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Hi ladies , wondering if there are any other brides on here that have been or are getting married at the Dreams in Hualtuco anytime soon. I just confirmed my date of April 8th ! Yippee. I would just love some feedback from others and can't seem to find much on here that isn't years old. Thanks !!!
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- 2016 Brides
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Hello, I've received some vendor information from my WC for Beach Palace but when reading the forums, I'm learning of additional approved/ preferred vendors. I thought it'd be good to list them all in one place so that everyone can be in the loop! Please add vendors that you know of and your experience with them (communication/ pricing/ final results). Thanks! This is what I know of so far: Photo: Dream Art Decor: Gama Grupo, Zuniga, LatinAsia Hair/ Make-up: Styling Trio, MVP Photo booth: La Cabina DJ/ lights: JSAV, PSAV Live Music: Tempo Consulting Fireworks: Promedsa
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We would love to hear where your guy is getting his wedding day duds. We're looking for a light tan/beige/sand color ensemble that consists of pants and a matching vest. He prefers something light as Mexico will be muy caliente in July!
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The DRESS!!!!!!!!! To be honest, the whole dress shopping experience process was a little difficult/sad for me. My mother had passed away a few years ago and while I have grieved and gone through the healing process, I knew I would always be very sad about her absence if I ever were to get married. I was never the kind of girl that thought about getting married, or envisioned what kind of dress I would wear so it was overwhelming to start looking. I got engaged on Valentine's Day 2014 and I didn't start looking for dresses until September. My wedding is June 20th, and I suppose I'm cutting it close. I was told that in order to guarantee the arrival of my current #1 pick dress by April, I'd have to order this Monday. So Monday it is! Thankfully I have amazing friends, my sister and Mother-in-law who have been extremely supportive and have come with me to my appointments. It certainly helped not to feel as sad that my mom isn't here for this epic occasion. One of the dress fittings I attended was just myself and my sister, and we walked in, saw a dress, I tried it on, and there were tears....!! I was soooo in love with it and so sure it was the one. I decided to think on it...I think it's the one. For some reason I feel like I could find something better. I don't know if that's just normal and part of the process. I will post a picture of #1 choice and some of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices. Any feedback would be welcomed. Is it normal to feel like this unsure? It's crazy. lol I do love my #1 but I still keep thinking about what else could be out there. Here they are! #1 fit and flare (david's bridal) #2 Ballroom gown (kleinfeld's) #3 A-line flar (DB) #4 Fit and flare - cream (DB)
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- 2015 Brides
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Well, I guess it is my turn to start my own planning thread! I had read so many helpful planning threads on this awesome forum and I thought I would do the same. I am 124 days away until my wedding (but who is counting) and I thought I would post my ideas to not only help others, but also as a way to keep me accountable to my planning. I have truly loved reading other bride's planning threads and will try to share as much as possible to help someone else in their early stages of planning. The benefits of the forum have been so great and I am so grateful for the generous brides that have been so busy planning their own fabulous weddings and still made it a priority to share for the rest of us. We are getting married June 20, 2015 at the Grand Sunset Princess. We have been to this resort twice and love, love, love, love it!! We are really looking forward to going back and just feeling absolutely confident in the service and quality of the hotel. So my head has been clouded with to-do lists and I had been really overwhelmed as soon as we transitioned from 2014 to 2015. I have a destination wedding planner but I found that it was easy to tuck it away and it is over 200 pages so it's easy to miss a section. We decided to experiment with a wall map. We put up some bristol board on a wall at home and my fiance and I started posting all the random things that we need to get done. All those little things like, "ask our flower girl" or "write vows" or "lose 60lbs" haha. After mapping out our to do list it really helped put everything into perspective. As we get things done, we remove the sticky, and as we think of more things to do, we slap them on. It has really helped out and I have a better sense of what still needs to get done! Yay planning! xo
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We just got engaged last week and have already decided we want to do a destination wedding! We're thinking Mexico because it's probably the most affordable for everyone coming. I'm just wondering what the average price is for a wedding in Mexico. And does anyone have any suggestions for great resorts with more affordable wedding packages? Any advice helps here as we're just starting to look. Thanks!
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The State of Quintana Roo will now enjoy an hour more of sun with its time zone moving from Central Standard Time (CST) to Eastern Standard Time (EST) as of February 1, 2015. The change comes after a lengthy push by a coalition of the region's government and local hotel owners, urging the Mexican government to approve the change. The adopted time change gives visitors to chance to take advantage of one more hour of fun, culture and sun in the beautiful region. Couples planning their weddings in the area should also take the time shift into account if they're planning to time their festivities or photographs with daylight or sunset. “The added sunlight should also generate reductions in electricity use for hotels and restaurants in the area, which aligns with Cancun’s turquoise conservation initiative,” Jesus Almaguer, CEO of the Cancun CVB, said in a press release. Besides giving Quintana Roo an extra hour of brightness, the time shift hopes to better coordinate travel times with more than two dozen airports in the United States' East Coast and Canada -- a market that brings significant tourism to the Mexican region. Quintana Roo is comprised of several popular locations for destination weddings, including Cancún, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and Akumal. The state also includes the ancient Maya ruins of Tulum, Chacchoben, Cobá, Kohunlich, Muyil, Xel-Há, and Xcaret. The Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve is also in Quintana Roo.
