Real Wedding | Blair + Gabriel | June 2, 2023
We had the joy of hosting Blair & Gabriel at the Cliff House on June 2, 2023. We are so thrilled to share all the beautiful, romantic and fun details of their union. Enjoy!
Gabriel says he knows the exact day and time that we met, November 18th, 2017 at 12:12 pm. I don’t remember the exact day, but I remember the moment. We were 16 years old at our church and I saw Gabriel covered in paint working with my grandfather. I smiled at him and tried to have a conversation, but unfortunately he didn’t return my efforts. A year later he told me that he wanted to talk to me, but that he had just moved to Texas and was still working on his English, and we laughed about it. As a year or so went by we saw each other more and more, getting to know each other. Eventually our friend groups merged and you could say that we had our "first date" in September of 2019. Eating burgers, sitting on the curb, waiting for our friends, what could be more romantic. Thankfully that short date sparked 3 years of texting, facetiming, and becoming better friends. By 2020 Gabriel had moved back to Puerto Rico and our friendship went long distance. Through the years of being best friends, we fell in love. In 2022, when Gabriel came to visit Texas, he made things official. We spent our time as boyfriend and girlfriend traveling, dancing, eating good food. Though long distance was very challenging at times it made us work hard for each other and made every moment that we got to spend together so much more valuable.
We wanted a wedding that was timeless and genuine, something that we can look back on in 50 years and be just as in love with. We didn’t feel the need to include some of the more traditional aspects of a wedding, we just wanted out guests to have a good time and to use our wedding as a night away. Above everything, our priority was that our wedding would feel just like our relationship-full of love and laughter.
Our time spent getting ready varied drastically. While I was rushing around to make sure that my dress was steamed, my makeup was fresh, and my hair was perfect-Gabriel was riding around scooters in downtown Dallas looking for the perfect breakfast spot. Regardless, we both enjoyed our mornings a lot. It was so nice to be surrounded by my friends singing and helping each other get ready. And Gabriel just really appreciated a good breakfast.
We went through hundreds of ideas for a venue, from a destination wedding in Puerto Rico to a tiny wedding in the backyard of an Airbnb. But with the majority of our people located in the DFW area we knew something local would fulfill our wants. After scrolling through tiktok for hours, I stumbled across the Cliff House. It gave me the intimate feeling that I wanted to keep things romantic but was also big enough to host a party. After touring the Cliff House, we fell in love. It had a classic vintage feel that was preserved beautifully and was in the perfect location for our friends and family to have a staycation in the city.
Some of my favorite photos were the ones taken in the getting ready suite with all of the family and bridal party getting ready to walk down the aisle. They were so warm and you can feel the excitement buzzing in the photos. I also fell in love with the couple portraits taken at the front doors of the Cliff House as well as the photos of us dancing in the entryway, you can see the newlywed glow. The lighting was so warm and romantic and the setting was the perfect soft background that added to our photos.
One of my personal favorite moments was right before walking down the aisle in the bridal suite with the whole bridal party, you could feel how excited everyone was. We were peeking out of the curtain and looking at all the guests arriving and just enjoying the anticipation. While in the suite before walking down the aisle I was able to show my great grandmother a detail that I had incorporated for me and her. Sadly, my great grandfather passed and wasn’t with us for the wedding. While here with us he used to crave and polish peach pits into necklace charms for the girls. I kept one peach pit that he had carved into praying hands and had it looped into my bouquet to walk down the aisle with. Showing her the peach pit in my flowers was one of the most precious moments of my life and it brought everyone to tears. She surprised me back and gave me a beautiful, vintage handkerchief that belonged to my great great grandmother that I was able to also carry with me down the aisle.
