Sunshine311

Quote: Originally Posted by mopher We flew skyservice and they were great. They hung the dress and tux in the cockpit for us. it is so humid in Jamaica that I am sure it won't be hard for the wrinkles to come out if you end up with any. What??!!?? How did you manage to get that service? We're flying Sky Service this Saturday and I've called the airline twice about my gown and both times they've told me there is nothing that they can do as far as hanging it somewhere safe for me. They said I'll have to put the dress and suit in the overhead and ask other passengers not to put their bags in the same compartment! Any advice so I can get this service as well?

Hey there! I'm having a small group too - 10 guests, and I'm pretty excited about our day. What we're having is our ceremony on the beach, and then dinner, toasting, and cake on the beach with our guests. It's going to be small, intimate, and awesome!! For such a small group, I saw no reason to hire a band, dj, or have any sort of dance, but the resort is providing a cd player and we're bringing a bunch of music from home. After the ceremony we have 4 hours of bar service on the beach, and once we're done eating and drinking there, we're going to stroll the malecon (Puerto Vallarta) and see what kind of fun we can find!! I do actually have a big fancy gown, but I don't care - I'm not changing!! It's going to be a great time! Good luck!

I have to ask how other brides have handled the issue of taking their gown on the plane. I was under the impression from my travel agent that the plane had somewhere up front where they could hang it, and all I needed to do was call the airline ahead of time to let them know. So today I called the airline and they said that they don't have anywhere to hang it, and that all I can do is put it in the overhead compartment! Are you kidding me?? I have a big beautiful gown laying up there, and then joe blows come along and smoosh it with thier baggage?? Is there any better way How did you brides handle your gown on the plane ride?

Hey girls! Isn't worrying about weight just the worst thing in the world?? It's so hard to keep that figure and I could feel for you as I read the posts! I think the secret to keeping slim is realizing that being healthy is a lifestyle, not fad diets and exercise spurts. What works for me is eating healthy all week long (fish, chicken, tuna, veggies, rice, fruits, salads) and then having a cheat day on Saturday!!! Let's face it, if we tried to eat right every day, we're setting ourselves up for failure. One day a week is not going to pack pounds on and we need that indulgance! I know you're going to hate this next one, but exercise, exercise, exercise!! I started pounding the treadmill and lifting weights Jan 4th and I can't believe the difference it's made already! Motivation is probably our biggest obstacle - I hear yeah there!!! But what the 'experts' say really is true; if you can go a month, it gets so easy after that. For the first month I motivated myself by thinking of me in a bikini on the beach, and looking good in my wedding gown. And after that first month it becomes part of your lifestyle, your daily routine. I always look forward to my jog now - it feels SO good!!! A few little tricks I also do that I'll share: When you're running to the store to grab a few things, don't look for the best parking spot infront of the door. Park at the furthest end of the parking lot and enjoy the extra walk. I ALWAYS take the stairs. When I need to talk to someone in my office I always get up and walk to their office rather than phoning or email. Play sports, walk the dog, anything to get moving!! I know you can all do it!! I'm sure I didn't say anything here that you didn't already know, but weight is something all us girls can relate to, and I just wanted to share the things I do that have been working for me and maybe it might work for you too!!

I can already tell by reading these two threads that doing the legal stuff at home is more popular, just as I suspected. For me and FH, the legal marriage at home is just that - the legal paperwork. Our wedding date is the one in Mexico, the rest is just legalities.

Awesome, thank you!

This has been an interesting topic for me, and the more I research, the more couples I am finding who opt to do the legal marriage at home, then just do a religious, or spiritual, wedding at their destination wedding. So, I am curious to just do a quick poll and ask the brides here to indicate whether there doing the legal wedding at home, or if their doing the legal ceremony at their destination. For myself, we're doing the legal ceremony at home. I apoligize if this thread has been done before. I'm fairly new here and didn't see it when I looked back a ways.

I think so, and he's been great to deal with. Very patient and accomodating. The best part is when I told him that our small, simple wedding would, in no way, need 6 hrs of photography and 350 pics, he was good about customizing a package and price to suit our needs. As far as credit cards, yes, no small vendor seems to accept them, and I asked my photog about PayPal, but no go. I was going to UPS, but it was going to cost me $75!! I think I'll just have to go on my WC trust and beleive things will turn out fine

The photograher is Josef Kandoll, anyone heard of him? He was recommended by the WC at our resort. His website looks pretty good! I would UPS, but it's around $75 to courier, via $20 to wire transfer. As for the cc, so far no one takes it!

