Natalie's Wedding Review 6-22-07

[Natalie Z]

First off sorry this took me so long to do! I have been so busy!

 

FLIGHTS-B

We flew Continental down and back. Overall I wasn't too thrilled because not one flight down did they let me hang my dress up. I had to put it up top. The dress was fine but I was just PO'd because we got to the airport early like we were told, and asked them if they could help us out. Oh well. We however didn't have any delays so that was great!

 

ARRIVING TO CABO-A

I know I'm rating this because it is important to me. We ended up with 7 suitcases filled with wedding stuff. We gave a bag to everyone that was coming down with us on Monday. We all ended up getting to the airport at the same time, which was great! I had put in everyone's suitcase big pieces of paper that said "Getting Married in Cabo, These are items are for the wedding" We ended up having a guy come up to us with a cart and I remember reading on here that, this was the way to go. So this guy took all of our suitcases for us on there. This was all my wedding stuff except for 2 suitcases that my sister and my friend had. Well Lance was the only person in our group that ended up pushing the button, and NOT ONE BAG WAS SEARCHED. The guy was speaking to the lady at the red light green light stop and then she just sent us all through! It was great! However my sister and my friend did have there bags checked and they said that when they read the paper that I had put in they closed them up and let them go through. Just an idea! I would for sure recommend getting a guy to help though if you are bringing down a lot of bags.

 

TRANSPORTATION-A

Epic travel that Tammy (the host) had set up for everyone was fantastic!! They were always on time and very friendly! I believe the transportation per person was $32 round trip.

Not one of my guests rented a car! Everyone just took cabs or shuttles into town.

 

ARRIVING AT DREAMS-A

As soon as we arrived we were greeted by Victor who is soooo sweet! Everyone got champagne at check in and a cool towel. Right off the bat everyone loved it!

 

ROOMS-B

Don't get me wrong the room was nice but we didn't get an upgraded room. The room was nice, we had no bugs and it was clean. The fridge wasn't fully stocked but all we had to do was call down and they came right up and stocked it for us. No big deal at all. We had a honeymoon suite. Great view,very large deck, and walk in closet! Yes the beds are hard but they aren't that terrible. I guess with the new rooms they are getting all new mattresses!

All of our guests seemed to really enjoy their rooms as well. I didn't get one complaint from anyone! Some of them did get upgraded to bigger rooms and a couple of them did have the new rooms.

 

TRIP TO COSTCO-C

As soon as we got there we decided to go to costco and get all the snacks for the OOT bags. The cab ride sucked it cost us $60 but oh well. Costco was nice though inside, same as in the states. We got bags of chips, crackers, & candy for the bags! It was funny going back to dreams and getting a cart to take up 8 boxes of snacks to our room. We got some weird looks from other guests staying there!! Everyone did comment on the snacks in there bag and said that it was perfect after traveling all day or if there rooms weren't ready they had something to eat ASAP.

 

WELCOME BAGS OR OOT BAGS-A

Our guests loved them!! Everyone used them and all the stuff inside them.

We put inside..... Sunscreen, tylenol, peptol Bismal, playing cards, travel candle, lighter, chapstick, CD, Welcome letter, Spanish phrases, money converter, spa appts for people that had me book them and snacks.

Everyday we brought down the bags to the front desk with everyone's name on them and I also gave them a list to keep at the counter. There was no charge for this! I didn't ask anyone about it I just did it.

Here are some pics that I have, I forgot to take one of them all put together.

I don't have pictures of anything else but I put the candle and chapstick together with a ribbon as well. They came out really cute.

 

MEETING WITH VENDORS-A

I had set up meetings with most of our vendors ahead of time to go over the final details and pay them. I met with Cake, Dj, Mariana, Rev, & Juan. Everyone showed up on time! I also called my florist, Suzanne Moral & Mariachi band to confirm with them as well.

 

We ended up doing a trial run through with our wedding party since we had so many!! We all met at the Gazebo before the welcome dinner.

