snswedding2016

@@ashhtayy lol that's what our driver said

@@ashhtayy not sure if this would apply to the DJ but our driver from the transfer company told us that the hotels and resorts are always changing their name because of how they file taxes for their company. It seems like their way of getting around it. Again, I don't know if that would be the reason for this company but it was the first thing I thought of when I read your post.

@@krystalball of course!! Would you like the entire set? 9 medium and the 5 pillar candles? Let me know what works best for your schedule for a pick up. My office is downtown. I'll PM you.   

@@Jasminr3803 I worked with a GIWC TA and received a perk of free hair and make up that came with a free trial for both, mani & pedi as well as a mani & pedi for a bridesmaid.  The spa at the resort is great!

@@ashhtayy Done! It's in my calendar! We can sort out picking them up at the next GTA meet up. 

@@ashhtayy will do! Ya that price is insane!! Keep me posted.  The onsite team is great and if it is easy enough to hang your lights where you want them, I don't think they will charge you extra. I don't think you can hang them overhead of the sky deck but around the gazebo for sure and maybe along the sides.

@ before the garden at Azul Fives was paved they had grass and we would have had to rent the lighting poles. They were expensive but not crazy like $2500. I'm so happy that they paved it and we could use the existing trees - definitely worked to our advantage! 

@@ashhtayy that's crazy!!! Where did you want to hang them? I know that @@TinkerSofi had lights on the gazebo and I'm pretty sure it was just part of her overall set up cost.

@@ashhtayy Keep me posted! I'll hold them for you for those dates! 

@@nkavanaugh Thanks! I'll find out tonight for you and PM you the shipping cost. 

@@nkavanaugh Yes! Where are you located? I'll find out what the shipping costs are. I loved these signs! The very talented @ helped me with them. I wish I had another use for them at home. 

@ your lighting was gorgeous! If you ever renew your vows and need string lights...you know where to find me!   We also thought they would be nice to have for our deck for summer BBQs or random parties.

@ the rental through lomas was crazy expensive for lights and I found a good black friday deal. Actually they were the first things I purchased for the wedding! LOL! They worked out perfectly! I planned for 3 strands and had one extra just in case.

...for some reason a bunch of my text deleted from my previous post. Here are the other items.

Bride Robe $20 (never worn, tags still on)

A Roll of Blue Tulle $5

Magnets $5 (4 used out of a pack of 50)

Twine (various blues) $5 (for all)

-2 packs partially used

-1 pack unopened 

6 LED Candles $12 (for all)

-unopened 

65 Small Clear Resealable Bags $2

-Perfect for OOT bags for meds or Q-Tips etc

Items to Rent (I have a bunch of items that I would like to keep but would rent out to local brides in Toronto): 

*Rates are negotiable

4 Strands of String Lights - $10/per strand/per weekly rental

-25 bulbs & 28ft per strand

-Green cord

-Clear Globe Bulbs

-Packs into a medium sized box for transport

9 Small Blue Paper Lanterns - $10/per weekly rental (for all 9)

9 Medium LED Candles - $10/per weekly rental (for all 9)

28 Small Votive LED Candles - $15/per weekly rental (for all 28) 

5 Pillar LED Candles (different sizes, the 5 are a set)- $10/per weekly rental (for all 5)

Stamps (free to borrow):
-Travel Set

-2 Alphabet Sets (different sizes)

I've finally unpacked and have gone through all of my wedding items ...2 months later (lol don't judge )

Here are the items I'm selling: 

*I would prefer to sell locally in Toronto but willing to ship (buyer pays shipping cost)

Mr. & Mrs. Chalkboard Signs $15 

Alcohol Sign $10

Bride Tank $10 (gently used once)

2 Sarongs (new still in the package) $15 for both

That sounds perfect! My office is also really close to the distillery!

I'm good for April 8th as well!

@@ashhtayy I used a combination of info from my WC, the website, BDR and the booklet you get when you check in (I kept the one we got in Sept at the BDR). 

A couple of corrections even from Sept to Jan

1) None of the restaurants need reservations 

2) La Brasserie is a buffet for breakfast but an la carte for dinner (if you like French food you HAVE to make sure you go. This was probably my favourite meal. Order the chocolate souffle in advance, they make it fresh and it takes time but so so worth it!!)

3) the only restaurant that has a buffet for dinner is Flavours

4) the outdoor seating over the koi pond outside of Koh Thai are an extra charge - only free for those with timeshares

5) This wasn't in my booklet but your personal concierge will ask if your guests want to listen to a timeshare. Most of my guests declined but a couple of them agreed to do it so that they could get one of the perks for listening. You could choose from a beachfront couples massage, a romantic dinner on the beach or one of other option that I can't remember. It might be worth it to some guests to put in the time. My maid of honour and her husband chose the couples massage and said it was the best massage she's ever had. Another friend paid for a couple's massage at the spa and paid a ton of money at full price...although he said it was totally worth it too. 

I'll let you know if I think of anything else. 

@@calgarybride2015 I know! I was surprised at how bright it was at 6pm that day. We knew we would have some light but it was definitely brighter than expected. It did rapidly go down from there though. 

@sarahjayne07

I got married Jan 9 2016 and there was still light out at 6pm but it was rapidly getting darker by that point. We started our reception off with our first dance at 6pm so that we could catch the light. Our sunset time was roughly 6:30pm. 

Here is our first dance

...still pretty light out

by the middle of our dinner it was like this

keep in mind we had string lights, general event lighting from the garden, tiki torches and candles.  The daylight savings they started last year helps with the daylight for sure. Here is a link to sunset times in Playa del Carmen. http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/mexico/playa-del-carmen?month=1&year=2017

I would suggest getting married between 4-5pm. That gives you some time in between the ceremony and reception to take photos and to catch the light..unless you are doing all your photos beforehand. 

Hope this helps!

Here is a pic of the blue water glass. These worked perfectly with our colour scheme.

There is a person that runs the music that will fade down the music for your ceremony. We were really specific and had built in the fade times etc so we had a friend run the music but there is a person available to do that for you. It comes with the "always & forever" package.

@@KBrown I think @@sassylouxx is right but definitely @@TinkerSofi will know first hand. I got married on the Sky Terrace so I don't actually know. 

Thank You Cards

I ordered mine fairly soon after we returned home from the wedding. There was a 20% off sale through Shutterfly and since it was my first time ordering with them I also received 50 free prints and a sheet of self addressed labels. We received a pre-paid visa gift card from a family member and I've never used it online but thought I would give it a try. It totally worked!! It definitely stretched our dollar further! 

Here is the front of the card:

And the inside:

We're also including a print of our group photo in every card. The nice thing about having a destination wedding is that there are a lot fewer cards to write with a smaller wedding. We also had a lot of families attend so that cuts down on the number too!

I've been writing a couple of cards every week and slowly getting through them all. 

We also received our marriage certificate (long form) in the mail today...FINALLY!!! Now I can start the process of changing my name (or rather assuming Sean's last name). 

@@krystalball lol I know my FIL..the whole sequence of events just confuses me but it does make me laugh. Now sometimes when Sean and I are having a super romantic moment one of us will just yell out OOGA CHAKA and burst out laughing. Your pictures are going to be amazing I just know it!! You are getting so close to your big day!!!

@@Wafflesmom Thank you! The first dance picture is one of my favourites too!!

@@acw271011 We loved the pier!! It was really windy but it was nice to get out of the heat (such a good suggestion from our photographers). I think if we had a smaller group we would have definitely considered the pier as our ceremony location. haha yes Fabio and her certainly can be difficult but the thing with him is he puts up a big facade that tends to annoy everyone but underneath he's a really sweet guy. He really is the annoying brother I never had! lol! 

We loved working with Derek and Lorena from Photos in Cancun. They were amazing! We invited them join the reception as our guests, we got a long that well. All of our guests loved them too! We did pay an outside vendor fee...it's $800 but Photos in Cancun work with us on that. It was expensive but worth it to work with them and Mike. 

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months!! With the snow today I'm really missing Mexico right now!

Dancing the night away...

We had such a great time on the dance floor but I was sad that my flower girl fell asleep half way through dinner. She loves dancing and I picked a bunch of songs just for her...well to my surprise several songs in she wakes up and beelines to the dance floor and danced and danced and danced! We had the best time!

I was proud of my self dancing with my glass of wine, flower girl basket (because according to our flower girl I HAD to hold them) and all the while holding her hand!!

Half way through the dancing portion I realized I had to go get the cash for our videographers to pay the balance. By the time I got back we just missed them, luckily they were going to be at El Dorado for a wedding during our honeymoon so we arranged to meet them in the lobby. It worked out perfectly!

We finished up in the garden just after 10pm and then moved up to the sky bar and kept the party going. Sean and I danced for a bit and then looked at me and said "I'm done" and off we went. We were both so exhausted from the entire day that we were perfectly happy not to party all night long. Sean has this thing when he drinks were he has an "off button", he'll be going strong and then all of a sudden gets tired and shuts off. haha! It's good  it has probably kept him out of trouble over the years! The nice part of not being up until 4am or something crazy was that we woke up feeling pretty good and didn't waste the next day! Although I did fall asleep with all of my make up on...it still looked great in the morning! lol!

