There are some weekends in your life that you know, even while you're living them, you're going to wish you could go back to.
Our wedding weekend was one of those.
My husband Efraín and I got married on March 10, 2024, at ACRE Resort in Cabo with about 60 of our closest family and friends. We had been engaged for a year, and from the beginning, we knew we didn't want our wedding to feel overly formal or stuffy. We wanted it to feel like the ultimate family and friends reunion, a gathering of all of our favorite people in one place, celebrating life and love.
We wanted it to be beautiful. We wanted it to feel like you had walked into paradise. We wanted it to be FUN and most importantly, we want it to be meaningful.
Somehow, the weekend ended up surpassing everything we imagined.
We had four days of family and friends, dinners, dancing, celebrating and just being together. It was joyful and beautiful and genuinely felt like a dream.
But there was another layer to the weekend that made it especially meaningful for me.
Our wedding was the first big celebration in our family since my dad passed away three and a half years earlier. It was the first GOOD thing to happen in a long time... the first time our whole family was coming together again for something happy and celebratory.
It was also the first time our two families were meeting. Efraín had lived in Bogotá for most of our relationship before we moved to Mexico, so it was even the first time many of my friends and family were meeting my husband. There were a lot of people we loved, from completely different parts of our lives, finally coming together in one place.
And Cabo gave us the most perfect backdrop to do it.
Jump to:
- Our ACRE Wedding at a Glance
- Why We Chose Cabo for Our Wedding
- Why We Chose ACRE Resort
- The Vision for Our Wedding
- The Details That Made Our Wedding Feel Like Us
- We Wanted the Night to Feel Like an Experience
- And Yes, the Food Was Incredible
- What I Wanted Our Guests to Feel
- The Wedding I Actually Wanted
- Next: Come to Our Wedding With Me
- ACRE Wedding FAQs
- Related
Our ACRE Wedding at a Glance
- Wedding date: March 10, 2024
- Venue: ACRE Resort, Cabo - Mango Orchard
- Guests: About 60 family and friends
- Weekend: Four days of celebrations
- Style: Elevated, chic and warm
- Dress code: Cocktail attire in earth tones
Why We Chose Cabo for Our Wedding
When Efraín and I first started talking about marriage, Cabo was always the plan. We knew our wedding was going to be a destination wedding no matter where we had it. Efraín is Colombian, and most of his family was living in Bogotá, with other family in San Diego, Ecuador, Mexico and throughout the U.S. My family was split between Las Vegas and Miami, and our friends were coming from Las Vegas, Dallas, Reno and Southern California.
Basically, our people were all over the place. There was no location that was going to be "local" for everyone.
We briefly considered Cartagena - which would have also been incredible - but Cabo just felt right.
We wanted somewhere international but relatively easy to get to. Somewhere beautiful and memorable. Somewhere that knew how to do weddings really well. We were also already planning to move to Cabo. We weren't living here when we booked our venue, but we knew we would be by the time we got married, so choosing Cabo felt even more natural.
And there was something else I loved about having a destination wedding: it gave us more than one night with everyone. If our friends and family were going to travel from all over to celebrate with us, we wanted it to feel like an actual weekend together, not just a five-hour wedding reception and goodbye.
Cabo gave us exactly that.
Why We Chose ACRE Resort
Even though we were getting married in Cabo, I knew pretty early on that I didn't want the classic barefoot-on-the-beach wedding with the ocean behind us. Don't get me wrong, that can be absolutely gorgeous. It just wasn't what I pictured for our wedding.
I wanted something with a little more feeling. More atmosphere. More of a wow when you walked in.
We actually saved our barefoot-on-the-beach moment for our welcome party, and it was perfect: sunset, a bonfire, string lights, live music and everyone barefoot in the sand. It gave us that quintessential Cabo beach moment without making it the setting for the wedding itself.
For the wedding, I wanted something completely different.
I had been to ACRE before and absolutely loved the property. It has this lush, tropical, almost jungle-like feeling that's completely different from the Cabo most people picture. There are treehouses hidden throughout the greenery and all of these beautifully curated little pockets to eat, drink and hang out.
The venue itself is the decoration. And that was exactly what I wanted.
I didn't want to bring in a tent. I didn't want mountains of florals or a ton of extra decor just to transform a space into something beautiful. I wanted to start with a venue that already had the feeling we were trying to create.
ACRE was a showstopper all on its own.
