JHarwood2Be

We had 5 suitcases, you must have had 8!

Great job!!! You thought of everything and it all came out looking fabulous! Can't wait to read your review and see your photos!

First off I want to say how sad I am for those whom are not having the wedding that they worked so hard to plan. It's too bad that the media caused such panic. Add to that the Canadian tour operators that outright canceled flights for a month, giving some of you no choice in the matter. It just makes me sad.

The new plaza area has a permanent gazebo anchored into concrete, so unfortunately it is there to stay. I personally liked it, as it was nice to have a designated dance floor. Gilberto said we could drape fabric around it for more decoration. It has one light in the center, but I bet you could hang paper lanterns from it and it would look really nice. Now the old plaza has a permanent structure built on it as well, I posted pics a few days ago.

The prices for hair was $85 for the bride and $50 for each bridesmaid. Well worth it, they did a great job.

You could go either way with the cocktail hour. We missed most of it due to pictures. We had a mariachi come about halfway through and everyone enjoyed that. If there was anything that I would have changed, it would to have the ceremony earlier than 5 pm. Everything felt rushed to me.

Here a couple photos, I can't wait to see the pro photos!

Oh no! What a hard decision that must have been to make! I'm hoping that with the switch everyone in your party will still be able to go. I was just looking at the Keys today as a honeymoon alternative. It looks beautiful! Honestly the ocean there is probably prettier than it is right in front of our resort! You will enjoy your wedding regardless of the location. Please be sure to keep in touch and tell us how it went!

We really didn't accomplish much on our site visit, but it was the opening weekend. I think you will be ok with skipping it. I don't think the on site coordinators will do actually any planning with you, they will defer everything everything to the Miami coordinators. Between the wedding reviews and the info here on the board, you should be set!

Our photographers just stayed for the day.

Since yours is staying for a week as a guest, you might want to let the coordinator know and get an approval in writing. The min. requirement is 3 night stay, right?

Or you can just let it go and see what happens. Maybe someone who has brought a photographer with them will know what to do.

Here's a template that I used. You will need power point to use them. You can change the color and size of the outline. There are 2 different sizes. The first 2 pages are for 2 inch hole punches and the last 2 pages are for 1 inch hole punches. I used a circle paper punch from Michael's to cut them out.

Hope that helps!

favor-tag-template.ppt

Here is the long awaited review!

We arrived in Mexico on Wednesday night. Check in was fast. We were assigned to room 4432. It was the honeymoon suite on the 4th floor of the family building. It had a great view of one of the wedding arches near the pier. The resort was not crowded at all, so I’m not sure what the rooms selling out so early was about.

Everyone loved the rooms, food, drinks and service. One minor thing was that occasionally the toilets would have a strong sewer odor. We kept the door closed to the toilet area with the fan on. We gave everyone travel candles in their oot bags, but I would recommend bringing an air freshener for everyone so that they can leave it in the toilet area constantly. Also some of our room keys were deactivating without reason, so we would have to go to the desk to get them reprogrammed, not a big deal!

All of the restaurants were really good. Sienna (the Italian rest) was a big hit for everyone. A few went to Le Chique and thought that it was very good. Every day they had a beach barbeque for lunch that was really good and convenient. We never had a wait to eat at any of the restaurants. In the lobby they have a guide of what restaurants are opened which days. It might be nice to have a copy of that.

We had our meeting on Thursday with Gilberto and Veronica. We went over the details sheet without any issues. We expressed our disappointment in not being able to have our preferred reception location and how we were scheduled to be in a ball room. They checked and came back to say that the new plaza area was available. We were more than thrilled with the outcome. I chose the tropical bouquet (BB24) and it was gorgeous. The bridesmaids had a smaller version and were just as pretty. The guys had the boutonniere (B1) and it did not hold up well. So maybe choose something other than an orchid. If you are doing table assignments be sure to take it with you along with the meal preferences. We forgot our meal preferences and had to get on the internet to find out.

The day of the wedding the bridesmaids (3 of them) and I had appointments at the salon starting at 1pm. I was surprised to not see any other wedding parties there, but it was just us. We did not reserve the special bridal room, but it was great how it was. They provided us with champagne. I was wanting to wear my hair half up, BUT THE WIND! So I ended up with it pulled back and I was so happy with it. After 2 cans of hairspray, I didn’t move! I brought some artificial flowers but I wasn’t sold on using them. The girl who did my hair used a live lily instead for no extra charge. The hair appointments did take a looong time though!

I gave them a cd with 3 songs to use for seating, one for bridesmaids walking down the aisle, one for the bride walking down the aisle and one for the recessional. It doesn’t take all but 30 seconds for each person to walk, so they don’t play the entire song. They fade it out and it sounds very nice. Brad had a little bit of time to talk to the minister prior to starting so she tailored the ceremony towards us. It was very, very nice. I can’t wait to watch the video to relive it again. We used Caribe photo with one hour of filming and ½ hour of edited video. I forgot to give him music to put with it so hopefully it isn’t something dreadful. He is supposed to be sending it to us…soon. But I’m glad we got it. One thing I wouldn’t bother with is paying $100 for rose petals on the aisle. We watched a wedding and noticed that as soon as they laid them down, they blew away. We did do a pouch of rose petals for $5 each for those at the end of the aisle to throw at us, but I don’t even recall it really working that well.

