"Knew It All Along" - Anushi and Akash's Wedding in Riviera Maya
Sometimes it turns out we knew it all along, but just didn’t realize it!
We love the love stories where an amazing friendship suddenly blossoms into love! Anushi and Akash’s love story proves friendship is the backbone of a once-in-a-lifetime love.
Author - Anushi, Bride
5 and 10
We met our freshman year of college at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through some mutual friends at a party! We continued to hang out and get to know each other after that. We ended up becoming close friends and being in the same friend group all throughout college, but didn't actually start dating until about a year after we graduated. So at the time that we got married, we had known each other and had been friends for about 10 years, and been dating for 5. It was meant to be :)
The proposal
Akash was assigned a project through work in Seattle, where he traveled back and forth for months. We had talked about possibly going to Hawaii at some point while he was out there, as it's much closer to travel from there, and I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, which I made sure he was well aware of (ha!). When Akash found out that his project was wrapping up, and that he only had a couple more weeks left in Seattle, we decided on a whim to take the trip. It was a spontaneous thing, and we had less than 2 weeks to plan it. For that reason, I figured it was unlikely that a proposal would happen while we were out there.
Unbeknownst to me, he had already been working with a jeweler at the time, as he originally was planning to propose at some point that Fall in Chicago. However, he decided that since we were making the trip, it would be the perfect place to do it. He had the ring expedited and shipped to our hotel in Hawaii, he found a photographer, and told our families all within the week that it was to happen. (Editor Note - SHIPPED THE RING TO HAWAII? These are adventure seekers and we LOVE it!!!)
Let’s plan a wedding!
It only took us 1 month into our engagement to decide to start out wedding planning! To be completely honest, we didn't delve too deep online or on Instagram prior to deciding. I don't think having a destination proposal affected our decision to have a destination wedding, but I do believe that it helped open us up to the possibility of having something so important happen in a beautiful place! We had a few people we knew that had done a destination wedding, and my mom was actually the one to come across Shaadi Destinations. Once we confirmed that we wanted to have a destination wedding, we met the Shaadi Destinations team and decided to go for it!!
We wanted a smaller, more intimate wedding. We had both been to Mexico before, and I had been to Mexico multiple times at different resorts with family. Our main thing was that we wanted to have our wedding at a place that would be easiest for people to travel to and from. We liked the idea of remaining in the same time zone, and having a quick, direct flight. We definitely wanted to have the wedding in Mexico as it was what we knew and were comfortable with - so that was primarily what we considered. Apart from the price, we liked the Hard Rock because of its size, the number of restaurants/bars, the Shaadi Destinations perks they had negotiated, and the multiple options for venues for the wedding events.
We want you to know!
We chose Shaadi Destinations because of their great reviews, prompt responses, knowledge of Hindu wedding ceremonies, and professionalism - they made it a very easy choice.
Tip One - Do not overdo or stress about decor. The destination in itself is already amazing.
Tip Two - Finalize tasks/items with vendors as early as possible so you are not stressing close to the time of the wedding.
Tip Three - The one thing we splurged on and have zero regrets on was the food upgrades! Hard Rock has super cool options you can add - we added the live pasta station, churro cart, live taco station, and the late-night pizza options!
Tip Four - Make sure to actually enjoy all the moments between events! Our favorite wedding week memories were from spending the free time in between events with family and friends - eating, drinking, and playing by the pools.
Shout out time!!
Milan and Shree were amazing throughout our entire wedding process. When we decided to work with them to plan our destination wedding, we had little to no clue what planning something like this entailed, however, they walked us through the entire process, provided us options for resorts based on what we were looking for, negotiated room rates, set us up with incredible perks, and managed all of our guests' booking, along with so much more. They were so responsive, and didn't hesitate to offer their opinion, share advice, or answer even the most annoying [for lack of a better term] questions with professionalism and kindness. Working with them did not feel like a business relationship, but rather as if we were chatting and planning with friends. We highly recommend them, and will continue to refer them to our friends and family.
We mostly went with the preferred resort vendors, which ended up being pretty easy, as there weren't too many to choose from. It also helped that for the most part they had all worked together before. The only vendor we flew in apart from the priest was our DJ/MC and we were able to negotiate a great deal as it was more of an "off season" for them, as our wedding was in October. Our photographers/videographers we booked rooms for at the resort, despite them being local, which turned out to be great because they were always on time/available for each of our events no matter how long they ran, etc.
Our on-site resort wedding planner based out of Hard Rock was great. We met with her during our visit a few months prior to the wedding, and then of course right before the events to go over everything. She handled and took care of a lot more than we expected, and it was nice to have her around for all of our last minute changes/additions. I would advise couples to explain in as much detail as possible how you want each of your events to go, and introduce the planner to your other vendors and important family members, so that they can work things/issues out amongst themselves if you and your fiance are busy. The Indian food was better than most of our guests were expecting! I'll take that as a win. Also, at the end of the day, it's an all-inclusive resort, so no need to worry about anyone going hungry.
Our list of vendors:
Destination Wedding Agency - Shaadi Destinations (Website - Instagram - Email)
Photographer - Federico Salmeron Photography (Website - Instagram - Email)
Hair and Makeup / Mehndi - Lemons and Mehndi / Styling Trio (Website - Instagram - Email)
Special thanks to Federico Salmeron Photography for these fabulous pictures! Contact Federico 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.