Good morning, wedding lovers! We're starting today off with the beautiful photography of Anahi Navarro. His images are absolutely breath-taking and this South Padre Island wedding is no exception. The bride and groom's impeccable sense of style compliments Anahi's artistic images so perfectly. I won't say much more...I'll just let the images speak for themselves! Check out even more great images on Anahi's blog.
From the Bride...Our vision developed by following the "keep it simple" motto... We were on a strict budget and all we really wanted was amazing Mexican food--REAL Mexican food (both bride and groom grew up in Mexico City). Since that was our only "must have", picking the venue and all the d�cor was easy. We were thrilled to find the Birding Center on South Padre Island. They had never catered to a wedding before so it was a first for all parties, but the place was beautiful, unique, and offered our guests a little more than the traditional wedding hall at a fraction of the cost! As for the d�cor, we decided to go with whatever was easy to find and whatever was in season. In our eyes, ALL flowers are gorgeous (after all, they are flowers) so we didn't want to spend a ton of time and money trying to find the "perfect" arrangement. Instead we went the complete opposite route and pulled together a clean, fresh color pallet with items we knew were easy to find. We used granny smith apples, limes, moss-covered balls, and tall glass vases all accented with a ton of candles. The only flowers we used (sparingly) were green and white orchids, bells of Ireland, and giant green chrysanthemums. The beauty of the venue completed the picture.
The venue itself was (and still is) comprised of large rooms on two different levels, an elegant wooden stairway, two wrap-around balconies overlooking the Bay, and a long walkway, which goes right out over the Bay. We had access to the entire building, including the lofty watch-tower and we made use of it all! We used different sized tables, tall and short, in all the areas of the venue. We had long banquet tables in some rooms, round tables in others, and each of the balconies had sitting areas and tables beautifully decorated.
The food was the star of the evening. The appetizers were served as people mingled and sampled cuisine from various parts of Mexico, such as bite-size cerviche cucumber cups from the coast, and asparagus spears wrapped in Serrano ham from the interior. We wanted to keep our dining experience simple as well, so there was no arranged seating and our salads and main courses were set up as "food stations" in each of the different dining areas to force our guests to mingle and to enjoy the different areas of the building (tower, exhibition halls...). Some of the main stars of this dining experience were a delicious jicama mango salad with a raspberry habanero vinaigrette, skewered "elotes" (corn lollipops), Spanish chorizo quesadillas, Veracruz style tamales wrapped in banana leaves, beef tenderloin in a chipotle cream sauce, grilled scallops, pork tenderloin in a cognac sauce and of course and last but not least, chicken in traditional mole sauce.
This amazing dinner set the stage for a fun filled evening of dancing (in the transformed multimedia room), and socializing on the amazing decks and walkways. We set up a casual candy bar with all of our favorite gummi candies that doubled as our "party favors". Folks could pick up a cute little bag and fill it to their hearts desire with all the goodies on the table. In true Mexican fashion, we ended the night with a Mariachi band and late night "street cart style" tacos.
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