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Wedding Inspiration in The Sacred Valley

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of organizing a very special wedding celebration in the heart of the Sacred Valley. Bride and groom had a rustic wedding in mind since the very beginning of the planning process and I had so much fun putting together all the pieces of this amazing rustic-style event.

Choosing the venue wasn’t so easy since there are soooooo many wedding venue options in that area that could fit their expectations, and all of them are “rustic-style oriented”. I come up with this expression myself now! hihihihi 😀

The venue chosen is conveniently located in the heart of the Valley, has a colonial architectural structure, a beautiful courtyard, a charming chapel and the stunning Andean mountains on the background. The first thought I had was: they will manage to have amazing pictures here, therefore everlasting memories of this special moment!

Also after selecting the perfect venue for them (actually also for me) we started looking into all the specific details related to decorations, furnitures, bride’s bouquet, wedding cake, music, etc. All the details you should consider in the wedding planning process. The decorations were mainly in wood, the centerpieces were amazing with foliage, white Hydrangeas, mini Chinese roses in a glass vase wrapped with twine on a wood base and white candles in little glass vases.

Bride and groom loved the idea of signs, so they decided to use them to point the reception area for the guest. As decorative elements we also used little slates for the bar and the welcome guests table. The tent they choose was white with rustic details in the inside mainly made of raffia and beautiful fairy lights hanging from the roof. As decoration we used an old bike and old wooden furniture. The result was an amazing atmosphere, soft and cozy lighting and elegant decorations.

The bride’s bouquet was lovely! The bride opted for an airy bouquet with greenery, foliage, white roses of different sizes, all perfectly assembled.

The cake was a 2-tier almond cake filled with milk chocolate cream and covered by buttercream…absolutely delicious! Also the cake was in rustic style with twigs in chocolate and topped with some greenery.

As in any traditional Peruvian wedding there was also a special time dedicated to the famous “Hora loca”. The couple chose a traditional Peruvian theme, with character from Peruvian traditions, such as the Guinea Pig, two typical Andean characters called “maqtas” and a stilt walker.

Overall I really enjoyed the planning process for this wedding, looking into all the details, the decorations, the lighting, the old furniture. And the best part is that everything run smoothly that day! Bride, groom and all the guests really enjoyed their time in Peru and I am sure they went back home with some great memories and a desire of coming back to Peru soon.

November 4, 2017 By sayinperu

In Guests/ Invitations/ peruvian style/ Wedding Trends

Four Ways to Prepare your Guests for a Peru Destination Wedding

View More: http://maikdobiey.pass.us/wedding-annamarco

If you decided to get married in a remote, wild and stunning place far away from home the first thing you need to make sure of is to prepare your guests for your destination wedding! So in this article I want to share with you some useful tips on how to prepare them, I am especially referring to your direct family and close friends. There is always a bit of “fear” of the unknown that you should deal with, when you announce your destination wedding in a country such as Peru. Many of your guests might not be expert travelers or might not know Peru at all, except for Machu Picchu of course. Some of your guests are not really into traveling, while some others might be extremely excited by the idea of discovering a new place, it really depends. Obviously this is also related to the average age of your guests; if you are dealing with young guests in their thirties for example they would be most likely thrilled by the idea of a new place to discover, since they have an inclination to travel abroad and they are used to. If you are dealing with older people, the excitement for a trip abroad may vary; there would be a bunch of people eager to a new experience and some other who are not so excited by the idea. To deal with this issue here some tips to consider before sending out your wedding invitations:

