Here at Smashing the Glass, we’ve taken little virtual trips absolutely everywhere – from Paris to Tel Aviv, New York to LA – and today, to Quito, Equador, for Adina and Mauricio’s romantic Jew-ish wedding celebration.
Power couple, Adina and Mau met for the first time in Ecuador, and it was love at first sight. The pair shortly reunited in Washington D.C., where they now live. Mau is an international relations consultant at the Organization of American States whilst Adina is a non-profit immigration attorney.
For their big event, the pair returned to Ecuador for an interfaith Jewish ceremony, conducted by a friend in both English and Spanish, with Latino influences throughout the day. Their venue overlooked the Andean mountains, where the loved-up couple first met.
Special touches that we absolutely love include a relaxing lounge area complete with a caricaturist, beautiful bulb lights to add to the magical, mystical atmosphere of the surroundings and a totally stunning, floral chuppah!
Beautiful and vivacious bride, Adina, looked sensational in her glamorous Wtoo by Watters for BHLDN gown, as you can see in these stunning images by Juan Pablo Velasco.
We’ll leave you now with Adina’s articulate and emotional words about her and Mau’s big day. Take it away, Adina!
How we met
Adina, the bride: We met in the summer of 2012 in Quito, Ecuador through our mutual friend, Amela. I was in Ecuador for an internship working with refugees, and Mau was just coming back from living in Europe, about to move to D.C. for an internship.
One of my first nights in Quito, we met for dinner and were each impressed and amazed by each other. We talked for hours, and Mau ordered me an ice cream sundae. Every weekend, we traveled together with friends and explored beautiful places all over Ecuador.
Together, we got to experience many exotic and diverse environments in Ecuador for the very first time. We discovered indigenous markets in Otavalo, enjoyed gorgeous beaches and fresh ceviche in Montaà±ita and Manta, rode chivas and swam in waterfalls in Baà±os, and mountain biked down Cotopaxi. Knowing Mau had already planned to move to D.C. for work before we met, we never really questioned being together, even when I had to return to D.C. to start law school.
A mystical venue
We got married in Quito, Ecuador, where Mau is from and where we met, at a beautiful venue overlooking the mountains and lights of the city called Quinta Santa Fe.
We had never been before, but the view was just so stunning and allowed us to have the natural, down to earth, but mystical feel that we wanted. It was deeply meaningful to have all our friends and family in Ecuador to experience and feel Mau’s roots and the roots of our relationship.
Unique, eclectic dà©cor
The most important thing was choosing to have our wedding in Ecuador. It was not easy to plan a wedding abroad and to coordinate so many friends and family going to South America, but so worth it.
We had the most incredible and thoughtful wedding planners, Assyah and Josà© Luis of Etica Events. They really took the time to understand what we wanted, worked so hard, and made such a beautiful environment to help us bring together our cultures and families in the most meaningful way.
The wedding style was elegant, and incorporated rustic and boho elements. The lounge was a big part of the wedding. It was able to fit 28 guests, even a bit more, our planner used local details such as an indigenous carpets; we had draperies hanging from the top of the lounge area, and we had a bonfire, the fireplace had someone in charge of it, so we always had flames, even when we had small showers. We had small golden details and candelabras and used some cacti and succulents, originally from the region.
We had transparent tents and lots of bulb lights. Some of the lamps were unique and handmade for our wedding. The seating chart and the table numbers were designed by our planners (Josà© Luis) with vintage watercolors of fruits and plants of Ecuador; everyone loved it. They also designed the menus.
We wanted our wedding to be distinctive, but one aspect we also wanted is that everyone could feel comfortable, and it was, it was truly amazing, everyone loved the atmosphere of the wedding, everyone danced and enjoyed the evening.
Watercolor invitations
We picked a design from Minted.com that had our favorite colors, blue and green, in watercolor. The illustration was of a mountain in nature surrounded by fields, with the vantage point of heading up the mountain.
It was perfect to symbolize moving forward to our goals and also returning to the routes of where we met, in the mountains in Quito, which our venue overlooked. We had the invitations made in English and Spanish.
Smokey eyes and soft, romantic waves
Our planner found an amazing hair and makeup stylist named Carolina. She was incredible! I went for a very natural look, but also a glamorous and classically beautiful style.
I decided to go with a smokey eye, with golds and browns and more neutral lips, though I couldn’t resist putting on a bit of my favorite red lipstick once the dancing got started. For hair I went with soft, romantic waves all down.
A BHLDN dress like no other
I bought my dress from BHLDN and the designer was Wtoo by Watters.
My dress was a mermaid style, with a long train and a low back, beautiful lace fabric, dainty pearl bead straps, and subtle clear sequins all over. It was classy and sexy with delicate touches.
After looking at two traditional wedding dress stores and not really loving anything, I ended up finding my perfect dress at Anthropologie‘s wedding dress line, BHLDN. The first time I put it on, I couldn’t stop smiling! I hesitated at first, because I didn’t want to wear anything that had any sparkles, but the sequins were very subtle and it was soooo hard for any other dress to compare.
Mom’s accessories
I wore my mom’s pearl hoop earrings and her gold bracelet with opal. I wore a veil for the ceremony (a rather cheap one since I knew it’d just be for an hour).
Badgley Mischka beauties
For my shoes, it was wedges all the way! I wanted to be comfortable, not worry about the grass and mud, and be able to dance all night.
But I did have two pairs and switch in the middle, from comfortable to really comfortable wedges! For the ceremony, I wore Badgley Mischka and for dancing, a sparkly gold number.
The handsome groom
Mau wore Jos. A. Bank, with the date of our wedding stitched into the inseam, and looked sooooooo handsome, especially his huge smile the whole day and night.
Bridesmaids in dusty rose
I just told my bridesmaids to wear something dusty rose or champagne colored to go with the soft, romantic color theme. They picked their own dresses to have a mix of shades and styles, which I loved because the styles reflected their own styles and personalities.
I got everyone matching robes to wear while we got ready from the Etsy designer Piyama, which was really fun.
A natural, wooden chuppah
We looked at lots of pictures on Pinterest and decided we wanted something with wood poles, a lot of greenery and cream flowers and a subtle amount of color.
Our planner did a beautiful job, adding soft touches of light pinks and oranges.
A bilingual ceremony
We did our whole ceremony in English and Spanish, including our vows and the Seven Blessings, which we had different family and friends read. Our officiant was our friend who is a writer and poet and fluent in Spanish and English.
Our favourite part…
Mau: when I saw her coming down the aisle with her parents.
Adina: our vows and the warm, loving, joyful feeling that everyone there shared together.
We incorporated traditions from both cultures. We had a chuppah and did several Jewish traditions, including Mau smashing the glass! According to the Ecuadorian tradition, guests threw rice as we walked down the aisle together.
Our interfaith ketubah
We signed our ketubah with our family rabbi in Washington, DC. It is a beautiful piece of art with circles of blue and green mosaic and celebrates the strength of our interfaith marriage and individual cultures.
A Sky Full of Stars
For our processional, we had Your Hand In Mine by Explosions in the Sky and A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay. Our first dance was to Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton.
The father-daughter dance was The Way You Look Tonight and the mother-son dance Te regalo una rosa by Juan Luis Guerra.
Soft, romantic floral arrangements
For our flowers, we chose a mix of peonies, roses, and wild/exotic flowers and greens local to Ecuador.
For the ceremony we did creams and greens with touches of soft pink. For the reception we added beautiful purples, oranges, pinks. They used fruits such as blackberries of different varieties, figs and small cauliflowers…
Our fabulous photographer
Our photographer was Juan Pablo Velasco. We picked Juan Pablo because we fell in love with his style – the saturated colors, emotion, romance, and rawness.
A cake made by the groom’s aunt
Mau’s aunt, who is a cake maker, made a beautiful apple nut cake. She worked with our wedding planner to have purple flowers and greens to match the florals using a bit of painting and dahlia and rose sugar flowers.
Live music and party DJs
We had live musicians from Musicians – Monteverdi School play at the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner, one violinist who was absolutely amazing and one saxophonist who played bossa nova and of course La Mer, a song, our dads love. They were wonderful, and danced while playing, started the dancing on the dance floor.
For the dancing, we had two great DJs to play a mix of Latino and American music. Our planner helped us with recommendations.
A lounge area and portrait artist
Our planners created a gorgeous lounge area with a fire pit, beautiful painted designs on easels of a seating chart and cocktail list, and a sign for the bar reflecting our attitude saying “viva la vida” and “enjoy life”. We had our parents and siblings give speeches.
The guests love the artist, it was a gift from our planners, and he did such a great job caricaturing our guests!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Set out regular, separate time to do wedding planning so it doesn’t take over your life. Surround yourself with people the day of who make you feel safe, loved, and yourself.
Adina and Mauricio’s little white book
Wedding planner, flowers and decorations – Etica Events
Photography – Juan Pablo Velasco
Venue – Quinta Santa Fe
Bride’s dress – Wtoo by Watters purchased at BHLDN
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mischka
Groom’s attire – Jos. A. Bank
Bridesmaids’ robes – Piyama
Makeup – Bluu Makeup
Musicians – Monteverdi School
DJs – DJ Giovanna Guerrero and DJ Tatto
Invitation – Minted.com
Bar – Tomate Algo
Tents – Norcal
