Here in Los Cabos, we have managed to stay safe from Swine Flu. This means Los Cabos is safer than California, Texas, Kansas, New York, and other states who have reported confirmed cases of Swine Flu.

In Los Cabos, the sun is still shining, the Sea of Cortez is heating up after a mild winter, and the margaritas keep pouring. We assembled this list of facts to help you ease your mind and enjoy your trip safely and securely.

FACTS

FACT: As of today (April 28, 2009), there have only been 26 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu in the entire country of Mexico. And there have been 64 laboratory confirmed cases in the U.S.!

FACT: A total of 0 of those cases occurred in Los Cabos. A total of 0 of those cases occurred in the entire state of Baja Sur (where Los Cabos is located).

FACT: Although the media is reporting that “152 people have died” in Mexico, these deaths have not been confirmed cases of Swine Flu.

FACT: US President Barack Obama today began a speech imploring Americans not to be alarmed and reminding the globe that both the U.S. and Mexico have sophisticated and well-coordinated systems in place to control and mediate the spread of any disease.

FACT: What the media ISN’T telling you is that 36,000 Americans die each year from the ordinary, regular and common seasonal flu. So although we are right to be alarmed by any contagious disease, particularly one like this which appears to be transmitted from human-to-human, so far, even the World Health Organization (WHO) has NOT recommended a travel alert, stating “WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders.”

View this publishing on WHO’s website at:www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_27/en/index.html.

FACT: Swine flu is a type of influenza, or flu, that originated in pigs. This strain has been transmitted to humans and from human-to-human. That’s why the media jumped on it; the occurrence of a flu of this type is out of the ordinary.

FACT: This swine flu is very similar to ordinary seasonal flu in that it appears to respond to antiviral treatment and transmission can be prevented with a few simple steps. In other words, wash your hands (in hot water) or use alcohol-based hand cleaners on a regular basis (70% alcohol strength), cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing and discard the tissue, and wipe down surfaces that may have been touched by anyone carrying germs with an alcohol-based cleaner, too. These are ordinary safety precautions, effective even to prevent the common cold!

FACT: Swine Flu is safer than your car! Keeping all of this perspective, in the U.S. alone, there are well over 100 deaths every single day caused by automobile related accidents. With Swine Flu, the odds are far less and chances for recovery are far greater. If you are thinking about not traveling due to Swine Flu, then you should probably refrain from driving too!

Now, that isn’t to say that Los Cabos is immune from the disease. We are only pointing out the facts. As of today, April 28th, 2009, there are NO REPORTED CASES of Swine Flu here in Los Cabos, or in the entire state on Baja California Sur, Mexico, the peninsula state where Los Cabos is located.

Many people do not fully comprehend the geographical location and isolation of Los Cabos. Did you know that the closest reports of “possible” Swine Flu are 1,000+ miles by car from Los Cabos? Depending where you may live in the United States (or elsewhere) in the world, geographically speaking, you may be far SAFER in Los Cabos. In fact, Los Cabos is so isolated from Mexico’s mainland, that news travels quite slow to us here! But we’ve caught wind of the hype, and we want to assure regular Cabo visitors and even our Cabo neighbors that this swine flu thing may not be as widespread as the U.S. and world media are portraying it right now. For example, the media says things like “Mexico” when referring to a city or state no matter where it is in Mexico. When the “world media gods” report cases in San Diego or LA, why don’t they simply say “United States,” as they do when reporting on isolated cities in Mexico? We are unsure why the world media’s standards and ethics allow for such lax labeling of Mexico, yet standards remain strict and detailed in reports about the U.S.. Frankly, this irresponsible misreporting of Cabo is quite frustrating for us here at Hautter.com, which is why we wrote this blog.

For more information, follow our updates on Twitter (www.twitter.com/hautter), read the Center for Disease Control’s tips on preventing flu transmission atwww.cdc.gov/germstopper, or visit the World Health organization website atwww.who.int.

