A Joyful Cancún Celebration for Kelley and Lauren

When Kelley Delesandri says she and her wife, Lauren Gamble, met the old-fashioned way, she means it. “We met at a birthday party, actually,” Kelley recalls. “I always tell people we met the old-fashioned way—in person, at an event.”

Lauren was finishing grad school in Houston, and Kelley was living on Galveston Island. They kept bumping into each other. “We kept meeting up at the beer cooler,” Kelley says, “and after a couple of times going to grab a beer around the same time, we just made a joke about it.”

“Kelley makes jokes, so yeah, I was attracted to her humor,” Lauren adds.

About a month later, fate intervened. The pair crossed paths again, and this time Lauren took the lead. “I actually gave Kelley my phone number,” Lauren says with a smile. “She never stopped texting and talking to me after that.”

Kelley doesn’t dispute it. “She did give me her number. I did not ask for it,” she says.

They agree that their first official date was “super awkward,” Lauren admits. “We literally talked about the weather.” But the second date sealed the deal.

Soon after, the couple found themselves navigating a year of long-distance romance while Lauren was in College Station. That chapter became pivotal. “I pretty much spent as much time as possible visiting her there,” Kelley says. “There was a night where I was sick and she was taking really good care of me. And I just felt so much at home with her, like that was where I was supposed to be.”

For Lauren, those quiet nights were everything. “We just got to spend a lot of time together and really got to know each other, talking about what a future would be like.”

That future arrived in grand fashion when Kelley orchestrated a surprise proposal weekend at Houston’s Hotel ZaZa. “I had tricked her into going to celebrate something stupid,” she explains. Things took a comedic turn when Lauren discovered the ring Kelley was hiding. “She found the ring in my bag and was like, ‘What is this?’” Kelley remembers. “It wasn’t the romantic ambiance that I thought it would be, but it was really fun.”

The celebration afterward was just as memorable. “She had coordinated with all of our friends and family,” Lauren says. “It was really special.” So special, in fact, that Kelley recalls the restaurant they were at ran out of champagne that night.

The couple married on February 2, 2019, at Dreams Playa Mujeres in Cancún, a venue that left an unforgettable impression. “It was better than we imagined it, actually,” Kelley says. “It was amazing!”

For a destination wedding, their guest list was enormous. “We had about 155 people come,” Lauren says.

“We pretty much took over the resort,” Kelley adds. “It far exceeded our expectations. It was the most fun trip I’ve ever been on.”

The Dreams Playa Mujeres wedding team, including their coordinator Ana Ralph, delivered a seamless experience that the couple still raves about. Kelley says, “I was blown away by how easy they made everything. Everything that we thought up, they made it happen.”

“We had no stress, no worries,” Lauren agrees.

Kelley adds that the staff were true professionals who seemed to “crank out three or four weddings a week” while still making their own celebration feel effortless and deeply personal.

Their vendors became part of the story, too. The couple found photographer Santiago Gabay through social media, and he exceeded every hope they had. “He is fantastic,” Lauren says. “He and his partner were there, and I think they had fun. They ended up staying even past when they were supposed to and hung out with us.” Likewise, their videographer, Oscar Nuñez of Oscar Video, was a spontaneous last-minute addition that the brides now cherish deeply. “We weren’t going to get the video,” Lauren admits, adding that they will now cherish their wedding video forever.”

As they revisit the highlights reel, they especially like the moment featuring Kelley’s uncle reading from the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision. “It brings us back,” Lauren says. “It’s very moving.”

Despite the destination wedding, their rings tie back to Houston. Kelley and Lauren worked with jeweler Nicole Wysocki of JNS Diamond Imports, a choice that became part of the sentimental fabric of the day.

When it came to budgeting, they kept their priorities crystal-clear. “We spent the majority of our wedding budget on the party, and we have no regrets,” Kelley says. “We had a light-up dance floor. We had so much light-up stuff.”

The ceremony was also special, with one of Kelley’s best friend’s fathers, a nationally known rabbi, officiating. “We always joke that we had this gay Jewish wedding in Mexico, but we’re not Jewish,” she laughs. He incorporated Hebrew traditions, including a blessing and shared wine beneath a makeshift chuppah.

Their massive wedding party reflected the life they’ve built together. “We just put all the kids in it. It was just this super-long, fun procession of friends,” Kelley recalls.

For Kelley, the ceremony and reception topped her list of favorite moments. “The after-party was just so much fun,” she says, noting that the day-after gathering, which was on Super Bowl Sunday, became “a whole additional party that we hadn’t planned.”

Lauren’s favorite part was simply having so many friends and family come together. “Never again in our lifetime will we have everybody that we love and care about getting along and hanging out. It was just really special.”

Now married nearly seven years and together for eleven, Kelley and Lauren’s love story includes two children and a tight-knit circle of queer families and allies. “We actually do have a really great community of queer families,” Lauren says. “It’s really fun getting to raise our kids with them.”

For anyone thinking about becoming parents, their advice is simple: do what makes sense for your family, ignore outside opinions, and embrace the joy. “If it’s what you want,” Kelley explains, “you’ll never regret having the kids.”