Would
-Destination wedding. Sacrifices are made when not everyone could be there but it was an amazing week with closest family and friends. Stress went down once I arrived
-Fans. Ordered them online for $1 each and wrapped the handle in green ribbon, everyone loved them.
-Favours. We ordered playing cards and they came out beautifully. Everyone took them.
-Hair trial--very important to figure out what to do. Also made a point of having lot's of time just in case
-Trash the dress photo shoot--Was iffy on it as it seemed like a lot of work to get back in that thing, I also just wanted to relax. Didn't take too much time and it was a lot of fun, have one or two amazing shots.
-Print in bring Must Take Photo's for the photographer--not knowing the photographer this helped both of us cut to the chase to find out the look we wanted.
-Use Adventure Photo Team (came with hotel wedding package). They were amazing, I was worried and was thinking of paying $3500 to have a local photographer come with us. SO glad I didn't.
-Send a 'Wedding Package' to people unable to make it (grandparents). This included a copy of the invitation, program, fan, playing card favours and door knocker
-Door Knocker--Designed and printed 'Do not disturb-recovering from Dave & Brit's wedding'. They were a hit and cheap to do, helped to make it a bit more personal.
-Do a legal ceremony and write our own vows. I was really against the legal ceremony in puerto vallarta because of all the running around and the ceremony in spanish. It wasn't that much extra work and it's kind of cool having our licence right from mexico. We aren't religious so I wanted something personal and meaningful in the ceremony. Writing our short vows were perfect.
-Buy my dress second hand--No one could tell and the girl paid $300 to get it cleaned. Got my $3000 for $600 and it was perfect. If you find your dress at the store, do a quick search on local websites (I used kijiji0 and see if it comes up. There was no issue, I mean, it's only been worn once.
-Use our own music on an ipod rather than hire a dj. Listening to other weddings dj's used really tacky music...and adds $700 to the cost.
-Make sure to print off any emails you have confirming costs, times, locations ect with the hotel. I didn't do this and my planner quit before I arrived. They tried to make me pay the $500 deposit I already paid in March over again.
WOULDN'T
-Stay at Dreams Vallarta. They have 2 or 3 weddings daily so it doesn't feel as special as it should. The wedding planner I had worked with for 9 months quit a week before I got there--stuff happens but I expect to be informed-especially when I ask if she's still there.
I would try to research adult only resorts and see if they allow kids just for the wedding day. The resort didn't do a good job keeping the kids to a specific area. In the main pool, there is a swim up bar where we would usually hang out--there are kids eating mac and cheese and ice cream in the pool, as well as a naked baby playing in it (no diaper...)
Security personal were ridiculous. The best man went skinny dipping at 2am the first night, I could see why that was frowned upon but two security people arrested him and wouldn't let him put his shorts on. Had to talk them out of taking him to the police and then they told me if there was any other trouble they would cancel my wedding. Again I'm not saying the best man was innocent but this was taken way WAY too far.
The night of my wedding I was walking to the hotel room and a security guard followed me about 5 steps behind until I made it to my room. Creeped me out that he didn't say anything. Also only included a few hours for reception, food was late so we didn't have time for a dance before being kicked out. Said we could stay for an additional $400 an hour.
-Order the bridesmaid dresses in China--I think the dresses were about $400 in the store--they were $150 in china but each of the girls spent around $150 fixing them. Still saved $100 but probably could have just found a $250 dress. Worked out ok.
-Trust the hotel to get the flowers right. I would ask for the flowers to arrive a good half hour before the wedding. They were nice and they came back after the ceremony to fix them for pictures, but flowers were falling out all over the place, also were not the right flowers-but the colours were right.
-Do a center piece at the head table. Waste of $40, just used bridesmaid bouquets.
-Have the hotel spa do my make up. I took half of it off and re-did it before the ceremony.
WOW-I thought that would be shorter!! All in all it was a fantastic trip we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Thank you for all the girls on the board-it's been great getting to know all of you! Now off to the Nest! See you there!
Mrs. Brittny Masur
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml