Our Cabo Wedding
2020 has been a year that none of us will forget, I pray that everyone who is getting affected by this can overcome it and that your families are safe and healthy.
Butch and I got married on April 27th, 2017, honestly feels like it was a lifetime away! and lately, I’ve wedding fever, before this pandemic we weren’t very social and now with social distancing even more haha, we rarely get invited to weddings but the ones we had I have loved going and I wanted to do a wedding blog because I used to have a WordPress blog in the past just about our wedding and now that I have my “Hibiscus blog” I wanted to move it here :) hope this helps and gives inspo to future brides!
Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog! I’ve always wanted to do something more than just sharing everything about our wedding in social media, I know it is the easiest but somehow I felt that we needed something more… In this blog, you will read my thoughts, feelings, and personal point of view of this wonderful experience and hopefully, this might also help future brides to find some inspiration about their big day coming up and some personal advice, etc. If you are a bride to remember to put yourself first, take care of you first everything else comes after, keep your family and good friends close. Remember to stay true to yourself, follow your instinct, do what makes you happy but be open to other opinions. I’m ready to pour my heart and soul to this blog so please know in advance I will write a lot and with a lot of feelings, ok?? Here we gooooo.
The proposal.
As many of you know Butch proposed to me in Disney World Orlando, Florida. We went there for my 25th birthday trip. On April 16th of 2016, We decided to go to the park Magic Kingdom. It was a fun day but little I knew it was about to get better.
After a long day of exploring the park we went to “Splash Mountain” my favorite ride in all Disney parks, I was in the boat with Ana my sister and Butch and Jimmy his younger brother were behind us, behind Butch and Jimmy there was Chris my now mother in law, she had the sign (Will you marry me) and the ring in her backpack. When the last fun drop of the ride came up Butch held the sign up so when we went to see our picture I’ll read the sign, after that he was down on his knee and ask me again to marry him. One of the best moments of my life 🙂
Wedding Planning.
We came back from our trip. You don’t know where to start, right? so many things, ideas, plans, vendors, THE VENUE?? one of the most important parts, where you want to say your I do’s and celebrate one of the happiest and special moments of your life.
Butch’s family has worked for Dick and Ginny Michaux to manage and take care of their gorgeous palapa in the beautiful location ” Punta Gorda”, this place is pure magic. The palapa is on top of the rocks overviewing the ocean, no houses, beach clubs, hotels around, just the ocean, beach, rocks, desert, and fresh air.
One month before Butch proposed to me we worked for a private party for Dick and Ginny’s friends at their palapa. It was so pretty, they had a chef, bar, lights, tables, etc.
In that party I met for the first time the respectable Mr. and Mrs. Michaux, I heard so many good things about them that I already admire them. I was so happy I finally got the opportunity to meet them! I was a little nervous at first but as soon as they say “hi” to me, I felt so happy, they smiled at me and were so nice and friendly. I can say one of the nicest and sweetest couples I’ve met in my entire life!
It was maybe a coincidence or destiny I don’t know, that I bump into Butch in high school parties, then get to date him, getting to meet his family “The Collins” and “Hinkles” now getting to know the “Michaux’s” how can someone get so lucky? how blessed, I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m forever thankful to all of them 🙂
After we got to talk at the party to Dick and Ginny they offered us to get married in their palapa! we were speechless, this was so kind of them to offer to us. Punta Gorda is the dream! at that moment I didn’t know Butch had plans to proposed to me to following month but still to imagine our wedding there sometime in the future was absolutely our dream!
When we came back from Orlando, we knew that we wanted to get married in Punta Gorda. One of the first things we did was send an email to Dick and Ginny Michaux to ask if we still have their permission to get married in their palapa. After they confirmed with us, we were over the moon knowing that we were having our dream venue for the wedding.
Chris my mother in law has worked at many weddings here in Cabo so she knows a lot of wonderful people that gave us advice of how to start this process.
The first advice we had was to book your photographer. I knew already who I wanted.
Sara Richardson is the photographer that came to my mind intermediately, she has so much talent, she and her husband take best photographs I’ve seen and she is amazing, sweet person, I’ve have worked with Sara before, she took pictures for my business ” Baja Babysitting” and I fell in love with her work since then. Besides all that I feel super comfortable around Sara, she is so nice and easy to talk to. I contacted her to see if she was available for our wedding and when she answered she was, I got so excited I knew it was the best way to start planning the wedding of our dreams.
Photographs is one of the things you can always look back and appreciate and treasure for the rest of your life for this and many of the reason I mentioned before Sara was the perfect photographer for our big day!!!!
