Mexican Traditions: DAY OF THE DEAD

TODAY IS HALLOWEEN!!!

One of my favorite holidays.

I have adopted this Holiday

because its fun and I adore costumes.

BUT I´M MEXICAN AND AS MUCH AS I LOVE TO ADOPT CUSTOMS

FROM OTHER COUNTRIES;

I EMBRACE MY CULTURE, AND AT HOME WE ALSO

CELEBRATE THE DAY OF THE DEAD.

Halloween and Day of the Dead have somethings in common:

celebrating souls that are not living with us anymore.

In Halloween people dress up as ghouls, ghosts,

mummies and skeletons,

so spirits can confuse them and will not do them

any harm on the 31st.

And November 1st and 2nd Day of the Dead

we celebrate the Dead by

visiting their graves with their favorite food,

or making altars with

drinks, food, some of their favorite

things that our beloved ones

enjoyed while they where alive.

We decorate with candles, photos and flowers.

The Day of the Dead is also celebrated in some

Latin American countries.

For example, it is a public holiday in Brazil,

when people visit churches

and cemeteries. This holiday is also observed in the

Philippines. In the United States,

The Day of the Dead is also observed as a holiday among

Mexican-American communities. So, while majority of

America celebrates Halloween on October 31st night,

the Hispanic population considers The Day of the Dead as a special

event honoring the dead. In Mexico it is a

traditional holiday.

El día de Muertos is not a sad time, but instead a time of

remembering and rejoicing.

Families prepare an altar

decorated with flowers, bread, fruits and candy.

Pictures of deceased family members are kept on that altar.

In late afternoon, candles are lit, as to remember the departed souls.

Just as in the United States, there are Halloween special recipes and treats,

Day of the Dead is also celebrated with unique and weird recipes like

chocolate skulls, marzipan coffins, white chocolate skeletons,

milk chocolate bones.

There are skeleton figurines, skeletal brides, evil dolls,

spirit and ghost figures, are quite popular

gift and home décor items.

November 1st and 2nd can be a wonderful

time to visit Mexico,

as you will get to see a celebration full of flowers

and chocolates.

People parade through the streets dressed as

skeletons and

ghosts and candles are meant to burn all night.

We have culture which believes in a vibrant afterlife

and remembers the departed ones with joy!

SUNDAY green wedding project

Well I love pompons and we know

that there are a lot of DIY

on the web for paper and cloth pompons,

but I decided to POST about one

involving plastic bags we keep from

the super market,

or our shopping and this

is a GREAT DIY recycling project for your

GREEN WEDDING.

Why because you can re-use

and its great for out door weddings.

FIRST CHOOSE YOUR PLASTIC BAG

I CHOOSE PINK SINCE ITS OCTOBER

AND ITS THE THINK PINK MONTH

SECOND CAREFULLY CUT ALONG STRAIGHT RECTANGLES

TIE THEM TOGETHER IN THE MIDDLE

START PULLING BOTH SIDES OF THE PIECES OF

PLASTIC TO MAKE THE POMPON SHAPE

HANG IT AND ENJOY

MY SISTER HELPING ME OUT FOR THE PHOTOS OF

THIS FUN SUNDAY PROJECT

PAPARAZZI

Thank you to my friend Mauricio Clayton from

http://www.photografiart.com/

for these great images he took on

the wedding of Pily & Andres

from Mexico City during their

wedding at our Riviera Maya

Venue.

PRICELESS

I just wanted to share with you

this personal photos that

were taken while I'm doing

my JOB (which BTW I LOVE)

AFTER THE STORM ...

... AS PEOPLE SAY CALM FINDS ITS WAY

AFTER TROPICAL STORM RINA

WE ARE BACK ON TRACK

SIGN IS BACK UP AND VENUE READY

DIY: preparing our #venue for hurricane RINA

WE HAVE TO TAKE SAFETY MEASURES TO

ENSURE THE LEAST OF DAMAGES TO OUR VENUE.

THIS IS HOW WE GET READY TO RECEIVE

WHAT LOOKS LIKE THE LAST

HURRICANE OF THIS 2011 SEASON.

we are removing beach gates

only one last door to move

we carry it by parts to a safe place

our huge beach fence is now removed

the glass from altar in the chapel must be removed to
also the lamps on the inside

last but not least the lights around the coconut trees
we have more than 15 palm trees with this kind of lights

now we remove our sign to make sure it survives hurricane

here we are taking sign down

taking good care of it

Yes the sign is safe

but will be up there again

soon

SO WE HOPE HURRICANE RINA

COMES BY JUST A A TROPICAL STORM OR

CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE

In any case we are now more than ready!!!

A VERY CLASSY MEXICAN WEDDING

DETAILS IN WHITE

with a slight touch or turquoise blue.

Ceremony by the beach

lovely center pieces

As you may all know, the word classy means very stylish and elegant.

And this just exactly how the wedding of

ALICIA (Mexico) & MAX (France) turned out to be.

On the morning of October the 22nd 2011,

The Team Of UTOPIK Event Planning

arrived to our Riviera Maya VENUE

SECRET JEWEL CELEBRATIONS

to start building their magic.

This is the last wedding of the year

2011 for these amazing pair of talented

Wedding planners.

Tania & Ale waved their magic wands

and let the sun shine and the rain go away.

Until the morning prior to wedding we were

expecting rain.

1st dance

To our surprise we had a very COLD

night but the party kept going until

4am when the last bus arrived and

everybody left happy to their hotels.

The menu was amazing

provided by Chef FEDERICO LOPEZ

All well orchestrated by Angie from Gourmands & Gourmets

Entrees for this 4 course dinner

included this delicious Fish & Shrimp salad

rolled on a Jicama leaf

Mariachi played during the sunset for the

cocktail party on the beach.

DJ Yoda played his part making people

dance even with the cold weather

(believe me it was very cold)

The highlights of the decoration

provided a very authentic mexican

wedding atmosphere where guests

from France, Mexico and USA

lived a true