Secrets Puerto Los Cabos Destination Wedding: Sam & CC

Sam & CC are the perfect match of opposites. Sam’s a laid-back massage therapist and yoga instructor, while CC’s a Type A data analyst. 

They met in the most unexpected way — over mimosas at a brunch spot in Portland, where Sam was serving and CC was a customer. Fast forward to today, they share their lives with a cute dog, Henry, who keeps them busy.

CC and Sam decided on a destination wedding because of their love for Mexico and desire to spend quality time with their guests. Instead of a traditional wedding that lasts only a few hours, they wanted to create lasting memories over several days. (because, seriously, who wouldn’t want that?).

Real Wedding Q&A with CC and Sam!

What were your biggest fears when planning a destination wedding?

Our biggest fears were having to make all of the decisions from afar, and picking a venue/resort that we’ve never been to. 

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

How seamless everything went! Not being as involved in the planning process of a destination wedding is challenging, but after seeing how well thought out and executed all the events were was really incredible to see! We hardly had to lift a finger all weekend and can honestly say we were never stressed, which surprised us both!

What is your favorite memory of your destination wedding?

We get asked this question a lot and our answer isn’t always the same, and that’s because we truly have so many favorite memories, it’s hard to choose! One of the top favorite memories was watching all of our guests interact and fall in love with each other throughout the entire weekend, so by the time our wedding day came, everyone felt so comfortable and carefree! Another top memory was our ceremony; standing in our GAYzebo with the ocean, sun, greenery, palm trees and our loved ones all together. 

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

Our biggest splurge was on our videographer and it was 100% worth it. Having a videographer at our wedding was always something Sam wanted and now that the weekend is over, we have zero regrets on this decision. Our videographer captured three days of footage and we cannot wait to see our wedding video! We also splurged a little bit on upgrading our room and it was perfect! We had a huge room with a beautiful ocean view where CC and her wedding party could get ready.

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

We ended up not hiring a wedding planner and for us, it felt worth it. Monica, the wedding coordinator at our resort, was AMAZING. We knew she was going to be good when communicating with her via email leading up to our big day, but she exceeded all expectations over the whole weekend. We saved A TON of money not hiring a wedding planner and got incredible service and results, it was totally worth it!

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

Our brothers were our best men (best brothers) and we wish we would’ve got more photo ops with them. We didn’t realize this until the next day, so we would change how we prepared for the wedding day photos. We wish we made a specific photo list to share with your photographer beforehand so that we were all on the same page for the wedding day.

What kind of feedback did you get from your guests?

During the wedding weekend, people could not stop saying how much fun they were having and how awesome our group of friends were. They had rave reviews about the resort, our wedding coordinator, our vows, the reception, and our décor. A handful of people came up to us at the end of the night/the morning we were all leaving to tell us “this was the best wedding I’ve ever been to” and that meant the world to us. 

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

CC: I’m a planner and at times it was really hard for me to let go of some of the details, so I’d say to trust the professionals and go with the flow. Truthfully, I got stressed over small details that ended up working themselves out.
Sam: Decide what things are really important to you early on, and stick to them. 

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

AYBT did SO much for us. From the very beginning with providing a detailed proposal to being the main point of contact for our wedding guests (we legitimately did not receive one question from any of our guests and we owe that all to AYBT. We don’t even know how easy/difficult our guests were because your team dealt with all travel questions). We also have to acknowledge that you helped us book transportation for a last minute welcome party in downtown San Jose del Cabo for ~40 of our guests. Anyone who asks us what the first thing we did when planning our destination wedding, we always say we hired a travel advisor and it was the best decision we made!

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Photographer: Elle Kendall Photography

Travel Advisor: Alpaca Your Bags Travel 

Resort: Secrets Puerto Los Cabos