Helen_S81

All the best to you! Have a great time, travel safe, and hurry back and let us know how it goes!

OK this is our experience with our booking with Sunquest using a travel agent here in Toronto. We got a rate in August 2007 for a May 2008 wedding, which we could guarentee up until a certain number of days before departure (60 days?), as long as there was space still available, by paying a deposit of $150 for 10 people ($1500). Any of the bookings could be cancelled or changed up to the 60 days before departure and the deposit was lost. We paid the deposit and sent out the information with the invitations to all our guests including the contact for the travel agent so people could book directly themselves. We very quickly had the 10 people covered mostly by the two families. We had some people cancel and lose the deposit, and we also had some last mininute additions. Hope that helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by Leticia my airline strongly enforced ONE carry on, so am i hooped in the sense my one is my wedding dress? or do ya figure i can get away with a purse too? I think it depends on which airline you are travelling with. We flew with Skyservice and it was pretty inconsistent among our group as to what they considered carry on or not. They did not weigh my purse and it was very large and full of all sorts of things. I also had my daughter's wedding dress in a small carry on suitcase on wheels as a piece of carry on luggage. Just as a fyi, we were over by about 8kgs and did not get charged extra either way. The bride and groom were over by about 20kgs and also did not get charged extra. I expected to pay but they never asked.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ellipse22 I am new to this whole "OOT" bag idea. I know that I will be looking for a tan coloured bag of some sort...I know what I want but have no idea what it's called HELP!! Hi! I see you are in Ontario. We got our bags from Creative Bag :: Home My daughter went into the store in Downsview but they didn't have what we wanted so they shipped them to us free of charge. We got the iron on transfer paper from Staples.

Quote: Originally Posted by becks One thing to note, security opened EVERYONE'S luggage at the gate before we boarded. So don't pack so tightly that you have to sit on your carryon to close it. They were doing this in Puerto Vallarta at the check in counter when we left, and when my daughter left one week later. They checked all of our bags, check in and carry on bags, so don't pack them with too much stuff!

A link to a website where I uploaded the professional pictures taken by the resort photographer (click on the picture): This is my favourite picture of the two of them:

Having just got back from the Riu Vallarta (Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico) I thought I would chime in. I did not at any time during my visit feel unsafe. I like to think that I'm fairly cautious and try to not put myself in dangerous situations but I walked around the resort by myself on numerous occasions (ie back to the room to get something, to the front desk, out to the beach). I even walked a fair distance down the beach by myself (in daylight). We did have a a couple of little things happen (such as guys trying to grind on my younger daughter in the disco and her boyfriend was trying to protect her and it could have got ugly but we all left together, and some guy put his arm around me at the buffet) but they were all from other guests. I also heard from some of the young guys in our group that there were some other guys trying to entice them into some kind of rivalry thing but they were other Canadians from another city from us. I also heard that the Riu Vallarta called the police one night on some of the rowdy guests that were causing trouble and being loud in the courtyard one night (they had an airhorn!). We saw tourist police all over the place and were told that as tourism is the main source of income for the area that safety is taken very seriously. I hestitate to mention the couple of things that happened to us as I don't want them taken out of context. Overall we had a fantastic time and these things did not riun our vacation but rather alerted us to the fact that you do have to be careful where ever you are. I was also in the Mayan Riviera January 2007 and my experience was very similar there (we actually stayed at the same resort as the couple who were murdered whilst there for their daughter's wedding). I do understand people's hesitation but these things can happen anywhere!

She is beautiful! Congratulations!

How wonderful that he is still motivated! Morgan, is it the plan that he walk you down the aisle?

Congratulations to Ann and Paul on their new baby daughter!

