Maura

thanks helen! becks i am going to try to shoot you an email so we can figure out a time to chat about our weddings. i am crying looking at your pics on nathans blog they are so amazing!

can somebody link to becks' teaser pics? i have been looking for them and cant find them!

i had 3 BMs and DH had a best man, all our attendants were seated during our ceremony and it didnt look weird at all. i actually prefer how it looks to have ONLY the bride & groom up front. the day before my wedding, there was another one and i watched it from my balcony. this chick had, no joke, like 9 BMs and 8 GMs - and the only reason it looked stupid was because the altar area looked so freakin crowded!

i didnt read anyone else's responses but here is what i would do: only send the ugly invites she made to your mom's circle of friends or to anyone whose home she might visit and see the invite. print up new ones for your own friends and send those out to them. then you can all privately laugh about the ugly ones later.

Now that my wedding is over and I have nothing to do.... I am volunteering to plan a Chicago September meetup! Once I know which date works the best for everyone, we can vote on a place. Hope you all are excited and want to get together

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel Beautiful Maura. I love your flowers- such a pretty color! thanks - wait til you hear the story about the flowers, i get angry just thinking about it. granted, i did like the live flowers better, but i was so sad when i had to leave them in mexico. Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Aaahhh...!! The one of you and Jose kissing gave me a huge lump in my throat! Beautiful!! I thought you were wearing a flower in your hair? i wore my hair flower after the ceremony and post ceremony bride & groom photos. one my my bridesmaids put it in there so tightly that i had a hard time getting it out later that night when we finally went up to our room!

ok i know you want more.... this is literally all i can give you though until i get a gallery up. my computer wont upload all the files to a gallery so i have to have my photographer make one for me. i tried about 4 times yesterday to upload them even in increments of 10 - there are over 500 photos - and it just wouldnt go no matter what i did. i decided after 5 hours i was done trying to upload a gallery. i did email a few pics to my parents though, so here are some of those that i was able to upload individually onto photobucket.

ok i just got back from cabo this morning and i havent even gotten through seeing all the pics yet to be totally honest. the wedding was absolutely beautiful and we had the most amazing time. i know what photo whores you all are, so here are just a couple of my pro pics to tide you over until i manage to get through them all and upload a gallery of everything! i promise more pics and full reviews of everything sometime within the week. enjoy! (my photographer was bradley fraser btw)

hey girls i am back!!!! i have a million things to tell you all!!! i am only here for a quick few mins and i am trying to upload my photos so maybe by tomorrow i will have some to show you. i am going to have to get cracking on my review. one thing i did want to answer though - krista - dont bother going outside the westin for your cake. ours was so delicious (and something a little different, we got a traditional mexican tres leches cake) and it looked and tasted great. honestly, none of my guests gave a shit about the dessert, they were having too good of a time dancing. we served flan to the guests for dessert and the wedding cake was just for us two. we asked them to refrigerate the cake after our reception and deliver it to us the next day... we literally sat in our room devouring the cake after they brought it to our room. the guests gobbled up the flan so quickly just so they could get back out on the dance floor. i will say my trip was not without a few mishaps, but my WC (maira) really came through for me in a HUGE way to make things right. i'll post a couple teaser pics ASAP for you, and i will be working on my review this week to get it up as quickly as possible!!! i did also see another wedding the day before mine, and it was set up in the same area as steph's ceremony, and the cocktail and reception were on the pool deck. honestly, it is not very private. i took photos AND video to show you all because my suite's balcony was right over the pool deck. im having some computer problems and will try to get that all put online as soon as i can also. we also did not do speeches at all during our reception and thank god we didnt. our flow was perfect and the DJ took care of being the emcee and announced everything when we needed anything announced.

please be conscious of where you post things. this question does not belong in the cabo forum and i am moving it.

just wanted to check in and say bye before i leave tomorrow morning. we're packing today, so i wont be around much. thanks everyone for everything. i wish all of you fantastic weddings on your day if i will miss it while i'm away! i'll be back on the 17th.

i just wanted to stop by this thread and say thanks to all of you for all the info we've exchanged in planning a wedding at the same place, it's been so helpful! - i leave in less than 24 hours. i cant wait to share pics with you when i get back and share my reviews of everything!!!

just stopping by to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENDA! I LOVE YOU!

congrats becks, how exciting! i have 6 nephews and a niece. 3 are my older brother's boys (bro is 39), and my older sister has 3 boys and a girl. my sister is bringing her kids to the wedding this week so i am so psyched. i have never really been close with her because she is so much older than me (i think she's 37?) and i've only met her oldest son, who is now 15. i havent seen him since he was about 2. so i am really excited to be an aunt to them!

morgan, i love the bun & the hair.... but heck if i know how to get the bun to work... knowing you, you've already googled the hell out of the internet trying to find out... maybe JennyK could tell you or Erica (cessyboston) - try PMing them about it

Quote: Originally Posted by starchild Wow Maura everything looks great! Your ceremony is long!! Are you simulating a mass outside since nobody really knows you already did it? thanks - yeah i know - ceremony is insanely long, about 40 mins. it is a full catholic mass. Quote: Originally Posted by TammyB Dang girl.. Great planning write up.. Wow I can't believe your day is so close, when do you leave? Congrats I'm so excited for you. thanks we leave wednesday morning at about 4 am Quote: Originally Posted by AnnR you definitely win the award for the most organized bride ever! everything looks great, and i can't believe your day is almost here! haha thanks ann - ive been working on my planning thread compiling all this stuff for a couple of weeks so that i made sure i didnt forget anything!

ok i think i have all the glitches fixed.... enjoy! i cant wait to get back and share photos and video with you!

ah shit. i just noticed some of my photos are not behaving.... i have to go through and fix, please bear with me for some reason some are showing up as duplicates.

