Michelle and Clinton - Casa las Palapas

I met Michelle and her mom during a planning trip in June 2007, and like many brides who come to Vallarta for preliminary wedding scouting, by the time I met them, they were overwhelmed, confused and even a bit frustrated - they had seen so much and talked to so many people that the wedding seemed simply overwhelming!

Michelle really wanted a venue for her March wedding that would provide her intimacy for the celebration away from the Marival Hotel where guests would stay. Immediately, I thought of Casa las Palapas in Nuevo Vallarta, and our bride fell in love with the venue! Casa las Palapas is a rustic-style villa located beachfront with an extensive garden and a large palapa! The house has character and offers a truly Mexican experience!



After much debate over colors, Michelle decided on purple and red; she was attracted to the passionate combination and felt the colors would invoke a feeling of elegance and richness. The bridal party flowers were a combination of deep red roses, purple roses, purple lisianthus with touches of deep red and purple miniature mums.




The ceremony took place on the villa garden overlooking the ocean. Flowers and flowing chiffons dominated the daylight ceremony décor:









Following the ceremony, a trio played as the bride and groom took photos and family and friends enjoyed cocktails!


Dinner tables were set up in the garden with crisp white linens and deep purple napkins. Rich roses, lisianthus, agapanthus and mums adorned the dinner tables in chocolate wooden boxes. The bride’s love of Maya Angelou and dancing were combined and used to create unique table seating assignments. Dinner tables were named with quotes from Angelou’s work and printed on dance artwork that marked each table.





A couple special touches on the tables made the wedding even more personal:

The couple chose a cranberry mojito as their signature drink during cocktail hour, and the recipe was printed on the back of the guests’ name cards and inserted into red-rimmed water glasses that served as favors for guests to take home.



The villa’s character allows for creative décor including flowing linens from the large palapa and small flower arrangements tucked in corner niches.



One of Michelle and Clinton’s requests was to have a sandcastle wedding cake! They found several examples, and we combined them and came up with the following tasty creation:


A couple other favorite photos from this wedding:

Michelle’s very stylish mom showed up on wedding day wearing a fabulous hat; it takes a really classy woman to be able to pull this off, and she certainly did!


I love carrying my camera around on wedding day as you just never know when you’re going to need to catch a special moment! I snapped this quick shot when the bride and groom kicked off their shoes and left them behind in the rose petals to take barefoot photos on the beach with the photographer:


Michelle and Clinton were super relaxed and a pleasure to work with! Congratulations to them and best wishes for a lifelong marriage full of the happiness they experienced on their wedding day!