Opice34

We're back and MARRIED! Woo hoo! I haven't even posted my planning thread yet, but I figured the review was more important, so I'll get to that first! Details: Wedding Date: November 15, 2008 90 adults, 5 kids, 2 babies Location: Hilton Cancun Hilton Hotel in Cancun ? Meetings in Cancun ? Cancun, Mexico Ceremony Location: Hilton Miramar Garden Cocktail Hour Location: Hilton Caribe Terrace Reception Location: Hilton Miramar Ballroom Welcome Dinner Location: Hacienda Sisal Mexican Grill Wedding Photographer: Elizabeth Medina Elizabeth Medina Photography, Mexico Destination Wedding Photographer, Wedding Photojournalism throughout the Riviera Maya, Yucatan and Mexico Wedding Videographer: Hector from FuneverPhotos [email protected] DJ: Carlos from DJ Mannia MANNIA - Audio, Video e Iluminación Profesional [email protected] Alcohol - La Europea LA EUROPEA The Hilton We worked with Fernanda Parra, the wedding coordinator at the Hilton, to plan the event and she is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! When planning a wedding from afar, you really have to have so much trust in the coordinator you are working with, and Fernanda is just so wonderful. She has excellent taste and she made everything look perfect! I told her one time how I wanted things and she remembered and made things prettier than I could have imagined! She even thought of things I had forgotten! She really is wonderful and you will be in safe hands with her. I spent the entire day before the wedding lounging in the pool and that is largely because Fernanda is so wonderful and I knew she had taken care of everything. She coordinated the flowers, the bus transporting folks to the welcome dinner, the chair bows, and communicated with the DJ to confirm the timing of everything. I'm sure she did a bunch of stuff I don't even know about, too! Everything ran so smoothly because of her!! I really can't express how great she is. The Hilton Cancun is a wonderful hotel. We heard lots of comments from our guests indicating that they would be back to visit there! One of my favorite things is that the pool is very large, so you are always able to find a lounge chair and the pool never feels crowded. We have been to several resorts where you have to get up at 8am to snag a lounge chair just so you'll have one for the day and this is never the case at the Hilton! There is plenty of room! And the swim up bar is great! We were also surprised with treats every day. Either a bottle of wine, or some interesting desserts, or towels shaped like smooching swans...every day there was a new treat that the cleaning service left in our room. Just a nice small touch to make us feel special! We also left welcome bags for folks at the check-in desk and they had no problem picking them up! It was great! There was some construction going on at the Hilton and we were a bit dissappointed, but they really did a wonderful job of concealing the work and making the hotel look wonderful. I hardly noticed it at all! The Spa at the Hilton is also nice and there are several restaurants for guests to enjoy. Most of all, they really know how to throw an event. They are pros! There were signs in the lobby directing our guests where to go, the service was EXCEPTIONAL, and everything was perfect. My dad is a stickler for good dinner service and he was incredibly impressed with the waitstaff. I never ran out of water, the food was EXCELLENT, and everything was perfect. We served the Filet Mignon, Chicken Florentine, and Chilean SeaBass and received loads of compliments on the food. I have lots of picky eaters in my group, too, so this was quite a compliment!!! Really - things could not have gone better!! The lighting and the set-up of the ballroom was also perfect!! Everything was great!! Hacienda Sisal Also - FANTASTIC!! We had a welcome dinner here for about 100 guests. Again, the service and the food were perfect. We held the event in the patio room with a buffet style set-up. We also showed a slideshow of childhood photos here and this room has a perfect set-up for that. There is a screen already built in and the speakers are built into the room as well. It looked great! We served a buffet with chicken and beef fajitas and tacos, chicken flautas (yummmm!), stuffed peppers, rice, beans, salad bar, guacamole, pico, salsa, and a dessert bar. Everyone loved the food! I honestly didn't eat much because I was a bundle of nerves, but I LOVE their chicken flautas!! They are so great! Yum yum!! We had an open bar serving beer and margaritas. The waiters greeted each guest with a "Welcome Margarita" which went over very well! They also had a microphone quickly ready for some impromptu toasts that occurred! Again - the service was fantastic, the food was great, and everything went better than I could have hoped! FuneverPhotos I'm also very impressed with their service! I just wanted a simple video of our ceremony and I was in a bind and was able to book Hector from Funever Photos at the last minute. And I'm glad I found him because we had a