aventura spa palace

[marymason]

Hi just wondering since you are getting the free 7 night stay are you still eligilble for the 1500 vacation dollars.

 

Thanks Mary

[Steph3486]

We took the "traditional ceremony" option. We walked in, the judge welcomed us and said a few words about marriage, welcomed us to the riviera maya and read us a Mayan poem, asked us if we were both there to get married, and proceeded with the paperwork. The paperwork involved us signing marriage certificates four times each w/ thumbprints, and once we'd signed everything the judge called up the witnesses one at a time (we used our parents) to sign all the papers as well. Once they were done signing the papers the judge pronounced us husband and wife, had us kiss and the exit began. It was only about a 15-20 minute ceremony.

 

After walking out, we hung around outside the gazebo for a couple minutes alone and had a champagne toast and our guests came out to visit with us.

 

From there, we went off with the photographer and had the dinner about 60minutes later so our guests just loitered around until then. I'm sure you already know Wilma lets you pick the dinner time- personally, I would do like a two hour gap if you have a photographer because we were definitely really short on time with only an hour to take after ceremony pictures.
 

Originally Posted by angelov321 

Does anyone know what the sequence of events for a civil ceremony is? I have asked Wilma 2x and she doesnt seem to understand what Im asking of her. Im trying to get my programs together and dont know how to add everything.

[jszy10]

Do you still do the traditional ring/vow ceremony!?!?!  The "in sickness and health, in good times and bad..." part!?

 

Am I the only one that wishes we didn't have to sign papers and do fingerprinting in the middle of the wedding?  I struggled with the thought of it for awhile and then just chalked it up to the experience of a destination wedding.

[Steph3486]

Definitely no "to have and to hold" stuff. All I had to say was yes (when askedif I was there to get married). I'm sure you could ask the WC if she can add the "traditional" vows in? I never checked. Honestly, I never wanted a real wedding anyways (i was all for the courthouse) but the husband insisted we have a wedding so I just let the WC/Judge pick everything.

 

 

Originally Posted by jszy10 

Do you still do the traditional ring/vow ceremony!?!?!  The "in sickness and health, in good times and bad..." part!?

 

Am I the only one that wishes we didn't have to sign papers and do fingerprinting in the middle of the wedding?  I struggled with the thought of it for awhile and then just chalked it up to the experience of a destination wedding.

[jszy10]

Wow, that's good to know.  I DO want the "I do's".  That is my favorite part.  I will defnitely ask her to see what we can do...once I get a WC??

[ktrant]

I totally felt the way you ladies are feeling when I was planning our wedding. We told are friends right away that we would be having a destination wedding and they had about 6 months to save and book (I had to plan our wedding around football season). Our reasoning for having a destination wedding was simply to keep it intimate. We both come from big families and it doesn't help that my husband is in the television business and locally he knows way too many people for us to even think about having a wedding here in Houston. Our list would have easily been over 700 people and I didn't really feel like going broke in the process of getting married. So we decided a destination wedding best suited us.

We sent out 200 invitations to our closest family and friends. We knew some wouldn't attend and we were okay with it. We knew it would be out of some people’s price range, but this was one of the only resorts that could fit our large party. We started looking at flights right when we booked the resort and they were only $200...WELL...if you don't book early the flights will make the package price even worse!! We had about 20 guests get this price and everyone else paid well over $400 for airfare. SO tell your guests to at least book their flights early!!! Prices will go up and WON'T come down. We kept waiting for them to drop and well...nope! A few procrastinators paid $650 per ticket just for airfare.

We were expecting 75-100 guests and well, a few months into it, we had only about 40 booked. I was freaking out and then just decided that I wasn’t going to stress out over it. I sent a couple of follow up emails to all the guests giving them flight prices and when they say that they were going up, they all started booking. My husband and I decided that quantity wasn’t important to us, we would rather have quality ;-) and quality is what we got. People we thought would definitely be there couldn’t make it and the people we least expected were the first to book. You just never know!!

My husband had one friend from elementary school that was pretty low on funds and started selling personal items so that he and his wife could make it. He told my husband that he wouldn’t miss our big day and they didn’t. He definitely got his money worth and let’s just say...they partied hard!! So the point I’m trying to make is that your true friends know how important this day is for you and if they are your true friends they will do anything and everything to make it.