We had such a great day!! I've been missing it a lot these days! Here are some pics to cap off the night!

our last pic of the night!

@@vancouverpetunia @ @@ashhtayy

Thanks ladies!! We had a blast and wish we could relive the day! Can't wait for our video to come in! 

Also the best part of making your own decor is that you have new decor for your house as well!!  I love having it around the house, it reminds me of our wedding day!

After a big delay, I'm attempting to finish my review today, here goes...

Cocktails

We headed in to the Sky Bar after our wonderful ceremony to start our cocktail hour. As mentioned in another post we luckily qualified for a free cocktail hour that came with a signature drink and appetizers. Apparently the apps were delicious although Sean and I didn't get to try them. Immediately following the ceremony we were handed champagne and my cousin who was filming our ceremony brought the ipad to us so that we could say hi to everyone watching around the world. It was AMAZING! They turned their videos on and we were able to see everyone. We connected with people in Toronto, Charlottetown, LA and London - I highly recommend using Zoom if you want a cheap and easy way to broadcast your wedding. 

During the rest of the cocktail hour Sean and I did couple our bride and groom photos. We did most of our group pics and bridal party pics before the ceremony so that we could focus just on us in between the ceremony and reception. We only missed one group shot so we were able to squeeze it in at the top of our bride and groom pics and quickly moved on. We were able go to a bunch of different locations for photos!

Reception

As everyone filed into the garden for our reception they all did tequila shots. Sean loved the "take a shot, take your seat" idea but we had already made our seating chart so we did this instead. It was great because we already had a sign made for the bar (made by the wonderful @) that fit perfectly!

Best tequila faces - this is one of my favourite pictures!!! I laughed so hard when I saw this one!

We started off with our first dance. Our MC introduced us and we went straight for the dance floor but for some reason Sean's dad decided right at that moment to take the mic and say in a loud booming voice "OOGA CHAKA, OOGA CHAKA" . I was just looked at Sean and he looked back at me with a "I'm so sorry but what can I do?". He was right, so we just kept going and it was still really romantic and lovely. It is now the funniest moment of our wedding looking back. 

We had a lovely dinner and I loved having a sweetheart table! Sean and I were able to have time just the two of us and I think our bridal party was really happy to be able to sit with their families and significant others.

The food was amazing - even better than when we did the taste testing in September! We went with the 3 course plated meal, they were great about accommodating allergies and dietary restrictions. At our onsite meeting we decided to go with a kids food station instead of just giving them their meals the parent's had pre selected. The WCs were concerned that the kids would get food envy by seeing other options the kid next to them ordered. It was perfect! They were able to get a little bit of everything. I also forgot to put in a bunch of the kids toys in the welcome bags when I handed them out at the beginning of the week but it worked out because that meant we had extra toys for the reception. I had planned to make games for them but I just ran out of time so it all worked out in the end. 

Menus by the lovely @ with our wedding favour magnets

more wedding favours

The little things that bother you ...the backwards Ampersand...I eventually fixed it

We decided on only have 3 speeches, I've been to weddings with way too many speeches so we really didn't want it to drag on too long. We had the Maids of Honour Speech (after the appetizer), Best Man speech (Sean's brother and Sean's sister ended up joining him for this. After the main course) and our thank you speech (after dessert). After the speeches we quickly moved right into the dancing - what Sean and I were looking forward to the most. We kicked it off with "Shut Up and Dance with Me" ...we thought that was clever after the speeches!

I decided to get a reception dress mainly because I knew we would be moving to the sky bar after our reception and I wasn't sure if it was going to be gross and sticky. I've been to a couple resort clubs at other all inclusives where I wouldn't want to wear my wedding dress. The second thing was that I knew that there was a high chance I would end up in the pool at the end of the night and I just didn't my lace custom dress to get ruined. Well as it turns out after the first two dances I felt to constricted in my wedding dress so I went to go change. The wedding department was great and they let me store my second dress in the wedding office which is right beside the garden. I think I was changed and in my second dress for all of 10 min when the first groomsman jumped in the pool. lol! All the groomsmen were in first. The staff were great and didn't say a lot. One of the groomsmen came to get me for the pool and I said "hold on wait right there". I went to go take off my shoes and Angelica (one of the WCs) came over to me. She asked me if I was going into the pool and I said "I think so...is that ok?" she paused and then said "just be careful. here are some towels." haha! so one of the groomsmen was about to throw me in when Sean yelled "hey! that's my job"

both dresses