When jewelry designer Paula Mendoza got married this fall, she had two priorities. First, she wanted to have a beautiful and intimate, though not religious, ceremony near her hometown of Bogotá. Second, she wanted to party—and fortunately, so did her husband Martín Ramirez, the owner of a composable packaging company called Cascara Tech. Ultimately, the two decided to celebrate their milestone and love of electronic music with a festive party in Berlin, one of their favorite cities. “We were like, ‘If we do a party, let’s do a proper party. Let’s have great DJs, let’s have great venue. Let’s do a very, very great party,’” she says.
With that in mind, Paula, whose work has been worn by Beyoncé, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Zendaya, enlisted one of her close friends, Mariana Pinto, the founder of Tierra Bomba, a Latin camp in Burning Man, to work as her wedding planner. “I thought, Okay, if you do a camp in Burning Man, you can do my wedding,” she says.
The couple called their theme “Rave Royal.” Read on for a very creepy location, some nearly naked looks, and a full-on rager.
The Colombian Ceremony
The family ceremony was held in Villa de Leyva, which is three hours from Bogotá. “It’s one of the most untouched towns in this country that still has stones in the floor,” Paula explains. A friend offered up her nearly 400-year-old house for the event, which was led by a friend of the couple’s. It was followed by a meal in the home’s garden and hours of speeches.
“It was so close to my heart and the speeches were so beautiful,” she recalls. “It was really lovely to share a moment like that with our closest friends and family.”
Paula wore a lace dress made by the Mexico City-based designer Gabrielle Venguer, who used fabric from a dress that belonged to her own grandmother.
The Boat Party
The day before the wedding, Paula and Martín hosted a cruise on the River Spree, which was inspired by the 2009 movie Pirate Radio. The bride was also inspired by a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier sailor hat and, fortunately, she was able to track it down.
Everyone on the boat was thrilled by some unseasonably warm weather. “I didn’t pick Berlin because of the weather, of course,” Paula says. “But we arrived in Berlin and suddenly it was summer again. [The temperatures] were in the 80s. People were like, ‘What? This is Berlin? What is happening?’ Then, suddenly, the sunset came and the sun was completely red. Then the moon came and it was also a red moon. It was absolutely magical.”
The Venue
Paula once lived in Amsterdam and considers Berlin one of her favorite cities in the world. She did research to find the best venue, one that would be a perfect fit for the full-on rave that she was envisioning. She was thrilled to find a venue focused on art installations that was just what she had envisioned.
Unfortunately, only 10 days before the wedding, the venue got shut down by the police. “I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Paula recalls. “Fighting in a place that you don’t live, when you don’t speak German, it’s another adventure.” They had to make a decision on a very tight timeline, and they were getting recommendations for spaces that were way out of their price range.
Finally, Paula found MaHalla, a 19th-century former industrial showroom. “It’s an art space, but the owner is this crazy German who is very into spiritual ceremonies and vibrations and all that,” she says. “He helped us to have a great experience with a great live band. It was just a very creepy place that worked super well for the party.”
The Dresses
“Every time I have something important, I know Jorge is going to solve the problem,” Paula says of her dear friend, designer Jorge Duque Vélez. “I went to him and he’s like, ‘Paula, this is going to be your masterpiece, so let’s do that.’”
For the boat ride, he dressed Paula in a white minidress inspired by Pirate Radio and the Jean Paul Gaultier hat. For the party, Paula wore a lace, corset-inspired dress with thigh-high lace-up boots and a gauzy overlay, a perfect fit for the aforementioned “Rave Royale” dress code.
The Party
Paula and Martín had a simple marriage ceremony in front of their 120 guests followed by a light meal. Then things really got going. “It was not about sitting down and eating,” says Paula. “We went downstairs to the underworld and it was like party, party, party, party. Great music. Some of our friends are DJs from Burning Man, so the quality of the music was really fantastic.” The party had a lineup of five DJs, giving the wedding a true festival feel.
The guests, who were all asked to wear black, didn’t hold back. “Some people were almost naked,” Paula says. “Everyone let their personalities come out in a very super sexy way. All our friends were saying, ‘Well, now we can guarantee that everyone looks good at weddings. Just ask them to wear black.’”
“It was great way to celebrate the love between Martín and I in a very free way,” Paula says of the wedding. “We didn’t have any pressure because we’re 40-something [years old]. When you pay for your party and you are a mature person, you do whatever you want. It feels good to be free to make decisions. I think people connected with us in the most beautiful way.”
Paula Mendoza and Martín Ramirez’s Wedding
Adrienne Gaffney is a features editor at ELLE and previously worked at WSJ Magazine and Vanity Fair.
