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great idea! I love not martha

welcome! how much do you have planned so far? or what kind of wedding are you imagining?

I sent formal invites but included a little card with our website on it so I wouldn't also have to print all those inserts (especially cause it's easy to make updates to the website all the time, not as easy to update a one-time mailing). Why not just send formal invites but nothing else? Then you have them for sentimental reasons but you don't kill yourself with too much to do that is unnecessary?

Just because you use them doesn't mean you have to use WIP. I would just suggest getting a quote from them and also from others. It pays to shop around. I happened to get a very good price and very good customer service with Francine at The Flower Cart.

Have you talked to cabovillas about the cost? I think they told me to hold a private event they would add on an extra night's charge. On the Yahoo Cabo Brides group there is a bride from 2005 who got married at a villa in Pedregal. I don't remember details but I know she wrote a review about it somewhere in the files. Not that I am advocating you to spend time on that board instead, but see what you can find: CaboWeddings : Cabo Weddings Also, welcome to the board!

Welcome! Don't worry you will get more help than you can handle here Feel free to browse my pics. Link is below.

I used The Flower Cart...is that who you mean? I loved their flowers - really high quality. I've heard you can get flowers for cheaper, but it's worth getting a quote at least. The Flower Cart Contact: Francine (super nice and responsive)

As long are you are sure you are having a chicken, beef, and fish dish, then I think it's fine to not include details. The only problem is if you only have 2 of those 3...then you have to ask some people to choose again.

Here are the downsides I can see to using fake flowers: 1. You have to take them with you (more luggage!). My goal was to bring as little as possible with me. 2. In a place as lush and tropical as Costa Rica, will fake flowers just seem...out of place? You could alternately cut your flower budget in half by using half as many flowers and using other inexpensive items creatively in place of flowers (like fruit, greenery, shells, etc)

Quote: Originally Posted by JENESIS I think that they are pretty far from Cabo, no? That's true but I think they have a free shuttle that will take you into town and back? I guess I just think of them as honeymoon-worthy properties, but you're right...they might be too far away.

Welcome! how is your planning coming so far?

I would spend some time reading reviews on Trip Advisor. What about Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach or the other PB that is nearby...Pacifica I think?

1. Do you have the option to bring your own bev? If so what was the coorage/mixer fees like? We did not bring our own. We had 4 hours open bar for $42 plus we had wine at dinner. 2. Do you use them for the cake? We did use their cake, and it was okay. We didn't really care about cake though. I'm guessing you could get an outside vendor. Tasha is right though -- negotiate everything up front! 3. How much did you have to spend on transportation to get your guests there? We also did not pay for this. None of our guests were in downtown Cabo anyway.

Jackie, you can definitely get a gorgeous ring for less than that. Here are some ideas to keep the cost down White gold instead of platinum (you said this already I think) Spend more on getting a nicer color diamond, less on clarity (in my opinion, you'd rather have a brillitantly bright white diamond with one or two tiny flaws than a yellow-ish diamond with no flaws. It's just easier to see the color from afar.) Pick a diamond that has a really wide surface area on top but not as much depth. My diamond looks more like 1 carat when you look at the top, but it's acutally only .7 because it has less depth (which you can't see anyway because it's in the setting) don't buy a name brand/designer ring. Like others have said, the markup is incredible!

congrats tammy! remember like a year ago when it was like 10 of us on the old board and we were all still not married...ahhhh those were the days! it's definitely awesome that it had grown so much so fast!

What time will your ceremony be? We had a 4:30 ceremony so the reception ended at 10:30. By then we had been drinking and dancing for hours. But we just kept partying "unoffically" by the pool anyways. It's just that our open bar and DJ ended at 10:30.

Welcome Jennette!!!

What if you put your names on the front along with the location and date? I like how colorful and different it is from everyday invites.

I voted trio only because I don't think that the mariachi brings enough extra value to be worth it. Better to err on the side of: -less money -less overwhelming -more romantic -better ratio of muscians to guests

Glenda OMG you crack me up. In that photo where I look so "happy"? I was high on like 14 cold medicines! Quote: Janet I hope you don't mind I went to your site to see your other pictures too. Your photographer did a wonderful job. You look so pretty and your wedding looked very romantic! I want to do red as my color too! I think it looks sharp with all the greenery... it really stands out. Amazing! Where did you stay? Melissa - thank you! Actually, my color was a dark pink, but those dresses totally photographed as red. weird! Oh well, I don't mind red! I loved the contrast with the green and I just liked having bright colors in a country like Mexico. Oh, and we stayed at the Cabo Surf for the wedding and Casa del Mar for the honeymoon. Loved them both! (Trying to convince hubby to go back for our anniversary haha!)

My model weighs like 100 lbs less than me (okay not THAT much) so the pics are a little different!! (I just posted one from my fitting since I don't have one from the wedding in the same pose)

Quote: Originally Posted by NABUMBAH um, no not yet! I want to wait until we have a final count. but with less than50% of rsvps in we have 80 guests :eek!: I wonder if they could fit more tables on the grass than in the restaurant area? If you are over 100 you might suggest that as an option?

We picked Cabo because we didn't want to be in Cancun for hurricane season and because more of our guests were on the west coast. We had never been to either. It seems Cabo has a ritzier reputation, but we didn't really know this at the time. It means Cabo can be more expensive though.

Quote: Originally Posted by A10CALGAL Ooooh! That was a question I had for you Janet...did you pay cash for your balance due to Cabo Surf - like cold hard cash? And your rehearsal dinner? I know CS offers 5% off if you pay cash, but I just wasn't sure if that meant greenbacks or check. And, yes, I sent an outline & spreadsheet to Armando regarding all of our details and he confirmed back with his own. Everything matched up, which is awesome! And he did waive the location fee even though we didn't book up all of our block. We paid with a check the morning after the wedding, for the exact amount we agreed upon pre-wedding. He said something about how he thinks we might have had more wine, but not to worry about it. OMG it was such a relief to know the amount ahead of time and just not have to worry about it. For some reason I had nightmares that somehow when it was all over there might be some hidden charge and I would freak...but no, I was just dramatic. That's great they waived the site fee. They really are pretty chill there. As for the welcome dinner, that was a big pain because we had to wire money, but since you aren't having that at La Panga I wouldn't worry. Just bring a check for Cabo Surf. Quote: Originally Posted by NABUMBAH Hi girls. here is a question- what is the MAX guest list for the CS? I am having issues. I guess the number 100 sticks out in my mind....how much does Armando know about your "issues:? How many over are you? Listen....they will make it work. It's more $$ for them! Just remember that.

Christa, sounds like you are doing really well. I have to admit I never even considered doing my reception on the grass but I love the idea. It should be great. You can still see the pool and the ocean and it's nice and flat and probably the perfect size. Great idea! I was looking over my To Do list and my last little things were... Song list for DJ Confirm all vendors in writing (I was OCD about this) Finalize weekend timeline and distribute to all Get gobs of cash at the bank Ha...and then my final two things were: Get married! Honeymoon! Hmmm...guess I can cross those off. I made a timeline and a one-page summary of our menu and gave that to Armando. I think it helped ensure that we were on the same page about everything. I can't wait until the end of March when you and Tasha have photos! And Lisa (LISVITAL ?) is getting married in Feb I think.