tkuzma's Mayan Riviera Wedding Planning Journal- February 7, 2013!

Thank you very much to the BDW community! You provided me with much inspiration, great ideas and support throughout my wedding planning process.  I loved going through other wedding planning journals, and I was that much more excited on the day a new one would be posted.  I hope my journal can now prove useful to another bride.  Enjoy your planning process and relish both the ups and downs- soon it will be your wedding day, and truly that day goes by way too quickly, so try to take in as much as possible!

Our Engagement

This is a bit I wrote for a wedding contest I previously entered, and which I just found.  I thought I’d post it one more time!

“Many years ago, I fantasized a proposal in which we'd be in Paris with the Eiffel Tower lit up in the background. You can imagine that I've been teased by friends, but Chris knows I love cute romantic gestures. Given that we both just recently graduated from school, both have crazy work schedules (I'm a surgical resident, and he works for the military) and on top of all of that, we live two provinces apart, a trip to Paris is impossible.

Christmas 2011, when I visited him in Manitoba, he told me we were going to go Christmas light seeing, but he needed to go back to find the directions. I found it odd that it took a while to find the “directionsâ€; he came out apologizing that must have lost them, that we would go some other time and I should come back inside. When I came into his apartment, I couldn't believe what I saw: candles and rose petals were everywhere, and in the corner there it was- a lit up little Eiffel Tower! 

I was speechless, and I wouldn't let myself believe that this was the proposal, as he had previously done a good job convincing me that an engagement was still a ways away.  But there he was, kneeling on one knee. He told me that he was sorry he couldn't take me to Paris, but it didn't matter where we are in the world, as long as we were together as a couple!

Chris & I dated for over 7 years, with over 4 having been spent long-distance, with me in Edmonton, and initially him at school in BC and now working for the military in Manitoba.  The distance has been incredibly difficult, but has made us a stronger couple, appreciate the other person so much more and value every minute we have to spend together when we are in the same place.  It is more than likely that even after we get married we may have to live apart for one to a couple years.â€

Please excuse the lack of makeup and messy hair- this was after a lot of hugging & tears (happy ones!)!

Engagement Photos

We are both originally from BC, and we spent a fair bit of time together in Vancouver while Chris was in dental school, so when we both happened to have free time together in March 2012, we thought it was a great time to get some engagement photos done in Vancouver around Stanley Park and Gas Town.

Henry Low (www.henrylow.com), a local photographer in Vancouver , shot some beautiful photographs for us!

Resort

Initially my FI was hesitant about a DW- I persisted on convincing him this was the way to go (slightly selfish of me as the only part of my wedding I had ever dreamed about was that it would be on a beach somewhere)!  Funny enough, at the outset, we were both anti Mexico because of the bad hype it had recently received; we were thinking probably Dominican Republic- I had visited previously twice with my family and had loved it.  But after doing some research and presentation of some lovely options by our TA, we realized we could have a 5 star wedding in Mexico with the money we were willing to spend, but this would only translate to a 3.5/4 star in the DR.

Once we were presented with the Karisma line of resorts, we were sold! We loved the Gourmet Inclusive concept, and since there was a possibility of some children coming to the wedding, Azul Sensatori seemed the right pick for us!  Our other requirements for our resort were one that had access to a Catholic chapel in the vicinity as well as a decent spa. In the end we ended up with 30 adult guests, but the AS ended up being a perfect location for our group, and everyone had a fantastic week.

I posted a review of our wedding week in the Azul Sensatori brides’ thread.  Here is a link if anyone else is interested in reading it…

Travel Agency (Flight Centre) & Travel Company (Sun Wing)

Unfortunately, this is one of two sections of my journal in which I do not have positive feedback.  However, I thought it would be prudent to make other brides aware of our experience because I know that we were not the only couple who had a negative experience with these two companies.

We chose Flight Centre as a TA because I had previously travelled using them on several major international trips, and they had done a decent job and had gotten me very good prices for them.  I was initially even more excited to use Flight Centre for our wedding planning because their Edmonton office was the head office for DW planning in Western Canada.

The initial consultation and resort search was fine, but after our guests and we had paid our deposits, our future interactions with them turned sour.  Our primary TA went on maternity leave and failed to tell us- only after several unanswered emails did I decide to make a phone call to the office myself and was then told the news.  Our primary TA lost information on some of our guests who were planning on staying a 2^nd week in Mexico.  The TA that took over emailed our group with my name spelled wrong on multiple occasions and kept writing my groom’s name as Mike (his name is Chris).  She failed to respond to our guests’ inquiries on multiple occasions. They had promised us the honeymoon suite at our second resort (El Dorado Maroma), and it was only after multiple angry phone calls and emails that they begrudgingly gave it back to us.  The list continues, but I’ll stop now.

