Amanda & RJ
DESTINATION WEDDING IN MEXICO
Amanda and RJ just marked a beautiful milestone in their love story by getting married at the stunning Hyatt Ziva Cancun. It was a privilege to help them craft the destination wedding of their dreams. Want to know why they chose this paradise for their big day? Check out their full review and discover what made their wedding truly one-of-a-kind!
Wedding date: April 2024
Travel advisor: Andrea Norfolk
Destination: Cancun, Mexico
Resort: Hyatt Ziva Cancun
How did you meet?
We met through a mutual friend during a night out in Pittsburgh! We both have September birthdays and went to the same place having a “birthday weekend special” to celebrate. We got along immediately, but the timing wasn’t right. We met again when out with friends a few times over the course of 6 months and reconnected on St. Patrick’s Day which then bloomed into our relationship! We “officially” started dating on April 29th, 2018 and it was a fun decision to get married on our 6 year anniversary!
Why did you choose to have a destination wedding?
Amanda was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and moved to Pittsburgh, PA (where RJ was born and raised) for grad school in 2015. She’s been living in Pittsburgh ever since. When deciding where to get married, we thought “let’s give everyone the opportunity to travel and have an amazing vacation!” rather than making our east coast friends and family travel to the west coast or our west coast friends and family travel to the East Coast.
Why did you choose Hyatt Ziva Cancun for your destination wedding?
We had talked about the idea of having a destination wedding for a while prior to engagement and Amanda was part of destination wedding Facebook groups for months leading up to being engaged. We have been to multiple resorts in Riviera Maya and Punta Cana, and something about Cancun felt right. After looking at photos posted by previous brides and reading their reviews about their weddings and resorts, Hyatt Ziva Cancun was high on our list. The deciding factor between Hyatt Ziva Cancun and our 2nd choice was that we wanted our 2.5 year old niece and 9 year old and 14 year old nephews to be there. It was really the perfect resort for all ages!!
What was your most memorable moment during your ceremony?
We chose to include a sand ceremony during our wedding ceremony, but instead of colored sand like you often see brides and groom use, we used sand from the beaches we grew up going to with our families. We got sand in Ocean City, MD last summer on our annual family vacation with RJ’s family and Amanda’s matron of honor brought sand from Hermosa Beach, CA where Amanda grew up going with her family. Combing the sand was so special to do in front of our families and closest friends because it showed the symbolization of us becoming one marital unit while also symbolizing the togetherness of our families and memories we cherish.
What was the best part about having a destination wedding?
Having a BIG celebration and vacation with our families and friends was so much fun!!!! Also, as stressful as planning our wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, and welcome event via emails for 13 months was… it was INCREDIBLE seeing our vision come to life. The entire time we were at Hyatt Ziva Cancun, we felt like royalty and like we were the only wedding party there even though there was at least 10 others! Everything we dreamed of and visualized was better than expected and it was so overwhelmingly beautiful and magical seeing all our hard work and decisions made via email come true!
What was your experience using Shoreline Destinations?
Andrea, Meredith, and Ellen were SO helpful!! I found Shoreline Destinations through another bride’s recommendation on a Facebook group. I reached out for the free consultation and immediately knew I wanted to work with Andrea and her team! I knew which resort I wanted already, so that helped us speed along straight to getting our contract and room block finalized.
We honestly have NO idea how we would have done that on our own. It was amazing not having to worry about contacting the resort and dealing with any possible language barriers. We felt extremely confident in letting Andrea setup our contracts and letting Meredith handle all bookings for our guests. We had a few room changes happen with guests swapping rooms and Andrea and Meredith took full control over the situations so that we didn’t have to stress about it or risk losing money. Ellen was wonderful and responsive with anything we needed added to our website! It was also super great not having to worry about creating our own wedding website because it’s included when working with Shoreline Destinations! Overall, working with Shoreline Destinations helped us be able to focus on planning out wedding event and not stress over our guests booking their rooms or contracts with the resort and that was an incredible stressor to not have to deal with!
A big thank you to Amanda and RJ for sharing the details of their destination wedding planning journey and experience!
WORK WITH SHORELINE DESTINATIONS!
✔ Customized destination wedding proposal
✔ Contract review & room block recommendations
✔ Custom wedding website
✔ Guest reservation management
✔ Discounted resort site visits prior to your wedding
✔ Transportation & excursion recommendations
✔ Access to “The Vault” filled with wedding planning tips
✔On-site representation*
*Based on room block size. Contact us for details.
