"A Bonfire at Sunset" - Reema and Nikhil's Wedding in Los Cabos
Sometimes it’s just poetically perfect
It’s no surprise Reema and Nikhil had such a beautiful wedding right at sunset in beautiful Los Cabos! With Nikhil being writer by hobby and the two of them routinely enjoying bonfires with friends in California, Nikhil planned the perfect romantic bonfire surprise proposal at sunset! They carried the bonfire theme through their welcome night on the beach in Baja California Sur and later in the weekend got married on a beautiful oceanfront garden with the sunsetting right as they crossed the final phera! What a magical wedding and an incredible couple to work with.
Author - Reema, Bride
When you know, you know!
We met at a bar on a night out! Reema’s good friend’s cousin was visiting LA and had organized drinks. Reema tagged along and funny enough, Nikhil’s good friend knew the same person, so he tagged along too. They all ended up at the same spot and Reema and Nikhil were the only 2 people who didn’t know any one else, so they started chatting… We dated for a little over a year before we got engaged.
The proposal
We had planned a bonfire night, something we do pretty often, in December before the holidays. It was a normal day - we set up for the bonfire as we always do. Nikhil is a writer on the side and often shares his work with me for feedback. I knew he was working on a piece, so he mentioned that he wanted to read it to me when we were at the bonfire. This was a pretty normal thing for us to do, and as he started reading, the story ended up being about how we met and our first year together. The last page was blank and that’s when he proposed.
Let’s plan a wedding!
We started planning our wedding pretty much a week after the engagement (lol). My parents were visiting for Christmas so it was just practical to start discussing it right away.
We always wanted a destination wedding because we wanted everyone to stay together for a weekend so you could truly spend time and party until the wee hours of the night :) Basically, we wanted to have fun during our wedding and we wanted our guests to join us! We also love sunsets, beaches and mountains - all of which Cabo offers. It was also relatively convenient in terms of travel time.
We chose Hard Rock Hotel Los Cabos because it had the high-quality, grandeur and the fun/party vibe that we wanted! Most of all, it was large enough to not just accommodate our guests, but provide us with several beautiful venues for each event. We didn’t want to repeat any venues and at Hard Rock, we didn’t have to.
Choose your Partner in Paradise wisely
The Shaadi Destinations team was just so easy to work with from the very first chat we all had. Milan was knowledgeable both about destination weddings and Indian weddings, so we knew he had the experience to pull this off. He was also super communicative, professional and was really relatable. He seemed to know off the bat what we wanted and what would work best for us, which actually made the process fun (at least for us haha).
And of course, the quality of work Shaadi Destinations produces is great. The coordination for our guests was pretty seamless from the invites to the actual guest pick-ups once they reached the wedding destination! We definitely recommend using a wedding planner AND coordinator. And make sure you actually like them - not just their work. We chose JC Castillo Weddings in addition to Shaadi Destinations - we loved him and his team! He brought our wedding to life in a way that we thought would be muchhhh harder.
One of our favorite memories from our wedding that sticks out is how we extended our stay on a whim. We were supposed to leave the Monday after we got married, but it was just too quick. So we literally cancelled our ticket 30 minutes before we had to leave for the airport and we asked Shaadi Destinations to extend our room for 2 extra nights :P Oh, and we got the wedding cake wheeled into our room so we could eat it for breakfast!
Our hashtag was #ReemaFoundDhawan and #TilDuttDoUsPart. Our friends helped us create them! For our honeymoon, we went to Greece and Italy - it was beautiful! We got to see a lot of new places and immerse ourselves in some local experiences.
Our list of vendors:
Destination Wedding Agency - Shaadi Destinations (Website - Instagram - Email)
Wedding Planner - JC Castillo Weddings (Website - Instagram - Email)
Photographer - Gareth Davies Photography (Website - Instagram - Email)
Hair and Makeup - Styling Trio (Website - Instagram - Email)
Mehndi - Henna by Sheetal (Instagram)
Special thanks to Gareth Davies Photography and Ruiz Films for these fabulous pictures!
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.