wilsoml2

Wedding continued…

We were a little rushed because the sun was setting, so we quickly ran over to the lighthouse (just DH and I, we didn’t have time for bridal party pictures, too). Afterwards we got back just in time for the end of the cocktail hour. I wanted to get some pictures with the mariachis and they were still there. I was a little disappointed because we wanted the mariachi trio but got the carribean trio instead. It turned out that it was the same guys from the night before at the rehearsal dinner. Everyone still enjoyed them so I tried not to get upset.

A few lighthouse shots of many. The rest can be found here: Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Wedding Light...

Coming back from the lighthouse.

Picture with the Mariachis.

Cecilia’s assistants came for us around 7:50 and led us over to our new reception location, the spa terrace. It was nice because it was more private from the rest of the resort and had a nice high wall to keep the wind down a bit. When I first glimpsed the reception, I was so incredibly happy. Cecilia did an amazing job with the layout, and everything was perfect. I gave her a huge hug.

This picture can’t do it justice!

We waited for everyone to go in and take their seats before we made a grand entrance. We also decided to do our first dance right away. We had taken dance lessons and had a choreographed dance to ‘Brighter than Sunshine’ by Aqualung. We messed up a few things but no one seemed to notice. Everyone loved it though, they said it was more interesting than watching us spin in a circle!

First dance.

More coming...

Wedding continued…

After the ceremony we walked back down the aisle. Our champaign toast was not waiting like we thought it would be. Cecilia was standing nearby so we motioned to her about the drinks and they brought them out as soon as possible. I guess most ceremonies last longer but ours was short and sweet! We had a toast and hugged all of our guests then started on the group pictures. I’ll discuss the photographers below.

The Kiss.

Back down the aisle.

Signaling for our champaign.

Finally got it!

Receiving line

Some group pictures.

More coming...

Wedding continued…

We did makeup at 3 pm (ceremony at 6). I have to say, I wasn’t super excited about mine, but I hardly ever wear makeup so I think I just wasn’t used to it. It didn’t help that I had a guy doing my makeup and he didn’t appear to know what he was doing. He kept asking the other girls what colors to put on me and how much to put on. I don’t know a ton of Spanish, but I could tell when he was asking ‘mas o menos?’ about my eye shadow. Plus he was sweating like a maniac! I felt it drip onto me several times! Everyone else loved it though, so I can’t complain too much. I did love my MOHs’ makeup, I thought their ladies did excellent jobs.

Bridesmaid’s makeup

My Makeup

After makeup we started getting dressed. It turns out that neither of my MOHs know how to iron that well so I ironed their dresses for them. Of course they teased me but I didn’t mind since it kept my mind off of being worried about DH. Our wedding ceremony was supposed to be at 6 and there was another one at 4. Of course, the one at 4 ran WAY late and didn’t finish up until 5:30 so I started panicking. They got things turned around pretty quickly though and I think we only started 10 minutes late.

The ceremony was great. We had Gino Hidalgo as our officiant. I believe he’s a minister, but DH and I are not religious so we sent him a script that I wrote (more like pieced together from other people’s ceremonies!) and he read through it beautifully. If you don’t want anything religious, I highly suggest writing it yourselves or find something on the internet that you like to give to them or else they’ll just do their standard ceremony which does have scripture. A couple of people commented on how much they liked it which made me happy.

Gino (holding the yellow folder) and the gazebo setup.

Anyways, DH and I did not cry, although I think we both were fighting it when I first got up to the gazebo. He squeezed my hand tight and from that point on I knew everything would be great. My friend Beth did a reading and she did such a great job. They had a mic so everyone could hear her. Yes, we did have the sound system, I think it’d be silly not to have it. I wish they’d just include it in the package because you really would not be able to hear a thing without it due to the wind.

Walking with my dad and step-dad.

Knowing that everything would be great.

My friend’s reading.

One thing that I’m not pleased with is that apparently during the ring exchange the videographer was standing between us and my parents, so they couldn’t see a thing. My step dad was disappointed that he came the whole way to Mexico to watch the ceremony on a dvd.

More coming...

