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Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I wish you all the best in your planning and wedding experience. I think the best mantra I followed that really helped things fall into place was to follow-up, follow-thru, and when necessary let go of the "particulars." Staying on top of things myself, but always being kind and understanding kept me sane AND not letting the little things that weren't exactly the way I wanted stop me from enjoying everything really kept me from being a Bridezilla. I think the more I faced reality and my timeline and being flexible with the possibilities left the door open for more positive opportunities and experiences to follow. Stay positive stay on top of it and stay flexible. I think we all have been waiting for this special moment but don't be the obstacle standing in your way. The good vibes will transcend to your guests and the rest will follow. P.S. Note about the catering for the reception. So I did not expect this and was truly touched that they did this. When we cut the cake, they took back and cut the rest for us. put them on these rectangular plates and with chocolate or raspberry syrup wrote "E & S" for Erick and Sabrina on the top of the plate and placed the wedding cake slice right under it. Lots of people loved the personal touches like that. Again their service was great, not to mention affordable for doing a wedding under $10k. Also, CONGRATS to all the married couples. Good luck in your life's experiences. May you be blessed and rewarded with happiness. Love Sabrina

Let me just start off by saying I had the best wedding planning experience, and that was due to great communication between the hotel's wedding coordinator, and commnication with all the vendors involved. Thanks to their prompt responses and answering every little question and flexibility, Erick and I were able to have the perfect wedding. We stayed at the Villa del Palmar, we had our wedding on a weekday, Thursday, which was perfect because it allowed guests to arrive at different times of the week. Everyone made it on time to the ceremony. And practically everyone stayed at the resort, too. The ceremony was on the beach, and practically NOBODY else was there. And no cruise ships in the ocean backdrop either. I mean I seriously couldn't have asked for a better ceremony location and time. It really felt private and personal. We had 34 guests. I had a small bridal party, 4 total best man, maid of honor, groomsman and bridesmaid. Happy to say everyone enjoyed their trip in Cabo. Loved the service of the hotel staff and friendliness of the cabo community. Our families felt safe and relaxed the whole time. The reception was deemed "best food/drink/cake for a wedding by our guests. Can't complain about lobster and filet mignon. Vendors: Gretel Aguilera - Villa del Palmar Wedding Coordinator and her assistant Mina. These two ladies were on top of their game. Everyone said they were very professional. I was able to trust them completely with the ceremony and reception. Both turned out beautifully and better than my expectations. I owe a great thanks to them for all their hard work and time spent on my wedding. When I decided to go with postcards as the "guestbook/words of wisdom cards" Mina helped out by purchasing the right amount of stamps needed (i did pay her for them obviously) so that the postcards could be mailed. I think everyone loved the idea, mainly because they all mentioned it. ;-) Really great alternative for smaller wedding parties. The guestbook had too many pages and we didn't want to pack a signature picture frame or plate..this was a good alternative. Bradley Fraser - Cabo Photography. Erick and I can't say enough about how wonderful and easy it was to work with Bradley. He was booked the entire weekend and yet was still able to deliver our pictures to the hotel before we left. That's SERVICE. The pictures turned out great. I love all of them. He is definitely a great photographer to work with. I highly recommend him. Only thing I wish I had was more time, we only booked him for three hours, when really 4 would've been just right. We did manage to get the shots we wanted. Rev. Marco Arechiga - he performed our ceremony and everyone thought he did a marvelous job. Erick and I really appreciated how smooth the ceremony went and amazingly we were both calm (no sobbing) and were very happy when we exchanged our vows. Donna - Los Cabos Flowers - Donna was very wonderful and communicative as well. Everyone commented on how beautiful all the flowers were. Even though our order was small (we only spent $600) everything was beautiful and impressive. Dj Mijares - Adan was very nice and flexible with our music selection. He even learned a song for my bridal march. Tiffany - Embellished by Tiffany from ETSY.com - Tiffany is AMAZING. She printed my invitations, rsvp cards, wedding programs, menus, escort cards, and thank you cards. She was very communicative through etsy.com and the turnaround time was great. I can't say enough about how much I appreciated her work. Bella Donna Bridal - my wedding dress was Vivien by Maggie Sottero. The girls are the bridal salon were amazing, sweet, and soo helpful and accomodating. Basically, ALL I can say are several things: Great experience with the planning, hardly any stress points EVERYONE was impressed with the wedding Everyone had a great time. I had the "A team." on my side for this wonderfully memorable event. Sorry no pictures, I haven't hosted mine anywhere yet, but bradley did give me a link, i hope it's okay to post it here Cabo Wedding Photography- powered by SmugMug Got to run. Sabrina

Quote: Originally Posted by KatyR Maybe this is a Cabo/Mexico thing.... I've been having a lot of problems with Casa Dorada's responsiveness (or lack thereof!). I have a friend who speaks fluent Spanish, and is very direct and organized. I actually had her call and talk to him, to make sure that the language barrier wasn't the problem. It seems to have gotten better since, so if you have any friends (or you) that are fluent give that a try! Hi KatyR, thanks for the idea I have an aunt who is fluent, but I won't see her until Christmas and I can ask her if she wouldn't mind calling Gretel later this weekend, since Christmas Eve and Christmas day are in the middle of the week. But in the meantime, I heard back from Cindy from Signature Weddings Mexico (Signature Weddings : Los Cabos wedding consultation and design). She was really quick to respond when I PM'd her. Glad to hear things got better for you when your friend called. The last time I heard anything from Gretel was last Wednesday and it was just to let me know they would be working on the wedding contract and would let me know when it is finished. I hope my date doesn't get booked in the meantime...but I'd like to think she wouldn't do that.

