Mrs.Captain

You definitely do not want to get treatments at a dirty spa. That's nasty. I remember a news show on that recently and the different diseases you can pick up from it. Good for you for finding somewhere else. I'm lucky I work at a hotel with a Spa (that's clean) and I know all the practitioners, so that's where I'm getting my appointments done. It doesn't hurt that I also get a discount

We're doing a legal ceremony down there. In the wedding package information there are 2 options provided for what you need to bring. Please excuse the formatting as I am just copying and pasting from the Word document. We're doing option #1 as it doesn't require the legalization/apostille. WEDDING INFORMATION FOR 2009. REQUIREMENTS FOR A WEDDING IN MEXICO: There are two options of documentation that you can bring in order to be married here in Mexico; but through my experience I recommend option # 1 since it is easier and it is not necessary to leave any original documents in the government office here in Mexico. IT IS ALSO REQUIRED BY THE GOVERNMENT OFFICE THAT THE BRIDE, GROOM AND THEIR 4 WITNESSES MUST BE HERE IN MEXICO AT LEAST 3 WORKING DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING DATE IN ORDER TO PREPARE ALL THE DOCUMENTATION AND THE BLOOD WORK WHICH TAKES 24 HRS. FOR THE RESULTS. PLEASE NOTICE THAT THE WORKING DAYS ARE FROM MONDAY UNTIL FRIDAY FROM 9:00 AM UNTIL 3:00 PM. Please be sure to continue checking with your wedding coordinator on site in case of any requirement changes; and for people who have been previously widowed or divorced please check with your wedding coordinator since there are some additional requirements for them and it is better to DOUBLE CHECK ALL INFORMATION IN ORDER TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR THE CANCELLATION OF THE WEDDING BECAUSE OF MISSING INFORMATION OR DOCUMENTATION. OPTION 1) Bride & Groom must bring: •Passports (Current) •Tourist Cards (Provided on arrival to Mexico) •Photocopy of Birth Certificates (Without any Translation or Certification) •Blood Work (on Arrival)*** •Sign and complete some forms with basic information upon meeting with wedding coordinator on arrival. ***Must contain: Blood type, R&H factor, Syphilis test and HIV test. They must be done as required by the government office once you arrive to Mexico by a Mexican doctor. Blood test, results and certification may be obtained also by a local laboratory. US$200 to be paid in cash directly to the doctor. (This is not included in the wedding package price). The wedding coordinator on site will make an appointment and on your arrival you will be notified of the date and time of your appointment. This blood work is done on the facility so it is more convenient for bride and groom because they do not need to go outside of the resort. IN MEXICO, INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE HIV POSITIVE ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BE MARRIED. The 4 witnesses must bring: •Passports or Id with picture (the ID it’s just In case they do not have passports) •Tourist Cards (Provided on arrival to Mexico). It is very important that the last name of the passports or IDs match with the last name of the tourist card or they cannot be witnesses. •They will need to sign some forms the day of the meeting with the bride & groom and also during the ceremony. ** Witnesses must be older than 18 years and can be relatives including parents. OPTION 2) Bride & Groom must bring: •ORIGINAL Birth Certificates (Long Form) with an official translation and a Certification/ Apostille from the Mexican Embassy in their country. ** •Tourist Cards (Provided upon arrival to Mexico) •Blood Work (upon Arrival)*** •Sign and complete some forms with basic information upon the meeting with wedding coordinator on arrival. ** The ORIGINAL Birth Certificates will be kept by the civil register office and will not be given back since they are used for the records here in Mexico. (Apostille, is a form of certification, of an American authority, usually the Secretary of State, from the state where they originated, who attaches this Apostille to the document). ***Must contain: Blood type, R&H factor, Syphilis test and HIV test. They must be done as required by the government office once you arrive to Mexico by a Mexican doctor. Blood test, results and certification may be obtained also by a local laboratory. US$200 to be paid in cash directly to the doctor. (This is not included in the wedding package price). The wedding coordinator on site will make an appointment and on your arrival you will be notified of the date and time of your appointment. This blood work is done on the facility so it is more convenient for bride and groom because they do not need to go outside of the resort. IN MEXICO, INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE HIV POSITIVE ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BE MARRIED. The 4 witnesses must bring: •Passports or Id with picture (the ID is just in case they do not have passports) •Tourist Cards (Provided upon arrival to Mexico). It is very important that the last name of the passports or IDs match with the last name of the tourist card or they cannot be witnesses. •They will need to sign some forms the day of the meeting with the bride & groom and also during the ceremony. ** Witnesses must be older than 18 years and can be relatives including parents. I hope this helps you. Jen

Check out the thread we have going on the Palladium: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t27733. You'll find more details in there. Cheers!

