michelle08

We entered our reception and immediately did our first dance...it was perfect. Then I had wanted to cut the cake before dinner (but eat it after) just to get it out of the way and so the photographer could get it..but then he offered to stay late. so we did cake when we were done eating. We didn't do the other dances. he didn't want to...hi mom was a little bit sad about that...but it all worked out. For those doing the other dances I would say maybe do those right after your dance so you get all that out of the way too...or even cut your dance in the middle and dance to the same song...I felt like ours went on so long! Oh yeah and speeches were during dinner!

Yay! Your day is finally here!!! I have you are having a blast in cabo and have a wonderful wedding!

I understand completely...I am all about organizaton and little details and I was also having trouble getting motivated toward the end...I think I was burnt out and realized in the back of my mind that all the little details weren't what made or break the wedding. I don't think you are behind schedule. Because I was in school and stressed w/ that I didn't start most of my little details until January for my May wedding so right about where you are and it all worked fine. Relax a little and sometimes people work better under pressue so maybe as it gets closer you will take off!

I agree w/ Maura! If he is going to come onto the resort and pay a day pass then he should stay at a regular hotel and a cab ride from downtown to dreams is like $25 one way so he could stay anywhere really and it wouldn't be too bad. There is not really alot of hotels w/in walking distance... I can't think off the top of my head...dreams is in the middle of no where. Can he room w/ anyone?

You girls are funny...thanks for the info it sounds like I should be good...I should just quit looking at and call ss and deal w/ it...I didn't want to deal w/ them at the first of the month!

Quote: Originally Posted by lucky k72 I got legally married in Mexico and I live in NY. I never had the marriage cert translated or apostilized. I was able to change my name on SS and other documents no problem. I can't remember which name I signed. With my driver's license I had a tad more difficulty. NY DMV doesn't accept foreign marriage certs so I had to wait to accumulate other documents in my new name (ss card, credit card, my social work license) as proof of name change. But it wasn't as horrible as i thought it would be. Oh and in mexico before you get married they ask you how you want to divy up belongings and money in case of divorce. I believe that other "pre nup" document you were referring to is that document. That must be that document...but how come they didn't ask me...so I guess that means if we get divorced then we want to separate everything...hope that doesn't hold to...

I'm sorry...I know there are a million threads out there on this but it's not settling my nerves. I have my marriage license here that is in spanish but our names and stuff our in english and it has the apostille on the side. Is this going to be enough for the SS office and everyone else? Plus this one document I have says convenio de separacion de bienes. What the hell does this mean? My co-worker who speaks spanish thinks its the equivalent of a pre-nup? On the marriage cert if has this option and sociedad conyugal and the separacion de bienes is marked... Plus I didn't sign my new last name, I signed my old last name and my friend said when she was married in hawaii they made her sign her new last name Help!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tammy Host wow michelle! you and jackie are competing over review of the year awaard! yes but she was on it and posted a day after coming home! i cant wait to see more pics of you....sorry about epic. i am going to have a long talk with them when i get back because there have been a few issues recently when they had no probems before. It wasn't a huge deal because we had a voucher...but yeah it wouldn't hurt to mention to them since jackie and I'm sure a few others had some confusion too. i am also sorry about maye. i feel as though she has been inconsistent lately so i have not been referring her. I honestly think it might be because she is so busy especially with referrals from on here. I totally understand that and I am all for one boosting their business...I just wish people wouldn't kid themselves into thinking they can do it all on their own. it's okay to get help. I mean she had her assistant who was great but maybe she needs more? I don't her to loose business I just really want people to realize that you do get what you pay for so make sure your visionn of a wedding coordinator isn't that of "Who's wedding is it anyway" or something like that... Thanks everyone! at the bottom of my siggy are all my photos and guests photos on snapfish...there are a ton!!! I should have the pro pics in a few weeks.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I can't believe it's been a year already! I hope your day is amazing!

