Our Engagement, Our Ring, and How We Chose Our Wedding Destination in Mexico

The Day Our Blind Date Became a Life Journey!

Our Engagement day!

I got engaged on my birthday, August 3rd. It was a surprise — not that it happened, but how it happened.

That morning, I was still in my pajamas when Mike sat me down in our living room in Chicago and handed me a book he had made for me. It was titled something like The 10 Things I Love About You. It was thoughtful, emotional, and very Mike.

When I finished the book, he got down on one knee and proposed. Then we noticed CJ, our puppy, wearing my engagement ring on her collar. It was one of those moments that’s not polished or staged, but incredibly personal.

We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating my birthday and our engagement at Lollapalooza, and it felt exactly right.

My Engagement Ring

When it came to the ring, Mike did something I still think was incredibly smart. Instead of guessing what I would want, he gave me a small, simple diamond ring and a matching loose diamond. His idea was that these would eventually become diamond studs, and that we would go choose my engagement ring together. That way, the proposal was still a surprise, but I wouldn’t end up with a ring that wasn’t me.

It was the best of both worlds. I got to choose something I truly loved, and I didn’t lose the magic of the moment.

The ring I wear today is still my dream ring. It’s a two-carat princess-cut center stone with a very feminine band, detailed with oval and round diamonds. It’s delicate, elegant, and feels like me. My wedding band mirrors it, and they’re both beautiful on their own or together.

His and Hers Wedding Bands

Once we were engaged, one thing was very clear: a city wedding was never an option for us. Mike and I love travel, adventure, and experiences. The idea of gathering our favorite people and turning our wedding into a shared vacation just made sense. Mexico was always the answer — the real question was where.

We were torn between Puerto Vallarta, where I grew up traveling and where I had planned countless events, and somewhere newer to us, like Playa del Carmen. Puerto Vallarta would have been easier for my family and very familiar for me, but that familiarity was also part of the hesitation.

So we did what I now encourage my clients to do: we went to see it for ourselves.

In Puerto Vallarta, we toured private gardens, ocean-view venues, villas, and restaurant buyouts. They were beautiful, but they felt familiar — too familiar. I had planned weddings and events in these spaces before, and while there was nothing wrong with them, it didn’t feel exciting for us. It felt like I was recreating something I already knew.

Around that time, my mom asked me a very important question: “What do you mean you didn’t look at churches?” When I told her we weren’t necessarily planning a church wedding, she very lovingly insisted that God bless our marriage.

I wasn’t willing to give up an ocean view for our ceremony to be inside a brick church. Fortunately, Cancun and the Riviera Maya offer chapels with turquoise ocean backdrops. That changed everything.

We Found Our Church!

So we shifted our focus and went to Playa del Carmen. We explored churches, private venues, and beach clubs, and spent time really feeling the places instead of just checking boxes. The moment we stepped into the Church of Our Lady of El Carmen on Fifth Avenue, we knew. It was white, intimate, filled with greenery, and had a beautiful view of the ocean behind it. It felt peaceful and special without being overwhelming.

During our Riviera Maya site inspection, we also decided to do our engagement photoshoot — something I now recommend to every couple planning a destination wedding. Since we were already investing in traveling, exploring venues, and feeling the destination, it made sense to capture that moment and use it intentionally.

For the reception, we chose a beach club with incredible food and the kind of atmosphere you can’t fake. It was relaxed, cool, and felt like us. Both the church and the venue were within walking distance of our guests’ hotels, which made logistics simple and allowed everyone to move through the day on their own terms.

We invested in traveling, tasting the food, meeting people, and experiencing the spaces firsthand. We could have chosen something easier or something I already knew inside and out, but I didn’t want to plan my own wedding the way I had planned so many others before. I wanted to experience it fully, as a bride — not just as a planner.

That process — going, seeing, feeling, and deciding — is exactly why I believe so strongly in site inspections. You can’t understand a space through photos alone. Sometimes you need to be there to know whether it’s right.

And for us, that made all the difference.

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