taryn.shorr

There is very little price difference between Feb/March/April...they're all considered high season. BUT...nearly all universities have their spring breaks between the last week of February and the last week of March, and Cabo gets completely taken over by college students. Take it from me, I just graduated from a few months ago, and we went to Cabo twice, both times in March. Hotels (not really the luxury hotels though) will be extremely crowded, and your guests will find themselves in the middle of a HUGE party if they want to go out to dinner or just out for a beer, mostly in downtown Cabo San Lucas. For San Jose Del Cabo, this is almost irrelevant. Hope this helps!

You are correct, it is not AI The only thing I know for sure it includes is a breakfast buffet every morning. Our coordinator is handling everything in terms of dealing with them, so I don't know if she's gotten them to through anything in as of yet. I will keep you updated as I find out myself!

Tammy, do you have a coordinator in Cabo? If you do, she should be able to get you a sample of a Mexican trio...even if she has to send you a CD via snail mail.

We are also looking into using a cigar roller, and it's my fi's favorite idea, so it's pretty definite We were worried about people not being interested as well, and our coordinator came up with a fantastic idea. We are also having a tequila tasting, so we are going to set them up together in an area "on the sidelines" of the reception, so people will sort of notice and hopefully be interested in it. Our coordinator also recommended we have it set up and somehow draw attention to the stations immediately following dinner, before people really get into dancing. Plus, the guys especially will probably enjoy a good cigar and some tequila after their bellies are full

We are expecting about 100 at our DW in Cabo as well. We looked into blocking out an entire hotel, because we wanted privacy as well. A very well-kept secret in Cabo is Marbella Suites en Playa. It is a 4-star resort at a 2-star price (honest!), and it's got a great location and private beach. Marbella's capacity is 110, and you can reserve the ENTIRE resort for $6,500 total per night. That's $59 per person per night if you have it full and the resort is yours! We called to ask some questions, and their customer service was great! They are reallllly flexible, and said they can customize payment plans and the way you and your guests want to do it. They did recommend we do this about 1 year ahead of time if we're interested. I hope all the great gals' advice is helping you!

Wedding Dresses, Weddings, Bridal Hairstyles, Gifts, Favors, Honeymoon, Cakes, Flowers, Supplies, Planning has one of the best and most comprehensive multiple-registry sites. You can choose from 16 or so stores PLUS they allow you to set it up so that every time a gift is bought, they match the charity of your choice with a dollar-for-dollar donation. They also have a honeymoon registry option on there, sponsored by Starwood, so you can go virtually anywhere. (And let me just give my fi a plug here...he's an executive chef at one of their hotels, the Westin, and their hotels truly are gorgeous ) Wedding Channel sends you a really nice welcome packet and a couple free gifts when you set up your registry, as well as registry insert cards for shower and engagement party invites. The Knot also had a multiple registry option, BUT people can only purchase the gifts online. Of course your guests could buy in the store, but the Knot doesn't have it set up to align that way, so your guests would have to report to you what they bought to prevent duplication. Google "cash wedding registry" and a lot comes up. I haven't researched this, but I do know they're gaining in popularity. A lot of banks offer mortgage registries, also. TammyM - The Home Depot does have a registry, but I believe you are required to set it up in the store. Jenetta - Any travel agent will set up a travel/honeymoon registry for you, or just google it.

Another short & sweet way to word your request is simply "white beach chic attire requested." Most people will know ivory, cream, khaki, etc. will be OK!

Another good site is bridecouture.com (scroll down to "Skip Intro/Catalog page"). They even have several styles from the current season!

Leigh Miller is fantastic as well! With Cameron, we are using the 4 hours for the rehearsal dinner over a period of 2 days, broken down in 2 hour time blocks, so we're doing something similar Here is Cameron Gillie's contact info: [email protected] 985-226-8778 The Portfolio of Cameron Gillie (for a more complete portfolio) OR New Orleans Photojournalism Wedding Photographer Cameron Gillie

Sure! We could hardly believe the price ourselves, given her quality. She's won several WPJA awards recently and we love her style. She's extremely friendly (through email and on the phone at least), and was willing to spread the 12 hours out for us, since we are hosting a 4 day wedding. VERRRRY flexible and seemed willing to negotiate!

