B&G

Thank you to whomever changed the title of the thread.

We told our guests to wear flat-bottomed shoes to the wedding. Most wore some type of sandal! Once it was time for the reception, almost everyone had their shoes off anyways...

Yep - it was a royal pain in the @ss, so we wanted to let all future brides know of things that can happen. We realized at the airport how important it is to have cash on you when you need to go through customs, just in case. And as far as gay marriage being a new thing in Mexico? It's not legal - however, in Mexico City, they do have "civil unions" which afford citizens all of the same rights and privileges as marriage. Neither one of us really thought that the validity of us getting married would go into question, considering the actual items that we brought...But then again, with no wedding dresses - a part of me can see where their doubt came from!

Quote: Originally Posted by tvt I love it!! You two are both so beautiful! I have questions for you 1. where did you get your table stones? I've been looking for ones just like that. 2. when did the sun set? right after your ceremony? or did you have time for pics after the ceremony during day light? Why thank you! We bought our table stones at Michaels, the craft store. They had a whole bunch of colors, but we were specifically looking for green ones. I think we paid $3.00 per bag and we bought about 12 or so bags... The sun started to set during our ceremony, which was our plan from the get-go. We wanted to get married as the sun was going down but before it had gotten dark. Fortunately, our photographer grabbed photos of us before our guests had arrived at Caletas while the sun was still up. After our ceremony, the sun had already begun to go down. By the time dinner had started, the sun was fully down. The photos that we took after our ceremony had the last few minutes of the sunset!

At this point, I'm not sure if any other brides flying into Puerto Vallarta ran into the problem that we did...But I wanted to share it with everyone so people are fully prepared for the things that can happen in that airport. Brooke and I flew to Puerto Vallarta with four suitcases, three carry-on pieces and four boxes. Our luggage had all of our clothing and toiletries, while our boxes contained all of the things that we brought down for the wedding. We made the decision to bring things with us on the plane versus shipping it because, well, everyone knows that things magically disappear when shipped to Mexico. After calling American Airlines, we found out that we could check additional boxes for a fee...Which basically came out to the same amount of money it would have cost to ship the boxes. Our boxes each weighed between 50 and 75 pounds and were filled to the brim with items for our welcome bags, decorations for our welcome and rehearsal dinners, and wedding items for Caletas. When we arrived at the airport and began to go through customs, the woman sitting at the screening machine asked us what was in our boxes. When we explained to her that we had brought items down to Mexico for our wedding, she asked us what the estimated value of the items were. We took a wild guess, she looked at us funny, and sent us straight over to the inspection table. The luggage-helper guys (who you pay) brought our boxes over to the inspection table where there were quite a few people waiting for us. They put our boxes on the table and this gentleman (I use that term very loosely) pulled out a box cutter and began ripping open the tops of all of our boxes. Because we had packed them before we left, everything was packaged very nicely with packing peanuts and bubble wrap. With the blink of an eye, the boxes had been ripped open...There were packing peanuts all over the floor...And everything that had been nicely packed was being thrown onto the inspection tables in front of us. The customs gentleman (again, term used very loosely) looked at us and asked us what the items were for. We explained to him that everything in the boxes were for our wedding which was taking place that Monday, and that the items were either for our gift bags or for table decorations. Now, because we happened to be two women, they didn't believe that we were getting married. It also didn't help that we didn't have our wedding dresses with us - a family member was flying them down for us because we had way too much stuff to begin with! The customs man accused Brooke and I of smuggling goods into Mexico to resell for profit. When we began to argue with him, he informed us that he was going to value the goods in the boxes based upon what they would sell for in Mexico and that we would have to pay tax on them. Obviously, because we brought the items with us on the plane and were not reselling them, we asked why we needed to pay taxes. He informed us that unless we had receipts showing the value of everything in the boxes, we needed to pay the amount that he deemed appropriate. Right as I was about to completely lose my temper, he walked away from the inspection tables and called over his female counterpart to talk. They came back and asked one of us to come with them. Brooke made the decision to go because she knew that I was going to end up getting myself arrested in the airport by throwing a total sh!t fit. After about 10 minutes of watching Brooke talking to the customs people through a glass window, she came out, followed by the customs man. He grabbed a roll of tape and taped the tops of our boxes shut, motioned for the luggage-helper guys to come over and waved us off. As we were walking out of the customs area, Brooke told me that they brought her into the office and told her that she had two options. They said that she could either pay 300% tax on their value of our goods, which ended up coming out to $3,000 USD. If she paid them tax, they would provide her a receipt of payment and she would have to refill out our customs forms..OR...They told her that she could give them $120 USD in cash and we could leave with our boxes quietly. Brooke gave the girl $120, which the girl ended up putting in her pocket, and off we went... SO. For those of you who will be making the decision to bring everything with you versus shipping it, here are our tips: Don't pack things in boxes unless it is absolutely necessary. Pack everything in your luggage, mixed in with your clothes. They're less likely to bother you this way. Bring receipts for everything you're bringing just in case - especially if you have quite a bit of stuff. We had 70 guests, so you can only imagine the amount of stuff that we had with us. When you're going through customs, make sure that your soon-to-be husband is with you. If he's not, or if you have a soon-to-be wife like we did, try to have a male family member fly with you and walk you through customs. I know that it sounds ridiculous, but if we would've had a man/men with us, I don't think that our little problem would've happened in the way that it did. They very clearly took advantage of us because we were two young females, and the idea that we could possibly be marrying one another was totally foreign to them (pun intended). Food for thought.

