EmenGeeRoxx

Yeah not sure why the links don't work anymore. You'll have to use the search button and look for those threads with the receipt templates. But yes make fake receipts and distribute them among your guests. We had well over $1000 worth of extra crap that we brought and we split it up amongst our guests and gave them their own receipt to keep it simple. If you can't find those links just use MS excel to make up some fake tally. Make sure to keep it less than $300 per person. I severely downplayed the costs of everything on my receipts. For example for all the contents of our OOT bags, they cost around $5/bag but we just made it around $0.90/bag.

Photographers (team of 3, 10 hours of work): $50 each, total $150 Mariachi Band (7 piece band, 45 minutes of work): $10 each, total $70 Priest: $250, I just asked him what he wanted me to donate Co-ordinator: Personalized jewelry, vintage wine Hairstylist: $10 for trial and $20 for wedding Maid: $2-$3 every day Bartenders: $1-$2 per order Waiters: $1-$2 at buffet, $5 at a la carte Taxi: I was told tip is not needed but I tipped $1-$2 if it was really late at night Bellboy: $2 per bag Guy who calls cabs for you: I gave him $10 at the end of our trip Limo Driver on Wedding Day: $20 6 Vans to transport guests to church: I asked each passenger to give the driver $1/each. About 12-13 passengers in each van Tour guides on excursions: $5

More pics by Citlalli Rico We asked everyone to wear colorful outfits since we were going to wear white

Some more pics Our bridal party MY good friends I have known over 20 years Love how Citla color corrected this Our cake stand we got made. I was originally supposed to wear a blue tie but changed it last minute to ivory. But we sent them pics of our tux, dress, bouquet, hairstyle, jewelry and they did a pretty good job replicating Our shot glass giveaways done by our good friend who lives out in Thailand Marialma decorating our giveaways. A few people took some already before I was able to get this shot so the heart is a bit deformed

We got the boys Travel size axe effect Razor Pepto Band Aid Mouthwash After Sun Lotion Packet Mosquito Wipes Was going to add condoms but we had some older people with us and didn't think it was appropriate.

I would suggest Lomas and look for Enrique Astudillo. They are based out Cancun. You can go on their website and use the live chat to look for him. I used Lomas for my wedding and got a Lincoln Navigator. He had the best prices too out of all the people I asked. Check my review of my wedding to see http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-resort-55448/

Quote: Originally Posted by lalanyc Emen - Thanks so much for you your insights!!! We booked Citlalli as well and I am so excited to meet her!! I love her work Thanks to your review, I'm going to reach out to Doranna and the mariachi as well. I'm so happy everything turned out as you wanted. Congratulations!!! You're in good hands with Citlalli and her crew Jorge from the Mariachi band is awesome, they will make everything so lively. Quote: Originally Posted by teshy1 Thanks so much for your review! Your wedding looked amazing. My husband I and just got married at the OGX on Feb. 16, and we were absolutely thrilled with how everything turned out. I agree with you 100% about the WC, Marialma. She was wonderful! I will be posting my wedding review shortly. Your photos from Citlalli are fantastic! We had Claudia for our wedding day, and she was so much fun to work with. I can't wait to get our photos back! Big congrats!!!! We initially booked Claudia but she was already busy on our day. So we got Citla. I don't think you can go wrong with either! Post your pics when you get them I want to go back and re-live that week. So much fun!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by bridetobe1515 Lady Di, I also have 7 bridesmaids and I seriously do not want to spend over $400 for flowers for them. I saw the real touch bouquets in multiple spots, but how are you getting them there? I'm afraid they will be too fragile to throw into a suitcase. I guess I could ship them. What is your plan? Yes and the flowers wilted pretty fast at my wedding with the heat!

Wow amazing. Glad it worked out for you. I read your review a while back regarding your photographer so it is nice to see you were still able to make a kick ass album After seeing this thread I started researching more on Flush mount albums. Can anyone here comment on the differences between BRI and the other so called "higher" end albums like Zook, KISS, Finao? I know they only sell to photographers and I have a few friends who can setup an account, but just wondering is it worth it to go that far? Can anyone give me a ballpark price difference between BRI and Zook/Finao/KISS and also the difference in quality? Just trying to weigh my options. Glad I found this thread otherwise I would have just made a photobook on Shutterfly Thank you in advance!

Wow these are killer!!!! Great job!

