A10CalGal

Do you already have an ipod? If you do, I'd be willing to bet you already have some great songs on there...also, the lists that some of the girls posted were very helpful for us (I think it's under "must have wedding songs")

Quote: Originally Posted by jilly76 Christa, beautiful pics! You looked gorgeous, your flowers were gorgeous. One question, how did the IPOD work out for you guys, we're thinking about doing that. Jill - the ipod worked out way better than expected. Of course, we had a small group, so we were probably a little more flexible than you might be with a large group. I think I mentioned in my review that I couldn't believe how well it worked & that I had been so up R's butt about his music selections. We had a huge variety of music: 80's rock, Mexican music (traditional & contemporary), Jazz, current R&B & pop, even some rap. While we had a sequenced playlist put together, as we all started getting buzzed, we started changing the music around. It was awesome! My girlfriends husband asked right when the reception started if we were going to have any 80's rock - and I was like "hell yeah!" Personally, I can't believe I spent so much time even worrying about it. The beauty of the ipod is that you can change your mind & start playing things on an impromtu basis...it totally worked for us.

In my opinion the Tres Leches is tres yummy! It's super moist, and generally speaking you can have it frosted in the color of your choice (not sure about Dreams). We loved our cake!

Quote: Originally Posted by NHPT christa!!!! i have been waiting to see these pics- i cant believe how beautiful everything turned out. were you hot in your dress at all? what did you dance to for your first dance? where did you get your hairr flower? hmmmm, what else........... oh yeah- loved the brushing teeth pic! priceless! Nicole - thank you Honestly, I was dying in my dress when we were walking around on the beach for pics...we literally walked up and down the stretch of beach like 4 times. The worst part was that my thighs hurt from lugging that thing around in the sand. Other than that little bit of time, I was fine. I didn't realize how heavy that thing is until I lugged it around the SF and Cabo airports for multiple hours - I think it must weigh close to 10 pounds! Oh wow, our first dance...I'm pretty sure it was April Wine "Just Between You & Me" Hair flower is from www.flowerclips.com I have an extra one that I did not use if you are interested. Teeth - I thought R would appreciate fresh breath for our first kiss as man & wife

Quote: Originally Posted by NABUMBAH I can only say that I am SOOO envious of you. Chris and I only stayed an extra 4 days after the wedding and it was waay too little time. Sounds like it was wonderful. I totally agree, it was really weird going from such a tiny resort to a HUGE resort. That stinks! I wish you could have taken more time...is there a honeymoon in your future? I will say that adapting to life at home has been a challenge - I'm so tired! And I don't know why. I hope I make it thru work tomorrow...

OK, to answer a few questions... Cake - it was actually quite tasty! We got Tres Leches. They saved the leftovers for us & the kids ate most of that the next day - saved us a small piece. The blue/aqua was planned - I asked guests to consider wearing shades of blue, aqua & white. Some of them wore those colors all week long! The teeth brushing - so, I'm getting ready to head out the door & I realized I haven't brushed my teeth since early am. I had to do it!!

Oh my gosh girls, we have almost 500 pics from Bradley! I have been feverishly uploading to kodakgallery for the last 36 hours. I only have like 300 of them up, but more than enough to give you what you're looking for Here's the link - enjoy. Oh, and the B&W photos are first, so the chronology is a little messed up, but I just didn't have the energy to mess with it... Kodakgallery.com*Join now and receive beautiful photographic prints from your camera

I thought of those 2 options Tammy, but this slide show is composed of like 5 different video type files & five diff audio files. I need to figure out how to make it one file. I may have R recreate it on his software that I know how to manipulate. ARGH! I totally want to share it with you guys, it's the perfect sampling of our day...

Quote: Originally Posted by AQHARIDER Yay Christa! It sounds like you and Rafael had a very nice relaxing honeymoon. Relaxing on the beach everyday for 2 weeks sounds like heaven right now! It's so great to have you back, hopefully you can figure out how to post your slideshow- unfortunately I have no idea how to help you with that. Thanks for all the info on the restaurants- sounds like you two ate your way through Cabo! lol I'm also glad you liked the Tropicat tour- that was one we were considering... Yeah, I hope I can fit into my work clothing for tomorrow! We did eat at a lot of places, but honestly, I couldn't eat much in terms of portion sizes. Although, I probably made up for that with beer & margarita consumption...lol. Definitely spring for the Tropicat tour - it's wonderful. The staff is super, apps yummy & they have liberal bar. I think we paid $41 each.