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Hello We are a Canadian couple looking to get married in Mexico / Cuba / Dominican. I am looking over some of the Mexican Laws, and they quote stressful and confusing. Does anyone have any advise on these?? What tests we need?? What documents?? Do we have to get married before or after in Canada so that the "ceremony" in Mexico is real?? Also, we have been bounced around by FA's since we started trying to plan. Does anyone have any contacts of a good TA in the BC lower mainland?? HELP!! Marriage in Mexico: An IntroductionMexico has some excellent places to get married alongside some picture perfect scenarios. From golden beaches with turquoise waters, to old colonial cities with their charm, old buildings, cobbled streets domes and archways. Mexico is becoming increasingly popular as a destination for American and Canadians to get married, and given the opportunity to get married amongst stunning scenery, it's not hard to see why! If you want to get married in Mexico, there is nothing legal or technical stopping you from doing so; but you will need to plan ahead and get a few documents together, fill in a few forms and pay a few fees. This guide will steer you through the maze. If after having read through this guide you wonder if you can face the paperwork and admin, don't panic! You can hire Wedding Planners to take care of the detail and paperwork on your behalf in return for a modest fee. [Menu] Legal Requirements for a Marriage in Mexico ConsentPeople under the age of 18 may not get married in Mexico without parental consent. With parental consent, boys have to be at least 16 and girls need to be at least 14 years of age. Foreigners Getting Married to ForeignersYou don't need to be resident in Mexico in order to get married here, you'll just need a passport and your tourist permit, plus some other paperwork (see below). If you plan to get married to a Mexican in Mexico, you will need additional documentation - read the section just ahead... Chest X-rays and Blood TestsThese must be done locally in Mexico, as the results of the blood tests and the X-ray documentation must be in Spanish and the tests need to be done within a certain time frame of the Marriage Application Form being completed. Not all Mexican States require the Chest X-rays: Check locally or ask your wedding planner. Four WitnessesYou will need to have 4 witnesses present at the legal ceremony, and they must have valid identification: usually a valid Passport is used, but other forms of government-issued identification are valid too. Validity Outside of MexicoYour Marriage Certificate will be valid world-wide, BUT you should get your certificate 'legalized' in Mexico to ensure it is legally accepted when you get back home. The process is the reverse of getting your native documentation legalized by the necessary authorities (e.g. Foreign Office / State Department) for marriage in Mexico (see below); The registry office in Mexico will tell you where this can be done locally or if you hire a wedding planner, he/she will advise. [Menu]
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- Legal Details
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Hi All, I know this site is lacking info on Mazatlan weddings, therefore I am sharing my delayed review to help any possible Mazatlan brides out there. I recently got married on 10/12/14 in Mazatlan Mexico at the Pueblo Bonito emerald Bay. It was a completely last minute change of plans, as we were supposed to have our wedding in Cabo San Lucas at the Pueblo Bonito sunset beach. However, due to the hurricane that hit Cabo in September, we were forced to change our wedding location 3 weeks before the wedding. I expected everything to kind of fall apart, being that we had to change most of our vendors at the last second - but I honestly believe that our wedding turned out even better than it would've, had we stuck to the Cabo location. So here is my review, broken down in categories: THE RESORT: PB Emerald Bay is a beautiful place, however to our dismay, there was no beach available for us to use. Though the resort overlooks the water, the beach has deteriorated ànd washed away. This impeded on our plans to have a beach bonfire welcome party. (However, the resort made up for it with the welcome party we ended up having. See below for welcome party details). Other than that, the lack of beach didn't affect us much, as we were aware that in Cabo, the beach is not swimmable anyway. Also, on the plus side, there was a free shuttle bus that takes you to the sister resort, Pueblo Bonito mazatlan, which did have a nicer beach. You could also eat at the restaurants at this resort if you purchased the all-inclusive option. Food at the PB Emerald Bay was decent. After 10 days of being there, I definitely started to get tired of eating the same things over and over again. But overall, the food wasn't bad. A few negative things I can say - although we purchased the all inclusive option, this resort makes you wait for a receipt after you eat or order drinks. It always had a zero balance, but we still had to wait for it and sign the check (and include tip, if we wanted). I guess it's because they have the all-inclusive option, so they do this to ensure that they properly charge people who do not have the all inclusive. I also found that they have annoying rules about ordering room service. We attempted to order room service for a group of 15 or 20 of us, and they had to ask for all of our room #'s, as each room is only allowed 2 items. And on top if that, they charged a service fee. Furthermore, the all inclusive had an expiration. Apparently, it ends at 11 or 12pm on the day of checkout, regardless of what time your shuttle comes. So if your shuttle comes at 5pm, you need to pay for all food and drinks after checkout. Even for my husband and i, who had a guaranteed late check out, were hassled at 1pm at the pool bar and grill on the day we were leaving. I had to call our wedding coordinator, who had to call her manager to have some strings pulled, in order for us to eat before we left. We have been to many all inclusive resorts and never had to deal with such strict rules. Usually, I am pretty easy going about things like this - but this was my wedding week. It definitely was not fun to deal with such annoyances. WEDDING COORDINATOR: We worked with Wendy, and she was wonderful!! I cannot say enough great things about her. For starters, when we first arrived, she made an appt with us and brought us to a rental company in