MoonPalacePookie

We stayed at Aventura Palace last summer and went to Playacar Palace for a day to go shopping at Playa del Carmen. We had lunch there and hung out by the pool. We did not see any of the wedding areas, but the restaurant was nice and the pool is beautiful, with a little glass area between the pool and the ocean. The hotel is much smaller than the Moon Palace and is located in the middle of Playa del Carmen, but it is beautiful and right in the middle of all the action.

Thanks girls, I've given up on the photo package (I dont really care, we have two friends who take great pics) and the cake (after reading the "what I would and wouldn't do again" thread, it doesn't seem like I need a big cake anyways), but I am battling my WC on the flowers. If we do not agree on the flowers soon, I will take your advice Nicole and change my package. At this point I would prefer not to make too many changes, so I think we can work the flowers out. I will keep you updated, thanks for the support and the advice. Quote: Originally Posted by Blkatz quick question-if I want more than a 2 hour open bar I have to pay more correct? What if my friends want to drink past 10:30-what do you do? Dinner comes with 2 hours of open bar, cocktail hour is an hour of open bar, you have to pay extra per person per hour, I think they quoted me $5-6 per person per hour for additional dinner open bar. We are having our reception until 10 and then going to andromeda disco when it opens at 10:30.

Quote: Originally Posted by ntanzob Pookie - what time frame will you be in Cancun? We arrive the day before your wedding ) Have you been contacted yet? Anything interesting I should know about ) Sorry I have been MIA lately, thought I'd try the whole working at work thing, it didn't work so well, but at least I tried. I will be in Cancun July 18 to 28, so we will be there while you are there, maybe we can meet up or something. I just finally been assigned a WC and have been trying to iron out some details. I'm a bit disappointed with the way they do things, we have the superior package, which includes a bridal bouquet, some flowers for the ceremony, photo package and cake. They free bouquet pictures provided by the WC didn't look like what i wanted, so i asked if I can use the price of the free one towards a better bouquet, the answer is no, you cannot use the value of any of the free stuff (which is not really free, you pay for it in the package) towards other products. You can choose to forgo your included things and buy a new bouquet for $240. Same goes for photo packages and cake. Had I known, I would have done the free package, and purchased my own stuff on top of it. Oh well, thought you girls should know.

Melissa, Thank you for the votive candle idea, we got personalized votive holders as favors, but they were too plain, so i bought vellum and ribbon over the weekend and spent two days taping and wrapping, they turned out great. Such an easy project and looks awesome, thank you soooo much.

Whenever we needed it in Mexico, Xel-Ha, Xcaret and some of the snorkeling tours, they always provided little packets of the biodegradable stuff. We just traded our sunscreen for theirs and picked it up at the end of the day. At Xel-Ha, they had little booths where you could get more packets if you needed them.

Just voted, you're such a great sis for doing this. There's another guy who is getting close in votes, we need more BDW power.

I would also love to see a picture. My parents' bichon puppy ate a bog of chocolate covered coffee beans and spent about four hours running around the house. No joke, she could not stop, she just ran in circles, panting with her little heart beating a mile a minute. My mom called the vet and he told her to give her warm milk to calm her down and that worked. We were so worried she'd have a heart attack.

When we went to Mexico for the first time a few years ago, I noticed these linen/cotton dresses they have at all the little shops. They are halter dresses with some type of embroidery around the waist. I always liked the dresses and when we got engaged in Mexico last year, I bought one of the dresses for our engagement pictures (totally spur of the moment pictures done by the hotel photographer). I thought this dress might make a good TTD or rehearsal dinner dress, its light, cute and it has the traditional flair to it. Here are the pictures of my dress so you know what I'm talking about. I got mine at a little shop in Playa DelCarmen for about $15, but they're everywhere. Wow that's a small picture, let me see if i can get it bigger.

I made a Word document with subsections for each event (welcome dinner, reception, reheasal, ceremony) and included all details in a bullet format. Things that I had questions about were highlighted in red. I included pictures of things she needed to see. My WC was so cool, she responded by sending me the same sheet back with her answers in a different color. It worked great. I am such a control freak, but it works great for wedding planning.