I know I'm posting this a little late but... Definitely go barefoot. We both did. I've heard horror stories about brides who have attempted to wear heels down aisles on beaches...

Let me see here... About walking barefoot...It was one of the smartest decisions that we made. The sand didn't bother our feet nor did we find ourselves being attacked by killer sand crabs. The only bad part was coming back to the resort and seeing that our feet were a completely different color than the rest of our body. Now that stuff was HARD to scrub off (I think we stepped in those berries that fall from the trees!). Caletas was so, so, so amazing. I don't even know what else I could possibly say to describe it. Even the little things that ended up getting screwed up, like our bus situation, didn't even matter.

Thank you everyone! We can't wait to see the pro's pics either...I can't even imagine what they're going to look like. (And as for the kissing by the cake? It wasn't setup. We just happened to kiss and our guest photographer had her camera set funky. No sparklers, no special lighting. Just a kiss and a camera screw up!)

I am so excited for all of the upcoming Caletas brides. Reading about Caletas on the forums doesn't even compare to actually experiencing it!!! When we stepped off of the boat on the day of our walk through, I immediately began crying when I hit land. ..As for the singing? I'm not sure how many people were crying, but the whole thing is on video.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone! We had such an amazing time... Quote: Originally Posted by JulieG Everything looks amazing, I love the cake kissing picture. I can't wait to see the professional ones. 2 questions for you, 1 did you guys surprise each other with what you were wearing? 2, are you changing your last name? How do you decide who's name to choose? My friends who got married decided to just keep their names the same because they were not sure what to do, they thought about making up a new last name, so I am just curious as to what you guys decided to do. Congratulations. We actually didn't surprise one another with our dresses! We went dress shopping together, actually for me. Brooke wasn't going to wear a dress but the second I saw her in one and started crying, she knew she had to wear one. Our dresses are made by two different designers and are actually two totally different colors...However, because we're so different in skin tone, they looked like they went with one another. If you look at them separately, they look nothing alike! Yes, I am changing my last name and taking hers. The decision was pretty simple...My last name is comprised of 7 consonants and one vowel, is incredibly hard to spell and harder to pronounce...And her last name has four letters and can't really be butchered. Plus, I wanted to take her last name. I wrote a review (accidentally posted it twice, whoops!) as a new thread...I hope I didn't forget anything!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone! We had such an amazing time... Quote: Originally Posted by JulieG Everything looks amazing, I love the cake kissing picture. I can't wait to see the professional ones. 2 questions for you, 1 did you guys surprise each other with what you were wearing? 2, are you changing your last name? How do you decide who's name to choose? My friends who got married decided to just keep their names the same because they were not sure what to do, they thought about making up a new last name, so I am just curious as to what you guys decided to do. Congratulations. We actually didn't surprise one another with our dresses! We went dress shopping together, actually for me. Brooke wasn't going to wear a dress but the second I saw her in one and started crying, she knew she had to wear one. Our dresses are made by two different designers and are actually two totally different colors...However, because we're so different in skin tone, they looked like they went with one another. If you look at them separately, they look nothing alike! Yes, I am changing my last name and taking hers. The decision was pretty simple...My last name is comprised of 7 consonants and one vowel, is incredibly hard to spell and harder to pronounce...And her last name has four letters and can't really be butchered. Plus, I wanted to take her last name. I wrote a review (accidentally posted it twice, whoops!) as a new thread...I hope I didn't forget anything!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone! We had such an amazing time... Quote: Originally Posted by JulieG Everything looks amazing, I love the cake kissing picture. I can't wait to see the professional ones. 2 questions for you, 1 did you guys surprise each other with what you were wearing? 2, are you changing your last name? How do you decide who's name to choose? My friends who got married decided to just keep their names the same because they were not sure what to do, they thought about making up a new last name, so I am just curious as to what you guys decided to do. Congratulations. We actually didn't surprise one another with our dresses! We went dress shopping together, actually for me. Brooke wasn't going to wear a dress but the second I saw her in one and started crying, she knew she had to wear one. Our dresses are made by two different designers and are actually two totally different colors...However, because we're so different in skin tone, they looked like they went with one another. If you look at them separately, they look nothing alike! Yes, I am changing my last name and taking hers. The decision was pretty simple...My last name is comprised of 7 consonants and one vowel, is incredibly hard to spell and harder to pronounce...And her last name has four letters and can't really be butchered. Plus, I wanted to take her last name. I wrote a review (accidentally posted it twice, whoops!) as a new thread...I hope I didn't forget anything!

