edub007

Yes, it is the dress I was married in. I had the TTD session the day after my wedding. After taking it in the ocean, I put it in the Jacuzzi tub (no chemicals) in our suite to get the sand out (I left the maid a $20 to clean the sand out of the tub - oopps). I hung it to dry to in the room and brought it home. I put it in my front-load washer, inside out, on delicate and hung it to dry. It looks perfect, not a single sign of distress.

Central Beach is located just across the pool bridge at the ocean in between the Gazebo beach and Pelicanos beach. To get to the beach from my room, we had to walk past one wedding at the Gazebo (while the ceremony as happening!), then along the pool. We had lots of people yelling at us ranging from 'Don't do it! It's not too late!' to 'You look amazing!'. My wedding party and myself were standing right at the end of the bridge in the picture below while we waited. My pictures of us walking in included lots of people in swimsuits watching the wedding from and near the pool, in cabanas, and the beach. It wasn't terrible, but I noticed it more than I expected.

Trash the Dress: I forgot to mention that my TTD session was in Tulum the morning after our wedding. We rented a car from the resort and drove there with our photographers around 9am. I just pinned my hair up with the curls left from the day before and wore some waterproof makeup. My husband wore linen pants and a shirt. I put my dress is the jacuzzi tub when we returned and ran the jets. This took all of the sand out of the dress. I hung it to dry in the bathroom and left the maid a $20 for having to clean the sand out of the tub! When I got home, I turned the dress inside out and put it in the front-load washer on delicate. You'd never know it was treated so poorly as it looks amazing! Originally, we were going to take photos in the Mayan ruins, but we found out it is prohibited to take wedding photos there without a special permit that you have to get in Cancun. We drove a little ways past the ruin entrance and took the photos in the ocean behind the rocks and cliffs that backed to the ruins. Still beautiful! BTW - Everyone asks if the sailboat below is real, and yes it is!

Cake: I went with Tres Leches as I’ve heard amazing things about it. Unfortunately, I never got to try more than a bite of our wedding cake! The only taste I had was when we cut the cake. I was so full after dinner, I didn't bother to have a piece since I knew it would it be delivered to our room that night. Unfortunately, it never made it and the resort only apologized telling us it was delivered to the wrong room. A few days before, we'd had someone else's cake delivered to our room. We called the front desk and told them it wasn't ours, but it was never picked up. The only thing I can think of is that we had originally booked a different room on-line (if you're not familiar, you can book your rooms ahead of time on-line for smoother check-in). Unfortunately when we arrived, we were told the room we booked was not available and we had to move. Bummer! In the end, we think the couple in our original room got our cake and we got their cake - but who knows for sure. Becuase we had booked an expensive room, we got the free wedding package which included one of four cakes styles to choose from. Per advice on this site, I suck with one of those rather than paying a few hundred for an upgrade and that ended up being the right choice. We had soooo much cake left - only 1/5 probably got eaten.

Reception Menu: Avocado stuffed with crab pulp au fresh dill vinaigrette This was okay.. some guests liked it, others barely touched it. Beef fillet tournedo with fresh wild mushrooms sauce Delicious! Lots of compliments on this. Cannoli trio stuffed with praline & raspberry coulis Also delicious with lots of comliments!

Colors: Here's what the rose petals looked like in the sand. The sea stars were provided by the resort. I brought the chair bows and huppa fabric. I decided on my wedding colors in part by what looked good on my bridesmaids (red head, brunette, and blonde) and I knew I wanted vibrant colors to add to the beach scene. I then matched the flowers to the dresses and went from there with all my decorations. The guys wore ivory and only their flowers matched the girls.

Ceremony music: One of the weddings the day before mine used a trio to play the music during their ceremony. They were absolutely amazing! I had pictured a tacky mariachi group like you find at home in some Mexican restaurants, but it wasn’t like that at all. The music was so beautiful and carried perfectly across the sound system. I used an iPod for my own ceremony and wish I could go back and change that after hearing the trio. They would have been work the money!

Whoops... here's the pic of most of the OOT bag contents.

Out of Town Bags: I took pictures of pretty much everything I included. When I started, I decided to make everyone a simple customized beach bag (this is one of the things I seem to always forget to bring with me!) I then tried to pick out a couple cute items to put in it; the flip-flop luggage tag, the sea shell candles with matches (every room at my resort has a spa tub, so I thought they would be romantic). Next, I also decided to include a handover kit; ibuprofen, Emergen-C, G2 mixers, Rolaids, and sore throat remedy (works for the “hangover voice†- lol). Next, I was decided to add a few items that people are likely to forget but would come in handy; travel kleenex, aloe vera, shout wipes, q-tips, bandaids, and hand sanitizer (I also tried to find bug repellent but had not luck). I then ended up adding the toothbrush, paste, floss picks, sunblock, and chapstick (SPF 15) since those would be important items if forgotten. I just about threw in a razor too, but decided I was getting carried away. After all, there is a Wal-mart within walking distance to our resort! Since I didn't fill the bag completely, I bagged the items together; one bag marked as a "hang-over" kit and one as toiletries". I put the kits in the beach bag, folded the sides of the bag around them, and tied it all together. Hindsight being 20-20, I wish I had just stuck with unique and fun items; bags, luggage tags, candles, bath salts, G2 mixers, and personalized koozies. I also love the postcard idea I read about in this post!