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Thanks again for sharing the pics Helen! If you don't mind me asking, how many were in your group? I think we're going to do our reception dinner at the Flamingo, just on the upper level. Did I get it right that you said that the cake wasn't that good? I am SO stressed about this and I know I shouldn't be. I think we are going to take a gamble and just go with it. We are going to order a 3 tier cake if they offer one. If they showed Katie a three tiered cake, then they should still have that option when we get there. I am going to take a cake pedestal with us and call it done as far as the cake goes and whatever happens....happens! For the wedding dinner there were 31 of us, including the bride & groom. I asked Katie about the cakes offered and she said there were pictures of 1, 2, & 3 tiered cakes. Only the small 1 tier was free. She did not ask how much extra the 2 & 3 tier cakes were because she wasn't interested. And no, the cake was not very good. I took one bite and decided not to waste the calories I wanted to mention something else to you Celina, about day passes. It may have been on a different thread that you mentioned getting them. When Katie and Chris met with the wedding co-ordinator they added two half day passes to the invoice. Then we told the two guests that were staying at their timeshare that for the day of the wedding the passes had already been taken care of so that they wouldn't pay for it themselves. The day of the wedding (probably around 2pm for the 3pm ceremony) they show up at the front desk and explain why they are there. The front desk tried to charge them because they had no record of payment, and they could not contact the wedding co-ordinator to confirm payment had been received. So they reluctantly had the front desk call me. Bear in mind that at that point I had 4 bridesmaids & 1 bride trying to finish getting ready (I was all set to go) + a couple of other people video taping and taking pictures of the whole process in my room. I asked the front desk to just charge my room so that I could deal with it later. He was very apologetic but said he couldn't because I would have to sign for it so I had to go down to the front desk. By the time I got there the wedding co-ordinator had called them and it was all cleared by her. Anyway, my point is that if you pay for them make sure the guests know, otherwise the passes could end up being paid for twice. Don't worry about the cake! I don't think anybody really cared one way or the other. There was a cake there for ceremonial purposes and that's what mattered. If anyone wanted dessert they could always walk back to the buffet but I didn't see anyone do that. All will be well

Quote: Originally Posted by jmiranda Thank you so much for posting all this information!!! Im so happy to see pictures of a wedding at the resort where I will be having my wedding!! It is so exciting. Your daughter was a gorgeous bride that dress is beautiful and you looked really beautiful as well. Can you please post more pictures of everything...please!!! I would like to see more of the set up for the dinner. Thank you so much For the dinner at Flamingo's the tables were set up for our party in a horseshoe shape. White table cloths, and clear glassware. Usually at this restaurant they use the heavy blue rimmed glasses, and colourful plates, but for the wedding dinner it was all white. A few rose petals were scattered over the tables. This is a picture (not very good) of the free cake that was supplied and you can see the table cloths. Also, this is a picture of what a typical meal at Flamingo's looks like. We were there earlier in the week and this is the Land & Sea Kebab. All the other meals look very similar as the sides are the same for all of them but subsitute chicken, ribs, or steak instead of the kebabs I got a quick look yesterday at the professional photographers pictures. Katie has an album with 15 printed out pictures and a CD with 100? pictures on. Some of them are really great but I have no idea when I will get to see them again. When I do I will try and post some of them. Thank you all for all of the really kind comments!

Beautiful photo's! Absolutely stunning. Good luck with the AHR today!

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Good to know Helen. Do you think I should go ahead with my DIY cups? The thing that is holding me back is that people have to keep washing their cups out. THEN - I was thinking of buying some plastic throw away cups (think the Solo brand cups that are red and blue) - I saw some that size at Sam's club that were teal/aqua colored - and I could just put the waterbottle stickers on them with our names and date instead and give each couple who stays at RIU a couple of those to use. What do you think? We found that the bar tenders had no problem rinsing our cups out and I washed them in our room too. We gave out the discount mugs insulated ones. Most of the time I used mine for water. The water bottles in the room were large (2 litres?) so it was lug one of those around or make do with the small resort plastic cups. If you do the plastic cups with stickers they would have to be fairly large and I'd be worried about the stickers coming off when they get wet maybe?

Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE For those staying at our AI resort, I think I'm going to do cups for the girls. I figure the guys may just want beers - hey.....maybe I should do koozies for the guys at our resort. (sorry for the ramble...) Just a FYI Celina, the only beer at the Riu Vallarta to come in bottles is the stuff in the mini bar in the room. At all the bars it is draught and given to you in little plastic cups.

