Do you know what truly makes a perfect rock ‘n’ roll wedding? Two people, choosing to share their love and say their vows in their own way, and that’s exactly what Isa and Fernando did when they married in October. They chose Gold Ridge in Valley of Fire to tie the knot, hiring Cactus and Lace to create their perfect ceremony set up.

The night before they stayed at The Cosmopolitan Hotel with a few of their loved ones, but the ceremony itself was just for them. “We knew we didn’t want to be the centre of attention”, began the bride. “We are definitely introverted extroverts. When we feel comfortable we come out of our shell, but we like our privacy and want to have an intimate moment between the two of us. We just wanted to focus our attention on each other and make the moment special.”

“We started with traditional vows followed by our own personal vows. We both worked with a private jeweller, Rising Sun Apotheca, to create a special memory jar necklace so that we could collect some sand from the vow location. So, after personal vows were said, we collected the sand from under our feet and scooped it into the jar followed by a prayer from our officiant. After that we went on to our first kiss followed by an even more special first hug with sweet whispers of I love you.”

Theme wise, they found is tricky to narrow it down loving boho, rock ‘n’ roll, glam and desert vibes – so, in the end, they combined them all! “We decided we wanted to take all of our favourite things from each theme and create something we would cherish forever”, said the bride. “This is where we learned we had picked the right wedding planners and photography team. They took so many idea calls with us to help us determine what we wanted for our special day.”

They chose the Valley of Fire for their ceremony spot because they wanted to be out in nature. “Rachel from Cactus and Lace created a stunning custom moon arch for us and complemented it perfectly with a boho mix of flowers.”

Isa and Fernando have no regrets about how they got married, and because the splashed on great photos and video (their biggest single cost), their friends and family still got to feel like they were a part of the day, even though they couldn’t be there in person. In fact, the only thing they’d go back and change now would have been to bring the left over cake back with them to their hotel room! “It’s so simple, but when we ended the day we really wanted some more cake in our hotel room!”

“Be gracious to your vendors”, the bride concluded. “Our favourite thing that we did throughout our entire wedding was give back to our vendors. We were so thankful that they were willing to go through 2020 with us and still give us the best day ever that we spent a lot of time preparing thank you gifts for our teams. We purchased custom logo signs for our photography team and wedding planning team. And for our officiant, his wife is a foodie like us, so we bought them a waffle maker because they got married the month before us and we found their registry. Remember they are doing so much for
you – so show them the appreciation they deserve!”