arhoyaltres

THANKS EVERYONE!!! I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF THE KIND WORDS! Quote: Originally Posted by Abbie gorgeous pics! you looked so beautiful, and your man is a cutie too! is that a perfume bottle eh gave you? its SO pretty! where did it come from? Yes, my DH gave me a card (along w/ the first love letter I wrote him) and a perfume bottle filled with Absolutely Irresistable perfume. He ordered the blue container separatedly and I'm not sure where he got it from. I will see if he remembers the website from where he ordered it from.

Hey folks....I've finally got the link to our professional pictures. There were done by studio563.com who took pics of our rehearsal dinner, karaoke night, and all of the day of events. I must warn you that there are a lot of pics, but Craig & April (our photographers) were never were in the way or ruined the flow of the partay! Enjoy!! Here's the link: Welcome (It should work once you copy & paste it into a browser. Let me know if it doesn't.) and the event id: 081206_Nichols_W

Quote: Originally Posted by SCzhen Everything looks awesome! And those maracas are too cute! Where did you get them? We originally wanted the hand painted maracas because they were more authentic, but opted with the gold maracas since they went better with our wedding colors. I got them at totalpartyzone.com. Quote: Originally Posted by moepeedy Mrs. Adams, I am sure your smiling when you hear that. I was hoping you could tell me the item no. for the sand ceremony frame. Looks like a few people have mentioned they got it from Kohls. I am not having luck finding it online or in the store. Or maybe if you could send me a pm with the link and picture. Also I love love your programs. Where did you have them made or did you do them yourself. If DIY could you share the template. Were they complicated to make. What did you include in the Fan. Sounds like I'm overwhelmed. LOLOL! Thanks for your patience. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Yes, I can never get enough of hearing that, but sometimes I forget that they are referring to me and not my mother-in-law...LOL. The programs were a DIY project and it is time consuming because cutting out all of the pieces can be tricky. PM me your email and I will send you a template that we used.

Quote: Originally Posted by mmcgee I LOVE your starfish along the asile - where did you find those? Also did you have to bring your own coordinated sand or did Alejandra have that for you...I am still waiting to hear back from her on this The starfish was included in the wedding package we got (secrets ultimate) & i purchased the sand online. I would suggest you do the same to ensure that you have the right amount for the container that you are trying to fill & have the exact colors you want.

Quote: Originally Posted by jamaicabride09 Congrats on becoming a Mrs.!! I love your Mother of the Bride and Groom shirts. Did you DIY them? If not, where did you buy them? I "designed" them on bridalpartytees.com. This was the only website I could find where I could design some of my bride t-shirts and get the mothers their shirt at the same place. I also liked the fact that their wording was in rhinestones. Quote: Originally Posted by D&ESept2009 Your stuff is beautiful! I especially like the programs. Did you DIY? Congrats Yes, we designed all of our paper products. The programs were easy to design but a little difficult to implement. If you are thinking of going this route, the thicker the paper the better & a Crop-a-dile is a MUST!!

Great review...sorry I'm just getting around to reading it. I hate that you experienced so many problems along the way (like we did), but I'm glad your day turned out great in the end!! Everything looked really good even if you had to harass the WC to get things that way

Happy New Year to everyone!!!!! I know I am slowly trying to get adjusted to everything after the wedding and the holidays and going through this name change process is a BEAST!! It also doesn't help that I'm working on arranging a couple of AHRs (which has made me not be a good BDW member). How's everyone else doing?

Quote: Originally Posted by moepeedy arhoyaltres, Awesome job! where did you get those fabulous reception shoes. Thank you! I actually found those shoes at Macy's Department store in Houston. When I tried to look for them online on Carlos Santana's website, they were sold out. I loved them so much that I went back to Macy's and bought the black and white leopard print pair as well!

Quote: Originally Posted by jackris CONGRATS!!! Thanks for the details! A little less reassured about the WC but since like you said since we have about 40 people coming I hope they will be more attentive. But all in all anyway sounds like you guys had a great time. Do you suggest a restaurant for rehersal dinner?..we will have about 40 people. thanks Hey, I just responded to your rehearsal dinner question on the Official Secrets Capri thread. Let me know if you have any other questions.

I would agree with DallasAshli. The Italian restaurant is the only one with a private room but can only hold about 13 ppl comfortably, which will not be a good fit for you. There was a bigger rehearsal dinner going on the same night as ours, but I'm not sure how much it cost to hold since it was in a special area right off of the Portofino. Check with Alejandra for more details on that.

Quote: Originally Posted by DallasAshli First...Congratulations on being a Mrs!!!! Second, great reveiw. Very detailed and you know I appreciate it!! Yikes about the WC. That was really not what I wanted to hear. But it sounds like you did have a great wedding anyway. One question - how did the cake taste? I know the decorations were messed up, but it taste ok? THANKS! I guess the cake tasted okay because I only had the one bite that we feed each other, but a few of my guests said that it was good. (I'm not sure if they were saying that to try and soothe me!)

