Snswedding2016 Planning Thread - Jan 9 2016 (Azul Fives)

[krystalball]

I've been facebook stalking too and I must say that you and your hubby both looked stunning on your wedding day

 

Glad to hear that everything was amazing and can't wait to hear more details in 2 weeks. Enjoy your honeymoon! Fingers crossed for lots of sun

 

 

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[ashhtayy]

This is a time that I wish I had Facebook. I feel like I'm missing out big time on the stalking lol

[TinkerSofi]

I did a little facebook stalking!! So guys looked so good. I can't wait to see and hear more from your trip and your wedding. Congrats Mrs!  

[deecol]

I totally Facebook stalked you this whole week too! You both looked amazing, congrats!!! Enjoy your honeymoon and we'll see you in a couple weeks

 

 

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[calgarybride2015]

Congrats!! Loved all the photos you've posted. You looked stunning. Enjoy your honeymoon

 

 

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[snswedding2016]

After the wedding...

 

Before I get into my full review on how it all went...here are some thoughts, reflections and funny stories on what went down!

 

Leading up to Departure

Things were hectic and fairly stressful. I alternated between feeling really relaxed that everything was coming together and enjoying downtime during the holidays with friends and family to feeling completely panicked that time was slipping away and we had so much to do! Sean was a saint for dealing with my roller coaster emotions! By the time we were just about to leave was when people were finally reading my posts and reminders I had sent out ages ago and were now asking a million and one questions in the 11^th hour! So on top of trying to finish all of our tasks our phones were ringing off the hook and we were rushing around and inevitably made some mistakes….like forgetting our US cash at a friend’s house!!! This was probably the most stressful thing that happened leading up to our departure. We went to a friend’s place for new years eve (out of town no less) but that day happened to be the only day we had time to get to the currency exchange place right before we left the city. It was all put away safely in a zipper pocket…I don’t know what happened but I must have gone in there to get something and forgot to zip it back up. Well the envelope fell out of my purse. The worst part was that I didn’t even notice it until our friend called us asking if we were missing money. I panicked and frantically searched for it. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if we didn’t notice until we got to Mexico. That night we got back in the car and drove all the way back to our friend’s house- 2 hrs each ways to get our US cash. Oh well – it was all good in the end!

 

We also had a couple of guests realize that there were spelling mistakes on their e-documents just before leaving so we had to get that sorted out quickly. I’ll go into that more in my full review.

 

Sean’s brother and sister in law came into town two days before we left for Mexico. The plan was to go meet them for brunch and give Sean’s brother his gift. Well this didn’t happen….they were completely understanding of how crazy things were leading up but I was disappointed that we couldn’t make it work plus now we had to pack his gift which took up a lot of luggage space – lol! The night before leaving we decided we would stay at a friend’s place who lives a lot closer to the airport so that our taxi ride wouldn’t be too expensive. The later it got in the evening the more we realized we probably wouldn’t make it to our friend’s place. I was getting tired, frustrated and hungry and had a little melt down that night. I was worried that we had too much to pack, that we wouldn’t get to our friend’s place in time and that our vows would be terrible because we hadn’t finished them before flying out. Sean was really patient with me and told me to drop everything and off we went for dinner. We went out for a nice meal and just tried to forget about everything and just focus on us. It really helped! In the end we decided that we would just get up early in the morning and drive out to our friend’s place, leave the car and take a taxi to the airport from there. We were under the baggage weight anyway so Sean just said that we should bring a couple of extra suitcases to fit everything since we wouldn’t have to pay. I know it is totally logical but in the moment I was so stressed and didn’t want to bring more than I really needed with me, but it did make the most sense. As for our vows we decided that when we got home from dinner we would finish packing and then just work on our vows until we were happy with them. We stayed up really late but it was kind of fun doing that together with some wine at 3am – haha! We didn’t fully complete them but we got them to a point where we weren’t stressing about them as we left for Mexico.

 

The next day we got up super early, had a nice breakfast just the two of us and then drove to our friend’s place to drop off the car. We prebooked our taxi and they gave us a flat rate which was nice. We got to the airport nice and early and went straight to the option plus line for air transat. We were there so early that we really didn’t need to since no one was in the line up. We had 4 checked suitcases, 2 carry ons, 1 garment bag, 1 purse and 1 backpack with us. Our checked baggage came to 132 lbs just 1 lb under the limit!! Score! By the time we got to our gate we were getting texts and phone calls of people leaving to get to the airport or those who were already on their way from other cities! It was pretty exciting! Slowly all of our guests arrived and we had a group of 30 people with us.  As soon as they started boarding I made a beeline for the priority line to make sure I had an overhead bin for my dress. I met another bride sitting right in front of us and so we both shared the overhead bin and we guarded it from the other passengers – lol! Off we went to Mexico!! 

Edited January 19, 2016 by snswedding2016

[snswedding2016]

Flight

The flight was good! We check in online the night before – we already had our seats with option plus and then told our guests where we were so that they could choose seats near us if they wanted to.  Naturally our super cute 3 ½ yr old flower girl wanted to sit between us and of course we said yes! We were having fun until she had her cup of apple juice on her tray and forgot about it and tipped the tray back up. We had a bit of an apple juice clean up emergency. Haha! Actually all of our kids from our group were amazing on the plane! We had lots of champagne, snacks and another drink with Option Plus…Sean and I were a little fuzzy by the time we landed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Few Days in Mexico

 The days leading up to the wedding were busy but good. We got in pretty late the first night so we just had time for dinner and drinks. My friend from Australia had left me a note at reception so I was reading it as we were checking in and then she came up and surprised me! We haven’t seen each other in a couple of years so that was a pretty great moment just as we arrived! Most of the families put their kids to bed pretty quickly after a long day of travelling so it was mostly our guests without kids at our welcome drinks (which is what we figured would happen). We had our welcome drinks at the Cantina and it was perfect! It isn’t a huge bar but it has such a great vibe! We used the inside and the outdoor patio for our group. It was great to just grab a drink, relax and get everyone acquainted with each other. The only draw back with the Cantina at Azul Fives is that it closes pretty early at 11pm but we just moved over to the Gin Bar after that and kept the party going.

 

 

 

As the party was winding down a small group of us went back to our room. We showed them our sky suite and had some more drinks. My MOH decided to order room service (of course during the busiest time…when everyone has the late night munchies) and while we were waiting for it…everyone fell asleep!!! Hahaha! I started to unpack all of our stuff during that time. What we didn’t realize was just how much she ordered.  This is what showed up at my door…

 

...this was for 5 people. lesson - do not order room service drunk ladies and gentlemen 

 

The next day we had our onsite coordinator meeting (I’ll get into more details in my review) but it went very smoothly and I think was only 45 min. The set up document I sent them ahead of time really helped move things along! We also met Sean’s dad and his wife who checked in that day. Transat messed up and booked them for Feb 6-13 and NOT Jan!!! After some stressful moments we figured it out and they were able to get them a 1 bedroom suite like they wanted. They brought us an entire suitcase full of gifts (so sweet of them) and really wanted us to open them all up that day so we then proceeded to have a fashion show of all the gifts. Lol! Other than that we were able to squeeze in some beach time! Hooray! Not too bad on our first full day there.  We had some offsite guests come in for the day and we all hung out at the beach –it was awesome!

 

Friday we had our rehearsal ceremony, my rehearsal hair and make up and our rehearsal dinner so it was a very busy day! Ironically our groomsmen who were complaining the most about having to be at a rehearsal ceremony were the first ones to show up! My sister in law who was also a bridesmaid was staying off resort with her husband. They were supposed to come to Azul Fives for the full day on Friday and Saturday. We sent out the email to our bridal party letting them about the events they were needed for on those two days a couple months before the wedding. For some reason my sister in law and husband decided to book an excursion on the Friday….why that day??– I’m not sure! Surprisingly I was very calm about it. I was definitely a little annoyed that she wasn’t there for the rehearsal ceremony but I knew there was nothing I could do to change it and we just went with it. I have to say once I got to mexico I was very good about just going with the flow. I think it made Sean a little nervous with my Type A personality haha! The rehearsal dinner had a couple little glitches here and there but overall went well and we had a good time. The best part was when someone broke a glass by accident and one of the kids in our group yelled our “TEQUILA!!” – the entire room burst out laughing!

 

 

 

[ashhtayy]

@@snswedding2016 I've read these posts twice already lol Reading about your wedding is getting me SO excited for ours. 

 

I'm so glad to see that everything went so well. Good for you for keeping your cool and going with the flow. It can be so frustrating when you lay everything out for someone and they just disregard. 

 

Looks like you had a really fun group. Can't wait to see all your photographs and read the rest of your posts. Thanks so much for sharing this journey with all of us. It's so helpful!

 

Looking forward to meeting you soon!

 

Keep the posts coming

[calgarybride2015]

TEQUILA!!!!!

 

Love it

And holy crap that's a lot of food. Did anyone end up eating it?

 

Glad you got the February flights sorted out geesh! Curious re names wrong on documents - I swear our TA emailed 5-6 times to check haha!!

 

Sounds like it started off well and I can't wait for more.

 

 

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[bride2016]

Omg.. Your review is so detailed so far! Makes me want to go back and do a more detailed review myself! lol

 

I can't believe you almost lost your USD for a minute.. I would've been freaking out.

 

Isn't option plus the best??? We loved it. My whole party was booked in the same section of the plane so it was fun. When it came time to the free champagne, the flight attendant gave out bottles to my whole group. Chester and I were definitely feeling a bit buzzed too lol.

 

I'm laughing so hard at the room service. The EXACT same thing happened with all of us too.. on too many nights.

One night I was sooo drunk and ordered about 5 different meals and it was the same thing.. woke up and it's untouched haha. The intent was there!

 

Definitely a little annoying about the excursion on rehearsal day. I actually told everyone not to book any excursions on __ days (and told them which days) and I told them over and over haha..It worked out well though because they listened and booked for days that were free of any private events.

 

Can't wait to hear more about your week