Amanda and Adam knew most of their loved ones—dispersed around the country—would be hopping a plane to their wedding regardless of location, so the couple fully embraced the “destination wedding” concept and threw a long weekend bash in Los Cabos. The couple enlisted Amy Abbott Events to create the celebration of their dreams. With the help of fabulous vendors, tropical accents, personalized details and TONS of florals, the team transformed Flora Farms into a lush garden affair with twinkling cafe lights to cap it all off. Photographer duo Chris & Lynn were on hand to capture all the magic in these lovely images.
What made the wedding special and unique?
With Adam’s family in California, and my family in Michigan and Texas, we knew that most people would need to get on a plane in order to celebrate with us. So, we decided to fully embrace the idea of a destination wedding! Cabo was an easy decision. My parents are owners at Esperanza, so we are down in Cabo a few times a year. Baja California has become a place near and dear to our hearts, and we couldn’t wait to share it with our family and friends! We actually decided on Flora Farms as our wedding location even before we were officially engaged!
To us, it was important that our wedding was more than just one day. From our experience, a wedding is a total whirlwind and blur – not just for the bride and groom, but often for the guests too! We wanted to make sure we had ample time to celebrate and spend time with the most important people in our lives.
So we thought: Why have a one-day wedding when you can have a four-day wedding weekend extravaganza?! With the help of our incredible wedding planner, Lynette Dow with Amy Abbott Events, we planned four days of events for our guests… So much planning and details went into the four days of events, we sincerely could not have done it all without Lynette! She was a true lifesaver and miracle worker.
We kicked things off on Thursday with a private catamaran sunset cruise with Tropicat. Our guests were able to mingle and get to know one another, while soaking in some of the most beautiful sights of Cabo, including The Arch. On Friday, the day before our wedding, we hosted a Mexican Fiesta on the beach at Esperanza – complete with a mariachi band! From there, we enjoyed an elegant dinner overlooking the ocean, on Esperanza’s “Seaside Terrace,” with an incredible saxophonist and fireworks to cap off the evening!
Most of our guests attended all four days of events, which meant that by the end of the weekend, strangers had been transformed into close friends. There was no distinction between “Adam’s family” or “Amanda’s family.” This closeness and energy was so apparent at our wedding – it was truly magical.
Tell us about the gown and where/how you found it!
The gown is Jenny Packham. (2017 collection, Style: ‘Nashville’) The dress was absolute perfection. I felt like a million bucks wearing it. And it was ridiculously comfortable.
When it came to wedding dress shopping, I was incredibly spoiled since we live in New York City – all of the best salons and designers are right here. My mom, sister, and best friend flew into NYC from every corner of the country – Michigan, Texas, and Minnesota – for a weekend of dress shopping. Little did we know, we would find the dress on the very first day!
The gown was exactly what I was looking for, down to every detail. I knew it was “the one” as soon as I tried it on. We found it at a bridal salon right near our apartment – Gabriella New York Bridal Salon, in Soho. Bonus: Gabriella was having a Jenny Packham Trunk Show, which meant a 10% discount!
What were some touches added to make the wedding personal?
There were so many personal touches throughout the day… In particular, every aspect and detail of the wedding ceremony was incredibly personal to us. It was important that our officiant was someone who knew us extremely well, both separately as individuals and together as a couple. The decision was easy: my sister’s husband and our brother-in-law. To us, Jeff was the obvious choice – beyond being one of the most important people in our lives, he is funny, articulate, and well-spoken. As a former trial attorney for the Department of Justice, we knew Jeff could easily command the crowd. We did not have a Plan B or back-up choice, so we were extremely relieved when he agreed to officiate! With Jeff we designed and wrote our entire wedding ceremony, start to finish. It was an incredibly time-consuming process, but also an incredibly powerful experience. In the months leading up to the wedding, Adam and I would sit together at a neighborhood coffee shop on the weekends, working on the ceremony. It was a unique opportunity to verbalize and solidify our definitions of love and marriage.
There were several personal touches throughout the ceremony, including:
Our Parents: First, it was important to me that both of my parents walked me down the aisle. During the ceremony, I wore my mom’s wedding garter, and a piece of my mom’s wedding dress was wrapped around my bouquet. Additionally, we asked both sets of parents to join us at the front during the ceremony for a “Parents’ Affirmation.”
Ring Bearer Trucks: Our two nephews (my sister’s boys) were our ring bearers. In the months leading up to the wedding, Eli (4) and Ezra (2) made it known that they would not go down the aisle without trucks. So, with the help of a DIY blog and a very crafty person on TaskRabbit, we found two classic metal Tonka dump trucks, sanded them down, took them apart, repainted them, and put them back together! This was not an easy task – we found out the hard way that current day Tonka trucks cannot be taken apart. So we had to track down two classic trucks on eBay. But the end results were beyond worth it… The dump trucks were transformed from a garish bright yellow to a soft bridal white – a much better fit for the aesthetics of our wedding! And the boys loved the trucks! (They took them home with them from Mexico.) We put rose petals in the back of the dump trucks, and the rest is history…. The boys completely stole the show!
Hand-Selected Readings: We didn’t want just the typical, cliché wedding readings that you tend to hear at every single wedding. The two readings we selected were incredibly meaningful to us – for us, the readings were a way to make a statement as a couple about our shared set of values and beliefs. The first reading was an excerpt from the majority opinion from the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. The second reading was a love letter written by Johnny Cash to his wife, June Carter, on her 65th birthday (after more than 25 years of marriage).
Vows: Since we wrote our entire ceremony, it was only fitting that we also write our vows. While many couples opt to write their own vows, separately, we wrote our vows together. We decided together what promises we wanted to make to one another and of course, we agonized together over every single word choice. It was so meaningful and powerful to recite the vows we had written together to one another during our ceremony. Amanda: For better or worse, I can’t help but concentrate on every single little detail! Every decision was made and every details was selected with a great deal of care, thought, and purpose… From the local, handcrafted avocado soaps from Santo Cabo in the bridal party gift bags to the vintage, mid-century, Mexican sterling silver cufflinks I tracked down on Etsy for Adam as a gift on our wedding day. To me, the magic of our wedding was in these small, thoughtful details and personal touches.
Adam: Adam is more of a “big picture” kind of guy. But he got all into the details when it came to the music! Music was an integral and personal part of our wedding, from start to finish, with several meaningful songs throughout. We selected a string trio for our ceremony – comprised of Daryl Currie and Cabo Strings. Adam entered the ceremony to “In My Life” by The Beatles. I walked down the aisle with my parents to an instrumental version of “Latch” by Disclosure – a meaningful song to us that came out in 2014 when we first started dating.
We found an amazing Cabo-based band, The Currents, to perform during our cocktail hour, dinner, and first dances. Our first dance was to “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison. Thanks to dance lessons we had been taking in New York, we surprised the crowd with a beautifully choreographed dance… complete with two lifts! Neither of us are particularly coordinated or rhythmically inclined, so this was a big deal for us! And to keep the dance party going, we transitioned from live music to DJ Alex during the reception. Adam worked closely with DJ Alex on the playlist, which was incredible – the dance floor was packed all night. The dance party was a whirlwind – there was even an impromptu conga line! The last song of the night was another meaningful song to us, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley.
What was the most memorable part of the day?
It’s impossible to pick just one… In many ways, so much of it was memorable. And in other ways, so much of the day was just a complete blur! A few stand-out memorable moments:
Morning Coffee / Vow Writing: We woke up early on the morning of our wedding and sat outside on the balcony of our villa at Esperanza – drinking our morning coffee, and looking out over the ocean as the sun was rising. It was truly magical. And it was so important to have a few quiet, peaceful moments together before the chaos and craziness of the day began! And of course, since we both tend to save things until the last minute, we still had not yet finalized our vows… We had been working on them over the previous weeks, but had been agonizing over word choice, length, etc. We couldn’t seem to finalize our vows. But that peaceful moment provided much-needed clarity – suddenly, it was so easy to finish our wedding vows that morning. It was truly a magical way to start our wedding day.
First Look: We’re so glad we opted to do a “first look” before the ceremony. We did our first look at Esperanza, in a beautifully lush and tropical part of the property. It was so private and intimate. We were both so excited, we were grinning ear to ear. I was shaking, Adam was speechless.
Little Moments of Humor & Levity: It was important to us that our ceremony was heartfelt and meaningful, but not too sappy. I really, really did not want to cry! There were a few much-appreciated, unplanned little moments of humor and levity that continue to be the things that stand out most in our memories. Most notably, our nephew Eli interrupted our ceremony in the most adorable way possible. He decided he wanted to go dig in the dirt with his dump truck. So he nonchalantly walked up to me, handed me his precious lovey (“Brown Owl”), and said “Here, hold this” before running off with his dump truck. (I ended up throwing “Brown Owl” to my mom, who was sitting in the front row.)
Tell us how you met and became engaged.
Adam and I met in February 2014 on Match.com – the true OG of online dating, before the countless dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble became ubiquitous with dating in New York. Adam had recently moved to NYC from LA to get his MBA at Columbia. I was working 80 hour weeks at an advertising agency. Without Match.com, our paths likely would have never crossed.
Neither of us believe in love at first sight, but it was as close as it gets! Our first date was perfection, even though I was 45 minutes late and broke a glass! By our third date, Adam had basically moved in! We ended up living together in a 500 square foot studio apartment for almost a year – and more importantly, we didn’t kill each other!
We got engaged about two years after dating, in early 2016. Adam managed to surprise me with a proposal in Washington Square Park – complete with our friends, massive balloons, and a photographer to capture it all! That said, I might be the hardest person in the world to surprise… As he fell asleep that night, Adam whispered: “This was the best – and worst – day of my life. I will never surprise you again.”
Photographer: Chris & Lynn // Planning: Lynette Dow of Amy Abbott Events // Flowers: Pina Cate // Paper Goods/Printed Material: Bells and Whistles // Cake and Venue: Flora Farms // Wedding Dress: Jenny Packham // Hair and Makeup: Blanc Bridal Salon // Minister: Jeff Tapick (bride’s brother-in-law) // Rentals: Baja Boutique (lounge & bar) / Del Cabo Event Design (tables & chairs) / Pina Cate (table decor) // Dance Floor: Let it Be Events // Reception music, DJ and Lighting: DJ Alex Alanis // Transportation Company: Impala Transportation // Ceremony Entertainment: Daryl with Cabo Strings // Cocktail & Dinner Entertainment: Daryl and Monique (cocktail) The Currants (dinner) // Wedding Shoes: Badgley Mischka // Ring Box: The Mrs. Box