After that I took my BM's upstairs to my room and handed out there goodies.

I got them... Earrings and a broach for the dresses. Parasols, pashmina's, 1154 lill purses, cover-ups to wear while getting hair and makeup done. They were really happy with everything.

 

WELCOME DINNER-A

We had a Mexican Theme Dinner on the Oceana Beach. It was really private and we loved it. I gave Mariana the table numbers and the tiny paper parasols with everyone's seat assignment.

 

I can't find a picture yet, but I know I have one somewhere, She put the parasols in sand on a table for everyone to grab when they walked in. It was really cute. This is the picture of the idea I used

 

We did the Shoe parking sign at the top, it was really cute! Everyone liked it. Mariana had it at dreams.

 

Mariana did all the decorating for it, and it came out sooooooo cute! I loved it! Here are some pics.

[Natalie Z]

This is so you can see the tables. They had the hurricane with candle and sand (which I had no clue about, but loved) and then the table numbers that I had made.

 

I did all different colors of sand. Here are a couple, I'm sure you get the idea

 

These were the holders I got for the table #'s, they were colorful but didn't really match. They worked out though.

 

Dinner was great!!! Dessert was great!!!

 

Bar- We started at 6:30 with drinks and then dinner was at 7pm. Well about 10pm people told me they ran out of beer? I was like how can they run out of beer, it is an all inclusive?? So I went up to the bartender and he told me no more beer, well of course that is what everyone was drinking and we still had another hour left, so I had to be a little bit of a bitch and tell them they needed to get more beer after they told me no the first time. They ended up going to one of the bars and bringing down cups of beer instead of bottles. I didn't care as long as there was beer. That was the only issue that I ran into that night.

 

We had a slideshow for our guests, and Mariana got all the Video equipment for us. I think it ended up costing $445. It ended up being well worth it because our guests got to see lance and I growing up, us with all of our friends throughout the years and lance and I together. Everyone really liked it. It was 20 min. long. ohhhhh well!!

 

 

FIRE DANCERS-A

They were AWESOME!! We had 2 girls and a guy with a drum and some audio. Everyone really liked that as well. We arranged it through Mariana, it was way too expensive but in the end I was glad I did it. I think it was $675 for them for only 15 min.

 

CASINO NIGHT-A

They set up right next to the dinner, which was perfect. They had 6 tables and they just mixed it up. There were texas hold'em tables with real money and then there were just chip tables. Almost everyone played, and that is why I had to make sure there was more beer!! Here is a pic

 

Ok that is all of the welcome Dinner!!! Overall I would give it an A

[Natalie Z]

SUZANNE MOREL-A

They came and set up in my room for Mani's and Pedi's at 9am. They brought 6 nail tech's with them and two of them did hair.

 

I let them in and then we all went down for breakfast. When we came back they had us all set up on our balcony. There were rose petals all over and soft music playing. It was really fun. I also brought a mud mask for all of us to do. It was so windy that the next round of girls had to go in inside because it was messing up the nail polish. We will come back to the wind issue later. Here are some pics.

 

They did 2 of the girls hair including mine, and we all LOVED our hair!!

 

We had Mimosa's the day of too, and we weren't even charged for them! Mariana had it all arranged for us.

 

GAZEBO/EL PATIO FOR CEREMONY & COCKTAILS-A

I loved loved loved the gazebo! We didn't get married inside, because I wanted all of our guest to be able to see us. So we were right in front. I'm very happy with that decision. We did do our Sand ceremony inside the Gazebo. You can see here by this pic how it was set up. We only paid $22 per person for the people that acutally were sitting.

