mineaux

I would stay away from Escape the Sun...The only reason I say that is because I had a horrible experience! I had booked a private cruise for 30 people. Only 22 were coming on the boat but we wanted private and the min for private is 30 so we just paid for 30. Anyways we booked for a Thrusday. When myself and all our guest show up at the marina with our ticket that says thursday, the guy looks confused, and has to make a call. He comes back saying, the office made a mistake and booked us for Friday instead and not Thurs. He gave us th eoption of either getting on the boat with the public cruise ( which was really full already because we were the last ones on) or we could come back the next nite...well that wasnt an option as alot of my guests were leaving that day. I was irrate. We got on, but werent happy about it because i had plans for our private cruise. 1. We were to have our first dance on top during the cruise... From then on all he could say was call the office. The food was disgusting, not a meal, just some slop of fajhitas. Bathrooms has about 4 inches of water on the floor. Dirty. Everything! I emailed when i got back from the hotel and told them what happened and what i expected as compensation for our trouble and huge dissapointment, all i wanted was to get refunded the 8 poeple that we initially paid for to make 30. got a reply a few days later, they said they would look into it. So finally i recieved an email a month and half later after hounding them, and they stated they counted 25 in my party,. There was only 22...23 with a baby. babies r free. So needless to say its been a huge dissapointment and horrible service. I know each to their own and everyone has different experiences. But this was mine and know that next time i go to Cabo, which is every single year, we def wont book with CaboSanLucas Tours.

Quote: Originally Posted by nicole.gia wow, everything looked so beautiful! I love the parasols you had - where did you get them? Congrats! Hi Nicole, I orderd the parasols from a canadian retailer, weddingfavours.ca

Quote: Originally Posted by liznsergio Wow! You were one gorgeous bride!!!! And your hair looked amazing...I'm tottally going to book Suzanne Morel for my hair...and now I know it's behinf Office Depot..LOL! Dumb question...but what did you do with your dress after the pictures @ Lovers Beach I want to take some pics in the water as well, but not sure what to do with the dress after Thank you for the compliment ! Suzanne and her staff are amazing and am very glad i booked with her! After the TTD I just rolled the dress up (gasp!) and put it in my backpack, then when I got back to hotel just rinsed it off in the shower (dbl gasp!) and let it airdry on the balcony. Being in the ocean, really cleaned it from dragging it during the wedding! The sand took out all the dirt. Hope that helps

Quote: Originally Posted by lgarner83 K, back. Like I said before, everything looks incredible. Great tip about the wine! We are doing the steak house as well so we just might have to do that. Your colours looked beautiful! and your groomsmen are dressed very similarily to what my FI and his GM's are wearing. I'm also hesitant about the disco after hearing so many mixed reviews about it...did you have to pay for it in advance? I noticed you used the term "refund". We're hoping to not pay for it until we see it and decide then. Again, everything was beautiful and it sounds like Erika is pretty good at organizing the details- good to hear!! We paid for it when we met with ericka on the monday. Paid with credit card after our meeting, and then when we decided to x it, she refunded it back onto our card.

