2013 & 2014 Iberostar Laguna Azul, Cuba Brides!

[jolene028]

I know I was noticing that... There really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of posting going on!! But seriously those cups are awesome... our travel agent sent out cups to everyone that booked with us, so they weren't "our" cups but everyone in the group had one so it was still pretty cool, and I didn't have to bring them down with me which was also awesome!

[csho]

That's pretty awesome Jolene! I didn't get them for everyone... cause that would just be too costly, but decided the girls would like them and use them so it would be fun! I think we're going to get the groomsmen engraved bubba mugs for their gift.

@@jolene028 how married life treating you?

[jolene028]

LOL @@csho that's funny so many people ask me this, honestly it is the same as it was before we got married we lived together so I think that we knew what we were in for... but no its good it still sounds a little foreign to me when Troy calls me his wife stuff like that but its pretty cool, we only have a few couple friends who are married so its like we are in a club!  

 

I think the engraved Bubba Keg idea is awesome!

[csho]

@@jolene028 My fiancé and I also live together and own a house together, so I don't really think its going to change too much either! haha Mark has called me his wife on occasion because he doesn't like the word fiancé haha. He told me he was at the grtocery store and the guy asked if he had an airmiles card and he said no wife has that haha and he came home and told me... lol it was pretty funny.

 

Did you change your name once you got married? I don't plan on it, but am contemplating adding his name onto mine... but I don't know if I want to be bothered with it... is that bad lol!

[alley08]

Hey guys. Long time no talk. How is everyone? How is planning?

 

I finally have some time to post. Sooo.......the wedding was absolutely perfect. The weather was just gorgeous (all thanks to Matt's dad). I wasn't nervous at all. The day of the wedding the girls and I went for breakfast and then sat around the pool for a bit and then got ready. It was such a relaxing day. I only started to get nervous when I was about to walk down the aisle. It was fine though. We didn't write our own vows but I would highly recommend this. I just feel it would be a nice touch. If you're not a cryer like I am and can get the vows out. lol Oh there was one thing wrong with the ceremony but I didn't even notice. The groomsman and the best man had their pants mixed up by the seamstress. They were both the same size waist so we put little name tags on them. I guess she mixed them up when she put them back on so the tall one had the short guys pants on and vise versa. Being boys they just thought that the seamstress measured the ones too short. Silly really, they switched after the ceremony. We were married on the terrace on the 5th floor @ 4pm. We paid the pool guy to keep the noise down and from 4-430 it was perfectly quiet apparently. We were a bit late to the ceremony. It's my thing....I'm always late.....I swear I'm getting better lol.

 

The set up for the dinner was fabulous. We had our dinner at the palapas. We used three of them and then used the other to do our first dance as we entered the dinner. Make sure if you bring your own decorations you map out where or how you would like things. I forgot to mention how I wanted a few things set up, like my bride and groom signs for the back of the chairs. I found them hanging from one of the palapas kind of randomly. It's okay I sent someone to cut them down and put them on our chairs. Crisis averted lol The dinner is really yummy and you do have an option to upgrade your guests meal to the lobster. This is 20 cuc's/person! I didn't opt for this but would be a nice touch if you don't have tons of people. The exchange rate wasn't great so keep that in mind when making the decisions involving money. 

 

We planned on having the reception/party on the beach but it was fairly windy and last minute we decided to change location and move the party to the disco. It was perfect there. I'm sure the beach would have been nice as well and I don't really have a comparison but the disco was perfect for us. We could do our dances with our parents and the DJ was awesome. Even if you don't have your own music they do and it's really quite good. There were also lots of places to sit down which some of our guests appreciated. We had a few people creep into the disco. There isn't anything preventing this from happening. There is a sign that says there is a private party but not all pay attention to this. We did have a few people come in and we just told the bartender and they had them leave. At 11pm the disco opened up to the resort and it got busy fast. We partied until the wee hours of the night and we couldn't have been happier. 

 

We went into Havana on Monday to take most of our wedding pictures just Matt and I and the photographers. It was spectacular. Such an experience I would do it again in a heartbeat. Not the marriage part (I'm only doing this once) but the picture part it was soooo much fun. A little hot trekking around in the dress all day but sooooo worth it. 

 

I've attached a link to my photographers journal. It's the second one down entitled "I left my heart in Havana"

 

http://www.katrizzaphotography.com/journal/

 

If you guys have any questions/concerns just send me a message I would love to help where I can. 

