The Destination Wedding Site » Suzanne & Ken’s Wedding

Wedding Teeth Whitening – New Natural White Pro Tooth Whitening Kit

suzanne — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:38:57 +0000

I've been wanting to get something to whiten my teeth for the wedding and today I finally ordered my teeth whitening kit on Amazon. I've done a bunch of research and read online to see what other brides suggest and this product has had rave reviews and the price tag is just right! LOL

I ordered today and I'll post again once I receive it and let you know how easy it is to use, if I have any problems with it and most importantly ... if it works!

Comes with the following:

Custom Mouthtrays for Total Tooth Coverage provided in attractive storage case
One 2 oz (56g) Pre-Whitening Toothpaste
One 6 oz (177ml) Oral Rinse Neutralizer
A Professional Tooth Shade Guide
One Instruction Booklet

Overall Rating:

Total Customer Reviews: (7)

Seller: Amazon

Get professional whitening results with Natural White PRO Tooth Whitening Kit. This system has an amazing whitening gel that will give you results that you expect in a few days. With the Natural White Professional Kit, a whiter and brighter smile is only two weeks away! Contents: Each Natural White PRO Tooth Bleaching System contains the follow[...]

Are you going to whiten your teeth for your wedding? If so, what are you using? Have you tried anything yet? Give is the scoop ... we need to know so spill it! LOL *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. I tried to find this on eBay but I didn't see it there. Amazon has the best price so try the link above and see if they have any in stock and for a good price (I'm seeing it online for $40 ... and New Natural White Pro Tooth Whitening KitI paid $13 here on amazon)

I Need to Lose Weight for My Wedding (Poll)

suzanne — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:35:43 +0000

Well ... planning your wedding and preparing for your big day is so much fun ... but with it also comes some stress and hard work.

Weight loss ...

From what I've read approximately 75% of all brides want to lose some weight for their wedding and I'm no exception.

The first step was to actually weigh in and see where my weight was as a starting point. Yikes! Not anywhere near where I wanted to be ... in fact, 23 lbs more than I wanted to be for my wedding day.

So ... where to start? I'll list out the things I decided to try and I'll be updating often to let you know how I do with each one:

One of the first things I did was I put up a weight loss goal board. I took a piece of poster board and drew a grid of sorts (boxes across and up and down) and then I put my starting weight in the top left box and started counting backwards. I then scoured the internet for pictures and I printed them the size of the boxes. As I lose weight I put one of the pictures over the weight I've achieved.

I'll check back in with what is and what isn't working for me and I'd love to hear from you with any tips, ideas, and encouragement while I try to hit my goal weight before my wedding day.

View This Poll

Are you trying to lose weight for your wedding? If so, what are you trying? Have you tried something that has worked well? Please share your thoughts so we can all help and support each other. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Email Destination Wedding Save the Dates

suzanne — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:40:37 +0000

Once we finally decided on a destination, a venue and had a date we realized that we were really in a huge time crunch for inviting our guests. We decided to go ahead and send out email destination wedding invites / save the dates to our friends and family while we were waiting to get our boarding pass invites done. Check them out and let me know what you think:

We've decided on forever
and forever begins when we,
Suzanne Franco
and
Kenneth Land
unite in marriage
Tuesday, the thirtieth of June
at three o'clock in the afternoon
Dreams Resort

Tulum, Mexico

Dreams Tulum Site

We are so excited to be making it "official" and we would love to share this moment with you. We will be traveling to Tulum , Mexico with all five kids to exchange vows on the beach ... celebrating our love and the blending of our families as one. Our ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. at the Dreams resort.

We have set up a wedding website www.kenandsuzanne.com where we have posted more information about our "big day" and we will continue to add information as we collect it.

We hope to see you in Tulum! It's a great "excuse" to get away and enjoy an amazing vacation ... and we'll all have so much fun together!

Love,

Ken & Suzanne

.. and Austin, Nathan, Emily, Alyssa, and Cobey

Our travel agent has arranged for a group discount and you can contact her here:

Tammy Wright

888.471.1950 toll free

tammy@wrighttravelagency.com

http://www.wrighttravelagency.com

Did you send out an email invite? What do you think of the idea? Let us hear your thoughts below so we can all learn from each other. *SmiLes* Suzanne

My Boarding Pass Wedding Invites … I LOVE Them!

suzanne — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:08:33 +0000

I am so excited about my boarding pass wedding invitations.

