SoonToBeE

Tracey - so excited for your big day!! That's outstanding! Your note came to my mailbox and I realised that I should update my review and post the final pieces.....when I found out that...GASP!....they had deleted my review. Blergh.....I'm wondering if I should finish it and repost it all at once, or whether I should just not bother considering that it will be deleted it would seem. I think it's good to have a review for EDSS brides because there isn't much out there.....what a shame! Wonder if I had completed my review if it would not have been deleted?!?

pinklady - here are some shots from our wedding: Jon Rennie on Vimeo I agree that the resort is stunning! Tracy - As for the marriage certificate I can tell you what the process is in Ontario. You'll have to check what the process is for your province, but I would be surprised if it's different for AB - especially since the process I used worked for changing my passport and my SIN number which are done on a national level - not the provincial level. We didn't do any Canada-specific paperwork for our wedding, but did make sure to get the legal wedding while down in Mexico. The official paperwork signed by the judge was enough to have the marriage recognised in Ontario. I had to get the paperwork translated by a certified ATIO (Association of Translators and Interpretors of Ontario) translator. I assume you will have to get yours translated by an ATIA translator. (ATIA Home Page). That is all the documentation that I needed. I did not need a marriage certificate - just the original documents and the translated versions - from there I was able to change my driver's licence, health card, SIN, Passport, banking etc. The process has been pretty good actually....much less painful than I thought. Actually, it's been much harder to get everything changed at work!

Hi Tracey 1 I've been MIA for a while but plan on posting more pieces of my review tomorrow (shameful that it's taken so long....but we have been busy!) We just bought a house, I got a new job and....well....life happened As for our rings. I carried them in our carry on on the plane and then we handed both in the ring box to the best man. I think he carried them in his hand? We didn't do anything special because it would have felt weird to have our groomsmen with a fancy shell or fancy pillow (he's so totally NOT that guy!). That worked for us, but I have seen some really great DW shells that look cool. Also - your dress looks lovely! You must be so excited! Your date is coming up soooo soon! It felt so long ago and now it's sneaking up on you! Hope all is going well!

that is fabulous! SO exciting : ) What are you going to do for the next four months?!?

A DW was the best idea we ever made. PLanning over the internet when it suited us, never having to go visit vendors on the weekend. Dealing with one contact instead of many different vendors and contacts....ahhh so easy to do! Best idea ever! I kind of wish I could do it all over again!

You are too cute Thanks for the kind words. I'm trying to be very thorough because there are so many limited reviews on this resort.....so just hoping to pass on what I saw. And the BDW forum was a huge help for me planning the wedding, just trying to pay it forward with a few tips and hints! All the best with your planning, less that a year! Are you getting married at the EDSS?

I love your ttd pool photos! I love underwater kissing shots, they were some of our favourite shots we did! Congrats, great review,great pics and I love your dress!

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) Phew....there is the final review of the resort. Next installment is our wardrobe, accessories and bridal party outfits! Should be fun! Spa The resort has spa workers roaming the beach offering free massages with the intent to sell spa services. We didn’t find it annoying because the people were always very gracious and nice. I could see people getting annoyed by it, but it wasn’t a huge problem. A number of our guests used the spa services – massages, facials, body treatments, nail polish change, hair appointments, etc – and everyone seemed pretty happy. Massages One of my friends got me a massage with a facial and it was okay. The ‘massage therapists’ are not really professional quality, but the massage was relaxing and soothing. I decided to get a morning massage on the beach which was nice and relaxing, and I would recommend it. I do warn you that the masseur will massage your whole back, which means that they will lay the towel really low, exposing a bit of your butt crack. It made me a little anxious at first, but I was glad I booked an early morning massage because no one was around to see it : ) If you are worried about this, they do have massage facilities inside (not shown because they're only okay)…. I also got a free 'facial' but it was...well....not very good. But since I didn't pay for it it didn't matter! Hair Salon I decided to get my hair done for the wedding at the salon. I went to my local salon and asked my stylist to do my hair exactly the way I wanted it done at the wedding. Then she took a ton of pictures from all angles. I printed the pictures out and brought them with me to show to the woman in the resort salon. I am very happy that I did this because the woman at the salon did not speak English and this allowed her to see what I wanted. Again, my fabulous Spanish speaking bridesmaid happened to be there and she helped translate when there was a small misunderstanding about the size of curls I wanted. No biggie, and in the end my hair was what I wanted. I do remember the prices being a bit high, but at the end of the day, I stopped caring about money once we got down there. Ignore the lack of make up : ) But as you can see I was pretty happy with the final results, and the hair lasted all night! Okay….here’s a better shot : ) My sister in law and a bridesmaid also got their hair done. The salon will wash your hair with unsalted water which is worth the cost of the treatment if your hair reacts badly to constant salt (in the shower, pool and ocean water). Both girls were happy with their hair, the salon was never busy and the hair styles seemed to last all night. Phew.....that was a mouthful! I need a break!