OK more pictures. This is the ceremony site taken from the ramp coming out of the Flamingo restaurant which is the route the wedding party take to the beach. Notice the 'rope' on the very left hand side of the picture tied to a tree and then it goes down to the water. There are some loungers to the left of the rope but they are quite a ways from the ceremony site. And then another looking back the other way, towards Flamingo's with the loungers on the right. These are of Bar Mezcal set up for after the dinner. We had dancing (brought an ipod and sound system) and our own bar tender. The decorations on the table are the ones supplied free.

Quote: Originally Posted by evtalbot Gorgeous pictures! Thank you so much for posting. I am looking at all three RIU hotels for my wedding (but almost sure I want it at RIU Jalisco). I noticed that they got married on the beach, which is what my fiance has his heart set on. I'm sure it was HOTTT!! How was the privacy? (Did you have a lot of bystanders, etc.) One thing I absolutely do not want is people yelling "Congratulations!!!! Yeah man!!!!" during my ceremony!!!! What did you think of the RIU photographer? Can't wait to see more pictures! It was very hot but the parasols definately helped. They set a rope up around the area to try and keep people away but they can still walk along the beach at the water level. The photographer told Katie not to worry about any of them because he was going to photoshop them out for her. I heard no one yelling out, but people did congratulate us as we walked around the resort with her in her dress. We sat in the lobby for a while after the ceremony and took some pictures and other people were taking pictures of us too! Complete strangers. I have not seen any of the photographers pictures. Katie and Chris previewed them before I left and were impressed but were going to get some prints after I left. I'm hoping that when she gets home she'll either copy the CD for me or get me some prints (crosses fingers). They are also getting a video. When I get a look at them I'll let you know for sure. Quote: Originally Posted by starchild Aren't they crafty? It happened to us on our first trip down, we slipped up and said "Oh great, we should be on your list our names are..." and the guy glanced and said "Yes, you are here". NOT! Now I look at the list myself and find my own name...lol Glad you weren't detained long! Yikes! I believe it, the ride can be brutal yet there are always people who say nobody got sick on the ride over. I guess it's the luck of the draw, we had a few sick guests on the way to our wedding there, but I believe none of them took the motion sickness meds. I hope you found that the boat crew treated them well, I've been sick on their boats before and they were very attentive. Thanks for sharing the review & pics, everything looks great! I knew about the timeshare sharks and I got tricked! Yes, the staff on the boat were very attentive and concerned. Quote: Originally Posted by SoontobeMrsE Helen, I want to say thank you so much for the review. Katie looked amazing and you don't look too bad yourself! All of your information has been so helpful. What time did Katie get married? I am concerned with all of the lookeyloos on the beach. I would love to hear her perspective on how everything went. She seems so laid back. You have answered so many questions for me, and I think she is the first RIU Vallarta Bride! Thank you for sharing your pics and for all of your help. You have been so wonderful and helpful! Thank you again SO MUCH! ~Celina Katie and Chris got married at 3pm. Quote: Originally Posted by Raeka Great review, thanks. I think that's our first review of the Riu Vallarta in PV! Those BM dresses are very sharp in that color. Your daughter looked beautiful on her wedding day and so did you! Quote: Originally Posted by DougsGirl helen! you looked gorgeous, as did your daughter, both dresses were lovely! i love the shade of steel grey you wore, so pretty! thanks for the review, can't wait for more pics and the brides perspective! Thank you all for the kind comments. Currently I have access to nearly 1000 pictures from the other wedding guests. I will look and see if I can find one that shows the beach set up and how far away the loungers are from the ceremony site. I also took some pictures of a ceremony set up at the gazebo but as they were taken of a complete stranger I can not post them. However, they are on my facebook so pm me and I'll add you so you can see them. I also have pictures of the set up for Bar Mezcal for the dancing. I will sort some more pictures out to post but my computer time is limited this week (have to share with younger daughter as her desktop crashed and her new laptop won't be here until next week and of course she got a contract with a deadline of next Monday). Thank you all once again and if you have more questions I'll try and answer them if not this week then next week!

