How one man married 12 women in Mexico.. and it was perfectly legal!

I’ve been neglecting ‘aloha brigitte’ and let me take the time to apologize.  You guys come here to get travel and fashion inspo and like a bad habit, I dropped the ball.  All for good reason!  I’ve been traveling a ton (so much to catch up on here) and utilizing new (for me) forms of social media.  I love branching out and being creative in any way possible.  If you aren’t already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, head on over, because there you can see my blog and instagram combined come to live in video feeds!

On with the real reason you’re here!  The white wedding of the century!  My bff got married in Baja California also known as Valle de Guadalupe near Ensenada, Mexico.  It’s a little over an hour from the border of San Diego.. So this journey takes us south of the border with Cardi B “I like it” on repeat..

{the travel logistics}

I personally don’t like driving into Mexico, so to get there, we opted to uber to the border and walk across into the land of guacamole.  From here, we called another Uber to take us to our digs for the week.

 

 

Protip: The uber drive spoke no english and usually this isn’t a problem with inputting the address ahead of time, but we/he couldn’t figure out where to meet each other because I didn’t have an exact address (I just let the pin figure it out).  Apparently, you have to cross the street and meet near this infamous pharmacia (read: pharmacy for you non-Spanish speakers).  Luckily, a woman figured we were having problems and spoke to the driver on the phone for us and we finally found him and were on our way.

We pulled up to the new Maglen Resort and I was pleasantly surprised!  We drove through the valley into the countryside passing by various wineries.. in July, the vineyards were a lush green, so the setting was perfect for an epic week.  We got all checked in and stayed in the “El Encinal” portion of the resort.  They have a few different areas, but the wedding party stayed in one section and we had our own swimming pool/jacuzzi and dedicated parking lot away from the families that would be annoyed from our antics at 2am getting or livers prepped for the wedding.  The rooms were a little high for the area, but still reasonably priced.  I’m guessing since it was summer and a newer location.  I recommend it for the seclusion alone for a big party or event and you want to keep everyone together!  The rooms were modern and we had our own balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

The cons: wifi was super weak because everyone else was trying to keep up with their social media and hot water scarce.  Not everyone had cold water, but everyone on my side had lukewarm water running through the pipes.  Thank goodness I didn’t need to wash my hair.. I never got to eat at the restaurant on location because my order sadly never came.. I think they were overwhelmed by the guests all ordering around the same time and typically (from what I heard) weren’t open on this particular day, so they weren’t fully staffed.  Since I always see the positives in life, I didn’t over eat, so fitting into my rehearsal dinner dress was no issue.. (I don’t condone starvation – I more than made up for it at dinner).  In their defense, the hotel is new and they were fully booked, so I can only imagine what must have been going through their heads with all of us running around.

 

{the rehearsal… pre-party before the wedding}

 

We had the best views at the restaurant that felt so secluded yet warm and cozy atop a hill at a vineyard.  The winery, Bodegas Cieli, honors the legend and traditions of winemaking in Tuscany.. The wine superb and hospitality radiant and was only about a mile down the road from the wedding venue where we performed the actual rehearsal..  They made seafood paella and had vegetarian options for guests.  Bonus: there was a draft beer station for those that may not be into vino.  We sat family style at a long table outside at dusk so we had the best sunset views in the valley with pink and blue hues.  We sipped wine, gave speeches to the bride and groom, I attempted my best at telling them how much they mean to me and got about 25% of the way through and had to give up talking because I couldn’t keep the tears and ugly crying from stopping.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in the process of getting all the video edits together, so stay tuned for the actual terrible attempt at my speech.  To end the night we were classy and set up a karaoke machine singing gangster rap.. legit happy place..

The actual rehearsal took place at the wedding venue, Vinas de la Erre.. read on.

