SASSYGIRL

I love the matte prints since they look professional and do not end up with finger prints on them - I always order them from Costco and get them with a white border and I get a lot a compliments from them. The price is great and the final product looks terrific!

no wordy at all - great review that will help dreams brides in the future and you look great in your gown - cheers!

I really enjoyed making our slideshow for our welcome dinner. It was a huge hit with our guests and left tears in everyones eyes. Since we got back I have made 2 more (one for a birthday party and one for a funneral.) They are pretty time consuming but it is something I enjoy doing and it is a creative outlet for me. I am kicking around the idea of starting a side business creating slideshows. What do you think? Is this something that you would be interested in? Do you see a need for it with our forum girls? If so what would you pay for a 3-5 minute slideshow that is set to music of your choice and can be played on any DVD player? Thanks for your honnest advice - I know you wont lead me down the wrong path!

very helpful review and great pictures of the details - I wish I had taken more pictures of the DIY projects and details that I had - this is sooo helpful to the girls going after you - enjoy being a MRS.

I would check out this website - they have different sized homes everywhere in the world and you rent them dirrectly from the owners. My family takes a group vacation together every summer and we are looking for a place that can sleep 15-20 people - this is a good place to start. ..VRBO® is Vacation Rentals by Owner® Vacation Homes Rentals by Owner

Quote: Originally Posted by JenandBrendanWedding Sarah, I've been DYING for you to come back and post a review. Thanks so much. This is extremely helpful. I just booked the Hilton yesterday (after negotiating with Emeline for about a month.) We are sooooo excited to be getting married there and your review gets me more excited!!! Thanks for your help. I may come to you from time to time for help or advice. I hope that's ok. Thanks again, Jen no problem that is what I am here for - I couldn't have done it without the advise of those who went before me! Quote: Originally Posted by Ryjaxs19 Sarah, great review it sounds like everything went really well. And all you DIY projects sound amazing I'm going to have to hunt down some of your old posts to see how you did them. if you have trouble let me know and i will try to walk you through them!

WOW! That turned out amazing - Juan you have such a gift! Tammy - your pictures are perfect - I know you are going to love them forever!

Yep - IKEA was awesome for my planning stuff - it s great for color - and they have low prices too!

