Secrets Vallarta Bay Puerto Vallarta

Wedding Day

Ceremony

Reception

Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Reception

Fall

Our Wedding

Our Love Story&nbsp;Michael and I met at work, I somewhat knew who he was because I was talking to one of my friends from work about what a disaster the dating world has turned into. I was doing Online dating at that time, and oh boy, the men that I “matched” with on there were what one considers “a good catch” and just settle…. Nope not me!! So, I was called a serial dater at one point because I didn’t like / connect with any of the men I “matched” with. I knew they were all wrong for me but to everyone else, I was “being picky.” LOL!! Anyone that has experienced online dating, I’m sure can relate! Then my friend says, “what about Mike Sanchez? I know he’s single!” I didn’t think much of it, but I said, “oh no!” LOL.. But little did I know that shortly after that, IT WOULD BE MIKE SANCHEZ I’D BE MARRYING!! 😍❤💕I never lost faith in prayer asking God to please send me the right man, and to give me the discernment to know and recognize the man he chose for me when I met him! I would see Mike daily at work, and I always knew there was something special about him, I couldn’t figure it out, but I saw a kind, gentle, and shy man. We would run into each other but never said a word to me until….. One day I was in the breakroom, warming up my lunch and he was also warming up his lunch when he actually spoke to me and asked, “So what’s for lunch?” I was in my own world and was caught off guard because he had never said one word to me. 😂 I told him I was having chicken and salad. He replied, “that’s it? Where’s your protein?” He told me I was not eating enough protein; from there he was nicknamed “the protein guy” by Erika! 🤣 The next day he brought me lunch and has been every day ever since. That was the beginning of our friendship and after that he began talking to me about nutrition and then after a few months of being work friends, it developed into a personal friendship. We began working out together and doing a “fitness challenge” together. After a couple months of friendship, the courtship phase began! We didn’t have a formal first date, we took a trip together to San Diego! This was the craziest thing I had ever done! I thought, well he has a Security Clearance so he can’t be a serial killer, what’s the worst that can happen? 🤣The way he asked was so funny! After working out together one day, we went to get something to eat and while we were in line to order he mentioned he was thinking of taking a trip somewhere and was thinking about going to watch the Dodgers game in Texas but the flights were really expensive so he was thinking about taking a trip, just to get away to San Diego and asked me if I was interested in accompanying him. I thought, oh that’s really weird oh I’m so sure I’m going to take a trip with this guy I work with. (I WOULD NEVER DATE ANYONE I WORK WITH!) Well, I broke my rule! 😂 I didn’t want to be rude, and I just said "sure," hoping he was not serious. A few weeks went by and then he tells me he found a hotel in San Diego but wanted to know if I had a preference on where we stayed and if I wanted separate rooms. I was mortified because that’s when I realized he was serious!!&nbsp;I wanted to be polite but at the same time I was thinking there’s no way I could share a room with this weirdo, what about the sleeping arrangements?? I was freaking out because I didn’t want to say, oh I was just being nice when I said yes I’d accompany you! Sorry Dad and Mom, I know you guys are going to read this, but you raised me better but at the same time, you guys raised me to be kind! 😁 Thank you and I love you guys!I didn’t know what I was going to do, so when the girls (Teresa, Marcela, and Rachel) and I went to Tumamoc Hill for our workout, I told them all about it so if anything happened to me, they knew who I was with! 😂 I asked for their advice, and they all said I should go… Well, I did! And he was a perfect gentleman! He made sure I was comfortable and brought me my coffee every morning and has been ever since! Xavier and Anna, you did an amazing job raising this wonderful, perfect for me, man! Thank you and I love you guys! ❤ I truly believe God’s timing and his plan is always better than we can ever imagine! It’s perfect! 💙 Looking forward to celebrating our special day with all of you! Thank you all for a being a part of our lives! 💙💗&nbsp;&nbsp;