 

 

 

 

 

{outfit details}

Dress: Windsor (sold out, similar here)

 

{wedding day – 11 bridesmaids in white and one bride in blush}

 

What I loved about this wedding is there was very little traditional about it.  For starters, the bride wore a gorgeous blush dress with delicate lace top and all 11 bridesmaids wore stark WHITE.  Who ever said you can’t wear white to a wedding clearly is not with the times.  Think “diner en blanc” but without all the mystery and napkin helicopters (if you have no clue what I’m talking about, see here).  It was perfection.  I opted to drink white wine and tequila the whole night for fear of dripping red white.. there could be worse things in life I suppose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The non-traditional, traditional wedding was held at the Vinas de la Erre.  Other than the obvious of the bridesmaids wearing white, there was a taco food truck (duh, because we were in Mexico), corn in a cup, and instead of the bland cake and traditional cutting, we had churros.  I mean… best idea ever!  The groomsmen donned oxblood colored suits and sunglasses.. There was no garter/flower toss but what they did have was a massive disco ball above the dance floor and black candles with olive branches that elegantly lined each table.  There was just a hint of what you would expect to see at a wedding with dancing and laughing guests, but the feels of an epic party surrounded with some of the best people on Earth.  I like to think the groom (Farley) married all twelve of us, including his beautiful bride, Sabrina on their wedding day.. the 4th of July.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you marry one of us, you marry us all.. The real reason we wore white to make it official.

{outfit details}

Dress: Lulu’s (here)

{the after party brunch}

 

We stayed an extra day to take in the ocean views for a post wedding brunch at the newly opened El Viento No Cantina.  We went on their first official day of opening and so we got to soak up the sparking ocean views while chomping down on avocado toast, burgers, pizza, we basically tried everything on the menu and everything was absolutely delicious.  I decided my liver didn’t need a break quite yet, so an Aperol Spritz was in order.  We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve never been to the Ensenada/Rosarito area, you absolutely must go.  It’s basically San Diego without the hustle and bustle and high population.  It’s incredibly peaceful and not to mention, without the higher price tag for most things such as food!  Every time we go, I always wonder why we don’t go more often?!

 

{on the border}

 

We were able to carpool back with some friends and checked the border wait times.. I can’t stress this enough because it could mean a matter of an hour or less wait time versus four hours.  Also, make sure you have a passport.  I know some friends chanced it without one, but I’m sure this tacks on additional time and more questions; so bring that passport.  Also, pro travel tip: when we walked over crossing into Mexico, they stamped our passport, so if you’re into new ink on those pages, walking over is cool.

If you are in the wait line to cross, there are a ton of vendors selling anything from ice cream to fake tortoises to fill your yard.  Then we all spy a sign that says “churros locos”.. I’m like, guys, churros, full speed ahead because I still have room in my stomach.. We ask the lady what is in it and she starts naming off the ingredients.. I understand about 60% of what she said and we decide to order one.  I don’t think I took any pictures, but if you refer back to my story highlights (appropriately labeled “MEXICO”) on instagram, you’ll see what we were dealing with in action.  We start eating it and realize there were some food items we were familiar with and other food items we were not.  We pull up further about 10 minutes later and ask someone else who spoke better english what the ingredients were and we heard the words “pig skin”.  OMFG. The slimy things we thought were gelatin was actually mother effing pig skin.  I’m not vegan or vegetarian, but this was not cool.  we all immediately stopped eating it.. ok so full disclosure, we ate around some of the pig skin because there were random nuts inside.  But then had to toss the rest.. Sorry to my friends who love the stuff, but we just couldn’t..  But hey, we tried something new right?!

I found my real churros I had my heart set on so all was right in life.

 

 

Crossed the border safe and sound and headed to the nearest In-n-Out to make up for the pig skin by eating cows.  Probably crazy inappropriate to my vegan/vegetarian friends, but I wanted to give the full picture.

 

Until next time Mexico.. te quiero mi amor!!  Check the hashtags on the ‘gram for more fun pics from the rest of the guests #meetthefarleys #sorryfarley and my personal hashtag #BrigittexMexico

If you missed how we celebrated the then Bride-to-be’s bachelorette, go here.  You’re welcome.