Lindsay's Las Caletas Wedding Pics!

[TA Lindsay]

Early Departure to Caletas

 

The morning of the wedding started out really early for us. Our hotel was a 1 hour drive away from the Vallarta Adventures offices (and there is a 1 hour time difference), so we had to leave our hotel at 5:45am to get to Vallarta Adventures by 9:00am. We made it there with no troubles, and went and got our boarding passes for the trip to Caletas. The 7 of us boarded the boat in Nuevo Vallarta, shortly after 9 and we were off to Puerto Vallarta to pick up more passengers. With us, we had my dress, the bridesmaid’s dresses, the grooms and groomsmen’s clothes, and my parents clothes for the wedding. They have a closet on board the boat where you can store your dresses so they don’t get wet (or blow away!) I told the girls that they would be able to shower and get ready at Caletas once we arrived, so we all just rolled out of bed into our swimsuits and stayed that way all day! No one bothered with hair or anything really.

 

Everyone on the boat:

 

The boat ride is 1 hour long, and during the day the boat crew puts on a little show for you and they have coffee, juice and water and fruit and pastries on board.

 

Once we arrived at Las Caletas, Nicole took us all directly up to the bridal suite again so we could store our stuff. It is very safe up there and we left our bags up there all day with no problems. Once we got up to the suite the girls were blown away. They couldn’t believe how beautiful and what a perfect atmosphere for the bridal party to get ready in. The Jacuzzi was finished and ready for us to use! My MOH and my dad and I went down to the bar to get some drinks and a fruit plate for everyone, while my other bridesmaid ironed the guy’s clothes. My mom and my aunt hung out up at the suite relaxing. I should also mention that there is a small fridge up in the suite which is stocked with bottled water, so that was a nice touch as well.

 

The Bridal Suite:

Bathroom Sink:

 

Bed:

 

Sitting Area:

 

Jacuzzi!

 

The Dual Shower:

 

 

Shortly after we arrived at the suite, Nicole came up with our flowers. They were absolutely breathtaking! I had no idea what they would look like, all I said was that I wanted tropical flowers, so when they came up, I had no idea what to expect…they did a great job!

 

Flowers:

My Bouquet:

 

Bridesmaid Bouquets:

 

Centrepiece:

 

Mother's Corsages:

 

 

We all stayed up in the bridal suite, tucked away, enjoying the breeze and the sounds of the jungle, until it was time to head down for lunch. Lunch was delicious and included chicken, ribs, salads, pasta, paella, and a huge assortment of desserts. After lunch we wandered down the beach and watched the sea lion playing in the ocean, then headed over to where the ceremony would be so that my mom and aunt could see where it would be set up. After that, we headed back up to the suite and filled the Jacuzzi and the four of us sat in there relaxing for about an hour. (We actually started filling the Jacuzzi before lunch, then it ran out of hot water, so we shut it off and then finished filling it up after lunch. Talk about being in a dream! We were all sitting in/around the Jacuzzi and all these butterflies were flying around all over the place, it was absolutely beautiful! It was so perfect!

 

After the Jacuzzi, we took turns showering and then my aunt did my hair, each of the girls did their own hair and makeup, and they looked great! I did my own makeup as well. There are lots of plugins by the mirrors, so you can bring your blow dryer, curling iron, etc, it should be no problem.

 

Soon it was time to get into my dress! Once we were all dressed, we took a few pics around the suite and the Jacuzzi and we had the champagne that was left for us up in the bridal suite….then we had nothing to do, but watch and wait for the boat to arrive.

 

Ok, that's all for tonight, I will post the rest of the review tomorrow!!!

Nite ladies!

 

Lindsay

[starchild]

I love your reviews Lindsay...I keep tuning in for more! You are getting me so excited ;o)

[LCBride2007]

That gives me such a great idea of how the day will go - thank you so much! And we are debating NOT doing that site visit the week before we're there. At this point, I wasn't sure what the use would be, and I almost like the idea of it being a surprise to me as well!

 

So were the fire dancers worth it to you? I want to get these - but just wanted to get your opinion.

 

LOVELY pictures - thanks again for sharing!

[TA Lindsay]

Ann, we thought the fire dancers were worth it, mainly because we don't have a lot of dancers in our group, so it was nice to have something to break up the evening a bit. We did our first dance, then the father-daughter dance, and then we had the fire dancers come in and do their show (about a 20 minute show) and then we had more music and dancing and socializing after that. It was just right for us.

