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some more pics - non pro obviously! Me and Kelley Brad, Kelley and me View from the bridal casita walking up the hill to the bridal casita Fernando doing my hair tell me you don't want to start your wedding day in an orange life jacket!

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel I bet they were! So yay- I get to kinda contribute. I had asked them for shells but they didn't have any and couldn't get any for under $250. I bought these and I had to hack saw off some of the rod so it would fit in my suitcase. I confess that I meant to bring them home though and forgot. Oh well- as long as they have a nice home for our future LC brides. aww I had a BDW borrowed and I didn't even know it!!! I would think these would be kind of like the traveling starfish - fragile. Maybe some day another BDW bride will have to hack saw some of the shell curtain off

yeah Celina! Not "soon to be mrs e" anymore. Now you are!! Can't wait till you get back and we can hear all about it!

i think that both dresses look lovely, but IMO your're going to be hot in either. i would think that in a tight dress you might be hotter just because the heat can't get away from your body at all...

after i hit reply i realized that i once wrote a thread just like this. FI wanted me to move to AZ, when my family - that i'm really close to - is in MN. In the end we moved, and I bawled my eyes out for 2 weeks straight but it's been a great experience for us together as a couple. plus if you know it's temporary i would think that would make it easier

i would be totally excited to move to a tropical island for a year! what a great experience for the two of you! and no better time than now before you have a family of your own

thanks everyone for the really nice comments. it was so much fun! if you're questioning a TTD, DO IT!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by halef1 I've already saved a picture of your chuppa (I LOVE how you did it with the flowing sides)...for ideas for us!!!! So glad you had a wonderful time. -Heather Ha, thanks! But I can't take credit. Kelley did that all for us. I sent her an idea of what I wanted and, bam, she made it happen Quote: Originally Posted by Andi Ahhh Sunday! good thinking to have it on that day of the week! I really liked your chuppah too...those were shells hanging down right? do you know if those are the same ones Rachel used? Yes they are shells hanging down. I have no idea if they were a previous brides or not, sorry! I asked if they had any shell or beads to hang, Kelley said yes, and then she hung them for us. Easy peasy!

there are a few more on Stephany's blog. photobucket is being a PITA right now, so you can see them at eyespy photography

We almost didn't do this TTD shoot because I was feeling VERY lazy after the wedding, but I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't do it. And thank god we did them. I'm in love with our pictures, and becoming very vain. I can't stop looking at Stephany's blog because I love them so much! trashing the dress, in the ocean, was much harder work that I would have thought. Get some sand in that dress and some strong waves and it's like wearing one giant sail! Oh and don't forget the random people videotaping us, and hanging out their apartment windows to watch! We started by the cathedral and then wandered down any street that caught our eye, and eventually made it to the beach. Photos by EyeSpy!

hmm that is such a toughie! a friend of mine went through a very similiar situation - just not destination weddings. are they 100% decided on the destination wedding? maybe she's just jealous of your plans and is wishing she had gone a different route. either way, it's hard. can the 4 of you sit down and talk about how this affects both couples plus all of the common family?

we saw 3 weddings at dreams while we were there and they all looked great! we actually talked to 1 of the brides the day after her wedding and she said everything with her wedding was perfect! it could totally be that our experience wasn't the norm. and we just had an off day with those guests trying to come in, and the restuarant being really rude. those were the only 2 negatives. aside from the rooms, but the front desk staff were super willing to move us around and even let us check out a room before we moved into it.

