Married in Magnolia: When Mexico Calls

Here’s the story of how I designed the wedding of my dreams. We call my parents’ house “Magnolia” and my wedding took place in their gorgeous backyard.

I didn’t trust an event planner to give me exactly what I already knew I wanted, so I went ahead and designed my wedding on my own. Traditionally, a big decision to make while wedding planning is deciding on the wedding colors. I, however, chose a theme instead.

slr_7495SLR_7225-(ZF-7830-17697-1-021)I had six 35 inch serape banners, 60 Moravian stars to hang from the trees, a cantina that was coming wherever I was going, and my picture wall. Also, I had a budget, had blown it in two months and didn’t see how I could possibly fit a venue into it. Using the money I saved on a venue, I purchased 30 additional Moravian stars, because my first 30 didn’t quite look like they were going to give me the full affect I was aiming for.

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We did it all (with a little help from my parents, of course). I built the cantina from the ground up, using recycled materials from our house. We used serapes, cut them into flag shapes and glued them to thick twine for our hanging banners used throughout the yard.

Flowers were important to us, but with the expensive cost of florists, I decided to purchase all of our flowers in bundles from a flower shop and assembled my own arrangements. My aunt assembled the bouquets and decorated the cakes, and I made the boutonnieres and flower crowns.

Decorations came easy with my theme and there was a variety of fun things we could use: cactus shot glass, DIY coasters with pom-pom fringe, painted maracas with yarn tassels, hanging piñatas over the dance floor, mini beer sombreros. It was definitely the little things that made a huge difference in making my wedding special.

On a final note, don’t be afraid to design your dream wedding yourself; you can. Be prepared for things to go wrong and be ok with it. I spent days making Mexican rose flower crowns for every female guest and guess what?! Not one person wore them. That’s ok and those things will happen. At the end of the day I WAS MARRIED and that alone made all the little mistakes seem really insignificant.

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dsc_2892Words & wedding by Carmela Carvajal

Images by Shyann Rash and Tawny Jewett from Dear Lovely Photography.

Oye Pappi, Ven Acá!

Are You Waffles or Spaghetti?

Heart to Hart on Being Beautiful