Real Wedding from Collection Member Allyson Wiley

Real Wedding: Megan and Adam
Photography by Allyson Wiley Photography

The Love Story: Adam and I met one Saturday night in the fall of 2008 at Ottimista, a San Francisco wine bar.  An introduction led to hours of conversation, including our love of architecture {I’m an architect; Adam works in Real Estate Investments} and the fact that we both unknowingly worked in the same building downtown.  We had our first official date two weeks later and {although it sounds cheesy} we knew we had finally met “the one”.  After two years of dating, Adam proposed over a late-morning game of croquet at the Parker Hotel during a weekend getaway in Palm Springs.  

The Lovely Details: We wanted a small destination wedding and settled on Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Resort in Cabo San Lucas. We chose the location for the amazing clean architectural details of the resort and the beauty of the natural beach backdrop.  We wanted to keep things clean with white as our main color and accents of navy blue, teal, and light pink to compliment the beauty of the location. The ceremony took place around a circular copper and stone fire-pit with the Pacific Ocean as our backdrop.  An amazing string quartet played a mixture of classical Mexican music and some of our favorites, including a couple of classics from The Beatles.

We had custom gift bags for all guests upon arrival to the resort.  Each person received a traditional Mexican oil cloth beach bag that contained white custom stitched beach towels with an image of a pineapple {a symbol of hospitality}, flip-flops, hair ties for the ladies, and local snacks. We had a “wishing tree” where our guests could write us little messages and wishes.  We saved them and read them to each other on our one year anniversary.  It was really special to read these a year later and it brought us right back to our special day.

Our first look was by far one of our favorite moments.  Allyson orchestrated the entire thing, which allowed us to have a very special, private moment with each other before the ceremony.  For a few minutes it was just us and Allyson captured that moment beautifully.

The biggest challenge was coordinating an international wedding from San Francisco.  We really had to trust the resort’s wedding coordinator to make sure that our views and desires were clearly expressed.  We were thoroughly impressed with the turnout and Laura did an incredible job.

Vendors:

Venue, Catering, Planning, Hair and Floral Design: Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Resort & Spa
Photography: Allyson Wiley Photography
Bride's Dress: Custom-made dress from Amy Kuschel
Maid of Honor Dress: J. Crew
Groom's Suit: John Varvatos
Shoes: Badgley Mischka
Makeup Artist: Christine Tusher {Bride's friend}                                          
Band: Trio Los Mosquitos and DJ Mijares