krsmith

Welcome! My FI and I are getting married Feb. 14th at Moon Palace! We are super excited and have heard really good things! They also have a bunch of group booking perks that can get you free nights and events if you get so many room nights/rooms booked. I am crossing my fingers we get to the 75+ room nights booked so we can get unlimited private events and 7 nights free!

Welcome! I know that I've seen our AMAZING photographer has a great deal going on with Le Reve. From what I've heard Le Reve is pretty awesome and intimate. Here are a couple slide shows of Le Reve weddings that our photographer Del Sol did: http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=431 http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=238 (this is a Trash the Dress, but it shows a lot of the resort) Good luck and happy planning!

Congrats!! The first couple decisions are the hardest! Once you start narrowing down the location/resort, it gets easier. We chose mainly based on those priorities too. Not only did we want it to be affordable for us, we knew that it would still be an expense for everyone else too. So finding the best place for a good value was important. I knew I wanted not only something easily accessible and affordable, but also something tropical with a great beach. I feel like the Riviera Maya meets those categories! Beautiful white sandy beaches, but the affordability of Mexico. Check out the Del Sol Wiki. They have posted LOTS of slide shows of weddings all around the Riviera Maya. I could spend hours looking through them all! They give me great ideas of what I want for my own wedding and get me super excited to finally get down there and get married! Hope you enjoy them as much a I do! Happy planning!

Thank you so much!!!

mrsjdh2b- Do you have Lizzie's contact info? Its been forever since I email Janina and she said she FWD to Lizzie. Dan tried to call Janina to follow up, but I guess she is out of the office until the 15th.

You got a hold of the "pre-wedding" department?!? MAN I've been waiting forever! Janina said she would forward my email to the new department, but so far nothing! I had my FI even call last week to get on them a little, and she said I would receive something in my email soon. NOPE! I also would like to decide on our reception/event locations so I can put them on our invites. How long did it take them to respond to you?

Thanks again ladies! You are so sweet! I am still waiting to hear back on all the questions I sent MP. Our invites are pretty much done and just waiting on locations and times for events. Hopefully they will get back to me this week. I will have to probably sic Dan on them to get them to answer me! Haha! I was reading through the MP 2011 thread, and saw them talking about ceremony decos moved to reception. I was REALLY hoping that the aisle bases used in the Immaculate Conception package could be moved to the tables as centerpieces so I didn't have to bother with those! It sounds like it will be a "NO" from what the girls are saying....best case hopefully would be just a fee. What are you guys thinking for centerpieces?? I want to keep it fairly cheap, but the cheapest from Deco is 25-30 per table. I guess its not much when I won't have that many tables, but their options that are more affordable are kind of ugly!

Thanks ladies!

Hey ladies! I just got a couple "sneak peeks" of our Engagement Session! I have to say she was fabulous, however they are not the most flattering pictures of me! We will get more soon and hopefully there will be some that I actually like of myself! Haha! I know we are most critical of ourselves, but this at least motivates me even more to lose more weight!

Congrats and Welcome! We actually looked into that resort as well since we are also doing a Catholic ceremony. I did get in contact with them to ask some questions in the beginning, and they were very nice and helpful. Here are a couple slide shows of weddings photographed by Del Sol there. The first one is of a Catholic ceremony and the other is just in one of their gazebos. Maybe it will give you a good idea of what it could look like! http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=382 http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=387 Just start by choosing your date and location! From there make a list of the people you want to invite and get the word out asap so people can start planning for your big day! Once you have that stuff, its just a process of checking small and big stuff off the list. You can make it as easy and simple or as elaborate as you want! Just don't stress your self out. I would suggest you get your Pre Cana out of the way as soon as you can. Depending on your diocese/parish, it can be quite time consuming. Good luck with your planning! You will find lots of help and support here for anything you need!

What a great idea!!! And pretty darn affordable if you take advantage of the deals. I might just have to do this myself!

I am going to use Marvin! We haven't talked prices yet, but I told him I was on a tight budget and wanted to keep things simple. No matter what his prices will be cheaper than MP so thats a big factor for me. I thought about Real Touch, but they are just as expensive or sometimes more than real flowers, and it would be nice to have one less thing to haul down there and have to bring back too. It probably won't be too bad for me since I only have 3 BM and 3 GM and our parents. But everyone seems to love him and say he is very reasonable!

Welcome!! It was hard for me too since I have never personally be to an AI, but if you break the cost of rooms, meals, drinks, etc down by day, it actually ends up being a great deal! I had to do that for some of our guests when they first saw the pricing. Most people get it though...of course you will have the people that will complain up until the day they get there! In the end, I know everyone will be happy they came. Happy planning!

Great thanks!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!! Sending positive thoughts your way!

