A Romantic, Garden Wedding at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami, Florida

"I had promised myself to make our wedding very personal, with pieces of both of us throughout each moment,” says Marya Khalil (28 and a CEO and business owner). "I wanted to intertwine our cultures into the weekend as well, with a Cuban-themed rehearsal dinner in Little Havana for my mom’s heritage, fancy deli food with a twist for our appetizers to honor his Jewish roots and family-style Lebanese food to honor my late father’s heritage." And that’s exactly what she delivered at her wedding to Dylan Otto’s (39 and a writer and producer) at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami, Florida. 

Inside the beautiful garden, which boasts a stunning mansion and museum, cultures came together as guests supped on a trio of cultural flavors and watched the couple dance to not one but three songs representing their backgrounds. “The first dance at weddings always seems so boring, so we wanted to do three things: Show our love, honor our families and make it fun for everyone,” Marya says. After four months of practice with a celebrity instructor, Marya and Dylan broke out into a trifecta of dances to a mash-up of family favorites, the first being a basic one-two step to Bill Withers's “Lovely Day,” followed by salsa to Mark Anthony’s “Vivir Mi Vida” and its original Arabic version by Cheb Khaled, for which the couple called everyone to the floor to join them. “We didn't want to be the couple who spend the entire night thanking everyone for attending—we wanted to have fun,” she says.—Ginger Harris