MichelleT

I have a guitarist who will be playing for the ceremony, so I went with Cannon in D for the Bridal party and Here Comes the Bride for me...sort of boring, but I just fell in love with the acoustic version of both songs.

Hi @@nattiegams325 I am getting married on February 14th in Cabo and I hired a guitarist for my ceremony and cocktail hour. The guitarist I hired has a website where you can actually listen to songs he plays, so hopefully you can get an idea of how the songs sound when they are played acoustically. His website is www.arturosotomayor.com and the songs I chose are: Prelude - Ave Maria Marry Me A Thousand Years A Mi Manera Wonderful tonight Processional - Canon in D When I walk down the Isle - Here comes the Bride Recessional - I'm Yours Prelude - Ave Maria Marry Me A Thousand Years A Mi Manera Wonderful tonight Processional - Canon in D When I walk down the Isle - Here comes the Bride Recessional - I'm Yours

My FI and I just finished up with our photoshoot with Gilda and I have to say we LOVED her. Gilda took us to Lovers Beach on a Water Taxi and it was interesting as the beach has eroded alot since Odile, but she managed to get some beautiful shots of us. Gilda was not afraid to to jump in the water and completely emerse herself in our photoshoot. She was professional, sweet and very knowledgable about the best places to take our engagement photos. Gilda will also be shooting our rehersal dinner, wedding day and honeymoon shots.

@@acw271011 honestly, the airport was WAY better than I thought it would have been. There are areas that need help, like when we went through customs, the roof was missing tiles and wires were hanging down, but it really wasn't too bad. I did notice on the drive to the resort it seemed like San Jose Del Cabo still had some resorts which looked like they would be closed for a while. I noticed Secrets and Dreams looked like they needed work and they definitely looked closed to guests. We went all through town today and town looked pretty ok. We also went through the mall to get to the marina and it looked like the mall was being worked on. One thing I did notice is that a lot of sign throughout town were missing letters or were in need of repair but overall, Cabo looked pretty darn good for 2 months post hurricane. Also, you are right as Gilda mentioned that Odile did erode the beaches and Lover's beach was on of them. We were there before and the beach is drastically smaller than it was before.

Hi Finisterra Brides, I am in the middle of my pre-wedding visit to the Sandos Finisterra and I have to say the resort is in GOOD shape and they are working very fast to patch up damage from Odile. I will post pictures when I get home on Tuesday. The pools are in great condition and the beach looks good too. The resort is fixing up the big waterfall in the front of the resort as it looks like the faux stone was damaged by Odile. I have to say that I think at this point there are more workers than guests and they are working hard. If I were to come to the resort not knowing a hurricane hit 2 months ago I would just thing the hotel was doing some minor renovations. All of the restaurants are functioning as are all of the bars and the resort seems to be back to their normal entertainment schedule. On Friday we attended a white party on the beach where they had a nice buffet and fire dancers and yesterday they had a fun Michael Jackson show. On Friday we also met with Lupita, the DJ Abel and our outside WC. We went over all of our wedding plans and we had our tasting which was fantastic. Yesterday we met with Elsa and my WC, Maria Jose, at Linens, Things and More to go over the table designs and other wedding decor. I was also able to meet with Suzanne Morel at her salon. I thoughr all of the folks I have met with have been incredible. This morning we had our engagement photoshoot with Gilda Badillo (I LOVE HER), at Lovers Beach and Medano Bay. It is interesting to see some of the changes in the landscape of Cabo after Odile as Lovers Beach was a lot smaller since Odile as I think the hurricane change the water level on the beach. We did tour Cabo and there is still damage which is being addressed, but it would not stop me from getting married here. Coming back to Cabo after Odile has been an amazing trip.

@@DVon18, your wedding turned out BEAUTIFUL! I am so glad everything turned out just how you wanted it. Congratulations!

I agree, hopefully everything went smoothly @@DVon18. I would love to hear how your wedding went.