WELCOME BOOKS I am still working on these and trying to get them printed this afternoon. Here are two sample pages, I will take photos and post pics ofthem finished when I get back this is a page about all the places to eat and drink at the westin this page is about san jose del cabo PROGRAMS I designed and printed these myself on Fabriano Medioevalis 206 S cards. They are 4.5x6.7 inches and 260 gsm. They are soft white, deckle edge, and match my White Aisle invitations (I even used the NatVignette swash from the background of my invitation on my program). The paper is really beautiful and soft to touch, and it is mouldmade in Italy, although it looks and feels totally handmilled. They come 100 to a box and I got them at a Blick Art Store near where I live. I printed both sides of each card (on a Canon i960 inkjet) so each person gets one card. You can get them online here, they are the regular single cards, code 10032-1040, listed at $21.30: Fabriano Medioevalis Stationery - BLICK art materials (two cards shown side by side so you can see back & front together) Front side: Back side: Now, those of you who have seen my program prototypes will notice I made a few music changes for the ceremony. I like classical guitar, so I went with a Pachelbel’s canon in D on a lute for the bridal processional and I also changed our Communion processional to a song called Cavatina, composed by Stanley Myers. You can find it on iTunes. It is 3:34 seconds long. My Dad suggested this song to me and I love it. Very romantic and would be perfect also for a bridal processional. There is a version that also has words, and the words are really beautiful too. In the end I went with the all instrumental. I will post a full script of our Catholic ceremony melding American & Mexican traditions when I get back because I know it could probably help some future brides to know how we did it. CABO VENDORS Photographer: Bradley Fraser Cabo Wedding Photography, Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Cabo Weddings, Los Cabos Videographer: Baja Video Productions (Enrique & Marci) Cabo San Lucas Wedding Video Services, romantic destination wedding videos in the los cabos area, Cabo San Lucas Mexico DJ: Adan Mijares DJ Mijares Dj Music, Guitar Performing, Los Cabos México. I think that is everything.... if you notice I left something out let me know LOL. Ask as many questions as you’d like. We leave around 4 am Wednesday and I will be on the forum only here and there over the next couple days. Love to you all! I’ll post pics as soon as I possibly can when I get back, and...if I can manage to give you a couple teasers while I’m still there, I’ll see what I can do, but no promises! I get back Sunday, August 17.

wearing them on our legal day: FAVORS Candies purchased in Mexico Mini organza bags purchased from Oriental Trading Co logo tags made by me on PaperSource cardstock, and cut with an xacto knife by my dear old dad (see blog for more details) Mint candies that will go inside the organza bags: GUESTBOOK totally stole this idea from amyh. I will post photos of how mine turned out when I get back. $10 stand at bed bath & beyond dry erase boards (I bought 2) from target - $3.99 each

THE LOCATION: The Westin Los Cabos Resort & Spa (WC: Maira Gallegos) Los Cabos Hotel Mexico - The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos CEREMONY – on the beach Our ceremony setup will look like this: RECEPTION – Restaurant La Playa Our reception setup will look like this (but with dif centerpieces): CENTERPIECES CAKE The photo below is the cake from my legal day, but I sent the Westin pics of it, so let’s hope this is what our Tres Leches cake looks like on the wedding day! WEDDING BANDS his (Diamonds, Engagement Rings and Fine Jewelry at Blue Nile) hers (Overstock.com: Online Shopping Bedding, Furniture, Electronics, Jewelry, Clothing & more)

THE CATHOLIC JAZZ We couldn’t get a ceremony time that worked for us, and in the end we are glad it happened this way. We have to go to the church in San Jose del Cabo at noon on the wedding day with our parents and priest to do the sacrament of marriage inside the church sanctuary. (So yes, this means our ceremony on the beach is technically a vow renewal ceremony, but our guests don’t know that) On the web: www.cabomission.org Contact: Padre Juvencio Gonzales We did our marriage prep with our local priest, and did our PreCana with the archdiocese of Chicago –Family Ministries The priest marrying us is actually an extended family member of Jose’s, he is a Jesuit priest that lives in Louisiana and we are flying him to Cabo. We are doing a full Catholic mass on the beach (which is totally illegal in the eyes of the church haha - but since its not "real" because it isnt inside the church, it doesnt matter)

INVITATION (SPANISH) These were purchased in Mexico City and were hand delivered to each Mexican guest. The invitations are white linen paper with navy engraved lettering.

MOB/FOB & MIL ATTIRE stepmom’s dress dad’s suit & tie MIL’s dress sorry, no FIL attire photo! INVITATIONS SAVE THE DATE (ENGLISH) I made these myself. Details are in my blog. SAVE THE DATE (SPANISH) These were purchased in Mexico City and sent to the Mexican guests only. INVITATION (ENGLISH) from The White Aisle : Unique Wedding Favors and Invitations I cannot say enough about how amazing and accommodating Rebecca was. I LOVE the White Aisle! I got so many compliments on our invitations. They are printed on deckle edge 260 gsm Fabriano Medioevalis paper.