Hi ladies, I have been back for a week from getting married at The Riu Santa Fe. Bare with me as I kind of seem to ramble, here is my review. I did it super fast so i may have left some things out....im trying thou....ramble on.... The wedding went great and all 30 people who went with us said it was the best time of their lives! The resort is HUGE! Alot of walking but we really enjoyed it because if we didnt want to see anyone in our group, we didnt have to! And if we ate too much, we were able to walk it off! I actually lost weight when on vacation…..not the usual case! Our group during the week would always met up in the main common area, and that was routine. We stayed in building 7 which is the only ocean view and is quite a walk from the main lobby area. It is good thou because the steak house is at building 7 and the wedding site. We were married in Canada first, but no one knew. Our wedding day was on April 22 @ 4pm/ We had the free wedding package and think that its all you really need. We brought our own photographer, and never had a problem with her not being able to shoot. She was also staying at the resort thou. We met with Erika on Monday, Our wedding was on the Wednesday. I took my sister with me as hubby went on his “stag day”: with the boys. (fishing) I hauled all the decorations in 1 suit case and gave them to Ericka. We picked out the cake right then. Quite a few to choose from but we went with carrot. Chose the wedding colors for deco at the ceremony. My colors were turquoise and white so I brought my own sashes. They had silver, gold, and I think another color but cant remember. They had a few arches to choose from for an extra $500. We just went with the simple arch, and we could have added some flowers for extra, but wanted simple so we said no flowers. The bouquet that came with the package was roses, and we could have had whatever color. I upgraded the bouquet to calla lilies, and they were white. I told her I wanted turquoise ribbon and they turned out beautiful! Ericka wrote everything down as we were talking and I showed her how I wanted everything with the deco. And gave her our music cd. I stressed to her the importance of the wedding songs as I heard they messed up others, but she assured me “no problem”! Showed her the centrepieces, and how I wanted them. (Little fish bowls with sand and candles, and shells. We rented the disco for a few hours before and paid the $500.……The day before the wedding we decided against it because the night before it stunk of puke…..Really bad. Like really bad!! It is relatively clean but it wasn’t what we wanted so I talked to Ericka and she refunded the disco….No problem A quick note. If your dinner is in the steak house, be aware that there is no bar there. Therefore, the only bevys are wine, and draft beer. Soda of course. There are the pool bars there but they close at 6 I think. What we decided to do and because we are a bunch of winos, we decided to go to Walmart and buy a bunch of bottles of wine. The wine at the resort wasn’t that great, so wanted something yummy! We asked Ericka if this was ok and it was no problem. Best decision! Day before the wedding: My sisters organized a girls day which I didn’t know about. We ended up going snorkelling. It was soooo much fun;. It was pretty tame on the way there on the boat. BUT on the way back…all hell broke loose. There were about 12 of us ladies ,The tequila started flowing and we were not the soberest when we went back….All the boys were at the pool just chilling having a relaxing day, and when the ladies showed up, it was a complete gong show! Usually the men are the rowdy ones…..oops! We had the pool police because apparently we were so rowdy….it was the girls not the guys….oh boy…All I remember is doing keg stands, and having to be put to bed at 5 pm… so much for not drinking the nite before. We had a mini rehearsal at 730 at the ceremony spot. I actually made it to that, but not sure how “there” I was. Also I didn’t want to sleep with hubby the nite b4, but we were both passed out by 9. So much for that! Wedding day! I woke up at 9 am, kicked hubby out. I was not feeling so hot. Wishing I didn’t drink the day before!!! I had an appointment with Suzzane Moral at 11:45 so left the resort at 11. My photographer came with me and when I phoned to confirm, I thought I was told it was right behind Home Depot…Not the case. After driving around in a taxi, not being able to speak to the cab driver. We went to a gas station and was asking a police. He didn’t understand us but a guy that was just coming out over heard us and knew where we were to go! Thank GOD!!! He told our taxi driver and it was behind OFFICE DEPOT!!! I was stressing!!! But we got there just a few minutes late. Not sure who my stylist was but she spoke little English but suzannes assistant translated. They were very nice. I had my laptop with me and showed her what I wanted. And away she went. I loved my hair!! We got back to the resort at 230. I was getting ready with my sisters in building 3. Everyone was in building 7 and didn’t want to run into hubby or anyone else. I started feeling a lot better, so just took my time, had my girlfriend help with my makeup. I had did a boudoir shoot for hubby as a surprise so I sent the book with the photographer to give to him while the boys were all getting ready, to