We had the most magical, picture perfect wedding...and we couldn't have asked for anything more. At about 9:00am on the day of our wedding, a group of us arrived at the marina to head over to Las Caletas. Kelly met us there and was immediately helpful. She grabbed our dresses out of our hands (ladies, imagine carrying not one dress but two!) and showed us to the right place to board our boat. The normal catamaran that takes everyone over in the morning had been reserved, so Vallarta Adventures reserved an inflatable speedboat to fly us to Caletas. Other than Brooke and myself, we were accompanied by our makeup artist and her partner, Brooke's sister and one of our very close friends. In addition to that, our photographer and his assistant were on board with Kelly. Kelly sat in the back and held on to our wedding dresses...And off we went! Immediately upon arriving at Caletas, Kelly showed us up to the incredibly gorgeous bridal suite. Once we had situated our belongings, Brooke and I headed over to the spa where we both received hour long massages. Now ladies, Brooke and I both highly recommend getting a massage at Caletas on the morning of your wedding. Their massages? Simply amazing. We both feel that these massages were better than anything we'd ever had before. The amount of money that you'll spend on your massage at Caletas will most likely be some of the best money spent on your entire trip! Once we came out of our private little rooms and were walking like jello, we headed back over to the bridal suite where Kelly had met us with bottled water and a fresh fruit plate. Let me briefly describe the bridal suite for you...Imagine this little sanctuary up in the jungle, with chocolate colored wood and plantation shutters on the windows. When you walk in, you are immediately met by a couch and table, which is directly next to the huge and squishy bed towards the back. The bathroom in the bridal suite is amazing, with a double head shower and a really cool sink...But don't forget two things: 1) The shower has no door and/or no curtain. So unless you're feeling especially "friendly" (as Kelly put it), know that you might want to shut the main bathroom door. 2) Make sure that you close the shutters on the bathroom window before you get in the shower. If you leave them open, anyone walking past the bridal suite can accidentally look in and potentially see you a wee bit naked. Across from the big, squishy bed in the back of the bridal suite is the vanity area - perfect for getting ready and right next to the back door of the suite which leads out to the giant hammock and hot tub. Our makeup artist had the stressful job of getting two brides, a sister of the brides and herself ready...So we began getting ready at 12:00pm. By about 1:30pm, my hair was finally straightened, and we all headed down to the buffet for lunch. We sat with Kelly, which was a treat because she's hysterical, and ate the absolutely amazing food... Then we headed back up to the bridal suite to finish getting ready. Our photographer, Cooper Carras, was in the bridal suite photographing us getting ready while his assistant was out grabbing photographs of the smaller details. Our getting ready process took quite some time, if you can only imagine, so we all sat around in the suite and hung out. While we were getting ready, Kelly and Nicole came up and brought our bouquets in a vase. Our bouquets were mini orange Calla Lilies and they looked EXACTLY like the photograph that we had sent to Nicole. They were stunning! The girls (Kelly and Nicole) left and Brooke and I were finished...Then, it was picture time. Brooke and I decided that we were not going to wear any type of shoe while we were at Caletas. We had always wanted to get married in our bare feet, so we figured that we might as well not wear shoes while we were there at all. Once we had our dresses on and bouquets in hand, we headed down the paths and stairs towards the beach for photos...But there was one slight problem - we headed straight down to the beach where they set everything up. Whoops! This is all I have to say: Nicole, Kelly and their team of professionals pull off quite a feat. They manage to get everything ready in split seconds, almost faster than you realize! When we arrived down at the beach, a tiny bit of anxiety hit because things hadn't been setup yet. Cooper brought us down and took some bridal shots of us and by the time we were done (due to the heat and the fact that I was sweating like a chubby kid running after a piece of cake), they were setting up the chairs and the aisle. We found out that the buses had arrived late to pick up our guests at the resort (we had 70 guests) and therefore the boat was late...So being the nervous people that we are, we stood there and waited until we could see the boat approaching Caletas before we ran back up the stairs and hid in the utility shed. That's where we stood: the utility shed. The pathway back up to the bridal suite had just been washed down with water...Which was not a good thing for two brides in two white dresses with partial trains. As we were walking up the stairs we saw the shed and figured that we might as well stand in there. All of the sudden, Nicole appeared - adorable as she is, she decided to wear a chocolate brown dress to match our wedding colors - and she brought us champagne and glasses. Because Brooke and I were about to vomit all over the place out of nervousness, we took one sip of our champagne and waited until we heard that everyone was seated. Our processional music