Celina

Everything came out beautiful! I love your bags and you looked amazing!

That's awesome for Zoe! You guys are talking about your little ones crawling. I remember when my son learned how to crawl up the stairs. I swear -he was on the 5th or so step and you could almost see the lightbulb go on above his head when he figured out how to do it. He had a big grin and off he went! Love them because they grow up and become very independent, very-very fast!

I used Renova Spa at RIU Vallarta for my hair only. I gave them pics and told them what I wanted and I thought she did a great job. She used 6,398 bobby pins to hold my hair up, but it was perfect! I think the lady who did my hair's name was Celia or Cecilia. I did not have her wash and dry my hair, I went down with my hair already washed and air dried because I wanted a better hold (if that makes sense). You have to put a deposit down before the wedding and you have to pay with the same credit card when you get there. I had to open a paypal account to do this. BTW - I am going back down for a mini-honeymoon at the end of April if anyone needs anything. We decided to go back and stay at the RIU Vallarta. Just let me know!

Honestly, we had so many people who said they were going and didn't go. I wouldn't stress over it. Like everyone said, keep it to immediate family and close friends.

Remind your guests about shorts as well. At the church in PV (The main one downtown), we went in just as sight seers and there was a sign that said no shorts on women, had to be covered past the knee or something like that.

DH and I listened to Sirius music and just wrote down songs we liked and thought our guests would like. We did the same with the Mexican music as well. There was no chicken dancing at our wedding!! LOL!

DH just said he tipped the waitstaff who served us our wedding dinner $50-$100. Oh yeah...we also tipped the minister $50 DAMN....we spent a lot on tipping! We are going back for a mini-honeymoon in April...they better remember us! LOL! In the end it was all worth it. We had a beautiful wedding. I couldn't have asked for more, (with the exception of the photographer)

Glad to hear things are working out. The one piece of advice I can give you is if you accept gifts, you have to accept the strings that come with them. Otherwise, do it yourself that way you don't owe anything to anyone!

Since my husband is in the service industry we tend to overtip. We tipped everyone at the hotel daily - housekeepers, bartenders, waitresses, servers at breakfast, lunch and dinner. IMHO A little tipping goes a long way and by the end of our trip we weren't asking for drinks, they were bringing them to us. We had our same table every night for dinner, our drinks were at our table immediately when we sat down, and the staff even helped with our kids as we sat in the same section every day during breakfast, lunch and dinner. The staff was amazing. For a couple of bucks here and there it was WELL worth it. With that being said, yes we did tip Erika and Jessica I think $100 each. We also gave them each an OOT bag and some music CD's. We tipped the bartenders the night of the wedding either $100 or $50 each and gave them some cake to take with them. We did not tip the photographer because I thought he did a terrible job and he missed a lot of important pictures - plus he was too concerned with making his money on sunset pictures and therefore did a crappy job with our pics. We bought the CD and moved on. I tipped the hairdresser $30 and we tipped $25 each on our massages. We did not tip the servers for the wedding dinner. One thing to note about Erika, she is a sweet girl and wouldn't outright ask for a tip or give you suggestions on what to give her as a gift. A lot of that has to do with culture. I asked and asked and she never responded. She seemed thrilled with what we did give her. Hope that helps!

We had our cake cutting at the bar instead of the dinner - so we took the flower centerpieces from the reception dinner and put them on the cake table. We also took our own cake pedestal, knife/server, cake boxes and a little sign that said "A slice for now a slice for later".

Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe the pineapples are fake? Now you have me thinking! Great idea though! Wish I would have thought of this!

I had them make an aisle with palm fronds. I felt silly just walking toward the arch KWIM? The palm fronds worked for me - kind of made it feel more like an aisle.

Here's a backside pic of me at the salon. I wore both and loved it!

If you type in "Hairstyle" in the search box I'm sure you will find some great ideas and pictures!

You can also buy them at the stores along the boardwalk in PV! They were very inexpensive. I think like $2 USD a pair.