I just realized that where I posted my review origionally is hard for people to see - no need to read it twice for those who have already looked at it but I wanted to be sure that the info was out there for everyone! Enjoy! I know that it has been a while since I got back from my wedding and I am sorry that I took so long to post this review. I have been a member of this forum for a long time and have always enjoyed reading the reviews and felt that they offered such great advice! I figured it was better to write mine late rather than never right! So here goes! Frontier Airlines – (A+) I got a group code and everyone was able to get 10% their ticket costs. The flights were on time and the staff was very friendly. The planes were very nice with direct TV screens at every seat that was free to use. You could also purchase movies to watch at your seat if you wanted for $8. Los Cabos Airport Shuttle – (A+) I used them when we traveled to Cabo in the past and emailed them to get rates on providing transportation to the Hilton for all my guests. This was not easy because everyone was coming on different flights, airlines and dates but they did a great job. The buses / cars were always clean an on time. I made all the reservations for the airport transfers and the cost averaged out to be $17 per person roundtrip. We also hired this company to provide transportation from the Hilton to Mi Casa on the night of our welcome dinner. We paid $450 for a huge luxury bus to take our group of 40 to the restaurant and then back to the hotel at the end of the evening. It was fun to travel downtown together and I would totally recommend this company. Hilton Los Cabos – (A-) overall We had 40 guests stay at this hotel and everyone loved it. Everyone is greeted at check in with a margarita or lemonade which is a nice touch. This is a first rate hotel and they keep the grounds and the rooms in excellent condition. The pool is fantastic and those who are interested can rent Jet Ski’s by the hour on the beach in front of the hotel. This was our 3rd time staying at this hotel and we have always had a great experience. I think it is important to note that we feel extremely safe at this hotel – we always try to use the safe in the room but have on several occasions left valuables and cash out and never had anything go missing. We were able to negotiate a group rate for our guests of $170 (not including taxes) which is extremely low for this hotel. Please keep in mind that we signed our contract over a year in advance so that helped with being able to secure a lower rate. We treated our guests to 3 nights hotel stay however several of them booked for an entire week stay. I was worried about how the room charges would be handled since I didn’t want to end up covering people’s room service or bar tabs – it was not an issue and everyone was charged correctly. My only complaint with the Hilton overall is that I felt the communication was not great when we checked in. Apparently there was a flyer that we should have gotten when we checked in letting us know about promotions that were going on through out our stay. No one in my party got this flyer and it would have saved us money and made our trip more enjoyable. I find it strange that everyone should have gotten this flyer and no one in my group of 40 got one! These are some of the promos that were going on during our stay: Kids eat free at all Hilton restaurants including room service and at the pool (we found this out on our 3rd day at the hotel) 20% discount at Cabo Free transportation to Cabo and San Jose on the Hilton Shuttle (normally $10 per person per day) Hilton Spa (A+) There is a bridal package here and the cost was about $240. This included a full make up and hair trail (which I had done before our welcome dinner so I looked all pretty for that) as well as a full manicure, pedicure, hair and make up on the wedding day. The staff was extremely nice and calming. I don’t wear make up on a daily basis and they did a good job of making me look like myself. My Grandmother and flower girl also had their hair done at the Hilton Spa and both loved how it turned out. Emeline – Wedding Coordinator at the Hilton (A) Emeline is a true gem. She is the wedding coordinator that the Hilton provides and she did a great job for us. We brought her 5 huge crates of decorations when we went for our food tasting visit in February and she stored them for us free of charge for all those months – that was above and beyond what she needed to do for us. Emeline made sure that everything we talked about over year plus of planning happened. I think she did a great job of thinking about the details that I might have forgotten and she always got back to my emails in a timely manner. I do not think it is necessary to hire an outside coordinator for your wedding if you are getting married at the Hilton. Everything flowed nicely and I think it would be a waist of money. Hilton – Wedding Food and Drink ( Our meals were awesome and everyone loved the food. We elected to have an open bar all night and the total cost of that was $2500. I thought this was a lot of money for drinks but when it is all said and done there is no way to know who had what to drink and how many drinks were served. Just thought I would give you guys a point of reference so that you can plan for this part of your budget. IPOD – ceremony and reception (A) This is the way to go for sure – we had a great party with dancing and it worked perfectly. My cousin who is 16 ran the IPOD. We rented speakers from the hotel (I was afraid our BOSE sound dock was not going to be loud enough and so didn’t end up using it after all!) We rented a microphone for the ceremony but not the reception and I don’t know that we needed it. I guess it was good because our guests could hear our vows but I didn’t like having to talk into it – felt kind of funny. Cabo Flowers – Francine (B-) When I went to Cabo in February I met Francine at the flower cart. She gave me her email and sent me a quote. Her prices were good and she seemed nice so I decided to use her. I should say that flowers were not that important to me and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them. I paid $275 for my flowers total. Francine never told me that she was no longer working for the Flower Cart and that my contact was actually with her. When I got to Cabo I went to the Flower Cart to pay my balance and they said I didn’t have an order with them. After some confusion they got Francine on the phone and she said she was sorry that I didn’t know but she had opened her own shop called Cabo Flowers. She asked if I could take a cab