Heather and Colin’s Romantic Mexican Beach Wedding

Sometimes when I get sent a wedding I get an instant reaction to it. With today’s wedding my instant reaction was Wow!! Heather and Nathaniel did an amazing job at putting together one beautiful looking wedding. With the stunning Mexico beach as a backdrop you really can’t go wrong and this wedding really does have it all. The view, the decoration, the flowers, the energy and of course the most gorgeous of couples you could wish for! From the soft romantic tones of burnt orange, soft pink, ivory and champagne in the decor, outfits and flowers to the full on beach party through to the early hours. This wedding is one to remember. Big thanks to Lux Art Wedding Studio for the exquisite photos.

Our wedding day was the perfect mix of romance and party. We emotionally expressed our love for each other in front of our family and close friends on a gorgeous beach before partying the night away.

Heather and Colin were married on 9th October 2021 at Akiin Beach in Mexico ‘We love to travel! We visited Tulum in October of 2020 and just knew it was the perfect spot for us to get married. We visited Akiin, and the location took our breath away! We tasted the food and cocktails and were immediately in love. We had 48 guests and it took a little over a year to plan.’ 

How they met 
We met at work in 2017. We’re both attorneys. We got together in 2019 and have been attached at the hip ever since.

The proposal
Talk about a crazy night! Colin planned to take me to the restaurant where we had our first official date, but the California wildfires had other plans. The restaurant called Colin an hour before our reservation and cancelled because outdoor dining was closing because of the smoke. He was devastated. I told him don’t worry about it! I said, we don’t need to go to dinner, “it’s just a random Friday night.” He insisted we find another place (now I know why). We went to the cutest little French restaurant and he proposed at dinner under twinkle lights. We celebrated with champagne and great food. Little did I know as soon as we left the restaurant my family and friends were waiting for us to celebrate in a limo. Colin’s parents flew in from out of state, my brother flew in from out of state, and my friends travelled to be apart of our special day. What a special night.

How did you allocate your budget?
We both laughed a little when starting to answer this question… We had an idea of what we wanted to spend going into it, BUT we gave ourselves room to be flexible. We knew how much our families were going to contribute to our budget, and based on that, we started saving ourselves. We wanted to make sure we didn’t have to say no to things we wanted because of budget restraints. We wanted the night to be memorable since it was a once in a lifetime event.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on the flowers, and I cannot tell you how worth it that was. When we got the initial proposal, I think we both were a little shocked by how much flowers cost. We decided to just go for it because Vanessa Jaimes is the best and we wanted the best for our big day.
Photos were another thing that were very important to us. We initially didn’t know whether or not we wanted a videographer, but pretty quickly after checking out what Luxart could do, we opted to have one, and we’re very thankful for that!
We saved on alcohol! Both of our families like to party so we thought alcohol would be more expensive than it was. At Akiin you buy the alcohol wholesale and what you don’t drink they refund you. How cool is that?

How did you choose your photographer?
Instagram definitely helped with this one! We saw Luxart’s photos and were immediately blown away. They have such a cool vibe! When we met them, we knew we made the right decision. Abi and Gon are SO COOL! They made us feel so comfortable and got some incredible shots. We will forever look at these photos and think DAMN WE LOOKED SO GOOD!

The dress
Dress – Enzoani (purchased from Miosa Bride in Folsom California)
Earrings – Etsy
Necklace – Tiffany & Co.
Shoes – Badgley Mischka
Bracelet – Something borrowed from my mom

The suit and bridesmaids
Suit – Calvin Klein
Bridesmaids – Show me your Mumu (color: champagne luxe satin)

Theme or colour scheme
Color scheme – burnt orange, soft pink, ivory and champagne

Flowers 
I honestly can’t even tell you what kind of flower was in the center of my bouquet, but it was incredible! EVERYONE was obsessed with it (even the groomsmen). Vanessa Jaimes would be the best person to answer this question!