Like I mentioned earlier, we met up with several other couples through our planning process that had similar experiences with Flight Centre.  I am very disappointed in their service and will no longer use them in future travel planning.

This brings us to Sun Wing, the charter company through which Flight Centre booked our holiday.  The positives: we were booked as Elite Plus (Our TA said this was included but we met another bride and groom that were charged an extra $100/person, so I don’t know if we paid for this or not), so we had a 30 kg per person allowance as well as a little extra leg room.  Also an overhead compartment is saved for wedding dresses.

The negatives: On our return trip to Canada, we waited several hours in Cancun airport with the rumor the flight was going to be cancelled, and eventually it was.  Flights are cancelled every day, but the large problem with Sun Wing was their lack of communication with their customers as well as their terrible customer service.  No announcements were made, cancellations plans were not communicated, unfriendly staff, and the list continues.  Barely an apology was made at bare minimum.  We will try to avoid using Sun Wing’s services again the future if possible!

My Dress & Accessories

I fell in love with the Chelsea dress (in ivory) by WTOO at Nouvelle Bridal in Edmonton, AB.  Diana and her team were great and made the whole wedding dress experience truly amazing.

I wanted little off the shoulder cap sleeves for my dress for at least the ceremony, and the wonderful seamstress at Nouvelle Bridal made me detachable ones!  I didn’t like the belt that came with the dress, so I bought one with Swarovski crystal detailing from the bridal shop.

I bought my wedding dress hanger from Kelly Jonsson on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/blackscrapcat).  I love that she made the text I wanted fit!

I bought my jewellery, Nadri earrings and a bracelet from The Bay.

My shoes were Badgley Mischka, Lacie in pink, which I purchased on EBay.

I purchased a rhinestone starfish charm from Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/yourperfectgifts) to pin to my bouquet.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue… My “new†was my dress.  My “old†were ribbons from my mom’s wedding bouquet.  My “borrowed†was a pin that my grandmother wore pinned to her wedding dress on her big day.  My “something blue†was a customized dress label that I purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MondeDesign).

The Bridesmaids

The dress I selected for my girls to wear was Bill Levkoff, style 165 in Champagne.

This comes to my 2^nd negative review section in my planning process. DO NOT ORDER FROM House of Brides!!! (www.houseofbrides.com)!  Originally my sister placed her order in May and was told she should expect her dress by mid-September; her dress arrived ahead of schedule in mid-August.  After a bit of shuffling of individuals of the bridal party, I asked a friend to be a bridesmaid later in August.  She promptly put in her order in mid-August, and she was given an estimated delivery date of late November.  Well come the end of December, and still no word about the dress.  In January we began panicking and attempted multiple times via email and phone to get a hold of someone to help us guarantee the arrival of the dress.  The House of Brides customer service phone agents are not located on site of the company, and they will not put you through to someone on site, nor will they give you the direct phone number.  We managed to finally pull the number out of about the fifth person we spoke with, and the main site was just as useless.  The woman on site kept saying she “guaranteed†arrival of the dress prior to our departure date; I told her to guarantee arrival, I needed the dress shipped via Fed Ex to make it through Canadian customs on time as it was now about this time 1 week prior to our departure.  After being promised this, it ended up that they did not ship via priority mail, and therefore, no surprise that the dress never arrived prior to us departing for Mexico.  I was more than slightly anxious and angry about the situation, and my BM had to run around last minute to find a long champagne coloured dress.  Now begins the process of us attempting to get our money back from the unprofessional company with absolutely awful customer service!  Thank you so much to all the brides on this site who offered me suggestions and helped search for alternate dresses during this stressful time!!!

Part of my BM’s thank you present were lovely Swarovski crystal earrings I purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MARTALILY).

The Boys

The boys rented their tuxes from Moores- BLACK by Vera Wang Two Button Notch Lapel in Grey.  My groom purchased his tie and all the pocket squares from http://www.bows-n-ties.com/.

Flowers

I fell in love with a picture of an all-white bouquet containing roses and tulips.  For my bridesmaids, I wanted a bouquet of white roses.

My bouquet on the actual day was not as full as in the picture, but it was still nice.

My groom’s boutonniere contained one white rose and one white tulip.  The groomsmen wore a single white rose, as did the dads.  This picture was the inspiration for my FI’s bout…

We ordered mini white rose corsages for our moms.

Save The Dates & Invitations

I accidentally found The Paper Tree in Edmonton one day as I was driving by in the area.  So glad I did! Quality and personally designed products and great service at the cheapest prices I’ve seen.

Our Save The Dates…We wanted to get our guests excited about a DW.

Our invitations…I think they did a great job of incorporating my theme of Beach Elegance with our colours of ivory, gold and champagne.

Wedding Website

I used Wedding Wire to create our website.  I thought that for free they had a great selection of templates, it was easy enough to use and personalize, and I appreciated that I could add music and use their wedding planning tools.

A screen shot of our website…