I met Brandin at a company training class five years before he proposed at Lincoln Center in New York, where we live. We immediately began planning through my travel company, Fly Duos, along with Sylvia Chaves of Costa Rica Paradise Weddings. We wanted to travel with family and friends to a place better than anything they could imagine, so for our venue we chose Villa Punto de Vista, an estate nestled in a wildlife park in Manuel Antonio.
Everyone flew into San Jose, Costa Rica, where we stayed at the Park Inn at the Radisson and hosted a cofee tasting, a walking history tour, a welcome party and bachelor/bachelorette parties.
To transfer our group to the villa, we chartered a bus. The location is so magical that I kept it a secret, hoping our 26 guests would be amazed on arrival and they were! The day before the main event, we were entertained by wild monkeys and sloths in the surrounding rainforest, and we enjoyed a catamaran tour and a taco-night party by the villa’s pool. At 3 p.m. on February 21, 2015, we exchanged vows on the villa’s ocean-view rooftop, accompanied by vocalist Monica Mosapor and her band.
We moved to the main floor for cocktails, sliders and mini tequila shots, returning to the roof for a dinner of stufed chicken or ginger-glazed trout catered by Chef Desiree. Dancing and karaoke followed with local DJ Joshua Stewart. The entire experience was a dream come true, and our guests want to go back and do it all again. Crystal Morrison-Graham, as told to Susana Youngsteadt.