Rainfall

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Thanks for the advice! We are going today to exchange money and you're right that with the dollar so good we may as well just get the cash out. I am just nervous about travelling with that much $$ on us, since we were planning to take a good amount for spending money and to use on excursions. Haha and FI doesn't even want me walking around locally with that kind of cash, nevermind down in MX! Meghan, Same thing, we just took Travelers check with us. It was soooo much easier and they took those as well. We just had about 500USD in cash for tips and smaller stuff like at the market, Excursions, Payment for Jacy was all in amex travelers checks..

Quote: Originally Posted by echo2_62 Can anyone tell me, how do we pay Jacy for all the wedding related charges once we are at the resort? Is it cash only or can we use our credit cards for the payments? FI and I have to get money exchanged this week and need to know whether to account for our reception costs etc as a cash payment. Thanks! Hey Meghan, OMG it's getting soo close! Good Luck to you! I just brought cash with me and paid with USD, it was a better rate than to put everything on the CC since it will ding you twice. Esp with the rates sooo awesome the last few days I recommend that!. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Bianca your pictures are beautiful! im so jealous you get to go back and I can't wait for my turn!. I hope I get my pro pics soon and once I do i'll let you girls know. Badrianne, You let them know what time you want to meet and they will be there to take you back!.

Quote: Originally Posted by badrianne Regarding the nightlife in Playa del Carmen, I loved the idea but the $65 per person was too high. I read somewhere that a lot of the clubs/bars are free to get into. So we are going to book a 12 person van for $180 ($15/person) to take everyone to playa from 10 pm-2am on the Thursday after our welcome cocktails. the big drinkers will probably spend at least $65. But the cheap light weights (my girls) will probably get away with spending a lot less to get to dance and party. Badrianne, I am not sure where you got that quote from.. but we paid 7 dollars per person ( there and back) for 12 people in a van. We just ordered it through front desk!

I forgot one thing, I wouldn't rely on the wakeup call. All of us who used it either had a 20 min late phone call or never called at all. We were almost late for our excursion one of the mornings. But if you call them and tell them to wake you in 30 mins they are good with that!

Quote: Originally Posted by mwcfarms I booked my MAC trial for Friday yay but be honest ladies how much am I going to spend? I'm a first time user of MAC... Too much $$ for makeup in my mind :|, I have a friend who works at DT Mac and my gift from her for my shower was my make up... Your looking at around $13 per color for eye shadow, 20-30 for foundation/blush etc. go to the website the prices are listed! M·A·C Cosmetics BUT with that being said.. the quality is totally worth it!. I didn't have to re-touch my make up once that day. Good Luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by mwcfarms Can you cash travellers cheques at the resort or somewhere close. If at the resort what is the fee? There is no fee you just have to show id. The will give you usd if they have it. I suggest you go first thing in the morning. They get a big drop and change in the morning. If not you get pesos and the exchange rate is not that bad but you will get better at the bank. We got 1usd to 12.5 peso where as the bank we could have gotten 12.85 Not that big of a difference. We found it convenient to carry some pesos with us as at some stores they ripped us off with the exchange rate. Good Luck!

