NATASHA

Oh - that will be so lovely. One of the best things about having a DW is getting everyone together. It makes your wedding more than just a day and is SUCH a memorable experience. As a recent bride - the one piece of advice that I can offer you is to help your son and FDL by answering as many of the guests questions as possible. I loved having my friends and family there, but (as I just posted in another thread) it didn't get to enjoy Cabo until the day of the wedding. Our phone rang off the hook and people even expected us to take them to Costco or to the airport to pick up the rental car that they didn't think they would want but just decided they did. People just don't think about all the details the bride and groom are dealing with and about how they are trying to be great hosts to everyone which means very little time spent with anyone. You really could be a godsend if you alleviated just a little bit of that pressure for them. My sister-in-law eventually sent a note to everyone's room saying, "if you have any questions at all, I'm here to help." That helped!

1) Ditto on the dress - spent way more than I ever planned. Don't regret it, though. 2) Ditto on the family drama. I was shocked that it happened. Remarkably, I was able to not let it bother me but my poor husband was mortified well into the honeymoon. 3) Be stressed the days leading up to the wedding. Gosh, it was so tough to have fun in Cabo until the wedding. People were annoying me left and right with all of their repetitive questions (oh, and they were previously answered in numerous emails, websites, invitations, and personal conversations) and I was trying to please everyone (am I spending enough time with my mom vs. my dad, etc.). Plus, I had a virus so that didn't help.

He didn't. I'll ping him. I think that, now, he's remembering all the good things and the bad have slipped away... If you're considering CDM, let me know. I can give you a fair assessment. My recommendation will depend upon when you are wanting to have your wedding (if I really think the construction will be done by then) and the kinds of things that you want to do/care about. It really was the best setting for us - I wouldn't have picked another place given the look/feel which is what we and our guests ultimately remember. I would also say that none of our guests were aware of our issues and they all really liked the place and the service providers.

I was going to wear the dress bustled - I liked it that way. My bridesmaids wouldn't hear of it so I left it down until right after the ceremony. I can't stress this enough - I highly recommend hemming at barefoot. I didn't - it was hard to walk. I kept stepping on my dress when I was walking with my dad (one hand had the flowers and the other had his arm so I couldn't move my dress out of the way) UGH! Anyway - don't worry about it getting dirty. It will - no worries - you won't notice it until you get back to the room. Here's my shoe trick: I wore these: I wore them all the way down the cement path until we got to the sand then I kicked them off (I made sure they were really easy to kick off) and didn't put them back on until we were ready to eat and dance. Side note - I had to do this because I am allergic to bees and the cement path that led to the beach was lined with flowers. Just introducing a bit of practicality that you might not normally consider, but there are bees around Cabo. I didn't see them on the beach, but they are around the pools (they like the sweet drinks) and flowers.

Wow - beautiful. Kash - I was hoping this was YOUR post!!!

You really should visit if you're considering Esperanza. I was in LOVE with this property (especially after we ate dinner there) until we did the tour with their wedding coordinator. The room that you have to use for the reception is configured in a strange way and it has a bad vibe (low cielings, long and thin so it's difficult to set up tables, etc.). Plus, they were not flexible on anything with us.

The Sheraton is a great property - the rooms are awesome, the staff is nice, and the property itself is beautiful. The pics below are the area that they always like to show, but, to be honest, if I had my wedding there, I would have chosen to have the ceremony on the beach and the reception in the restaurant right next to the water. It's beautiful there and the waves sound very beautiful and they shine lights out onto the ocean at night which is just awesome!