APRIL 30th UPDATE

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alert level, they are still sticking by their original recommendations– “WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders.” (See View this publishing on WHO’s website at: www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_30_a/en/index.html)

Meanwhile, although the number of confirmed cases has risen slightly, the number is still higher in the US (with 109 confirmed cases) and Mexico government officials say that cases are “leveling off” in the capital city and surrounding areas. The Center for Disease Control and other U.S. arms of government continue to recommend normal precautions: washing hands often and covering your mouth when you sneeze. And, as has been the case since last week, there are still ZERO CASES OF SWINE FLU IN ALL OF LOS CABOS AND NO CASES IN BAJA SUR, MEXICO, the state in which Los Cabos is located. Currently, Los Cabos and the entire state of Baja California Sur is safer than many U.S. cities and states.

 

DECEMBER 2008

We’ve accomplished a year of many surprises, laughter, tears, hugs & kisses.

A New Year is coming and with it, a lot of opportunities to do all of the things you’ve been waiting to do, some of them will have to wait a little longer until economy gets more stable.

I hope you have a great time spent with your family and close friends during the holidays and don’t wait to long to start enjoying the important things life has to offer.

 

NOVEMBER 2008

This time I’d like to write about Wedding Coordinators…

I begin with one of the most committed wedding coordinators I know, Beth Dalton, owner of For You, I Do. I have worked with Beth on several weddings over the last four years. She will not only explain the “why” of a wedding coordinator, but necessary qualities you should look for when selecting the right coordinator for your wedding.

 

Although many clients start the planning process thinking a wedding coordinator is an unnecessary luxury, they end the evening of the wedding with the relief knowing it was one of the best decisions they made. In particular for clients planning a destination wedding. An experienced coordinator is key and can provide the necessary knowledge of the location, vendors, negotiation perimeters and most importantly, offer a stress free day for the couple to truly be able to enjoy the experience. Since your wedding day will be one of the most memorable days of your life, it deserves the personal attention, care and organization that allows you to truly be in the moment without having to worry about the local planning, last minute issues, timing or simply handling payment of vendors. The evening of the wedding goes by so quickly for the couple, their friends and love ones. Shouldn’t every moment be nothing but a lasting memory?

Each coordinator has a different approach and style. I recommend interviewing at least three coordinators and requesting references. Rave reviews should be a must when selecting someone who will be such a key part of your day. Also, chemistry between you and your coordinator should be a top priority. This is someone you will be working with for, in most cases, more than a year. You should be completely comfortable to discuss your true wants and needs, as well as your budget and concerns. You should be confident that her goal is to provide results to every request you have, at the same time being competent enough to offer suggestions, advice and honest feedback when needed. Every wedding is different, as it should be, and requires a personal touch/boutique approach. Your coordinator must be accommodating, open minded and flexible so that the wedding day is a reflection of who you are as a couple. The bride and groom set the tone for the wedding and an experienced coordinator will take the time to get to know her clients to ensure that when the guests arrive, they see the bride and groom in every detail.

Beth Dalton
For You, I Do Weddings

This wedding was at the Cabo del Sol, a great location for weddings in Cabo San Lucas where you would be able to have your wedding right in front of the Ocean. I’ve assisted many weddings at this location and all of my clients have been fascinated with the landscaping of Cabo del Sol and the service provided by their well-trained staff.

 

OCTOBER 2008

Hello my dear readers.

Here I am again and this time I’d like to talk to you about something that is really important. This time I want to talk about quality time and life with our dear ones and family.

We complain about this and that and even life itself, and this is because we tend to forget about the really important things in life and one of them is life itself. Many times we find ourselves emotionally distraught about something superficial and we forget the we still have health and not only this, but we have a lot of reasons to be happy. We have our eyes to see the beautiful universe that was created for us to enjoy, the tastes for us to try, our legs to have a nice stroll with someone that we love, we can breath, we can smell, and we have all these gifts and much more to be satisfied with our lives. But as I said we tend to forget and get upset at insignificant things.