Talk to your direct family and close friends before sending the invitation. Avoiding the surprise effect could be a good advantage for you, since they will have time to think about the idea and to process it. This is also a way for you to make sure that they are able to attend your wedding and they will understand how important their presence is to you for your special day. They will understand that it is sooooo important that you are also eager to sacrifice your venue and location idea for them to be able to attend.
Send your invitation in advance: once your family and close friends know about your decision it is time to send the invitation to all the guests on your lists. It is essential to send the invitations out at least 8-10 months in advance, remember that this is not a classic wedding celebration, this is a destination wedding and people need to start planning in advance. They need to check their finance first and see if they are able to attend or if they need to start saving money for a couple of months, they need to start checking their flights and plan everything accordingly. So send the invitation quite in advance!
Create a website for your wedding celebration: in my opinion this is mandatory! Your guests will be lost at the beginning so a website is a very useful tool to share information efficiently. It is important that you include there all the information that they need such as: international flights, airport pick-up options, accommodation options (Hostal, Hotels, private houses, etc.), activities, restaurants recommendations, tours options and other travel tips. Since this is a destination wedding you might want to create a specific itinerary for your guests, including some sort of tours, activities, parties, dinners, etc. So all this must be included on your website. Remember to constantly update your website and be in touch with your guests if they have questions and need advices.
Welcome your guests: they will have to make travel arrangements to attend your special day, they will have to spend money and you have to show them that you really value that. It is a nice way to welcome them properly. For instance you can prepare special welcome bags that they will find in their hotel room on arrival. You can fill this bag with local products, for example in Peru you can include a bottle of Pisco, Peruvian “canchita” (corn), Peruvian coffee and much more. I have already talked about welcome bags here. Other way to welcome them is to organize a welcome dinner or a welcome cocktail in a special place, which will give your guests time to socialize and relax after their trip.

What you should always keep in mind is that this is not a classic wedding, this is a destination wedding and it is important to consider it this way; your guests will need advices and information on the country and you are the host here and you need to answer them. I always suggest my couples to work with us also for the travel arrangements part, since this would avoid a lot of stress for them; guests could bombard you with questions of any kind which sometimes you are not even able to answer. So it is always better to rely on professional travel experts, who will make your wedding planning process and your entire life much easier before your wedding day.

July 26, 2017 By sayinperu

In Destination weddings/ Guests/ peruvian style/ Save The Date/ Venues

Assigned Seating vs. Open Seating

One of the questions that bride and groom always asked me after they found the perfect venue for their wedding and after they prepared the wedding guests list is: should I opt for an assigned seating or for an open one? Actually my answer is not always the same, it certainly depends on the kind of wedding you are planning, and the answer changes depending on if you are hosting a very intimate, private wedding rather than a big wedding with more than 150 – 200 guests. I usually present couples the pros and cons of having an assigned seating and the pros and cons of having an open seating arrangement before they make their decision. In this article I want to share them with you as well:

ASSIGNED SEATING PROS:

It is more formal than the open seating arrangement.
It is very useful for big weddings, since you know exactly where people will be seated and you can easily reach them.
It is more organized and your guests will know exactly where to go.
For wedding planner is easier to keep track of your guests, especially in case of big wedding. 😀
People will be seated on a table for a specific reason. For example people of the same family, a group of friends, people of the same age, so people will feel more comfortable this way for the entire reception, since they will have things in common to talk about and they will have fun!
If you are doing seated dinner and some of your guests have food allergy, are vegan, or do not eat a specific food and have selected a specific menu option with assigned seating will be easy for the waiter to know where those guests are seated.

ASSIGNED SEATING CONS:

It could be a real headache for the bride and groom to make their seating chart, sometimes they can also argue about it! It happened, I swear!!!
For many people it is a waste of time, since they believe that guests will end up seating where they want or asking to change their seat and go to another table for example, if they do not want to keep the assigned seat.
Some guests will not like where they are seated and they will be uncomfortable for all the celebration. They will have for sure a bad memory of your wedding.
Some guest will find out that his/her seat is already taken, since some other guest took the freedom to change his/hers arbitrarily. This can create awkwardness.
You cannot have extra table.

OPEN SEATING PROS:

It perfectly works for informal and small weddings.
It takes no time to put together, and it is very easy for bride and groom since they do not to sit on a table and start matching people.
Your guests will not complain, since they will freely choose where to seat for all the reception duration.
It allows people to communicate and socialize more, creating a more familiar atmosphere for your guests.
You can have extra table, in case some of your guests come with an unexpected date this can be very useful.

OPEN SEATING CONS:

It can be chaotic because your guests will not know where to go once they get into the reception area.
People will walk around asking other: “Is this seat taken?”, “Can I seat here?”
For people arriving late could be complicated, since they have to seat in the available seats and if they are a couple or a group of people sometimes they have to split apart.

