YLANMUI

Thanks for such sweet notes girls! Let me know if you have any questions on those vendors!!!

(Btw, on the hair -- my hair stylist at home came up with it!! It was super easy. I just put hot rollers in my hair and then velcro rollers on top for volume. We swooshed the hair over to one side and secured it with booby pins at the top and on the bottom, and then just wrapped a piece of hair around the pony. Voila! I did have to put hot rollers back in the pony after I finished the photos, though. *g*)

Hello everyone! I am back from my wedding/honeymoon in Los Cabos and hoping my tan will last me through the cold weather this winter. I had a FAB time and wanted to share my thoughts/comments/experiences with all of you all.

CASA DEL MAR

General: We got married on Oct. 14 at 5:45 p.m. The hotel grounds are incredibly beautiful and a great deal for the price. We had to book 10 rooms in order to waive the site fee and got upgraded to the "honeymoon suite" for our entire stay. The only downside is that the hotel is undergoing MAJOR renovations, so there was some construction noise. But we talked to the contractor overseeing the renovations, and he said they are scheduled to be finished by Dec. 15. There wasn't much debris or anything around, it was more of a noise issue. But honestly the place is so lovely, it didn't matter. I'm not sure if the prices will increase after the renovations are complete. My only other complaint with the hotel is that it is small, and many of the buildings on the Casa del Mar grounds are condos. That makes it difficult to call between rooms, since each condo has its own private number. (Local calls are 55 cents.)

Grounds: Everything was spectacularly lovely!!! I especially liked the hotel's beach-front pool ... not many other hotels in the corridor had a pool/restaurant right up to the beach like they do. Everything was immaculate, and the colors are bright and warm. Feels very authentically Mexican, but also very comfortable and luxurious. One weird thing was that the shower in our hotel room didn't have a door and the Jacuzzi tub was in the middle of the room! Fine since we were on our honeymoon, but other people with similar setups in their rooms were a little freaked out!

Staff: I worked with Claudia Morales, the group sales coordinator, on the set-up for the wedding and most of the arrangements for the cocktail hour and reception. She was nice and unfailing upbeat. Her English was great, but the staff there is not very *proactive* but rather *reactive.* For example, we had our ceremony in a paved "quiet zone" between the main pool and the beach that has a nice palm tree there. Some of my girlfriends had to ask the people at the pool to be quiet during the ceremony -- this is something tht Claudia should've handled. Also, I wrote in my wedding plan that seating would begin at 5:30 and there ceremony would begin at 6 p.m. or as soon as everyone was seated. Well, seating only took about 15 minutes and Claudia had to be told to get started since eveyrone was getting hot. But overall, I would give her a very positive rating.

The staff overall at Casa del Mar was EXCELLENT!!!! Everyone was so friendly and polite at every moment. No one ever seemed stressed out or got snotty with us. I can't say enough about them. Anything we needed, they provided!

Food: DELICIOUS! Ohhhh, dreaming about their steak and lobster now! I had a plated four-course sit-down dinner for abou 62 people serving filet mignon and lobster tail for just $79/per person, including the wedding cake! I thought that was a pretty good deal, and the portions were plentiful.

Decor: The hotel provided free of charge white garden chairs and white table linens. I like things simple, so that worked great for me. I had papaya and ivory roses as the centerpieces. The only thing is that the breeze from the ocean can get quite strong, and all my beautiful votives were blown out within about 15 minutes. I would say save your money and get them to put in extra tiki torches or get taller glasses for the votives!!!!!

DAMIANA

We had our rehearsal dinner here, and I just CANNOT say enough good things about them!!!! Roberto Jaregui, the manager, met our every single need (and there were lots of them) and offered an exceptionally good deal. We had 62 people out on the patio ,and it was cozy and just gorgeous at night. The restaurant is very cute and quaint in downtown San Jose del Cabo. The food was excellent, and there is a guitar trio that performs during the high season, but that you can rent by the hour during the off season. It really helped set the tone for the entire wedding. They even gave us a free bottle of Damiana, which is supposed to be an aphrodisiac!

One word of caution: Damiana (and many of the restauarants) do not have enough room to accommodate people indoors if it rains! I was a little worried about rain while I was down there and just wanted to have a plan in case. Roberto was very worried as well, and when I became upset that he didn't have a backup, he arranged to have a tarp covering on standby. Really, it was a huge ordeal for him and he was checking weather reports constantly! Luckily, everything went perfectly smoothly. But it made me feel much better that he was just as worried as I was.

We had a three-course dinner of tortilla soup (WOW! the best we had while we were down there), red snapper baja style or chicken mole and flan all for $29. We did an open bar by consumption, and the bill was surprisingly low. Really, I couldn't have been more pleased with them!!!!

