Maura

my husband wanted something really simple. i ended up getting his from bluenile.com and he loves it. Comfort-Fit Wedding Ring in 18k White Gold (4mm) if the link doesn't work, search for Comfort-Fit Wedding Ring in 18k White Gold (4mm)

Lauren, I was just thinking about emailing you this afternoon to say hi and see how school is going so far but then I got sidetracked and then it was time for me to go teach my college class I miss ya!

Quote: Originally Posted by jmiranda For those of you who had their DW ceremony at a Church or planning to have it at church how much did you spend on the church flower arrangements? I was quoted a price of 1000 plus 15%tax OMG are you kidding me Jess?!?!?!?! $1000 plus 15% tax? That price better be in pesos!!!!!!!!!! We had two medium sized but very elegant floral arrangements with white lilies and some other stuff. If you send me an email (I think you have my email already?) as a reminder, I will forward you a photo of my floral arrangements that we used. We paid $75 per arrangement, plus 15% tax, so about a total of $175 with the tax. We had the flowers on white column pedastals and they looked really nice. $1000 US is RIDICULOUS. Are you planning on filling the whole church with flowers? Or are you dead-set on using all orchids? Those are the only reasons I can think of why you might have been quoted $1K. Why don't you post some pics of your church where your ceremony is going to be and we can help you figure out how much you actually need so it looks decent without spending so much money. Honestly, oftentimes in a church, less is more when it comes to flowers. And there are tons of ways to do floral arrangements cheaper than you think, still using some of the flowers you want.

my parents stayed at el encanto during my wedding week and ADORED the place. let me get some photos from my dad to post here for you. also, if you do some searching for an old member named "CoreyPhil" she got married on the grounds at El Encanto in the chapel. I believe her reception was at La Panga Antigua. Let me see if I can find an old post or two of hers for you.... shoot this is the only one i can find with photos that she posted: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t17543

mods can do this too. also caroline, if you have an issue with a photo, you can black out your info in your photo, then save it to photobucket as the same file name. it should update on the thread where you originally posted it. if you have trouble, let a mod know and we can try to help you fix it.

oh shannon, the suit looks great on kenny!!! and i love the apple green ties!

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan I'm pretty sure it is monica lhuillier- scarlet actually, its monique lhuillier

yari, it looks great! i am so psyched to see your real wedding pics so soon!!!

for two men, the appropriate format is "Messrs" - if you are unsure that they share the same last name, you can either list each individual last name, or call and ask if they share the same last name. if they do share the same last name then you would address it to "Messrs. John and Jack Smith"

Quote: Originally Posted by becks I hear what you're saying about the warnings all such. The reality is that most of the problems that they are talking about have occurred in Mexico City and some of the other big business towns. The organized crime you're talking about, from what I understand, has been known to target wealthy businessmen or the children of wealthy locals. They are not interested in beach-going tourists. I've been to Cancun and the Riviera Maya 3 times in the last 8 months and have never had any kind of problem, never felt threatened, and frankly never felt uneasy. Yes, you're going to an economically challenged country. Yes, there is poverty. But the likelihood of anyone associated with your wedding being the victim of organized crime? HIGHLY, highly unlikely. A pickpocket, or an unethical vendor, possibly. But you'll find that in New York, San Fransico and pretty much anywhere in between. As one of the resident experts on Mexico here, I can tell you that everything becks told you is correct. Just be street-smart like you would be when traveling anywhere else -- and remember also that Mexico is a developing country (not really referred to as third-world anymore, and actually I believe according to Forbes magazine back in March, the second richest man in the world is Carlos Slim, who is a telecom tycoon with over $60 billion net worth). The organized crime I think you are probably referring to is in connection to the recent kidnappings you may have heard about on the news. Read here for better understanding of the current situation on that: Mexico detains 5 in boy's kidnap-murder - Americas - MSNBC.com The touristy parts of Mexico are generally pretty safe.

Quote: Originally Posted by Abbie its like yah-dee i remember because in my head i'm always yelling at her "yadira!" her full name LOL, abbie i do the same thing, i am always thinking "yadira!"

alyssa, we also did a bar on consumption and here's how it went: -water, domestic mexican beer & margaritas only for cocktail hour -red and white wine service only during dinner, each table also had a pitcher of lemonade (really more like limeade in mexico) and iced tea -open bar the rest of the reception. honestly i saw people mostly drinking beer or margaritas, there were only a few people who had to have something like scotch or tequila (and mainly, those people are alcoholics) i had heard from someone else who got married at the westin just before me that the waitstaff was a little overzealous with refilling drinks. so we spoke to my WC the day before the wedding and requested that the staff who'd be working for our reception be notified that they were only to refill beverages at a guests' request. that way there would be no extra pouring and the possibility of non-consumption of poured drinks.

