brebuisson02

I agree! That's awesome though. I had just seen some pictures from the website (i think) and it looked like it was just a 1 layered basic square cake so I'm glad to see it had a couple tiers. Looked really nice. What flavor did you end up going with?! Also what happened with the White Party after the weather got really bad.. did they postpone it for another day or just cancelled it?

Claire, Thanks so much for the detailed review, sounds like you had an amazing time. The pictures are all beautiful!! Loved your bridesmaids dresses & flower girl dresses. Did you get your wedding cake from an outside vendor? Or is that one that was included in the package?? It looks really big! Bigger than what I was expecting to come with the package (if that's what it was). So glad to hear that the weather cooperated for you and that you guys all had quite the party .. makes me so excited for my big day!

McBride, I also went with the same package as you! The Waves of Love, and we were planning on upgrading to the purple as that is our color too except it does look darker than what we have. Our bridesmaid dresses are a bright purple (the color is called Regency from David's Bridal) .. almost like a royal blue but just purple. (this is the color, not the actual dresses we went with) I'm not sure what to do either now because I was told that they would have the chair covers in white and the only thing that would be purple was the flowers and a few other things ..... I will have to email Vanessa and check out the other packages. I was planning on bringing my own silk flowers anyways because I didn't think the ones included with the package would match our colors anyways (plus bridesmaids bouquets are extra $$ anyways & I can get a great deal on all the silk bouquets/boutonnieres from Etsy). What are you planning on doing? Bre

I agree with Heatherlynn that I don't want people to feel that I will be expecting them to give a gift after they're already spending a lot of $$ just to be at our wedding, but like Chrestena said I also would not attend a wedding without giving something. It's such a tricky subject .. Lauren you are SO right when you say 'we may not have as nice of a toaster, but we'll have the nicest pictures and memories' .. I always think about how amazing of an experience it's going to be to be in Mexico with my closest friends and family for a week and also how gorgeous the wedding pictures will turn out with the ocean right there & all the palm trees. And for me, that's more important than a nice toaster. haha Lauren, I love your DIY projects that you're working on.. especially the chapstick! Super cute. Where did you order the plain chapsticks from? Thanks Lauren and Chrestena for your input about the AHR. I still have a little while before I have to make solid plans but time seems to just be flying by and I'm sure before I know it, I'll be getting close to leaving for Mexico!

Carlotta, can't believe you will be leaving tomorrow for Mexico! Wishing you all the best, have an amazing time and can't wait to hear all about it!! Sounds like everyone is having their own kind of problems with guests not being able to attend our weddings .. I feel bad for my fiancé. One of his groomsmen decided to back out a few months ago saying that he didn't know if he would be able to afford it anymore because he had to pay a lot of $$ back in income tax. We totally understood and were okay with it as my fiancé had some other close friends coming that could take his place. So, we decided to ask one of Corey's best friends since he's been little if he was planning on coming to the wedding and he said he was, so we asked if he would want to be a groomsmen. He agreed, but they didn't have their trip booked yet. He called us last week and said he's not coming anymore because his dad is bringing him to Hawaii for Christmas. Also now, the first guy we had asked to be in the wedding party who backed out due to finances ended up buying a $62,000 brand new truck last weekend!! Kind of frustrating, obviously it's not about the finances but whatever! We have our wedding party all picked out now and everything is all sorted out thankfully. Lauren, I like both hairstyles! I really am a fan of the half up - half down look but I agree that in the Mexico heat, all up might be a better choice & I actually really like that hairstyle as well. What are you ladies planning on doing for an at-home reception (if you are having one?) and how long after you return from Mexico are you doing it? My mom just sent out my bridal shower invites and with them she put a little note saying that we would be having a reception at home when we get back to celebrate with everyone. It won't be anything crazy, if we had a nice big yard I would totally just do a BBQ with drinks and music, but we don't. So, my mom mentioned that I could rent the hall in town here and have a catered supper (nothing too expensive), and then drinks/dancing. Well Corey had his stag this weekend, so I went away with my bridesmaids and we spent the weekend at my friends campsite. Such a great weekend but I am exhausted now so its time for me to catch up on some sleep!

Thanks for the info about payments Carlotta. You are just full of knowledge haha I'm glad you share it all with us! And yes that's the floating lanterns I was talking about .. darn!