Hey there, I'm a Canadian Bride who is getting married in Puerto Vallarta Mexico next month. This is all very new to me and I was just wondering how I can guarentee the legitimacy of vendors. i.e. photographer. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a bit nervous wiring money to a Mexico bank account for a vendor I know nothing about. Basically I'm going on blind faith that I'm dealing with a reputable vendor. I'm worried about getting 'taken'. Is there any procedures, or ways to protect myself and know I'm getting involved with a legitimate service? Thanks,

I've had similar experiences as the other brides have said. I try to do most of my communicating via email as phone calls can be quite expensive. Responses were slow and spuratic, and very frustrating at times. It took 4 attempts before they finally got the supper right that we wanted! In the end, my patience and persistance paid off and the contract is signed. You definetly have to be on them, but understand that the sense of urgency and stress is very low in these destination countries. I guess that's why they're so relaxed and that's where we go to get away and relax!! LOL It was hard for me to get used to my WC's laid back way, but I have and I know that things are coming along just fine. Good luck!!

I just wanted to put my two cents in regarding getting legally married at home before going away for your wedding. That's exactly what me and my Fiance are doing. We're not saying a word to anyone about what we're doing, but if it comes up and someone asks, we're not going to lie. The way we've chosen to handle it, is to never use the word 'married', or 'wedding' when we describe it. We're going to make it sound like paperwork. "Oh mom, it's so great, we're able to do all the necessary paper work and legal techicalities at home, and avoid the hassles of doing it in Mexico". Saying some words infront of a JP and signing a piece of paper is NOT your wedding. If you adopt that mentality, you're family should too, and they'll understand. Honestly, it's silly to jump through all those hoops to have a wedding legally recognized in a foreign country; what matters it to have it legally recognized at home. We're getting married in Puerto Vallarta by the way! Not powder white beaches, but a beautiful place none the less!! Good luck

Guess what girls....it gets better....AGH!!!! So, in reading everyone's thoughts, I became totally cool with planning my own party and was feeling pretty good about things. Well, after setting a date and my bf insisting it was a good date and that she'd be able to be there, she sent me an email this morning saying another friend of hers is having a bacholorette party that night and that now she doesn't know what to do! She's hoping that both groups will end up at the same bar so she can 'go back and forth'!!! Whatever... I'm so frustrated with her right now that I don't even care if she's there or not. I'm going ahead with my plans and she can come if she wants - I have plenty of other friends that will be there.

Quote: Originally Posted by TammyDez I am so sorry that you’re going through this. I am planning my bacheloret party and I am so excited. I wanted to make sure that the whole thing is crazy fun and off the hook. I will take any advise or ideas from my girls, but I would like the finally say so. You might want to throw some ideas out via email to your friends and that way you don’t feel like your doing all the planning or hire a party planner! Either way I hope you the best. I'm so glad I posted this! I thought it was this big awful thing to plan my own party, but I don't feel nearly as strongly about it now, especially when I read posts from others that have done it for themselves too!! As Tammy said, this way I get to have the night exactly as I would want it. And I'm sure once everyone gets caught up in talking about that night, friends will suggest plans and different ideas for us. Cool, I'm not really dreading this anymore - I'm totally excited!!!!

To be totally honest with you, I've never even heard of menu cards for a buffet....

Quote: Originally Posted by mauraw do you have sisters or another friend you'd be comfortable telling that your bf backed out of planning your stagette? Unfortunetly, no sisters. As far as other friends - I could mention it, but then I feel like I'm putting them on the spot to plan something...on the other hand, they may step right up to the plate!

Quote: Originally Posted by jilly76 could you just call all of your friends and just mention that you want to go to dinner and out for some drinks with all of them before you leave? That way its not like you're "planning your own party" but you can still get together with you friends before you leave. And who knows, once you mention it to a few people, someone may decide to take over planning, but you can really do it w/o overplanning and just say dinner and drinks and pick a place, that way it sounds casual and not you planning your own bachelorette. I really like that idea! Thanks. It was also good to hear that others have had no qualms about organizing their own get together! Suddenly it doesn't seem so bad! LOL!

Quote: Originally Posted by albrosious by the way, i think that is crappy of your friend. how hard is it to send an email to people and say this is when it is and this is where we will meet? just my opinion though! i have a friend like that right now and i want to scream! Truth be told, I agree with you. I'm pretty mad/hurt by her as well. She was all excited for everything until the home wedding was off, then it was like the wedding didn't matter anymore. Work genuinely does keep her busy most weekends, but that wouldn't keep me from doing something for my bf.