catch his reaction. It was a shock to him! At 3:55pm I started the treck to the site. I was coming down the ramp and saw all the boys. I hid behind a pillar till they were gone. I should have known not to be on time! The pools were full, and a lot of peeps were clapping and cheering as we went by. Everyone was very respectful which I was thankful for as I saw a wedding a few days before and some asses were screaming “Don’t do it”! BUT everyone on my day were very nice and commenting how beautiful, congrats, etc etc. Made you feel like a celebrity for a few minutes! I hadn’t received my bouquet yet and was a little worried. Nor did the music start. Finally I saw Ericka and she had the cd and the bouquet. She pinned on hubby boutonniere before he went down. They had a good speaker system which was loud, and I was very happy to see they had a microphone so everyone could hear the ceremony. As I saw hubby finally go down, I came out of hiding and was waiting for my song on top of the step. My ladies went done and was awaiting my turn. As I was coming down to make my entrance, The biggest loudest wave came up….It sounded like crazy loud thunder, and it was perfect timing…..I swear it was meant to do that!!! It was the coolest thing ever!!!! That was some entrance and everyone said they got goose bumps! It was soo weird! My dad walked me down. And i wanted to go barefoot but i wore my heels....The sand was really hot! And they didn’t screw up the music which was awesome! We had written our whole ceremony out and the minister read it word for word. ( I gave that to Ericka when we had met) The ceremony lasted maybe 10 minutes! We also did a sand ceremony. We then kissed and walked back up the aisle to jack Johnson Better Together. There was champagne on the side and we toasted to everyone and drank and mingled and sipped champagne. That’s when we did the group photo. We did a few beach shots, then decided to do the formals in the garden area thru out the resort. It really was tooo pretty and wasn’t too sure at first but glad we did! After the formals just hubby and I did some photos…We went over to the Palace for a few shots. Our dinner was at 6:30. We went to our room to freshen up, and went down at about 645. Everyone was waiting for us seated and drinking the wine we had purchased. We were right on the terrace and no one was around. It was perfect as the sun was setting. A little windy on our side but the view was gorgeous. Bring a sweater. We had appetizers which was ceaser salad, chicken wings, mushrooms, a few other things. Then the main course which we decided to pick 2 things and guests could choose. Ericka thought this would be good to speed up the dinner as we had rented the disco. Forgot to change that as we weren’t doing the disco anymore. It was good thou. Steak or chicken, and everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner. We had a “U” shape dinner table and it was perfect. She set it up just how I wanted. We had a little table to the side with our guestbook. Actually a guest board which everyone wrote something and then took a picture. The table was also used for the cake later on. Our waiters were amazing and we tipped $50. They were awesome. We did the speeches which was optional and got some teary readings that were very unexpected! We did some toasts and cut the cake and just visited, We had always went to the common area ( where the shows are) and pulled up tables and sat around, That’s what everyone does at the resprt. Its between 2 bars so always can get a drink! That’s what we decided to do. We hung around, lots of people. It was fun! I saw Em, ( the other bride) and we got a quick photo together. We were pretty beat so we called it a nhite at around 12pm. All in all the day went great! My biggest advice is not to sweat the small stuff, it really goes by waaaaay to fast and I was so sad it was allllllll over in a matter of minutes!! I mean, I have planned this for sooo long then it came and went waaay to fast L Trash the Dress: We went to lovers beach 2 days after the wedding for a trash the dress. We were the only ones there. We went at 9am. It was soooo perfect! Soooooo fun and we got some AMAZING photos! What I would do over again: I had told hubby not to wear glasses during the ceremony. He did, but I didn’t even realize really cuz I was so wrapped up in the moment. It was no biggie but was pissed after…oh well. I would have slowed down, enjoyed the day, not have worried so much. I would have not drank like a fish the day before!! Im glad we bought wine. Im glad we didn’t do the disco…..kinda a waste of $$ I think. I mean it was always open even before 11pm. So could have went in if we wanted.. The common area is soooo huge that you could easily have your group all together there. Its lively and its fun. Im glad I upgraded my bouquet, they were really beautiful. I am so glad I chose turquoise. Everyone kept commenting on how gorgeous the colors were. I am glad it was a huge resort, we had 30 peeps with us, and if we wanted some alone time it was so easy to get as it was hard to find people at times! We would have brought walkie talkies maybe, just incase we we did want to find someone! If anyone has any question feel free!!!!!! A few pics….cant wait for the photographers pics, for now here are some that our guests took. Sorry if they are so big.....

