When it came time to choose a wedding destination, Dylan and Ella found much of their inspiration already waiting for them at Casa Hyder. The San Miguel de Allende property was colorful, maximalist, and filled with character, offering the perfect starting point for a destination wedding that would eventually become an all-out fiesta.
Their palette actually began with an unexpected detail. When the couple first toured Casa Hyder, its usual reception space had temporarily been transformed into a pickleball court, with sections painted in bold shades of pink, green, orange, yellow, and red. Unsure whether the colorful squares would still be there for the wedding, they decided to embrace them with help from planner Penzi Weddings. Although the grass was ultimately restored, they had already fallen in love with the combination and carried it through the florals, custom linens, and bridesmaid fashion.
The result celebrated San Miguel rather than attempting to reinvent it. Papel picado, tin star lanterns, local craftsmanship, live music, colorful flowers, tequila, and plenty of dancing, all captured by Ricardo Arellano, created a weekend that felt deeply connected to its destination.
A wedding weekend rooted in San Miguel
Dylan and Ella wanted the entire weekend to feel like a celebration, beginning with a lively callejoneada the day before the wedding. Live music remained a constant throughout the festivities, with mariachi and guitarists helping create the energy they wanted their guests to experience in Mexico.
The food followed the same philosophy. At the welcome party, tortillas were pressed and cooked on-site while meat was carved directly onto tacos and fresh guacamole and salsas were prepared in real time. Frozen guava margaritas and grapefruit mezcalitas offered the perfect follow-up to a sun-drenched afternoon, setting the tone for a weekend that would continue to revolve around incredible food, cocktails, and shared experiences.
Even the custom details were designed to make guests feel part of the celebration rather than simply spectators. By the time the wedding day arrived, everyone had already experienced a taste of the joyful atmosphere Dylan and Ella wanted to create.
Bridal style: romantic structure and a custom mantilla veil
Ella originally imagined herself getting married in an all-lace gown, but after visiting bridal salons throughout Texas, she began to realize she might be searching for the wrong dress.
Everything changed when she tried on a matte Mikado ballgown. Its soft sweetheart neckline and hand-embroidered lace appliqués combined the clean structure she hadn’t known she wanted with the romantic detailing she had envisioned all along. A row of covered buttons trailed down the back, fulfilling a bridal detail she had loved since childhood, while a custom mantilla veil completed the look.
Her bridesmaids brought the wedding’s colorful palette into the fashion. Rather than selecting a single dress, each woman chose her own look within the pink, green, orange, yellow, and red color story. Different shades, silhouettes, and textures allowed their individual styles to come through while vibrant dahlias in the florals tied everything together.
Dylan and his groomsmen opted for a warm-weather interpretation of black tie with white dinner jackets and classic black tuxedo trousers. Dylan also gifted each groomsman custom needlepoint cufflinks as a nod to his Southern roots.
An all-white ceremony with a mariachi surprise
Although color defined most of the weekend, the ceremony was the intentional exception.
Dylan and Ella exchanged vows beneath an arch of bright white florals by Angelica de Solache, choosing the monochromatic flowers to evoke the holiness and purity of a traditional church setting. Against Casa Hyder’s naturally colorful surroundings, the absence of vibrant hues gave the ceremony its own distinct atmosphere while maintaining the organic floral style used throughout the wedding.
One of the couple’s closest family friends led the ceremony, and after Dylan and Ella shared their first kiss, guests thought they knew what came next. Instead, just as the newlyweds turned to walk back down the aisle, a mariachi band appeared at the back of the ceremony.
The surprise immediately changed the energy as guests began singing, cheering, and shaking maracas. The musicians led everyone from the ceremony to the rooftop cocktail hour, and when Dylan and Ella rejoined the crowd, the band launched into “Tequila,” offering a very accurate preview of where the night was headed.
