The wedding reception was the last event on the day. Usually, this is the evening of the wedding day (a few hours after the ceremony) but we didn't want our family & friends to be rushed or tired so we planned to do it the following evening completely. We knew this would be the only event we wanted indoors in their ballroom space & definitely wanted to go on the glam side of things.
We had a beautiful blank canvas to play with & that's where we got to be really creative! I wanted a big statement on the dancefloor where we decided to go for a hanging ribbon feature - it was so beautiful and were blown away when we had a little sneak peek into the room before everyone else made their way up. Our guests started off with canapes on the lower ground with Graziatto playing live on his saxophone & headed up after around 30-45 minutes.
Shop my look.
A magical evening.
I was actually watching our wedding video the other day with my best friend & it felt like this was all the other day. All of our events were scented by Jo Malone and the reception was definitely the one which had the biggest impact (sense wise) as it was indoors with no wind. We opted for my favourite scent in their range, Velvet Oud & Rose. It was the perfect touch to the evening. Even now when I smell that perfume or candle, it takes me back to Mexico. We had all our immediate family do their own entrances. My brother & his family walked in, then came in Vex's eldest sister & brother-in-law, followed by his youngest sister & family. The show stopper was definitely our mums who pretty much did a little dance for their entrance. It was so cute to see them in the wedding video, as we missed everyone's entrances!
Both mums wore custom gowns by Ekta Solanki, they are such timeless pieces, in timeless colours & cuts to suit their styles. I love how Ekta listened to each of our wants & needs when it came to designing for us.
Doing things differently.
Vex & I had already cut our cake during our wedding dinner the evening prior so we knew we wanted to do things differently at the reception. We made out entrance & were so excited to see everyone glammed up and cheering for us - it was such a surreal experience, it made us feel like newlyweds for sure! When we made our entrance, we danced onto the dancefloor & went straight into our first dance. Vex chose the most beautiful song by Major, called 'Why I Love You', it still brings me chills every time I hear it 🙂 We didn't have it professionally choreographed but I did make a small & easy routine for us, weeks before we flew out to Mexico.
The speeches were brilliant! I don't know where the time went while we were listening & laughing away. My brother started them off & still remember how amazing it was (it made me realise I must get some of my confidence from him!). This was followed by my girls & a surprise speech from my cousin who rapped our love story to the theme of 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' - it was so good!
Then cam the groomsmen who smashed it with theirs! We love how instead of raising a toast in the end, they got everyone to spin their napkins in the air. Leaving it to our joint speech. As our wedding events were hosted by us & not our parents, we thought it would be perfect to do a joint speech. We didn't hear, read or see what one another was going to say but we had a rough idea of who was thanking who & it worked out perfectly!
Vex wore a stunning custom blazer, designed in Dubai by Sartor which he still gets compliments till now. He knew he wanted to wear some sort of colour which is why I opted for a 'nude' / beige tone. Ekta made me my reception outfit of dreams! I wanted this to be a super sparkly outfit but didn't want it to be something I could only wear once. So we went for an embellished bodysuit & 2 detachable skirts. The first was very glam, fully embellished & the second being more silly & floaty. The second skirt is something I can wear again & again for other events. I made sure all my outfits for my wedding were things I could re-wear as I didn't want them to go to waste.
We had a gorgeous sit-down meal after the speeches, again from Taste of India in Cancun & surprised our guests with our wedding video edited by the talented Gallardo Films team. It was so crazy to watch the past few days we had on the TV screens, together with our one big family. It was such a beautiful end to such an amazing week with our loved ones. I can't wait to do it all over again on our 10 year anniversary ♥️