Quote: Originally Posted by MERRYME Christa- Sounds like you had a perfect honeymoon! I'm so glad you like Todos Santos ! It is my favorite town in the Baja. I am getting ready to buy a two bedroom house overlooking the Todos Santos Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. I think we will be putting in an offer next week. Oh my gosh - how exciting!! I am so jealous. It seems like it would be totally affordable based on what we saw there. There is so much new construction that is for sale, and then it also looks like some construction projects have been abandoned. We absolutely loved the Pacific side - Cerritos, Todos Santos,etc. To me the miles of pristine untouched beach was heaven. We even saw a whale while we were out there. I want to hear more about your TS purchase if you are willing to share...PM me!!

Quote: Originally Posted by TAMMYM Christa, any pictures you can share with me on VDP? Also how did you car rental go for the two weeks, and what was the finial price and did you have to get the insurance? Tammy - eek! I have to check our reams of photos to see if we even bothered to take any of VDP... Car rental - the final price was like $650 for 16 days. Yep, we had to get the insurance. I think it was like $16/day. So, that made up a huge portion of our bill. I think you can avoid this if you use the right credit card & bring with you a print out of their coverage policy. My mistake was that I only have a Mastercard that is a bank card ...the only other CC I have is Discover, and they don't accept that in Mexico. So, I had to use the MC, and as a bank debit/credit card it doesn't offer the same coverages as a standard card. Hope that makes sense. It was totally worth having a car for us. As expected, we ended up being the shuttle for people like my mom who didn't think they needed a car. That became a HUGE pain in the ass. I would definitely encourage you & your guests to rent cars (read: Marty should get her own!)

