Jackie

Thanks Courtney. I loved your TTD shoot in San Jose, I'm jelous I kind of wish we traded the beach shots for a little time in San Jose, all the colors are so amazing. YUP, Mariana is the best!

Welcome and Congratulations. Do you know where you will be married yet?

Courtney howd you do that? I seriously might be the dumbest mod ever.

Quote: Originally Posted by henrychucvb01 Did you know that the reason why brides carry bouquet of flowers is because back in the Middle Ages women really smelled bad? The flowers would counteract the smell and made it pleasant for the groom to marry the bride. Food of Thought Thats why I carried one, why do you think some brides just carry one for the looks of it? lol, JK!

wow, thank you that was very very helpful info.

Quote: Originally Posted by TammyB Jackie, awesome review. I loved Juan, he has the best personality, in fact he even sent me an email for our 1yr anniversary, I mean come on what other vendor does that once they completed all their work? He's just awesome and maybe if I make it out to cabo again I may hire him to do a fun shoot with DH and I. Isnt he just so sweet. I've allready been daydreaming about a huge family get-together in Cabo 5 or 10 years from now and having Juan do a cool family photo shoot in downtown cabo or San Jose or something.

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel Great review Jackie. You make a very valid point about the wait time for photos. I think if you know how long the wait is from the start, it isn't as painful. It will still be painful, but a dull pain. lol, exactly, well put.

Oh very cute!

I agree with Rachel. Its up to you. And I wouldnt finalize any decisions until after you see the prom pics. You might change your mind or decide its a great idea.

Quote: Originally Posted by Leia78 Hi Jackie, I can't thank you enough for your extremely honest and detailed review. Juan is my wedding photographer too and now I'm even more excited for him to shoot my wedding! Quote: Originally Posted by JessicaM Jackie thanks for the detailed review of Juan. I also hired him and its nice to see that even though, yes he is expensive, he is worth every penny. Like you Adam and I have saved to have gorgeous wedding photos to look back on and now you have confirmed that everything is going to be worth it!! THANKS!!! You will not regret hiring Juan, Hes nothing short of amazing!

Its such a reasonably priced resort too. We were thinking of having our wedding here when we were contemplating doing it in the RM

Ohh thats not a bad idea. I kind of get depressed now looking at my ticker and having it say that everything over with!

I lost my dad two. And for the first few months of wedding planning this was all I could think of. How will walk me down? I finally decided to walk alone half way and then my husband came and got me to walk me the rest of the way. It was beautiful and I am so glad I did it this way. Its a had decision to make but no matter what your dad will be there watching over you with a big smile on his face and a heart full of love for you.

The two of you looked absolutly amazing. Gorgeous photos and slidewshow!

Awww thanks, I really did have the best day of my life.