to her new shop and I told her that wouldn’t work for me since I was suppose to meet some of my guest in town in a little while. She said that she would come to the Hilton to meet with me and get the rest of the payment for the flowers. She arrived at the Hilton at the time we agreed upon and was nice about everything. The day of the wedding the flowers were on time and looked pretty. The flowers were as I ordered but nothing that blew me away. Cabo is such an amazing backdrop that I don’t think it is necessary to spend a lot on flowers. Mi Casa – Welcome Dinner (A+) We love this restaurant and it was perfect for our welcome dinner. We negotiate that everyone would receive a free welcome drink when they arrived at the restaurant. When we got there the drinks were ready (strong and big margaritas) and the waiters passed them out as the guest walked in the restaurant. It was a great start to a fun night. We sat in the “ox room†and the mariachis and clown who made balloon animals visited us all night. We did not want to have a set menu and they let our group of 40 order off the menu which was a great decision. Everyone was able to order all the food, drink and desert their hearts desired. One of the highlights of the night was the slideshow that I put together of pictures of Scott and I and our families. There is a huge screen up high in the ox room and all of our guests could easily see the show. The staff at Mi Casa was very kind and we were able to use their screen and projector for no additional cost. Everyone loved the food and atmosphere at Mi Casa and the evening ended up costing about 2K for 40 people including 8 kids. Cabo Dolphins (A) About 20 of our guests including children and myself swam with the dolphins. It is a wonderful experience. The facility is clean and well organized. The staff is great about teaching about the dolphins and making you feel comfortable. This is a pricy activity but one that I think is worthwhile. Picante Fishing (A++++) Several of the boys went fishing and had the best time. We met them back at the dock when they got back and they were beaming! They caught several marlin and other types of fish. They said it was awesome and the boats looked brand new – really nice. Apparently the crew at Picante know exactly where to go to catch the big fish and I was glad they had fun. Juan Carlos – Photos (will rate later) Everyone loves his work and I am waiting for our pictures. I booked him over a year ago and he made sure to remind me what I great price I got. He was on time and took pictures all night. I know that we will love what he shot but it is hard to rate him with out seeing the final product. He said we should expect our pictures a month and a half after our wedding date and the wait is going to kill me. I will be sure to share some of the pictures with you ladies when I get them! DIY Projects – (A+++++) This is what made our wedding unique and all of our guests loved the details! Here is a list of some of the things we did and I hope to be able to post pictures of the final products when we get our shots back from Juan. OOT Bags – we used iron on transfer paper and put our logo on black canvas bags – cute and they we used all week long Shirts – The boys got black golf shirts embroidered with our logo from queensbro for $10 each and they were a good quality. For the girls and kids I ordered black tees from Old Navy and used the iron on transfer paper to put our logo on them. I paid $5 for the kids and girls shirts and I love Old Navy. Poolside Puzzles – I spent some time and not much money to make little books for everyone called poolside puzzles. In the books there were crossword puzzles with info about us and saduko puzzles and word searched using all our guests’ last names. I was able to create all these puzzles for free on-line and it was a nice personal touch. Oriental trading company – we got a bunch of stuff from here pretty cheap but fun – we purchased beach balls, squirt guns, personalize pencils and playing cards. Picture Frame Centerpieces – we used velum for ink jet printers which we got at office depot and printed pictures of us with all our guests in black and white. We purchased picture frames at IKEA and painted them black – then we nailed 4 frames together and put a tea light in the middle. The candle illuminated the pictures on the tables at our reception and it looked amazing. Guests took the frames home for a favor. I hope to be able to post pictures of these because they were really awesome. Candle place cards – I purchased tall votives in clear glass containers from pottery barn – they were sold in packages of 16. I printed each guests name on vellum and then cut them so that I could wrap them around the votive. I used different colors of ribbon at the top of the votive for the different meals that each guest had selected in advance. I used clear gift wrap tape to attach the vellum and ribbon to the glass votive. Easy and the candle light looked pretty. I know the waiters were happy to have the colors on the ribbon so that they knew who got which meal. Linens, napkins, vases, candles with hurricanes and chair ties – Yes we brought all this down with us to Cabo. My degree is in Interior Design and I am a bit crazy about how things look. When I started planning I really didn’t think I would end up purchasing and dragging this stuff across the border but I got a picture in my mind of how the tables would look and then there was no stopping me. In the end it was totally worth it for me. Our long table of 40 guests looked breathtaking and I love that memory of how amazing it was to see. Who knows if all the guests realized how much time and money and effort it took to put together but I loved it and that is all that mattered. I will say if anyone is looking to do this IKEA is the best place to get stuff cheap. Also be sure to get the plastic crates to carry it all down in since they are cheap and super strong. OK I am really sorry that this review is soooo long. I hope that you find it helpful and please let me know what questions I can answer for you. I will say that having a destination wedding was the best decision we made. We enjoyed a wedding for a week rather than a few hours. If we would have had a wedding at home it would have cost us the same amount because we would have had to invite so many people. Since we got married in Cabo we were able to really enjoy our 40 guests and give them a trip that they will never forget! Thank you to all the girls who have helped me with my planning. This is an amazing forum and I am so grateful for those who make it possible and successful! __________________

