Today we will travel to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Personally, one of my favorite places in Mexico where the Pacific Ocean meets the mountains. PVR has some of the most stunning sunsets I've experienced around the world.

Will: Why did you choose a destination wedding?

The West's: Jessica and I chose a destination wedding because Jessica is originally from Mexico, so we wanted to honor her heritage and use our wedding to introduce my family to her family & culture. Plus, I work in the wedding industry and have filmed all other Minnesota so I wanted something unique and I wanted to throw an awesome party. What better place than Mexico to do that!

Will: How many attendees did you have and What kind of experience did you envision your guests having?

The West's: We ended up having about 80 guests attended, more than we thought would come so we were honored. We wanted our guests to get a true cultural experience and have an amazing time celebrating with friends and family.

Will: What was one part of planning your wedding that you knew you couldn't have done alone? How did having a Destination Wedding Specialist help with that?

The West's: Planning a destination wedding is really difficult because you're working in a place unfamiliar to you with different norms. We relied heavily on wedding planners and vendors to help navigate and organize all the pieces to create an amazing wedding weekend. Destination Wedding Specialist helped arrange all the accommodation for our guests and coordinate transportation to and from the airport. This was a tremendous help for our guests as they could talk with Will and his team directly to have questions answered and arrange booking dates outside of our hotel block. Guests loved having that responsibility taken off their plate. Will also helped get us a nice rebate from the hotel as part of the reservation bonus for having guests stay there.

Will: What piece of advice would you give to couples who are just starting the planning process?

The West's: Rely on wedding experts to help with the planning process. It will save you so many headaches and lost time. I couldn't imagine planning my destination wedding by myself. Our local wedding planner and Will from Destination Weddings Expert made the whole experience so easy.

Will: What’s one “extra” you’re super glad you splurged on?  What surprised you the most about your wedding?

The West's: Video. Video. Video. It was by far our most expensive component to the wedding, but the day goes by so quickly and you want something to look back on and remember all those amazing memories. Our videographers knocked it out of the park and created the most amazing video ever. It's one of the few things we'll have for decades to come to remember our wedding in vivid detail. What surprised me most about our wedding is that the dance floor was never quiet, even in 90-degree weather and pure humidity. People had such an amazing time even though they were drenched in sweat :P We danced until 1 am that night.

Will: If you could choose three words to describe your wedding, what would they be?

The West's: 

1. Cultural
2. Party
3. Spectacular

Will: What is your favorite memory from your big day?

The West's: Our favorite memory was the 13 piece mariachi band and dance performance. They were the best mariachi band we had ever heard and the dancers stole the show.

Soooo I may have a thing for crowns but Jessica's gown and crown were to die for! (Little Insider's Secret: The Crown Jessica wore is Dan's Grandma's from 67 years ago when she got married... oh my heart! How special is that?) 

Between and I, I think this is one of the cutest couples ever. Is it appropriate to say that I can't wait to see their beautiful kids? <3