tkuzma's Mayan Riviera Wedding Planning Journal- February 7, 2013!

[tkuzma]

Pre-Departure Mailout

Approximately 3 weeks prior to our holiday we mailed our guests a letter to remind people to refer to our website regarding things to pack and events occurring during the week; I primarily wanted to do this so as to decrease the number of phone calls with similar questions I would likely get, which I thought would likely increase my stress and anxiety levels at that time   Nothing fancy, but they did the trick!  I had them printed at Staples.

 

 

We also included a luggage tag for each guest that The Paper tree designed for us in similar style to our travel themed STD.

 

 

 

 

[tkuzma]

Monograms

One of the first purchases I made on Etsy, very early in my planning before I finalized my exact theme and concept, was two monograms from Mary Ellen from Digital Bunnys Designs (http://www.etsy.com/shop/DigitalBunnysDesigns).  She was great to work with and nicely incorporated my ideas into two cohesive designs.  I used these designs in various crafts for the wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tkuzma]

More still to come!... 

[tkuzma]

Welcome PacketI decided against doing OOT bags, but I still wanted to give our guests a little welcome gift.  Our welcome packet included a card with a week itinerary inclusion and a beach bag.

 

I bought a pack of Recollections Cards & Envelopes (set of 25) from Michael’s, and I printed our monogram onto them.

 

 

 

 

What we wrote in each of the cards…

 

 

The simple wedding week itinerary we included with the cards…

 

 

 

 

[tkuzma]

I would have liked white or ivory beach bags to go along with our colour scheme, but figured they would get dirty quickly.  I ended up purchasing black cotton tote bags from Creative Bag (www.creativebag.com).  I designed the logo for the boys’ bags on Power Point.  For the girls, I altered a logo I purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Graphique).  We then printed our designs on transfer paper we bought from Staples and ironed them onto the bags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tkuzma]

Ceremony Décor

Our ceremony was held at the chapel at El Dorado Maroma, another Karisma resort.  We decided to do minimal decorating of the chapel as we didn’t want to take away from the beautiful and elegant simplicity of it.  I ordered four white flower arrangements, a white aisle runner and white flower petals to frame the aisle runner from our WC.  I ordered chair sashes at a great price from Tablecloths Factory (http://www.tableclothsfactory.com). 

 

                                                          

 

I made paper flower pomanders to hang off the chairs lining the aisle.  I got my inspiration from the following website, http://pizzazzerie.com/parties/tutorial-how-to-make-a-pomander-flower-ball/. 

 

                                                                             

 

For my pomanders, I bought 5 inch white Styrofoam balls, white corsage pins (pkg of 144), cardstock paper and a Martha Stewart hydrangea flower paper cutter from Michael’s.  I bought 1 inch wide white ribbon from Fabricland.  On average, it took me about 2-2.5 hrs to make one.

 

[tkuzma]

I bought individual bubbles from Michael’s and made tags for them (I used Gartner Studios Favor Tags- pkg of 48 from Michael’s).  The plan was to put one on each seat, but in all the rush on the actual day, we forgot to bring them to the chapel; we still wanted to use them, so we had them put at each place setting at the reception.

 

 

 

 On the other side of the tag, we printed our circle monogram.  The text reads, "Rice may be tradition, But bubbles are more fun.  Shower us with happiness as we are joined as one!"

 

Our cocktail hour was planned for back at the Azul Sensatori.  I knew we would all be thirsty before we got back, so we decided to order water bottles.  I wanted to personalize them, but I ran out of time to design something myself.  Sarah Brown (http://www.etsy.com/shop/belletristics) incorporated my ideas and our monogram into a really cute design.  I printed them at Staples onto waterproof, non-tear paper.

 

 

[tkuzma]

Cocktail Hour Décor

Our cocktail hour was held at the yoga palapa on the beach.  We decided to keep the décor very simple as it was only for an hour, and we knew we weren’t going to be able to attend it ourselves because of pictures.  We asked for three hightop tables to be covered in a white tablecloth and to be cinched with a white bow.  A small vase with three small white flowers was placed on each table. 

 

                                                           

 

We ordered personalized napkins from Papyrus.

 

 

We made a sign for our signature cocktail that we had served, a French pear martini, which our guests said was delicious.  I found the recipe on SMP Home (http://www.stylemepretty.com/2012/12/29/smp-at-home-a-french-pear-cocktail-from-freutcake/).

 

[tkuzma]

Reception Décor

This picture provided my initial inspiration for our wedding theme of an elegant glamorous beach.

 

                     

 

For our escort cards, we bought starfish off of EBay, and had the name cards printed at The Paper Tree.  I made a sign for the escort cards, and put it into a gold frame.  All the gold frames we used I purchased from Dollar Tree.

 

                                                                

 

I wanted something unique for our guestbook, so I designed these pages for our guests to fill out.  I printed them onto white cardstock.  We received some interesting replies!  We made a sign for the guestbook table and put it into another gold frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tkuzma]

We decided on ivory natural beeswax candles for our guest favours.  Jan Hunter is Canadian and has her own company, Bee Happy Candles & Creations (http://beehappycandles.com/).  She does great work and included a little card with each candle set, which had information on beeswax as well as she printed our monogram on it for free. We made a favour table sign and also put it into a gold frame.