MarieSam

looks great

they're perfect and so so beautiful!!!!

amazing pics, beautiful bride!!!!

We did the Mayan Cosmic Ceremony for our June 26th wedding in Akumal and it was the most AMAZING experience!!!! I would not have changed it for the world I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something unique, spiritual and culturally tied to the area. It is an emotional ceremony and EVERYONE cried during ours, including the men ~ it was pretty awesome Here's a link to some of my photos, I should have more to show on the ceremony next week. But for now: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t46544 Also, my Wedding Coordinator provided me with this email a while back explaning the ceremony -- I know she uses Shaman Maria and her assistant Charlie so the format may be slightly different depending on who you use, but I believe it's generally the same! So hope this helps a little A Mayan Wedding can range from a simple ritual ceremony to a very elaborate wedding service. It is a serious spiritual ceremony. We use only authentic Shamans to perform authentic Mayan wedding ceremonies and prior to the ceremony the Shaman must determine if the bride and groom can participate in this sacred ceremony. This is our personal favorite and highly recommend it. It will truly make your wedding a memorable expierence for your family and friends. The Mayan wedding is considered a link to the cosmos. The authentic Mayan ceremony, following the actual traditions used by the Maya from the Yucatan Peninsula, is led by an authentic Mayan Shaman and will be held in Spanish. A translator is provided when meeting the Shaman to understand the spirituality of the wedding and its Mayan symbolism. Mayan Wedding Ritual ... a ritual of commitment to unite each other as long as the commitment remains. The Mayan Wedding Ritual is based in the Maya's connection with the universe and their gods, which is described in their sacred book the Popol Vuh, the ceremony brings the couple to the four cardinal points (north, south, east and west) to unite them to the feminine Mother Earth and the masculine Cosmic Energy, symbolized by a central sacred candle. An altar is created to represent these four cardinal points. Flowers mark these four points and – to represent the gifts of prosperity and fertility. North is purification is represented by whiteflowers, East is love with red, South is spiritual guides and uses yellow flowers, and West is protection with purple flowers (true color would be black but since black flowers don't grow in nature we use purple). A Candle is located on the altar on the four cardinal points -- north, south, east and west – to symbolize the presence of the four Mayan cosmos gods. The center candle unites the feminine and masculine – Mother Earth and Cosmic Energy, - which is lit by the Shaman or by the one he designates. Prior to the ceremony, the area is cleansed at the four cardinal points by the Shaman with the sacred smoke from the Copal tree and the blowing of the ritual conch shell horn. Family and friends circle around the altar and they celebrate the union of the bride and groom. Mayan music with pre-Hispanic instruments and the sacred conch shell is performed before and during the ceremony. Traditional Mexican music, such as Mariachis, can continue the celebration after the wedding.

YAY it's your day my fellow Akumal bride!!! Hope it's filled with an overflow of sunshine, happiness and love Can't wait to hear all about it when you return

Des you look so incredibly beautiful!! And good Lord woman, your dress is fabulous So glad to hear everything went well for you. Cheers and lots of love and happiness for you and Tyler

Oooh I LOVED Save By the Bell on Sat mornins too! Yeah DD is a total douche bag, and I agree with Jamy ~ his Celebrity Fit Club stint totally made me hate him. He was such an attention hogging, $hit disturbing jerk on the show! But I do gotta admit, I am uber curious about this book ....

that is the cutest idea Amy!!!! Damn, lets all get married again so we can do this

drama : queen

Welcome home beautiful!!! So glad to hear you had a wonderful time ~ can't wait to see all your pics and read your review. Congrats *lotsa hugs*

I've now been married for more than a month, but I could not let the chance to show my beautiful passport invites pass After making our own boarding pass STD’s (Here’s a link to those passes with pics: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t30531) we knew we wanted passports for our official invites, but knew we didn’t have the time to make them on our own – so it took us a bit of time to find a vendor whom we could entrust to develop our vision. We finally decided to go with Ana De Roux (Ana de Roux - Custom Invitations, Stationery & Design) who happens to be a wonderful BDW bride/vendor! After weeks of countless emails back and forth (I was probably her most anal, detail-oriented client but she was always so sweet regardless), the passports she made arrived just in time for us to send out to our guests. I cannot tell you how pleased we were with how they turned out!!! She created exactly what we wanted while incorporating our logo, the fonts we loved, making little stamps with important info and of course using our wedding colors. The quality of the cardstock and text paper she uses is unmatched and ALL our guests thought we paid an arm and a leg for these because they were so nice ~ Ana's prices are actually totally reasonable and pretty low given the quality of her work. Everyone has now held on to these as a keepsake of our wedding festivities! For the first couple days, I was obsessed with looking at our invites and showing them to anyone I knew, lol. At one point, I accidentally sat one invite on top of a wet nap and it smeared part of the print – I went freakin nuts and cried, lol. Yes, I love them that much!! Anywho – here are some pics of what I think is another stellar creation from Ana!! I wholeheartedly recommend her for anyone who is looking for top-quality invites and paper products, her work is exceptional, prices are great and she’s a sweetheart!

