superez

Exactly. The priest needs to see if any notes were made on a newly issued one that says you've been married before, etc. Quote: Originally Posted by EmenGeeRoxx "You must have a CURRENT and original copy of your Baptism certificate. By current, I mean, it can not be the copy that your mom has from the day you were baptized." Original and current meaning they will issue you a brand new one?

Hi! Congrats on your upcoming wedding! We did not have Fr. Quinn...we were assigned Fr. Jorge so didn't have a choice. It didn't matter tho, I had heard Fr. Q was realllly dry and unemotional.

Congratulations to you Deb on your engagement and upcoming wedding, how exciting! It was such a wonderful time for me so I'm happy to hear you are now experiencing it, it will be great! So you are also getting married by Fr. J . Yeah, I was perplexed by some of the things that ocurred....we were only about 5-10 mins late due to the van breaking down (and my wedding coordinator was there at the church telling him why we were late, but I guess the reason didn't matter much), so I'm not sure why he seemed a bit bothered. We had a fairly short ceremony too (we omitted the homily and intercessions, and the bringing up of the gifts-they were already there at the altar) so it's not like we spilled over an hour. But honestly I think that is just his personality. He's kinda dry and monotone, but I had expected that from the other brides I talked to before we got married. Even though we gave him a detailed program of what we wanted in English/Spanish and the order of the songs, he still messed up about 2-3 times. But honestly this didn't take away from the beauty of the ceremony for us. The violinist we worked with really knew his catholic ceremony so helped to "cover up" some of the mistakes the priest made. I think, because I knew the program inside out, only knew of the flub ups. My family said they didn't even realize because they were enjoying the ceremony and the view so much. One thing though that we all cracked up about was the asst running up to the altar for us to sign the papers when we thought we were getting ready to kiss. We laugh about it still now and how we kissed on our own, but again we were on such a high that day that it wasn't such an issue for us. The chapel is amazing (are you getting married there, or in the main larger church in town?) with the view of the sea, we couldn't have gotten married in a better place! I think you'll be just fine Deb, honestly. When I was in your position I had read reviews of the priests and was als worried, but after chatting with a few brides I felt better and knew what to expect, and in the end we were really happy! Who is helping you coordinate your wedding and where are you having your celebration afterward? Do you have a lot of guests coming? Good luck with everything and feel free to PM me anytime if you need more info or have more questions!!! Susan Quote: Originally Posted by time4d Hi! First off I just want to congratulate you on your wedding! I loved the pic with the fruit and the b/w with the blue ocean, I hope what ever photographer I pick can create some pics like that for me. I also loved your flowers. I am also getting married in Playa del Carmen, by Father Jorge too! So now you have me a bit concerned. You say he seem bothered at first because you were late, how late were you to the ceremony? Did you have a full Catholic Mass or shortened version? I'm just wondering how did he get confused or off track. And about him just disappearing wow, that's weird. He didn't even announce you two as Mr. & Mrs Overall, I'm glad everything turned out well for you two. Deb

Thanks for the pictures! I went there back in 96 and fell in love with it, your photos brought back lots of memories and I'm so glad you had a blast!!! Congrats on your wedding!!!

Welcome! I had my wedding in Playa at a catholic chapel...I loved Playa and think you picked a great place to get married. Congratulations!!!!

Everything looks FANTASTIC Maura! I can't wait to see your pics! From one catholic bride to another, enjoy the sacrament of marriage! I have to say there is something really special about having a catholic ceremony in Mexico...it's an awesome experience . Felicidades, have fun and savor every moment! Susan p.s. Hey I married a Jose too !

I loaded some pics onto Photobucket, let me know if this works (and thank you for your patience ...

Thanks for letting me know! Oh too bad, and here I thought it was ok now! Let me try something else...give me a few....

Pics did not show....keep scrolling to see them!

can you see these bigger pics from Kodak gallery? I can see them but wanted to make sure you can before I add more - thanks!!!!