I initially thought I would create and make them myself but I soon realized that I would need help with the design I had in mind. After getting some email quotes I hired Jessica of The Stylish Scribe to complete my design. She quoted me $30 to design the boarding passes which I believe is more than fair (she also included a wedding logo). After pricing out the materials needed to make the invites (card stock, envelopes, printer toner, paper cutter, perforator, etc.) I also decided to hire her to go ahead and make the invitations. For what I wanted she charges $3.50 per invite and trust me ... that's a bargain! She credits back the design fee if you hire her to actually make them. I give her my complete endorsement ... she was very patient and awesome to work with.

Jessica designed, printed, and perforated the passes ... made the gorgeous boarding pass sleeves (beautiful metallic cardstock) ... designed and printed the return RSVP postcards ... and included the envelopes for mailing. We went with a starfish and hibiscus theme since we are getting married in Mexico. The first "pass" is the invite and the second has information about the resort and contact information for our travel agent.

Once I received them (packaged beautifully and sent via U.S.P.S. Priority Mail) my daughter, Emily, and I went to work on them. I wanted to have a fun wedding project to work on with her and I'm so glad I did. We went to Michael's looking for real miniature starfish and raffia and we ended up with something totally different (and much better ... thanks to Emily LOL). First we found some small wooden starfish but they only had about 20 of them so we kept looking. Emily spotted some really fun stickers and we ended up using those as well and we love how they turned out. We'd love to hear what you think of them below in the comments section.

To make these:

Tie the raffia around the sleeve and double knot
Tie the raffia in a bow
Hot glue the raffia to the sleeve (this was necessary on ours due to the tight fit in the envelope - or the raffia would've been pulled off when the guest pulled the invite out of the envelope)
Paint the starfish tops and sides
Hot glue the starfish in place
Add stickers

I ended up spending more than I should have on this project. I've been a bit distracted due to this whole "swine flu" so I didn't get around to purchasing online. I've scoured the internet to find you the best prices on some of the things I used for this project and you can see them below.

Again, we'd love to hear from you in the comments section ... Feedback? More ideas? Let's help each other out! *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. I went to mail these today and I wanted to let everyone know that the postcards were $.28 each and the invitations were $1.34 each. This was due to the thickness of the package once put together. I wanted to pass that along in case you're considering these. I love them so I felt it was totally worth it ... but wanted to warn you! LOL

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

SANDY STARFISH Unfinished Wood Shapes Cut Outs SSF5020
US $1.12

STARFISH LaserWoody Unfinished Flat Wood Shapes 4SF101A
US $1.00

STARFISH SEA STAR Unfinished Flat Wood Shapes 2SF101C
US $1.60

Starfish Shape Unfinished Craft Wood 1404 325
US $1.00

Sticko Happy Hour Cocktails Tropical Drinks Stickers
US $1.49

TROPICAL DRINKS Cocktails Liquor EK SUCCESS Jolees Boutique 5 Sticker Sets
US $1.04

Sticko Date Night Martinis Tropical Drinks Cocktails Girls Happy Hour Stickers
US $1.27

Tropical Drinks Cocktails Umbrella Party Margarita KCompany Sticker Border
US $1.08

Sticko Tropical Happy Hour Cocktails Drinks Stickers
US $1.10

PARADISE Cardstock Stickers Beach Tropical Vacation Drinks Tiki Waves
US $3.42

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More Tropical Drink Stickers

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How We Narrowed Down Our Destination Wedding Venue

suzanne — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:15:14 +0000

We pretty much knew before we were even engaged that we wanted to have a destination wedding ... but we had no idea what destination ... much less what resort or venue.

In a previous post I wrote about all of our destination options and to re-cap that a bit:

Things we've taken into consideration while looking for the perfect destination and venue:

Our family is mostly all in California
We will be traveling with 5 kids
We will be traveling during summer vacation from school
We don't know yet if we'll be able to get passports for all of the kids (there's a story for this one *sigh*)
We want to be married on the beach - on the sand if possible
We're working with a fairly low wedding budget (considering we'll be paying for travel and accommodations for 7 of us)
We need to be careful about the travel time involved so none of us waste our vacation time in planes and airports

Places that we put on our "maybe" list right away:

San Diego (North County)
Santa Barbara
Hawaii
Mexico
Antigua
U.S. Virgin Islands
Texas Hill Country

In that post I go into how we decided that we'd like to get married in Mexico but finding a city and venue was another challenge altogether.