Hi everyone, I know someone already posted something about wpja.com (World Photojournalistic Association), but I wanted to add more about using travelling photographers from the US. This is the route we've decided to go, mostly because we have SO many more options. Several of them have fantastic travel/destination wedding packages that equal out to be about the same as what you'd be paying for a photog in Cabo. We are using Cameron Gillie www.gillieweddings.com. She has an "Islands Destination" package, with travel to and accomodations for Mexico INCLUDED in her price. She charges $3,600 for this package, and while it might seem steep at first glance, take a closer look--it includes 12 hours of photography (8 hours on the day of, 4 hours for a RD or something similar before or after), so when you break that down...it's only $300 an hour BUT it includes her travel fees! She's phenomenal, definitely worth a look. There are many more on wpja.com, under "For the Bride & Groom," then choose "travelling photographers." Also, for anyone interested, this is her exact package breakdown: All travel costs are included in the package price for travel and lodging for most locations* in the Caribbean, Mexico and United States. Receive up to 8 hours of photography by Cameron Gillie on the weddings day as well as up to 4 hours of rehearsal dinner coverage the day before the wedding. A DVD slide show of all your wedding pictures set to music plus two additional copies for parents. 200 4x6 proofs of your choice. A deluxe proof album to display your 200 proofs. Full resolution digital files of all the photos taken at the wedding on archival CDs. * Travel charges for most locations is included in the Islands Destination Package with a few exceptions. If travel costs are exceedingly high to a certain location, I reserve the right to refuse the wedding or negotiate a reasonable travel surcharge. Destination weddings booked less than 3 months in advance may also be subject to a travel surcharge.

We actually changed banks! Bank of America is promoting "Keep the Change," a checking/savings account combo. Whenever you make debit purchases, it rounds up and adds the change to your savings. We've started using our debit cards for absolutely everything! At the end of the year, as long as you haven't overdrawn, the bank will match up to $250. This is totally free $$$, no catches or fees! We also set up a "Christmas Club" account, where it automatically deducts $100 from each of our paychecks ($50/week each) to deposit into a special savings account. The money isn't available for withdrawal until November (you can close the account in case of financial emergency), and if you manage to not touch it, BofA gives a $100 bonus in December. Many banks have similar programs under different names. Since it's automatically deducted, we honestly don't even miss it...it's $ we would normally spend on crap, like fast food or coffees.

Another adorable and easy idea is to go to any craft, fabric, or scrapbooking store (or even the craft section of Target). They usually have little theme packs with 3D sparkly cut-outs, like a wedding cake, chapel, dress, etc. Then arrange them however you want on blank cardstock in your wedding colors and include a personalized note. This is what I plan on doing, and I bought all of the materials for 7 cards at Michael's for $30.

Lala- We live in Renton but Bo & I work in Bellevue (He's a chef with the Westin, I'm an Account Supervisor/Project Manager), but we are actually moving to AZ at the end of January. How about yourself? To everyone else- Thank you for the advice about Baja Weddings! I have not yet made a final decision, I intend to compare a few more. However, I will ONLY use Emlee (who I have found several great reviews of both here & elsewhere), and also we are really only using a consultant for the actual wedding weekend. I am a Project Manager, which means I have a ton of planning experience and will be handling all pre-wedding details myself Does anyone have any wedding consultant recommendations specifically for the day-of, onsite? Thanks so much girls!

Thank you for the tip, I will keep that in mind! We are definitely going to involve tequila in the wedding We are even considering doing our toast with a high-end tequila instead of champagne! (We'll offer something less hardcore also of course.)