Welcome McBride! I love the idea of a veil, and found a beautiful one when I was dress shopping so I bought it because there was a big sale that day. My mom originally wanted me to get a super long one that goes down to the ground almost, but I thought that would end up in a tangled mess so I went with one that goes to mid-back length around. I'm hoping it's not too much of a pain to wear it because it i'm in love with it! Also I am planning on putting my hair up just because my dress has 1 strap and I think it would look best with an updo, but also because of the humidity I think I would be eventually putting it up anyways. My mom was talking the other day about how she would like to set off some of those floating lanterns while in Mexico .. Does anyone know if we are able to do that? I thought I read somewhere that we can't, but not sure. Good thing you mentioned about lots of things needing to be paid in cash Lauren, because I was actually going to ask you ladies how it works for paying off the rest of the wedding tab - credit card or cash? I don't really want to have a huuge stack of cash with me on the trip so I was hoping to just increase my VISA limit and pay it that way. Also can't wait to see your dress Lauren! It will be so nice to have it altered and fitting perfectly Mjones, I got quoted the same as what was posted in here before from Styling Trio Riviera Maya (with Adrien), but when he sent me the prices I replied saying that I was interested but that it was more expensive than what I was expecting .. j(just to see if he would make some sort of deal with me).. he asked me what my budget was so we could make something work .. I said that I had priced everything out to be around $900-1000, and was looking to stay more around the $800-850 area. He replied and said lets make a deal at $825.. so that worked out well! So I would definitely suggest trying to get a deal on stuff if you can.. doesn't hurt to try. Jenn.. Glad to hear you had a great day .. cant wait to hear all about it and see your pictures . Also Claire hope you had an amazing day as well.

Thanks Lauren, I will check those sites out! Carlotta, so glad to hear that you found good prices for the wine! That's nice that your dad is going to pay $500.00 for the wine too. Bet you feel relieved now. Good luck with the menus

Also Carlotta, love that you are doing the Spanish and Mexican traditions! Glad to hear that you had a great bachelorette party Make sure you rest up today hahaha

Lauren, What site did you order the mens outfits from?! I am going to have to start looking online because I don't know if we'll have any luck in the stores!

I agree Lauren, it is so sweet to see the men being such good 'dads' to our pets haha. Well we went & finished our bridal registry today .. that was fun! Also ordered Corey's wedding band(s). we got a gift card where we could get 2 free wedding bands (for attending some cooking show), so we ordered him 2 different bands (both tungsten, but one is silver colored and the other has some of the black in it). Also had a meeting today about getting a customized wedding band for myself. One of my friends had gone to this lady to get a custom band made and said it was really well priced, only like $300-400, so I went there and the price I got quoted was $1200! A liiiiittle more expensive .. so I may as well just go through Appelts where the engagement ring was bought this way we have the lifetime warranty. Also had to send my engagement ring in today to get it sized - since I have lost weight I had to get the engagement ring 1.5 sizes smaller and they have to ship it away to get that done .. I am without my ring for 5 weeks.. feels very weird without it & I'm wondering how many panic attacks I'm going to have where I think I have lost it! haha. Noah, I think we will still go with Adrian, and I will likely get him to do the hair & makeup if I do decide to go with them since its only $75.00 more or so. Carlotta, LOVE the ice cream idea! Super cute .. your guests will love those. Pamela, we aren't switching resorts after our wedding. We are staying for 14 days, and the majority of our guests are staying only a week, so we will have the second week to ourselves (for the most part). My mom and her boyfriend are planning on booking an extra week too (how strange, spending our honeymoon with my mom & her boyfriend haha!) but they have said they will give us our time alone forsure. We also have another couple of friends who have booked for the 2 weeks too, but they only did so because it was a better deal for them. They've also said they will let us have our alone time. I'm not too concerned about it, I'm sure we will be able to enjoy spending time alone on our 'honeymoon' but it will also be nice having a few people there we know for going out in the evenings, etc. I also have started thinking about how much & who we all need to tip. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Heres a question for you ladies .. what are your men wearing for the wedding (groom & groomsmen)? I wanted something a bit more casual (I think my fiance would have a heart attack if I put him in a suit in that heat).. so we were thinking dressier pants & a button up shirt (Corey wearing a white shirt, the other guys in a colored shirt). I found out that Moores has linen pants which are light material and are apparently really great for destination weddings. I went in to Moores today to take a look & they barely have any left .. In all of Canada apparently they are selling out so fast and aren't ordering anymore. I have also found linen pants at Le Chateau for same price, but the nice thing about Moores was that I was going to get 50% off everything! We were thinking of buying the guys their outfits for the wedding as part of their gift, so saving 50% is a big amount! Just curious what you girls are thinking about having the guys dressed in and where you're finding stuff? Sorry for the long post .. today was a productive day for us! Hope all is going well for all you girls. Bre

