2011 Iberostar Brides

[Hanna20]

Hi everyone!

I just joined this site today as we were able to confirm our date, April 6, 2011 at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach! I hope there are some others out there getting married at the same resort so that we can all trade tips and advice. Look forward to chatting with all you 2011 Iberostar brides!

[pitt2011]

I'm getting married at the Del Mar on July 20, 2011. I have the date booked and DJ booked. Working on photography right now. There is another thread on here "Any 2011 Brides Out There?" which is also helpful.  There is also a 2010 Iberostar thread. Good Luck with all of your planning!!

[radiochic10]

Hi everyone I'm new to the board here, and am getting married on the beach at the Iberostar Del Mar on Valentine's Day, 2011 and I can't wait!! If you've never been there and chose it because someone told you it's a great place-they were right! I went there 6 years ago with my sister and it's still my favorite spot ever (and I've been to lots of tropical places, gone on 5 cruises) I've been working with the wedding planner, Karla, and she couldn't be more helpful. How's the planning process goin for everyone so far?

[radiochic10]

Hi there Hanna!  Welcome   I've planned quite a bit for our Valentine's Day wedding there already.  Anything I can maybe help you out with?

[Hanna20]

 

 

Originally Posted by radiochic10 

 

Hi there Hanna!  Welcome   I've planned quite a bit for our Valentine's Day wedding there already.  Anything I can maybe help you out with?

 

Hi Radiochic10,

 

Thank you for the offer and congratulations on securing Valentines Day! I am sure it will be very romantic for you guys! I too have been working with Karla (via email) and she has been helpful for the most part. We are also getting married on the beach and we want to have a private reception afterwards. I would love to hear what your plans are.... are you going to be using their photographers or someone else? I am pretty torn on that one because of the penalty involved and also having to purchase day passes for the photographers if they are external. Have you chosen your flowers and decorations? Karla did send me a few examples but I have also been looking for pictures of exactly what I have in mind. I actually just ordered my dress a few days ago so its starting to feel real now! Looking forward to hearing from you...

 

[radiochic10]

Hi Hanna-I'm Erin by the way! 

 

Wow-how exciting that you just ordered "THE" dress   I found mine last month and am SO happy with it.  So, here's what we have figured out so far...Photography was a big concern for me, but I found out something they don't exactly advertise...and that is, if a photographer is STAYING at the Iberostar, you do NOT have to pay that $300 fine!  I know an amazing photographer in Boston who offered to shoot the entire thing for free if we paid for him to go.  That was a no-brainer, because about the same $$ as the people they make you go with there, AND we know we'll get amazing pictures from someone who knows us personally.  We may go with their company for a video though.  Our reception is going to be private and at the "Don Alfredo" restaurant, which is a covered, open-air restaurant with plenty of room for people to dance.  We actually reserved the "Dream Civil Ceremony," which includes TONS of stuff, even us being upgraded to the Presidential Suite on our wedding night.  They'll do a 'practice' hairstyle on me ahead of time, and one on the actual wedding day..there are lots of extras in that package-we are really happy we picked that because normally a 'private' reception is like $800 extra, but it's part of the dream civil ceremony.  I haven't gotten into flowers yet, but I plan on doing white roses and I'll have those for my bridesmaids too, except my sis-who's the maid of honor-she loves calalillies, so I'll surprise her with those.  The decorations (i.e. arch we'll get married under) are part of the package too, so I'm not too worried about that.  I figure I'll hit Karla up with that stuff closer to the day.  We're definitely going to have at least 40 people there, so the cake that's included isn't gonna cut it-so I have to figure something out with Karla where that is concerned.  Also, it's just a white cake with flowers, so we have our own topper (including a hilarious one for a 'grooms' cake with the bride holding a key & the groom sitting down with a ball & chain on his ankle) and I want to check to see if we can pay extra to make the main cake bigger and more of a 'beach' theme. (Like brown sugar to look like sand, chocolate sea shells...that stuff is easy to add-I could even do it. lol)  They only allow you to serve one kind of food at the reception...so we're thinking the steakhouse menu, but we haven't finalized anything yet.  We're doing a cocktail reception right after the 4:30 ceremony & the actual reception will start at 6ish.  We're hiring an outside DJ-mainly because I am a radio DJ-so the music is a HUGE deal for me.  I can't be having someone in charge who is playing Pink Floyd instead of Pink...but that's me!  If it isn't a big deal to you, they have someone on site, but there's no microphone, no mc'ing or anything of the sort. Whew-I have talked your ear off. lol.  That's pretty much what I have for now.  We sent out Magnet "Save The Dates" and everyone loved them!  They were so cute-cost 2 stamps each though because of the weight of the magnet.

