Kcole123 Planning Thread - April 17, 2015 - Melia Caribe Tropical

[TinkerSofi]

I'm having the same issue!  I wanted to do it just the two of us before we left, but my FI didn't like that idea as he felt like he was betraying his family.  So I came up with the idea of having a small ceremony with just his parents, my mom, my step-dad, and our siblings either before we leave or when we came back.  Nothing big just maybe a city hall ceremony and dinner or something.  My MIL hasn't been supportive of our choice to have a destination wedding so at first she tried to take over and plan it.  Then said to me "If you're not getting legally married there what's the point of your wedding why not just have a wedding here instead, no need to go to Cuba since it's not a 'real' wedding."  My feelings were beyond hurt by this.  We are putting the significance on our Cuban ceremony on the beach the legal ceremony is literally just signing a piece of paper.  We would have done a Cuban legal ceremony, but we didn't want to wait up to a year just to get our marriage certificate.  

 

At the end of it we decided to do a small legal ceremony after we come back on the day of our anniversary with just parents and siblings at a restaurant.  My FI had a talk with him mom about the wedding and she's backed off quite a bit.  We still want her involved, we just want to be the ones to plan our day.    

I just read the other day that apparently, at least in Ontario if they find out you exchanged vows before your legal ceremony they won't marry you legally! So I would get married before if I were you. I know it's tough because you feel like some people will think the Mexico ceremony won't be real but if your MIL is against the DW to begin with it really doesn't matter if you get married before or after because she still won't really like the idea. Just my two cents, but it might save you a really big headache to get married before. 

Kristy, had to come and read your wedding review! Glad everything turned out so well, and you ended up saving money not having to extend or get the decorations!

 

I haven't done photobooks yet - so lazy

 

Haha and I obviously concur on everything about the TA - bleh. I listed her name as well though because I wanted to give local brides the head's up if they did a search

did you guys have the same TA? 

[tygrrlily]

did you guys have the same TA? 

 

We did!  Not a good experience unfortunately

[TinkerSofi]

We did!  Not a good experience unfortunately

oh that sucks . Unfortunately it's all too common to hear that they work hard and once they have your money they act like they don't care anymore. We really lucked out with ours and she was the only one we went to see but sadly that's not the case with everyone

[kcole123]

I have my video which I got two days ago and I must have watched it 10 times already. I would so recommend a video. I am so happy with that decision like so much. So top thing to spend money on is pictures and video, then dress if you have to hahaha

I haven't got the highlight video yet but as soon as I get that I will post it for you girls to have a look. Our video we have now is like 37 minutes long. Highlight video is best enough to post here haha

[acw271011]

You absolutely HAVE to post it here!! Can't wait to see it!!! Hope married life is good!!

[kcole123]

@@acw271011

I will def. post here for you girls to watch. I can't wait to get that video now. Nathan says to me "Kristy it's over, put the video down." Haha I think he's tired of me watching it for two days straight.

Married life is great. Nathan has pretty much been non stop with work though since we have been back. He is in the military and they are putting off some sort of exercise right now which means he is gone a lot. But I am hoping to plan a little weekend getaway somewhere when it's all over.

I only have one regret to speak of when it comes down to our wedding week in Dominican, and that is I wished we have booked a longer stay than everyone else. I wish we stayed at least 10 days or two weeks. The whole week I was there I was meeting with this one and that ine, trying to meet up with guests and it was hard because it was a large resort. A couple more days after would have been perfect. Just a heads up to you brides if you are questioning that part of the planning as well.

[TinkerSofi]

@@acw271011

I will def. post here for you girls to watch. I can't wait to get that video now. Nathan says to me "Kristy it's over, put the video down." Haha I think he's tired of me watching it for two days straight.

Married life is great. Nathan has pretty much been non stop with work though since we have been back. He is in the military and they are putting off some sort of exercise right now which means he is gone a lot. But I am hoping to plan a little weekend getaway somewhere when it's all over.

I only have one regret to speak of when it comes down to our wedding week in Dominican, and that is I wished we have booked a longer stay than everyone else. I wish we stayed at least 10 days or two weeks. The whole week I was there I was meeting with this one and that ine, trying to meet up with guests and it was hard because it was a large resort. A couple more days after would have been perfect. Just a heads up to you brides if you are questioning that part of the planning as well.

Can't wait to see the video. I already have that regret, of not staying longer but since Juan works in the construction industry it's really hard to get more than a week off in the summer . They basically gave him the one week because we were getting married. Hopefully we can go for a honeymoon soon  

[snswedding2016]

I'm glad you said that. Originally we were just going to do the week with our guests and take a honeymoon later down the road. The more we thought about it the more we realized that it would probably be a while before we could take more time off. A couple of months after we booked the wedding I spoke to my TA about adding a 5 day honeymoon at a different resort. We're going to be transferring to the adults only sister resort. It is a big added expense but I'm really excited for it! 

 

Can't wait to see the video when it is done!

[ashhtayy]

@@kcole123 we are flying in two days before our guests and staying 5 days after our guests leave. i'm sad to hear you regret not doing that, but i appreciate you saying you would have. it makes me feel even better about our decision. i was advised by my SIL to go to a different resoort and i opted to not take her advice. i trust that it is great advice, but the thought of packing up and unpacking all over again is what made my FI and i decide to stay in the same spot. i realize the shows etc will be on repeat but because we are so close to Playa, i figured we could do a lot of day trips.

 

can't wait to see your video.

 

update on TA: still...so far so good. fingers.constantly.crossed

[kcole123]

@ashhtay

 

you will appreciate the time just spent alone together. I don't think it will matter if you are at another resort or not. You will be busy during the week everyone else is there, it's going to be just nice to spend some alone time with your husband.

We are planning a honeymoon for next year (the year anniversary) and time to plan and save. I would have done the extra couple of days at the resort just to tie us over and enjoy some honeymoon before having to wait another year. But oh well I still had a great week.
I am glad you girls booked extra time. Honestly, you will be glad you did also.

@@ashhtayy