Quote: Originally Posted by amyh Great! Thanks Sarah! I'm in L.A. too, so I may check them out! OK great but you want to look at their stuff on line - they don't really have a showroom - it's more like a wherehouse and you can pick stuff up there if you have called ahead and ordered it.

Quote: Originally Posted by annieroy Hello ! Great pictures ! Can we see more ? !!! As for your sand ceremony, I will be doing the same with my 2 children. What did the Minister say while you were all poring the sand? But most importantly, how did you bring back home that huge vase ? HAHA - I knew someone would ask about the vase - my uncle carried it on the plane as his carry-on. He put the sand in a zip-lock and said the guy at the security point look at him a little strange - he told him it was his souvener from Cabo and he let him through with out a problem. The first time Scott send me flowers they came delivered in that vase. He sent 3 dozen (one from him and one from each of the kids!) I took the vase to the engraving shop and had them etch our logo on it. We are going make a tradition to collect sand from all our vacations and add it to the vase when we get home. Here is what our minister said - i just changed the normal verbiage a little to make it work for us: I would now like to ask Sarah and Scott, as well as, Tyler and Amanda to join me for a special Sand Ceremony: (walk over to table with containers) Sarah and Scott, today you are making a life-long commitment to share the rest of your lives with each other and to honor your children, Tyler and Amanda, as well. The gathering of this new family will have a deep influence upon all of its members. We realize that in order for the home to be a happy one, it is essential that there be love and understanding between the children and the adults being married. As you each hold your sand the separate containers, it represent your lives to this moment; individual and unique. Now, please pour your sand into the large container. As you combine your sand together, your lives also join together as one family. The individual containers of sand will no longer exist, but will be blended together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers, so will your family be.

Quote: Originally Posted by amyh I would love that number Sarah! Did you take the ones for the chairs too? Royal Palm Restaurant & Event Supply is the website for the place where I got my table cloths and napkins. They are really top quailty and I thought the pricing was great. They will ship to you but were close enough for me that I went and picked them up. I am going to keep the in mind for the future in case I am planning a party or holiday since they were easy to work with and had good stuff. I got the chair bows from ebay - they are organza and I know a lot of other brides have gotten stuff from them. They only advertise making chair bows but I asked and they did my table runners too.

Quote: Originally Posted by MikkiStreak Wow---- that tablescape is amazing! We're doing light blue, fuschia and black for our colors. I had thought about doing black for the tablecloths to make the other colors "pop" and your photo just re-committed me to that idea!! You looked beautiful! I love the dress, and I'm really envious of the curly hair!!! Congratulations on everything!! Yeah - I was really happy with how the black turned out - I had to purchase my table linens since I wanted to have one long table and the Hilton only has linens for the round tables. I found a great deal on them at a distributer in LA -let me know if anyone needs there info and I will dig it up. Also I was planning on leaving the linens at the Hilton but my family said they would be great to have and packed them all up to take home. We washed everything and have already used them again for a birthday party - they were perfect and the fabric looked terrific after washing.

very nice - I would live to get an invite like that - the coconut smell would get me super excited for my vacation!

the boys would not forgive me if I didn't include some pictures of their fishing trip - they caught a bunch of marlins (and released them) and here are some shots of the biggest one! Picante Sport Fishing really knew where to go to catch great fish and they had the best time!

Sand ceremony the KISS Our reception table pre-flowers and candle lighting - I really home Juan got a shot of the finished product because it was amazing (if I do say so myself!)

Better late than never right....I am still waiting for my pro pictures from Juan but thought you might enjoy these.... My Groom and "bonus" son waiting for us to come down the aisle My "bonus" daughter acting as flowering girl with her sombrero basket My Dad and I coming down the aisle more to come....

the last one is my favorite - i think it is awesome! Your dress looks great - after all that I am glad to see how stunning it was! Thanks for sharing!

