We just got back from our honeymoon yesterday and it was amazing, but glad to be back in the states. We went to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico and stayed at the Adults Only All Inclusive Valentin Imperial Maya Resort. The resort was wonderful and the service there was great! But back to the wedding!!
Everything went really well, no major problems. I'll start from the beginning... I got to the venue at noon that day to start setting up the decor, tables, centerpieces etc. I did all my own centerpieces so that's why I was there so early for a 6pm wedding. After that 2 of my bridesmaids, myself, my mom, and mother in law all got our hair and makeup done by my long time hairdresser. My hair and makeup was awesome, I was so pleased. The 2 bm' that got theirs done her looked great as well, they did side pony's and it looked so pretty on them. So all the getting ready stuff went really well. There were times when I had to have the Husband go hide in the mens locker room so I could go downstairs to fix tables and arrange the cake table, lol.
Ceremony: Our ceremony was super short, just the way we wanted it. We are not very religious people, so we didn't do a prayer, or unity candle/sand etc. The grandparents, parents were seated. Then the wedding party and flower girls, then I came down the aisle. Once I was down the aisle, Dad gave me away, our officiant said his required by law statements, and then we did the I Do's and said our short and sweet vows (which were not our own) but they were short and simple and got the job done. So all in all our ceremony lasted approx. 8-10 minutes.
We did after ceremony pics with family and wedding party, then me and the Husband went off to do our own private pictures, I will post the sneak peek picture at the end of this review.
During photos our guests enjoyed open beer and wine bar with a huge seafood platter of shrimp, crab meat, crab legs, oysters, etc. The seafood platter was a gift to us from a very special friend of my Husbands. And it had to be worth a lot of money, it was so generous for him to provide that to us! Our guests loved it, not a morsel was left!
We made our grand entrance into the ceremony, and we sat down for the plated dinner. We had Chicken Picatta, Sirloin, and Veg Lasagna. The Chicken was not exactly the way we taste tested it, but it was still good. The sirloin was awesome! The only thing regarding food that didn't go as planned, was the salads were supposed to be already on the tables before the guests sat down, which didn't happen, but thats ok. And the sides were not what we ordered, but were still good, so couldn't really complain. Our dinner didn't start until almost 8pm due to pictures, etc, so a lot of the older guests (great aunts, uncles, etc.) were starting to leave once dinner ended, So we rushed the cake cutting. We had so much left over cake. We had a 3 tier cake and a 1/4 sheet cake. The sheet cake and middle tier were gone but we saved the top tier and the whole bottom tier was still intact. This was because, as soon as we cut the cake we rushed into first dances since people were leaving. And then the dance floor was open so everyone opted to party and dance rather than eat cake, which was fine with me! All of our first dances went really well. Then everyone had such a good time dancing and hanging out. We did cut the reception about 20 minutes shorter than I planned because more guests were leaving as it got later in the night so we wanted to have as many people there for our departure. But all in all everything went really well.
I do have to call the venue to get a refund on the bottles of unopened wine and see if anything was left. 2 things we forgot to do: I noticed none of the groomsmen or special guests were wearing their flowers. They forgot to put their flowers on, we laugh about it though so no big deal. Secondly, because our cake cutting was so short, we forgot to do the crossed arms champagne toast. But we did a champagne toast at the beginning of the reception, so that was fine too. And I had bought my Nana a special bottle of wine, the only kind she likes, and gave it to the bartender, and no one gave it to her. But my stepdad went back the next day and got it for her.
Vendors: All vendors are located in Asheville, NC.
Music/DJ by Cory Short with Get Vocal Entertainment. Cory did an excellent job, close friend of the family and we couldn't have asked for better.
Cake by The Sisters McMullen, cake was amazing I was so pleased.
Flowers by Parks Oriental Flowers. They were great, I did expect mine to be a little different but I was still fine with the bouquet.
Food was through the venue we used, Vincenzos Events. The food was great, the servers were great. My main complaint about Vincenzos Events is their lack of professionalism throughout the entire planning process. I went through 4 different event coordinators, due to quitting, getting fired etc. Nothing really got passed on from one coordinator to the other correctly. So I had to explain my event by every detail 4 times. The 2nd coordinator was awful, so I am so glad she is gone. The one currently, PJ, seems really nice, but I only worked wth her from about 3 weeks out from the wedding.
Photographer: My best friend, Sarah Rominger Photography. I am alittle biased but, Sarah does an amazing job, she is so innovative and even when you think you may look awkward the photo turns out amazing. I couldn't have had a better person do our photography.
So our day went really well, and didn't have many problems. We got many compliments about how well put together it was and about how much fun everyone had, and that was the most important thing to me that my guests enjoyed themselves. Here is the sneak peek photo!