town where we could pick our table cloths and napkins, etc. They even set everything up on tables outside so we could visualize how it would all look together. They did not nickel and dime everything like Sunset beach was attempting to do. We were able to pick any color table cloth at all the same costs, and we received gold Tiffany chairs at no extra cost. It was so unexpected but so appreciated that she brought us there. Wendy understood how difficult it was for us to have changed our wedding venue at the last minute. She listened to all our requests and tried so hard to make our wedding up to our standards. When we found out that we couldn't have our bonfire welcome party on the beach, she came up with various options and presented them to us. She also helped us with non wedding things. When my husband got injured by the pool, we could not find crutches and the front desk did nothing to help. Wendy was able to locate some for us at the sister resort, and she drove over to get them for us. I truly believe Wendy is the reason our wedding turned out so well. She always went above and beyond and showed how important her job was to her. WELCOME PARTY: We ended up having the welcome party indoors at a location surrounded by windows. Wendy had rented lounge style furniture for us, which we were able to pick out when we went to the rental company. They set up a bonfire right outside the doors, and we had brought all the ingredients for s'mores, which Wendy had set up at the tables. She also set up a dj, which was a surprise to us, as we did not request it, and he was great - he broke the ice among all our guests by playing games, such as name that tune. There was also a bar set up and waiters serving drinks, so no one had to get drinks on their own. The service that night was great, and our guests definitely enjoyed it. CEREMONY/COCKTAIL: We had the ceremony at the gazebo. It turned out beautifully, however it was definitely hot and humid that dAy. Also, there were tons of misquitos! We had a violin and guitar duo play, and they did a great job. Cocktail was at the gazebo courtyard, which we ended up cutting a little short because it started getting dark and the misquitos were definitely swarming. I can't comment on the food at cocktail hour, as we were busy taking pictures and missed all the food. RECEPTION: it was held at the Cordeliere Esplanade, which is basically the terrace rooftop of the Cordeliere restaurant. What a beautiful location!!! Service was great, food was good... it was more beautiful than expected. We just kept our same menu choices from Pueblo Bonito sunset beach, which worked out perfectly. VENDORS: MAKEUP: I had Alma Vallejo, who I had booked for the Cabo location. Thankfully, she was already in the Mazatlan area, since she fled there after the hurricane. She flew in her hair person, Mabel, since I was weary about her having someone in Mazatlan (who she was not used to working with) do my hair. They both did a great job! My only complaint it that she did not have her air brush equipment with her, and she did not tell me this until she showed up for my hair/makeup trial. I would've preferred airbrushed makeup, being that it was so hot and humid. Other than that, they were professional and got the job done. FLOWERS: Ave de Paraiso Florist. They did a good job on such late notice. I had calla lilies for my bouquet. my bridesmaids and groomsmen had rose and lilies in coral and yellow hues. Upon delivery the morning of our wedding, we noticed we were missing a bridesmaid bouquet. Wendy got in contact with them, and they delivered the missing bouquet, however the ribbon wrapping the bouquet was in a different color than the other bouquets. This ended up being fine, as my matron of honor held that one. DJ: MPI productions. They were by far the worst vendor we went with. We gave them a song list, however we thought they would also play some of their regular song repertoire. Instead, they ended up replaying many of the songs on our list, twice or even 3 tines. (Since we didn't give enough song choices to last all 4 hours). Also, instead of playing the exact songs we chose, they played many "house & ekectronic remix" versions. Also, they played the list exactly as written. My husband grouped all the line dances together, so they played 5 line dsnces in a row. And 10 slow songs in a row - instead of mixing it up. Maybe if we had more time, we could've planned accordingly or had better communication. on the positive side, the provided us with a cool light up dance floor and under lit tables. They also played our slideshow as requested and made a gobo for us that was reflected on the projector screen throughout the reception. PHOTOGRAPHER/VIDEOGRAPHER: We had booked Enrique Morales for our Cabo wedding, and he and his team agreed to fly to Mazatlan to continue with our wedding. They did a great job and were extremely fun and professional. Within a week or 2 of our wedding, they had already provided us with a rough draft of our photo book and 5 minute highlight video. They took over 1200 photos, and they did an amazing job capturing all the special moments of our wedding. All in all, everything turned out wonderfully. It just goes to show that you can plan for things so far in advance, but it doesn't always mean that that's the only way it has to be. We had to be really open minded to enjoy our Mazatlan wedding, but it all worked out in the end. If anyone is planning a wedding in Mazatlan or at the PB emerald bay or has questions, please feel free to send me an email or private message. I can also provide pics as needed. Janelle
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Hi Ladies! I have 9 of these Mexican blanket serape table runners that I used for my welcome BBQ dinner/rehearsal dinner. I will take $5 each or best offer plus shipping! Size: 10" wide x 7' long assorted colors
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- Mexico
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Hi Ladies! We are getting married end of April at Moon Palace, but want to move to an adult only all inclusive resort for the honeymoon. Has anyone stayed at Sun Palace? I hear good food, nice place, etc...my only thing i'm not sure of, is it a pretty fun place? I know some adult only places/honeymoon spots can be a bit sleepy... We were thinking of staying in the Palace family so we could extend our resort credits from $750 to the $1500. If anyone has opinions on if that is worth it, or any other suggestions on a fun, but nice adult only resort that would be great! Thank you!
