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Melanie and Eric Maycotte, newlyweds, as they leave the chapel on their wedding day in San Miguel de Allende. September 2, 2006.

For the last month or so, I was in San Miguel de Allende, and during the trip I was happy to accept an invitation to the wedding of some friends – Eric and Melanie Maycotte at the family ranch. I was fortunate enough to see the transformation of the part of the ranch used for the wedding from a barn and storage area into a wonderful space. The wedding service and the transformation of the area was, and is, a personal family project and it shows a great deal about the family passions.

The family ranch has a history in San Miguel and it is very much Eric’s vision to do bring back some of that history in modern forms. Eric is an architect and his plans are by some measures grand, but he is accomplishing much of what he has outlined at an early point in development. San Miguel is a small town in transition. It has been noted in many travel, art and “second home” magazines as an up and coming destination for people in the US. There is construction going on everywhere. A couple of new “supermarkets” are being built by the largest chains in Mexico in commercial plazas usually only seen in cities two or three times larger than San Miguel. Fast food and international hotel chains are joining the growing list of rental homes and bed and breakfasts available in the town. What Eric and his family are planning is a larger vision of what the city could become and I hope it begins to point the way to a sustainable future for San Miguel.

The inside of the Maycotte Bodega de Vinos before the guests arrive for the evening.

The wedding ceremony the couple chose was very personal and touching. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the chapel. The bodega and the surrounding areas that were set up for the wedding worked beautifully and brought a magical quality to the event. Somehow during the rainy season, it was a calm, dry day without more than a few picturesque clouds. The season produces a profusion of wild flowers in green fields, a sight not many people expect in the highlands of central Mexico. In every way it was a joyous event.

I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with several artists from San Miguel I had not had the chance to meet before. The evening swam by with conversation, a paella dinner and music from two bands, Latin jazz and rock and roll for dancing. I have put the pictures I took in a my gallery along with some of the details of the evening. Enjoy.