"Ten years turned into a lifetime" - Megha and Akshay's Wedding in Riviera Maya
Penthouse city views had nothing on what this evening had in store…
Akshay and I started dating in February 2011. We met through my friend and Akshay’s first cousin, Palak. She was super excited to introduce us, and we weren’t sure why since we seemed to be total opposites. We were together for 10 amazing years before the big day.
Akshay proposed in October 2019, on my birthday. The proposal was a perfect combination of both of our personalities. At first it seemed that he was planning a surprise birthday party, because as we entered this Manhattan penthouse it was full of our closest friends/family shouting happy birthday. Little did I know it was much more than just a birthday party. With the beautiful evening cityscape views Akshay got down on one knee and proposed, as a violinist played Perfect by Ed Sheeran.
Author - Megha, Bride
Near and dear, gathered in Mexico
We had actually started looking at wedding venues before the proposal and were so lucky to have come across Shaadi Destinations. We leaned towards having a destination wedding, but also wanted the location to be less than a 4-hour flight from NY. We thought that having our near and dear all together at a resort for the wedding week would completely change the experience. Everyone we love would be able to enjoy the big and small events at a hopefully more relaxed pace, as opposed to trying to get everything done in one weekend.
We had looked into a couple options for the wedding, in the states, and out. Eventually we realized that not only was Mexico close, but also there were a lot of South Asian Weddings taking place in Mexico with some extremely experienced vendors. We finalized the wedding venue after reaching out to Milan and Shree at Shaadi Destinations. They were so helpful in explaining the whole wedding planning process every step of the way. Compared to other resorts, we felt like Hard Rock had the most experience with South Asian Weddings- their website had a whole section catered to that. When choosing between the two locations, Cancun and Riviera Maya, we chose Riviera Maya because the Cancun location being in a major city reminded us of a lot of NYC.
Partners in paradise, streamlining the whole process
We came across Shaadi Destinations a few ways. During our initial research we had seen that a lot of South Asian couples had used them. Also, we came across friends of friends who had also worked with them and loved them. We decided to take the leap and make a phone appointment. After our initial conversation with Shaadi Destinations, we realized that they were the best team to partner with, and they absolutely did not let us down.
Shaadi Destinations completely streamlined the venue choosing and travel aspect of the wedding planning. When choosing venues, they did a great job showing us all the available resorts in Riviera Maya/ Cancun and their positives/negatives. It made it much easier to make a decision on a venue with all the information they presented to us.
On our site visit to Hard Rock Riviera Maya, we also had the opportunity to meet with some of the Shaadi Destinations team. Our parents were still hesitant to the idea of a destination wedding, but after talking to Milan and Shree they felt much more comfortable. They assured our parents that we would be able to have a "big fat Indian wedding" with all the bells and whistles.
Helping you, every step of the way
They were very organized and responsive to all of our questions and concerns. Once our guests started booking, Shaadi helped us with transportation from the Cancun Airport to Hard Rock Riviera Maya and back. Every time a guest's flights changed, they were able to rearrange transportation. Guests felt welcomed as soon as they reached Cancun Airport. The transportation arranged by Shaadi was clear and visible and guests were able to find them easily upon arrival.
Shaadi Destinations was very helpful recommending some of our vendors. They not only suggested JC Castillo, our wonderful wedding planner, but also our caterer Patravali. We're truly thankful to them for that, because all of our vendors did a fantastic job.
Thank you, Milan, Shree, and the whole SD team!! We loved working with you guys and took every opportunity to recommend you to other couples looking to do destination weddings.
Tips for those planning their own destination wedding
Tip One: Finalize your venue before you do anything else. Once you have that picked out everything else goes pretty smoothly.
Tip Two: Especially now that there's so much vendor variety, and constant coverage on social media, you can get really overwhelmed. Without distractions, make a list of what you and your partner's top wants are for your wedding and what your priorities are for you and your family.
Tip Three: In our case, most of our events were outdoors and we would have to end the partying by 10:00p.m. So, we highly recommend that couples that really like to party, keep that in mind. Having a good set of plans for the after-party is key. Hard Rock had a club on the property which made making late night plans a lot easier. Also, we opted into booking a large suite in case we wanted to continue the party even later.