 

THE WIND------------SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was the windiest day that we had the 2 weeks there, go figure. Everything was blowing all over the place. Oh well

 

Cocktail hour & hors d'oeuvres-A I have no idea how this went. I didn't even taste test any of the food. I just told Mariana to pick out what was good. As soon as I walked out with Lance 2 guys came running up to us with Champagne. Everyone got a glass as they exited the ceremony to El Patio. That was great! I guess the apps. were really good. No complaints

 

MARIACHI BAND-A

I only heard one song, and it was so fun. They kept my guests entertained for an hour, so that was good! Everyone said they were a lot of fun.

 

REV. SCOTT PARSONS-B

He was a nice guy but a little too pushy for our liking. He did a very nice ceremony but there was just something about him that drove me crazy! ohhhhh and if you have Juan as your photographer, they don't like each other at all, actually that is a understatement, they hate each other!!!! So I was making faces when Juan was taking pics of us with the Rev., Juan really appreciated that!!

 

WEDDING FANS & ROSE PETALS-A

They weren't used at all for a fan, since we had plenty of wind, but I did notice people in pictures used them to block the sun, I'm happy they were at least used for something!! Rose petal bags. Some people used them but because of the wind when people tried to throw them they came back on them. So I don't know if I would have done those again or not. Oh they were both placed on everyone's chair. I also had 2000 rose petals for the aisle, and Lance said they waited as long as possible to dump them on the aisle, but as soon as they did they blew all over and I don't think any really stayed on. Oh well!! We will have to wait for Juan's pics to see how that came out.

 

POLOROID GUEST BOOK-A

I gave this to Mariana to put out during the reception but she put it out during cocktails, and I was fine with that, actually it ended up working out better. One of my guests ended up taking charge of it and made everyone write in the book. I love it so much and i look at it all the time!! Here is a pic

 

BOUQUET FRAMES-A

I wrote about these in another thread but they came out so cute. I did one for my mom, grandma, & Lance's mom and had them tied on to there bouquets of flowers. They all cried when they got them. I think they are $12 or $16 per frame.

 

VOTIVE PLACE CARD HOLDERS-A

They were a pain in the ass to make with the glue, but well worth it in the end. They were so pretty when they were lit! Here is a pic of them.

 

CENTERPIECES-A

Another pain in the ass to make that took me forever. I bought RAM frames from Ikea and sponge painted all of them. Then I painted these hearts and put Cabo 07 on them. They came out really good though. I was planning on giving these to everyone as there favor as well the next day with a thank you card and the back to the picture frame but everyone ended up taking there's with them at the end of the night, so it saved me from having to put them into bags!!!! Also, I had mariana, put vases in the center of them, so my BM's, mother, grandma, MIL and myself put our bouquets in them. The only other thing that was supposed to go on the table was rose petals but that was a no go with the wind! Oh well. I loved how the tables looked! They were all glowing!

Here is a pic

[Natalie Z]

RECEPTION-A

We held ours at the Cascada Terrace. We did 8 round tables at the top plus a sweetheart table for lance and I and then put the DJ on the bottom level to the right and the buffet on the bottom to the left, which left a big square on the bottom for dancing. I loved it! We paid $22 per person

FOOD- We ended up doing a buffet and I wasn't thrilled about this but it was the best decision for us since we had vegans and vegetarians. We did the Caribbean dinner and we switched the show cooking around but I can't remember to what. THE FOOD WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!! My grandma keeps talking about the Mango stuffed Chicken to me!!

 

CAKE-A GROOM'S CAKE-A BUT UPSET ABOUT COLOR

We hired Jennifer Hatton to make our cakes! First off, they tasted incredible. The top layer was lemon, 2nd layer was vanilla, and the bottom was chocolate. It was soooooooooooooo good! I was surprised but everyone ate cake!!! I was really happy with that, we hardly had any left at the end of the night.

