queenoftheu

Oh, and I am super excited about taking my engagement pictures this weekend! I feel like I've been planning them for ages! We got engaged in Napa, so we're taking our pictures there. However, I have some props to use for part of the shoot to tie it in with our Mexican wedding for the STDs. When I booked the photographer, I told him I wanted the theme of our prop section to be "Classy Sombrero" We have some sombreros, we found 2 vintage suitcases, and we have a road map of Mexico. On the vintage suitcases, we made stickers with the colorful Mexico logo from the tourism board, and I think I'm also going to use that logo on a poster. I am fine tuning both of my outfit selections, and I am having my hair and makeup done in Napa with fake eyelashes! I've never had pictures taken like this before, and I am just so excited! I feel like I'm preparing for my ANTM audition! Except, you know, my fiance will be in the pictures, too... I wonder if I can teach him to smize by Saturday...

Hi, Kelly! I'm using a TA for my guests, and she got a rate of $314 per night, which includes shared roundtrip airport transfers for 2. I would agree that she might have meant $140 per person, per night. Hope this helps!

Agreed! It is a good thing he caught you! Awww... That is so sweet! Congratulations!

How sweet! So, did you get to keep the plate?

What a great story! Congratulations!

Thanks! It really was amazing!

My fiance, Michael, and I are fortunate enough to live about 90 minutes from Napa Valley. We spent our first weekend together up there, and we've spent about as much time as possible both in Napa and exploring other California wine areas ever since. Michael asked me a couple of weeks prior if I was interested in meeting another couple we were friends with in Napa for the evening on February 25th. He told me his friend was going to surprise his girlfriend with the trip, and that he were going to book our hotel room because he had some sort of discount. I asked what hotel it was for, but he said he was unsure. After pestering him for a couple of days, he confessed that they had booked us at a hotel we had previously stayed at and really disliked. I was annoyed, but I knew that we had disliked the particular room we had before, so I hoped that we would get a better room on this trip. Then Michael told me that his friend had made reservations for dinner for us for Friday night. I was excited to find out where, since Napa Valley has some of the best restaurants. Michael told me they had made reservations at a restaurant on the outskirts of town in the middle of an industrial park that had AWFUL reviews online. I asked what would make him pick this place, and he told me he had received a personal recommendation. I plotted for a week before the trip to figure out a way to get him to change the restaurant, but Michael told me to wait until we had gotten there and had a couple glasses of wine first. I agreed to hold off, but I hoped I could successfully convince them to change the plan. The 25th arrived, and Michael and I set off early to wine taste and have a picnic lunch. We were all supposed to meet up at our favorite winery, Rombauer, at 2PM. We got there at 1:45PM, and Michael suggested that we take a walk through the winery's gardens while we waited for our friends. When we got into the garden, Michael said, "I have a couple of things to tell you. We aren't really having dinner at that restaurant, we're having dinner at Bottega (which I had been DYING to try!), and we're also not staying at that hotel. I made us reservations at the River Terrace Inn (where we stayed on our first trip to Napa and loved!)." At this point, I was just taken aback, and I really just thought, "Oh, that's so cute! He faked me out with all of that bad stuff! We're going to have such a great night tonight!" Then he said, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you," and the light bulb finally went off. I realized this was no ordinary trip to Napa! This was it! This was the moment I had been waiting for! He got down on one knee, and he pulled the ring box out of his pocket. I began screaming, "Yes," before he could even get the question out! It was the sweetest, most surprising proposal, and I love him even more for making it so special!

My FI and I took our first vacation together at Secrets Maroma, and we will be spending 5 nights there for our honeymoon after our wedding at the Royal Playa del Carmen. The only reason we didn't have the wedding at Secrets is because I have a little brother who is 16, and Secrets is 18+. We absolutely LOVED Secrets Maroma... It was really outstanding.

YAY, orange-peel! I will have to check that out!

Hi, SweetLe... Maybe I can help shed a little light on this. I used to be a front desk manager for Hilton, and then I worked for a division of Expedia called Classic Vacations. Classic Vacations is a tour operator similar to Travel Impressions, Pleasant Holidays, or Apple Vacations, and I actually worked in their groups department booking destination weddings. It's actually standard procedure to request a credit card authorization. I required a copy of the credit card and ID for every contract I did. It isn't necessary when doing online payments, but it protects the hotel in cases when you cannot. The credit card authorization is basically insurance for them in case you were to come back and say, "Well, I didn't authorize that payment." Some of the coordinators may just take your payments over the phone, but doing the faxed authorization isn't anything you should be concerned about. It's a pretty standardized hotel requirement, in my experience. Hope this helps!

Thank you for the advice! My deposit is in, and I'm ready to go!

Hi, Everyone! Well, I am recently engaged, and I've been dreaming about my Royal wedding for quite some time now! I'm hoping to get some advice on ceremony time. We're going to get married May 19, 2012, and I would like a 5PM ceremony time. I asked the WC I was assigned about sunset time for that time of year, and I asked if I would still have light throughout my picture taking until 6:30PM. She wrote back that the sunset at 6PM, but she didn't elaborate. Does that mean the sun is down at 6PM, or is it starting to set and I'll have light for another half hour? For those of you getting married that time of year, what time did you make your ceremony? I really want to get my deposit in and lock it down! Thanks!