A walk down memory lane
Some of our favorite memories from our wedding week besides our events would probably be the day after our reception. Some of our guests and all of our friends that were still at the resort just hung out in the pool. It was a great ending to a wonderful week, and we totally needed the down time. As bride and groom, we highly recommend staying back a day or two after the last day of your events just to take everything in.
Food, flowers and fireworks- the must haves
Patravali, the fireworks, the flowers, and live stream services for the wedding ceremony were all splurges we have no regrets on.
Hard Rock Riviera Maya like all venues had a really intense policy for outside vendors. We wanted to have food by Patravali for all of our events, which we did, but it definitely took a good chunk of our budget. Although it was costly, we absolutely have no regrets. Fernanda and Himanshu from Patravali treated us like family! We were so impressed by their professionalism and willingness to perfect the dishes to our taste for all of the events.
We weren't exactly sure about the fireworks and if it would be worth it. Once we saw the fireworks during our sangeet we knew we made the right call. It was a beautiful addition to the event and really added a little something special. The firework show was longer than we expected. Thanks to our planner JC, the timing of the fireworks was perfect!
The team that created all of the floral arrangements were too good. After seeing everything come to life we had zero regrets about the budget for the florals. If you love flowers you cannot go wrong by working with this amazing team.
Covid really changed the planning process, as well as our wedding dates, and even some of our vendors. We chose to have a professional live stream through Hard Rock for our wedding ceremony. That wasn’t our original plan, but once we realized many of our guests from abroad/guests with health issues couldn't make it we thought it was the right decision to make.
Commit to doing something different
Something that took a lot of time and energy into perfecting was the mandap. I simply told our planner, JC, that it needed to be extraordinary, but still capture the beauty of being right by the water. I had sent a few images for reference, and we had gone back and forth for dayyyyysss! I was absolutely stunned when I saw the mandap, it really came together beautifully. The clear acrylic walkway to the mandap with florals underneath was so unique.
Strangers turned perfect wedding musicians six years later
Way before our wedding and wedding planning was in our minds, we had come across two incredibly humble musicians at a friend's house party, Sanjoy and Mashhad. They were having a casual jam sess. After just 1 song, at that very moment we looked at each other and just knew they would be playing at our wedding. Fast-forward to 6 years later, when we were finally planning the big day, we reached out to Sanjoy and Mashhad. They not only played beautifully at our wedding and post ceremony dinner but also became good friends.
After the wedding comes the…
We opted to have a post-wedding dinner after the ceremony because we just thought having a reception right after the ceremony would have made things super hectic. Close family and everyone part of the wedding party tends to get exhausted when everything's in one day. Also, by doing this, it gave our guests a chance to enjoy the resort the day of the reception since the day before was full of smaller events besides the ceremony.
Rest and relaxation are just what this bride and groom recommend
We chose to extend our stay after all of the events were over because, honestly, you just need that time to yourself. Planning and executing a wedding is such a rush but it takes such a big toll on your mind and body. We basically used those days after the events to recover (for lack of better words). So glad we did! We flew in on Tuesday, our sangeet was on a Thursday, farewell lunch was on Sunday, and we flew back home on Tuesday. We really recommend giving yourself 2 days before the first event and 2 days after the last event if it's possible in your schedule. (Especially if you're having 3 major events and a few more casual events throughout the week)
Our dream team
Honestly, if we had to do it all again we wouldn't have changed any of our vendors! They all really listened to us. They truly did their best to make our vision come true.
Florals: @pistilo_florals_rentals;
Our list of vendors:
Destination Wedding Agency - Shaadi Destinations (Website - Instagram - Email)
Photographer -Sweet Caribbean Photo (Website - Instagram - Email)
Planning - JC Castillo Weddings (Website - Instagram - Email)
Florals - Pistilo Florals & Rentals (Website - Instagram - Email)
Hair and Makeup - Sara Tamargo (Website - Instagram - Email)
Choreography - Elevation Beats (Website - Instagram - Email)
Our honeymoon to come
Part of why we extended our stay in Mexico for an additional two days was that we knew that we wouldn't be able to take off immediately from work for our honeymoon. If that is the case for other couples then I definitely recommend taking that opportunity just to have some downtime. We are planning to have a honeymoon- most likely somewhere in Europe. We've chosen to postpone our honeymoon due to changing covid restrictions. Instead we've taken the opportunity to take various weekend trips in the states.
Special thanks to Sweet Caribbean Photo for these fabulous pictures! Contact Sweet Caribbean Photo 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.