We were lucky enough to be able to stay in Cabo for almost 2 more weeks after our wedding day. It's a really good thing we planned this extra time, otherwise I would have come home more stressed than before we left! We unfortunately had to move from the Cabo Surf for the remainder of our stay - it would have broke us! Anyway, I put R in charge of honeymoon plans, which in hind sight probably wasn't fair since he's never been to Cabo...none the less we had a spectacular time. He says he would have booked something in the corridor instead of downtown if he would have known the difference... We stayed at the Villa De Palmar Beach & Spa resort, which is basically a condo developement on Medano Beach - almost as far away from the "beach scene" as you can get - which is good, because it was Spring Break time. My initial impression when we got there on the Sunday after the wedding was "holy shit, what have we gotten ourselves into." I think I felt this way because we had gone from a small boutique hotel of approx 24 rooms to a mega resort with like 400 rooms. It was a totally different feel. HOWEVER, it ended up being just fine for us. Our room was great because it had a full kitchen an a nice sized patio with a partial ocean view. We stocked our fridge with tons of beer & water and various snack food. We were also on the very top floor in a corner unit which substantially cut down any noise annoyance. Also, since we had the kids for a couple days, this place was GREAT for them - 3 pools, a big whale slide, hot tubs, swimmable beach, etc - they could just go nuts without us having to worry about them too much. The location was good too for being "down town" - it is on the outskirts of down town...you can walk or drive to all the craziness near the marina if you want. We had a car so we pretty much drove everywhere, but a lot of people walked. It was a good 15 minute walk down the beach to restaurants like The Office, Mango Deck, Sand Bar, etc. So, by the time we would get there we would feel fully justified in eating a big meal with several beers/margs Once the kids left, we got into a pretty good routine of heading down to the beach in the morning to claim our spot, going for breakfast & then spending the remainder of the day relaxing on the beach - reading, napping, drinking beers, swimming in the ocean, just basicalling CHILLING THE F OUT! We did an inordinant amount of this, and it was much needed for both of us. In the evening we usually went out to a nice restaurant or called in for room service. I think a few times we actually at left overs from a previous nights dinner. Here are the restaurants we enjoyed and the few activities we partook, in no particular order.... RESTAURANTS La Dolce (San Jose) - we pretty much stumbled into this restaurant while trying to find La Panga Antigua...we were just so hungry we had to stop. GREAT FIND! It's an Italian spot with fresh made pasta's, yummy looking pizzas and a decent wine list. There is all kinds of cool art hanging on the walls and the kitchen is open, so you can see what's going on back there & smell all the yummy smells. La Panga Antigua (San Jose) - lots of people have raved about this restaurant, which is why we wanted to go. Well, we got bad directions & were looking on the wrong side of the church. Anyway, we finally found it after we ate at La Dolce so we decided to go in and have a drink. Unbelievable ambiance in their gorgeous outdoor courtyard. Impeccable service. Super romantic. We will eat a full meal there next time! Puerta Vieja (Cabo - on the highway near Sunset Da Mona Lisa) I'd been here on a prior trip, so I knew we had to go. Rafael really wanted to go to Ruth Chris, but I told him PV has excellent steaks, so he agreed to go This is one of my favorite restaurants in all of Cabo for it's amazing view of the arc, its wonderful architecture and interior design, and for its great food and shockingly low prices. R had the "Cowboy Steak" which was the special of the nigth - holy crap, this thing was huge! He said it was the best steak he'd ever had. His plate was $30. I had the lobster & filet mignon combo for $28 - it actually came with 2 lobster tails & a huge filet. We finished off with Mexican coffee - they do a great show of preparing it table side that is not to be missed. Seven Seas (at the Cabo Surf Hotel) - we ate many a meal here, since we stayed for several days preceeding the wedding. This really is a beautiful seaside restaurant with excellent food. It would make for a nice romantic dinner. It's not cheap, but also not overly expensive. The service is always top notch. La Perla (at Villa Del Arco in Cabo) - Expensive. Nice atmosphere, good food, good service. I think you could definitely do better for the money. They were really great though, they knew we were on our honeymoon, so they treated us to a heart shaped tres leches cake with something nice written on the top. Mariscos Tres Islas (off the beaten path in downtown Cabo on one of the dirt roads) - Holy Crap! I wish we would have found this place sooner - it was hands down THE BEST FOOD we ate while in Cabo. And, it was the cheapest! It's an open air family operated restaurant with plastic chairs & tables - the kind of place most tourists would never go, so we thought we should try it. Freshly harvested & shucked oysters - the best I've ever had. We had 4 beers, 6 oyesters, a fish taco plate & a fish fillet plate for $27. If you are into non-touristy spots - this is a must! Sand Bar (Cabo on Medano Beach) - we ate breakfast here a few times instead of going to The Office. While I love The Office, it's gotten really pricey...so we decided to try the Sand Bar which was also a little closer to our resort. They're prices are much lower for good food - the same you'd find at the Office. They also do all day happy hour like all the other beach spots (2 for one beers & domestic liquor all day). There is also a lady that does foot reflexology & pedicures - it's called the "Get Hammered while you get Nailed" special: $30 for a 40 minute reflexology massage OR pedicure and it comes with a bucket of beers or a pitcher of margi's. Unfortunately, she was always booked, so I never got to try Tobascos (Cabo on Medano Beach) - We went here for dinner one night with my best friend & her hubby. It was a little chilly that night & we were offered blankets to keep us warm. We were also given a complimentary after dinner drink. I wasn't very hungry, so I just had a quesadilla. R had some VERY YUMMY coconut shrimp that were huge. My BF had steak & lobster...everybody seemed really happy, but the next day we all felt a little bit "off" R was sure he had a low grade of food poisoning. BARS/LOUNGES We went out on the town BIG one night with a few of our guests & our 16 year old.... The Nowhere Bar - on the marina. A big fav of mine. We were planning to have sushi from the restaurant next door, but they are closed on Mondays, so we had a few drinks (apparently it was happy hour - 2 for 1 again). Cabo Wabo - we ate dinner here & then rocked out to the house band The Waboritas...they were awesome! It is a bit commercial, but definitely a fun place when the band is playing. There was a big fat guy in the bar that kept falling asleep in his chair...too comical. Then a girl went up to him & basically gave him a lap dance to try to wake him up - boy didn't even know what he'd missed! Squid Roe - they wouldn't let Richard in - which was weird, so we had to move on. This did not break my heart at all...been there done that. Zoo Bar - more of a hip hop music scene. Really nice inside compared to Squid. Richard had a good time here, to my complete horror...I almost threw up when I saw him dancing (ahem...I should say grinding) with a few girls...that was very strange for me. Anyways, a fun & nicer place in the downtown bar scene. Barometro (on the marina near the Harley Davidson cafe) - I saw this place one night and decided we absolutely HAD TO GO! Very modern place. Cool lighting, cool music, a big projection screen on the wall. It's really hard to describe - I would call it an upscale loungey spot. We loved it. They have great house wines... ADVENTURES Todos Santos - we took a drive up the pacific side of baja on a Sunday. I've never been up this way & I was awestruck...the pristine coastline is amazing. We stopped a few places on the way just so we could check out the beach. Todos was a quaint little town with all kinds of interesting things going on. This is definitely worth the drive if you've got the time! I think we left around 11 am and were back in Cabo before dark. I think I want to retire to the Pacific coast of Baja... Tropicat Sunset Jazz sail - this is the more adult version of the booze cruise. The Tropicat Catamaran is amazingly big & comfortable. They play jazz music in the background, have a full open bar & serve yummy appetizers. They take you out to view Lovers Beach, the arc, and then around to the Pacific side where the surf definitely gets a little violent. We were both so glad we did this - it was very romantic, fun and free of any spastic spring breakers. San Jose Days - this is a celebration of the city's anniversary that takes over all of down town San Jose. It's like a carnival on acid. But, it was definitely a fun way to take in the local culture, eat some cheap authentic food & get some free people watching entertainment in. Holy crap - I've been typing forever & I know I forgot a few things...so ask any questions you might have. I hope this info helps somebody!

