youngandinlove

I just posted on my original newbie post beofre I realized there was a place to post about the wedding. Here is how it went for us. Thank you! -------------- Hola!!! (see? I can speak some spanish now! I wanted to write a quick follow up. My BIG day has come and gone. We were married (eloped) on Flamingo Beach in Costa Rica. Everything went perfectly. Our wedding planner was Catalina Cuervo from C.R. Referrals Travel. (www.costaricavacationexperts.com). They are located in Costa Rica and Catalina is the owner. She personally plans each wedding herself from what I was told. Catalina did an amazing job lining up the photographer, the officiate, and even arranged a candlelight chefs table on the beach. We had a private waiter and the head chef attending us, it was like it was from a storybook. We wanted something romantic but simple. We wanted to spend our money more on an amazing trip, not just all on the ceremony and Catalina made it all possible. From the moment we landed, we were taken very good care of. If you ever get to read this Catalina, Thank You! (I already sent her like 4 messages thanking her I found this website late in my planning but I did get some valuable advice in my reading. We ended up having to fiddle with the dates a little but it all worked out. Thanks to the encouragement of others, I did bring my mothers wedding dress and was married in it. She is no longer with us and this was so important to me. Thank you for your comments regarding the dress in another post I had done, it made it there and back again in one piece. I like to dream of my own daughter maybe using the same dress someday. 3 generations married in my family with the same dress would be wonderful. First, I need to have a daughter, we are working on that Here is what we did on our elope/adventure May ~15th ~ Day 1 ~ Arrival ~ Liberia airport • Private Transfer to Playa Flamingo - this took about a little over 2 hours to get to the resort • Flamingo beach Resort – Honeymoon Suite - Right on the beach, we loved the attention to service they had. May ~16th ~ Day 2 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,D) • Catamaran & Snorkeling Tour - A lovely catamaran tour. We had hoped to see whales but did not, we did see dolphins and huge Manta Rays jumping out of the water! The sunset was beautiful and it was a nice introduction. May ~17th ~ Day 3 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,Private dinner on the beach) • Wedding Day!!!!!!!! • 2:00pm Couples Massage - who does not like a massage? • 3:30pm Hair & Makeup - This was handled by the resort and coordinated with our wedding planner Catalina • 4:30pm Photographer - We had some pre ceremony photos, during and after • 5:20pm wedding on the beach – ceremony - We had some touch and go moments on the weather, but in the end we got the beach wedding we wanted • legal wedding officiate - arranged by Catalina • 6:15 Wedding Dinner – private chef’s table on the beach - This was magical, this was an 8 course tasting menu prepared by the head chef. He personally delivered each course along with our private waiter. I felt like royalty at this point in the day. May ~18th ~ Day 4 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,D) • Buena Vista Combo Tour - This was an adventure day. The tour included several fun activities including horseback riding, canopy tours, hanging bridges, volcanic mud baths, it was heavenly May ~19th ~ Day 5 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ Arenal ~ (B,L) • Private transfer to Arenal - this was a long transfer, about 5 hours almost with a stop we made for lunch and at a road side fruit stand. • Check in Silencio del Campo – cabin/villa - Loved, loved, loved this small hotel. It has hot springs that are heated from Arenal Volcano, wonderful volcano views, it was just lovely and so nice to soak in the hot springs each night. May ~20th ~ Day 6 ~ Arenal ~ ( • Safari Float - A nice river float, we saw monkeys, sloths, many birds, it was a nice relaxed day. May ~21st ~ Day 7 ~ Arenal ~ (B,L) • Canyoneering & River Rafting - This was our final day of adventure. It included rappelling down waterfalls in the rainforest and then rafting down rapids in a river! It was an intense day but SO much fun. Both my HUSBAND (love saying that word now) and I are nature lovers, and adventure seekers. This was the perfect ending to our Adventure/Elopement/Honeymoon May ~22nd ~ Day 8 ~ Departure ~ ( ~ Liberia • Private Transfer to Airport - The trip back to the airport took about 3 hours. I am waiting on the final photos from the photographer, that is probably the only negative. We have the preliminary photos, they look good but I want to post the final touched up pics when we get them. It should be soon, there is a 3 month turn around on touched up final photos. To anyone wanting to get married or elope in another country, do it! The entire trip cost us about $6000 with airfare. We calculated getting married back at home, after the venue and wedding plans it would have cost us a fortune, the way we did it we had a wonderful celebration of our love and had money left over Thank you for your time in answering my questions and bless everyone who enters into marriage, I hope your lives together are special beyond words. If I can help anyone with any questions I would be more than happy. XXOO, - Photos coming soon!!! Cassidy