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We are getting married in February in Playa del Carmen (Xcaret Park) and looking to hire either a children's choir OR a gospel / African music choir to help us celebrate our wedding by singing our First Dance song: "Circle of Life" from the Lion King Movie soundtrack. We founded a non-profit organization that supports vulnerable women, children, and orphans around the world in Africa, Mexico, South America, and Asia - and want our first dance to signify our support for these groups with this song performed live by either kids or gospel/african singers. Do you know a school or church singing group that is located (a) Near Xcaret park in Playa del Carmen and ( willing to sing for our February wedding? It would only be 10 minutes of your time and you would be compensated! Here's the song I'd look to have you sing karaoke to: Thank you kindly for AND and ALL referrals! -novabride
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- Cancun Riviera Maya
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Hey everyone, I'm brand new to the forums, but so far have not found much in the way of Riu Jalisco reviews post-renovations. My fiance and I are in the early stages of planning our Jan, 2016 wedding in Mexico, and I was wondering if anyone has had a wedding at the Riu in the past year? I've read the resort reviews for both the Riu Jalisco and Dreams Villamagna, but has anyone been to both and can maybe offer some advice? Thanks in advance!
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Hello brides, The eco-parks such as XCaret and Xel-Ha require you to have biodegradable sunscreen as well as any of the snorkeling or diving tours. This is a federal regulation that is enforced. The biodegradable sunscreen at the parks is extremely expensive! I have provided links to a few biodegradable sunscreen brands. The site below is approved by the eco-parks and tours in the Cancun area. The bottle has "biodegradable" boldly printed for park staff and tour guides to see. They offer biodegradable packets for $0.99. They do not have travel size bottles, and the 8 oz. bottles are a bit spendy ($18). I think I will purchase a packet or 2 for each OOT bag. I will also purchase 1 or 2 bottle(s) that I will keep and let my guests know that I have it and they can borrow it if they take an excursion. This company also offers eco-friendly insect wipes and spray. http://www.mexitan.com If you use USA Transfers from the airport, you can order bottles of biodegradable sunscreen from them. They will deliver it to you when they pick you up from the airport. It is $12 a bottle. USA Transfers Here are some of the other good brands, although the packaging is not always as obvious and it may take some convincing staff that these truly are biodegradable. Badger Sunscreen Caribbean Sol Soleo Organics Luvera
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Our Cabo wedding was just over a week ago and I'm still floating on a cloud! Everything was perfect and in fact exceeded all my expectations! By far the most crucial part was the efforts of our Wedding Planner, Illeana Reyes-Romantic Cabo Weddings and Jose Pineda, events coordinator with the Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar! We were in Cabo in November of 2013 to meet with a wedding planner I had talked with over the phone, a well known, high-end planner; well, I cannot tell you how disappointed we were upon meeting her, and how unprofessional her staff was. Lucky for us, we became friendly with a musician at Hacienda Del Mar, and while chatting it up with him we discovered his wife, Illeana, was a wedding planner! Illeana knows her stuff and she works tirelessly to make everything perfect and she is literally there with you every step of the way! We were completely and utterly happy with all her recommended vendors......Blanc Bridal Salon for hair and make-up, Gilda Badillo-photography, Florenta Florist for flowers, the Mariachis, the cigar roller, Impala Cabo-transportation, Picante-fishing charter, Rissaleana-sunset dinner cruise, etc.....with regard to the Hacienda Del Mar(we are timeshare owners there and our guest stayed at the hotel); truly amazing how perfect everything was in just under 2 months after Hurrican Odile hit......truly amazing! Jose Pineda work closely with us to make everything perfect and just the way we wanted it! Honestly, it's not easy to exceed my expectations, but I am still pinching myself.........my fairytale wedding was made a reality!!! I cannot thank Illeana and Jose enough!! Oh, and of course I need to mention Daryl, Illeana husband, who is a wonderful muscian, who performed at our wedding and well into the night at our after party/bonfire on the beach.......he's awesome, but she doesn't get credit for him, because we found him first!
