Our Dream Destination WEDDING in Cabo
Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
How did you meet & how long did you date before getting engaged?
We met on NYE of 2017, when Cory came down to LA to visit one of our mutual friends, and the rest was pretty much history.
He moved down from Seattle three months later, and we immediately moved in together, and it was truly a match made in heaven. We dated for just shy of nine days (clearly wasn’t counting or anything lol) to our five year “dating anniversary” going into NYE of 2022, before Cory finally proposed.
Who proposed? When and how?
Cory proposed to me the day before christmas eve, with both of our families present, in Lake Chelan, Washington.
This was such a special tribute to my grandparents (who are no longer with us), but were such an important part of my life. This was the house my grandfather built, and our entire family spent summers during all of my growing up years. Cory proposing to me here was so sentimental, because this place holds so many cherished memories.
How did you choose your wedding venue?
My fiancé and I always agreed, even before we were engaged, that it was an all or nothing when it came to what we envisioned for our wedding weekend. It was either a blow out luxury destination wedding, or we were just going to just say “fuck it” and elope, and skip all of the crazy expensive costs of hosting a luxury destination wedding, and put that towards our future home funds.
While I wanted to have a wedding more than anything (quite literally I'd been dreaming of this day for my entire life), my now husband was not as convinced as I was that the crazy amount of cash shill out was worth it.
He was more on the side that having a modern day wedding wasn’t the best use of our money, and was fairly disinterested through the majority of venue tours we did in Cabo, however I'll never forget the moment we drove through the gates of the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, and their 1000 ft private tunnel hanging with chandeliers and carved out of Pedregal mountain, that my fiancé and I both looked at each other (me already in tears because I just knew this venue was the one) and he looked at me and said, "NOW THIS IS A WEDDING VENUE".
By the time we popped out of the other end of the tunnel to the wedding venue oasis of my dreams, and were greeted with scratch margaritas and the best service I’ve quite literally ever experienced in my entire life, our decision was solidified. It was the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal or bust.
We both knew this would be an experience that quite literally no one in our entire family or friend group had ever experienced in their entire life, and it also offered all of the vibes we were looking for in a wedding venue. For us that meant somewhere warm, an ocean view, on a cliffside bluff, palm trees on the resort property and also a very elevated high end resort and service experience for us and all of our guests.
10/10 One of the best decisions we ever made and I'm so glad we went with our gut instinct on splurging on booking this wedding venue.
The Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal didn't disappoint in a single category, in fact they quite literally over delivered in every single category possible, and it was truly the wedding weekend of our dreams.
Did your wedding have a wedding theme? If so, which one?
For our wedding day I wanted something modern, timeless and in a neutral color palette, that I wouldn’t get sick of seeing hanging on my walls for the rest of my life, so we didn’t have a theme per say for our wedding day. It was very much neutral tone centric, which I feel played into the overall picturesque backdrop our wedding venue already offered in its own right.
Where I had the most fun and played around with colors and themes was at our wedding welcome party, which if I’m being honest, I spent way more hours and energy curating the overall decor and vibe of, than I did curating our actual wedding day look.
This was purely because our wedding day aesthetic was very timeless, classic and something I knew would be executed without a hinge through my full service wedding planner. On the other hand, I knew my wedding welcome party theme and inspo I’d dreamed up, would be a bit larger of an undertaking to pull off, and a theme I’ve never seen down before at a wedding welcome party.
When I was initially thinking of themes for our wedding welcome party I knew I wanted it to be centered around my favorite color pink, because this was my one day to have a colorful theme during our wedding weekend, and my entire persona and life revolves around a pink barbiecore aesthetic.
The theme finally came to me though, when I thought about the fact that our resort already came included with veuve clicquot decor scattered in every corner throughout the resort, which also includes my two favorite color pairings of pink and orange. This was an immediate no brainer for me, since it not only encompasses my favorite color palette, but my favorite event of the year, and always exudes elevated, luxury and iconic vibes at the same time.
This event did not disappoint though and is quite literally my pride & joy of our entire wedding weekend, which was our Veuve Clicquot polo classic wedding welcome party theme, but recreated “by the ocean.
The veuve clicquot polo classic is one of my absolute favorite events of the entire year. For anyone who's never had the opportunity to attend the veuve clicquot polo classic in LA or NY, it’s so much more than drinking expensive champagne, while watching a polo horse racing match, but an entire experience in and of itself.
You can expect to see multiple A list celebrity sightings, every IT girl influencer on the planet, fashion to the nines with coverage by vogue magazine, tons of interactive lawn games, and my favorite part, pinterest and instagram worthy photoshoot opportunities in every single direction you look and as far as the eye can see.
I wanted to take that same look and feel of what it actually feels like to attend the veuve clicquot polo classic, put a slight twist on it, and recreate the same experience for our wedding welcome party, but make it our own and on an oceanfront resort.
To truly recreate this experience was a huge undertaking and team effort between myself, my incredible full service wedding planner, Ivette Hernandez at Amy Abbott Events and our amazing wedding day coordinator, Lucie Ortiz at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal.
How we recreated it:
Since this was 1 of 3 wedding events we would be throwing at our destination wedding weekend, I knew hiring a professional florist was not in the cards for this event if we wanted to come close to staying within a reasonable range of our budget.
