Dancing in the Street: At This Oaxacan Wedding, a Traditional Parade Celebrated the Happy Newlyweds
Sometimes life’s happenstance moments are the most impactful. While on a Oaxaca City holiday in 2021, Tania Cavallo and Michael Waterman made a reservation at Enrique Olvera’s Criollo restaurant with no expectation beyond experiencing the chef’s much-lauded menu. The freshly engaged couple were already planning their wedding at their new home in Upstate New York before a mezcal and ceviche-filled dinner beneath the stars at Criollo changed everything. “It had this authentic, understated elegance that I think is also a good way to describe Oaxaca as a whole, and that’s how we envisioned our wedding,” said Cavallo. “That night at dinner, we started dreaming up what it would be like to completely shift our wedding plans and have it take place in this beautiful destination.” Less than a year later, Cavallo and Waterman were back, this time, with their friends and family in tow, watching them exchange their vows and I dos.
Cavallo and Waterman initially met many years before becoming a couple. “We met in college at George Washington University, but we ran in different circles and didn’t know each other that well,” explains the bride, who has her own communications consultancy, The Lifestyle Co. by TLC. But while she had certainly known of Waterman, she hadn’t fully appreciated the impression she’d made on him.
“College is where my crush began,” says Waterman, the CEO of Riverview Companies, an acquisition holding company. He recalled several fruitless attempts to capture Cavallo’s attention during college, and “fast forward many years later, my brother called to tell me that he had heard through the grapevine that Tania was recently single. I wasted no time reaching out to her—I knew I had to turn on the charm because I wasn’t about to lose her again.”
After a handful of weeks of the classic New York City courting ritual—romantic dinners at prime date spots, tickets to a Knicks game—Waterman finally won her over. “Shortly after receiving my pilot’s license, I convinced her to let me fly her around Manhattan during sunset in a Cessna 172,” he says. “I think that’s what sealed the deal.” He would propose three years later, on the beach of Anguilla at Cap Juluca, and she, of course, said yes.
Back in New York, the couple, who split their time between Brooklyn and Upstate New York, were busy planning their nuptials. After the venue was secured, the rest came easy; Cavallo is half-Mexican, fluent in Spanish, and had built a career producing events. “Michael jokes that while I did all the planning, his one crucial role was to make sure we had the right mezcal, cocktails, beer, and wine! “ says Cavallo. “I loved how the planning process started as an adventure and I carried this spirit throughout the process. I wanted every aspect of our wedding to feel like our guests were being transported.”
In September of 2022, 135 guests traveled down to Oaxaca—a city filled with colonial Spanish architecture and haciendas painted in colors as vibrant as the region’s folkloric Alebrije sculptures. “I knew many of our friends hadn’t traveled to Oaxaca, so I wanted to play with creating a sense of wonder and excitement around the destination,” says Cavallo. The first night kicked off with a welcome cocktail party or “Fiesta de Bienvenida” on a terrace overlooking the city’s illuminated Church, the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where they would soon be married.
The following day’s afternoon, just as the sunlight beamed through the church’s carved doors, the ceremony began. Cavallo wore a strapless floral jacquard gown from Manhattan-based Amsale: “After seeing the grandeur of the church, I knew I wanted to be married in a more classic silhouette with a long trail and cathedral veil that complemented the splendor of the setting.” Waterman wore a custom midnight blue Purple Label Ralph Lauren tuxedo.
Guests in the pews of the stunning church could feel the love emanating from the couple. “We couldn’t help looking around the beautiful church and the gold altarpieces right in front of us, shining in the golden sunlight, looking around and seeing both our parents right behind us, with all of our friends and family nearby, listening to the incredible choir, holding hands—it was truly the best moment of our lives,” says Cavallo. Waterman echoes her thoughts: “I’ll always remember how I felt during that moment, like the luckiest man in the world.”