groomsmen faint and they announced us as Mr. & Mrs. {My Maiden Name}, so the video is quite comical! (The groomsmen who fainted does so quite a bit, even at his own wedding, so we were taking bets as to how long he'd last. What's even funnier to me is that one other groomsmen is a doctor and there were two more doctors in the audience and none of them moved. We all knew it was coming and we knew he'd be up soon! But he does get very embarrassed about it.) But the video is perfect - it's exactly what I wanted and they delivered it to us 2 days after the wedding! We were able to watch it on our honeymoon which was such a fantastic treat! Hector did a great job and I'm so glad I found them! DJ MANNIA BEST. DJ. EVER. Seriously. My wedding was the best night of my life and a big part of that is because Carlos kept great music playing all night long! People never sat down!! We were all on the dancefloor ALL NIGHT!! He is fantastic!! We got so many compliments on him, people are still talking about what a great DJ he was, and our friends have even named our wedding "Best Dance Wedding Ever"! He is very professional, always on time, his set-up is great, his song transitions are seamless, he made the announcements perfectly, he played all the songs we wanted and none of the ones we didn't....I really can't say enough! I am so grateful for what a good job he did! My reception would not have been the same without him!! He is WONDERFUL and I highly recommend him!! Elizabeth Medina Of course, I haven't seen the pictures yet, (we just got back!), but I have loved working with Elizabeth and I'm sure the pictures will be wonderful! She has been so easy to work with from the very beginning and even from our first email, I have just very much enjoyed working with her! She has been so easy to communicate with and she is always so, so helpful! She is a very nice, caring person and it was nice to have the addition of such a positive personality on such a wonderful day! I am not the best subject for photos - I can be a bit awkward and I'm not good at posing - but Elizabeth handled everything so well and was just so wonderful while we were taking the pictures! I was so smiley and giggly that I could hardly take any serious-faced shots! I also didn't even notice her at all during the ceremony, and I think that's great! She was very surreptitious! She is a wonderful person and worked very hard to capture our event! We had quite a rambunctious reception - we did the Horah and we're not even Jewish! - So I'm sure we had her running around! Such fun! I can't wait to see the pictures! I will post some when I get them! La Europea Again - highly recommend! We used them for alcohol for our cocktail hour and reception, and not only did we save a ton of money, but their service is great! We ordered the alcohol we wanted, Fernanda (at the Hilton) coordinated the delivery of the alcohol the day before as well as the pick-up of the remaining alcohol for us the day after the wedding. Fernanda even counted all of the leftover bottles for us! We originally purchased all of the alcohol on our credit card and we went into the store the day after and had them refund the amount on our card and the refund appeared before we even got home! I have seen some reviews where some people had trouble getting their refunds, so I recommend popping in there in person after the event and having them refund it directly on your credit card. It worked perfectly!! ************************************************** ****** Overall, having a destination wedding was such a wonderful decision. While we were packing to go, I was incredibly stressed and I was thinking "why didn't we just elope?!", but honestly, it was the best night of my life and I wouldn't change a thing. It was absolutely fantastic. Everyone was in such a great mood and it contributed to an incredibly fun reception. We had lots of different groups of friends who came together and seemed to form one big group and everyone got along perfectly. (I think a few days lounging at the pool beforehand assisted with the intermingling!) The only, small thing I would change is that I would have spent more time primping before the reception. The humidity and wind during the ceremony destroyed my hair, but I was in such a good mood and just so excited that all I wanted to do was go visit with people. I didn't spend the proper amount of time fixing my hair, and I looked a bit disheveled! But I still had a blast, so I don't care! I also didn't change out of my gown all night and with all of the dancing I, along with everyone else, was a hot, sweaty mess by the end of the evening. Not exactly what I expected to look like at my wedding reception! I'm glad I didn't change out of my dress, I love it and you only have one night to wear it, but I now fully understand why some people change clothes! I would have been much more comfortable, and 'dance-able', in something else! But still - no regrets!!! Good luck to everyone who is still planning and I hope everything goes smoothly!!!! Hugs!

