Mexican Destination Wedding At Cabo Azul Resort With Bright Colors & A Fiesta Atomsphere

For a travel savvy couple, only a destination wedding would do! Enter the gorgeous grounds that is Cabo Azul Resort… Our sweet couple, Katie Malone & Zach Olson, wanted to give their close family and friends not just a wedding day, but a wedding vacation. Truly embracing all that Cabo had to offer, our couple organized not one day of events for their guests, but days! From local breweries to tasty Mexican fair, guests were treated to all that Cabo had to offer. When the big day finally came, with a Fiesta theme on mind, our couple started things off in a gorgeous vaulted ceiling open air chapel where the party then continued into the night filled with all kinds of good treats included a Mexican Candy Bar & Maraca escort cards!

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What Storyboard Likes…

Airy Chapel– Hands down, the chapel at Cabo Azul is S.T.U.N.N.I.N.G! Breathtakingly high vaulted ceilings which are furnished in rich deep rustic wood & adorned with a sizable cross, this venue sets one hell of a ceremony stage. The staging of the chapel benefits from the warm tropic weather, allowing for the overall design to over look the resorts white sand beaches, quite the backdrop! The chapel is so bright, so airy, its almost like a dream and shouldn’t all ceremonies be like that?!

Details– There are some truly lovely details that Katie & Zac brought to life in their wedding that really bring it all together. Simple touches like gold chargers add a richness to the celebration, while framed childhood photos of each denoting the bride’s side vs the groom’s side inject a the element of whimsy to the day. The ‘Wishing Wire Notes’ are a lovely idea with a gorgeous vintage feel, while actual framed photos of the couple’s parents on their wedding day greeted guests! My favorite little touch however, and judging by the reaction I got from the sneak peek I put on Facebook just yesterday, is the photo of the bridesmaid’s, each holding a chalkboard sign expressing the connection between the ladies & the bride. I adore this and btw, how cool is it that Katie made friends at a job interview AND the Denver Airport!? Love it!

Background Art– When you have a wedding in a place, not just Mexico, that features strong bold colors, great local design aesthetic, interior decor, etc, by all means, use those to your photographic advantage! There are some truly lovely shots here that are stunning not just because of the lovely couple but they are completely enhanced by the drama of their surroundings. I encourage all couples to really take in the area around them before their wedding day and see what other natural local backgrounds you can use to make some absolutely gorgeous wedding photographs!

Novella of the Bride…

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Zac and I rode the bus together in 7th grade, lived a mile apart from each other and had some of the same friends growing up, and graduated high school in the same class – but it wasn’t until our paths crossed on a cold November day in 2006 that we put it all together! We have been inseparable ever since. We had both recently moved back to our home state of MN, Zac from Texas and I from Colorado, where we were following our careers – his as a commercial airline pilot, and mine in corporate america sales. We share a love for travel. We have rode elephants in the jungles of Thailand, rode camels in the deserts of Dubai, skied the French alps, shopped the streets of Hong Kong, and backpacked our way through Europe.

With our love for travel, and an original guest list of almost 400 people – we decided to slash our guest list to family and close friends and take our love across the border to Cabo – a place we had only spent a few days prior to the wedding week, so we explored the sights with our guests! We originally planned for about 45-50 people, and in the end had almost 100! Considering it was right after the holidays, and plane tickets were $800, we were completely humbled. I fell in LOVE with the chapel at Cabo Azul – total love at first sight. I never dreamed of walking down the aisle in sand and barefoot – so when I saw that chapel I knew it was the place. I’m not traditional about much – but having my dad walk me down the aisle in a church, and not seeing Zac before walking down the aisle were two things I wouldn’t budge on. Plus, the resort was an all villa resort with full kitchens, so our friends and family had some space to spread out and relax on their vacation.

I did a lot of DIY projects to personalize our wedding, that involved many late nights and glasses of wine while learning how to use a glue gun. My mom helped A LOT – dress fittings, numerous trips to Michael’s and the fabric store to find the perfect ribbon, etc. But honestly I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I did most of the DIY details myself. The drink stirrers (almost 400 to be exact), burlap banners for our Welcome Party and Reception, thank you cards for each place setting, confetti for the cake table, picture frames for the pews at the ceremony, etc, were all handmade. Literally everything was personalized – from the napkins to the match books.

Our overall theme was FIESTA! We planned a wedding week. Wednesday we rented out the Baja Brewery for a Welcome Party where we treated all our guests to local craft beers, pizza, and appetizers for the evening to kick off the wedding week! Thursday we rented a charter bus to bring our wedding party and immediate family (50 people) down to the Cabo San Lucas marina where we did our “groom’s dinner” on the privately rented Eco Cat catamaran/yacht for a sunset cruise. We sipped on local rum drinks, had some of the best BBQ’d fish, had a whale sighting, and danced on top of the boat and under the stars. We then headed into the famous Cabo Wabo to continue the fun until the bus came back for us. Friday we did beach Olympics & the wedding was Saturday. Some of my favorite special touches were the handkerchiefs I gave my mom and dad, and a toast I sent to the boys to honor Zac’s late father with a note, his father’s favorite drink (Red Label), and personalized shot glasses for all the guys to toast with. Also, I had cake forks with “i do” “me too” and our wedding date etched, to give to our children one day to use and etch their wedding day on them.

Bride’s Favorite Moments: “I have 4! In no particular order! One – when I put my veil on before heading to the chapel, my sister lost it. Two – the moment my dad and I saw each other right before walking down the aisle. We exchanged tears, and took a few extra minutes to compose ourselves as neither of us could have immediately walked down the aisle, even though everyone was ready for us. Three – meeting eyes with Zac as I walked down the aisle – even though I could barely see him through all my tears. Four – Zac stole me away from the reception for a few minutes, we walked down to the beach and stopped to look back on the reception in awe of everyone being there for us, this was our party, we are so lucky.”

Lagniappe: “We had a few mishaps during the week : MOB fell and had cracked ribs and black eye, bride lost a tooth a few nights before the wedding, luggage did not arrive, and we learned 20 minutes before walking down the aisle that the Mexican translation for “ivory” flowers is orange. We wanted to plan a wedding that was different from all others. Our goal was for people to leave Cabo saying “that was the best wedding ever” … and we accomplished exactly that. People are sending us notes and telling us they had “the time of their lives” and “best wedding ever”, “best vacation ever”, “let’s do it again”, “can we go back?”, just to name a few. Mission accomplished!”

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