 

I wanted to suprise Lance with a groom's cake because he hates cake, so I had her make a cheesecake for him and put the Illinois "I" on it in Orange and blue. Well not so much, the "I" was red and blue it looked like an Indiana I which is such a huge rival!! I couldn't believe she got the colors so messed up. I made a comment out loud to Lance when Juan was there, and was like oh my wife is with her right now. I said don't worry about it is not a big deal, it tasted delicious! Well the next day she wrote me an email because Juan told her I was unhappy about the colors. She asked me if I wanted some of my money back. I wrote her and told her not to worry about it!! She felt so bad! It ended up being pretty humorous the whole night long, since 3/4 of the guests had gone to U of I. It was the thought that counted! They both ended up costing $475

 

Overall I would definitely recommend her, the cakes tasted so good!!

 

FLOWERS-B

I used floreria shadia and even though they came out ok in the pictures it really didn't look like the picture I had sent her. I asked for WHITE calla lilies and LIGHT pink roses. When they walked in with them I said to the girl, why are the lilies YELLOW and the roses were dark pink She just looked at me but ohhhhh well there was nothing I could do at the point. I also hated the green that they put around the bottoms of them. Oh well they worked and I hope they came out good in the pictures. They ended up costing $500

Here is a couple they don't look terrible.

 

DJ/ IPOD-A

Dj Mijares we met with him and his asst. on wed. They were both very nice and we discussed the music. His asst. was the one at our wedding and we had no problems at all. They played some music at the start of our ceremony, and then he played off of our IPOD for the reception and mixed it in with some of his songs. He never once played a song I hated. He kept the party dancing. It was fun! He charged us $500 for 5 hrs.

 

PHOTOGRAPHER JUAN-A

Well as you all know he is great! He met with us on Wed before the wedding and the first thing he said to us was NO MORE SUN!!! It was funny! So lance and I stay shaded the next 2 days. He was great!! We had him from 4-11. He went to the guys room first then my room. He was a lot of fun to be around!

 

We also did a TTD session with him! He picked us up at the hotel and took us to this beach! It was so much fun and he showed us a couple of teasers that day! I can't wait to see them.

 

MARIANA-A

She was fantastic! She did everything I gave and more! There wasn't one thing that I can think of that she did wrong. I'm so happy that I didn't end up hiring another WC. She is really awesome! We gave her a $100 tip with a thank you card. I feel bad for her because I guess she is having some major family problems. She told me in an email that she is taking off for the next month. I hope it all works out for her.

 

TA- Tammy (Host)-A

She had to put up with my group and my FI! So with that being said YOU ARE AWESOME!! Seriously, every single person in my group had no major issues and the transportation was perfect!! Thank you so much!

[Natalie Z]

DREAMS-A

Sorry this is sooooo long! Overall I would say everything was Perfect! There were some mix ups but that will happen with a destination wedding. My guests had so much fun and now they want to go back every year! The resort is so accommodating and they will do anything for guests! This is a great place to have a wedding!! Here are some pics of the room on the wedding night. It was really cute!

Candles on the floor

 

We also stayed at the Marquis for the last couple of days and this was a very nice resort! The down fall was no one really talked to anyone and they had no music on during the day at the pools. Other than that it was very romantic and the grounds were beautiful! The rooms were amazing! The bed was so very comfortable!! They had chocolate strawberries for us when we arrived with champagne in our room. I took pics to share.

 

Entrance

 

[Natalie Z]

 

If anyone has any questions let me know! I hope this helps!

[CourtneyV]

Wow, great review! I had a question, but got distracted with the rest of your pictuers! lol. Everything looks great, and I saw the starfish - YAY! I'm glad it made it into your pictures, which is the whole point. I'll get back to you with that question as soon as I remember!

[*JillD*]

Everything looks beautiful Natalie!! It sounds like you and Lance had a wonderful day!

[TammyB]

Great review and very detailed.. Great Job.. I swear Juan was my favorite vendor in Cabo, I just love him, he's funny and just super sweet.

 

BTW, why does Juan and Rev. Person not get along? Seems strange since everyone talks about how nice Juan is..

[RAENJAY]

Awesome review Natalie! Sounds like everybody had a wonderful time, and your pictures are wonderful.