The only other property I seriously looked at was Hotel San Cristóbal in Todos Santos, which I also loved, but once we received the pricing, it was WAY outside our budget.
So really, it was ACRE all the way. I actually booked the venue before Efraín had seen it in person. He trusted my vision, smart man 😉
A few months before we moved to Cabo, we came down and toured the property together. Let's just say he was beyond thrilled.
The Vision for Our Wedding
If I had to describe the vision in a few words, it would be:
Elevated. Chic. Warm.
Not overly formal. I didn't want a stuffy black-tie event. I didn't want bright, vibrant wedding colors or anything that felt overly decorated. I wanted warmth, earth tones and a little bit of understated elegance. Basically, I wanted it to feel like the most epic, elevated backyard party under the stars.
We used ACRE's wood tables and chairs rather than upgrading them because they already worked perfectly with the setting. Our florals stayed within warm, earthy tones, and we kept the lighting simple. ACRE already had string lights overhead, so we added candles throughout the tables and let the property do the rest.
Our signage was simple too. We had a classic seating chart and a neon sign behind the DJ booth that read:
It Was Always You.
Our dress code was cocktail attire, and we asked our guests to stay within an earth-tone color palette. Looking back at the photos, I'm SO glad we did. Everything just worked together.
A small, but not insignificant item I loved about the wedding actually took place months before the wedding.
The Invitations
I was obsessed with our invitations.
They were the first glimpse our guests got of what the wedding was going to feel like, so they mattered to me. I wanted someone to open that invitation and immediately understand the vibe of the weekend before they ever got on the plane.
For me, those little details were never about adding more stuff. They were about setting the tone. And that became a theme throughout the entire wedding.
The Details That Made Our Wedding Feel Like Us
Our wedding was beautiful, obviously. But the things I remember most aren't necessarily the things you'd find on a Pinterest checklist. They're the personal details.
Both of our families are Latin-mine is Cuban and Efraín's is Colombian-and it was important to us that our cultures and families were represented throughout the wedding without making anything feel forced.
Some parts were obvious. There was plenty of Spanish throughout the night, from introductions to speeches. Efraín's younger brother gave his toast in Spanish. Our first dance was to Maluma. We played plenty of salsa, obviously! And we ended the night with an Hora Loca, a tradition you'll find at plenty of Latin weddings when everyone gets a second wind and the party gets a little crazier. And as the Hora Loca kicked off, we had the staff pass around Carajillos... one of my favorite cocktails... during the final stretch of the night!
Other details were much more personal.
Keeping Our Families With Us
We displayed photographs of my parents, Efraín's parents and both sets of our grandparents.
My cousin Adrian officiated our ceremony.
My grandmother did a reading of 1 Corinthians, the same passage that had been read at my parents' wedding and that I later read at my cousin Juan's wedding.
We incorporated the mantilla tradition into our ceremony, with my mom and Efraín's older brother placing it over us to symbolize not only our marriage, but the joining of our two families. We didn't want an overtly religious ceremony, but we did want moments of spirituality and tradition that actually meant something to us.
And then, of course, there was my dad.
Finding Ways to Include My Dad
Figuring out how to include my dad in the wedding was really important to me. I wanted him present without making the entire day about the fact that he wasn't there. So we found little ways to weave him into the wedding.
We had a cigar rolling station in his honor, and the cigars were wrapped with a custom band that read: Love you, AM
The words were taken from my dad's actual handwriting. If you knew my dad, cigars made perfect sense. And having that tiny piece of his handwriting there made it so much more personal.
I also carried a small vintage-style frame with his photo attached to my bouquet. The frame was tied onto a piece of fabric from my mom's wedding dress, which I wrapped around the bouquet. Most people probably never even noticed it. And that was the point, it was for me.
At the ceremony, we kept the seat beside my mom empty and placed a single rose there for him.
Those were the kinds of details I wanted. Small. Meaningful. Intentional. Not everything needed an announcement.
We Wanted the Night to Feel Like an Experience
This is probably the best way I can explain our approach to the entire wedding.
I wanted to curate how the evening felt.
I cared about what people heard when they arrived. What they smelled. What they ate. What the lighting looked like as the sun went down. How we transitioned from cocktails into dinner and from dinner into dancing. The details weren't there simply because weddings are "supposed" to have them.