yup, here it is!! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t31890

Quote: Originally Posted by Andi Tara, what a great review! Reading about your day brought tears to my eyes! It sounded like everything went so well! Congrats! Ok, so you seemed really calm about the snake on the boat ride back! I think I would have had a mini panic attack and demanded that we get the snake off the boat asap! I HATE SNAKES... I have some questions...just a few Joe got dressed at the spa...did he just change or was there a shower for him there too? I think you are the first one that I have heard of who added the extra hour to the beginning of the wedding. I didn't know this was an option (although I never thought of it or asked either!) Is this something that they were able to do for you pretty easily? Thanks! Joe was showered and ready to go when he got on the boat at the marina. He didn't want to wear his wedding gear over to LC just in case he spilled on himself! There is a shower in the spa but he didn't use it, he just changed there. Like Rachel said, our wedding was on a Sunday. Because there was not a day tour out that Sunday we were able to add the extra hour on to the front end of the wedding versus the back end. And yes it was very easy to do. Rachel, I totally think having it on a Sunday where there wasn't a day tour was a huge perk for us too! Everyone was so calm and relaxed! Ann, I was thinking of you before the wedding and how you weren't feeling well. I think you and Paul need a vow renewal where you feel 100%! And when you have it, can you invite Joe and I? I want to get back there ASAP!

i put on make up, but not much, i was expecting to get totally wet and figured i might as well not put it on in the first place. in the end we didn't get totally wet because the waves were to big to actully swim. so i wish i would have put more on! i did blow dry and curl my hair a bit. but again, nothing crazy because i knew it would get wet anyway

maybe I should have worded my review differently, but i wasn't upset about having to pay for a day pass for our guests. and i can completely understand why they need to do that. i was frustrated that one person tells you one thing, then another tells you a different thing, and it seemed impossible to come to an agreement on what we actually needed to pay for these guests, and were willing to pay and as far as the dinner goes, we all had seperate tables of 4 to 6 people. we ordered at different times, sat down at different times, etc. and we went super early so that we weren't monopolozing the restaurant. there was 1 couple eating when we got there and at least 15 empty tables when they told us they were going to turn away our other guests if they arrived. to me that's not how guests should be treated

Some pics – by EyeSpy Photography Our set up: Our ceremony: The Chuppa: Dinner Location all set up during the day: The cake: Awesome firedancers: I wish I had the picture of Kelley and I to post, but it's not on my camera