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) I had to post separately for instalment #3.5 of my wedding review to ensure that I could get in as many pictures as possible!! Bars The bars at the resort never seemed full and it was always quick and easy to grab a drink. The bar staff are unbelievable and are sweet, charming and truly work hard to make guests feel great. I know many of our guests knew the bartenders on a first name basis and they were sure to wave and shout a quick hello to many of us. Since the resort is so small the bartenders do get to know you fairly well if you are at the bar a lot Guacamayas: This is the main bar in the middle of the resort and is the area where everyone congregates. The Open Grill is right beside this bar and the show takes place at the outskirts of this bar. During the day this bar is fairly busy but your wait should not be very long as they always have a few bartenders on hand to make sure no guests go thirsty! This bar is also a ‘swing bar’ with swings that serve as stools. The swings are pretty fun and do give the bar a relaxed, tropical feel. Lap Pool Bar: This bar is quiet at all times of day and can be a bit slow if a few people go up at once, there is usually only one bartender serving people. We didn’t spend much time here, other than when we were waiting to get into the Italian restaurant. It is a very nice looking bar and is also a ‘swing bar.’ There are hammocks right beside the bar and we enjoyed grabbing drinks and spending some time on the hammocks once all our guests had left. Gaviotas This is one of the three swim-up bars in the resort. We actually didn’t spend any time at this bar until the second week. This bar is located in the middle of the resort and was the quieter pool because it didn’t have the entertainment team there all day. This bar is surrounded by rooms and, as such, makes the rooms adjacent to this pool a little less private. I wish we had spent more time at this swim up bar because the bar gets sun the whole day as opposed to the main swim up bar where we spent all of our time. We had great service at this swim up bar and then spent some time swimming in the pool and lounging in the beach beds beside this bar. We also got some of our formal wedding pictures done at these beach beds and they turned out great! Main Pool We spent most of our time at the main pool where all the activities took place. Because we spent most of our time here we spent most of our time at this swim-up bar. The bartenders became fast friends with our group and they always provided amazing service and were quick to greet us whenever they saw us around the resort. This bar is mostly in the shade so it tends to get a bit cold during the day because the pools in general are fairly cold. Other Swing Bar That I Don't Remember the Name Of There is another swim-up bar located at the far end of the resort. It gets beautiful afternoon sun and was the main meeting place for our group at the end of each day, during our second week we spent a lot of time at this bar because it was attached to our swim up room. The bartender here was amazing and this is the bar where you can order a ‘coco loco.’ We made arrangements the day before to come back to get a coco loco and had fun doing our own special coconut themed photo shoot. Again, the water is pretty cool, but the bar gets enough sun so it doesn’t get too cold. Bar Service On Beach There is bar service on the beach, it is a bit slow because the drinks are made at the swim up bar at the far end of the resort. The servers are constantly moving along the beach asking if you need a drink but with the number of people on the beach it will take a while to wait for a server. We usually went and got our drinks only because the bar was so close that it didn’t make sense to wait. Quality of drinks & Service The drinks are made with top quality alcohol and are fairly consistently made. We did get a few boozy drinks in our time there, but most of the time the drinks were great and were very enjoyable. Overall we were very happy with the service, serving size, assortment, and quality of the drinks. Entertainment The resort has shows every night and they are pretty well attended by guests. We don’t really care for the entertainment so didn’t bother to watch. Our guests seemed to enjoy the shows but they did say that they seemed very amateur and low budget. The carnival and the fire show were the shows that got the best reviews. The karaoke and the band nights were rated the worst by our guests. A few nights a week they have a DJ after the show. We actually made use of the DJ on our wedding night after our ipod rental had expired. Our entire party stormed the dance floor and, with the help of a Spanish speaking bridesmaid, were able to make song requests and proceeded to party the night away. The DJ did want to play his own music, and didn’t speak English so it was great to have a Spanish speaking person in our party. The entertainment during the day was pretty good – our party was pretty busy playing volleyball, doing water aerobics, playing water polo, and taking part in ‘lazy game.’ The animation team are really great and personable. That said, the absolute worst part of the entertainment is the dance they do every day. I can’t even articulate how badly done this dance is….just go and see for yourself. I feel humiliated even thinking about it. Fitness Center This may not be relevant any more because I think they are in the process of revamping the fitness center. I was in the fitness center almost every day it was always well maintained with staff coming to clean, and stock the unit many times during the day. The equipment is a bit old and worn, but not bad by resort standards. During our stay they removed the universal weight machine, so when we left there were only 2 bikes, an elliptical, a treadmill and free weights for use. The space is a decent size with air conditioning, a tv, water and towels. Guests from the nude resort can come over to use the machines (clothed!) so it can get busy at certain times, but if you come back later it will likely be empty. I also brought my gps and did some running around the resort. It is about 3 miles if you run all of the paths around the resort and then run to the front gates. A few other guests ran down the beach to the other resort but since I was running alone I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. It was a nice run overall, I’d bring your running shoes if you do like to run, because you can get a short run in on a treadmill or around the resort.

