Sharing my top wedding photo ideas as I revisit my big day and some of the special details along with my favorite photos our destination wedding weekend!

A destination wedding is hands down something I’d recommend to EVERYONE. It was our best decision — we were so relaxed leading up to the big day, we got to hangout with everyone we love all weekend, and it was just STUNNING!

Why I chose a Destination Wedding??

First of all, we LOVE traveling, to it seemed like right up our alley! But honestly I was so set on it from the start because 1) I feel most relaxed and shut off from work when I’m traveling, and 2) I wanted something that was more intimate with our closest family and friends — versus this huge gathering where people came just because of convenience.

Things I loved most about a destination wedding (which looking back we would 10/10 recommend to ALL)

You feel shut off from most of the stresses at home/work: I had NEVER felt more relaxed in my life than my wedding weekend – and that says a lot as a type-A personality that never rests)
You can to spend an entire WEEKEND with everyone you love versus just one night that is a huge blur! This was the BEST part — because we got to spend basically from Thursday night-Monday (it was a holiday weekend so many people stayed) with so many people we loved — it was a blast!! I’ve been to so many weddings where the bride and groom spend their whole night just going from table to table saying hello — whereas I had the whole weekend to say hey to people, that on our actual wedding day, we got to dance the night away and just have SO much fun!
Going off that, for Brandon and I who met post school – many of our friends and family didn’t know each other, so having a whole weekend where EVERYONE we loved was there and got to know one another, was so fun for us!
Bonus: you can usually do more for your money: now a misconception is that things are SUPER cheap at least where we did it which is Mexico — but even though most things except the floral (which was double the price as US) were cheaper, it just allowed us to do MORE than we could have in the US, so we did things like pick a high end resort, & did a lot of extras the day of like fireworks + dance floor + videography + DJ + an entire wedding weekend of events vs. just one night!

Here’s a highlight video of the special day!

The Process

As soon as we got engaged, Brandon and I began looking at fun destination wedding locations. Partly kidding, even though I was mostly serious. We narrowed it down to 3 locations we loved most close enough to the US, simply based on Pinterest photos. Then we looked at flight prices to each, and realized that Riviera Maya, Mexico would be our best option in terms of beauty AND affordability to get there for our guests sake.

We took a trip down to Riviera Maya back in September of 2018, to view venues, after making a list of ones we thought we’d like from online information. It wasn’t until our last day we visited Grand Velas Resorts, but we were instantly sold. This was where we wanted our special weekend, hands down. We both felt it the moment we walked on the property.

Now for alllll the wedding photo ideas to take from our incredible weekend, and especially from both our BIG DAY + our #trashthedress underwater shoot in a Tulum Cenote 2 day later. Follow more of both of my hubby and I’s journey on @MeetTheMeckelbergs! Or just him for his singing on @brandonmeck and me on @sarahgracemeck (can’t promise any singing there hah)

Wedding Vendors/Location:

Thanks goes out to the entire team from different parts of Riviera Maya who made our day special, and made these wedding photo ideas a reality for us.

Photography and videography: Juan Nuvarro from Novia Mia
Resort: Grand Velas Riviera Maya
Wedding Dress: Martina Liana
Floral: Vanessa Jaimes Floral
Audio/DJ/Lighting: Vissudha Entertainment
Hair and Makeup: Sara Tamargo
Fireworks & Sparklers: Pyrotech
Photobooth: QUIROO Entertainment

ps: Watch our wedding vows HERE!

Wedding Day Photo Ideas // Weekend Recap

Before the big day!

Airplane essentials! I take these everywhere I travel so I don’t get run down and can be relaxed 🙂 (see more on these here)

Once we got there and my mom and I went through hours of meetings, it was time for time by the pool! My family got there a couple days early with me, so my sisters and I had a fun afternoon, relaxing by the pool there at Grand Velas! Skinny Margaritas definitely included.

Link to this bathing suit: http://bit.ly/2MsagTh

Link to another white suit I love: click for TOP, click here for BOTTOMS

Link to one other last one I love!! -> Here for TOP, here for BOTTOMS

And you can’t forget about getting that movement in! Thursday before any guests began arriving, we got in a good sista sista workout, led by me of course!

