nikkigard

Yeah!!! I cant wait to see what she creates for you either! I know you will love it though Congrats!!

I didnt have a DJ - we just made playlists for our ipod and played those throughout the night. We didnt have a dance though so it was easy to do it that way

Those are just beautiful!! You look amazing

No pics yet I was told they would be sent this week though so hopefully soon!! I will post some when I get them

Me too!!! Mishka is AMAZING - I highly recommend her if you need design/coordination work, maracas, anything - she is the BEST!! See my review too on the reviews page!

I am FINALLY getting to my wedding review. Here it is! Mishka Designs – Coordination and Design - A++++++++++++ As many of you already know, Mishka is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! I loved working with her as my coordinator. By the end of the process, I felt like I had a new friend as we spoke all the time! The first thing that really impressed me was how she responded to my initial email. I sent emails to a ton of coordinators to get an idea of what each offered, how they responded, etc. I think that first response can be very telling as to how it will be working with that business. A few of the pricier coordination businesses sent me their standard form letter which I am sure is because of the budget I specified is nowhere near what they will work for. Mishka was willing from the very start to work within my budget the best she could. She was honest about what we could and couldn’t do with my budget. And let me tell you, the budget I initially submitted was WAY low! I got caught up in all the stuff I could do with a wedding as the months went on and did increase my budget for other things I wanted (firedancers, mariachi’s, etc) but it was all at my initiation – not Mishkas. She was super creative in finding neat ideas that would work for what I wanted but weren’t too high priced. She always responded to emails right away and answered all of my questions – no waiting a week to get a response back. I couldn’t have handled that – too impatient!! I LOVED LOVED LOVED the huppah – when I first saw it, I couldn’t believe how cool it looked! All of the roses on it looked awesome. Actually, all of the flowers were awesome – I love my bouquet and the roses on the tables too. All the neat special touches and details are what I loved – my own flavor of cake, playing Yeah by Usher at the cake cutting (our song, believe it or not!) , etc. Mishka really listened to what we said and we saw it in the details. Mishka was also our minister – she doesn’t normally do coordination/design and a ceremony as well but thought it would be doable given the wedding was originally supposed to be simple! Her ceremony was just perfect – couldn’t have been any better. I loved it. It was original and touching without being sappy. She made me cry!!  Seriously, I could go on and on and on about her but I think her work speaks for itself. If you have seen the review of our wedding on her blog, you will know that she did a fantastic job! Everyone that attended our wedding said it was the best wedding they have ever been to (and I know some have been to $60K+ weddings). I couldn’t be more please with Mishka Designs and am trying to think of another event I can have in PV so I can work with her again! A Thanksgiving celebration? A birthday party for my daughter?!!!! Paulina Ulloa – Photography – A+ I haven’t seen any pics yet but Paulina was great. Her assistant was Marcie and she translated for us. Both were super sweet and easy to work with. When we did the day after shoot, Paulina took us to a lot of really neat places downtown - cant wait