diana2008

Very cute! Those will really get your guests in a "beachy" mood.

Here are a couple other sample sales this weekend (July 13 - 15) that SoCal brides might be interested in: Monique Lhuillier Sample Sale What: Save big (40-80 percent) at the semiannual sale on dreamy gowns for the big day. Why: The princess bride. When: Thurs.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Where: 9609 S. Santa Monica Blvd., b/t N. Camden & N. Bedford Drs., Beverly Hills 310-550-3388 R-Mine Bridal Couture Sample Sale What: Wedding dresses by Reem Acra, Ulla Maija, Melissa Sweet, and others at up to 70 percent off. Why: You almost do. When: Sat. & Sun. By appointment only. Where: 12242 Ventura Blvd., b/t Laurel Canyon Blvd. & Laurel Grove Ave., Studio City (818-505-9064).

We are paying for similar things: Welcome Dinner, Cocktail Hour/reception, and a Farewell Brunch. We're giving OOT bags, too (but nothing too elaborate), and we're going to have buses take everyone to the Welcome Dinner and to the Ceremony. We're not paying for airport transfers. We're also paying for one night at the hotel for our bridal party. I wish we could have done 2 nights, but there are 8 of them so that gets pricey fast!

Ok, this may sound really dumb, but I was telling my fiance last night about how I want to glue starfish onto my seating cards for the reception, and he asked if you can bring those into Mexico? Is it considered an "agricultural product" even though they're not alive? Sorry if I sound like a total idiot here.

Instead of favors, we're donating what we would have spent on them to a charity. We picked The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and we're going to have a little card at each place setting that says something like "In Lieu of Favors, a donation has been made to XXX in your name." I might glue a little pink ribbon on it or something. I'm doing OOT bags, too, so people will still get goodies, but at all the weddings I've been going to lately, I saw so many favors left on the tables at the end of the night. It made me kinda sad that my friends probably spent time and money making a cute favor and so many people just leave them! So we thought this would be something nice to do.

Thank you, ladies! I will check all of those out.

We booked the whole Cabo Surf for our wedding, but we're expecting around 100 guests so we're going to need some overflow hotels. I looked at some maps but can't really tell what the best options are. We'd like to get room blocks at 2 additional hotels - one at $300 night or less, and another less expensive one ($150?). I don't think there's anything within walking distance, but I would love to find something relatively close so it's not a long trek for people to get there. Does anyone have any ideas of where their guests stayed/will stay? Thanks!

Thanks for the info. Yeah, we're planning on getting married at the courthouse before we fly down and just doing the "ceremonial" ceremony in Cabo. I've heard that there are rabbis in Mexico City (but I don't know of any specific ones yet), maybe it would be easier to fly one in from there?

We're doing water, but that's it. It wasn't worth paying for an extra 1/2 hour or hour of open bar per person, and we don't want anyone getting drunk for the ceremony. We figured they'll be drinking all day at the pool anyway, so that half hour might be good for them to sober up before the party begins!

Oh believe me, I am not leaving this site! I will be on here constantly for the next year. It will be nice to go from being new and knowing nothing, to being a pro next year and helping all the new people! We did not book the individual rooms yet, but at the Cabo Surf, the deposit ($6,000) guarantees all the rooms in the whole hotel for the days around the wedding date. We can release any rooms that aren't booked 60 days before the wedding for no penalty, and the deposit just gets applied to our reception costs. We're definitely booking the whole thing, though, we're going to have 80 - 100+ guests, and the hotel only has 22 rooms, so we'll have lots of spillover at other nearby hotels. Next on my list is booking the photographer (I'm contacting the ones everyone's been recommending) and finalizing Maye as my planner. And finishing our wedding website and save the dates. And getting a travel agent and room blocks at other hotels. I guess there is actually a lot more to do still.... but it's so nice to have the date settled!!

I just sent in the deposit for the Cabo Surf Hotel for July 5, 2008, yay! I'm so excited! It feels so good to have that set, now just need to start on all the other details... Thank you to everyone for all your tips on negotiations, locations, etc. I am so happy that I found this site, I don't know what I would have done without it!

Hi - does anyone know of any rabbis in the Cabo area? I've read on other threads that there are some in Mexico City, but we would love to avoid the cost of flying one out and putting him up for a night. Thanks!

This might vary from hotel to hotel, but does anyone know if you block off 10 rooms, and say only 6 get booked and you release the other 4, do those 6 guests who did book still get the reduced rate? Thanks! Diana

Thanks everyone, these are great tips. We started emailing Armando our questions, so I'll make sure we do it all on email so I have a paper trail. Acacia - would love to hear how your tasting goes! Thanks! Diana

This helps SO much, thank you!! We are calling him in a few days so now that I know there's room to bargain, we can figure out a plan. One more question... did you get into all of the F&B details and negotiation when you first booked it, or afterwards? I'm guessing we should work all that out before we send the deposit, but just want to make sure. Thanks!

Hi everyone - I'm a newbie, just getting started with my planning process. All of your posts have been so helpful, thank you already!! We are getting ready to book a date next summer at Cabo Surf Hotel. Armando has sent me the food/beverage pricing, but before we finalize things, I was wondering what kind of deals other Cabo Surf brides have been able to negotiate? We'll have 60 - 100 guests, so we're planning on renting the whole hotel and having spillover at other hotels. Were any of you able to get your own room comp'ed? Or a couple free nights for a site visit? Are there any other freebies I should be trying to negotiate? Our budget is tight (like everyone's, I'm sure!) so I just want to make sure I'm getting the most I can in all these areas. Thank you!! Diana

Hi Everyone - I'm new to this forum, but I've already been looking through some of the posts and they are so helpful!! Thank you all in advance! I just got engaged last week, and we're leaning toward a Mexico destination wedding in Summer 2008. Still researching cities (Cabo is so expensive!), but I'm looking at Cabo, PV, and Zihuantanejo. Diana