I had known Eve for several years before I asked Patty to marry me and after she said yes (thankfully), we both knew who we wanted to help us make our wedding day special. We had a good friend in town who was a very experienced wedding planner who we spoke to first, but there was simply no way we could afford the wedding he planned for us, we had no idea that through Eve, we would spend almost half of what our friend had quoted us and end up with twice the wedding!
We never hesitated for a moment regarding where we would be married, Puerto Vallarta was already home to us and for most of our family and friends, flying to Puerto Vallarta was going to cost about the same as flying to Arizona or California would. Eve sat us down and walked us through what she would do for us and she even separated some things that we could do ourselves, not just to save money, but also to build some elements of our wedding day together, which was a lot more fun than it sounds. She created a timeline for each of us and we began what I thought was going to be a lot of work. It wasn’t. Every stop Patty and I had to make from choosing flowers to sampling wedding cakes, Eve had already been there first. The people we met with already knew our budget, our goals, our wedding colors etc. And they all raved about how much they loved working with Eve.
That’s enough of the buildup, let’s talk about the wedding! Well, I guess we need to talk about the wedding and the few days before. Eve suggested that in lieu of a rehearsal dinner we do a meet-and-greet. The party was great and Eve did an amazing job bringing in beautiful furniture, great food and drinks and creating a cool environment for our family and friends to meet each other prior to the wedding. The day of the wedding people who didn’t know each other days before were greeting each other with kisses and hugs as they entered the church. The church was beautifully decorated with draped fabric and flowers in our colors. She hired an amazing mariachi band to play for us and Iglesia Guadalupe’s acoustics combined with the beauty of their music was stunning. People still talk about that with me to this day.
There were a few problems that day which I found out about several months later thanks to EVe. She had been on top of every single part of our day and we never saw a single thing that wasn’t perfect. Our photographers (arranged by Eve) accompanied us after the ceremony to a half dozen beautiful locations for pictures, the transportation company she hired was great, shuttling us from location to location and making us feel like we were the center of the universe, which for us that day, we were.
We arrived at the beautiful Villa Mandarinas on the coast of Mismaloya, south of town. She escorted us to our room, gave us some champagne and a half dozen hugs and she disappeared into the villa to continue making sure everything was just right. When it was our time to come out and greet our friends and family, everyone had eaten a bit, gotten a drink (or two) and they wandered around the grounds of the villa complimenting us on how beautiful everything was. The flowers, table settings and a thousand other details we would have never thought of were all just so perfect, we couldn’t stop smiling. We literally didn’t have a care in the world and I personally have never been happier than that day.
We had about a hundred people at our wedding and Eve managed to keep all of them synchronized well enough that when it came time to cut the cake, take pictures, dance or just give a toast, we were able to share it with everyone. Speaking of cutting the cake, as we stepped up to the table, Eve disappeared for a moment and right on cue after we had each shared a piece of a truly incredible cake, fireworks lit up the sky over the water.
Our wedding reception went until about six AM (Mexican weddings are like that) and it was perfect. Perfect. I can’t thank Eve enough nor recommend her enough to anyone who is lucky enough to find her. It’s been five years and whenever we see our friends and family that shared that day with us, they continue to tell us that our wedding was the best wedding they’ve ever been to. I whole heartedly agree with them and although I give us credit for bringing great friends and family together to share our day, I can say without a doubt that Evelina Chavez was responsible for making our wedding and reception the amazing event that it was. My niece was a teenager when we were married and she’s 24 years old now, she told me on a recent trip that since that day, she has known where she wanted to be married and that she wanted Eve to be her wedding planner.
If you are lucky enough to have Eve work with you and you chose her because of my recommendation… You’re welcome.
Sincerely,
Todd Melcher