SusanK

Amanda! They're gorgeous. I love them!

She is so sweet! Congrats again!

Great pics! Everything looks amazing! Can't wait to see more!

Thanks for the tease. Everything looks like it turned out beautifully. Your location was so unique, very cool! I love all the shots in the tall grass.

Yep, you should send them anyway

Funny that all of you girls with 6,000,000,000+ posts are the ones most worried about it! LOL

Beautiful pics! You have amazing eyes!

AUGGHH!!! I just wrote a long review on the reception and lost it to cyberspace... I want to cry!

The Reception..... ....was perfect! Cocktail Hour We were of taking pictures during the cocktail hour, so we missed all of that, but from what others said, it was very nice. The cocktail hour was on the Terrace. The Mariachi Trio played. We chose the Gold Menu, and heard it was very good...especially the chicken fingers...all the guys raved about them and were calling room service later that night to special order them. *A funny side note...after the reception, several guests headed to the lobby bar and continued to drink. When they eventually got back to their rooms, everyone started ordering room service until about 5am. Well, they completely ate the resort out of chicken wings, and really gave the 3rd-shift room service staff a run for their money. A couple of the staff commented that they had never worked so hard on 3rd-shift before... and they were wondering while all these Americans were ordering lunch sandwhiches at 4am. It was pretty funny!

Quote: Originally Posted by RoSean Susan, you are one organized woman!!! The delivery of your review is fantastic. I felt like I was there at your wedding. Can't wait to hear more... Can you pls. post your florist contact info. I'm thinking of switching to Daniella now. These reviews are so helpful. Here's the florist's website. There's a link to contact her. Like I said above, she's wonderful! I sent her pics of what I wanted, and she nailed it! http://www.vanessajaimes.com/

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan Great pictures Susan! I hired Erick (Citalli's husband). How did you get your pictures? Were they mailed to you after the wedding? I've heard some people say that Erick delivered them to them before they left mexico. I am so excited that they deliver them so fast. Also, how did you pay the remainer of what you owed? I don't want to bring that much cash, so I was thinking of getting a travels check. I think that was an option for how to pay. I would almost prefer to pay with my credit card in advance. I don't know if there would be a problem with that. I don't feel like Claudia's team would let me down so I don't see any reason not to pay upfront. The pictures were delivered to me yesterday via overnight FedEx (3 weeks post wedding). Some people do get their pics before they leave, but I'm guessing it depends on the package you go with. We had a custom package ($2000), which included an album of 250 4x6, some 5x7 and a few 8x10, plus and CD (actually two CDs) with 300 pics. I'm sure all of that takes time, especially with all the effects, so I was very pleased with how quickly we got them (in time for our Nov. 10 AHR). Like you, we didn't want to have to worry about bringing so much cash to Mexico, so we paid via Paypal. If you have a Paypal account, Claudia can send you a money request for the balance.

The Ceremony... Ok, so honestly, this is sort of a blur. But a few things stick out it my mind. First, it was windy! The few days before our wedding, it wasn't, but most of the time the gazebo area is quite windy. I didn't wear a veil (never wanted to), and was glad I didn't. The small pool train on my dress was blowing around enough. In fact, my poor dad stepped on it a couple of times because it was blowing around towards his side as we walked up the aisle. The ceremony started off great. We were at the very front of the gazebo with the bridal party flanked on either side of us. However, a couple of minutes into it, the minister moved us into the middle of the gazebo behind the table. The bridal party turned to face on, and I quickly realized that the guests on Matt's side could not see ANYTHING. The only thing they saw for the rest of the time was the GM backs. Looking back, I should have said something... it would have been kind of funny, but at the moment I froze and for most of the rest of the ceremony I just felt bad that they couldn't see anything. I don't know why we were moved into the center of the gazebo. The only reason we needed to move was for the sand ceremony, but that was at the VERY end. So, if you have a large bridal party and large gallery, make sure that you are not moved inside! The lighting is also compromised. The pro photog was able to compensate, but all of the guests' pics turned out dark. As far as the minister goes... I can laugh about it now, but she was sort of a disaster. I forget her name, but Dreams uses her frequently. I kinda like the idea of being married by a woman because a few of my ministers growing up were women, plus, I was told she read English well. I had spent HOURS writing our entire ceremony. It wasn't that long ~15 minutes, but IMHO opinion it was beautiful. Well, she didn't exactly butcher it, but it wasn't how I would have read it. First, I e-mailed the ceremony to the WC a few months ahead of time. I don't know when exactly the minister received a copy, but it was atleast a few days ahead of time, as I was assured that she already had a copy when I met with the WC upon our arrival. Anyway, this lady read English fairly well, but it was quite obvious that she hadn't bothered to look it over... it really seemed like it was her first time reading it, that day. Plus, it looked like she grabbed it straight from her printer just moments before (it was probably still warm). Having done so many ceremonies at Dreams, she should have thought about the wind factor and at least put it in a nice binder or something. Imagine her trying to read the ceremony on a folded up piece of paper, as the wind is blowing... I thought the whole ceremony was going to blow right into the ocean. On top of that, I couldn't stop staring at her make-up. She had bright pink, blue, and purple eye shadow all the way up to her eyebrows, and it was all that I could see, well besides her bra through her thin white shirt. Ikes! Luckily, a big chunk of the ceremony was three readings by two of our friends and Matt's grandfather. They had actually practiced (what a thought!!!) and did a wonderful job. They MADE the ceremony. If it weren't for them, it would have been pretty much a disaster. Another funny thing...when the BM tried to give the rings to the minister, something happened, at Matt's ring fell to the ground and bounced around a few times (thought that was going to go in the ocean right along with the ceremony). That actually made me smile though...and Matt said right away.. "that was my dad...Kevin (the BM) didn't drop the ring, my dad did that to let us know that he was here with us".... which I believe, because his dad does little unexpected things from time to time to let us know he's watching over us. So, it actually turned out to be the highlight of the ceremony. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to just let the minister do her normal thing and add in the readers for a personal touch, but how was I to know. Well now the rest of you are warned. I think she was my one disappointment. Oh well! I did feel like I had to apologize to everyone on Matt's side for not being able to see anything, but luckily they were pretty gracious about it... they said that at least they heard it, and that they would be able to see it on video. Not ideal. Which reminds me... the sound system for the ceremony is a must-have! Between the wind and the crashing waves, no one would have heard (on top of not seeing) anything! The sound guy also did a great job with our processionals and recessional. I brought along a burned CD of the two processional and recessional...and he nailed the timing. Good job! BTW, out recessional was a big hit ("I'm a Believer" by Smashmouth from the Shrek soundtrack)! We got lots of compliments on that...funny what people most remember... not always what you think.

