SoonToBeE

They have a monopoly, that's why! I'm just glad that we're not going with their photographers. THAT was another total rip off.....sheesh. I feel like there's a charge and a fee for every singlr thing. When will the money end.....

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Those scales are such a cool idea! How much did it cost you to buy them all for your guests? Are you giving it to them at the airport or something? Or I guess somehow when they are all finished packing... How much is the max weight of your checked luggage now?? I get so confused with all the new rules and taxes that they charge for luggage now! What sort of table settings are you bringing with you? I love the scales...I think they are great for guests to weigh their bags on the way home after they have bought some souvineers from the trip.....we got them at the Bay and they were $29+tax. With the time you have you may be able to get a discount on them. We only bought 4, so it was only $120 ish. We plan on meeting up with out GM and parents and giving them their scales before they are finished packing. I hope they like them. I played with mine this week and love it already : ) The max weight for checked is 20kg over two bags, carry on is 5kg and having read recent reviews the airline IS weighing carry on bags. That's for Skyservice though...I would go to the website for your airline and double check. They're so strict right now and the coss are carzy ($20/ kg!) Insane!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S So I just got a quote back on the centerpiece example I sent to Valeria.. and it was 125 a piece!!!! Here is what the centerpiece looked like... I think its totally a rip off!! I may just ask to have 2 or 3 cylinderical vases instead... Yes, for 1 tall glass centerpiece, and 4 small glass square vases: with orchids (available in white, green or fuscia): 125 usd with iris (available in white or blue): 90 usd thats her quote!! Let me know what you think if its to much after you look at the centerpiece sample... I think it is!! Hope it works! The centerpiece costs are stupid stupid stupid! I know they rent all of their pieces, but the prices they charge are outrageous. I think your centerpieces are very nice and are somewhat in line compared to what she has quoted me for other pieces: - $10/ FLOATING CANDLE - $7/ VASE + FLOWERS. I would split them up and ask for the price per small vase, then for the large vase. Push back and complain about the pricing - she will move a bit. Also, I wanted flowers in mine, so I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of fake flowers for $8. I tested them at home and they look fine. I am ordering the vases from the resort and then will have one of our guests helps by putting the fake flowers in water so that they are decorated for the event. She quoted me $5/ floating candle after I complained, but it was just too much, especially when she noted (many many times) that they would likely be blown out by the wind. So we are not doing candles. I wouldn't pay $150 for that centerpiece. Complain and see what she can do.

I'm not doing a BD shoot - just trying to get everything settled - tonight I am going through all of the emails from Valeria and am printing them off tomorrow. I also went on the Karimsa spa site and the lomas spa site to print off prices so that we can neotiate while we are there. I totally can't WAIT and can't believe that we're going to married in a few short weeks. I'm packing my bags tonight and am trying to get all of my 'things' organised. If does feel kind of stupid that I packed so many things - table settings, letters to guests, fans, etc etc etc. Why did I pack so many things??!? Also - we just bought these to give to a few of our family members and groomsmen - given the baggage restrictions it seemed like the perfect gift for friends who travel and are into gadgets: HEYS xScale® - The World's Smallest Portable Luggage Scale Everytime I weigh my bag filled with fans and junk I wonder why i packed so much.....it's too bad the scale is accurate. I would feel better if it was lying to me....

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S I forgot something I was going to ask you too.. about your glass vases... were they ones you can fill with water and flowers and have like floating candles in them? I want to do the same thing as well.. and I was just about to email Valeria and ask how much they would be.. is this the same thing you went with? And if so how much are they charging you?? Tracy - We are using the 3 glass vases per table, all at different heights- I'm not sure whether we are doing cylindrical or square. Depends on the price : ) She quoted me $7/ vase, but the floating candle was extra. We decided not to go with them because of the $10/ candle cost they were trying to give us.... We're bringing flowers to put into the vases after they are filled with water. Hopefully it makes them look nice : ) We're also not doing any tiki torches or candle bags. I just felt like they were a rip off.... I would keep pushing back on the costs for these pieces - I think the pricing is totally arbitrary and considering the fact that we started at $45/ table for the three vases I'm happy with the $21/ table final cost. I would start asking for prices for each piece, because it seems that once you choose an assembled centerpiece they jack up the price. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S SoontobeE!! Thats so exciting!! Sounds like you plan on doing much of the same stuff that I planned on doing!! Which is great cause I can then ask you all about it when you return!!! HAHAHA! So you mentioned you were doing dances and speeches... where are you having all this? Are you doing the private beach reception too? I was thinking I was going to do this as well, but would like to have the dance floor... let me know how the no dance floor thing goes and the whole music laptop thing as well. As for your dinner for the 11 dollar a plate I would love to hear that too cause I want to do a menu but am not expecting my guests to have to pay like 60 bucks a plate! Man I wish I was leaving in 2 weeks... I still have 8 months to wait... its killing me!!! lol... glad to hear you are almost ready to go!! I'm so jealous you get to leave so soon!!! lol Okay - I'm going to reply to this one at a time : ) That way I won't forget anything. We are doing dances and speeches on the beach beside the pier gazebo. We're not doing the dance floor because I love the idea of dancing in the sand, and I don' think it will be neccessary to have a dance floor. For the music laptop Valeria said the laptop wasn't possible, but that we could use any MP3 player to play music - so we're going to do that. I'll let you know how it goes....we spent the last two weekends selecting songs and putting them on our mp3 player to play during dinner and the reception. I am a bit concerned about your one comment...are you going to ask your guests to pay for their dinner? I would be careful about that. I know I would be pissed if I went to a wedding and I was asked to pay for my dinner - I would be very careful about that. We made some modifications to the set course menu - swapped the dessert from one set course menu to our set course menu. Check the Karisma site (or ask your WC) for the reception menu. We chose Set Menu 1A. I can't believe that we are leaving in 11 days.....eek! Almost down to single digit sleeps. woooooow