I want to dedicate this month’s letter to my brother Christian Burgoin, who after a long fight against cancer lost the battle and left before us. He was an artist, he used to paint beautiful masterpieces. I was also teaching him photography and he was becoming really good, he loved it, I’m happy that we had a chance to spend a lot of good, great times together. At the same time I’m sad because of all the moments I won’t have a chance to spend with him.

Christian, I love you and I always will.

I want to invite you this month to take some time every day to remember all the things you have right now, at this same time you’re reading these lines, all of those gifts we received and we’re so used to them that we forget.

Tell all the people you love your feelings and try to spend quality time with them, talk to them, take a walk together, travel, have a good bottle of wine, enjoy good meals, listen to good music, see a good movie-do all the things you’ve always wanted to do. Just remember not to go against other people’s interests or disrespect others rights.

I want to say goodbye with a beautiful video a friend shared with me and I hope this brings something good to your lives too:

Sunscreen

Warm regards,

Manuel Burgoin

 

SEPTEMBER 2008

This time I can’t tell you how excited I am to know that finally after several busy months we had a chance to work on the site and renew our galleries and other areas that need some work.

Now we have a “Details” section in our galleries where you’ll see how important it is for us to capture every little detail of your wedding, the details are a very essential part of a wedding, they’re part of the soul of the event and we don’t skip any of them.

We now also have a “Retouch Service” where we’ll give your favorite pictures an artistic touch and all the things you didn’t like about your favorite pictures will disappear to show only the beauty of it.

We’ve also included a few more Destination Weddings Tips, and I’m going to share here with you and some interesting wedding tips from a client. I know it’s a long review, but it will definitely help you with your Destination Wedding:

Tips and helpful advice for far-off weddings

So you’re planning a destination wedding? Congratulations. That’s what we did, and it was a decision we’ll never regret! HOWEVER, planning a destination wedding presents some unique challenges. You are doing it long-distance, often without local contacts. You might also be planning a smaller wedding, which is easier in some ways but has its own special considerations. Below are some of my thoughts on various aspects of the planning process. I know it’s a lot of text, but hopefully you can find some helpful nuggets.

WHERE should we go?

“Whoa,” you say. “I don’t even know where to GO to have a destination wedding.” Aha. Well, that’s the fun part: Deciding! There are a couple of considerations in choosing a place:

• Marriage laws How easy it is to get married somewhere has a lot to do with what the laws are like there. Some places require residency, a lot of paperwork, or substantial tests. That makes getting married there, when you’re coming from far away, a hassle. Great thing Mexico is a really easy process
• Resources People get married everywhere, so there are wedding service providers all over. But whether or not they are equipped to work with a “long-distance” couple during the planning stages can make a huge difference. Furthermore, in very remote areas, you might not be able to find anyone to provide the wedding services you want, so try to keep an open mind.
• Interesting Things to Do and See Presumably you’re going to choose a place because you love it or have always wanted to visit. That goes without saying. But if you’re planning to invite guests, keep their needs and interests in mind, too.
• Affordability The budget rears its ugly head. Money no object? Lucky you! Go anywhere! But if it is, keep in mind that some locales are more expensive than others. That, and distance, may effect who can come, or how much you have to spend on the wedding once travel costs are accounted for.

 

What a Kiss! Well, on such joyful occasion “love is in the air”.

 

How to Go About Planning this Thing

Assuming you’ve chosen a location, now let’s think about how you might get it done:

 

Option A: Wedding Consultant

One option is to hire a wedding consultant who is familiar with the location where you wish to get married. This might be a consultant is located in the place where you’re getting married, or a travel agent or other person who has experience in planning destination weddings. Don’t assume that any wedding or travel consultant can automatically meet your needs. A consultant who is wonderful for local couples may not be as adept in helping you long-distance. Luckily, in some locales there are wedding consultants whose primary business is working with couples from out-of-town. They are good about faxing, mailing photos, and taking other special steps to help you. There are also consultants who aren’t limited to any particular wedding location, but regularly handle destination weddings.

All told, this may be the most-hassle free way to plan a wedding, but it will add to your cost. For example, they may charge a flat fee, or a surcharge on the cost of all services which they contract for you. It goes without saying: get references for anyone you work with.

