danak71

Hey gang, This company provides private transfers for GREAT prices in the event you don't want to do the "group" shuttle from the airport to your hotel. I really don't like stopping at multiple resorts before getting to my destination so I always prefer private transfers. I haven't used this company yet but they have awesome reviews on TripAdvisor. Here's what they're doing for us: We have 4 people getting picked up from the Cancun airport, they're bringing us to the hotel we're staying at in the hotel zone where we're staying for a few days before we check into EPM, then picking us up from that hotel and bringing us to EPM the day we're checking in there. Two of the people in our party will be picked up from EPM the Monday after our Saturday wedding and brought to the airport and then they're picking Marcus and I up when we check out a week after the wedding and bringing us to the airport. All in private transportation and ALL FOR $179 TOTAL! Hope someone is able to find this info useful...I'm so full of useless information sometimes, it's hard to know what you guys might be interested in! LOL Entertainment Plus & USA Transfers Cancun www.entertainment-plus.net [email protected] I spoke with Ara Meneses

Hahahaha thank you! We took it back in April and I've been meaning to change it up here and kept forgetting! That's like the ONLY decent picture we have together (outside of vacation pics in swimsuits) LOL We're consulting with photographers this weekend to try and find a photographer for engagement pics. If there's anyone up here in Atlanta that has a great photographer, please let me know!

Forgot to tell you ladies I have a list of companies that do public catamaran tours as well, in the event you have a smaller party and don't want to book a private tour. Let me know if you need the list! Lynn

YES! Sangria sounds VERY pretty! I was so disappointed when I was thinking I wouldn't be able to have purple...I was just trying to make the best out of it by choosing coral. Is anyone else having a hard time working at work? I love my job but all I want to do these days is plan my wedding! LOL

Here's a picture of a dress in the eggplant shade...this isn't the dress I'm choosing but you at least get to see the color...

Check out Excellence Playa Mujeres too! It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! We're getting married there May 4, 2013.

There are several people on Etsy that sell passport invitations but I'm getting mine from someone on Weddingbee. I'm having to make them myself but they sold me their template for $15. The template is in Adobe illustrator and it's awesome! Theirs is the most comprehensive passport invitations I've seen...I'm not sure exactly how many pages it is, but it's definitely more than any others I've seen. Here's the link on Weddingbee: http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/vanessas-diy-destination-wedding-passport-invites-038-rsvp-boarding-passes Here is David's email address if you have questions or would like to talk about buying the template: [email protected]

All of you ladies are really quiet up here! You must be very busy planning! Whose wedding is up next?

Sorry this is so long...but I wanted to make sure folks got all the info! We are paying for the excursion for everyone but I think it's fine if you go either way. We did the group booking and we have 28 rooms booked already. We have at least 4 more rooms that will be booked so with the amenities provided by our travel agent, we'll get the equivalent of 3 rooms X 3 nights reimbursed to us. We figured since the reason we were getting that credit was because of our friends and family, we would spend it on them and spring for one excursion. We are undecided about which company we're going with at this point...we're choosing between 2 and I'll list them both here and what they include. But there are many more out there and if you want the other names, just let me know and I'll send them to you. There's a marina within walking distance from our hotel and both companies are willing to pick us up there so we don't have to pay for transportation per person to get to a marina. Keep this in mind as you're comparing rates. You may need transportation to the marina. www.entertainment-plus.net Brant has a 2 for 1 entertainment card that I've read a lot about. Because we're doing an all inclusive and not venturing out much other than the one excursion we don't really have much use for it. But if you're planning to eat out at local restaurants and do other things it might be useful. We're expecting 50-60 people to join us on the excursion. Here's what it includes: Open bar with national liquors, snorkeling on a reef, free time for swimming, shopping or beach time, buffet lunch, spinnaker ride (anchored parasailing) Pros: Love their cancellation policy. If you cancel within 48 hours of your tour date you get a 100% refund. National liquors for open bar 8 hour tour Cons: Price...This is actually a PRO and a CON...typically it's $59/person plus $7/person dock fee which is VERY cheap but still steep for us considering we're covering the entire cost. However, because of the number of people we have they said we could have the boat they normally use for the public tour and let us charter it privately. That is $53/person plus the $7/person dock fee. They told me these are their 2012 rates and the 2013 rates won't come out until November so I'll have to call back then to get the current rates and book There's a 20% deposit due when booking Induna Charters www.indunacharters.com Includes: snorkeling, lunch, rum punch, beer and soft drinks, shopping/swimming time Pros: He is allowing us basically to design our itinerary. He mentioned that May is turtle mating season and he could bring us to see that if we were interested. His boat capacity is 100 people and we only will have 50-60 so there should be plenty of room to spread out $500 deposit to book $1500 to book boat for up to 25 guests & $35/person over 25 guests Mentioned that there's a website you can have your guests go to and they can book and pay for themselves for your private tour (then your tour is free-not sure how many guests you have to have for this) Cons: If you cancel within 1 month of your tour you lose your deposit. If you cancel outside of oen month, you get 50% of your deposit. Rum punch & beer is all that's offered 5 hour tour We're thinking we're going to go with Induna Charters because we like the idea of designing our own itinerary and while 8 hours sounds tempting...that also seems like a long day. Also, I like his price A LOT! LOL We're not SO very concerned about only having rum punch, beer and soft drinks available because it's not meant to be a booze cruise and we're leaving at 10 am...they should be ok til they get back to the resort LOL If you have any other questions, let me know! Happy planning!

