June11bride's Riviera Maya Planning Journal!!

[june11bride]

What would a planning page be without a thank you to all the people I “borrowed†ideas from!! I definitely cannot credit every person who has helped me or who I have stolen ideas from, because of the amount of time I have spent on this forum for the past year! Thank you to everyone, you are all amazing people.

 

The Proposal:

We started dating in 2006. We knew right away it was something special and moved in together 3 months into our relationship. I had never lived with a guy before but it wasn’t much of a shock. I feel like it was perfect for us and definitely the right move. We wanted to spend our days together and be as close as possible. I couldn’t imagine not living with him. I’m surprised it took us 3 months!

We started talking about getting married early. We hadn’t even been together that long. However, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting!! I knew it was going to happen and never got mad or worried that it wasn’t going to happen, but I was still wondering what was taking him so long! I had told him the type of ring I wanted as well as not to do it on a special occasion because it would be too “obvious.†HOWEVER, on every special occasion, I ALWAYS thought, maybe he WILL do it on a special occasion because I’m NOT expecting it!! Lol. Finally, my proposal came on our first trip to Cancun in 2009. He said he had the ring for almost a year and was just waiting for the perfect time!! It was amazing!! He had been carrying it around in the back of our car! I remember one time he left his tote bag sitting in the car rental shop in Cancun on that trip(like he does) and then FLIPPED out which is not like him. I didn’t understand why it was so important…he got it back. But I then later learned the ring was in there!!

 

The first thing we did was pick a resort. We were back in Cancun for a friend’s wedding and had already decided to have a destination wedding. We both have small families and mine are from all over Canada and the US so they would have to travel anyway. Plus I LOVE the idea of a beach wedding. Also, when I started planning out a “regular†wedding it just didn’t feel like my own. We spend hours on the computer researching resorts (I didn’t know about BDW yet!). We finally decided on Barcelo Riviera Maya. It is AMAZING. It has 5 resorts in 1. It is the most beautiful resort I have ever seen. Since we were already in Cancun, we were able to convince the guards at the entrance to let us in for a tour. Gabriela met with us and popped us on a golf cart and showed us around!! Knowing how busy these WCs are, that was extremely amazing of her!! I’m glad I got to see my resort but I’m also glad I haven’t spent a great deal of time there (only about 20 mins) so it will all be a great new experience for us.

We are big travellers. We have been to Cancun/Riviera Maya quite a bit, so that’s how we decided to have our wedding there. We were just comfortable with it. However, when thinking about a honeymoon, we decided we want to go somewhere we have never been before. So like the crazies we are, after a week at Barcelo we are flying off to the Dominican Republic to Punta Cana for our honeymoon! I am so excited to just lounge around and enjoy my soon to be husband!! Our resort is adults only which I’m also excited for!!

 

The Dress!!

It only took me one shopping trip to pick out my dress. I knew that although I’m having a DW, I didn’t want t compromise on the dress. I didn’t want anything huge and fancy but I didn’t want anything too simple. I found the perfect dress. To be honest though, I never felt that “moment†or teared up, but I’ve come to realize that I think it’s just who I am. I do know that I feel amazing in it (especially now that I’ve been working out!) and it is exactly what I wanted. I didn’t have the best dress choosing experience. I brought too many people with me and my FIs mom overwhelms me (she just has a LOT of energy and opinions and isn’t afraid to let them out).

BM dresses:

We apparently got our BM dresses a little late. When I was finally able to get together my BMs, the shop ladies were worried they wouldn’t arrive in time (who knew). I had to pay extra. I had to pay for everything too. It sure cost me a LOT and I’m not feeling that much appreciation, but whatever. I love how they turned out!

 

 

Groom suit:

Here is the suit that my FI is going to be wearing, but with a white shirt and a blue striped tie that matches the BM dresses. The groomsmen are going to just wear the pants, a white shirt, and a boutonniere.

 

 

Vistaprint:

One of the first things I actually did after starting the wedding planning process, and after we had picked the date, and after I joined BDW was start ordering free stuff from vistaprint. I think I went overboard!! I printed out: hats, pens, sticky notes, notebooks, menu cards, tags, pamphlets, information packages, keychains, tote bags, and a bunch of other things I can’t think of at the moment. I think I made about 25-30 orders through vistaprint over the last year!! But I have a tote bag for everyone with my wedding date and Riviera Maya printed on it. I made personalized ones for my BMs with their names and a nice uploaded picture. I became a little obsessed but I love what I got. I was able to make personalized touches to my wedding I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to.

 

 

Favours:

This was a hard one. I had a really hard time coming up with favours because I am cheap and we had already ordered so much for the OOT bags that I didn’t really know how much I should do for favours. I went to Michaels and decided on fans. I decided it wasn’t enough to just do the fans as they were, so I personalized them. I used a small stencil and got to work. I will tie them with ribbon and have them waiting on either the chairs at the ceremony or the tables at the reception. I haven’t decided this yet.

 

 

Flowers:

It took us a LONG time to come up with our wedding colors. In fact, the fans were painted with a color I originally chose for the wedding but changed my mind to what the BM dresses are now. We wanted an accent color and chose orange and a bit of pink, and these come out in the flowers.

 

 

Ceremony site

The ceremony will be on one end of the resort called the Coral beach. This beach is rocky and has palm trees so people tend not to spend time on this beach so it will be nice and private. We chose orange chair sashes because the blue they had was different than the blue I wanted.

 

Hair and makeup:

I don’t have a lot of hair so I am very worried about what my hair is going to look like. I do have clip in extensions but they can only do so much!! These are some ideas I have for my hair and makeup:

 

Cake topper:

 

BM jewellery:

 

OOT Bags:

 

I think that is it!! We have  4 days until we start driving down to the airport we fly out of!! I am getting so excited and am finally at the point where I feel like I have things under control and organized. I highly recommend making a packing list from the ones found on here for yourself if you start getting stressed because it will show you right in front of you what you need to do and bring with you. I have had dreams about forgetting things like the rings and the dress so having it on a list makes me feel a lot better!

 

Thanks for everything ladies!!

 

 

 

 

[jszy10]

SO exciting!!! congrats hun, everything looks great!!

[dominiqueamber]

Beautiful Wedding! I love the hair picture and what you did with vistaprint

[Maritza919]

Great job planning! Make sure you upload pics when you get back

[janette34]

Great job!!

[erinbrooke124]

Looks amazing!  Yay for June brides!!!

[J-me]

Congrats and great job! I esp. love the bouquet pic!

[JayKay]

Everything looks great! Thanks for sharing!

[Mel2010]

Looks awesome so far!! We have the same cake topper!!! LOL

[steph2011]

Congratulations and best of luck on your big day.  Please keep us posted after the wedding!