Real Wedding: A Wedding Planner’s Wedding in Mexico

by Guest Blogger, Chris Valliere, WPICC of Wild Lotus Weddings

Have any of you out there ever wondered what a “Wedding Planners” wedding would look like. Everything from the big details to the very fine details. Well let me tell you how excited I am to finally be releasing this blog out to the public. As most of you know “Wild Lotus Weddings & Events” was started mid November of 2013 and I’ll be honest when saying we had quite a few doubts. In fact, the biggest question we were asked over the course of this last year was why? Why did we decide to become wedding planners? This blog as well as Part 2 will show you that we became wedding planners because we had so much fun planning our own wedding.

We knew that when we first started planning our big day our destination of choice was going to be Mexico. However, one of the biggest problems that we ran into was picking what resort. After trying for several weeks to narrow down the options and not really having much luck we contacted our travel agent, Miss Wendy White from Travel Time in Whitecourt, AB. She was able to answer all our questions and turns out there is a lot more that couples need to be aware of when planning a destination wedding. First, we had to make sure that our resort was affordable for our guests. In fact, we had looked at several resorts where they were charging anywhere from $2500.00 – $4,500.00 per week, a little expensive for the average person. The second thing that we had to consider was whether or not the resort would perform a same-sex marriage. Once we narrowed down our options using these two major variables we could easily decide what resort we were going to go with.

In the end we picked the beautiful Now Sapphire, located in the heart of the Riveria Maya. This resort truly provided the perfect atmosphere for a perfect day. When we first arrived we were greeted with champagne and moist towels and then brought into a separate check-in area for the preferred club.

Within hours of being on the resort we met with our amazing wedding planner, Anel Torres. We had an hour long meeting with her to present our details as we had planned our entire day from home. We also brought a lot of our decorations to Mexico from Canada; linens, custom menus, programs and even lanterns. We presented that to them in the meeting and not once that whole week did we have to verify details. Needless to say, the wedding could not have gone any more smooth. Everything was perfect, from the menus, to the programs and even the beautiful violinist playing “Unchained Melody” as we walked down the isle with each of our parents.

The best part about the day, besides marrying my best friend and having all our amazing family and friends there. Was that through out the whole day we were constantly excited. As it seemed everything that Anel Torres and the Now Sapphire Team did, they just kept topping! For example; they went above and beyond with our blue ocean signature drinks and all our h’orderves. With several bartenders and servers walking around all night, no one was ever thirsty or hungry, we were treated like kings!

Our journey to Mexico to be Wed was truly the most amazing day of our lives! We had such a great time together and with our family and friends. I truly recommend a destination wedding to anyone that is wanting to get away from home and relax.

Enjoy the photos!

Muchas Gracias Anel Torres & Team Now Sapphire!

Ceremony: The Now Sapphire
Reception: The Now Sapphire
Bridesmaid Dresses: Davids Bridal
Grooms/Groomsman Linens: Island Importer
Rings: Taylor Gardiner
Photography: Adriana Rocha from Adventure Photos
Destination Wedding Planner: Anel Torres, The Now Sapphire
Wedding Planners: Chris Valliere-Kowalchuk & Chad Kowalchuk of Wild Lotus Weddings & Events
Decor: Simply Beautiful Event Rentals