Real Wedding - Carina's Celebration....

Well, this made it all worth it folks! Carina just sent me this photo today to show me that her guests really did enjoy the maracas and it made me smile - I don't think I've ever seen anyone with so many maracas on their person at one time before! Just an awesome picture....

We are working hard on our upcoming March wedding (can't wait to put it together!!) and have so many April/May maraca orders that you're going to think our blog is raining maracas! And, last for the season (but definitely not least), we're also busy working-out Ashley's design for her May 22nd wedding in San Pancho! So, I'll be back ;).

Design in a Box- Yelapa!

A big shout out goes to Emily & Bonnie who were married last Saturday in Yelapa! When Emily first came to us she brought with her an amazing invite and STD which I can't share because I can't figure out how to make them into pictures, except for this image which came from their website! haha!

Her request was a bit unusual but I was open to at least seeing what we could do to make it work - she wanted us to design some accent touches that they could take with them via boat and put-up themselves. So, Omar and I put our heads together and here's what happened.....

Papel Picado Chuppah Top

The first request was simple - they just wanted a papel picado chuppah. We decided to base it off of the image up above - I think it turned out a trifle Awesome.....

Gift Bags

Something colorful and big enough to put a list of things into it - and with a handle - pretty easy requests. Omar used the same design we'd chosen for the chuppah - just a bit smaller. Heart heart!

Escort Cards/Guest Book

Emily & Bonnie had the idea of hanging-up escort cards somehow so they looked like papel picado lines. They also wanted to use jungle animals as the tablemarkers (this had to be attached with double sided sticky tape, so I don't have photos of them). I then took the escort card idea one step further and thought it would be great to have them double as the guest book pages as well. We used little frogs for the guestbook because they had a little frog theme going-on with their std material.... I do think the guest book is my favorite.

Papel Picado Lines

We also made papel picado lines based on the same animals as the tablemarkers and the escort cards.

Pinata

And last, but not least, the pinata. Their only request was that it not be representative of something living (like an animal) - so Omar made a heart similar to the one represented on their website. I think it turned out pretty groovy.

Everything went into plastic bags. Which went into a large box. Which was covered with plastic bags. And - wala - design in a box!

We have a month chock-full of favors and a wedding ... so I'll be back sooner than you think!

A Tale of Two Maracas....

A big shout out goes to Laura who was married at Dreams Riviera Cancun Feb 26th and Carina who was also married at Dreams Riviera Cancun Feb 27th!
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Laura asked us if we could possible do a design like "white flowers" but with starfish like her logo. I said, "of course we can!" This time it was my BIL who rocked the design, Israel! You'll be seeing more of his designs in the future....

Carina loved both white flowers and lacy romance and couldn't decide between the two - so she did one of each, in her colors of pink and orange. I really like how the names/dates are in the same font, but a located a little differently on the maraca, according to the design.









SHIPPING


Now for the story .... we receive so many orders that I don't really pay attention to the shipping address until we are ready to ship the maracas. So, this was why I didn't realize that we were sending both of these beautiful brides' maracas to the same hotel. I'd been reading a few complaints about the cost of our shipping but down here, we don't have a good local postal system and it is very important to me that the maracas arrive on time and in good condition - in order to do that, we have to use reliable shipping companies. One mishap is enough for me to never use that shipping company again - you are important to me!

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We shipped Carina's maracas Feb 16th - unbeknownst to me until it was done, one of our staff chose to send her maracas via a shipping company I do not like to use (and I think you will see why!) - Estafeta. I shipped Laura's maracas nearly 6 days later via DHL.

To cut a long story short - Laura's maracas arrived the day after we sent them. Carina's maracas, however, were put on the wrong truck and got stuck somewhere in Cancun. Even though it was the shipping company's mistake, they refused to deliver the maracas before the day of the wedding - not only that but we had to fight with them to get them to even put the maracas somewhere where the coordinator could get to them - we argued with them for TWO FULL DAYS until they finally located the maracas and did what we asked.


Needless to say, Carina did finally receive her maracas the day of the wedding (at least according to the tracking information - I have yet to hear if that really did happen) - and the check is in the mail to return nearly all the money she paid for shipping. I know for sure that, even though using other shipping companies might a lot less expensive, it is definitely not worth the stress and I'm pretty sure the bride will say the same.


So, from now on, no experimenting with shipping companies we aren't 100% certain are reliable and, if do make a mistake, will correct their mistake ASAP! Which, I'm afraid, means that, for now, the shipping costs will remain the same.

Up next .... papel picado and a design in a box.....