Hi Ladies, I have been back a week and sorry no review yet. I will be working on it within the next few days..... .

Holy smokes....after what has seemed like a freakin eternity my time has finally come...I am leaving for Cabo the day after tomoro...Im getting married next Wednesday at the Riu Santa Fe....I would post tomora but i am sure i will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off... I am flying to cabo by myself, to meet my fiance. and I havent seen him in a whole month!! Talk about honeymoon phase! And its gonna be so nice since we have 3 whole days to ourselves before the shitstorm...(aka relatives!) twist in!! I think i have everything ready...i think...I should prolly choose what dress i am gonna wear....hmmmmm. may be a las minute thing...ha! Just wanted to say Thanks to all the great advice and tips and all the shared info. It has helped so much and I promise not to be one of those brides who lurk and lurk and not post a review!! This forum has been my saving grace. Especially since having to plan the whole thing by myself! Thanks again chicas! Adios!!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by CarlySR Quick question for the Canadians...Anything we have to do when we get back to register the marriage in Canada? Hmmm sorry cant help ya there....we are doing the legal stuff here....

Here is mine...Cant wait to give it to him!

Did anyone take there own dress steamer with them? I am looking into this as i dont want to send my dress away to do this....(our resort sends them away) Just wondering if the portable ones are just as good. My dress is pretty simple. Just straight satin. Hoping to get some feedback... Thanks

So my wedding is in 3 weeks....i am trying to figure out if i should have a different song being played for each person walking down the aisle...( ex: One song for groomsmen, groom, bridemaids, bride) or should i just have one song as it will only take about 30 secs to a minute to get down the aisle.... Not sure if it will sound stupid just stopping in the middle of a song and going to a next one. I spose you could fade it, but maybe it will take longer to get down or something....hmmm what to do./.. what did u do?? TIA!

wowsa...i am leaving in 2.5 weeks for my wedding...feel like i have so much to do, but really dont..I dont even know what dress i am wearing yet ^&%$!!! ( i am a 2 dress bride) i want to organize a lil rehearsal. DOnt expect the minister to be there but at least everyone will have an idea where to walk, when, etc. Because we are already "secretly" married, i wanted to know if erika had a write out of what the minister says. She said we would just go over that when i got there. Question: Since we are having a sand ceremony, will the minister read what we give him? I think I heard before he kinda said what he wanted. My dilema right now is trying to figure out how to get my centrepieces there without breaking!! ( lil fish bowls) lotsa bubblewrap i spose! And trying to figure out how to spruce up the ceremony a little bit. We arent renting a chuppa or anything, just using theirs, but i am bringing lotsa tulle, and fake flowers to try something , my own chair sashes.... Oh AND ANOTHER question....Do you think its better to have your ceremony music on cd or ipod? Or perhaps both? I just dont want them screwing up the song order so wondering what everyone thinks would be the easiest NOT to screw up!! Ohhh and i thought of another question...I notice the ceremony set up is pretty close to the edge of the infinity pool....ive seen pics with it REALLY close and ive seen pics with it kinda further...wondering if its possible to request it to be as far away as possible from the edge of the pools.....hmmm...anyone?? Ok i think i am done...for now. I cant wait to put up my review for u gals...!

Quote: Originally Posted by MesseJesse4 Thank you! It was such a great day... sigh... I'd sure love to go back! U looked fab in ur pics! Thanks for sharing! Now how bout that review for us Santa Fe'ers in waiting!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ripcat We received the list of the cakes they provide. So many choices! Just wondering if anyone can tell me what cake they went with and if they liked it or not. And if you have any photos of your cake. Thanks Hi Ripcat Im an April bride as well, and have yet to be contacted with those kinds of details....hopefully Ericka gets on it soon! How many cakes are there to choose from? Sounds yummy!

Quote: Originally Posted by JCruz I think the only way I would attend a wedding that was on the same day as my own wedding would be if it were someone close to me. Otherwise, I wouldn't attend. However, I don't think anyone close to me would even think to have their wedding within a week of mine, let alone the same day. If you are faced with that dilemma, my advice would be to not attend. oh no , thats not what ii meant! I meant at the resort that u were to be married at....if someone i knew got married the same day wowsa! drama! Thanks BVP! It wouldnt bother me at all i dont think

Quote: Originally Posted by MesseJesse4 Who did you book your sunset cruise through? We'd love to do that for our guests too - just not too sure who to use. What are you planning for after dinner?? I know what you mean about bikini worthy!!! I only have 23 days though!!! YIKES! THANKS!!! Jess Hi Jess, After dinner we booked the disco for a few hours. Its just somewhere to go thats private. We plan on doing our first dance etc there. Its $500 and it includes bartender, dj. We will use an Ipod thou as I heard that thats better. You cant decorate the disco, but i figure it will be dark so who cares, and by then Im sure the tequila will be flowing so it will not matter! As for the sunset cruise we booked it through Cabo Sanlucas tours and its called "Escape the Sun" Sunset cruise. It was $40.50 each and if you have 30 or more people, you can have the whole boat to yourselves. The boat holds 200 ppl. You can also have it public for the same price. We ended up with the private cause, why the heck not! That includes dinner and open bar. We are gonna do that the nite before our wedding~ What a way for everyone to be hungover for our day! oops! None of our guests know about it yet, and I plan on giving a little card to say our Thanks and then have a little seasick pill inside expainiing whats going on...etc. There are other cruises I looked into, but this one seemed to suit us the best and I heard fabulous reviews about it. Hope this helps