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Hello! I wanted to put a post on here because I know when I started planning my destination wedding last year, I had so many questions and concerns and I found it so helpful to read reviews on here. I just got married on November 11, 2014 in Cabo, and I am still in Cabo San Lucas enjoying our mini honeymoon now. It was such a scare for everyone when hurricane Odile hit Cabo, especially for bride to be's and the uncertainty of flying here, but the saying is true that Cabo is unstoppable and you would never know it happened other than some cosmetic damage. Here is all of our vendors that we used, our budget, guest count, etc. I cannot wait to receive all of my photos so that I can post just how beautiful everything was. Cabo wedding Budget: $30,000 USD Wedding Size: 55 people Wedding Coordinator: Illeana Reyes at Romantic Cabo Weddings – 10/10 A+ Our first and foremost, and most important review goes to our wedding coordinator Illeana Reyes at Romantic Cabo Weddings. We researched a lot of coordinators and her website was not the most up to date, but she was quick to respond, she was very detail oriented, and she makes you feel very comfortable so I knew right away she was the one, do not let the website fool you! She recommended every single one of our vendors, and the team she brought together for our day was absolutely OUTSTANDING. I cannot give her enough credit for how unbelievably attentive she was from day one and how she made all of our dreams become a reality. I must start by saying, I am a very A type personality, so it was very hard for me to just leave things up to chance. I needed constant assurance and I would (annoyingly I know lol) send endless emails and photos as to what I wanted. We planned for just under one year and she was always available via email, she phoned to check in constantly, she offered many different options to choose from, and closer to the date she kept solidifying plans, getting vendor contracts, etc, she thought of every last detail. Illeana also assured us that she only recommends vendors that she has worked with in the past, and I am so glad we put all our faith in her because not a single thing went wrong, every vendor was on time, made it to rehearsals, kept in contact, no issues with payment, and the whole day went as planned with ZERO glitches! I hope everyone can use her out of all of the vendors because she was just a blessing. Jack & Jill/Bachelor & Bachelorette/Stag & Stagette Party: Pirate Cruise Ship: 9/10 A- Illeana even helped put together our jack & jill/bachelor & bachelorette party when we super last minute asked her when we arrived to Cabo. It was a sunset cruise open bar on a pirate ship, and it was such a hilarious and great time, our guests really enjoyed this and she made it all happen and confirmed in one hour for only $50USD per person! Talk about above and beyond service. We bought those Cabo San Lucas bandanas on the beach for everyone to wear, plus glow sticks, and it was a ball! This is the only picture I have so far that I attached. It was definately a fun experience for our whole group to bond together on night one and there were so many costumes that made for great photos. Venue: Cabo Del Sol: 10/10 A+ The photos do not do the venue justice; it is even more stunning in person and I cried as soon as we went to visit the venue and saw the beach and another wedding was being set up it was so beautiful. The wedding coordinator there, Luzma, is so welcoming and makes you feel so special and as if you are the only person she is concentrating on at all times. We did our ceremony on the beach, cocktail hour on the golf greens, and the reception in the clubhouse. I highly recommend this. There was a huge bridal lounge and a groom’s lounge to get ready in for the daytime, with our own personal waiter. Everyone had their own lockers and Luzma set up all of our dresses, suits, and accessories for photos. Our guests were shuttled straight to the ocean golf course greens when they initially arrived, and greeted with special flavored water. We did a sunset ceremony at 4pm, it was not too hot and not too windy either because the beach is privately enclosed in a semi circle space by the rocks, the waves were crashing down and it was such a romantic setting. Our guests had a shoe valet to remove their shoes before walking on the beach, and brushes to brush of the sand when they were coming off. The cocktail hour on the golf greens was set up with our signature drinks, open bar started, and popsicles were being handed out to cool off our guests and was such a nice touch. All of our guests were then shuttled to the clubhouse via their golf cart limos! So cute! The dance floor overlooked the ocean, had an open ceiling, and it was right next to the bar. The dinner service was in their clubhouse. All of our guests were floored at how many servers there were and how the staff was at everyone’s side at any given moment. We did a plated dinner service and every course was absolutely delicious. For example, between courses there was a raspberry sorbet that was served on a large ice block to keep the sorbet cold. Very impressed! We did 7 hours of open bar, which is charged per person, and it was definitely worth doing so we knew upfront how much we were paying. This venue is definitely a must! Photographer: Gilda Badillo: 10/10 A+ We met Gilda before the wedding at Cabo Del Sol so she could take us around and go over all the shots she recommended, and she wrote down all of the pictures we wanted. We did the first look and also did our family photos first before the ceremony. She was a total professional, nailed every shot and kept us on time. She also was not afraid to break a sweat! She would get on her elbows and knees to get the perfect picture and she would show us some photos as the night went on and I am so excited to see the final results. Her assistant was always where she could not be, to assure they both got every photo together. Our guests said the two of them were taking photos of our set up before we got there, and also of all our guests interacting. We could not be more thankful of those moments we did not see! Videographer: Jorge Ibarra: 10/10 A+ Gilda recommended Jorge, and she said they always work together on weddings. When we looked at Jorge’s website and saw his vimeos, we were sold! We also met him before the wedding at Cabo Del Sol and he went over the timeline and filmed our first look, all the way to our dinner service speeches. We could tell his team and Gilda’s team had worked together often because their communication and chemistry worked so great together and they made us feel so relaxed. The video cameras were never in the way, and Jorge would remove the microphones whenever Gilda was taking photos and he remembered the little details that we would not know about. We can’t wait to see our video! Floral: Sergio Ferras at Flowers & Events Décor: 10/10 A+ We sent Illeana our photos of exactly everything we wanted and she passed on a message to her floral recommendation. I wanted all white flowers, the white urn pedestals with pomanders at the entrance, the aisle chairs to be lined with bouquets and rose petals down the aisle, as well as the ribbon tied off at the entrance, a bamboo chuppah with white fabric and bouquets tied to all 4 corners; I sent a photo of the bride bouquet and the maids bouquet and grooms boutonnières, and I am not kidding