We tried his on at Macy's, but ended up buying online. Macy's had a good selection.

Nikki, You have the same birthday as me, yay. Here's mine. For most part this is pretty accurate. Your Birthdate: October 28 You have a Type A personality so big it makes other Type A's shrink away in shame. Not at all. You never shy away from adversity - and you love to tackle impossible problems. True, most of the time Failure is not an option for you, and more than a few people are put off by your ego. Not sure about the ego, but i do hate to fail (doesn't everyone) You tend to be controlling, and you hate leaving anything up to chance. OMG, I'm a total control freak. Your strength: Your bold approach to life, I guess Your weakness: You don't accept help, so true, back to the control thing Your power color: Bronze Your power symbol: Pyramid Your power month: October Quote: Originally Posted by nikkianddean Happy Birthday Sandra!!!! Here is mine: October 28 You have a Type A personality so big it makes other Type A's shrink away in shame. - dead wrong You never shy away from adversity - and you love to tackle impossible problems.maybe Failure is not an option for you, and more than a few people are put off by your ego. somewhat accurate You tend to be controlling, and you hate leaving anything up to chance. maybe Your strength: Your bold approach to lifeyes! Your weakness: You don't accept helptotally wrong Your power color: Bronze if that means a tan, then yes Your power symbol: Pyramid yes! Your power month: October duh....

OMG your dress is so elegant and you look so beautiful in it, love the veil with this dress, so perfect.

1- Name as it appears on birth certificate: Eugenia Alexandra 2- Date of birth: 10.28.81 3- Do you have any siblings? 1 biological brother-Anton, 2 half sisters, and 3 step siblings (your typical dysfunctional family) 4- Color hair: Blonde 5- Color eyes: Hazel 6- Nationality: 75% Russian and 25% German 7- Size shoe: 8.5 8- Favorite color: blue, pink 9- Favorite article of cothing: my Express jeans 10- Favorite book: Gone with the Wind 11- Favorite food: Chinese 12- Future childs name: Tamara Alexandra and James Nicholas 13- What are your parent/s names: dad-Eugene (guess where my name came from) and mom-Tatiana 14- Who was your first crush: I can't remember the kids name, thinking Nicolas, in 3rd grade 15- Who was the first boy to break your heart: Not really broke my heart, but I had a crush on Brad Sharp all through high school and he didn't even know i existed 16- Favorite vacation: Moon Palace 5 years ago with FI's family, my first time in Mexico 17- If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be? two things-bigger boobs and thinner thighs. 18- Have you ever had plastic surgery? No, but I would do it if I wasn't such a chicken 19- How tall are you? 5'7 20- Favorite celebrity: Julia Roberts

My FI is a software engineer for a large company. He is currently making about $500 more than me, but my evaluation will be next, so I'll be making more than him, we seem to switch off.

I'm an economic analyst for a consulting company. I make about $67k plus bonuses. I love my job and am surprisingly good at it considering my undergraduate degree is in marketing and all through college I thought I hated numbers, go figure.

Quote: Originally Posted by ntanzob Hi Pookie and everyone out there! What have you done so far? For those who haven't read my "newbie" post - I will be married 20 years this July. My husband and I eloped and decided right then that on our 20th we would do the whole nine yards! We do have 3 kids now ages 16, 13, and 9 and want to incorprate the sand ceremony in all this - any suggestions? We are doing the Symbolic ceremony, cocktail party , and then dinner. Nicole Hi Nicole, First of all, congratulations, that is amazing. How exciting that you're getting to do something you wanted to do 20 years ago, so cool. My FI and I have been together for almost 11 years and I know how time flies. You should definitely do a sand ceremony and incorporate your kids, it would be great to have so many different colors in your vase. As far as what we're planning, we're doing the non-catholic ceremony (dont remember what its called, civil or something), followed by dinner and dancing on one of the outside terraces. We should do a cocktail hour, but we're also doing a rehearsal party the night before, and I just dont want to keep adding to our costs. We are using the resort photographer and are renting sound equipment to use with our laptop. We have most of the planning completed, my FI and I are currently finishing up mock-ups of our centerpieces, that's really all that's left. The hard part will be packing everything and getting all the information to the WC when I am assigned one.