We were concerned about this so we took two watches, and synchronized one at the airport. It turned out that our hotel (Riu Vallarta) had the clocks set to Puerto Vallarta time. We checked in advance and all the tours we booked left on Puerto Vallarta time (even the ones from Nuevo Vallarta marina).

Have a great trip and all the best for the wedding! Travel safe.

I'm sorry if this is too long but I hope this helps someone! May 2 to May 9, 2008 travelling with Sunquest vacations Toronto to Puerto Vallarta. Transporting the dress: I turned my daughters wedding dress inside out, folded it up, and put tissue between the front and back to prevent the beads from catching on one another. Then I rolled the dress up and put it in a carryon suitcase. There were other brides on the flight and there were no closets so all carryon luggage had to go in the overhead bins. I was glad I had the dress in a suitcase as I saw a couple of girls carrying the dresses around the airport in Toronto and then having to stuff them into the overhead bin. Once I got to the hotel I unpacked the dress and hung it in the closet in our room. I had it at one end and then the train spread out the full length of the closet. The night before the wedding I took it out of the closet and hung it on the valance over the patio door hoping for the last few creases to drop out. It looked fine the next day. Arrival in Puerto Vallarta: I thought I was prepared for the timeshare sharks but I wasn’t! We got pulled over by a guy who must have seen our Sunquest tags and shouted “Sunquest over here”. Shortly after that I realised he wasn’t a Sunquest rep so we left and went through the doors into the main terminal where you can see the buses, and there was one with “Sunquest” in the window. There were only our party (27 of us) on the bus so the Sunquest rep (Andres) gave us our orientation on the bus. Once at the hotel he sat us in the lobby and handed out keys to everyone. Some of us had to go back to the lobby for bracelets after the fact but it was no problem. Everyone in our party got a junior suite, some had paid for that option and the others were upgraded, except the bride and groom who had a full suite (spectacular). Riu Vallarta: Grade A The hotel looks spectacular and is very clean. There are people cleaning the place from early in the morning until late at night. I was on the balcony a couple of times at 7am and I’d see teams of people washing the tiles in the courtyards, wiping down sun lounger pads and testing chemicals in the pools and fountains. In our room (junior suite) everything was in good working order with just a mild smell of damp, but I was prepared for that and it didn’t bother us too much. Got room service everyday, usually by noon, but once it was around 4pm. Got towel art a few times. Not sure if the mini bar was done every day or every other day but ours was never empty. The food: Grade B This is hard for us. At least one person in our party is vegetarian and for the most part we try to eat fairly healthy. The food wasn’t bad and nobody really complained but it was a very different diet to what we (me, my husband, and two daughters) are used to. We ate at Flamingo Steakhouse once as an ala carte dinner, and also for the wedding dinner. The food was just ok but the atmosphere makes up for that. We tried Nirvana and we actually liked the food there but it is still buffet food. Most meals we had at the buffet Don Raphaels or Flamingo’s (during the day) which most of us actually preferred. Renova spa at the Riu Vallarta: Grade C Katie (the bride) had a hair trial and took pictures of what she wanted (Angela – Cheese_Diva was the inspiration). It wasn’t really done the way she wanted but she just went with what they did. The day of the wedding Katie, myself, and my other daughter all got our hair done. None of us were really very happy and we ended up fixing the hair ourselves. It also took them over 2 hours to do the brides hair. They said we’d be done by 1:15 – 1:30 but Katie wasn’t actually done until 2pm which didn’t leave much time for makeup and getting dressed for the 3pm wedding. Wedding: On the beach –When Katie gets back she has said that she will write something for me to put up for future brides. From my perspective it was beautiful, although it was extremely hot. I was so glad that I had got some paper parasols (Oriental Trading) ahead of time for the guests. They were very much appreciated. Katie will also have some photographs and video from the hotel supplied vendors when she returns. Excursions: Rhythms of the Night – OMG – five of our party out of 20 got sea sick on the way over. That was after taking Gravol. I’m not sure if it was just extra rough that day but by the time we got to Las Caletas we were all just worried about being able to get these people back on the boat and home again without being even more sick! Whilst we were eating they sent a medic with oxygen up and more Dramamine for the ride home. Tour of Puerto Vallarta – we arranged for a private tour and there ended up being 24 of us on this trip. Gave us some details on the agriculture, education system, and general living conditions. Dropped us off at the mermaid in Puerto Vallarta and gave us an hour to wander. Then the guide walked us up to Our Lady of Guadeloupe church, took us to a school and then to the market. He gave us a couple of hours to shop and eat. Dropped some people off at the mall on the way back. Excellent excursion. Golf – 3 rounds were played – 2 at Flamingo’s and 1 at Le Tigre? All enjoyed by all that attended but I don’t have many details probably due to the amount of beer consumed whilst playing. If anyone needs more details I can get them I’m sure. All in all this was a great spot for a wedding/family reunion. We had guests ranging in age from 19 to 80. They were something for everyone. Walking along the beach, tequila volleyball, boogie boards (80 year old grandma even tried it) to just sitting and reading a book. I didn’t hear any complaints and everyone said that they had a great time. If anyone has any questions, please ask. Between the group we have nearly 1000 pictures so far without the official photographers pictures. Just a few to illustrate some points or to show off my beautiful daughter(s). Bridesmaids on my balcony before the ceremony. Dresses by Alfred Angelo bought from Bea Shawn (local store) priced from $190-230 CDN. Me on the balcony: Ceremony on the beach: Wedding party on the beach: Groom, Mother of the bride (me), bride, and father of the bride in hotel lobby. Bride!