OK, I totally feel like I'm putting myself out here with a big L on my forehead for even writing this, but here it goes.... In just under two months we're off to Mexico to get married. Originally we were planning an at home wedding and I had my bridesmaids picked out, we had chosen their dresses and plans were well under way. Then, let's just say s**t happened and we decided to go away to get married. Although it was short notice, we felt lucky that 12 people were able to come along - none of which were my friends/bridesmaids. Anyway, since plans changed my bridesmaids have pretty much forgotten about me and my wedding (I don't think they're mad??), and my best friend/former MOH has said she's way too busy with work to plan me a stagette before I go. She feels really bad, and wants to do something with me, but just can't do the planning. Although I do not expect a shower and gifts, I do really want a stagette! I'd love a night out with the girls before we go to Mexico just to have dinner and do some bar hoping! So here I am in a situation where my best friend has said she'd love to attend and wants to go out, but has no time to organize it, I feel like a total dork asking someone to throw me a stagette, and I'd feel like a total loser organizing my own stagette!!! What am I supposed to do? Many friends have already asked when it is and I know they're pumped to go out, but how do I tell them no one's hosting/organizing it??

I noticed that you said you are getting married in Playa del Carmen. Did you find a place with a good beach? My fiance and I were looking at getting married there for our March '08 wedding but decided against it after extensive research on the beach conditions. We found recent pictures that showed many beaches still in very poor condition from the hurricanes. Some beaches were OK, but we decided not to gamble. Our wedding is in Puerto Vallarta!!! As far as the lookers, I suppose it depends what kind of person you are. I love attention! The more people that want to watch me get married and see me in my gown the better! I have a gorgeous gown that I paid a lot of money for, and I hate that only 10 guests are going to see me in it, so I think it's great that the other people see me - as long as there respectful of course. And as has been said, a good photographer can ensure no pictures are ruined by speedo boy.

Just a thought - although we're flying SkyService, our travel agent told us that Air Transat automatically upgrades the bride and groom to club class free of charge. You may want to look into that.... Oops, I see you already commented on that in your original post! Sorry! (and the forum won't let me delete this message :-))

Hey all, Having a tight budget, I spent A LOT of time trying to figure out where to get married that's nice, but affordable. In the end I chose the Buenaventura and went with their wedding package. I realize there are nicer choices, but as I said, we don't want to spend a fortune, so this seemed like a good 'middle of the road' choice. I just want to know if anyone is getting married there, has gotten married there, or seen a wedding there, and can tell me a bit about it, share some photo's, or tell me what to expect. I understand the hotel is going through renovations right now, so they should be all done and the place looking nice when we get there in March!

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel Instead of having music for dancing, why not ask your wedding coordinator if they have a sound system and just play Ipod music for ambiance? Or do they already provide some type of music? The resort does set up a CD player and speakers. We can bring our own music or they do have their own. I plan on burning a bunch of CD's with our favorite songs. The entire wedding, including dinner, is all on the beach which should be so nice. Although a small group, we're a pretty lively group, so we'll probably have some drinks, dances, and laughs for a bit after dinner, but I'm sure eventually we'll move out for some more entertainment later into the night.

Quote: Originally Posted by LC_Rachel Welcome. I wouldn't freak out over the budget thread. Weddings are pretty affordable, especially if you utilize your resorts wedding packages. A lot of the girls here do nice extras for the guests such as excursions, welcome dinners, Out of Town (OOT) bags. None of these things would be expected from your guests because I'm sure half of them probably have never been to a destination wedding so they wouldn't know about the little extras some of our DW brides do. I'm a March bride too. So much to do! Happy planning. Yeah, I kind of noticed what you said too. Lots of extra's with big groups. From all the research I did, I found the Buenaventura to be middle of the road. There are for sure nicer options, but it's not a bad place though. We are going with their wedding package which is $1100 and includes most everything (ceremony, flowers, cake, champagne toast, dinner with guests, plus other perks). The only thing extra we need is a photographer! Only 12 guests are coming with us - no wedding party - so that's keeping things cheap. With only 14 of us total, it's not worth it to hire music and have a dance. After dinner we'll probably stroll the malecon and see what kind of fun we can find! (Which I do plan on wearing my gown for! It's the most beautiful gown ever and I'm going to wear it for as long as possible! lol). What I'm mostly hoping to find here is people who have married, or seen a wedding at the Buenaventura and can tell me what is was like and what to expect.

Hey all, I just joined today and was so happy to come accross this forum! We're planning a pretty budget concious wedding in PV this March (I almost fell over when I read the budget thread!) and I was hoping to find some people who may be able to provide help and insite for my upcoming wedding!! We're getting married March 11, 2008 at the Buenaventura Grand Hotel and Spa in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. Less than 2 months to go!!