to see how they turned out. She has a ton of energy and is very dependable. She arrived right on time both at the wedding and the day after shoot. I really liked working with her. Charme – Cake – A++++++++ I loved the cake!!!!!!!!!!!! I know its my wedding but it’s the best cake I have ever seen  I may be a little biased though… ha! It was so creative and was just perfect!! Mishka and Memo at Charme did an amazing job at creating it. Oh and it tasted great too! Mariachis – A+++++++ My husbands family are Mexican and LOVE Mariachis so I am sooo glad we splurged for them. The ones we got were just great too. Cool outfits and did a super job – the guests loved them and were surprised when they all came out of nowhere to play the recessional after the wedding ceremony. It was a very cool touch – highly recommend them! Firedancers – A+++++++ I had never seen firedancers before and our original plan was some fireworks but when we moved off the beach to the villa, it didn’t make the statement it once would have so we decided on firedancers. They are sooo cool!!! It was the perfect end to our evening and something unique for the guests to see. The kids loved it too! Roland and I spoke with them after the performance and they were great guys – was fun to hear more about them, where they live, how they got into this, etc. Villa – A++++++++ Los Suenos del Mar in Conchas Chinas was beautiful. I loved it and was sooo happy to have found it. The houseman Pablo was the nicest guy and great to work with. The owner was super nice and laid back and I was so surprised that he was willing to rent the house to use for one night (for a non exorbitant fee too!). We had a lot of fun after the wedding hanging out with a bunch of the guests in the huge hot tub/pool. El Dorado – Welcome Dinner - A+++++ Victor at El Dorado was soooooooo awesome to work with, I cant even tell you. After the Spiaggia/Cherry 7 debacle, it made me appreciate him even more. Always organized and quick to respond via email, he did everything I asked and everything they committed to. The table was prepared beautifully and the service was great. The food was good, not as good as the wedding dinner, but good. The margaritas were great. Victor suggested a bonfire after dinner so we paid about $60 extra for the wood, etc. for that and they set up chairs on the beach and made a huge bonfire and server a kahlua after dinner drink there. It was so fun. El Dorado is so professional and on the ball – I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend doing an event with them. They are pros and a pleasure to work with. The location on the beach was beautiful as well under a huge palapa. Andres – Catering – A+++++++ The food for the wedding dinner was top notch – just amazing!! The presentation, service, and taste was more than I could have asked for. I was so impressed (as were all the guests who were still talking about it at Christmas!). They really did a fantastic job. The only recommendation I would have is to ask them to bring extra meals or over estimate your final number by a few as a couple guests wanted another plate and they don’t come prepared with extras (don’t even get me started on why someone would possibly ask for another plate – seriously, who does that?!!!) I definitely would love to have Andres food again sometime – it was the best chicken I have ever had! I think I covered everything – as you can tell, I loved pretty much everything about the wedding and highly recommend a destination wedding. Everyone in PV was amazing (minus Spiaggia/Cherry 7) and I cant wait to go back in April for a vacation! I LOVE Puerto Vallarta! See some pics in the next post.

