jenniebey

Hi Ladies, It's been a while since I've been on here. Allyzouz- You have to contact them to get availability for weddings. They basically block out the whole year for people want to just stay at PF for a vacation. Obviously they want to leave it open if someone wants to do a full takeover and they have only one room booked for outside guests. Just email them and they will get back to you quickly. Good luck! PF is amazing! Lunnsu- I got married 11/06/09 and I had cala lillies for my centerpieces. They were my second choice because the mini cala lillies I originally wanted were way out of my budget. But they ended up being absolutely beautiful and I got tons of compliments. If you look at my slideshow (Jennie & Reggie) you can see them. Abruno - We did a welcome dinner the second night because most people were there by then (we did 5 nights total) and then the night before did our rehearsal dinner. We just had a schedule that each person got in their welcome bags to let them know when to be where. If people chose to not participate that was ok too. We wanted to leave some free time so people could do their own thing. However, you've probably figured it out by now. Jennie

Hi jmred, I don't check the forums too often so sorry for the late response. Michetta is correct. That is Playa Fiesta Beachclub & Hotel. Absolutely loved having that as my wedding location and just went back this last December for another visit. Jennie

Hi Sarah, I ended up doing a little bit of both. I bought bags, koozies, games, first aid kits, etc at home. Then I bought snacks and such in PV to add to the pages. However, one tip for you: we went to Walmart to get snacks and they didn't have anything we really wanted. I heard Costco has a better selection. So if you have a Costco card I would just head over there. Good luck! Jennie

Sorry that you're dealing with this. I think it's normal for anyone who chooses a DW to get guilt somewhere along the way. But like everyone else said, it's your day. I had a lot of people I thought would be there, and was sad they couldn't make it. But in the end it was okay. And for people who make you feel guilty that's there problem. They have no right to be selfish about the most important day of your life. Good luck and try not to stress too much!

Magalie - I hope you have a wonderful wedding week. Try not to stress to much, everything will come together. It's going to be one of the best weeks of your life! Can't wait to hear how it went once you're back!

Quote: Originally Posted by sabbott Question for past PF brides - Many of you had fun drinks lined up for the cocktail reception after the ceremony that matched your colors (i.e. Kate's blue drinks, etc). Did you ask for a signature drink and was that included in your open bar price? Or did you have to pay extra to have a signature drink? We're trying to pass on the extra charges like Mojito bar, etc. Thanks! We had one case of champagne that went oh so fast (extra charge) and everything else was included in the open bar. I considered having a specialty drink as well, but it's hard to predict what your guests really want. By your wedding day, the bartenders will know the drinks your guests like so they'll be getting pretty much whatever they want anyways! Twice during the reception, we asked the bar to make a 'mixed shot' for people to grab, all included. Everyone loved it!

Magalie- Sorry to hear about your dress. I went through something similar when the sales girl told me we could easily put in a sweetheart neckline (I even showed her pictures of exactly what I wanted). However, when I got to my first fitting, the seamstress was adamant that the neckline I wanted wouldn't work. She was able to suggest a different style sweetheart and I loved the way it turned out although I was definitely not what I had been picturing in my mind in the 6 months between purchasing the dress and my first fitting. I'm sure you'll look beautiful in the dress re-poofed and all. And don't feel too bridezilla. It's your dress! You have a right to want it a certain way. Good luck!

Congrats Maggie! The pictures are beautiful. And this is just the beginning.

Quote: Originally Posted by kate.com Ok so I know that Lindsay and Blaire are the best WCs in the world... but I am going to Playa Fiesta in the morning and was wondering if you girls needed anything? I hope you and Bill have a blast! I'm so jealous!!

Welcome Vanessa and Traci. IMO you can never start planning too early! Congrats Crystal! Hope your day was as amazing as you've dreamed of.

Congrats ives on booking! Location seems to be the hardest (and most important decision). You're going to love PF. Did you do a site visit?

You look fabulous in your dress Crystal! Your menus, placecards/candles and table numbers turned out great. I love the turquoise/brown combo. So simple and elegant. That's so exciting that you leave in 1 week. You are going to have the best time. Yay!

