Iberostar Brides....POST HERE!

I'm considering Iberostar resorts, and i'm concerned with all the resrictions. Any thoughts nad suggestions that may help me make a decision. I had a friend stay at the tucan/quetzal, has anyone heard anything bad/good and on the other...HELP

We are getting married at the del mar next month - most of our guests arrive on Thursday and while we have events Friday and the wedding Saturday, I hadn't thought of doing a welcome reception - awesome idea!! Are you just telling people that you will be at the bar at a specific time in case they want to meet or doing a private event?

Our wedding is on a Friday, and we have guests arriving Tues, Wed and Thurs. We are going to do a rehearsal with a rehearsal dinner at the Italian restaurant with just bridal party and parents that way we don't have to have a pre-selected meal. After the dinner I think we will extend an invitation out to everyone to meet at one of the bars, but we'll keep it casual. We didn't plan any other events. We had asked everyone in advance if they wanted to do an excursion, but with everyone coming in and leaving on different days it made it hard to try to get everyone together on the same day. A lot of our guests really only want to stay at the resort and relax so we aren't doing any other events. Mike and I will be doing some excursions, but we will do them on our honeymoon portion of our stay once all the wedding activities are over.

We're just picking a bar and giving a start time then people can come and go as they please. It's just an informal way for everyone to meet and get to know each other before the vacation really gets going. My friends did this at their wedding and it was great for everyone to get to know each other & know who was part of the wedding group.

I'm trying to figure out if we should do an activity for the guests. I'd like to do something like a sunset cruise, but it's hard to plan since I have no idea when people are planning on coming in. It's still pretty far away, but I'd like to include the activity info on our website and invitations. Maybe we should just scrap the activity all together so our guests can have more free time like your guests? I have to say the activities are more expensive than I originally anticipated!

Stina - I had been thinking of the sunset cruise idea all along because I thought it was generic enough that everyone would like it - but I only booked it about a month ago because I hadn't been sure if we could afford it!! We sent our our invites around the same time and did the passport invite you see all over this site, so we put a page in there about the catamaran, and added a line to our RSVP for guests to check if they wanted to attend - so far we have 100% going and everyone just thought it was a great suprise. I can give you the info if you want it.

Michelle & Carla - thanks for the tips! I am wondering if the Iberostar has a way to do a group phone message to our guests that day to let them know where we will be for the welcome reception? I don't want to print it out in advance because I want to scope out the bars before deciding - haha. I work for a hotel here and we can do that so I am guessing they might be able to....I am sure I will figure it out - thanks for the tips!

Michelle - are you guys staying at the lindo for your honeymoon?

I wanted to do a catamaran trip for the group, but it was way over budget for us.

That would be great if they could leave a message. I was torn about what to do with the itineraries too in case we changed our mind on locations when we get down there. I contemplated printing two copies, but then thought that would be a waste, and more crap to bring down with me. I decided I am just going to put a line and fill in the blank with the name of the bar, or wedding location once we get there. I'm also going to do that with the guest list. I was going to print everyon'es name and their relationship, and a blank line for people to write their room numbers down.

We are staying at the Lindo through our wedding night, and then will be switching over to the Grand for the remainder of our trip.

We put a page on our website of excursions with links so people could check it out. Our TA also works with a local vendor that could do group rates for a minimum of 8-10 people, but we didn't have enough people wanting to do something to look into the group rates.

Hey Lyssa! Yes, I'd love to see any info you have! I'm trying to figure out if we can afford it. We're getting married on Saturday, and I wanted to have the cruise Thursday evening b/c Friday is the rehearsal dinner, and I thought it would be too hectic to have everyone do the cruise around sunset, they'd be all messy and windblown, and then we'd have to rush back to the hotel for dinner at 8:30. (The rehearsal dinner has to be at 8:30 according to the WC). I have a feeling not many people will come Thursday, and if that's the case, we can afford it, but if I'm wrong and everyone comes Thursday and wants to go on the cruise-that could be really expensive! I was emailing Paradise Catamarans and they're charging $20pp for transportation, or you can rent a van for $400. I was like, that is almost as expensive as the cruise itself! Plus, they charge $10pp for open bar. Right now, they're charging $500 for up to 10 people; $600 for 11-20 people, and $700 for 21-30. It's possible we might have more than 30. So it could range from $900-$1600 or more. Trying to figure out if we should say that it's our treat on the website & invitation, or if I should list the prices so they know they have to pay for it. I would much rather pay for it ourselves, but it's a lot more than what I wanted to pay. I'm getting really frustrated about this!

Hey Beacbride-I have a list of excursions and places to go on the website too, but I really wanted to have something planned for our guests if they want to participate. They're welcome to do their own excursions too.