A little background as to why I am doing a separate review for our photographer. I wanted to pay special attention to our photography review for a couple different reasons. 1. being that this was the one area that I splurged big time money wise. From day one I knew that my photographer would be the most important vendor to me. We don't have a huge amount of money by any means, we are a middle class couple and both work overtime every week, but it didn't matter to me, I would have worked even more if it meant I would be hiring the best of the best and having the greatest pictures to look back on for years to come. 2. Ive read a few mixed reviews (a lot of great ones too) for Juan Carlos Tapia photography and wanted to really give an honest detailed review from both mine and Ryan's point of view, because again I feel that the photographer you hire is your most important vendor IMO. 3. I wanted to pay special attention to our TTD review because its somewhat of a newer concept and I think after doing it I might be able to give a little insight on it for future brides. Contact Accessibility: A+ Through the entire year long process Juan was truly great to work with via e-mail or telephone. I know through personal experience and through talking with other brides that this is a really important aspect of weather or not vendors are considered good to work with. Planning a Destination Wedding is truly done mostly through e-mails and one thing that can really send a bride into panic mode is not hearing back from a vendor, its important that your vendors get back to you with in a reasonable amount of time. I never once had to worry about hearing back from Juan. He communicates really well too, his ability to speak such good English amazes me. I took 5 years of Spanish and cant speak the language at all, so anyone that is able to learn a foreign language impresses me right off the bat. Pricing I'm not going to go to much into this one. Juan is expensive, but he is also very talented. This is a personal decision for each bride so I cant really grade price. It just depends on what you are willing to spend for your pictures. I do not regret spending a lot on our photographer but again it was the most important vendor to me. And Yes you can spend less and still have beautiful pictures, but I'm not comparing vendors I'm just reviewing mine. I will say that Juan works his but off for the money he charges. He was running around every time we hired him (engagement pics, boudoir pics, wedding pics, and TTD pics) trying to get the very best shot. I was absolutely exhausted so I can only imagine how he felt with a huge camera hanging around his neck. Juan's Assistant A+ I feel like an idiot because I don't remember her name. But she was just the nicest girl and really helpful and personable. And again, I think she just might speak better English then I do. Definitely seems to be interested in photography and learning a lot from Juan. She made a comment about how lucky she was to have found Juan and be able to work for him, I thought that was really sweet. They worked very well together. Wedding Day Shoot A+ Our ceremony was due to start at 5:00pm Juan showed up right on schedule at 4:00pm to take some "getting ready" pics of us in the girls room and the guys in their room. From the minute he arrived I knew it was going to be a great day with him. What I really like was through the whole process he would show me random pics that he was taking in his camera screen. They were so gorgeous. The ceremony itself, I'll be honest I was so freaking nervous the whole time, I definitely wasn't paying attention to what Juan was doing. But on the plus side he really keeps himself hidden well. I really didn't even know where the heck he was the entire ceremony. I will tell you that our guests commented on how crazy he was, running around to get the best shot, they were all very impressed. Pics between the ceremony and reception, these went really well and I am so excited to see them. I saw a few in Juan's camera and they were so beautiful. Again, here we are running around the resort to get good shots. We were in front of the resort, in the hallways of the resort, and on the beach. This is the part I was a little nervous about. Juan is known to get carried away and not realize that the bride and groom do have a reception to get to. So I was a little nervous that we would be taking pics for 2 hours and miss half the reception. As it turns out Juan was more aware of the time then I was. He promised to get us to the reception by 7:15pm, which is exactly what I had planned for, and he did! I hired Juan for 6 hours (4:00pm - 10:00pm) he stayed right up until 10:00pm working hard the entire time. I actually had to tell him to sit down relax for a minute and eat! lol. I cant wait to see the reception photos of all us girls dancing and having fun! Trash The Dress Shoot A+ The day after the wedding we had our trash the dress photo shoot. 1. The horses First of all I totally dropped the ball on this one and Juan definitely saved my butt. I figured I could just book the horses through Dreams when I got to Cabo. Whoops turns out they only book the horses until 4:00pm and our TTD shoot was at 5:00pm. I was bummed and told Juan that I was sorry but we couldn't do the horse part of the shoot. He looked at me like I was crazy and called his Horse guy and within 3 minutes confirmed that they would be at Dreams at 5:00pm with horses! The horses were gorgeous quality horses. They were very sweet and well mannered. Mine a little feistier then Ryan's but had a wonderful trot and canter to him. So comfortable to ride, he had one of the best gates I have ever ridden, and was so easy on the mouth to control. One tiny tug and he would turn or slow right down, One small nudge and a kiss and we were off in a full canter. If any of you are debating on weather or not to do the horses. DO THEM, I saw some of the photos and they are amazing! I cant believe we almost didn't get the opportunity to have them. 2. The Beach The beach was insane the tide is pretty damn strong, and it was extremely rocky and slippery. The water was very nice and warm though. I am so glad we did this and cant wait to see the photos. Juan was his usual crazy self, working his but off to get the right/best shot. We only booked Juan for 3 hours for the TTD and we went way over our time limit all because Juan was not going anywhere until we had great photos! Here is my honest review of the beach photos though. 1. If you truly want beach photos for your TTD DO NOT wear your original wedding dress if it is by any means a big or heavy dress. My dress had a long train to it and once in the water it weighed SO MUCH and it was really hard and dangerous to move around in. Juan wouldn't even let us take photos in some parts of the water because he was to afraid the tide would be to strong and I wouldn't be able to fight it with such a heavy dress on. 2. I will be very honest there are a lot of big crabs on the rocks that you will be sitting on in the water. Yes they ran away as soon as we got anywhere near them. No I never got bitten. But I was scared, I just wanted to be honest in case anyone else is scared of that stuff. 3. Looking back on the water part of the TTD shoot. I am so glad we did it and I think the pictures will be beautiful, Its a gorgeous spot for them. Chileano beach I think. But, now that It is over and I have thought about, I think I would have preferred to go into San Jose and get some really cool shots full of color and life. We will have a lot of beach shots just from the wedding day itself. And I think Juan could do some amazing work doing a TTD in San Jose. So my piece of advice to future brides doing the TTD shoot. 1. Get the Horses they are amazing pics! 2. If you do the beach shots, wear a light dress! 3. Really consider asking Juan if he would be able to do some TTD shots in San Jose rather then the beach. Time-line on receiving pics A- Juan said he wants to give the photos the attention they deserve and not rush. He told us it will be 3 months but no longer. Which means they wont be ready until the end of summer. I am happy because he was very honest with us. He didn't tell us they would be ready next month, so at least I am prepared to wait and wont be wondering why the hell they aren't ready. Yes it is a long time to wait which is why I didn't rate it as an A+, but lets be honest Juan is a busy photographer, he is not going to lighten his work load so that he can get photos out sooner, and he wants to fix them himself to make sure they are the best they can be so I cant imagine he will be hiring anyone to do this for him anytime soon, so if you want his quality of work you are going to have to wait for it. Summary When it was time to say good bye to Juan, I truly felt like I was saying goodbye to a good friend. I guess that is another reason I wanted to do a separate review for Juan's photos. I really do feel that he is truly an amazing artist and a wonderful person. Through speaking with him during the various photo shoots you can tell he is a great family orientated hard working husband and father who loves what he does. Both Ryan and I were very impressed with Juan as a person and photographer. If I had everything to do all over again I wouldn't change a thing in regards to our photographer Juan Carlos.

