Moon Palace 2008 & 2009 Brides - POST HERE!

Hi Girls...

I am in need of some major help...haha. I am JUST starting out our wedding planning and feel pretty overwhelmed. First off, I have been looking around for a place in May or June 2010, finally decided on Moon Palace...but then my fiance's sister was over last night and said that $1400 per person is A LOT for a weeks stay (even though everything is included). Is this the price that most of your guests are paying? I don't want to pick someplace where people are going to feel is super expensive, etc. Also, are the airport transfers included in the price? Because when I just priced it on Expedia, it said they were not included, and I thought they were.

So, with $1400 PLUS airfare, and sister saying no one is going to want to pay that...I am now worrying that I will have to pick another resort. Are there any other resorts that anyone knows about that are equally as nice but maybe around $1000 for a week per person?

My next question is...when to send out the announcement that we are having a destination wedding? I would like to send this out ASAP, but with the rate we are going for picking out a place I will most likely need to send this out before we pick the final resort. So, if this is the case, what do I tell the guests that the price should be for a weeks stay? We will also have to send it out before flights become available for May/June 2010...so how do we explain to guests that we do not know the price of airfare? Should we say to budget at least $500 per person for air? But this price is just from Philadelphia...so I guess I would need to pick a few major departing cities that guests will fly out of to list a round-about price?

Does anyone maybe have letter they sent to their guests that I can take a look at? That would be such a tremendous help!!!

Are there group rates available for the guests and do they cut costs down a lot? Also, how do you say to the guests in the announcement letter that group rates are available if people book the same # of nights, without sounding rude?

One more ?...acutally, I am sure this won't be the last (lol)...but, how does everyone feel about an announcement email? We were going to sign up for an account at ewedding.com, and they have an rsvp/invitation section...so, we were going to maybe send out the announcement there and have people rsvp by a certain date. Then once we have people's responses, we will send out an actual invitation to those who responded with a 'yes'...and that invitation could have the final details of pricing, etc. Does that sound ok?

Thanks so much everyone for all your help in advance...I am sorry I am totally clueless!!!

does anyone know....we are just doing a dinner and not a formal reception?? When/where would we do the first dance, cake cutting stuff......?

does anyone know....we are just doing a dinner and not a formal reception?? When/where would we do the first dance, cake cutting stuff......?