Secrets Bahia Mita Destination Wedding: William & Benjamin

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

Will Tedrow and Ben Sellers met online during the second wave of COVID and quickly built a relationship rooted in intention, adventure, and connection. From living-room-floor picnics to life in Montana with their two giant dogs, travel and shared experiences have always been at the heart of their love story. When it came time to plan their wedding, they knew one thing for sure: they wanted something that felt authentic to them.They were drawn to the idea of a destination wedding because it allowed them to create an intimate, meaningful experience with their closest people—not just a single day, but a full Wedding Week. Their biggest concern was that an all-inclusive resort might feel impersonal or lack the authenticity they value when they travel. They were also nervous about asking friends and family—many of whom had never left the country—to take such a big leap.

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

What surprised them most was how wrong those fears turned out to be. Once onsite, the relationships they built with the wedding team and resort staff made the experience feel incredibly personal. Their guests quickly bonded, forming deep connections through shared moments—like a whale-watching catamaran excursion where people who had just met found themselves wrapped in each other’s arms, moved by the experience.

On the wedding day itself, everything came together in ways they couldn’t have fully imagined beforehand. From the décor to the flow of the night—and a fireworks finale that lit up the sky—the day exceeded every expectation. Their favorite moment came during the final song of the night, dancing with all of their guests surrounding them, fully held by love and community.

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

Looking back, Will and Ben shared that one of the greatest gifts was not having to manage their guests’ travel questions or anxieties. With the logistics handled, they were free to focus on each other and the experience they were creating. Their biggest takeaway? Trust the process, ask questions when you need clarity, and remember that the magic of a destination wedding often unfolds in ways you never could have planned—but always hoped for.

Real Wedding Q&A with William & Benjamin

What were your biggest fears when planning a destination wedding?

Our biggest fear was that it wouldn’t feel like “us.” We are avid travelers, and sharing new experiences is one of the many ways that we fell in love with each other. The reason we wanted to do a destination wedding was to bring this sense of adventure from our love story into our big day. When we settled on an all-inclusive resort, we were worried that it would give us an authentic travel experience and would fall flat for us. Boy, were we wrong. The relationships we built with our wedding team and the resort staff helped make it feel so authentic and meaningful to us.

We were also SUPER afraid of how we were going to convince our family and friends, who didn’t even have passports, to leave the country. About half of our guests hadn’t left the country, and we had one person who hadn’t been on a plane since the 90s! Luckily, partnering with Alpaca Your Bags made this super easy for our people. Multiple people shared how supported they felt by Ashley and Mandie. We couldn’t have pulled it off without them.

Is there anything about the actual destination wedding experience that surprised you?

This sounds so cheesy – we didn’t expect our people (our guests) to fall in love with each other in the same way that we have to love them. We were able to build this container at the resort, which allowed all 30 of our guests to get to know each other in the ways I think mattered most to them. Like, there was this moment on a catamaran when we were watching whales, and people who didn’t know each other had their arms wrapped around each other, and we could tell they were sharing a seriously emotional experience. We didn’t expect something like that to happen. Our group chat was blowing up for almost a week after we all got home.

On the actual day of our wedding (what in some ways felt like such a small part of our wedding weekend), we were genuinely surprised by how everything we planned came together. We really had no idea what the decor would look like, how the venue would be set up, or whether the magical moments we planned (like the fireworks at the end of the night) would work. It truly was better than we could have imagined. The wedding team at Bahia Mita is fantastic.

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

What is your favorite memory of your destination wedding?

It was the last song of the night, and we got all of our guests onto this super cool disco dance floor with us grooms in the middle. As we were all dancing to Home by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, fireworks started shooting off above us. I really can’t do it justice to describe how important that moment was, and what it felt like to be held by our people, and how much love there was between the two of us.

Did you splurge on anything travel or wedding related? If so, what was it and was it worth it?

This is so ridiculous… We splurged on an unplanned vacation that ended 10 days before we left for our wedding. We were both so burnt out from work and wedding planning that we just needed a break.  We ended up going back to the place where we got engaged, and it was honestly one of the best decisions we could have made. We got to reconnect as a couple, get some rest and recharge time in, and just ground back into what we really cared about going into the wedding.

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

Did you attempt to *save* on anything travel or wedding related? If so, what was it and was it worth it?

I don’t think we did it consciously. There were times when we could have gotten more florals or upgraded certain packages, and we just felt like we didn’t need to. We gave ourselves two years to save and had a budget within the first month that we mostly stuck to. At the end of it all, we came in slightly under budget. 

If you could change anything with your wedding (planning, the day itself, the location, resort, ANYTHING) – what would you change?

During the planning process, we found the perfect resort in Costa Rica that we absolutely loved. We had everything cooking for us to go there, and then about 9 months later, it was sold and closed for remodeling. We were totally saved by Ashley and were able to find a new resort. In our second search, we really struggled to find the right place because we were so hung up on the “vibe.”  I wish we had spent less time on the aesthetic and more time researching how to interact with staff and what the process with the wedding team was like. We got super lucky in finding the right vibe and having great experiences with the staff. But at the end of the day, the vibe became less important. 

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

What kind of feedback did you get from your guests?

We had so much positive feedback about the weekend, the excursion we planned, and how easy group travel was. I think the best compliment was that people genuinely felt like it was their vacation and a special experience they got to be a part of. We really wanted that for them.

Now that you’ve been through it, what is your #1 best piece of advice for wedding couples entering the planning process?

Trust the process and ask for what you need. I know, it’s annoying, and I read it like 1000 times on every wedding blog ever. However, we didn’t know how much our wedding would cost until 4 days before we flew to Mexico. It was stressful, I panicked, my husband panicked, and I think we made our coordinator panic, too. Take a breath, they do this multiple times a week, and they will nail it for you! 

With that said, if you really need to know what it’s going to cost, as we did, ask them! We were able to work super quickly together in those final 10ish days.

Photo Credit: Adventure Photos

In what ways did Alpaca Your Bags Travel make this less stressful for you?

The fact that we didn’t have to take on our people’s (who we love) travel anxieties and questions was a given. Everything from helping people book rooms, choose flights, decide about insurance, or figure out how to get to and from the airport was energy that we got to put into planning the actual wedding! 

Photographer: Adventure Photos

Travel Advisor: Alpaca Your Bags Travel 

Resort: Secrets Bahia Mita