We also didn't have any other entertainment (mariachi or trio or even a dj) so this just added that extra special touch!

I will get my Hubby to try to post the video we have of the fire dancers on the net somewhere so you can get an idea of what the show is like! I will post a link once he gets it on there!

 

Lindsay

[LCBride2007]

Great to know - thanks, Lindsay!

[Jessalyn]

Lindsay~ Your wedding was beautiful. I love the location and your flowers were great, very tropical and pretty. The letter your mom wrote was very touching. I'm so glad it was such a wonderful, special day for you and your husband! Congratulations!

[TA Lindsay]

Ok, here's the last parts of my review:

 

Thanks for all your comments everyone! I'm glad you enjoy the pics!

 

Group Boat Ride

 

Because our hotel was 1 hour away from Nuevo Vallarta, where everyone would need to catch the boat, Nicole was able to arrange for a bus to pick up our group at our hotel, and bring everyone to the Vallarta Adventures office. The bus was on time, and everything went well with that.

 

The boat was a little late returning to Nuevo Vallarta from Puerto Vallarta, so they were late leaving for Caletas. I’m not sure if it was because it was rough, or why, but the group ended up being about ½ an hour late, maybe not that much late. The boat ride was good, a little rough and a little wet for some folks (don’t sit at the front of the boat!) but everyone made out ok. The crew on the boat was great, Eddie got to drive the boat (only for a couple of minutes to take a picture though!) and the service was great!

 

Once the group arrived at Las Caletas, the guys had to make a mad dash for the area where they were to get changed, and the photographer ran up the hill to take some pictures of the girls and I up at the suite. The next thing I knew, my dad came back up to the suite to walk us all down the hill to the beach for the ceremony!!!

 

 

 

 

[TA Lindsay]

Ceremony

 

We all walked down together, left our shoes at a bench half way down the hill and walked the rest of the way barefoot. The ceremony site was absolutely breathtaking. It is exactly how it looked in the pictures. It was just so weird to see it there, in real life, with all of our guests waiting for me to walk down the aisle. At the top of the last set of stairs to go down to the beach, Nicole straightened my train, and off we went. They had some little glass candleholders down each step on the way down and my train caught the first couple and they smashed, it was kind of funny, on the video, my grand entrance is accompanied with smashing glass!

 

All I could focus on was Eddie, I just held onto my dad’s arm and looked at Ed and did my best not to cry, he looked so handsome and was just beaming, I’ll never forget watching him watch me walk down the aisle. It was such a beautiful moment.

 

Our ceremony was fairly short, but was beautiful and there were a lot of criers (I did my best not to bawl through the whole thing, and did pretty darn good!) (We are a sappy bunch) We had the sand ceremony, complete with the sand getting stuck in the makeshift funnel-leaf and me dumping the sand all over the table!! We also had the hand blessing, which I think is just beautiful as well. It was just a lovely ceremony. It was really windy on the beach that day, so the wind kept catching in the mike, so it was kind of difficult for the guests to hear, but I think it was ok, for the most part. Our officiant was Lucie Aubert. (It was supposed to have been Tamara Bradley, but she was very ill the day of, and Lucy had to fill in for her, and she did a great job for having to do it at the last minute!

 

Oh yes, I wanted to make a special mention about our palm archway, as some folks were commenting on how it was such a cool idea…we didn’t ask for the arch or order it or pay anything extra for it, it is just part of the basic package…some folks do the bamboo chuppa etc, but we just wanted beach, so the palm arch was a bonus!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[TA Lindsay]

Photographer

 

Roberto Aceves was our photographer, and he is such a nice man!!! We had such a blast working with him, and he got a lot of really good photos! We were very impressed! Our budget only allowed for the smallest package offered through Vallarta Adventures – which was supposed to be 25 prints and 100 negatives on CD, but Roberto ended up giving us 75 prints and 356 on CD – at no extra charge!!!! We gave him one of our chocolate bar favours and we ended up tipping him $500 pesos when he dropped off our pictures. He was very touched when we gave him a tip, he was almost in tears. He was so great to work with! He is going to be publishing our pictures and story in a local English newspaper in Puerto Vallarta. He said it would probably be in the paper in about another week or so. Once it is in, he is going to mail us a few copies!! We were excited about that!

 

Food

 

While we were having pictures done, appetizers and cocktails were served to our guests. I can’t say how good or bad the appetizers were, because we never got the chance to try them, we were too busy getting photos done! I think a few people were really enjoying them, however, from what I heard from my brother.

