Married my best friend in Costa Rica!
We got married!!!!! Welcome to my Wedding Diaries Blog Part 1 <3
I couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate our love & union than by doing a Costa Rica roadtrip with the family and a week-long celebration. Who said wedding week? After all, that is exactly what we love… travel, explore, Nature, tons of delicious food, and connection. We are different and so was our wedding. In the words of my mom, “The most authentic wedding I have ever seen.” I am very proud of that. We honored who we are and we made the celebration ours. How special. This Wedding Diaries Blog will be divided into two parts. Today we will do a sneak peek of the trip, but will focus on the wedding. Part two will be focused on the trip.
The trip:
For our very intimate wedding week, our family and friends came to visit. We had some fly in from New York and others from Puerto Rico. The itinerary was Turrialba, South Caribbean, and then one night in Alajuela near the airport before their travel day. They stayed one week flying in on a Tuesday and flying out the next Tuesday.
Shoutout to Adobe Rental a Car for providing the transportation we needed to make this trip a huge success. From the bustling GAM - Grand Metropolitan Area - of Costa Rica to the steep and gorgeous mountains of Turrialba and the jungle ocean vibes of the South Caribbean, we did a bit of it all and had a safe and reliable car to take care of us. So grateful for a local company that we can trust in all of our roadtrips. Want to learn more about renting a car in Costa Rica? Check out my blog post about it. Coming to Costa Rica soon and need a car? Use code NT46J to save some money with Adobe or scan the QR code below and have peace of mind during your trip.
As much as I wanted to show my family and friends every corner of Turrialba and the South Caribbean, two areas that I so much love, I had to respect my family’s need to rest during the trip, my own need to rest, and the main events in the itinerary - wedding celebrations. Something I realized towards the end of the trip is that my family was so blessed and happy to be spending quality time with each other in a different country that their main focus never was on visiting all the places, but on connecting with each other and celebrating us. To learn all about the trip stay tuned for Wedding Diaries Blog Part 2 and also connect with us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube where all the content will be posted.
The wedding:
We wanted something as authentic as us that wouldn’t feel too much, too traditional, too stressful. We wanted to celebrate our love and officialize our union, but through connection, Nature, laughs, presence, simplicity, and just being us. Traditional wedding ceremonies are not our thing. Despite the uphill battle that this was because you quickly learn that everyone has an expectation for the wedding, we were able to make it happen and it was a dream. It honestly went 1,000,000 times better than I expected and my heart is so grateful.
Wedding week? Yes, I did say wedding week. To us it was an honor to have those we love fly in so that already was a huge celebration and did not need much else. To keep it more simple we decided to break down the wedding festivities throughout that week. Here is how we did it. Out of the 8 days, 2 are travel days so we were left with 6 days… We organized it as:
Signing day, group lunch, and cake one
Prep day and family dinner
Ceremony day, exploration, dinner, and cake two
Pizza night, toast, dance, and fun
2 days for exploring, resting, recovering, etc.
Honestly wedding week was a SUCCESS. It did not feel overwhelming at any point, there was always something to celebrate, people had time to rest and recover, and it just felt a lot more natural than trying to fit all of it in one day. I am so happy we did it this way.
Planning? We wanted SIMPLE and so we did. We had no decorations, tables, chairs, etc. We did not hire a photographer or videographer. We dressed simply in a way that felt authentic to us. We did not do catering or anything food related and instead went to eat at local sodas. We did minimal prep and surprisingly what felt that took the longest was the diy wedding dress decorations. I also wanted to keep it on a budget and did buy what felt necessary yet kept it as simple as possible.
We also love supporting locals in everything we can so you know I had to use as many local businesses as possible during this love celebration. We used some USA based providers and then mostly Costa Rica based businesses. Here is a list of them and their service or product:
Earrings: Lunoriah Florals - Etsy
Necklace: Clay Talk Gifts - Etsy
Dress: Vibra Creativa - Instagram
Wedding Rings: Glowstone CR - Instagram
Wedding Favors: Wearsos - Website
Vanilla Cake: Rosita Cocina Creativa - Instagram
Chocolate Cake: De Gustibus Bakery - Instagram
Cake Topper: TX Top Shop - Etsy
Flower Bouquet: Floristería Encantos de Talamanca - Facebook
Car Rental: Adobe Rent a Car - Website
Signing Day Meal: Soda Maga - Facebook
Ceremony Day Meal: Soda Shekiná - Facebook
Wine: Vinos de la Villa Blessed - Instagram
Airbnb Turrialba: Cabaña del Río - Airbnb
Lodging Cahuita: Alouatta Lodge and Canopy - Website
Airbnb Alajuela: Comfortable Home near the Airport - Airbnb
So how was it? A DREAM!!! We had our signing in Turrialba. I honestly had 0 expectations and it blew my mind. We did it at this local rustic mountain cabin and I could have never asked for a better place nor a better signing ceremony. I felt like I truly got married in Costa Rica. The birds, the flowers, the forest, the weather, and the wooden cabin were PERFECT. Thank you Adobe for the 4x4 that got us in and out of the place safely. It had a steep dirt and rocks road to access it. We then had a delicious meal with friends and family at Soda Maga - our favorite place to eat in Turrialba. On Saturday we had a sunrise ceremony in Puerto Viejo that was AMAZING! We had the beach just for us and the tide was low which was awesome. It also stopped raining right when we arrived which gave us the perfect foggy mountains background with the blue magic of the ocean. We had a blast and every second of it was special. Shoutout to my family for following our lead and joining us in the fun. We even hung from this rope and swung across the sand. Later in the day we went to explore the Puerto Viejo Farmer’s Market and the Cahuita National Park. At night we went to Soda Shekiná in Puerto Viejo and enjoyed the best meal with the best chocolate cake. On Sunday we did our pizza night with the toast and dancing. It was so private, cozy, simple and fun. We just had fun together, danced the night away, ate yummy food, and drank lots of great wine.
Our wedding truly was more than I ever expected and I am so grateful to everyone who made it, those that reached out, and those cheering for us. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this new blog post. I hope you enjoyed it and see you on the next one!
