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newloves1975

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  1. Just a small suggestion about shoes. I had my ceremony at the Gazeebo and wore heels. When the ceremony was over the photographer told me I needed flip flops. I suggested going barefoot but he said where he was planning to go the ground was rough. I had to have someone go up to my room to get me a pair (I'm so glad I just happened to pack 2 white pair)!
  2. WOW!!! That is seriously one of the best wedding videos I have ever seen. Jen you look gorgeous!
  3. Great review! I'm surprised that you didn't have a bar set up. I didn't either but I thought it was because there were only 9 of us.
  4. I'm back! To all of you ladies who's wedding is coming up I am sooooo jealous of you, I didn't want to leave! I can't wait to go back to celebrate our first anniversary!! Sorry if this is long. I haven't been on a real vacation at an all inclusive resort in 8 years, so I really don't have much I can compare this to. First of all.....The resort is beautiful! Beach, pool, restaurants, rooms, you name it, they were all gorgeous! Wedding info: Including me and my husband there were 9 of us We had the ULTIMATE PACKAGE Wedding 4pm- GAZEBO Cocktail hour 5:30-6:30-BEACH Reception 6:30-GAZEBO Photographer-JUAN NAVARRO I chose photo package 6 (the one that includes all of the negatives) and I added an hour, so I had him and his assistant Daniel for 4 hours total. I brought my own chair bows & menus. I brought maracas as favors and had them placed with the menus at dinner. I had a meeting with Cecilia 2 days before the wedding and we finalized everything. I mean she went over EVERYTHING! I showed her a picture of what I wanted my bouquet to look like and she nailed it!!! It was EXACTLY what I wanted! We had our wedding in the gazebo. The beach set up is very nice and much more secluded, I almost changed my location to the beach but it was a red flag day and the wind was terrible. The wedding was at 4pm, I did my own makeup and my sister (who is a professional stylist) did my hair. Juan Navarro and his assistant came to my room at 3pm to take the getting ready pictures. Cecilia stopped in to give my the flowers and came back around 3:50 to take me down to the gazebo for the wedding. I did wear a veil for the ceremony and it was ok, it blew around a bit but nothing crazy. I rented the sound system for the ceremony only and had my songs on my iPhone. The timing for the music was flawless. I wrote out my whole ceremony and the officiant read it exactly as I wrote it. There were people at the pool during the wedding but everyone was quiet and respectful. Actually a lot of people watched and cheered once the ceremony was over. The only thing that I would suggest is ask Cecilia where to go after you are married and walk back down the isle. It was a little bit awkward, we just kept walking, then turned around and went back for champagne. Right after the ceremony we did family pictures, then Juan took us on the beach for our pictures. We did not go to the mansion. I asked Juan about it and he pretty much said the last time he was there they wanted to kill him! From what I heard the cocktail hour and food was great even though it was very windy. My mom complained that there wasn't anywhere to sit on the beach though. We were supposed to have the Mexican Trio for cocktail hour but they got stuck in traffic and were late. They showed up for the last 10 min of the cocktail hour and the first part of the reception. I was bummed that I would miss them so it was a blessing in disguise that they were late. When we came back from our pictures we did our first dances to the Mexican Trio music. This was not how I planned it but it all worked out great. The pictures Juan took with the trio in the background were beyond amazing!!! I was lucky that when I had my meeting with Cecilia they were setting up a wedding reception that I got to go check out. She said 11 people max can sit at a round table, the wedding I saw was set up for 8 and it looked just right, any more than 8 would be too much. I decided to go with 1 rectangular table set up in the middle of the gazebo, instead of 2 rounds, or 1 very crowded round. I got lights for under the table (love). Since the wedding was so small we did not have a separate bar set up just for us. They used the pool bar I think and the service was fast. The food at the resort was good. The food at the wedding was GREAT!! We had the hearts of palm salad, tomato basil soup, and the surf and turf. All 3 were so good! They raved about how good everything was especially the tomato soup. I took the advise of another bride here and bought a big jambox speaker and brought it down with me. It worked out absolutely great! The speaker works by Bluetooth and I had the music on my phone so I controlled it from my seat. I played Jazz during dinner then had a playlist for the reception. Since there was only a few of us we danced outside of the gazebo. After a few shots of tequila who really cares! My mom ended up jumping in the pool in her dress. We had the tres leche cake and it was pretty tasty, very plain looking, but I was fine with it. The reception was over around 9 or 9:30 we cut it short.....everyone was totally exhausted! I also did a TTD with Juan a few days after the wedding. I had a blast and can't wait to see the pictures! This was one of the main reasons I chose a destination wedding. I just couldn't wait to jump in the water in my dress! This is my advise. Find out where you go or where you should stop when walking back down the isle with your new husband. If you are not using the makeup/hair style at the spa make sure someone is VERY specific on what you can use it for at the spa. We had 2 problems with the spa messing up on appointments and both times they tried to tell us they said something they didn't. I was very irritated, it was like they were trying to get me to upgrade and spend more money at the spa. If you make an appointment make sure they confirm the service with you and write it down! Now....the massage at the spa was awesome, but the fact that they messed up with our appointments TWICE and tried to give us a cheaper service than the one we booked left a very sour taste in my mouth. But most of all......just relax!!! Everything will work out fine, I can't believe how much I stressed over all the little things. Now for the resort...... All of the food was good, the french restaurant was my favorite, we ate there twice. The worst in my option was the Mexican restaurant. The maids did a good job cleaning the room but there were several times they forgot to stock our fridge and coffee. They also left us without any glasses one day. I stayed in building 15 and the concierge Fabiola was wonderful! I went to a few nightly shows and was impressed by everyone! I saw Elvis, Rock of Ages & a fire show. My FAVORITE thing they did was have a stargazing party on the beach with a bonfire. I'm not sure how often they do this because I'm sure it depends on the weather. They set out beach chairs and had a live acoustic band playing, we just laid there and watched the stars listening to music, it was so romantic. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!
