Branya2012

Las Caletas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on December 5, 2012!!!

Well said! So true! It's hard along the way, but at the end of the day, your wedding is about you and your groom!!

YAY!!! Congrats on booking! That is very, very exciting!

Yes, I heard the same thing, that the specialty dining room will count as one of your three dinners at the specialty restaurants, but that they will do the reservation free of charge! That's fine by us, as long as we are all able to sit together!

Gorgeous dres, Dominican Amy! It fits you beautifully! Thank you MissFifi!! You are so sweet!

I'm sure you'll find something you love within your price range! I paid just over $1,200 for my dress (with my mom pitching in for half). I initially didn't want to spend more than $1,000, but when my mom offered to pitch in, I let myself try one on that was over my budget, and am I ever glad I did! Have fun shopping!!

I second that! Those shots are amazing!!!

Just a thought, but if your fiancee wants to still get married in a DW, knowing that his closest men will not be there with him, I think that's just an attestation to how much he loves you! And wants you to be happy! And wants the day that he marries you to be a day that he will remember forever as the day that he pledged his eternal love for you and the day that you became his wife. Not the day that you became his wife and his brother/friend wasn't there. Do you know what I mean? You might both think of the people that aren't there on your wedding day, and it might be sad for a moment, but let's be real...you'll be drop dead gorgeous in your dress, you'll be on the beach, surrounded by other people that love you and are there for you, and by the end of the night, you'll be with your husband! How upset is he really going to be?? If the answer to that involves him bawling his eyes out from heartbreak of not having the best man he wanted, then maybe that's the time to consider not having the DW of your dreams (hopefully I'm not overstepping there!). Absolutely go forward with your dream wedding! Very well said by a lot of the ladies, above! At the end of the day, it's your wedding! Even if you change your mind and stay local, people (ie: future SIL) are still going to find ways to try and make your wedding about them. Do you really think she won't make a big deal about having to find a baby sitter for the wedding, or spending too much on the tux or something? From what you've said, she'll probably take the opportunity to complain about anything, regardless of where you get married! Do what's in your heart! Best of luck.

In order to book a set of rooms (10 altogether) and hold a price, we needed to deposit $200 per person by last September for our trip this December. We didn't really feel comfortable asking everyone for a deposit, so instead we emailed all of the people that had expressed an interest in coming after we had sent out our save the date cards. We had 4 of the rooms pay their deposit, as well as our own deposit, and then we paid deposits for the 5 other rooms, reserving 10 rooms in total. We ended up paying about $2,400 for deposits that will go towards our trip (and should essentially cover it, so it's nice to have that paid for!). Like Oct 2012 Bride said, though, it all depends on how much you can afford when the deposits are due! $25 is pretty reasonable, but if it doesn't work financially, then maybe there is another way to go about depositting, if you feel comfortable asking for help? Clearly our deposit amount ($200!!) was A LOT more than what you ladies are saying, but that's what our travel agent told us needed to be done so we just went along with it. We were okay with the price at the time because that money is for our trip, and it that much less for our final trip payment. It's interesting to see what everyone else has done!

My fiancee and I are having a legal wedding ceremony at our home about a week before we leave for Mexico. We are planning on having two people (the minimum requirement for witnessing a marriage in BC) that aren't able to come to Mexico with us over for dinner and having them witness our legal ceremony. We are not making anything big of it...I'll just wear whatever I'm wearing that day, and we will celebrate our wedding in Mexico as our anniversary! If you really don't want to make a big deal of it, hopefully your parents respect that! Good luck making your decision! At the end of the day, do what makes you happy and makes sense for you.

Well said! But people tend to be self-absorbed, so that's why they don't stop to think that complaining about the fact that we're having a DW makes it tough on us!!

Love your pics! You can see so much love in the first one...congratulations!!!

If you really don't want gifts (or anything other than cash) just say no gifts please. That's what we are doing. There are going to people out there that, whether or not they are coming to the wedding, are going to get you a gift regardless of whether you register! My mom is insisting on throwing me a bridal shower, which I don't really want because they are pretty gift-centred, if you ask me, but this is the only time I can have a bridal shower thrown for me, so I figured why not! I think that regardless of whether you register, you are bound to get gifts that you don't want. It's just the nature of the beast! If you want to do the honeymoon fund thing, don't feel bad about it! You can always use the money towards little extras that make your honeymoon even more special and you shouldn't feel bad about it! Registering isn't forcing anyone to buy you anything they don't want to! Good luck!

