Jennifer Davis

I agree! The cross-over event on the 14th can't come soon enough!

I just got married last month at Excellence Playa Mujeres and highly recommend! Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. I don't know about the other resorts you are looking at but one of the things that sold me on EPM is that there are only two wedding per day. Some of these places can be wedding factories and that just didn't appeal to me.

Quote: Originally Posted by MSG518 Katrese, I've tried 5 times to sit down and figure out this menu! lol I have some really picky eaters that would be turned off by this menu, even though to me it all sounds delicious! What have you decided? I really just want a chicken dish, fish dish, and beef dish to offer my guests. They'll give you two choices plus one vegetarian. Not sure if you can get three. That might be pushing it.

Quote: Originally Posted by s_katrese How were your food choices Jen, the fish sounds amazing. Thanks again for sharing your pictures. The food at the reception was FABULOUS! All of the guests were raving about how good it was!

While I think it's a cute idea for a super bowl party, I would honestly rethink this for your wedding. This is a classic day that you will remember forever. Do you really want the focus of the table decor to be beer bottles? If you love beer so much, why don't you have a specialty beer you love served at the cocktail hour or put a dinner menu together and pair each course with a specific beer. There are plenty of ways to create a laid back atmosphere without using beer as the focus of your reception tables.

Quote: Originally Posted by MSG518 Jen, Your pictures are amazing!!! I'm sure you are thrilled how everything turned out! Your hard work planning paid off. By the way, that dance floor is awesome! What restaurant was it in? Was it extra?? I saw one just like that in another resort, but didn't think EPM had one! I got the dance floor through the DJ we hired - not from the resort. I used DJ Dorremixx. He was great! The dance floor cost $450 for the night and was worth every penny! I had my reception in the Spice Terrace which is an open air lounge patio in Spice Restaurant. The space was AMAZING. I highly recommend if you can get it. Yamina advised me that they don't typically allow DJs in that location because it is close to building 9. However, they let me have it so I'm sure they will let others also. The people in the building 9 rooms facing the terrace didn't seem to be annoyed. Some of them actually came out and started dancing in the hallway outside their rooms. HAHAHA. It was hysterical! BTW, I am going to post a pic of Yamina and I (even though I look horrendous as I had just gotten back from scuba diving)! She is so cute and such a doll! Don't ake the mistake that I did and panic and worry when she didn't get back to me right away. She is excellent at what she does and will bring everything together for your weddings!

Quote: Originally Posted by jbrodhead82 Jen, I LOVE your picture! Congrats! Do you happen to have package info for Cecilia Dumas? I checked her website and did not see any. Thanks, Jessica You should email her. I booked her 2 years ago and I know her prices have gone up a little since then. Here is a link to the on-line album of my professional pictures: Picasa Web Albums - Jennifer - Wedding pictu... You just have to click "slide show" in the top right corner once the link is opened.

Thanks for the compliments on the pictures. We used Cecilia Dumas and could not be more pleased with the wedding pictures. As for the menu, I was able to choose two options, plus one vegetarian. I asked the WC (Nayeli) at the time for options that had only one meat and one fish. I have pick eaters so I couldn't mix meat and fish. We had grilled fillet of beef tenderloin glazed with roasted pumpkin seed sauce served with horseradish infused mashed potato and fresh seasonal vegetablesas one option and for the fish we had sautéed salmon fillet with an apricot glaze, basmati rice in a lemongrass bouquet. The vegetarians had mushroom risotto with pesto sauce. The only request from the resort is that we gave them a count before hand. This was not a big deal. I just asked people to choose their menu choice on the RSVP card.

I forgot the pictures.....

Hi ladies, I have a NEVER WORN Nicole Miller, style EA0008, size 8, dress for sale. The dress retails for $880.00 and I am asking $500.00. I bought two of the same wedding dresses (don't ask). I only needed one (naturally) so I have one dress that was never worn, never altered that I would like to sell. The dress I am selling was purchased at a sample sale so although it was never worn or altered, it has been tried on a few times. I assure you, through, the dress is pristine. I had both cleaned and pressed on my wedding day and was not able to tell one dress from the other! Here are some pictures of the dress I have for sale. The dress I am wearing in the pictures is not the same exact dress I am selling, like I said I have two of the same dress, but it is the same exact dress style and size. XOXO Jen

Hi ladies! Happy New Year! I am working on a blog with my planning thread/review. Hopefully, it will be done in a week or so and I will post the link up. Just wanted to touch base! I haven't forgotten about you guys!!!!!! XOXO jen

Hi ladies!!!! I wanted to send you a quick note..... Everything was PERFECT! And this is coming from a complete control freak. I have to say not one single thing went wrong. Everything happened exactly as planned and discussed with Yamina. I'll post a planning thread and review when I get back home but I know there are not a lot of EPM brides so I wanted to be sure to get back to you guys asap! The resort is GORGEOUS! The food is excellent. Yamina is THE BEST! Whatever reservations I had about her due to lack of communication before we arrived went right out the window when we met. BTW - Towels. I used Beach Towels wholesale manufacturer of custom embroidered monogrammed bath towel for corporate events. I ordered from them. I think it was $550.00 for 40 towels. I got the large terry velour ones in white and in navy blue. A word of warning, though.....getting the towels down to Mexico was a big pain in the you know what. They are heavy and take up a ton of room. We had 2 extra large suitcases just for the OOT bag stuff which was 90% towels.

I like the first one.

Quote: Originally Posted by chirorach Greetings ladies. I am another Dreams Riveria Cancun bride looking to change venues. THe reviews from tripadvisor.com for DRC are looking pretty bad right now and I am panicing. EPM was my second choice from when I was researching before so now I am trying to quick make a decision to either suck it up with DRC or make a change. My biggest question so far is how much does it cost per person over the 20 included in the packages? I have emailed the resort a few times for more info but so far nothing in return. Any additional pricing info that you girls could give me would be great. I am hoping to make a decision to stay/change in the next week or so and I am already in panic mode! Thanks! $45 p/person over 20 (includes cocktail hour, dinner and cake) Yamina (WC) is pretty slow to respond but is very nice and very accommodating once you get her. The info and the cost of the wedding packages is included on the excellence resorts websites. They have 3 choices. They do allow outside vendors ($100 fee) No children whatsoever - no exceptions. 2 wedding per day only (one in early afternoon and one in late afternoon) I can't think of anything else right now. If you have something specific, let us know. Good luck making your decision. I know it must be a hard one.

1. How old are you? 35 2. At what age did you/will you get married? 35 3. Do you have children? no 4. Did you think you would marry the person you are with now? Yes, we hit it off right off the bat and I just had the feeling at the start of the relationship that it could be a permanent one. Plus, I never did anything to "sabotage" my relationship with my fiance as I had done with past relationships. 5. Were you ever engaged or married to someone other than the person you are with now? no 6. Do you want a garden wedding, beach wedding, or the traditional church wedding? beach wedding 7. Where did you/will you get married? Playa Mujeres, Mexico 8. First dance - classic waltz, slow and sexy, or fast and spicy? slow and sexy 9. How many guests did you/will you have? 31 10. Do you want/did you have an extravagant wedding or a simple wedding? Neither - I want a classy, memorable, unique wedding 11. Vows - traditional or something you make up on your own? Traditional 12. How many layers of cake did you/will you have? 3 13. Is/was your wedding/reception at a hotel? Yes 14. When did you/will you get married - sunrise, mid-day, sunset? sunset 15. Did you/will you have your reception outdoors or indoors? on an open air terrace 16. Plan every detail down to the napkins or let someone else decide? Plan every detail - I am a control freak! 17. How did/will the bride enter? Onto the sand 18. Song to walk down the aisle to: Parents, Fiance and bridal party walk down to "You're So Cool" by Hans Zimmer. Bride walks down to "Butterfly Waltz" by Brian Craine. 19. Song to make your exit: The UB40 version of "Every Breathe You Take" from 50 First Dates. 20. Will you/did you have a solemn ceremony or a light one? light 21. At what age did you think you would get married? I didn't think I would ever get married. 22. Who to invite - practically everyone or a select few? Immediate family and close friends only. 23. Wedding menu - fine dining or simply delicious? fine dining 24. Champagne or red wine? Wine only - both myself and my fiance get headache from Champagne. We will have it available, though, for those that like it. 25. Honeymoon right after the wedding, awhile after the wedding, or no honeymoon? We are honeymooning at the same resort thet we are getting married. 26. Was your/will your honeymoon be at a place special to you both or somewhere brand new to you both? Special - we both love Mexico! 27. Who will pay for the bills? We plan to have a joint account for household bills and then have individual bank accounts for our individual expenses. We will also have one joint credit card and one individual credit card each with limits not to exceed $5,000. 28. Living together: Not before marriage or absolutely before marriage? We have loved together for 4 years - so ABSOLUTLEY 29. Anything else about marriage you'd like to say? I am so excited! WE LEAVE IN A WEEK AND TWO DAYS!!! YIPPEEEEEE!