I really want to know how he does it! No matter how many slideshows I look at they are all different and the couple looks fantastic! Wow! I have this sick feeling that my pictures will not turn out anything like this but i am sure that is just crazy talk - he is amazing - I am sure it will be great!

we did these for our wedding in July and they were AWESOME! let me know if you have any specific questions!

We did the sand cermony and used the large shells. Scott has 2 kids and we got smaller versions of the same shells for them to use so the four of us did it together - it was my favorite part of our ceremony since it united our family together. The first time Scott sent me flowers he sent 3 dozen (one from him and one from each of the kids) and they came in this huge vase that was pretty so I saved it all these years. We took it to a local engraving store and had our monogram etched on the outside so it is kinda frosted on the vase - it looks awesome. That is what we used to for the center vase for the sand cermony. We put the Cabo sand in a plastic bag and my uncle took the vase and sand on the plane for the ride home as his carry on. We are planning to get a little sand from everywhere we go on vacation to add to it each year. It should become a nice tradition over the years! The shells are really pretty and so I am going to set them next to the vase or build shelves for them or something. Hope this helps!

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON - is a great dance song to start the party right

I know that it has been a while since I got back from my wedding and I am sorry that I took so long to post this review. I have been a member of this forum for a long time and have always enjoyed reading the reviews and felt that they offered such great advice! I figured it was better to write mine late rather than never right! So here goes! Frontier Airlines – (A+) I got a group code and everyone was able to get 10% their ticket costs. The flights were on time and the staff was very friendly. The planes were very nice with direct TV screens at every seat that was free to use. You could also purchase movies to watch at your seat if you wanted for $8. Los Cabos Airport Shuttle – (A+) I used them when we traveled to Cabo in the past and emailed them to get rates on providing transportation to the Hilton for all my guests. This was not easy because everyone was coming on different flights, airlines and dates but they did a great job. The buses / cars were always clean an on time. I made all the reservations for the airport transfers and the cost averaged out to be $17 per person roundtrip. We also hired this company to provide transportation from the Hilton to Mi Casa on the night of our welcome dinner. We paid $450 for a huge luxury bus to take our group of 40 to the restaurant and then back to the hotel at the end of the evening. It was fun to travel downtown together and I would totally recommend this company. Hilton Los Cabos – (A-) overall We had 40 guests stay at this hotel and everyone loved it. Everyone is greeted at check in with a margarita or lemonade which is a nice touch. This is a first rate hotel and they keep the grounds and the rooms in excellent condition. The pool is fantastic and those who are interested can rent Jet Ski’s by the hour on the beach in front of the hotel. This was our 3rd time staying at this hotel and we have always had a great experience. I think it is important to note that we feel extremely safe at this hotel – we always try to use the safe in the room but have on several occasions left valuables and cash out and never had anything go missing. We were able to negotiate a group rate for our guests of $170 (not including taxes) which is extremely low for this hotel. Please keep in mind that we signed our contract over a year in advance so that helped with being able to secure a lower rate. We treated our guests to 3 nights hotel stay however several of them booked for an entire week stay. I was worried about how the room charges would be handled since I didn’t want to end up covering people’s room service or bar tabs – it was not an issue and everyone was charged correctly. My only complaint with the Hilton overall is that I felt the communication was not great when we checked in. Apparently there was a flyer that we should have gotten when we checked in letting us know about promotions that were going on through out our stay. No one in my party got this flyer and it would have saved us money and made our trip more enjoyable. I find it strange that everyone should have gotten this flyer and no one in my group of 40 got one! These are some of the promos that were going on during our stay: Kids eat free at all Hilton restaurants including room service and at the pool (we found this out on our 3rd day at the hotel) 20% discount at Cabo Dolphins (we booked ours on-line before we left for Cabo and got 10% off) Free transportation to Cabo and San Jose on the Hilton Shuttle (normally $10 per person per day) Hilton Spa (A+) There is a bridal package here and the cost was about $240. This included a full make up and hair trail (which I had done before our welcome dinner so I looked all pretty for that) as well as a full manicure, pedicure, hair and make up on the wedding day. The staff was extremely nice and calming. I don’t wear make up on a daily