Maura

Quote: Originally Posted by amyh They need everything. It all needs to be apostle by the archdiocese and sent to the church in Mexico. I was able to get a copy of my FC cert, but now I'm having issues getting my Confirmation Certificate from Guadalajara! What a pain! Our preist here said he'd let it slide, but he's not sure the church in Mexico would. By Pre-Cana, do you mean the marriage class they send you to? Yes we did that in October. It was kind of fun! We just need all our paperwork (including our civil marriage) and 3 more meetings with our Priest, them we are free to get married, lol. hmmm we were told we didnt need the first communion certificate, but maybe i should get two copies just in case... yeah precana is the marriage class. we have ours on march 1st. we have 2 more meetings with our priest here. the church in mexico didnt even tell us which documents we need yet, but when his mom asked the priest where she got his baptism cert from, they told her baptism and confirmation should be enough. Quote: Originally Posted by starchild Our priest here needed that for the U.S. ceremony. I was able to get the baptism/communion/confirmation documents for myself without a problem because they were all done at the same church. Amy, did you take the compatibility survey yet? That was actually really fun! we took the scantron compatibility test a little over a week ago. ours was geared toward catholics marrying catholics, and the last section was for couples living together, and the last couple questions were like "so you know living together and not being married is a sin right?" and you mark agree, disagree or uncertain. LOL. i could NOT roll my eyes any farther back in my head on that one.

oh rebecca, i love it! it looks great on you! congrats twin! (and may i say since we have met in person this isnt so weird, but your boobs look really big in your dress! haha)

jen that is SO ridiculous! good for your for sticking it to her. that goes to show everyone -- save every email from the WC in case you need to use it against them later!

awesome articles jean-marcus, im printing those out. and calling my dermatologist first thing monday to ask about the lightening cream. i know that my problem stems from allergies. my brother and sister both have deviated septums and my brothers was bad enough that he had it surgically corrected a few years ago. it definitely made his circles get much lighter!

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamsgrrl Keromask Masking Cream. I have the Mac one that you use but I just haven't used it.. I don't know why maybe I'm still emotionally attached to my old conceler. hahaha emotionally attached to concealer. i may try the keromask but since i switched to the MAC ive been a lot happier. I also like the prescriptives brand, but in the winter my circles are worse so i need something more opaque like the MAC.

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamsgrrl Yea.. it sucks. Nothing really seems to help me so I kind of have givin up. Concelear all the way for me! which one do you use?

i have THE most horrible dark circles, that if i dont wear makeup, people ask me if i'm tired or sick. my mom used to call me uncle fester, they were that bad. i tried using the benefit realness of concealness that julie suggested but i had some kind of allergic reaction to it. what i will say has done wonders for me though is the MAC maximum coverage concealer. I also use a MAC eye creme that comes in a tube its like $28 i think. and then walgreens sells a cheaper version of strivectin D that i use when my allergies are really bad, i think it costs about $24. i shelled out the $98 for a tube of strivectin D a few years ago, and i would tell anyone who is temped to use it that if your circles are really light it will probably work great, but if you have really dark ones like me, dont waste your money, youre better off investing in eye moisturizer and concealer.

oh crystal, im so sorry. you're in my thoughts and prayers, have a safe trip and sending you hugs and warm wishes.

Quote: Originally Posted by coreyphil Maura - I can't answer the upgrade questions --- but - we're flying American down on free tickets, too (coach); and, the American Group Reservations rep told me that I will definitely be able to put my dress in the closet. I called because the lady at the dress shop recommended calling ahead and letting them know that I'd be traveling with my wedding dress. The airline lady said that it would be no problem. She said they are always really excited to have brides ... and, if depending on your layover in dallas ... FI and I could always come and take you two out for a drink! (if the layover is short, we'll just have to wait until the next time we're in chi-town) ... perfect thanks corey, i think this is what we will do -- book the economy tickets on miles and just call to say hey i'm a bride, can i hang my dress in the closet... i think jose is realizing all the extra stuff we could do if we dont have to pay cash for the plane tickets, and i know he would rather have a nicer room during the whole stay, which is what we'd probably use the money for anyway. Quote: Originally Posted by becks Hi Maura: I'm a bit of a frequent flier/points whore, so I'll share what I know. Basically, you've got two options... you can pay cash for your coach ticket and use points to upgrade to first, or you can use points and to get first class seats. If you use points to get your economy ticket, you won't be able to upgrade - period. You are at the bottom rung of their ticket codes and upgrades aren't allowed. Even when I had super-deluxe-platinum status, if I used points to get an econ ticket, I could never get an upgrade; not even when first was empty. Either way, your best bet is to call the airline's frequent flier number and work with them directly. If you don't like the answer you get, call back and talk to a different agent 15 minutes later. Not all of the customer service reps are great with the customer service, but the ones that are will bend over backward to get you what you need. Sometimes, there aren't seats available, but call back every few days and see what opens up. Good luck!!! thanks for explaining rebecca! i love your suggestion that if i dont like the answer i get to call back and talk to someone else. hopefully theyre as nice to me as they were to corey! Quote: Originally Posted by DougsGirl Hi Maura, I'm not a TA bit since I work for an airline and do this for a living I thought I'd give you my two cents I just called AA's ticket counter and asked them, their response is that once you book a mileage award the only way to upgrade is to call the AAdvantage phone line and have them redeem more miles for the upgrade. Basically you might as well redeem a first class mileage award if you had the mile to begin with. No cash upgrades allowed on mileage awards. (BTW same policy is true where I work as well-Alaska Airlines) AAdvantage phone contact: USA or Canada 1-800-882-8880 24 hours a day Hope this helps! ah abbie i was hoping you'd chime in! perfect - you are such a doll, thanks for calling to clear up the question!

should we say 7? does that work for everyone?