"Our Love Story," by Dennia Grijalva

I first took notice of Dennia; we were at work and she walked by while I was talking to a mutual friend of ours. She said something to him in passing and she got my full attention.&nbsp;I asked him, “who is that?” and he said “Dennia, she’s also in the security office……”.&nbsp;I didn’t say anything else to him and figured I’d be seeing her more often.&nbsp;I was wrong, it had been a few months before I’d ever see her again and when I finally did, she was preparing for a new role within the company.&nbsp;It was a position that I would work closely with her on a consistent basis.&nbsp;That piqued my curiosity, so of course I had to do the social media check on her to verify her social status, lol.&nbsp;And here is where the courting began:&nbsp;One day I was in the kitchen warming up my lunch and I saw that Dennia was preparing her lunch too.&nbsp;I took a glance at what she was eating that day and I casually asked her “What’s for lunch?”&nbsp;She replied “rotisserie chicken with salad…” I saw it was a small amount, so I replied, “where’s the protein.” She laughed at showed it to me.&nbsp;For the next few weeks, we would occasionally run into each other in the lunchroom or outside our office on a cell phone break and we’d make small talk.&nbsp;I really enjoyed talking to her and our small talk turned into much longer conversations.&nbsp;To this day, she claims there was no coincidence that I was running into her frequently. 😂 And maybe she’s right, but if you would’ve have seen the way she looked at me, you might run into her on accident everyday too! 😉I found out we had quite a bit in common like where we grew up, we had 3 sons, and we loved cuernitos (Mexican pastry) from our neighborhood bakery.&nbsp;We began to have lunch together whenever we could and then she started inviting me to Dutch Bros during our morning.&nbsp;Then one day during our break she told me she was moving to another house.&nbsp;I told Dennia that I had a truck and trailer if she wanted my help moving.&nbsp;She would take me up on my offer and she asked how she was supposed to get in contact with me outside of work 😂.&nbsp;I laughed and said “oh yeah!&nbsp;You might need my phone number….”&nbsp;I had never even asked her if she was dating or seeing anyone, so I asked her if she had anyone special in her life.&nbsp;She replied, “yes I do!” I paused momentarily, then she continued with a laugh “…my 3 boys!”&nbsp;I was relieved to hear that to say the least.&nbsp;Moving day arrived and I arrived at her house ready to work and discovered more about this wonderful woman I had been getting to know.&nbsp;She greeted me with a hug which I was not expecting, and then we quickly got to work while exchanging looks at laughs throughout the day.Dennia and I continued to talk and even started working out together.&nbsp;After one of our hikes on Tumamoc Hill, we went to get something to eat.&nbsp;While we were waiting to order our food, I told her my desire to get out of town and take a trip; maybe to see a baseball game or hang out on the beach in San Diego.&nbsp;So, I just dove right in and asked her “do you want to come with me?”.&nbsp;To my surprise, she said “Sure…”.&nbsp;With a straight face I said “Should be fun….” But inside my head I was saying “Oh S*%#!!!”&nbsp;Well now the pressure was on, so I made all the arrangements and would occasionally check with her to see if she was still interested in going on the trip, lol.&nbsp;We had an amazing time and I enjoyed every minute we spent together.&nbsp;&nbsp;We would go on to date for a month and then decided to make our relationship official.&nbsp;After months of spending every moment together, it began to get serious between us.&nbsp;One day I asked her a hypothetical question, “if you had a choice between a big diamond ring💍/small wedding or a big wedding/average ring, which would you choose?”.&nbsp;With that signature smile and those dimples, she ecstatically replied, “A BIG diamond 💎 of course!!!”&nbsp;I immediately went to work! For the next few months I’d hunt for that perfect diamond, and after many hours of looking and searching I found it!&nbsp;Flawless, just like Dennia!&nbsp;Now was the hard part, I needed to get her parents’ permission, so I asked them to lunch one day to do so.&nbsp;I was VERY nervous, and they were curious as to why I wanted to speak to them without Dennia.&nbsp;We went the entire lunch talking about everything else but the reason why I was there.&nbsp;When we finally finished our meal, Mr. Grijalva asked “well you brought us here to lunch, what did you want to talk to us about?”.&nbsp;I just told him of my intentions with his daughter and asked if it would be okay to ask for her hand in marriage at some point in the near future.&nbsp;With tears in all of our eyes, he said “yes, you have our permission.”&nbsp;Then Mrs. Grijalva added “Por favor, cuida me a mi hija.”&nbsp;I nodded my head and promised to them both I would take good care of their daughter.&nbsp;But there was still a major hurdle, I needed Dennia to say “yes” 😂.&nbsp;I thought long and hard and decided I would write a letter asking her to marry me while listing my 10 principles of building a perfect marriage.&nbsp;I would proceed to take her to dinner on October 3rd to pop the question.&nbsp;After our waiter took our order and walked away, I pulled out a letter and nervously read it to her.&nbsp;I would look up every few words to see the emotion building up until I finally pulled out the ring and said, “I ask with all my heart and soul; would you like to continue this journey as husband and wife?”&nbsp;You can probably guess how she responded to that, and here we are.&nbsp;Excited to invite all of our close family and friends to celebrate our “small wedding 👰🤵🕍” with her big diamond💎💍!!&nbsp;&nbsp;

"My Love Story," by Michael Sanchez

Our Story

Photos

Mr. & Mrs. Sanchez

Mr. & Mrs. Grijalva

Teresa Alcoverde

Erika Bedoya

Rachel Robles

Karla Vazquez

Annette Salas

Marcela Palomo

Wedding Party

<a href="https://event.destinationweddings.com/dw/site/main/attend-a-wedding.asp?dw_weddingcode=&amp;dw_bname=Grijalva" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Attend a Wedding</a>&nbsp;page on <a href="https://www.theknot.com/gs/dashboard/preview/pages/88429642/paragraph-items/DestinationWeddings.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DestinationWeddings.com</a> Enter Passcode: 051025Click "Request a Quote"

Q + A

We have been working with a Certified Wedding Specialist to arrange the best travel packages for our wedding. To ensure all planning is well coordinated, we encourage everyone to make their arrangements by either: Please sign into our Wedding Website from the&nbsp;<a href="https://event.destinationweddings.com/dw/site/main/attend-a-wedding.asp?dw_weddingcode=&amp;dw_bname=Grijalva" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Attend a Wedding</a>&nbsp;page on <a href="https://www.theknot.com/gs/dashboard/preview/pages/88429642/paragraph-items/DestinationWeddings.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DestinationWeddings.com</a> Enter Passcode: 051025Click "Request a Quote" OR Contact our Certified Destination Wedding Specialist, Linda Talavera, at&nbsp;925.877.8187&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="mailto:ltalavera@destinationweddings.com?subject=RE:%20Grijalva%20Wedding" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ltalavera@destinationweddings.com</a>&nbsp;for assistance through the booking process.

Travel

More Details to come! Dennia and Michael will advise once the Destination Weddings Website goes live to make your hotel reservations. There will be a room block for the guests, and the code will be shared once it is confirmed. Please ensure you contact the wedding planner (details will be provided soon) to book your stay. We would love and hope everyone can accompany us during this very special celebration, making memories for years to come!!

Things to Do

Registry

Dennia & Michael

Dennia & Michael

Q + A

Why Puerto Vallarta?

Do you have to stay at Secrets to attend the wedding?

Where can I book the travel?

Why is Mike marrying the most beautiful woman in the world?