MrsElephant

You make such a cute couple. Beautiful photos!

If you have the time to travel, the waterfall in Samana called salto del limon is gorgeous!

Maybe a cooking class? The ladies can learn how to make a 3 course traditional Mexican meal. 

I didn't get married in Hawaii, but a friend did. She got married at JW Marriot Ihilani Ko Olina Resort and Spa and it was beautiful. Good luck!

Beautiful photos! I love your wedding cake! 

Maybe you can ask your fiance to deal with his mother. I know when we were planning and I needed to communicate with my mother-in-law, I got my husband to talk to her because he knows her best and I wouldn't risk offending her. She'd never get mad at her own son!

 

As for the friend bringing a guest, maybe your friend can just invite a vacation buddy who will not be attending your wedding festivities so you wouldn't have to pay for the extra meal. Just let her know you are on a budget and you won't want a stranger in your wedding photos. If she is a good friend, she will understand that you are compromising. Good luck!

LOVE all your photos, especially the last sunset one! You are a gorgeous bride. Congratulations!

Love your logo. How nice of you to be considerate of people reusing the items. They will not go to waste. Great ideas!

Such an elegant dress. Good choice! It's always good to have a backup so it turned out great now that you have the Vera Wang!

We did the shoe game at our engagement dinner. It was so much fun. My husband got one of the answers wrong and everybody laughed so hard!

We just invited family and a handful of friends. For my side, I had to "gently" remind everybody by phone to book or else prices will go up. For my husband's side, I made him do the same. We even sent a mass email to everybody to let them know flights are filling up fast and to remind them to book. Nobody got offended (that I know of) because we're just dealing with family and our best friends. The mailchimp idea sounds great too. Good luck!

Have you considered something like champagne and dessert reception? Will be easier to make ahead and freeze, than making hot food to feed 100+ the night before plus preparations for the day of. Desserts are also less cleaning up after.

We had our AHR a week after our wedding. We didn't have any of our pro pictures to show at the reception, but we made a slideshow of some non pro pictures to show our guests during dinner. I'd say have the AHR sooner rather than later. I can't tell you how relieved we were that we were finally back to normal and don't have to deal with our wedding anymore!

I would rather be in Mexico right now instead of freezing in Toronto! I will be going to Playa del Carmen in less than 3 weeks though, so I have something to look forward to! 

Such a beautiful wedding! Thanks for the review. Congratulations!

I love your colours!! Such beautiful setting!

I LOVE your dress! And you look gorgeous in it!

If you are renting a villa, will you be hiring a separate wedding planner? If you are, you could find a wedding company to plan for you first, then ask for villa recommendations. 

Congratulations! You looked so beautiful!

I am a street size 4-6 depending on brand. I'm 5'4 and these were made to wear with my 4 inch heels =)

Drycleaned. Price includes shipping. Final Sale. 

Don't know why photos didn't load the first time.

 

 

Was used for TTD. Dry cleaned and in excellent condition. PM me with questions. Price includes delivery. Final Sale

Price includes shipping. Dress has been dry cleaned. Final Sale. PM me with questions.

Hello BDW ladies (and occasional gentlemen)! It's been 3 months since my wedding in Thailand and I wanted to post some of my favourite photos by the amazing Matt and Sol from Del Sol Photography. I found them on this website so I wanted to give back to the BDW community by posting this and hopefully inspire some future brides!

 

You can see my review for Del Sol here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/del-sol-photography/reviews/6509

My wedding slideshow: http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=767

 

Here I am getting ready. Yes, those are all MY dresses! I wore 5 on wedding day, and 2 for TTD the day after. The remaining 2, I had for backup and didn't end up wearing =(

 

 

This was what Mr. Elephant was doing while I was getting ready. He was having so much fun! So jealous!

 

Putting on my red shoes

 

 

Love his wacky colourful socks!

 

 

 

 

My shoes for the Chinese tea ceremony

 

 

My Mom zipping me up

 

Putting on the same earrings my Mom wore on her wedding day

 

Mr. Elephant is ready to go!!

 

Trying on my red veil

 

Anxiously waiting!

 

Tea set for the tea ceremony

 

 

Still waiting for the Mr. Elephant and his party to come over to my villa to play bride games and pick me up!!

 

 

Oh here they come!!

 

 

Haha door was locked!

 

 

My sisters laughing at Mr. Elephant. He had to bribe them to let him in!