I spent literally all day every day (drove Ken crazy! LOL) scouring the internet looking for information ... the good and the bad ... in hopes of finding the destination of our dreams. I spent time on Trip Advisor (warning: I think more people with a negative experience are more apt to come back and submit their review here) and I found some great destination wedding forums with my favorite being http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/.

I knew early on that I really wanted an all-inclusive resort so that we didn't have to stress about the cost of our food and drinks (keep in mind we're taking our 5 kids ... ages 7 - 13). The more I read the more I was convinced that I would be happiest with a resort that had "wedding packages" as I thought that would make it pretty easy to put the details together. With all this in mind I narrowed it down to RIU Resorts and Dreams Resorts.

I started spending my time reading their websites and any bridal reviews I could find and eventually I found my dream resort ... Dreams Tulum.

After this decision ... it was time to start pricing it all out and finding out if they had an opening on their calendar for our wedding. We'll see ...

Are you in the process of choosing your wedding site/venue? What are your must have's? If you've already narrowed down or chosen your venue give us some tips and pointers! *SmiLes* Suzanne

You Want to go to Mexico? Isn’t it Dangerous There?

suzanne — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:24:46 +0000

Well, once we finally decided that we were indeed going to get married in Mexico we ran into a roadblock we hadn't planned on. As we happily announced our plans to our friends and family we heard over and over, "Why would you want to go to Mexico? Haven't you heard about all of the drug war problems there?" We watch the news and we'd heard about the problems in Mexico but we also did enough research to understand that where we wanted to go (the Riviera Maya) was a very safe place and we weren't concerned at all. In fact, I found a great letter that was going around the internet (I don't know who to give credit to - I apologize):

The headlines are full of stories about Mexico guaranteed to make the blood run cold: murders, beheadings, drug lords and crooked cops. It's scary stuff, and some people planning a trip down here to Mexico's Mayan Riviera (Cancun-Playa Del Carmen-Tulum) are frightened. We have received several e-mails in the past couple of weeks and seen questions on various internet travel forums asking, "How dangerous is it"? In our opinion, the truthful answer is: not very dangerous at all.

Now some folks will read this and say, "They own a hotel down there, of course they will tell people it's safe." And that's true, we do own a business, and we do want people to come here. But the people who come here aren't just guests. They are our family and our friends.people we would never place in danger. And of course we wouldn't stay in business long if our guests were the victims of crimes every time they came on vacation. Most importantly, we wouldn't live here ourselves if we thought it was dangerous.

The truth is that there is a drug war going on in Mexico. Drug lords are battling the police and each other for the lucrative shipping routes by which drugs are taken into the US and guns are smuggled back. It is dangerous and sad and has become a cause for great concern in Mexico. However this concern must be put in perspective. If you are questioning whether or not you should visit Mexico's beautiful Caribbean, look at the facts about what is happening here.

The "drug war" of Mexico is primarily about smuggling routes which lead into the US. It is in northern central Mexico where the US and Mexico share a common border that this crime wave is currently going on. There is also an increase in crime in some large Mexican cities where organized crime is active, i.e. Mexico City. However this criminal activity is NOT centered on the Caribbean side of Mexico.

The latest US State Department advisory warning tourists about crime specifically names those cities "near the US border," such as the towns of Tijuana, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and most especially Ciudad Juarez as being possibly dangerous. These cities are thousands of miles from the beaches of Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. The ONLY reference in the State Department's travel advisory which mentions the Yucatan, Cancun, Playa Del Carmen or the Mayan Riviera is a reference to another State Department posting warning against drinking too much and driving mopeds.

The increase in drug related crimes and organized criminal activity is very far from the shores of the Caribbean. For example, Ciudad Juarez, which is an area of major concern for crime, is approximately 2200 miles from Cancun. This is roughly the same distance as from San Francisco to New York City. Would you refuse to vacation in northern California because of a crime wave in New York City? Hopefully not.

There is no major crime wave or drug war in Mexico's Mayan Riviera.

This is not to say that there is no crime in this part of Mexico. Cancun, being a major city, has had its problems with attacks on police officers and those involved in organized crime, much as many cities in the US have experienced in the past. But again it is important to realize that these incidents have NOT involved tourists or happened in the well-defined resort and hotel areas.

And of course any tourist zone anywhere in the world will have crime. Vacationers always will attract pickpockets, thieves and con men. And that is true of Mexico as well. However here in Playa we have a special Tourist Police force designed to help with exactly those types of crimes and to assist visitors. The tourist who uses common sense, avoids drugs, sticks to well-known tourist areas and doesn't behave foolishly (i.e. getting extremely drunk, flashing large amounts of cash, etc.) should be as safe in Playa Del Carmen as in their own home town.