My website is still up, but not sure for how much longer: jennieandreggie.com I updated it right before the wedding so it doesn't have our original welcome message. But the info on PF seemed to be helpful to our guests. (Thanks again Kate for letting me borrow). I ordered simple invites from weddingpaperdivas.com which I loved. Here's a link to the exact invitation. Signature White Wedding Invitations - Floral Patterned by Wedding Paper Divas We weren't able to fit a ton of information on there so we too directed everyone to our site. We didn't have anyone who wasn't able to get online to view. However, some people contacted my parents with additional questions. sabbott - have you set a date yet?

I was originally determined to get legally married in PV, but after speaking with Lindsay I changed our/my mind. I didn't want to do two ceremonies, but after I realized that we would be married by a judge in Mexico that would preform the ceremony in spanish, I knew it had to be done. I speak conversational spanish, but DH does not and it seemed ridiculous to make those sort of promises to each other if we're not understanding what we're saying. We got married the day before we left for PV in our local church with just my parents. So it actually worked out great because I still got to have a church wedding and it only cost $95 for the marriage license and a $200 donation to our church. Good luck. Either way you'll find a way that works best for you two!

Agreed. We went to Walmart and I was disappointed I couldn't find the items I wanted. Mostly they didn't have any of the drink mix you can add to a water bottle. But we did get some Oreos and little chip bags which our guests loved. We made due with what was available. We didn't make it to Costco but I had a feeling it would be more in line with what we were expecting.

I love the idea of churros! They are so yummy I wish I would have thought of that.

Hi. Michelle just photographed my November 6th wedding. I love my wedding pictures and she was really easy to work with. The only thing I would suggest is to come up with a list beforehand with must haves and discuss with her. I did meet with her, but didn't have a list. She didn't get a shot of my entire group or a shot of our wedding rings (minor images but ones I wanted none the less). She'll shoot anything you ask for (with in reason i'm sure). I asked for some shots on the fly during the reception and she was more than accommodating. Bonus: She is super fast (without sacrificing quality) so you're spending less time posing for pictures and more time celebrating with your friends and family. Here is a link to the slideshow from my wedding day: Jennie and Reggie

Happy New Year ladies! I've been busy for the holidays and just caught up on the thread. Mel - Welcome back! Sounds like you had a great trip. It must have been nice to be at PF without stressing about the wedding details. Magalie - I LOVE your STDs. The envelopes are the kicker for me. Nice work! Also, your blog is hilarious. I love your story! Shreets - How frustrating to be quoted the wrong price. But at least you found out now. It is unfortunate to have to explain to your guests they will be paying a little more. They will realize it's worth it once they are at PF. Crystal - Your day is coming up soon! How are the last minute preparations going? I too was a little shocked by the 5.5% CC fee for the deposit. I don't know if I was confused or not paying attention, but I didn't remember that being discussed before I paid. However, once I realized that the fee on the wire transfer (which is much bigger) was only going to be $37 and that all of our guests would have the 5.5% fee waived, I felt better. Also, we had 2 guests pay cash for their rooms and they waived the 2.5% fee they normally charge. So that was nice. As far as the 4-day minimum, we actually had a 5-day and some people were not exactly happy about that. The majority of our guests were fine with it. But we actually had 3 guests come down for only 2 days! They stayed at different hotels, but I was shocked that they would make it for such a short time. Especially since one was coming from New Jersey! For the other guests that could only come for 3-4 days, we picked up the extra nights. Glad to see everyone's planning is coming along. Can't wait to see how everything turns out for you ladies. Dont' forget to post pictures along the way!

Crytstal - You are so on top of it. Congrats on getting so much done! BTW, I love turquoise and brown. Kodi - Don't stress too much about the rooms. I'm sure you'll get a few more by the end of the year! As for your mini-moon, I think moving to Nuevo Vallarta was nice. By then we had already been into town about 4-5 times and just wanted to relax. We stayed at the Riu Palace which was nice. The food is only so so, but the hotel is clean and the service is good (not PF good though!). I know some girls have stayed at Casa Velas and have raved about it, but it wasn't in our budget to spend that much. Melissa - I'm so jealous that you're going to back to PF! Are you going to be there for Christmas then? Have a wonderful trip!

Congrats Crystal on picking a date! That was the hardest part for me and after that everything came together. Is it Feb 2010 or Feb 2011?

Congrats on a wonderful wedding. It's so easy in hindsight to see what went wrong and what you could have done to prevent it. But it sounds like the good well out weighed the bad. Can't wait to see your pics!