Quote: Originally Posted by ccarmany23 Perfect post for my search for a DJ- thanks everyone! Did he help lead the ceremony (announce first dance, or the wedding party names, etc.) or just play music? I am ideally hoping to find someone who can help lead/announce the traditional items during the reception....thanks! CCarmany - He did a great job announcing us for our entrance and for the father/daughter mother/son dances! But those were the only announcements we made. I didn't do the bouquet or garter toss... But I think he could do all of that for you! Really - he's great! Very accommodating!

Quote: Originally Posted by Simistar Yay! So happy to hear! We have him booked for our wedding in about two weeks! :-) Excellent! Congrats and have a great time!! He is a fantastic DJ! I'm still raving about him. Really - everyone danced all night! Have a great wedding!

Quote: Originally Posted by lucy106 I posted a review in my entire wedding day review but I really wanted to say that Carlos and Mannia Audio were INCREDIBLE!!! The illuminated dance floor on the beach at Dreams Cancun was awesome. He played every song we asked him to. Our guests our still talking about him. Carlos was great to work with and made our wedding day memorable!!! We just got back from our wedding and all of our friends are still talking about DJ Mannia (Carlos), too! BEST DJ EVER!! We danced all night long and everything was perfect! Seriously - several people said during the night "This DJ is GREAT!" and the next morning at breakfast, our friends even declared ours the BEST DANCING WEDDING EVER!! Carlos was so professional, always on time, his song transitions are seamless, he followed our song requests perfectly, and he really knows how to keep a party going! He is fantastic!!! I highly recommend him!!

Hi guys! We're back! Thanks for all of the help! Sorry for the double post above...I was on my blackberry and it wasn't working properly for posting at the end. Like I mentioned, Mike did respond finally, and maybe he was just going to show up and I shouldn't have worried about it. Like Morgan mentioned above, she didn't confirm with her videographer ahead of time and they showed up. Maybe I was being a neurotic bride, but I just wanted a response to one of my emails! I know Mike has done great work for lots of other brides, and I'm sure he would have done a great job with mine, too. I just needed a response! But thanks to all of you for so much help! We ended up finding Hector from Funever Photos and he even delivered the video to us before we left on the honeymoon. It is GREAT!! What's even more fun is that the minister pronounced us as Mr. & Mrs. [my maiden name] which was quite comical and I'm so glad we have that on tape! Everything was perfect!! Thanks again!!

Problem solved! Thank you all! Will update when I get back!

You guys are awesome! Problem solved! Thank you! And Mike did email me yesterday finally, but I had already found someone else by then. Thank you all! I will post updates when I get back!

Hi guys, My wedding is Saturday and I am in Cancun now. I booked a videographer (Mike Cantarell) from Cancun Wedding Video and I think I'm being stood up. I have emailed him several times to confirm the schedule and what time we should meet. I started emailing him on November 2nd and I have not received a single response during that period. Has anyone spoken with Mike or anyone from Cancun Wedding Video? Do you know of any other videographers that are reasonably priced that I could try? I'm on my BlackberryN but I will check back in. Thanks!!!

On the flight now...we got first class, so no prob hanging in closet. Two other brides on the flight as well. All dresses are hanging! The only issue was getting it through the x-ray machine...it ended up in a ball at the bottom of the garment bag. Not sure how that happened in a matter of 2 minutes, but it did! All is well! I'm off!