With the help of Amy Abbotts, we were able to get most of the decoration for the wedding, she was a big light in our wedding process, she always made us feel like we could rely on her in case of any assistance. She runs the most successful business here in Cabo of Wedding planning and events, in fact, she is the one that was with us while we were working for the Michaux’s party, having her on our side was so amazing! She is so talented, hard-working, and wonderful!
By summertime, we had the venue, photographer, wedding decoration. We felt very confident about how everything was going, now I just had to book a trip to buy my wedding dress…
The Wedding Dress
Hmmm! what is the first thing a girl thinks when anyone says Wedding… most of us WEDDING DRESS!!! this is the moment when you get to choose the gown you will be wearing in one of the biggest days of your entire life so it has a lot of meaning. You want to look your best, feel pretty, like a princess in my case I wanted to look more like a mermaid 🙂
We book a trip to San Diego, California in August 2016. By the recommendation of Sara our photographer, she advised me to visit “The Bustle” a wedding dress store in the Del Mar area. Sara choose her wedding dress there and she got to marry that year in September, she looked so stunning, so I decided to make the first appointment there.
A month before our trip I sprained my ankle almost a 3rd degree 😦 . How could this be happening, I’ve never broken a bone or sprained any part of my body. I spend 15 days just laying down in my bed because I thought at first it was just a little twist after more time went by and I noticed I wasn’t getting any better I visited the physical therapy place my dad suggested. To my surprise, it was way worst than I imagined and now I only had 15 days to recovered before my trip and go choose my dream wedding dress!
I went to the physical therapy place for 10 sessions almost all in a row, there was no more time to lose, I honestly thought I was going in crutches to the trip, I was pretty upset. After the 5th session, I started noticing I was getting better and by the 8th session, I was without the crutches and only the boot.
The day before the trip I was able to walk again after an entire month! it was the best feeling! the feeling of freedom!! So we were there at the airport to take our flight to SD, we had the appointment for The Bustle first thing the next morning, our flight got delay 6 hours, we were the last people to leave the airport, they even turn off the A/C and closed all restaurants. Luckily we made it to SD that same night and got some rest for the next day!
The next morning I felt so excited, my mom made my hair, put some nice makeup, I was more than ready to go choose my wedding dress! We got to “The Bustle” right at 10 am when the appointment was supposed to be, When we walked into the little boutique, I intermediately felt that good vibe and the attention they gave me was beyond my expectations, I believe the name of the lady that helped me is Mariah, she was so sweet and helpful.
I started trying dresses on, my mom, my sisters, Chris my mother in law and my baby niece Domenica were there with me! It was a very special and fun experience.
The first time you tried a wedding dress is the most amazing feeling even though is not the one you end up choosing, I tried 5 dresses I believed. The 4th one the one I choose. I walked out of the dressing room and my oldest sister Addy started crying of happiness, I saw their reactions and when I looked myself in the mirror I just knew it was the one 😀
All those moments will always be in my heart! I will always look back and thank Sara for recommending that place and my family to be there to support me! We canceled all the other appointments in the other boutiques, plus my ankle was swollen like a balloon hehe, oops, it was all worth it!!!!
More wedding planning Getting closer to the big day…
At first, I thought I will be writing in a specific order according to the months of the events but the truth is that this whole wedding process was all over the place. We didn’t have a wedding planner telling us what to do next. Chris and I figure it out on our own, sometimes you don’t know if you are doing it right but you just have to feel it in your heart and believe me when I say, we all make mistakes or now I like calling them events that were not meant to be. Because in your wedding day every single thing makes sense and that’s the most important part, that at the end of the day you are marrying the person you love.
Getting closer to the wedding and I’m talking middle January we started planning again, We took December off because that is the busiest season for Baja Babysitting. It gets challenging with work, family, trying to stay in shape and multiple more things.
We have the opportunity to work with Theresa from Del Cabo Events and Victor for the stage, bar ( very important) and logistics of where the tables are gonna be and getting the plan so everything works out! Thank you to both of them the palapa and Punta Gorda look stunning, it just wanted we wanted to be and even more!
Simultaneity we were working on the guest list, invitation, save the date, thanks to my sisters Addy and Ana because they are amazing graphic designers so creative!! they did all the digital invitations and wedding program, in fact, Addy first painted in watercolor the cactus plants of the “save the date” they were inspired by the ones they have at Punta Gorda, My sisters also painted the signs in the wedding, what I would ever do without them. Around those months I contacted Enrique Morales from EM weddings to have his team making our video and you will see it here how amazing it turned out! I’ve always dreamed of having a video of our wedding and the one they did was just like I imagined but much better!