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) I had to post separately for instalment #3.5 of my wedding review to ensure that I could get in as many pictures as possible!! Restaurants The resort boasts that it has 5 à la carte restaurants (Speciality Cuisine, Sandwich & Pizza, Latin Fusion, Mexican, Italian, Asian) with gourmet cuisine at all restaurants. They do not disappoint. If you recall from my first posting, one of our deciding factors when choosing a resort was food. Our specific metrics were: -A la Carte availability for all meals – no maximum number of visits -High quality food - Having been to the Royale we knew that this resort should have great food and we came with very high expectations. The food was very good and our expectations were met. Some meals were outstanding, some did disappoint, but overall I would definitely say that the resort delivered! I think the EDR has slightly better food but we definitely had gourmet experiences while we were at the EDSS. None of the restaurants required reservations (first come first serve basis) and we were never really met with long waiting times with the exception of the one time we went as a group of ten and asked for a table together. The restaurants do not seem to be able to serve large groups without advance notice – so if you want a table with more than 6 guests you do need to call ahead in the morning and book a time for your group to eat. They will accommodate, but you really do need to give them a few hours to plan. The portions are small but we always felt full because we always ate several courses. Unless you are used to eating 3-4 course meals of epic proportions you should be able to leave feeling satisfied. We did eat at each restaurant and here are our thoughts: ARRECIFES: Specialty cuisine. Garden grill & Margarita lounge. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner here. We weren’t overly impressed with the meals here. We would say the food seemed more generic and was not as fancy as the other restaurants. I think our experiences at all the other restaurants was so good that this restaurant seemed only ‘okay.’ We did have our welcome dinner at this restaurant and the service was unbelievable. The resort appears to bring in it’s managers to oversee large events to make sure the service is great. The manager kept a watchful eye on our group and kept popping by to make sure everything was going perfectly. Breakfast was the best meal this place has to offer. You can sit in the open garden area and eat outside. The area is shaded with lush trees and tables are separated with palm trees, so meals here feel fairly private. You can order off of the Arrecifes menu, can get a custom omelette made at the grill, or can grab some food from the small breakfast buffet that they set out every morning (hashbrowns, yogurt, cereal, fresh fruit, roasted tomatoes and veggies). I loved the buffet, I would wake up early every morning to go to the gym and afterwards I could grab a quick snack before our ‘real breakfast’. The buffet was also great because you could grab some food ‘to go’ if you were going on any excursions. SANDWICHERIE: Wood burning oven pizzas served to order, and a selection of Angus burgers, gourmet snacks among other succulent Mexican preparations. We ate lunch here several times and the food was very nice. You eat in the same lush area where the Arrecifes breakfast is served. The menu was nice and light and was perfect for an afternoon snack or a full blown lunch. VIDA GARDEN GRILL: A truly creative Latin fusion cuisine. Intense yet easy going