Quote: Originally Posted by sarah310 Gee, great review! thanks so much for posting. I can't wait to see the rest of your pictures. I love the decorations. What did you bring from home, and what were you able to rent from Sarao vs. the resort? I'm trying to figure out what is worth bringing. Did you do a rehearsal dinner? Hi Sarah We brought the chair sashes, table runners, table swags, cake stand, stones for the center pieces, floating candles. Sarao provided the hanging balls and curtains. AVI/SPL provided the lighting. Here is a video I put together tonight, hopefully will give you better visual of how it looks. YouTube - WeddingHighlight2.avi We did a rehearsal or what we call gratitude dinner but we did it back in Toronto before the wedding. We didn't want to waste anyone's time in Mexico because everyone wanted to do excursions, shop, etc so we thought it was wise to do it at home. The church ceremony rehearsal was 90 mins so we are glad we didn't do a rehearsal dinner after. We had so much other stuff to do before the wedding and everyone was happy we did it back home as well so they were able to do their own thing.

Quote: Originally Posted by jerseykitten FI has let me pick out everything and do everything but he wanted to pick out his suit - whenhe came home with a white suit i was a little unsure, but it's grown on me - there is no "have him do anything" I was so happy to see your pictures - there aren't too many men in white suits - you guys look awesome! Thank you. It was the right choice. Our bridesmaids wore turquoise blue and groomsmen wore black tuxedos with turquoise blue and we asked all our guests to wear colorful outfits. No funeral wear. It worked out well! In my opinion I would suggest the groom to wear white or diamond white or ivory because other people will wear tan suits. He won't stand out if he wears a tan or black outfit.

I put this together quickly for you guys. Some highlights from the wedding day YouTube - WeddingHighlight2.avi

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Melissa~ That resort is simply gorgeous! And my oh my your wife made such a pretty bride. I like her necklace BLING Hotness on the dancefloor too. very cool, do you guys compete? A very close gf of mine competes at a national level in Florida. I love seeing the dances and being in awe, how special for your wedding. Loved the reviews on Citalli and our very own Ana. Amazing, high quality work by both. We went to this resort 5 years ago and loved it. I am glad we chose it again for the wedding. It has so much character and color. We do compete but strictly salsa for now. Had to stop for about 6 months due to the wedding but we will be back by the end of this year Citla, Ana and the rest of the vendors were great. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics and the video. Should be arriving in a few weeks.

Quote: Originally Posted by Malisa Awesome review and great pictures! I do love the colors in so many of your photos. What hotel did you guys stay at? Thank you. We stayed at the Occidental Grand Xcaret. Same place where our reception was.

Quote: Originally Posted by FutureMrsYak Ohhhh man mid August!! Holy crap!! I guess everyone that keeps asking me I'll just start telling them, I'll let them know when it's up and to stop asking because it will be awhile! LOL I'm just suprised on how Royal can have theres out and Real doesn't...just because of the connection of the two. My future in laws plan to stay at the Royal so she was thinking of booking now instead of waiting..not sure if we should do that or not! Lol...yes we had the same thing. Everyone kept asking us "when can we book?" "can we book now?" etc. I know how you feel and you want to get everything booked so you can start proper planning. The agents were telling me the Winter prices don't come out until the Spring and the prices you see now are inflated. My prices didn't come until mid summer but I think the Swine Flu put a blip on the timing. So for now I would just tell your guests to hold off but keep saving those pennies. I would send an email once a month to remind them with some small facts here and there about Mexico/Mayan just to keep the interest high. It worked for us

Quote: Originally Posted by FutureMrsYak Has anyone heard when 2011 room prices will be out for Real? Royal has had theirs our for a few weeks...my wedding is 1/11/11....so it's less than 11 months now. My guests (and I!) are getting antsy and want to book! Is it normal for the prices to still not be out? I was in your position last year. I got married mid January this year and it took so long for the prices to come out in 2009. I didn't see any firm pricing for any of the resorts until July-August and we finally booked everyone in late August. But last year could have been a unique scenario with the Swine Flu and may have pushed things back.

Thanks everyone Quote: Originally Posted by TamaraDan Your wedding looks amazing, congrats! Thanks for the review. Were the lanterns something the resort offered or did you bring those down yourself? That is something I REALLY want for my wedding. Thanks. -Tamara We got them from a company called Sarao. Here was the contact Tarsicio Leyva <[email protected]>

Our limo provided by Lomas. Thank you Enrique Astudillo for the great service.

