Princess402

Jenn would you mind sending me the updated price list also?

These are great! My faves are 78, 79, 84, 90/91, 93, 97, 121...

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone, and for directing me to Vista Print! I signed up for their newsletter and got my first "free stuff" email a couple weeks ago, and put in my first order last week... should get my first round of goodies any day now:) My order, including shipping was regularly priced at $212 but I only paid $39! Among some other miscellaneous things were save the date magnets: I'm doing boarding pass STD's but also wanted to do a magnet, so I think I'm going to attach this to the boarding pass jacket somehow (maybe with that stuff they use to attach credit cards to paper?) and send both. Also, a free hat! I'm going to start collecting these freebies and put bride, groom, mother of the bride, etc. embroidered on each one on the back. Pretty good for free I think! I'd post a pic of what I ordered but the link doesn't seem to want to work. Other freebies to start collecting: personalized pens and sticky notes! Yay for Vista Print! I get to go crazy with all these fun ideas AND FI is super happy because the "free" price tag attached to most of this stuff.

Anyone have any example pics? I am wondering about this too since I LOVE the idea or wearing a tiara, but also love the look of hair flowers, especially for a destination wedding!

This is such a great, inexpensive idea! I'm totally stealing this!!! Thanks for sharing!

Quote: Originally Posted by MegaShay Here are the ones I used - they're not cheaper, but I loved them: Save The Date Magnets (Mini) - A Sea of Love I would have to say that these were my FAVORITE save the date magnets that I came across (love them!), but I will probably go with Vista Print for mine. Right now they have their business card magnets on sale... I can get 50 of them for $8 CAD! Plus right now you can also do custom edits to the font and text color/position for free. So I'm just putting our info on a business card template with a tropical background and VOILA I've got a save the date magnet! Keep in mind, I'm planning on doing a STD boarding pass, so this is just to attach to the boarding pass and not a stand alone thing. But if you're looking for cheap yet functional, I would check Vista Print!

Ditto for me - would love to know more about the beach gazebo! Also, I know the resort is huge but I've heard varying reports on how far it really is to walk from lobby to beach and how often the trains come around. Maybe you could let me know about that? I love to walk, but don't want my older guests or those with young kids cursing all the walking!

Quote: Originally Posted by TA Maureen I'm sure many many people have had positive experiences with expedia and other online booking agencies. But I think the point is when a problem does strike sometimes it can be compounded by the fact that there is not one point person to talk to and when it hits the fan it can be frustrating due to their lack of customer service. I'm also sure people that travel a lot tend to have better "luck" because they know what they're doing and have a better sense of how travel works, but people that do not travel much may have a difficult time with online bookings. Well said! If everything goes right, then it's fine. After all you've chosen your hotel, flight, etc and as long as those plans don't change everything goes as it should. The problem is when there is some sort of issue or special circumstance: expedia's customer service is just non-existant so you can really end up being screwed. They don't stand behind anything they advertise on their website and don't care about their customers - IMO. I personally always think that the mark of a good company isn't necessarily that everything goes fine, but it's how they deal with it when things get screwed up. By this definition, expedia is not a good company in my books! So it's not to say that using expedia is a bad idea, but you do run the risk of being very angry should something go wrong because expedia will not do much to help you.

Quote: Originally Posted by trayce2222 Yes, I can't wait!!! Not much longer now! YEA!!!! Meli....I got them at DB and had them dyed to the color of my BM's dresses. That's so funny that you got them at David's Bridal! I was going to ask where you got them, but figured you must have picked them up in some cute little boutique somewhere that I would never find, so why bother even asking! Let me know if they are comfy, I just may have to pick myself up a pair!

Quote: Originally Posted by latinalocany i havent been on the forum in a while so i really need to update my status. i was a dreams tulum bride to be until today! we decided to change resorts for the safety of all our guest. some our guest immune's system are very low. so we are happy with the discision change we made to have our wedding at dreams LaRomana. we will arrive may 21-30th our wedding is may 26th 2009. all our guest are excited and we will end up going to dreams tulum for 1st wedding anniversary, GOD willing! i will definatly keep you posted and take lots of pics!!! Congratulations on your switch! I must say I am jealous! Your wedding date is coming up really soon, let us know how it goes

Quote: Originally Posted by erinleigh The bars and restaurants near the beach all close at night. We looked into that because we were considering having a private reception at the turrey and were wondering if there would be bars close by that we could get drinks at - rather than paying the crazy per hour/per person bar prices. We ended up booking our reception on the La Barcaza Yacht instead Hmmm... that's exactly why I was asking and exactly what I was worried about! I don't want to have to pay for a private bar ALL night, plus even every other night it's kinda silly that there's nowhere to go for snacks/drinks that's close for people in rooms near the beach

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 I read a couple of reviews on trip advisor that said a downside of having rooms in the area close to the beach is that after dinner there are no restaurants or bars open in this area, so you have to go all the way to the back section of the resort if you want anything to eat or drink? Is this true? Sorry to ask again, but does anyone whether there are still bars/restaurants open close to the beach in the evening hours? Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by trayce2222 I finally found my shoes!!!!! It's about time, especially since we leave in 5 days! lol LOVE LOVE LOVE these shoes! You must be so excited to wear them!