Nevermind apparently I'm the suckiest moderator, I cant figure out how to change the damn title.

Oh thanks, were you the one that introduced yourself to Juan? My nerves were so crazy (I thought I was seriously going to faint during the ceremony) that I didnt put two and two together until afterwards. I didnt get a chance to meet Michell in person either , the whole week just flew by. You must be so excited your wedding is comming up quick!

Heads UP ladies, I changed the title of our thread. I didnt want 2009 brides to feel like they couldnt join in etc etc so I took out the 2007 and 2008 from our title. If the thread gets overwhelmingly huge I can always split them off and start a new one.

I posted a link to our snapfish which doesnt even have many good pics in it. I'm having the hardest time getting pics on here lately. I'll have to try again.

I would think you would want to order them too. I dont think you should be expecting Rain. Even if it is there "rainy" season it still hardly rains, from what I have read anyways.

Denise I love the pics! Your fuschia dress with the greeny/bluey attire of everyone else was so vibrant and colerful! It sounds like you had a wonderful time and what a great way to kick of many more years of happiness. I hope I'm in your shoes a few years from now. Congratulations!

Happy Anniversary Ann and Paul!

I have naturally really tight curly hair. That gets frizzy in almost any weather. I was so worried about this that I had them straighten it and then pull it back because I just didnt want to worry about my hair all night. I knew if I tried to wear it down I would have been in the ladies room every 15 minutes checking on it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenn3878 Welcome home Jackie! Congrats! You looked beautiful!! Thanks for posting! I think I am going to have to take my 1 yr anniversary and go to Dreams Cabo!! We are getting another group together to head off to Dreams Tulum next year! I cant wait, I'm allready relentlessly researching and reviewing the Riviera Maya. Quote: Originally Posted by amy&andy08 Wow Jackie thank you so much for the review! I'm so thankful you went over everything in such detail. It makes a few decisions for me that much easier! I'm looking through the pics next...!!! You are so close to the big day. If you have any last minute questions or anything at all pm me! Quote: Originally Posted by Mango Deck Hey Jackie.. Welcome back and a great review. I love that you liked our little piece of heaven.. Congratulations and the best in you brand new life Thanks, Mango Deck was so much fun and way better then the office!