katrina

yep, we liked him- here is my pic thread http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t26023

erica, good luck with figuring out baby stuff!! aww man, i want a baby! haha.. but we are waiting for atleast a few years.. i'm in grad school and we're still in our starter house so i would prefer to move before that. plus, the wedding kind of wiped out our saving. btw, did the blogs go away while we were getting married?

you looked BEAUTIFUL! CONGRATS!

just wanted to share one of my favorite new sites- BookMooch: exchange books and trade them, like a book swap or book barter basically it's a site where everyone lists their own inventories of books that they are willing to part with, and then everyone mooches off each other. the only cost to you is the price of shipping the book. it's also another way to be green by using what is already out there instead of buying new.

Quote: Originally Posted by JHarwood2Be Your honeymoon looks like a GREAT time. Thanks for posting all of the awesome pics. It that your husband with his arm around the shark? no, thank goodness.. hah. it was one of the guides. they were lifting sting rays out of the water too.. which made me really nervous because i certainly didn't want to witness any sort of steve irwin incident. but we did get to touch the sharks and rays. Quote: Originally Posted by FLgator Great Pics! This is the honeymoon spot we are considering! let me know if you have any questions! we did a lot more than what was in the review.. but i just focused on the obvious stuff.. if you decide on belize as your spot, i can can give some more details. Quote: Originally Posted by Jeremy_Gilliam You guys had the same honeymoon that my wife and I did, we absolutely loved it. We stayed a little ways out of town though and had some adventures getting into town, so you had a good idea staying in town. We also used Searious for Hol Chan and Altun Ha. Awesome excursions! It looks like you guys had a blast! yea, we liked staying so close to everything. we headed up to the north end of the island on bikes on day.. it didn't take too long to get there, but a storm ended up rolling in and it started downpouring on us and i well.. uh.. rode my bike into the ocean. the fishermen all thought it hilarious Quote: Originally Posted by Agape Gems Thanks for the great review! I'm headed to Belize in a few months and can't wait to see the ruins! But tarantulas... oh gosh! they're pretty big too. and you can see the holes they live in everywhere. but for the most part they don't just walk around.. we saw a ton of them because our guides were luring them out, but they are grooooooss and hairy.

searious adventures: Ambergris Tours || Belize Tours Searious Adventures we used searious for two excursions- hol chan snorkeling- this was by far the best snorkeling we’ve ever done. It was a half day trip out to the reef with beverages included. We saw nurse sharks, sting rays, parrot fish, sea turtles, barracudas- it was amazing. altun ha / maruba jungle spa- our second trip was to the ruins of altun ha. First we took a boat to the mainland. when we got to the ruins, our group was literally the only group of people there. It was really amazing, but be careful- lots of tarantulas! next we drove (in a school bus!) to maruba jungle spa. it’s literally just cut out of the jungle so it’s incredibly lush. we had a mud bath which was really relaxing and also took a dip. the lobby the restaurant on the way home we stopped in bomba village and bought some wood crafts ultimately, belize was really the perfect honeymoon for us. we’re not really resort people, and although we loved our wedding week.. the whole sprawling hotel thing is just not for us. belize is much more gritty and real and it’s a place where you can actually interact with the locals on a personal level rather than only when they serve you a drink. there is also something for everyone. you can do every water activity imaginable and a quick boat ride to the mainland takes you to lush jungles and ruins. guatemala is also just a day trip away, although we didn’t make it there. If you have any questions, let me know!!

san pedro: the town of san pedro has a lot of hustle and bustle for a small town. the island is only about 4 blocks wide and there are stores and restaurants everywhere. you can get anything from street food to really classy island dining. the main mode of transportation is golf carts and generally the only cars are taxis. there are tons of stray dogs- most are totally healthy and the island takes care of them, but some of them are pretty mangy and limp around.. it’s kind of sad. but the people are so kind.. they always like to chat. one of the streets in san pedro at elvi’s kitchen, the most popular restaurant on the island the beach in front of our hotel. if you go during the summer months, you’ll see what we like to call belizean daycare. fresh seafood

