Merryme full review & pictures.

[MERRYME]

All in all no real complaints- some adjustments but no big deal. . The photog. has not sent me all of the pictures but here are some more.

 

The whole wedding party & guests (just over 100) arrived 3 days before the wedding in a chartered plane. Everyone had a great time traveling together. Airport arrival & transport to Todos Santos in rented bus & vans. A+

 

Immigration took a while but that is standard. B-

 

Welcome cocktail: Our whole party was received at Alegria Inn with a welcome cocktail hour- They provided as a surprise to us. Beer, margaritas, fish ceviche, salsa, chips & guacamole. Extraordinary and a wonderful surprise.!! A+++++++ This was wonderful as we had been traveling most of the day and most of us had only had snacks.

 

Spa Day: Day before the wedding- Just the girls around the pool with yummy snacks & drinks getting massages, manicures, & pedicures. A- (only because there was only one massage therapist for 10 of us and not all of us were able to get a massage until the next day) The guys took off to go Surfing all day.

 

Rehearsal Fiesta/dinner: Mexican fiesta; ton’s of fun and lot’s music- Sea food stuffed fish- fixed in a pit with stuffed clams and lobster. Beer & wine. Decorated with mexican blankets & papel picado it was an informal party around the pool and lasted until midnight. We used our ipod with our favorite music. A speaker dock was loaned to us by my coordinator. Everyone enjoyed the novelty of the food fixed in the pit. It was excellent. A+

 

 

Wedding Day:

 

 

I had mentioned in a previous post that my family is very catholic and that we had opted to invite our “Padre†to do a blessing on the beach. This because I wanted a beach wedding not a church wedding and I didn’t want to deal with all of the things that were required by the church to get married in a catholic ceremony. We opted for the blessing because I wanted the grandmas to be happy and my mom was after me to get married correctly by the church.

 

So... long story short. In the couple of days before the wedding my “padre“ made friends with the local “padre†( with my grandma’s help). So permission (with a special donation made by my grandma) was given for my “padre†to officiate a mass where the blessing was to take place. NOT an official wedding but a blessing in the church. BOY was my grandma HAPPY. So we had to adjust EVERYTHING because now I had to get ready earlier and everyone had to show up to the church and then go to the beach for the civil ceremony. Not to mention that we had to think about decor for the church. My coordinator came up with a great idea with galvanized buckets and flowers. She was able to get extra flowers shipped the day before the wedding !! AND she also used the same flowers at the beach so it tied everything together. A+++++++

 

I’m actually happy that we ended up doing this as it made my family happy and it was a really wonderful moment. We even got to place a special flower offering before the Virgin Mary. This is a tradition in Mexico. I loved being able to take pictures at the church!! A

 

Civil Ceremony:

At the beach. Very casual and laid back & very private we were the only people on a very long and deserted beach! . My DIY project (huppa) did not turn out like I wanted. It was short ... I didn’t take into consideration that the poles had to be buried in the sand. It was also windy and so the fabric did not stay like I wanted it to. BUT looking back it really didn’t look that bad.

 

My coordinator had the Galvanized buckets with flowers hanging from small poles in the sand Forman an isle. Since I wanted the ceremony to be informal I opted for no chairs but we did have white fabric on the sand so people could sit if they wanted to. Everything looked great. Everyone was very happy. Especially when two whales started jumping and playing. It was a wonderful ceremony. A++

 

NEGATIVES: It was windy and it got chilly very quickly. Plus since we had the church blessing we had to move back the civil ceremony at the beach by 15 minutes and those 15 minutes could have been used for pictures !! It got dark quick.

 

Reception:

 

Gorgeous- paper lanterns everywhere as well as candles in paper bags and candles on the tables. Everything looked fabulous. A+

 

Food: VERY YUMMY A+

Appetizer: 3 stations

Shrimp Ceviche & chips

Fresh ranch cheese, tomato & basil

Star fruit, mango, pomegranate salad

 

Alegria Salad: Plated & served on the tables

Organic greens with papaya, red onion, nuts - balsamic & olive oil

 

Buffet dinner:

Diabla Brochettes: Shrimp & lobster or beef brochettes cooked on the BBQ with a diabla sauce.

Mango fish

Rice

2 Vegetable dishes

3 salsas

home made flower tortillas

corn tortillas

 

Cake: 10 two tier chocolate cakes decorated with roses & rose petals. To die for. LOVED THEM!! A++++++

 

 

Midnight Tamales & buñuelos with hot chocolate & coffee- Kalua optional BIG, BIG HIT

Tamales were:

Chicken with green sauce

Beef with red sauce

Sweet Corn & raisin

 

Buñuelos are a traditional Christmas sweet - made by deep frying flower tortillas and sprinkling with sugar. Kind of like a very thin fry bread. VERY GOOD.

 

Music: 15 piece band & mariachi - Peninsular - very good worth the money. They played salsa, merengue, etc.. They had everyone dancing . During their breaks we played our ipod. It was perfect.

 

Next day - breakfast & brunch buffet for everyone as most people were leaving that day.

 

Most of our guests only stayed for 3 days but our whole family stayed for 2 weeks to celebrate Xmas & new years together. It was a wonderful and very happy time. After everyone left we stayed and basically relaxed & enjoyed ourselves for 2 weeks.

 

I can’t say enough about the friendly town & how wonderful the people are. My coordinator is a saint! She is wonderful and I would definitely recommend her to anyone. She was willing to roll with the punches and put up with my grandma and was able to make everyone very comfortable & happy. A+++

 

[MERRYME]

[MERRYME]

[MERRYME]

[A10CalGal]

Oh yay! I've been wondering about you & when we were going to hear all the details. Thanks for the thorough review. Everything looks amazing - you & your hubby make a gorgeous couple. Congrats!!!!

[RAENJAY]

Congrats! Everything looks beautiful, and you two both look so happy.

[Christine]

so so so beautiful. I think your altered ceremony really worked out well, the pictures turned out great.

[Sarah]

Yay! Congratulations! Your pics are just gorgeous and it sounds like things turned out well for you. You were a beautiful bride:) Thanks for the thorough review!

[destinationbride07]

GORGEOUS! YOu look stunning...everything looks stunning!

[EDYTA]

CONGRATS!!!!! ur pics are beautiful and u made a stunning bride...sry i might have missed this but what resort this u stay at? also which church was ur blessing at? im going through all the paper work to get married at the catholic church in san jose and its driving me crazy...it's so important to my parents that i get married in a catholic church (they r very religious as ur family) but i agree it is such a hassel grrrrrrrrr