We can't guarantee that you will not be the victim of a crime on vacation whether you are here in Playa Del Carmen or on the streets of Orlando. What we can say with certainty is that the drug war crimes which have frightened so many people are not a concern or an issue for tourists in the Yucatan. And we can guarantee that thousands upon thousands of visitors are still coming here each day to enjoy our white sand beaches and swim in our blue sea without incident. Join us.

And:

Sorry RWSmith, we believe your comments contain some of the commonly held misbeliefs about Mexico that seem to be spreading throughout the media and the internet.

First, the Federales are not the only "real authority" in Mexico. The Federal Police do not patrol or otherwise exert authority over municipalities like Playa del Carmen. We have never seen the Federal Police active in the area of Playa other than on federal highways.

Second, we disagree that the local police authorities are "worthless" or have been "bought off long ago." There are many layers of police authority in a city such as Playa. There are the Tourist Police who assist visitors and police the resort areas. There are the Transit Police who handle all traffic and parking related issues. There are the local municipal police who handle general issues and problems within the city. There are the state police, the special narcotics squads and probably a couple of other divisions we have forgotten about. Our interaction with the police while living in Mexico has always been favorable. They have been polite and have assisted us with problems both at the hotel and at our home. The centuries=old tradition of the mordida (bribe or tip) to the police still does exist in Mexico and it is difficult for foreigners to understand or accept. And indeed it appears that many police officers have been bribed by the drug cartels with regard to drug enforcement. However, these facts do not indicate that all police officers are worthless or without enforcement power.

Thus, your thought that the transfer of federales to border towns in Mexico will leave the Mayan Riviera without real police protection is simply incorrect, even if such transfer were taking place. And, it is not. The Mexican government has made clear that it is utilizing the military, not the federal police, to engage criminals in the border town area. Again, there is no lack of police protection or patrol in Playa del Carmen or the surrounding areas.

We also have to note that your suggestion that the bad economy will lead to less protection in the Mayan Riviera is simply wrong. The economy of the Mayan Riviera has not suffered as much as the rest of the world has. Tourism is booming. We know this specifically as our own hotel is currently breaking every occupancy record we've ever had. Moreover, Playa del Carmen continues to show signs of economic growth. There is construction, both commercial and residential, everywhere in the area.

Finally, we have to note that Quintana Roo, which contains the Mayan Riviera, has the highest per capita income in all of Mexico. In short, the tourist trade of this area earns Mexico and Mexicans more money than any other area in the country. Thus, if you're going to suppose that Mexico is pouring resources into any part of the country, doesn't it make sense that they will first and foremost protect their biggest asset?

We appreciate your thoughts on this, but as people who are actually living here in Mexico, we think that we are in a better position than most to see what effect the drug war is having on life here. And to all appearances, the answer is: the effect is minimal.

We believe there is crime in every city and especially when traveling there are certain precautions you should take to limit your chance of having a problem.

Stay on main roads and highways
Do not be loud or obnoxious and draw unnecessary attention to yourself
Do not be flashy with money or expensive objects or jewelry
Do not get drunk in public (and act like a stupid drunk LOL)
Travel in groups - the bigger the better
Do not ask "locals" (or anyone for that matter) about sex or drugs

This year they were discouraging our (U.S.) "Spring breakers" from traveling to Mexico right? I want you to read the tips I've listed above and ask yourself if you think our "Spring breakers" would do anything on that list? Of course they would! So in that case it would be a bad idea for them to be "out and about" in Mexico ... and in most any U.S. city too!

We are still planning on getting married in Mexico and we're very happy with our decision. We are taking all five kids and we would not be going if we felt we were putting them in a dangerous situation.

How do you feel about travel to Mexico? Are you planning to get married in Mexico? Have you had any friends/family "warn" you about going there due to the drug wars? How have you handled it with them? Please share your thoughts below in the comments section ... I'd love to hear from you on this. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Travel Documents, Passport Issues … and Some Drama!

suzanne — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:24:08 +0000

Knowing that we really wanted to have a destination wedding, and with Mexico quickly becoming our top contender, we decided we'd better start getting all of our travel documents ordered.

If you are traveling someplace that requires a passport (you now need one for Mexico) you will need a certified copy of your birth certificate with a state seal.

My kids and I had a house fire a few years ago so I knew I needed to get all of our birth certificates. It turned out Ken needed to order his and his kids' as well. We were able to order the California birth certificates by downloading a document online, having it notarized (which is necessary for the certified copy), and mailing it in with a check (or money order). Ken was able to order his kids' copies (Texas) online.

