Wedding Bells South of the Border

Jess heads to Mexico for her future brother-in-law's wedding.

By Jessica Solloway

I just got back from an amazing destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico. After 5 days relaxing by the beach, sipping delicious palomas (tequila and sparkling citrus soda, delish), and dancing until the wee hours of the morning ... I was not ready to go back home to reality where there's no fresh mango for breakfast everyday or sparkling ocean views from my room.






Seth's brother Scott and his fiance Sandra got married on a beautiful evening, on a terrace overlooking the water at the Paradisus Resort. While the wedding went off without a hitch (I'll get to those details later), the month leading up to it was a frenzy of swine-flu induced stress. Guests were afraid to travel to Mexico, the resort was running at a 5% capacity (the spa and most of the on-site restaurants were closed down!), and the bride and groom even considered changing the venue 2 weeks before the wedding.

But luckily, when it came down to it, guests happily packed their Purell and jetted off to Mexico. The hotel bounced back to life and gave everyone free upgrades and discounts for the spa. And once there, you would never have known that any prior drama had occurred.

Destination weddings are really wonderful. Everyone is happy at any wedding, now imagine the extreme happiness of watching two people say "I do" as the sun sets over a beach, after you've spent a day relaxing poolside in a shaded hut with pillows and bar service. Doesn't get much better than that.

Now for the fun details! The ceremony was gorgeous. The bride loves orange, so the bridesmaids dresses and flowers were different shades of orange, which was beautiful. There were strings of flowers hanging from the chuppah, which blew in the breeze during the ceremony. The couple wrote their own vows, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the group.

After the ceremony, there was a cocktail hour on the terrace, where guests kicked back on all white lounge furniture, and feasted on hors d'oeuvres and margaritas. Then it was time to move to the ballroom. After dinner and great speeches from family and friends, the dancing began. Let's just say that I never thought I'd see the day when Seth danced in a conga line with a feathered mask. He is not much of a dancer to begin with, so this was surely a once in a lifetime occurrence.

But one of my favorite parts of the wedding was seeing two families from different cultures join together for an amazing celebration. Sandra's family is Mexican and our family is Jewish which made the wedding that much more unique. The ceremony was in English and Spanish, the bride's mother sang with a trio at the reception, and we all danced to the Spanish version of the Achy Breaky Heart (who knew that even existed?!). All in all, it was a fabulous vacation and wedding and I'm beyond happy for the bride and groom! Maybe I can convince them to have a one year anniversary celebration there next year...