leigh2011

Customs can actually be a problem, so you must be prepared!!! The customs agent saw my then fiance and I pull 2 big suitcases, 1 big duffle bag, 2 rolling carryons and my wedding dress bag off of the x-ray conveyer belt - so he decided to ask us how much all of the stuff we were carrying was worth! (After you get your bags off of the baggage claim conveyers and stand in a long line, you will have to put all of your bags through an x-ray machine and then speak to a customs agent - who takes the form you filled out on the plane). If I remember correctly, you are only allowed $300 per person in merchandise (not including clothes and such) so if they suspect you have more than that, then they will try and catch you and tax you. So: 1) don't take more than $600 worth of OOT bag & wedding day items and 2) bring all of the receipts with you. Apparently other brides have simply said "I have the receipts" and that prevented the customs agents from searching their bags. Not me. The lady opened my bags and tried to compare what she saw with the receipts. Eventually she got frustrated and gave up, but try to not find yourself in this position by knowing up front you have say $300 worth of gifts for your wedding guests and $150 worth of items for the ceremony & reception. (whatever the amounts are, just be sure they don't reach $600 and that you can back up what you say!) You will love Dreams Cancun for your wedding! I will say that we didn't feel like the rehearsal dinner was necessary (the reservation and $$ as the restaurant wasn't very crowded), but I can assure you I would have been a nervous wreck assuming things wouldn't have worked out. So essentially we paid for my peace of mind. However, if the resort will be more crowded in the summer, then you may very well need that reservation. I am not sure if you have checked out the albums that are in my signature, but there are pictures from the resort there. Courtney

I assume you are talking about sky lanterns (there is a thread on BDW): http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/74564/sky-lanterns I didn't try this, but one concern I would have is wind. There are 2 concerns with wind: 1) the wind doesn't allow the sides of the lantern to inflate so they can't rise on the hot air, 2) the wind will blow the lanterns into a tree or structure and could cause a fire. And Dreams Cancun is very windy based on its location on the point. So I would really try and ask your wedding coordinator if they think it will even be possible (based on wind or their policy), before you make all of the effort of packing them up and transporting them to Mexico. Best of luck.

I do believe there are rectangular tables you can use, but we used round. In my opinion these tables most comfortably sit 6-8 ppl. You could try and cram in 10, but it would be tight. I am not sure how many coolors the wedding coordinators have on hand, but you will likely save money by bringing them with you. I think the resort charges you $4 per chair bow, where as you can buy them from $0.99-$1.49 on several different websites. If you purchase or rent chair bown for the ceremony, the resort staff will move those bows to the reception chairs for free. Another suggestion: if you have extra chair bows, the staff can tie them onto the pillars of the gazebo (if you don't have floral corsages) to give the pillars color.

About 2 weeks before my group rate expired, I sent out an email to those I had not heard from to ask them to RSVP and to remind them of the group rate expiration. After that, I just let it go. I was annoyed that a couple booked less than 1 month before the wedding, and I did what I could to make sure they had an OOT bag - but it had fewer items in it than the other bags did. I would say to give a single reminder and that is it. If your parents want to follow up additional times with any relatives, then they can take that on.

I don't want to put down any ideas, but.....We bought disposable cameras (with flash) for our reception tables out on the beach and they were a COMPLETE waste of money. Not a single picture was usable after we got them developed on disc as the flash just wasn't sufficient. Just my 2 cents and I hope it saves you some money (we were out about $50 when all was said and done).

I completely agree that the hair styling was fantastic! Take pictures of what you want and you will be super happy. They use some super heavy duty hair spray so your hair (especially if it is up) will not budge even in the wind at the gazebo. I must say that I was not as thrilled with the makeup. I love what she did with my eyes (which is of course the tough part), but she only did concealer - not an all-over foundation. I do not have good skin, so I definitely wanted the foundation. So my suggestion is that if you want foundation, you may want to have that on when you go to the salon.

You have the option of writing your entire ceremony if you would like. If you are doing the symbolic ceremony they will pretty much say whatever you would like. If you would like me to email you my ceremony script, just send me a PM with your email address. You only need the $1's if you would like to leave tips. Tips are certainly not necessary, but I liked to give $1 or so after every few drinks ordered by the group. We also left tips at restaurants if we were a large group or if the kids made a mess. Lastly, we left a tip for the house keeping staff on the last day.