Thank you all for the comments on our pictures. Carlota, yes we will have the same photographer for our wedding .. he has never done a destination wedding before .. we met him a couple years ago when we were both in the bridal party for our friends and we both agreed he was a great photographer. When he found out we were going to Mexico for our wedding, he offered to do the photography and I soon realized it was cheaper to pay for his whole trip for 7 days than it was to get a photographer from Mexico, so I am quite excited he is coming! Carlota, you must be getting so excited! I am excited for you. Hopefully all the paperwork will come through for you guys.. I am crossing my fingers. Have you found out if you will get a Mayan Suite at the Kantenah for your upgrade?? Very happy for you that you won that! Thank you ngreenwood for the info about Styling Trio.. so far it's looking like it might be better for me to go with them, and sounds like they do a good job. I also like the idea of being able to get ready all together in the room! Have you booked with Adrian or with the others?? Wondering if I should spend the extra $$ for him or not, I'm not as picky with my hair and makeup so I don't know .. Claire, good luck with everything .. hope you have a great time! Will be thinking of you on the 17th when you are getting married .. Lauren .. your cats are so cute! I have a cat too .. Mika. We took her from my dad's house when we moved into our own place, and never were big animal people but Mika has become like our baby.. Even for my fiance who used to not be a big fan of cats haha. This wedding party app sounds neat.. I think I'll hafta download it! That is awesome that you guys are going back to Vegas to get married .. its nice that you can make a fun little trip out of it. Today at work, one of my coworkers who recently got married was showing me her professional photos that she has gotten back, and it got me SO excited for our wedding even though its still just under 6 months away haha. I'm sure it will come quickly though.

Hey girls, Thanks for the suggestions for groomsmen gifts! Have a question for you ladies .. what are your plans as far as hair/makeup for your bridal party on the day of your wedding? At the last wedding I was in back here in Manitoba, the bride paid for our hair and makeup for the day. I was hoping to do the same for my girls in mexico but did not realize how expensive it was at the spa! $72 per person for makeup and $89 or more for hair per person ..... is a bit more than I was expecting. So I think I might pay for their hair, and either they can do their own makeup (they all do a nice job of makeup anyways), or can pay themselves for their makeup. I thought I saw somewhere on here that someone had to pay a 50% deposit for their spa appts and it was over $500.00 .. it will add up quickly! Just wanted to see how you girls were planning on doing that. On a sidenote, we got a few of our engagement photos back & I am so excited! Wanted to share them with you girls. Our wedding social is coming up in about 2 months so we are starting to get organized for that. Next weekend we are going into the city to celebrate our anniversary (6 years together!) and my fiancé is going to try on rings and we are hoping to order his wedding band! I also have a consult about possibly getting a custom wedding band made since I cant seem to find one that fits perfectly into my engagement ring. We are also planning on registering for our bridal shower.. so exciting to finally be able to plan wedding stuff as we've been waiting for awhile!

So many posts to catch up on .. Liana - Thanks for the website for those silk flowers.. I have checked it out & the prices seem reasonable! I like how you can get stuff customized too .. definitely going to look into that. Claire - I LOVE your bridesmaids bags .. did you paint them or how did you do those? I am not near crafty enough to do the same but I think they are so cute and love how they are each personalized! Also did you make the hangers yourself too?? That I might be able to do myself .. was going to order from Etsy but if they were easy to do yourself I might have to try that first. I just keep adding more and more stuff that I want to buy/order and its really starting to be expensive so the more $$ I can save the better! haha Carlotta - Glad to hear Thomas is doing better. Thanks so much for everything to do for this page as well as the facebook group .. you really are helpful! Love the idea of the bracelets for the bridesmaids/maid of honor .. question for you ladies what about gifts for the groomsmen?? I have LOTS of stuff that we could get for the girls but am having a hard time figuring out what we can get the guys as a little gift.. any ideas?! Lauren - love the bridesmaid dresses! Super cute & the color is so nice We got our bridesmaid dresses in too .. my sisters is hanging in the closet at my house I will have to upload a picture sometime Wishing you a fun weekend in Las Vegas .. I hear the weather there is suuuuuuuper hot right now.. enjoy! you'll be glad for that cabana by the pool and the bottle service haha.. Jenn & Claire .. you girls both leave soon. Wanted to wish you good luck with everything .. hope you have a wonderful trip & an amazing wedding day. Cant wait to hear bout the details when you get back! Alyn.. that is a good price leaving from Winnipeg! Which travel company is that with?? Also I would talk to Rocio about not being able to book anything until 2 months before .. my wedding is still over 6 months away and a few months ago they emailed me with a bunch of details that I had to fill out in regards to what I wanted for the wedding.

