Javi & Alo: Mexican Bohemian Wedding
Photography by Memorybox Photo
In 2013 Alo had been living in Vancouver for about 6 months, when out of nowhere he got a call from his best friends, “We just met the love of your life! His name is Javier, he's from Argentina and he just moved to Mexico City.” Alo, a bit skeptical said he wasn't interested since he had just started an intense year of studies in Canada. That Summer, Alo visited Mexico City. Loren, who was working with Javi at the time, and was also Alo's best friend, introduced them to one another. From the first moment, there was a spark, to the point that they talked for hours throughout the night. Even though Alo had to fly back to Vancouver, communicating over social media helped to keep them connected.
After a year of talking through Facebook messenger, they met again in the winter and decided to give their relationship a try regardless of the distance.
“We had dinner at Downtown Mexico, a hotel in Mexico City. It was really nice because even though I am the Mexican one and Javi is Argentinian... we did touristy things that I had never done before in my own city. We walked around the Main Plaza, went to beautiful colonial streets and had dinner with an amazing view of the city.”
It wasn't easy in the beginning... The long-distance Mexico-Vancouver back and forth was a big challenge. “I would go to Mexico every now and then, and Javi would come to visit me too. In 2015 we finally decided to move in together and decided that the place to do this was in Mexico City.”
It takes a lot of willpower to get up and move such a far distance for someone. They both knew it was love from the moment they met. “I will never forget that day. I had heard so much about Javi because a lot of my friends knew him before I did. But the moment we met in person, it was an amazing feeling, like there was nobody else there... even though we were at a bar with lots of people and lots of friends around... we spent the whole night talking and sharing our dreams and expectations of life.”
If heading to Mexico wasn’t enough to change for Alo, in 2016 Javi had to move to Paris for his job. Javi asked Alo to move with him across the Atlantic. “It was a scary decision since we only had about a year living together in Mexico… but I know now that it was the best decision I have ever made.”
On January 5th, 2018, Alo’s birthday, they were in Mexico City visiting for the holidays. Javi planned a nice romantic dinner, just for the two of them. He specifically asked Alo not to tell anybody else about the dinner. “I thought it was a really nice idea since I usually spend my birthday surrounded by friends, we had a nice table next to a window with a small balcony. Suddenly our song started playing in the restaurant, “Hacer un Puente” by La Franela. It is a rare song to find playing at a restaurant in Mexico since it’s an Argentinian band and not very well known.
From that moment I knew there was something going on. It would be too much of a coincidence to be there with our song playing loudly. Javi was acting pretty strange and asked me to look out the window, and that’s when I saw the bunch of people each one of them outside carrying huge letters that made the sentence “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”. I could not believe it was actually happening! When I turned back to Javi, he was holding a box with two rings.”
Javi and Alo returned to France engaged and started to plan their wedding day. The two found their dream venue at Bajo la Montaña, in a magical small town called Tepoztlán just 45-minutes outside of Mexico City. The 3-day celebration included friends and family from all over the world. “It was absolutely magical, looking at all those faces of people who love us and are part of our lives, some of them we hadn’t seen in a long time, but each one of them represented a time in our story, a moment of our lives.”
Javi and Alo joined hands in front of their closest friends and family to recite their vows.
Javi recited, “So many things in life would seem so easy to get and find. But when it comes to finding the love of your life, the fact that we found each other in between seven billion people in this world, it's something that will never cease to surprise me and remind me every day how lucky we are.
With you I learned to meet again with my childhood and scare away every ghost from the past, but above all, with you, I could finally smile completely and reconnect with who I am and to rediscover why I want to be.
I vow to let myself be influenced and filled with your positive energy in the mornings, even when you wake up singing that song from “Hercules”.
On this very special day, I want to tell you that, you will always be you, and I will always be me, but from now on and as a family, we are together (somos juntos).”
Alo responded, “We are together because when you look at me, you know exactly what I'm thinking, and I don't need to tell you. We are together because we are a team that can deal against anything or any situation in good times and bad times, always together.
I vow to never fail you, I vow to always be the intense Alo who wakes up early in a good mood to the rhythm of Disney songs.
Thank you for trusting me, for making me believe in me, for listening to me and holding on even when I’m hungry, for inspiring me to be a better person, because when I’m with you, you always bring out the best of me.”
Javi and Alo exchanged rings and prepared themselves to become husband and husband. "The energy we could feel around, was amazing, so much love, so much beauty. I had never felt something so strong in my life, and there we were next to each other. In love and ready to be officially husbands.”
Sharing a kiss, the newlyweds exited from the ceremony to celebrate at the reception. “We danced a Tango for our first dance, and right after that our wedding planner came running to us and told us we needed to go back to our table because a surprise was coming. Neither Javi nor I had any idea of what it was! Suddenly, Javi’s grandma went into the middle of the dance floor and started dancing alone, it was so cute and funny at the same time, we had no idea what was going on. Suddenly, a bunch of guests got on the dance-floor and started dancing a routine! It was our own wedding flash-mob organized by Javi’s sister. Everyone knew the steps and it was amazing! I still can’t understand how she managed to teach every single guest the choreography without even knowing most of the people, it was an unforgettable moment.”
“It's a feeling I never felt before, and probably won't feel again... a mix between happiness, excitement, nervousness, not believing that it was actually happening, smiling, happy-crying, couldn’t-wait-for-the-day-to-start… and then I didn't want the weekend to be over. It was simply the best day of our lives.”
As the celebration came to a close, Alo and Javi headed off to Greece for a two-week honeymoon from Athens to the Greek islands. Afterward, they went to Tokyo for a week. “It was the best trip of our lives! enjoyed every minute, got to try a lot of different experiences, and of course had lots of fun!”
Living out their dream wedding, Javi and Alo now live and love together as husbands.
Watch Javi and Alo’s wedding video!
Wedding Venue — Bajo la Montaña
Photography — Memorybox Photography (Instagram)
Videography — Social Art Cinema (Instagram)
Wedding Planner — Aline Brun (Instagram)
Officiant — Dagyi Rivera
Invitation Designer — Alo
Catering — Bajo la Montaña
Cake Design — Cata con Amor
Apparel — Maria Limon
Floral Design — Maria Limon
DJ — 2Djs (Instagram)
Live Music — Red Shoes Mexico
Rentals — Maria Limon
Hair Stylist — Paris Merinne Barbershop