I have the LG washer/dryer and i love it. To prevent the smell, you have to empty out the water container on the bottom of your washer, there should be a small box on the bottom left on the front of the washer (you can even see it in the pic you posted), open that and pull out the hose over a bowl or a cup, the smelly water will pour out (you might want to use a disposable cup, so you can toss it). Also, you need to run a cleaning cycle every once in a while, you just run the washer with no clothes in it, the directions will be in your owners manual. Other than these maintenance things, we have never had a problem with ours and we absolutely love it.

Quote: Originally Posted by cutierosie HELP RE Contract Just got my contract from FL and on the e-mail that prefaces the attachment, it says the "wedding coordinator from the resort will contact you 30 days prior to your wedding to confirm further details," I thought it was 90 days What is the deal with this? It used to be 90 days, then I heard 60 days, then 30, then 2 weeks. I'm not sure exactly what it is anymore. Betsy who got married at the MP in April said hers contacted her at 2 weeks before, so I would believe her over the FL people. I think they're getting busy and moving the dates back.

Sharla, thank you so much for the pictures, they're beautiful, I love your color scheme, its so elegant. Love, love your dress, one of my BMs is getting married next year and she has been looking at that dress. Couple of questions: 1. are you taking those centerpieces to Mexico or are those for the AHR, if you are taking them to Mexico, how are you getting them there in terms of packing? 2. I saw your BM flowers, I'm assuming they are silk, are you getting a real flower bouquet for yourself at the MP or are you also using silk? I want to get a calla lilly bouquet from MP and want to make sure it is available and also included in the package. Thank you again for posting those pics, you must be so excited, 2 weeks.

Quote: Originally Posted by DougsGirl 14JUN- my shower! yay! at my aunties house Yay, I'm having my bridal shower on the 14th as well, I'm so excited, but a bit nervous about having all these women who have never met before in the same room and I am the reason. As far as planning, I'm on the later part of July, so I still have 7 weeks. I just finished out BM and GM gifts, just need to figure out a way to give them to the people. What are you girls doing for gift giving? Are you having a bridesmaid luncheon or giving them one girl at a time? I really wanted to do a luncheon, but I can't seem to get all my girls together at one time. I would really love to hear some advice on this, I'm not even sure what the etiquette is on this.

Congratulations, 20 years is amazing. I am getting married at the Moon Palace on the 23rd of July, so feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Great idea, no need for a thread, mom is Russian, her English is somewhat rusty, she'll believe me, especially since I talk about the forum all the time. It would be funny though if we posted the thread and everyone liked the idea and we started a trend of gloves in Mexico . I'm going back and forth about the tiara, I would rather have flowers in my hair, but i might still do the tiara. Definitely NO on the gloves. Thanks for your support and sorry about the whinning.

Thank you Dez, you're so sweet. I think I'm building an aversion to my dress. When I first bought it, I was totally into the whole princess thing, as was my mom. She made me buy gloves and a tiara to go with it. As it gets closer to the wedding, I'm trying to figure out how to ditch the gloves (above the elbow white gloves in 300 degree Mexico heat in July) and the tiara, without hurting my mom's feelings. She's totally into it, and she bought the tiara and it was really really expensive. So everytime I see the dress it reminds me of how I'm going to be hot and weirdly overdressed on the beach in Mexico.

Quote: Originally Posted by mtomas5555 Hello, I can't seem to figure out how to get my picture on the side, like you girls have. Do I have to be a member? How do I become a member? Thanks, Melissa You're a member of the site, but to get to the 'Member' level (so it says Member next to your picture), you need to have 100 posts. Quote: Originally Posted by mtomas5555 Pookie, I like your picks too! Do you have your dress yet? -Melissa Here is my dress, I haven't posted it yet becuase I dont like the picture. I'm no longer wearing the pearls though. Just wanted to add, the picture was taken right after we got back from Aventura Palace last year, so I was all tan, no longer.

Oh I love this song and I love Blake Shelton. This song plays all the time on the local radiostation while I'm sitting in traffic.