I had much inspiration from social media, like the normal Pinterest, where I found the colors for the wedding including the colors for my beautiful bridesmaids, Ana, Addy, Karina, Clau, Pao, and Alicia. They wore the ” Everlasting” dress from Lulus which was so flowy, and just perfect for them! Big thank you to my girls, they did so much for me, made me feel so special and loved. I also find inspiration in Instagram, that’s where I found Blanc Bridal Salon, the owner of the company is Neysa, she is amazing. from the first moment I spoke to her, she was so professional and friendly. She was my hairstyler and her and Wendy in her team did the make-up and hair for my mom, Addy, and Ana.
My make up was very special because my good friend from Mexico City, Elisa Garcia, came to Cabo all the way from there to do my makeup trial back in September of 2016, she did such a beautiful and amazing job and even more special because she is one of my best friends and she did it with so much love!
Weddings are so magical because you get to realize how blessed and loved you are by your close friends and family, the ones that really care about you they are there for you!
Our dear friend Steve Lindsey made the cake for our wedding, it was so delicious. He is the head pastry chef in One & Only Palmilla and not only his cakes are to live for they are gorgeous!!! Thank you, Steve, again, just by thinking of our cake makes me so hungry. Talking about the Lindsey family we have to mention that Cheo Lindsey one of the best friends of Butch since they are little kids married us! he recently got his license to marry couples and we were so lucky he was the one that married us! his good energy and vibe made it so wonderful because he helped us with the script and personalized to make it sound even better. we loved Lindsey’s!!!
I’m a flower lover, I’m always doodling flowers in napkins and for me, the flowers at the wedding were very important! Chris told me we should visit Pina Cate to show her the inspiration pictures I had for my bouquet. Any bride has to admit that the bouquet and wedding dress have to complement each other. I’ve seen Pina’s work before and it’s breathtaking, she is so talented, I have no doubt she was going to make an amazing bouquet for me!
When the day of the wedding came and I saw it, I was so happy, it was so perfect, even better than I picture in my head and now looking at the pictures with my dress and with my flowers, all I can say is that she knew how to combine it so make it look perfect! Thank you, Pina 🙂
For Butch’s suit we flew back to San Diego and to pick up my wedding dress, they had it ready since middle January but couldn’t get it till March 2017 when we book our trip to go choose Butch’s suit and his groom men’s pants to match his suit.
My dear friend Karina one of my bride maids lives in San Diego so every time we go she helps us so much, she advised us the places to look for Butch’s suit, one of the places was San Diego’s Outlet, ” Las Americas” for anyone of you that have been there you have to agree that outlet is so big! you need more than one day to see all the stores, so we arrive in the outlet early in the day and the first store we visited was Calvin Klein, I was on WhatsApp all the time with my cousin Sebastian who was one of Butch’s grooms in the wedding, he is now studying to be a lawyer in Mexico City. He has to wear a suit almost every day to collage besides that he has a good sense of style, so we helped us to give us advice.
We were trying on Butch so many suits, for the ones that don’t know Butch has never owned a suit or wore one before the wedding so this was as he said ” Torture for him” poor Butchi haha, we bad people (Chris and I) pushing him to try more and more suits, we couldn’t find the perfect one from him, some were too big, some were too expensive and ugly. We spend the whole day there in the outlet.
We were hungry tired and over it, Butch told us he wasn’t going to try another suit, so we almost gave up until we saw Perry Ellis store, it was our last hope to find the perfect suit for Butch. just like in the movies when we first walked in the suite was hanging up high and light going straight to the suit, maybe we were too lucky??
Butch tried it on and it looks perfect!!!!!! we were so excited, we even found him shoes. His outfit was almost complete!!! we got the pants for the groomsman there as well and we have to say a great store for affordable, modern and nice suits. We 100% recommend it!
We came back from San Diego with only one more month before the wedding. Everything started feeling so real. My mom made me a bridal shower super nice and it was so meaningful and emotional, My mom is so talented with crafts and decorations my sisters and I are always telling her she should of being an interior designer, she has the passion for it and the Bridal party was delightful, everything so pretty, full of good wishes and lovely company and presents hehe. Thank you, mom!!
We started going to Punta Gorda almost every day when it was 2.5 weeks before the wedding since Chris and Butch are the managers they know how to work everything in there, at that same time a new road was been built for the new access to the palapa since few months before the wedding the government and a private company decided to buy all the coastline of that part of the east cape!