when I say, they matched the floral IDENTICALLY. Everything was as planned and as pictured. They did not miss a single thing! Our cocktail hour had the floral bouquets, and our dinner service we reused a lot of our bouquets at centerpieces and table displays, and they supplied vases and cylinders, votives with tons of candles. It was stunning. Dj, sound & lighting: Victor and Teevan Entertainment: 10/10 A We sent Victor a list of songs that we wanted for the ceremony, wedding party entrance, first dances, etc. He got all of our songs except for the one that our wedding party walked down to, but it was okay because he played a good back up song. He supplied a sound system, the lighting for the dance floor, and one thing I really recommend for a beach wedding, is the white acrylic aisle board to walk down. This is because it was very difficult to walk on the beach even in bare feet, we looked like penguins during rehearsal ha ha, so it was a last minute splurge but well worth the incurred cost and just made the setting even that much more beautiful. The reason why we were so impressed was because for the actual dancing dj hours, we just told him a genre we liked and did not send him a list of songs, we just put our faith in him and it was as if he had our iPod playlist! They were all current up to date songs, and he kept the party going all night long. Minister: Rev Diego A Vidal: 10/10 A Illeana recommended Diego. He sent us an email with options for the ceremony, he checked in with us before the wedding to see if there was anything else we wanted to be said, he took our vows, and he said a special message to our guests and us. He was humorous, yet professional and kept the ceremony personal to us. He gave our coordinator our marriage certificate when he was done and it was easy as pie. Transportation: Leticia with Impala Cabo: 10/10 A Our transportation was perfect! They had shuttle service for our guests all night long and picked us up all day because we were all leaving the Riu at different times. They were all very professional, timely, and they had very nice vehicles. They also had a special private vehicle for us at the very end of the night. One of our guests became "sick" at the end of the night and they happily took her home and we were very grateful. Hotel Accommodations: Riu Sante Fe & Palace: 7/10 C+ We picked the Riu Sante Fe & the Palace because it was a very affordable option for such a large wedding party, and it was central to downtown Cabo. I will say, we were the very first group to arrive since Hurricane Odile on the grand opening on November 6, which we did not know, we thought it had been opened since October 9 for the Palace and October 16 for Sante Fe, and the Sante Fe was not yet ready to be open. The Palace was much better. We have stayed at both the Riu Sante Fe and the Palace before and have never had any problems, which is why we had our party stay here. It was really unfortunate the hurricane hit them so hard, but it was great that they had repaired the Riu to almost the exact same condition as before and the day-to-day staff really was trying their best. Our rooms were definitely very musty smelling, we all stayed in building 7, others at the Palace who could not stay at the Sante Fe, the first night was so unbearable we had to lay towels down to cover all the sheets and the smell, and we switched our room 3 times until one was decent enough to sleep in. A lot of our guests never received the opportunity to switch their rooms and had to sleep in the smell. Most of the safes were not working as of yet. And unfortunately, the staff that was never helpful was the front desk staff and several complaints were made. We had a group of 55 people, and they did not have any suite upgrades for the bride and groom and told us it was because they were still under maintenance. One of our groomsmen also paid a fee of $100USD to have our room filled with flowers, champagne and candles on the wedding night when we came home, and they forgot the champagne and candles. They also tried to charge all of us 630 pesos each for cutting off our wristbands on our wedding day, which we had to wait 1 hour to speak to a manager to get that sorted out and showed proof that we all still had our wristbands. It is an affordable option for what it is worth, but if you are looking for top notch quality this is not the place to be. Mini honeymoon hotel accomodation: Sandos Finisterra: 9/10 A- After our wedding and one week stay, all of our guests returned home and we transferred to the Sandos Finisterra. This place is 5 star and beautiful. They got hit really hard and they were still under maintenance and repairs, which is the only reason why we did not give them A+! We were immediately greeted with champagne, top notch service, upgraded to the honeymoon jacuzzi suite that over looked the entire beach and marina on the top floor, and they had premium liquor. It was very modern, a boutique style hotel, and all the staff were great. DIY Extras We did a lot of DIY projects for our day that we brought to Cabo with us and Illeana and Luzma set up for us. -We had the dinner menus printed on doilies for everyone’s individual plate and stamped in our wedding color (seafoam green) and gray (our other wedding color) table runners. -Instead of place cards, we had maracas made in our wedding color, with our guests name on the handle. We loved the maracas because it was multipurpose: it was a place card, a wedding favor, and our guests would shake their maracas if they wanted us to kiss instead of clinking glasses. -We placed disposable cameras on everyone’s table for party photos. -We brought down fans in our wedding colors, which were placed on everyone’s chair during the ceremony. -We printed reserved cards with the names for family members to sit at during the ceremony and Illeana taped them to their chairs. -We had a Go Pro on a selfie stick for people to pass around and take videos with wedding advice. -Our table numbers were in white picture frames with seafoam green centers. -At the entrance of our reception, Illeana and Luzma had a table set up. It had our seating chart, which was also in a large white picture frame with seafoam green centers, we had the letters L O V E in white wood blocks, we had the game JENGA as our guest book, and we used SCRABBLE to spell out “Please sign our Jenga guest book”. -We also made welcome out of town bags which consisted of a thank you card, invitations to rehearsals or parties, an itinerary for the week plus our wedding program on the other side, Advil, Pepto-Bismol, mints, chapstick, lubricant (for the single guests ha ha), Band-Aids, alcohol swabs, Emergen-C with a stir stick, sunglasses, and a Do Not Disturb door hanger. It was hard for me to settle on a destination wedding because it is an incurred cost for all of our family members and friends to have to pay for their flights and take vacation time. But ALL of our guests thanked us over and over again for having a destination wedding and said they woul love if we did this every year ha ha, and if you are from Canada like we are, November is the the best time of year to get away from the gloomy weather and get some sun! Aside from hurricane season. It is very rare for Cabo to experience such a hit like that. It was so much fun and we created memories to last a life time, so if you are unsure of whether or not a destination is a good idea, I would say it definately 1000% is!
