Costa Rica DW Review

[kiki]

Great review, thanks!

[mdw2dtw]

Thank you for your review, it's so helpful. And your dress....well it was the perfect destination dress.

Working on making my destination wedding in Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. And I have a few (well, a lot ) of questions.

You mentioned how much the photographer cost. Do you mind giving out the videographer's price?

Did you ever get the DVD back? Did it turn out like you thought it would?

How many photographs did you get in the photographer's package?
Were his pictures digital?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Aaron the Photographer :)]

looks like the posts here are a bit old... but wow what a helpful review...and i like the rating system you used.

[BayBug]

Originally Posted by mdw2dtw

Thank you for your review, it's so helpful. And your dress....well it was the perfect destination dress.

Working on making my destination wedding in Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. And I have a few (well, a lot ) of questions.

You mentioned how much the photographer cost. Do you mind giving out the videographer's price?

Did you ever get the DVD back? Did it turn out like you thought it would?

How many photographs did you get in the photographer's package?
Were his pictures digital?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

I actually have not received the DVD! I am a little upset with that. I think the price of the videographer was about $1200. More or less. I really can not remember. For the photos I received about 100 and yes they were all digital and given to me the day after the wedding. It was great! Please let me know if you have any more questions.

[majnooni]

Hi Angie,

Thanks for the review! We are getting married at Costa Verde this May but we opted to hire a true wedding coordinator rather than go with the hotel person. We too found working directly with the hotel to be challenging ... no responses to email (at all!), slow to get us information, unwilling to block out rooms, etc. Apparently, that is part of life down there. Things work at a much different pace. Brides, be aware of that if you decide to get married in CR. You need a lot of advance planning and as Angie said, go with the flow.

We are working with Tropical Occasions which was started about 10 years ago by an American married to a Tico. The great thing about working with them is that they understand western expectations and can help you navigate the differences between the US and CR. They have handled all of the vendor relationships for us which has saved us significant time. We were able to read a lot of reviews about each vendor we might work with and review their work in advance.

It certainly isn't cheap to hire a wedding coordinator but it has been worth every penny for me. My FH and I both work long hours and having some one we can rely on to think through (and deal with) the potential problems has been invaluable.

Granted, I can't say how it will all turn out yet ... Rest assured that I will let everyone know! I'm optimistic with a heavy dose of laissez-faire!


Also, if you are thinking about Manuel Antonio or the area, be aware that travel to MA can take a lot of time. It is either a 3.5 hour drive or a 30 minute flight from San Jose. Unfortunately, the last flight for the day leaves at 2 pm. Most flights from the US do not arrive early enough to catch that 2 pm flight. Our guests who can only take a couple days off work have had a difficult time planning their travel so they don't spend most of it in transit. Getting back is a lot easier. There are several morning flights back to San Jose that connect nicely with outbound US flights.

Cheryl

[majnooni]

Originally Posted by mdw2dtw

Thank you for your review, it's so helpful. And your dress....well it was the perfect destination dress.

Working on making my destination wedding in Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. And I have a few (well, a lot ) of questions.

You mentioned how much the photographer cost. Do you mind giving out the videographer's price?

Did you ever get the DVD back? Did it turn out like you thought it would?

How many photographs did you get in the photographer's package?
Were his pictures digital?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Hi mdw2dtw,

My FH and I spent some time up in Guanacaste in December scouting around. Post your questions and I'll see if I can answer any of them. We opted to go with the Manuel Antonio area because it better fit my FH's idea of "Costa Rica jungle". Where in Guanacaste are you looking? Have you been down there? If not, I highly recommend a trip down to scout around. It is so much easier when you can actually picture what it looks like and how the logistics will play out.

Our photographer (Eduardo Lopez) is $2200 for the day. The price includes a second photographer for the whole time, 8x10 prints of the best 20 pictures, and a DVD of all pictures taken (all digital). The best part is that we get all reproduction rights to the pictures as opposed to paying them to do prints. This is fairly standard outside of the US. US photogs make you go through them to get more prints and it can cost a fortune!

Also, check out our web site Wedding Website - Cheryl & Will ... we're continuing to add a lot of information about CR.


Cheryl

[BayBug]

Cheryl, I am so excited to hear that you will be getting married in Costa Verde. I love Costa Rica! I am so happy we had our wedding there! When I was down there (a couple days before my wedding) there was a wedding going on in the event center. They had dancers and good music. I am not too happy with the e-mail delays from Costa Verde. It kind of makes me upset when I know for a fact they (she) is sitting right there at her computer. Please feel free to ask me anything.

[mdw2dtw]

Originally Posted by majnooni

Hi mdw2dtw,

My FH and I spent some time up in Guanacaste in December scouting around. Post your questions and I'll see if I can answer any of them. We opted to go with the Manuel Antonio area because it better fit my FH's idea of "Costa Rica jungle". Where in Guanacaste are you looking? Have you been down there? If not, I highly recommend a trip down to scout around. It is so much easier when you can actually picture what it looks like and how the logistics will play out.

Our photographer (Eduardo Lopez) is $2200 for the day. The price includes a second photographer for the whole time, 8x10 prints of the best 20 pictures, and a DVD of all pictures taken (all digital). The best part is that we get all reproduction rights to the pictures as opposed to paying them to do prints. This is fairly standard outside of the US. US photogs make you go through them to get more prints and it can cost a fortune!

Also, check out our web site Wedding Website - Cheryl & Will ... we're continuing to add a lot of information about CR.


Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

Thanks for the info. FI and I really wanted to do Costa Rica because we (and most of our guest) have never been. And there seems to be so much to do. Unfortunately, (but right before the save the dates went out) TA calls to tell us the airfare to Liberia has gone up to 945.00 per person from Chicago. No one has charter flights to CR, they are all scheduled? Days after I recovered from the news we are now looking at less expensive options. We were going to stay at the Paradisus, but I also got info on the Four Seasons. The trip was too expensive for only 3 days and long hours traveling. We were flying into the Liberia airport so we would only be about 45mins. away from the resort. If we were flying into San Jose they would have had to fly from Chgo then overnight in FL, to catch that first flight out. Delta had some connecting flights but folks wouldn't get to the resort until the late evening. I guess we will just have to go by ourselves. In the meantime, I will have to live vicariously through you and baybug. Arghh!!!

[Aaron the Photographer :)]

Whoa...I think you guys might be paying too much for tix to Costa R.

Try the site Cheap Airfare, Hotel Rooms and Rental Cars on Yahoo! FareChase. Search dozens of travel sites with one click. and you might be able to save a few hundred bucks...

~A

[BayBug]

Yeah you can find tickets much cheaper to Costa Rica. I think I paid $440 and I flew into San Jose. Keep looking!