Hi Ed - we looked at exactly the same places - her is some insight: Esperanza - great food, beautiful property, but they will not allow you to have any music outside. You have to use a small room off of the restaurant area and they are very strick about a 10 PM stop time. That ruled them out for us - no room for dancing! Las Ventanas - same issue - no music allowed outside so you are up in the corporate meeting area. Not attractive or the vibe you're going for when hosting a wedding in Los Cabos. PLUS, the area that they recommend for the wedding (which is outside) is right next to an air conditioning unit which would make it difficult for guests to hear the ceremony. Their response, "people are so focused on the wedding, they don't notice." One & Only - the minimums were expensive and some of our guests wouldn't have been able to afford it there. Plus, the property is very big so you lose some intimacy and they don't really block out a space for you unless you use their corporate-ish party area. It's nicer than the Las Ventanas area, but you would need to spend some hefty cash to make it feel like a wedding. The chappel is beautiful and you can even rent a horse drawn carriage. We chose Casa del Mar - it was perfect for us and for our whole group, but they are going through remodoling right now which caused us difficulty (not at the event, just in teh planning process). The food was phenomenal and their onsite coordinator works very well with our coordinator, Maye, who was a godsend. About weather. October, even, is still hot and you run the risk of hurricanes or rain. They had a major storm in the last week of October. Actually, there may have been two big storms in October. September and August are really not so comfortable. We were married November 11 which was perfect. two cents...

Karla and I shared starfish. They looked great. Maye told me that there is a store in Cabo that sells them at a reasonable price (we were short a few). Sorry, I don't know the name of hte place, but if you are using Maye, you can definitely get them there. You might need to call them in advance if you need a ton of them.

Hello - welcome. If you need an officiant, we had Maye be our coordinator and officiate our ceremony. We wrote the entire service ourselves (start to finish) and Maye delivered it for us. See the post Natasha's Vows for a portion of it and feel free to borrow any if you like! Maye is great btw.

I missed it, too. I think that we were away (getting married) at the wrong time!

Actually, three of us did 70 in 2 or 3 hours. (assembly). The guys did take awhile to dream up this idea. Our friend is a very good designer so he's efficient.

Here are ours (FYI - I have about 40 or so extra covers if anyone wants to explore this idea) - they actually looked like passports - people are still talking about them. Cover: On the inside, we had a picture of us and information about the wedding but it was in exactly the same format as your passport. We had all kinds of very funny copy embedded in the codes, too. Then, on the pages inside we created "stamps" with information about Cabo, the wedding, etc. We found very authentic paper that feels like passport paper and then our friend recreated the style. Example of "Stamps" Inside: If anyone is interested in stealing our idea, I have the full lay-out and copy, etc. It was very cool (I don't take credit, my husband and our friend did all of it - well, I helped with assembly).

Geez - 10 weeks! We were married in Cabo on 11/11, then married in San Diego on 11/13. When we returned from our honeymoon, I went down to the marriage license office and waited 15 minutes for them to give me my marriage certificate on 11/27 and then walked over to SS and 30 minutes later I had a new last name! It was so easy!

I ran a test to see who printed the best photo, supplied the best service, and had the easiest integration when doing a large batch of photos (100+). Given the high volume of photos, I did not auto-correct. I left them as is. WINNER: Snapfish! and they are the cheapest at $.12 per. The skin tone color was much better as was the overall tone of the photographs themselves (especially with blues). I showed three people the same pictures side by side and there was no contest. Here are a few other things to note: -When printing digital pictures, there is some kind of issue with 4x6s not being sized correctly. You have to go in and resize each individual picture. However, on Snapfish, there is a one-click prompt to automatically resize for 4x6s. VERY handy - 4 of my photos from Yahoo! and Rite Aid came back with the person's head chopped off. -I was able to easily move my photos from PhanFare (email me if you are interested in learning more - I can give you a referral and if you end up signing up you and I both get one month free) to Snapfish - they have a partnership. -Yahoo said that the photos wouldn't arrive until Dec. 22nd but then I got them on the 15th. Their original three week turn around seemed very excessive. -Rite Aid SUCKS! I have ordered photos from them (online and then go in to pick up) 4 times and 3 times I have had a major issue. Turns out that although they say 1 hour photo, they aren't. Not even close (try two days later after Thanksgiving). Also, the photo color quality is not good in comparison and the uploader on their website can only accept 100 at a time so you have to do a few orders which confuses them and you wind up with two sets of 100 and no sets of the other 100 that you ordered (well, that was my experience anyway). Hope this helps!