Travel Agent – TA Jill – A+

Jill was great to work with throughout the whole process. It was nice having someone else deal with our guests’ questions about travel so that was one less thing on my plate. The travel packets she sent us were great, too. We got a nice case to carry all of our documents in and several luggage tags for our baggage. I’m glad that I ended up not giving out luggage tags to our guests, so that’s something to keep in mind if you go with Jill! Overall, her service was great. She responded quickly to all of my emails, and helped us to deal with some travel issues (I’ll get into that later).

American Airlines – B-

While my DH and I didn’t really have any problems on our flights, one of my co-MOH’s arrived 6 hours after she was scheduled and completely missed the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. They boarded the plane on schedule then were forced to sit in the hot plane for 2 hours! Finally she said a man behind her told the stewardess that he had a heart condition and needed to get out of the heat so they let everyone off. They boarded a 2nd time to find out that the plane still wasn’t fixed, so they got off again. Finally, the 3rd time was a charm and they left the ground. I can’t believe the airline would do that to people, they weren’t even offered drinks!

One positive is that AA only recently changed their baggage policy to one free checked bag, and since DH and I booked our flight before the policy went into effect, we each could check two bags for free. Luckily, I was able to stuff all of our wedding stuff into just 4 bags to be checked so we didn’t have to pay any extra fees.

Some of my family flew with Continental Airlines. Their flight from Newark to Pittsburgh on the way home was cancelled. The lady at the counter told them that a notification was sent out so there wasn’t much they could do for them except get them on a flight the next day. My parents had to work so they had to rent a car and make the long drive home. I felt so bad since I didn’t hear of it until several days later. Jill called Continental and found out that the notification about the cancellation was never sent! She did get us a small refund, but I still can’t believe that the horrible customer service. I won’t be flying with them in the future.

Cancun Airport and Transfers – A-

Our plane arrived at the same time as 3 others, so it took us 1.5 hours to get through the airport. I think that seemed rather quick though when you think about how small the airport actually is. When I went through customs, they did stop one of my bags. Last time I was in Cancun, they didn’t scan our bags, we just went straight to the red/green light. This time, they scanned every single bag of every passenger. For the bag under question she just pointed to it and asked what was in it. I told the girl that it was favors for my wedding. You could tell she didn’t know much English, but she asked if they were like souvenirs. I said yes and she let me go. Then at the red/green light the guy asked me how much my favors/gifts were worth and I told him the value and that I had all of the receipts. He said that’s fine and let me press the light. Luckily DH and I both got green so we got through pretty easily. Just make sure to tell them that it’s your wedding and bring receipts along just in case!

We didn’t have any problem with the time-share people. Our transfers were with American Express and when they found out it was our wedding they sent us in a van by ourselves. It was nice to not have to stop at a bunch of other hotels, but that’s what happened to most of our guests. They didn’t seem to mind. One thing that really irked me was the American Express guy at Dreams Cancun was really annoying. He told all of our guests that they had to stop by at some point to give him their flight information. When they did, he kept trying to sell them trips and stuff. For instance, he apparently thought my mom looked like she wanted to go on a bar crawl. Finally I started telling people to not bother going to talk to him and sure enough they still got a call the day before the departed to tell them when the van would come to pick them up. My advice is to stay away from that guy, American Express should already have all of your flight information if you booked through a TA. Now the American Express guy at Dreams Riviera where we honeymooned was much better and actually quite helpful. He even recognized us one morning when we were in the lobby and came over to say hi. I guess it’s just hit or miss with these guys.

Wedding Coordinator Cecilia – A

While I really want to give her an A+++++++ but there were a few things holding me back. The biggest thing being that we had scheduled our reception for the Club Terrace and when we got there it was still under construction. I really don’t mind that we had to change our wedding location, I’m just mad that she never said anything about it even though she had emailed me a week before we left to schedule our initial meeting. The second thing was that we had scheduled our rehearsal at 5 pm on July 1st. It turns out that Claudia also had a rehearsal at 5 and she showed up on time with her people. We let them go ahead, and finally Cecilia showed up at 5:30! She apologized that a meeting had run extremely late. Again, I completely understand, I just wish someone would have told us so we could have stayed out of the heat for a little longer!

