Nylalany's Reviews Part 2 - Al Cielo Wedding - Stuff for Wedding Day (Riviera Maya)

[nylalany]

Not sure if this part is more of a planning type review, but this is stuff relating to the wedding day, so I figured I'd continue with this as it is relevant to my experience. Maybe I’ll post a more detailed post about the individual aspects of some of these things (like the stuff I made) in other sections of the forum eventually, but I figured this is a good start.

 

ATTIRE FOR WEDDING DAY:

Wedding Dress - Cymbeline Paris "Akio" design

 

Purchased from The Montclair Collection (Santa Monica, CA)

 

I had a love-hate relationship with the dress after I picked it, as I loved it for its uniqueness and amazing design and quality, but it wasn’t what I had pictured getting in my mind (and I felt pressured to buy it due to having less than 6 mo. till my wedding) Well, when it finally arrived, and I had the under-layer A-line tailored (by the in-store tailor) to be more fitted against me, I love love loved it, and I got a zillion compliments at the wedding. People kept asking how I managed to find a couture dress, was it really a wedding dress, did I get it at a bridal store, etc., and told me I looked like I belonged at a magazine shoot (which is probably an exaggeration, but nice to hear). They also expected a lot from me (since I used to be more daring fashion wise) and they felt I found something that reflected me well. You’ll see more photos of me in the dress when I get my professional photos I’m sure. Sorry to be so gleeful about it, but after feeling so ambivalent, I was happy with my change of heart and guest response. Best of all, my hubby, who is so not into dresses and lace and fashion and all that (he likes me in jeans best) liked the dress and thought I looked beautiful in it, which for him is saying a lot (in terms of the dress part – he claims I always look beautiful even when I’m in glasses and nasty sweats haha, the liar).

 

Note to Mexicana Air passengers: I had to stuff it in the overhead baggage compartment b/c Mexicana Air claimed they don't have anywhere to hang anything, and I never got around to getting it steamed or pressed, but it seemed fine as it was!

 

Note to Brides wearing wedges the sand: I had my dress hemmed on the bottom while wearing my wedges, and I still was tripping over it because the wedges sank in the soft fluffy sand – so if you are going with wedges, get your dress trimmed a bit shorter than usual.

 

Shoes - Wedges from Steve Madden, which were uncharacteristically comfortable!

 

 

Jewelry - Bought my mini-sea-pearl drop cluster earrings from an amazing and sweet jewelery designer next door to Montclair Bridal. If you live in the area, go check his stuff out! (the earrings look better on – you can’t really see the gold, it just makes the pearls pop a little)

 

 

 

Wedding Ring - Well I had a hard time finding something to go with the engagement ring we had designed for me based on an art deco design:

 

 

So 1 week before the wedding, I was in for a last minute wedding dress fitting, and walked down Montana Ave. to yet another jewelery store and found these really cool modern-organic hammered white gold stackable rings with champagne diamonds and decided I should wear rings that I like for the rest of my life. Maybe it doesn't quite go with the platinum engagement ring, but oh well, that's why I have 2 hands! Anyhow, here they are:

 

 

We used just one of the plain ones for the ceremony, per Jewish tradition.

 

bra – I’d like to recommend NuBra, my new favorite undergarment!

 

Groom’s Suit – My hubby splurged on a designer suit and shirt since he is so freaking tall and the nice employees of Barney’s were so helpful…

 

A glimpse of the bride and groom outfits:

 

 

Ok, but I’m skipping ahead. Back on track –

 

MOH dress - I fell in love with this BCBG dress - that apparently Sarah Jessica Parker will be wearing in the Sex in the City movie while running around town- when looking for bridesmaids dresses back in January. At the time it was $350 and since we planned on buying the bridesmaids dresses for them, it seemed kind of steep. Additionally, all the bridesmaids have large breasts except one and complained that they wouldn’t be able to wear a bra with it. So a month before the wedding I found it on sale for $150 and wanted it for my rehearsal dinner but my breasts aren’t big enough to look good in it (I didn’t know about NuBra yet!). Then I figured, since it is stretchy jersey it would be perfect for my sister (MOH), who at the time of the wedding was 6 months pregnant with her 2nd child (. She hemmed it shorter to kind of go with the bridesmaids, though we agree maybe that was a mistake. Still, it looks good, and she didn’t complain about the bra issue (she wore an NuBra type thing too).

 

 

Bridesmaids’ Dresses - JCREW Sophia Silk Chiffon in Espresso – I gave the gals a choice of any dress in that fabric and color and they all picked the same one b/c it was the most flattering. I told them to wear brown sandals but they all went barefoot.

 

Bridesmaids’ Necklaces – In addition to the dresses, my gift to the - appetite stone, matches the MOH dress.

 

 

Groomsmen’s Outfits – As our gift to them, we got them white linen Banana Republic shirts, and wheat/beige (not tan) colored Nautica linen button front pants. We told them to wear brown sandals, which they did.

 

I don’t have any great group shots of the bridesmaids and groomsmen – I’m sure there will be some in the professional photos though, when they are ready, or I’ll add some later.

 

Flowergirl accessory – My close friend/cousin-in-law-by-marriage’s daughter was my flower girl. I got this little gift wrap pin flower to pin on her dress to match the color scheme.