Welcome and Congrats! So far planning a DW has been the best decision we have made! Choosing your location will the the hardest part. Once that part is done it is all down to the little decisions. Make sure you check out Del Sol's Wiki to help you with your decision! There are LOADS of slide shows of weddings at many different resorts all over the Riviera Maya. It will give you a good look at the resorts and what weddings look like there. I could spend HOURS looking through all the beautiful pictures! I chose based on a few things: cost (for us), accessibility ($ and time for people to get there), and the wedding packages/perks the resort had to offer. We look at EVERY possibility for a location, and Mexico ended up being the most affordable for us. Once we decided on where it was trying to choose a resort. That is where this website came in handy! No only did looking through the pictures help, reading reviews on here helped too! We ended up going with Moon Palace because of 1) they have a Catholic Chapel and 2) the group booking perks (ie book so many guests and you get free events and nights free)! The only issue we really had to consider was the safety in Mexico. I am not worried about it at all, but I know there are worriers in the family, so I had to be prepared to either have info ready to show them it was OK, or realize some people wouldn't come. So far, it sounds like most people are coming! We wanted to keep it fairly small, so we invited only family and close friends. At this point its hard to say how many will go. We have a lot of "maybes". But yes, I think it could shrink considerably. We sent out our STDs 1 yr in advance to give people plenty of time to figure it out. We will be requesting people send their final RSVP (that will be given in our invites) by EARLY Dec at the latest. Those that don't we will have to call. All the rooms get released 60 prior to the wedding, so we will need to know before then. If people want to book last minute they can, but it won't be guaranteed they will be with the rest of us or get the group rate....but that will not be something I worry about...it will have been their choice! Spring 2012 doesn't sound too terrible! It honestly is up to you and how much time you think you want to give yourself and your guests to prepare. I knew I needed a year to get all the things I wanted done without too much stress, and I wanted people to be able to have plenty of time to save. Put the feelers out and see what kind of feedback you get from people. I think you could do it, but how much of a time crunch you can handle is up to you. Some people work better under pressure! Good luck and happy planning! You will find LOTS of info on here to help you!

Ok REALLY stupid question: How do you make the crossword puzzle? Is there some way to make all the boxes on Word or is there a website you can create your own then paste it on there? Thanks!!

These are SOOOO awesome! I wasn't planning on doing anything like this, but after seeing yours, I just might have to! Good job!

No problem! That is true (about it always being rosary beads), but I think in Catholic ceremonies they usually do use them. You do not have to do a Catholic ceremony to have one of course, and in those cases that is usually when they use something else for the Lasso. We will probably end up having my Mom do it as she is the most "Catholic" out of us! Haha! I know! It does add up to get married in the Catholic church! We had to pay for our counseling sessions ($100 each) for Pre Cana, the paperwork to get it all going, the test they have you both take, and then more fees once it is all done so they can "process" it through the arch diocese! DANG!!! Its crazy! Good Luck! I hope you can get it all done and changed at MP!

I'm assumig you are refering to a Catholic ceremony right? This is what it says on our contract. Either way Catholic wedding require Pre Cana no matter where you are. What they have you do usually depends on the parish. For ours we could chose out of 3 options: 1) Attend 7 weekly meetings with other engaged/married couples 2) Attend a weekend "Engaged Encounter" retreat 3) Go to at least 3 counseling sessions with a counselor that they designate. We ended up doing the counseling sessions... Documents required for Catholic weddings: Home address and occupations (bride & groom) Couples must make arrangements at least six months prior to the date of marriage and meet all sacramental requirements. The Catholic Church makes certain requests of the bride and groom to help the couple with their spiritual preparation. There is no uniform set of rules for all catholic wedding preparations. Therefore, please check with your local parish priest to find out what your dioceses requires for Catholic weddings. Once all requirements have been completed, your local church needs to send these documents directly to the following address and send us a copy for our records: Padre Benito Aguilar Blvd Kukulcan KM 3.5 Zona Hotelera 77500 Cancun Q.Roo (998)8493003 [email protected] Important: The priest has final say on granting official permission for the wedding to move forward after seeing the paperwork. Palace Resorts does not have authority over religious regulations. (NO EXCEPTIONS). Bride and Groom must arrive in Cancun at least three (3) working days (Monday –Saturday) prior to the wedding ceremony to meet with the wedding coordinator and submit all documents. Bride & Groom must be at the resort by check-in time (3:00 PM) or earlier in order to consider day of arrival. The above refers to a couple that has never been married previously. Please take with you to the resort your marriage certificate or marriage license. If you have been divorced and your marriage was not officially annulled you cannot marry in the Catholic Church. Catholic weddings in Mexico are not legally binding. All couples must be civilly married prior to the Catholic ceremony. Please inform your wedding coordinator if you are interested in one of our civil wedding packages. Additional charges may apply. All weddings will be performed in either Spanish or English. All documents become the property of the Immaculate Conception Chapel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Reservations should be made at least 6 months in advance to guarantee preferred wedding date. Hope that helps!!

Awww thanks! I haven't tried it on since last summer and I'm probably +5 lbs since then, but I'm determined to lose at least another 20 before the big day! Luckily it is a lace-up and when I had ordered it last summer I ordered a size down just in case! So either direction I end up going, at least I know they can close it up! Haha! I love seeing everyone's dresses too! Post them when you can ladies!!!!

Coco you look FABULOUS!!! What an amazing dress! It really flatters you and accentuates all your lovely curves! How exciting! And of course great job getting all those tasks done! I feel so behind!! I haven't even started my OOT bags since hardly anyone will give us a definite answer! Grrrrrrrrr!

Thank you ladies!!! I love it!

I know quite a bit so far. Yes is is a "real" Catholic ceremony. Mexico is of course predominately Catholic, so yes it is (and a full mass I believe)! YES Pre Cana is required for all Catholic ceremonies. We have done ours through our local parish, and then have to send all the finalized and "ok'd" paperwork to the priest in Mexico. You probably will not be able to make the switch since they say they require you to have all you Pre Cana done and paperwork done and turned in at least 6 months prior to your wedding date. BUT it never hurts to ask! The Lasso is actually a really large Rosary that is placed around the shoulders after vows and during communion I believe. It is definitely a Hispanic, but also a Catholic tradition! Good luck! I can't wait to hear about your BIG day!

Thanks ladies!! I bought it at Demetrios- I think the brand is Sensualle-Style GR162 I love it! This is what the front looks like: