Katherine4-09

Hi Everyone We got married April 24th Azul Sensatori, let me say it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really honstly have nothing bad to say about getting married here. It's what they do. We arrived to an amazing resort, with staff who will do anything for you. There were some changes that were made in our meeting w. Gilberto such as our welcome dinner was switched from spoon to Sienna, which was so much better, and the manager Pete at Sienna was awesome we had our own private room and they did menus with our names on it. If your doing a welcome dinner I would recommend that you do it somewhere other then Spoon as that resturant reminds me of a cafateria the food is good but it's not very intimate. Def. do sienna if you can in the private room which is great! I would not print up iteneray's until u are down there or not do them. Just cause ours were wrong with the changes for the rest. but it was no big deal Carlos at the front desk who rocks by the way, type up somethng and gave it to our guests so they new where to go Also some of the prices that Fabio gave us did not match the prices Gilberto had for us, so check your pricing with your state coord. Fabio gave us Azul beach pricing for things. Not huge deal though Another thing I would recommend is def have the spa do your hair they do an amazing job as for the make up I do not recommend that, I had a trial on wed. the 22nd the make up was awful! they really don't have any high end make up at all. My sister in laws ended up doing my make up and loved it The hair was fab so do that. The wedding itself was great!! We had our cerm. on the beach, followed by cocktail hour on the beach steps away from the cerm. and then recpt. at Zolcalo on the deck it was amazing. Our guests said it was the best wedding they had ever been and the food was amazing we did the beach bbq buffet. We did the amp. w speakers and microphone and did our own cd's up. There is guy who mans the amp the whole time, and switchs the cds which was great!! The resort is amazing there is still construction going on, the week of our honeymoon due to the swine flu, because the resort was at 10% occ. they did a lot of the construsction since no guests were really there, but you don't really notice it. They did nothing the week our guests were there. Everyone who works there is great! Shout outs to Carlos front desk, Pete Sienna, Miguel pool/beach waiter, Jonathan beach entertainmen, Laura beach entertainment, Gilberto WC, and the list can go on. If your concerned at all about this resort don't be they have it down to a science, the resort is beautiful, the workers great, the food AMAZING, our Wedding AMAZING So have fun!

Quote: Originally Posted by GracieMae82 Thank you, thank you! Same to you, Katherine! What a FABULOUS day to get married This is such an exciting time- we're so close! Our ceremony is scheduled for 4:30 on the beach, followed by a cocktail hour on the beach as well (the Palapa Yoga space). We've decided to go with The Plaza as our reception site. Originally wanted the beach, but opted for The Plaza b/c it has the dancefloor, lighting, etc. already built-in...just seemed easier/more affordable and less windy...Zocalo is going to be awesome! What are you doing for music during the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception? It's been my biggest challenge thus far- I'm still working on last minute details with my coordinator....I'd LOVE to have everything squared away ASAP....it'll relieve a heck of a lot of stress already! How about you? How many guests do you have coming? We have 27, small group....but I don't think my control-freak self could manage much more ;p Thanks! It is a FAB day! Were very similar in our size, we are having 28 guests. Our wedding ceremony is at 5:30 on the beach, cocktail hour on the beach as well not sure where on the beach then recp. at zocola. Were super excited. For music we have a friend who is a DJ made up tons of cd's broken down for cocktail hour, dinner, then party. We renting the amp w microphone, and one of our good friends and BM are making annoucements, we thought it was intimate that way plus such a small group. We just hope that the amp is good. We have it for everything. We arrive on the 20th do you as well? were having a welcome dinner @ spoon the night before, at 6:30 were super excited..... can't wait.

Quote: Originally Posted by GracieMae82 hi everyone- We I'm somewhat new- I've been reading this board for quite some time and finally figured out how to join! I'm getting married at the Sensatori on 24-April-2009! Hi Gracie Congratulations, I too am getting married 4-24-09!!! our ceremoney is @ 5:30 followed by the cocktail hour on the beach, and we just confirmed we can have our recp. at Zocalo fresco. What time is your wedding? and is everything finalized?