Hello PF Ladies! Sorry for going MIA on you when I know I promised my review weeks ago. I've been chained to my desk at work and finally have my life back this week. The good news is that my slideshow is ready to enjoy along with the review. I wanted to do a very detailed review because I know you wants all the juicy tidbits. I did leave out some stuff, because as Melissa has said before, there are some amazing little extras PF does that really should be a surprise. It's so much better that way! Here's a link to the thread with my review. Here's a link to my slideshow. _________________ Also, here's my two cents on everything that you've been discussing lately: _________________ Magalie – I love your dress. You look gorgeous! Sam (DB2B) – I had the same realization after we left PF that we had already met…on BDW. Congrats on your beautiful wedding. I love all the purple and I hope your crowd had as much fun as we did. It was sad to leave…but exciting to know someone else was just about to have an amazing wedding as well.  Christa – The dance floor is so worth it. It’s unique and looks great in pics. Also it’s right by the bar so you can’t beat that. It’s where everyone hangs out anyways.  Jdrewett – Congrats on signing your contract! You’re going to love PF. I promise! And the wedding coordination fee is totally worth it. Lindsay and Blaire do so much work that you’ll not even know about until the wedding is over. And if you have a special request, they bend over backwards. We had a couple people allergic to avocado (can you imagine?) and Lindsay made all the necessary substitutions. Not to mention my 93 year old G’ma fell the day of the wedding. Lindsay made sure she had everything she needed to be comfortable. Monty Crysto – We did 3 per row and it was perfect. However, if you’re having a smaller group I think 2 is good. It pushes the everyone back more so it looks like more people in pictures. SheriB – I too had it narrowed down to LC and PF. But once I saw PF on our site visit, it was no contest. And I’m so glad I went with my gut feeling on that.  Shreets – I didn’t see pots and pans but there was flatware in the rooms. We used it to eat our leftover wedding cake at 2AM the next day.

