MichelleT

I just finished my OOT bags tonight. I am ahead of schedule as we are visiting the resort in November for a pre-wedding meet and greet with the vendors I have selected, a tasting and engagement photos. I wanted to finish up the bags so I could take them with me to Cabo in November, as my WC is going to store them for me until our wedding in February. My bags have the following items: The Bag - personalized from Vista Prints Thank You letter Do Not Disturb door hanger 2 Chapsticks 4 Shout Wipes 1 pack of Kleenex 1 tin of Nvidia lotion 4 packs of sanitizing wipes An activity bag with a personalized word find on the front of the bag a deck of cards a word find book Aloe Vera Mini First Aid Kit Sunscreen Eye Drops Vitamin C Drops 2 rolls of Certs 2 packs of Gum 4 Advil individual packs Tums roll 4 Alka Seltzer individual packs 4 Imodium Individual packs 1/4 lb. personalized M&Ms 1/4 lb. cocktail flavor mix of Jelly Bellies I made all of the toppers, one of which I used a template that another bride posted in the OTT forum. I will need to look at the post again and give that bride credit. The rest of the toppers I made myself The candy each have their own toppers on them. We will make a Costco run at the Cabo Costo in February for snacks and water to add to the bad. I really wanted to add pashminas or Bubba mugs, but it just got to be to expensive and to much to take with me to Cabo, as I had to make 30 bags, not counting the kids bags I have to work on. I also have to bring Maracas for the ceremony, so we are bringing up A LOT of luggage in November. My plan was to purchase some old luggage from a thrift store and just leave the luggage with my OOT bag items in them and just leave the luggage in Cabo after we are finished.

I have a question regarding guests who stay outside of the Sandos Finisterra resort. Has any one gotten a quote from Lupita for guests staying outside of the resort? I have 2 guests who are not staying at the resort and I asked Lupita what the fee would be for external guests and she told me the fee was USD 199 per person which seems steep since they won't be coming I site until 6 pm, plus the fact that I have over 45 guests now confirmed so I am paying 99.00 for each additional guest. This basically means I am paying $600 for this couple to attend. I dug around online and I found out day passes range from $40 to $60 depending on the amount of time they want to spend in the resort and the time of day. This is somewhat upsetting news to me as I figured there would be a charge but not $199 per person in addition to the what I paid for the wedding, especially when a non-guest who has not paid a few thousand dollars plus brought in an additional 20 rooms can purchase a day pass for a fraction of what they want to charge me. My contract just states there would be additional fees for guests not staying at the resort, I should have asked for clarification...I know better.

@DVon18 I am also using Linens, Things and More too for my chargers, table linens, cake table, brown chivari chairs, welcome table and our sweethearts table. I would love too see what your set up looks like after your wedding!

@@hyoungquist this is why I am using an outside florist for our personal flowers and outside vendors for other items, as when I started asking about flowers I was told what flowers were included. The list included lilies so I asked for roses and callas, well, I was told callas were not included and that the flowers were very basic. I thought white callas were not very expensive flowers, but I went with it. Then when I asked about switching my personal bouquet to a centerpiece I was told again that the flowers in the package are very basic...this kind of worried me a little bit as my personal flowers for myself and my wedding party are important to me, so I hired Cabo Floral Studios for my personal flowers. I also asked for a very basic white cake and I am having the outside florist decorate it. The issue I was having was that I had to keep providing pictures of what I wanted and I am not entirely sure I will get what I want on my wedding day which is why I decided to go outside of the resort for any extras. I did ask for a quote for a farewell brunch and the amount I was quoted was more than I paid for the Sunset package which was crazy to me since every one of my guests are staying at the resort. I do think you can bring some of your own items...I am bringing my own maracas and I was thinking about bringing my own Mr & Mrs signs for the chairs too. I cannot fathom how on earth a piece of burlap draped over the houpa would require experts or cost $200, that seems pretty ridiculous to me, but then again, i was quoted $200 for another company to hand white sheers on the legs of the houpa and $150 for a white runner. When I asked Lupita about the sheers and the runner she referred me to an outside rental company.

@@DVon18 do you mean Lupita? If so, she has not sent me any pictures. When I was contemplating using the resorts salon services she never asked me if I wanted to see pictures, but she told me I could do a trial on my hair in November, which is 3 months prior to the wedding, which was somewhat concerning as knowing me, I will change my mind a million times before the wedding :-) Was Lupita able to send you any pictures of their work? When we visited the salon in November I did not see any photos of hair and makeup from the resort either.