 

[nylalany]

STUFF FOR WEDDING

 

I brought all the wedding stuff I lugged down with me from LA to Mexico to Al Cielo on Friday afternoon before the wedding, per my wedding coordinator, Donaji’s request. Donaji is the wedding coordinator we hired through Al Cielo and she works exclusively with Al Cielo. She was surprised and impressed by all I did – and believe me, I’m not sure I would have done it all without BDW inspiration!

 

Raffia Fans - 9 packages of a dozen 10†raffia fans from ziggosluau.com (cheapest deal I found) – I wrapped 100 raffia fan handles with either red or turquoise ribbon. People, it takes a long time to do 100 basically by yourself (one bridesmaid did 10). These great BDW projects may be aimed towards smaller weddings, but my guests appreciated the fans, which they used for shading their eyes mostly. I think they added some wonderful color to the ceremony setting, which I’ll show in part 3 of my review.

 

 

Welcome Programs - I hand-made 100 4-page (5.5x11) wedding programs for the wedding. As you may remember from my panic a couple days before I left, I started them a couple days before I left. Part of the reason for this is that my officiant, hubby, and I hadn’t finalized the ceremony until a few days before we left, and the other reason is that I kept waiting for Michaels to get the brown raffia string back in stock so that my idea of what I would make could be realized, but really, I should have at least done the layout earlier.

 

I used a 250 ct. pkg of off white card stock, 2 pkgs of Martha Stewart blue gem stickers (which inspired me to think of my design in the first place, randomly at Michaels), and a couple pkgs of raffia string. I used the Beau Rivage font in brown that matched my invitation font thanks to the amazing come-to-the-rescue Sarah for sending it to me in time for me to print the programs the day before I left!

 

Since the holes drilling in the programs wasn’t done until 8 PM on Wednesday, my hubby and I stayed up until 3 AM in our hotel room on Thursday night, our first night in Mexico, collating, tying ribbon, and sticking gems on the programs. It was worth it – they looked better than I expected!

 

 

Sand Dollar Placecards – Ok, yet another fiasco. I ordered 100 3†sand dollars. I printed, using the lovely Beau Rivage font, the names and table number of each individual guest, per Al Cielo’s request, on off-white labels, but figured I’d put the labels on the dark brown business cards on the flight down, and then tie them with red, turquoise, or brown ribbon (depending on meal choice), when I got down there, so that I transport the shells carefully.

 

Problem 1 – I printed on the wrong side of the label paper. Yes, I’m an idiot. So my friend was nice enough to stay up with us while we were doing the programs and use my brown pen (which I had luckily brought down to sign the welcome booklets personally, like PaulaV did, again, last minute) to write everyone’s name and table number on the correct side of the label.

 

Problem 2 – Tying ribbon between a sand dollar and a business card (which we had hole punched at home) takes a freaking long time. My hubby stayed up with me until 3 AM on Thursday, and then I stayed up until 4 AM finishing b/c I had too much anxiety to leave it til the next day.

 

Result, they were beautiful and I was happy (they would have been nicer printed, but oh well).

 

 

Pashminas – Ok, so Tlseege & Carly rock for dealing with the horrible FashionUnic folks, and I must give props to Angela aka cheese_diva for the To Have & To Hold, To Keep You From Cold logo/ribbon idea, which I completely stole. I wrapped 60 some brown and aqua pashminas with the opposite color ribbon and used 2 logo-stickers to seal them.

 

 

 

 

Ketubah – Newketubah.com: A

We ordered 1 personalized secular ketubah.

 

It is pretty pricey for a pretty simple design, but the design is refreshingly simple, modern, and pretty, and the wording was perfect for my and my hubby. We paid the rush fee and were able to get the Ketubah personalized and made in less than 3 weeks. Tsilli was very sweet and easy to work with when I wanted some spacing changes for the layout of the English wording.

 

Lyrebard - thanks a ton! for giving me the heads up about newketubah or else I may have gone without a ketubah altogether.

 

My videographer, who already is married and has a traditional ketubah, loved my ketubah so much that she bought another ketubah from Tsilli for her anniversary. A compliment if I’ve ever heard one!

[MarieSam]

Wow, everything in your wedding looked beautiful ~ I love the colors you used, and it looks like all your preparation paid off. And, you looked stunning. Congrats!!!!

 

I tried looking on ziggosluau.com and couldn't find the raffia fans ~ how much did you pay per dozen? Also where did you get your sand dollars from? They look great as place cards ~ I might steal that idea!! And did they smell when you purchased them? I've heard the starfish have a stinky odor to em, and was wondering if its the same for the sand dollars lol

 

Once again, Congrats ~ you and your hubby look like you had a wonderful wedding.

[arhoyaltres]

WHOA! Everything looked great. I absolutely LOVE the pashminas.

[melglnh2o]

Everything is gorgeous. Very well done!! Congrats.

[BarefootBride]

wow thanks for sharing! Your wedding sounds amazing!

[DanielleNDerek]

great stuff. I love cheese diva's pashmina saying. i've been trying to come up with something and that's perfect.

 

did you do your labels yourself?

[nylalany]

Yes, I bought a Fiskars large round n round hole punch. I printed my logo on white label paper, and then hole punched them out. HOWEVER, I would recommend doing a white logo like cheese_diva (check out her planning review) rather than a colored one like mine, b/c the hole punch left a little bit of uneven white edge around my label by tearing off the ink or something. I also did the labels for my candle tins the same way.

 

[nylalany]

(you can see the white more up close than in photos I guess)

[Yari]

Wow, everything looks amazing!