 

Dinner was great!!! The food was so good! I had several people say to me after the wedding that it was one of the best meals they had while in PV. There was steak, chicken, fish, pasta, salads, guacamole, potatoes, vegetables, and so much more I can’t remember right now! Dinner is buffet-style, but Nicole did say that if we wanted, she would get her staff to serve Ed and I… we just chose to go through the buffet line, because it wasn’t a big deal to us, and I can be picky!

 

The desserts were pretty good too, I never had any dessert (see: Cake) but I have had the desserts at Las Caletas before, and in general, they are good.

 

Bartenders/Wait Staff

 

Everyone was so great, very friendly and helpful.

 

Cake

 

OMG!!!! This was THE best cake I have ever had in my entire life I think!!!! (even when it was smashed up my nose!) We had the white cake, decorated with the fresh flowers, and honestly, it was soooo delicious! We had a ton of it left, which Nicole put into containers for us to take home, BUT, unfortunately, my cousin was carrying them by the lid of the container, and not the bottom part, and they both went splat onto the ground after we got off the boat. I almost cried, it was so good, but I figured we didn’t need the extra calories anyway….’sigh. I’m glad I had a piece of it before we left! We weren’t going to get a cake originally, but then we decided that a wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without a cake!!!!!

 

Dance

 

We brought our Ipod loaded with songs for our dance, as we decided against hiring the DJ. There just weren’t that many dancers in our group, so we didn’t feel the need to have a DJ. We had a wide variety of songs, plus the cruise director ended up playing a bunch of music from his CD’s, so we were fine. Everything went well and people spent most of the time socializing and taking it all in. I didn’t want the evening to end, it seems as though we were just having our first dance, and then it was time to go home! I can’t believe how fast it goes by!

 

I wish we would have considered extending our time there, by at least 1 more hour, it would have been nice to have at least a little more time at Caletas. I would recommend it, because it is too late once you are already there!

 

Fire Dancers

 

The fire dancers were well worth the money. The show was soooo cool! Everyone thought my dress was going to go up in flames, but it was fine, no problems! I really enjoyed the show, and wish they could have performed even longer! It definitely gave that last “WOW†moment, I think our guests were blown away by it! We even managed to get a video of the entire fire dancers show! It was cool!

 

Nicole

 

All I can say is wow, that girl is organized!!! I wish I had her job, it would be so awesome. She was so great and so helpful with everything throughout the entire planning process. She did an amazing job, and there is no way that we could ever thank her enough for making all of our dreams come true. Everything was absolutely beautiful and perfect, everyone had an amazing time, and they will be talking about our wedding for years to come and it is all because of all the hard work she did planning and organizing everything for our special day.

[TA Lindsay]

In Summary…

 

The entire experience still feels like a dream to me, it was just too perfect to be a reality! Everyone back here at home has been blown away at how beautiful everything was, and they are all wishing they would have come along with us! It was the most amazing, breathtaking experience of my life, and if we could do it all over again tomorrow, we would, absolutely, without a doubt. The entire day feels just like a dream. You honestly feel like you are the only people on the beach with the jungle backdrop and ocean foreground. It is amazing. We never know another soul was there, yet, they had the Rhythms of Night tour/show there. We never noticed the boats come in that evening, nor them leaving. We didn’t hear anything from the show either. It was amazing. It is weird to think that two days after our wedding, there was another wedding and yet another one the day after that. It was like it was our very own private tropical hideaway.

 

We returned to Las Caletas on our last night in Puerto Vallarta, on the Rhythms of the Night Tour. We walked down to the beach where our ceremony was held, looked up at the full moon and just remembered the evening two weeks earlier. Las Caletas will be a place where, God willing, we will return every year that we possibly can on our anniversary. It truly holds a special place in our hearts.

 

This was the trip and wedding that you only see in the movies. If anyone is considering a destination wedding, I would tell them to DO IT!!!! (of course, I don’t have to tell you ladies that!) Never in a million years could I have asked for anything more beautiful or perfect.

 

Eddie already wants to reserve Caletas for February 14th, 2012 for a renewal of vows on our 5th anniversary….LOL, he’s so cute!

 

Anyway, I may have missed some things, or left out some details that you were wanting to know, so please just ask, I will answer as much as I possibly can!

 

Lindsay

PS: Sorry about all the posts, thought it would be a bit easier to read!