So excited I have to share! I just ordered a necklace on etsy.com for my wedding! I don't even have a dress yet but just fell in love with the necklace. And it was only $35! Oh well, I'm sure if I don't end up wearing it with my wedding dress that it will look great with one of my other wedding event outfits

I booked a hotel in Vegas with Expedia a few months ago and it was THE most frustrating experience ever! At every step something went wrong. And this was just a few nights hotel - I couldn't imagine what could happen with a whole vacation booking! Very very poor customer service, and no accountability whatsoever. Honestly I will never use them again.

My two nieces are going to be my flowergirls for my wedding next year and will also be 5 & 7! I was thinking about getting them each a starfish necklace and maybe a pretty hair flower. I also like the idea of little charm bracelets. Then I was also thinking about maybe getting them jewlery boxes... I saw cute little shell covered ones on some website I was looking on.

I know that the Melia is pretty big resort and that some of the rooms are close to the beach pools, and then some of the rooms are set back close to the lobby and restaurants. I know there is at least one buffet restaurant in the section close to the beach. Are any of the a la cartes on the beach, or are they all towards the back of the resort? Also, I read a couple of reviews on trip advisor that said a downside of having rooms in the area close to the beach is that after dinner there are no restaurants or bars open in this area, so you have to go all the way to the back section of the resort if you want anything to eat or drink? Is this true

I love this idea! Actually FI had suggested it to me awhile back, especially if we were getting married in Mexico. He figured it would be very "us" to have tequila shots instead of champagne, and hey, when in Rome... Now we're thinking about Punta Cana instead of Mexico for our location. I'm kind of thinking that tequila shots are a very Mexico wedding thing to do. What do you girls think? Still appropriate for Punta Cana? I also like the idea of doing a Margarita or Sangria toast or something like that.

Shelb, I don't know how I missed your Melia Q&A thread! Sorry, I feel dumb now for starting another one! Great info though all around! Nice to have the updated packages posted... I think I saw these posted on the melia cocktail hour thread as well.

I agree with everyone else! Those dresses are CRAZY similar, but I think I like #1 the best. You look BEAUTIFUL in it btw!!!

Thanks Jenny for the pics of the gazebo and for the PM. You're so sweet to help! I'll be contacting a WC pronto to get the ball rolling, and I'm glad to hear that your experience has been good in that respect so far =) I see you've got 19 booked so far - how many total are you expecting? Just curious what you are doing for dinner/reception? I think that is the aspect I'm most concerned about, and don't want to end up spending too much money... I know it can really add up with all kinds of extra per guest fees. I roughly estimate I'll have about 40 attending plus a handful of kids.

Thanks Lori! That would be great. Do you happen to know who I should contact at least initially at the Melia to start speaking with a WC? I sent a general email to the hotel awhile back asking if they could forward my info to a WC or if they could send me the contact info for their WC and I haven't heard anything back from anyone!

FI and I are very seriously looking at the Melia Caribe Tropical for our wedding in December 2010 - yay, I feel like we're getting close to a decision! I noticed that there isn't a specific Melia planning thread on here so I thought maybe I would start one. I know there are some BDW brides getting married there this month so hopefully they can share some of their wisdom with those of us considering this resort! I'll get started with my first question: has anyone seen the new beach gazebo they are building? I'm so excited to know that they are building one. The main wedding gazebo they have looks gorgeous but I really want to get married with the ocean as my backdrop. I would love pics of the new gazebo and to know how many ppl it will accomodate! Thanks! Angela

My fiance and I haven't even set our wedding date yet but already have been fielding gift questions. We've both made it very clear to people that since we are having a destination wedding we don't want any gifts. We are a couple in our 20s and could certainly use the money/gifts... but we have been living together for awhile already so there's nothing that we really NEED for our home or anything like that... however, I can't imagine asking someone to spend so much to come to my wedding and then give a gift as well! Especially since part of the reason for us having a destination wedding is to save some money on the whole event! That being said, there have been a few people I have told this to that have been genuinely upset at the idea of not getting us a wedding gift, and really don't like the "no gifts" policy. I think that our not wanting to make people get us gifts has been misinterpreted as us saying that we don't want what people would like to give us. Of course that's not the case. Gifts are wonderful, I just don't want anyone to feel like we're expecting any because we're not! So personally I think that I will say something on our future wedsite about our wedding being non-traditional therefore we request no gifts, and that particularly for those who are able to attend, our guests presence on our special day is all the gift that we want... but I don't know, I may have to do a small registry for those who are really insistent.

Quote: Originally Posted by zethers Did you actually order them for $0.12 because the ones I found on the site were plastic and you had to order 100,000+ to get that price...am I looking in the wrong place? I'm seeing the same thing as you! You always have to be aware of pricing when it says "as low as"!