Meanwhile we found out that to get passports for minor children you need either both parents present or a document signed (and notarized) by the parent who will not be present. Oh boy, here we go!

Ken and his ex-wife did not have an amicable divorce. They don't get along at all and they only communicate via email. Ken emailed her and told her that he'd like to get passports for the kids so we could travel this summer ... her reply? "No, I'm not signing anything!" As you can imagine this was devastating.

We had decided to get married in Mexico and I now had my had my heart set on getting married at Dreams Tulum in Tulum, Mexico (about an hour and a half from Cancun). I had a feeling that this was just her bitchy reaction and that there was a chance she'd sign the papers but could I really risk it? Not only did we need her to sign the paperwork for the passports we'd also need her to sign and notarize a document giving us permission to travel out of the country with minor children. So even if she agreed to sign for the passports ... we could pay for all seven passports, book and pay for a trip and she could refuse to sign the travel documents. *sigh* Not at all surprising but extremely frustrating.

As Ken spent the next week going back and forth with his "ex" I spent my time (crying) looking for destinations that wouldn't require passports or permission from her. We looked at San Diego, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. After about a week or so (and after getting her parents involved) she agreed to sign the paperwork for the passports (and the permission documents once we had our destination and dates chosen).

Now we had a decision to make ... book Mexico and hope she would honor her commitment or take the safe route and change destinations. Well, we decided to take our chances and book Mexico and we couldn't be happier. It worked out just fine. We now have everything signed and we are back on track to take our dream family vacation and get married on the beach in Mexico.

Are you planning on a destination that requires passports? Do you have one yet? You can read about the requirements here on the U.S. Department of State website. If you've put this off and you need to put a rush on it you can try a service like RushMyPassport.com.

Are you traveling with children? Have you had any drama dealing with either of your "ex's" while planning your wedding? Share your thoughts and stories ... it's probably therapeutic LOL and if it's unresolved maybe we can give you some advice ... or at least some support and a big hug! *SmiLes* Suzanne

Destination Wedding Budget (Poll)

suzanne — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:19:32 +0000

Our Destination Wedding Budget

One of the most important aspects of your destination wedding planning is your budget.

Truthfully, we had absolutely no rhyme or reason to our budget. Ken asked me if I could set up a nice destination wedding for $15,000 and I said, "I think so."

This amount is intended to pay for the travel for all seven of us (we have 5 kids), our accommodations, our food and drinks, spending money, the wedding and reception, dress, shoes, everyone's wedding clothing (the seven of us), jewelry, passports, decorations ... well ... everything wedding related.

When I agreed to this amount I had NO idea what everything would cost and as I'm sure you can imagine it "went" really fast. I've found myself stressing out ... especially once I figured out that it was going to cost about $7,000 grand just for our travel, accommodations, and food and drinks (we chose an all-inclusive). I've done OK with this amount and I'm cutting costs in the areas where I feel I can and we'll see how I do when all is said and done.

I know how much it helped me to see other people's budgets that they posted online so I've decided to post mine (what I have so far). I hope it helps others ... but of course each item is such a personal decision so I'm not totally sure how much help it is. I will write a post about what's included in our "wedding package" and once it's done I'll link to it.

Let's have a look at where I'm at so far:

I am certain that I will "need" things that are not on here yet ... and we don't know yet how many guests we're having so some of the items could go up once we have that number. Some of the numbers might look funky so please ask me questions if you want to know about something specifically.

Let's do a poll too:

View This Poll

Are any of you willing to share your destination wedding budget? Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions for me on my budget? I'd love to hear from you ... and remember your comments help others too.

We’re Having a Destination Wedding … What Are the Options?

suzanne — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:56:14 +0000

We're really excited about having a destination wedding! So ... what are the options?

We live in Texas but most all of our family is in California ... so we definitely feel we're great candidates for having a destination wedding.

With my family in Southern California and Ken's is in Central California ... we could choose one of those ... we could go somewhere in the middle of the two ... or go somewhere totally different.