Tammy - While our wedding was small & intimate compared to Tasha's - ours was also about family & friends as much as it was about us. We chose to spend time with our guests after the wedding too - we even had the kids with us thru Tuesday night. We wanted to spend time with the kids and our family since we don't all get to be together very often. It was totally up to us though, it's not like anyone pressure us - it just happened naturally. We also changed resorts as you know, so it made it a bit more difficult for people to find us. Priceless post wedding moments I"ll never forget: -Spending my best friends 30th birthday with her & her hubby. -Playing in the ocean with the boys & watching them have the time of their lives -Meeting up at The Office with my friend Che from high school...we drank at leat 10 beers between us & got caught up on all sorts of stuff. -Going out on the town w/my girlfriend from college & her hubby after they caught a 130 lb marlin! Anyway, the point is that you can do whatever you want, but don't underestimate the value of priceless shared moments with your new family.

Quote: Originally Posted by EDYTA Christa when do we get to see more pics? I'm working on uploading all 473 of our photos right now! Soon - promise!!

Quote: Originally Posted by lryates76 You were an absolutely beautiful bride!!! Awesome review!!! What are the long lights on the tables? They look cool! Hey Lisa - so, those are actually just tea light candles in glass holders. For some reason they look like light wands in the photos. I think R had his F-stop wide open on his camera....just candles

Quote: Originally Posted by CABOBRIDE200 Christa~ I love the pics! You were a gorgeous bride!! Your dress was beautiful and I love your hair! Is that a real flower? Or, did you briing it with you? I could really feel the love between you two and I think it is so great that your bonus son walked you down the aisle. I'm so happy for you two! Congrats! Jessalyn - that's a fake flower - I got it from www.flowerclips.com

Does anyone know how I can share the awesome slideshow Bradley made for us? It's on a cd and includes audio and video files...I believe it was made on a Mac. It so awesome I want to share but can't figure out how to upload all of the components. Any techies out there that can help?

Quote: Originally Posted by SASSYGIRL AMAZING! I love you pictures - everything looked perfect and I am soooo happy for you! I love the black and white shot on Bradlys site that shows the whole group sitting at the reception table. You can't tell who the people are but you know it was an amazing party! I would totally blow that up and put it in my master bedroom - such a romantic celebration! I love that one too! It's almost surreal to look at from an outside perspective. We had so much fun, our family/friends are already talking about getting together again next year...as long as I don't have to plan it, it's fine.

Quote: Originally Posted by KARLA Christa, I kid you not.... I logged on specifically to see how your wedding was!! You look gorgeous! Wow, can you believe it's over?!? I still keep hoping I can do it all over again! Congratulations!!! Awww, thanks Karla! We just got home last night - what a shocking change of pace after 16 days in Cabo!! I can believe it's over actually...and I would love to have a party like that again minus all the anxiety I had. I wish I could wear my dress at least once a month though. Thanks again!

Quote: Originally Posted by Nini_Bride Christa, I love the picture of you and R facing eachother, I love emotional pictures like that - they're so genuine. 20 years from now you can look back on those pictures and remember exactly how you felt by looking at pictures like that. Love them, they turned out great!!! Thanks Courtney! That is exactly why I love our pictures so much...it represents how we were feeling and they really take us back to that moment. Bradley put a slideshow together for us that is so awesome...when I get home I will see if I can figure out how to upload & share it. It really tells the story of the day....ahhh!

OK, I just noticed Bradley has some of our pics up on his site - Cabo Wedding Photography

Quote: Originally Posted by MikkiStreak I take it from the photo of you being walked down the aisle, that you guys got things straightened out for Rafael's son to travel with you?? So cool--- Yes, that's his youngest who still lives w/his mom in Arizona. You know, we jumped thru all these hoops to get that stupid paperwork put together & nobody ever asked for it! Figures. I am so glad they were both able to be there & participate - it wouldn't have been the same without them. I think it's cemented our little family in a very cool way.

Thanks girls! Glad you enjoyed. I totally cried during our ceremony - I never really knew what my face looked like when I'm affected that way...now I have a whole series of photos that show me go from smiley to teary. Weird! And the boys in the ocean - I know, great huh? That's what they were doing up until about 30 minutes prior to the ceremony! Doesn't take boys very long to get ready I guess LOL