 

Option B: Hospitality Providers

The second option is to find a hotel or inn or bed & breakfast that offers wedding planning services for guests who stay there. You’d be surprised how many of these places have hosted weddings in the past, and may even have a salesperson who helps with the wedding planning, often for a ceremony and reception right on site. It’s possible that a hotel offers this service but doesn’t advertise it widely. It’s worth asking about–ask any hotel, resort, inn, or B & B that you’re interested in.

 

Option C: Wedding Chapel

Another option is to find a wedding chapel at the location you’re interested in. These tend to have complete packages with photographs, flowers, music, officiant, even license built right in. Your job is usually limited to showing up. This is easiest, and may even be the least expensive. However, you don’t have control over some of the details, and you might be put off by the in-and-out nature of the ceremony.

 

Option D: Do It Yourself

The fourth option is to do it yourself. You find the florist, the officiant, the ceremony site, the baker, the music, the photographer and so on by yourself. This is probably the toughest way to do it, but you get to make all the decisions. If you’re a control freak about details it might be the one you opt for. If you go this route, I’d try hard to find some sort of local contact–someone who knows some of the local businesses but who won’t profit personally from any referrals. Here’s where setting up your lodging first can be a help–the hotel staff or innkeeper may be a great source. Ask at the travel newsgroups, or wedding newsgroups. Check with your college’s alumni office–see if a fellow graduate lives there. Ask friends and relatives. You never know how you’ll find someone who can make a few recommendations.

 

Speaking of local contacts…

That’s good advice even if you’re not planning it yourself: local contacts are great if you can find one. It can be reassuring to be able to ask someone else about the reputation of a provider and give a knowledgable second opinion.

 

Getting Information

How do you get information, whether that be finding a planner or chapel or setting up all the details yourself? Here are some suggestions:

The Web Obviously you’re HERE, so this is something of a no-brainer. I encourage you to do your own searches. Many businesses have their own webpages, plus there are many “local wedding guides” with big resource lists. There are also the internet yellow pages, newsgroups, and the personal pages of brides who have already had weddings at your desired place! Dig, dig, dig–a lot of this stuff takes some tenacity to find. Google is great; so is dogpile and ixquick.

Travel Guides You may also find some help in travel guides. For example, Los Cabos Visitor’s guide, there you’ll find a few vendors who will help your getting married in Cabo.

Word of Mouth Let people know what you are planning to do. Help may come out of the woodwork! You never know who among your friends and colleagues might know someone who did the same thing you’re contemplating.

Honeymoon Spots Given the growing popularity of “weddingmoons” (wedding + honeymoon at the same spot), a number of resorts offer wedding packages. They’ve got the chapel or some other site right there and coordinate the other services you need. So instead of zeroing in on “weddings” when you look for info, try asking about “honeymoons.” Travel guides, websites, books and travel agents who provide info on honeymoon spots may be able to help.

Some Other Thoughts–in random order

Be Creative A destination wedding really opens up some possibilities. If you still want to have a fairytale wedding, then go for it. But if you’re open to other options, great. Simply by having a destination wedding, you’re not doing the conventional. You’ve already altered people’s expectations, so you might be less likely to feel bound to a wedding template. And if your setting is particularly nice, you may be able to simplify other aspects of your wedding. We’ve seen some weddings in Cabo San Lucas where the natural flowers and outdoor setting were so beautiful. Whether you choose to simplify or not, do feel free to rethink some of the typical wedding traditions.

Send a Save the Date Letter If you are having guests, consider a “Save the Date” letter. Invitations to traditional weddings are supposed to be sent 4-6 weeks before the event. But more lead time is helpful. Your guests might also want to ask for vacation time to better enjoy the special place you’ve chosen! In some areas like Cabo, accommodations fill up way in advance. For all these reasons, you should consider getting in touch with your guests early. A friendly little form letter with pertinent info (place and date) will do nicely. If you’ve begun to set up accommodations, include that too, along with any other travel info. Otherwise, promise to get back to them later with that information.