I can't believe that our wedding is less than three weeks away and the we leave 2 weeks tomorrow. Holy moly! Where has the time gone?!?! I'm pretty excited, but it actually feels pretty surreal, I don't think it has set in yet. I do know that I am way too busy - I took on too many little 'nice to have projects' so I hope they all turn out in the end. I spent all night tonight altering my TTD dress. I got it for $100 but it was too big and too long.....so I felt like it made sense to pull it apart and sew it back together. I'm pretty happy with the results but it won't look as good as a perfectly tailored dress......oh well, I just hope that it looks good enough in the end! I'm basically all ready to go. I made the final arrangements with the hotel today and we booked our welcome dinner, private reception and all decorations. We've been able to get somewhere with Valeria on small things - the hotel has been really great accommodating our guests with food restrictions. We need two gluten free menus and the hotel highlighted the entire menu and showed us which meals were GF. It was great. I would also recommend asking your WC to suggest options if you don't see something you like on the Lomas site - we wanted glass vases for our wedding reception and she came back with some great pricing on pieces that I hadn't seen on the site. We're also bringing our own photog, which was great - we're planning to do a TTD at a nearby cenote and I am sooooo excited. I really can't wait, the photos are going to be amazing. For our reception we ended up going for the $11 set menu, we'll see how that ends up, I'm not expecting much, so hopefully my expectations are exceeded. We're doing speeches and dances after dinner - we spent the last few days burning music to play. We hope that people can hear it and that it goes over well. We're probably going to bring down a laptop and will play the music from there. Still waiting from an answer from Valeria to see if that can be done. We're not doing a tent or a dance floor. We're bringing a lot of little custom pieces (fans, place cards, table numbers, flowers for centerpieces, etc) I hope these will all be worth it, but even if they're not...who cares! Now I just need to finalize what I am doing with my hair, make my veil and start packing!! Wheee......oh and I have to finish hemming dress #2!

so!! How was it?

Quote: Originally Posted by prairiegirl SoontobeE which photographer are you using?? No worried the photography with be great.. I went with almost as cheap as you can go and I am very happy with the results! and don't be afraid to give them ideas.. of the types of photos you want.. my photographer was very receptive to our ideas (ie jumping off the sea wall) We actually ended up deciding to fly in a photographer. We had engagement shots done locally and fell in love with the photographer. As soon as I saw our proofs I knew he had to shoot our wedding. Check them out: Toronto Wedding Photographer - Jon Rennie I can't wait for the full review. Do you have any more pictures I can check out? I would love to see other photos you had done. Also..the pier looks so good : )

Quote: Originally Posted by ktlorens How did you do those?? I love them!!! I designed them in photoshop. They're seriously one of my favourite things about our wedding. For each person we wrote a little message and addressed the card to their seat : ) I don't know if anyone else will love them as much as I do....but I think they're perfect for our little DW : )

What's a wedding without drama. It's so hard... I just got a call from my mom last weekend "congratulating" me on our wedding, I had emailed her but I guess she never got it. We don't speak and she's not welcome in my life. It's so hard to close off family during such a family oriented event....but I know it's the best choice. It's just hard.....stupid drama!! I just worry about questions on the day - where is your mother? your brother? I just don't want to get into it. I think I'm more worried about that then I am about the whole wedding....

Agreed. Can't wait! So glad to hear that everything was great. I had a dream 2 nights ago that we got there and it was so cheap and trashy looking. I was so confused. All the pictures on the site look so nice - I was certain (in my dream) that they had used trick photography to make the resort look nice. I just remember complaining to my FI about 'trick photography' over and over during the dream. Silly what you dream about during the planning process.... Only 25 days until we leave. So crazy!