Las Caletas – A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Words cannot begin to describe our wedding at LC. A year and half in the making there was some serious anticipation built up around our LC wedding, and it did not disappoint! This is going to be long, so bear with me, but I want to make sure I include everything. Highlighting some words so things are easier to spot if you don't want to read the entire thing! The Friday Prior Kelley came to Dreams to meet with my parents and Joe and I. We went over everything step by step. It was nice to just walk through the day so everyone was on the same page. At this time Kelley also took a lot of our stuff – starfish place cards, table numbers, sand ceremony vases and CDs. The only thing she didn’t take was my dress and our M&Ms. At this time we also paid for the things that needed to be paid in cash. It was so great to finally meet Kelley – especially after emailing back and forth for a year and half! The Morning Of My girls and I met Kelley and Brad at the marina at 10am on Sunday morning. The sun was shining, the water was calm – it was beautiful. We boarded the boat for our journey to LC. Originally we were taking the fast route, aka not scenic, but because we were early and making good time we headed towards shore around Los Arcos and Kelly and Brad gave us some cool local info. We saw where the road ends and the fishing villages begin. It was so cool to see all of it. Not to mention that we saw a ton of sea turtles. Pulling into LC was like having a dream turn into reality. Seeing all the previous LC brides pictures I knew it was beautiful, but it’s more beautiful in person – which I would have never thought possible. What we brought over to LC: My dress, Joe’s suit, hair dryer, curling iron, hair products, make up, and 1 set of shower stuff for us all to use, beach towels, what the girls were going to wear. What we wore over to LC: swim suits, sunscreen (hour boat ride in the direct sun!) and cover-ups. The staff helped us get our stuff off the boat and up to the bridal casita – which is a hike up the hill! We quickly organized our stuff and completed our “to do’s” (tying on name tags to the starfish place cards and making the bouquets) so we could head back down to the beach and swim. We set up camp on the beach and just enjoyed the day! Kelley and Brad continued to check on us and bring us any drinks myself or the girls asked for. We had some beers and relaxed on the beach, took a few dips in the ocean and really enjoyed our relaxing girl time. It was a perfect way to start a wedding day! At 1pm lunch was served. YUM!!!! Up until the day of the wedding I really wasn’t that hungry, but once I started eating the LC food my appetite quickly kicked in. It was so amazingly good! Crab salad, grilled chicken, salad, potatoes, rice. So good! And a really cute and sweet Siamese cat that lives around LC joined us for lunch. After lunch we all headed back to the bridal casita to shower. We were short a few towels but Kelley quickly brought up some more. One thing I was not aware of was the double shower! I got to know my MOH on a whole new level as we showered face to face in the double shower! No worries though, just another fun twist to the wedding! Fernando, the hair guy, came to start my hair around 2:30pm. My hair took about 2.5 hours, but that was because he started my up do, and realized I have a lot more hair than meets the eye, so he took it all out and went a different route. I was totally impressed by this. Because he could have continued with what he had and half assed finished my hair, but he didn’t. He really takes pride in his work and wanted my hair to be just like the picture I printed for him. Sitting for 2.5 hours was so worth it. My hair was amazing. I have never had an up do that I actually liked. I LOVED my wedding hair. And it lasted the entire night. Even through my dancing on the front of the boat – which made everyone elses hair crazy. Mine? Nope, still perfect! Hiring the hair person was spendy but so worth it. I had many compliments on my hair. The bridal casita was so perfect for getting ready with the girls, it was cozy but not cramped and was so fun to have that time together. While my hair was in the process of becoming beautiful Kelley came up to give us an update as to where the guests were. We had 7 people that did not stay at dreams and thus did not ride the bus. Johnny the DJ met these guests at door 9 at the marina and everything went perfectly. As the boat arrived with our guests I was just putting on my make up and getting dressed. Not a single person got sick on the boat and I heard everyone had a great time with the music and drinks. They actually didn’t want to get off the boat they were having so much fun! At that time Joe headed up to the spa next to the bridal casita to get dressed and we quickly saw each other before the wedding. Kelley got our guests down to the ceremony site and got everyone situated as we made our way down from the bridal casita. Walking around the corner and seeing everyone there, on the beach, for our wedding was crazy amazing. For those of you that worry about the stairs, don’t! It’s not bad at all! And for those that worry about being the center of attention – it’s actually pretty awesome. Being the bride has some serious perks, and I wasn’t nervous about all the people staring at me at all. I meet up with my dad at the turn and we walked down the isle. I heard later that there was a little confusion on which side they wanted him to stand on. Kelley said the right side and Brad said the left. In the end my dad went with what Kelley said – my dad standing on the right hand side so I was on his left. Which was how I thought it always happened. Brad, the minister, is really great. I’m not sure there was a dry eye in the house during the ceremony. After the ceremony I made sure to take a moment to look around and take everything in. Amazing, and exactly as Kelley and I had discussed – from the chuppa, to the chair ties, to the table décor, to my starfish place cards, to my Dos XX beers and hyper colored cups, Kelley and her staff did not miss one single detail. Dinner was amazing. People were piling their plates full of the awesome food! Some of the best guacamole I’ve ever had. So good that a friend got sick because he ate way too much food, but he said “I knew I was eating too much but I just couldn’t stop it was sooo good!” He sat out the first few dances but was then back to his normal self. Our hypercolored cups were a hit, and prompted a big game of flip cup after dinner. So fun! The cake…. We changed it to chocolate/chocolate at the last minute and it was good. I’m not a big cake eater but it was pretty darn tasty! The DJ, Johnny, is amazing. I created this HUGE playlist and I totally did not need to do that at all. He played all the right music at all the right times. Including starting our recessional at a specific point in the song that I had requested. Get the DJ, he’s awesome. Our dance floor was full the entire night. Even on the boat ride back home he had people dancing the whole way home. About half way through the dancing the fire dancers snuck out onto the beach (as we had requested. No one knew about the firedancers and we wanted them to just show up and people to be amazed!) Kelley gave me a heads up that they were coming so I could tell the photog. She asked us to walk away from the dancing area so that we could be in the front. None of our guests knew about the fire dancers so when they saw these guys all painted up they were a little curious what was going on, and then the flames began and the entire group was standing around the 2 fire dancers completely amazed and entranced. They were SOO good and so worth the money. They worked the crowd and got close to some of our guests – which they loved – and at the very end they came up to Joe and I and swung the fire around us and they guy looks at me and Joe and smiles and says congratulations. So nice. They actually danced for a lot longer than I thought they would. Probably 20 minutes or so. They were another incredible piece to an already perfect wedding. The night does go fast and I’m so glad we added the extra hour on the front end. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat. Kelley and Brad and their staff do such a great job of getting everyone’s thing together and making sure my girls and I had all of our stuff. They also make sure we don’t leave any guests behind!! Being an event planner I was all about doing a head count, but Kelley shushed me and said it was taken care of! The boat ride back was fun and we actually had a stow away - a 2 foot long snake! Brad was carrying him around and a lot of our guests were holding the snake. The drinks and dancing definitely continued on the boat ride back to the marina. I actually had to grab the microphone and tell our guests to get off the boat! Thy wanted to stay and dance some more!! Once back at the marina our bus was waiting for us. Very nice bus, and it was great having that available to us. Our guests did not have to worry about a thing! By the time we got back to Dreams it was about midnight. If I could redo our wedding every November 2nd I would. It was beyond amazing! Our guests loved it too. They could not stop talking about how great it was. During the wedding a lot of them came up to me and said “how the heck did you do this?” then I’d introduce them to Kelley! Oh, and another sign of how much Kelley will do for you – my MOH’s batteries died in her camera right before the wedding. She asked Kelley if they had any and somehow Kelley pulled through and found new batteries for her. She will really do everything in her power to make anything happen. I thanked her a billion times throughout the night, but it does not even cover how much everything she did meant to both myself and Joe. Kelley, I know you’re reading THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. You are amazing, so nice, friendly, super cute, and the perfect wedding coordinator. Don’t be surprised if I keep emailing you just to see what’s new! Oh, and our guests are already requesting a 1 year anniversary vow renewal so they can experience the whole wedding over again too. Pics to come...