Let Some Things Go Ideally, this destination wedding should be a vacation for you, too. Don’t get so caught up in little details that you can’t enjoy the weekend in a special place. Figure out what’s important to you, and label the rest of it “small stuff” that you won’t sweat. That will free you up to sightsee, relax, play, and join in what your guests are doing!

Do As Much As You Can Before You Go If you can, get wedding details finished up while you are still at home. For example, I decided to have silk flowers made at home and shipped to the wedding site. It was one less thing to worry about that weekend–and I already knew they were exactly as I wanted them. I also planned my wedding hairstyle before I went, so I would not have to rely on an unknown stylist when I got there. Of course, you might choose different things to “do ahead” — do what works for you!

Plan Your Packing Get advice from your dressmaker or retailer on how a dress should be packed for travel. Make sure you have the right-sized suitcase or box ahead of time. If you’re flying, plan to carry it on if you can, along with any other wedding apparel you’d find hard to replace on short notice! We found that packing for the wedding AND the honeymoon added up to a lot of luggage. If you can, farm out some of your important things to guests and family who are traveling down there. If you are shipping anything, leave extra time. I shipped my flowers down ahead of time, and they took over TEN days. I got some grey hairs wondering why they weren’t there yet. They made it for the wedding, but it was close.

Don’t Overplan for Your Guests You’ve probably gone to a lot of trouble to choose a nice place to get married. Let your guests enjoy it! Don’t plan so many get-togethers, family dinners, rehearsal dinners, and so on that your family and friends have no free time. We did plan a few things on different nights, to guarantee that we’d spend quality time with different groups of our guests, but no one (save us) had something wedding-related planned EVERY night. We had one family dinner on one night, a parents’ dinner the next night, followed by a night out with friends only. We skipped a rehearsal dinner. I know that it has become a nice tradition for people to plan huge wedding-related activities and social gatherings all weekend, and I think that’s super when you have a bunch of people in your hometown who otherwise wouldn’t have much to do. But in your case, your location can do a lot of the entertaining for you–and you should let it!

What about the people who won’t be there? When you have a destination wedding, you’re probably going to leave a lot of people out. That might be by design, or just an unfortunate circumstance of getting married far away. There are ways to include them. One option is to have a reception at some point after the wedding. You can plan something very much like a traditional wedding reception (formal invitations, cakecutting, dancing, even wedding attire) or something more like a party. We had two, one an open house in my hometown, the other a more formal catered party at my husband’s parents’ home. We invited the local people who would have been invited to the wedding had we held it in those towns. We brought our wedding photos to both, and I’d carefully prepared them in a scrapbook with good labels and captions.

While we’re on this topic: Should you send an invitation to people you know won’t be able to make the trip? Will it look like you’re just grubbing for a gift, or will it tell them they are an important person to you? Will they feel you expect them to be there, or will they understand it is symbolic? You should probably discuss this with those close to you. In our case, we decided to invite only those people we figured would come. We sent announcements (see below) to everyone else. I think our friends and family understood about not getting an invitation. But it felt weird not to send one to some of my relatives.

Consider using announcements You don’t see too many announcements mailed these days, because most people use their invitation to “announce” their marriage. But they are a great way to let important people know you’ve been married! Announcements are very similar in appearance to invitations–just the wording (and the timing) are different. You send these after the wedding takes place. The format generally lists the location your wedding took place, so rest assured that recipients will understand why they weren’t invited.

What about showers? And gifts from others who are not invited?As modern wedding traditions have evolved, we have tied wedding gifts to wedding invitations. For example, etiquette holds that those who are invited to a shower should also be invited to the wedding. If you have a limited guest list, that can make showers (and other times you receive wedding gifts) feel awkward. However, please realize that many people give gifts simply because they are happy for you and that is their traditional way to celebrate the marriage of someone they care about. We received many gifts from people after we sent out the announcements (even though this wasn’t expected). And I–the one with the tiny wedding–had TWO showers! One was given by co-workers, the other by the nice ladies in my mother-in-law’s church. It was what they sincerely wished to do, and the fact that they weren’t a part of the wedding didn’t seem to matter a bit. On the other hand, when a girlfriend wanted to hold a shower for me with plans to invite other mutual friends, I nixed it because it felt different. Play it by ear, but understand that there is a time to receive gifts graciously.