We ended up having 89 guests and it was important to us that they all had a chance to enjoy our wedding but also make a vacation out of the trip too. That’s why we decided to have our wedding on a Friday. We had planned our pool party and welcome dinner on Thursday and the rest of the weekend we wanted them to get out and do the things that they wanted to do. A majority of our guests stayed a week and for those few that had to be back at work on Monday. They flew in Wednesday or Thursday and left on Sunday. Since we had the wedding on Friday, they were able to relax on Saturday and go home refreshed instead of hung-over. We booked over 150 nights at the hotel.

I had learned early on in life that I needed to surround myself with friends that bring value to my life and get rid of the ones that don’t. My husband and I combined had 25 family members attend and the other 64 were friends. I have to say we are truly blessed to have such amazing family and friends. It was such a wonderful weekend and I truly feel that if we only had 20 guests, we would’ve had just as much fun.

 

Originally Posted by sxcT 

Hi Ladies!!!  Well I finally decided to go back thru and read this entire thread.  Very informative.  What sucks is that my work blocks a lot of things so most of the photos and personal photo links are blocked so I'll have to look at those once I get home.  But I definitley learned some things from reading this. 

 

Just a little observation...

As of right now we have no idea how many ppl are coming - not even a guess.  So I am so worried about not having enough nights booked to do a cocktail hour and private function.  I was originally under the impression that the "dinner for 35 guests" meant I could have a dinner reception anywhere.  Well from reading this thread I realized that is not the case and that dinner meant in one of the restaurants that can accommodate 35 guests.  If I want a reception/private function (which we definitely will be having) I have to pay out of pocket.  WOW that was a shocker.  We kinda based our budget on having that included and now I am worried I'd have to fork out money if I don't meet the min. 

 

And a little rant...

Also, when I see some of you ladies say you have 50, 60, 80+ guests booked I get so jealous....especially when its months in advance.  We really don't have that many ppl that we are inviting and most of our friends are procrastinators and very low on funds.  We are giving them over a year to plan and save for this but I think when it comes down to it everyone is going to put it off until the last minute and then have excuses for this and that.  I don't want to have to hunt ppl down and beg them and convince them to go.  I do that all the time on our yearly vacations and its not something I want to do for my wedding.  But I know that is part of the deal when you decide to do a DW.  I think my issue is that I know I would go above and beyond for my friends and do whatever it takes but I never feel that is reciprocated.  Kinda opens my eyes to the company I keep. = (   Well I just hope that our friends and family surprise us by booking early and staying a couple of nights.  I really want this to be the most memorable time for not only us but for them as well.

 

Thanks for listening!!

 

 

 

[ktrant]

I didn't want to have to do blood work, sign papers and do the fingerprinting at the ceremony so we got married at the JP office before we left. My uncle, who is a minister, married us in Mexico. We acknowledge our wedding date as the day we got married in Mexico 6.11.10.

 

Originally Posted by jszy10 

Do you still do the traditional ring/vow ceremony!?!?!  The "in sickness and health, in good times and bad..." part!?

 

Am I the only one that wishes we didn't have to sign papers and do fingerprinting in the middle of the wedding?  I struggled with the thought of it for awhile and then just chalked it up to the experience of a destination wedding.

[jszy10]

We discussed that option and decided to go ahead with everything that goes along with being married in Mexico.  The only thing I'm starting to worry about now is that I want the exchange of the rings and the "you may kiss the bride" part.  I think I would be upset if we didn't do some of the traditional things.

[jszy10]

Kim

 

What was the schedule of your day like?  I am getting married in June and just recently decided to move my wedding from 4 to 5 because I wanted our pictures to be closer to sunset.

[adales]

I am also debating getting married at the courthouse beforehand.  I think that we are going to because I don't want to have to worry about dealing with Mexico if for some reason we need our original marriage certificate.  Plus this way we dont have to get our blood drawn and all of that stuff.  My only question is... Did it make the ceremony feel less special because you were technically already married?  The only people we plan on telling are our parents if we do decide to do it beforehand.