I can’t say enough good things about Playa Fiesta Beachclub…so I’ll just tell you everything about my wedding week there and you’ll get the gist. HOTEL, Playa Fiesta: A++ We arrived at Playa Fiesta exhausted and ready for vacation after a red eye flight and having our 7 bags rifled through during customs at the airport. Located just south of downtown, it was great to drive through town and see PV again before arriving at our beautiful hotel. We had let them know ahead of time when we would be arriving so they were expecting us and showed us up to our room and brought all of our bags up within 5 minutes. Waiting in our room was a beautiful tropical bouquet of flowers and a cold bottle of champagne. Yes! We popped the cork and toasted to the fact that we were finally there…ready to get married. Lindsay (co-owner of the hotel) came by our room within minutes to welcome us to Playa Fiesta and confirm our wrap up meeting for the following morning. She also (knowing we were from also from San Francisco) invited us to go watch the 49er’s game with Adam (co-owner and her husband) in town. DH was thrilled so off we went to a sports bar. Adam is such a great guy. We hung out, had a couple drinks and during half time went over our room assignments. Because it was such a slow week there (due to the economy and the unfortunate swine flu) there were no outside guests! So we had the place to ourselves and they let us have all the best rooms. Although I have to say…our first 2 days at PF, there was another wedding group there so we were given a basic standard room. It was still a beautiful room. Monday was all business. We met with Lindsay, for our wrap meeting, had our cake tasting and then I had my hair and make-up trial. We then had dinner in town with friends and generally got ready for everyone’s arrival on Tuesday. Most of our guests all arrived on Tuesday. After their long flights, everyone was greeted at the front desk with a cold Corona and escorted down to the pool area where everyone was congregating. Everyone was given their assigned room and not one word of complaints for those who were given a standard room over an ocean view or suite. Honestly…every room is beautiful and each summer they renovate some portion of the hotel (including the rooms). And…that’s all we heard from our guests. We all spent the afternoon drinking, swimming, laying in the sun and enjoying Playa Fiesta. Originally we had planned to head into town with whoever felt like joining for dinner, but everyone agreed they were having too much fun so we ordered tacos for everyone there and continued to hang out by the pool area. Wednesday was the first full day we had everyone here. I had scheduled a zip line trip for those who were willing, however this was canceled last minute (see below under activities). The rest of us just laid out by the pool all day and enjoyed the ambiance. We had a few stragglers arrive this day, so that is why we had scheduled our welcome dinner for this evening at Playa Fiesta. We had a Mexican BBQ (so yummy!) and a Fried Mexican Ice Cream stand for everyone. Thursday was the big day for events at our hotel. We woke up, enjoyed breakfast and the wedding party had our wedding rehearsal at 11AM (which only took 20 minutes). It was Spa Day at Playa Fiesta, and our guests enjoyed massages from 10AM to 4PM. I upgraded to an hour massage and it was amazing. I think everyone should be able to have a massage above the ocean listening to the waves. Then we had a Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament scheduled for 1:00 PM, a Banana Boat excursion at 3:00PM, then dinner at 7:00PM followed by Karaoke at 8PM. Everyone had a blast and for almost everyone retired fairly early in anticipation of the big wedding day…Friday. Friday…Wedding Day! This day a lot of our guests decided to head into town so things were pretty quiet at the hotel. I just relaxed down by the pool until around Noon when I headed up to start getting ready. I had my hair and make-up done in my room with my BMs. And then once my photographer arrived, I put on the dress and headed down to the suite in which I was hiding in until it was time to walk down the aisle. Everything seemed to flow so well, and I know there was a lot going on behind the scenes with the hotel staff to make this day perfect for us. Around 4:45PM I headed down the aisle with my Dad to be get married! I have to say everything was perfect! All the details I’d been stressing over seemed to come together and I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to get married. After the ceremony which was about 15 minutes, we headed back into the suite for a quick toast and then out front for pictures. We then proceeded with a yummy 3-course dinner and then partied with our guests until about midnight when we headed up to our room. It really was the wedding I had been dreaming of. My only complaint was that the day went by so fast…I wanted it to last longer! Saturday…The day after. I was prepared to be a bit depressed because it was over…so sad. However, we woke up and headed downstairs around 11AM for brunch with our guests. The food was amazing and everyone was just glowing with happiness after such an amazing week. Most of our guests either decided to just lounge at the pool all day or head into town. We decided to go into town with DH’s family to do a little shopping. We then spent the afternoon sunning and then headed down the road to El Set with 30 of our guests for dinner. (Yes…we all sat at one huge table. It was awesome). Sunday…Time for everyone to go home. This was my saddest day because I hated to see everyone go. But at the same time it was amazing to hear everyone say how much fun they had and how much they loved Playa Fiesta. We packed up our stuff and headed to Nuevo Vallarta for our mini-moon. But not before we had one last drink with Adam, the hotel’s owner and said good bye to the amazing staff. We can’t wait to go back for our anniversary trip! FOOD: A One of the reasons we chose Playa Fiesta was for their food. I can’t think of anything worse than going on vacation and being disappointed by the food. Every day the food was just amazing. I loved how you could order eggs any style in the mornings and everything I hate was fantastic. (I recommend the Tacos for Two and the Chicken Panini). The food for the wedding day was perfect. Bite sized appetizers and then 3 amazing courses. SERVICE, Playa Fiesta Staff: A+ I wanted to call this out because the fantastic service at the hotel really made this week great instead of just good for our guests. They were treated like celebrities and better yet, the staff really took the time to get to know everyone’s names, favorite drinks and made us feel like they were part of our group. I’d like to call out Aldo, Charlie, Pina and Ramon as being my favorite bartenders and waiters. The front desk staff helped with any questions our guests had. The day our guests arrived, we were supposed to put the welcome bags in everyone’s rooms. But Lindsay and Adam arranged to have their staff do it for us so we could stay down by the pool and enjoy ourselves. WEDDING COORDINATOR(S), Lindsay Burgess and Blaire Osborne A++ I could not have pulled off such an amazing wedding without the help of Lindsay and Blaire, her assistant. First off…how cool to be able to plan your whole wedding by email? I started working with Lindsay in February on the details and was pretty much finished by June. I would send pictures of the flowers, cake, décor I wanted and she was so fast to answer any questions. The only days that it would take a little longer to get a response were the wedding days when she was working. Which actually comforted me because I loved the fact that on wedding day…she only focuses on that bride and groom. Lindsay was able to take my vision and really make it beautiful. Her fee was $1200 for everything and it was worth much more than that! She and Blaire worked so hard to make everything go smoothly. Plus, they are both so sweet and such a pleasure to work with. PHOTOGRAPHER, Michele Turner: A Michele is an amazing photographer from Maine who does a lot of the weddings at Playa Fiesta. I absolutely fell in love with her style and couldn’t wait to have her shoot our wedding. She is so easy to work with and incredibly efficient. It was hot and everyone wanted to just to get to party! She got through all the posed shots very quickly and then moved into candid mode which turned out great. We had a sneak peak 3 days after our wedding and our slideshow and gallery in less than a month. I highly recommend Michele to anyone who wants a good mix of photojournalistic and posed photography. Here’s a link to my slideshow: Jennie and Reggie MINISTER, Barry Rimmerman: A I felt I should do a review of Barry because I had to choose between him and another minster and I wasn’t really sure who to pick. Barry was an awesome minister! We met with him 2 days before the ceremony so he could get to know us a little bit and to go over ceremony details. We had written our own vows but Barry recommended that we say those to each other in private and go with his vows because I hate public speaking and get too nervous to speak. It was a great plan! His vows were beautiful and so unique. As if that wasn’t enough, Barry donates 100% of his fee to a local charity for children. HAIR/MAKE-UP, Christy: A Christy did an amazing job on both hair and make-up. She doesn’t speak a lot of English, so they recommend that you bring pictures of the styles you want. I presented her with two challenges, a picture of my hairstyle with only a profile view and false eyelashes. She conquered both with little effort. She added a little twist thing to my chignon and my eyelashes didn’t fall off all night. Also, it was HOT after the ceremony and I was sweating like crazy (not to mention the crying during the ceremony). My make-up looked amazing all night and was worth the money to have it professionally done. FLOWERS: A+ Playa Fiesta uses the same vendor for every wedding and I don’t know who it is, but they do an amazing job. I sent pictures down of the bouquets I wanted and centerpieces. They were able to make some interpretations on some of the designs I liked to make them suit our wedding. The cala lily centerpieces turned out amazing and the each table looked exactly how I envisioned it. Worth every penny! MUSIC, Aldo: A Not only does is Aldo an amazing bartender, he rocks the music scene at Playa Fiesta as well. He hosted our Karaoke night and DJ’d the wedding. By the time we went over our music selection with him for the wedding reception, I had total faith in him. I simply gave him our first dances, my definitely-not choices (Macarena, electric slide and YMCA), and let the rest happen. He did a great job and our guests were able to request music that night which they loved. ACTIVITIES: B We didn’t plan much because we wanted our guests to be able to spend their time how they wanted. But we did have a Zip Line Tour planned which ended up being canceled because even though the PF staff scheduled this for us and took care of negotiating the rate, the bus to pick them up was an hour and a half late and then the bus driver tried to charge everyone extra. So everyone decided not to participate. However, the PF Staff (who were furious) called the company and negotiated a better rate for a following day saying this had NEVER happened to them before. We also had a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament hosted by Adam Burgess, which was a blast. We bought tequila bottles for the top two winners which everyone loved. Karaoke was amazing and I was shocked by how many people got up to sing. It was a hit!