Better late than never! Hope you had a great day!

Thanks gals...I figure the point of the review is to relay the good and the not so good..

Wow morgan...you are on it....your guests are going to appreciate all your efforts....thanks for sharing!

First off, congrats! What part of northern cali are you from? I think Cabo is a perfect location for you not because I went there but part of the reason we chose it was because from cali (and all our guests were from cali or arizona) it was only a 3 hour flight and they flew direct and the humidity wasn't as bad as some mexican locations... I say to think about what's important to you and then start ruling things out. We wanted all inclusive but we knew we wanted to have the wedding completely private...so for us that meant staying at one place but getting married at another...look in the cabo section and read the reviews and it will help a ton...

Great review!!! Your airplane experience sounds like mine..but yours was a tad bit worse...the actually offered me to hang it on the first class hook and I declined because I couldn't keep my eye on it... Very beautiful!

I just looked through your pics...they are awesome!!! I just love how all your hair matched! You were so beautiful! I am still bummed we didn't get to meet up! ;(

I apologize in advance because this is so long!!! I just really wanted to give more than not enough. Plus I stayed at 3 different places during my trip so... I have to start by saying that I thank everyone on this forum for all of the information that I received from you all. It was very valuable and rave about my friends on here to everyone! I would also like to mention that I planned my whole wedding via email. I talked to Suzanne Morel's office once on the phone, the coordinator at Fiesta Americana Once over the phone and Tammy a couple times over the phone. I hate the phone so this worked perfectly for me and I had my paper trail of everything! Okay...here goes Travel Mexicana Airlines – B I don’t fly to too many other locations besides Vegas…and I mostly take southwest, but as you know on southwest the flight attendants are very friendly and accommodating. The flight attendants on this airline are not rude but they aren’t overly friendly and they barely cracked a smile. I was hoping they would accommodate my dress but they couldn’t at all. I did get to pre-board but I had to pull teeth to do it. So my dress got to ride in the overhead but I was able to get my very own. We also were delayed 45 minutes on our flight out there because they couldn’t get the cabin to pressurize so that was irritating but out of their control. I didn’t think they were horrible but I didn’t love them. Customs – B-Going through immigration was when our first issue arose. Brad didn’t follow directions on his tourist card and forgot to complete the bottom portion that tears off (the portion you need to use when you fly home and conveniently the one we needed to give to the wedding coordinator in Mexico). We didn’t know this was a problem until the guy stamps our passports and gives us only one back. So I question it and he tries to explain but because of his accent I can’t understand a single word he is saying!!! So here I am frustrated as hell carrying a very heavy dress (dragging it right about now because my arm hurt) and I’m sweating to death! So I tell Brad he needs to come over here and deal with this while I go find our luggage. Bottom line, the guy strong arms Brad telling him that he needs it when we fly home and they may end up charging him $50 at that time or maybe nothing at all but he doesn’t know and if he wants to pay him $20 right now he will do it for us! So Brad pays the idiot because we just want to get out of there. At this time I have decided I can’t collect all of our luggage alone so I hire a guy with a cart to help me…this was a really good thing though because he took care of putting all of our stuff on the scanner and then when it came off he put it back on the cart so when it was time to go through red light/green light I pushed the button and got green and then all 3 of us and all our luggage went through in one shot! Tammy Wright Travel Agency – A+ Tammy was wonderful and I appreciated all of her help throughout this process. In the very beginning I had a lot of questions and I was trying to accommodate everyone and wasn’t sure if I should do a room block or just book directly through her…it was a lot of emails back and forth and she seemed to have a lot of patience with me. I booked a lot of my guests trips for them (I didn’t trust they could get it done) so I dealt with Tammy a lot. I also had two guests (same room) cancel last minute due to an illness in the family and Tammy called me first and advised me of the situation in case I knew of any “on the fence†people who may want to take over the reservation so our other guests wouldn’t loose their money. Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone but it was nice of her to do that. Plus she got me some special bride treatment at Dreams even though I didn’t do a room block. Thanks Tammy!  