Quote: Originally Posted by Raeka Pick away I read alot of negative reviews before I went too. But I just thought you can't please everyone. For the most part i loved the resort. The grounds are very well taken care of and it's a beautiful resort. It's so big it's amazing they keep it up the way they do. All 55 of our guests were very impressed and I think they all said they would go back in a heart beat. Good point! A few of our guests took the bus into PV (it's only 10 pesos) and said it was a fun experience. Although it wasn't the experience for me, instead we took cabs. Be sure to negotiate the price of the cab BEFORE you get in other wise they can rip you off. It cost us $18 each trip which wasn't bad as long as you made a day out of it in PV. Buccerias is very close which has all the markets and shopping too. It's cheaper than PV as well, cabs are only $5 to get there. We just got back from our daughter's wedding at the Riu Vallarta, just a couple of hotels down from the Riu Jalisco (there is soon to be another Riu, which I believe will be called Pacifico opening summer 200. Anyway, some of the people in our group walked back and forth to Buccerias, or walked one way and cabbed the other (it was $7 each way last week). Most found it to be cheaper and easier than Puerto Vallarta.

Quote: Originally Posted by Chiquita I saw some towels at Costco but can't remember how much they were.. they were definitely bright and beachy! I saw them yesterday. I think they were under $15? Around $13 or $14? They are great quality towels. We have a couple from a few years ago and they still look good.

Happy Birthday, Martha! All the best.

Quote: Originally Posted by BarefootBride I hope im not too late in this discussion. My family is huge and when someone gets married (at home in a catholic church) everyone gets together and help out in someway. Largely they help out with the reception. When my aunt got married, after the wedding everyone went to the church's hall and ate and danced. The food was catered by the family and served buffet style (it was yummy of course because it was "Family" cooking). There was a cake cutting, people danced and everyone went home. Since your family and FI family was influential in your decision to cancel the DW, I would certainly hope that they would be willing to throw the reception for you in lieu of showers, brunches, and other stuff. What do you think? I think this is a great idea. I have heard of a couple of weddings just recently where the food was 'pot luck' style. I spoke with a couple of people who were guests at weddings like this and they all thought it was a great idea rather than anyone going into debt to host a wedding. I understand that this might not be a popular idea, or a traditional one, but I think it could be considered? A solution to the cost of rentals which can be very costly is to use disposable plates and cutlery, which is cheaper.

Quote: Originally Posted by LadyCheese I think I read somewhere on this forum, that proper "etiquette" would be one bag per couple or one bag per person if their not a couple..is that right? Not sure about etiquette, but that's what we did.