Hola!!! (see? I can speak some spanish now! I wanted to write a quick follow up. My BIG day has come and gone. We were married (eloped) on Flamingo Beach in Costa Rica. Everything went perfectly. Our wedding planner was Catalina Cuervo from C.R. Referrals Travel. (www.costaricavacationexperts.com). They are located in Costa Rica and Catalina is the owner. She personally plans each wedding herself from what I was told. Catalina did an amazing job lining up the photographer, the officiate, and even arranged a candlelight chefs table on the beach. We had a private waiter and the head chef attending us, it was like it was from a storybook. We wanted something romantic but simple. We wanted to spend our money more on an amazing trip, not just all on the ceremony and Catalina made it all possible. From the moment we landed, we were taken very good care of. If you ever get to read this Catalina, Thank You! (I already sent her like 4 messages thanking her) I found this Destination Wedding website late in my planning but I did get some valuable advice in my reading. We ended up having to fiddle with the dates a little but it all worked out. Thanks to the encouragement of others, I did bring my mothers wedding dress and was married in it. She is no longer with us and this was so important to me. Thank you for your comments regarding the dress in another post I had done, it made it there and back again in one piece. I like to dream of my own daughter maybe using the same dress someday. 3 generations married in my family with the same dress would be wonderful. First, I need to have a daughter, we are working on that Here is what we did on our elope/adventure May ~15th ~ Day 1 ~ Arrival ~ Liberia airport • Private Transfer to Playa Flamingo - this took about a little over 2 hours to get to the resort • Flamingo beach Resort – Honeymoon Suite - Right on the beach, we loved the attention to service they had. May ~16th ~ Day 2 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,D) • Catamaran & Snorkeling Tour - A lovely catamaran tour. We had hoped to see whales but did not, we did see dolphins and huge Manta Rays jumping out of the water! The sunset was beautiful and it was a nice introduction. May ~17th ~ Day 3 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,Private dinner on the beach) • Wedding Day!!!!!!!! • 2:00pm Couples Massage - who does not like a massage? • 3:30pm Hair & Makeup - This was handled by the resort and coordinated with our wedding planner Catalina • 4:30pm Photographer - We had some pre ceremony photos, during and after • 5:20pm wedding on the beach – ceremony - We had some touch and go moments on the weather, but in the end we got the beach wedding we wanted • legal wedding officiate - arranged by Catalina • 6:15 Wedding Dinner – private chef’s table on the beach - This was magical, this was an 8 course tasting menu prepared by the head chef. He personally delivered each course along with our private waiter. I felt like royalty at this point in the day. May ~18th ~ Day 4 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ (B,L,D) • Buena Vista Combo Tour - This was an adventure day. The tour included several fun activities including horseback riding, canopy tours, hanging bridges, volcanic mud baths, it was heavenly May ~19th ~ Day 5 ~ Playa Flamingo ~ Arenal ~ ( • Private transfer to Arenal - this was a long transfer, about 5 hours almost with a stop we made for lunch and at a road side fruit stand. • Check in Silencio del Campo – cabin/villa - Loved, loved, loved this small hotel. It has hot springs that are heated from Arenal Volcano, wonderful volcano views, it was just lovely and so nice to soak in the hot springs each night. May ~20th ~ Day 6 ~ Arenal ~ ( • Safari Float - A nice river float, we saw monkeys, sloths, many birds, it was a nice relaxed day. May ~21st ~ Day 7 ~ Arenal ~ (B,L) • Canyoneering & River Rafting - This was our final day of adventure. It included rappelling down waterfalls in the rainforest and then rafting down rapids in a river! It was an intense day but SO much fun. Both my HUSBAND (love saying that word now) and I are nature lovers, and adventure seekers. This was the perfect ending to our Adventure/Elopement/Honeymoon May ~22nd ~ Day 8 ~ Departure ~ ( ~ Liberia • Private Transfer to Airport - The trip back to the airport took about 3 hours. I am waiting on the final photos from the photographer, that is probably the only negative. We have the preliminary photos, they look good but I want to post the final touched up pics when we get them. It should be soon, there is a 3 month turn around on touched up final photos. To anyone wanting to get married or elope in another country, do it! The entire trip cost us about $6000 with airfare. We calculated getting married back at home, after the venue and wedding plans it would have cost us a fortune, the way we did it we had a wonderful celebration of our love and had money left over Thank you for your time in answering my questions and bless everyone who enters into marriage, I hope your lives together are special beyond words. If I can help anyone with any questions I would be more than happy. XXOO, Cassidy