Sent you a PM

Thank you! I was trying to think of other colors mixed in for the bridesmaid bouquets, centerpieces etc; not on the dresses But - change of plans! My 1st choice was purple but the maker of these dresses only had orchid (which looked pink) and wisteria (which looked gray). That's why I chose coral as my 2nd choice. But today, I went back to the bridal salon and they have added eggplant as an option! And I actually like it so I'm now going with white dresses with eggplant being the accent color. I'm pretty excited about it!

Sending you a PM now...

Thank you...I spent months online looking...I really didn't have a whole lot of interest in going store to store...but then my mom and several friends kept bugging me about going. They're almost more excited than me! LOL Anyway, I picked a dress I tried on at David's Bridal, did the whole ringing the bell because I picked my dress thing...and then ended up finding this dress online and fell in love! LOL

Sorry they're so large...I had NO idea what I was doing and didn't know how to make them smaller.

Just realized there might be some brides that can't download yet so I'm attempting to paste the pics...hope it works LOL

I've finally finished reading through all the posts..and looking at everyone's wedding websites. You ladies did an amazing job at your websites! I love all the great ideas I've gotten so far. Love the clamshells for the rings! Here's our website: www.lynnandmarcus.com the password is idoinmexico We're having an all white wedding...guests...bridal party...everyone...with coral accents. But I need another color or 2 to complement it...any suggestions? Here's my dress and my bridesmaid dresses. I can't wait to see all your dresses and bridesmaid dresses!

Choco, I'm a little late in joining the thread and haven't finished reading all the posts yet but I just wanted to tell you that I got confirmation from a woman that just got married at my resort last month as well as my wedding coordinator that they changed the laws in Mexico (certain cities at least). The only thing we have to do to get married legally is have our passport and tourist card and take the blood test at the resort. You no longer have to have birth certificates transcribed, etc. Of course we'll have our passports anyway and the tourist card we'll receive from the airline on the plane. The only thing that will feel like it's "extra" is paying the $200 to the doctor at the resort for the blood test. At one point, I was contemplating whether or not we would jump through the hoops to do it legally, but now that they did away with so many of the challenging aspects we're definitely going the legal route. We're getting married at Excellence Playa Mujeres so I'm not sure if the situation is different at Now Jade. Hope that helps!

We're May 4 as well but we're getting married in Mexico. Congratulations!

We are having our ceremony from 5:30-6 then having our cocktail hour from 6:30-7:30...that' gives guests 30 minutes to go back to their rooms and change if they want, gives us time to take pics and still be able to enjoy some of the cocktail hour without it starting immediately after the ceremony is over.

We're going to Mexico a few days before we check into our wedding hotel. We're staying at a non AI resort (Westin) and purchasing the bags and much of the contents. Partly because we'll be able to get more authentic items and also we'll be able to negotiate pricing better while down there.

My brother got married at Excellence Punta Cana last year and the resort was beautiful! The main reason we didn't pick Punta Cana was because we are inviting a lot of the same family members and we wanted to bring them somewhere different. However, we were all able to brush our teeth at our resort with the water with no problem. Maybe it depends on the hotel you're staying at and the type of filtration system they have; but we didn't have any issues.

We're arriving in Mexico on Saturday but staying at the Westin and checking into the wedding hotel on Wednesday for our Saturday wedding.

We're expecting 60 guests and here's our schedule: Thursday: Spa treatments for the girls/guys in the wedding party during the day Welcome Cocktail Reception in the evening Friday: Catamaran excursion to Isla Mujeres with snorkeling, shopping, lunch on beach (Since some of our guests are arriving on Thursday we chose Friday to make sure everyone could participate) Rehearsal Rehearsal Dinner (inviting wedding party, participants, immediate family members) Saturday: Ceremony Cocktail Reception Dinner Reception Sunday: Recovery Brunch

Most of our guests are staying 4-5 nights. Since it's usually cheaper to fly on a Monday than a Sunday, most of our guests are either coming in Wednesday and leaving Monday (5 nights) or coming in Thursday and leaving Monday (4 nights)...the few that are staying 3 nights are coming in Thursday and leaving Sunday. We're actually arriving in Cancun the Saturday before the wedding. We're staying at a hotel that's much cheaper than the wedding hotel for the 1st few days (non all inclusive). We're going to get a lot of our favors, things for OOT bags during these few days before our guests arrive. Then we're checking into Excellence Playa Mujeres on Wednesday for our Saturday wedding. Hope that helps! Congratulations and Happy Planning! Lynn

Congratulations! May 4, 2013 is our wedding date as well but we're getting married at Excellence Playa Mujeres. Happy planning!