The Soundtrack for This Wedding at Atelier Playa Mujeres in Cancun, Mexico, Included "Moulin Rouge" and Beyoncé

To celebrate their marriage, TV personalities AJ Gibson and Emile Ennis Jr. planned a destination wedding weekend in Mexico. "This wedding was 10 years in the making, so it was super important that we were surrounded by family and friends who were 100% supportive of our love," says Emile. "Planning a same-sex wedding in 2022 can still be a bit emotionally traumatizing, so only inviting those ready to pour love into our union was the priority! We absolutely love Mexico and it holds a special place in our hearts, as it was the first place we vacationed together 6 years ago."

"For the entire wedding weekend, LOVE was the theme," shares Emile. "We had 3 days of activities planned for our guests, many of whom were experiencing the magic of Mexico for the very first time. On Father’s Day, we threw an epic beach welcome party that included an authentic Mayan dinner, as well as a full bar, music, and performers. We really wanted our guests to experience the traditional Mexican culture, with a twist, so we hired a troupe of fire dancers and water drummers to perform at the conclusion of our dinner and it was INCREDIBLE!"

While the end result of AJ and Emile's wedding was stunning—many of the details were forced to shift at the last minute because of unexpected bad weather. "Our entire ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception were supposed to be outdoors," says Emile. "We had a beautiful rooftop location for our ceremony, lush gardens for the cocktail hour, and a beachside reception to dance the night away. However, because the weather is unpredictable in Mexico, you can plan for over a year and have everything change in seconds. The weather was clear for most of the day, but then it started to pour down rain about five hours before our ceremony and wouldn’t let up. After a year of meticulously planning the most gorgeous outdoor wedding in Playa Mujeres, Mexico, everything was thrown out the window 3 hours before the wedding when more storm clouds rolled in and heavy wind was blowing down our arches. We had to make the decision to move everything inside into a Moulin Rouge-inspired nightclub space. In the end, the wedding was more memorable than anything we could have planned outdoors."

The Moulin Rouge-inspired venue space ended up being especially serendipitous as the couple already had a few other details inspired by the musical. Every place setting had a quote from the musical that reads "The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” Emile shares that "the quote was planned months prior, so the fact that we then married in the Moulin Rouge-inspired nightclub was just serendipitous." Additionally, the musical made another appearance during the couple's first dance. "AJ surprised by getting on one knee, with handwritten posterboards (a la Love Actually), to profess his love to a medley of 'Come What May' from Moulin Rouge, John Legend's 'All of Me' and concluding with Katy Perry's 'Firework,' which corresponded with actual fireworks going off around the dance floor to open the night of dancing," recalls Emile. 

While music from Moulin Rouge helped get the night started, Beyoncé's music also played a big role in the evening. Beyoncé's "Party (Homecoming Live) was the song that played while the couple entered the reception. Then, "to close the night, we had the best personalization and surprise that blew our minds," says Emile. "We found out earlier that day that Beyoncé was dropping a brand new song that night. Keep in mind that we got married on a Monday, so this was a huge shock to us. The song, ‘Break My Soul,’ was set to drop at midnight ET which was 11 PM our time…the end of our reception. We were blown away by the synchronicities that kept happening. So we opened the reception with Beyoncé (planned a year prior) and we were able to close the reception with brand new Beyoncé! And then, because we are extra, we had an aerialist performance for all of our guests back in the nightclub for our official afterparty where we danced until 3 in the morning. It was all unforgettable."