Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
If you’ve ever said, “We want a destination wedding… but have no clue where to start,” then oh hello, you’re in good company.
Heather and Hector were that couple. Sweet, excited, full of love—and totally overwhelmed. They had the dream: a fun, low-stress wedding in Mexico with just their favorite humans). But the endless online rabbit holes? The “too many resorts, too little time” dilemma? The fear of accidentally picking a dud resort based on a random YouTube video? Been there, read that review.
Planning a wedding can feel like a full-time job — especially when you’re trying to do it from thousands of miles away. But for Heather and Hector, a couple from Centennial, Colorado, saying “I do” in a beautiful destination was a dream worth chasing. Like many couples, they knew they wanted a destination wedding, but didn’t know where to begin. That’s where I came in!
Heather and Hector’s reason was simple but powerful: They wanted a fun, low-stress celebration with their favorite people — without breaking the bank. A love for the outdoors, they envisioned a trip that felt more like a vacation than a production.
But their excitement was quickly met with overwhelm.
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
When Heather reached out, she was ready to plan — but needed direction. They ruled out Cancun and wanted something unique and activity-packed for their guests. Heather also had allergies to consider, which made researching resorts even more stressful.
They were flexible with their date, and expected a small-to-medium guest list of close friends and family — including kids (ages 2 and 4). Together, we narrowed down the best-fit resorts and crafted a custom plan that reflected their personalities and needs — including private dining options, kids’ activities, and allergy-aware meal prep.
Heather and Hector ended up tying the knot at a gorgeous resort that offered everything they dreamed of — plus some unexpected magic. From a romantic beachfront dinner on their first night to relaxed poolside meetups with loved ones, the vibe was laid-back luxury all the way.
Even with two years of planning and hundreds of questions from guests, they felt supported every step of the way.
Heather admitted that she almost didn’t go through with a destination wedding because of how overwhelming it felt in the beginning. But with guidance, support, and streamlined tools, the couple could truly be present during the celebration — and create memories that will last a lifetime.
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
Aside from not knowing where to even start looking with all the options/locations, we were most afraid of having to coordinate everyone getting to another country! Having only been to one other resort ever…we were going to have to go in blind on a property based on reviews and thousands of youtube travel blogs…this did not bring Heather the comfort she needed to feel prepared to answer all the questions she knew were coming and or feel confident in a location/travel logistics!
Is there anything about the actual destination wedding experience that surprised you?
How smooth everything went! Since we could not control everything or be there the whole planning process, we expected it to be a little rocky but it wasn’t! Everything was flawlessly executed and the team at the resort went above and beyond expectations!
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
What is your favorite memory of your destination wedding?
Hectors Favorite Memory – Included in our wedding package was a romantic dinner on the beach, we had this our first night at the resort before our guests arrived. It was so beautiful, delicious and the perfect way to set the tone for the rest of the trip!
Heather’s Favorite Memory – Being able to balance quality time with everyone that traveled to our wedding all while getting to relax and reflect on our journey to the wedding day meant the world to me. I feared not being able to enjoy our wedding day or be present with Hector because I would feel pressured to entertain everyone else. Being able to see everyone walking around the resort, running into people at restaurants or in pools, all while getting to spend meaningful time together was the icing on the wedding cake 😉
Did you splurge on anything travel or wedding related? If so, what was it and was it worth it?
Location, location, location! We upgraded our ceremony and reception area to a private sky lounge and it was SOOO worth it – this is what made us fall in love with the resort space because we instantly knew this was where we wanted to get married.
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
Did you attempt to *save* on anything travel or wedding related? If so, what was it and was it worth it?
We did very minimal decorations – also worth it! Not only did we not have to haul a ton of stuff in our luggage, we didn’t splurge on extra flowers or place settings but rather chose some other options that brought us joy ( romantic lighting at reception, welcome bags, cute chairs, private dinner, serving sorbet for dessert, etc.)
If you could change anything with your wedding (planning, the day itself, the location, resort, ANYTHING) – what would you change?
Heather’s sunburn – let me tell you…. the shoulders were FEELING those beaded straps ( I applied so much sunscreen I promise)
We are wracking our brains trying to come up with something we would have changed and we can’t so obviously, if there was anything , it wasn’t that big of a deal!
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
What kind of feedback did you get from your guests?
We quoted a few below:
“This is the best wedding we have ever been too” – many people
“Beautiful location, so much fun and so relaxing”
“Everything was so organized and flawless”
“Could not have asked for a better location”
“Had such an amazing time”
“Have not had a bad meal”
“Their allergy awareness and accommodation is amazing”
Now that you’ve been through it, what is your #1 best piece of advice for wedding couples entering the planning process?
One thing we would recommend to future couples is minimizing the amount of websites/apps you use and build the booking website into your information website. Ashley had offered this to us but we had a very long engagement and the subscription was only for a year so we ended up doing a different website, which was great but if we had shorter time to plan I think this would have been less things for us and our guests to keep up to date on ( especially those who are not technology wizards :))
In the end we had: the travel booking website ( by Alpaca Your Bags which was wonderful) + our website/app + the itinerary app/website ( by Alpaca your Bags which was highly loved by our guests) + hotel website/apps + WhatApp + Airline app + a Kodak photo printer app (guests could print Polaroids at the wedding) … we found ourselves having to explain this a lot which wasn’t a big deal but we could have made it easier on ourselves
Photo Credit: Alchemy_Creative
In what ways did Alpaca Your Bags Travel make this less stressful for you?
All the ways! The whole team was so on top of it. Heather speaking as the crazy planner of the couple – I could not have asked for a better experience. I am HUGE on over communication and not once during this process did I not feel like I had all the information at my fingertips. 99% of questions I received I whipped out the booking website or the pre-selection documents provided to me and could answer anything thrown my way. The few times I didn’t have the info, the team would respond to me with such speed that I was the slow one to respond back!
We started this process over two years ago and bless Ashley’s patience…. We honestly had no idea what we even wanted. We had spent hours… Days even, looking at resorts online it was the most stressful thing we experienced ( especially because of Heather’s allergies). Every time we thought we knew what we wanted….we saw something else and we changed our mind. Ashley came into the picture – organized our indecisiveness, calmed the noise and made it SO EASY. Not once did we feel like we didn’t make a good choice along the way with her and our guests raved about how on top of the process/information sharing and booking their team was.
Photographer: Alchemy_Creative
Travel Advisor: Alpaca Your Bags Travel
Resort: Majestic Elegance Costa Mujeres
SELLER OF TRAVEL: CST# 2071045-50, FL ST # ST38545, WA UBI # 603 046 768 | Proud ASTA Member | IADWP Member