Quote: Originally Posted by kerryjbrown I love your mother in laws dress (organge one?) I want to get my mom a dress like that. Do you know where she got it or who made it? i believe her dress was by kay unger and she got it from bloomingdales back in may. Quote: Originally Posted by amyh You look gorgeous Maura! Did you end up having the mass before the ceremony on the beach, or was your priest able to do the full mass on the beach?? Lucky girl! All us Catholic girls are hating on you right now! we did have the mass before the beach ceremony. however, we basically went to the church in san jose and did a very abbreviated mass, marriage sacrament only basically, and then the ceremony on the beach was the full-out mass with communion and everything. there was literally one person who worked there at the church when we got there, padre juvencio wasnt even around. the girl disappeared so we just did the quick & dirty sacrament only mass. i think it was about 20 mins long? i'll post a link to an album of photos from that as soon as i can. technically, the ceremony on the beach doesnt count to the church, just the ceremony we did inside the church counted. for all intents and purposes, our beach ceremony was also technically a vow renewal ceremony, but most of our guests had no idea we had even been to the church earlier in the day.

hayley please use the search and go through the cabo forum for vendor recommendations. i am going to close this thread to further replies.

julia dont bother doing any DIY projects once you get there. it's too stressful! do anything that you must do beforehand. trust me, we got there on weds for a saturday wedding and the little tasks we had to do in advance like tying the favor tags on and all the vendor meetings was more than enough... you want to enjoy your time during your stay, you dont want to be doing any work. IMHO its totally unrealistic to think you'll do more DIY projects there. its not worth it.

Quote: Originally Posted by jmiranda Hey Mrs. your pictures came out so beautiful. Everything looks so elegant and you and Jose make such a beautiful couple. I loved the lazo and the setup of the ceremony and the reception. The colors of the Westin worked perfect as the background. Congratulations once again and I cant wait to hear all about it!! thanks girlie! funny story about the lazo... first of all, i totally entrusted my MIL to pick one out and she did a great job. somehow, our lazo went missing for like 2.5 days after the wedding and nobody could find it. on the 3rd day, i have no idea who found it or where it was, but it was found and my MIL now has it safely stored at their home in MX city. we were so worried it was lost forever... i never saw it before the ceremony so i was really impressed with it when i saw it during the ceremony. i obviously didnt get a close look, and didnt see it after the ceremony, so the photos of it are the best look i got at it. i am looking forward to collecting it from my MIL on our next trip to MX city so we can have it at our home. Quote: Originally Posted by Kat81 Your photos are just as amazing as I knew they would be! I love the texting back and forth. That will so be Ryan and I! I just love it all. The sandals all set up for everyone was great! Were they custom sandals? hahahaha there was one photo that the photographer got of my blackberry that you could read the message and it was kind of personal, so i edited that one out of the album i posted. we were using our blackberry messengers to text back and forth during the several hours we were apart before the ceremony trying to locate certain people, keep up with what was next on the schedule etc. and we were sometimes typing funny things to each other to keep it lighthearted. the sandals were actually a surprise from my MIL and SIL - they had custom flip flops made for our guests that were white with teal, and they had a starfish on them and Maura & José by the toes. sadly, they all were too large for my midget feet (i wear size 5.5 or 6) but i did manage to swipe a pair so i could cut the back end off or something. my SIL died laughing the next day when i told her why i swiped the extra pair, and she promised to have another pair made in my size for me for the next time i visit them. the flip flops were a total hit - everyone loved them and even my DH wore them (he does NOT wear flip flops ever because he hates things between his toes). Quote: Originally Posted by Mandy Maura, I found these on Facebook first and had to call my mom to tell her they were up. She then proceeded to inform me that she'd already seen them on here! You're amazingly beautiful! Congrats!!! hahahahahaha actually, there are more photos on facebook than i posted on here because i uploaded my dad's photos on facebook. i posted the facebook ones first because my guests were getting ticked i was "taking too long" even though we had just gotten back. but don't worry those of you who havent seen what i posted on facebook, because its nothing you havent already seen from another angle. i still have yet to post the photos from the church portion of the wedding that we did at noon on the wedding day and our honeymoon pics just because i havent had the time to upload them. thanks everybody for all the really nice comments, you really know how to make a girl feel special if i looked beautiful on my wedding day, its because i felt truly beautiful. oh and to whomever asked if i did my own makeup, god bless you for thinking i could do that - but no, i hired someone to do it. we had outcall service from sea spa (located at cabo surf hotel) which i will write all about in my review that is still forthcoming. i swear to you i am working on it, you know how thorough i like to be!