Quote: Originally Posted by abbygirl Me too!!! 2.5 more months...I'm ssooo excited!!!! Vacation: May 4 - May 11 (we are staying until the 14th) 2009 Wedding: Saturday May 9, 2009 @ 6pm Gazebo?? pending # of guests Colours: Black & White Reception: hopefully the steakhouse...I should get in touch with Erika Hair/Make-up: i am thinking Suzanne....i wish we could stay at the resort though!!! 21 guests attending our wedding so far!!!! Melissa - oh ya'....I live in London, ON Have you seen the gazebo at the Santa Fe? Its a very pretty Gazebo but Its right next to the pool. Like a few feet! Not private at all. Oh wait, you did say you have been there before so nevermind! And your wedding is at 6 right? SO most likely the pool would be cleared out? If you check out Sandras review her ceremony was at 6 pm as well.

Quote: Originally Posted by abbygirl Hello girls!! I had a thought!! I have been to the Santa Fe, April 2008. For our reception I am leaning towards the steakhouse....but was thinking, if we were to have our reception dinner at one of the a la carts, would we have the entire place to ourselves? We are looking at having approx. 30 guests. It would be private?? Hi Abbygirl, No you wouldnt have the place to yourselves. They call it "semi private" and section off a place for your party. I heard it works quite well. I guess it would also depend on how many guests you have as well. You can have a private dinner in one of their conference rooms for $170 for 4 hours then you would also have to pay for the menu, When i looked into it it was between $30 and $50 per person and you have a few different menu choices., plus pay $15 per person PER HOUR for open bar. That could add up! I have heard reviews from past Santa fe brides that the semi private was just fine as they didnt even realize there were others around. Or People werent even around! Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Mike-n-Em mineaux--- We're going to be there at the same time! What day is your wedding? Looks like we are the same day!! Im at 4 pm on the beach, dinner at 630 at the Steakhouse Terrace, and we booked the disco for a few hours after dinner! How exciting! Have you just started the planning process? It feels like I have been planning forever as I kinda have considering we were to be married November of 08, but i had a baby (wasnt planned) in October and that was cutting it a lil short so moved it to APril! Everything is pretty much done now, i just have to decided on centerpeices, and a few differnt decorations. And get a playlist ready. Oh and decide on a dress...i have two! We are bringing a friend who is a photographer. Countdown has begun! How many people are in your group? There are 30 so far in ours. Dont expect too many more. Ages are from 22-60yrs. A fun group! We also booked a sunset cruise for our group on Tues April 21. A thank you for coming sorta deal. I cant wait. Now just to run a little faster on the treadmill to be bikini worthy!!! GOod Luck with all your palnnign if u need anything let me know! Mineaux

I am getting this done as well for my man. I think everyone has their insecurities. I also think that Boudour shoots are very tasteful, I means its FAR from Hustler or anything like that! I think its just some sensual pics in as much or as little of clothing you feel comfortable in. Im sure it does depend on the photographer, but for the most part I think Boudours are very tasteful. There are some that include makeup and hair, I know that most "marathons" do. To loosen up a bit I plan on drinking a glass of wine or 2 during! You should google Boudour and you can see tonnes of pictures! I think this is a great present for the mister~ I think he would appreicate it very much ! GOod Luck with whatever you decide!

i was just wondering if any of you had another wedding go on the same day as yours? If so did it bother you?? And how did it go?

Just wondering if anyone had to share their day with another bride at the same resort? If so did it bother you? How did it go?

I just recieved my parasols today from weddingfavours.ca. They are very fast and are out of Ontario. It only took not even a week. And the parasols are super pretty! (turquoise).

Ooooh thats me! April 16-27th Ceremony: Beach 4pm Dinner: Steakhouse Renting the Disco Colors: Aqua and white Hair: Suzanne Morel Hmmmm whatelse.

Not trying to be nosey i am just trying to figure out how much bands ususally cost. I know everyones budget is different but just curious if picking the band was just as big of a deal as the engagement ring!?!