I am FINALLY getting to my wedding review. Here it is! Mishka Designs – Coordination and Design - A++++++++++++ As many of you already know, Mishka is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! I loved working with her as my coordinator. By the end of the process, I felt like I had a new friend as we spoke all the time! The first thing that really impressed me was how she responded to my initial email. I sent emails to a ton of coordinators to get an idea of what each offered, how they responded, etc. I think that first response can be very telling as to how it will be working with that business. A few of the pricier coordination businesses sent me their standard form letter which I am sure is because of the budget I specified is nowhere near what they will work for. Mishka was willing from the very start to work within my budget the best she could. She was honest about what we could and couldn’t do with my budget. And let me tell you, the budget I initially submitted was WAY low! I got caught up in all the stuff I could do with a wedding as the months went on and did increase my budget for other things I wanted (firedancers, mariachi’s, etc) but it was all at my initiation – not Mishkas. She was super creative in finding neat ideas that would work for what I wanted but weren’t too high priced. She always responded to emails right away and answered all of my questions – no waiting a week to get a response back. I couldn’t have handled that – too impatient!! I LOVED LOVED LOVED the huppah – when I first saw it, I couldn’t believe how cool it looked! All of the roses on it looked awesome. Actually, all of the flowers were awesome – I love my bouquet and the roses on the tables too. All the neat special touches and details are what I loved – my own flavor of cake, playing Yeah by Usher at the cake cutting (our song, believe it or not!) , etc. Mishka really listened to what we said and we saw it in the details. Mishka was also our minister – she doesn’t normally do coordination/design and a ceremony as well but thought it would be doable given the wedding was originally supposed to be simple! Her ceremony was just perfect – couldn’t have been any better. I loved it. It was original and touching without being sappy. She made me cry!! In a good way! Seriously, I could go on and on and on about her but I think her work speaks for itself. If you have seen the review of our wedding on her blog, you will know that she did a fantastic job! Everyone that attended our wedding said it was the best wedding they have ever been to (and I know some have been to $60K+ weddings). I couldn’t be more please with Mishka Designs and am trying to think of another event I can have in PV so I can work with her again! A Thanksgiving celebration? A birthday party for my daughter?!!!! Paulina Ulloa – Photography – A+ I haven’t seen any pics yet but Paulina was great. Her assistant was Marcie and she translated for us. Both were super sweet and easy to work with. When we did the day after shoot, Paulina took us to a lot of really neat places downtown - cant wait to see how they turned out. She has a ton of energy and is very dependable. She arrived right on time both at the wedding and the day after shoot. I really liked working with her. Charme – Cake – A++++++++ I loved the cake!!!!!!!!!!!! I know its my wedding but it’s the best cake I have ever seen - hee! hee! I may be a little biased though… ha! It was so creative and was just perfect!! Mishka and Memo at Charme did an amazing job at creating it. Oh and it tasted great too! Mariachis – A+++++++ My husbands family are Mexican and LOVE Mariachis so I am sooo glad we splurged for them. The ones we got were just great too. Cool outfits and did a super job – the guests loved them and were surprised when they all came out of nowhere to play the recessional after the wedding ceremony. It was a very cool touch – highly recommend them! Firedancers – A+++++++ I had never seen firedancers before and our original plan was some fireworks but when we moved off the beach to the villa, it didn’t make the statement it once would have so we decided on firedancers. They are sooo cool!!! It was the perfect end to our evening and something unique for the guests to see. The kids loved it too! Roland and I spoke with them after the performance and they were great guys – was fun to hear more about them, where they live, how they got into this, etc. Villa – A++++++++ Los Suenos del Mar in Conchas Chinas was beautiful. I loved it and was sooo happy to have found it. The houseman Pablo was the nicest guy and great to work with. The owner was super nice and laid back and I was so surprised that he was willing to rent the house to use for one night (for a non exorbitant fee too!). We had a lot of fun after the wedding hanging out with a bunch of the guests in the huge hot tub/pool. El Dorado – Welcome Dinner - A+++++ Victor at El Dorado was soooooooo awesome to work with, I cant even tell you. After the Spiaggia/Cherry 7 debacle, it made me appreciate him even more. Always organized and quick to respond via email, he did everything I asked and everything they committed to. The table was prepared beautifully and the service was great. The food was good, not as good as the wedding dinner, but good. The margaritas were great. Victor suggested a bonfire after dinner so we paid about $60 extra for the wood, etc. for that and they set up chairs on the beach and made a huge bonfire and server a kahlua after dinner drink there. It was so fun. El Dorado is so professional and on the ball – I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend doing an event with them. They are pros and a pleasure to work with. The location on the beach was beautiful as well under a huge palapa. Andres – Catering – A+++++++ The food for the wedding dinner was top notch – just amazing!! The presentation, service, and taste was more than I could have asked for. I was so impressed (as were all the guests who were still talking about it at Christmas!). They really did a fantastic job. The only recommendation I would have is to ask them to bring extra meals or over estimate your final number by a few as a couple guests wanted another plate and they don’t come prepared with extras (don’t even get me started on why someone would possibly ask for another plate – seriously, who does that?!!!) I definitely would love to have Andres food again sometime – it was the best chicken I have ever had! I think I covered everything – as you can tell, I loved pretty much everything about the wedding and highly recommend a destination wedding. Everyone in PV was amazing (minus Spiaggia/Cherry 7) and I cant wait to go back in April for a vacation! I LOVE Puerto Vallarta! See some pics in the next post.

