sol Photography
About the couple:
Monica lives in Herndon, VA.,a graphic designer who graduated from Virginia Tech. Loves to make jewelry, play tennis, food and bright colors. David is originally from Pittsburgh. He is a network engineer who graduated from University of Pittsburgh. Loves to skim board, skate and snowboard.
Up first Monica shared a few from their adorable Beach engagement shoot. They were too cute not to share!
How they met:
My brother introduced couple and all attend St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church where they are both Coptic Christians.
And now the STUNNING wedding pictures!
Monica explains why they chose to have their wedding in Mexico, instead of in the DC area:
We decided to do a destination wedding because of the large number of guests we would have had to invite if we stayed in our hometown of Fairfax, Virginia. We both love the beach and the groom proposed on a beach so we thought it would be fitting. We had chosen the Paradisus Playa del Carmen, La Esmeralda because our wedding planner recommended it to us and it had just opened up. This is a 5 star restaurant so we wanted to have our guests have the best experience. The resort is very upscale and the décor doesn’t lend itself to “Mexican” at all, so our wedding theme centers on “Mexican” and bringing back that feel and flavor.
We also did a “first look” before the wedding. We found a secret hideaway in one of the hidden locations on the beach. The bride was waiting there, shaded with a parasol as the groom came to meet her.
We had ordered hand painted maracas from a local artist for our table cards and gift. We had papel picado flags and banners for the décor, Spanish lit up stars, stringed lights. The colors were teal and yellow also inspired by Mexican art. Every single part of the wedding reflected either travel or Mexico.
The invitations were passports filled with “Mexican” style stamps and images. The guest book was very different and not traditional. Instead of a book, I created a page full of travel passport stamps, which were empty. In each of the stamp, guests could sign their name and leave a message. The table cards all had Mexican images such as sombreros, flamenco dancers and the Mayan ruins.
Click inside for the rest of Monica & David’s offbeat Destination wedding in Mexico!
On what made their wedding “offbeat”:
We felt like having a destination wedding in general was “offbeat” especially for our very conservative Egyptian family. 50 of our friends flew to Mexico to celebrate in a Coptic Orthodox ceremony. During the ceremony (which is very unique), the bride and groom become “king and queen” and therefore are crowned, anointed with oil, wear red sashes, and wear the ceremony robes.
Beautiful!
Oh this is just my favorite thing ever:
After the ceremony, we had a mariachi band lead us and sing to us as we danced and walked downtown amongst all the shops and restaurants. Our entire wedding party followed us down and celebrated with us.
Even though t he wedding was in Mexico, they still managed to do a lot of DIY projects!
Most of the items in our wedding were DIY . The following items were designed and created by the bride: Boarding Pass Save the Dates, Passport invitation, welcome bags and all its contents, guest book, ceremony programs and fan, “reserved” sign, menus, rose petal bag labels, Maraca tags/name cards, table cards
We decided to be different and have wedding cake pops instead of wedding cake.
The bride and groom did a surprise second dance that was rehearsed. We danced to Frank Sinatra’s “the way you look tonight” and changed outfits (including wearing our ‘I do’ buttons.” After that, the groom surprised everyone (including the bride) and did a rehearsed dance to “Jump on it” with his 2 best men.
How COOL is this next shot?! One of my favorites ever.
Congratulations Monica & David! Thank you so much for sharing your awesome destination wedding with us! Be sure to check back later this week for Monica & David’s Trash the Dress session!!
2 comments
LOVE it!!