Quote: Originally Posted by morenaindc do you have template for the maracas wording that you can share? My DH has all of the files on his computer and he used Adobe Illustrator. PM me your email and I will shoot it over to you when I can get it from him.

Quote: Originally Posted by Quietstorm You did a great job with putting everything together. Where did you the picture frame for the sand ceremony? I bought it from Kohls.com and it's called the Umbra frame (if you do a search on the forum for sand frames more details can be found about it). It was on sale for $14 when I purchased it.

Quote: Originally Posted by cdc0427 Great review, thanks for sharing everything. Despite all the mishaps, it looks as if you had a fun time! Was your WC a friend of yours? It seemed to be good that you had her, she took care of a lot of stuff for you. No my wedding planner was not a friend of mine. It was someone we hired at the beginning of the process because I didn't know anything about planning a wedding (& it was before I found this forum). It was great having her for the weekend though because she was able to put out a lot of fires for me!

Great job Kevsgirl!! Everything looks great! I'm just digging through all of the threads since I'm just getting back myself, but your everything looks really good. I'm sure your wedding turned out great!

THE CEREMONY-A We were given an ocean front suite for me to get ready in and to use as a bathroom since we were located in no man’s land. The ceremony was great! I was able to watch everyone walk out peeping out from the balcony blinds. Because the sand was so soft it was difficult walking down the aisle, but my dad said we shouldn’t be in a rush anyways so it was cool. The only thing that I was not fond of was the half naked people who were walking behind our wedding arch. Since we were located at the border of our resort and the next resort, several folks were trying to get access to the beach so they were walking back and forth. But the waves crashing, being in front of family and friends, and seeing the look on my husband’s face when he saw me for the first time made everything absolutely beautiful. COCKTAIL HOUR-A+ I loved the mariachi trio and because we had already discussed with our photographers beforehand that we did not want to spend a lot of time taking pictures after the ceremony, I was able to enjoy the music and the food. The mariachi trio stayed for an hour although they were only supposed to be there for 45 minutes. The bartenders were phenomenal!! We had a signature cocktail that they made better than we had. It’s called Blue Balls and was the perfect beachside beverage. We chose this drink because my husband and I withstood from sex the entire length of our engagement-a full year! DINNER-A The food was fabulous although it was not what we had agreed on. We were supposed to have a plated dinner (and that was what we listed on our menu cards), but apparently Alejandra said that a plated dinner was not possible in that location. We ended up with a buffet of some great stuff and I absolutely loved the minestrone soup. THE CAKE-The Resort-F THAT CAKE WAS HORRIBLE! We sent them our final cake inspiration at least 5 months prior to our wedding and they got it horribly wrong. My wedding planner had to send the cake back 3 times and the final time we just accepted it, but told Alejandra that we were not going to pay for it since it was not what we wanted at all. We were supposed to have a 1 layer square cake with turquoise icing with chocolate brown trim and our logo on the top. We ended up with a 1 layer square cake with white icing, some sort of pink designs all over it that they attempted to try and cover with tan icing, and with a tan trim. The logo on top was definitely not ours. It looked as though a 2 year old wrote the letters R & J in the middle of a green circle. It was also brought out only a few minutes before it was time for us to cut it (which worked out in the long run). I saw the cake before my husband did and warned him of the disaster so that he wouldn’t black out on Alejandra and ruin the good time that we were having so far. We cut it ASAP so that we wouldn’t have to look at the tragedy the entire night and quickly got back into the flow of the party. THE RECEPTION-A++++++ We had an absolutely wonderful time. We chose to use our IPOD instead of getting a DJ. We rented the sound system and speakers from the resort and had our wedding planner be in control of the music. But when the party started to really pick up, my husband took over the microphone and the DJ duties and it was perfect. We had folks outside on their balconies dancing the night away along with us. Everyone loved our first dance, which was a choreographed Chicago-style stepping piece and because I did not like my flowers I used them for my bouquet toss. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Juan Carlos-A We brought our own photographer, but they told us that we had to use the photographer’s 50 pictures that came with our package. We told him that we wanted him to only cover the wedding and he did just that. He did a good job especially since it was “free”. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Studio563-A+++++++++ We flew these guys in from Houston with us and we absolutely love them! They do fabulous work.. They did our e-shoot, BD, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and TTD photos. So as you can see we are huge fans of their work. For the wedding, we had Craig and April working with us and I love the way that they do not intrude to “setup” photos. We established a friendship which made this whole process much easier. They are able to capture the moments as they happen! I really highly recommend them and can’t wait to see our pictures! VIDEOGRAPHER: The Resort-A This was provided with our wedding package. I’m not sure of the name of this vendor, but he did a great job. He was able to pick up everything that we said as well as the minister. He was also able to take some footage of us after the ceremony. We received the finished DVD 2 days after our wedding. TTD: Studio563-A+ We did our TTD the morning after our wedding at the resort because we wanted to get the sun over the water shots. We were also able to get some great shots around the resort. I cannot wait to see how those turned out. We initially wanted to have the TTD at a cenote but decided against it since we were wanting to get it done early the next day so we could begin our honeymoon festivities (at Secrets Capri). Overall, we had a great time! I would not recommend this resort to have your wedding unless you are highly flexible and not so detailed oriented. But I believe that if you have a really big wedding, you will receive all of the attention you need and more from Secrets wedding services. It was very frustrating to me to have worked so hard on all of our paper products to help out our guests, just to have the information be null and void. I would highly recommend this resort as honeymoon or anniversary spot because they take really great care of you. We really did not want to return home. We loved everything outside of having to deal with planning and coordinating our wedding. We will go back for an anniversary for sure! I hope I covered everything. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have in case I skipped something!