Quote: Originally Posted by Just Martha Well, we all speak Spanish so maybe we'll be okay. i think maybe you misunderstood me... i speak spanish fluently, and i meant that i get treated differently because im not a native speaker.

Quote: Originally Posted by amyh okay, Maura, don't kill me for saying this but, I think its a blessing in diguise! There are so many of us who wanted a catholic ceremony on the beach but no priest would officiate it. Now you an have it!!! How amazing is that!!! But I agree, it feels like you need to jump through hoops to get married by the Church. I've been there and am still going through it! Both the church in PV and those here (i.e. trying to get a copy of my 1st communion certificate and the Church having NO RECORD of it!) haha no amy i totally agree with you that its a blessing in disguise! transporting all our guests between the westin and the church wouldve been SUCH a pain in the @$$. now we can do the real catholic part privately with our parents. i am such an anxious person, so it will definitely put me at ease to have a "rehearsal" ceremony before the one with all the guests. as im sure you know, in mexico they dont really do wedding rehearsals, so itll be nice to have that. re: the certificates, i feel your pain girl. are you positive you need your first communion cert? we only each needed our baptismal certs, and then i had to provide my confirmation cert. my certs were fairly easy to track down and the churches sent them to me fairly quickly, but jose's came from a church in mexico city that was a real pain to get. we are still waiting for his mom to send us the copy with the embossed seal via fedex so we can give it to the church here to fill out the rest of our paperwork. have you done your pre-cana yet? ours is on march 1st and we are really not looking forward to it because we had to do it at some random church in a neighborhood far from us, because when we went to sign up, no joke - every weekend between january and june was full except that one at that specific church.

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamsgrrl Ahhh! Thank goodness! One crises adverted! I swear I don't know what it is with these priests in Mexico! Come on get it together!! How horrible am I? But I feel your pain.. its like you don't get special "I can do whatever I want because I'm a priest" treatment. When I was down there for our wedding I got a slight paranoid feeling that my priest just didn't care because we we're just another tourists trying to get married in Mexico.. like we didn't really matter. So freaking weird! Especially since my priest (and yours from what you've said) were (are) so excited and happy to help us in every way. I really do wish for you that once your get down there he will be more receptive and everything will work out. i totally feel the same way monika, thats part of the reason we decided to fly fr. jack out to cabo to marry us because we didn't want to have some random priest marry us and have our wedding be just another tourist wedding to them. thankfully fr. jack has been really helpful and willing to contact the bishop of la paz. all we care about is being able to use the inside of the sanctuary for crying out loud, i dont know why it had to be so much drama! Quote: Originally Posted by coreyphil I'm sorry, but I had to laugh at Fr. Jack's email! Are you kidding me? Hooray for FMIL! She's definitely one to have on your side! Maybe we need to send you reminders every other day from now until August to call or email the secretary just to "confirm"? Seriously - I'm glad things are working out! no no no, the idiotic email was from padre juvencio who runs the church in san jose del cabo. i am going to have my FMIL keep tabs on the church and call every few weeks to check that we are still confirmed haha, because i just dont trust juvencio. she was pretty ticked about how dumb he was being, but she handled it with grace and a smile and got her way. i swear, NOBODY tells this woman no! everyone always does what she says! thank god shes on my team haha

I have flown AeroMexico and MerryMe is right, it's one of the oldest airlines in MX and is def not a piddly charter airline. Just FYI for anyone wondering, my FI and I would NEVER fly Mexicana - he has many times in the past and had very bad experiences. We've both flown AeroMexico and I'll say it's decent. I wouldn't say great or even good, but decent. They've never lost our luggage but there are other factors to consider. Let me tell you though that the first class on Mexican airlines my FI says is really sucky and no prize and he usually sits in first class if he takes a Mexican airline. There's about 6 inches difference, and on AeroMexico the "first class" seats are cloth. Mexicana's first class he says is a little nicer, but he "would rather walk than fly Mexicana"... the main problem I have with the two airlines is that the flight attendants are not very polite or accomodating. And even though I speak spanish, I can tell they treat me differently versus how they treat my FI, and i dont like that. just my two cents, take it or leave it.

amy! let us know how we can help

yay bets! sooooo happy you love it, cant wait to see pics! hurry hurry!

i figured since tomorrow is feb 1st -- in case anyone else wants to join, we should get the ball rolling on a head count...

well, youve picked a location which is a start! check out the thread for dreams brides in the cabo forum to read up on what they've done. and definitely talk to tammy (host) -- she is an authority on dreams!

***UPDATE*** I just got off the phone with my FMIL, she called the church to talk to the priest and of course he was not there as usual. She talked to the secretary who does all the scheduling, and the secretary told her only 4 pm was open. I have no idea what my FMIL said to this woman, but she somehow got her to agree to give us the one hour slot from noon to one, and told the secretary that we were bringing our own priest to do the mass there. She also told the woman we are doing a second, albeit shortened, mass ceremony with our guests at the Westin in the evening. The secretary now has us written into the church schedule book for noon on aug 9th, and said the mass at the westin is fine. Now just have to see if Fr. Jack has been able to get the bishop of La Paz's permission to just bypass the parish in San Jose.... no matter what, though, we now have noon for a private ceremony at the very least as our backup! thank goodness my FMIL is so persuasive with making people do what we want haha

dear stupid priest in mexico, im done playing your games of you pretending you all of a sudden dont speak english. i have communicated my issues to you in both english and spanish, and you have replied to most of my emails in english no problem. so all of a sudden when you give my ceremony time away to someone else, dont pretend you dont speak english you lazy ignorant a-hole. i am bilingual and i am calling you out on this one. now, you can deal with my FMIL, who is a lady you really dont want to piss off.... saludos, maurita

OMG. just a bit ago i got the stupidest email from padre juvencio, that i just had to share this.... >>No entiendo mucho el ingles y creo que me dices de tu boda en Chicago. Si es así, ya he visto en mi agenda y no me es posible ir ya que tengo otros compromisos de boda y misas en esos días.<< Let me translate that for you: I don't understand much english and I believe you are telling me your wedding is in Chicago. If this is so, I have looked at my schedule and it is not possible for me to come because I already have other weddings and masses scheduled for that weekend. Now I know he is full of it... because before, he had no problem communicating with me in English. I have spoken to his secretary on the phone in spanish, and my FMIL has spoken to him multiple times in spanish on the phone, so he knows who we are, when/where our wedding is etc etc. I just called my FMIL at work and she was like "no he totally doesnt understand anything, he is an idiot" and said she would call him today to try and see if she can work everything out and get us the morning mass there. FI told me to look up the info for the other church thats like 45 mins away as a backup, as well as ask our family priest to tell the bishop in la paz what is going on and see if he can marry us in a morning ceremony at la paz. what a clusterf%&*!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamsgrrl That sounds like a fantastic idea! How fun you get to get married twice. So unique! Don't worry in the end everything will turn out perfect! hahaha actually.... i get to get married 3 times.... i have to do it once legally first here in the US because jose isnt a US citizen (it complicates things if you marry outside the country and then come back and file for citizenship. he has lived here for 15 years and currently has a work visa because he works for a mexican company, but he isnt a legal permanent resident or citizen), and then we have our two catholic ceremonies in MX... so whoever coined the phrase "you only get married once" didnt take complicated circumstances into account! haha. Quote: Originally Posted by DougsGirl Maura, that's a great idea! I think the guests would appreciate getting the full blown Mexican version, I know I would. yeah we think so too... esp. because probably just over half of our guests who we expect to show up are from mexico and will EXPECT we do it that way!

Quote: Originally Posted by Adamsgrrl THANK YOU MAURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been CRAVING these nutts since we got back!!!! I even tried to make them on my own and ended up burning the nutts... LOL! I was even thinking of going to a mexican market and trying to find these. Thank you!! I'm totally going to get some and hoarded them for myself : ) Monika no problem, glad someone else is as badly addicted to these as me and jose! just FYI, also the mafer nuts are NOT sold at mexican stores/grocers in chicago. i went to even little hole in the wall corner bodegas in little village to find out as well as the bigger grocery stores, and everybody told me no they dont sell them in the US. actually reading your post yesterday made me want some, and i brought a half of a bag with me to work today hahaha

meh i dunno... i dont think you have to invite them to the wedding if you dont really know them.... theyre getting a good vacation deal.... you didnt have to pay an attrition fee... everybody seems a winner here. if you can accomodate them for your reception it would be a nice thing to do. but if you cant (spacewise or financially) i dont think you are obligated to invite them.

Quote: Originally Posted by fogdog ok, don't kill me for suggesting this, but perhaps you could just ask a family member to be on photo duty for it? There's not a whole lot of action to the ceremony and it's probably not worth the cost of getting a photographer. We had a guest do pictures of our Catholic ceremony, and, aside from our group shot at the end with the priest, there wasn't much to take pictures of. Not at all to take away from how much it will mean to everyone there, it's just not a very photo-friendly type of thing. i would tend to agree with you bridge that its not photo friendly at all really, but being that the religious part is pretty important (mostly to my FI's family... my family could not care less if we have a catholic ceremony), i think i would ask my best friend who is married and knows the shots to take if she would photograph it. i will talk to fr. jack and see if he can make the morning part just a straight american wedding mass, and then the one we do in the evening with the guests can be our full out mexican traditional stuff like the madrinas with our arras, lasso, ramo and anillos... and maybe i can get my brother to videotape both ceremonies...