Beverly and Brandon’s Mexican boho celebation nourished with boundless adoration & salty air

photos by Joshua Kogan, Studio JLK

The Glö-Couple (tell us a fun fact about each of you):
Beverly, a Life/Movement Coach and baklava addict &
Brandon, a Visual Effects Artist, expert precision rifle shooter, and blueberry pancake baker

Celebration Date & Location:
February 2012
Jashita Hotel
Tulum, Mexico

Tell us how you got engaged:
One Day, Brandon sketched Beverly a book called “Tale of the Princess”. The first 10 pages had the beginning of their love story with blank pages to follow which represent their future. A year later, on a rainy day in Los Angeles, they checked themselves into the Ritz Carlton for a little R&R. It was there, he got down on one knee and proposed. Stunned, it took Beverly a few moments to realize that the word yes hadn’t made it’s way from her heart and out her mouth…and after a few repeated “pleases” from Brandon, she accepted. Beverly is sketching in the book where Brandon left off and is giving it to him on their 1 year anniversary…sssshhhhhh

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you were aiming for with your celebration:
Everything had purpose.

We’re both born and raised Californian’s. We’ve been living and working in New Zealand for the past couple years and when it came to planning our wedding, we decided to have a small destination wedding in Tulum, Mexico. This way, we got to spend quality time with our closest friends and family (30 in total). A vacation for all, if you will. We rented out an incredible beach front resort for the week, so everywhere we looked, it was people we knew. Even our photographer was a friend (fortunately for us he’s a professional to the stars…)

My husband’s niece was the flower girl and had a matching mini (age appropriate) version of my dress

International influences: The resort in Tulum Mexico is owned and run by an incredible Italian family, my day of wedding coordinator was French, my dress was custom made by Wai-Ching (Cantonese for wisdom and virtue) who’s based out of Washington, the chef was flown in from Prague and I planned the entire thing from New Zealand.

We wanted to spoil everybody. This wasn’t just about us. It was about love and union and friendship. The Weekend included: Fire-dancing, zip lining at night, massages, all the meals were freshly caught that day, on-site chauffeurs & boats/captain anytime/where we wanted, live music and waitstaff.

Our married guests said that it felt like they renewed their vows. Our engaged guests said it helped them break the expectations of tradition and inspired them to plan according to what THEY wanted and our single friends got to flirt with each other and bask in the comfort that they weren’t the only ones holding out for the BEST.

Did you add any fun twists on tradition:

• Our moms married us in a circle-esque ceremony. (We did the legal paperwork at the Beverly Hills Courthouse). We just didn’t feel right about a stranger marrying us and who better to say the words.. “Do you Brandon, take my daughter Beverly” than Mom herself. There wasn’t a dry eye on the beach.
• My friends and I made my bouquet of Something old, new, borrowed and blue. Although it broke in the airport when I helped a man who almost dropped his child and luggage. It ended up as our main dinner centerpiece instead :)
• Our registry was a “Celebration Registry” we did right on a Glosite Page using paypal. All the money went straight into our paypal account which helped us fund the weekend. So our guests didn’t have to pay for anything specific, or get us a tangible gift, but rather they contributed to the whole experience. (snorkeling, massages, gratuities, etc…)
• We delegated certain people to pack our favorite wines in their suitcase. One person was allowed 3 bottles into Mexico, so we bought our favorites in California, wrapped them all cute and delivered them to our friends to pack with them.
• Our best friends two boys walked me down the isle. One was responsible for making me laugh and the other one for reminding me to breathe. You can tell by the pics who had what job :)

What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design? If you made them yourself, tell us how you did it.
Celebration + Vacation= Celecation

Our guests’ experience with Glovite/Site was like booking a vacation. Right down to the music and villa bookings….

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
For the communication, keep it consistent. When you’re communicating online with your guests, it’s easy to break off and have side convos in your personal email accounts. Chances are, if one person had a question, there are 3 other people that had the same one.. so don’t be afraid to update your site with the new info, and answer that way. On the same note though, anticipate any questions your guests might have so you don’t have to keep sending out “updates”…most likely your guests will tune out from you in their inbox. I suggest you have 2 of your closest friends receive the first ones to proof it (1 male and 1 female because we just think differently).
We sent 4 ‘Glovites’ in total
1. Save the Date
2. Invite (with an RSVP date)
3. Reminder to RSVP (1 week before the date listed on invite)
4. Thank You’s (this way when they clicked on the link, they got to experience the “After Math” of the wedding.. where we added a photo section, which was really just a link to pictage our photographer created, a lost and found page and our new address… You could even send a thank you to people who didn’t attend, but did send you a gift, that way they can see the site & pics too!

For the decor, don’t be afraid to mix DIY with professional help. i.e., we paid big bucks to rent out the resort, but when it came to table decor, we ordered clear votives and candles online (75 for $30), brought them in our suitcase and filled them with sand. WAY cheaper than renting candlelight from the decorators.

What is your favorite memory from your celebration?
My favorite memory was sitting at breakfast, watching my friends and family play in the environment we created for them. My husband looked at me and said.. “I didn’t know this is what I wanted.” Meaning, even he was surprised by the incredible outcome of following the vision only you guys could have made.

What’s the biggest “say what?”  moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?
There are 2!
1. A baton of bubbles.
Sooooo, our friends in New Zealand called the resort and said they wanted to treat us to a “Bottle of Bubbles”. They interpreted this as a “Baton of Bubbles” and proudly gave it to us with a note from our friends. We looked at the incredibly sweet concierge and said, “Are you sure they didn’t mean champagne?” And he said, “No..they said bubbles”. We didn’t have the heart to push it any further because he searched high and low for bubbles that came in a baton! So we just giggled said “Muchas Gracias”! To our surprise one of our guests actually blew them as I walked down the isle. Which turned out to be a MUCH better contribution to our wedding.

2. Part of the ceremony decor was beans sprinkled out in a circle that our guest’s stood around. Jashita left the decorations there for the week and they ended up sprouting! To this day, they’ve left the greenery there (where it was once just sand) because they believe it is a sign of life/fertility… pretty sweet.

Who helped bring your celebration to life?

Photographer: Joshua Kogan, Studio JLK
Music: DJ Fermix and Camilu Nu
Wedding Coordinator: Destination Weddings
Dress: Wai-Ching
Jewelry was family heirlooms and also Lunachia