Once upon a time our young newlyweds bumped into each other at university in Madrid, when Alejandra dropped her books Youssef helped her pick them up. When their eyes met they both knew it was love at first sight… Actually, that’s not it at all! Hahaha. Although there was no meet cute they did, indeed, meet at university, as all students did back then, they friended each other on Facebook. Ten years later Alejandra, who fancies herself a comedian, wrote something rather stupid on Facebook and Youssef, who can appreciate the art of dorky jokes, thought it was pretty funny. He decided to contact her and we can all assume they both did the mandatory cyberstalking.
They have been happily watching movies together since that weekend in September 2016. Youssef discovered Alejandra sleeps with her mouth open in public spaces, and Alejandra learned about Youssef’s hidden motive to get free tacos for life and his addiction to Clash Royale. They now live in Paris with their awesome dinosaur-dog named Pumba who has a deep passion for cheese and forces Youssef to share his yoghurt with him.
Inspiration
We were inspired by the multicultural aspects the couple represented, the bride to be being from Mexico and the Groom form Morocco, which led us to think of an iconic garden in Marrakesh called; Jardin Majorelle. It’s known for its bright colors, blue Majorelle of course and cactuses which you can find in Mexico… It also has a little French touch as the founder is the iconic Yves St Laurent and as the couple’s love story became real in Paris, it made some sense. The wedding theme became a Blue Majorelle Garden Party.
We looked for a neutral venue with an open space, a garden big enough but simple to leave us the room to mix and match all the different culture codes without it being too bright, too full too much… A garden with a pool was our main research criteria which brought us to a boutique hotel with just what we needed. A rectangular landscape with a large pool in the middle, palm trees, olive trees and even a couple lemon trees…
The weddings main challenge was to fit both cultures into during one day, it needed a little of Mexico and of Morocco both starting with an M but not so similar after all, with the approval of the couple we created our own modern codes of celebration, keeping both sides of the family content.
THE WEDDING
It started with the ceremony, a walking down the aisle with a white dress on your favorite song while your husband-to-be is waiting for you by a decorated arch isn’t a Moroccan concept. We opted for a late bride entrance remixed as an informal ceremony. We found the solution to set up an arch a little elevated from the ground on a small white stage at the end of the entrance’s alley of the garden, it made sense as in the Moroccan culture the bride and groom sit on a decorated seating area usually elevated, so as the guests arrived it looked like the seating arrangements to greet the bride and groom as usual only this time it had Emmanuelle Wicker Peacock chairs instead of a couch and behind the stage was the circular arch ready for a modern unformal ceremony! The bride had her moment as a “walking down the aisle in her white dress kind of bride…
The Arch was made of simple white cloth and colorful flowers, Moroccan lanterns painted in blue Majorelle and gold lanterns on the floor in-front of the stage, hanging candle pots from the trees, an airy feel of youth and love to represent the young couples wishes. We split the garden in two on both side of the alley we created the bar area with wooden customized bars on each side, rotten sofas, blue Majorelle and beige cushions, blue baboushes in rotten baskets for when the guests had enough of dancing in heels or tight shoes.
The reception had round tables around the pool with wooden handmade candle sticks, wooden bistro chairs and little cactuses added to the floral display. Dinner was served as a self-serve buffet with stations of different cuisines, Moroccan, Asian, Mexican, French we decorated the buffet area with 3M by 3M Moucharabieh painted in blue Majorelle to add that touch of fantasy.