Quote: Originally Posted by christina276 Here are some answers I can help with! CAKE - we paid $256 for what's described on the detail sheet as "3 Tier square shaped wedding caked for 20-30 people" PLAZA - we loved that we ended up with such a large space to dance, rather than the rented beach dance floor. CHAIRS - we paid $9 for uncovered chairs. WELCOME BAGS - we left letters at the front desk for people to get at check in, and that was free. We left a black space on the letter to fill in our room number once we knew it, and then asked people to call us when they got there and that made it easy for us to deliver things to our guests, say hi, and not have to pay any fees! BAR/LOUNGE - I was never out past about 12:30, and it was still open then with no signs of closing! MAKEUP - I brought a bunch of my own makeup as a back-up in case I hated what they did and wanted to re-do it, but I didn't need a thing! They had a tray of shadows and asked what color I wanted for my eyes, and and they had everything else. MARRAIGE LICENSE - I was really confused on this when I got back. The county clerk here said we still needed to get married by the Justice of the Peace in order to file the license. Then I found out we don't technically need to file the license anywhere - International law makes our marraige valid here in the US since we did the legal ceremony there. However, DPS would not except the wedding license from Mexico(whether it was translated or not) to change my name on my driver license and told me to go to Social Security Admin. Luckily, Social Security accepted the Mexican license(in Spanish) so now I'm waiting to receive my name change on my SS card and then hopefully DPS will change it when I can show them that. If anyone else has advice on this subject I'd like to know since I'm still in the process! FOOD - I just wanted to say again the $12 private meals as fine! And I'd go with the s'more party over cocktail party for a welcome - people can get great food anytime at all the restaurants, but you can only get s'mores on the beach is you do the private party! I think that answers everything I can! Good luck everyone. Congratulations on your marriage!!! I am so glad you posted info on the make up, glad they have everything, I will be bringing my own foundation and things, did you think that they did your make up good? As for the marraige certificate/lic. Fabio told me that there is a package that you have to talk to about w your onsite coordinator. It's like $90 and they make it legal in Mexico, translate it into English for you, and then ship it to your house it takes about 30 days to recieve it but I think it's worth it so you don't have to worry about translating it when you get back home. Anyone else who has been married and live in US what did you do? thanks

For those who had their wedding @ the plaza what did you like and not like about having it there? thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by christina276 Here are my pics and few notes about my experiences! One link is the pro pics and one is the snap shots other people took. Snapfish: Share:Registration Snapfish: Share:Registration On Site Coordinators - They were great! Very helpful when I decided to swap from the beach to plaza. They let me transfer the money from the dance floor to the candles, a very pleasant surprise! Gilberto was my coordinator and he was great through the reception to make sure everything went smoothly. They also helped us wrap us details we'd completely forgot, like ordering champagne for the toast. S'more Party - We did this for our welcome party and everyone had a great time. They do a whole table of sweets and a bar set up on the beach with a small bonfire. They also had face painting for kids and a movie/tv show theme song game that someone from the resort hosted. Every had a great time at this - well work the money. We actually to decided to do this instead of a cocktail and I'm very glad we did. Spa - I had a great experience the day of. From about 11a until the ceremony at 3:30 I was in the bridal suite. I had a hair trial back at home and they matched the picture perfectly. I also told them natural makeup and was very happy with the outcome. Great job on my manicure and pedicure too! They let me order room service to the bridal suite as well and brought champagne and chocolates, a very nice touch. At first some of the people seemed annoyed that so many people were going in and out to visit, but after an hour or so, no one seemed to care anymore. Ceremony - We did the legal ceremony, and other than a name mix up in the beginning, it all went very smooth. We also had the classical guitarist, but honestly I don't remember hearing anything until after it was all over! He did have some sort of amplier playing music along with his guitar that I didn't really care for, but overall I think it was a nice touch. He played for about 15 minutes as guests were being seated so hopefully they enjoyed it. We also requested that the hanging flower arrangements from the deluxe gazebo be moved to sit on the paperwork table and cake table and they had no problem accommodating that. I also request for those arrangements and the bridesmaids (the $50 tropical bouquet) that they only use orange, yellow and red tones (no blue or purples) and that also did that with no problem. It was very windy and my veil kept flying around, but Gilberto had warned me to tuck in under my arm, and the judge also arranged it for me when were signing paperwork so it wouldn't interfere with those photos. Photographer - We did a package from Mexican Wedding Photographers. I was a little hesitant since there were very few reviews on them, but I requested individual photographers portfolios and decided on Mike Razo. We paid for extra hours so we could offer the guests a chance to get family photos prior to the ceremony (we'll frame and send them as a thank you after). Because of that, we didn't get very many "getting ready" photos, but I'm was fine with that. We were very happy with the photos. My only regret is not leaving more time between the ceremony and reception for photos (we had about an hour). Mike actually met us at the airport on our way out to deliver our album, photos, and DVD with all the pictures. Everything worked out perfectly. I'm not sure if they're still an approved photographer, but hopefully they are because they were great! Reception - Originally we were supposed to be on the beach but it was too windy so we moved to the plaza. I asked for months to have a picture of a centerpiece priced out, and with less than 3 weeks before the wedding I was told by JoZeen my special requests were delaying finalizing the details - even though when I made the request over 2 months before I was told by here I would get pricing in 2 weeks. In the end, I decided to bring my own centerpieces of lanterns and shells. On site they told me told me it would be $50 to set up the centerpieces, place cards and some fans I brought for the ceremony. That seemed pretty reasonable to me. For the food, we chose menu1b and swapped the dessert to tres leches. Originally we were going with one of the more expensive menus, but in the planning I got so frustrated I decided I didn't want to to give any more money to these people! In the end, it worked out great. The pork tenderloin was great and the corn cakes were a huge hit. The tres leches was amazing. We got the 20 -30 people cake for 47 people and not even a third of it got ate. Although I would complain they did not serve the cake well, even if people weren't hungry anymore. When people asked for the cake they'd take the used tres leche plate and serve it on there. Music - for the reception we did the ipod and it worked out great. I put a cousin in charge of operating it and making announcements for the first dance etc and just created different playlists. In the end, everyone was just flipping through, including me, for certain songs and even plugging in their own iphones and ipods, which I though made it more fun because everyone for involved. They actually had someone sit by the ipod and amplifier all night. While he wasn't allowed to touch it, he would adjust the volume for each song, which was big concern of mine, but no need for anyone to worry about that! The resort - we did a lot of problems with the rooms. Our toilet would never flush properly and we had to change rooms after it clogged 3 times. This wouldn't have been nearly as frustrating if we hadn't problems we had a check in. The upgrade that was supposed to be "confirmed upon arrival if available" - was available, but they wanted us to pay $80/night for it. Even when I showed an email from Fabio. I was told they got a hold of him and he said there wasn't a upgrade, but when I asked to speak with him, he was sunavailable. Then, when we agreed to pay the extra for one night and sort it out the next day when someone could get a hold of Fabio, the room was suddenly gone. That, followed by the toilet problems that evening and agian the next morning, left us off to a bad start. Then, when we moved rooms the jacuzzi in the new room was filthy and had brown water sitting in the bottom. After our problems, we met with the guest service manager and were told she was personally going to go through our guest list and have the rooms inspected before our guests arrived to make sure they didn't have any problems. We even ran into her in to lobby the next afternoon and an excursion and were told our guests had arrived and everyone was great. But when we started calling people 10 minutes later we found out all the problems: 2 of our guests had rooms that smelled like sewage. One actually had sewage overflow from the toilet into the room. 2 people never got minibars in the rooms even after complaining. One person had a broken patio door on the first floor at check in and couldn't go to dinner while she waited for it to be fixed. The other complication to the problem was that I didn't think they responded quickly enough. We were wasting time waiting for housekeeping, having to fight for new rooms for us and our guests. Even with the sewage flowing into the room, the guest was asked if they could call her back. Even though the resort wasn't even full, they made a huge deal out of changing any rooms if you were having problems. It took at least half an hour of time at the front desk, not the mention the time you lost packing and moving! I hate to worry you all, but I was under the impression all these problems I'd read about had been fixed. It was about a 20% chance in our case you got a good room, and those who did had a great time and even said they'd come back. As for everyone else, they were left with a very sour taste. The good news is, the waiters, entertainment staff and bartenders are all very friendly and nice. The wedding was great and easy after all the frustration in planning with off site folks! The food was also very good for the most part. While certain people didn't like certain things, everyone found their favorite restaurant sand were very happy with the food. Offsite Tours - We also did a few off site tours that were all great. We did a Lomas transport to the ferry in Playa one day(40 minute ride) and to it to cozumel (another 40 minutes) to go scuba diving with Sea Robin Diving. We also went diving one day with another shop in Puerto Morales. Puerto Morales was a very cute little town with some souvenir shops and much closer than Playa! The best tour we did was with Edventure Tours. We started at 7:30a, went to tulum, ziplining, cliff jump, snorkeling cenotes, snorkeling in the ocean at a sea turtle spot & snorkeling in a lagoon(my favorite). We didn't get back to the hotel until about 7p, but everyone had a great time. We had people from age 8 to 55 on the tour with us too! They also had an underwater camera and took photos of us all day for an extra $30, well worth it! I hope this helps everyone. Even with the room problems, I was very happy the day of the wedding and they made everything very easy! While I will probably never go back to a Karisma resort, I wouldn't have changed a thing about the wedding, and that's why I was there in the first place! Cogratulations you looked so beautiful thanks for sharing... I have a few questions I am getting my make up down there as well, did they have everything there to do make up? I plan on bringing my own foundation but wanted to see if they had everything? Also what do you do after ur married w your licencse, Fabio said that there is a package that u can get so when u come back to the states u don't have to worry about having it translated etc. thanks again and congratulations. I have 4 more weeks

My Future in laws are coming to CT in 3 weeks for our shower, they are saving room in their suitcase to pack some things that we need for Mexico, the OOT bags, Were going to assemble them there, and give them out at our welcome dinner.