Cecilia helping us with the rehearsal.

Besides that, she was great. While I tried hard to be angry and stern about the previously mentioned grievances, she just has this calmness about her that makes you relax. I was fuming when she showed up at 5:30, but within like 5 seconds I had completely forgotten about it! Knowing how busy they are (she said they had 60 weddings in June and 48 in July) I probably only emailed her 10 times from the initial email inquiring about our wedding date. When I did, she usually got back to me within a week and much faster as the wedding came closer. You really just have to let go and trust that everything will work out.

She also does her job well and knows what looks good. Our reception was absolutely beautiful, I couldn’t believe what she had pulled off. We did tip her at our first meeting, and while I don’t think we got a ton of ‘free’ things, she did add little things here and there to make things look nice that we hadn’t paid for. For instance, we only paid for 5 lights under the tables, but she had also put lights under some of the side tables as well, like for the cake and favors. We also only paid for 4 centerpieces, but she ended up giving us a 5th for our sweetheart table.

For trades, I didn’t use the flowers that came with the package since I had brought my own. I asked her to instead make some floral arrangements to go on the pillars of the gazebo and they looked great. I also didn’t have my hair done at the spa since my mom did it and instead they let me switch that out for one of my MOH’s makeup. Other than that, I didn’t really ask for anything else, although maybe I could have.

Flowers on the pillars.

Finally, after paying our bill and leaving for our honeymoon, we realized that she never took out our $500 deposit. When we emailed her about it, she asked us to send the information again about the wire transfer. While I’m annoyed that this was never confirmed despite my inquiring about it several times, she is trying to work it out with us. I don’t necessarily blame her though, it seems like there is a lack of communication between departments at Dreams. Hopefully we’ll get our $500 back soon enough!

Rehearsal Dinner – Paloma Bonita – A+++

I originally didn’t want to do a rehearsal dinner since I thought people would want to have as much time as possible to do other things while in Cancun. In the end, my MIL really wanted to do it, so I agreed and I’m glad I did.

Cecilia got me in touch with the public relations manager, Paola who set the whole thing up with us. She reminded me that Paloma Bonita does take reservations while none of the restaurants in the resort will. We had 37 guests, so just walking in to one of the restaurants was not really an option. Plus, we were all guests at the Dreams so we received 20% off our total bill.

While the restaurant is not air conditioned (and it was HOT that evening), the atmosphere was great. They have a mariachi trio in the evenings and since we were the largest group there, they spent quite a bit of time with us. My MIL even danced with one of the waiters! They also gave us the huge sombreros to take pictures with and everyone loved that. The best thing though was the food. They brought out assorted appetizers for each table so everyone could try a bit of everything. For the main course I ordered the Chicken Oaxaca and it was incredibly good. DH had the fajitas and he said they were decent. At one point, Paola came over and said hi. She even kissed me on the cheek, so sweet! I feel bad because I didn’t recognize her until she was leaving but I was impressed that she made the effort to stop by. Overall, everyone really loved it and I’m so glad we did it. I’m also glad that DH and I didn’t have to pick up the bill!

Paola saying hello.

View from the restaurant.

Mariachis

Wedding – A+++

My wedding was amazing from start to finish. There were little things here and there that weren’t quite right, but overall I loved it.

At 9 am I went down to the spa for a manicure. I tried doing my own French manicure and it was horrifying so I figured I’d splurge on myself a little. I had Doris and she was very sweet and did a great job. I think I also had her for our couples massage, so she really was a woman of many talents.

My french polish after a spa manicure.

Afterwards, my MIL came down to talk to me. Apparently DH had some sort of allergic reaction the previous night (he had his complimentary room so we didn’t spend the night together) and had to get a shot from the doctor. She said he was feeling better but still had some itchiness in his arms. We still don’t know what happened cause he’s not really allergic to anything that we know of. Anyways, she calmed me down and assured me that everything would be okay. The doctor gave him a prescription for an antihistamine. P.S. The charge for the doctor was $150. I couldn’t believe how cheap that was especially for a visit in the middle of the night! In the States that probably would have cost at least an arm and possibly a leg.