My wedding is in the middle of February and I was going through the same issue with my photographer. My FI and I will not do a first look either, so we moved our ceremony to 5:00pm to give us enough time for photos since the sun sets at around 6:30 in February. A good site to look at is https://weatherspark.com/averages/32587/3/Puerto-Vallarta-Jalisco-Mexico. According to the site, I don't think it will be overly hot, but it's kind of a crap shoot. As for sunset it looks like sunset in PV at the end of march runs around 7-7:15, so I am not sure if starting pictures at 6:30 will give you enough time, as our photographer told us to budget around an hour for photos. TemperatureThe month of March is characterized by essentially constant daily high temperatures, with daily highs around 81°F throughout the month, exceeding 84°F or dropping below 77°F only one day in ten. I hope this helps. Michelle

@@AmorDeMiVida, whether or not to go with an all-inclusive is totally a personal choice. In November of last year I visited quite a few resorts, looking for a site for our wedding. In the end I decided to get married at an all-inclusive resort, as I felt the all-inclusive was a good value for me and for my guests. If you choose an all-inclusive resort, you really have to think about whether or not you want to use all of the resort's preferred vendors and if you want to work outside of the resort's preferred vendors you need to check with each resort to see if and what fees they will charge for outside vendors. I got very lucky as I signed my contract with our resort in 2014, which was only a few months before my resort started charging fees for outside vendors to the tune of $400 per vendor. You also need to think about the packages the resorts offer and whether or not you will use the services included in the packages. I hired 6 outside vendors to provide services and If I had to pay $400 per vendor I would not have chosen to get married at an all-inclusive. I also hired an outside WC to work with the resort's WC which was the best decision I could have made, since my outside WC has been fantastic at meeting and coordinating with all of my outside vendors, setting up appointments for our pre-wedding visit in November, securing contracts and working with the resort's WC. Just look around the forum and do your research prior to making any decisions, planning a wedding in Cabo is very easy once you figure out what your personal preferences are.

I am going to Cabo in 2 weeks for a post-wedding visit to the resort and my WC has agreed to store some of my wedding goodies, so I am bringing 3 large suitcases (I bought 3 suitcases from the thrift store which I will leave in Cabo after the wedding), full of wedding items such as all of my OTT Bag items, my guest book, wedding signage, escort tags and maracas which will be stored until our wedding day in February. I am sure in February I will have at least 1 more suitcase of wedding items to bring with me.

I agree with the posters @@calgarybride2015 and @@Soon2beMrsJ, I was told by my WC NOT to ship any of my wedding items to Cabo, as the could be subject to search and taxes by customs. My WC also told me if I shipped my items there is no guarantee my packages would make it to Cabo at all. We are putting all of our stuff in big suitcases and taking everything up with us, just to be sure it makes it to Cabo.

This review makes me happy, as I have booked Suzanne for hair and makeup for my bridal party and myself. I have also booked Linens, Things and more for design and decor and I am using Suzanne's other comany Creative Destination Events for wedding coordination. Suzanne, Elsa, Maria and the rest of the team has been an absolute pleasure to work with and I have had no issues with language barriers.

The wedding coordinator from the Sandos Finisterra sent me the an email with an official memo from the sandos stating that the resort has a new opening date of November 1st 2014. I also found a pretty cool link on the Sandos Finisterra's Facebook page which has a site with a lot of good information and updates regarding the clean up effort, resort and restaurant status as well as other information: http://www.cabosanlucastours.net/Hurricane_Odile/index.htm

@@Emmalu02, no problem at all. I found out today, via Alaska Airlines that the Cabo Airport is not scheduled to reopen until November which is going to be interesting. Our reservations for the Sandos start on November 6th, which means we will be arriving at the resort right when they are reopening. I plan to post with pictures when I get to Cabo as to maybe give some of the future Cabo brides a little bit more information.