EPIC – B This was the company that Tammy used with her vacation packages. Their price was reasonable and right on to most of the other transportation companies out there. I wasn’t too thrilled with them and for all the same reasons as Jackie mentioned. When we got to them outside at the airport, the main guy had this clipboard with all these names on it looking so organized but yet they were so unorganized! They didn’t have us on the list and I thought maybe because our flight was delayed they had begun working off a different one or something but they said no. I had my voucher so I gave it to him and he did whatever he does to get the return one set up and then they first told us it would be a few min while they waited for some more people to fill a van. Then all of a sudden he had us following him down to a van. The van was jam packed with people and luggage. We had 4 large pieces, a small carry bag and a dress and there were two other girls who had a suitcase each. They could barely get one piece of luggage in the back of the van and yet they kept pushing it and trying so hard! I didn’t quite get it. So we were getting hot and frustrated and told them that they needed to take the one piece back out and put us in a new van and we would wait until they filled it up! They did and it worked out okay. Our guests who came in on Friday and Saturday were not on the list either but all of our Sunday guests made it on the list. One set of guests were offered a beer in their bus but didn’t know it wasn’t complementary until they got dropped off and were asked for payment. Not a big deal…but a little annoying. They gave us the return vouchers to call 48 hrs a head and confirm pickup. All of our guests did this and all the pickups were on time including ours and we shifted hotels too…so that was impressive since I was nervous about getting picked up. The wedding day transportation had a couple hook ups. We hired them for 6 hours at the end of the night (9pm – 3am) but then once Maye took us down to the Fiesta Americana to see it we thought that maybe it would be rude to make our guests find their own transportation to he wedding so we asked her to see if they could do a couple hours before the wedding to shuttle guests there (3pm – 5pm) and then the 4 hours at the end of the night. She said this was okay and called them to confirm. Well when the first group was ready at 3:30pm they were no where to be found so they had to take a taxi instead. The second group almost an hour later had no problem and at the end of the night the guy was there and just hung out until our guests were ready to go and he would just come right back once he dropped one group off. So in the end I think it worked pretty good to have them Lodging Dreams – A This place is amazing!! Our first day was rough but by day two and forward, this place was great! It was beautiful, not too big which was nice so we didn’t get lost and it had good food and a great atmosphere as far as scenery and entertainment. My sister did have a problem with getting a room with a king bed. This was annoying and the lady offered them to upgrade to a honeymoon suite for $200 for the 4 nights they were there. They paid that and were fine…but I was still a little annoyed that this had to happen. We found out later that they were so booked that day, overbooked actually that they were sending people to different hotels!!! The rooms were large, both the junior suites and the honeymoon suite and the service was great! Everyone was so friendly. When you wanted your mini fridge stocked, you could tell them to put 10 of everything in it and they did with no questions asked! My favorite restaurants were El Patio and Seaside Grill. Some of the restaurants had a wait, but it wasn’t too bad usually. I think the night we waited for 1 ½ hrs at Himitsu the El Patio was closed and that is large so when people can’t go there…they have to go elsewhere. We did have an issue at Portofino the first night we were there. The food was good…but we asked for a wine list and ordered a bottle of wine. We thought everything was all inclusive and apparently a bottle of wine is not!! Not only was it not included, it costs $80!!! We got strong armed again…we know this because some of the menus at the restaurants for some reason have prices next to them and some do not so when we saw prices next to the wine on the wine list we didn’t think anything of it. Plus the price it said next to it was $30 not $80!! The waiter never mentioned to us oh by the way if you order this it will cost extra! So when he brought us our bill for $80 Brad went a little crazy which surprised me because normally he is passive and I am the crazy one. So the manager came over and he said that it’s the waiter’s job to tell us and it has to be paid so if we don’t pay it then it will come out of his money. We felt a little bad but at the same time, if it was his job to tell us and he didn’t then we were both at fault…so we went over gave the guy $40 and took the bottle! Each day they leave you an agenda of the daily activities. I thought this was a very nice touch and I wish I had more time to partake in some of the activities. I never did get to watch a movie on the big screen outside and I would have liked to do that. At least there were options though and it felt like there was always something fun going on. Karina at the front desk and Pepe in the rendezvous bar were great! My sister made friends with Karina the day she got there. She was so good about keeping