Around 2-3 months, I was making sure the following were taken care of: - ceremony written - music selected - bridal party gifts bought - decide if you want menu cards or programs for the ceremony Random: Start collecting $1 bills. I liked to leave small tips at the bars and I thought I had brought enough $1's - I was wrong. And they make it very hard to break bills at the resort (probably because everyone is trying to do it). The front desk only breaks bills at certain times and the gift shop often gives change in pesos (and large bills). A couple of times we went to the convenient store across the circle from the front entrance to buy something we didn't really want just to break a $20.

Best of luck with the trip and the wedding day. We all want to see pictures when you return!

Your pictures are fantastic - congratulations. I love how well the still photos captured the dance down the aisle...awesome.

I have to say that your ceremony gazebo and reception location were beautiful...I am jealous! You looked gorgeous in all of the pictures I could see (the planning portion of the thread), but I couldn't see (even when clicking on the pics) the pro pictures from Juan Navarro. I know his work is stunning, so I can only imagine they were fantastic.

We actually just did plain Thank You cards from Target. We had an online honeymoon registry so we got all of our gifts before the wedding and sent out thank you notes as we got them. I think what we did might be cheating a bit but at least it kept us from taking 6+ months to get our notes out. One of the couples that attended our Mexico wedding got married in June and had note sent out Thank You notes. When they heard that we had already sent ours out, the bride rushed to get hers done as soon as they got back. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Your pictures are beautiful - you both look so happy. Love the colors in your evening shots but I think I love the black and white photos even more - very artsy

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I just checked the website I bought my starfish from and the domain is now for sale. The blue starfish was actually part of the starfish passing that I got involved with through this site (there is a starfish passing thread). Sorry I can't be of more help on this one. I actually obtained the file from my travel agent (who had gotten it previously from Claudia) months and months before my wedding. The centerpiece file came with a price sheet that I am sure is out of date by now, but could give you a ballpark. If you PM me with your email address I can send the files on to you.

Luis didn't do any cheesey MC'ing. He did the introductions as asked, prompted the special dances (first, father/daughter, and mother/son), asked for anyone who wanted to do a speech and that was about it. (We didn't do a garter or bouquet toss because everyone was alredy engaged or married) I don't remember him saying anything about switching the music over and dancing - I think we all just got up on the dance floor and he kept playing the right music. The music was blended together well, so no akward pauses or anything like that. They will say as much or as little as you want - just be specific. For instance, we took pictures before the ceremony so we were at the cocktail hour with our guests - so we didn't want to be "introduced" and they got that right. I hate to say this, but I don't remember much about what Luis said on the microphone - which to me is a GOOD thing. The music was great and he wasn't memorable (because I only remember things like that when I think they did a bad job - like the DJ at my AHR was horribly cheesey so I remember him).

Yep - the Dreams florist did my bouquet. I showed Claudia the picture below (which I had found in a Dreams centerpiece file) and said I want my bouquet to look like it: and what they came up with.... I asked for the same flowers on the gazebo, but I think they always use lillies on the gazebo mixed in with the roses:

I had Luis, but there was another bride who got married within days of me and had a different Dreams DJ. I think Luis did a great job. I sent him a list of what I wanted played - and he worked within that list as best he could. My dinner ran longer than expected, so I hadn't given him enough dinner music songs. So he pulled up the slow songs from the dancing part of my list as well as adding in some of his own that my guests really liked. When we got to dancing, he went through our fast song list without adding in any slow songs - which turned out perfectly because it kept the energy up. Luis was a professional and I would gladly use him again.

Your video was great. I loved David's entrance...

Yeah - I am in agreement about that... If it isn't too late, I am sure that 65 people could easily fit on the Terrace for a cocktail hour. We had 30 people and there was so much extra space. For the cocktail hour setup (regardless of location) they set up a central table for the food, a few cocktail height tables to set drinks and food on and then ring the area with chairs.

So how are all of the November brides holding up? My husband decided to test out the whole "in sickness and in health" thing very early in our marriage. Today is my first day back at work after a weekend trip to the ER resulted in an emergency appendectomy for my husband. All I can say is thank goodness 1) that this didn't happen a month ago when we were in Mexico and 2) for good health insurance (though there will still be a very hefty out of pocket charge). I hope everyone is doing well and are happily preparing for your first holiday season as a married couple. BTW - we couldn't resist using a wedding picture for the front of our Christmas cards: