MyGirlTuesday

Hello! I am looking for a Cabo photographer for one hour on January 21, 2012 from 3p to 4p to shoot a few pre wedding photos, the short 15 minute ceremony, and a few bride/groom, family and group shots after the ceremony. I have read countless reviews and visited many sites, but I wanted to reach out to any photographer on this site to see if anyone would be willing to do one hour! I'm on a very tight budget and have a professional from the states coming to do the reception (it's a relative of mine so we're getting it as our wedding gift). I am also open to newbies that are just getting their feet wet. Any ideas? My budget for this hour is $500. Thanks.

We're having our rehearsal at The Medano Beach Club. Our reception is going to be over the top, so I'm not too concerned about the rehearsal. A Buffet for 35 people is $35pp and a two hour open bar is $19pp. Bonus: Live music hosted by the restaurant and a beach bonfire after sunset! Both will entertain our guests and we won't have to pay for it. Please note that this is a very casual restaurant if you'd want nicer tables/chairs/linens, you'd have to rent them. I'm a very low-key bride.

We booked the tropicat for one of our events. The cost for January 2012 was $3150 for <50 guests. This includes open bar for 2 hours, appetizers, and all tips, tax and gratuities. We're pumped! We loved this sunset cruise last time we were in Cabo!

1.21.12 in Cabo! We are currently have 21 guests booked and we'll be staying at the cute little Hotel Bahia. The rehearsal dinner will be Friday at the Medano Beach Club complete with beach bonfire and live music. The ceremony will be at The Medano Beach Club at 3:30 on Saturday with a sunset sailboat cruise as our reception! We cannot wait to be barefoot on the beach!!

Hi Itringale! The Bahia does not have beach views (it used to, but then they built Casa Dorada), but the Medano Beach Club is the "activity beach" for the Bahia and it's my understanding that they have towels and beach chairs reserved on the beach for Bahia guests. Apparently the two owners are friends and work together. I'm getting married at the Medano Beach Club on their beach and we're all staying at the Bahia!! Great deal--I'm having 30 guests and am keeping within my $10K budget! Hope this helps!

What I do know is that I chose against Casa Dorada simply because with the rate they were charging me for the wedding ($4800 for up to 35 guests), they gave almost zero discount on the rooms for my party. Actually, the small discounts they did give were on the second and third tier rooms. I tried to negotiate, but they weren't interested (our wedding is in January, when times are slow), so I moved locations and got an awesome deal at the Bahia Hotel!

Hi WeLoveCabo, I am not really your traditional bride--all I've known for a while is that I wanted a beach wedding so when my fiance and I decided on Cabo, it was so exciting, but scary! Planning a vacation for 20-30 people and within my $10K budget seemed overwhelming! Actually, we're offering our guests what I think is going to be an amazing couple of days and we're within our budget. Please keep in mind that I am a no frills type of girl and I'm not going to be fussy about flowers, themes, colors, etc. My FI and I also wanted our wedding to be as close to the marina as possible because that is where all the fun is! So we chose not to go AI, and chose a small boutique hotel to host our wedding guests instead: The Hotel Bahia. They gave us awesome room rates! My wedding coordinator hooked us up with a great beach location and a very low location fee right outside of The Medano Beach Club. She saved us $500-$1000. We plan to have a welcome dinner/rehearsal on Friday at The Medano Beach Club. A two hour open bar and buffet will cost around $55/person and Friday and Saturday nights they have live music and a beach bonfire so our guests will have some entertainment without costing us a thing. I think it will be really fun. Saturday, wedding day, we will meet the judge at her chambers at noon and be officially married (we're going this route in MX instead of getting married in the states first--this is up to you. Our WC told me she could have the blood work back in 24 hours, instead of the 4 days you'll see quoted on various websites, and we like the idea of signing the official document on our actual wedding day) and then FI's dad will be the officiant at the ceremony. This saves us around $300. The wedding will be at 3:30 in the afternoon and for our reception, we'll board The Tropicat Sunset Cruise ship (sail boat!) and take a two hour reception with open bar and heavy (yummy!) appetizers. The reception should be over around 7 pm and guests are free to do whatever they wish! The boat, all tips, taxes, etc will be just over $3000. It's by far the most expensive thing we're paying for, but we loved our time on the Tropicat last time we visited Cabo and wanted our guests to experience it as well. Most people flip the two events--boat for rehearsal, dinner for reception, but we're just not like that. Here are our other various expenses: sound system for ceremony--around $200. Chair and other rentals for ceremony: $200. Wedding canopy: $500. OOT Bags: $500. Prof. Photographer: $500/hr. (We're only scheduling one hour because my sister is a prof. photographer. We are paying for her accomodations in exchange for some shots of the reception on the boat. We are also bringing a laptop and the guests will have a card in their welcome packet asking them to upload the pics they took of their time in Cabo/Wedding before they leave so we'll have them). We're not having attendants. The only fresh flowers that I believe we'll have will be my bouquet: aprox $100. We're really going to capitalize on the surroundings and push this event as a fun, casual thing (no linens, centerpieces, etc). And we're under our budget! (The few things I haven't priced yet are: transportation for the guests from the airport to hotel--since my guest list is small, I asked people to book with other friends/family members to consolidate transportation. They did, and I think we'll only need 3-4 suburbans! Also I have yet to price our transportation from the ceremony to the Tropicat.)

Hi Anna, I almost posted the exact same thread! ...until I met the right coordinator. My wedding is going to be pretty simple and relatively "non-traditional" (no flowers, cake, etc), so I figured I could do it all myself. In contacting a vendor, I was referred to Tammy Wolff, a wedding coordinator. I've actually engaged many coordinators, but have only received one response and I believe it's because of my budget (under $10K). Tammy and I spoke and she actually thought of several ways to save me money! She had great suggestions and because she's lived and worked in Cabo for around 20 years (She's originally from California), she seems to have a lot of contacts. I thought her prices were reasonable (I compared a package deal from Casa Dorada to what she and I could work up together and I was saving $700 including her fee). She doesn't do day of coordination, and the fee sheet she sent me was very reasonable (for my wedding of 35, we're around the $1500 mark--she charges by the guest number). Tammy Wolff: [email protected], www.caboweddingservices.com Good luck!

Definitely bookmarking this one. This has been JUST what I've been looking for! Thanks!

Hola! Greg and Jordan from Fort Worth, Texas Wedding date set: 1.21.12 "Non-Traditional" Cabo Wedding Welcome dinner: El Medano Beach Club with music/beach bonfire after www.themedanobeachclubcabo.com Ceremony: El Medano Beach Club on the sand w/approx. 35 guests Reception: Tropicat Jazz Sunset Cruise www.tropicatcabo.com Accommodations: Hotel Bahia www.bahiacabo.com No cake, no attendees, no nonsense. Just FUN and ROMANCE.

We've used RedRum and Pices and I preferred RedRum (part of that is because the boys that own it are Texan and so are we). When you book, you'll have two options, half a day or all day. All day is until 3 and if I remember right, it's around $800. You can put 4-6 people on the boat, but keep this in mind: if the boat only catches 2 fish, then only 2 guys get to reel 'em in! So I'd try to keep the number on the boat low (3-4) unless some guys don't care about catching (you just never know how many you'll get to catch!). My FI and all the boys are going the day before the wedding and I'm jealous. It really is a lot of fun if you're not too much of a girly girl.

That would hurt me too! The whole reason we're planning an AHR is for the family and friends that can't attend a DW!! ...we haven't put deposits down for the AHR and now I'm rethinking...maybe a backyard BBQ would be better than a more formal setting if fam/friends don't care. Any other brides having this issue??