Seven years after they first met at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Pablo Jablonski proposed to Mary McCaw at a small vineyard in Napa. “We had the whole place to ourselves,” remembers Mary, who was led to a table with a small chest filled with little memories from their relationship over the years. Of course, she said yes. 

The pair began planning their wedding alongside a wedding planner, making final decisions as a couple to ensure their wedding weekend would go according to their shared vision. Since Mary’s family is from the United States and Pablo’s family is from Argentina, they knew any location would be a destination for at least half of their guests, “so we decided to make it a beautiful destination for all!” affirms Mary. 

Desiring a venue that would allow the party to go as late as they wanted – “It was very important to follow Argentine tradition and have the after-party go until the sun came up the next day,” notes the bride – and have accommodations they would be able to fill with a full buyout, the couple found a new hotel in Riviera Maya, Mexico, that checked all of their boxes. With the buyout secured, they were excited to host a special celebration for 120 friends and family members that would be staying onsite together for the full destination-wedding weekend. 

As Mary and Pablo met at Coachella, they wanted to create a similar feel for their wedding. “We planned it around being a fun and unique experience for our guests, with details that felt sort of like a music festival,” explains the bride. “We wanted to have multiple special experiences to make the day memorable,” affirms Pablo. “We had multiple dancers and performers throughout the night, spent money on a good live band and fire dancers, and ended the night by converting the ballroom into a ‘jungle disco’ with a DJ we had seen multiple times with friends in the past.” 

“We planned it around being a fun and unique experience for our guests, with details that felt sort of like a music festival.”

Loved ones found their seats arranged on the sand for the beach wedding ceremony, facing the clear blue ocean and a geometric ceremony structure adorned with neutral-toned florals and dried elements, such as palm fronds and pampas grass. The bride’s bouquet featured the only color of the ceremony, with deep-red blooms including protea foreshadowing the bolder décor to come later in the day. One of the couple’s best friends led the proceedings, a nontraditional element the couple loved. “At one point, he had the guests singing along to a song from ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?’ and he had friends come up and tell stories about us,” explains the bride. 

At the outdoor reception, the neutral décor from the ceremony was replaced with a bold color palette focused on bright red tones. Large nine-foot-tall floral centerpieces adorned tablescapes, and long floral arrangements were suspended above the head table – where the bride and groom were seated with their close family – to create an eye-catching design element. Black wishbone chairs with woven seats and ebony-and-gold flatware and signage created a chic addition to tablescapes overflowing with roses, anthuriums, and other blooms in shades of red, pink, and orange. 

A farm-to-table dinner was enjoyed by all, as were slices of the pair’s Caribbean Tres Leches cake with passion fruit. At the beginning of the reception, Pablo was “chucked in the air by his Argentina family,” smiles Mary of one of her most memorable moments of the day, which started the party. The beach reception lasted until 10:30 p.m., and guests then made their way into the ballroom for an after-party until 5AM. 

Pablo’s favorite memory was walking into the space, which was heavily decorated with plants, disco balls, and lights to create a jungle disco. “We had drawn out how we wanted it to look and talked about it in great detail… but seeing it just as we had planned made us very happy,” he confirms. 

Following their own advice throughout the planning process, Mary and Pablo urge others to do the same since it led to an unforgettable wedding weekend: “Be sure to make the feel of the wedding true to yourself,” Mary says. “Make sure the details of the celebration feel right for your relationship, as that will make it feel even more special.”

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