"Forever at a Bouquet Toss" - Saarah and Sunil's Wedding in Puerto Vallarta
Meet me at the bouquet toss
We actually met in Mexico (Cancun) at a wedding! Specifically at the bouquet toss right before the wedding ended. We didn’t talk for months after but I (Saarah) dm’d Sonu. And then he asked me on a date, and we met up and never stopped seeing each other after that date! We both lived in diff cities, and I traveled for a living, so we spent the first year of our relationship traveling to 15 diff places, including Japan!
Author - Saarah, Bride
A home proposal planned right down to the mani
Sonu asked me to marry him after we had been dating for a little over a year. Sonu set it all up. Music, candles, flowers, pictures throughout the whole house. He didn’t miss a single thing and btw he had planned the whole day and had my sisters take me to brunch and nails (sponsored by him). It was perfect and romantic and in our beautiful home. I loved everything about it. I still watch the proposal video and tear up.
Soaking up the engagement for as long as possible
6 months! We weren’t even talking about the wedding because of COVID and we just wanted to enjoy being engaged. Sonu’s mom caught us at a vulnerable moment when we were staying with her during the ice storm and she finally convinced us to pick a date.
Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit… the perfect venue to say “I do”
Why was it the perfect venue? Well, two things - 1. We met in Mexico, so it just felt right. 2. I love Bougainvillea and the resort was filled with them. It felt like a sign to us! Aside from that, we loved Puerto Vallarta because we wanted it to feel like Mexico (and Cancun and Cabo are very Americanized). Also, the Shaadi Destinations team presented us with some sweet deals with that particular resort and tbh we are sooooo happy with our choice. It was beyond perfect.
Your Partners in Paradise
Shaadi Destinations definitely is the best in the space. The decision was VERY easy. And of course, the SD team came highly recommended from our planner!
Choosing Shaadi Destinations definitely helped having someone our family could reach out to with questions. It was also nice having the Shaadi Destinations negotiate on our behalf. I’m not really sure where we would have even started our journey without you guys! You were well educated on venues and pricing and weather. Thank you so much for your help!
Handling wedding planning in a short amount of time…
I’m obsessive so if planning was any longer, I would have probably driven everyone crazy. I know it was a lot but with Neha and Nirali’s help, it didn’t feel so hard. I had some ideas, and they helped me with narrowing it down to a vision, and we executed. By the way, one thing I found super helpful were the Shaadi Destinations Instagram stories. I got a lot of ideas of what I liked and even disliked from other weddings. That was one of the most helpful things!
We knew it would all come together because we hired a great team. Every single vendor was debated and interviewed. Then we went on our site visit and met Andrea and we knew it was all going to come together and be perfect.
Top tips for couples who are destination wedding planning:
1. Get married outside if it’s possible. Just do it. And have a budget with about $10k wiggle room.
2. Hire a great planner.
3. Obvs hire Shaadi Destinations and look at ALLLL of their stories!
The mems + the splurges
Getting married on the beach. We debated the platform, which was like 10% of our original budget, but when we heard the waves crashing during our reception….it was magical. There are cheaper ways to do it, but this was our reception so we couldn’t expect people to wear flip flops over a bonfire. The platform was so worth it. We also really loved the resort, and it definitely wasn’t the cheapest, but they were accommodating and handled things quickly.
Vendors who were willing to take risks won this couple over
Firstly, let me say there are definitely advantages of hiring someone who is familiar with South Asian weddings. However, it was more important to both of us that the people we hire should LOVE their craft. We felt, and this is a personal opinion, that some of the very coveted, popular vendors were inflexible with their style and didn’t love the art as much. I am quite specific, and I wanted someone who was willing to take risks and do things I wanted with passion and not annoyance, haha. Also, regarding photo / video, we just didn’t want the same old thing. We wanted editorial, edgy and artsy and that just wasn’t as available for south Asian weddings. And the ones that were capable of those types of photos/videos were unbelievably expensive. So, we interviewed, and asked for references and referrals and pictures. When someone matched our vibe, we went for it! Also, the look on our vendors’ faces during some of the events was priceless. We loved being their first south Asian wedding and we love our vendors.
Never laying eyes on the venue until the planning trip… How did it live up?
Omg it exceeded our expectations. It’s stunning and the food was amazing. The service was bomb and again, I can’t speak more highly of Andrea. She was just perfect. We felt so special and loved. We knew it was right for us. Not to mention the warm welcome with the drinks and massages and candies in our room, it was so special for us.
Choosing Puerto Vallarta out of all of the cities
I don’t know how we landed on Puerto Vallarta. We liked its novelty and that it wasn’t a typical destination wedding. We also liked that it was the Pacific- so fabulous sunsets! We were beyond pleased. To think at the start of the year we didn’t even have an idea of where or how our wedding would be, and to KNOW that it was one of the most beautiful weddings ever. It gives me all the feels.
Intuition on keeping everything outside paid off… How?
Two knives in the ground. Me and Sonu are strong believers in our intuition and gut. I kid you not we felt that it would rain but not during our events. Some of the decisions were definitely emotionally driven but we followed our gut and it worked out. The other thing is, Sonu loves storms. So, I was mentally prepared that if it rained, it just meant God loves us and especially Sonu. That made me comfortable with the idea that it may rain during our wedding. But did you see those sunsets? 10/10 I would recommend doing it! And perhaps having a tent available as a backup.
Our list of vendors:
We would legit use all of them. Firstly, we loved working with Nirali events, Shaadi destinations, Makenzie Rogers and Andrew Ling, Andrea (duh), Casey and West Rose Video/Rivera Video. We loved our hair and makeup team too. And we absolutely loved our decor company. Our DJ only does destination weddings, but he’s BOMB. I legit can’t think of one vendor we would replace. We love them all and would hire them all again and again!
Destination Wedding Agency - Shaadi Destinations (Website - Instagram - Email)
Photographer - Makenzie Rogers (Website - Instagram - Email)
Videographer - Westrose Photo and Film (Website - Instagram - Email)
Hair and Makeup - Adriana Aguilar MakeUp Studio (Website - Instagram)
Audiovisual - Celtrev Audiovisual (Website - Instagram - Email)
Our honeymoon to come
We haven’t started planning yet but have tossed around the idea of Italy, the Caribbean, and/or Bali. We are definitely having one but just not sure when.
Special thanks to Makenzie Rogers for these fabulous pictures! Contact Makenzie for your destination photography needs.
Shaadi Destinations is the premier, award winning, modern-day destination wedding travel agency for South Asian couples seeking a streamlined process, incredible experiences, and a party friends and family will never forget! We save our couples thousands of dollars while throwing them the wedding festivities dreams are made of.
We live and breathe destination weddings - with just one consultation, you will be light years ahead in your destination wedding planning process. In less than one week, Shaadi Destinations will find you the most perfect resort that meets your needs, your budget, and your desires. With our vendor relationships and pre-negotiated exclusive perks at resorts across Mexico and the Caribbean, we are confident we can find exactly what you are looking for. You'll find we have the best rates, best incentives, and best booking experience.