WEDDING COORDINATOR: Alejandra-D From the moment we got to the resort Alejandra did her best to avoid us. Before we arrived, we had confirmed with her that we would meet on the Thursday we arrived at 1:30pm. My wedding planner, Mandy, left a message with her after we checked in to see where we were to meet her at, but never heard from her. Upon arrival our wedding guests and I headed to the pool bar (the bartenders there are absolutely awesome) where I saw Alejandra and her assistant have walk-throughs with at least 3 other brides (they can be identified with pink shirts and black slacks). I eventually had to corner her myself (at 6pm) for us to have our walk through and meeting. When we were talking through the contract, Alejandra did not have any of the details that we had previously confirmed. I’m glad that I brought copies of all of the emails that were exchanged. Alejandra wanted to change the location of pretty much everything and I told her that was unacceptable since we had already printed out our weekend itineraries. When my wedding planner saw my frustration, here and Alejandra went off for a private conversation where we learned that there was another wedding scheduled at the same time as ours and that our locations for our ceremony and reception was given to that wedding and that they were trying to push us off to the Deck area which is located next to the wedding gazebo where their DJ would be setup. Alejandra knew that there was a mistake for the last 9 months and never mentioned it to us because she did not want to have to deal with this conflict that her and her boss created. I found Alejandra to not be competent in handing complex situations. She handles things by not addressing the issue, which for me is unacceptable since I am a very detailed oriented bride. So my wedding planner had to get the general manager involved. After many discussions and negotiations, they decided that they would convert the north end of the beach (which was not cleared, had caution tape, and where the waverunners and kayaks are stored) so that we could have our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception in that area and we would not be responsible for any of the additional costs that were associated with that transition. They would have to clear the area, put out huts to distort the view of the not cleared area and the neighboring resort, provide tiki torches since there is no lighting for that area, and bring in a dance floor. As for the other things that come with our wedding package, Alejandra dropped the ball on those items as well. She failed to schedule our romantic candlelit dinner and our sunset couples’s massage, which we had previously confirmed with her prior to our arrival. Fortunately we checked with our concierge the day after our wedding and got those things scheduled. REHEARSAL DINNER: Portofino Restaurant-B- Of course we made a reservation for the Portofino Restaurant with the concierge and confirmed with Alejandra for Friday night. Well, when we got to the restaurant, they did not have our reservation and we had to wait another 45 minutes for them to setup the private room for us. When we finally got into the room, we had 13 people and it was very small with no air condition circulating. We complained about the temp and eventually it was fixed. The food was very tasty, but the small portions. WEDDING DAY YOGA LESSONS-F This was also setup through Alejandra and the instructor was a no show. When we tried to contact Alejandra of the mishap, she never responded. One of the entertainment personnel finally found us about 1.5 hrs later saying that they found someone who could do a yoga session for us, but by that time we had already decided that we were going to head to the breakfast buffet. HAIR & MAKEUP: The Spa-A My hair and make-up was included in the wedding package that we got and so my bridesmaids and I headed to the spa. I brought then as backup in case the stylist was not able to handle African-American hair. Well, I shouldn’t have worried because Ixhel did an amazing job! We were the only ones in the beauty salon at that time and had a good time. We had Ixchel cracking up the entire time and she was still able to re-create the style I brought a picture of and although the makeup was a little bit more of a challenge…we were able to work out the colors (at first the eye shadow was a little too light for my complexion). After she was done, I really felt like a bride!! Flowers: The Resort-C The flowers were not good at all. My bouquet was included in the package and they sent me pink flowers (pink is my least favorite color) and tried to convince me that they were orange. Alejandra corrected the issue (just as it was time for the ceremony to start), but I loved my bridesmaids’ bouquets much more than mine.

