As seen on Martha Stewart Weddings

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Tracy and Alex met during a catering event years before they became a couple. Tracy owns California central coast event catering company Field To Table, and when Alex started working for him about five years after their first meeting, Tracy says it was “definitely not love at first sight, and I think we both felt a little lost in our own life journeys.” As they spent more time together at work, they decided to, as friends, take a trip to Bali together to have their own “Eat, Pray, Love” moment. It was on that trip that they both really fell for each other. Tracy recalls, “I remember on the long flight home knowing I would never be able to live without him in my life.”

Tracy proposed to Alex in Las Vegas (right before a Lady Gaga concert) with a Cartier Love bracelet after Alex dropped not-so-subtle hints for months. BOTH grooms sported the Love bracelets on their wedding day, as Alex gifted Tracy one of his own for his birthday following their engagement.

When it came to designing the big day, the couple turned to their own home for inspiration. Their interior decor is modern and sleek, yet warm and comfortable and they wanted their wedding to feel the same. Tracy especially loves black, grey, concrete, and palettes generally considered “masculine.”

They also wanted the design of the wedding to feel authentic to the surroundings without jumping head-first into all things palm trees and tropical patterns. They worked with wedding designer Vanessa Noel Events to let the stunning scenery speak for itself rather than have a constant barrage of overt references to the Mexican locale.

Vanessa explains, “We began with paper products. The ‘save the date’ was a custom illustration created by a friend and guest. The colors of the illustration set the tone for the earthy and muted palette to come, while still creating excitement for the beach vacation!” The couple also spent time making deliberate choices for their Fete & Quill invitation suite materials; Vanessa said they went through several samples and different curated pieces before finding the most amazing Mexican bark paper that would be included in the invitations and day-of materials.

For the overall design, Vanessa ran with a darker and moodier palette for the wedding (and asked guests to follow suit with their wedding day attire). This also helped the wedding to feel even more special and formal by contrast to the rest of the week. “Because the wedding week consisted of several different events, we wanted to really distinguish the events by style and color–a welcome party that was casual & playful; a sunset catamaran sail that was colorful and summery; the wedding that was sacred yet celebratory; and the white party brunch that felt chic yet relaxed,” Vanessa said.

It was truly a delightful, magical week in Zihuatanejo, and here are my favorite images.