Anyways, I left for our room feeling a little better, but still worried. The ladies joined me in our 2-bedroom master suite (Jill can’t usually book that room, but she got us a sweet upgrade!) pretty much the rest of the day. My MOHs came up around 10:45 and I gave them their gifts. My mom came over around 11 and we ordered room service. At 12 my mom started doing hair and I like how everything turned out. The one thing I would change about mine is that my bangs started to come loose in the wind, make sure to pin those things down ladies! It wasn’t too bad but in some of our pro pics my hair started getting wrapped around my tiara and I didn’t like them as much.

Living room of 2-bedroom suite. Balcony is in the background.

View from our balcony.

Bangs going crazy in the wind.

More coming...

I also just got back and most of my guests absolutely loved it. Only the ones who are used to the 'finer' things in life such as yearly trips to Hawaii or the Floriday Keys complained about it. These people loved the location, but they felt the food was somewhat bland. I loved the food, so I suppose it depends on what you're used to! Oh, the drinks were a bit watered down, just ask for double shots in every drink and you'll be feeling great!

These are great! Lucky that you were able to hand deliver most of them!

Gifts:

For the groom, I did a BD shoot with Laura Ivanova, a Minneapolis photographer. She was amazing and I can’t recommend her enough. My makeup was done by Hana of Un.veiled Styling and Events, she was also great. Once I received the pictures, I used MyPublisher to make a photo book. Here’s the front cover:

For my bridesmaids, I started off with a handmade travel set by annabeebaby on Etsy. It consisted of a luggage tag, passport/boarding pass tote, and large wristlet. When I asked them to be my bridesmaids, I gave them the luggage tag and passport tote with bridesmaid written on the tag. Then I filled up the large wristlet with “Wedding Day Survival†type things, like nail polish remover, nail kit, etc. I’ll give that to them once we get down to Mexico.

I also gave them a wet bikini bag (perfect for the beach!) and paid for their dresses and makeup. For the entire wedding party, we paid a portion of their hotel costs.

For the groomsmen, I also filled up small travel bags with random necessities that they might need on the day of the wedding, like a lint roller, deodorant wipes, Alka-Seltzer, etc. I think my FI also wants to put mini bottles of whiskey in there as well! The day after the wedding, FI plans to take the boys to a cigar shop and let them pick out some of their favorites for their gift.

I think that’s just about it for now. We leave in less than a week, I can’t wait! Now I just have to figure out how to pack all of this stuff...

Ceremony/Reception Necessities:

We ordered turquoise chair sashes for the ceremony and reception. They were less than $1 a piece from weddinglinensdirect.com but the resort wanted to charge $4 per sash to rent them, so I think we saved a bit of money there!

My mom and I (mostly my mom) put together the bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres. They are all silk flowers, some more expensive than others, but I like them. I think we paid less than $150 for the bridal bouquet, 2 BM bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, and 6 corsages. I only have pictures of the unfinished boutonnieres and BM bouquets.

Groom’s:

BM’s:

Boutonnieres:

For our ceremony programs, I designed a fan with the basic information on it. This picture is just of a rough copy, it was finished when I actually assembled all 35! As these are being handed out, we will also give everyone bubbles to blow during the recessional. I tied ribbon around them in our colors.

My place cards, menus and table numbers were mostly DIY. I bought the starfish on ebay for the place cards and used raffia ribbon to tie them on. Any extra starfish will be placed on the tables. The table number holders were found on WeddingThings.com.

The template for the menu can be found here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...6/#post1339352

Details about the table numbers and placecards can be found here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...part-ii-59457/

For the guestbook I wanted to create something more personalized, so I used a bunch of pictures of my FI and me to create a photo book on MyPublisher. We left a lot of white space so that people can sign it, yearbook style.

Just a little more to come!

OOT Bags:

I decided that I wanted to attempt to make my own totes for the Welcome Bags and I love how they came out! I even added my own “Made by...†tag!

