Private villa, Curaçao · May 2023 · by Ghislaine van de Laarschot
Planned by Caribbean Blue Weddings
They chose the villa in Curaçao first. Everything after that, they handed over.
Their story
Their first date never happened. It was meant to be a beer garden in Philadelphia during an Eagles game, and Christine's work ran long, and she called it off. They tried again the following Tuesday, which is Jesse's favourite day of the week on account of tacos, and that one worked. A few dates after that they were on a rooftop in Miami telling each other they were in love.
Jesse proposed on the pier at Penn's Landing in May 2020, over a picnic, in a year that left them very little to do besides work out exactly how they felt. Three years engaged followed, most of it spent going places, and they married in May again, almost to the week. A destination wedding was never really in question. Getting on planes together was the whole shape of the relationship.
They came to us nine months out with the venue already settled: a private villa at Coral Estate, booked before anything else. That tells you most of what they wanted. Not a ballroom, not a guest list that needed managing. A house on the water, fourteen people in it, and a day that felt like a holiday which happened to include a wedding.
The only thing standing in the way was distance. Choosing a florist, a caterer and a photographer on an island you've never set foot on, from a different time zone, is usually where couples lose the ease they were after in the first place. So they handed all of it over and spent the nine months looking forward to it instead.
The day we created
The palette was soft where the island is bright. Pink, orange and cream, with gold running underneath to hold it together.
The gazebo stood on the sand below the villa, and it's where we broke from the usual. Convention puts flowers at the corners and leaves the structure showing. We poured them down the whole thing instead, top to ground, until the frame disappeared and what was left standing behind Christine and Jesse was flowers and open sea.
The tables carried the same idea inward. Arrangements low and full enough to reach across, hurricane lanterns between them catching the light as the evening went. Nothing tall, nothing anyone had to look around.
Fourteen people, counting the two of them. That's small enough that nothing had to be staged for a crowd. The flowers were close enough to smell and everyone there was close enough to hear.