I deleted these pics since they did not show either....keep scrolling down for the real pics!

I'm deleting this msg since the pics I posted on here did not come out ....see below for the pics!

Oh no, why are the pics coming out so small? Ok, give me a minute, I'll use Photobucket instead of Kodak Gallery.....

I am so sorry this is LONG overdue, but I wanted to wait until my professional pics arrived so I could include them with my review! First of all, I want to thank all of you for your support and encouragement as I went through my planning…years ago I had a dream of getting married in a faraway, beautiful tropical locale, and thanks to this forum I did not let that dream get away from us! Your pictures, personal recommendations, and stories made me more certain at every stage of my planning that we made the right decision…and our wedding day certainly lived up to that! Our wedding day was simply magical, a day I will never forget! I wish I could relieve it over and over again, but since I can’t, my hubby and I want to make it a point to return to Playa del Carmen to renew our vows in a few years . Ok, so here’s my review!! Wedding Planners: Caribbean Blue Weddings Grade: A I found CBW through my contact with Hotel La Tortuga, a fantastic 51-room hotel off of 5th Street in Playa del Carmen. They advertise wedding coordination on their website, so I filled out the inquiry form and sent it off. My initial questions about wedding packages, prices, etc (as well as the rooms) were handled by the marvelous Anna Bassi of the hotel. I went back and forth with Anna for about a month before we made our decision to have CBW plan our wedding. During that time, Anna was always so helpful and patient, being the intermediary between Irene of CBW and me. I decided to go with CBW after having compared both beach and catholic wedding packages with Yazmin de la Mora in Playa and Juliette Franze of Papillon Weddings on Isla Mujeres. CBW was the most reasonable, had good reviews on their website, and the fact that they were Hotel La Tortuga’s wedding planners, a reputable hotel, made the decision easy to make. Once I made my decision to go with CBW, Anna handed me over to Irene and I sent our deposit to CBW’s US bank account. Within one hour of sending the deposit, Irene emailed me to let me know she received it and we began our planning of the wedding. From the get go, Irene was on top of everything…she answered my emails within 24-48 hours and was open to all my ideas, all the while being very cordial, helpful and fun to work with. She coordinated our catholic ceremony at the gorgeous Nuestra Senora del Carmen chapel on 5th Street, including following up that our catholic paperwork was received by the diocese there and meeting with the priest for us to ask if we could have a bilingual Spanish/ English mass with specific Mexican traditions (the lasso and arras, and flowers to the Virgin Mary), ceremony music, reserving Casa del Agua restaurant for our wedding dinner, flowers, hair, makeup, wedding cake, transportation to the chapel, and a traditional Mexican trio to play during dinner. The day of the wedding Doranna the hairstylist and Olivia the makeup gal arrived at my hotel room right on time and did a great job. They were so sweet too. By the way I’m soo glad I wore my hair up because it was EXTREMELY windy for our pics on the beach (it had poured rain up until 2 hours before the ceremony so the rest of the day was soo windy!) and, as you’ll see in some of the pics, my hair came a little undone. The beautiful flowers arrived on time to my room as well, and were so pretty. The only snafu we encountered was with the transportation. I had Irene hire a van to first take my hubby, his mom and aunt to the chapel then come back to pick me and the rest of my family up. Our ceremony was at 5pm and the chapel only 8 blocks away, but in order to get there with plenty of time, Irene had the first pickup scheduled at 420pm and the second at 440pm. By 435 there was no van, so my hubby Jose called Irene and via phone she was working with the hotel’s front desk staff to get us there right away since apparently the van had broken down. Our photographer Citlalli was just leaving our hotel and on her way to the church and offered Jose and his mom/aunt a ride, so they took off on time, then we had to wait for some taxis to take the rest of us. Luckily we only got there a few minutes late! Aside from this issue, everything else Irene coordinated for us was great and we were very satisfied with her work! All the other vendors were fantastic! We originally were going to have a classical guitarist play during our mass, but he was not familiar with all the songs we wanted to have, so Irene found us a violinist and vocalist from Cancun and they played everything we wanted during the ceremony so beautifully, including Canon in D, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Ave Maria, the Wedding March, and a few other selections for the mass. Even when our priest lost track of our program a couple times (I wrote a bit on him and the mass