Dominican-American Backyard Wedding

Blending both of their Dominican roots, Cynthia and Gustavo’s wedding was meant to be that kind of soiree we all want to be guests of. This intimate garden setting was the perfect backdrop for lots of dancing and good food, as captured by Merari Photography. Better yet, their wedding cost less than 10k!

From the bride, Cynthia: My husband is Dominican and I’m half Dominican, half Guatemalan… dancing is in our blood, so having a DJ was a must! We danced the night away with a mix of songs that ranged from Spanish to pop hits to oldies and classics. Music is always a good way to celebrate and keep the party alive! We had a violinist and cellist play during our processional and recessional. We chose the non-traditional route for the processional and picked Christina Perri’s “A thousand Years”. For the recessional we chose the classic Wedding March by Mendelssohn. Our first dance was “When God made You” by Natalie Grant and Newsong, it was made especially for us (at least it felt/feels that way-haha). The father/daughter dance was “Mi Niña Bonita” by Vicente Fernandez. I’m the youngest of three and also the biggest “daddy’s girl” you’ll ever meet, so, of course, the father/daughter dance held such a special place in my heart. The song we danced to was a song my dad would always sing to me since from when I can remember – it has such a special meaning to me and was the only option in mind ? The mother/son dance was “Amor de Madre” by Victor Manuelle. He picked out the song himself and surprised his mom the day of 🙂

We definitely knew we wanted our wedding to take place in my sister and brother in laws’ backyard. Their backyard is an absolute dream and having it there meant so much more to us. So, of course, an outdoor {romantic} wedding was in the works! We planned our wedding in 45 days, so we pretty much had to make everything ourselves and really bargain hunt for all the little details we wanted. I love to party plan, I love decorating and I love d.i.y projects, thankfully, my husband (then- fiancé) loves to support me in it all 🙂 So, planning for our wedding wasn’t stressful at all- it was so much fun! When you are blessed with family and friends like ours, everything just kinda always works out 🙂 Once we narrowed down the guest list to JUST our immediate family and a few of our closest friends, that might as well be family, we officially classified it as an ‘intimate wedding’. We had 40 guests (including kids), in my opinion; smaller weddings are the ideal weddings. The style we envisioned was classy and elegant, with a little bit of whimsy, while staying simple and non fussy. Too much to ask for? Haha. Well we did it.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? I never really experienced the typical “year-long planning”, however, I can see how easily couples fall into the stress of focusing more on the details of the wedding than the marriage itself. We definitely fell into that trap plenty times as well. But my one advice would be to remember the reason for the wedding in the first place! When times would get just a little bit more hectic than usual, we always reminded each other, “it’s about the marriage- not the wedding.” It was all about making our marriage more beautiful than our wedding. A healthy, loving, long-lasting marriage will always surpass the most beautiful, elaborate, expensive wedding. Hands down.

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Wedding Location: Miami, FL / Photographer: Merari Photography / Florist: Genesis Flowers (2924 N.W. 72 Ave Miami, FL 33122 305-629-9149) / Wedding Venue: Private residence / Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Custom made / Makeup: Makeup by Osira / Wedding Cake: Leelee’s Cakeabilities / Caterer: Diana Carvajal (dianasbar @ gmail.com) / Seamstress: Jorka Atelier (Ortencia) 305-264-0784 / Rental Tux: Tommy’s Tuxedo / DJ: Randy Wallz (randywallz @ gmail.com) / Violinist/Cellist: Lizbet Martinez (Lizbet0323 @ yahoo.com) / Wedding Dress Boutique: Brides of Florida