basis and they did a good job of making me look like myself. My Grandmother and flower girl also had their hair done at the Hilton Spa and both loved how it turned out. Emeline – Wedding Coordinator at the Hilton (A) Emeline is a true gem. She is the wedding coordinator that the Hilton provides and she did a great job for us. We brought her 5 huge crates of decorations when we went for our food tasting visit in February and she stored them for us free of charge for all those months – that was above and beyond what she needed to do for us. Emeline made sure that everything we talked about over year plus of planning happened. I think she did a great job of thinking about the details that I might have forgotten and she always got back to my emails in a timely manner. I do not think it is necessary to hire an outside coordinator for your wedding if you are getting married at the Hilton. Everything flowed nicely and I think it would be a waist of money. Hilton – Wedding Food and Drink ( Our meals were awesome and everyone loved the food. We elected to have an open bar all night and the total cost of that was $2500. I thought this was a lot of money for drinks but when it is all said and done there is no way to know who had what to drink and how many drinks were served. Just thought I would give you guys a point of reference so that you can plan for this part of your budget. IPOD – ceremony and reception (A) This is the way to go for sure – we had a great party with dancing and it worked perfectly. My cousin who is 16 ran the IPOD. We rented speakers from the hotel (I was afraid our BOSE sound dock was not going to be loud enough and so didn’t end up using it after all!) We rented a microphone for the ceremony but not the reception and I don’t know that we needed it. I guess it was good because our guests could hear our vows but I didn’t like having to talk into it – felt kind of funny. Cabo Flowers – Francine (B-) When I went to Cabo in February I met Francine at the flower cart. She gave me her email and sent me a quote. Her prices were good and she seemed nice so I decided to use her. I should say that flowers were not that important to me and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them. I paid $275 for my flowers total. Francine never told me that she was no longer working for the Flower Cart and that my contact was actually with her. When I got to Cabo I went to the Flower Cart to pay my balance and they said I didn’t have an order with them. After some confusion they got Francine on the phone and she said she was sorry that I didn’t know but she had opened her own shop called Cabo Flowers. She asked if I could take a cab to her new shop and I told her that wouldn’t work for me since I was suppose to meet some of my guest in town in a little while. She said that she would come to the Hilton to meet with me and get the rest of the payment for the flowers. She arrived at the Hilton at the time we agreed upon and was nice about everything. The day of the wedding the flowers were on time and looked pretty. The flowers were as I ordered but nothing that blew me away. Cabo is such an amazing backdrop that I don’t think it is necessary to spend a lot on flowers. Mi Casa – Welcome Dinner (A+) We love this restaurant and it was perfect for our welcome dinner. We negotiate that everyone would receive a free welcome drink when they arrived at the restaurant. When we got there the drinks were ready (strong and big margaritas) and the waiters passed them out as the guest walked in the restaurant. It was a great start to a fun night. We sat in the “ox room†and the mariachis and clown who made balloon animals visited us all night. We did not want to have a set menu and they let our group of 40 order off the menu which was a great decision. Everyone was able to order all the food, drink and desert their hearts desired. One of the highlights of the night was the slideshow that I put together of pictures of Scott and I and our families. There is a huge screen up high in the ox room and all of our guests could easily see the show. The staff at Mi Casa was very kind and we were able to use their screen and projector for no additional cost. Everyone loved the food and atmosphere at Mi Casa and the evening ended up costing about 2K for 40 people including 8 kids. Cabo Dolphins (A) About 20 of our guests including children and myself swam with the dolphins. It is a wonderful experience. The facility is clean and well organized. The staff is great about teaching about the dolphins and making you feel comfortable. This is a pricy activity but one that I think is worthwhile. Picante Fishing (A++++) Several of the boys went fishing and had the best time. We met them back at the dock when they got back and they were beaming! They caught several marlin and other types of fish. They said it was awesome and the boats looked brand new – really nice. Apparently the crew at Picante know exactly where to go to catch the big fish and I was glad they had fun. Juan Carlos – Photos (will rate later) Everyone loves his work and I am waiting for our pictures. I booked him over a year ago and he made sure to remind me what I great price I got. He was on time and took pictures all night. I know that we will love what he shot but it is hard to rate him with out seeing the final product. He said we should expect our