the welcome bags at the front desk and handing them out at check-in. The first day I dropped a few off there was no problems, the second day I got attitude from one of the girls and then after that…no problems. Plus they always had chocolate chip cookies at the front desk. Picture of my sister & Karina Fiesta Americana – A We didn’t get to see too much of the grounds here…but the resort is pretty and of course the Imperial Suite is absolutely breathtaking! The staff here is very friendly and attentive. This is not an all inclusive resort and the food here is very pricey…but the grounds are worth it. We were able to get the Imperial Suite for only a one night minimum but I have since heard that they are requiring a two night minimum now which is really expensive but the best part about it was that it was so completely private which was a huge concern of ours and is the only reason we didn’t have our wedding at Dreams. Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar – A This place is absolutely beautiful!!! The grounds of this place are so large you need a golf cart to get your luggage to your room but so breathtaking I just couldn’t believe it. We stayed in the vacation club area whatever that means…they all looked the same to me as the hotel. This too was not an all inclusive so we had to pay for all meals which were pricey but you got your moneys worth because the portion sizes were large. For two of us with no alcoholic beverages (we were burnt out at this point) and two bottled waters was about $40. So it really wasn’t bad. We only ate at Tomatoes and Tortuga Bar. Both were great. The room we had was nice, it had a small kitchen area, dining area and living area. It had a separate bath and then a bedroom w/ two double beds and a bath. It was very Mexican hacienda style which was nice but the rooms at dreams were much nicer! Plus there was no ocean view (some had it but not our room) and the rooms were loud! We could hear everything outside and it was hard to sleep…The shuttle at this place was great! It was only $10 per person round trip which was much cheaper than a taxi. The environment here was much mellower than at dreams. There didn’t seem to be many activities going on and at night it seemed so quiet. Wedding Vendors Maye Cortinas – B- ($675 plus tax)Let me start by saying that Maye is a very sweet lady!! In the beginning stages of my planning I was about ready to go with someone else until I found the forum and read about how wonderful Maye was and how much cheaper her services were. I tend to let money sway a lot of my decisions and I did the same with this one. I really didn’t feel that I needed a lot of help in the planning process…I just really wanted someone from down there to set up my vendors and be there for the day of to coordinate (since I have never been married). So I figured that the cheaper coordinator would be the best choice for me. Maye did a good job of finding my vendors and getting them booked at reasonable prices. She responded fast to email and for the most part was pretty thorough in her responses. She had most everything straight and organized but I could tell through various emails that she was at times confused about things and I would have to correct her. I kept telling myself that it was okay that email is difficult and once we are down there she will probably have everything organized and be on top of it. Well, this wasn’t exactly true. I am just a super organized person and I am very thorough (I work off lists) so I tried not to judge too bad but she just really didn’t have it all together. Here are the things that bothered me a little bit: •Before leaving home we set an appointment for her and the doctor to come at 10am and then we were going to meet Tomas and then head up to the Fiesta Americana to meet Claudia at 12pm. Well right before we left she mentioned something about 9:30am. Whatever, no big deal. Well that day, she got there at 9:30am and then rushed us out of the room after the doctor was done and took us straight to Fiesta. We got there at 10:00am and poor Claudia had to leave her meeting she was in to meet us and she even commented on how she had it down at 12pm. Then I asked Maye if we were going to meet Tomas and she confusedly said no, we didn’t have that scheduled. OKAY Whatever! •Her, Claudia and I discussed that the FA would start setting up at 2:00p and that Maye would be there at 2:00p also to start setting up and bring my flowers, etc…at 3:00p she still wasn’t there and I called her and she said she was at the gate. She came shortly afterward. •Tomas was late. My picture schedule that I gave to Maye numerous times and she was supposed to give to him said 3:30 start time on pictures. Well even the day we met her, her schedule said 4-8 not 3:30 – 7:30 and I even had corrected that on her spreadsheet at one point and emailed it back to her. I don’t think he ever got the change in schedule or something…I don’t know but I’m not mad at him because he did make that up by staying late for free… •I ordered 2 large flower arrangements to set the alter and when I emailed her to order these I sent her a picture that had them in these clear vase things and she specifically said she could get something similar to that. Well I didn’t even realize until I looked at pictures (obviously not that big of a deal) but she had the flowers on two small tables with a cloth and a runner to match my other tables. It was nice that she was keeping the décor the same but that wasn’t really what I asked for. •The transportation we had set up through her to pick our guests up between 3-5pm from Dreams was not there until 4:30 or so. I don’t know where the mistake was made here but the first group had to pay for a taxi. •She translated the ceremony and she almost skipped over me giving Brad his ring and saying I do! There was some confusion because I guess she thought the best man would have both rings but I gave brad’s to the moh and the best man had mine. So when she asked the best man for the rings and he gave her mine. She said oh only one…well I thought she was questioning that I didn’t have a band so I said yeah only one. She thought I meant yeah just one ring for me and nothing for him…which whatever the confusion was…who only has one ring? I had given her a list of exactly what needed to go on which table and how I wanted the tables set up and my table set ups were perfect! My sister who helped me figure out what I wanted said that she went down to make sure Maye was doing it all right and she was impressed that it was all perfect with nothing missing. She also gave her assistant my timeline that all of a sudden they followed to a T! So much so that I had the trio listed to start at 6pm and we were ahead of schedule so by 5:50pm we were done and the trio should have started after the ceremony but since my list said 6pm for the trio to start then they waited till exactly 6pm! So if you are handing off timelines, maybe focus more on the sequence of events and not so much the actual time… Overall, I am not unhappy that I chose to go with Maye. I feel that I got what I paid for and she did some things well but I think the biggest disappointment for me was that I didn’t feel like she “coordinated†anything! I have never been married so I don’t know when things are supposed to happen; when I need to walk, where I need to stand, etc…I didn’t even know where she was half of the time. Plus with our transportation not running, Tomas being late, the cake being late…shouldn’t she have been on the phone making sure things were on schedule? That is what I was hoping to get from her services and I felt a little let down in that area…but regardless it all went smooth…we were ahead of schedule and I had an I don’t care enough to be mad attitude so it worked out well. I would still recommend Maye but just know that if your day would be ruined if something didn’t go right then you need to make sure you emphasize to her the importance of getting things straight. •Mexican Trio – A ($300 plus tax) I booked the trio through Maye so I don’t know their names nor did I ever speak with them directly. I unfortunately didn’t get to hear them at all and I don’t even think I saw what they looked like but someone got a picture of them. Anyway…according to my guests, they were great and it was a nice touch. Picture of the trio •Salsa Dancers – A+ ($400 plus tax) We booked the salsa dancers through Maye. They were Susan Biali and her husband Armando. I really wanted to do something different for out guests and Brad was skeptical but we are both very glad we did this! They were absolutely amazing. They came just after dinner and I had kept it a surprise from all but one of our guests and so it was a shock when they came out and told everyone to get up and we were going to learn to salsa! But our guests absolutely loved it and not one person was sitting down. I would definitely book this to add a little flare to the evening. •Judge/Doctor/Apostile – A ($410 plus tax) I had Maye set all this up. I don’t even know the judge’s name (it’s on the marriage license I guess) but she was so sweet and when she performed the ceremony, although I didn’t know what she was saying right away she sounded so sincere! The doctor came on time to meet us and Maye at our hotel but it just seemed shady. He was wearing jeans and a white lab coat and came with his stuff in a tool box! All medical equipment came out of sealed packages so we felt good about that. Maye sent our license up to La Paz to get it apostiled and although I have asked a dozen times, I still don’t really know what it means!!! But I’m pretty sure I need it! •Flowers – B- ($315 plus tax) I booked these through Maye and again I am not sure where she got them but I was not happy with them. I don’t love flowers and so I wasn’t willing to spend a lot of money on them. I told Maye I only wanted to spend $50 on my bouquet and $25 on my MOH bouquet so I wasn’t expecting perfection. I told her to get me 6-8 Ivory gerbera daisies tied with some greenery and a brown ribbon. The set up was fine…but the flowers were yellow and they were all wilted and dying when I got them! I told her oh these are yellow and she said no this is the ivory that they have. Whatever! My sister offered to take the extra ones for the cake that were pink and make me a bouquet quick but I told her it was fine…the yellow didn’t look bad…it just wasn’t right. The pink ones I ordered were perfect and the two larger flower arrangements were decent. We ordered 2 single daisies for the mom’s to tie the memory frames on for each of their mother’s Tomas Barron – A- ($1200 plus tax) I didn’t give Tomas an A+ because I have not seen the pictures yet. I can’t imagine they are bad though. Let me say that I love pictures but I honestly know nothing about them or the quality or whatever. I can look at different photographers and definitely see major differences but really as long as my pictures are clear and you can see us and it has a nice background then I will be happy. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money here even though everyone told me it’s the most important. I second guessed myself throughout the planning because a couple reviews I read and then I looked at some other photographers sites and just didn’t know what to do. We decided that we didn’t want to loose the deposit and so we would keep it and see. I booked Tomas through Maye although I did correspond with him via email on a few occasions. He was supposed to start pictures at 3:30pm and he was late and didn’t get there until about 3:45 or so and I was getting nervous. I blame this on Maye though (explained above). Once he got there he got started right away and did a pretty good job of getting the shots. I felt like I had to dictate who needed to be in which photo a lot…but I know he didn’t speak very good English so that’s fine. He was everywhere though…and once it was just Brad and I he took compete control and dictated everything we needed to do. I was concerned that we still needed to cut the cake before he left and Maye didn’t really want to bring it down outside at that time I guess because it could melt? Anyway I told her that we needed to regardless because Tomas needed to leave. She comes back and says that he has decided to stay for a couple more hours free of charge! GREAT!!! That was so awesome of him. He ended up taking pictures throughout the salsa dancer lessons which was great because there was no one left to take the pictures since they were all participating. Then he took us back to the beach to get some really good sunset photos! I was so happy that he went over and above and stayed and really wanted to capture our special day for us. So I will see how the pics look and then update my grade afterward. Fiesta Americana Venue – A ($7,000) •Claudia Dominguez - A+ Claudia was my contact there. Actually I had 3 over the course of the year…but Claudia was the last one. She was absolutely wonderful! Email was my main contact with her and often times I had to email a couple times before getting a response but that is normal down there. She always seemed to answer my questions thoroughly and then once we got down there and met her, I was even more impressed! She just was very organized and knew her stuff. She took us down to the Imperial Suite on Friday when we went to meet her and showed us around and we talked about where things would be set up and positioned and I had one view in mind and she offered a better option which I appreciated. She was there the majority of the wedding night as a go to person for the food and beverage and during set-up I was peeking through the window and I wanted something changed and she did it. We had no problems with money or anything. She even told me I was so organized that if we decided to move to Cabo I could have a job in her department!  •Food/Bar - A All of our guests loved the food! I wish I would have eaten more of it. They had so many menus to choose from that I essentially created my own and put a price to it and they accepted it. For cocktail hour we hae passed appetizers and they were always there offering food to our guests. For dinner we had buffet style and it was ready on time and they left it up a bit. I wish I would have asked them to save us some of the extra before throwing it out so we could eat it later but it wasn’t a big deal. The bar was set up perfectly. We did consumption basis and we hosted beer, wine and margaritas and champagne if requested. We did have them set up all the hard liquor though to be available on a cash basis. They were really good about letting us know where we were at as far as balance and we told them when we were willing to close it out and they followed our directions exactly! •IPOD – A+ / Music Controller – B We had decided to use our ipod because we had a small party (26 people). This was a great decision! Brad did an awesome job of putting this all together…I only picked a few songs and he did the rest. We had playlists for everything (ceremony, dinner, dancing, etc…). Everything worked well and the Fiesta provided us a guy to control it all (stop and start when necessary). We had rented the speaker system from them and the ipod hooked in and there was a microphone and everything. I gave the controller guy a B because during the dancing music he kept skipping songs and they were good ones so Brad got pissed and told him to knock it off and then he pouted and went and sat by the bonfire.  