Relaxed Destination Wedding in Tulum

Cassie and Sean wanted more than just one day to celebrate their wedding with family and friends, so a destination wedding was the perfect answer. Everyone headed to Tulum, Mexico for an absolutely dreamy event with tropical air and lush surroundings, made even better by the talents of Cynthia Rose Photography and Tulum Weddings and Events.

From the bride, Cassie: We knew we wanted our wedding to be laid back, intimate and jam packed with laughter. We also knew we wanted to spend a few quality days (not just one!) with our closest friends and family and have an awesome party to cap it off. Sean and I are beach people (he proposed on the beach at my parents beach house in North Carolina) and oh do we ever love Mexico! It is so close yet, far enough away where we can throw our real world cares to the wind and really melt into two puddles of pure bliss… obviously that’s the place you want to get married! And Tulum… oh, Tulum… pure magic… a jungle beach paradise. It’s rustic, charming and it’s our favorite spot to escape to for a long weekend.

In terms of style, I was going for a laid back, art deco, vintage, beach-glam vibe (if that even makes any sense at all!). I actually just kind of meshed some of my favorite eras together but, everything turned out beyond perfect! The juxtaposition between the rustic, laid back, beach palapas and the glammed up, glitzy details was just beyond!

We wanted to fill the day with tons of little personal touches, which was not easy to do when you’re doing a destination. We ended up bringing several suitcases full of items down to Mexico because we wanted to have these personal touches, which meant I had to be super organized! For our guest book, we had friends sign vintage postcards (I brought a ton of vintage postcards from places that were special to Sean and I) with well wishes or advice. We had our guests find their seats for dinner with gold compact compasses which we brought down, along with signage that said “May love be your compass, may it guide you home….But, first find your seat.” We loved that because home is no longer a place it’s now a person. We also had maracas handmade with our name and the date for guests to shake during the ceremony when we kissed. It was all really cute and in the end defiantly worth all the stress!

Intimate La Valencia Hotel Wedding Editorial with a Garden Luxe Feel

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? My advice for couples thinking about planning destination weddings is… just do it! Destination weddings are the best because everyone really gets to know each other and by the wedding it’s like one big happy family. Try to make it as EASY as possible for all guests… that could mean arranging accommodations for guests, having transportation set up and other events, dinners and things for them to do. The biggest piece of advice is to find someone there who you trust and who can help you. We got really close with Sandy and Morgan and they were rockstars in dealing with logistics. We couldn’t have done it from afar without them. Also, I’m a bit of a control freak and I had to learn how to just let some things be! There were things that I didn’t know how they were going to work or turn out and I had to just trust Morgan and Sandy and roll with it. Distance also makes you super decisive. Make a decisions and move one! Life is in the slow lane in Mexican beach towns (which is why we picked Tulum in the first place) so, in the end it was perfect because all I could do was drink a margarita, enjoy our guests and let the wind carry away my worries.