Quote: Originally Posted by Heatherbean Thanks ladies, this helped a lot. I think we are giong to do the IPOD thing as well and just get a good set of speakers. How long did you guys rent the poolside bar for? I am having my wedding at 4:00 pm followed by pictures afterwards. I was thinking of having a later dinner about 7:30 - 8:00 ish and than head over to the poolside bar from about 10:00 - midnight. There are certainly a lot of night owls with my group, so I"m wondering if maybe I should rent it until 1:00 Anyways, This is just a very draft timeline as I know that it most likely won't follow a definate one once we are there. Does this sounds realistic to you? As I mentioned I have about 30 guests coming and am going with the mid grade package (The royal wedding package). Did you guys go with the basic photography package that comes with the wedding pakcage, or did you pay for additions? What should I budget for this to get decent pics? Also, what did you think of the bouquet that is included with the package? Did you order flowers for the arch at an additional cost? I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for what additional costs are worth it and what are not. If you could offer any more tips or suggestions (do's and don'ts), it would be so much appreciated. Thanks, Hi Heather, We had our wedding scheduled at 5 - but I was late and so it didn't start till 5:30. We used the photog that came with the package and we ended up just buying the disk. Please be specific with them about which pics you want or you may not get what you want. We paid $300 or so for the disk. Like Mel said, the flowers are absolutely beautiful. I did the flowers on the arch and had them do six table centerpieces, three BM bouquets, my bouquet, boutoneers and flowers on the cake. I had white calas and white roses on my bouquet and the girls had yellow calas and white roses on theirs. I think they used some orange calas on the arch as well. All came out goregous. After the wedding I had them take the flowers off the arch and put them on the book table at the restaurant and after dinner we took the flowers with us to the tables at the pool bar and put them on our cake table. After it was all over, we had all the flowers sent to our room and we enjoyed them the rest of the week. I love flowers so to me it was worth it. We had dinner at the Flamingo at the first seating which was at 6:30pm and dinner ran long after toasts and the waitstaff was very slow. We had three tables of 10-11 people and by the time we finished one course our last table was barely getting theirs. We rented the pool bar from 9pm-12pm and didn't get there till 9:30. We stayed till midnight and could have stayed a few more hours we were having such a good time. At midnight they pretty much told us we were done and wouldnt' extend the time.

Hi Heather, As of now I think I'm the only actual "Bride" on here who has gotten married at the RIU Vallarta. Helen's daughter got married there too. We have one RIU Jalisco bride as well. Let me know if I can help. You can rent out the pool bar and they have the speakers set up there all you have to do is hook up your Ipod. The bartenders come with the rental. I had them set my cake up there as well. Our wedding was in November so the weather may be different from what it will be in April. I hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else!

Isn't he? And what is up with Ronda? That chick is a freak! There are a lot of weirdos on that show now that I think about it!

They grow up fast don't they?? Was his bed on the lowest level? Don't forget you can always lower the mattress. I say if it is on the lowest level already, then go ahead with the toddler bed. Maybe just a bed rail will help him for now. Good luck! They grow up so fast!

Awww, what a sweet heart! That is wonderful and so thoughtful. I agree, your mom does rock!

DH and I aren't doing much either. We have a date night scheduled for the end of the month so we'll have fun then. He usually buys me flowers and a box of chocolates or something and we have a fun dinner with the kids. He totally thinks Vday is over rated. We show eachother we love eachother every day, so one day out of the year is kind of a marketing ploy to us and we try not to indulge. ALTHOUGH - I do make valentine cards and cookies/treats with my kids to pass out to family members. I think it is the frilly, sparkley, girley in me that makes me do it! Besides, who doesn't love a home made Valentine's day card?

OMG - We watch this every Sunday! I love this show! Let me know if you need to get caught up! My favorite character is Margene. I used to hate Nikki, but after last weeks episode, I'm starting to feel sorry for her.

Our guys went fishing and us girls went shopping and out to lunch! We took taxi's downtown and walked the Malecon and had lunch. It was great! The guys came back and were red and tired! Don't be disappointed if they aren't up for much when they get back!

I say go for it and send an Evite to those that you think use and check e-mail. For the older folks who may not - pick up some inexpensive (but nice) invites and send to them. Good luck!

We had kids at our wedding (our two and one of my BM's two kids). We had 32 guests in total. We had ours at an AI and honestly you really didn't notice the kids. Unless people are loaded with $$ they wont' take their kids. Between the cost of passports and flights, it is expensive for most to take their kids. Keep in mind that if you tell people no kids, many wont'come because as others have said it is hard to find babysitters for kids for more than a weekend. Good luck!