Just a note that I have attached templates and instructions in various posts after my original post so check some of those out if you are looking for templates

LOL!! Thanks! I would be happy to help you if I can

I am attaching the door hanger template. All I did was print it out on thick cardstock and then fold it in half and glue it. Then I used a corner rounder for all of the corners. Then I used an exacto knife type thing to cut out the circle to hang it (that was the hard part). Good luck! Nikkis doorhanger template3.doc

Thanks!! I did share some of the templates back in different posts in this thread - can you tell me which one(s) are you looking for?

Sorry - that sock picture was fuzzy I tried to find them on the website I got them from and couldnt find them anymore? The website was tie that binds - you could email them to buy the template if you wanted. Heres' a better picture of an example of the socks (not the one I used though). Groom sock picture.doc

Great job!!! I love the colors navy and pink together - beautiful!

Great review!! It looked amazing and you looked beautiful!

I just printed everything on my Lexmark inkjet at home

Hey Jennifer - Nope, I dont have mine back either - my wedding was Dec 5th. I sent her an email with my mailing address and a few songs she had requested. She replied back but she had told us that it would be January before she would get them done because of the holidays, etc. I was actually just at her site hoping some new pics might be there But I didnt see any. Its so hard to wait, isnt it?! I havent gotten the video yet either from Promovision - I guess they are behind as well and said they would send in about two weeks. I am pretty much planning on the end of Jan before I hear anything from anyone - I would think you would be hearing somethng really soon though? Let us know when you get yours

Awesome review Autumn! You looked beautiful!! And I totally agree about early Dec PV weddings - they rock!! (from your date twin!) I love the reception tables with the ribbons - that is such a cool look! I love the bonfire too - we did that and I was glad we paid the extra for it as it was really fun. Cant wait to see your professional pics

And fourth, I attached the two files for the meet the guests brochure. Please ignore the dumb descriptions - I felt like I was writing personal ads for everyone! All I needed was "so and so likes long walks on the beach and is looking for a ... !" !!! I used brochure paper from Staples for these and printed one file on the front and then the second file on the back. It was tricky trying to space it out right - of course, if you have more or less guests, you can fill in the space with your monogram, wedding website, etc. For the first attachment, only print out page 1 - for some reason there is a page 2 and I cant get rid of it As an fyi, I took out everyones last names so the spacing got a little funky... Feel free to PM me with any questions as you work with these Nikki Meet our Guests Brochure.doc Meet our Guests Brochure2.doc

Thanks everyone! If I can help at all, I am more than happy to - I definitely want to "pay it forward" for all the help I received! Here are some of the "templates" I used for the items that were specifically mentioned. Keep in mind I am using the word templates loosely! My DIY work is not an exact science and I would have to mess with things to get them to work a lot of time! First, I attached the file for the map I used - I just put it in word and then you can edit, resize, add text boxes, arrows, etc. as you wish! Second, I attached the file I used for the chapsticks. I just bought generic chapsticks that came in packs of two at Dollar tree. I took off the labels (came off easy!) and then printed the attachment out on blank sticker paper from Staples. Then I just cut them out and adhered the sticker label to the chapstick. You may need to resize a little if your chapstick is a bit bigger/smaller. Also, you can ungroup each square and add in your monogram, colors, etc. Third, I attached the files (one for orange mints, one for blue mints) for the Mints/tic tacs. Again, I just bought generic tic tacs from Dollar Tree. I *think* there were three per pack - they were orange and blue in color so I kinda worked with that theme vs just sticking to my monogram colors. Same process as chapsticks - print out on blank sticker paper from Staples, cut out, and adhere. The tic tac labels were a little trickier to get off - I just did the best I could and even if there was white paper still stuck on, I put the label over it. Hope this helps! Will post meet the guests in the next entry! Nikki PV Map for personalizing.doc Nikkis chapstick template.doc Tic Tac Template2.doc Tic Tac Template3.doc

Hi PV Brides! Just a note that I posted my planning pics finally http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ding-pv-53851/ Nikki

Cold Feet Socks – ordered the label template online. I had a family member take these to him while he was getting ready. Welcome Dinner Boarding passes – these were fun to make – my favorite DIY: There was one pass per person and then an RSVP pass (all different designs) that the middle part was torn off to send in as a postcard. Welcome Dinner placecards- ended up putting these in the forks since dinner was right on beach and was breezy. Pashminas: If I can help anyone out with their projects, feel free to PM me and I will respond as soon as I can Happy Wedding Planning! Enjoy it Nikki

Mints: Kids OOT buckets: Brochure #1: Had map I made, map I brought from PV, letter and an airport brochure. Brochure #2: Had cell phone directory, luggage tag, meet the guests, and brochure on PV:

Rest of OOT bag contents – purchased items: Door hangers: Tip holders – ordered cases/lanyards from ebay: Taxi cards for guests to give to taxi drivers so they got to the right place! Front had where were going, phone #, etc. and back had where to take them back to  Thisis the envelope I put them in tied in sets of 5 or so with a ribbon for each place we went in the wedding. For some reason, I don’t have a picture of the actual cards but they are business card size printed on my computer. Photoshare cards – this worked out well – everyone uploaded their pics to the site  Edited: Taking out this pic since it has all our pw info on it Sorry! Frisbees: Personal Water: Fans – got from Michaels:

Welcome Bags – got the pink ones at Target and orange ones at Walmart: Welcome Bag Contents: Chapstick: Cards: First Aid Kit: Mini Tequila: Koozies – design #1 – from ebay: Koozies – design #2 – from ebay: