leigh2011

My wedding will be 27 including bride & groom, but when we booked it was a possibility to be under 20 (who knows how many people will end up booking) and I had decided that I would go with the Ultimate Pacakge regardless. There are a lot of nice items in the ultimate package that I wouldn't want to have to worry about adding a la carte. I just pulled up the document online describing the packages and it appears the difference between the Love Wedding Package and the Ultimate Wedding Package is $700 in 2011 and $800 in 2012. For that extra $700/800 you get more photography, videography, a spa treatment, and the Mexican Trio (those seem to be the big items at least). Based on an email that I got a day or two ago from the video company, the videography included in the package is >$700 alone when purcahsed separately. And supposedly the Mexican Trio is $560 for a set. So, if you would want to add either of those items to the mid-level package (not to mention the extra photos) then I would just stay with the higher level package. It could be worth asking whether you can trade those unused people (food, drinks, and waitstaff) for something else - like flowers or extra photography or something else you might want. Can't hurt to ask. Let us know what you decide.

I am so sorry you are just hearing about this now! My gut reaction would be to move away from the Fiesta as I would hate for my reception dinner/dancing music to be lost in the Fiesta music. But I am sure there are reasons you selected the Terrace that cannot be easily forgotten. My guess is that the Fiesta is a beach party and is only located on the large beach next to the gazebo and the music could be heard either at the terrace or the garden location. However, since the Himitsu beach is pretty far away, you would be able to have a more quiet event there. Hopefully a former bride might be able to weigh in on this... Once again, I am so sorry you are dealing with this now. Please keep us up to date with what you decide.

Is anyone else having a bit of extra stress around what to do with pets while they are away? Paul has never boarded the dog because he has always been able to leave the dog either with me or with his parents. Well, obviously I will be in Mexico and so will his parents. So I have had to research pet sitters and schedule trial visits, etc. I have taken on this task because it needs to get done and we women seem to be better at planning and making things happen. That is one of the major things outstanding with my planning. Also, does anyone have a wedding to attend before they leave? (other than your own legal weddings of course) I will be attending a wedding this Saturday and I know I will be checking out all of the details and thinking about what else I could add to mine. It will be tough, but I will have to let all of it go and know that it is too late for me to include anything else....

Alright ladies - what are your plans for tipping? I am thinking about tips for Claudia, the waitors, and the DJ. Who are you planning on tipping and how much per person? (how do we know how many waitors there are going to be?)

I leave for the airport in 15 days + 6 hours. The ceremony is in 18.5 days. Not that I am counting :-) Paul and I spent the evening picking out our music. The last song we were having trouble with was his mother/son dance song. I am eager to send our list off to our resort DJ to make sure he either has all of the songs or can get them. I also finished making all of the paper products (tags, cards, programs, etc) for the 2 new guests. My goal was to get a reasonable enough tan before I leave that I can use SPF 50 and not make an special effort to get sun the few days before the wedding. I really don't want there to be a chance of burning before the pictures. I then plan on switching over to SPF 30 after the wedding. Quote: Originally Posted by JoanneIreland You have over 2 weeks before you leave right? And almost 3 weeks to the big day? I don't think you have anything to stress about. I would say stay out of the sun (real and beds) until all the redness is gone. Do not attempt to tan to even out what you have now. Once the redness calms down use a good exfoliator. After that take it easy on the sunbeds, do enough to give you a good base and headstart, and you'll be surprised that just a couple of days in Mexico and you'll have an amazing tan. Good luck!

I love that there are so many of us in the next few weeks. When we get back we will have tons of advice and pictures for the 2012 brides. mgl27 and futuremrsroo - I am so excited for the two of you. Are both of you ready or do you have a lot left to do? Question for the upcoming brides: will the salon apply fake lashes for you on your wedding day? For some reason I think I read that they will not do lashes, but can't imagine where I would have seen that. I have a pair that I purchased when having my makeup done for me - but I was not successful in my attempt to apply them myself. Such a small thing, but I need to get practicing if I will need to apply them myself.

If you are leaving tomorrow, you probably aren't checking BDW tonight - but if you are....I hope you have the most amazing wedding! We will be waiting patiently to see all of your beautiful pictures...