too below) the violinist/vocalist kept up. The trio during dinner by the name of Shaman were sooo good! We had them play a variety of Mexican and other Latin music, we just loved them! For the cake, we decided on mango with white cake, and just a simple design with orchids on top. I had seen a similar cake on a Hawaiian destination wedding website and sent it to Irene so she could forward to the baker. The cake was good but a little denser than what we are used to here in the US. I think they had also chilled it very well due to the high humidity and heat. But even so, it was just fine and we really liked it! Photography: Citlalli Rico of Claudia Rodriguez Photography Grade: A+ I am SO glad Jose convinced me that we should splurge a little on some good photography, so we decided to go with Citlalli of Claudia Rodriguez. CBW’s photographer’s work was nice and very reasonable, but nowhere near as impressive as Citalli’s as shown on their website. We also considered Sol Tamargo, but she was a little more than what we wanted to pay. First of all, Citlalli and her sister Tamara who worked the lighting were such a joy to work with!!! They both made all of us feel so comfortable, were so nice and extremely helpful (i.e. the car issue, and they were very helpful with Jose’s blind mom). Although there were only 8 of us total, we opted for four hours of photography so we could have getting ready shots plus coverage of our mass, beach pics, and some photos during dinner. Citlalli has such a wonderful artistic eye as well, as you can see from the beach shots and especially the bike and fruit stand shots . One thing I have to say about getting married at the chapel is that it is very convenient for pics on the beach and cute park/plaza. The plaza is right beside the church and the beach is only like a block away, so it was perfect! Then having our dinner at Casa del Agua which was only 2 blocks away from the church, just gave us more time for pics on the beach! Wedding Dinner: Casa del Agua on 5th Street, Playa del Carmen Grade: A It was so convenient having our wedding dinner at Casa del Agua, everyone just walked over there from the chapel/beach so we didn’t have to worry about transportation! I thought the restaurant was perfect for our small group, it is a beautiful locale and we had a table set up in a semi-private area beside the pretty fountain. Since we were only 8 of us, we decided to let everyone order from their regular menu and not go for a set menu. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea because they got to order whatever they wanted . The menu is quite good, a mix of seafood and pasta dishes. They also have a wine list and cocktails (we ended up having a mix of mojitos and margaritas!) The service was great and we also took some pretty pics on their beautiful staircase. I’m so glad we picked Casa del Agua instead of Maramao on the beach (another restaurant Irene recommended)…like I mentioned earlier it was sooooo windy that day and it also rained again during our dinner, so I can imagine how it must have been on the beach that evening. I’m sure Maramao has some tarps to put up, but from the pics I saw a lot of it is out in the open. Plus, I liked the menu at Casa much more than Maramao. Accommodations: Hotel La Tortuga, Playa del Carmen Grade: A+ Everyone in our family LOVED this hotel! I highly recommend staying here if you are not into all-inclusives and would rather stay in a small 51-room boutique like hotel with awesome service. We got to know all the staff so well, they were always so kind and ready to lend a hand. In fact we still keep in touch with Anna Bassi, she is fabulous! Our rooms were great and very reasonable, plus we loved being a block away from the action on 5th but far enough for it to be nice and peaceful at night. To be honest I did not miss being on the beach staying here, their pool area is this gorgeous lush oasis with a snake-like free form pool and they also give you passes to Mamitas or Zenzi beach clubs. We went to Mamitas and it was simply beautiful! The hotel includes breakfast in your rate and we had our pick of delicious egg dishes, pancakes, fruit, etc. We cannot wait to go back!!! Our other accommodations for our honeymoon included La Zebra beach cabanas in Tulum (AMAZING, go now before Tulum becomes more developed!), Hotel Ixchel on Isla Mujeres (reasonably priced condo-like hotel on beautiful Playa Norte) and Hotel El Rey del Caribe in downtown Cancun (we were only here our last night, in order to be closer to the airport…it is a dirt cheap but very cute hotel that is popular with backpackers and also includes breakfast with their rate). More on the Catholic paperwork process and our Catholic ceremony: I have to say that we were intending on a beach wedding at first, but when Anna first sent me a photo of the newly remodeled seaside catholic chapel on 5th Avenue, I knew this is where we had to marry! I’m so glad we decided on the catholic ceremony…it just made it all more meaningful for us and of course our parents were very happy! The most complicated