SamIAm85

She bought them from Logo Lenses and she really liked the company. http://www.logolenses.com/shop/wayfarer-2-tone-sunglasses

Cake

Our Cake Toppers ($25.99) and Aqua Blue 2.5†Sola Flowers ($4/12pack) are from Save-On-Crafts

Centerpieces

I didn’t get very many pictures of the centerpieces.  My mom made the table runners and the tables were lined with candles, and floating flowers.  

3†Square Glass Candle Vases ($1/each from Dollar Tree) with 2.25†Sola Zinnia Flower ($6/12pack from Save-On-Crafts) and White Candle Bio Light ($28/48pack from Save-On-Crafts). 

Place Cards

I got the idea from another bride on this site.  I purchased Kate Aspen Shell Placeholders from Target ($7/per set of 12) and painted them blue.  I made the name tags with cardstock that matched our invitations. 

Guest Book

We had our guests sign a sand dollar and had them standing up in a tray of sand.  I plan on displaying them in a shadow box, but I’m still playing with the lay out.  I ordered 2 ½†Sand Dollars from Quality Shells for $0.72/each. 

Photographer

We used Fine Art Studio Photography.  We hired Diego and Alvaro for 4 hours.  You can read my review here.

Sunglasses

My sister and brother-in-law surprised us in Mexico with custom sunglasses for all our guests.  My sister and I were at the printer (Scudder Press, Inc.) working on my AHR invitation when I noticed the sunglasses and said I wish I had thought about doing them for the wedding.  She ordered them and didn’t even say anything about it until we were in Mexico.  We handed them out at the Welcome dinner and everyone wore them the whole weekend. 

Fans

We ordered fans from The Knot in light blue and blue on sale for $0.89/each.  The fans were placed on the chairs for the ceremony. 

Maracas

We ordered maracas from Amols in brite blue and light blue for $1.95/pair or $0.99/each.  The maracas were placed on the chairs for the ceremony and I made the shake at the kiss tag. 

Heads up, the designs on the maracas do not match what is pictured on the webpage.  Some were very pretty, others had paintings of bunnies, crabs, fish, etc.  I ended up ordering way too many before I knew the exact number of guests so I was able to pick out the designs I liked the most. 

Reserved Seating Signs

I made these reserved seating signs for our parents, siblings, spouses and their children.  

Welcome Bags 

Our welcome bags were a huge hit.  Our guests loved all their goodies.  The cups, cameras and totes seemed to be utilized the most. 

We gave one bag per single guest/couple and had a total 24 Welcome Bags.  They cost $11/single guest and $12/couple before tax.   For couples, we included 2 tumblers per bag. 

Tote Bag ($1, Dollar Tree) and Flip Flop Luggage Tag ($1.67, Target)

Underwater Camera ($4.13, Ebay Seller aqua2209)

Plastic Tumbler ($1, Dollar Tree) and Waterproof Tumbler Sticker ($0.40, Davet Designs on Etsy)

Spanish Phrases for Dummies ($1, Office Depot)

Aloe ($1, Dollar Tree)

Extra Tote Bag ($0.79, Ikea).  Our guests got two tote bags because I didn’t feel like running back to Ikea to make a return for $24.  Both bags were used by our guests.  I liked the Dollar Tree bags more for the presentation and sturdiness and I liked the Ikea bags because they were bigger and you could fold them up nicely.  

Attire

We got a great deal from Macy’s on Lane's outfit (we spent about $80).  Tasso Elba Pants, Linen Flat Front Trouser Pants and Tasso Elba Shirt, Island Linen Roll Tab Shirt.

My dress is BLU By Mori Lee Style 4902

I ordered wedge shoes in ocean blue from Design Your Pedestal for $84 and the shoe clips from LX Designs for $29 both on Etsy

Wedding Invitations

Our wedding invitations were semi-DIY. 

I made the ticket jacket myself for about $0.56/each.  Everything was purchased from Hobby Lobby on sale or with coupons (Palm Tree Stamp: $4.19; Mr. & Mrs. Stamp: $3; Stamp Ink: $5.99; Cardstock: $35; Hemp Rope: $3; White Tags: $7.96)

We ordered the Mexico Boarding Pass Invitation and Response Cards designed by La Bella Rue from Zazzle.  

After coupons, the invitations cost $1.35/each and the response cards cost $0.87/each. 

Our wedding was 4 months ago and I’m finally getting around to posting all the details.  This site was a HUGE help to me.  I could not have come up with so many ideas, vendors, sales, reviews, etc. without the help of the brides before me.  I would have been lost or spent a lot more money had I never stumbled upon this site.     