Thanks! Ok were doing a private reception, we were thinking of a DJ but does anyone know the other options were for music if you don't want a DJ? thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by heather hunder Yeah Tiffany told me that i couldn't have the Barbque deluxe at the Plaza, it had to be on the beach. I spoke with Fabio last week over the phone, and we are also doing the BBQ he said that it does not have to be on the beach, it can be anywhere you want it to be, it's buffet, so it can be anywhere u want it to be. That is what he told, as that was one of the questions I had for him.

Don't read what trip advisor says because some people just can't be happy no matter where they are. I think everything will be great it's what you make of it. Our wedding is 4-24-09 and we can't wait!

Quote: Originally Posted by andrea110808 All we needed is what you already have plus the birth certificates and some additional information about your witnesses if you are using your own. I was confused about the translation thing as well but for some reason that is not required at this particular resort but it is for other resorts of Karisma....makes no sense at all and was confusing. You should be all set. We paid the extra money to have our marriage license translated and sent to us....BUT we have not seen it yet and we have contacted Lomas Travel a couple of times now. We should have had it a few weeks ago. You do get the Spanish version to take with you and you can have it translated when you get back to the states if you want. thanks so much, that helps with the confusion. How much extra did you have to pay to have it translated into english? I might just wait till we get back to the states, but want to make sure we won't have probelms when we go to change my name over. I know we will have to translate the certificate into english, do you know who to contact for that info, I have no clue on what needs to be done for that. Clueless...

Legal Requirements: For anyone who has already been married at this resort what do we need to get married? Our wedding is 4/24/09 we have our BC's with the Appostile seals needed, passports, but now I see on the Karisma site something about translations having to be done before arrival at hotel what needs to be translated? Also did they provide you certified copies of your marriage certificate and what has to happen when you get back to the states, I am so confused right now. Thanks for all who respond and help me with my confusion that is right now.

Quote: Originally Posted by MsShelley Alot of girls on here are going to be missing someone very important to them on their wedding day. For me, it's my Mom.... So, I have been searching for ways to include my lost loved ones in my wedding day, and I thought I would post a couple ideas.... Possible program wording: Perhaps they are not stars but rather openings in heaven Where the love of our lost ones pours through And shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. Celebrating with us in spirit A memory table with their photos and then “Those we love don't go away, They walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard, but always near, Still loved, still missed and very dear.†In loving memory of those who are no longer with us… (and then listing their names) or “We thought of you with love today, but that is nothing new. We thought about you yesterday and days before that, too. We think of you in silence, we often speak your name. All we have are memories and your picture in a frame. Your memory is our keepsake, with which we’ll never part. God has you in His keeping, we have you in our hearts.†In Loving Memory Perhaps they are not the stars But rather openings in heaven Where the love of our lost ones Pours through And shines down upon us To let us know they are happy Thank you for loving and sharing For giving and caring. God bless you and keep you, Until we meet again. I'll Miss You at the Wedding I'll miss you at the wedding, with all the family near. Friends and neighbors will be there too, all whom I hold so dear. When I turn to look at them, I'll see your empty space. But because I know you're watching it's a very honored place. And I know that you'll be happy too because you see that we're in love. In my heart, I know you are You're watching from above. If Tears Could Build A Stairway If tears could build a stairway and memories were a lane We would walk right up to heaven And bring you back again. No farewell words were spoken No time to say goodbye You were gone before we knew it And only God knows why Our hearts still ache in sadness and secret tears still flow What it meant to lose you No one will ever know But now we know you want us To mourn for you no more To remember all the happy times Life still has much in store Since you'll never be forgotten We pledge to you today A cherished place within our heart Is where you'll always stay Whispers from heaven When I left this world without you I know it made you blue. Your tears fell so freely, I watched; I know this is true. While you were weeping, Days after I passed away- While all was silent within me, I saw you kneel and pray. From the wonderful place called heaven Where all my pain is gone, I send a gentle breeze to whisper, "My loved ones, please go on." The peace that I have found here Goes far beyond compare No rain, no clouds, no suffering- Just LOVE from everywhere. You need not be troubled Just stay close to GOD in prayer Someday we'll be reunited My love, HIS love surrounds you always, EVERYWHERE! I too will be missing my mother on our wedding day these poems are so nice thanks for posting them. We are donating $$ in liu of favors to where my mom worked, children's hospital. Also putting her pic in my flowers that day so she will be with me.

What about the other luggage tags? Don't know who to PM you, but intrested in the other set of luggage tags you have. thanks!

We are doing U2 Beautiful day for rece. everything I have ideas, just seeing how they all will work togather thanks so much for the suggestions!