The decision of choosing between assigned seating and open seating arrangement is actually extremely personal because you guys are the ones who better know your wedding guests, what they would prefer, if they are social people or not, etc. It also depends on the kind of wedding you are organizing. For instance if you are planning a destination wedding having an arranged seating is very useful since you will avoid that people who does not speak the same language ended up seating next to each other. If you are having a small and intimate wedding the open seating is perfect, because people will naturally form into groups and they will take their seat at the tables available.

Also lately it is also very common to use a mixed format of open seating and assigned seating. So you can use open seating for group of people that will seat together in any case, such as your college buddies, your group of friends, and you can use an assigned seating arrangement for direct family.

February 27, 2017 By sayinperu

In Beach wedding/ Cakes/ Decorations/ Destination weddings/ Elopement/ entertainment/ peruvian style/ Venues/ Wedding Trends

The best of our 2016 weddings

So the 2016 is over and it was a great year, full of challenges and successful destination weddings in Peru. Me and my team worked extremely hard to satisfied and fulfill all of our bride and groom’s requests. At Say I Do in Peru we believe that we cannot start a new year without looking back at what we have done so far and making a point on what we have done well or wrong, what we have learnt and what we have achieved the past year.

In 2016 we have learnt that there are no obstacles impossible to overcome and we actually worked hard to achieve our couples wedding goals. We have learnt that each couple is different, each couple has their special point of views and it has a special way to deal with the wedding planning process. I have grown up a lot this year personally and professionally and I am extremely proud of what I have achieved and the wonderful weddings I have planned in Peru’s most amazing destinations!

The idea of this article is to collect the best moments, details, decorations of our 2016 weddings and it is indeed an opportunity to make you people understand what is my work about!

So here the most amazing sweet table from a wedding I organized in November, with French macarons, decorative macarons towers, chocolate truffles, tarts (lemon, chocolate, pecan), traditional “alfajores”, a Peruvian sweet filled with “dulce de leche”, and much more. This special table, placed at the entrance of the reception area, was decorated with white orchids, glass vases filled with water and white candles, the impact was awesome and the sweets were deliciousssss! The theme of the wedding was Art Deco so the decorative elements added were in line with it, therefore we can see geometrical patterns structures, black, white and gold color scheme and white orchids, the bride’s flower choice for the entire wedding event.

Here the most amazing scenery of 2016, this picture say it all. This is an elopement in the middle of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, organized in a beautiful property nearby the Urubamba River. We found this stunning venue for this lovely couple after a visit in the area and we felt in love with this colonial church and the beauty of the well-maintained grounds. On top of that, the presence of the Andes makes this venue even more charming. The tent structure was actually really simple, since the aim was to preserve the beauty of the place itself. We add few flower decorations on the tent and we opt for this elegant white wrought iron chairs. The result was amazing, as you can see.

Here the most elegant ceremony tent for this couple who wanted to get married in a beachfront location. We selected Paracas as destination and it was easy to create this elegant and sophisticated wedding atmosphere there. White, light grey and taupe were the main colors for this wedding celebration by the Pacific Ocean. The white chairs, the elegant chair decorations, the white petals on the aisle and the white and greenery tent give the setting a magnificent elegance, enriched by the Ocean breeze and the light blue clean sky.

This is without doubt one of the most amazing wedding shot of 2016, we love the symmetry of the elements and how the colors combined with the background. This snapshot absolutely summarizes what an Andean wedding is, what are the mysticism and intimacy behind this kind of ceremony and the brightness of the colors of that moment. The venue selected was located in Cusco, it was a ground area rounded by Incas walls, a very quiet place, ideal for this kind of intimate ceremony.

The wedding cake has always a special place in a wedding celebration, it is a decorative element so it needs to be beautiful, but of course it also needs to be delicious! Here one of our favorite from 2016 wedding, this wedding cake was actually an art piece, with the perfect flowers decorations and the two doves as topper, to represent the romance and kind of the bride and groom’s love. In Greek mythology doves are associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was always depicted with doves fluttering around or on her arms; we really loved the romance and the idea beyond this unique wedding cake.