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I know that are tons of threads about having a legal marriage at your DW location and also about having a symbolic wedding. We are getting married in June 2015 and my vision has been to have my BFF who is also a children's pastor marry us. I realize this wouldn't be a legal marriage if she performed it. We would still need to do a city hall wedding. this my sound silly because I'm about to reference a Friends episode...but I wanted to know if there is any way to do a legal marriage performed by your own officiant similar to how Joey married Monica and Joey. (yes, I know I just referenced a fiction situation). Ideally we want to do the legal marriage in Mexico. I would like to see if there is anything we can do to get officiant up to par with the requirements in order to make it legal or if we should just forget this idea. If we do the legal marriage, I believe that it is done by a judge. Would the judge be offended if we had our officiant take over the sermon part. I really don't want someone who doesn't know us to conduct our wedding.
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Our deposit due date is coming up and we know the majority of our guests are waiting to book it right at the last minute. We're totally fine with that. We are just so excited to finally know what the numbers are going to look like and really start planning activities based on the common interests of our little group. I wanted to send a thank you note to our guests - basically just thanking them for booking, and joining us on this epic occasion. We have been sending so much communication to our guests, be it a reminder email, save the date, invite, wedding website...I'm starting to feel like it's a lot. So I was trying to think of something a little more creative. I saw some ideas like luggage tags and other practical items and I really liked where those ideas could lead. My FI is a dj/music producer in his "free time" so we thought, "how amazing would it be to make a music podcast for all our guests to get them in the party mood". We found these cute little flipflop usb sticks 2gb. So we'll load them up with a mixed podcast and send them out with a little thank you!
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If you are getting married in Cabo this November, and are interested in possibly being featured in Inside Weddings, please contact me. I handle the PR for BDW and a press contact wants to talk about how you managed to pull of the wedding after the hurricane. Call or message me! Amy: 503-869-2688.
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Hi Everyone, My fiance and I are looking into Cabo resorts for a December 2015 destination wedding and Cabo Azul is one of the possible venues. We love the look of the place, but many of the contract details and policies are extremely concerning. Given the recent hurricane I haven't been able to speak to their wedding coordinator on the phone, but after reviewing the PDF's she sent, I'm worried booking here is a bad idea. Does anyone have any recent information and/or experience with booking a wedding here? I'm specifically looking for tips on the following items: Alcohol policies: has anyone negotiated an open bar or changes to the above and beyond wine/champagne/signature cocktail costs? Vendor Fees: are outside vendors allowed and if so, is there a fee? General Satisfaction: did you have a good experience with your wedding? What do you wish you knew before booking? Were there any hidden costs? How much was your total Cabo Azul costs? We will likely have 45-60 guests. Thanks for your help! Mandi
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The Royal-Playa del Carmen June 18th 2014 We arrived to Playa Sunday and spent one week there. Our wedding was sincerely perfect. Of course we hit some bumps and I hope I can help any upcoming Playa brides. I like being as detailed as I can so this may be long Alvin and I were engaged 12-21-12 and I reached out to The Royal website mid-January. Our flights were booked in May 2013, court wedding was 6-28-14, invitations out Fall of 2013 and we put the RSVP at 1-31-14 Peach Travels/Pleasant Holiday Travel Agent PROS- Sheila Peach was a sweetheart and communicated very well. She was found on the Royal website and lives less than ten minutes away from me. She helped inform me with what I needed to do for a smooth wedding planning. I did not deal with her too much since we were booking our flights and room with Pleasant Holiday. Our guest and I dealt with Brianna. She was very easy to communicate with until a month before our wedding. She was out of her office a lot and not responding to us. We were very happy that she found us direct flights from LAX to Cancun for $381. Close to departure we all received a neat booklet to organize our boarding passes, itinerary, and passport. We also received luggage tags and some discount coupons. CONS- Some guests complained that Brianna was not responding to them. I had a hand full of guests contact another coworker or her boss due to the lack of responding back quickly. I personally did not deal with that but some guest did. There were issued the day we arrived to The Royal and after an hour of arguments, sweat, and walking back and forth we finally received the room we paid for. We received our room 2 days later and had to sign a contract stating we could not complain about The Royal, Peach Travels and Pleasant Holiday. PLEASE be aware that the new wedding packages at The Royal may include an upgrade. You may or may not get it so do not worry too much about the room you stay in. All rooms are beautiful. I also do not recommend the swim up suites. Yes, you feel like a famous artist in a music video with your own pool but you can only be in it until 9 pm. Personally I do not think it is worth the price. Invitations After lots of research I found beautiful and affordable passport/boarding pass invitations. We originally saw the idea on Pinterest. Here is the website https://weddingpassports.com/passport-gallery/ Vanessa and Dave were so awesome! They sent me the template for The Royal and I went to a local printing company to personalize and print them. I paid $25 for the template and Stella Graphix from Hawthorne, CA charged me $200 for personalizing the template and printing 75 invitations and boarding passes. We LOVE our invitations. We were so excited and noticed we put a wrong contact email so I ordered business cards on Vistaprint for about $8 and added the business cards in the invitations. I also made address labels on Vistaprint with a photo of us from our court house wedding. I also bought the paper and transparent envelopes on ebay. Dress I was always one to say I was going with a simple silk wedding dress but after trying on dresses at boutiques and David’s Bridal my mind was confused on with what I wanted. I was able to narrow