pictures a month and a half after our wedding date and the wait is going to kill me. I will be sure to share some of the pictures with you ladies when I get them! DIY Projects – (A+++++) This is what made our wedding unique and all of our guests loved the details! Here is a list of some of the things we did and I hope to be able to post pictures of the final products when we get our shots back from Juan. OOT Bags – we used iron on transfer paper and put our logo on black canvas bags – cute and they we used all week long Shirts – The boys got black golf shirts embroidered with our logo from queensbro for $10 each and they were a good quality. For the girls and kids I ordered black tees from Old Navy and used the iron on transfer paper to put our logo on them. I paid $5 for the kids and girls shirts and I love Old Navy. Poolside Puzzles – I spent some time and not much money to make little books for everyone called poolside puzzles. In the books there were crossword puzzles with info about us and saduko puzzles and word searched using all our guests’ last names. I was able to create all these puzzles for free on-line and it was a nice personal touch. Oriental trading company – we got a bunch of stuff from here pretty cheap but fun – we purchased beach balls, squirt guns, personalize pencils and playing cards. Picture Frame Centerpieces – we used velum for ink jet printers which we got at office depot and printed pictures of us with all our guests in black and white. We purchased picture frames at IKEA and painted them black – then we nailed 4 frames together and put a tea light in the middle. The candle illuminated the pictures on the tables at our reception and it looked amazing. Guests took the frames home for a favor. I hope to be able to post pictures of these because they were really awesome. Candle place cards – I purchased tall votives in clear glass containers from pottery barn – they were sold in packages of 16. I printed each guests name on vellum and then cut them so that I could wrap them around the votive. I used different colors of ribbon at the top of the votive for the different meals that each guest had selected in advance. I used clear gift wrap tape to attach the vellum and ribbon to the glass votive. Easy and the candle light looked pretty. I know the waiters were happy to have the colors on the ribbon so that they knew who got which meal. Linens, napkins, vases, candles with hurricanes and chair ties – Yes we brought all this down with us to Cabo. My degree is in Interior Design and I am a bit crazy about how things look. When I started planning I really didn’t think I would end up purchasing and dragging this stuff across the border but I got a picture in my mind of how the tables would look and then there was no stopping me. In the end it was totally worth it for me. Our long table of 40 guests looked breathtaking and I love that memory of how amazing it was to see. Who knows if all the guests realized how much time and money and effort it took to put together but I loved it and that is all that mattered. I will say if anyone is looking to do this IKEA is the best place to get stuff cheap. Also be sure to get the plastic crates to carry it all down in since they are cheap and super strong. OK I am really sorry that this review is soooo long. I hope that you find it helpful and please let me know what questions I can answer for you. I will say that having a destination wedding was the best decision we made. We enjoyed a wedding for a week rather than a few hours. If we would have had a wedding at home it would have cost us the same amount because we would have had to invite so many people. Since we got married in Cabo we were able to really enjoy our 40 guests and give them a trip that they will never forget! Thank you to all the girls who have helped me with my planning. This is an amazing forum and I am so grateful for those who make it possible and successful!

we used black and hot pink or fushia color and it looked amazing - the colors were really striking and different. we also used a touch of orange as an accent - i will post pictures soon

Thank you girls you are bringing tears to my eyes! We just got back about an hour ago and I have to tell you all that we had the time of our lives! Everything was awesome - our guest loved the Hilton and Cabo in general! The weather was perfect all week! I will write a review and post pictures soon...I PROMISE! I could not have had such a perfect day if not for this forum and the wonderful girls who make it work. Your ideas and suggestions made my wedding amazing! THANK YOU! SO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS DETAIL FROM MY TRIP.....I was kinda sad when I left to go to Cabo since it didn't seem like the BDW starfish was going to make it to me - the one I was going to get had gotten lost during that wedding and so I figured it wasn't going to be part of my day. On Wednesday night we were in our room at about 10PM and there was a knock at our door. When I opened the door I found a member of the hotel staff holding the starfish for me. I have no idea how it got to me but it totally made my night! On the day of the wedding, I stuck it in my flowers and Juan Carlos commented that he had seen it a few times...I told him the story about how it showed up and he said he got chills - you girls are the best! Thanks!