I'm glad that I have been able to get this done. I didn't want to wait too late to post this so if I missed something please just ask. Well, our wedding turned out great although we had to go through HELL to get it that way. Here is the link to our photos (for you photo whores out there) so that you don’t have to read through all of my venting. These photos are from our guests and the wedding package. Our professional pictures are not available, but I will post as soon as we get them! (Let me know if this link doesn't work.) Snapfish: Share:Registration_Opt2 ARRIVAL: American Express Shuttle-A+ We booked our travel through destinationweddings.com so the airport transfers were included in our room rate and their vendor was American Express. We arrived into Cancun airport and went directly through customs with no problem. (We traveled with 13 people.) Well, I was the only one who hit the button and got a red light . We headed out of the airport and the American Express shuttle personnel directed our group to the appropriate booth so that we could get the proper documentation to get on the shuttle. They were very helpful and got all of my husband and I’s luggage all into one van….all 9 suitcases. Since our group was so big, we were split into 2 vans and were driven directly to the resort. THE RESORT: Secrets Capri-A++ This resort is so AWESOME!! The grounds are immaculate and the service is incredible. As soon as we arrived, the bell boys took our luggage off the shuttle and said that they would deliver them to our rooms once checked in, we were handed warm towels to freshen up, and a nice cold glass of champagne. We were then whisked away by the registration employees to get the entire group checked in and off to our rooms. There are concierge personnel on every floor (including in the lobby) so that every need you might have is quickly fulfilled. We checked in and moved our wedding luggage to our wedding planner’s room and headed straight to the pool. THE ROOM: Ocean View Junior Suite-A We loved our room!! We had a view of the ocean as well as the pool. We could walk out of our balcony right to the pool. There is a sewer smell in the bathroom, but they provide incense every time they clean the room as well as I brought a Glade plug-in per the advice of some of those on the forum. Also, the Jacuzzi tub only fits one person, which could be a bit of a downer, but there is a bigger Jacuzzi pool outside by the pool. THE FOOD-A++++ We loved the food at the resort. It was great to order room service at 2am and receive hot, fresh entrees within 15-20 minutes. A fan favorite was the Angus cheeseburger. It takes 2 hands to hold and is very filling. I’m not sure how many of these my husband ate the entire time we were there. Our favorite restaurant would have to be the Seaside Grill for lunch and dinner, but the Japanese restaurant is also very good. We absolutely loved the Sushi bar, but all of the restaurants are really good! There’s never a shortage of food and drinks at this resort.

Quote: Originally Posted by MarieSam Awesome thread!!!! Your stuff looks fabulous ~ did you make your Passport invites? If not, where did you get them made?? Yes, the passports was a DIY project. I got the idea from Alyssa on the forum and we figured we could save some $$$ if we did them ourselves. A lot of work, but well worth it!!

Quote: Originally Posted by DallasAshli WOW Ra'Shunda - it looks fantastic!!! I'm so freakin excited for you! I can't wait to see pics. Your dress is drop-dead gorgeous! Who is the designer? I'm stealing some of your ideas too You will have an amazing wedding! It's a Casablanca dress. I hadn't seen any of there dresses until I went into a smaller bridal store that carried that designer.

Hey ladies, I'm back. We just got back and the wedding was great although it was a lot of drama leading up to it. I will explain in my wedding review....which I'll get to shortly...hopefully. I know that's what you all are waiting for

Yes, me and my FI did all of the paper products ourselves. He created our logo himself. I saw what some of the ladies did on the forum and that motivated me to try my hand at it. DIY does give you a greater sense of confidence once they are completed and some were very time consuming!

Okay ladies, I'm heading out bright and early tomorrow. I posted my planning thread, but thinking back on it I did not include a lot of stuff such as hair and cake inspiration. I will make sure to take pictures of everything so you all can see how everything turned out. Thanks for listening to my vents and offering advice. You all made this process so much easier and manageable for me. Talk to everyone in a couple of weeks!! Toodles!!

Menu cards (they have been revised since I took this photo that elaborates on the food items)... My shoes for ceremony... My shoes for the reception... Mother's gifts... Bridesmaids' gifts... Fathers' & groomsmen gift... We have already packed the bridal party timelines and emailed the "Getting to Mexico" packet so I don't have copies of that. But I will try and take pictures of everything so I can leave a very thorough review when I get back. ADIOS AMIGAS & AMIGOS!!!!

OOT Mugs filled w/ personalized M&Ms, Pepto, & Advil... Wedding favors (while we were dating my FI sent me a msg in a bottle so we wanted to incorporate that into the wedding) Reception table centerpieces w/ chocolate brown table runners and turquoise chair sashes Still more to come....