WEDDING BLOG

A traditional Chinese tea ceremony, a beachside welcome party, and a pastel garden reception inspired by Bridgerton gave Alyssa and Austin’s wedding weekend plenty of range. More than 100 guests traveled to Cancún, where the couple turned their Chinese wedding in Mexico into several days of family traditions, good food, and a party that rarely slowed down.

The destination format came partly from Alyssa’s older sister’s wedding. After seeing how several days together gave guests more time to connect, Alyssa knew she wanted something similar. The beach was already important to her relationship with Austin, so Cancún gave them a setting that made sense while allowing everyone to settle in and spend real time together.

What We Love About This Chinese Wedding in Mexico

• A traditional Chinese tea ceremony that opened the celebrations with family and heritage at the forefront
• An interactive welcome bag station 
• Pastel florals, soft blue accents, chandeliers, candlelight, and butterflies inspired by Bridgerton 
• Carousel rides, late-night ramen, and a limbo competition that kept the reception moving
• Alyssa’s custom Qipao from Taiwan and two Ines Di Santo gowns for different parts of the weekend

Featured Vendor:
Lucy Gallagher Events

Making the Tea Ceremony Part of the Full Wedding Weekend

Before the beach party and wedding-day celebrations, Alyssa and Austin gathered with their families for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Alyssa wore a custom Qipao made in Taiwan, bringing her Chinese heritage into the destination celebration through both the ceremony itself and what she wore.

Beginning their Chinese wedding in Mexico this way gave the weekend a natural progression. The tea ceremony focused on family and tradition, while the events that followed showed a much more playful side of the couple.

Kicking Off the Weekend With a Relaxed Beach Party

That evening, everyone moved to an oceanfront deck for a welcome party with tacos, cocktails, music, and a few surprises. Guests were asked to wear white, and instead of receiving pre-packed welcome bags when they arrived, they could build their own at a custom station.

There were snacks, sunscreen, bug spray, eye patches, scrunchies, custom reusable tote bags, and a mystery blind-box surprise for each guest. A rolled ice cream station served both cocktail and non-alcoholic creations, and the night eventually moved onto the beach for dancing, a piñata for the kids, and sparklers.

The setup reflected one of Alyssa and Austin’s biggest priorities for the entire weekend: taking care of the people who had traveled to celebrate with them. When deciding where to spend, they kept coming back to one question: “Would this make the experience even better for our guests?” Food, drinks, entertainment, and thoughtful extras consequently took priority. 

Choosing a Different Look for Every Part of the Weekend

The different events also gave Alyssa room to change her look rather than choose one style for the entire trip. After wearing her custom Qipao for the tea ceremony and a relaxed Revolve dress for the welcome party, she wore two Ines Di Santo gowns on the wedding day. Later, she changed into a short Rosie Etienne dress that let her stay on the dance floor.

Austin wore a custom navy SuitSupply tuxedo with “AC²” and their wedding date embroidered inside the jacket.

The wedding party wasn’t expected to match exactly either. Alyssa asked her bridesmaids to become her “something blue,” choosing dresses in different shades of blue and silhouettes that suited them individually. The groomsmen kept things classic alongside Austin’s navy tuxedo.

The youngest members got a little more freedom. Their flower girl wore the butterfly-covered dress that happened to match the weekend motif, while their ring bearer showed up in a “Ring Security” outfit and took the assignment seriously.

Taking Cues From Bridgerton for Their Pastel Garden Design

Alyssa and Austin are longtime Bridgerton fans, but recreating the show was never the goal. They were more interested in its gardens, romantic colors, and emphasis on family and friendship.

That translated into soft pastel florals, blue accents, greenery, crystal details, candlelight, and layered textures. Their reception at Tierra Luna added cascading drapery and chandeliers to the mix, creating the garden-inspired setting they had pictured while still keeping Cancún visible around them.

Butterflies appeared across the decor as a quieter recurring detail. For the couple, they represented loved ones who could not be there and the ways people change over time. In an unplanned coincidence, their flower girl ended up wearing a dress decorated with butterflies too.

Asking Austin’s Dad to Officiate Made the Ceremony More Personal

Austin’s dad had never officiated a wedding before, but when the couple asked, he agreed and spent hours preparing the ceremony himself.

The couple exchanged vows on a floral-covered platform overlooking the sea. Not every line went according to plan. Alyssa and Austin both forgot their words at different points, looked at each other, and laughed.

Those unscripted moments fit naturally into a ceremony led by someone who already knew them well. The family was at the center of the weekend from the tea ceremony onward, having Austin’s dad standing with them for the vows brought another part of their families directly into the celebration.

Doing a First Look So They Could Actually Enjoy Cocktail Hour

With guest time ranking so highly in their planning decisions, Alyssa and Austin chose to do a first look and complete many of their portraits before the ceremony. That meant they could join cocktail hour rather than spend much of it away taking photos.

It also gave them a chance to see the ceremony and reception spaces together before anyone arrived. After months of mood boards and planning calls, they had a few quiet minutes to walk through everything before the schedule picked up again.

Later, after the ceremony and family portraits, they carved out another short break alone before heading into the reception. It was another chance to regroup before their first dance and the party that followed.

Finding Vendors Who Were Willing to Try Something New

Planning from afar meant finding the right team early. Alyssa’s older sister introduced the couple to planner Lucy Gallagher, who helped them handle destination logistics, find vendors, stay on schedule, and refine the many ideas Alyssa had collected through her own research.

Alyssa also joined destination wedding Facebook groups, read reviews, and studied other weddings at their venue to identify the teams behind details she liked. Her criteria went beyond whether someone had already created the exact thing she had in mind.

“I found that the best vendors weren’t the ones who simply said, ‘We’ve done that before.’ They were the ones who responded with, ‘We love that idea, let’s figure out how to make it happen.’”

That willingness to collaborate mattered because Alyssa wasn’t short on ideas. She enjoys researching and planning, but rather than simply handing vendors a checklist, she wanted people who could contribute their own expertise and build on what she had envisioned.

Making the DIY Details a Family Project

Alyssa’s sister Amy, of Curated by AA, was her Matron of Honor, but her role extended well beyond the wedding party. The two worked together on table numbers, menus, ceremony and reception paper goods, butterfly details, signage, tea ceremony décor, and other pieces used across the weekend.

Amy was also behind the mystery blind-box surprises at the welcome bag station. Another family contribution came from Alyssa’s aunt, who made the couple’s wedding card box from scratch after having created a similar one for her own wedding years earlier.

The handmade pieces weren’t concentrated in one part of the celebration. They appeared across the tea ceremony, welcome party, ceremony, and reception, giving the different events small details that connected back to the people closest to the couple.

Giving Guests More to Do Than Dinner and Dancing

Once the reception started, Alyssa and Austin kept adding things for guests to discover. There were speeches from Alyssa’s sister and Austin’s best man, followed by a soundtrack that moved from their first dance to Yung Kai’s “Blue” into Taylor Swift, Drake, “FE!N,” and plenty in between.

Guests also received tickets to ride the carousel on the property. Kids and adults climbed aboard, took photos, and returned to the dance floor afterward. Hours later, a ramen station arrived for the late-night crowd, followed by a limbo competition that kept people cheering and participating rather than winding down.

There were also subtle references to basketball, the shared interest that first brought Alyssa and Austin together as college friends. It was a small nod to where their relationship started without turning their wedding into a display of their entire history.

By the end of the night, the tables were largely empty because everyone was on the dance floor, which was exactly the kind of reception Austin, the more spontaneous half of the pair, had pictured.

Remembering That Even a Carefully Planned Weekend Will Go Off Script

Before any of those celebrations could happen, there was one problem Alyssa definitely hadn’t planned for: the airline lost one of their suitcases. Her sister began calling airline representatives, relatives tracked updates, and eventually Alyssa’s brother-in-law volunteered to fly back and retrieve the missing suitcase himself. Both he and the luggage returned in time. When the suitcase finally arrived, Alyssa’s mom cried with relief. It became an unexpectedly fitting story for a weekend built so heavily around family and friends showing up for one another.

For Alyssa and Austin, the biggest lesson from planning their Chinese wedding in Mexico wasn’t how to make every detail go according to plan. Alyssa recommends building more time into the timeline than you think you’ll need and not letting every small decision become bigger than it needs to be.

“Take moments throughout the day to pause. Look around. Hold your partner’s hand. Watch your family laughing together.” After several days of tea ceremonies, beach parties, carousel rides, forgotten ceremony lines, late-night ramen, and a suitcase rescue, there was plenty to look around and take in.