Fun Colourful & Exciting Espacio Chechen Destination Wedding

Welcome to the epic Espacio Chechen wedding of Lexie and Justin in Tulum’s stunning jungle!

Their Mexico destination wedding was ever so special, and emotional too (wait until you see their first look)! But their celebrations didn’t last just one day, they had a whole weekend of festivities planned by Arlenis Ruiz Weddings, including an in-water cave post-wedding shoot. Woah.

From their impeccably stylish outfits to the ethereal jungle ceremony and the stylish outdoor reception, you’re going to love their colourful and quirky day.

Thanks ever so much to Pablo Laguia for sharing these spectacular shots of their very fun wedding.

Espacio Chechen Wedding

The Proposal

We were in Alaska and Justin proposed right under the aurora borealis! It was an incredible moment to witness the night spirits dancing their little hearts out! I can’t say we regret jumping on a plane to spend the long weekend up in Alaska at -20 degrees

The Vision

We decided to have a destination wedding because we are both adventurous souls. We hike, backpack, road trip, and travel the world together. So, we thought that bringing our loved ones along for an epic week of love was so perfectly perfect!

The Venue

I had originally been on the hunt for something that wasn’t basic beach. I really wanted to surprise all our guests for a really unique and quirky venue. I had then met a different planning company where we were just about locked down for a venue near some cenotes. It didn’t have a ton of photos so I had to really think creatively on envisioning our day out there.

I then discovered Arlenis on a blog and thought I would reach out just to see if she had a different idea than the one we were minutes away from booking. Arlenis told us immediately that she had THE place for us, checking every single box I had described.

Colorful, wild, something you cannot ever experience again, jungle, and an overall great set up. Once I saw Chechen’s photos, I was sold. My fiancé, his mom, my mom, and I had then taken a trip to Tulum just to walk through the venue and get a taste of what to expect.

We were all blown away. The photos did absolutely no justice. We had the ultimate location that blew everything else out of the water. We were so so so thankful Arlenis had this up her sleeve!

We kept our location hidden from all of our guests. They just knew Tulum, but everything else about our wedding was a secret. So when the vans dropped them off at the towering wooden front gates, all our guests had jaws dropped to the floor.

They walked through the wooden path just staring all around in awe as they were welcomed with a tropical drink and directed to keep following the path towards our ceremony area. It was the best experience to be able to surprise them like that!

The Ceremony & Music

During the party my mom and two aunts surprised us with a choreographed dance to “Dancing Queen” by ABBA! They were even dressed up like Donna and the Dynamos.

Memorable Moments

Just the whole day itself was one memorable, crazy, special, unique, quirky, emotional kind of day!

From having my brothers do a comedy show for our ceremony, the bright colors and jungle all around us, great weather, gorgeous florals, a live painter catching our moment, amazing food and drinks, a saxophone to add epicness to the dance floor, our fantastic choreographed first dance, the churro cart (a crowd favorite), our amazing photographer, and so so so much more!

The whole day was a wild adventure executed to perfection. And that’s just the one day! What about all the rest?!

The rooftop welcome party watching a sunset over ALL of Tulum, the group tours where we saw Chichen Itza, swam in many different cenotes, snorkeled, and explored caves. The rehearsal dinner on the beach with THE BEST live salsa band, spiciest tacos, and heaviest poured beverages that destroyed us.

And of course, the day after our wedding where our photographer took us to a cave cenote to take one heck of a phenomenal photoshoot. Or even the photoshoot the day after that where it was just the two of us, our photographer, and our naked butts on the beach! There’s just so many memories!

Advice For Other Couples

My biggest advice is to plan super early, pay attention to the details, keep EVERYTHING immediately organized with excel, and be flexible.

With Tulum specifically, there’s lots of changes that we had to be agile with. This worked just fine because we were thorough early, planned what we could, and were rolling with the punches!

For example, we had our welcome cocktail event venue get canceled on us at the last minute. I trusted Arlenis where her plan C came through being one of the best experiences! Being agile will save you and your planner a stressful headache!