EyeSpy Photography – A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I found Stephany of EyeSpy Photography completely by luck on the Wedding Photojournalist Association website. I say “by luck” because I had already searched their website numerous times, and had met with a few photographers but just hadn’t found the right one yet. So I decided to check out WPJA again. And what do you know?! Stephany was just accepted to the site, and really the rest was history. I emailed Stephany some basic details of wedding in an effort to find out some more info. She was quick on the reply and she gave me tons of into on her packages. We agreed to meet soon after in her home studio in Stillwater, MN. As we left her house I said to Joe “OMG she’s it! She’s our photographer!” She worked out a special package that encompassed every thing we needed, and didn’t have anything we didn’t. It was perfect, and really easy to work with Stephany. A year later we did our engagement pictures, and Joe and I were both totally nervous! We’re not center of attention kind of people, but Stephany quickly put us at ease with her quirky, fun personality. We were nervous about how our pictures would turn out because we both have a tendency to make weird faces, but our pictures were great! We ended up ordering a ton of prints. Now, on to the good stuff. The wedding. Stephany and Matt (her husband and also her second shooter) flew in early and spent some time hanging out with Joe and myself and our family. They fit in like they had been there their entire lives!! Super fun people to be with. The day of the wedding Stephany came with me and the girls over to LC in the AM, and Matt went with Joe and the rest of the group. I loved that we had both aspects covered. We loved Stephany and Matt, and so did our families. I would recomend her to everyone looking for a great photographer! Pictures coming...