I love this picture, when I saw the light coming from the window, I knew this was going to be a great picture.

 

AUGUST 2008

Hello everyone!

It has been a complicated year, recession, taxi drivers going to strike, and many other things that if you were in Cabo this year, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
But, of course, that didn’t stop us from having a great time at all of the weddings we had during these months, actually in all of our weddings we had a chance to enjoy a beautiful weather all the time, sometimes a little humid, but if you’re in the pool drinking a Margarita, you’d barely notice it.

We also had a small storm, that the media spread the word of a disaster, but that’s not true for “Los Cabos” region, since we only had some rain and everything just got a little greener, so don’t be afraid to come and enjoy the beauty of our Baja.

October and November are coming and with them a lot of work is approaching too, so we’re excited right now. We’re going on vacation this month and we’ll be back to start our high season with our best faces on, willing to create greater memories every time we stand behind the camera at a beautiful wedding!

Thanks to all of our customers and we look forward to sharing more and more great memories of Weddings in Los Cabos.

Warm regards to all of you!

Manuel Burgoin

Nice view huh? This is a place called Sunset the Mona Lisa in Cabo San Lucas, and Diana and Nick were about to kiss and my camera couldn’t stop shooting

 

MAY 2008

Well, well, well, I’m finally back to tranquility and I have a chance to share with you more about our beautiful Cabo San Lucas.

We’ve been having a great busy time here in Cabo and I’m happy to say that Cabo has become more popular for Destination Weddings.

Now there’s not only Wedding Coordination Companies, but a lot of the resorts in this are including the event planning service in their packages, which is good because now all of you who want to get married in this beautiful destination will have more options and facilities to do so.

I was recently shooting a wedding in Las Ventanas al Paraiso; a beautiful resort here in Cabo and I had the chance to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of this place, and being that this is a 5 Diamonds resort the quality service is just exceptional. It is a special place to organize a dream wedding or an unforgettable honeymoon. Soon I’ll be sharing some of these pictures so keep visiting!

Wishing you all the best life has to offer,

Manuel Burgoin

A very romantic wedding at the Fiesta Americana in Cabo San Lucas, this couple was from Cuba (the guy knew how to dance very well, as you can see), I saw these windows that I liked and they climbed up and did the Tango!

 

 

MARCH 2008

Hello Everyone!

This is my first letter and I’m excited with this blog, because I get to say anything I want and I can share with you pictures and information about our beautiful Mexico.

Destination weddings rock! Why? well, first you get to get out of work to visit a beautiful location where anything can happen, the wedding becomes a real celebration for everybody, not only the wedding day, but during your whole stay at the destination selected.

Why Cabo? As you know Cabo has all the necessary activities to enjoy and have unforgettable vacations, let me give you a few examples:

Sport Fishing, shopping, stunning golf courses built by the best landscapers and designers, dinner and sunset cruises where you can see whales (seasonally), or the amazing “Arco”, diving, parasailing, ATVing, SURFING!!, delicious gourmet restaurants, great Mexican style restaurants (Visit “Mi Casa Restaurant” and “Panchos”), excursions, horseback riding, snorkeling, NIGHT LIFE and many other things you can do, and/or if you don’t want to do anything, well, here you’ll find the best SPA’s in Baja.

To find info about all these activities, please visit:

Los Cabos Guide

Besides, here in Cabo there are a lot of Wedding Coordination Companies, who will help you make everything go smoothly seamlessly and stressless for you. They know the best locations, the best vendors and the way to coordinate your wedding!

I hope you’re enjoying this Blog as much as I am and I hope you choose a Destination Wedding, for a unique event a unique location.

My best wishes to all of you,

Manuel Burgoin