Thanks : ) It took so long to find the perfect paper...I wanted linen paper, but was dissapointed I couldn't find something more textured for the envelope...oh well. Everyone tosses the envelope anyway...right? At least that's what I'm hoping for : )

It's my one little treat a day : ) Tomorrow is the first day of the calendar. I can't wait. I wonder what I'll get!!

Jon - I KNOW we will get better shots in Mexico. For you ladies in the TO area looking for engagement shots (or looking for a DW photog) you should check Jon out. He's awesome and his work is like art : ) Love it. Can't wait for pics of our big day...er...trip!

Ahhh I can't wait to hear what Nicki's wedding was like. We're counting down the days...only a few more weeks. Eeek!

Congrats! I am getting married at the EDSS in a few short weeks and there is a group of us who have started a thread about getting married there - you should check it out, it will be sure to come in handy when you are planning your big trip : )

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Ok that is the wording I was provided as well... but when would you be able to input your own personal vows if you so chose?? There to me doesn't seem to be a point in the ceremony outline that allows for that... thats cool that your WC sent you how the whole process would go I want to check with Valeria and make sure that is how my day will play out too!! Tracy - We are planning to say our vows in section 8 (From Valeria: 8. Rings interchange, "I do's" Vows exchanging (after or before the rings) (you can say your own personalized vows) -Sand ceremony, unity candle, etc can be added here.) We're writing our own and plan to say them there. It also sounds like you can add in a reading, or some other element, as you want. I still can't believe how horrible the ceremony wording is.....

Quote: Originally Posted by lolo Hi girls!!! My name is Linda I am sooooo jealous i have to wait a whole year for my wedding!!! I would love love love to see pics and hear the wedding stories!!!! Congrats Nicki!! Hope is is great!!! Hi Linda! Welcome to our little group. You seem very excited : ) Congrats on getting engaged! A few of us are getting married in the next few weeks, so you'll have lots of information by the time you get to your big day!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S I have a question for you gals... were you told that you couldn't choose your wording or get personal vows to say to each other?? What about for the sand ceremony wording?? I was told that we have to use the standard Civil ones.. and that for the sand ceremony it was their wording as well.. But the outline my WC sent me didn't have anything it in like the normal wedding like I promise to love and cherish you... in sickness and in health type deal... is this the deal you girls received as well?? If not I want to challenge that... please let me know! Thanks!! Hi Tracey - Here is the email we got from our WC that shows that you can say your own vows.: ORDER OF CEREMONY: 1. Guests & Groom arrival to the Ceremony location (15 mins before) 2. Bride arrives to the location. 3 BRIDAL PARTY PROCESSIONALS 4. BRIDE’S PROCESSIONAL** 5. Welcome Address - Ceremony Begins 6. Introduction (Initial prayers) 7. Main Speech 8. Rings interchange, "I do's" Vows exchanging (after or before the rings) (you can say your own personalized vows) -Sand ceremony, unity candle, etc can be added here. 9. Final speech 10. Marriage Certificate Signatures (Even if is just symbolic) 11. Declaration of Marriage 12. Newlyweds Announcement 13. RECESSIONAL - Walk down the aisle to leave. So with the 'prayers' section and some of the wording of the ceremony one thinks that this is actually a religious ceremony. Not surprising seeing as Mexico is a fairly religious country.... I have attached the wording for the ceremony. We are going to see if we can change anything.... This section seems horribly unromantic and terrible. Thinking I'd rather not have this during our wedding.: "“Marriage†it says, is the only legal and moral way to found a family, to preserve mankind and avoid imperfections of the human being, who are only able to obtain the perfection of the human race through matrimony in a conjugal duality." Yikes..... Civil Ceremony Outline.doc

My FI may have rolled his eyes a bit. He knows me well enough that I like to go a little overboard with DIY Projects : ) Immediately following the head shaking he immediately asked when we could start opening the doors.....men!

GAH! double post! Sorry!

It depends on what your dress is made of, but you may be able to clean it afterward....I just bought a sample dress for $99 and it was a bit dirty. I actually ended up cleaning it by myself and it looks amazing. I cleaned it in the bath tub with delicate laundry soap, shampoo (to get most of the oil out) and a tooth brush. I was so amazed with how well it turned out. So....you can always choose to clean it yourself if it's too dirty!

okay ...my computer keeps double posting! Sorry : O

Hey...if you want one I could totally make one....I was thinking about doing one made out of hershey's kisses....a kiss a day until the last of all the kisses makes you a mrs! I had too much fun doing it : )