"From the Windy City to the beaches in Cancun" - Priya + Binit's Wedding in Riviera Maya
It all started in the windy city…
We met in Chicago when we were both in high school, although we didn't attend the same high school and were from two different states. Binit was visiting Chicago and Priya was living in Chicago. We dated for 9 years before getting engaged!
Author - Priya + Binit, Bride and Groom
The engagement: her perspective vs. his perspective
We got engaged on May 4th, 2019! Here is our story:
Binit's side of the story: - I picked out an engagement ring 3 months before proposing to Priya. Once I had the ring, I decided I wanted to pop the question in Malibu, but the challenge was getting Priya there without her having any clue that I would be asking her to be my wife. Luckily, Priya and I have our birthdays one week apart in April. She wanted to go on a birthday trip, and she actually suggested we go to Malibu! Once we got to California, I came up with a fake plan to get her to El Matador State Beach, where I planned on proposing. While walking on the beach, she "randomly" found a bottle with a note, which my best friend planted hours before we got there. As I saw her read the note, I noticed a smile growing across her face and that's when I got down on one knee and popped the question, and she said YES! When I asked her if she had any idea that I was going to propose, she said she didn't because she thought all of our friends and family would be there to celebrate with us. Clearly, I didn't listen, at least in her mind. Our first celebratory stop was a brunch reservation for 2 at Taste on Melrose in West Hollywood. At the restaurant, Priya was greeted by 20+ of our closest friends and family that flew from Chicago, New York, and Florida to surprise her! For the remainder of the day, we celebrated and explored everything that LA has to offer.
Priya's side of the story - Because Binit and I have our birthdays so close together, I wanted us to go on a birthday trip. Since I've never been to Malibu before, I decided I wanted to go there. Little did I know it would be the best weekend of my life thus far. We were going to have a nice morning walk at El Matador Beach but unknowingly to me, Binit had bigger plans of making it the most memorable day of our lives. Before we got down to the beach, I made a joke asking Binit where the ring was while patting his pockets down looking for a ring box. Lucky for Binit it was in the one pocket I did not pat. At this point, I had no clue what was yet to come. As we were walking down the beach, we found a bottle with a note in it. Binit asked me to open the bottle, but I said no a few times because I thought it was there for someone else and I didn't want to move it. Finally, he picked it up and gave me the bottle. From the moment I started opening the bottle, I knew it was finally the time I have been waiting many, many years for. This moment was straight out of a fairytale and I would not have wanted it to be any other way. It was truly the best day of my life thus far. Once we were engaged, I wanted to share the news with everyone! I first called my mom and we were both ecstatic since she had no idea it was happening that day either! Next I wanted to call my cousins but for some odd reason Binit was insisting to call later since we had to check into the hotel and make our lunch reservation. We finally arrived at lunch where our closest friends and family were waiting to celebrate with us! I was super excited and beyond happy to have all of them there! My trip to Malibu was better than I could have ever imagined!
Let the planning begin!
Priya has a very vivid memory of us contacting Shaadi Destinations even before we got engaged. She remembers us sitting in a parking lot in Frisco, TX in April 2019 as we sent an inquiry to Shaadi Destinations about a destination wedding. We ended up putting in a deposit to Hard Rock Riviera Maya about a month after our engagement!
An “atypical” Indian wedding on a beautiful beach
We chose a destination wedding for a few reasons. One reason was we didn't want a typical Indian wedding with 500+ guests. Secondly, we always wanted a destination wedding, more specifically a beach wedding! Before discovering Shaadi Destinations, we always thought about getting married in Hawaii, but that vision quickly changed once we learned about all that Mexico has to offer for South Asian Weddings through Shaadi Destinations. And on a more personal level, our very first trip together was to Cancun, so we thought it would be a perfect destination for us to get married!
When looking at all the options in terms of venues within Cancun/Riviera Maya, we decided on Hard Rock fairly quickly because of the benefits and perks the hotel had to offer. This was great because it made our decision that much easier. We also completely fell in love with all the natural beauty the hotel landscaping had to offer.
Your partners in paradise
Originally, we were simply researching Indian destination weddings on Google, and that is how we discovered Shaadi Destinations. After viewing their website, we instantly wanted to learn more about South Asian weddings in Paradise. We decided to work with Shaadi Destinations because they explained the entire process of destination weddings so clearly and communicated frequently, with answering any questions we had and also helping us weigh all options available.
A team that cares as much about your dream wedding as you do
Milan and Shree are so much more than just the owners of Shaad Destinations. They genuinely care about each couple, and it shows from day 1 of contacting them and continues even post wedding weekend. The entire team at Shaadi Destinations made the entire destination wedding experience better than we could have ever imagined. Without them, we would not have been able to pull off the type of wedding we dreamed of having. Their entire team is very resourceful, giving us tips, tricks and guidance on every single aspect of destination weddings.
Top three tips for couples planning a destination wedding:
1) Hire a wedding planner! We originally didn't hire one and were doing all the planning ourselves, but this quickly got overwhelming because of the amount of time and effort it took. After we hired our wedding planner, the planning process just seemed much more structured and stress free.
2) Trust the vendors based in Mexico. It's understandable to have some doubts when it comes to trusting vendors that you may have never heard of, but rest assured they know exactly what they are doing. The local vendors have years of experience with South Asian weddings and will make sure they deliver with high quality service.
3) Take advantage of your site visit! It's an exciting time because you get to witness a small sample of where your wedding will take place. Be sure to schedule meetings with ALL your vendors and ask questions often and in detail.