 

And so my sister happily counts her bribe money

 

Then makes Mr. Elephant eat a whole chili pepper

 

And makes them dance to Single Ladies by Beyonce!

 

Mr. Elephant reading out loud the contract he just signed, promising to love me forever and letting me have my way forever and ever! I was hiding behind the door, he wasn't supposed to see me until he passes all the tests and I am given to him.

 

 

He passed all the tests! My mother escorted me out the room and handed me to him

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tea ceremony for my mom 

 

 

 

After tea ceremony for my side of the family, we left my villa and went over to his (which was right next door). It was important before the tea ceremonies are completed that I do not see the sun. So I had to hide under the red parasol! Traditions!!

 

Tea ceremony for Mr. Elephant's parents

 

Hugging my father-in-law! My new family are so good to me. After all the tea ceremonies for his family and relatives were completed, we were officially married by Chinese traditions!! Now for the beach ceremony! 

 

Changing into my ceremony dress. My sisters almost couldn't zip me up. I swear I didn't gain any weight!! Crappy zipper!

 

 

 

 

Putting on my veil

 

Some final touches

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're ready!!

 

My dad passed away 12 years ago. I had this made to tie to my bouquet so he could walk me down the aisle too.

 

Then I hear lots of ooohs and aaaaahhhs and guests running. I was hiding in my room but this is what they saw. Mr. Elephant's GRAND ENTRANCE! His entrance was bigger than my walk down the aisle!!

 

Riding in on an elephant is so COOL! He had 4 dancers in front 7 musicians behind him. 

 

 

Then he got off the elephant and the dancers did a welcome dance!

 

I missed his entrance and the welcome dance because my party and I were hiding in the room. Although we were married by Chinese tradition, I still wanted him to see me in my wedding dress for the first time while I walk down the aisle

 

Fixing my MOH/sister's makeup. 

 

Sister/officiant walking down the aisle. She legally married us back in January in the States.

 

 

 

 

Baby sister/MOH

 

 

 

Ring bearer and flower girl

 

My mom walking me down the aisle

 

All I could see was him

 

All smiles!

 

 

 

Our special guest!

 

 

 

I didn't notice it then, but Mr. Elephant forgot to leave his sunglasses in his room. 

 

 

Our first kiss!!

 

Champagne toast

 

YAY! One of Mr. Elephant's many funny faces lol

 

After the ceremony, we went straight to riding the beautiful elephant for some photos.

 

 

 

 

This cute dog was following the elephant all around the beach! I think they may be friends!

 

This is one of many many examples of how hard Sol and Matt worked. They jumped into the water to take awesome photos for us!! Thank you for having so much passion for what you do!!!

 

After some photos, we went back to our guests and got off the elephant to feed her. She was really happy for yummy banana and watermelon snacks!

 

My MIL - LOVE her expression!

 

 

 

After the elephant was happy and fed, we went back for more photos while our guests stayed for cocktail hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the photos by the beach, my dress was a little wet (lucky I was prepared with my many dresses!) and changed into another dress for our first dance.

 

 

 

 

Our beautiful cake!! My sister made the elephant cake toppers. They're sooo cute!

 

I only had the one bite Mr. Elephant fed to me. It was really good cake too! Wish I had more!!

 

Our first dance

 

After our first dance, we all went down to the beach to release fire lanterns

 

Then we had a spectacular fireworks show!

 

 

After the fireworks, my guests went to the reception while I changed into the pink dress my mother wore to her own wedding. She never wore a white wedding dress and this was her reception dress. The only other dress she wore was a rental of a tea ceremony dress similar to the one I wore that morning.

 

Reception. We brought the lanterns to Thailand with us. So glad we did that because we loved the look of the room!

 

 

Watching a slideshow my sister made of pictures of my dad and I. Really wished he was there.

 

Our toasts

 

Sister/MOH speech

 

 

Love you girls!!!!

 

Yes, I changed again. My last dress for the evening I promise! Admiring the guest book I had made.

 

 

My sister (who is great at photography) took pictures of the little elephants she made. I took those pictures and made it into a guest book.

 

Our most amazing fire show!!!

 

 

Family admiring my ring!! I love love love it!!

 

Star shaped diamond. We had been shopping for a long time!! This was so special, and we instantly fell in love with it.

 

 

That's it for now! It was the most amazing day and looking at the photos always makes me smile! More photos from our TTD soon!