@@Emmalu02, Thank you so much for updating all of us on a your note from Lupita! I am getting married at the Finisterra on February 14th so I am more at ease now. I will be at the resort from November 6-10th for final planning and engagement photos. I will take a pictures and post them when I get back.

@@Sabes44, I also had a hard time as I kept wanting to add more and more, but in the end I really wanted to avoid throwing away money, so I figured the items I added to the bags would eventually get used. I was also worried about hauling all of my OTT bag stuff to Cabo and getting stopped by customs, so I tried to make it simple and useful.

@@forevertogether, thank you so much for the hangover kit template !

Thank you for the update @SweetT I was able to find a couple of pictures of my resort and the damage was pretty bad. I told FI that maybe we should reschedule for another resort and he was resistent as he told me that we were going to get married in Feburary in Cabo as we love Cabo and we loved all of the hardworking people we have met in Cabo. I know rebuilding the town will not happend in 5 short months, but going to Cabo, donating some money to relief, bringing some clothing which I was going to give to the local thrift stores and bringing our little bit of business there will help, even if it is just a little bit. I want to help so bad, as I just cannot fathom what the locals are going through.

@, I ordered some flat white bags from Etsy that measured 6 x 9, so when I picked up my word find puzzles at the Dollar Tree I made sure they would fit. I also picked up playing cards at Dollar Tree 2 for $1.00. I found a site online that allowed me to make a personalized word find puzzle http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php once I created the puzzle I changed it into a PDF and sized it down to fit on the bags and I printed the puzzle directly on the bags from my home printed. The etsy vendor still has some bags left https://www.etsy.com/listing/101350266/100-white-paper-bags-flat-65-x-925?ref=sr_gallery_25&ga_search_query=white+5x9+bags&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery I would have loved to do so much more for my bags, but bringing all of the welcome bags along with maracas (I was advised to buy them in the US and bring them with me by WC), is CRAZY. when I go to Cabo in November I am going to have 4 large suitcases of wedding stuff, not counting the our personal suitcases. I do thing putting everything in bags like I did will keep everything together better and it will make putting the bags together much easier.

@@Cooperfluff, first, I am so sorry that you are having to endure this type of stress a month before your wedding. I saw a posting on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/hotelelganzo which provides very little information, but at least the hotel has made a couple of statements. The hotel also seems to be posting on twitter, https://twitter.com/HotelElGanzo other than these two posts there is really nothing I could find.

Thank goodness @@DVon18. I am so happy that Sandos is accommodating your changes as you are right, all that matters is that your wedding happens and that you and your guests have fun and are safe. You are doing a fantastic job of shifting gears right now. I was so stressed yesterday and my FI put it into perspective, he said we have 5 months until our wedding and if it ends up being the two of us and our 4 kids so be it, but we are going to get married in Cabo and that is what is important in the end.

@@DVon18 I looked at my post this morning and I was horrified as I put a question mark instead of a period after my "I am sorry." Ugh, I really need to reread my posts or stay off of the iPod when I am tired. For some reason I couldn't edit my post. I know you were the next bride in the forum to get married at the Finisterra and I hope the have your wedding date available at one of the other resorts. I heard there is another hurricane headed to Cabo this week and I sincerely hope that it doesn't touch down in Cabo again.

We are going to Cabo in November as scheduled to stay in the Finisterra and meet with our vendors. I guess as we get closer to November 6th we will see at that point whether or not the resort will be able to accept our reservation. Our wedding date is on February 14th and I am hoping the Finisterra is repaired by then, but we will get a better idea in November. @@DVon18 I am sorry? I was thinking about you earlier today. I am scared to lose my deposits for my linens and flowers as I have been paying stuff off little by little for the last 9 months and 80% of my wedding is paid for already.

These are so cute!

I used Wedding Wire which was easy and free. http://www.weddingwire.com/weddings/3387130/wedding_new_website#!/website/2000425#website-page-2000425