Hi PF Ladies!! Sorry for not saying goodbye before we left for PV. I was scrambling not only to finish up last minute wedding details, but also do an extra 2 weeks of work before I left and have my legal day. We just got back last night and all I can say is that is was the most amazing wedding week. ALL of our guests, (even the ones that complained about the cost), had a blast and couldn't stop raving about PF. Lindsay, Adam and Blaire were fantastic and put on the most amazing wedding we could imagine. Aldo, Charlie, Ramon, Pina, Pato and the rest of the wait and bar staff gave us the best service and made us and our guests feel like royalty. I'm going to do a full review and post my planning thread this week. Just trying to catch up on everything after disconnecting from reality for almost 2 weeks. In the mean time, here's a link to the block post our photographer Michelle Turner put up of our wedding: Michelle Turner: Maine and Destinstion Wedding Photographer Blog Archive Jennie and Reggie: A Playa Fiesta Wedding I'm so excited for you future PF Brides!!! You're going to love it! Jennie P.S. Sorry if Adam and Lindsay weren't so good about getting back to you last week by email. I guess they were busy helping us have the wedding of our dreams. I know they had another wedding last night but then I think they have a little break before another one so hopefully they will catch up with all of you.

mlabbe - Congrats on sigining your contract! Now you can get to the fun planning. Who are you looking at for photography? jdrewett - Are you staying at PF when you do your site visit or at another hotel?