blue tang inn: we stayed here for a week and it was perfect for us. we didn’t want to be secluded anywhere, we wanted to be right in town to experience the food and culture. because we were right in town, there wasn’t much of a beach, but just a short walk in either direction there were nice and bigger beaches. there was breakfast served every morning and the hotel staff was very kind. it felt like a b&b atmosphere, not a hotel. they was a nice card and wine upon our arrival. view from the third floor roof deck full kitchen our balcony view from the balcony the pool

finally my honeymoon review! we went right from our wedding in playa del carmen to our honeymoon in san pedro, ambergris caye, belize. transportation: menzies travel - BelizeTransfers.com Home HIGHLY recommended. they made our trip a breeze. we went from playa del carmen to corazol, belize. They picked us up at our hotel at 8am in a fairly new dodge caravan minivan. It was a private trip, just us and the driver. ezekiel was great. along the way he told us about the small mexican towns we were driving through. we also stopped about half way through to grab snacks and use the bathroom. once we arrived at the mexican border we jumped out to pay the $20 per person exit fee. we then drove a little further to the belizean border to go through customs. the whole thing was painless- they asked us how long we would be there, how much money we had, etc. ezekiel picked us up on the other side of customs and we continued on to the airport. the whole drive was about 3 hours long. corazol airport/tropic air airlines: the airport was very tiny. just one little room with two counters. our hotel paid for our airline tickets so we checked rather quickly and then waited for about 20 minutes. turns out that their runway was still under some construction so we had to go to another airport. well… this airport was not an airport at all. it was a dusty clearing in the middle of nowhere! it was pretty funny. the runway our boarding passes- laminated pieces of paper our plane plane ride to ambergris caye: the trip only took 17 minutes and was painless. the plane flies really low and you can get the lay of the land. that’s leonardo dicaprio’s newest purchase. he hasn’t built anything on there yet.

julio paredes is no longer under contract with the riu. now they use gionata cossu and his site is Gionata Cossu i did use image life for my videographer though. her name was monica.

maura updated her facebook profile with a really gorgeous pic of the ceremony... can't wait till she gets back so we can see mooooore!

wow- i can't believe yours is coming up so soon! everything is seriously amazing. i really think your guests will be wowed by the extra effort you put in it all.

Quote: Originally Posted by Beach09 Thanks Katrina. Did you have a first dance? Was there a place to dance? no.. no first dance for us. we didn't ask about it, but i think it could have been accommodated i think.. i would just ask

i just got married at the riu yucatan right down the beach from rprm, so i can answer a few. - D.J.- Is it worth it to pay $1000 for the D.J.? you would be having the reception and dj in the disco right? i didn't go but a few of my guests went to the disco and said it was a bit dingy. you may want to scope it out before you pay for the dj. - Rehersal dinner? Do you pay extra? it's at no cost, but they just make reservations for you at one of the buffet restaurants. basically, they just make sure enough tables are pushed together. - Flowers- How many options are there? the arrangements they show you in the book are pretty outdated, but it's a good way to atleast see what is offered. i had in my mind that i wanted callas, but once i got there they said they don't offer them. i went with ivory lillies and orange roses. my advice is to have a color scheme in mind, instead of a specific flower because they may not have it. btw, my flowers were beautiful, so don't fret. - Cake- Do I get to choose the type, flavor, colors? this was already answered oh and aarica, i also had planned on doing an ipod during dinner, but they had really nice music playing already, so it never happened. it may be something you don't even have to worry about.

actually i agree with calia for the most part. i think the show is entertaining enough, but as the years go on i think it becomes a little faker because they keep getting a little more famous. it seems like all of their trips are paid for, and then they get vip treatment pretty much everywhere they go. i'm not saying they don't deserve it, i just don't think it makes for good tv.

the W! seriously, it's really nice.

Quote: Originally Posted by Aarica Great Review! Everything looked awesome! I am getting married at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya in October. Do you know the name of your photographer? thanks! the photographer was Gionata Cossu, but he goes by Jonathon. he's from italy but has been living in mexico for the past 10 years. really nice guy. i grabbed his business card, so here's the info- [email protected] Gionata Cossu there's not too much on the website, but still fun to look at. the videographer's name was monica and the company is called image life, but i don't have any other info for her. Quote: Originally Posted by kerryjbrown This is a great reveiw Katriina! I was looking at doing a u-shaped table as well, how many guests did you have? I am trying to figure out if 30 ppl is too many to do this. we had 26 and it worked well. you might have to have another table but i'm sure it can be done. are you getting married at one of the riu chains in pdc? if so, you should speak with eric, the director of events. i spoke to him separately from the wc and told him how i wanted the table. he drew everything out for me, so i know how it would look in the end. he was really nice and accommodating.

