How They Met

Mary always heard the phrase “You will meet someone when it is your time” but little did she know, that that phrase would apply to her relationship with Margaret. The two met through a mutual friend at a church festival in October and continued to communicate over the phone and text after both of them were coming out of previous relationships. They decided to finally date and see where it would go. Mary says, “God definitely played a role in our meeting, I have known our mutual friend for many years, and not once did I run into Margaret, we say it was GOD, he said it wasn’t time to meet till that afternoon in October. It has been an awesome ride and I have to say I am not one to give in easy and with a previous failed relationship, my trust with anyone was on defense, I wasn’t ready to be in a relationship. Meeting Margaret has been one of the best feelings I have ever felt and taking a chance with her is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I am looking forward to our future together.”

The Proposal

The morning of Valentine’s Day, Margaret told Mary to get dressed for lunch with some friends to celebrate the holiday – which didn’t come as a surprise to Mary since she always dressed up. When the two arrived at the restaurant, their friends were out of sight and Mary decided to use the ladies’ room. Margaret waited for her outside and stood in front of a doorway with a curtain. After some back and forth, Mary told Margaret “No, we can’t go in there. The curtain is closed for a reason!” But when she moved the curtain back, she saw their friends & family standing behind the curtain. 5 of their friends stood shoulder-to-shoulder wearing the same-colored shirt with the words, “Will You Marry Me?” on it. After the question mark, Margaret was down on her knee proposing, with the ring upside down. Still, Mary immediately said “Yes!” to her forever.

The Inspiration

Mary says, “I was so back and forth with this; I wanted a vintage but not too vintage with a touch of class and lots of romance. I wanted to use candles, with mauves and pink tones, of course, my main color scheme, and what I tried to incorporate here and there is Rose Gold, love-love Rose Gold, Phoenician helped me incorporate it and made sure we didn’t overdo it.”

Unique Elements

• “We had our ceremony bi-lingual, English and Spanish, as I have family that understands better in Spanish than English.
• Our first look was not a first look, it was a back to back, holding hands with our family around us, with both of us having our mothers in heaven, we asked our family to give us what they feel our mothers would tell us on our wedding day, it turned out beautiful as our bridal party was family and friends that have known us for years, they were able to tell us their thoughts which is very meaningful, not a dry eye I will say.
• We incorporated a couple’s dance after our bouquet/garter toss, the couple married the longest was given a prize.
• Our garter toss was the best and by far my favorite, Margaret’s best woman decided to take my seat in the middle of the ballroom after we blindfolded Margaret, DJ told her she had to find her way to me and take the garter blindfolded, by that time Cecee was there sitting with her leg pant up and garter on her leg, at one touch Margaret knew that wasn’t me and lifted her hands like she did something wrong, it was a fun moment.
• I am not sure if Phoenician does this with everyone but I honestly don’t want to know. 😊 We had an intimate moment with the staff and took some pics outside, it was awesome taking that time for them to get away and be a part of our special day.” – Mary Cortez Aguilar

Words of Advice

“Planning was stressful but also a lot of fun, Margaret and I are jokesters, well more me than her, however, we made it fun every chance we could. In visiting your venues make sure to have your questions ready and go with your gut feeling and your vision, don’t shy away from what you want it is your day. Make sure the venue can accommodate your guest count, also if you could find a place that will provide a wedding coordinator to take it, you don’t realize now you will be thankful to have that person by your side.

Shop your cake shops, we had many dates going to try different cakes and tastings, lol.

Your theme and inspiration must be on point, make sure your vendors make that happen for you and you have no hesitations to say what is on your mind.

The weather is big in San Antonio, make sure to pick a time of year, if you are wanting an outside ceremony/wedding, having ours Mid-March was great, the weather was amazing.

With marrying in San Antonio, we booked rooms a few days before so family can enjoy the city, make sure to find a hotel block and that you read all details unlike we did. ☹

Make sure to enjoy yourself, have fun, take moments alone and embrace it.

The day will go so fast and that is ok, having those moments will be memorable.

Expect something to go wrong so when it does you won’t feel so stressed about it.” – Mary Cortez Aguilar

Expectations Exceeded

Cake: OhYeah Cakes
“AMAZING! Great taste exactly what we asked for and the details of the cake was a vision from Pinterest and pictures from offline, she by far did a great job in creating what we were looking for.”

Ceremony Musician/DJ: DJ Eric
“I honestly was nervous about our DJ, as we had only heard him one time and for about 30 minutes lol, however he did AMAZING!! I didn’t even give him a playlist and he played music that we both loved, and our guests loved, just goes to show he knows how to DJ. “

Photographer: Nimsealyfilms
“OMG I don’t even know where to begin, she outdid herself! Asking her last minute to extend her time was like asking her to take a pic, she said yes without any hesitations. I am so thankful for her because I was so worried that I would not have pics of the entire night. Seeing the pics now she took SO many great ones and I will use her again for my future photograph ideas!”

Photobooth: Erika’s Photo Booth

“First time ever using them, and my Maid of Honor found and booked them, which I am so grateful for because they did a GREAT job and didn’t disappoint.”

Phoenician Team: “OUTSTANDING!!! The one thing I was looking for was finding a place that took care of all of our needs, decorations, food, floral, etc. and the Phoenician did all that for us. They made us feel so comfortable and treated us like queens that day, I had no complaints from anyone. Food was amazing, decorations were beautiful, flowers were beautiful, our wedding coordinators were SO helpful the entire night and the staff – just there in a blink of an eye, Phoenician exceeded our expectations and if we had to do this all over again, it would be with the Phoenician team.”