New Mexican Themed Weddings

When Danny and Alejandra began the planning process for their wedding, they started with style preferences.

Danny remembered, “We were trying to figure out what we had in common. What about this color? What about that color? And I always tell her that we are opposites, we are attracted to total opposites. So, we started thinking, ‘What’s something we really like?’ Well, we both really love our state. We started working off of that, and everything started falling into place. Biscochitos are the state cookie, let’s have those. We love green chile cheeseburgers, so let’s have those there too. Let’s give honey as the wedding favor. The more we kept talking about it the more it developed that our wedding theme would be New Mexico, because that’s what we love.”

When friends would ask what the theme of their wedding was going to be Danny and Alejandra would proudly say, “New Mexico”. To which they kept getting the question, “You mean southwestern? Like cowboy themed?” Alejandra clarified, “Jeweled toned New Mexico. This isn’t going to be a burlap wedding. This is going to be a wear your best to what New Mexico already is wedding.”

They brought the jewel tone colors she was envisioning into the wedding by having the bridesmaids wear different shades of turquoise and adding deep red accents to the bridal bouquet and the groomsmen’s boutonnieres.

Danny remarked, “By having those colors, not only were our friends going to be in the wedding, but they were going to be part of the decorations!”

Thinking about the unique centerpieces Alejandra said, “I didn’t want a traditional wedding. You go to a wedding and there is always flowers, and at the end of the day in pictures they always look the same except for maybe the color. I just wanted something different, I just didn’t know what different was.”

After some brainstorming on the New Mexico theme, Alejandra started to think of ways she could incorporate chiles into the wedding décor. She brought the idea of using chiles, yucca, and cotton in the centerpieces to her mother in law who took it and quickly came up with a few centerpiece ideas. But nothing was fitting well with the round tables Alejandra had planned for the reception dinner. Alejandra started to sketch out ideas, trying to figure out how to artfully fit a long chile ristra, which is traditionally displayed hanging, on top of a round table top. “Just close the loop!” was the thought that came to her. Alejandra and her mother in law found a local chile ristra vendor who was able to create circle ristras out of the prettiest red chiles. Yucca and cotton blooms, as well as pecans were added to the ristras, bringing some of Danny and Alejandra’s favorite New Mexican hidden gems into the finished table centerpiece.

The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum was the perfect backdrop for Danny and Alejandra’s wedding.

Alejandra explained, “The mountain view and the outdoor patio courtyard made it my first choice since our September wedding date was perfect for the weather and being outside. My thought was, ‘Let’s just use New Mexico as our landscape because it is beautiful as it is.’”