Mexican Fiesta Wedding

Ready for an injection of color? Viviana and Michael wanted to show their guests coming all the way from Australia what a traditional Mexican fiesta would look like, complete with papel picado, a mariachi band, and ballet folklorico dancers. Ninfa’s Flowers set the floral tone for the day, and Adrienne Gunde did her usual spectacular job behind the camera!

From the bride, Viviana: As my new family (husband’s family) were from Australia, we had quite a few Australians flying to Los Angeles for our wedding so we decided to make it a Mexican fiesta-themed wedding to incorporate Mexican traditions into a modern wedding which most Aussies would not have normally experienced. A mariachi and margaritas were must-haves for us, as was Mexican food and we wanted it to be very colourful! We are both very laid back people so above all we wanted our day to be relaxed and fun for everyone, but we also wanted to keep the decor/ambience classy and I think it turned out just like that.

We sourced all of our Mexican fiesta-themed items ourselves from Downtown LA (e.g. the clay vases, clay cups, Mexican treats, papel picado) and my Dad had also had a recent trip to Mexico to visit my grandma, so he brought back the colourful maracas, colourful table runners, and ribbons from that trip. We weren’t sure how it was all going to come together until the day. My dad had the vision for where to hang the papel picado and I’d just hoped it wouldn’t look like a circus… which luckily in the end didn’t! We had so many compliments from the Mexican staff at the venue saying they’d never seen a wedding so beautiful! Loved the compliments.

See Also

A Tuscan Inspired Wedding with Pastel Hues at California’s Filoli Gardens

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? I would say book all the big things (e.g. venue, ceremony, music..) that you care most about as early as you can, and then don’t stress too much about the other/minor things. Think about the things that matter the most to you, which in our case was… good food, good music, and a good celebrant… and spend time/money on those things that you want, but then try not to get caught up/stressed in the other details that are secondary to the things you care about. It’s easy to get caught up in the hoopla of wedding details but if it wasn’t important to you when you first started planning, don’t sweat it so much when the time comes.

Wedding Music:
Processional: “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin (played by mariachi band)
First Dance: “Thank You,” Led Zeppelin

Wedding Location: Altadena, CA / Photographer: Adrienne Gunde / Flowers: Ninfa’s Flowers / Venue: Altadena Country Club / Wedding Dress: Bought in Bangkok, Thailand / Hair: Kelly Zhang / Makeup: Lori Leib of Bodyography / Wedding Cake: Merengue Bakery / Officiant: Great Officiants