Melissa Rycroft
  • PWG: This has been a busy year for you. How are you able to manage it all?
  • MR: Part of the sacrifice with working in LA and living in Dallas is that we have to travel—a lot. But these are great opportunities. We’re going to jump on it while we can, and when it’s done, maybe in a year or two, then we can enjoy being home. So, we’re racking up the miles right now.
  • PWG: What’s the best thing so far about married life?
  • MR: I think the biggest thing is married life is just like dating life, and just like engaged life. The relationship itself hasn’t changed. We didn’t live together beforehand, and so living together now. . . it’s awesome to wake up next to your buddy. Sometimes people have expectations how it’s supposed to be once you’re married. Well, the reason that you’re getting married is because of the way your relationship is now. So you have to focus on not letting it change, not rearranging your priorities because of your title change.
  • PWG: Let’s talk about the wedding. What made you and Tye decide on a destination location?
  • MR: I wanted to sneak away and have a laid back, fun theme. You can’t get more laid back and fun than Mexico! I remember one of the first talks Tye and I had was, “Where you would want to get married?” And I said, "On the beach."
  • PWG: Did you work with a wedding planner for the event?
  • MR: We weren’t going to at first. Tye and I and both our moms went down to Mexico about four months before the wedding. I thought we would just meet with a cake decorator. But it turned out that she was a jack of all trades, and we realized very quickly that with international weddings, you really need help. We weren’t going overboard on the planning by any means, but we didn’t know who the florists were [there in Mexico], we didn’t know anybody. So we did end up working with a planner.
  • PWG: You wore a really beautiful, sheer Alfred Angelo gown. Was it a "love at first sight" kind of reaction?
  • MR: I got really, really lucky with my wedding dress. I was sitting at Alfred Angelo with my mom, and they were in the back pulling dresses after I shared with them my criteria. While waiting, I started looking through the catalog. I open it up and on the first couple pages, I saw the dress and went, “Mom, that’s the dress!” It was part of their future collection—it wasn’t even out yet! We spoke with the bridal consultant helping us, and she said she could have one shipped over to the store where we were. They asked if I wanted to try on any other dresses in the meantime, and I said no, not at all! I’m going to wait for this dress. It came in, worked perfectly and I never tried on any other dresses.
  • PWG: Did you have a particular theme associated with the wedding?
  • MR: We were going for more of a "feel" than a "theme." I wanted it romantic and beach-y. I didn’t want seashells everywhere or anything like that. I wanted people to feel like they were on vacation and having a party. I wanted the dance floor packed the entire time. I wanted the food to be fantastic. That’s the feel we were going for. We had a fajita bar and quesadillas . . . all great Mexican food. And we actually had a chance to sit down for 30 minutes and eat!
  • PWG: How many guests were in attendance?
  • MR: We had between 150-200 guests. A big destination wedding, but a small wedding overall. We weren’t looking to have everyone in Dallas come, but a lot more people flew in than we were expecting to come to a destination wedding. We had lots of friends and family there. It was awesome.
  • PWG: What were some of the unique touches you requested for the event?
  • MR: Being a southern girl, Red Velvet cake is my absolute favorite. One of my musts, and there were not a lot of them, was that our wedding cake was red velvet. So there was a little touch of Dallas that came down to Mexico with us. Also, everyone was barefoot. That was something that was important to me. I mean, come on—there isn’t anyone on the beach wearing shoes! We had little baskets at the front where people could drop off their shoes.
  • PWG: What do you remember most about that day?
  • MR: Tye and I made a point before the wedding to take little time outs during the wedding where we could just sit and be. There were three or four times Tye and I walked away from the party and went and sat in the sand on the beach or walked down the dock. We would just sit there for a few minutes and look at each other, and then we’d turn around and look at the party and everything going on. And those are the moments that I remember and I’m so glad that we did that.