Decoration 
We had a shot table for guests to find their seats. All the guests’ names were on mini tequila bottles and they had to grab their shot to find their seats. It was such a cool way to spruce up a seating chart. We loved it. We also had a shoe valet where the girls could kick off their heels before hitting the dance floor! There was a coconut bar where you could grab a coconut to drink out of!
We had a LOVE sign (courtesy of Akiin) and two gorgeous lounge sets for our guests to take a break from dancing and chat with one another. We also decided to do a sweetheart table for the two of us. We loved this and would highly recommend it! A sweetheart tables gives you a little bit of privacy to just soak it all in. We got to look around at all our friends and family and just enjoy the moment while having the opportunity to talk to one another in a more intimate setting. The sweetheart table chairs were one of our favorite parts of the decorations. They were these big, gorgeous dark colored peacock chairs!

Food
Appetizer – Spinach tartin cheese variety – super good puff pastry based with spinach and cheese
Salad – Arugula salad with goat cheese, fruit and serrano ham
Before the main entrées our guests were given small popsicles as a pallet cleanser made with fresh fruit. Our guests loved this! It added such a unique touch to the dinner.
For the main entrees our guests chose from Akiin fish with potatoes and grilled vegetables, beef medallions with risotto and roasted vegetable or the vegetarian option – cheese enchiladas. We shared the fish and the medallions. The food was something our guests ranted and raved about. Many of our guests said, “that was the best wedding food I have ever had.”

Wedding cake
Made by Pasteleria la Migaja Top layer – vanilla cake with the Carmel buttercream filling Middle layer -vanilla with buttercream and strawberries. Bottom layer – vanilla with lemon cream cheese with raspberries.

Entertainment
We hired a DJ- pluginaudiovisual – so many people came up to us after the wedding and said that was the best music ever!!

Who supplied the stationery?
The party company

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We drove up to Cancun a couple days after the wedding and stayed at Le Blanc!

Personal touches
We wrote our own vows in personalized vow books. This made the ceremony so special and something neither of us will ever forget. Now we have those vow books to look to when things get hard as a reminder of how spectacular our wedding day was and how much we mean to one another. After hearing both of our vows we know we’ll spend a lifetime loving each other with a love so unique and a bond so strong nothing will break us.

Special moments 
Not only did Colin and I do a first look with one another at Kanan on a bridge overlooking the jungle, but I did a first look with my father. My dad and I are very close so when I heard about brides doing first looks with their dad, I thought WOW what a great idea. It was such a special moment with tears flowing that I’ll never forget.
Another special moment for the two of us was hearing all the speeches. It’s crazy how loved we are and how fortunate we are to be surrounded by such loving, incredible families and friends.

Advice for other couples?
Trust your coordinator and your vendors because they know what they’re doing. Both of us are pretty chill people, and we trusted what our vendors said! We never thought we’d have a splash of black here and there in our wedding décor and when Vanessa suggested it we rolled with it, and I think the photos speak for themselves – it looked incredibly chic!

Biggest surprise 
The biggest surprise was how flawless everything went and how incredibly perfect the entire day was (aside from the bride having a couple tequila shots too many ha!). The team at Akiin is truly unbeatable. We were nervous planning a wedding from a different country since you can’t exactly just drive over to check things out, but once we got there and saw everything, our nerves immediately calmed. We were truly amazed by how well everything came together and how much fun we had!!

Photography: @luxartweddingstudio
Venue: @Akiinevents
Planner: @dana.akhtar
Wedding favors & Stationary: @thepartycompany.mx
Audio: @pluginaudiovisual
Makeup and Hair: @zoeelizabethmakeup
Rentals: @rebel.bloomrentals
Florals: @Vanessajaimesfloraldesign
Cake: @pastelerialamigaja

For more information on Luxart Wedding Studio 

 www.luxartweddingstudio.com / 984-1175786 or 998-2637604 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

We’re a boutique photography company based in the Riviera Maya, México who specialize in destination weddings photography. The founders and main team of photographers are Abi & Gon, the heart and soul of the company; they are big fans of love stories, bold couples, catching every emotion and capturing every important moment with their candid photos. Their goal is to make our couples live the best experience and feel completely comfortable and themselves in front of the camera!