rodent

Thanks for telling me how to do that! I've been trying to figure it out for months now. I can't test it out because Shutterfly is acting up for me too tonight.

Quote: Originally Posted by MoBride I decided I needed at least one pic of us rolling around in the sand so I threw Tim down and jumped on him. I had to pretend like Dad and the rest of the guests weren't there for that!I will post those in just a mintue, shutterfly is acting up again. how do you post pictures using shutterfly? I haven't found the option.

too funny! But, that looks like it wasn't the first jump in. What happened the first time?

Quote: Originally Posted by Alipires1 I know snapfishwill let you share and store and if you right click you can download the pictures to your own computer. On snapfish & shutterfly you can right click to save, but they aren't high enough resolution to print large. I think I'm going to use snapfish. I've already prepaid 100 prints ($20). If it's a picture I want to own in high resolution, I'll pay the 5 cents to download it.

Quote: Originally Posted by eturnery oh that is a really good idea - them you don't feel as ripped off!!! i am planning to have a private reception instead of the reservations in a resturant they offer with the wedding package - so was going to have a dinner the night before the wedding or on my bithday which is 3 days before so could use them for that - good plan morgan i will have a look at Ericks web site when i get home from work - not really meant to be on the internet !!! ) but i was shocked at the amount of really good photographers locally and the prices are soo good - in England you would pay at least $5000 for a decent photographer and that is just a basic package!!! thanks em x I don't know that they will let you swap your photography to a different event, but it's worth a shot. The idea comes up a lot, but I haven't heard from someone who has actually done it. I'm getting all my images on a CD & 3 hours of photography for $1,050. That is just what we wanted. You might want more time to get the getting ready shots & pictures of your reception. I was so happy I could get a photography package for $1,000. I thought it would be around $3,000-$5,000, so originally I was going to stick with the hotel photographer which would still have cost $600. If you search through the forum you'll see there are many great photographers to pick from.

I thought those were sandbags, but it was hard to tell. The map i posted on a different EDR thread has an image of the hotel taken from a plane. You can see the whales.

Quote: Originally Posted by eturnery hi thans for replying x i am not sure of the company they use but have been told they are very dated and posed shot so really would like to use one of the local photographers i have reaserched. i have asked hotel for some examples but as yet not received and also i believe they don't do any getting ready or reception shots which i would really like. That sounds like a lot of hotel photographer's pictures I've seen. it always looks like a formula. Like they have a checklist of poses & that's all they do. many of the pictures look really great, but i want something more candid. Luckily my hotel doesnt charge a fee, so i hired a local photographer. There are some great photographers in the area with very good prices. Have you checked to see if the $500 or whatever the fee is can go towards them shooting another event for you. Like maybe a welcome party or casual session? Foto Caribbean - Riviera Maya - This is who would have done my pictures if I didn't hire someone else. Many are really nice pictures, but overall they are too staged. And this would be their best pictures. None of these pop out to me like wow that is an amazing picture. Erick Rodriguez This is who I hired. I can just browse through this website for hours & every picture is so fun to look at. It was hard to pick a photographer because there are so many great ones in riviera maya. I wanted to hire them all! I am so glad people on the forum encouraged me to hire a photographer!

What are the whales? I feel like your are not talking about the animal. I noticed big sandbag looking things in the water in front of EDR. Is that what those are?

Do you know the name of the photography company? My hotel uses fotocarribean. Once I knew that it was easy to find examples of their work.

good advice! I'll start doing this. We had someone take our bag. So we picked up the bag that looked just liked ours & tried to contact them. They had borrowed the luggage from someone else, so it had this other person's phone number on it. We had to have this person call the ones with our bag. They finally got a hold of them & they drove back to the airport and gave us our bag. It would have been so much easier if they just put the right info on the tag!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Alipires1 Thanks everybody! I think I'm going to do Mexico. I am thinking Tulum Dreams now. I guess I have to start doing the pros and cons thing. Sounds like a good choice. There is a lot of info on dreams tulum on this forum. Pros- you a near the ruins, it's a beautiful hotel cons- it's pretty far from the airport, maybe 1 1/2 hours I tried to avoid mexico at first because it was a place I had already been. I'm really glad I chose riviera maya. There are so many fun things to do in the area. Guests have been really happy to see how affordable it is.

I have never seen someone open gifts at a reception. Honestly I think that would be so boring! You want to be mingling & dancing. Even if it is a colorado thing, if you don't feel comfortable with it you don't have to do it.

El Dorado Royale resort: photo tour, aerial images I really like this map, but a lot of the hotel names are out of date.

Oh, I didn't realize they were the same company. Well, than that is not something to consider.