I used personal friends for my photographer, hair and makeup.

Ohhh, those sound like so much fun! Who did you use for the deep sea fishing and did they like it? My FI and his brothers and dad want to do that but they have yet to set it up (of course.) Also, who did you use for the snorkel/sailing trip?? That's on my list of things to do.

We are just doing a girls night out on Thursday night. Most of our guests will only be there three or four days and we don't want to force them to do too much wedding/group stuff!

Hah! That could very well be. I had asked her that question, and she just said that maybe it was information for a different state, but that she's been doing weddings since 1995 blah blah blah. Down from the ledge (thank you girls!!!!!!) but I still think it sounds a little shady!

Ok, weird -- Anyone else using Maye that could shed some light on this?

I just talked to her and expressed all of my concerns. She said that I did NOT need to get my birth certificate apostilled. () And that the judge would take even a photo copy of my birth certificate! She also said that my birth certificate did NOT need to be translated. (more ) And she said that I could just tell her my blood type and the doctor would make an official certificate saying what it was. She said that she would translate and apostille my marriage certificate if I wanted to.

All this sounds a little shady to me as it is contrary to what I've read on the Mexican consultate Web site and (just today) on this board and in other places. At least it explains why Maye said I didn't need to do anything else!!!

Any one else have thoughts on the discrepancies here?

Yes, of course I see the posts now! I figured that Maye was taking care of everything and didn't realize there was stuff that needed to be done on my end, and she never mentioned anything about it. When I first signed up with her, at the very beginning of planning, I asked her what I needed to do to make everything legal. She just sent me a little form to fill out and said she needed copies of my birth certificate and passport. Nothing else!!!! So I thought I didn't need to worry, but now I'm realizing that I do!

Hey girls, fyi:

http://portal.sre.gob.mx/was_eng/ind...=page&SubMenu=

This is from the site of the Mexican Consulate in D.C. It is possible that Maye is taking care of some of this stuff ... HOWEVER, she has not informed me that she is! I mean, I wrote her an e-mail freaking out about it and asked her to explain everything to me, and she just said that I needed to send her our blood type. That does not make me feel better, as she's been careless several other times regarding our invoices. (Double-charging me for tax, forgetting to put things on the invoice, making some updates but not others, etc.) I have to double and triple check it every time she gives me a new one.

So that makes me dubious that all of the details are being taken care of in regards to the legal paperwork. And then when she never mentioned the apostille to me AT ALL -- a friend sent me the link from above -- well of course I started to question everything.

Also, apparently, you're supposed to have your marriage certificate authenticated in Mexico after the wedding. Who knew

*sigh*

I'll let you guys know if I hear anything else from Maye.

Hey girls --

So I'm supposed to be getting married NEXT WEEK,and a friend just sent me this little blurb from the State Dept. Web site:

I am an American citizen planning to get married in Mexico and have been told that I need a copy of my birth certificate with an "apostille." What is an apostille, and how do I get one?

An apostille is a certification that is valid for use in a foreign country. Information regarding authentication or legalization of documents, including how to obtain an apostille, is available at http://travel.state.gov/law/notarial...ntication.html

Ummmmmm, tell me why I had never heard of this before? Maye is my wedding coordinator, and she is supposed to be taking care of all of the legal paperwork!!!! She never ONCE mentioned this to me. She says it's because it's not required in all states, but um, don't you thikn she should've told me long ago to check I didn't give much thought to all the paperwork because I figured she was handling it (which is why I hired her, right?). But now I'm worried that she's missing things (like the apostille) and all my paperwork won't be in order.

I read one site that also said that our birth certificate has to be translated into Spanish Along with all other important documents except for our passports? And the site said that our blood work had to be done in Mexico, and Maye says we need to do it here in the U.S.!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone know anything definitive about anything??

Trying to breathe ...

Ylan

Hey girls, has anyone eaten at Damiana? Just curious about what the food and the service is like. .... Thanks!

I adore cupcakes! In fact, they are my favorite dessert. Frequently I get cupcake cravings at night and have to go to one of the local bakeries here and get them!

I was also totally set for getting cupcakes for my wedding ... BUT when I asked the hotel how much it would be, they said it would be MORE expensive than the cake!!!! I was in disbelief. I tried to negotiate them down but no luck. (I don't even remember the number now, it was so long ago.) But I was really disappointed and am just going ot have a regular cake b/c it's cheaper.

Hey guys! I'm bringing an independent photographer (a friend of mine) from the U.S. to take pix at my wedding. My hotel coordinator said he needs some sort of work permits ...! Anybody heard about this before? I want to make sure he doesn't get stopped and, well, who knows! Thanks ladies!

Ylan

Casa del Mar

www.adamandylan.com