Lululemon black shorts HERE & Lululemon black pants HERE!

Thursday

Brandon (now hubby), got in later Thursday! After a SUPER COOL 10-course dinner at one of Grand Velas’s restaurants, we spent some time singing away at the karaoke bar which you saw stories of if you follow me on here, and then got to bed at a decent time.

Friday

Friday EVERYONE who wasn’t there yet, arrived! One of the best parts about a destination wedding: you get a whole weekend versus just one night with everyone!

Here’s the very few pics we took down at the rehearsal spot by the beach, before heading up to our welcome dinner! The welcome dinner was so fun, we had a private restaurant and rented speakers and a projector screen so we could play a slideshow B and I made of our lives, and then allow people to speak who were there too.

Allll the bridesmaids here below: (yes, I had 11 hah)

And then of course I had to get ONE last photo with this hunk before he became my hubby the next day 🙂

Wedding Photo Ideas – The Wedding Day

The morning of May 25th, 2019 [pre-ceremony]

What really happened in the photo…

The staged version 🙂

Brandon and my two brothers

Brandon and his best man

Brandon and his dad

Wedding Photo Ideas – Right Before the Ceremony

We didn’t do a first look, but we did want to do something that was very important to both of us before joining our lives together: pray. I talked all about the power of prayer and why we sprinkled this throughout our whole day in this post here.

And then as I was waiting in the air conditioned room as guests were still taking their seat, I had to grab this quick pic with the cutest ring bearers ever, my baby nephews.

Wedding Photo Ideas – The Ceremony

I had my momma pray over us at end with all parents hands on us

Can you spot my nephew?

We took communion during the ceremony & prayed together

His Family

My family

Momma

Dad

My step momma, sister and brother in law

All the sisters

My big bro who officiated

The best man

Wedding Photo Ideas – Post Ceremony/ Pre-Reception

We took the time during the cocktail hour, to take our whole wedding party photos / family photos / photos with Brandon and I, since we didn’t do a first look. And we wouldn’t have changed a thing!

Wedding Photo Ideas – The Reception!

After our photoshoot together (on site at Grand Velas Riviera Maya where we were all staying and all events were), we headed up to the White Ballroom where we had our reception! We had a 4 hour reception and threw a few surprises in 🙂 From a fun, first dance mash up that we just put together in our date nights together, to the fireworks company we hired to come in and do a surprise display out on the balcony mid reception.

Our focus on what we spended money on was to make the whole night FUN, upbeat, and a big celebration the whole time. So the things we invested in (in terms of outside vendors, and outside of floral), was:

A lighted dance floor
A great DJ (we vetted him before haha — from Vissudha Entertainment)
A photobooth where people could take photos and leave us videos ( QUIROO)
Fireworks (by Pyrotech — a mid reception surprise between dinner and the beginning of dancing)
Sparklers (for send off by same company above)
A GREAT photo/video company (Juan Nuvarro and the Novia Mia Team)
Audio system with extra lights for decor
For Floral, we tried to save a little (even though it ended up being over 5k anyways), through these things: we used the bridesmaids bouquets for centerpieces in vases with candles around them (since I had 11 bridesmaids, and we ordered extra big bridesmaids bouquets knowing we would do this), we used the two huge bouquets from the ceremony’s gold octagon we got married under, for the sweetheart table. And then we also reused the greenery from the aisle chairs. Thankfully with such a beautiful destination/venue, we didn’t need TONS of decor.

My mom made sparkly sea shells and attached names+table number to them

Wedding Photo Ideas – The First Dance

The Parent Dances

The Speeches

When your mom brings out the baby binky…

Greatest best man speech (it was a poem!) right here

The Surprise Songs by B and His Best Man Eric (I LOVE when he sings)

The Surprise Fireworks

Everything In Between

The bouquet + garter toss

I wore my grandmother’s garter, but I ordered a fun Green Bay Packer’s one to let him throw wrapped around a football we painted gold and wrote our names and wedding date on

The cake, which I shared my post-wedding tip for right here on our joint account 🙂 Had to get a Mickey and Minnie one with my disney-loving dentist husband.