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Banquet Hall View of the Tables Bridesmaids Flowers--only at "head" table First Dance--My Favorite Part. It was GREAT to be able to TALK to him!!! We danced to "Then" by Brad Paisley Bar and Bartender Waiter--they were FUN

In the hotel room before the ceremony The Bridesmaids and Myself Pre-Ceremony Ceremony Set Up Darin and the Moms One of the Groomsmen and Bridesmaids Bridesmaids Me and My Dad Exchanging of the Rings Vows Me on the beach--Darin snapped this one, but I was working with the photographer

Hi All I just wanted to write a review of the wedding. Darin and I stayed at the Barcelo Maya Beach resort. We were supposed to stay at the Caribe (just a few years newer than the Beach), but it was closed! We did not find that out until we got there to check in, but really, it was no big deal. Check-In: We did not get drinks handed to us when we first got there, but some of our guests did. I think it just depends on how busy they are. There are some drinks to the right of the front desk if you want to help yourself. Check in when pretty smooth, EXCEPT for the fact that we paid for a jr. suite and were put in a normal room. The room we were originally put in was decorated very nicely and had chapmpgne, a fruit tray, beach towels and the towel decorations. The bellman moved all of it to our room as soon as they got it all figured out. It took probably 15 minutes. Slightly annoying because we were so excited to get to the beach and start hanging out with everyone, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. The Room: The Jr. Suite had a kind sized bed and a couch and a balcony (they all have balconies). It was nice to have the extra space when we were all getting ready the day of the wedding. All the rooms have mini-firdges and they are all restocked daily. They are all cleaned daily (although the time the room was cleaned seemed to get later and later each day). I mean, it's a hotel room, if you're spending THAT much time in it, what kind of a vacation are you really having? The Grounds: Beautiful. They really were gorgeous. The resort is HUGE and everything was well maintained. The Beach: FANTASTIC. I walked the whole beach--from the Beach resort to the Palace and I really thought the Beach resort had one of the nicest and biggest beaches, if not the nicest. There were TONS of chairs and no one really played the towel game where you put out your towel at 7am to make sure you get a chair. The water was warm and beautiful. You can walk out really far in the Carribbean and still not be over your head (I'm 5'4"). The Pool: I didn't get to see all the pools, but from what I've read, the Beach has the biggest pool. I really don't know. But the pool is very large and there are tons of chairs and hammocks (in the shade) and it was GREAT! The pool is where my friends and family spent most of their time. The Food: Well, I have to say, the buffet did get a little old by day 6, but really, it was pretty good. I was sick until the day before the wedding (I got the flu the day before we left for Mexico), so I'm probably not a good judge of food, honestly. All I can say is to USE YOUR RESTAURANT TICKETS and MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS EARLY (like the day you get there or the day after)! The Drinks: The drinks were good! Most of them had a decent amount of alcohol in them, some didn't and some had WAY too much. But overall, they were pretty good. Most of the time, we were at the beach bar connected to the Beach pool. In the grills for lunch, the alcohol and mixers and beer are all out in the open for your taking. It's cool! The Wedding Coordinator: My WC was Claudia Vasquez. She really was wonderful. Darin and I got to the resort on Monday and we met with Claudia on Tuesday at 10am. She had remembered most of what I had emailed her about and was basically just clarifying everything. She really was great. We brought all our decorations down to her the next day and she again went over everything and organized everything so it was correct in the suitcases for when she and her co-workers needed to decorate. I brought my own centerpieces and chair decorations b/c the bows they had to choose from did not match anything. They did a WONDERFUL job. We got our blood tests done right after meeting with Claudia and it was probably the best blood draw I've ever had. No bruise, no pain and no bleeding afterward! I think we got lucky!! Oh, and FYI--we went with the Sea Breeze package. The Wedding: Darin and I got married on the beach outside the Captain Morgan Grill at 3pm. We had a violin playing a slow song for the wedding party to walk in to (I don't know what song it was) and Cannon D was playing for me. It was GREAT (until the amplifier went out, oh well!). Everything looked WONDERFUL. The judge was wonderful and did a great job. We did a sand ceremony that we had our usher read and after that, the judge told us we could kiss! Oh, and we also wrote our own vows. That was nerve-wrecking, but I'm glad we did it. Darin put all of his on his iPhone--it was hilarious! We did decide it was OK to write them down b/c that's just WAY too much pressure to memorize them (for us, anyway). After we walked down the aisle, married, the were wait staff there to hand out champagne to everyone. We didn't do a toast, but it was nice to have something to drink! The Reception Hall: The reception was held inside the Beach hotel in a banquet room. I know that if we had had our reception outside it would have been wonderful, but really, I was SO happy to get inside, out of the heat and wind! I had a traditional wedding dress, so I was VERY HOT and the guys were dying!!! I will post wedding pictures, but just so you know, everything we had at the wedding, we brought down with us, except for the flowers--those were the bridesmaid bouquets. Oh, and when we walked into the reception, the waiters handed everyone a drink, which got the party started off right! The Reception Food: We chose from "El Agave" menu. We chose: Vegetarian Quesadillas, Chicken "mixiote", steamed in cactus leaf & served with rice and guacamole and creamy pie with almonds & raspberry flavors, vanilla sauce. We did have 2 vegetarian guests and were able to order vegetarian fajitas for them for the entree. Anyway, the food was EXCELLENT. Everyone commented on how great it was. I thought the dessert was a little heavy and I wish I would have picked something a little lighter (I thought it would be lighter, obviously) but it was still very good. We decided NOT to do cake for everyone and I'm glad we didn't. No one would have eaten it. Besides the dessert, the wait staff also brought out mini desserts during the dance. I think they were a chocolate cup with some filling? Maybe like a truffle? I don't know. A lot of people had them and liked them, but I was too busy dancing to notice! The Wait Staff: SOOO fun. We really had a GREAT time with us and you could tell they were there to make sure we had fun. We had a total of 8 wait staff (including the bartender). We had a total of 40 people there. That's one waiter to every 5 guests and that was AWESOME. They provided EXCELLENT service. The Music: Darin and I decided to do our own music playlist. It was a lot of fun, but I would have done less hip hop if I redid it! However, that being said, pretty much everyone danced the entire time. Our reception lasted from 5-10:30. It was supposed to go til 10, but my friends wouldn't leave and the wait staff kept encouraging them. But it was fun!! The Photographer/Videographer: We had an outside photographer, Cecilia Dumas. I have yet to see my pictures and wedding video (we also hired a guy who works with Cecilia, Benjamin, to do the wedding video). From what I can tell, she was WONDERFUL to work with, and Benjamin was great also, but like I said, I haven't seen the finished product yet. We SHOULD be getting them on Saturday or Monday. We had to pay $300 to the resort to have Cecilia, Benjamin and the assistant. They showed up at 2pm and stayed until 6pm. I really don't think I would have done anything differently--besides be healthy the entire time! :-) Let me know if you have any questions, but like I said, I was sick for so much of the time, I don't know as much as I normally would if I was healthy and able to wander around, look at the other resorts more, etc.