We also loved this romantic entrance of bride and groom to the hacienda we selected for their wedding. This was a beautiful country wedding nearby Lima and we loved how all the rustic and country elements combine between each other to recreate the perfect atmosphere of a Peruvian Hacienda wedding. This white carriage was the cherry on top of the cake, and all the wedding guests were totally amazed by the beauty of the horse and the carriage’s flower decorations.

This is just a little part of our 2016 weddings and I feel extremely proud of the job I have done, and happy to be part of these couples’ life forever… but now let’s start focusing on the 2017 weddings, I need to get back to work! 😀

February 6, 2017 By sayinperu

In Destination weddings/ Favors/ Guests/ peruvian style/ Wedding Trends

Welcome Bags for your wedding guests

Getting married in Peru is a magical experience; this is a country full of history, extravagances and damn good food! 😀 What better way to surprise your guests than giving them a little welcome gift with special products from Peru? A Welcome bag is indeed the best way to let them know Peruvian products and let them merge in the Peruvian atmosphere.

After a long journey all you want to do is to lie down in a comfy bed, but on the other way you are also very curious to start exploring this new place and to know more about this country that probable you have never visited before.

So, we can certainly help you suggesting products to include in your welcome bags. Here a list of Peruvian products you can consider to include:

1.Water: it is always useful to have a bottle of water, especially if you are attending tours or other activities, so it is essential to include one in the welcome bag. A key rule for any travller is “stay hydrated”, this way you will avoid headaches and you will overcome jetlag.

You could also customize the labels!

2.Chocolate: Almost everybody loves chocolate, it’s delicious, it gives us energy and happiness! And Peruvian chocolate is even more delicious!!! 😀

Peru is home to 60% of the world’s cocoa species and is one of the main producers. The Cacaosuyo brand, works directly with farmers and indigenous communities and produces fine white cocoa chocolate that is grown in the region of Piura – Peru.

He is also recognized in The International Chocolate Award of London as one of the winners of best milk chocolate. So this is a great product to include in the welcome bag for your guests.

3.Coffee: Coffee is one of the most exported products of Peru, and if we had to choose one we will suggest without hesitation the one by Harry Neira! He has been investigating and collecting the best coffee beans for over 8 years. The aroma of this coffee wil amaze you and your guests.

4.Snacks: You are on holiday so having a little snack is allowed! So just dare to enjoy something different: Peruvian giant corn! This product, besides of being delicious, provides fiber, helps digestion and is gluten-free!

5.Yellow Pepper based sauce: One of the essential ingredients of Peruvian food is the yellow aji Pepper, used chopped to prepare traditional dishes or also to prepare aji pepper sauce.

6.Pisco: You should definitely include a little bottle of Pisco, your guests will need to start familiarizing with the Peruvian spirit! You can customize your own Pisco bottle with your names and the date of your wedding or even with a picture. Your guests will enjoy it for sure! Cheers!

January 24, 2017 By sayinperu

In colors palette/ Guests/ Invitations/ peruvian style/ Wedding Trends

4 ideas for wedding invitations

Invitation cards are the business cards to your wedding celebration. From your invitation card we can understand what is your favourite wedding style. Do you have the venue, the date and time? So now start thinking about your wedding style, which should reflect your tastes and personality! Once you get this clear you can start preparing your invitations!

Here you will find 4 invitation ideas that can fit different wedding styles! i am sure you will find the one you are looking for!

1. Modern and Nature
Do you want to get out of the conventional wedding stuff? This invitation is ideal for a modern wedding.
The abstract image of the envelope background can give a great result if you are looking for something different.
The blue, green and pastel colors give us this quiet that only nature can give us. Ideal for an intimate wedding or a beach wedding. I usually suggest this style to couples who want to tie the knot in Cusco, sorrounded by great energies and special landscapes.

2. Baroque
Gold is that spark of joy and happiness that every glamorous and elegant bride wants to represent.
Gold can usually be combined with any color, in this case it is combined with blue, which makes a beautiful and elegant contrast. the details also recall the famous baroque style.
This invitation would look perfect for classic weddings, in classic venues with high ceilings and columns.

3. Minimalist
There are people who love details, abundance and complex stuff and others who love simple things.
This invitation is inspired by simplicity and elegance.
The combination of three types of typography gives dynamism to the invitation and the light pink background ad a touch of sweetness.

4. Rustic
Whethever you have opted for a vintage wedding or a country wedding, a rustic invitation is definitely the best choice.
Being rustic does not mean that you lose elegance, which is a plus when choosing this type of invitation.
The leaf detailing around your names is the perfect detail to reflect your love for nature, plus you could use recycled paper to emphasize your rustic concept!

January 9, 2017 By sayinperu

In Christmas weddings/ Decorations/ peruvian style/ Wedding Trends

Top tips for a very special Christmas wedding in Peru

So, it’s that time of the year again!!! I love Christmas and what better than getting married during Christmas time? Imaging mixing the Christmas atmosphere with the most important moment of your life…what an awesome moment would be!!!

As wedding planner I am always excited when couples ask me to organize a Christmas wedding, especially for destination weddings in Peru, since here is summertime and it would be a very different Christmas for you and the majority of your guests that are used to have a winter Christmas. Imaging if you could celebrate Christmas on the beach in flip flops … well of course use flip flops after your wedding! 😀 Getting married in this part of the hemisphere on Christmas time is amazing guys! Also Christmas time is a holiday season, the majority of people have some days off from work, so potentially your guests will be able to travel for your wedding celebration, especially if you are thinking about a destination wedding. As you can see there are lots of pros to get married during Christmas time.

I want to share some tips on how to have a very special Christmas wedding celebration, so that maybe Christmas 2017 could become an option for you.

First of all spread Christmas cheer but do not exaggerate! It is fine to use some decoration details, such as tiny Christmas hats, pinecones, but please do not feel your reception area with Santa climbing the walls, or the windows! 😀 You can certainly stick with traditional Christmas colors, such as red, green and gold, but use some neutral decoration too. For instance you can use Peruvian handicraft to decorate the reception area as well. Just to remember your guests that you are getting married in Peru.

Also do not forget to have a wonderful Christmas tree in your wedding reception venue. You can also use Christmas little balls with the name of your guests and ask them to hang them on the tree. This way you will have a very special and personalized tree! Do not forget to add a Peruvian traditional decoration for the tree, for example little balls covered by traditional Peruvian fabric

Use many lights and candles, but please do not go lights mad! Lights are essential for Christmas time; use them wisely for your ceremony and reception venues. You might hang the lights around columns, in case the venue you selected has them, or if you have stairs just light up the two sides of the stairs. If you are having an outdoor reception you can use lights to decorate trees and hang them all around the reception area. The effect would be awesome!

Add a special Christmas touch to the flower decorations, especially to the table centerpieces! Use Poinsettia, which is typical at this time of the year. It is available in different red shades, it will bring a splash of red and green to the reception tables and believe me no flowers says Christmas like the amazing Poinsettia. You can use it as centerpieces combines with moss and white, beige or gold aromatic candles, you can also combine Poinsettia with succulent and cactus, especially if you decide to get married in Peru this could be a good option, or you can place a Poinsettia flower directly on the plate, or the napkins, you really have plenty of choices.

December 19, 2016 By sayinperu

In Beauty & Fashion/ peruvian style/ wedding dress/ Wedding Trends

Top 3 Peruvian Fashion Designers for Wedding Dresses

Thinking about getting married in Peru? Do you want to get married in an original and sophisticated dress inspired to Peruvian traditions and you are still looking for the perfect fashion designer?

Here our TOP 3 of the best and most experienced Peruvian fashion designers.

They take part in international fashion shows, are well recognized worldwide and they can prepare a customized and original wedding dress for you.

Meche Correa

Internationally recognized Peruvian designer with more than 15 years of experience in the fashion industry, famous for introducing patterns from Peruvian handicrafts in her creations. She has been appointed “Marca Peru’s Ambassador” from the Peruvian government and she is extremely well known in the United States, Spain, France, Mexico, Italy and other countries. We can guarantee you that she is one of the best choices if you are looking for a unique, original and personalized wedding dress. Ready to meet her?

Fatima Arrieta

She participated in several fashion shows in Paris, Mexico city, United States with collections strongly inspired to Peruvian culture. She has been awarded with several prizes, such as the All America Award, Hispanic Designer Competition, Special Fashion Design Award, Ebel Flashmode Award, etc. Thanks to her long experience in the industry she can help you with extremely valuable advices on your Peruvian-style wedding dress.