I agree with what AllieH said - talk to them about it and try to keep it light. It might take some courage to get up the nerves to say something, but just think of it in reverse, if you were a bridesmaid and your bride had something like that to say to you. I, personally, would want to hear it from her directly. I think the note in the schedule seems a bit bride-zilla-ish and controlling, in my honest opinion. Have your fiancee by your side, I'm sure that will help! And there's no harm in talking to them about it before you go. Good luck!

Hi Kim! Our group is staying at the Barcelo Puerto Vallarta (we are staying there and getting married within a couple of weeks of you!!) but I haven't asked about group bookings at the restaurant yet. I will let you know once I find out, unless I see that someone else replies before then. Anya

This thread is so much fun! I especially love the explanataions for what makes each picture so special to everyone! Can't wait to share mine!!

Thanks!!

We have finally finished and sent out our Boarding Pass Invitations! We came up with the idea for boarding pass invitations from this site and a friend of ours that is a graphic designer created them, made them pretty and had them printed for us. One night me, my fiancee and a girlfriend of mine made all of the invitation folders (60 in total) over a few glasses of wine (me) and beer (them). We were really happy with the way they turned out and have gotten great feed back so far! The paper and envelopes we bought from a place in New Westminster called the Paper Poet. The rest of the materials were from Michaels, and I have gathered it all for quite some time, with coupons. We ended up having to pay oversized postage because of the knots that we tied with the raffia and bows...it wouldn't fit through the "regular" sized slot at the post office. Darnit! Oh well, at least we only had 60 invitations to send! I'd do it all over again, too, because I love them! If anyone has any questions, just let me know! I'd be happy to help if I could! Thanks to everyone that has posted similar invitations and folders. You are all the inspiration that we needed to come through with these on our own! Here are all three pages of the invitation. On the first page is an actual working QR code, so you could scan it with a QR scanner and it would take you straight to our wedding website! Pretty cool! Not sure how many people actually scanned it, though. Here is what was printed on the back of each page. Here is a shot of the pages, that we clipped together at the top left corner with a silver brad and flowers. And here is the final product! We didn't take a picture of the mailing envelope, but they were a pearl-ish white and we printed clear address labels that had our heart logo on the return address label. Then we had stickers with our logo and wedding date that we put on the backs of the envelope. Yay! So exciting that they are done!

Very well said by both of you ladies! To everything! justineheart, I hope that you and yoru fiancee find it in your hearts to do what is best for you, because as hard as it can be, it is your day and it is about your happiness and the celebration you want for the start of your lives together! I speak from experience here, because my father has been just as stubborn about coming to our wedding. So much so, that it has been been almost 11 months since I had a face to face conversation with him about him walking me down the aisle (to which he said flat out no) and those were the last words he has spoken to me since then. Apprently our having a destination wedding is enough for him to completely cut me - his only child - and my fiancee out of his life altogether! Him and my mom are still together, so it has been difficult for her, but at the end of the day he would rather keep his annual trip to Puerto Vallarta in February/March and not move it a couple of months to walk me down the aisle. I've made peace with it, but it still hurts. Hang in there, girl!! People should be happy for you however you choose to get married! PS: That is really sweet of you to pay for your sister and niece to come! And you are being very generous on time for everyone else to save $$!!

Great news!! It's so hard not knowing, but it'll all work out in the end!

I've searched to see if there is an answer to this question, but I don't see anything posted previously... Have any of you Las Caletas brides had someone in your family or one of your friends as the MC for the evening? I had asked Kelley before she left and she said that would be fine, but I was just wondering if anyone else had done this. In my mind, there isn't too much to keep going, but I thought it would be a nice way to incorporate some special friends of ours into the wedding, especially since we are not having a wedding party, and to make it a bit more personal. Any feedback would be great! Thanks!

Good for you for being the bigger person! Being an only child myself, I completely understand what you mean when you say that understanding family is a new concept! Even better for you that you are still asking her after she scheduled her wedding 7 weeks before yours! Who does that?!!?!?!

Bubba kegs?

You're welcome! Thank you for posting the pics! I will try the corner rounder punch, but will keep an eye out to make sure they look right! I'm a scrapbooker and I know I am pretty picky about the way things look so I am prepared for the perfectionist in me to come out when I finally get started!! Definitely will score the heavier weight paper...they told me that at the scrapbooking store where I got the paper from. Thanks!!

Well done! They look amazing!