A Fairytale Wedding

Personalizing the Ceremony

Sharon and El incorporate different cultural elements to really make the ceremony their own. First, they cleanse their hands with orchid water as a symbol of purification. Next the couple honors the memory of their departed loved ones by ringing a bell.

Both Sharon's and El's mothers look stunning in their Carmen Marc Valvo dresses, provided by Neiman Marcus. Sharon and El kneel in front of each other's mother and make vows to them.

"I want to thank you for this wonderful gift of a man that you raised," Sharon tells El's mother. "He is kind, generous, understanding, has integrity and holds his head high, and I thank you for that."

"I want to thank you for being the vessel the caregiver, the nurturer of the blessed gift you've given to me," El tells Sharon's mother. " I promise you, mama, from this day forward I will love and protect, honor, and cherish the woman that you've given to me."

And after exchanging their vows and rings, Sharon and El join their life together in a cultural tradition hundreds of years old—jumping the broom!