A boho wedding at Acre Baja is always a good idea no matter what anyone tells you, this venue is a show stopper. It comes as no surprise to us that Amy Abbott and her team would be behind this stunning boho wedding in Mexico. With details like the instagram worthy crescent moon shaped back drops and pampas grass decor this boho wedding deserves a permanent place on the blog. We are willing to bet, you will agree with us on that! Scroll on to see this gorgeous boho wedding for yourself.
How did you choose your wedding venue?
Mexico has always been a special place for Ryan and Kenz. Kenz grew up with a vacation home in Loreto Mexico on the Baja. Ryan and Kenz have spent many years going to Loreto (5 hours north of Cabo), and diving the entire sea of coetez including Cabo to scuba dive- so Mexico has always been quite a special place.
They have over the years come to love San Jose and never actually stay in San Lucas anymore when they visit. People who travel to San José del Cabo often don’t think of it as its own town—after all, it’s one half of “Cabo,” or Los Cabos, along with its neighboring town, Cabo San Lucas. Both sit at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez. But San José del Cabo is undoubtedly the more studious of the two siblings, with its art galleries, colorful adobe homes and beautiful jacaranda trees. Cabo San Lucas, on the other hand, is the party-loving wild child. The good news is that when you visit San José del Cabo, you can easily experience a bit of both: San José del Cabo is sophisticated town where you can stroll, eat and sleep, with easy access via taxi or uber to Cabo San Lucas’s party zone if you want it. San José del Cabo looks like a classic Mexican village, with cobblestone streets, colorful colonial buildings, and a smattering of boutiques and restaurants.
Now that they had narrowed in down to the city they were on the choose the wedding venue.
Energy and vibes are very important to me (Kenz). I make beautiful people more beautiful for a living and I also do freelance as an interior designer on the side so making things beautiful is part of my blood. I am also a scuba dive master with 180+ advanced dives all over the world, I started scuba diving at age 10 so near the ocean is where I feel most myself.
I decided my best bet was to find the best local wedding planner I possibly could first (which happened to be for what I was looking for and trust me I did lost of extensive research Gary Cruiel with Amy Abbott events in Cabo). I had many ideas for the perfect venue but I wanted an expert to help me narrow down the location, I also wanted to see the trip choices in person. I had seen acre once because eon of my A-list clients had come back from a trip to San Jose and couldn’t stop talking about this Acre place she had been to. After seeing her pictures it was love at first sight.
When Ryan and I visited San Jose we actually chose to stay in the Luxury treehouses at acre not because we wanted to test it out for guests for the wedding but because we wanted to spend as much time at the venue as possible to see if the energy we felt matched what we were looking for.
We had visited two other gorgeous venues prior, when I stepped foot onto Acre within 5 seconds I knew I would get married there. The lush richness of the palm tress, the colorful mosaic tiles (which reminded me instantly of the colorful tiles that covered the buildings in Lisbon where we got engaged). The amazing farm to table food that was so carefully thought out (food is very important to us so we loved the Acre was originally a restaurant we love that people travel so far to come to Acre for the food and experience, the food there was never an after thought).
Did your wedding have a theme?
To me, personally, using my own creativity combined with the wedding planners expertise and connections was the number one priority. I am very much a feeling based person, I design aesthetic treatment plans for patients and the homes I design based on my own artistic ideas of what I like and what looks beautiful. Never once did my wedding planner and I discuss a “theme” it was always like ‘this is super cool, and this is what I’m envisioning” and then we went from there. My favorite color is orange and blush pink, and I love green – Acre provides plenty of green. So we did small pops of color throughout the boho wedding enough to make it fun and vibey but not overwhelming. Cabo chic with a hint of funk and color is how I would explain it.
Acre is a place of creativity – they are always creating new ideas and spaces and that’s how I live my life so it felt very natural being there. Food is super important to us and Acre started as a restaurant/bar so you know the drinks and food are on point).
Orchids are my favorite flowers so that’s what I chose as my bouquet. But I also think baby’s breath is so underrated yet gorgeous. I am in love with color – a traditional wedding of black and white is not my style, I love energy, color, and I love live plants. Acre honestly had the best energy out of almost any place I had ever been to. The overall Experience for both Ryan and I combined with the experience of the boho wedding (and the week before) was the top priority for us over any decoration or table setting.
I spent a lot of time meditating on how I envisioned guests feeling as they arrived and what emotions I wanted them to experience throughout the day. Ryan and I are known for throwing the best parties at our house in Dallas, so we really just wanted the boho wedding to be for everyone about having fun and celebration. We also wanted things to be meaningful. So even though the decorations, and planning, was over the top- the main focus for me was three fold. First was I wanted it to be glamorous and chic but not traditional. If something didn’t “excite me” then I decided I wasn’t going to include it on my big day.
