TropicLover

@Shanon09, I'm happy the timeline helped! Instead of doing the Champagne Toast (we saved that for the start of the Reception) we paid a bit extra and did a Cocktail Hour on the Terrace. We opted for a 1 hour open bar with a "signature cocktail" which meant we had servers greeting us with drinks as well as taking drink orders. To save money you could probably go without the open bar, but then your Cocktail Hour may turn into "all-your-guests-standing-at-the-lobby-bar-hour" lol. We also chose to have appetizers too...which again are extra, lol like everything wedding related ;-) The hotel staff sets up a really nice food spread with carved watermelon and everything! These prices can be found the Extra Wedding Costs doc. Open Bar - $10/person/hour Appetizers - $18/person* * The menu we chose was $18/person, however I think there's a $16/person and even a higher priced option too. In terms of the amount of food served the hotel calculates that each guest will have 6 pieces. To be honest there was a lot left over so you could probably save money and cut 1/4 of your guests out of the calculation. For example, if you have 20 guests instead of paying $360 (20 people) aim for $270 (15 people). Our 5 hour Reception was also extra. We had the 3 hours included in the Paradise Package plus 2 extra hours. Basically you're just paying for the bar: $10/person/hour Here's a picture from my mom took of the Cocktail Hour food:

@Shanon09, you’re right my husband and I did a “first look†photo and met up before the ceremony. We’ve been together for 8 years, living together for 7 so the idea of not seeing each other before the ceremony didn’t even cross our minds. We wanted to feel comfortable and have an easy-going atmosphere the whole day. To us it didn’t take away from the “specialness†of the event. Even with all the pre-ceremony contact, I still had butterflies when walking up the aisle and my husband was trying to hold back tears as I approached the alter….everything was just as special. Our day started early because we did the bulk of our photos before the ceremony. Honestly it was great for us because: #1 we got to be there for our entire wedding and weren’t MIA rushing around to take pictures at Cocktail Hour and; #2 it allowed our Ceremony to flow seamlessly into Cocktail Hour and then Reception…so we avoided any 1 – 2 hour gaps in-between. My advice is to do what would work best for you. If you’re a traditional couple then yes, wait until the ceremony before seeing each other. If you can’t imagine spending the day without your soon-to-be husband then do a first look photo together. If you choose to do the first look then let everyone including your photographer know you want it to be private so it’s your moment. I was in a wedding once where the first look was done outside of the limo with the entire wedding party, parents and in-laws watching. It was super awkward for the couple and the “viewing partyâ€â€¦.honestly avoid this at all cause. Here’s a copy of our Day Of schedule. 10:30 am – 1:00 pm Hair & Make-Up for Bride & Bridesmaids. Meet at hotel spa (Despacio Spa Centre) 2:00 – 2:30 pm Bride & Bridesmaids getting ready photos (parents welcome). Room # Groom & Groomsmen getting ready photos (parents welcome). Room # 2:30 – 3:30 pm Private bride & groom photos 3:30 – 4:30 pm Wedding party pictures 4:30 – 5:00 pm Parents & wedding party meet before ceremony. room # 5:00 – 5:30 pm Wedding ceremony 5:30 – 6:30 pm Cocktail hour and Family Photos 7:o0 – 12:00 am Reception

@Andrea28 & Jdavidso, for our symbolic ceremony Ana gave me the website for the wedding officiant and I contacted them directly. www.cancunweddingofficiant.com Either Alina or Santiago will perform the ceremony. In our case I had email contact with Alina, however our wedding officiant was Santiago. Both of them were really nice and everyone loved Santiago's ceremony performance. He's such a nice man. [email protected] Alina provide me with a questionnaire about us and our must haves for the ceremony. We filled most of it out, gave them a copy of our vows, a reading we liked as well as a brief description on the type of ceremony we wanted (i.e. spiritual vs. religious). Oh and we also gave them access to our wedding website so they could read how we met. All in all we were really happy with the way it turned out. Just let them know exactly what you want and it will turn out great!

Just keep asking and see what they say. It took us months for them to agree on that location, but persistence worked ;-)

For all of the new OCT brides looking for a photographer, I've posted a review for my photographer Sascha Gluck. He's truly amazing and we have a ton of great photos! Check it out: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/sascha-gluck-photographer/reviews/6281 OCT review will be done shortly too

Have fun Kleenotes! It's going to be amazing!

Hey! We had the surf and turf combo, however we couldn't choose how to cook it...the staff aims for medium. For some guests it was perfect and others complained it was overdone. It's a wedding so it's tough to get the food right for everyone in a large group...especially steak. The staff at the hotel are amazing and on our wedding day they were even MORE amazing....so you could talk to the head chef on your wedding day regarding the steaks.

Hey Sandy, We had 4 suit cases (2 personal, 2 wedding related that our parents took for us), 2 carry-ons, a wedding dress, suit bag and an aisle runner. We were okay when it came to customs, however to be safe I had receipts for everything and ensured each bag didn't exceed $300 in decorations/favors (the wedding dress and suit are exceptions). Out of our entire crew of guests I got the red light at the airport, lol. The man who went through our bags was nice and very quick. He just opened up the bags and looked inside...he didn't ruffle around or anything. Everything should run smoothly for you. :-)

@Kleenotes, they do have make-up at the salon, however there isn't the largest selection. Everything worked out great for me and I liked the way it turned out....I was going for a more natural look. If you do have an eyeshadow colour you really like I recommend bring it along. I'm not a make-up connoisseur or anything so I found it really difficult to make a decision when the make-up artist would hold up an eyeshadow and say "how about this one?" I had no idea, lol and was like "I don't know, do you think it would look good?" Haha anyway to avoid a decision dilemma bring your own eyeshadow.

Congrats AnaS!!! The review was awesome and you look lovely!

@lisam, check out the link to my photographers blog (Sasha Gluck). When I receive my entire photo file I'll post more http://cancunphotosblog.com/carolyn-tysen-ocean-turquesa/