MJones, we are flying out of Winnipeg and had gotten a group rate of $1832.00 per person taxes included .. it was a bit more than what I wanted them to spend but since we are going during a 'busy season' (over New years) I knew the prices would be a bit more expensive. I was getting a bit frustrated because I kept trying to get the people who were wanting to come to put their deposit down as soon as possible to secure that price, and they kept saying they were gonna wait and hope that the prices would drop. The prices are now at $2200.00 per person and they're complaining that its too expensive now for them! Oh well, I tried to tell them so there's not much I can do. A couple days ago a 'countdown' popped up on my phone saying that we had 6 months exactly until we leave for Mexico.. so exciting! I am having a girls weekend with my bridesmaids at the end of July and I'm hoping we can get lots of wedding stuff done because this summer has been super busy so far. Oh and also yesterday we FINALLY got to take our engagement photos .. they had been postponed about 4 times due to all the rain so I was quite happy that the weather finally cooperated for us and now I'm getting anxious wanting to see how they turned out! I do have a question I don't know if any of you can answer .. if we are going with a Karen Bussen package, are we able to bring our own flowers (I was thinking of getting the silk bouquets you can get made on Etsy .. this way I can get exactly what I want and then can keep them after)?? I know the brides bouquet is included in the package and we must use it but I'm wondering if I could just put it on a table or something instead?? I might need to ask Vanessa about this. Bre

Hey, would you be able to send that to me?! [email protected]

Awesome thanks for the info KylieD!

Hi Carlotta, Will you be at the resort before your guests arrive? If so you could meet them in the lobby when they arrive (if you know around what time they will be getting there at) to hand them their OOT bags in person .. Or like normas09 said possibly ask Vanessa if they could make an exception to hand them out a little bit later. What are you all putting in your OOT bags?? I'm just starting to think about mine & will start putting them together this summer .. I'm excited! Hi KylieD & Welcome! To answer your questions .. I am pretty sure outside photographers are allowed; do you mean you want to bring your own from home or you want to book one from mexico?? I am flying out my photographer & they were fine with that because he will be staying at the resort for the week.. but I'm almost positive that other photographers from mexico are allowed too. As for the day/night passes .. I'm not too sure how much they cost but I'm curious as well because I may have a couple guests staying at a different resort that would need the passes for our wedding day. If you hear of anything let me know.. & I'll do the same!

Thank you soo much for posting your video, Chrestena! I watched the entire thing and almost teared up a few times .. I agree with Carlotta I think I'm going to be an emotional mess at my own wedding .. haha. So glad I watched the video because I had been debating if I should get a videographer, but now I'm definitely going to & I think I'm going to get the same guy you did .. he did an amazing job and the pricing is much better than some other companies I had messaged. So nice to be able to have an actual video to look back on & also to show those who weren't able to make it. Congrats again & wishing you all the best Bre

Wow, congrats again Chrestena and thank you for the pictures! I absolutely love seeing all the pictures and reading your comments for all of them . You looked beautiful and I loved your dress & flowers! Did you girls get your hair done at the spa?? and what about the make-up or did you do that yourselves??

Hi Chrestena, Welcome back & congrats! I LOVED the detailed review you left for us, thanks so much. I feel so relieved by how great of a job they do down there for weddings. Can't wait to see your pictures! I feel like I may change my mind about the wedding location when I get down there as well .. I had always wanted my wedding right on the beach but I had chosen (for now) the beach gazebo as it seemed a bit more private .. we will see when I get there I guess! I like that we are able to change our mind when we get there since there's only one wedding at a time.. I was a little worried about that. LOVE that you and your husband took a little bit of time to just enjoy the day .. that's a great idea . Reading your post makes me really excited for my wedding! Thanks again for all the info Bre

Hey, for the save-the-dates we had magnets made that had 4 photos of us & all it said on it was 'save the date for our destination wedding', the date, and mayan Riviera, mexico as well as the wedding website. And then with the magnets we sent a little thing we had typed out and printed on nice cardstock from Michaels in which we explained the situation for how to book their trip if they were planning on doing so. We also mentioned that they should check out the website where all the information would be. Most people that I have seen had the magnet on their fridge and used it to hold up the little information card we sent with it. I think what you have is good .. the website will be able to give them all the information so if you can give them that then they can check it out for themselves!