i had a sixpence given to me as a gift with a beautiful letterpressed card explaining the tradition... let me see if i can find the thread i wrote about it..... yep, here you go: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t25569 Here's a photo of it (sorry it's kinda hard to read): Here's where she purchased it from (they are $15 each): Sixpence Wedding Gift for the Bride

you shouldnt solicit gifts in any way on your invitations. you can list a gift registry page on your website though saying in lieu of a traditional gift registry, we've registered for travel vouchers at such and such place. it helps i think if people see exactly what the vouchers are going for, you know, in the kind of honeymoon registries that have the activities listed that the $ goes to. but dont expect too much - unfortunately a lot of guests won't send a gift at all for a DW. we were shocked at the number of people who not only didnt give us a gift, but did not even give us a card congratulating us, yet had no problem drinking enough booze for 3 people each.

julia, i just got back from my wedding and i opted not to do OOT bags because it was too much of a hassle and a huge expense to get it all to cabo (i had 100 guests! no way was i lugging several extra suitcases when we could barely manage with the amount we had!). honestly, all i did for them was welcome books, and not even every guest got them because we didnt see them around before the wedding. a lot of our events or get-togethers were found out by word-of-mouth. not a single one of my guests expected an OOT bag or any kind of gift at all. they were more than thrilled we made the welcome books, which frankly i thought were not that good because i ran out of time and they were very short. my point being is, noone is going to think you are a jerk for not giving them a gift to attend your wedding. spend that money on something else, if you feel its going to be a hassle to do OOT bags, dont do them. it's ok.

since this isnt a newbie post, i'm moving it to the congrats & shoutouts section...

Quote: Originally Posted by Nrvsbride Gosh Maura you are so photogenic! I've only seen half of them I have to finish the rest but I wanted to post so that I don't forget what I want to say. I love the contrasts of the orange and yellow from the resorts building walls. It looks great. I heart, heart, heart the all white set up for your ceremony with the colored roses thrown on the aisle runner. Absolutely beautiful. With the background of the ocean it really popped. What was that bluish looking thing that looked like it had a ring or button in it? It was something having to do with the "something blue" poem. thanks glenda! i loved the all white setup for the ceremony too. i figured the rest of the pics would be so colorful, that the white would be nice for the ceremony with just the little bit of color from the petals and then the rest of color from the sky & ocean. the blue thing you are talking about is the card my aunt gave me - it's a sixpence to stick in your shoe for good luck. the card was so gorgeous i wanted him to photograph it because it was letterpressed and looked great. Quote: Originally Posted by *Heather* I love your pics Maura! Bradley did a great job. The room you got ready in was gorgeous too. Can't wait to read your review. Where did you go on your honeymoon, I forget? the room i got ready in is actually the suite we stayed in for the entire stay. we had some mishaps the first day there, so they upgraded us to a suite for our whole stay, thanks to my WC. i'll write about the problems we had in my review though. we stayed at the westin for our honeymoon for the whole week after our wedding. honestly, we did not get enough alone time; a few of my DH's friends stayed until tuesday at our hotel, my parents stayed at a dif hotel but were there until thursday, and they dropped by to say goodbye before they left, and a friend of my DH's mom was there until the day after we left and we ran into her at the pool several times. so we really didnt feel like it was as much of a private totally-alone honeymoon as we wanted it to be... we decided to take a second honeymoon to montreal next weekend to make up for it.

Sorry it's taken me so long... Here's a link to an album: Picasa Web Albums - Maura & Jose - Maura & José'... And for those interested, here is a link to an album of all photos of the Westin property (I'm still in the process of going through and tagging what the photos are of/where the photo was taken from): Picasa Web Albums - Maura & Jose - Westin Los Ca... I'm still working on my review but I figured this would tide you over for awhile Honeymoon pics are not yet uploaded because I've just been too swamped. Enjoy!

honestly, you need both microsoft office (for regular stuff) and pages (for the amped up cool stuff like MS publisher does).

sure trish, husbands are invited if they are brave enough to come!!!! my DH still thinks im kind of weird for meeting girls from the internet LOL

I am going to have to compile a bigger list, but right now while I have a minute I want to tell each and every one of you that I wish I hadn't stressed so much about who was/wasn't coming. The day will go by so quickly that before you know it, it is over and done. And the next day you will have a hard time remembering everything. I honestly did not think at all, not even once, about all the people who weren't there. Honestly! The other two things I learned (the hard way, unfortunately) are to make a list of MUST-HAVE photos for your photographer, and also give the list to a friend or family member sitting near the front to snap the shots as well. There were certain moments missed during my ceremony that I hope were caught on video, because I have not seen a single photo from our photographer or guests capturing certain things I remember. Also, assign one of your girlfriends or bridesmaids to take photos all night long with your camera so you can have some instant gratification of photos the next day. One of my bridesmaids took photos with my camera throughout the day and at the reception and I am so grateful for that.