You know what else just occurred to me? How do we get it through security? I don't think it will fit through the x-ray machine! And it's not just about wrinkles for me. This is the most expensive item of clothing I've ever owned. The thought of folding it up and having people shove their bags on top of it is a nightmare. There is a service called DryKlean that comes to the Hilton to steam the dress...my WC told me about it. They may come to yours, too.

Jessica - yes, we got everything worked out. I think it was my fault and I missed some things early on! Thank you for bringing that up...I should have corrected that post and made sure people knew it was my mistake! We are leaving on TUESDAY! Yikes! Right now we're just hoping for good weather!! I'll come back and post when we get back! Thanks for all the well wishes!!

I'm sure there are other posts on this topic, but I did a search and nothing came up! Sorry! How did you pack your gown for the plane? Mine currently does not have any stuffing at all. It's just hanging on a hanger in the garment bag. Did you have your dress packed with tissue paper and such to take it on the plane? I just called American Airlines to tell them I would be carrying on a dress. (I was told that if you called them ahead of time they would be very accommodating and let you hang it in the closet.) They told me I need to be prepared to ROLL IT UP and put it in the overhead bin. WTF?!? We put in an upgrade request, so hopefully we'll get first class, but holy cow I can't imagine rolling up my dress!!! How did you guys handle this? TIA!!

I want the blue Texas! I doubt they even made one, but I want it! I'd hang it up in my house! Another thing I noticed during the speeches, and it may have been that people had different emotions over the results, but when McCain mentioned Obama, people booed. When Obama mentioned McCain, people cheered. Another example of how I feel that Obama is better at bringing the country together. But again, I know there were lots of emotions tied up in this and I don't really expect McCain followers to walk around cheering after his concession...

I really do love McCain. He is a good, good man. Excellent speech. But I am so happy Obama won! I am so proud of our country today! I cried while he was speaking! This is amazing! I think I will be skipping around patriotically for weeks!

Calia - LOL what channel are you watching?? Also, how do you say your name? It looks so pretty! I think I've asked before. Is it Cay-lee-ah, or Cal-ee-ah, or something else? Hello to my fellow Texans! (I'm an Aggie, too!) Hugs!

If he won Texas I don't think I'd sleep for 3 days. The excitement would be too much! Happy early birthday!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Inked1 Okay, I need to be the first to post their vote for Bob Barr. I am a proud libertarian and I think the party is quite under exposed. I find myself to be politically conservative but morally/socially liberal...most libertarian candidates fill this niche nicely. I am all for a small government that keeps it's nose out of my personal business :-) Thanks for posting that!!! I hope we have representatives from all! I very much agree with the Libertarian stance as well!

Quote: Originally Posted by syl1115 Obama just won Ohio! Don't you feel proud!?! I know he won't win Texas, but I'm so proud that it's too close to call right now!! I feel like I'm a part of that! Woo hoo!

I put "food, drink, and merriment to immediately follow' I'm off to get married soon and hopefully I'll post my planning thread before I leave...

I checked out the Costco in Cancun when we were there for our site visit for this very reason. Yup, it's just like a normal Costco! You could everything you need there! I'm planning on getting all of the snacks there....

tvt - CONGRATS!!!!!!!!! So excited for you!!!

