lvpbride

Quote: Originally Posted by leigh miller true about the wedding. or true you two wouldnt be together without some serious alcohol Hahaha!!! Both are true! The only reason that I ever had the courage to blatantly hit on Ben was b/c I'd had quite a bit to drink one night.

Quote: Originally Posted by leigh miller and heres a funny story everyone. during the ceremony the preacher guys is talking about this and that and the divine whatever that brought these two together and elizabeth mouths the word "BEER". it was pretty funny Hahahaha!!! Oops.... I didn't realize that was so obvious! True story, though.

Edyta & Anny -- Thanks! These are awesome, Leigh! I normally HATE looking at pictures of myself, but I can't stop looking at them b/c they're so beautiful! And you've definitely done a great job capturing "us" (goofy & always laughing about something!) Thanks again!! Elizabeth

We'll definitely be up for meeting you guys @ LV! Ben and I spent the majority of our dinner tonight talking about how we wished we were back there! We both love Mexico, but LV takes the beauty of Mexico and combines it with the atmosphere of a really nice U.S. hotel. So I'm SURE that LV would change your husband's mind! Yeah, I definitely DON'T think you're a diva. I actually agree with all of your comments. Also, I forgot to mention in my review of Palmilla that the food at their casual restaurant was REALLY good (much, much better than the Sea Grill @ LV). We ate at the more expensive/formal restaurant @ Palmilla ("C") and the food wasn't that great & it was way overpriced. But just for fun, I'll ask Ben to come up with a tacky diva-esque nickname for you. Also -- Based on our conversations with employees when we were there, I think that LV was full, so my guess is that, even during the busy season, it's not much busier than it was for us. Perfect IMO! Just as a comparison between the 2 -- LV has ~71 rooms, but Palmilla has ~172.

It doesn't seem right for YOU to be thanking ME! I totally understand that you're busy, so no rush. Hahaha... what am I saying? Seriously though -- I'm sure all of this travel (and work!) is tiring for you! We really liked Las Ventanas better than Palmilla. Although there are several small similarities (the turndown service is EXACTLY the same... down to the same type of clay figures they put on your bed), the two resorts are very different. Ben is going to upload our pictures when he gets home tonight & I'll post a link to those, so you can see some of the differences. But generally, Las Ventanas would probably be much better for a romantic vacation, IMO. Palmilla would be better for a family vacation b/c there are a lot more people around, it's a lot noisier (after Las Ventanas, prob anything would seem noisy), and there are a lot of families. We actually thought that the service was better at Palmilla, mostly b/c all of the employees there are super friendly and warm. Although there were a couple of small service issues (after being spoiled for 7 nights, we probably turned into slight divas... hahaha), everyone at Las Ventanas was nice and very accomodating, but they are more formal and sometimes seemed snobby. It wasn't ever that way at Palmilla and the service was flawless. It's kind of hard to describe the difference, but both Ben and I felt the same way about the friendliness. The Palmilla driver that took us to the airport said that the hospitality manager at Las Ventanas moved over to Palmilla as soon as he had the opportunity. That, combined with the fact that both of the wedding planners we worked with at Las Ventanas no longer work there, makes me wonder if employees are happier @ Palmilla. But that's total speculation on my part. Maybe Las Ventanas encourages their employees to be formal. Since we're both pretty laid back, we definitely preferred the people at Palmilla, though. Our room at Las Ventanas was A LOT nicer. I think the room at Palmilla was 600 sq feet, as opposed to the 960 sq feet (or so) at Las Ventanas. The bathroom at Las Ventanas was a lot bigger and we didn't have a bathtub at Palmilla. Probably the thing I liked least about Palmilla is that the people in neighboring rooms could see onto each other's balconies. There was a wall between the two patios, but it didn't extend out all the way and it wasn't quite tall enough. You didn't even have to try to see onto your neighbor's patio (and into their room), which is a bit awkward. Also, Palmilla only has 2 pools & the chair space around the pools seemed crowded after being at Las Ventanas. The adult pool was pretty small & seemed like a bit of a scene, so we stuck to the family pool, which was much larger and prettier. We tried to go to the larger (family) pool one day & there weren't any free chairs. Honestly, I'm sure that if we hadn't already been spoiled by Las Ventanas we wouldn't have had any "complaints" about Palmilla. It's a gorgeous resort & the service was great. Ben and I decided that, in a perfect world, Las Ventanas would be in the same location as Palmilla (b/c of the swimmable beach and proximity to San Jose) and would be staffed with Palmilla employees. Next time we go to Cabo (yeah, we're already planning our anniversary trip!), we'll probably to back to Las Ventanas b/c it's more "us." But, if we were going with friends and weren't really worried about total peace and quiet, we'd go to Palmilla. Wow... that's really long! Hopefully it helps! I'm definitely happy to answer any questions!

Thanks for all of the warm wishes! Everything was beautiful and Ben and I have agreed that we wouldn't change a thing! The time went by so quickly & both of the dinners seem like a bit of a blur. Leigh and Riccis were tons of fun and they were both so patient with our goofiness. We've already gotten a ton of compliments on the day-after picture Leigh posted & I know the rest are going to be just as awesome!

If you are planning to get married on a weekend night (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday), Las Ventanas will probably be a better option than Palmilla. We initially wanted to get married in the chapel @ Palmilla, but their minimum food & beverage spend for a weekend wedding is ~$25k, regardless of how many guests you have. That amount didn't make any sense for our number of guests & they won't negotiate. At least at Las Ventanas, they vary the minimum food & beverage spend depending on how many guests you have. We had a total of 21 people (counting Ben and me), so our minimum food & beverage spend was $7k. We had NO problem meeting that amount (sigh). We had both the welcome dinner & the reception dinner there, but we met the minimum with the reception dinner alone. Both of the planners we worked with at Las Ventanas have now moved onto other positions (I promise it wasn't me that drove them away!), but their new romance director was very nice and very helpful. Every aspect of the wedding and both dinners was perfect! We stayed at Las Ventanas for 7 nights & Palmilla for 3 nights, so I'm happy to answer questions about either resort! Also, I'm attaching the wedding guidelines for both resorts, just in case you're interested. Elizabeth 2007 Wedding Guidelines.doc LVP Wedding Guidelines 2007.pdf

#2 is by far my favorite! But they're both beautiful & you look great in both!