Thanks everyone! Now I'm working on putting together a slideshow for our AHR on Saturday! Quote: Originally Posted by bre Susan-- those are stunning pictures!!! She did an incredible job. Can I ask where your groomsmen got their suits?? We got the suits at Banana Republic Outlet late last summer. I really like how the khaki suits looked on all the guys and in the pics!

Wow, I love it! You look fantastic!

I'm trying to choose some that give you a glimpse of the day, and showecase the different styles Citlalli uses.

Citlalli Rico (from Claudia Rodriguez's studio) did an amazing job! She was wonderful to work with, and the pics turned out even better than we hoped. Here's a selection for your viewing pleasure. Claudia Rodriguez, Photographer, Cancun & Riviera Maya

I sent a PM to Jilly76.

Feliz Cumpleaños! Your first birthday as a Mommy... does that change the celebration a little?

Don't worry I'm not done yet. The last few days have just been crazy, but I promise, I'm working on it!

The DJ-PSAV Presentation Services: Claudia and Daniela (WCs) put me in contact with Lola from PSAV for our DJ needs. Communication was great. I was able to e-mail them a complete list of songs that we wanted for our reception. I also sent an "agenda". We had a lot going on: first dance, bridal party dance, father-daughter, mother-son, bouquet toss, garter toss, cake cutting, etc. So the "agenda" outlined the time and the song I wanted for each "event". I then met with Lola once I got to Dreams. The MC did not come. In retrospect, that would have probably made things a little smoother. So if you go with PSAV, request to meet with the DJ and MC prior to if you have any specific requests. Lola was very nice and assured me that they had all the songs we requested (I had them all backed-up on CD just in case). Because she assured me that they had all the songs, I did not bring my back-up CDs to the reception. It turned out that a few of the songs, they did not have (or they did not have the right version of the song). That was slightly annoying. But I will say they had a large selection, and the guests were able to request several songs. Overall, I think it went pretty well. Again, it was nice to have everything set up and arranged prior to arriving. On the day of, I really didn't have to do anything concerning the music except let the MC know when we wanted to do the "tosses". I guess some of the hotel guests in the Tower started complaining about the noise at about 10:00, and the DJ turned the music down, and which point I made it VERY CLEAR that our reception was scheduled to end at 11:00 (per Dreams policy) and they WOULD play music LOUD until then. They got my point and turned it back up. We had so much fun dancing. The whole Terrace became our dance floor, which was perfect (and saves you money from renting a dance floor), and the Terrace has a raised ledge surrounding it, so as the night went on we were dancing on the ledge! Some of the guys got so hot and sweaty that they jumped in the pool with all of their clothes on at the end of the night! Here are a few pics! Dancing with Dad: "Jump Around!" on the ledge (A University of Wisconsin tradition): Garter Toss In the Pool:

I'll PM a moderator to see if them can move my review to a thread that everyone can access.