"When The Vendor Becomes The Groom" - Heena and Anish's Wedding in Riviera Maya
This wedding insider had helped make love a reality for years as a top rated MC - when it was his turn to tie the knot, he knew exactly what steps to take!
What better way than to learn to trust the process than to read it from a vendor who got married, himself! Read all about Heena and Anish’s wedding - starting from a stealthily planned proposal in Singapore and ending with an explosion of lights and sound at a ‘Reception of the Year’ candidate, it was all EPIC
Author - Anish, Groom
Mutual friends led to a mutual love
Heena and I met through mutual friends that I have known since a very young age and she has known them from her college days. We dated for a little over a year and a half before the proposal.
A Crazy Rich Asians-styled surprise proposal
January 2019 is when the proposal went down! It all started with ideas of how and where I should do the proposal. Then the perfect timing came. Heena and her family were going on a vacation to Singapore before heading to India and that is when I pulled it off. I planned the big proposal at the Gardens by the Bay, a famous skywalk located right in front of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, where the movie Crazy Rich Asians was filmed at in Singapore
I told Heena that I had a “wedding event” that weekend in Houston….and this is where the fun started. I ended up taking a flight to Singapore the night before (Friday night) she was set to leave (Saturday morning) with her family. I had one of my teammates from Desi Junction DJs post a picture on Instagram showing I was “at the event”. This completely threw her off. Then I purchased Wi-Fi on the plane, so I could still “communicate” as if I was in Houston.
On the day of the proposal, I threw in one more surprise by having my family there as well. They were having issues getting time off at work, so I flew them into Singapore for a day and half. On the evening of the proposal, Heena’s sister had taken her to a garden to tour, which was close by the skywalk. When the time came, she brought her over to the skywalk and got in line as usual.
Once they exited the elevator, the first “clue” was waiting for Heena. I had 3 stops that were setup on the skywalk. The first two stops told a story and the third stop was my family, a surprise to Heena and her entire family, as no one except me knew they were coming, yet alone in Singapore. After the stop of my family’s surprise, I was standing at the center of the skywalk, and from there it was history.
Time to plan a wedding!
After the engagement, we pretty much started searching for wedding venues immediately. Being in the wedding entertainment industry, I see firsthand how quickly some venues and vendors get booked. So, in order to not miss the opportunity to have that dream team of vendors and venue, we picked out 3 possible dates and began inquiring about availability.
We chose a destination wedding over one here locally in the USA because of multiple factors. I personally have been to and seen numerous venues and had an idea of all the amenities available per venue. We looked at everything including:
how convenient it would be for all guests to be on site (accessibility / price / location)
what food options would be available for our guests between events
what other activities were around for the guests to do in their downtime
What ultimately led us to a destination wedding was that only a resort could cater to all of our guests, whether it was grandparents, kids, or anyone in between. We went with an all-inclusive resort, Hard Rock Riviera Maya, because that resort catered to all ages with an abundance of things to do when the guests were not attending an event. We had also inquired at hotel venues here in the USA, and at the end of the day, nothing in the states came close to comparing what the resorts in Mexico had to offer.
Lots of options, but only one stands out!
Customer service and client engagement is the most important thing when it comes to supporting wedding couples, and that is exactly what Shaadi Destinations uniquely has. Even though I knew both Milan and Shree from previous weddings that we had done that they had planned, the initial contact that I made with them both when inquiring about my own wedding was just incredible. There was not any delay in responding back to us and Milan & Shree both got on a video call with us to explain everything in detail on what they had to offer.
Juggling with a full-time job on the weekdays, performing at weddings on the weekends, and finishing up graduate school work all simultaneously, I knew Shaadi Destinations was the company that could walk me through every step and take the stress load off my shoulder throughout the process. Not only was Shaadi Destinations there every step of the way, they knew how to handle and overcome any challenges that came along the way as well.
There are your standard Indian destination weddings, then there are your top of the line Shaadi Destinations weddings!
I have seen and been to many Indian destination weddings where Shaadi Destinations was not one of the vendors involved in that wedding process, and frankly it was always missing that “something”. Choosing Shaadi Destinations was the best choice that we made from day 1 of destination wedding planning because they not only walked us through every step of the way, but they also handled ALL of our guest’s roundtrip transportation needs, hotel logistics, and welcome bags. We literally just had to give our guests an online link where they would book their hotel and submit their flight information and Shaadi Destinations took care of the rest. We never had to look back and see what was going on or had to deal with any issues that came up along the way. The Shaadi Destinations team took care of it all (including all auntie and uncle calls!), and we never had to get involved with the back-end work that took place. The best part was that Shaadi Destinations has game changing technology for their clients you can’t find elsewhere, so we knew every step of the way who was coming, their dates, and more. Look, if you are still reading this and contemplating, stop. Just stop, and reach out to Shaadi Destinations.
We want future destination couples to remember these tips…
Tip One - Be flexible, your first date may not always work out. Your first venue selection may not always work out. Your first vendor choice may not always work out. Regardless, your wedding day will be amazing and memorable because it is YOUR wedding day!
Tip Two - Start early, don’t wait for months because your venue will get booked and the vendors you want will get booked.
Tip Three - Let the process play out. You WILL run into roadblocks. You WILL have to deal with issues along the way. There’s a solution to every problem, just ask for help, reach out to the Shaadi Destinations team and your vendors, and let them guide you through the solutions.
