Dijawana Diva

We used Mari Tripaldi - loved her! We got married on the public beach, on calle 10 by the light house. Although Mari and Erica cleared most of the sunbathers, you cannot avoid the onlookers who stayed to watch the entire ceremony.

We used Vincent from Zasil Graph Studios in Playa del Carmen. Vincent and his assistant worked their A@)(# off from 3pm and stayed until the party ended.. We got a hi-res CD of the 148 pictures we chose, plus 8x10 pictures of each, all for less than $2,500! In addition, he posted the other pictures he took for our guests to browse and purchase from since he took some great portraits! He raised his prices for 2008, but still worth every penny! I would so definitely use him again, given the opportunity!

I am fortunate enough to be working for a dress company. We selected the body and fabric and had it made in house for less than $600... I did splurge on a pair of fabulous Dolce Gabbana strappies to wear with the dress!

Quote: Originally Posted by itsme7396 i was married at the Al Cielo Hotel and i used Erica and Maria from 'Weddings in Playa,' and i would highly recommend them... i already had my resort, photographer (Matt & Sol) and videographer (Paul Schrank) booked before i hired them... and they helped me with flowers, cake, DJ, minister, transportation for my guests, etc... Weddings in Playa Has Experienced Wedding Planners to Coordinate Destination Weddings, Receptions and Mayan Ceremonies in Playa del Carmen Mexico We hired Mari as well - I couldn't rave about her enough!!!!

I worked with Mari Tripaldi from Playa del Carmen; loved her! let me know if you would like her info...

Not sure if this has been asked of the forum yet, but I am curious... For those who've had their destination wedding come and gone, if you had to do everything all over again - would you still do a Destination Wedding? What would you do differently? What would you have eliminated / added? As fabulous as my wedding was, there were a few things I would have changed.... Ladies, your thoughts?

Used Paul Shrank for my video; as my hubby is in the business, we asked Paul to just give us the raw footage (unedited) to review and edit ourselves. After reviewing just the raw footage, we were very happy with what he and his assistant, Rachel filmed. I would so recommend him!!!

I purchased a map from CANCUN MAP, which was just updated in December 2007. it is being sold for $10 plus shipping. Playa del Carmen map. the map is pretty detailed, with reviews on restaurants, clubs, and beaches. I scanned and modified the map on Illustrator to suit my needs; the map reached 11x17 and in PDF format is over 2m, so I am unable to upload it to share. My scanned map breaks down all beach clubs and water sports vendors from MAMITAS (26th) all the way down to 6th Street. I also included a smaller box that shows Playa del Carmen's nightlife. I would gladly share it with anyone who asks...

We chose the Basico Hotel because we didn't want the "cookie cutter" wedding that the larger resorts offered (no offense..), even though it meant that we would have to select our own vendors and do most of the leg work ourselves. Because we occupied the entire hotel, everyone from the front desk, housekeeping, restaurant and bar treated us like royalty and gave us everything we needed or wanted - by our 2nd night, most of us were partying with the crew at the Basico, and were treated like locals everywhere we went! Just like New York City, everything was "instant gratification" - and for a big crew like us - that is exactly what we wanted!

Been to Playa del Carmen five years in a row, and just had my wedding there last month... We had our welcome reception at MARAMAO on a Friday, where we asked them to reserve the enclosed area by the bar. Here is MY experience from MARAMAO; I don't know whether this is typical of their service, but me and my fiance were very disappointed in the service; the food was good, tho! My planner forwarded me their menu and prices right before Christmas; they quoted me 26USD/pp for 2 hours open bar plus 20USD/pp for 2 hours of passed appetizers (7-8 appetizers). After Christmas, I was given another quote of 40USD/pp person and $30USD/pp for same things... After making a stink, they offered to honor the same pricing, however, instead of a FULL bar, they would not offer beer and wine, and instead of 7 apppetizers, it went down to 5. When we met with the Manager a few days before the event, we told him that we were bringing in our IPOD for music, and he assured us that all was well. We also made it clear that any guests ordering anything off the open bar menu will be okay, and that we were willing to pay for that once the evening is done. So... let's fast forward to the Welcome Reception. We bring our IPOD - and he says that they don't have the right connection... Hey, we're easy- - - just put on some music! They claim to not have much music (yea, right!) so we asked them to play ANYTHING while the planner ran out and got some CDs from her car. Appetizers come out; instead of passing it out, they lay it on each table and let people help themselves... NO PROBLEM When people started asking for drinks, every server actually tried collecting money from our guests! We told them again - RUN A TAB! This went on for about the first hour where we explained (in english and spanish), again and again that anything not covered by open bar should be placed on our tab. To top it all off, the well drinks were weak as hell! When the planner arrives with CDs and attempt to play it, nothing came out. The manager comes out, the bartender tries to help - - NOTHING! So we resorted to doing an impromptu speech while they were trying to troubleshoot.. Well, apparently, the volume was put on MUTE - that is why the damn thing wasn't playing (smart folks they have there!) All in all, although the food was good, but the staff needs to get trained a bit more with their systems and customer care...

As a former telecommunications person: Depending on your carrier, Rates run anywhere from $0.99 to $1.49/min for each call you make. Note that all calls are billed at 1 minute increments, so even if you only spoke for 30 seconds, you are still responsible for the full minute. SMS can cost from $0.25 to $0.50, while MMS (pictures) can cost twice as much. It would be best to contact your carrier to set it up in advance, and it is also recommended to call AGAIN to confirm prior to your departure. When you are connected to the TELCEL, or TELMEX, you shouldn't have any issues dialing or texting. There is also a carrier called MOVISTAR that I got connected to while I was in Playa del Carmen, and I could not complete a call to save my life. As stated in previous posts, make sure you dial 00-1-52-984 (PDC) or 998 (CUN) xxx-xxxx. You can also use the "+" instead of the "00". In some instances, you will require to add a "1" after the country code (52) when dialing a local cell number. If you have a blackberry, make sure you have the PIN # for the recepient (from the bbery, go OPTIONS, STATUS) and use either the bberry messenger or PIN option. This does not cost anything, but you can only do this BBERRY to BBERRY. To make it easier for our group, we purchased walkie talkies and passed it on to everyone to use while in Playa del Carmen. We made everyone create their own "Code Names" which made for some great laughs... Hope you find this information useful...

I am keeping my name.... Made that clear to the hubby from day 1. He understands and supports by decision; his mom is still questioning it - - but since I didn't marry his mom...

Quote: Originally Posted by JHarwood2Be Congrats, You're married!! Did you end up fed-exing (sp?) your shells? Even with the set-backs, it still sounds great! The shells are still packed in a box, in my office... I guess we will use them for the At Home Reception... Like the actual wedding, I have the entire party planned in my head - from venue, vendors, food and theme, just need time to plan and execute!

Here are the pictures we selected from the photographer (14 pics)- - Picasa Web Albums - Joann - Dij and Bryan... These are from the cameras from 4 different guests (380 pics) Picasa Web Albums - Joann - A Playa del C... Hope everyone enjoys them - - coz we surely enjoyed being there!!!!

CONTINENTAL AIR has partners with a lot of banks Both me and the hubby use Chase bank; we get rewarded miles for every $ I spend on the debit card; plus miles for eating out and shopping at Shoprite! Continental also allows people to donate to your account as a gift! We also try to use Continental Air each time I travel; by the time wedding came about, we had the choice of either using all our miles to purchase first class tix, or just upgrade.. It was cheaper for us to upgrade from coach to first for 30k miles a person.