The details for the bag are discussed here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ot-bags-57739/

The tote bags were for couples and single ladies. For the single guys we got cooler tote bags (the brand was Liberty, I believe) from Amazon. These were a little more expensive than the totes that I made but we only needed a few and my FI loved the idea. They can fit a 6-pack. For my FI’s teenage cousin, we got a matching drawstring backpack.

Here is a picture of the contents:

In the bags we had stadium cups with our logo; puzzle books; a welcome booklet with resort map, schedule of events, etc; keycard/tip holders; and finally, wedding weekend survival kits with ibuprofen, antacid meds, pepto, personalized chapstick, shout wipes, aloe gel, drink mixes, bandaids and mints. We also added some balls to throw around in the pool and an underwater camera to the teenager’s bag.

The welcome books and chapsticks are detailed here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-so-far-57223/

The keycard holders are detailed here:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...part-ii-59457/

Here are the contents of the Survival Kits:

I also included 2 postcards per bag that I had printed for free from Vistaprint. I think I ended up paying about $8.50 for shipping and photo upload. Not too bad for 50 postcards!

Favors:

Since our wedding is in Mexico, I thought maracas would be appropriate favors. I wanted something in our colors so I chose the Tropical Maracas from PartyCheap.com. They have a nice discount for bulk orders, so I think I ended up paying just over $2 per piece.

We also plan to go out to the local shops once we get down there to buy a bunch of cigars for a cigar table at the reception. I made some personalized matchbooks to go on the table.

The template for the matchbooks is here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...6/#post1339352

More to come!

Wedding Attire:

I actually got my wedding dress almost a year before we were engaged! I started perusing preownedweddingdresses.com when my older sibling got engaged and fell in love with one on sight. I bought it from a lovely bride in Idaho who had found it in Hawaii. The blue embroidery goes well with my ring and I love that I’m recycling a used dress. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass it on to another bride when I’m done with it!

Here’s my crinoline. I had originally chosen a hoop skirt, but decided against it. FI and I had started taking dance lessons and I realized that my heel kept snagging the lower hoop. I bought the crinoline used on craigslist for $15 and decided to dye it blue. I used RIT Evening Blue at about half strength and I love how it turned out!

Here are pictures of my jewelry, shoes, and purse. I ordered the flip flops from JCrew and decorated them myself. I got the inspiration from a pair that destie Amarillis found in Canada! After taking dance lessons and realizing that I need something that would stay on my foot, I decided on the 2 pair of heels. I still wanted them to match my flip flops so I made some flowers out of the beads I already had.

The jewelry was handmade by pureallure on Etsy. I love the entire set, especially the earrings! I got the purse on ebay for $6.99 and made the flower using white wired ribbon. I added the beads in the center to match my shoes.

We ordered our wedding bands from GreenKarat.com as well, both were the recycled platinum bands called Celestial Light. greenKarat-Jewelry Product Detail Page

As part of their gift, I paid for my bridesmaid’s dresses. I can honestly say they were the best deal ever since I got them on clearance for $14 each at Target! We did replace the ribbon with one that was more of a 'tiffany blue' color.

Here is one of the dresses on me, sorry it's wrinkled:

FI got his khaki suit at Banana Republic.

The jacket was a bit too large but he had it taken in and it looks great on him! We were lucky since there was a 4-hour 30% off sale the night we bought it so it ended up saving us some money!

For the groomsmen, we just asked them to wear long-sleeved white button-up shirts with khaki pants. The ushers and my father and stepfather were asked to wear short-sleeved button-up shirts and khakis.

Engagement:

First thing is first: the engagement. I posted the story on the forum here:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-4-days-48130/

My engagement ring is from GreenKarat.com and I love, love, love it! It is three blue lab-created diamonds on a recycled platinum band. I love that FI let me pick something that’s environmentally friendly!

Location:

We knew from the start that we wanted to get married at Dreams Cancun. We stayed at the resort in July 2008 with some friends and fell in love. Here are pictures of the Wedding Gazebo and Club Terrace where the wedding and reception will be. They’ve redone the Gazebo since this picture, but you can’t beat the location. I can’t wait to see that amazing blue water again!