part of our hassle-free planning was the catholic paperwork process! But honestly it was all worth it. We met with our parish priest in January since all the paperwork needed to be sent to Play by March 30, 2 months before our wedding. We had to take the one-day marriage preparation class (turned out to be better than we thought!), get new original copies of our baptism, communion and confirmation certificates (this was a bit of a hassle since we had to call Mexico for Jose’s communion and confirmation)…even though you have the originals, the Catholic Church makes you get new originals so they can see if there are any notes on them saying that you’ve been married before, etc, meet with the priest again individually to go through that testimonial/marriage readiness questionnaire, then take our parents to meet with the priest to make sure we weren’t being forced into marriage, etc. Once all that was in order, our priest sent the paperwork to the Los Angeles Archdiocese for their approval and so they can send it directly to the Diocese in Playa/Cancun. This is where it got a little annoying with our priest, he kept dragging his feet and we had to be on him so that it would arrive by the March 30 deadline. The other thing was that we had to make sure the package was sent to Mexico via Fed Ex, but our priest kept saying don’t worry, that it would arrive ok via regular mail. Thank god we didn’t leave it at that, we ended up doing our own research and found out what office at the LA Archdiocese he sent the paperwork to, and we found the most awesome gal who made sure it was sent FedEx and followed up with the church and diocese in Mexico to make sure it arrived. The diocese in Mexico then sends it to the church in Playa. What a process huh? But like I said, it was well worth it . And, another thing that made it well worth it was that our parish priest offered to marry us civilly when we got back from Mexico! At first we were planning to just go to the County office when we returned. However, before we left on the trip our priest told us that if we show him the marriage sacrament certificate that we would get from the chapel in Playa, stating that we got married through the Catholic Church, he would see that as an official marriage and could sign our County marriage license here when we got back, making us civil. So about week after we got back we went to get our County license, then had our priest sign it. He did briefly have us repeat marriage vows, but the whole thing literally took less than 5 minutes, and we were dressed casually so it was very convenient! We got a confidential County license so we didn’t need witnesses, but we took our parents with us and had dinner after. So, for those of you who are getting married through the Church in Mexico and not having a civil ceremony there, I would suggest talking to your priest about this just in case!! So the priest that officiated our wedding was Father Jorge Castaneda. He speaks English and Spanish, and luckily he was very cool about doing a bilingual mass for us. The day of the wedding he looked a little bothered that we arrived a few minutes late, but whatever. Like other brides who have gotten married by Father Quinn, the other English speaking priest there, Father Castaneda was quite monotone and kinda dull. Luckily I was prepared for this but honestly it did not detract from us enjoying the ceremony. He lost track of our program a few times, not allowing the violinist/vocalist time for 2 songs (although they managed to squeeze them in at the right moment!) and then did one part in English that we wanted in Spanish. Also, after we gave flowers to the Virgin, his assistant rushed up to us so we could sign all the paperwork, which I found a little odd, but luckily the violinist/vocalist continued with the Ave Maria during this part. Then, all of a sudden the priest was gone, he didn’t tell us it was time to kiss (isn’t that hilarious! We totally laugh about that!) so we did that on our own. We have to laugh about these little incidents but again it did not detract at all from loving our ceremony and being in that beautiful chapel!!! I’m soo glad we got married there! On having a small, intimate wedding: Had we gotten married here, we would have had to have the big fat 300-person Mexican wedding, and that’s just not us. So we decided to just limit our group to our parents, 2 aunts and an uncle. We knew other family and friends would have gladly come, but I’m so glad we did it this way….we spent good quality time with our family (we are both only children so we are close to our parents), they got the chance to know one another, and they had a blast being on vacation (they NEVER go on vacation, which is why we wanted them to go and enjoy themselves before they get too old and can’t move around anymore!) And in a few months we are going to have an informal AHR so we get to celebrate with everyone else. Again THANK YOU all so much for your support and help! Here are some of our pics (UPDATED...please go to page 2 for our pics...it finally worked using Photobucket!!!

Felicidades Maura! I so enjoyed looking at your pics - you look beautiful (love your hair!) and you and Jose look so happy! Susan

Hi Magda, I just had my small wedding coordinated by Irene of CBW and really loved her work! I just got my pictures so I'm getting ready to post my review on this forum, but in the meantime I have my review posted in the testimonials section of their website under "Susan and Jose Married May 30, 2008" if you'd like to read it. We had a catholic wedding at the gorgeous chapel on 5th Street and loved every minute! We also stayed at Hotel La Tortuga, which had originally put me in touch with CBW (they are the hotel's wedding planners too). I recommend staying there if you want a nice place, great service, and non-inclusive environment. I'll be posting my review by next week sometime, so watch out for it! Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. Congrats and good luck! Susan

We just flew Aeromexico back from Cancun and had a good experience, in fact I think they are better than Mexicana! Better customer service. I think you'll be ok!

Congrats and welcome!

Welcome!!!

I really like this "Guess what we did in Mexico..." elopement announcement, I think I may use this to announce our small private wedding, as well as invite folks to our AHR: Tropical Wedding/Elopement Photo Announcements by Jen Allen What do you all think? Anyone used Jen Allen?

Thanks gals!! I know, I'm so happy they did this!! But I was seriously soo torn about the etiquette issue!!! But now I think my advice to other DW brides who are in the same dilemma would be, why the hell not? People always want to celebrate you and those that get offended, well, so be it! I think most people would like to send a couple off with a little celebration .

So my mom, dad, aunt, a family friend and cousin decided to throw us a small surprise shower last Saturday!!! Although I figured something was going on because they had been acting so suspiciously lately , I never thought they would have done this – it was sooo nice! To refresh your memories, we are having a very small DW with only 6 guests (parents and one aunt from each side, we didn’t invite anyone else to keep it small and to not offend anyone if we started to invite more family or friends, then have to cut), b/c we weren’t feeling the big fat 300+ guest mexican wedding here (but we are having an informal AHR a few months after we get back). From the start my mom wanted to throw me a shower, but I told her since we did not invite the rest of our family and friends, it would be bad etiquette to do so. I could tell my mom was kinda heartbroken, and I felt bad telling her that (believe me, it made me doubt if we were doing the right thing with having a small DW!), but she understood. Well, my work threw me a shower, then some of my girlfriends are having a bachelorette for me, which etiquette-wise was ok, but I knew my mom felt like she was missing out. Well, she ended up telling me that she just couldn’t hold back any longer, and since a few close family members wanted to do something for me no matter whether they were invited to the wedding or not, my mom decided to do this at the last minute and invite just a few close people for a luncheon in their backyard. All my mom told me was to come with my FI and in-laws so they could take us “out to eatâ€. When we get there, my mom told us she wanted to show us something in the backyard, then lo and behold was our shower! They decorated everything sooo nicely, we were really touched! We didn’t take as many photos as my family (I’m still waiting to get copies of these), but here are some that I wanted to share… My honey and I… Our yummy red velvet cake! Me and mom… Me and future MIL… Toilet paper game! Favors Other photos How cool, huh? Jose and I are really blessed .