i could sworn i already posted on this thread ~ but since i don't see it, just wanna say you look beautiful!!!

beautiful and you looked incredible!!!!!

that's a maggie sottero dress from her destination line!!! here's the link: SD5230 - by Maggie Sottero most of those overseas retailers will duplicate the dress and some do a very good job, however, from what I've heard they often use material that isn't quite as good as the original. But there certainly are some retailers who can offer something darn close and for a lot less!

beautiful, love the colors!

looks like you had a beautiful day!!! Congrats

I would definitely say go with something instrumental, your guests will be wrapped up in watching the show. I know when I've went to 4th of July celebrations the music played has always been instrumental so not to take away or distract from the show. Also consider how long the fireworks show is ~ that will also play a huge role in the song you choose. And is their sort of a build up to a finale in the fireworks? Something that reflects that in your song would be awesome!

Thanks girls ~ I'm glad I went with my reds too!! I think it was meant to be Quote: Originally Posted by lisaloo79 I too love the shoes you wore on your special day! Thanks for sharing your story with us. It makes me feel better to know this as I'm always buying cheap things and wondering if I'm missing out on the more expensive items - I guess not! lol Lisa, that is another reason why I wrote this post! ***Designer lines and high price tags don't automatically mean they're better ~ so for those brides on budgets, don't feel like your "cheap find or steal" isn't as great as other items with a flashy name and outrageous price tag. I'm such a proponent of blending styles and fashion of all levels ~ some of my best ensembles consist of a Target dress, $100 sandals and $2 earrings Go with what makes you feel beautiful and I say, if it's cheaper, then even better!!!

men always seem to get : horny *hhahha, couldn't help it!!

sounds like a wonderful experience for you guys ~ now make sure to share your pics!!! you know we are all picture whores on here

I agree with Jess -- start sending out email inquiries to photogs whose work you love, remember it must be LOVE, lol. Also keep watch for BDW photography vendors on here who will periodically offer contests that include free services with their travel/lodging fees being paid. Their have been some super lucky members who won these contests and ended up with AMAZING pics!! I actually lucked out and got my photographer for costs only (engagement pics, welcome dinner, wedding day, and day-after session included) ~ no way in a million years would I have ever thought I could get such a GREAT deal. So believe me, it always helps to ask around and inquire. The worst they could say is no, but all you need is one yes and good contract to go with it Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

beautiful, classy pics ~ the first one is so "sneakily sexy" ~ does that make sense? i love the placement of your hair, shirt, the angle in general. you glance over that pic quickly, but then your drawn back to it and realize just how sexy it is ~ you are fabulous my dear!!!

Well I meant to post about this way before my wedding, but well … yanno, life and last minute wedding madness got in the way. So I’m now trying to catch up! Some of you may have read about my wedding shoe splurge earlier this year ~ my gorgeous Cole Haan’s! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t37063 It was love at first sight I tell ya, and when I read that they came with Nike Air technology for added comfort I was sold. Well to my surprise, Tommy actually wasn’t mortified by my outrageously high purchase …hmmm although he did ask if the shoes came with a $400 check, hehehe bastard, lol. But really, he was fine with it and said if that’s what I wanted for our wedding day then it was all good. Ok so here’s the kicker …. Those mother F$%kers hurt and were NOT comfortable at all. That damn Nike Air technology was for the birds and I couldn’t fathom spending that much money on shoes that did not feel good on my feet. So with much dismay they went straight back to Nordstroms -- ok well actually I kept em for about 3 months in hopes they would suddenly feel good because they were so freaking pretty, but they never did, so back they went. *sigh* In the meantime I ended up finding these fabulous Pierre Dumas shoes at Piperlime.com (pics below) – (FYI I just ordered them in gold and silver too because cute gold/silver shoes that don’t look ghetto cheap are hard to find, lol!) Shoes, handbags: Your insider’s guide to sandals, dress shoes, boots, casual shoes, handbags and more for women, men and kids | Piperlime Amid my disappointment with my Cole Haan’s I ultimately decided I wanted shoes that would pop under my dress and also compliment the red amaryllis in my bouquet. So when I found these, I was in love!!! And they only cost me $50 with free shipping ~ super deal! Now come the wedding day, after walking around cobble stone streets during our first look session and in the sand (yes girls, I dragged my ass across the sand wearing these shoes) my feet were killin me! But luckily I had already planned to go barefoot for the ceremony and had some cute flip flops for the reception. So after this long ass rant …. The moral of this story is: BUY SHOES THAT ARE FABULOUS AND COMFORTABLE unless they are dirt cheap THEN MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACK UP PAIR FOR THE REST OF YOUR WEDDING!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Abbie its gorgeous, and yup i was gonna say it too, thats mariesams dress! she looked killer in it and so will you awww Abbie...that's why I heart you

Oooh amazing location!!! There are tons of ideas in the gifts/favors section of the forum -- the out of town (OOT) bag threads have lots of great ideas that I'm sure your guests will love. Can't wait to hear all about your wedding ~ such an exotic place, I'm sure it will be beautiful