@@DVon18 I am looking forward to seeing your pictures as heard Bradley Fraser is amazing. I actually went with Gilda Badiollo, as I liked her photos and she was very flexible in willing to work with me on breaking the actual package in to 3 sessions...1 hour for engagement photos when we go in November, 5 hours for the ceremony and 1 hour 2 days after the ceremony for a honeymoon shoot. With the hair, I am sure you will be in excellent hands with the salon at the resort. My dilemma was that I my three daughters and my sister (my wedding party), along with my mom will be getting their hair done so I needed extra reinforcements :-)

@soulgroovy I think the first time Lupita started to contact me about planning my wedding was in July, which was 7 months prior to my wedding. She asked for my cake selection and what type of meal I wanted. She also provided me with the DJ song list, the photography flyer and she asked me to send her pictures of the centerpieces and bridal bouquet I would like. Honestly, Lupita has been fantastic! However, I agree with @@hyoungquist, as from what I can tell the vendors book up pretty quickly. Personally I decided not to go with the resort for my hair and makeup as I have not seen any work that the resort has done and they wanted to do my trial when I meet up with the vendors in November. It made me nervous to have my wedding hair trial done 3 months before the wedding. Also, my 4 bridesmaids and my mom are all having our hair done in the room, so I decided to use Suzanne Morel, as I have seen their work and decided it would be in my best interest to go outside of the resort since I have a good sized bridal party. I looked over the flyer that Lupita provided for the photographer the resort uses and I was not overly impressed, so I decided to look another photographer. I just confirmed with Gilda Badillo for photography. I am done with vendor selections which is a relief.

I ended up hiring Gilda Badillo. I absolutely love her work and she was really reasonable, as I ended up paying $2450 for the 7 hours, of which she is allowing us to use 1 of the 7 hours for an engagement session when we visit Cabo to meet with our vendors in November, 5 hours at the wedding and an hour a couple of days after the wedding for a honeymoon session. She was very pleasent to speak to and prompt with her communication.

@@hyoungquist, I was worried about the hair and makeup included in my package also, as I think we have the same package. We are going up to Cabo in November to meet our vendors and the salon wanted to do my trial in November for a February wedding which had me worried so I hired Susan Morel. She will be providing hair and makeup for the entire wedding party.

@@hyoungquist, thank you for the information. I actually understand the vendor fees, but we are using Linens and Things which Lupita recomended for our decorations. The resort does not include all of the flowers (we need 5 centerpiece, my bouquet, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, 7 boutineers, and a mothers corsage), so I am having Cabo Floral studios do our personal flowers and having the resort do the centerpieces. We are having a guitarist, Arturo Sotomayer, come in for cocktail hour, and we are using Susan Morel for our hair and makeup. It also looks like we are going to have around 60 guests (all are staying at the resort), which will run us about 3,000 over the 3,500 we paid for the sunset package (we reserved last November before the price increase to the 2015 prices). I think we are going to run about a total of 25k-27k for our wedding as I paid for travel for our 4 kids and 2 of their boyfriends, so we ended up paying for 8 of us to travel (9K). Which is not bad as I am also in California, and the venues are far more expensive than Mexico. My original post was asking about the taxes, and all of the additional fees, as I wanted to make sure these fees were customary in Mexico, as it seemed funny to pay almost a 50% uplift on all services. In CA we usually pay about 30% over with the taxes and gratuities. I have been in contact with Lupita quite a bit since our wedding is on Feburary 14, 2015 which is less than 6 months away. We are using the Palapa on the beach, the DJ and the photographer which was recomended by Lupita (however, I have not paid until I can see some of their work).

This is an FANTASTIC template! Thank you so much for posting it!

Hi, I am getting married in Feb 2015 in Cabo. I am getting married at the Sandos Finisterra which is an all inclusive, so I thought I could use their wedding coordinator as she is really good, but I found I needed a wedding coordinator outside of the resort to assist, so I hired Maria Jose Garcia from Creative Destination Events for the month before and day of. So far she has been working more than the month before and I am pretty happy. I am almost done with everything for my wedding and so far I am at about 26k for 40 guests, that includes 9,500.00 for travel and resort fees (I have to pay for my fiance and I, my 2 teenage children, his two daughters and their boyfriends). The 26k also includes my dress and invitiations. The amount you spend will totally be dependent on where you have your wedding and all of the extras. I have to say, just about everything is more expensive in cabo!

I am getting married at the Sandos Finisterra on February 14, 2015 and have done quite a bit of planing myself so I hired Suzanne Morel for the month of the wedding planning, but she is already contacting my wedding coordinator from the hotel, my vendors and my travel agent so I am pretty happy with my choice.

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Michelle and I am getting married at the Sandos Finisterra on February 15, 2014, so I am sort of in the thick of the planning stages right now. We are going up to the Finisterra in November to meet with the outside wedding coordinator I have hired and all of the vendors that we are looking at to provide services for our wedding. Are there any Sandos Finisterra brides out there you can share their wedding experience at the Sandos? Thanks, Michelle

I have been working on pulling together all of the vendors I will need for my February 2015 wedding in Cabo I had a question. First of all knew having a wedding in Cabo would expensive, but it is still cheaper than having a wedding locally at home. I chose an AI (Sandos Finisterra) to save on some of the food, and drink costs so that I could add some extra personal touches to have my wedding the way I envisioned it would be and I absolutely love all of the vendors I have chosen. However, I am having some serious sticker shock with the 15% delivery, 18% gratuity and 16% taxes that I am seeing quite of the few of the vendors tack on to the already expensive prices. It seems like all of the extras with the vendors make the prices 50% + higher than the price of the quoted services. I guess my question is, are others running into all of these extras (I know 16% tax is a given in Mexico), but 18% gratuity in advance, 15% delivery fees, 15% design fees are all of these fees pretty much customary in Cabo?