For Gabriel, he was very specific about showcasing his love of shoes in the wedding. During our reception he changed into his favorite Air Jordan 1 Mochas, which inspired the other men of our bridal party to do the same. My brother walked down the aisle in his Blazers as did the ring bearer. The best man also changed into a pair of Jordans that he bought for the occasion. It was a very cute bonding moment for all of them. Personally, I chose to omit some of the traditions that I didn’t feel fit us. We did a champagne pop instead of a cake cutting, we had just a maid of honor and best man instead of a full bridal party, instead of a wedding book to sign we took polaroids of all of our guests and have them in a book. I also wanted to have fun details in my dress. I chose a dress with an overskirt so that during the ceremony I had a ball gown with a 5 foot train and a cathedral length veil. During the reception I was able to have a mermaid fit gown and I changed my hair so that it was down with pearls laced all through it. I felt so special and I loved seeing our friend's faces when they saw our outfit changes!
One of the best moments ever was surprising my husband and guest with a little monkey to play with and take pictures with during cocktail hour. During our entire engagement I told everyone that I had a surprise but only my parents and aunt and uncle knew! Everyone loved cuddling with Timi in his little tuxedo and got to take home a photo with him including his paw print. Our wedding coordinator was so helpful in making sure that I could pull off this surprise for everyone, it was truly such a fun and unique moment.
If I had to sum our wedding up in a few words I think we would choose warm, timeless, genuine, emotional, and together. We feel that our day was the perfect balance of intimate and romantic moments for us, coupled with lifelong memories with our family and friends, while also being absolutely so fun with dancing and music and taking pictures!
I remember being so unsure of what food to have at our wedding because wedding food is not known for being the best meal you’re going to have. But after hearing from our guests everyone agreed that the pasta we had with meat sauce was so delicious, as well as the bread that was served during cocktail hour. I know we enjoyed it a lot! We also received feedback that the buffet line moved quickly and no one felt that they were waiting around to get food or a drink. Another detail that we incorporated was having a traditional Puerto Rican rum cake made by one of our close friends, everyone loved it and it was so nice to have details honoring Gabriel’s background. And of course greasy pizza for a late night snack!
All of our vendors were so great and helpful! We loved our flowers, the vintage candle sticks, and our photos turned out amazing. We couldn’t say enough good things about Madison and everyone who contributed. One vendor that stood out the most to us was our wedding planner Cynthia! She was an amazing communicator and worked so hard to brainstorm creative solutions so that we could have exactly what we wanted on our big day. She coordinated vendors, schedules, decor, music, and so much more. On the day of the wedding she was always nearby ready to help with anything big or small that we needed and truly made us feel special and important. A million thanks to her as well as the friends and family that helped everything.
Something that we learned was that word of mouth and personal reviews mean a lot. The best vendors to hire and the ones that someone you know personally has already had a good experience with. With a million vendors in the area it can be overwhelming to choose which ones you need so remember the vendors at weddings you enjoyed and reach out to them or ask around! Ask vendors for the number of a previous client and speak with them personally. That will make sure that you’re getting exactly what you need for your big day!
Something that we have heard from the majority of our guests is that they felt involved in every aspect of the wedding. Many of our guests used our wedding as a staycation and a night out so we wanted to provide them with a lot of interactive things to do. We wanted them to genuinely enjoy themselves during the cocktail hour and bringing Timi the monkey for everyone to play with was so memorable. Everyone loved all of the mirrors and the lighting of the venue to take great photos of their families. A lot of our guests kept the fun sunglasses and personalized fans we passed out on the dancefloor!
We just want to thank The Cliff House, Boxwood, and all of our other vendors and everyone who made our big day such an amazing experience. Not only did it honor our love and commitment to each other but it allowed all of our guests to feel the love that we have between each other. We are so thankful for the memories, photos, and keepsakes that we have, which wouldn’t have been possible without everyone's help.
Blair and Gabriel, thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us at the The Cliff House! We wish you nothing but the best in the years to come!
Vendors:
Planner: Cynthia Denise Events
Photographer/Videographer: Evermore Photography
DJ: DJ Banco
Gown: Circle Park Bridal, Essence of Australia
Rentals: Dixie Does Vintage