andrea2006

I found it hit or miss with the outlets. My first trip eveything worked..the next trip I think I had trouble with my curling iron and both camera chargers. We bought a little adapter from the lobby shop, I don't remeber how much it was but it was not very expensive.

We went to Xplor and loved it..We plan on going back to the mayan mostly so we can go to Xplor again! I think I remember seeing a small (very small) kids area near a restaurant. An 11 year old could probably do the activities though. They have 4 main activities..lots of zip lines, jeep through the caves, swim through the caves and hand paddle through the caves. In my opinion not for little kids, but I would highly recommend it for adults, it was so much fun! Xel-ha was fun too, but all we did was the snorkeling, so not for little kids either, I believe Xel-ha had other activities around but we didn't take the time to look around much, we just wanted to see all the fish!

We didn't do out of town bags, so I obviously think it is OK if you don't do it. For us it was not really in the budget plus it takes up a lot of space. We brought down a few decorations and I just did not want to try and bring more down (our luggage was over weight as it was!) Honestly in my opinion their is nothing you HAVE to do for your wedding, so don't feel like is it wrong to not do something other people may have done.

We used separate songs for the signing and walking back, there is a break between the two. After you sign you still go back to the minister and he says a few words, pronounces you married then you kiss! So I would recommend the two songs still. Just a hint..do not stress over music. I was forever trying to decide about the music, I had soo many ideas..then one day I came home from work and my hubby had downloaded some instrumental music and said hey this is my idea, and it was perfect. When it came to the wedding, I was so wrapped up in the ceremony and being with my hubby that I hardly noticed the music anyway. I remember asking my mom later on what she thought of the song we used for the end, and she said she was so wrapped up in watching us she also just barely noticed music.

I only had a two hour poolside reception, from 8-10. I thought it was long enough. We did the first dance and quick boquet toss then just danced. We only had 26 people, after two hours I was ready to get out of my dress so I was thankful. We changed and half our group went to th hacienda until 2:30 am or so. I thought it was lots of fun there. If you go though remember it is a crowded club, don't recommend whereing your dress.

We were also told we needed to pay a deposit when we met with Jazmin. I think it was about $500, more cash than I was comfortable having on me, so I asked and they said they took travelers cheques, so that is what we did instead of having $500 cash on us.

It doesn't matter when you do the legal ceremony in Canada. I wanted to do it right before we left. But because of scheduling we did it 3 weeks before.

My Husband and I are not religious either, but I thought the symbolic ceremony was very nice. They did have a few prayers, and honestly I don't really remember much about them! I was just so excited to be marrying him it didn't really matter what the minister said..all I remember about the words he said was I thought it was very beautiful (and thankfully short!) So as a non-religious person it didn't bother me, I didn't think it was over the top or anything.

Lovely pictures Rachael. Obviously since we had a destination wedding, not everyone could make it. I thought it would be nice to send out a kind of wedding announcement. I was going to make up a postcard style card on Kodak gallery with a few pictures jut saying Andrea & Craig Married March 1. I planned to send it to relatives and friends that weren't' invited or weren't able to come to the wedding. My husband laughed and said he had never heard of anyone doing this before! What do you think, has anyone else done this our thought of doing it?

Yeah they were real, I believe I paid $40 for the cake flowers.

Ooops. Meant to post some of the cake and flowers. I brought the diamonds for the flowers. I also brought the decorations for the cake.

Here are some of my pictures!

A few pics from pur TTD. My dress got lots of sand in it, it just rinsed it in the shower and shook any extra sand out once it dried...as I said before I am wearing it for a shoot next month and it doesn't need to be dry cleaned (though It needs to be before I store it)

I am so happy with how my bouquet turned out! I bought the diamonds from wedding star and put them in myself (very easy) Then I used a peice of my mothers wedding dress to wrap as my something old.

These were my ceremony shoes (we got married in a Gazebo so I could wear heels). I knew it would be a long day so I bought a pair of wedge flip flops for the reception. My dress was hemmed to the heels so I found it a bit annoying trying to dance with my dress being too long, but my feet didn't hurt so it is a trade off.

I really didn't expect much from our resort for the cake, so I ordered extra roses and bought ribbons and "bling on a roll" from michaels to give the hotel to use, it turned out really great!

I didn't bring any place cards with me, I also didn't make a seating plan either. When we met with Jazmin she gave me 3 different coloured highlights, I used each colour as a table (only 3 tables) to tell her who should sit at each table. She then made up on big card for the center of each table with the names of people for that table. They were cute, all done in pink (our wedding colour) with a pictures of a bride and groom.

We did the symbolic ceremony and we were told we had to arrive two working days prior to the Ceremony day.

My dress was fine! It got filthy underneath form the wedding day...the swim in the ocean cleaned it up a bit, I just rinsed it in the shower and shook the remaining sand out once it dried...I plan on wearing it next month for a photo shoot with a friend and I don't need to even get it cleaned ( I will Post some TTD photos soon!)

For Our songs we ended up using -Canon D for Me and bridesmaid walking in (i just had one maid of honor and the version we had had almost a minute of "intro type music before the real song started so we just used the one song) -Butterfly waltz for the signing -Canon D in a rock version for the end

I had diamonds in my bouquet like in the picture, I never even asked if they could supply them, I just bought a box of 50 for about $5 at a wedding store.

We were told that men can wear dress shorts to al la carte restaurants, except for don pablo, arlequin and the gourmet. The only dress code for buffet (that I saw) is you can't wear bathing suits and you can't be soaking wet.

They should be bringing drinks to you at the table during the meal. They did at our wedding, and at every al la carte restaurant we went to. They usually bring drinks to you at the buffet but sometimes they are slow there so we went to the bar once or twice.

Air Canada let me carry on my dress (had mom and moh dress in it too) and 2 suits. They said its ok as long as it fits in the overhead. Check your airlines website for carry on rules it provably says on their you can bring your dress

Yeah they are in Akumal. Our engagement and ttd pictures were in Akumal, the wedding day pictures were all in tulum. Our photographer was from Calgary, Kelly Szott.