soon2bePowers

Quote: Originally Posted by alkoch Also- I don't know what we are supposed to do for our parents, I can't think of anything appropriate...if anyone has any ideas let me know! I was stuck on this too! We ended up having flowers in their room upon arrival at the resort. The resort had a bunch to choose from and they turned out great! Both sets of parents really enjoyed them. We also had cards delivered to them the day of wedding and had monogrammed handkerchiefs with our names and wedding date on them that were given to the moms at the wedding. We gave the handkerchiefs to the dads to give to the moms once they sat down at the ceremony.

I believe tere&James is correct that CancunCatamrans does not own the boats. BUT remember if you get prices from Albatros to make sure it includes transportation. $44 for transportation, 4 hour sailing, snorkeling w/equipment, open bar and dry snacks all of which is private is the best deal I found when looking. *Plus when we arrived at the marina it was really busy, lots of people were standing around. We walked right past the starring people (many of which made comments) and headed towards the catamaran. The marina is full of Albatros boats.

Quote: Originally Posted by t777a Soon2BePowers, what did the resort charge you to bring in an outside photographer? We paid $100 for Claudia and her assistant to come to the resort. If your outside vendor is at your reception/dinner and want to eat then apparently you have to pay extra for that.

While we were there we did see a family with children on the beach. Apparently the ocean and part of the beach are government owned and therefore resorts cannot restrict access to them. The resorts may own part of the beach but not all of it. If you are standing on the beach with your back to the resort there are houses (one of them being Jerry Van Dyke's) on the left and then pretty far to the right it seemed to be more active. Perhaps another resort but I am not sure.

Sarah, The flowers on the front table you see in my pics are the boutique that was included in my package. I brought my own flowers so I used their boutique as decor. Yes they set up the sound equipment at the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner. The sound guy was present at the ceremony and cocktail. The equipment was present at everything. We did use our ipod. Ariadna recommends the chocolate cake. We had the Vanilla and it was great. I think Hailey had the Mexican 3 milks and said it was great. I would pick based on what you like. *I posted some more pics on my review!

More pics... *We started a shared space on walgreens.com so that all our guest could upload their pics and order any they wanted. This has been great! Ceremony on the beach Walking with my dad Ceremony on the beach That Kiko the minister *I think I forgot to add that it is very windy! I am thankful that I had my hair up. I battled with my veil a bit but that created some cute pics! Reception area outside the Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was closed this particular evening so the space was completely private. This fountain split the dinner space in 2. We had tables set up on both sides and then at the head of the fountain was a table for the two of us. The waiters quickly moved out table back and we had our first dance at the head of the fountain also. It worked out great!

t777a We had the Valentin sound equipment all night. We did use our ipod (they said they had their own but our music was already on ours). The sound guy was at the ceremony and the cocktail hour. He set the equipment up at the dinner but then left to go run the evenings entertainment. We had a guest introduce the first dances and then make an announcement about where we were headed after dinner. If worked out great for us. We did get a price list for the sound equipment and the wedding packages don't specify that you will have sound equipment so I don't know if they always give it to you without a fee or if Arey just did it that day.

Claudia and her assistant photographed my wedding June 11th. They were great and I can't wait to see the pics. They were both great and we felt some comfortable with them. Afterwards my husband said wow, she was really good. He is not really into photos so that says a lot!

Quote: Originally Posted by jayla I'm new but have been following your wedding planning journey carefully as I am most likely going to have mine at the VIM too. Congratulations! I am so glad that in the end everything went well. Even though I'm a lurker you've both inspired me and reassured me through your posts. From what I can see, it looks like your special day was beautiful! Jayla, I am glad I have been helpful. I will say the planning process was not smooth with VIM. I got 99% of everything accomplished when I arrived. I am very type A and this was hard for me BUT in the end I would not change a thing. The resort is amazing, food is out of this world and once there details were taken care of. When I get more pics of the ceremony site I will post them. I would am to work with Araidna if possible. I am planning on sending the general manager an email about how fabulous she was. She is technically Lupita's assistant but I think she should be promoted to head WC.

The one thing I would change... Our guest arrived on Tuesday and left Saturday. The wedding was Thursday. The ONLY thing I would change would be to have the wedding either Tuesday (they all arrive early Tuesday) or Wednesday. I also say this because I was so torn between hanging out with everyone and doing wedding stuff. Not that I really had a lot of wedding stuff do to but who wants to leave hanging out at the pool with everyone to confirm audio guy. For the most part I said screw the wedding plans and hung out, this made the day of the wedding a bit more stressful. What I would do again... EVERYTHING! It was amazing and I loved every minute of it.

Hey girls, I just posted my review with pics. I don't have a lot of pics of the actual ceremony yet, I'm still gathering them from guest. Extras the Valentin gave us (for no charge). This was all Ariadna's (very hard to say, we called her Arey) doing. Lupita was not helpful and not happy Arey gave us all of this. Sound system-we didn't plan on using it because of the prices they had given us. During out 1st meeting Arey just explained the ceremony and mentioned the sound guy. We said will he be their the whole time? She said yes for the ceremony, cocktail, and his equipment will be at the dinner. We gave him our ipod and used his speakers/microphone. Chair covers-we thought there was a per chair price. They didn't charge us anything. Centerpieces-Arey called these her surprise for us (Lupita was not happy she gave us these). They were fish bowls with water that matched our colors and then big shells in them. **If you haven't booked yet we have seen some really cheap prices!! In the St. Louis Post Dispatch 5 nights including air for a week in August is $700!!

Claudia Rodriguez-photographer We don't have our pics yet but Claudia and her assistant were wonderful to work with. She showed up a few minutes early and stayed until we were finished. Probably 20-30 longer than our package. The resort photographer was part of our package but we hired Claudia to do our wedding. Since we paid for the resort photographer we had a 1hr. session with him later in the week. I am in a long purple dress in all of his pics. He did a nice job and would probably do great at a wedding but I would still have book Claudia. FI said this guy is good but Claudia was amazing! Resort photog. took this. Everyone is still talking about their trip and about how they want to go back. The resort was at very low occupancy when we were there around 300 guest when the resort holds over 1000. Due to the swine flu they also had to lay-off a lot of staff. Due to this some things closed early than we would have liked but hey, it was the US media that did it to them! Group shot after the Michael Jackson Show

Ceremony (A) We had our 5:00 ceremony on the beach. It was very private as it was away from the swimming and laying out areas. It was very windy and I battled with my veil some. It made FI and I laugh, so it was all good. We had the white chair covers and they put our bows on them and placed our fans on the seats. Up front there was a table with a white cover for our sand ceremony. We brought flowers but the package included a boutique so we placed it on the table. The resort provided Marco, to handle our music. This was a surprise as we had brought an Bose system for our music. He also had a microphone for the minister and for us to use to say our vows. After the ceremony we had a champagne toast on the beach and then did group photos. Minister (A) Kiko Flores was our minister. He was great, FI met him just prior to the ceremony. He was very nice and did a wonderful job. Cocktail Hour (?) I heard this was really nice but we never made it. It had Mexican appetizers and cocktails. Everyone said it was good, we had it in the gazebo. Dinner (A+) We held our reception dinner on the terrace outside the Mexican restaurant. It was perfect and very private. Our menu was Caesar salad, Asparugus soap (YUMMY), Steak/Shrimp, with potatoes. It was amazing!! We got so into pics, we were late for dinner..oops! Cake (A) The cake was perfect and beautiful. The cake had 3 tiers, the bottom one was fake (shhh). That was Arey's idea so that the cake would look bigger. Our dinner menu include cake also so guest were severed both. It worked because one was vanilla and one was chocolate. I LOVED THE CAKE!! Other notes: Every night there is some type of entertainment. The night of our wedding the entertainment was FIRE DANCERS!! It worked out great, after dinner we all head over to see the show. It was perfect! Surprises from the Valentin: We were not planning on have the Valentin do the music/sound because it was so expensive. When we met with Arey on Monday she acted like it was included! YEAH! We also were told chair covers were extra but they were not! YEAH! Arey threw in centerpiece as a gift to us (Lupita was not happy about this)! YEAH!

Valentin Riviera Maya Review Our Stay: June 8-17 Most guests stay: June 9-13 Applevacations (: Direct flight to Mexico, on time and perfect. Flights were pretty full. We did have to have $25 b/c on of our bags was over weight. Transfer from airport to resort was pretty good. We had to wait a few minutes, we were the only ones of the flight going to Valentin so they grouped us with 3 other couples. We were the 3 stop. Direct flight home was a bit delayed but not a big deal. The transfer from the resort to the airport was a HUGE bus. Thank god we were one of the last pickups I imagine the first pickups had been on the bus for a long time! Resort/Check-in (A) We were met with a cold towel and champagne and then head straight in to check in. Our room was ready but the couple's who came with us was not. They have complimentary rooms for people to change in if you need it. On Tuesday when 25 of our guests arrived all of their rooms were ready. The take you on a quick cart tour of the resort and then to your room. Rooms (A) The rooms was wonderful!! Lots of variety in room and view. All of the rooms are nice just some nicer. The views are all wonderful but may be of various things, garden, pool, beach! We got different towel animals each day! View from our room! Food/drink (A++) For breakfast each day their was an amazing buffet. Tons of delicous food with lots of variety. They also had a place with continental breakfast (never went here). For lunch they had 2 buffets and 1 menu restaurant. We visited all and they were all great. For dinner they have a steak, lobster pot, Mexican, Japanese, French, Indonesian, and Italian. We made it to all the restaurants except for the Italian. They were all AMAZING! I can't say enough about the resorts food. About every other night they also had themed buffet dinners, these were great too. Drinks flowed and were great! I have noticed at some AI you can drink and drink and drink and never feel a thing. Not true here, the drinks were great and they had a great variety of good liquor. Resort Grounds (A) Lots of iguanas! The grounds were beautiful and were very well kept. There were always people grooming and landscaping. The resort is beautiful! The resort is big and take a bit to get used to. There are places at night that can be some what dark. View from outside the breakfast/lunch restaurant Part of the main pool and one of the swim up bars Wedding Coordinators (F to a Since beginning to plan I have worked with 5 wedding planners, YIKES! Currently Lupita (not great) and Adeiana (was great) (we called her Arey) are working together. The communication prior to arrival was an F. They were hard to get a hold of and things weren't smooth. We arrived Monday morning and met with Arey that afternoon. With that first visit we went over everything and I felt much more at ease. FI, my mom and step-dad all came to the meeting. My mom took notes and actually met with Lupita and Arey the next day to go over everything we had decided on. We brought chair bows, ipod, seat fans, sand ceremony, guestbook with sign, Shoes optional sign, starfish for tables and I think thats it. Arey took all of these and made sure they were in the right place for our big day! *funny side note* After the dinner my aunt said we took a couple of the starfish that were on the table for your cousins. She thought they were the resorts, I laughed and said thanks for stealing from Dave and I!!

The rules of inviting are something that bother me to the core!! I don't feel like you should HAVE to invite anyone or that people should expect to be invited. I have several good (not great) couple friends whose weddings we were not at. That does not put a burden on our friendship. Also I would never want to be at someones wedding just because they felt they HAD to invited me. We are running into this with our AHR (which I don't even want to have!) People who we see every six months to a year for a night of drinking ask if they are going to be invited. Who asks that

I also just returned and everything was fine (well except for the crushed economy, loss of jobs, etc. that our media has caused). Resorts are super low on guest-nice because it is like you have your own resort-sad because so many people have been laid off. Customs, NEVER stood in a line...how crazy. On the way we walked thru a thermo stan-most don't even realize it is happening. On the way home they actually did a forehead temp. check. Very quick questionaire each time. We were their for 10 days, when to playa twice, once for shopping, once for an excursion. We also went into Cancun for an excursion. Right before we left all the travel people begged us to please take a second and go to trip advisor and let people know it is safe to travel to Mexico.

Hello Girls, We just got back yesterday and things have been a bit crazy at home!! I haven't had a chance to write up a review but I will be doing that soon. Here are my quick thoughts. The resort was AMAZING, wonderful atmosphere, awesome food, I really could go on and on and on! We met many people on excursions and such that had stayed at the Valentin previously (one couple brought kids with this time, another one has a routine of always trying the newest resort), everyone said the Valentin was the best resort they had ever stayed at! Wedding department, the day we got there we met with Adrainna (I am sure I did not spell this correct). She was wonderful. We also has some interactions with Lupita (not that great). The wedding went GREAT, I would not change a thing. They did everything we asked and we had a blast!! I am very type A and the lack of communication was hard for me to deal with. In the end literally everything was able to be arranged the day we arrived. We brought down fans, chair bows, sand ceremony, ipod, guestbook with sign, shoes optional sign, cake topper, starfish for the tables. They put all of this out and then returned it the next day. The cake was amazing and was just like the starfish cake! Let me know if you girls have any questions, I took TONS of pictures and should get them loaded soon! Mrs. Powers