Hello! We fly out in 5 sleeps (Jan 17th - the day before Tara)! We're so excited. I just need to pack, buy a couple of last minute items at Wal-Mart, keep going to the tanning salon and show up at my mani/pedi appointment. Everything else is done! I had my shower/stagette on Saturday night. We had a blast! And then last night, our staff Christmas/annual party took place. So, I'm now exhausted. I'm too old to go out late 2 nights in a row anymore *lol*. I found Rocio got back to us faster if our travel agent sent in the request. I only waited a day or so when it went through her and a few days if we sent it ourselves. Be patient, she will get back to you. We aren't really planning on doing a first dance, etc. We haven't planned for any of the "traditional stuff" beyond the dinner. It's a wing it and see what happens. I'll post pics/details about the locations when we get back. Cheers! Jen

OMG, 5 more sleeps and then we're on an airplane to Mexico!!! I'm so excited. I'm glad to see everyone everything going pretty well for all the other January brides. Congratulations to everyone! Jen

Hi Candice, I can't really answer any of your questions about the larger groups and pricing as we've always known we're going to have a smaller number of people and that we would never go over 40. They haven't been very flexible with changing a lot of their policies, so you might have to pay the additional amount. Maybe one of the other brides here has a larger group? We didn't have to supply our numbers until last week to Rocio/Erika, so about 3 weeks in advance. From their e-mails it seems that the date they needed the numbers by was dependent on how busy the resort was and if they had a lot of other weddings/groups to try to get booked. I do know that we have until our wedding planning meeting at the resort to chose our menu. We were able to get the restaurant we wanted at the time we wanted. I honestly don't know how they prioritize that though. Good Luck, Jennifer

Hi Candice, I can't really answer any of your questions about the larger groups and pricing as we've always known we're going to have a smaller number of people and that we would never go over 40. They haven't been very flexible with changing a lot of their policies, so you might have to pay the additional amount. Maybe one of the other brides here has a larger group? We didn't have to supply our numbers until last week to Rocio/Erika, so about 3 weeks in advance. From their e-mails it seems that the date they needed the numbers by was dependent on how busy the resort was and if they had a lot of other weddings/groups to try to get booked. I do know that we have until our wedding planning meeting at the resort to chose our menu. We were able to get the restaurant we wanted at the time we wanted. I honestly don't know how they prioritize that though. Good Luck, Jennifer

I can't believe that I'll be on the plan to our wedding 2 weeks from today!!!! I'm excited. We're leaning towards the beach location and not one of the gazebos, although we'll decide once we actually get down there. We'll have a day or so to explore (I think) before our meeting with Rocio as we arrive Saturday and we'll likely have our meeting scheduled for Monday. I'll let you know what we ended up choosing and why. We're also doing our reception at Portofino. Jen

My wedding plans are going well. I have my final dress fitting tonight! I have my jewellery, I just need hair accessories. My FI needs to find some sandals to wear. That's our project for next week as he's not working and once the rain comes and get's all this darn snow off the ground. Other than that, I need to pick the restaurant for the reception and book my hair appointment. I read on the Palladium Addict site awhile back that you can personalize the ceremony for the ring exchange or just after the ring exchange as the legal part will be done before that. I'll let you know what I find out from Erika/Rocio over the next few weeks as we are planning our final details and asking them those questions. We are doing the legal ceremony down there, so I'll let you know how it goes. Jen

Our ceremony is also at 4pm. I'm not too worried as it's only about 15 minutes or so, that leaves an hour to get some nice shots. I think sunset pictures on the beach will be beautiful

I can't believe that we get married 1 MONTH from today!! and it's only 3 days until Christmas. For those of you that have booked your reception restaurant, which did you chose and why? I need to get on that as Erika is asking me about it. Also, how many hours before the ceremony should I book my hair appointment? I don't want to be stressed by leaving it too late in the day, but don't want to worry about ruining the hair style by going too early. What do you girls recommend? I want to book in advance to take advantage of the 5% discount. Thanks! Jen