I still really wanted to pull off this theme off though, and decor aesthetic is super important to me, so I spent about 8 months DIYing and collecting veuve clicquot and pink and orange decor for to make the aesthetic of this event happen within a reasonable cost. Everything from spray painting dried palm fronds pink, hand painting giant yard dice pink and orange, to sourcing Veuve Clicquot pillows and decor from about 10 different etsy and poshmark sellers,
that we ultimately ended up checking and flying all of this down to Cabo when we went down for our final wedding planning trip. I honestly think this saved us over $10k that we would have needed to pay in florals and decor rentals, to actually pull this event off, so I’m so happy we made this choice.
We heavily leaned on my wedding planner and enlisted the expertise and service of a lot of the very talented local wedding vendors in Cabo was, for all the custom designed large signage pieces, that honestly wasn’t feasible to travel to Cabo with. THis included our custom veuve clicquot directional arrow signage, with is a signature staple at any veuve clicqout polo classic event, but was customized to our wedding specifically, as well our custom beach cornhole set that had each of our names on it, but was in the same font and pantone colors of veuve clicquot.
We ultimately centered the entire wedding welcome party around the star of the show and focal point of the event, which was the beachfront champagne swing bar that already exists on the resort property at the Waldorf Astoria. When I say our wedding guests still haven’t stopped talking about swinging on those swings and sipping champagne, I’m not exaggerating. It sparked so much joy.
When I say I’ve never been more obsessed with anything in my entire life - I am SO obsessed with our Wedding Welcome Party theme, and the entire vibe kickoff for our destination wedding. It was so epic, iconic, and was also a theme I’ve never seen done before at a wedding welcome party, so I loved how original it was. The veuve clicquot pantone color palette also happens to be my two favorite colors paired together, so the culmination of everything this event entailed was truly chef's kiss for me.
How did you choose your table decor?
I wanted to pick decor that would look modern and timeless in photos, and something that I wouldn't look back at 1 year, 5 years or 50 years from now, and be like “ICK wtf was I thinking.l”
What flowers did you use in the boutique and at the venue?
Tropical greenery and white rose/ orchids I think? Honestly flowers were the least of my priorities for our wedding, so I’m not 100% sure what flowers we used, but they looked beautiful and I’m very happy with the final outcome.
What color scheme did you use?
I love a modern and timeless look, so for photography cohesion, we went with a very neutral color palette for our bridal party and immediate family, since that’s the photography that will most likely be displayed on our walls for the rest of our lives.
This color palette also matched our modern interior home design aesthetic, and will match any future modern home aesthetic we end up buying.
We asked our wedding guests to show up in a bright popping tropical color, which they nailed, and also contrasted the neutral color palette of all of our MVP’s. I’m SO obsessed with how the overall aesthetic turned out!
What did you use as escort cards and/or place cards?
Our seating chart shot wall, which quite literally might be my favorite decor element from our wedding reception. It was such a hit and worth the extra cost splurge.
What did you learn from the experience?
Be as selfish as possible, which I would normally never say, but this is the one day of your entire life, that is the exception to the rule and is solely about you. No one else's opinions matter but yours, and what you as a couple envision as your “perfect wedding day”.
For us, that meant omitting every single wedding tradition that didn’t feel authentically “us”, down to not even doing a first dance, father of the daughter dance or mother of the groom dance.
These things just didn’t spark joy for us and felt like a chore, and we just wanted to skip to the good part, where we could finally enjoy ourselves, and celebrate with all of our family and closest friends who flew far and wide to be there for our big weekend, and that’s exactly what we did.
If you could sum up your wedding day in one sentence, how would you describe it?
The most magical and surreal experience of my entire life, that I will truly cherish for the rest of my life.
Vendors:
Wedding Planning: Ivette Hernández at Amy Abbott Events
Wedding Venue: Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
Photographer: By Julieta
Videographer: McNielfilms
Content Creator: Behind the Scenes Baja
Invitations: Here and There Weddings
Stationery: Serendipity
Hair & Makeup Artist BRIDE: Tanya Tello
Hair and Makeup Bridal Party: Piel Canela
Rental Company:Yaya Rentals
Rental Company:Cristina G Rentals
Florist:Cristina G Florals
Entertainment: Alex DJ Cabo Events
Happenings: Baja Event Source
Bridal gown: Berta
Wedding Shoes: Etsy Seller | Ling Chan Studio
Additional Bride Looks for the weekend:
Welcome Party:
Dress Designer: Cult Gaia
IG: cultgaia
Rehearsal Dinner:
Dress Designer: Nookie
Getting Ready:
Bridal Robe: VOIR Bridal
Wedding Reception:
After Party Dress: Rosie Etienne
Grooms suite: M.J. Bale
Groom shoes: Ferragamo
Bridesmaid dresses: I let all my bridesmaids pick their own dress. The only parameters were that it needed to be satin, full length and in the color palette of soft champagne, oyster or ivory. Most of my bridesmaids bought their dresses at revolve, show me your mumu, selfie leslie, ASOS or hello molly
Groomsmen suits: Black Tux
