A Luxurious and Magical Celebration in Barbados
This wedding celebration spanned multiple days of connection, storytelling, and awe, set against the beautiful Barbados landscape, celebrating family, Ethiopian culture, and tradition. The first part of the experience unfolded gradually over the course of the weekend, with parts slowly revealing themselves, themes and sensory anchors repeating that created a feeling of cohesiveness and harmony, creating a wedding that didn’t just prioritize the guest experience, but truly reflected the couple and felt like them.
THE FOUNDATION
Location: Coddrington College, Barbados
Guests: 150 friends and family
Duration: Wedding in Barbados, followed by a traditional Ethiopian Melse in Brooklyn
Guiding Intention
“A celebration that honors heritage, family, and the joyful merging of cultures. A wedding where every guest feels embraced by tradition, welcomed into a shared community, and invited to witness the weaving together of two families. A gathering where each person becomes part of the couple’s story and leaves with a deeper appreciation for both cultures and for the beauty of Barbados.”
Design Pillars
These pillars are guiding principles for designing weddings that move people: emotionally, sensorially, and relationally. Each one represents a quality that shapes how an experience feels. Find the complete list of Design Pillars here.
Generosity - Gestures and details rooted in genuine warmth rather than obligation
Elevation - Heightened formality and symbolism to make it feel truly eventful
Belonging - Subtle but intentional cues that communicate welcome and inclusion
Storytelling - A narrative that builds, shifts, and resolves to create emotional impact
Sensory Anchors
Smell: Sea salt, coffee, frangipani
Flavors: Guava, sorrel, and warm island spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom
Colors: Bajan frangipani pink
Textures: Ethiopian embroidery and weaving
If you want to work together to build your own Experience Foundation for your wedding, click here:
THE EXPERIENCE
Anticipation / Building Excitement and setting the emotional tone leading up to the event
Target Emotions: Warmth, excitement, appreciation
In order to eliminate stress and uncertainty in the lead up to the wedding, the couple had a dedicated travel concierge for guests to help book travel arrangements and as a point person to answer any questions. It helped eliminate friction for hesitant guests as well as take the pressure off the couple to field questions during the planning phase. It also signaled luxury and elevation.
A series of emails during the year leading up the wedding built excitement and warmth by showcasing the level of thought and intention the couple was putting into the event. Different themes included informational content such as local activities, weather reports, and packing tips; educational content such as local Bajan folklore, and explanation of some of the historical traditions; and connection content about other guests they would meet at the wedding so they arrive to some familiar faces.
And finally, confirmed guests received a welcome gift box in the mail, containing a room spray with a custom scent the couple created to capture the island flavor of sea salt and frangipani, as well as their favorite Ethiopian coffee, and handwritten notes from the couple about how much each guest’s presence means to them, ensuring they feel appreciated and lucky to be a part of this experience.
Immersion / Creating the lived experience and emotional depth during the entire celebration
Event: Wedding in Barbados
Target Emotions: Joyful, celebratory, moved, connected
When guests arrive to their shared accommodation in Barbados, where most guests stayed together, they found a wall of local sites, activities, and experiences. Guests could assemble their own travel guides by taking the sheets of the activities that interested them, and compiling them in small custom books bound in fabric from the bride’s Ethiopian-influenced textile line. Creating both a useful resource for their time in Barbados, and a lovely keepsake. They also receive a tiny, handmade basket from the bride’s textile line, containing a stone with an engraved symbol on it and a card to keep it close, it will be important later, building curiosity. Each evening when they return to their rooms, they find a treat, including local guava jam, a scented eye mask, and a locally-inspired playlist of calm music.
At the wedding, the cocktail tables have baskets on them, with a small sign that says, “open if you’re feeling brave.” Inside are provocative conversation questions, eliminating the awkwardness of having to make small talk with strangers and encouraging guests to engage with folks they haven’t met yet, while tapping into an almost childlike curiosity and playfulness. It’s socially risky as well, which also drives emotional impact.
The couple invited both a local storyteller and Ethiopian storyteller to entertain guests during the cocktail hour and reception, colorfully weaving in local folklore with stories about marriage, family, and both Bajan and Ethiopian tradition. Storytelling is a tool for connection, and also gives guests a strong sense of place. The stories were personalized and improvised on the spot, and secretly recorded. At dinner, a small sign on the table connected the symbols they received in their baskets earlier to a storytelling prompt. Each guest at the table received a different symbol in their basket, prompting them to share a specific type of story about their connection to the couple based on their symbol.
At the reception, instead of a traditional bar, a local mixologist created custom cocktails for each guest using local ingredients and spices, based on a flavor profile created just for them, offering personalization and connection to the sensory anchors.
Event: Ethiopian Melse in Brooklyn
Target Emotions: Nourished, togetherness, present, joyful
Back in Brooklyn where the couple live, the bride’s family hosted an Ethiopian Melse, a traditional post-wedding celebration that honors the union of the couple and the joining of their families. It is a vibrant, cultural gathering with a focus on traditional music, food, and dancing. The celebration is often more relaxed and culturally focused than the main wedding ceremony.
The collective singing and dancing created a powerful shared experience of overwhelming presence and connectedness that was undeniably joyful.
Reflection / Creating lasting memories and extending the emotional resonance beyond the event
Target Emotions: Gratitude, appreciated, warmth, community
After the wedding, the couple produced a beautiful keepsake book, bound in embroidered Ethiopian textiles, containing the stories collected and recorded at the wedding, along with lush, colorful photos. Guests felt seen by seeing their story included, and experienced warmth, gratitude, connection, community, and beauty from this heartfelt and meaningful gift. The book itself is something they can display and revisit often as a way to reflect on the experience and remember it with nostalgia and re-experience the happy memories from their trip to Barbados. An inclusion of a handmade frangipani candle reaffirms the sensory anchor, deepening memory.
Conclusion
Guests came away with a newfound love of Barbados and a longing to return one day. And a deep sense of community and belonging through small, intentional reminders of their integral role in the couples continuously unfolding story.