Congratulations! and Welcome~ I'm new, too and the forum's been a great resource to refer to. Best of luck in your planning!

thanks KLO and everyone also (again). I feel somewhat defeated right now. I've been waiting to hear back from the wedding coordinator at Villa Del Arco. She's been so helpful up until I let her know Iwanted to confirm and reserve our wedding date and put down a deposit. She said she's started working on the wedding contract but that was last week. I know patience is not my specialty, but it'd really help to know what's the normal turn around time for these things. Any words of advice? Thanks!

I sent a message via fiestas los cabos website, but still waiting to hear back from them. And I still haven't heard back from Gretel. I'm assuming because of the christmas and new year holidays she may be on vacation. It just stink having to wait without knowing what's going on.

Quote: Originally Posted by smile999 Hey! Ok, so to respond to your question about the coordinator, yes, I have had problems with responsiveness for months now. I highly recommend having your own wedding coordinator in addition to Gretel, as she really is swamped all the time and travels a lot. She also tends to only answer some of the questions you ask. It helps when I list out my questions and number them. I also call when I feel like its been too long since I have gotten a reply. Overall, they have a reputation of not being that easy to work with (I have heard this from multiple coordinators, my hair and makeup person, and other vendors LOL), but things do get done, so don't dispair! I've planning on getting married at the Villa Group Resort, April 16th, 2009. Gretel has been great with inital information, now I'm just waiting for the contract, which I hope doesn't take too long. We're having the beach ceremony by Villa Del Palmar, and then the reception either at California Terrace or the terrace at La Perla or El Faro (del Arco). LOL can you tell we're still in the decision mode? Thanks for the info about Gretel's schedule. Helps to understand what's going on ..on their side of things, so I can be a bit more patient. I know I'm way behind compared to other brides getting married. But this forum really helps a lot! Can anyone recommend a good outside wedding coordinator to help?

Hi Ladies, So I promised myself I'd make a decision this weekend. I've received information from my wedding planner about Melia Caba Real. But I was hoping if any other brides have had their wedding there and any suggestions as to how to make it just as wonderful. please help!

Quote: Originally Posted by monkey As a last minute bride myself I completely understand - I could not get excited about a wedding at home so we switched gears and started planning a wedding that was 53 days away. As fustrating as it sometimes is, I don't regret it a bit. Already people are commenting how it sounds like it will be the most fun wedding they have been to in awhile! Good luck! yes i totally agree. so far! hehe, thing is the more I looked around at what I could (and also couldn't) work with it just left me feeling like "wth, i'm only going to do this once (hopeful) and I can just go half-arse because there's gotta way to do more with less." thank goodness both our parents are not super traditional that they expected the big catholic church wedding with +300 guests, in fact both parents got married via courthouse, super simple nothing gradiose. But I am the Only Child.....sooo my mom is super excited about the DW. Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome!

Quote: Originally Posted by Mango Deck Hi Sabrina. The resorts at the Touristic Corridor have a great view, I've attended some weddings at Sheraton HDM, Melia Cabo Real and Hilton. They were all great, the views, the food were stunning... THe corridor is one of the best options for your WD. thanks! I know we were considering a couple options: CDM, esperanza, mona lisa, or private villa. But the bottom line will be our budget, which we planned to not go more than half of what it would have cost had we had the wedding in CA.

thanks everyone. this forum is been so helpful already. i get stuck reading so many entries. I'm more excited about planning a dw than the traditional kind.

Hi ~ This is my first post - besides my intro. I need help with gathering some info to make a good decision as to making the dw affordable and fun for relatives/guests. I was thinking why not let them pick where they want to stay, so long as they're able to find transportation to attend the ceremony/reception. It would save a lot of my cousins/friends who are still in school from spending +$300 night at the hotels I'm looking at (CDM, Esperanza are two so far). Also, because the family is so big: would it be more beneficial to rent a villa for 4 nights? (Cabo San Lucas Vacation Villas, Resorts & Hotels, Los Cabos Mexico) My fiance's family is pretty big and they all like to party together. So I figure they could split the costs of renting a private villa. But I don't know anyone who's done that in Cabo. I would love to hear/read any recommendations from you all. The wedding is in April after Easter. Thanks, Sabrina

Hi~ We also started off thinking just immediate family, but it has expanded to include the cousins (and they want to bring their significant others) and some close friends which bumped it up. Wedding date: tentatively April 16th 2009(this will be confirmed next week) So we started with 12.. Now we're looking at inviting close to 40 people, which to me is a lot but I'm impressed with all the dw brides who are having 50+ actually attend. That's amazing. Kudos. Not to take anything away from the small weddings (remember we were content with just our parents and my fiance's siblings, but we're sorta making it a family reunion vakay too, which I love!) But regardless, we're still going to have a house warming/wedding reception party when we get back, to celebrate with all the beautiful people who couldn't come. Sabrina

1. Sabrina 2. April 16th, 2009 (tentative) 3. Los Cabos Corridor, Mexico (still picking the actual location)