I posted a full review of my wedding but I extracted the reviews of the Playa vendors we used in case anyone was interested. Sarao We saw some of the decorations Sarao did from some posts here. We were happy the way they transformed our reception site which was at the Beach Club into a more intimate setting. The Beach Club is huge but they made a nice enclosure that kept everyone together. A Here is the dancing area AVI SPL We rented the sound system from AVI SPL. We had our own DJ so we just needed speakers, mixer, mics, projector, screen and all the necessary wiring. Unfortunately they weren't prepared by the time the reception rolled around. The wiring was messed up and nothing was working. Luckily my DJ was there and he was able to rectify the situation. AVI SPL was also giving me grief on paying for the bill. They wanted only cash payments but I insisted on prepaying using money transfer or mastercard. After much debate and contacting the head company I was able to pay with my mastercard. In the end the sound was good for the rest of the night but wasn't too impressed with the other stuff given how much I was paying them. B We used the screen a lot Performances by our friends We got married at the Nuestra Senora del Carmen Chapel in town. So we needed transportation for the guests and the bridal party. We used two companies: Playa.info We had 80 guests so we rented six vans that can carry up to 14 passengers each. I visit another forum called Playa.info and that is where I found them. Communication was a bit slow but on the wedding day they were there on time which is the most important thing. Everyone was transported safely from the resort to the chapel. A- Lomas Travel We got a Lincoln Navigator Limo for the bridal party. Very clean and the driver was prompt. I read some horror stories about renting limos in Playa but thankfully everything was ok. Dealt with Enrique Astudillo. Great response and was very thorough and following up. He actually noticed I had the wrong address for my ceremony. We got married at the Nuestra Senora del Carmen CHAPEL on 5th and Juarez but we put the address down for the CHURCH which was several blocks away. Playa.info never caught that but Enrique did. A+ Our pimp limo Coral del Caribe My wife really wanted a mariachi band for our ceremony. I wasn't too crazy about the idea but I went along with it. Wow, I have to say that I am really happy we got these guys. They did a spectacular job from beginning to end. We had a 7 piece band and played every single song we requested. After the ceremony we all strolled down Benito Juarez to the water and they followed us and played. It was totally awesome. Highly recommended. A+ Here is the contact: Jorge [email protected] Doranna My wife's hair was done by Doranna de Bortoli. After reading the reviews and recommendations my wife was more comfortable using Doranna than the resident hairstylist at Xcaret. Doranna invited us to her house in Tohoku for the trial. My wife totally loved it but was worried the hair wouldn't stay on the day of the wedding because of the heat and we were also performing a high intensity routine that consisted of salsa, contemporary and tango. But Doranna was awesome and my wife's hair remained sturdy for the whole night. A+ easily for Doranna. Freelance Italian Hair Stylist in Mexico - Doranna Hair Stylist - Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya - Cancun - Tulum Citlalli Rico and Gerardo Rivera (Claudia Rodriguez Photography) Picking a photographer was probably the hardest thing. I initially wanted Elizabeth Medina. We are so much into color and we just love the way Elizabeth Medina makes everything pop. However we also wanted a videographer so we looked for a company that offered both services. After much research and reading and reviewing portfolios we went with Claudia Rodriguez's team. Citlalli, Tamara, Jerry and Jimmy were such an awesome group to work with. They were very attentive to our needs and our guests needs. Very patient, professional and charming. You can tell they love their work and work together as a team. We had them for 8 hours originally but extended them another 2. Great workers and great people. A+ all the way. Citlalli Rico Photo Blog Wedding Photography Blog

My review posted Review of Wedding at Occidental Grand Xcaret Resort - Best Destination Wedding Forum ~ The Ultimate Destination Wedding Resource

Some pics of the chapel Coral del Caribe My wife really wanted a mariachi band for our ceremony. I wasn't too crazy about the idea but I went along with it. Wow, I have to say that I am really happy we got these guys. They did a spectacular job from beginning to end. We had a 7 piece band and played every single song we requested. After the ceremony we all strolled down Benito Juarez to the water and they followed us and played. It was totally awesome. Highly recommended. A+ Here is the contact: Jorge [email protected] Doranna My wife's hair was done by Doranna de Bortoli. After reading the reviews and recommendations my wife was more comfortable using Doranna than the resident hairstylist at Xcaret. Doranna invited us to her house in Tohoku for the trial. My wife totally loved it but was worried the hair wouldn't stay on the day of the wedding because of the heat and we were also performing a high intensity routine that consisted of salsa, contemporary and tango. But Doranna was awesome and my wife's hair remained sturdy for the whole night. A+ easily for Doranna. Freelance Italian Hair Stylist in Mexico - Doranna Hair Stylist - Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya - Cancun - Tulum Citlalli Rico and Gerardo Rivera (Claudia Rodriguez Photography) Picking a photographer was probably the hardest thing. I initially wanted Elizabeth Medina. We are so much into color and we just love the way Elizabeth Medina makes everything pop. However we also wanted a videographer so we looked for a company that offered both services. After much research and reading and reviewing portfolios we went with Claudia Rodriguez's team. Citlalli, Tamara, Jerry and Jimmy were such an awesome group to work with. They were very attentive to our needs and our guests needs. Very patient, professional and charming. You can tell they love their work and work together as a team. We had them for 8 hours originally but extended them another 2. Great workers and great people. A+ all the way. Citlalli Rico Photo Blog Wedding Photography Blog Ana Da Roux Must also thank Ana Da Roux for helping us with our passport invitations. A+ as well. Here is a link to my review. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...de-roux-49987/ ThreeGalasDesigns Our amazing Aisle Runner was done by Holly Carafa from ThreeGalasDesigns. Very easy to deal with and everything was done to spec. A+ Three Galas Designs www.ThreeGalasDesigns.com Anyway that is it. This is all coming from a guy's perspective so if you have any specific questions that I may have missed let me know and I or my wife will do our best to answer. Lastly I must thank all of the people here who have posted and responded to my PMs. Every piece of info no matter how big or small was mostly from this site. It's amazing how great a resource this place is. You can find anything you need with that search button Thanks for posting all the pics, sharing your stories, your reviews, your tips and recommendations. It has all been so helpful. Our destination wedding was definitely the happiest time of our lives thus far. All our 80 guests had the best time as well and they even want to do a reunion a year from now. Thank you again to all past brides and grooms and my love and best wishes to all the brides and grooms to be Our beautiful guests. 5 people are MIA.