I remember waking up one morning and Butch telling me about that news. The Mayan group hotel is building a huge resort with a golf course. I just thought to myself sarcastically “Wow just what Cabo needs more hotels and golf course and beach clubs” So with this happening they were going to close the access to the Palapa from one side that we used to drive to. Again the Michaux’s coming to the rescue they make sure the new entrance was build before the wedding, (emoji crying) How awesome they are always thinking of us, I can’t find enough words to keep thanking Dick and Ginny for everything they did for us!
The week of the wedding
Oh my, I’m glad I’m writing this now before more time went by. I still feel like it was yesterday.
It was a Sunday when some of our friends and family were already here. that day there was a big fire in the Estero not very close to Punta Gorda but on the way to get there! It was pretty scary to think that the only road that can get you there could be getting damage, good thing nothing happened!!! This special moment made me realized how we had been through sooo many situations, some days we wanted to quit the wedding and just go and get married on a cruise, but you know what! this was our dream wedding, we have been through so much, handling a lot of obstacles we were ready to finally have the biggest celebration of love in our lives!!!
The next day my bridal party made me a surprise Bachelorette party, I would like to write pages about this amazing experience so I will go ahead and make a different post about it 🙂 All I can say for right now is that it was the best time ever with my friends, they did so much for me, they put so much effort and love, I’m so grateful to have them in my life! it’s so important to be surrounded by people who truly love right before your big day! you need your good friends to support you, to distract you from the stress, to remind you they are always there for you no matter what!!! Big thank you to Ana, Addy, Clau, Pao, Kari, Alice & Shelby!!! you girls rock! and I also would like to thank my dear friend Ashley Hamill, she works with us in Baja Babysitting and she helped me that week to manage the company, I seriously don’t know what I would do without her! Thank you, Ashley 🙂
On Wednesday, April 26th, I checked-in to the hotel Cabo Azul, this was such a dream, Butch’s uncle, Tom, drove us to the hotel that day. I came right after my bachelorette party back to the condo where we live to got my stuff packed, Butch was upstairs in the condo his uncles and cousin (Jane) were renting. I called him that he had to stay up there and we still couldn’t see each other, I wanted so bad to see him but I just got packed with the help of Alice and Shelby and we left. At that point, I only wanted to see Butch.. but when we got to the hotel and found out it was happy hour, Alice, Shelby, and I were laying down in a bed at the beach having drinks and enjoying a well-deserved rest haha. My mom and sisters arrived later to the hotel and we kept enjoying the rest of the evening.
Butch and his groomsmen stayed in a house at the East Cape near Punta Gorda in a house in Zacatitos, they were there relaxing by the pool and getting ready for the big day or at least that’s what I would like to think 🙂
The Morning of the wedding
The Morning of the wedding I woke up at 6 am, super nervous, I was so stressed I don’t know why I guess I just wanted everything to go as planned. I went back to sleep and woke up completely relaxed and stress-free around 9 am. After I woke up everything started happening super fast!!!!. Lili one of the sitters in my team in Baja Babysitting, she came that morning of the wedding to help us take care of my niece Domenica and she helped us take care of her for the whole wedding, she did an amazing job! So we only had to worry about getting ready and drink some mimosas!!! not a bad life I thought. Of course, behind all these good moments there was a lot of work and hours of dedication that we put for this day!! WOOWWWW! After one year of planning, this day was already here, I could and couldn’t believe it, this is it!!! OUR BIG DAY!!!
When Neysa and her team arrived at the room I remember feeling very pampered, they made me feel soo relax knowing we were in the best hands to look completely fabulous! Then Elisa my friend came and while she was doing my makeup we were giggling and laughing which is pretty much what we do all the time when we are together.
After I had my makeup done, Neysa was doing my hair and everything started feeling more and more real, to see that was the way I was going to look at my wedding day!!! Then around 2:50 pm, someone knocked on the door of the hotel room…
It was Sara and her husband Ramon!!! When I saw Sara walking in the room my heart started beating faster and I was getting into tears!!!! Sara was with us since the very begging of the wedding planning, seeing her there meant so much! Then pretty much at the same time the EM wedding arrived as well and all a sudden I was in my wedding dress, with my bridesmaids, my mom, and my flower girl, it was so surreal.
I never felt stressed that morning, my maids of honor Ana and Addy made sure I didn’t hear anything about what was going wrong because things do go wrong on the wedding day! yikes.
