Again I totally apologize for the constant updates and content. I'm just trying to get us all caught up on what's been happening since my engagement. I just found this site earlier this week and have pretty much been on it non-stop. I'm at the end of my reading week at school so I had no classes this week. Also work has been really slow (it's always super slow in retail in February). So I guess I just have the time on my hands lol.

After we got engaged I started thinking about a wedding. At first we thought that a wedding at home was a definite must! We were set on getting married on our anniversary in 2015 (October 4). We originally wanted a fall wedding at an historic mansion that was in our local area. We wanted our colour to be plum and we wanted an awesome party. After talking to some of our friends and pricing a wedding at home we quickly determined that it was not possible for us to have a wedding at home unless we waited until 2016 or 2017. We don't want to go into debt over our wedding for various reasons most importantly my student debt (I went to university and college). It was my fiancee's idea to have a destination wedding and after doing some research and reminiscing about much fun we had in Cuba we decided a destination wedding was for us. We had also heard that doing a destination wedding was much cheaper than having a domestic wedding. Since we are eager to start our lives together and love Cuba we thought it was for us.

We were set on having our wedding at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria in Santa Maria, Cuba; however, since we had only been to Cuba once we thought we should do some more "research." After our exams and a little bit of research we found a really good deal on a trip to the Brisas Guardalavaca in Holguin, Cuba. We left on December 14, 2013 to scout out another possible location for our wedding. I think it's best to actually visit your location before you book, just so you know what it's actually like. You can also take some in depth pictures to show the people you want to invite so they can get a sense of the hotel. Holguin was stunning! The Brisas is a slightly lower star rating than the Melia, but a bit cheaper too. Brisas was beautiful, but a little too small and the food wasn't quite as good. The people and the culture made up for the small details though. Our trip was magical despite the constant rain and "cold front" (22 degrees, it was heavenly for us being Canadians). Everything was wonderful until we we supposed to return. We got delayed in Cuba about 30 hours because of the ice storm in Toronto. Aside from our return we had a great time, but we just didn't have that feeling like we did when we were at the Melia.

Upon our return we definitely decided that we wanted to get married at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria. I've posted pictures of both resorts on my page. If you would like a more in depth review or more pictures let me know.

Happy Planning!

-Dia