This wedding is laced with bright and chic DIY details to add the perfect touch of Mexican-inspired flair. Tessa and David took on most of the planning process themselves and recruited friends and family members to help them add those special details. You can’t help but love their beautiful altar, the Mexican crepe paper flowers and adorable photobooth backdrop.

What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?

My husband and I did most of the planning process on our own. We spent some time on herecomestheguide.com when looking for venues and a friend who had gotten married a few years earlier gave me all of her planning guides, including a list of venues. Much of our wedding was DIY so checking out wedding blogs to get ideas really helped. Our venue (Wedgewood Weddings at the Golf Club of California in Fallbrook) included the ceremony, the meal, drinks, bartender and DJ. Although I always dreamed of doing a wedding from scratch, it was very helpful to a place that offered a lot of services, depending on what you wanted. I made the save the dates and invitations (with assembly help from my husband!). My aunt has beautiful handwriting, so she addressed them. I wrote out the programs and a picture that my 5 year old nephew drew of my husband and I was the cover. I made the guest book on MyPublisher from our engagment photos and other photos of our 4.5 years of dating. The guest book table was decorated with a large “M” that I painted to match our invites and photos that my husband had mosaiced of the two of us (davidmahlow.com). My dad made us a cake plate with Mexican tiles. My mom then hand embroidered our ring pillow to match our invites and my nana then made it into a pillow. My mom, aunts, Nana and mother in law made the bouquets and boutonnieres on the day of the wedding (from succulents from my aunt’s garden and flowers from the wholesale market). Our centerpiece flowers, ceremony decorations and favors were Mexican crepe paper flowers, handmade by Teresita and Xochitl, a mother-daugther team in Old Town San Diego. They also made a big donkey pinata to grace the kids’ table.

What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your wedding?

Honestly, price was the most important. We were paying for most of the wedding on our own and a big honeymoon was important. Wedgewood was one of the cheapest options, because it is east San Diego, but it was beautiful and elegant and the Spanish style architecture fit our Mexican themed wedding. We were so blessed to win our wedding photography by Vanessa Ha from a contest that she had on another wedding blog.

Did any of your vendors do anything special for you before, on, or after your wedding day that you would like to share?

Vanessa was a dream to work with. She also gave us engagement pictures and day after shots, which we would have not done either had we not won them. Photography was important to me, so this was a huge help to have beautiful photography for free. She was very sweet and went to every location that we took pictures at ahead of time to scope it out. Her husband also came along as her assistant and held all of our extra items and changes of clothes and her extra equipment. She got our pictures to us within a month and they were beautifully package in a protective book.

We also loved our cake vendor, Twiggs Bakery. Dan was so helpful while we decided exactly what cake we wanted. We had already gone cake testing at 3 other places (including one where the woman sat across the table from us and stared as we tried the cake) and we had had it. We almost didn’t go to Twiggs, but we are grateful that we did. Dan was incredibly organized and gave us plenty of time alone to try things and then came back and explained all different types of cakes and frostings. Most importantly, the cake was delightful! We had the cake iced very simply and then put fresh succulents on it. My mom helped place the succulents and said that Dan was wonderfully helpful.

What was your favorite thing about your wedding?

My favorite part of the day was the ceremony. On one hand, you forget that 100 of your closest family and friends are there but on the other hand, you see all these people who have come to celebrate your love. I also loved the cake cutting. I was not one of those brides who had always wanted to get married so I never paid attention to wedding ceremony and reception details. I ran up to my girl friends when the DJ announced the cake cutting ceremony and asked what my husband and I were supposed to do. Then I ran over to the cake and my husband, where we proceeded to cut the thinnest sliver ever and could barely pull it out from the rest of the cake. It still makes me laugh to think of it. David’s favorite part when I walked down the aisle.

What is your best piece of advice for other brides?

I am advising all of my recently engaged friends to get day after photos. We started late and were a bit rushed on the day of, but I wasn’t stressed because I knew that we would get pictures the next day. It was also fun to dress up again the next day and spend the day, just the two of us, still dressed and walking around another location. I also recommend to start early if you are going to DIY a lot! I spent many nights up till 3am the week before our wedding. Your day will be imperfectly perfect- enjoy it!

A wedding that adds meaningful (and fun) aspects of the couple’s culture are always fun, and I love how Tessa and David did just that. Did you add any cultural touches to your wedding?

- Brit

Vendors who made it all happen…