Which was fine at that point we didn’t need him anyway! Cake (Sweet Dreams) – A ($28 Deena is the sweetest lady! I emailed her and she worked with Maye but I emailed her what I wanted and she visualized it and offered professional input and even though I changed it up about 3 times over the course of the year she still made it look perfect. I was impressed with her emails and professionalism before I got to Cabo and she was a little late getting there but it really didn’t interrupt anything or hold anything back so no one knew but me. I had always wanted cupcakes so that’s what we had. The flavor of the cake was great! We had strawberry in the top cake and I tried that because it’s the one we cut into. The cupcakes were chocolate w/ ivory buttercream frosting. I had a bite of the cupcake and I wish I would have eaten more. It was so moist and yummy! A lot of people said that they would do away with the cake if they changed anything. I only paid $300 and yeah we wasted a lot of it but people did eat it and it looked nice so if I did it all over again I would still do my cupcakes! Picture of the cake Hair & Make-up (Suzanne Morel Salon) – A+ ($240) I can not remember the name of the girl who actually did my hair and make-up. But the translators name was Tanya and she was so sweet!! Prior to the wedding, they were just so organized with their correspondence and their professionalism was wonderful. They are a bit pricey but after talking to some people who were married back home it really was only like $50 more than you would pay here…so I didn’t feel so bad. I told her what I wanted from like a combination of 3 photos and she did it exactly! I loved my hair and let me tell you it did not move one bit! My make up was also very good. I had an issue with my eyelashes. I am a eyelash freak! Even Brad knows not to talk to me when I am putting my mascara on. I just have long eyelashes and I like them curled up high and fanned out with just one coat of mascara. I knew they wouldn’t be able to get them the way I liked them and I should have just done myself from the beginning but I thought I would let her try. I didn’t like them so she was totally okay with taking the mascara off and me redoing it myself. I felt bad though. But I just loved their services! Misc Things Memory Frames - I ordered memory frames with a ribbon that said “in loving memory†to tie around my bouquet and one for each mother and tied it around a single gerber daisy since both our grandmother’s had passed away. I was going to give it to the mom’s as part of the ceremony but my sister said I should just do it before so they could fix their make-up…it was good advice. Sand Ceremony - I couldn’t make a decision on what color sand I wanted…so I was at Michael’s and they had crushed shells in a bag next to the sand and so I thought since they were both neutral colors I would mix sand and crushed shells instead of two colors sand…I’m glad I did this. I bought the vases from Ikea for $2 each and then I just put it in a baggie for the ride home. I still haven’t decided what I am going to use it for. Oot Bags - Everyone loved the bags but I don’t really know if they used all the stuff in them. Some did for sure…but I’m sure they will at some point. I just liked the idea of them getting something from us when they checked in. I would definitely do it again or something similar. Favors - I bought starfish wine toppers and my mom had them engraved with our names and date on it and we displayed them in a plastic wine glass filled with sand and ribbon around it. Everyone took them… Paper Fans –The ceremony was a blur but I’m pretty sure no one used them during the ceremony. It also was not too hot and we had the umbrellas up but at one point after the salsa lessons everyone was so hot that they all got fans and started using them on the dance floor. So you never know! Guest Book - Since I am a scrapbooker I wanted the guest book to be in the scrapbook. I just brought a single page down w/ me and matted a picture on it (which I will replace w/ a wedding photo) and everyone signed around it. Bathroom Basket with “extra’s†for guests – We bought a bunch of travel items to put in the bathroom with a note for our guest to feel free and use anything they needed like aspirin, shout, linen roller, brush, etc…I stole this idea from somewhere and it was a good one and appropriate for us because we had our own private bathroom for our guests but I don’t think anything was touched and it cost a lot for all the travel items. I wouldn’t recommend it. Renting a car in Mexico –We honestly were afraid to do this but we really wanted to go to Costco so we went to the Thrifty rental car place in the Dreams lobby and it was only $54 for the day so we said why not! We got some piece of crap car and off we went. It was actually okay afterall and not too scary. But driving there is different the way you have to make turns off the main road. I would recommend it though. Swimming w/ Dolphins – The dolphins were great! We did the smaller less expensive package which was a ½ hour with the dolphins and you got to interact with them. We got to dance with our dolphin to la bamba, it gave us a high 5, we got to feed her and she kissed us! It was more than enough in my opinion. I didn’t need to hold it’s fin and swim w/ her and I didn’t need to have them jump over me which I think they do in the bigger package. We paid like $78 because we saved 10% by booking online. They don’t let you bring your camera in though because they want you to buy theirs which is very expensive. Each picture costs $25 each or you could pick 8 and put them on a CD for $99. We did this and split it evenly between the 4 of us. Place Settings -