Our Story

Lane and I went to the same high school, but did not actually meet until College (Lane is two years older than me).  Lane was playing around on Facebook one day and noticed that we had a lot of mutual friends and we began talking.  Our first date took place at a carnival, but we never talked to each other after the date.  A year later, we ran into each other at a bar, got over the awkwardness of neither of us calling the other one back and the rest is history.

Proposal

We went on a vacation to Mexico and Lane got the idea to propose on our flight.   He had spoken with the gate agents before our flight, met the lead flight attendant and got us bumped up to first class.  About 5 minutes before we boarded the plane they announced that everyone needed to fill out emergency contact information form.  We thought that was an odd request but complied.  As we boarded the plane, the gate agent told us “Good Luckâ€.  I started freaking out because they had made us fill out emergency contact information and it made me feel like the plane was going to go down.  Lane was freaking out because he thought they just ruined the surprise.  Once the plane reached cruising altitude Lane pretended to go to the bathroom.  The stewardess handed Lane the microphone and he proposed in front of everyone.  It was so sweet, but I was so embarrassed.  Neither of us remember what all was said due to nerves, but I said yes and the whole plane started cheering and crying. 

Resort

Our wedding took place at the Iberostar Tucan All-Inclusive Resort, Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  The Iberostar Tucan is approximately 30 miles south of the Cancun Airport, just a few minutes from Playa del Carmen.   You can find my review here.

Save-the-Date

My sister designed our save the dates and we purchased a magnet with a Groupon to Vista Print.  We ordered 100 Large Magnets and Envelopes from Vista Print for $0.52/each.  I purchased a $17 Groupon for $70 worth of product from Vista Print and we ended up spending an additional $35.00.

Wedding Website

After we chose a date and a resort, I spent hours creating our wedding website.  It included information about the Riviera Maya, the resort, our travel agent, etc.  Sometimes I don’t know why I even bothered spending so much time on the website, Lane and I had a TON of people asking us questions about the wedding, resort, passports, etc . and when we told them it was all on our website, the most common response was “oh you have  a website?† Mind you we mentioned the website on our save the dates and our wedding invitations.

I just told Alejandra we wanted to include a sand ceremony and the minister had his own reading/script for that.  We brought our own sand, vases and funnel.  They will also play a song for you while you pour the sand.  The whole for our funnel was so skinny, our song (2 minute 38 seconds) was finished before we were done pouring the sand (that was a little awkward).    

I asked a few times how long tables seating 12 people were.  I got a different answer each time; 6.5 meters and 32 feet.  It was so confusing trying to figure out what they really were that we just guessed and made our runners 10.5 feet.  They turned out to be a little short, they just about reached the end of the table but no fabric hung down the sides.

Let me know if you have any more questions.  

Hello Ladies!

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since our wedding.  Everything turned out great.  The resort is beautiful, you girls will love it!

We had our Welcome Dinner at Bonsai, the Japanese restaurant.  Dinner included sushi, vegetable tempura, hibachi style steak, shrimp, chicken and fried rice.  The food was delicious, the steak was my favorite.

Our wedding dinner was at La Hacienda, the Mexican restaurant.   The appetizers were amazing, and a lot of our guests loaded up on them, they did not realize a meal would follow.  Tortilla Soup and Steak and Potatoes followed.  For cake, we went with vanilla cake and vanilla frosting.  Lane and I were quite impressed with the taste of the wedding cake.  From our experience, desserts in Mexico don’t taste as amazing as they look, but the cake was very good. 

(La Hacienda Restaurant)

(La Hacienda Restaurant)

(Wedding Cake)

Alejandra is a great wedding coordinator.  She is very sweet, super helpful, and she worked her butt off.  All my e-mails were answered with in a week.  I brought 3 suitcases of table decorations, fans, maracas, guest book, etc. to her office two days before the wedding.  She took care of everything and I did not have to think about any of it once I handed it off to her.   I did not feel like bringing a ton of stuff back home and maybe selling it on the internet, so I left all of my candles, vases and floating flowers with Alejandra.  Hopefully other brides can use them and not have to pack as much stuff themselves. 

I spent hours creating a music playlist for dinner and it turned out to be a waste of time.  I assumed we could play the iPod during dinner, but since we had a semi-private dinner we could not play our own music.  We had a total of 44 guests and pretty much had the restaurant all to ourselves.  There may have been 2-3 tables of random people at dinner, I did not even notice them. 

As part of our package, a minister was provided by the resort.  It turned out great.  Hector was our minister and he gave a beautiful ceremony.  I had no idea what to expect, all Alejandra told me was he had traditional vows.  I was worried our ceremony would only last about 5 minutes but Hector had so much prepared.   Between the vows, sand ceremony, reading, and Hector talking (he also threw in the blessing of the hands) our ceremony lasted about 20 minutes. 

We had the white canopy set-up that was part of the package.  Carpet and white rose petals for the aisle were added at no additional cost. 

