Lindley and Tyler's Costa Rica Wedding

Before this wedding season gets too crazy I wanted to blog about Lindley and Tyler's amazing wedding in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica back in February. Lindley first contacted me in April of 2013. She lives in Baltimore but found me on The Knot. When Lindley first came to me she had no idea where she wanted to have the wedding, she just knew she didn't want your typical cookie cutter or hotel wedding. Her ideas were "a private island in the Caribbean, a beach in Florida, a winery in New York, or somewhere along the Chesapeake". No problem! I put my girls Emily and Steph on research in the States while I started the search for a private island!

We all found quite a few options and sent them to her to review. I ended up coming across a gorgeous villa in Costa Rica - Punto de Vista. As soon as I sent this to Lindley she said it was the one! I worked with the villa owner, David, on pricing, and they decided to book!

The next challenge was that this was NOT an all-inclusive venue like many people think of for destination weddings. The villa rental was just for the villa. I needed to find a photographer, caterer, florist, rentals, officiant, and DJ. I did a TON of research and narrowed it down to one or two from each category and then started interviewing them. Thank goodness for Skype since that is how we got to "meet" the vendors long distance.

For photographer I immediately thought of my friend and amazing wedding photographer, Clane Gessel, from Seattle. I sent Lindley some other referrals but she fell in love with Clane's pictures. He was a no brainer to hire!

For DJ we interviewed two but as soon as we talked to DJ Teemour we both knew he was the one. He did such an amazing job...so amazing that he and his partner ended up sleeping on the couch at the villa! Now that's a sign of a great party!

I found two caterers but as soon as we spoke with Desiree from In House Chef and got her menu she was the obvious choice. They ended up catering both the rehearsal dinner and reception dinner. The food was AMAZING!

I did a lot of research on getting married in Costa Rica and while doing my research came across Ana Castro. She is both an attorney and an officiant so they decided to book her. She was so lovely and did such a great job at the ceremony!

One of the tougher vendors was the florist. We thought we found the perfect florist. We Skyped with him and he was wonderful. We loved his proposal and the samples he showed us were great. But then he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth! I started my research again and came across Jesus Villalobos from Tropical Catering Service. We talked with him and told him Lindley's ideas and decided to book him. He was also able to help with all the rentals. They say things happen for a reason and I have to say it's so good that the other florist "disappeared" because Jesus was so great to work with and the flowers and rentals were amazing! Lindley did not want your typical tropical flowers. He knew exactly what she meant and delivered what she wanted!

Love the details – silver chiavari chairs, chargers, and more!

The venue - Punto de Vista - all I can say is AMAZING! Most times you see something in pictures and then it's not quite as nice in person. Not this place! It was BETTER than the pictures! After a very long day of travel (we all met at BWI airport at 4am, had two long and uncomfortable flights, then a 3 hour "bus" ride from the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica to the villa in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica) we arrived at the villa. Everyone was just amazed. We were welcomed by Ollie, the villa concierge. He and his staff were all so amazing throughout the week and made the stay even better!

I went down with some of the family and guests the Wednesday before the wedding so that I could meet with the vendors in person, check out the villa, and figure out where to have the ceremony. I was a bit nervous because I really didn't know any of them that well. But they all made me feel like family. It was truly one of the best groups I've ever worked with! It was a large wedding for a destination wedding - around 60 guests. But I got to know almost all of them and have made many new friends out of this wedding!

The wedding day was perfect! The only almost hiccup was that about 30 minutes before the ceremony was to start I realized that high tide was coming. I was worried the chairs had been set too close to the water. So Ollie and I hopped on his motorcycle and went to the beach and moved all the chairs and ceremony items with the help of a couple of guests that were already down there! I think we would have been safe keeping them where they were but really didn't want to take a chance with that!

It was a wonderful week with an amazing couple and their family! Here are some more of the pictures from the wedding (all by Clane Gessel - you can see more here and here):