Quote: Originally Posted by KarenM Jennifer, did you guys go to city hall in manhattan? This is what we'll be doing in May & I'm curious about your experience. How long did the whole thing take? Were the 20 couples all in the same room with you for the actual legal ceremony? I'm wondering what to expect. What did you guys wear? Part of me just wants to wear jeans or something really casual to downplay it, but another part wants to wear a fun dress & heels (not wedding-ey though). thanks! Here's what we did..... We applied for our marriage license on line and got a confirmation number a few days before we planned to "get married". We knew going into it that you are supposed to wait 24 hours from the time you receive your marriage license to the time you get married. Honestly, I really did not want to spend two days at the marriage bureau so I learned that you can get a judicial waiver which allows you to get your marriage license and have the ceremony on the same day. We opted to go that route. We arrived at the marriage bureau shaprly at 8:30am. We were out of there with our paperwork to see the judge for the judicial waiver by 9:00am. I do have to add that my FH works for the city and pulled some strings so we got to bypass the line. We drove to the court house to get the judicial waiver. This process was a pain. We went to one room and filled out the form. We were then sent to another room to get the form notarized. After that we went back to the first room so they could arrange for us to see a judge to sign the waiver. After we went back to the first room we were sent up to one of the judges offices. She gave us a little bit of a hard time about the waiver but did sign it. We were out of there by about 9:30am. Next we had to go back to the marriage bureau with the judicial waiver to have our ceremony and get married. Again, did not have to wait on line. We filled out the form for the ceremony. My husband's mother came with us as a witness. We had the ceremony in a private room in the back of the marriage bureau. Kenny and I were married by 10:15am. Kenny wore slacks and a button shirt and I wore a cream colored sweater dress. We did not really get dressed up because we wanted to down play our legal day since we consider our wedding day to be the day we get married. There were a lot of girls and families there with gowns on (at 9am in the morning) for their ceremonies. Many of them also brought bouquets. The city hall thing is pretty simple. The only thing which, in my opinion, is a pain was that you needed two days to get it done - one day for the application and license and the next day for the ceremony. The only way around this is to get the judicial waiver like we did. Good luck!

Hey ladies - hoping for some advice. Our original first dance song was "Come Away With Me". To put an original spin on it, one of my best friends (who has an amazing voice) wants to sing it live when Kenny and I dance. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful idea. I got her the instrumental version to practice, she is excited about it, etc, etc. Dillemma ..... An artist that I have been listenting to for the last 5 years, Allison Veltz, put one of her new songs up on my space called, "You Can Kiss Me", which is an amazing song and I am thinkning I may want to use this song as our first dance song since it is original. I don't want to hurt my friends feelings ,though. I am also worried she may get nervous and mess up, get sentimental and cry or get cocktailed up when she sings. Here is a link to the Allison Veltz song live. YouTube - Allison Veltz - You Can Kiss Me (w/ Matt Dorrien) I emailed Allison and she sent me the MP3. Ah, decisions decisions......

My fiance is HUGE into motorcycles. He has a Honda Valkyrie cruiser which he drives and I ride on the back of during the summer months. He also has 2 sport bikes - TL1000 and a Triumph - which he races. We went to Moto GP in Indy last year. What a great weekend! Hoping to hit up Laguna Seca for Moto GP in 2010!

I am "married" - we got married at city hall a week ago. We completely down played it on purpose, though, because we did not want it to take away from our wedding. In my heart, I believe saying, "I do" in front of friends and family - the people you care about, your own worst critics, the people whom you care about what they think, the ones who are there during the good, the bad and the ugly, the people that "matter" is truly what is going to bind my husband and I together - and make us "married". To me, the piece of paper and kiss after waiting in a crowded room with 20 other couples at city hall is just a formality to get me to the real thing in Mexico!

I hope that your BM books soon. She agreed to be a B< - I don't think you should worry about it. I would definitely let her know you are stressing about it., though. Is she one of those "last minute" people? I am about 3 weeks out now. One thing I have learned through this whole DW experience, is that the people who you think you can count on - disappoint - and the people you expect to bail - book. **shrugs**. One of my friends had a DW last year about this time and told me the same thing. I didn't totally believe her until these last few months.

Quote: Originally Posted by angruck okay everyone, what are you doing about the OOT bag items and customs? Do we need to bring receipts for customs? My FMIL offered to take some maracas but I want to make sure there are no problems when they arrive in Mexico. I have receipts for all my stuff. I am just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best. You should see the huge suitcase I have the beach towels in! It is absolutely ridiculous! Haha. Yea, I'm not going to be too obvious going through customs!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by J&MWedding We just found out great news! Our friend is our officiant in mexico and I was trying to think of a simple thing to do for our legal day here. I can pay $35 for our friend to legally deputized for a one time marriage. He goes in and gets sworn in and I pay only $35 and he can marry us right before we take off for our flight in our kitchen! how romantic! Thanks for the well wishes ladies. That is really cool about your friend! What a great idea!

I always carry a purse. I need "stuff"! Lipstick, pressed powder, mascara, perfume, room key, money for tipping, etc. I can't go out without holding something. haha.

Hey there from a fellow Long Islander (Queens though). Happy planning!