Quote: Originally Posted by Alyssa My FI and I are not big collectors at all but we do collect Christmas ornaments from our travels. It really started accidentally on our first trip away together (Savannah, Georgia) we were out walking around and went into a little boutique that was going out of business and had the nicest Christmas ornaments - we bought 2 that represented that trip (one is a hand blown Georgia Peach and the other was something to do with Valentine's Day as we were there over that weekend). I am really looking forward to buying a cool "Honeymoon" related ornament in Hawaii! What do you collect and why? hey we do this too! i think it makes the tree so much more personal and fun

1. What was the cost for the cocktail hour before dinner? free! we added chips, salsa, and guacamole for $50 2. Did you purchase any other add-ons besides the musicians? nope 3. Did you use the salon services at all? How was it? How early did you make an appointment with them? no.. my parents own a salon so i had my own personal stylists. i was lucky

sorry guys, every thing is taken!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenleopard Hi Katrina, Are the flowers taken? If not I am very interested! Thanks so much for your time! sure! pm me your address

Quote: Originally Posted by BandE2008 Id love the favor bags Please PM me if they are available and I can give you all my details - thanks so much!!!! sure thing- pm me with your info Quote: Originally Posted by pryzeless I am interested in the ecofetti. awesome- pm me with your info

everything looks great!!! i can't wait to talk to you when you get back!

Reception Dinner: As I mentioned earlier, we gave the wc a big suitcase full of stuff and most of it was for the dinner. We had the dinner in the steakhouse- La Margarita. Everyone said their food was great and we agreed! We did a U shaped setup so that it felt a little more intimate. We did a postcard guestbook. While we were in Mexico we mailed them home for us to read when we got back from Belize. The place settings were wood chargers with white plates and my diy menus and place cards. The cake was pretty basic looking but I knew it would be. Check out our awesome cake topper though  Oh, and I’m dying laughing because our cake knife just snapped while we were cutting it… oops It was vanilla and strawberries Honestly, we are really happy with our resort choice. I do NOT recommend this resort if you want to get married on the beach. We watched a wedding on the beach and it was the most public thing I’ve ever seen. People had no respect for what was going on.. it was hot, it was loud and there were people everywhere. I’m sure I’m missing a lot but the bottom line is all 28 of us had a really great time! Now I have to start on that Belize review..

Ceremony: Two days before the wedding we walked over to the Palace hotel to meet up with the wedding coordinator. The whole process was very simple and we were done in about 45 minutes. We gave her a whole suitcase full of stuff. We also supplied our own vows (the ones from Las Caletas). I was blown away by our ceremony. I really had some reservations with the hotel and the wedding. I knew I just had such high expectation and I wasn’t sure if this resort would be able to fulfill them. We chose this resort because of price- not because of their weddings. Like I said, we were blown away! This was the setup, although this isn’t from my wedding. This is what they sent me. Here you can see one of the tiki torches they used to mark the aisle. The mariachi band was GREAT! They started playing 15 minutes before the ceremony started and they stayed until we were finished the group pictures. I never worried about ceremony music, they just did their own thing. Photographer/Videographer I didn’t have a choice for these two because of budget reasons, and I didn’t want to deal with Riu and an outside photographer, but I am very happy with the decision. The photographer came an hour before the ceremony and photographed us getting ready and then stayed about an hour after the ceremony. He took a ton of pictures that we were able to view two days after the wedding. We picked the ones we wanted and they were ready the next day. Same goes for the videographer. Cocktail Hour: I don’t have any pictures of the actual location, of course, but it was located in a semi private bar in the lobby. Here you can kind of see the décor. There were big couches and chairs everywhere. The white table behind them is where to hor’dourves were located. You can kind of see more of the furniture behind them. The day before the wedding we went into town and bought a bunch of Cubans for our guests. They really liked that.