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Thought I'd chime in! Our original budget was $10,000.00...it is now $15,000.00. But, if you consider that we paid for our BP's stay (which includes both sets of parents and siblings too), then we really did a good job at hitting the $10K mark in general wedding stuff! There's still a few more things to buy, but nothing major... Total Spent To Date: $14,778.03 Total Spent w/o including BP stay: $10,138.03 OUR EXPENSES - MY PARENTS GIFT TO US (NOT PART OF BUDGET) Bride Dress: $1,300.00 Bride Alterations: $350.00 Bride Accessories: $175.00 Bride Day-Of Hair/Makup: $275.00 Groom Attire: $156.00 Groom Accessories: TBD CEREMONY STUFF = $803.00 US Celebrant (Civil Ceremony): $300.00 US Marriage License: $28.00 Cabo Officiant (Rehearsal & Ceremony): $475.00 Resort Set-up Fee: Included In Contract RECEPTION STUFF - $3,281.37 Welcome Dinner Food & Drink: Included In Contract Resort Set-up Fee (China/Linens/Tiki Torches): Included In Contract Reception Food & Drink: Included In Contract (I love my resort!) Cocktail Hour Food for 50 guests: Included In Contract, but I upgraded so $400.00 Wedding Cake: Included In Contract (for 20 people), but I upgraded to feed 40 people so $400.00 Ceremony & Reception Decorations/OOT/Dancefloor Rental/Miscellaneous: $2,481.37 STATIONARY - $519.05 Wedding Website: $29.95 Save the Date Magnets: $63.55 Invitations: $320.75 Postage: $104.80 FLORIST - $270.00 Flowers: $270.00 PHOTOGRAPHY - $1,800.76 Photographer (5 Hours): $1,800.76 MUSIC - $1,372.50 DJ: $922.50 Spanish Guitarist: $250.00 Resort Electric Fee: $200.00 BRIDAL PARTY MISCELLANEOUS - $4,793.35 Bridesmaid Parasols: $43.35 Bridesmaid Alterations: $110.00 Bridal Party Stay (10 people @ 4 Nights Each): $4,640.00 PERSONAL TRAVEL - $1,938.00 Flights: $838.00 7 Night Stay (Complimentary 2 Night Stay; Again, I love my resort lol): $1,100.00

Just another note on an event design company, my DJ (Ricardo Patino) refered me to this company as well: OXTEN -LOS CABOS-

Wow nylalany! 87 booked is crazy! Congrats on the big turnout!

Quote: Originally Posted by anthonyandgarin I am doing a site visit to EDR on Friday March 7th. please let me know what you would like pictures of, what questions you want answered, or anything else you can think of. Yay! Another wedding date twin! (Thats 2 that i've ran into today!)

Honestly, you really dont need them. My example: the resort coordinator sends me a rooming list every month of guests that have reserved their stay; sort of like my very own RSVP list. I will tell you that I did send response cards with my invites anyway. Its a nice feeling to get them in the mail BUT you really dont need them though lol!

Quote: Originally Posted by lucy106 so is the moral of the story thank goodness for your lazy bro? Dont tell him that! HA! Totally! You know, customer service really is key with specific airlines! I booked my own flight about 9 months in advance and Continental changed my return non-stop to a one-stop, but at least they had the courtesy of advising me that this happened months in advance and multiple times! (email & voice messages!) Delta completely removed a flight from their pattern and didnt say boo!! I cant believe its such a common problem with them specifically!

My parents booked their flight to Cabo on Delta Airlines a few months ago at a really great price. My brother finally decided to get his arse in gear and book his today, so he put me in charge of trying to get on their flight. I call Delta and the first thing they tell me was that in order to be on their very same flight, he would need to pay double. Yeah right; Continental is half that and a non-stop! Then, right before I let go of the operator she says, "umm wait, there's a problem with your parents return flight. It doesnt exist anymore". WTF? I asked her what "doesnt exist" means, and she says "well the return flight has stopped operating on Tuesdays. They need to come back Monday or Wednesday..." My biggest problem with this: I NEVER RECEIVED A CONFIRMATION OF ANY CHANGES FROM THEM! Were they ever going to let us in on this? Imagine my parents going to the airport expecting their normal schedule and being told "sorry, you have to come back one day early or one day later" Anywho, I went bridezilla on the many reps they connected me too and got a refund. They are all booked on Continental now, which is the only airline I fly because their customer service is great! Delta: F.U.!

Quote: Originally Posted by becks I love the BCBG, then the eyelet Same here! The BCBG is my first choice, followed by the eyelet!