Our wedding coordinator is Cecilia and so far she’s been great. I haven’t emailed her too often since I know the WCs down there get swamped, but she’s been getting back to me within a few days as the wedding is getting closer. No complaints so far!

STDs and Invitations:

So after we decided the site, it was time to start the real planning. For our Save the Dates we used DIY boarding passes. I used so many wonderful ideas from this forum, I don’t know what I would have done without it! Note the cute return address labels with our logo on it! We printed those off ourselves. We also tried to use paper with at least some recycled content.

For the invitations, I did pocketfolds. I used the same blue cardstock for the folders as the folders for the STDs. Trying to figure out where to cut and where to fold was interesting, but I think they turned out nice.

Here are some more details: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...tations-54156/

To be continued...

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilsoml2 I think I originally 'borrowed' it from da.shmoopies. She posted it here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...mpletes-44213/ If I remember, I'll post mine later. I don't have my files with me this evening!

Survival Kit labels.pub

So I think I'm finally done with DIY projects! At least I hope since I'm leaving in 5 days!

First, as promised are the menus and matchbook labels. The menus were printed on white cardstock and then glued to the blue cardstock that I've used for everything else.

The matchbooks were a little tricky. I had taken like 5 packs from a local restaurant called Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis. Of course they are bigger than normal matchbooks, so I couldn't use anyone else's template. This is what I ended up with and I love them!

My next project was a ribbon flower to add to pin on to my purse. I used white 1.5" wired ribbon and followed this tutorial:

Miss Beagle's DIY Ribbon Flower Tutorial | Weddingbee DIY Projects

I think I used about a yard. Since I thought it'd be cool if my shoes and purse matched, I used the same kinds of beads for the center of the flower. It turned out so well that I think I'm going to make one for each of my bridesmaids to wear in their hair!

And finally, I decided to get a 2nd pair of shoes. FI and I started taking dance lessons and I realized that flip flops weren't going to work if we were going to be doing ballroom. My feet kept slipping out! Anyways, I still wanted them to match, so I made a flower out of the beads for each shoe. I attached it to piece of fabric that is wrapped around the bridge of the shoe and then sewed on the bottom. I couldn't find shoe clips last minute! Again, I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

Well that's everything. I've attached some templates, please enjoy!

Menu.pub

Matchbook labels.pub

These are awesome! I hadn't seen these or else I probably would have included them in my bags!

Thanks for sharing the pictures! I'm the same way, I probably had several hundred the last time I was there! I appreciated the pictures of the Himitsu Beach set up. Do you know if those centerpieces were the 'free' ones? I thought they were bigger and rounder.

Although I've had all of the items for quite some time, I finally put everything together to take some pictures of my OOT bags!

For the ladies and couples, I made my own bags.

The details for the bag are discussed here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ot-bags-57739/

For the single guys we got cooler tote bags (the brand was Liberty, I believe) from Amazon seller Blank Apparel. These were a little more expensive than the totes that I made but we only needed a few and my FI loved the idea. They can fit a 6-pack. For my FI’s teenage cousin, we got a matching drawstring backpack from the same seller. I believe they combined shipping for all of the bags which was nice.

Here is a picture of the contents:

In the bags we had stadium cups with our logo; puzzle books; a welcome booklet with resort map, schedule of events, etc; keycard/tip holders; and finally, wedding weekend survival kits with ibuprofen, antacid meds, pepto, personalized chapstick, shout wipes, aloe gel, drink mixes, bandaids and mints. We also added some pool balls and an underwater camera to the teenager’s bag.

The welcome books and chapsticks are detailed here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-so-far-57223/

The keycard holders are detailed here:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...part-ii-59457/

Here are the contents of the Survival Kits:

I also included 2 postcards per bag that I had printed for free from Vistaprint. I forgot to grab them for the picture! I think I ended up paying about $8.50 for shipping and photo upload. Not too bad for 50 postcards!

Overall, we'll have 25 bags for a total of approximately $350, or about $14 per bag. Not too bad in my opinion!