We got married the Monday after - we had someone from the clerk's office witness. I loved it!!! We left for the honeymoon the next morning. We didn't tell, but no one would have cared either. I am an only child as well, but my parents were just really happy - the semantics wouldn't have mattered to them. For us, though, I was glad to do the legal thing after. It really felt like our real wedding. Everyone else who has married before the ceremony, though, have also said that they felt the ceremony day was the real day.

You should be able to file your name change at the school district quickly. When we got back from our honeymoon, I picked up the marriage certificate and went right to the social security office. Then the next day I went to my appointment at DMV. The DMV gave me a temporary license and social security had given me some kind of paper to show to the DMV - so I walked out of both with what I needed. They give you temporary documents that you can file with your school district to have your name changed. You keep your driver's license number and social security number. Just make appointments so that you are set when you get back.

Dino just emailed my tracking number. Should be here in a few days!

It varies. Some do (1st come 1st serve). Some have a shuttle that goes there at 10 and then picks you up at 3. Others have a more flexible service. Tammy (host), didn't you has something come up with Dreams about this?

Oh - it's been awhile since I took a cab, but I recall something like $40 from the hotel to downtown.

Rent a car. This is a must. You will find that you need something (I had to go get Propel because my electrolites were low due to being sick - who would have forecasted that?). Cabs are expensive. ALSO, they take time. The hotels are spread out so you could wait awhile for a cab. Your guests will find that they didn't think they wanted to go into town during the day but, in fact, they do. Or someone will ask to borrow your car because they forgot their whatever or they want to go get a nice silver necklace for their mom. My advice - you rent a car and have a parent rent another to cover the unexpected.

My sister in law did a very funny thing - she included a "Useful Spanish Phrases" one sheet that was printed on funny fiesta paper. Here was a sampling of phrases: -My donkey is dead (this translation was quoted in our guestbook) -I need to find a black mustache for my dog -Where can I buy a potato masher? -No, I do not want to sleep with you, but maybe you can ask that man over there. -No, I'm not gay. But there's nothing wrong with being gay. Why do you ask? Oh my god - do people think I'm gay? Anyway - you get the picture. It was very funny and was referred to often over the days we were there.