We are eloping in Costa Rica in less than a month! I have my mothers wedding dress and I am on the fence about taking it or not. I am concerned about how to travel with it, will it be too cumbersome, will it be safe, I keep second guessing it all. My mother sadly is no longer with us, I love the idea of wearing her dress but at the same time I would be mortified if anything happened to it during my travels. We are taking the honeymoon on the same trip and I am questioning the wisdom of taking the dress with me from destination to destination. Any advice would be appreciated. If I dont take the dress we have talked about just wearing casual nice clothes but I just don't know. This is one of the last sticking points in the trip plan. I am reading the forum and trying to find some advice. Thank You!

What a gorgeous dress! Definately belt I think. I am new here but I could not help but comment. I am trying to figure out some dress logistics myself right now!

Moments that Matter, Our travel planner told us that Arenal is not showing lava these days and has not been for a couple of years I ad read about that and saw photos but I do not think it is going to happen. I would LOVE to see lava though, that would be new for me! ACW71011, I have never been to Jamaica. We like to travel and have done the obligatory Bahamas trip, we went to Antigua once and both are lovely. We love Cancun and Mexico. I will NEVER forget the beaches at Tulum south of Cancun. Swimming in the water with Mayan ruins all around is surreal. I always wanted to see Jamaica, I love Reggae music and would love to visit the birth place of it. How exciting you are going to Costa Rica next year too! I will definately report back on the trip! You can try our girl Catalina, I can's say enough about her. As I understand she has a small company and is the owner. We researched her and a few others, it was a toss up in the end but I feel we made the right choice. [email protected] I want to jump forward a month NOW! Time to poke around some more. Thank you for being so welcoming and your kind responses!

It is coming very quickly ACW271011! I am giddy We actually have I think almost everything in place. We chose a boutique travel planner in Costa Rica that also does wedding planning. It seemed like the best choice not having to get too many parties involved, keep it simple was my goal and they made it simple. The prices were great, we are getting the wedding day and 10 day honeymoon for about $5000. Our planner Catalina has been wonderful! We were originally planning on a more traditional wedding but after looking at venues, pricing catering, photographers, reception, we were in the neighborhood of $15,000 and that did not even incude the honymoon!!! The more we planned the higher the price was and it just got to be too much stress and money. We will get together with friends and family to celebrate when we return. In the end we decided that our wedding was just about our love and I think this is the best way for us to do it. So here is our plan: The first days of the trip are on the Pacific Coast. We asked for all inclusive and we settled on a place called the Flamingo Beach Resort. After we unwind for 2 days the wedding day happens. This is simple, just an officiant & photographer. It will be a sunset beach wedding. We have a private candlelight dinner chefs table that night on the beach. After our big day (and 2 more days at the beach relaxing) we start to explore the country visiting Arenal, Monteverde, and then leaving through Liberia airpot. We like to be adventurous so we are going to do some canopy ziplines, some rafting, and hiking. I will share photos after we return.

Thank you perianjay! I love the site so far

Thanks for that Moments that Matter! What wonderful photos! I hope that Costa Rica is as beautiful as it is in my dreams. I have been to Cancun and enjoyed it, the beaches were so nice Trying to soak in all the information on this website, I do not know why I never thought to look into a wedding forum before now, this is so helpful reading about everryone's experiences. I am less than a month away!

Hello everyone! My name is Cassidy, new bride to be THIS YEAR! We are not doing a big wedding at all, eloping really. We are doing this in Costa Rica. Has anyone done anything like this recently? I am here to get some ideas and hopefully some information. Thank you! All the best, Cassidy