Hi everyone:

So I've been planning in a vacuum and with my wedding a little more than two months away and the small things needing attention, I'm starting to feel the little bit of panic building.

80 GUESTS and counting! I had a destination wedding to reduce my numbers. Didn't work too well huh?

I'm having the wedding at Moon Palace Cancun and so far I don't have any major complaints. My offsite coordinator Lizet has been an absolute doll! :DI had heard that people wouldn't hear from their coordinator until much later but Lizet was in contact with me with less than a month after we had the date confirmed. I know I can be an absolute pain with all the emails but she has dutifully answered them in a relatively quick manner (1-3 days average).

We have the ceremony at the Bugambilias gazebo, with the Tuscan terrace for the cocktails and we move inside for the reception.

I have the majority of my vendors lined up:

Décor: Gama

Flowers: Hotel

Cake: Hotel

Photography: Friend of future hubby is coming down as a guest to do our lovely pics

Videography: AmorAmor Weddings (outside vendor - their work looks absolutely amazing!

Music: PSAV (though I also have DiscoMovil on contract because of the great reviews that I have read. But when I told PSAV the price I was getting including the vendor fee was cheaper than what they had, they not only matched it but gave me a $200 discount for an incentive. The only reason I still have DiscoMovil is because I am concerned about the music. I work in the music industry hence why I'm being so picky).

In the air

Makeup: I am an Black bride so I am very concerned about what my hair and makeup will look like. Especially since I am a natural hair bride. I'm on the fence about working with MVP hair and beauty. ANY HELP IN WITH THIS?

What I'm not particular happy about:

Travel agent: L and S Vacations. Just venting here. We met Lindsay at a wedding expo here in NYC. And in the beginning it worked well with choosing our hotel and putting down our deposits. She also fits the bill on our save the dates and send them out. But here's where the trouble started.

We decided to do magnets for our save the date. At least 20% of our guests never received them. Could it have been that the magnets got stuck somewhere? Shouldn't there have additional paper inside of the envelope to make that it didn't happen? I don't know because no return address were ever put on the envelopes. So if it was a matter of a wrong address, we didn't know. Which meant that I had purchase additional save the dates and send them out. All of mine made it to the intended person. *shrugs*

When the time came for the guests to begin to make the travel arrangements, it felt like I didn't have a travel agent. Because however many times you called, the phone was never picked up. NEVER. I had multitudes of guests complaining that they couldn't get through to make their room reservations. And of course it was the last few days to book and it was a panic. I was having mini heart attacks for days, trying to make sure the MVPs were getting what they needed, diverting them to emails to contact Lindsay. And to make matters worse, she was out of the country and took on more work than she could have handled (5-6 other weddings that had the SAME deadline that we had). The month of October was exhausting - from people complaining about prices, to rooms to never-ending questions that should have been answered by L and S Vacations.

Then it became an issue about changing names on the rooms. Even though each invoice/contract stated that we had 91 prior to the wedding make changes, she shot them down saying it wasn't possible to change; that if they needed a room they would have to book an entirely new room without the savings we had before. I'm a lawyer so I went to town on it and got her to read her own contract. Finally she apologized and made the changes.

If I knew what I know now, I would have just worked with the hotel myself. They have been very attentive and I really don't need L and S Vacations for anything else. The only upside was the payment plan that guest could do but...sigh. I wonder if it was worth a lot of aggravations.

Sigh. Anyway I'm sure I'll be back to lament about my peacock theme, my 14 member wedding party and the drama to come.

Stay strong ladies,