Things we've taken into consideration while looking for the perfect destination and venue:

Our family is mostly all in California
We will be traveling with 5 kids
We will be traveling during summer vacation from school
We don't know yet if we'll be able to get passports for all of the kids (there's a story for this one *sigh*)
We want to be married on the beach - on the sand if possible
We're working with a fairly low wedding budget (considering we'll be paying for travel and accommodations for 7 of us)
We need to be careful about the travel time involved so none of us waste our vacation time in planes and airports

Places that we put on our "maybe" list right away:

San Diego (North County)
Santa Barbara
Hawaii
Mexico
Antigua
U.S. Virgin Islands
Texas Hill Country

Since I'm most familiar with San Diego I started checking into some of the great venues there and I've really had a lot of fun investigating the wedding sites there. I was checking out the website for the Del Mar Power House when one of my best friends called me and said they had picked their wedding site ... that's right the Del Mar Power House! "I'm on their site right now!"

I was a bridesmaid in her wedding last summer and it was fun to be at their wedding while being engaged. You find yourself checking out every detail and getting ideas for your own wedding. It also got us even more excited about our own wedding.

Some of the thoughts while we were narrowing down our destination:

San Diego - Great for our families and a place we both love. Accommodations for 7 of us were somewhat expensive as were the potential wedding costs. If married in San Diego we'd both want to go somewhere else for our honeymoon. This meant we'd have to fly all of the kids back home, work for a week, and then leave again for our honeymoon (Ken can't comfortably be gone for more than a week at a time).

Santa Barbara - See above ... pretty much "ditto" as for San Diego

Hawaii - We kept hearing about "great deals" for Hawaii travel and this was a place we were both really excited about. But at some point in our research we decided that with such a large family we'd be best to go with an all-inclusive resort and Hawaii doesn't offer them. Again, for all 7 of us ... just too expensive.

Mexico - I started doing a lot of research on the internet about the many different places to get married in Mexico. I found some great places and the cost was very appealing. I love the idea of being able to go somewhere that feels like a "vacation" and being able to combine our wedding and honeymoon (weddingmoon as they call it LOL). Mexico was quickly becoming the front runner ... meeting all of the criteria we were looking for in a venue.

Antigua - Ken has always wanted to go to Antigua and I thought it'd be really wonderful to surprise him and make this happen for our wedding (or honeymoon if that was to be separate). My research revealed that it's difficult travel for most of our guests (due to distance). I think we'll leave this as a vacation destination - can't wait!

U.S. Virgin Islands - Since we were having some challenges (you can read about it here) getting passports for Ken's kids ... we decided to check into the U.S. Virgin Islands just in case. There were some all-inclusive resorts and although they seemed similar to Mexico in price (some less) the travel costs were much more for us. This would also be a full day of travel for all of our family in California so not the best choice.

Texas Hill Country - That leaves "home." LOL ... As it turns out there are some really nice places close to home to get married. The problem was that the places we fell in love with (The Oasis in Austin and the Yacht Club in Horseshoe Bay) were pretty darn expensive (for our budget). We'd save money by not traveling with kids but since the guest list would be much bigger here (due to inviting friends and business associates) the cost was much higher. I am glad I forced myself to look here in Texas but I guess we still have our hearts set on a destination wedding.

I'll let you know we've decided on Mexico you can follow along as I investigate some of the great venues in Mexico and see where we decide to get married and have our honeymoon. We're totally excited!

Still deciding on a destination? Be sure you read, "Choosing a Destination" for some great tips. What do you think of the places we considered? How many "maybes" are on your list? How to go about narrowing them down? Use the comments section below and share your thoughts. It will help a lot of other brides. *SmiLes* Suzanne

That Went Well … NOT!

suzanne — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:20:09 +0000

So we're engaged and we're really starting to get serious about wanting a destination wedding of some sort. Hardly any of our family is here in Texas and that means that most all of our family will have to fly in, rent a car, and stay in a hotel. So, if they're going to be faced with the cost and travel why not go somewhere really awesome?!

As we started to share this idea with some family members we were met with some serious negativity - Ouch! "Destination wedding? What's that? What are you talking about? Like where? When? How much will that cost?" Hmmm ...

When you get married you need to really think about who it's important to please. We are not young, first time bride and groom ... so truthfully - it's most important to please us and our children.

We couldn't be happier about our decision and we feel really bad about the negative responses from some of our family members. We've trained ourselves to simply reply, "I'm sorry you feel that way. We'd love to have you there and we hope you can make it. If not, we'd understand." What can you do?

On the flip side ... many have been very supportive and excited so I guess we move forward with our plans. The "complainers" will either come along kicking and screaming or they will just miss out.

I don't like feeling this way ... but our wedding is going to be a blast wherever we end up and we're very excited regardless. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Were you met with negativity when you decided you wanted to have a destination wedding? Did you feel bad at all? How did you handle it?