Also part of our package was a centerpiece, bouquet and boutonniere.  We added boutonnieres ($10/each) for our dads and corsages ($15/each) for our moms. 

(Ceremony set-up)

(Centerpiece and Groom's Boutonniere)

(Corsage)

(Bouquet and Dad's Boutonniere)

I got my dress steamed and pressed once we arrived at the resort.  It cost $30.

Manicure/pedicure was included in my package.  You could not give it to someone else or use that amount towards something else in the spa, so I just went with it the day before the wedding.  I got the French manicure; it turned out just ok and was chipped by the wedding.  I was pretty laid back in Mexico, but I wish I would have done shellac back home with mom and sisters.  Their nails looked great the whole week.    

My biggest piece of advice is don't sweat the small stuff.  I noticed once we arrived in Mexico I didn't care as much when the little things were not going as planned.  I was so laid back at the resort, I was at the pool until 1 pm the day of the wedding.    

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!  

Samantha

Thank you EVKnowsitall!  I debated a long time about them and now I'm glad I went with them

Our wedding is May 11th and our AHR is June 8th.  Ours will also be more of a laid back open house and party.  I'm sending my invitations out the first week of May (so 5 weeks before)

Something Old:  My engagement ring.  It was my Great Aunt's ring on my Mother's side. 

Something New:  Dress, bracelet, earrings

Something Borrowed:  My Dad's lapel pin with the Clan McLeod motto.  I will pin this on my bouquet.  

Something Blue:  My shoes

I got 2.5" round

I tested the stickers I ordered from Davet Designs and they really are waterproof.  I hand washed them and soaked them in water, the stickers are not going to come off!

I purchased the tumblers from the Dollar Tree. The colors I’ve seen in store are Clear, Blue, Red, Orange, Green and Pink. I had to go to at least 3 stores to get all clear cups, and I had them checking to see if they had any more in stock in the back.    

If you don’t mind assorted colors, you can order them off their website.

 http://www.dollartree.com/household/kitchen-dining/drinkware/Double-Wall-Plastic-Tumblers-with-Straws-16-oz-/756c726c727p329779/index.pro?method=search

I tested the stickers I ordered from Davet Designs, and they really are waterproof.  I hand washed them twice and I let them soak in water.  They are not coming off!

I purchased my tumblers from the Dollar Tree. The colors I’ve seen in store are Clear, Blue, Red, Orange, Green and Pink. I had to go to at least 3 stores to get all clear cups, and I had them checking to see if they had any more in stock in the back.  If you don’t mind assorted colors, you can order them off their website. 

 http://www.dollartree.com/household/kitchen-dining/drinkware/Double-Wall-Plastic-Tumblers-with-Straws-16-oz-/756c726c727p329779/index.pro?method=search

I LOVE how these turned out Jamie!  And I like that the sticker is clear.  It’s always a great feeling when a project isn’t working out how you expected and then it turns out amazing. 

I'm glad you found a solution!  Can't wait to see the pics!

I ordered waterproof labels from Bridget at Davet Designs. http://www.etsy.com/shop/DavetDesigns?ref=seller_info

You can choose from different designs, sizing, etc. or use your own design.  I got 4 sheets (48 stickers) for $18.85 + $5.50 shipping = $24.35.  She was pretty quick, I ordered on a Friday evening and received my order the following Thursday (and I had her make one change after she set me the proof)

I like option 1.  I think a white number would really pop on it.

I was at the Dollar Tree this weekend and found after sun lotion and gel. 

They also had a huge selection of tote bags in the Easter section.  

Stopped by Dollar Tree this weekend and noticed a huge selection of tote bags in the Easter section. 

I was at Old Navy this weekend and noticed they got some new tote bags in.  These bags were by the register and are $1.50 each. 

The outside vendor fee for a photographer is $500.  I booked Fine Art Studio so I will be paying the outside vendor fee.  The Iberostar switched to a new photography company called Photo Pro (www.photo-pro.com.mx) in December but I didn't check them out since I already booked my photographer. 

I'm not sure about the outside vendor fee for hair and makeup.  Alejandra is the wc and you can contact her at [email protected]

This site sells unfinished wood candle sticks that you can paint.  http://www.woodcrafter.com/candlecupsandsticks.aspx

We are doing an At Home Reception aka Party at my parents house in June.   My parents are paying for our wedding in Mexico and my Fiance and I are paying for our AHR.  Ours will also be more casual and a celebration of the wedding.  We will have a taco and nacho bar with other munchies and lots of Mexican drinks.  A good baker friend of mine will be making our wedding cake and other desserts.  I think it would be fun to have a pinata for the kids and I would love to have a photo booth.  We will display some of our wedding photos, but mostly we just want to celebrate with our friends and family.