akbeach

Love it! You guys are awesome and the pictures turned out fabulous! Love Playa Fiesta weddings. Congrats!

Also, the hotel photo shop is a little cheesy but affordable. We paid the $300 outside photographer fee and had to pay a day pass fee for his assistant. We used Sascha Gluck and LOVE OUR PHOTOS. If pictures aren't a big deal to you and you just want a group and couple shot, it might be ok to use the hotel but they are not creative at all and are pretty corny.

If you do your dinner in an ala carte, they just put off to the side or in side a room if they have it so other hotel guests are around. It was fun to see brides walking around the restaurant but if you want speeches and dancing, I would do the private reception. They have great appetizers, bartenders all night, and serve you dinner. It was worth it! The service was great and it was nice to be away from other hotel guests. Especially compared to a venue rental in the US- around $5000 just to rent a place!

Congrats!!

Makes me want to go back! I agree with your review. The wedding coordinators are busy with the wedding of the day so they don't focus on you until your wedding day. Also, the salon is slow so make sure you have enough time if you use them. My golf cart was late picking me up so everyone had to wait at the beach in the sun but I guess it's because they are on Mexican time! We stayed at Lindo (due to swine flu, they had closed del Mar) but got married at del Mar and had our reception in the same place as you did. Congrats!!!

We did P90X classic with the diet recommendations for our wedding last year and everyone commented on how great we looked! It is worth it and gets better as you go along! I am now getting back on the wagon and starting it again because I miss looking buff and in shape. Thanks for the motivation girls!

You will love working with Sacha! He is awesome. Everyone loved our pictures and couldn't believe what a great deal we got. Compared to photographers in the US, he is a steal and you get what you want. We didn't have too many specific shots in mind and let him be creative and we loved them all. The getting ready pics with my girls were my fav! Good luck and you will be very happy with your choice. We ordered our pics over the summer and then wanted to order more recently and he re-posted the proofs and I had my pics within a few days of ordering. They were shipped from California so it was great!

Good luck girls! You will love Iberostar! We had such a great experience. BTW- we didn't do a cocktail party, we let guests go back to their room to freshen up or go to one of the bars while we took pics and then met up for the reception. Everyone thought that was great because they were hot from sitting at the beach. Good luck!!

Congrats and happy planning!

You guys are hot! nice!!!

Congrats! Riviera Maya is great. We ran into tons of East Coast people when we were there and they said the flights weren't too bad. Enjoy planning! Once you pick a location and resort, the planning goes well!

Traditionally, the groom's fam pays for the bar costs and the rehearsal dinner. Since we did all inclusive, they offered to pay $600 for DIY invites and postage and they paid for AHR in their home town (catch- they got to make all of the decisions which was good and bad). It really helped us. You can always ask and not get mad if they say no. Good luck!

Nice work!

We gave a cash tip. Wait until after the wedding to make sure you want to give the full amount (just in case things get messed up). We had a few mishaps but they really weren't her fault so we gave her $100. I figured- how do you know what kind of gift someone would actually like since we had never met her before? We never saw her after the wedding so we dropped it off at her office the next day.

You will have a great wedding! We ended losing 12 guest to swine flu, 5 to lack of funding, and 2 to old age. They weren't able to travel. BUT_ we had 45 come down and it was so wonderful and awesome! It's hard to miss your closest friends or grandparents on your wedding day but it is a part of the DW. All 3 of my BM dropped out but I had a great backup bridal party, including my brother who was so happy to be my MOH (Made of Honor he decided based on the movie)! You will be a beautiful bride!