Events are fun and all, but it’s all the stuff in between that’s the cherry on top
Outside of our events, our favorite memory was the pool party we had. This was one of the unforgettable experiences because we were able to get every single person that came to our wedding, from the elderly to the young, at the pool to just have a great time one afternoon. This was not a planned event; it was one of those “Hey be at the pool at 2pm on Friday” type of thing.
Find out what matters to you, and really prioritize your budget spend there
The audio/visual production was so key for me. Being in the wedding entertainment industry, I spent days, weeks, and months with Margarita at JSAV planning and designing the production for each event of my wedding. From every little detail of where each light was placed, to the design of the rigging and LED wall production, this is the one thing I splurged both time and money on, and do not regret it AT ALL.
I had a vision drawn up in my head of the production and the rigging setup that I wanted. Knowing the ins and outs of this area really helped in creating a visual of what it should look like and how it should be executed. If we were getting married in Texas, our team - Desi Junction DJs - would have been able to pull it all off. Given our wedding was in Mexico, we could not bring all of the sound, lighting and LED wall equipment with us. No matter how good the production is, your DJ will make or break your party because the music has to line up with the production.
I have worked numerous weddings with Margarita at JSAV Mexico and knew this is the company that not only has the state of the art equipment needed to do the production but also execute it with highly skilled sound and lighting engineers. I reached out to Margarita and explained to her what I had in mind, down to the specific brands of speakers and lights I wanted to use! Margarita had everything that I wanted, so we began to 3D CAD design the production for the reception. Once we designed the initial layouts of the rigging, we had to go into the building engineering details, looking for rig points and weight capacities (thousands of pounds of equipment were rigged from the ceiling that night). Once we completed all of the design phase, we moved into the programming phase. I worked with Margarita and her sound/lighting engineers to ensure that everything was programmed and designed from the time guests entered till they walked out at the end of the night. The JSAV team started building the production on Thursday morning of the wedding weekend for a Saturday night Reception, that’s how detailed and large the production was.
At the end of the day, the Desi Junction DJs team and JSAV came out and did exactly what they do best, put on a show!! I still hear till this day guests raving about how they have NEVER experienced such a vibe at a wedding reception before and were blown away with the music, sound and lighting production they witnessed.
Hype doesn’t begin to describe it
The baraat was truly one for the books. The part that stood out the most was at the beginning, just seeing close to 100 people gathered, multiple dhol players, and the intense amount of energy everyone had that morning was epic. From the very start, all the way to the end, everyone brought their dancing shoes and energy with them to dance!
An oceanfront ceremony doesn’t always start and end on the sand
For our wedding ceremony, we considered both a Beach wedding and Ocean Terrace. There were multiple factors that played into our decision on which location to keep the wedding, and we ultimately decided not to go with the beach wedding because we found that Ocean Terrace gave us that perfect overlook and backdrop with the ocean in the background. The location for Ocean Terrace also gave that particular vibe that we were looking for in our wedding. I have been to many beautiful beach weddings (no knock on it), but for us it came down to the vibe we felt at Ocean Terrace.
The view from up above was quite spectacular
Murtaza at MnM photography and Luis, Eric & Jorge at Epique Cinema get all the credit for the drone shots over the ocean. I honestly never thought of that shot and there’s actually a funny story behind this. When we went out on the rocks close to the ocean, some of the staff at the resort approached us and said that was not allowed, so we came back. But the team knew this was going to be the game winning shot if they could pull it off, so we all talked amongst each other that let’s do it. They sent the drones out over the ocean and positioned them in place. As soon as the staff left, Heena and I quickly went back out the edge of the rocks by the ocean and they captured the shots! The pictures and video came out amazing! We brought out to Mexico the A-Team and they performed as always with amazing pictures and video.
But honestly, the view from below was just as spectacular…
Big shout out to Brenda at Bella Lumi Photography who did an amazing shoot off site with us. We started extremely early in the morning, 6:00am I think it was, to capture shots of us with the sunrise over the ocean and then headed out to the cenotes for a shoot. We ended up going to a few Cenotes and Tulum for a portrait shoot before all of our events began. We really wanted this shoot to be different, something unique, and not your typical shots you see. Brenda did just that by thinking outside of the box and knew exactly where to go and the shots to get. We trekked through rock, mud, water and the jungle to get the perfect shots!
Find your dream team and let magic happen
This wedding would not have been possible without all of the hard work put in by the vendors, the Dream Team is what I call them. Each and every vendor brought their expertise and talent to Mexico to execute our wedding. This is the Dream Team that made it all happen, and I can’t thank them enough for their flawless execution!
Our list of vendors:
Magnificent Maldives
We were planning to make a trip to Europe but it didn’t work out. We received an opportunity that we just could not turn down to go to the Maldives, and who would say ‘no’ to the Maldives?! We planned our honeymoon about 3 weeks before leaving. We are most excited about the fact that we got away from the USA and the craziness that is happening every day here for some R&R time. Little did we know that Shaadi Destinations was going to surprise us on our trip! One day, our host asked us to return to our room at a certain time and we were super confused. What an awesome surprise they had sent to our room that we will remember forever :) Truly #PartnersinParadise.
We cannot thank Milan and Shree from Shaadi Destinations enough for the amount of help and time they provided to us in order to make sure every aspect of our wedding was flawless! They made sure that the guest’s accommodations and logistics were taken care of and till this day, our guests are still raving about how helpful SD was throughout their booking process and throughout their stay.
Special thanks to MnM Photography for these fabulous pictures! Contact MnM 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.