I just realized that we fly out 1 month from TODAY! With Christmas coming, I just can't seem to figure out if I should be counting down to Christmas or to the wedding I think I'm more worried about getting my Christmas shopping done than the wedding planning right now *LOL*. I have kind of been taking care of me. I have a hair appointment booked for next week. I'm not worried about getting the nails, etc. done as I work at a hotel with a spa, so I can just sneak in when they have an appointment available. I've had 2 dress fittings and have my final one on December 23rd. I just need to buy the accessories for my hair and book my appointment at the salon in Mexico and get my butt down to do some tanning. The rest of my to do list includes downloading the ceremony music - it's already been selected, just need to actually get copies of it, make the tags for the favours, and buy FI a wedding gift. FI just needs to get a gift for his BM, but I imagine he might just pay for them to go scuba diving or something. I've left that completely up to him to figure out. Cheers, Jen

The Grand Palladium resorts on the Riviera only require you to bring a passport, long birth certificate, and do the blood test. This is providing the names on the passport and birth certificate match. If they don't match, you'll need to ask the resort what is required.

All of a sudden, my signature has been replaced by "]". What happened? I know I haven't logged into that section to change anything in the last few days. Thanks, Jennifer

Hello, From what I've been able to research so far, if you are getting married at an AI, the cost and documentation requirements will vary by resort. Sorry, I can't really help with anything else. Good luck! Jennifer

You definitely aren't crazy. I'm soooo lucky that people are assuming that we'll have all that picked out. As soon as people hear we're going to Mexico to get married, they assume that there aren't details to plan like a wedding at home (and then they act all jealous). I'm loving it!

I can't believe how fast time is flying. We got notice from our travel agent that final payment for the trip is due in a couple of weeks, which means is 60 days until we leave. I can't believe how close it's getting. I'm buying my sister her dress and will be giving her jeweleryin Mexico. Jennifer

We skipped the STD's and went right to invites. We sent ours out in June for a January wedding. We decided if we were asking people to start booking (group requirements) then we should send them an invite. However, we gave lots of verbal warning to people (friends and family) about a destination wedding and potential costs. Good luck!

Congrats on booking the Palladium. We know there aren't too many BDW Palladium brides, but the numbers here are getting stronger. It always receives such good reviews everywhere, how could we all not book our weddings there The Palladium does not have their own photographer. However, there are no restrictions on bringing a photographer in. AND the best part is, there is no charge to bring one in either. So, feel free to book whoever you want for your day. Cheers, Jennifer

You may want to check out the Azul vendor policies, especially if you want to use your own photographer, etc. I've heard that they can charge pretty high fees if you don't use their preferred vendors, and even then the prices can be inflated. Check out the Azul Sensatori threads to get full information.

My research has indicated (at least in BC, Canada) that all you need to do is get the marriage license translated and then register it with Vital Stats. If something should happen in the future (ie divorce needed), then everything is registered and you can just do what you need to do at home. For us, we decided to do everything (including the legal) in Mexico. Our resort only requires us to bring a birth certificate and passport with us. We need to arrive 3 days before the ceremony and have a blood test, which is done by a doctor at the resort (the doctor will come to our hotel room to do the test). The resort will take care of anything else required. Since both of us have been married before, this is actually easier for us then getting married at home and proving the marriage, divorce and name change (to and back). The requirements for a legal marriage are different for each resort and vary by country. Good luck! Jennifer

We have up to about 20 people coming. We're doing a dinner reception at one of the restaurants (it's included in the package). We are getting the crystal? package and just paying $20 per head for anyone over the 8. As our ceremony is at 4pm, we're just going to do the dinner. The Aventura Spa Palace, which also has unlimited a la cartes has a free wedding package. They have all their wedding package details on their web site. If the cost to you is a concern, keep looking around. Another resort we looked at was Dreams Puerta Aventuras. It is opening December 1st. We chose the Palladium over Aventura Spa Palace because of the cost to our guests would be more reasonable and the Palladium only does a maximum of 3 weddings per day whereas the Aventura Spa does up to 8. Good luck with your decision. Jennifer

You guys sound like you're planning about as much as I am. I plan to just show up and select the options I like from the package and then hang out and have fun until it's time to get married. I'm lucky in that people aren't asking me details, so I can just say I'm excited and looking forward to it. I doubt we'll even send announcements as we invited everyone to come down with us. I'm of the mind set that you got an invite and if you couldn't make it, oh well. You knew it was happening.

I was also going to recommend the Grand Palladium (wedding location) and Aventura Spa Palace (honeymoon location), but you girls already beat me to it. Check out both of these places. Jennifer

Beautiful dress. Congrats!!