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Sunset cocktails over San Miguel
Cocktail hour unfolded on the rooftop as the sun began setting over San Miguel de Allende. Guests sipped gin spritzes and prickly pear mezcalitas while enjoying passed tapas and views over the city.
Dylan also made sure their Texas roots had a place on the cocktail menu. Ranch waters and dressed Dos XX joined the more destination-inspired drinks and quickly became guest favorites.
As the newlyweds eventually made their way toward the reception, the sun had dropped below the horizon and Casa Hyder had transformed. Candlelight now illuminated the space, revealing the romantic counterpart to all the bright color guests had experienced earlier in the day.
Dinner beneath hundreds of floating snapdragons
The reception was designed to feel lush and colorful while still preserving the character that had made Dylan and Ella fall in love with Casa Hyder in the first place.
More than 100 candles cast a warm glow across the dinner tables, including candles hand-dyed by local artisans to match the wedding’s exact Pantone shades and intricately carved floral designs. Locally made pottery dinnerware featured petal-shaped edges, while vintage French silverware and table number holders added another layer of detail. Custom linen napkins embroidered in Texas alternated between lime and fuchsia versions of the couple’s wedding crest.
The florals leaned fully back into color after the all-white ceremony, filling the space with vivid pinks, yellows, greens, and oranges. Escort cards tucked into halved limes were displayed among overflowing terracotta pots, offering a playful alternative to a traditional seating chart.
Above it all, hundreds of snapdragons appeared to float from the center of the ruched, buttoned tent. Combined with the candlelight below, the suspended flowers gave the reception a romantic, dreamlike quality that balanced Casa Hyder’s exuberant color with something softer.
A San Miguel-inspired dinner and churro wedding cake
Dinner celebrated the culinary scene that had become such an important part of Dylan and Ella’s experience in San Miguel. Unable to choose between the San Miguel salad and Peruvian ceviche during their tasting, they simply served both. The ceviche was prepared in traditional leche de tigre and proved particularly memorable, with some guests practically drinking what remained from their bowls.
A bicolor roasted corn and chile poblano cream soup followed before guests chose between beef filet with vintage tequila sauce or sea bass finished with a lime butter glaze.
Dessert brought one of the night’s biggest culinary surprises. The couple served a churro wedding cake from Sophia Pedrazzi Cake Boutique that guests continued talking about long after the celebration, with many surprised to discover that it was completely gluten-free.
From romantic reception to all-out fiesta
Once dinner ended, guests moved to the patio overlooking the pool, and the romantic dinner atmosphere quickly transformed into a late-night party.
Dylan and Ella shared their first dance accompanied by surprise sparklers, followed by a father-daughter dance. Ella then slipped upstairs to change into her second look, but when she stepped back out of her room overlooking the dance floor, she noticed something had changed. Somehow, everyone was suddenly wearing light-up bunny ears. She had no idea where they came from, which only made the random addition more entertaining.
Then the disco-ball tequila robot arrived.
Unforgettable moment: a disco-ball tequila robot
The stilt-walking, tequila-spraying spectacle sent the party into another gear while servers moved through the crowd hand-pouring shots. Their DJ kept generations on the floor together, mixing music that had everyone from Ella’s 80-year-old grandmother to their twenty-something friends dancing throughout the night.
It was exactly what Dylan and Ella had hoped to create when they began planning: not simply a beautiful destination wedding, but a celebration where everyone felt compelled to participate.
A wedding inspired by colorful maximalism
Instead of toning down Casa Hyder, they embraced its “maximalism on steroids.” Instead of choosing one bridesmaid dress, they celebrated individual style. They incorporated San Miguel’s music, food, artisans, and traditions, then layered in personal nods to their own roots.
What began with a colorful pickleball court ultimately inspired an entire wedding weekend filled with dahlias, papel picado, floating snapdragons, candlelight, mariachi, margaritas, tequila shots, and a dance floor no one wanted to leave.
For one unforgettable night in San Miguel de Allende, more was definitely more.