Dreams Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa 10/30/08 - 11/7/08 Disclaimer – I’m an event planner by trade, used to travel 300+ days a year and have seen my fair share of events/resorts/hotel staff/etc. So take that into consideration when reading the following… Dreams PV – C Overall Dreams is located in such a pretty area. The lobby staff was very friendly and the bellstaff took great care of all of our bags. We checked into 1401 and it was pretty smelly. It smelled like ammonia and the restaurant right below it. We checked with the front desk to see if we could switch rooms, and they told us we could the next day. We ended up in 1507 – king bed no balcony. We stayed in this room 2 nights. The AC was so bad that the entire room was damp. I would wake up in the AM roll over and my cheek would hit a damp pillow. We then moved it 1617. King bed, balcony and an AC that worked! This is where we stayed the rest of the trip. My parents had 1816, king bed, and balcony and an AC that worked. We origionally booked an upgraded suite which we didn't recieve because we found out a couple weeks before we left that the entire new tower was under construction. We did receive a voucher for a free week stay in an upgraded jacuzzi suite sometime between now and Oct 2009. Dreams is located a little further from town than we had expected but this turned out to be a good thing as our whole group was always together, and we really had the entire weekend together before the wedding and by the time the wedding came everyone knew each other and were hanging out together and it was one big group as opposed to little groups of people that don’t know each other like many weddings are. Our guests really enjoyed being at an all inclusive. Many of them had never gone this route before and everyone commented that it was the way to go. Plus everyone drank a lot and this makes many people pretty happy! Entertainment The first night there were some cirque type performers that were pretty cool. The next day was Halloween and they had pumpkin carving and the kids did face painting and went trick or treating around the resort. That night they had a REALLY great band. Our whole group was on the beach dancing and singing and the drinks were flowing very freely. It was such a great time. One thing that people kept commenting on was how good the drink were. Not stingy on the liquor at all. We also released little baby sea turtles. It was such a cool experience and everyone was talking about it. They did it every night of our trip at 6pm. There was also Monday night Football, casino night, karakoee night. Grounds/maintenance/housekeeping The grounds are really well kept, and they keep the beach very clean. Maid service is great, the rooms could use some updating, but things are kept very clean. No bug issues what so ever! The negative Dreams PV is the most unaccommodating resort I have ever seen. 90% of the questions we asked the staff received a “no” answer. Have a group of 9 that want to eat dinner together? Going to have to get 2 separate tables. The largest table they can do is 8. And even for 8 they have to ask the restaurant manager for approval. You can’t sit at the end of tables because of the “walkway” and 9 at a table is just “too hard for the chef”. 80% of our group went to Oceana the night before the wedding, we had 35 people going. We went early to get some tables. We had to fight for everything. At one point the restaurant manager came over to me and said “you have 27 now, that is all we can take of your party” WTF?! These people are paying to stay here, at an AI and you are going to TURN THEM AWAY? I don’t think so. Plus the resort is at 50% capacity max – the entire new tower is shut down along with 1 restaurant. You’d think they would want to be a littler more accommodating. Nope. We also had some serious issues with a family that didn’t stay at Dreams PV but came to Dreams to meet up with people to go shopping into town. The guards followed them like hawks, took their drivers license and told them “you have 10 minutes before you must leave” it was crazy. Then we asked about day passes. Keep in mind that they arrived at Dreams at 5pm. At 5pm a “day” pass is $100 dollars. The front desk said at 7pm they could come back and it would be $40, which was a discount from the normal $55. So we said “ok, lets do that”. We had to pay the “chief concierge” but he would not honor the $40/person discount the front desk manager had given us. It’s a long drawn out story, but you get the point. Overall, I would not recommend Dreams. Dreams is a good place for people that don't travel a lot, or have not stayed in higher end resorts. It is not a good place for large groups or experienced travelers.

Hi, I used Fernano also. He RULLED. Yes he was spendy and I debated not getting him but he was awesome and I loved my hair so much!!! He started my hair and realized I had more hair than he expected and instead of just finishing it half assed, he took it all out and started over. About to post my review

Yes, we're on our honeymoon, and yes I'm stalking my photogs blog - I just can't help myself! Knowing Stephany I knew she'd have a picture up quickly, and she didn't dissapoint! She just left yesterday and already a picture up today!