Good Afternoon ladies. Finally got my laptop back and now I have my review to post! Im getting my pictures organized and trying to get them from people yet so hopefully I get them soon. My Pro pics don't come in for another 4-6 weeks. Dreams Puerto Aventuras is beautiful! I've never been to an AI before so this was really a treat! Eat and drink anything you want at whatever time you want. We really took advantage of the room service at late night when we had mini parties in our room. The food, customer service and restaurants are wonderful. I didn't like the sushi bar. The hotel transfer was probably the worse part of the trip. We had some other people to drop off, and in the middle of rush hour, so our plane landed at 4:30 and going through customs (which we all got green light) and we got to the resort around 7:30. Please PLEASE avoid the time share group ( we fell for it) they all have mexico airport badges on but they say " Travel Advisors" so we thought they were legit. Turns out you can take a whole group to Tulum for only 100 but you have to pay it up front. So my suggestion is as soon as you walk through the sliding doors past customs, walk straight by these people and look for your transfer bus. We stayed in room 744 with a breathtaking ocean view. We didn't see it the first night when we got there since it was dark but we were blown away in the morning. I would recommend a ocean view if you can afford it. All our other guest stayed in marina view and it was nice and quiet. The only suggestion I have for ocean view is put some sort of stopper on the window so you don't let the wind wake you or keep you up. Wedding day: I recommend asking for Louisa if you go to the Salon. She did a wonderful job on my manicure, hair and makeup. I had a pedicure done by someone else it was not as great. It is a small salon, only one person working at a time, so you may want to book well in advance if you want to bring your entire party in. Jacy had brought the flowers in about 10 mins before the ceremony and was running a little late, my ceremony was schedule to start at 3 but started around 3:15ish. No biggy I was too nervous to be keeping track of time. When walking down the lobby and to the gazebo all the guest cheered and clapped and it really made me feel like a princess The gazebo decorations was a blur to me, I honestly don't remember much of it so I am hoping the pictures will re-create the day for me. The band, waiters for the cocktail hours and servers were all wonderful and made the day perfect! We meet with Jacy 2 days before the wedding to finalize everything, I had everything printed out for her so it was fairly easy to go through the details. I would recommend you bring a physical picture if you have specifics on decorations. I explained what I wanted and it wasn't exact but it didn't bother me in the end. Jacy has everything under control and you have NOTHING to worry about! They will make sure everything goes perfect for you. Jacy even stopped 5 kids from running right into the middle of the ceremony! The ceremony was at the gazebo and it was windy but tolerable. I was actually afraid it was going to be too windy since all days before the wedding it was very very windy but on friday morning it was so calm I was sooo happy. We had the dinner at the beach and it was a great idea, I was a little concerned about the wind but Jacy said we can change the location that day if it was going to be a problem. It was nice on the beach with the breeze! I had the vanilla cake during the ceremony and it was DELICIOUS! I really only had a chance to have some the morning after but it was still wonderful. During the dinner we had the surf and turf and everyone said it was great but I didn't really like the steak part of it. We had the shrimp pastry and asparagus salad and it was really good. We had the DJ for 2 hours for the dinner and they too did a wonderful job. I was a little disappointed with the flowers since I didn't get exactly what I was quoted on. I didn't get a chance to meet up with Jacy afterwords and at that point I didn't really care. But other than that everything was perfect and the staff at DPA made sure of it! My photographer was Sascha Gluck and he was aboslutly AMAZING! We had such a great time with him taking pictures before the ceremony that it put us all in a great mood. Larz did the pre ceremony with the guys and they all said he was wonderful. My husband and his boys HATES pictures but some how they manage to make it so easy that I cannot wait for the pictures! I would recommend him to anyone looking for a photographer. For the Video, I had it was the ultimate package. It turned out sub-par. I got it the day before we left and watched it in the room. I am happy I got a guest to film the wedding so that I can re-make my own video. So if video is important to you, you may want to consider a professional. ( Of course this was my opinion) Girls you made the right choice to have your wedding at DPA and all your worries will melt away when you get there! Good Luck with your planning and please send me an email if you have any questions at all rainfall_mt @ hotmail.com I won't be going back to DPA for my anniversary but def a Dreams resort so we can see more the world. -Rain

Quote: Originally Posted by badrianne Meghan, I like the way you think. Consistency would be nice. Rainfall, thanks for the Desire idea. I hadn't thought of it. Didn't you have after wedding dancing at Desire? Yep, it was great in there!

And ladies, if you have any questions, please email me rainfall_mt @ hotmail.com I just cleaned up my inbox on bdw and don't get to come here often sorry. I echo Mylene comments about planning. You don't need to worry about a thing and Jacy and her team will take care of everything! Good Luck Planning! -Rain

Quote: Originally Posted by badrianne I kinda want to have our welcome cocktail and wedding cocktail at Barracudas bar. Do you think that's ok or should I do two different bars? Hey Ladies I have my resort/wedding review on my laptop so as soon as i get that I'll post it. You may want to check what time Barracudas bar closes, it's fairly quiet over there and on some nights when i was there it was closed early. I think it closed at 9 on my wedding night. Desire was a nice place, I had my welcome and fairwell drinks there, Alfrado & Rene and awesome bartenders! -Rain

Quote: Originally Posted by Ginalyn The Mariachi band came out during the recessional. We did a champagne toast at the gazebo after the ceremony and then they band followed us and our guests to the Barracuda bar for our cocktail hour (there is a picture the band, DH and I, and our guests in a line marching from the gazebo to the bar...I don't know how we ended up in a single file line but it's pretty funny!). They played throughout our cocktail hour. WOW! thanks for the quick response. That means I am going to have to find my own music for the cermony. Thanks for the heads up! I am not too sure if I like the mariachi band, I may go with the sax or violinist. Thanks again!

Hey Ginalyn, Im looking at your pictures again and i forgot how beautiful you look! I noticed that you had the mexican band that probably came with the ultimate package that you got. (Im going with the same thing). Im wondering if they play the music for the entire ceremony, meaning the prelude, prcessoional and recessional? Did you have the option or you just chose your own? cause i remember you said that they had played the wrong order of the songs. If anyone has any info much appreciated! I leave in 1 week! AHH

bubbles : Trailer Park Boys

Quote: Originally Posted by future_mrs2010 We bought our entire bridal parties dresses (girls) and pants/shirts (men & boys). We are giving the girls earrings and the guys puka shell necklaces. And we purchased Oakley sunglasses for everyone as their main gift! And for our junior groomsmen custom NFL jerseys! It is really important to me and us that we showed appreciation to everyone.. so we are also doing OOT bags! And extra appreciation to our bridal party and parents (who we also got gifts for)! It was a little over budget but I/we feel really great about it. Good Luck! I want to get oakley glasses too but how do you choose when this is such a personal preference??