At my hotel, a woman named Annalisa from a salon in Playa del Carmen fixes your hair. I've asked my WC for more info, but this is the most I've been able to get. I'd like to know if she is good, before I decide if i want to pay $100 for her to do my hail. I feel like if I can do a good job myself, I'd rather fix it than take my chances with a stranger. I don't know yet if I can do it, because my hair is too short to try. But, I want a really simple style. I don't want to spend time getting a trial updo. There are too many things I want to do in mexico to spend time in a salon. If I could find some reviews & know this person works wonders with hair, I'd probably have her do mine. My hotel doesn't charge fees for outside vendors, so I could always hire someone else. Anyone know of someone great in the PDC area who will come to your room to fix your hair?

EDR charges $500 to bring in your own photographer. Just something to consider. I've heard it's very romantic. Being on a beach with snorkeling was really important to me. I don't mind if it's rocky. I'm just telling guest to bring water shoes.

I check to see if they are big enough in a couple ways. A simple way is to upload it into snapfish or shutterfly & try to order a 4x6. it will tell you if the resolution is too low for that. Another way is to open it in photoshop if you have the program & go to "image size" and see how big the resolution actually is. This is what the resoultion needs to be: Image Resolution : Maximum print size less than 640x480 : only wallet-size prints recommended 640x480 : absolute minimum resolution for 4x6 (results will vary) 1024 x 768 : minimum recommended resolution for 4x6 1152 x 864 : minimum recommended resolution for 5x7 1600 x 1200 : minimum recommended resolution for 8x10 or larger I made a postcard for LadyP with a picture that was really too low in resolution. Most images you snag off the internet will be low resolution. I expanded the resolution in photoshop, but doing that doesn't always work. It can make the picture look a little strange. I don't know if she has received the postcards yet, but if they look good then we know that works. I just did a bunch of pictures this way for a friend & they all printed fine. I got a high resolution image by posting on the forum that I was looking for one. Jason was nice enough to send me a beautiful picture of riviera maya (my current desktop background).

PM me your email address & i'll send you vista print coupons. The 100 postcards are free & you pay $5 to upload your image. It's another $5 is you design an image for the back. Shipping is around $6. Shutterfly & snapfish have postcards too. It might be a better price for you since you just need 10. I also PMed you the thread with the how to steps you asked for. I'll post it here too. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t10604

Here are some that don't allow outside photographers (or charge a fee) El Dorado Royal $500 fee Iberostar resorts $300 fee Moon Palace These fees could have changed. I think there was talk of EDR dropping the fee. When I narrowed down the places I was interested in, I checked to see if they charged fees for outside vendors. When you pay the fee, you are suposedly paying for their lost income. So some people have considered paying the $500 & having the hotel photographer photograph a welcome party, a casual session, etc. And then hire someone else to photograph the wedding. I don't know anyone who has actually done this though so it might not work.

Quote: Originally Posted by lyrebard Have any of you used a travel agent just for flight/shuttle arrangements? We're staying at a small hotel that doesn't work with TAs, and I'm worried that just doing flights would be a waste of a travel agent's time... my TA has suggested not doing just flights through her. She said her price would be higher than what we could get on our own. If your guests are booking their own flights, suggest they search with websites like orbitz, but book directly with the airline. it's usually $8-$10 cheape & you have much better support if something goes wrong.

Sounds like you have enough locations to pick from that you can find a great place. DR & mexico are going to be less expensive than your other choices. There is tons of information about those places on this forum. It feels overwhelming at first, but after a few weeks on the forum it becomes much easier to pick a place. Atleast that was my experience. The first month of wedding planning was a little crazy.

I think most people are using a TA. Why does it seem like they aren't? Maybe because even with a TA, most of us are pretty involved in the plans. You should definitly use one. I always thought you paid to use a TA. Now I realize they actually can save you money. So might as well get a TA. I couldn't imagine doing this without one!

I wouldn't want to do a trial just because I don't want to spend vacation time getting my hair done. Some people had trials done at a local place & then took pictures for the stylist to recreate.

I think the difference is that apple is going to be selling a package deal of hotel + flight. When the TAs negotiate with the hotel, I think it's usually just for the rooms. From what i've seen, even if they negotiate a great deal on the room, the flight can cost a lot more than it would have been with a package. For example, a 3 night package trip for my wedding is $650. If we tried to book that same flight without the hotel, it's $500. So the TA would have to beat $150 for a 3 night stay in the hotel to make it worth booking that way. There are perks that come along with a room block, but it isn't always cheaper. Also, with the package deals a TA can usually give you the price drops. So the $650 trip might actually be $600 by the time the guest pays the final amount.

Mine is on the website, too. I'm not going to include it in the invites.