  5. Today is my last day at the resort It is absolutely beautiful here! I don't want to leave! The wedding was perfect! Full review when I get back. :)
  6. KCDawn, you're gorgeous! Was your hair pinned up? It's a little hard to tell from the pictures. Was the wind too much for your hair? I was thinking of wearing my hair very similar. I leave on Thursday ahhhhh!!! I can't believe the day is here already, it feels so unreal! I'll update when I get back
  7. I am leaving 2 weeks from today! I had the same question about the tables for dinner. I am having 11 or 13 people (you would think I'd have an exact # by now right?) I think I want to dance inside the gazebo but still not sure if it will happen or not. But since you are not going to have dancing it doesn't matter. Cecilia told me the the max they can sit at a round table will be 11 or they can put square tables together to look like a rectangle so everyone can sit at one. The gazebo has more than enough room for the dinner, but not dinner AND dancing. She also told me if I chose 1 round table and ate inside the gazebo they could move the table out for dancing. But if I had the rectangle tables they could not move them. So even though I really want to eat inside the gazebo it looks like that will not happen since we want to dance. I don't know the prices but I saw pictures of some pretty colored lights inside the gazebo. I think Cecilia called them lighted curtains. It looked beautiful.
  8. Thank you CriCri! My wedding will be the same size as yours. It helps to know what you can get photos of in 3 hours. I definitely want pictures getting ready and before the ceremony, so I think I'm going to get a 3 hour package and add an hour. 4 hours seems like it will be perfect. Now to decide which 3 hour package to get!
  9. Thanks! That makes me feel a lot better. Almost 30 days away and I'm starting to freak out. I saw your pictures on Juan's blog already. They looked great and you looked beautiful!
  10. Was it hard to decide on which photos from the 800? Were they all pretty decent? It just doesn't sound like that many for 5 hours of time with 2 photographers. Did he take out all of the bad ones, like eyes closed, blurry, talking, etc? I'm not a photographer but my friend is and when she did our engagement pictures it took about 2 hours and I had hundreds of pictures to go through. I ended up with 200 good ones.
  11. I was also looking at package 6 but I wasn't sure if having all the negatives was worth the extra money. I emailed him earlier this week to ask about a few things but haven't heard back yet. Since my date is getting closer I don't have much patience. Has anyone gotten the album? Or know if all the packages come with the same type of album? They all say that they do, but the "special packages" are worded differently. I've learned to double check everything that's worded a little bit different. :confused:
  12. Can we talk about photos again? I have Juan booked and special photo package 1 (5 hours). I'm Starting to think this might be too much time since now I'm not really going to have much of a reception. Most of the other packages are 3 hours. Will that be enough time? What photo package is every one else getting? If I switch to package 5 for 3 hours I will get 250 digital images. That just doesn't sound like it is that many pictures. But if I can pick the pictures that i get then it might be ok. I'm also doing the TTD the following day.
  13. First of all your pictures are beautiful! I'm using Juan and I can not wait!! I had asked about having the reception dinner at one of the restaurants. Can you tell me how many guests you had and if there was a charge to have the dinner at the restaurant? I asked Cecilia and she said basically there is no charge since it is a small group (under 10). But she did say that dinner would be at 6:30 if it was at the restaurant. Which I guess will allow some extra time for pictures. We are also considering going to the club for dancing after dinner. It is not a budget issue anymore, now it's a very small guest list and I just don't see the point in having a private reception.
  14. I could be wrong about this, but I thought when you make your marriage legal in Mexico that you will actually have 2 'ceremonies' there. There would be a legal one at the court house with the judge, (which i thought was done in spanish). And a symbolic one on the beach, gazebo, church etc. by a minister/officiant. Ladies, is that correct?
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