 

Hope all is well with everyone

[csho]

@@alley08 Thanks alley for the great update and review! I am soooo happy to hear everything went well! I am pretty much doing exactly what you did for our wedding. Ours is on the terrace at 3pm though and then palapas for dinner and disco for party! How many people did you have at your wedding? We have 36 and I am trying to see if we can just use two palapas because I feel like I only have a few people in the last one and I don't want them to be lonely! I have already recruited some family friends to go and make sure the dinner is set up how I envisioned it! So hopefully they'll be able to make sure its all set before I get there!

The photos look AMAZING! Wow what a great photographer!

[alley08]

@@alley08 Thanks alley for the great update and review! I am soooo happy to hear everything went well! I am pretty much doing exactly what you did for our wedding. Ours is on the terrace at 3pm though and then palapas for dinner and disco for party! How many people did you have at your wedding? We have 36 and I am trying to see if we can just use two palapas because I feel like I only have a few people in the last one and I don't want them to be lonely! I have already recruited some family friends to go and make sure the dinner is set up how I envisioned it! So hopefully they'll be able to make sure its all set before I get there!

The photos look AMAZING! Wow what a great photographer!

Hey it's the least I could do you girls are amazing. The extra hour will be good for you. We were a little rushed for pictures. When the sun goes down it goes down fast. I had 43 people attend our wedding. So there were 11 of us at the head table and then 16 under each palapa. The only thing I didn't care for was that people had their backs to each other. The head table was kind of in a horseshoe shape and the other palapas had back to back long tables. That's a great idea to send someone to check it out. 

 

My photographer was awesome. I think we will become great friends. Love her xo

 

You just about set for your wedding. I am so excited for you. You are going to have a blast. Anything you are worried about or any questions?

[csho]

@@alley08 Oh good! I have done a set up of how I'd like the palapas to be set up with 18 under each... I am hoping that Giselle will say we can do it and that there will be enough space for all of us! I am not really worried about anything... I feel like I am pretty ready (as ready as I can be). I read rewviews on Trip advisor and sometimes the reviews are so awful and I  keep thinking omg where are we going (keep in mind I've been to CUba 6 or 7 times and I've only ever stayed at like 3-4 stars and have always been happy with them). But now that I am bringing other people I am really hoping its good! We know what to expect of Cuba and the only thing I can think is that these people just are picky people because then there are such amazing reviews of the place so that's probably the biggest thing I worry about (not for myself) but for my guests that they'll be happy there! I also worry about making sure we have enough time to get our hair done and stuff without being too rushed! I worry about the weirdest things lol!

 

Did you have the cake as your dessert or did you have the dessert? We were thinking we'd like to do our cake right after the ceremony with the champagne toast but then a lot of people said the dessert isn't that great.

 

Oh I noticed you mentioned the DJ was good? I hadn't planned on bringing cds or anything with me with music (other then our first dance song) but then thought maybe I should, but its something I really have no interest in and am wondering if the dj will be good enough or if I should prepare something in case?

[jolene028]

@@csho I am planning on taking Troy's name once I have received our marriage certificate, make a long story short his sister and mom couldn't believe that I wasn't going to change it and they were making a huge deal about it... I honestly didn't care enough to have that fight so I decided that I would change it, then it came out while we were in Cuba that Troy really wants me to change my last name as well, so I figure if that's what they really want then why not, I think that it is a dumb tradition but like I said if it mean that much to him and his family then why not just do it!

 

@@alley08 I am glad to hear that everything went so well, sounds exactly like me I wasn't even a little nervous on wedding day until I was waiting for the golf cart to come get me and then it hit me and the tears started! Now Tuesday the day before the wedding I wasn't nervous but I was a mess I cried all day I was just so happy and overwhelmed about how many people came to make our day so amazing... this is the reason that we didn't do our own vows I couldn't get through the thanks at the welcome party I would never have been able to say vows! LOL

[csho]

@@jolene028 Oh I don't plan on taking Marks' last name. He's aware of this and fine with it, so I don't really care what his family says... ok well I care, but not enough to change my last name over it.

 

We are writing our own vows... I don't typically cry at weddings, but who knows with this one... hopefully I won't tear up too much!

 

Also ladies I have posted my planning thread if you want to check it out! Heres the link:

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/76346-carinas-csho-iberostar-laguna-azul-planning-journal-050514/