it down to two dresses from David’s Bridal Galina Signature SWG 400 and Beaded Lace Sheath with Godet Inserts Style VW9340. Again, after lots of searching the web I found my size on ebay and bought both. One for the wedding and one for trash the dress. The dresses were very comfortable. I spent $400 for both dresses, used. I also bought my veil on ebay for $120. My veil had lace trim. Jewelry I am lucky to know a very talented jewelry maker. I met her through my husband. She is a counselor in San Diego but makes amazing jewerly. I bought my bridesmaids and moms necklaces and my maid of honor an awesome cuff. I wore a slave bracelet and statement necklace. http://waterthelove.com/ I also bought a necklace and earrings from ebay for our ceremony. I loved that this necklace had a teardrop falling from my back. Resort All of our guests loved the resort! The staffs have such huge hearts, so caring and always welcoming us with a big smile and the Mayan welcome. We had 51 guests and about 16 stayed at The Royal and the rest at their sister resort The Gran Porto. We loved how simple the walk was to The Gran Porto. Our rooms were always cleaned quickly and left surprises like candy, candles lit, or cool towel origami animals. We usually ate at Spice and we also recommend the Italian restaurant and Maria’s at The Gran Porto. The Royal had the best beach. Beach was not dirty and it was not congested. If you are facing the beach, you can walk to you left and find watersport things that you can rent for a good price. They also have $35 hour massages on the beach. Much cheaper than the resort’s massages. Ohhh and don’t forget about room services. It is soooo good. The night before our wedding we stayed in my room and after being kicked out of our swim up pool we went into the hot tub and ordered every dessert on the menu. Resort is def an A+. The entertainment is also great! My friends did the water aerobics and we did the zumba one day too. Super fun Wedding My coordinator was Lorena and she was my favorite person to deal with! Working with her was perfect. She is a very loving person and her calmness helped me out so much. I met with her about three times before the wedding and she was constantly checking in with me during the wedding. While I was getting ready I was able to email her any concerns and she responded quickly. She even came down to the spa to check in with me and ensure I was all good. My entire family was so thankful for Lorena and all the workers. We tipped everyone because we were so so happy. I told the workers mu favorite drink was their electric lemonade and they did such a great time making sure I always has one in front of me. My wedding started at 4:30 and the weather was so perfect. We did have some wedding crashers who were very rude to our best man but Lorena quickly went to help and called for security to stand around our wedding to ensure no other person came to grab champagne the bar set up was also great. We had our table set up so we had the view of the ocean and our family all in front of us. Words cannot express how perfect our beach wedding was. Perfect music by DJ doremixx has us dancing the entire night. We had a wedding of 51 people and the dance floor was a little small but you have the entire beach to dance on Photographer I was so fortunate to find Ione Photography!!! Ione was so good and communicating. We exchanged emails throughout the planning process and we even had a pinterest page to exchange what type of photos we had in vision to take. As we got closer to the date we exchanged information for an app called WhatsApp on our phones which made it even quicker for us to communicate. The day of the weddings Ione sent me a text on WhatsApp and let me know he was on his way. At that moment I realized our wedding was getting closer Ione met me in my room and our second photographer met my husband in his best man’s room. His work was done so calm and captured so many great shots. I didn’t think I wanted photos of me getting ready but I’m so glad he did. He captured funny moments like zipping up my dress ( dress was a bit tight lol ) and my cousin blowing air on my neck as I was sweating . As we walked down to the beach Ione helped take more photos and then departed as it was time to walk down the aisle. My family also fell in love with our photographers. They captured not only precious moments of Alvin and I but also amazing photos of our niece, cousins, family and friends. Alvin and I had moments where we went off and took photos on the beach and I love them! He also did a great job and reminding our excited family that they were creating a shadow in our wedding pictures as they as rushed and gathered around them to snap photos of their own. They took great photos that we will treasure forever. Every photo was so beautiful. Their creativity was so unique and so perfect. The day after the wedding we met again for trash the dress. We went to Cenote Cristalino. I had my makeup done with Cecilia Hernandez which is Ione’s friend. I sincerely wish I would have gone with her to get my makeup done for the wedding, she was fabulous and the makeup lasted ALL DAY. I jumped off a cliff into the water, dunked my head under water multiple times and after the photo shoot still went swimming in the pool with friends and not an eyelash fell or make up smear. I was so happy that Ione referred me to her because her makeup was the best I have ever had. I even emailed her after the wedding to get information on the makeup she used because it was so good. She does have a Facebook and informed me you can search her there or here is her information [email protected] or phone 9848765152. Between her awesome work on my face and Ione’s work with the cameras it was heaven trash the dress was so much fun and tiring. I never realized all the techniques needed to look pretty underwater. Luckily we has such good support and patience from ione. We didn’t have specific poses which worked out well! Some of our photos you can see and feel the nature happiness we had glowing the day after our beautiful wedding. We received a webpage with all photos. Ione had a small issue with his laptop but communicated that immediately which I highly respect him for his great communication. My package came in so quickly! He added a tablet with an amazing slideshow Ione photography is so professional and so caring about the type of work he will do for your destination wedding. I recommend him to all Playa del Carmen brides
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So I am trying to find the best date for my wedding and the only week that will work for my entire family would be Mid-August. Im kind of freaking out because I feel like thats the beginning of Hurricane/Rainy season. I was looking at Mexico. Does anyone have any experience getting married in mexico during this time? Or any suggestions of any other places? Thank you!