ebredhawk

i know i haven't posted in FOREVER, but we finally got to see our wedding film and it is unbelieveable! if you are friends with me on facebook, you can see it on my profile if you scroll down, but for those of you who aren't, i posted a thread and a link: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...5/#post1348121

i say wedding film and not "video", because that wouldn't do justice to the amazing piece of work our videographer produced. (Nick Kesler of Clam Lake Films, based out of St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN) he had only shot one other wedding, but has won an Emmy and has recently been filming for shows like Man vs. Food and Bath Crashers on the DIY network. Plus he is friends with our amazingly talented photographer (|| EyeSpy Photography || high fashion seniors || fine art animals || commercial ||) so we knew she wouldn't lead us astray. i can't explain how much watching this makes us feel like we are back there! it captures the emotion perfectly! so far he has posted the movie (just 4 1/2 minutes) on facebook, so if you have an account you should be able to log in and see it: Welcome to Facebook if this doesn't work, try searching for "nick kesler" from "wisc river falls" and hopefully you'll be able to see his videos!

happy wedding day toya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course happy legal day nat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can't believe it's here already for you guys!!!

good luck toya!!! can't wait to see and hear everything!!

toya, i am SOOO excited for you!! i will be anxiously awaiting your return to hear how everything was! and that way i can vicariously live through someone else again enjoy your last day of work and really really try to savor the moment!! i'm hoping to have the trailer for our wedding film at some point next week! i can't wait to see it... i'm sure it will be worth the wait!

punchbuggiejen - you may think that a DW is all about getting married on the beach, but just wait until you get there. every part of the resort feels like paradise, not just the beach!! thanks everyone for the comments on the pictures too! i know it helps with the more pictures you see to really get a visual of the resort. it's hard to try to imagine in your head! nat, my flowers were actually real touch, so we brought them with us. crammed them in the suitcases and they did just fine!

i've been 100% MIA, but i wanted to let you guys know that my photographer put up our full galleries on her website! go here: EyeSpy Photography and there are 2 different galleries.. one for the wedding and one for TTD. the passcode for the wedding is "blackmore" and for the TTD is "cashsammi". if you can't get them to work, let me know!

nat, i am so sorry that it has taken me this long to respond!! started a new job this week and had 2 cake orders so i was running around like a crazy person! we just loaded playlists on our ipods and they had a cord we could hook up to. they have music themselves too (it's very caribbean-esque) so if you wanted to use that while you're hanging out before dinner and during the meal, and then change to your ipod for dancing, etc., that would be perfectly easy. plus, that way you only need to make a playlist for about an hour and 1/2 or so. you'd be surprised how few songs that is! toya, you are so close!!! i can't believe you've got less than 3 weeks! christine, welcome back! the bus ride back to the airport was super depressing for all of us too. when we first got on the bus to get to the resort, everyone was excited and talking a lot. but on the ride back it was super quiet and everyone was just staring out the windows at the cows with the saggy skin! i think i'm still in post-vacation depression mode! can't wait to hear how your experience was!

jackie, you will be JUST fine! you can reserve a reception location ahead of time, and a few weeks before, your WC will email you ahead of time and confirm whatever they need to know. the good thing is, no 2 ceremonies are at the same time of day, so you don't have to worry about reserving your ceremony location ahead of time.

mel, everything looked gorgeous and that cake looked delish! i can't believe the shell on top was edible! michele, no worries.. i have only seen the ones posted on my photog's blog (60 of about 2000), but you were 18 days ahead of us too. hopefully your photographer gets it in gear so you can have my professional pictures out tomorrow! good luck with the AHR!

melissa, most of us just left our phones at home since we didn't have international service. my dad and stephany both had theirs though (lucky blackberry fools) and they had no problems at all! nat, the huppah is literally a wooden frame with white fabric on it. it it shaped just like a bamboo huppah, but it's made out of plywood and 2x4s instead. i may have a better picture at home.. i'll try to look through them tonight! and the ATM thing is such a pain! hopefully they have a better option by the time you get down there!

it's so funny how different everyone's AHRs are! ours is on june 5th and is very casual, but we're having a ton of people. and there is NO WAY i can be convinced to make all the food myself! we're doing a BBQ kind of set up, but lots of people are bringing dishes to help out.. plus, J is a butcher so we get lots of meat and yummy foods at a discount/free! jenna, pickled jalapenos sound sooooo delicious! i'm amazed by your ability to make all that food... 50 lbs of potato salad? no sweat! if i were in TX, i'd make your wedding cake for you! and tracy, oh my goodness.. please keep us posted on your surgery. here's hoping big time that everything will go your way!

oh man nat, i wish we could have!! it was really our only wedding expense down there (thank goodness for the free wedding!) so we didn't even try. i get the feeling that they have so much demand that they don't negotiate. it's worth every single penny though! i'd say the best 3 decisions i made during planning were.. in no particular order: 1) DPC 2) La Baracaza 3) My photog and videographer i don't regret anything that i did... except maybe spending too much time on little details that no one, including me, noticed on the wedding day!!

ska, i don't know if you read my review or not, but really the only thing we didn't like about the resort was dealing with the photographers. there was no negotiating, which is funny because you could pretty much negotiate with every other vendor. i just don't want you to waste your money! you've got a while to go though in order to figure out all of that! hopefully someone else can answer your question about the symbolic ceremony with the WC performing it. pastor york performed ours so i can only speak to what he does. toya, we actually befriended some bartenders and the guys told them we wanted cigars. they came back after about 30 minutes with all different kinds and we got them for really good prices! when in doubt, you can just buy them in the gift shop to the left of the disco that has TONS of different kinds of cigars, humidors, etc.! and i hope you are getting back into the swing of things after your computer blow up!! it'll all be worth it here soon!

can i make a suggestion on the cigar roller? our guests (DH especially) were OBSESSED with the cigars down there. we made friends with one of the bartenders who warned us that a lot of times the vendors and rollers use banana leaves to roll the cigars in and they just aren't that great of quality then. if you really wanted to have cigars, i suggest buying some once you get down there and have them sitting out on the cocktail hour tables! it's also SUPER hard to keep them lit since it's so humid all the time. toya, you are getting SO close!! it makes me so sad (for myself)/happy (for you all) that everyone still has this to look forward to! maybe it's just me, but i can't say that my wedding day was the happiest day of my life because the whole time i was there was the happiest WEEK of my life! i can't wait to see everyone's pictures when they come back to see if you and your guests enjoyed the same things we did, etc.! oh, ska, i also have a warning about the monkey. make sure you take note of how expensive pictures with the animals are if you aren't planning on purchasing them for your guests. my stepdaughter took her picture with the monkey and just to get one print cost us $15. cds are $30 (but you get your 4 or 5 poses on it) they only have the monkey 2 days a week, so i don't know if they would charge extra to bring him in from the zoo when it's an off day?