For cocktail hour, we had a Spanish guitar duo playing while everyone mingled around the pool. As dinner ended, one of the musicians came back out with a saxophone to kick off the dancing. Later came the Hora Loca and trays of Carajillos.
And food was a huge part of it.
And Yes, the Food Was Incredible
Food was really important to both of us, and this is one area where ACRE absolutely delivered.
Wedding food can be... well... wedding food. In my opinion, ours was genuinely incredible. I mean, ACRE is a Michelin Star rated restaurant.
We started with a first course that included cheddar biscuits with honey and cultured butter, fried green tomatoes and local shrimp aguachile. For dinner, guests could choose from a selection of wild mushroom risotto, braised beef with a red wine reduction, and a fresh catch of the day, a la plancha. This was all served family style, and was beautifully placed throughout the tables for everyone to enjoy.
And instead of stopping the party later for a traditional cake-cutting, we had a dessert table with coconut alfajores filled with dulce de leche, mini lime meringue pies and individual Mexican cajeta flans.
The food felt like another part of the experience rather than something we just needed to feed everyone. And that was exactly what we wanted.
What I Wanted Our Guests to Feel
More than anything, I wanted people to feel the love. I know that sounds cheesy, but there's really no better way to say it.
These were people who had traveled from different countries and different parts of our lives to celebrate with us. Some had never met each other. Some hadn't seen each other in years. Some were meeting Efraín for the first time. I wanted everyone to feel like they were part of something special.
I wanted them to eat really good food, have a really good cocktail, dance, laugh, catch up with people they loved and look around at some point during the night and think: This is really freaking beautiful.
And they did. Afterward, we had friends and family tell us it was one of the most beautiful and intentional weddings they'd ever attended. That meant more to me than someone telling me we threw the craziest party they'd ever been to.
Although, admittedly, it took me a minute to realize that.
The Wedding I Actually Wanted
I had a few moments after our wedding where I caught myself comparing it to other weddings.
Was our party wild enough? Should everyone have been dancing on tables until 3 a.m.? Was it THE PARTY? And then I had to snap myself out of it.
Comparison really is the thief of joy, especially when we live in a world where Instagram gives you an endless supply of other people's weddings to compare yours to.
Because when I thought about what I had actually wanted from the beginning, it wasn't to throw the wildest wedding anyone had ever attended. I wanted to create a magical, intentional, beautiful and FUN weekend with all of our favorite people.
I wanted our families to meet. I wanted our cultures represented. I wanted my dad to be there in the ways he still could be. I wanted incredible food, beautiful music and a party under the stars. I wanted everyone we loved together in one place celebrating something good.
And that is exactly what we got. Our wedding weekend wasn't just everything I had hoped it would be. It was better.
Next: Come to Our Wedding With Me
There is SO much of the actual wedding day I haven't even told you yet.
The slow morning at the Hilton. Our first look. The one-minute rain shower that appeared out of nowhere right before the ceremony. The peacock that somehow timed his entrance perfectly. Our vows in English and Spanish. The cocktail hour I accidentally missed too much of. Cold fireworks. A surprise dance my mom planned that completely wrecked me. Saxophone. Carajillos. Hora Loca.
And the two of us wandering around ACRE barefoot in our wedding clothes at the end of the night because we couldn't find our treehouse.
That's Part Two:
Our ACRE Cabo Wedding: From Getting Ready to Dancing Under the Stars
And yes, I'll tell you what I would do differently too.
ACRE Wedding FAQs
We got married on March 10, 2024, at ACRE Resort in Cabo, with our celebration in the Mango Orchard.
We celebrated with about 60 of our closest family and friends.
I loved its lush, tropical atmosphere and wanted a venue that already felt beautiful without a tent, mountains of florals or lots of extra decor. We saved our barefoot beach celebration for the welcome party.
Our dress code was cocktail attire, and we asked guests to wear an earth-tone color palette.
We included Spanish speeches, salsa, a first dance to Maluma, the mantilla tradition and a Hora Loca. My cousin officiated, and my grandmother read the same passage from 1 Corinthians that had been read at my parents' wedding.
We had a cigar rolling station with custom bands featuring his handwriting, his photo attached to my bouquet with fabric from my mom's wedding dress, and an empty seat beside my mom with a single rose.
Related
For more of our Cabo celebrations, read my three-day Cabo bachelorette party itinerary and guide to planning an elevated Cabo bachelorette party.