Okay...you are on it!!! I still haven't finished mine and you just got back!!! You weren't kidding when you said you would have it today!! I just had to say that and now I have to read it!!! I will have mine tonight hopefully!

We had a MOH (my sister) and a BM (his friend). I woud have loved for my girlfriends to be in the wedding because we are close...but I didn't even know for sure that they were all coming and I didn't want to stress. Plus the sides wouldn't equal becuase he has only one good friend and I have a few...so I chose my sister which made it easy. The best part though is that 3 of my best girfriends came w/out their husbands so they just got ready with me anyway and it was as if they were my bridal party and we had a blast! Do what you feel most comfortable with. If you pick someone just to have someone then they may not have your best interest at hand and that is not fair to you and more trouble in the long run!

looks like you had a ton of fun!

Thanks everyone...now on to my reviews.

Ann she is so adorable!!!! I had a hard time keeping up and getting ready for my wedding...but now that I am back I have a had a chance to catch up and i'm so happy to hear that things are going so well!!!

Okay everyone...here are the pics that I have so far...I am of course waiting for everyone else to send theirs and of course the pro-pics...but it's a start. ENJOY!! Snapfish: Groups: Share:Registration

Jen, sorry you had issues....I don't eve know where to start....who do I call and and what do i do first? ss# or license? Jen did you get the apostile on your license....isn't this supposed to be all i need?

Jackie....sorry we couldn't meet up... as you know it's so crazy and hectic w/ all the friends and family there! Then we left dreams so when I got your text I was going home... I wanted to watch your wedding or come crash your reception but we had to wait 3 hours at Himitsu restaurant to get seated and eat!!! i was annoyed and lost track of time.. I did manage to get one pic of you coming into your reception and beginning your first dance...because our room overlooked your reception. sorry but my camera isn't super zoom...

hope your day and weekend are wonderful!