beachbride08

I brought down clear glass starfish shaped tealight candle holders, and small regular clear and green glass tealight candle holders. That alone took up most of the space in my carryon suitcase. I didn't trust packing glass items in checked luggage so I bought the blumebox cardboard vases instead of glass. In order to get the glass vases I wanted I would have had to bring them down to Mexico so I just ended up skipping the glass. The blumeboxes worked out great since I was able to get them in our wedding colors and got vases for my my bouquets and my BMs bouquets. They were also cheaper than what I would have paid for glass vases. I ended up getting different flowers than what I had requested, but I loved how my centerpieces turned out. We had three centerpieces on each table (we had two long tables) and I just used my bouquet vase as our centerpiece since my husband and I sat at the sweetheart table. The candles were placed all along the tables and rose petals were scattered as well. They also did the same set up with the candles and petals in our reception room and our guests brought the centerpieces with and then took them to their rooms afterward so at least they didn't go to waste.

We were able to carry on our sand ceremony kit, sand and shells on our way to Mexico, but they would not let us carry it on on the way home. We had to check it in our luggage. We had our guests pour little shells at the bottom of the vase prior to the sand ceremony and we had a light tan and darker tan color sand. The sand got mixed up on the way home, but it still looks OK and nothing happened to the glass vase it was in. We just had to tape the top since the glass topper wouldn't fit in the box with it on the vase.

I voted for ya, and I hope you win!!

We hired an outside photogrpaher, but used fotocaribbean for our videographer. We were extremely disappointed in our video so I'm so glad we did not use them for our pictures. The pictures were extremely important to me so I'm really glad we paid more for an outside photographer, I just wish we had done the same for our video.

We used the parasols just for pictures, and then my BMs just carried small bouquets for the ceremony. It was also overcast on our wedding day so it wasn't like they needed them to shade the sun. I gave them the option to carry them, but they didn't want to.

I would just let her know about your aunt's offer, and just be honest that it would probably be a better location since there will be more room for such a large party and this is something that your aunt really wants to do. Thank her for offering her home, and just let her know you would still love her assistance in the planning so she still feels part of it. Like someone else said, she may be happy about the change as I'm not sure I would want 140 people at my house!

We wrote thank you in the sand and ordered cards from shutterfly.

 

The Beach and the Grand are pretty much on opposite ends of the resort. However, if you are a guest at the Grand you can ask your butler for a ride to any of the hotels and they will take you there on the golf cart and you just call to be picked up when you're done. If you have the opportunity to stay at the Grand for free you should totally take advantage of it. My husband and I stayed there after our wedding and loved it!

So it was Rihanna? I was watching the red carpet thing on E! when they announced it, but they didn't confirm who the woman was. I figured it was her since they said they were at the party together. I hope he gets what he deserves!

You look beautiful in your dress! Your friend did a great job!

If you can't afford to cover the travel expenses I wouldn't. Some people make room in their budget to cover expenses for people they want to make sure can come to the wedding. We paid for our wedding and travel expenses on our own, and we knew there were guests we invited that wouldn't be able to come (and we heard about it, trust me). However, from the beginning we knew that would happen and we were happy with whoever was able to come. All that really needed to be there was Mike and I so anyone else was a bonus. If people really want to be there, they will find a way to pay for the trip. I wouldn't make yourself go broke to pay your guest's travel fees, and just be greatful for the people that make the trip because then you know it was really important for them to be there to share in your day.

 

If it is just the bridal party complaining, maybe you can let them know that if they can't afford it they don't have to come. Instead of paying their travel expenses you can offer to pay for the wedding attire or something. I bought my bridesmaid's dresses and everything they needed for the wedding day so it was less they needed to worry about and spend money on since they were paying for the trip. I also only had 2 BMs and a flowergirl and we budgeted to cover those items up front since it was something I wanted to do from the beginning.

I think the "rules" may vary depending on where you live as I just noticed from another thread. Here, it is usually the bride's family that throws the bridal shower. The bridal party may help with set up, but the cost is taken care of by whoever is hosting the shower, and then the bridesmaids throw the bachelorette party. My aunt and cousin threw my bridal shower. I knew about the shower, but I didn't have any involvement with it or help plan it in any way. I just had to show up.

The only things we bought down in Mexico for the OOT bags were postcards. We planned to buy snacks and bottled water down there, but were so busy the days before the wedding we didn't have time to go off the resort. We paid around $18 for the postcards. We were also able to buy the mini bottles of tequila at the Tequileria on the resort for the same price they were selling them in Playa del Carmen, we gave those away as wedding favors along with personalized packets of margarita mix. Since we were at an all-inclusive resort no one really needed the bottled water or snacks and we had plenty of other items for the bags that we brought down so it wasn't a big deal that we didn't include them. I would suggest bringing down typical OOT bag items and bags, and then if you have time to go shop to add more items great, but I wouldn't stress yourself out about it.

I invited my boss and my immediate co-workers, but didn't invite everyone I worked with. I don't think it is necessary to do that, especially if you are having a destination wedding people understand you are trying to keep it small. Of the 5 people I invited, 3 came down to the wedding. I am also pretty close with my boss and team, if I had not been I probably wouldn't have invited any of my co-workers. It doesn't sound like you are very close with them so I don't think it would be a big deal to not invite them.