While I didn't travel to Jamaica I did just return from Mexico. My mom checked 4 large suitcases, 3 of which were over weight. We later realized she brought around 300lbs of luggage including her carry ons!!! Anyway she didn't have any problems. A couple of people at customs kind of looked at her funny and then asked about her luggage, she explained her situation and they asked if she minded if they looked in one of the bags. She said sure and I have receipts if that helps. They said that's even better and took a quick look. She said they were more curious than anything.

Hey Girls, I leave tomorrow morning at 7:00am!!! My mom and step-dad arrived at the Valentin on Saturday and said the place is amazing! They said it is currently very hot and humid. The food has been fabulous, the beach is amazing and the staff is wonderful! We can't wait!! I will post pics and a review when I return. We are gone for 10 days!!

I watch the show and love it! It come back next Sunday right? I will be in Mexico but will catch it when I come back. It is a bit like a soap opera, with lots of stories going on. I am super excited!!!

Pre-Ceremony Better Together-Jack Johnson Sea of Love-Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole I'm Yours-Jason Mraz Wouldn't it be Nice-The Beach Boys Is this Love-Bob Marley Ceremony Pacific Beach-Paul Wright Bridal March-Jonathan Cain Somewhere over the Rainbow-Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole Cocktail Hour I'm Yours-Jason Mraz Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison Wouldn't It Be Nice-The Beach Boys Better Together-Jack Johnson It's Five O'Clock Somewhere- Alan Jackson Ain't That a Kick in the Head-Dean Martin All I Want Is You-Barry Louis Polisar Carolina in My Mind-James Taylor 1234-Feist Dinner Better Together-Jack Johnson The Good Stuff-Kenny Chesney Lucky-Jason Mraz Feels Like Home-Chantal Kreviazuk You're All I Need to Get-Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison More Than Words-Extreme Fallen-Lauren Wood Baby, I Love Your Way-Big Mountain It's Five O'Clock Somewhere-Alan Jackson (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You-UB40 Brighter Than Sunshine-Aqualung Levon-Elton John Something That We Do-Clint Black Home to You-John Michael Montgomery Mexico-James Taylor Isn't She Lovely-Stevie Wonder Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic-The Police Lost In This Moment-Big & Rich Amazed-Lonestar The One-Gary Allan Just Another Day In Paradise-Phil Vassar When I Said I Do-Clint Black & Lisa Hartman Black You and Me-Lifehouse Bubbly-Colbie Caillat Hey There Delilah-Plain White T's Crash Into Me-Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds Dances Dance with Me-T. Carter Music (1st Dance) My Wish-Rascal Flatts (Father Daughter) A Mother's Song-T. Carter Music (FI and sister) We have added few other song but this is the majority of our music. FI's sister is going to manage the music.

I gave my bridesmaids their gifts last night and they loved them! Gifts included: Engraved silver bangle: Engraved with "Friendship means the World" in Spanish: bought from Kay's Jewelry (will never use again) $100 Personalized travel mug: $10 2 luggage tags: $10 Starfish necklace: charm from Micheal's chain from Kohl's: $12 total Make-up bag gift set-Body Shop: $5 My favorite part the the card with the little saying I created. I am not very creative so I was very proud of myself to come up with it. Braces, break-ups, boys galore distance, drinks, dancing and more. We've been through a lot, Now I'm tying the knot With you three by my side, I'm ready to become a bride.

Is your ring white gold? I friend from work developed an allergy to roduim (whatever white gold is dipped in to stay white gold). She wore her ring for a long time and then developed the allergy. She got a new platinum ring and hasn't had any problems.

Ladies, I just received my hair flowers and I love them BUT the backing is a clip (long silver clip) and b/c of that it does not lay close to my head.... For those of you who have used a hair flower...what backing did you use. Please share any pics you have. Here is my inspiration pic-fellow BDW Bride

My girls are bigger the 'DD' so I am pretty sure strapless is out for me! Letting the girls loose like that could end up with someone hurt!!!! If anyone knows of a place that has strapless in larger bra sizes please post.