Estela Arciniega – Atelier

She has more than 50 years of experience in the fashion industry, trying to
combine Peruvian traditions with contemporary style. She can fulfill the most demanding bride’s expectations, offering unique wedding dresses made of high quality fabrics, which will make your wedding day even more special.

November 18, 2016 By sayinperu

In Cakes/ Decorations/ Flowers/ peruvian style/ Wedding Trends

Peruvian-style Wedding Cakes

When planning a destination wedding main goal is to stick with traditions, culture and customs of the country who is hosting your wedding celebration. To my experience, it is always very important for our couples to include the “Peruvian essence” in their wedding ceremony and reception. This is extremely important since your guests will be travelling here and they really want to go back home with a full idea of what Peru can offer in terms of traditions, customs, lifestyle, people, language, food and most importantly they want to know how a wedding in Peru looks like, how do we organize wedding ceremony and reception here, how do we decorate the venue, etc.

For instance some couples choose to have a traditional Andean ceremony in a beautiful site somewhere in the Andean mountains, usually the Sacred Valley of the Incas, other couples choose to have traditional Peruvian music for their ceremony with wind instruments such as panpipes and flutes or stringed instruments like the “charango”, we also had brides who decided to wear a wedding dress enriched with a typical Peruvian embroidery or couple who wanted to use Peruvian-style decoration for their ceremony and reception, such as Peruvian fabrics used to decorate the reception venue, Peruvian flowers or cactus as centerpieces. There are many ways to recreate the “Peruvian essence”, but there is only one “sweet” way to do so: go for a Peruvian-style wedding cake!

The wedding cake is one of the main actors of the wedding reception, apart from bride and groom of course. So it is actually a brilliant idea to have a Peruvian-style wedding cake to enrich the reception setup and to add a Peruvian touch to your wedding celebration! Usually the cake is placed in the middle of the reception area on a table covered by a beautiful tablecloth in line with the wedding color-palette and with some lighting decorations or candles.

There are different ways to set-up the wedding cake table, you can add decorative elements, candles, petals, special lighting, special tablecloths, decorative birdcages, etc. … decoration is really up to you! However I can swear that if you opt for a Peruvian-style wedding cake there will be no need to have any other decorative elements, since they could weigh the cake table down. Peruvian decorative patterns are so eccentric, colourful, vibrant that you will not need any other details than the cake itself.

You can opt for a different kind of Peruvian decoration, you can add typical Peruvian flowers or flowers of traditional colors, such as red, blue, purple and orange. These colors are the ones typically used in the famous and beautiful Peruvian fabrics sold in the market all over the country, as well as exported worldwide. As decorative elements you can also use colourful ribbons to round each cake’s tier or rustic ribbons to give the cake a country-style touch. It is also very important to choose the right topper for your cake. If you are up to a Peruvian-style wedding cake you can use a beautiful bouquet of Peruvian flowers as topper, or traditional Peruvian characters or two little llamas.

A part from white fondant you can also consider to use colourful fondant with typical Peruvian patterns decoration. Every Peruvian region has a specific pattern and design used in fabric and other handcrafts, for example in Arequipa we have big and colourful flowers, in Cusco we have little geometric patterns and so on. But the truth is that all of them are actually beautiful! This way your wedding cake will look like a traditional Peruvian fabric and your guests will definitely stair at it.

As for the flavors you can actually go for everything you like, but to stick with Peruvian tradition a cake with Brazilian nuts, raisin, candy fruits and pecans filled with “Dulce de leche” could be an option, a traditional chocolate cake filled with fudge is also another good option.

Dulcefina, one of the supplier in our network, has extensive experience preparing beautiful and elegant wedding cakes with Peruvian-style decorations, Peruvian flowers and much more. She uses to work with foreigners who wants to tie the knot in Peru and they perfectly understand all our clients’ requests. She has always fulfilled all of our couples’ requests and special requirements so far and she is extremely reliable. She has many experience in the market and we totally trust in her work. The cake models shown in this blog article are all made by Dulcefina. You can find more information on her work here http://www.dulcefina.com.pe/.

November 4, 2016 By sayinperu

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