Another thing worth mentioning is that my dress snagged on the wooden runner a few times, so it might be worth getting the fabric runner to place over it.

Next we had the cocktail hour at Palapa Yoga. We had our guests go over that way while we finished photos with the bridal party. We did the Mexican cocktail with the 8 canapes per person and it was more than enough. What I did have of it was very good. We had the mariachi band for 45 minutes. Everyone loved that and they took requests. Some of you may remember how the one thing that Brad put his foot down was the donkey at the cocktail hour. Well lucky enough another wedding party had him at their cocktail hour down the beach. They were kind enough to let me spend a few moments with him. Apparently there were 3 weddings on our wedding day, but like I said we never ran into one another or felt slighted by the staff or coordinators.

So the “new plaza†was where we had our reception for 37 people. It was a good size for the group. I don’t know if they could honestly fit 100 though. I brought votive candles and glass holders with me that I got from Ikea because they wanted $2.50 per piece for them. They didn’t light them because they probably would have went out but they were colorful and looked nice. If you want they can illuminate the palm trees with colored lights for a fee. They already come with a white light shining on them, so we didn’t opt to pay more. They set up a few bright lights for us and it was great. We did the iPod reception which I liked to have control over what music we played. It was a little annoying to plan the time for your own speeches, 1st dance and cake cutting. But I don’t think we really needed a dj. We went with pork tenderloin and beef which averaged around $45.00 per person. I really don’t think it was worth the extra cost. I would look into the $12.00 menus. We had the tres leches cake for dessert, very good. Shortly after that we cut the cake. It was the strawberry cake with real strawberries. I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. We didn’t prepay for any bottles of champagne but some magically appeared for us.

They promptly ended the party at 11pm. Most of us headed to the “teen disco†for the after party. Very fun!

We had our honeymoon breakfast the next morning and were scheduled to have our romantic dinner on the beach that night. When we arrived at Zavaz to check in we were told it was too windy for the beach, but they gave us a private table on the side of the building. We chose the dinner with the lobster tail. It wasn’t the best lobster I’ve had, but it was still a treat. We had asked for our petite shaped cake in hazelnut to be at our dinner, but we received a different dessert instead. No big deal.

We hired Tamm’s photos. They are a husband and wife team based in the states that do a lot of destination weddings. They were there from 1pm to 11pm (I think, the details towards the end are fuzzy). They took sooooo many photos. We had no problems at the meeting regarding outside photographers and they had no problems getting into the resort. Just from what I have seen on their camera screen, the photos will turn out great. We did a day after session in Puerto Morelos in our wedding clothes that was included in the package.

From their website:

All of our weddings include:

• Tammara Terry and one assistant photographer

• All day wedding coverage

• All your high resolution images on CDs

• Unlimited quantity of photographs captured

• One set of 100, 4 x 6 prints in an album

• A website with your photos to share with family & friends

• Candid & formal photography

They were great to work with and exactly what we were looking for.

Overall, it turned out great. I was concerned regarding some of the more recent Tripadvisor reviews, so I went into with decreased expectations and I was pleased.

I think they could do a better job if the Miami coordinators had better communication with the on site coordinators. That was extremely frustrating, waiting so long for answers that weren’t necessarily always true. So my advice is, plan the major details as best as you can with coordinators. When you get there you will go over everything and they’ll do their best to make it what you want.

The good news is that so many of us our coming back and are able to provide you with our experiences. They know what they are doing and they do it well. Try to take it in stride and enjoy!

As soon as I get pics, I’ll post. I promise!!!!

Here are some photos of the old plaza. It appears to be mostly finished. One night I was there they set it up with chairs and a projection screen, so sort of like an outdoors convention. Maybe they plan on using it for the nightly shows, I'm not sure.

We were glad to hear that the new plaza was finished and it was available, so that is where our reception was. It worked out perfectly. It is closer to the guest rooms. I remember a few people walking by, a few on their balcony but it was not intrusive at all.

I'll post more in a little bit...

Oh yeah and we've been blogged! Tamm’s Photos

Just one teaser photo!

Tracy,

We just got back. Everything was great! Pack your meds and hope for the best. The chances are extremely slim. Once you're there, you'll forget all about it! I'll post more tomorrow!

This is what we did today!!!! It's official now. I can't wait for Mexico

We just got legally married today!!!!!

We got FI's band on Amazon.com. It is tungsten carbide for supppppper cheap. It looks really nice though in person. We saw similar rings at local jewelry stores for $200-$300.

I just picked up my band from the jewelers yesterday and I couldn't resist wearing it for a few hours while running errands. Our legal day is on Thursday, ceremony on the 25th!!

You will get more than enough sun in Cancun in July, cloudy or not!

I am often times on at night. I am also a nurse, work 7pm-7am. I don't have time really to post at work. But on my days off I usually sleep the majority of the day and stay up til 3-4 at night.

FI makes fun of me cause I constantly hit the new post button after I have been away for a few minutes. They just don't understand!

I got these in white and they are a perfect match to the material.

Women's & Men's Clothes: Plus Size, Maternity, Baby & Kid's Clothing | Old Navy

Here is a photo of mine. I wish the writing was a big bigger but overall I'm happy with it!

The slow shipping really isn't too bad. One week tops!

That's exactly what I did...except different name and date

I'm picking it up tomorrow!