started ("The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel) and our ring bearer and flower girl headed out...Then Brooke's parents...Then Brooke...Then my father and myself...Our guests were all standing, smiling at us, as we approached the Chuppah and saw our officiant standing there. The setting was amazing. They had lined the aisle with rose petals. The waves were crashing against the rocks behind Tete (our officiant). And Brooke and I were standing there, ready to get married. Note: We had provided Nicole with a good amount of stuff for our wedding day. We handed her our programs and bamboo fans to place on the chairs at the ceremony...We gave her our place card holders...We gave her our place cards, which we had alphabetized before we arrived in Mexico to make it easier...We brought our napkin rings and our green glass rocks for the tables...And we brought all of our CD's for the DJ. Our ceremony went off without a hitch and we were done. Time for some photos on the beach! When we went up to the terrace where dinner was being served, we were amazed at how gorgeous our tables looked. Everyone began to sit at their tables and Nicole brought us over to our head table...And guess what? Nicole brought us our dinner! I couldn't even believe it. She made plates for the both of us and brought them over, including our favorite pasta that they only serve during lunch at Caletas. Everyone loved, loved, loved the food - it was incredible. Virtually all of our guests were talking about how the food at Caletas was better than the food at the resort! As we were walking around thanking everyone at all of our tables, I happened to grab Nicole and Kelly and asked them for a huge favor: I said to them, "I'd like to sing to Brooke without her knowing. Does your DJ have Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie?" A few minutes later, they came up to me and told me that they had downloaded the song and gave it to the DJ. We devised a plan to have them slip me the microphone when no one was paying attention, so I could sing to Brooke out of nowhere...The music started, I began singing, and it was fabulous. Nicole can do anything. Next came speeches from the parents...And afterwards came our cake. The cake looked exactly like the photograph that we had sent to Nicole. Brooke was pretty stubborn about the cake having 3-tiers, so when she saw that it did she was a pretty happy camper. Neither one of us knew how to cut the cake or what to do, so it was great to have Nicole standing behind us and whispering instructions...The cake was great...Especially when Brooke smooshed it on my nose...And it was even better when I smooshed it back on her nose. They served us champagne with our cake as well! And then...It was time for the reception. Now as everyone has mentioned before, the reception is setup on the beach where the ceremony was. They setup a dance floor which is covered by grass mats and surrounded by candles. We all danced and had a great time - including Nicole and Kelly who managed to come out during Salt N' Pepa's "Push It" and dance it up for a bit. The DJ was fantastic and didn't miss a beat - he played some of his music intermixed with music that we had provided for him. Our guests loved the dancing, the atmosphere and the bright blue plankton that washed up on the sand! The sky was perfectly clear and full of stars...So when you looked up, all you saw were the tops of palm trees and an overabundance of starlight! The fire dancers ended up coming a bit late which proved to be a great thing for our guests...I don't even know where to begin or what to say other than the fact that they were absolutely incredible. If you're planning on getting married at Las Caletas, hire the fire dancers...Regardless of your religion or spiritual views, there's something purely magical about having them dance around you and bless you while you're standing there about to pee your pants (or dress, should I say). It's exhilarating, fun and beautiful. And then, the boat ride home. The DJ kept the music going, our guests kept the drinks going, and a group of us continued to dance at the bow until we arrived back at the marina. If I had to rate the entire day, it would get a 10 out of 10 - without question. Nicole is an amazing wedding coordinator who goes above and beyond to make sure that her brides are happy. She treats everyone with respect, she doesn't miss one single detail, and she's a fantastic woman who deserves big huge tips at the end of the night...Kelly? Although we met her the day of our wedding, she was incredible as well. She was there throughout the entire day to make sure that we were happy, she ran around like crazy to make sure that everything was setup properly, and she rode the boat home with us to make sure that everyone and everything was fine. ...Las Caletas is breathtaking and we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous setting to get married. We're looking forward to some point next year when we can revisit Caletas and set foot on that soft sand, hear the familiar sounds of the waves crashing, and remember every single detail of our wedding day because it was nothing short of perfection.

Quote: Originally Posted by beachbride thanks for posting these, I think we were all wondering about you girls! Everything looks great! Coming home immediately before Thanksgiving did us in...We've both been so busy, it's not even funny! Thankfully though, quite a few of our guests sent us some photos so we could post them. Now it's time to write that review...