Overall Wedding Experience: B Though I am happy with my wedding and I have so many fond memories, there a few items that, hindsight being 20/20, I wish I could change. First and foremost is privacy. I knew that this resort cranks out weddings and I knew I might not be the only wedding that day, but I did not understand to what extent. Every day we were there, our vacation was slightly interrupted by weddings – as many as nine per day. There were two other wedding taking place within an hour of mine and my reception was wedged in the middle of two others, separated only by a groups of cabanas and beach chairs. We could hear the mix of music from all there receptions and see them though the cabanas. For the most part, you didn’t notice as you were so focused on your own to pay too much attention. However, if you’re like me and you were thinking you’d at least be the only wedding during a time slot or have a sense of privacy for the reception, think again. It’s silly, but for me it made it all feel a little less special watching all those brides and grooms getting hitched day after day. Silly, I know, but I couldn’t help feeling that way! If I could go back, I’d pay extra to get married in a more private location and pick a resort that guarantees only one wedding per day, or at least per time slot, (they do exist!). The food poisoning for so many of my guests was also a big issue. Though there is nothing I could do about it, I felt guilty that it happened as I had selected the resort and was so very disappointed in the lack of acknowledgement and response from the resort.

Photographer (traveled from home) w/TTD session - Amazing!: A+

Beach Reception (6:30-11:00): A My reception was on central beach. Originally, I was really stressing about decorations thinking I needed to add a lot and wondering how I was going to rent or bring it all. In the end, I decided to keep it very simple and save some money – after all, we would be on the ocean anyway! The chairs had bows on them and I rented vases for $5 per table to put my bouquets in as a centerpiece. Had the vases been the right size, this would have gone off without a hitch. The rest of the table decorations were setup beautifully and provided at no extra cost by the resort; this included the dishes, linens, and candels. The servers we had for our beach reception were awesome. The staff waited on us hand and foot as far as drinks and food. We used an iPod for music, which worked out well except that the staff member who was only supposed to be watching the iPod was skipping through my playlist picking out the songs to play. He skipped all the slow songs except one which made me a bit mad as many of the older family members only danced that one time. It took me awhile to notice it though, so most had left by the time I realized what was going on. There was a wireless microphone set up for us for speeches and I rented an amazing light-up dance floor in the middle! The reception was supposed to last no longer than 3 hours (9:30). Unfortunately, (as I mentioned earlier) our schedule fell to junk since our WC was coordinating three wedding happening simultaneously. She stopped by immediately after out ceremony to see how things went. I was happy so she said she’d come back by after appetizers to drop off the microphone for speeches. She didn’t return until we had already served desert. She apologized profusely, but my fiancé was a bit annoyed as he felt like our guests were sitting around wondering what to do next! The speeches, cake cutting and dancing all started late and I felt like we lost precious reception time.

Ceremony (5 pm): A+ We had a legal ceremony and talked to Denisse ahead of time about incorporating a sand ceremony and a sea shell toss. Mexican legal ceremonies are very strict, however, and Denisse said it would either have to be at the beginning or the end of the ceremony. We decided to forgo the sand ceremony. No regrets there as the legal ceremony was beautiful and perfectly adequate for our needs! I was very disappointed in the beginning that I could not reserve the gazebo for our wedding. I really thought I wouldn’t like a beach ceremony as well as the gazebo. As it turns out, I just loved getting married on the beach! I was extremely worried about the wind as it had seemed pretty extreme on a few nights before my wedding, but it was just perfect. Cocktails and appetizers (5:30 – 6:30): We used central beach to have cocktails and appetizers. The set up looked lovely, and the food was delicious! They had cute cocktail tables with umbrellas for shade.

Spa: A (nails)/B (hair) I had a pedicure and manicure done the morning of my wedding. It was so relaxing and the cosmetologist did an excellent job! What a great start to the day! I had decided to forgo the trial hair, which I wouldn’t recommend. I had brought a picture and the result was not quite there. The requested style had some separated pieces of hair in the front to add interest - more romantic looking. The style I received was basically swept straight back – boring in the front - more sophisticated. I know the stylist would have adjusted it if I had asked, but my bridesmaids convinced me it was fine. I should have gone with my instinct! I ended up adjusting it to separate out some front pieces and add a side part to make the front more interesting. My hair was style was okay – not terrible - and I received lots of compliments, but it wasn’t quite what I had wanted. All of my bridesmaids had selected a style from the spa’s book and all of their hair came out excellent! Requested: Flowers: I brought my own bouquets that I made at home. They were all made with Real Touch flowers so they looked and felt pretty amazing – about as close to real as possible. Though I would have loved to have real flowers, I just couldn’t swing the $750 they wanted to charge for 4 bouquets and a centerpiece. Ouch! I spent less than $85 on real touch flowers because I found them all at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. It did survive multiple tosses into the sand at the request of our photographers!