Morgan! I think maybe we were separated at birth. Former aggies with very similar political views! I absolutely agree with everything you said! foxytv - I find it interesting that we both had the same concerns - that our military is well taken care of and safe - yet we voted differently. This was a very important issue to me, and at the end of the day, I feel that Obama will take better care of both our veterans and those currently serving. It's interesting that we want the same thing but ultimately decided on different candidates, isn't it?! I think it's so interesting that there are so many different ways to interpret things. One of my issues with McCain is that he is a very different person today than he was when he ran in 2000. He was actually in favor of higher taxes for the wealthy in 2000. I think he's a good man, but I feel he's had to change his position in order to get the Republican nod. The party has overtaken him it seems, and I don't feel that he's in control. I was so dissappointed in how his campaign was run, but I honestly don't think he would have run a campaign like that if he had been completely in control. I think if they would have let him be himself, he would have been much more successful. But that's just my opinion. And, honestly, we already have a redistribution of wealth system. Even in Texas, a very conservative state, we have "robin hood" taxes where the tax dollars gathered in wealthy neighborhoods are funneled to schools in lower income areas. That's basically redistribution of wealth, but it is so important to me that kids growing up in lower income areas also have a good education. It stabilizes society and helps us prosper. (And this is coming from a former, very conservative, Republican!) I really do think McCain is a good guy and I think he could have been a good president if they would have let him stick to his beliefs. But I think Obama is a natural leader and will greatly improve our nation and our relations with foreign countries. A leader like Obama does not come around very often! I am so excited at the prospect of having such a phenomenal person as our president. This truly is a monumental day!!!! I appreciate everyone voicing their opinions and staying civil! This has been a great thread! On another note....how late are you guys going to stay up to see the results?? I'm thinking I'm staying up until it's official!!

Quote: Originally Posted by SAM I I am very proud to be an American but feel for the past eight years I've been very detached and don't want another 4 years of this. We need change in every single way and I feel that Obama is the only candidate that can turn us in the right direction. This change will take alot longer that 4 years to clean up! Couldn't agree more! I love this country, but we should be so much better than we are! I feel Obama can lead us there! Quote: Originally Posted by Jacqueline Heyyy I thought we wern't going to bash the canidates but just say who we are voting for and why?! lol. Ok so I'm the outcast on this thread, but I say it proud that I'm voting for McCain! My FI, my dad who is a vet, my fam, & FI's fam all are too. Without getting into details that might start a debate that I don't and wont get into, imo- he's more experienced all a round, his views on abortion, climate policy, immigration, education, veteran, the fact that he fought and was a POW for this Country, etc etc etc. In regards to the Rolling Stone article- its just that - an article. I have read manyy disturbing articles about Obama, but I realize that they are more than likely false. I saw a website that said Obama was the anti christ and all this scary stuff, do I believe it, no of course not! There was a DVD I saw about corrupted muslim's and how Obama is working with them to overpower America and take us down, it's complete BS. People have to look past all the media and articles they read and realize that things are made up. At the end of the day though its "To each his own" ...regardless, whom ever the winner is, I hope they are being honest with us Americans and really help make this Country a better place. K bye bye before I get ambushed hahahaaaaaa Jacqueline, I'm an Obama supporter living in Texas, so I feel quite alone most of the time, too. Veterans issues are also at the top of my list. My FI served in Iraq and Afghanistan for 7 years. In my opinion, Obama has done so much more to support veterans than McCain has and it's one of the main reasons Obama got my vote. When McCain voted against the new GI Bill, that did it for me. I do respect the fact that he fought for our country and was a POW, but I can't support the way he's voted on veterans issues recently. I just can't wait to see what happens!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by syl1115 Listen to this crazy story. My daughter no longer lives with us so I told her to spend the night and we would get up super early to vote. Well she did and we went over to the school to vote. We got there at 6:10 am and there was already a line. My neighbors daughter came with us and we had fun joking around while waiting in line. We get almost to the sign up desk and I ask my daughter if she has her ID. She says "NO I left it at home since I cleaned out my purse" She did have her car payment statement with her address on it and she thought all she needed was something with her address. OMG, I can't believe that child. First, why is she driving a car without her license? Second, if you know you are voting and need an ID, why would you just bring your car payment statement with you? DUH! Then her girlfriend gets up there and all she has is a passport. A passport does not have your address on it. These are 19 and 20 year old girls. It is amazing to me how they make it out of the house on a daily basis! Now they have to go back and stand in line again, Kids! thats all I can say. You're in a swing state, too! Those votes are extra important! I early voted in Texas - touch screen voting pads for us!

Oh, that stinks! That would have saved you $140, too! Oh well - thanks for checking!