 

What I'd LOVE to know-is this.  To all brides who gave everyone an overnight/beach welcome bag when they got there filled with tons of stuff.  How in the world did you GET the stuff there?  Did you pack 3 extra suitcases?!  Help please!

 

~Erin

[Hanna20]

Hey Erin,

 

Looks like we have a lot in common! We are also doing the private reception at Don Alfredo and I too am leaning towards the Steakhouse menu. That is what Karla offered me when I wasn't exactly thrilled with Don Alfredo's menu choices. I thought chicken would be a safe bet for most people and that was not an option on Don Alfredo's menu so she suggested the steakhouse menu because that does have a chicken option. It's funny that you mentioned the magnets because I was looking at those too and thought they would actually be cute invitations as well. Most people put their invitations on the fridge anyway so that would just make it easy! I figure that with a destination wedding there is so much information that needs to be shared that there is no way it would all fit on an invitation anyway. I am currently working on putting together a wedding web site to keep people informed as we go along. I will put the web site address on my invitations and let people know to check it often for updates. The greatest pain in the butt right now is the actual travel arrangements. I have obtained a couple of group quotes but they are extremely high and people would have to book within a couple of weeks for the quote to be valid. I am not sold on the whole group quote idea yet.... I am hoping that the prices will drop as we get closer and we get a better deal but then we run the risk of things being sold out so it's a tough one! What did you do about your travel arrangements?

[radiochic10]

Hi again

 

 When we sent out the Save the Dates, I put a paper in with it that had ALL of the details about making travel arrangements.  Rather than going directly to a group rate company, I found a travel agent who negotiated a price with the group company and then offers that to all of our guests.  We set up a 4 night or 7 night package (but people can do whatever amount they want..we just had to have a set # of rooms to get the rate.  We set it at 20 rooms, because we knew we'd get to that without a problem.)  I put that in there, along with the website I set up for us on theknot.com.  There they can find all specific details about our ceremony, reception, etc. and I posted reminders EVERYWHERE that everyone needs a passport.  Our travel agent stresses that too, because it wasn't so long ago that all you needed to get in/out of Mexico was a drivers license and a birth certificate.  Hope that helps!

[KittyLogan]

Hi Everyone

 

I love these forums, it's so great not to be going through all this alone.  We're FINALLY getting married this coming January at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya on *hopefully* January 8th.  I spoke to Karla on the phone today but she said "Rena?" will get back to me with the deposit information.  I'm sooo excited!  Only 4 months to plan and everything, though.  That's scary.  I look forward to reading everyone's input and I hope to add my own.

[Hanna20]

Hi Kitty,

 

Welcome onboard! Reyna is the event sales coordinator and when I first started this whole process she was the one I was dealing with. She will send you a form to fill out and you will have to provide a copy of your credit card and drivers licence. Once they have your deposit they will confirm your date. The the fun starts!!! Hopefully you can get working on your travel arrangements because that seems to be the most difficult part of all this (at least for me anyway!)

 

Originally Posted by KittyLogan 

Hi Everyone

 

I love these forums, it's so great not to be going through all this alone.  We're FINALLY getting married this coming January at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya on *hopefully* January 8th.  I spoke to Karla on the phone today but she said "Rena?" will get back to me with the deposit information.  I'm sooo excited!  Only 4 months to plan and everything, though.  That's scary.  I look forward to reading everyone's input and I hope to add my own.