Emily11386

The Resorts: As I previously mentioned we had done a site visit to both resorts, so we knew how beautiful they were. We got the Presidential suite our first week, then changed over to a swim up suite for our second week (our honeymoon week). (with my son at the Gran Caribe) (hair and make up trial at the salon. Mariana did a great job!!) And the Bad....... And this is where my fun week ended. Wednesday night going into Thursday (our rehearsal dinner was on Thurs and our wedding on Fri) I woke up very sick. I was in bed all day Thursday. I got up to attend our rehearsal dinner in a space we rented out for 3 hours and could only stay for half of it and wasn't able to eat at all. They sent the resort Dr up to see me and I was diagnosed with salmonella and was given an antibiotic along with some other meds. Out of 8 of us who ate together 6 of us got sick to varying degress. Of course I seemed to get the sickest and it lastest the longest with me as well. I woke up Friday feeling sick and weak. I got my hair and make up done in silence trying not to get sick the whole time. Normally I would've asked someone to take pictures of us getting our hair and make up done but I wasn't thinking straight. They brought around champage for everyone while they got ready, and I couldn't even thinking of drinking it. During our ceremony I had to hold onto the pew many times because I felt as though I might pass out. We were about 15 minutes late starting the ceremony because the wedding coordinator forgot that she was supposed to meet me in my parents room at the Gran Caribe. She ran up to my groom panicked saying that she couldn't find me and did he know where I was? He reminded her about where she was supposed to meet me and we started. Because of the delay cocktail hour only ended up being 45 mins instead of an hour, which cut short the amount of time our photographer had to take pictures. Because of this we are going to have very few formal pictures with our bridal party. During the reception I couldn't eat. I just drank my gatorade. I got up danced, smiled, and tried to have fun and make the best of it. I hope when we get our pictures back I look like I'm having fun. We went right back to our room after the reception instead of hanging out with everyone as we planned to. I was in bed the next two days. I ended up seeing the Dr again and getting another antibiotic. Because of this we missed out on spending time with really any of my bridesmaids in the days they were there, and a lot of my family. A huge part of a destination wedding for us was getting to spend time with everyone, not just having one day. We lost out on this. I was unable to eat anything other than toast for 4 days. Even after I started eating it was a week before I could think about trying any alcohol. It's been about 3 weeks and my stomach still isn't quite right, but I'm getting there. I emailed our travel agent, Wendy Hicks from Wright Travel Agency, during this whole mess and she jumped right on getting a hold of the resort. After she got in touch with them the management seemed a lot more concern and checked in on me daily. At the end of our stay our wedding coordinator Elizabeth came to our room and gave us a letter from the GM staying that they would like to give us a complimentary week stay next year. We of course had to sign saying we wouldn't pursue legal action, but it's a nice gesture anyways. We have stayed here before and not had any issues, so we will be crossing our fingers (and reading reviews first) and heading back for our 1 year anniversary. Hopefully I can make some better memories to try to take some of the sting out of not really getting to enjoy my wedding day and the days surrounding it. On more positive notes.... We would like to give a huge thank you to Wendy Hicks. She was great to work with throughout the entire process and was really a huge help with the resort when I got sick. I think that the resort was trying to brush me off, but she didn't allow that to happen. I would highly recommend her! Thank you Wendy! We used Ivan Luckie of Luckie Photography. We won't get the pictures back for a little while, but he was great to work with! We also did a cenote TTD session with him which was so much fun! Him and his assistant Elvis make such a great team. Joe was especially nervous about the TTD because he's not a great swimmer. To be honest he was really dreading it and only doing it because I really, really wanted to. From the moment they picked us up they made us feel totally at ease. We stopped off to get some real Mexican beer, which helped loosen Joe up a little. Sinking underwater and posing while fixing your hair and your dress is hard work!! Once we get our pictures back from Ivan I will post them on here, but for now I will end with some pictures from my guests, and a few from the resort photographer (ceremony only, from the pictures we had included in our package.) Feel free to ask me any questions

Décor/Accessories: *For colors we chose Tiffany Blue and pink* I purchased table linens and chair sashes that we brought with us in Tiffany Blue. I purchased Table numbers on Etsy. She made this one special for our sweatheart table. The rest looked like this but were tables 1-4. Also purchased these escort card holders, an insulated Bride cup, and my Mrs. Durant hanger on Etsy. Bridal Party Gifts: For my girls I got them: A beach bag with their initial on it A silver cuff bracelet with their name on it A light gray shawl (not pictured) A travel cup from Etsy that had their name, Bridesmaid, and a cute dress (got myself and Joe one as well) An oversized Coach wristlet A bathrobe with their name embroidered For the guys Joe got them: A travel cup from Etsy with their name, groomsman, and a tux on it A football cup with their name on it A flask with their initial on it A bottle opener A Sam Adams cup He put it all together in a tin beer bucket We bought them their ties for the wedding (in the process of being put together) Flowers: We decided to hire an outside florist and found Marvin from Maya Florals throught this site. After much emailing back and forth here are the flowers we decided on (the picture from the email followed by the actual one ont he day of) Bridal Bouquet. Somehow my actual bouquet ended up with some purple flowers in it, which was not one of my colors. (this is the best picture I have of my flowers for now)- We won't get our professional pictures back for a few months Bridesmaids Bouquet. These turned out perfect. For every other pew in the Chapel (but with a bigger bow). The flowers on these turned our very nice, but they had no bows at all. This is the inspirtation piucture I gave him for the rose petals in the aisle. I told him we didn't want it in that design, but that thickness with white and pink petals. I don't think it was anywhere near that thick. He did throw in the aisle runner for free so we wouldn't worry about slipping on the petals which was very nice. For the reception: Centerpieces. The ones we got we pretty, but didn't quite look like this. He also threw these in for the sweatheart table and cake table free of charge which was, again, very nice.