Cabo Style Meets Alice in Wonderland Inspired Design at Querencia
How did you choose your wedding venue? That part was easy! My family has a home in Cabo, and Ross and I knew we wanted to get married there pretty early on. We are members of Querencia, and it has a gorgeous chapel and lawn for the reception. It was a no-brainer for us. We love the fact that we get to go back to Querencia often and, hopefully someday, show our kids the spot where we said I do. It will always have a special place in our hearts. Did your wedding have a theme? From the beginning, I had the idea of having a funky garden party. At the time, I was not even sure if I fully knew what that entailed, but my wedding planner, Pamela Franssen, nailed it! The whole night felt like you were in Cabo’s version of Alice in Wonderland. It was colorful, playful, eclectic, and whimsical, but it still honored Cabo’s natural beauty. I loved everything about it! One of my friends called it a boogie wonderland wedding, and I think that’s pretty accurate.
How did you meet, and how long did you date before getting engaged? We met through my childhood best friend who went to college with Ross at Texas A&M. They are both huge A&M fans, and I come from a big family of Texas Longhorns, so I don’t think she anticipated us hitting it off so well when she introduced us! To her surprise, we started dating, and Ross asked me to be his girlfriend on Leap Day 2019. We like to joke that we dated less than a year before we got married. Length of engagement: 9 months. We knew we wanted to get married in Cabo in April, so it was either make it happen in 9 months or wait 20! I’m glad we went with the shorter route because I have a hard time making decisions and it forced me to think fast. Who proposed? When and how? Ross proposed to me at his family’s home in Galveston on July 9th, 2022. I found out later he was planning on proposing the weekend before at my family’s lake house, but we both got COVID-19, and he had to switch gears. The lake house is my happy place, and the bay is his, so being close to the water is something we both share a love for. When he popped the question, it was just the two of us, watching the sunset over the water. I can’t imagine anything better. The next day he surprised me by putting together a party with all our family and friends, some from out of town. It still amazes me how he pulled that off in less than a week!
Bridesmaid dresses: Show Me Your Mumu
How did you choose your table decor? That took some time, and it came together piece by piece. I knew I wanted something unique but also something I would look back on in 20 years and still love. It took a while, but Pamela was super patient and willing to go back and forth with me until we both felt like we got it just right. She made this amazing vision board on Canva that helped me see how things would look, and I started narrowing down things I liked from there. Between the two of us, I think we had 10 different Canva boards at one point. It started to come together when we landed on the black cane chairs, and then things evolved from there – black chargers to tie in the chairs, green floral tablecloth, rattan and natural wood votives, lots and lots of candles, etc. What flowers did you use in the bouquet and at the venue? I’ve always dreamed of the flowers at my wedding, so I knew early on the floral design was going to be very important to me. When I started researching vendors, I came across Pina Cate and fell in love with her work. I honestly couldn’t say what kind of flowers we had because most I had never even seen before! Everything they do is so meticulous and unique, like living art in floral form. We also had these huge paper flowers that we used as a photo backdrop and accents for our lounges. I had never seen anything like them before, and they took the reception to another level.
Our first dance was a special moment. It was the first time we got to see the reception, and it felt like we had been transported to this magical place. We chose a song by Leon Bridges, who we love. It felt like it was just us out there, dancing like we do in our living room. The entire night on the dance floor. Our band, The Big Beyond, was amazing, and I think every person (including my 90-year-old grandmother!) was on the dance floor from start to finish. It felt like we were at a concert, and everyone was having so much fun. It was cool.
What were your wedding favors? We gave our guests welcome bags with Mexican snacks, topo chicos, and, of course, an “I overdid it kit” to get them through the weekend events. We also had personalized koozies and matchboxes at the bars, and at the end of the wedding, we had Texas-style breakfast tacos for a late-night snack. Those were a hit!
Please describe about 4 favorite moments: Having the fireworks show while Sky Full of Stars played in the background was pretty epic. Followed by a tequila shot cart and tray passed churros. I mean, wow. We were blessed with the most amazing sunset during the reception. Cotton candy-colored skies that happened to match our whole aesthetic perfectly. We truly felt like God was smiling down on us at that moment. It was beautiful.
What did you learn from the experience? As hard as it seems, don’t sweat the small stuff, and trust your instincts! It’s so easy to get caught up in the idea of perfection, especially when things like social media and Pinterest exist. I was guilty of this, and it made it hard. My dad gave me a great piece of advice when I was struggling over one of many decisions. He said in 30 years, you aren’t going to care what your dance floor looked like or what color chairs you had. What you will remember is how happy you felt with Ross and all the people who came to celebrate. And he was right! When I look back at the pictures, all I think about is how much fun we had and how the night came together in a way that captured Ross and my personality and love perfectly. It also doesn’t hurt that Pamela and the Amy Abbott team made the entire wedding planning process a breeze, and the weekend events were flawless! If you could sum up your wedding day in one sentence, how would you describe it? The culmination of a magical 3-day celebration with our closest family and friends.