We honeymooned there after our wedding at the Lindo. The Grand was AMAZING!!! We didn't see any weddings during our stay, but from the way the beach area was set up and not as crowded compared to the Lindo/Maya I think a beach ceremony would be really nice there. The restaurants were really good also. We did our TTD photo shoot at the Grand and those are probably my favorite pictures. The hotel is just beautiful, the staff is great, the beds were sooo comfortable, I can go on and on about how much fun we had there!

The Lindo/Maya are combined with the wedding packages so you are able to use the restaurants and bars at either hotel for the wedding day. However, I know some of our guests ate at the Steakhouse before the wedding and they were staying at the Lindo, but I think there certain restaurants that were for Maya guests only. If guests are staying at the Maya they can go to any of the Lindo restaurants. We got the details sheet from the WC about 2 months before our wedding to fill out with everything we wanted and then we confirmed once we got to the resort. We requested the steakhouse for our wedding dinner and the Italian restaurant for our rehearsal dinner on the sheet. Since they only do one wedding per hotel you won't have an issue with getting the restaurant you want (there can be one wedding at the Del Mar/Beach, one at Lindo/Maya, and one at the Grand per day, but all have access to the restaurants only within those hotels).

to the forum! I got married at the Iberostar Lindo in November, and we switched to the Grand for our honeymoon. The resort was amazing!! I'm sure your wedding will be fabulous!

I would wait to send the announcement to those not invited until after the wedding, that way there is no confusion.

We got married November 7 in Riviera Maya at the Iberostar resort, and we had great weather. It didn't rain at all and no hurricanes. One of our wedding guests went back to our resort this month and she said the weather was terrible. It was around 65-70 degrees and rained every day. They weren't able to spend any time time in the pool or at the beach. I'm not sure if the weather is normally like that in January, but I thought I would let you know.

We had our wedding dinner at the steakhouse in the Maya as well (it was very good, and they sat us in the back section so it was pretty private). We had our cocktail hour in the lobby bar of the Maya since it was close to the restaurant. THere are a lot of chairs around the bar, and also a lounge section right there where everyone was able to mingle. It worked out great, and then you don't have to pay the per person fee for drinks.

I'm not sure if there is a different one for the Del Mar, but there was an ice cream shop above the swim up bar in one of the pools at the Lindo. There is also a small ice cream shop in the shopping center, but I don't see how there could be a cocktail hour there. I don't even think it had tables. The one above the pool was larger and had tables and chairs so that may be what they are referring to. BTW, the coconut ice cream there was phenomenal!

I had envisioned wearing a flowy, non poufy dress, and I wanted something v-neck that had thicker straps so I wouldn't have to worrry too much about tan lines. When I started trying on all the non-poufy dresses they only came in small sample sizes so I couldn't even get them on to even get an idea of what they would look like on me. The ones that did fit were more of a traditional, poufy style dress. I didn't think the dress I got was super poufy compared to others I tried on, and I didn't add a slip or anything underneath. I really loved the beading on my dress and on the cathedral length train so I went with it. Yes, I was hot, but I think I would have been hot in anything I wore since our wedding happened to be the hottest day while we were in Mexico. I say go for a dress you love and feel comfortable with. The worst thing would be to pick a dress you think is appropriate for the location, but not loving the way you look in it.

I had mine taken out a few years ago, and it was the worst experience of my life. I lost 17 pounds because I couldn't eat anything, but popsicles. After a week you will start to feel better, but force yourself to eat real food (noodles are the easiest at first) even though it is painful. I was so weak from not eating, but the pain got better once I started to eat more.

Congratulations, you were a beautiful bride!

They had regular white linen napkins at the dinner table, but if you were wanting something particular or a colored napkin you could bring them down with you. Since we were in the steakhouse restaurant we did not have music playing during dinner (they had music palying in the restaurant, but nothing that we brought with us). We hired teh DJ, but he did not speak English so my BM announced us and the dances. We didn't introduce the whole bridal party so it worked for us. You can always ask one of your outgoing guests if they wouldn't mind playing MC and just let them know the order to announce things.

As far as flowers, you could do orange, pink or white flowers or a combination of those with the blue dress would look pretty.

I don't know anything about the Del Mar so I can't comment on that, but we did use a travel agent. That was one of the best decisions we made. She handled all the guest questions and was the one that let them know initially that if they decided to stay at the DelMar, Beach or other resort they would be required to pay for a day pass to come on the property for the wedding day. We didn't do a group rate since we didn't have enough people willing to travel on the same dates for the same length of time, but her rates were still the cheapest compared to what our guests were looking up online. A few of our guests booked through a different TA and had different ground transportation. They never came to pick them up from the hotel to go home so they ended up paying for cabs to go to the airport even though they already paid for transportation with their package. I don't know if they ended up getting a refund for that, but they had issues. It was also nice not having to be involved in everyone's trip planning. You have enough stress with planning the wedding you don't need the additional aggravation. If someone asked me something I would just direct them to our TA with any questions saying she was the expert and could price out different options that would work best. They were also able to set up payment plans where as if you book online you have to pay in full on a credit card. Some of our guests booked early and just made monthly payments until the balance was due.