Quote: Originally Posted by BarefootBride Dress 1 is pretty. It looks different on the model though - maybe it will look better on you at the last fitting. Its not form fitting or shapely. Dress 2 looks very very good on you. It is very pretty minus the bow. I have this feeling that its the main reason why most people vote for 1. Get rid of the long bow string or the whole bow. I love the neckline on you and the waist part makes you look so darn thin. You finally saw the pictures! If I take dress 2 in for alterations, those strings are exactly what I would get rid of first lol! The halter area fits me like a glove, but once it gets to my waistline, it gets really big/loose and doesn’t create the mermaid shape it's meant to (as you can see in the pictures). That would need to be taken care of as well. Really though, I think the simplicity of dress 2 is what I like the most about it... I guess its always good to have a backup plan if you’re having second thoughts on your dress! I also feel much more calm waiting for dress 1 based on everyones input. Thank you ladies! And at least I don’t feel this way about FI

Ladies, thank you so much for your honest opinion! ((I am also sooo happy that I'm not the only 2 dress bride lol!)) I'll definatley wait until my second fitting before making a final decision...and if I end up with the former, then the latter can actually be returned to J.M. woohoo!

Vent! I’ve been rethinking my dress…and I hate myself for it My wedding is in two months (!) and I bought an Essence Couture (Essence of Australia) dress in July of ’07 for a little over the $1K mark. I was looking for something strapless and A-Line made of huggable fabric and I pretty much found that in this dress. The detailing was very different too: aurora swavroski crystals throughout the bodice and a giant beaded starburst – no specific flavor lol- on one side. It was a dreamy blur when I put down my deposit. Then… the first fitting happened. They whip out my dress from the garment bag and I instantly love the way it looks and feels. When they helped me into it and secured all the buttons, I still loved it…but…not so much anymore. The asymmetrical waistline was sort of awkward looking, it was heavy as f**k lol, and my body sort of got lost in it. It didn’t necessarily scream Cabo beach bride to me either. So I assumed all this anxiety was simply because the alterations hadn’t been done yet. Fast forward a month and a half later. My second fitting is March 10th and… I’ve been looking at different dresses online! The biggest “bride that already bought her dress” faux-pas! Needless to say, my anxiety has gotten the best of me and I am no longer sure if the Essence dress is THE DRESS. I’m blaming it on the fact that I was never the type to pick out my clothes the night before for the next day (or 10 months earlier at that lol)! So I window internet browse and browse…and I run across a Jessica Mcclintock dress for $350.00. Well, returning merchandise is my second biggest vice (the first is obviously shopping for something I already have lol), so I purchase it. It arrives today and what happens? I love it! It’s a sleek halter dress made of pretty satin & lace fabric with very little fancy-pants detailing. Plus it hugs me in all the right places (needs to be fitted a little more) and its ultra light. I rationalize that I still have my second fitting to go to in two weeks and I might end up loving the alterations on what was originally “the one”. But I still wanted your opinions on which dress you prefer on me better. I hate that I’m so indecisive, but what I’m wearing has been the one thing I’m paranoid about and I just don’t get why it’s driving me so nuts! I appreciate all your honest opinions on either dress! D Dress 1: Dress 2: ***Related Side Note: I feel like the woman modeling the original dress is having my very same issues...and im guessing it was altered to her size for the picture...

I've got mild Rosacea. My cheeks are almost always a pink color, but when I drink/work out/or blush, my entire face and neck area looks so so bad immediately after (i.e. RED)…. I use a special face wash - which is really good as a general cleanser too (DCL Mosom Cleanser) – and some prescribed cream that I apply anytime the “big red” breaks out. I’m supposed to take a pill every day for it, but blah to that…so when I breakout, I just stick to drinking tons of water and laying a cool damp cloth to my face before applying the cream. It’s a big pain in my arse to regulate, but I’ve narrowed it down to mostly wines causing me to be redder than anything else. Vodka seems to me my bff lol <3

We did! As the general wedding expenses with our resort were super low, we were able to do this as part of our budget! We paid 6 rooms @ 4 nights for 9 BP members. To be honest, had we not decided to select this as our gift to them, our entire wedding would be wayyy cheap lol!! (((What we did decide up front was that any guests of the BP would pay for their own share of the room and that BP coming by themselves would share rooms and this was totally ok to them all!))) Room 1) Bridesmaid 1: room will be used by FI the night before the wedding Room 2) Bridesmaid 2 w/ her BF: he paid for his half of the room Room 3) Groomsmen 1 & 2 Room 4) Groomsmen 3 w/ his GF: she paid for half of her room Room 5 & 6) Both sets of parents No one was expecting this from us and we didnt orginally plan it either, so it was awesome to see their faces when we informed them their flight was the only thing they had to worry about lol!

I've been meaning to look up a spanish song for the father/daughter dance, but didnt know of any related to that dynamic!! Thanks for the suggestions ladies! Quote: Originally Posted by LadyCheese Oh I live in Passaic County. I went to Passaic COunty Tech HS. How awesome! I'm one county over (Essex)

This is my ceremony site and wedding "gazebo" at the Presidente Intercontinental... I <3 it so much because of how different it is!

