Azul Hotel and Beach Resort

Hey dirtymartini, aren't you getting married at AB around the same time I am? Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else. Someone on here has the day before us.

Thanks for asking about the planning--it's almost wrapped up! I would say our major crunch time for planning was between 3-5 months out. Karisma needed our initial requests by the beginning of January, and that was the hard part! I don't know your experiences, but I find that dealing with Tiffany and the Miami office is very frustrating! It would be much easier if we could talk to the resort directly. My comfort comes in knowing that once we get down there, all will be taken care of and fabulous!!

Our biggest decision right now involves the Dinner Reservation we get. We were going to use it as our Welcome Dinner, but found out that guests don't get to order from the regular menu with your reservation. You get one choice, whatever the item is the chef picked that day. One reason we picked AB was for the wonderful food choices. By using our reservation, we would be limiting what our guests eat for 2 of their nights (reception and welcome dinner). For those only there 3 or 4 nights, that really sucks!

We'll probably end up scrapping the reservation.

Yes, I am so happy that I read that other people are frustrated with the Miami planner but they handled all loose ends once they were on site. It's very irritating and I would probably end up canceling my wedding there had I not read that it gets better once you're down there!

 

Does Karisma actually contact you asking for your requests, or should I contact them?

 

I am trying to find out about the dinner reservations - I don't remember seeing anything in my special about a Dinner Reservation, just a private dinner for two.

 

Which package did you choose? The difference between the Free Package and the Gold Package does not constitute $3,500 in my opinion, but I think there are some details missing.

 

I hate trying to find information on this website! And I hate when I contact my WC in Miami, she hardly responds but sends a link to a page on the website (that I've already seen!).

 

- Sara

Also, I can't find anything about areas to have dancing. Do you know anything about this, Taylor?

Do you mean dancing on the property to your own music and/or to a DJ you hired? Or do you mean the nightly events scheduled at the resort?

Our reception is private and is on the Blue Terrace. Plenty of room for dancing there. You can also reserve the Wave Lounge if it's part of your Private Event. They'll move out the furniture for you. It depends on how many people you have.

I too have regretted my decision many times, all b/c of the ridiculousness of having to deal with the Miami people. This would be much easier if we could just talk to someone at the resort! Tiffany has never stayed at the resort, only visited a few times. So she has no way of answering a lot of my questions.

Karisma never contacts me. I always contact them. Tiffany said our preliminary details sheet needed to be done by 1/8, and ever since we've been going back and forth ironing out the details. Even before that I was constantly asking her questions.

The Dinner Reservation was part of the promotion when I signed up. It's based on the number of rooms in our contract. If I'm remembering right, it was an exclusive promotion between Karisma and DWT our TA.

We're doing the free wedding package and adding on a lot of stuff. We priced their packages and it still came out better to go with the free one and add on.

Yikes! I've never had Tiffany send me a link to the webpage in response to my questions. I would be pissed!

Nevermind, I'm mixing things up. I'm confusing our Private Event discount with the dinner reservation. The discount is based on the occupancy in our contract, possibly exclusive to DWT.

I don't remember where the dinner reservation came from. Is it not part of the free wedding package?

Hi butting in here! We're getting married on April 27 at the Azul Beach. (FI and I are going down on 4/24, so we'll see the wedding of whoever is getting married there if that person is online here). (Taylor - I found Bree's pics on trip advisor last week). Still have no idea where the "real" thread disappeared to.

 

I have not heard that the "free reservation" meant that you cannot order off the regular menu - that makes no sense to me - at all.

 

We did a site visit in October before picking the resort and LOVED it (luckily I read online that the Karisma Miami people were hard to work with, so I was at least ready for it). The staff is wonderful and the onsite WC is great - he basically told us that if we tell them what we want, they will do it.

 

We are doing a private "reception", but we are only having 16 guests, five of which are children aged 3-11, so we are not doing any dancing.

Hi Suzanne!

Glad you found Bree's pics. Yeah, the thread disappearing is a mystery. We leave on the 23rd, so we'll miss you by a day!

About the Free Reservation and the restricted menu, that's something they don't tell you up front. It's in the fine print on our details sheet that Tiffany put together for us. We were up in arms about it, so Tiffany called down to the resort and asked them directly. They said that with your dinner reservation you absolutely have to order the Chef's Item of the Day. No exceptions.

Maybe it has to do with the group size? We're 22 adults and 6 kids.

As for dancing, we're bringing our own music, and with so few guests, it will be very low key. Sarah, how many people do you have? The Blue Terrace has plenty of room for dinner and dancing.

This is what the fine print says about our dinner reservation:

 

This is not a private event.

Will not have a private location.

Set up is done in 1 or 2 rectangular tables seating up to 12 people each.

All guest will be served our "Chef's Special of the day" menu.

This reservation is for a maximum of 25 people.

Any additional guest will have an extra charge, payable directly at the Hotel.

This dinner reservation can only be booked to start at 18:00 or 18:30 hours. Any Special request must be approved in writting by the Hotel's F&B department.

You know, I read that and just apparently ignored the Chef's special menu of the day. Everyone is coming on Sunday and the wedding is on Tuesday, so we were going to use the reservation for Sunday night, but if there is a limited menu, randomly in one of the restaurants, then we'll just go and wait for a table for the 18 of us. It wasn't going to be private at all anyway, so I would rather they have more options. We are going to do our private reception/dinner in the Wave Lounge I think and will do the ipod for music, and our first dance. We're just not having a big shindig, but will probably have a little dancing with the kids since, well, they really like to dance!

So, do they close down the Blue for everyone else when they have wedding receptions there? Just curious since there are only 2 other dinner options (which are much smaller).

We're doing the free wedding that was a special when we booked a few months ago and get a free dinner for two - we get there on Saturday and are having it that night since we'll have no privacy once everyone gets in on Sunday!