I created the entire playlist and mashups for the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, cocktail, and reception. Music is how I express myself and so important to me for energy – DJ Alex executed it perfect and put together my requested playlist effortlessly he made my music dreams come true- the music I spent probably 6 weeks planning by myself and almost every person after the boho wedding asked for the playlist. Music is how Ryan and I have bonded with and met many people in our life whether its at Coachella, yacht week, or concerts we combined our love of music to create an unforgettable vibe.
Did you do a “first look” before the ceremony?
Yes! I wanted him to see my wedding dress when it was just the two of us. To me that is actually more personal than having him see it for the first time in front of everyone at the ceremony. The thing about weddings that I had so much fun with is there is no right or wrong way to do things- there is just how you want it to be! Pictures are important to me and I wanted to get as many together as possible.
We got the first look at the JW in front of all the amazing pampas grass, the whole the was on drone it was amazing and very special. About 2 minutes before our first look the 10 groomsmen which happened to include many division 1 college athletes and my father were watching the TCU VS Oklahoma state football game and TCU won by throwing a 71 yard touchdown pass to take the lead and win the game. So all the groomsmen including ryan were on cloud 9 which may have helped his reaction to me HAHA!
Did you incorporate any religious and/or cultural traditions into your ceremony?
I have been in 6 weddings myself by the age of 24 and have gone to my fair share of weddings- I always kept a running list of what I enjoyed – this helped a lot. I decided to keep the ceremony very short and meaningful yet lighthearted.
The officiant is a long time family friend of mine and was actually my mentor for scuba diving, he taught me how to explore the ocean and how to trust myself at 10 years old, the sense of self trust you learn at 100 ft diving with sharks when you are that young has a tremendous impact of your confidence and also connection to the world and nature. It was comforting having him by our side as he taught Ryan how to dive also.
Out of all the weddings we have gone to surprisingly only one of them have done “personal vows” out loud during the ceremony to each other. This was definitely something that made me nervous at first not because I can’t public speak but I just had so much to say and had no idea how I could wrap up everything into a short, funny, meaningful list. I had no doubt in my mind that I needed to reach out to Den Pope, who has over the years helped my with numerous maid of honor speeches and met overall public speaking for big events. Den is a professional highly personal one on one speech or “ghost” writer. I used him 4 years ago for my sisters maid of honor speech and several times since then, and he never fails to amaze me.
He talked with each of us one on one and used exactly how we spoke and what we said by put it together beautiful! It took so much stress off my plate knowing in our vows would complement each other and also actually be able to put how we feel in our head onto paper. We also did a hand blessing at rehearsal dinner which was lead by Ryan’s mom and was so beautiful. I asked my grandmother to come up and say a bible verse that she loved as a surprise to me I told her she could pick whichever one she loved most, she really enjoyed that.
Who designed your dress?
I got my dress in Dallas’ top bridal salon Stanley Korshak Bridal Salon the designer of the dress was Ines Di Santo, I have been following her designs for a long time. But honestly it was all about the fit for me- the dress I picked was so me, it was also very extra and over the top but not princess or ball gown style or winter like it was perfect for Cabo and the tropical weather.
I knew exactly what I wanted, modern, sexy, and sophisticated with a touch of unique (which to me was the razor back feature of the dress). I loved the neck cut but the mesh and still super elegant I didn’t want any crazy low plunging neck lines but also wanted it sexy.
The bridesmaid’s dresses?
I gifted by bridesmaids with surprising and buying all of their dresses for them. I wanted them to not be stressed or have to plan anything and keep their expenses low so I also had their hair and makeup covered as well.
I wanted them to looks back on the experience as stress free and amazing snot a lot of work for them,
I personally have never loved the ideas of all the bridesmaids dresses being the same, I wanted to gift them with a dress they can go out to a fancy dinner with on vacation with their significant other on another day. Elegant, classy, bust most of all trendy.
I personally picked out each bridesmaids dress from Show me your MuMu, I had 10 bridesmaids, each girl got a completely different cut and style of dress (ranging from high –low, long, slit dress, midi, ect). I spent months reviewing all my friends instagrams for how they styled themselves to pick the cut that they love most for their body. Then I picked three colors and three different materials, but all dresses were a unique cut/style. The colors were a champagne color that was silk, coral orange that has sparkly undertone, and a crème lace dress. I think having every dress different but 2-3 girls in each material made the perfect combination. It was all aligned but not matchy.
Did you wear any other special jewelry or accessories?
I wore my mother’s wedding ring as a necklace which was super meaningful to me. When I was in high school I use to love trying on her ring and pretending it was “mine”. She knew how much I loved that ring and when my parents got divorced after 30 years of marriage it was very hard on my sister and I. The ring to me symbolizes all the special and amazing memories the four of us had while they were married and how none of us will trade those memories for the world. They symbolize all the love they had for each other and they still do even though they have decided to part ways at this point in life. no matter what happens family will always be family.
Looking for more boho wedding inspiration in Mexico? Check out this chic monochromatic wedding!