CANCUN MEXICO DESTINATION WEDDING
THIS, my friends, is what my BFF’s destination wedding looked like in Cancun, Mexico! With 51 other guests from Montreal, Ontario and Australia, we hopped on the plane to Mexico with Gloria & Teddy for 8 days to celebrate their wedding. At first, Gloria didn’t want me to do any “work” but just to enjoy my “vacation” in Mexico. But I’d be mad if I didn’t get to design and execute my BFF’s flowers and stationery for the most important day of her life. I forced her to let me do it – just kidding. She gave me complete carte blanche in the designs from her bridal shower invites and boarding pass invitations (she’s a flight attendant and Teddy is a pilot – how fitting!) to her bridal bouquet and ceremony floral, and finally their thank you cards.
It was definitely a week-long celebration without a dull moment! Gloria & Teddy incorporated some traditional Chinese wedding elements into their wedding rituals. Time was set aside to have the bride’s hair combed before her wedding day. The combing of the hair symbolizes the transition from childhood to adulthood. The person chosen to comb the bride’s hair should be a woman of “good fortune”. This woman is known to achieve great fortune and have a surviving husband with children and grandchildren. Gloria had chosen her wonderful sister-in-law, Michelle, to comb her hair the evening before she walked down the aisle. Although very young and without grandchildren, Michelle is a very blessed woman indeed. she recited the traditional phrases of blessings as she combed the Gloria’s hair four times from top to bottom:
“May your marriage last a lifetime”
“May you be blessed with a happy and harmonious marriage until old age”
“May you be blessed with an abundance of children and grandchildren”
“May you be blessed with longevity”
Although far away from home, nothing stopped Gloria & Teddy to show their respect to their family. The traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony happened under the beaming Mexican sun as Gloria & Teddy offered tea to each of their family members. In return, they received red pockets, words of encouragement and blessings from the family members. It was quite emotional! I am tearing just looking at these photos.
The groom’s three sisters and mom were pretty much all who were needed to get all the girls ready and pretty! One of the sisters and mom did all of our hairs, another did the bride’s makeup, and another took care of all the details and made sure they were all so perfect! The men, can’t forget them! They helped care of all the ceremony setups and made sure the bride’s wishes for the ceremony was carried out. Time was tight due to the last-minute location change, but some of the guests also popped in to help – with drinks in their hands! After the ceremony, the sisters oversaw the transition of all the flowers from the ceremony to the dinning room, they setup all the details and made sure everything was flawless. They made the best impromptu headtable I’ve ever seen! What an amazing team Gloria & Teddy had, everyone came together to made the day oh-so perfect!
We were told by locals that Mexican weather should have been good during the time we were there. It turned out to be a pretty rough week for that time of the year. The “worse” was on the day of the wedding. No sun at all and rained most of the morning and drizzled into the afternoon. The planned outdoor ceremony on the beautiful beach deck had to be moved indoors. Regardless, Gloria & Teddy were so relaxed and chilled, they just enjoyed their special day, no matter the gloomy weather. No stress, whatsoever. You can tell from that huge smiles on Gloria’s face all day, that no matter how bad the weather was, she was just so happy to marry her prince, and that was all that mattered to her.
The beautiful wedding ceremony was officiated by a very good friend of the bride & groom. All the kids in the bride & groom’s family were part of the bridal party. They proudly marched down the aisle before the bride and boy did they have some cute messages to send uncle Teddy! And just like that, Gloria & Teddy tied the knot! The wedding reception was fun and chill with many heartwarming speeches as the guests enjoyed some great Mexican food.
It was a great honour to be next to Gloria on her special day and to be a part of this absolutely beautiful wedding. We all felt the love and happiness the entire week. Below are some more memorable snapshots of the love birds throughout the week.
Hope you enjoy seeing photos from this wedding as much as I enjoyed being a part of this beautiful Mexico destination wedding!