I want to get this down before I forget!!!! Ladies - here is a very practical guide with tips that no one shared with me but I would have loved to have known... What I would do the same: 1) Drink a ton of water starting two weeks before the wedding. I flooded myself (and I didn't drink coffee), but I had the best skin I've had in years! 2) Do a trial hair and makeup. Actually, I did two. I did one on a site visit and another the Thursday before the wedding with a different vendor. What I learned: how to communicate, that I needed to bring better pictures the second time, to INSIST that each pin that hurt be removed as soon as I noticed it, and that my makeup looked like a lot until I was photographed and then it looked perfect. I also felt more relaxed - for some reason I was stressing about my hair which is really unlike me. 3) I loved Shawn's suit being dark. It photographed SO well next to my white dress. The contrast looks great and HE looks great. 4) I also loved Shawn's single fuchsia gerber daisy. Every time I look at our photos it reminds me of a bright, sunny, smiley face - it actually makes me smile. 5) Speaking of flowers - I loved having gerber daisies. They were inexpensive, very pretty, simple, and really easy to get in Cabo. 6) Keeping my coordinators and family up to date with my wedding powerpoint. It was full of pictures of what I wanted things to look like so my coordinators always knew what I was going for. I swear I will figure out how to get that posted. 7) Using Maye - she was great across the board and she really relieved a lot of work form my shoulders. Having the fire dancers - it really made the wedding special and it was such a different experience for the guests! 9) Having the fireworks - we will always remember that we had fireworks at the wedding. Some budget tips - we did 2 minutes but we could have done 1 (cut the price in half). If fireworks are out of budget - get sparklers and have all your guests gather round for a really awesome picture. 10) Smores at the rehearsal dinner. We did it for the kids, but the majority of the roasters around the fire pit were adults (guys - go figure) 11) Being barefoot when I got married! I loved being in Cabo, I loved being on the sand (we live near the ocean), and I really felt so grounded while I was standing there looking up into my husbands eyes while we got married. 12) Turning over the OOT bag ENTIRELY to my sister in law. She's more creative than me - but it also really saved me a huge amount of stress.. Oh - and speaking of OOT bags... 13) Paying the cart guys at the airport to clear all the boxes through customs that my sister in law brought. It was $50 and it was well worth it! She had 11 boxes - they would have been searched for sure. Maybe it wouldn't have resulted in anything, but why make anyone suffer the hassle. 14) Sending an e-vite with the wedding details 5 months before the wedding and following up with every person to see if they were confirmed and if they booked their flight. Everyone had booked their room with the hotel by July which helped us make sure we had the right number of rooms blocked. PLUS - our guests saved money on their flight and we were able to weed out the people who we knew wouldn't have come but they kept saying they were going to or were going to try. Finally - NO STDs to pay for! 15) Hosted a spa day at the Hilton -they were phenomenal and our guests TOTALLY enjoyed themselves. 16) Paid per drink not per hour. We saved a lot of money this way. It was really nerve racking making this decision. Note - many of our guests drank so much at the pool before our rehearsal dinner that our alcohol tab was rediculously low that night. What I would have changed 1) I would have done fewer flowers. The property was already beautiful. There were so many little extras that I didn't need to have - it was just wasted money. 2) You're all going to think I'm nuts, but I probably wouldn't have done a bridal bouquet. I had it in my hands for 5 minutes and it really didn't add much. I'm not very traditional, though. 3) I might have tried to convince my bridesmaids to go less formal and not do full length gowns - but, they liked the dress and they had to wear it, so... 4) Had the hem of my dress done barefoot. We did it the traditional way (with shoes), but I spent so much time on the sand barefoot that it would have been better (and easier for me to walk) if it was hemmed shorter. 5) Decided right off the bat that we weren't getting "married" in Cabo. We held off until we were actually there to finally call it and cancel the judge and translator. I think we both knew that it would be better if we didn't, but we were trying to preserve some romantic notion. We were SO wrong. I actually loved that we got married at the courthouse (by ourselves) the Monday after we got back. It was so much fun I was giggling through the whole "ceremony" and it makes a great inside joke for us! There is absolutely NO doubt for either of us what our real wedding date is. 6) Not got sick! Well, not much I could do about that, but I was a bit bummed and so was my husband. Tip - there are pharmacies that deliver to your hotel. 7) Done my transportation based on the number of guests. We paid for everyone to go to San Jose for dinner one night, but I messed up and went from a bid recommendation of the number of vans rather than requiring them to tell me the specific number of seats per van. We had people CRAMMED into our vans and even then we had people who had to drive. DANGEROUS. Not had the nanny - OK, this was only $80, but we had a lot of kids so I thought that by having a nanny the parents could stay longer and party. No one used the nanny. They worked it out for themselves and the kids were there late anyway. The nanny looked so bored. 9) Told my guests that if they thought they MIGHT want a rental car they probably DID want a rental car and they should plan for it. REALLY ANNOYING that I had 6 guests ask me if I would take them to the airport so they could pick up a rental car on day two or day three of our stay. Tip - we found a rental car that, if you ordered online, would deliver it to your hotel and it was a lot cheaper than renting a car via the conceirge. OK - hope this helps!

Yeah - that's a good tip for people. Ask the hotel to drag over the umbrellas from the pool. I asked every site we visited and they all said they would do it free.

We stayed at two other SPG luxury properties in the area for our honeymoon: Hacienda San Jose - OMG awesome Hacienda Temozon - Very cool, but I liked hte service at HSJ better. You can't go wrong with any of these, though.