On the other side of the show, there was Chris my mother in law. She takes the whole cake, she not only helped us since we got engaged to pursuit the wedding of our dreams, she believed in us the entire process, but she also had the contacts, she put the uncountable amount of hours on wedding planning, shopped online for wedding stuff, she made the arch where we got married, she did our hangover kits. She drove multiple times to Punta Gorda while I and Butch were enjoying our bash parties and….. She was there the whole day of the wedding with the help of Vanessa Olsen, she is like family, Chris and her family knows her since she is a little girl, now she lives the dream of the Hawaiian life and coordinates events and weddings, thank you, Vanessa, for helping Chris. We cannot thank you enough, Chris and Vanessa!!!
They had multiple things going wrong at one time, the bathrooms didn’t come on time, things got delay for them to start decorating, the arch collapse 2 hours before the wedding, leaving Chris and Vanessa with 1.5 hours to get ready. Like people say not all superheroes wear a cape well this is the case!
When Sara Richardson and EM weddings left our hotel to go get pictures and video footage of Butch and his groomsmen getting ready, we had a toast that my mom said, and then pretty much I felt it was time to head to the wedding, we had transportation for all our guest to Punta Gorda, including the bridal party in the hotel we were staying. Thank you Impala Ground Services and Letty the owner she was super accommodating and responsive.
We got in the Van and it all the nerves sank in again. The ride felt forever like it was 3 hours long, I just wanted to see Butch and get married and at the same time, I was afraid of falling down the steps, down the aisle. All mixed feelings on that ride, but again thanks to my wonderful bride maids they helped me relax, we were singing “Flume” songs the entire way to Punta Gorda, laughing and Clau she had ready a shot of tequila ready right when we got to the wedding. Thank you Clau that was an excellent idea!!! it helped me a lot!
When we passed the corner right before getting to Punta Gorda my stomach was full of butterflies, then one second after there it was the wedding, our guest, the decoration, DJ Alex, Sara, EM Weddings, BUTCH…. WOW “this is it,” I thought….
My dad was right there when our Van parked, I was shaking by that time and my dad came in the Van with me and he helped me calmed down. Big recognition to him, thank you, Dad, for helping us so much too! without him, we couldn’t do it. It was so special because that day, in particular, I shared that moment so special and unique with my dad, he was so happy to saw me in my wedding dress and I was so happy he was there for me to walk me down the aisle to make sure I didn’t fall down and look like a complete idiot. Thank you, dad!!
I was hidden in the Van with my dad so nobody could see me. Then from far away I saw Butch, he was the first to walk down with Chris and I remember feeling so in love and amazed by how handsome he looked, 3 days without seeing him felt like an eternity and now seeing him there I felt like I was melting. Thank’s to Johny my now father-in-law for playing guitar before and after ceremony and Libby for singing!!! you have a beautiful voice and I still heard you sing even the mic was down, the guest was well-taking care of having beautiful music before the ceremony 🙂
The moment came, I was with my dad walking down the aisle, the first impression of looking at the gorgeous wedding, all familiar faces that I love, my family, friends, all the people that we care about were there smiling and all the sudden I felt at peace. When I was in front of Butch I knew everything was perfect, the world went silent and he was the only person I could see or hear at that moment. We were laughing and doing our normal stupid jokes while getting married, then Cheo asked the questions and that’s when I came back to the real world, the world I was getting married to the most amazing human being, the person that has loved me for 7 years, the person who was never given up on me and knows I’m a mess but still loves and makes sure I’m happy and treats me like a princess. Somehow this was our own fairy tale and I know the wedding is only one day/night but our love story will continue and I will make sure to never give it for granted, he is the best thing that ever happened to me.
The wedding happened so fast! All that planning you do goes in one instant but it’s so worth it. Thank you, Dj Alex, we danced so much, he played all the songs that people wanted to listen and dance to, it was beyond perfect. We had the best time of our lives.
Thank you to all our friends and family who attended the wedding, it meant a lot to us, I will work on writing another post about my bach party and our honeymoon.
Don’t mind any kind of typos or grammar, I tried so hard to make it sound good and my first language is Spanish! 😀 or if I forgot to mention anyone who helped us in any way and supported us!!
If you would like to watch our wedding video to see more of our magical day click the link below.
password emweddings
Wedding Dress: Stella York, Purchased at The Bustle in Del Mar, California // Shoes: Michael Kors // Groom’s Attire: Perry Ellis // Invitations: Custom made by Bride’s Sisters // Wedding Coordinator: Groom’s Mother, Chris // Floral Design: Pina Cate // Photography: Sara Richardson Photography // Ceremony & Reception Location: Punta Gorda // Hair: Blanc Bridal Salon //Bride Makeup: Elisa Garcia Maquillaje // DJ: DJ Alex // Videographer: Enrique Morales // Rentals: Amy Abbott Events & Del Cabo Events // Dancefloor: VVR pro