I have been part of this forum since September 2008 when I first got engaged. I am one of the few guys who post on this forum. I think I have only encountered 2 other guys here so thank you ladies for accepting us This website has been an instrumental part of our successful wedding so here is my chance to give back with a review of my wedding Xcaret Resort The resort was perfect for our 80 guests. Food and drinks were excellent. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND bringing walkie talkies if you have as many guests as we did. It made it easy to communicate with everyone. The price was very reasonable to at around $1000 CDN for flight, hotel and transfer taxes in. We were originally going to get married at the Royal Playa del Carmen but the price was double. It made more sense to move to the Xcaret so it would be more affordable. A+ Wedding Coordinator Marialma Ortiz Wow what can I say but this lady is awesome. We met with Marialma the day we arrived and she had all the vendors there that would setup our wedding reception. This girl is so organized and she kept every single correspondence since we first made contact. She knew exactly what she was doing and totally put us at ease. Throughout the months leading up to the wedding she answered every single question no matter how complex or trivial in a very timely manner. My wife and I are very particular how we wanted the reception to look and feel. We brought so many decorations from Toronto and Marialma was able to follow directions no problems. It was such a blessing to have her. Also a blessing in disguise that we moved from the Royal to the Xcaret because from what I have been reading on this forum, the wedding coordinators at the Royal have gone down in quality and are terrible at responding. Glad I didn't even have to deal with that headache. On the wedding day Marialma was there from start to finish. Over a 16 hour day and she stood with us the whole time and was there for our guests and my wife and I. Seriously what more can you ask for? If having an organized and attentive wedding coordinator is tops on your list than book at the Xcaret. A+ for Marialma. Marialma helping my wife Our setup with Marialma's help Sarao We saw some of the decorations Sarao did from some posts here. We were happy the way they transformed our reception site which was at the Beach Club into a more intimate setting. The Beach Club is huge but they made a nice enclosure that kept everyone together. A Here is the dancing area AVI SPL We rented the sound system from AVI SPL. We had our own DJ so we just needed speakers, mixer, mics, projector, screen and all the necessary wiring. Unfortunately they weren't prepared by the time the reception rolled around. The wiring was messed up and nothing was working. Luckily my DJ was there and he was able to rectify the situation. AVI SPL was also giving me grief on paying for the bill. They wanted only cash payments but I insisted on prepaying using money transfer or mastercard. After much debate and contacting the head company I was able to pay with my mastercard. In the end the sound was good for the rest of the night but wasn't too impressed with the other stuff given how much I was paying them. B We used the screen a lot Performances by our friends We got married at the Nuestra Senora del Carmen Chapel in town. So we needed transportation for the guests and the bridal party. We used two companies: Playa.info We had 80 guests so we rented six vans that can carry up to 14 passengers each. I visit another forum called Playa.info and that is where I found them. Communication was a bit slow but on the wedding day they were there on time which is the most important thing. Everyone was transported safely from the resort to the chapel. A- Lomas Travel We got a Lincoln Navigator Limo for the bridal party. Very clean and the driver was prompt. I read some horror stories about renting limos in Playa but thankfully everything was ok. Dealt with Enrique Astudillo. Great response and was very thorough and following up. He actually noticed I had the wrong address for my ceremony. We got married at the Nuestra Senora del Carmen CHAPEL on 5th and Juarez but we put the address down for the CHURCH which was several blocks away. Playa.info never caught that but Enrique did. A+ Our pimp limo

Wow the Royal has gone to sh!t! Sorry to hear about your troubles Any of you think of switching resorts?

No website will beat a good travel agent. I used one for my wedding with 80 guests. So much easier to deal with someone directly. Saved me a lot of headaches.