Before the wedding comes the pre-wedding party
We got to Riviera Maya a few days before our first event. We decided to go to Tulum for Binit's best man's birthday on Wednesday evening. What was supposed to be a relatively quick dinner trip, turned into a kickoff party for our wedding! A few of our wedding guests informed us that they were on their way to Tulum to spend the evening with us. Even our photo/video and DJ/MC vendors came and celebrated the night away! It was definitely an unexpected experience that went from a 5-person dinner to a 30-person party!
Splurge with no regrets (not even one letter)
We definitely splurged on our wedding reception in every aspect. From a huge dessert table to a bigger DJ booth, to a custom dance floor, to tons of flowers and last-minute additions to the decor, this event turned out better than we could have ever imagined, and we don't regret any of it.
A pandemic couldn’t stop these two
We were mainly stressed when it came to finding new dates. The difficult part was making sure that our vendors had availability for those dates as well. We had to eventually choose a date that worked for 3 different vendors. Our advice would be if you are planning to reschedule, do it with certainty and make changes quickly. In the end, it will all work out so don't get upset over something that is out of your control, like a pandemic!!
A Sangeet dance floor gone viral
We're so glad it was a hit! When we walked up to the venue, we were truly blown away by how our vision came to life so well! We came up with this concept literally 1 month before our wedding and it was most definitely inspired by Greece, along with some Moroccan vibes thrown in there. We always talk about honeymooning in Greece, so we wanted to have a personal touch to our decor. We came up with the design after we realized that we wanted to have a different yet very bold take on a Sangeet. After looking at some Pinterest inspo's, we started getting ideas from different places and putting the pieces together to create a very unique sangeet theme.
A cenote shoot to remember
Our cenote photoshoot was such an awesome experience! We actually reserved the cenote back in 2019 for a private photoshoot, so the idea was in place for quite some time. We worked with Vellora Productions to choose the location. They also have never shot there before, so we were all so excited to be able to go there for the first time. It's a small hidden cenote that is starting to get pretty popular, so we were lucky we got to reserve it so far in advance. We would 1000% recommend taking time to go to a special or exotic location and having an adventitious photoshoot. We started our day at 4AM, drove 2 hours, completed a 2-hour photoshoot, and drove back to the resort, and we'd do it over again a million times!
A crowd surfing bride + groom means that reception got LIT
The reception was lit!! Crowd surfing was definitely not part of the plan, but we had so much fun doing it! Both of our families and friends are pretty much party animals to begin with, so we knew it would be a crazy party, but never imagined it would get to the level it got to, with the crowd surfing, shirts coming off lol, and the bars running out of tequila!!! Our DJ even played the trap remix of Baby Shark for Binit's 2-year-old nephew, Liam, and right away 20 people ran on stage and started dancing with Liam, which pretty much started the party, surprisingly.
Like we mentioned before, we knew our guests were party animals, but having a great DJ and MC host the events definitely brought the party to another level. The cryoguns, crowd surfing and lap dancing (yes there was lap dancing LOL) were all part of the plan of our DJ and MC, M4UEvents. Our best advice would be to hire a great team who will help your guests stay engaged in your events all weekend long.
Our dream team
Honestly every single vendor played such an important role in making this wedding everything we could've imagined and more.
Shaadi Destinations is hands down the best one stop shop wedding vendor out there. They make the wedding planning process so much easier, are very responsive and most importantly they are a group of very genuine people who truly care to see your dream wedding become a reality. Special shout out to Maricarmen, Andrea, Chelsea, Milan and Shree!
Zuniga exceeded every expectation possible for our decorations. With countless numbers of revisions and ideas they were able to bring everything to life in jaw dropping fashion.
M4UEvents was our ultimate hype crew! They kept the party going all weekend long and the energy would not have been anywhere to where it was if not for the entire DJ team.
We've personally known Vellora Productions for quite some time now and have been following them on Instagram for even longer. They were even the first vendor that we signed. Being able to have them capture the most important days of our lives meant so much to us because we know we can relive those days in cinematic form for the rest of our lives.
Pyrotec helped create so many magical moments with their fireworks and hype moments with the cryoguns during the baraat and reception!
Drums in Paradise allowed us to showcase a piece of Mexico to all of our guests with their talented fire dancers and water drummers.
Encore was absolutely amazing to work with! Their AV services, lighting and super dope LED DJ booth brought our party to life!
LLuvia's desserts were mouth watering! Their presentation was over the top and the dessert items and flavors were so incredibly delicious.
Partylouge was so helpful in making our holi party a success! They were super easy to work with and have such a great selection of party favors to choose from!
Patravali Restaurant was such a huge hit amongst our guests! Everyone kept raving about how unique and tasty the food was. We even had guests decide that next time they come to Cancun, they will go for a meal at the restaurant in downtown!
Tulipania knocked it out of the park. What they created for us was so much better than what we expected. They went above and beyond and even perfected any last minute changes we made. Our decor would not have been anywhere close to what it was without their floral accents.
StylingTrio kept us looking like stars all weekend! Their makeup and hair artists are so creative, talented and friendly. They got all of the looks perfect each and every time.
Our list of vendors:
Destination Wedding Agency - Shaadi Destinations (Website - Instagram - Email)
Photographer - Vellora Productions (Website - Instagram - Email)
Hair and Makeup - Styling Trio (Website - Instagram - Email)
Live Entertainment - Drums in Paradise (Website - Instagram - Email)
Our honeymoon to come
We are most definitely going to honeymoon!! We are planning to go in the summer of 2022 and are hoping to go to either Greece, Spain, Italy, or South Africa!
Special thanks to Vellora Productions for these fabulous pictures! Contact Vellora Productions 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.