I don't know about your specific resort, but you could check with your WC at the resort. At the resort I'm staying at, I am also bringing everything and they are putting it together for me, for free. As for the flowers, I have a friend who when to a DW YEARS ago and that's what they ended up doing--going to a market or shoppe and getting fresh flowers for cheap. I want to say she was in Playa del Carmen too. Are there any flowers that are INCLUDED that you could use instead? Just a thought so you don't have to worry about getting flowers.

That is an excellent question. We had a guy lined up (my FI friend) to do it on the ukulele and now he might have to have surgery and could be out. So, we COULD have a guy do it on guitar instead, but I just don't know how it sounds.

I am so happy to hear all of you say not to freak out about not having something planned! I was beginning to see dollar signs dance when I slept! I'm not going to worry about it then either. Our ceremony is at 3 and I was planning a dinner at 6:30 also, with dancing and drinks after (like a "normal" reception). Thanks for calming my nerves!

Hey! I do WW Online and so does my fiance. If you stick to it, it really works. Plus, it's very reasonably priced, if you ask me. I've had a couple REALLY bad weeks so I've been stalled at a 6 pound loss, but since I only want to lose 15, I'm almost halfway there! I have the time to work out, but no ambition to do so, so if I can do the WW thing, I'm all for it. I know eventually I'll hop on the workout bandwagon again, but for now, WW is good enough. Good luck!!!!!

I really think you need to go with the one you love. Who cares what the books say? You don't want to get your dress on at Jamaica and look in the mirror and say, "Enh...I wish I bought the other one..." But I agree too--if you can get away with buying both, do that! Best of both worlds! :-) Not many people could afford that though. ;-)

Congrats, Mrs. Ellis!!! :-)

I am thinking orange and yellow lilies. Mine will have some white ones in there. Here are a couple pics I just threw together in a store and a pic of the dresses.

I'm a social worker. I currently work in a transitional care unit (when people are discharged from the hospital and aren't ready to go home yet--they get more therapy) and on the long term nursing home unit. In March I will start in our NEW assisted living. I have NO CLUE what an assisted living social worker does, so it should be interesting!! :-)

They're IN!!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited!!! The BM dresses are Alfred Angelo in "tealness" and my wedding dress is Casablanca! The teal sash around my waist is NOT that wide. In the picture it was just fabric we tied around for effect. The actual sash will be about 3" wide only. (I decided to add the sash myself, it didn't come with the dress.) I absolutely LOVE everything about the dresses!!!! Yea!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tiffiney01 okay ladies we spoke about it last night I let him know that I stand behind whatever he decides to do and he made it clear that He is 100% sure that he doesnt want to switch destinations. He feels that if we decided to get married on the moon that's our choice and she should be there. His biggest concern is that I be there lol .....once that was settled she called me last night and left a message on my cell saying. We didnt consider her feelings, We never asked HER how did SHE feel about mexico ( that's hilarious to me ), we must be ashamed of her .She is laying it on thick... lol lol She never behaved like this before we have gotten along for the whole 8 years I've been with her son...She has never gotten in our business ( which is rare for a MIL) lol I think she is nervous about losing her son...but shit she lives downstairs lol lol lol WOW. Well, I say stick to your guns. If she's going to play that game, you can play it too. It's not fair to your or your FI. Glad your FI's main priority is YOU on the big day! :-) Hang in there...!!!!

Last year I went as a cowgirl. I found some old pleather pants and cut them into chaps and wore a flannel shirt, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. It was cute, comfortable and not revealing. Yet, I got hit on a lot b/c of the chaps, so there must be something sexy about it!!! I dunno... I had a friend dress up as a doll, that was great, but she bought the costume. My friend is going as Annie this year, and that's a very cute costume... That's about all I can think of right now.

You could not have asked for more beautiful pictures. Seriously, they are AMAZING! You look beautiful, your hubby looks handsome and your wedding party looks fantastic! It looks like your reception was a BLAST and the TTD--HOT! GREAT pics!! Congratulations!!!