Long Update: Our municipality was already booked into June …in February!… for civil ceremonies so I had to find an officiant to legalize our marriage… I called a few ministers and ugh, on the phone they were overall very dry towards the concept of a bare ceremony…which is what I thought I wanted to keep Mexico “the one”… But any way I tried to rationalize it (as in, the legal one won’t be important lol) this is such a great and unforgettable moment between FI & I, and if these ministers are dry over the phone, imagine them during the ceremony… So I decided to go with a really sweet minister that wanted to make the civil ceremony a little more special from the start (whom I said no to because I wanted to keep it bare and she recommended getting legally married after Mexico if that was the case)…Needless to say, I’m glad I’ll be keeping it simple but genuine in the U.S. before we spill our hearts out in front of our friends and family in Mex <3

My mom can wear halters better than anyone I know lol...so she's going with this BCBG dress (except the sash on her dress is chocolate brown)...

Yay! Another Los Cabos bride from my state! Here’s how I started planning on my own: 1 ) Picked a date & a location: May in Los Cabos! 2 ) Had lots of patience & started out with healthy hands for all the emails to be sent! 3 ) Emailed about 5 of the more popular all-inclusive resorts asking them about room rates THEN wedding packages. Since air IS expensive from the east coast, I’d rather our guests have everything included in their hotel stay … 4 ) Minimized our list to 2 resorts that were both beautiful and reasonably priced by estimating what a general 4 night stay would be... 5 ) Went for a SHORT site visit, but it was so worth it lol!!! Since we already stayed at one of two chosen resorts and were lucky enough to be part of an event there three years ago, we stayed at the second option - and loved it even more than the original! But still went to see them both, plus the others that were not on the list (for the "just in case") Also took tons of pictures for our wedding website… 6 ) Signed and negotiated a room contract/wedding package and put down a deposit. Our situation was a little different as we paid for our BP’s entire stay (hence the deposit), but I guess everyone’s contract & deposit is different or even non existent for some?? 7 ) Created a wedding website and sent out STD’s with the address for our guests to have all the information they needed to book & go (location/flights/passports)… 8 ) Found this amazing forum for lots of help and all the extras (florist/photographer/dj) and also had lots of contact with my fabulous groups coordinator at the resort…compared prices/reviews…and booked most of what I wanted on my own and the rest through the resort... That’s pretty much the bulk of what I did to end up having my wedding at the Presidente… And yes, my hands arent so healthy anymore lol

I'm dying over the booty shot! Wasnt expecting that at all! Amazing dress! I love the cut/style!

I think you're totally right lol... But in our situation, none of the BP (including us) have ever been IN a wedding before. Basically we have no idea where to stand or how to do certain things in "formal-ish" fashion... I definatley dont want to be the one to delegate everyone to their places the day of either...so we dont mind having a short rehersal to practice

Totally feel you on wanting your DW ceremony to feel like THE ceremony :/ Our Cabo wedding date is May 3, 2008; civil ceremony (not legal). This is the date we will consider our wedding date forever… April 21st was to be the legal U.S. civil ceremony date with a JP. Well, I just called my city and that date is completely booked - the whole month of April is! So I called neighboring cities and they won’t perform a ceremony for outside residents! WTH? Now I either have the option of scheduling a legal ceremony date with my city in May when we get back (which would probably be cheaper to do) or pay an ordained minister to marry us legally on the date we want. Only problem with that is most ordained ministers in NJ I've contacted want to make the ceremony more special than we’d like and they would run us about $250-300!! What to do, what to do!

I need your opinion ladies! Fast forward to wedding trip: I have a welcome dinner scheduled for Friday at 7pm. The rehearsal also needs to take place that Friday. My problem: I don’t know when to schedule it! Do I make it first thing in the morning to kick off the day (well, around 10am to allow for hangovers lol) or 4-5pm so once it’s done with, we can all get dressed and head to the welcome dinner? Helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Michelle&Steve you jsut made my day!! my fiances cousin rented tuxes from them and i was gonna look into it... that price u got is great! which tuxues are u renting with that price? is that with a discount? the website has a 20$ promotional discount when u register with them... i was wondering if that was already with 20 off... You’re welcome! If you search by color (tan) on their website, this one pops up: Dante Zeller Tuxedo : Tan Wedding Suit Two Button Tuxedo It’s much darker than it looks in the picture and the fabric is perfectly light for really warm weather. They also recommended a specific shirt that’s good for the “sweats†lol. We didn’t use the 20.00 off (crap!), but I think the breakdown was: $100 rental, $50 extended rental, $6 for insurance purposes like spills/accidents. Hope it works out for you!

23 are booked thus far and I think it will end with around 55-60 guests in total. Almost all of my friends are planning to go than family, and FI has almost all his family going and very little friends. How odd! Heidi & KellyandMatt08: I thought I was the only one who had very little family going! I think it's only going to be my parents, brother, and 4 cousins...