Alright ladies - what are the upcoming departure and wedding dates? Leigh2011 departing Nov 2 wedding Nov 5

So I screwed up today - and I hope it isn't a problem later.. This morning I went to tan (I don't want to be pale in my dress and I don't want to turn into a lobster before the ceremony) and stepped up the time by just 1 minute. So no problem here - I wasn't burnt, but I wasn't far from it. Well, this afternoon I went to the State Fair and spent about 3 hours outside in the sun. Alone I don't think the fall sun would have burned me, but when added on top of my tanning booth time... So I now have a "farmer's tan" with a v-neck and t-shirt sleeves. Please oh please let me have enough time before Mexico to get rid of these tan lines. Can you imagine a strapless wedding dress with those tan lines?! ugggg.

I am with you Joanne - no need to worry over things you can't control (like the weather). This weekend I am trying to deal with the fact that we had another couple book this past week - almost 1.5 months past the RSVP date and close date of the group rate. We are running around trying to buy more of as many of the OOT bag items as we could. I definitely think this couple won't have a complete bag...

Thanks ladies for the compliments on the legal photos. I had no intention of having a full ceremony to make it legal - but once my fiance said he didn't want it to be at the courthouse it just kept going from there. I had no what hairstlye I wanted, but I knew I wanted something that would be opposite of the curly hair that I had for my bridal portraits & will have in Mexico. I want him to be surprised in Mexico when he sees me for the first time. As for the dress - the slit isn't really that obvious until you sit down. Until I saw the pictures, I didn't realize it was so high - oops. I love the pictures, but I think I would have prefered a courthouse ceremony to make the one in Mexico feel even more special.

If I were trying to sneak the flag out and my sister was offering to be part of the conspiracy, I would tell my fiance that my sister was planning a surprise for him for the wedding and it is related to his favorite team and she needed the flag to get the logo right. That way he knows something is up (and he knows better than to ask and ruin the surprise) but it throws him off the trail of what is really going on. Good luck...if he really loves the team, then he will love seeing the flag in the book you give him.

I am so sorry to hear that - hopefully your travel agent can work something out. One would hope the resort would be willing to give you some sort of deal instead of loosing your wedding and all of the business your guests would bring.

I am not using Juan either. However, I have been stalking his site to get picture ideas from past Dreams Cancun brides. So now I have a word file of pictures I can print and show to my photographer to get ideas of locations around the resort.

Eun-sil I think "honey" is a good idea... Taryn - Congrats on being on the front page. And congrats on the decision to do a boudoir shoot - you have more guts than I do. But, based on your dress pic, you are going to rock that shoot. Joanne's suggestions are great - do whatever you need to do to feel sexy and then you will look sexy. So I just got back a few pictures from my legal wedding from my photographer:

In case any of you other brides stalk Juan Navarro's blog looking for Dreams Cancun wedding pictures, there is a new set that were posted today (you will have to scroll down as there were several weddings posted today): http://www.juanphotos.com/blog/

Taryn - You look fantastic in that dress! Your wedding pictures will look fantastic.... Just think of how perfect it looks when you are reminded of the cost of the alterations. (my alterations were $340 - uggg) Don't worry about having all of your parents in the same room - if they can't be civil to each other on your wedding day (even if it is just the legal day) then you will have to lay down the law

Pucca - Congratulations on your legal wedding! What is it with the guys and wanting to wear the rings? I suppose it is a good thing they want to be married (and marked as such). My fiance/husband (whatever he is called now) switched his ring from the right hand to the left hand after our legal ceremony. He said that I was marked with my engagement ring so he wanted to be marked as well. I am not sure if that is weird, so I will just go with it being sweet.

I received a spa list last year (so there may be changes) and there wasn't any mention of spray tanning. It might be worth emailing the spa and asking just to be sure.

I am with you Joanne - I plan on logging on constantly after the wedding to see how everyone else's day went. I will be especially eager to see everyone's pictures. And I too can't wait to post my planning thread. Because of this forum, I have actually been composing my planning thread along the way throughout my engagement - so I think mine will be way too long. As of right now I think all I have left to do is finalize the wording for the ceremony and finish picking the music for the reception. I am sure there are many more things I can take on if I have time, but they are all small enough that I won't let them stress me out if they don't get done. Most of my guests have not been to a destination wedding, so they wouldn't know if something was missing or not.

mgl27 and Soon2BMrsS - you are both getting so close...just 19 and 11 days (even less based on departure dates). So very exciting!!