Apr 28, 2010

Mexican Wedding: The Ceremony

By Mexican law, you have to be in the country for four days before you can get married there. So our friends got married on Thursday, April 15.

The ceremony was on the beach and it was quiet pretty though I kind of felt like we were a show for the other guests. There were people sitting on chairs and beach beds on either side of the ceremony site and most of them were clearly watching us (not that I wouldn’t have done the same).

The resort did have people on either side of the ceremony site, making sure that no walked or even swam behind the archway, something that I think every beach wedding should have.

Wedding watchers
The ceremony itself was short, sweet and partially in Spanish since that’s Mexican law. The bride and groom both looked great and I think that overall the ceremony went just fine.

After it was done, the bride and groom went off to have some pictures done and the rest of us (there was about 16 of us) went over to this gazebo-type thing for cocktail hour.

This was around the time in the day when it started to rain. It started off gently and then it began to pour. The weather had been like this for the past couple of days so everyone was prepared for the rain.

The original plan was for us to have our dinner on the beach but once it became clear that that wasn’t going to happen, the resort arranged for us to have it in a private room off one of the restaurants. More on the reception in the next entry.

A few beach wedding tips:
  • Talk to your wedding coordinator about a rain plan
  • Also ask about “security” and what the resort does to keep your ceremony and other events free of uninvited guests
  • Resort salons can be super-pricey so be prepared to do your own hair and make-up
  • And speaking of hair, avoid doing anything too fancy since it can get pretty windy on the beach
  • On the positive side, all that wind can do amazing things for the right gown so think long veil, light-weight fabric and other elements that will catch the wind
  • Most importantly, have a relaxed, flexible attitude towards your beach wedding. Distance, language differences and the fact that many wedding-oriented resorts host multiple events in a day mean that a destination wedding can be a lot harder to schedule and control than an at-home wedding so be prepared to just go with the flow

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