flavours and colourful presentations in a spring garden complemented with an extensive Margaritas menu from its own bar. This was our favourite restaurant by far. The breakfast menu was very good (I think we tried everything on there..!), the lunch menu was outstanding and the dinner menu was very good as well. This little gem seems to get missed because it is the farthest from the beach. It is located by the hotel lobby and it tucked into lush gardens. The service here was great. LA CARRETA: Features a la carte Mexican Gourmet cuisine. The resort says this restaurant is seasonally open for lunch and breakfast, but we never went. I don’t think they were open while we were there, but I can’t be sure. We went here once for dinner and I got sick and missed my meal. Everyone else said the food was good, but this restaurant wasn’t one that many of our guests visited multiple times. Waiters will come and take photos of you in Sombreros and the ambiance in the restaurant is pretty nice with a beautiful high thatched roof. I guess this is why you never see family portraits with sombreros on….you always seem to lose a few people! MIA CASA: Contemporary Italian cuisine. Air conditioned and outdoor dining. This restaurant is only open for dinner and is one of the more popular restaurants at the resort. This restaurant features an open air patio that is beautiful and very much in demand. If you order an expensive bottle of wine the resort will upgrade your seating to your own private gazebo beside the restaurant. We loved eating here and made sure we had a few dinners here before we went. KLAY TALAY: Fine Asian cuisine including sushi.This restaurant is also only open for dinner and features private Japenese dining rooms and an open air patio. This was another popular restaurant. The sushi was very good and we couldn’t resist ordering all of it one night. The waiter was very accommodating and we feasted on delicious sushi that night. Sushi aside, the rest of the menu is very good and perfectly suitable for those who don’t like raw fish. 24 HOURS ROOM SERVICE We ordered room service for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The service was very quick and the delivery people were always very nice. The portions were fair sized and the quality was good as well. BEACH LUNCH BUFFET One thing we found out about when we arrived is that each day the hotel puts on a beach buffet. Each day has a different menu – grilled fish, burritos, baked potatoes etc – and the hotel serves signature cocktails a well. We really enjoyed the beach buffet because you could stop and grab food without having to sit down at a restaurant. The Sunday fish fry is the best day with fresh fish, grilled vegetables and rice served (at least we thought it was the best day) Check with the concierge and they will tell you when the buffet happens and what is being served each day. OPEN GRILL The Sandwicherie area becomes an open grill at night and during the night you can grab a plate of fries, a hamburger or other grilled food (I think you can almost order the room service menu, but really we ordered fries – because they were SO GOOD!). The Open Grill is a great place to grab food if you are having a late night with your wedding party, or if you get a little hungry after the show.

Hey ladies, just wanted to let you know that I have just posted another review on the actual resort! I plan to post the second part detailing the restaurants and the resort grounds later today. I just need to get pictures uploaded....enjoy!

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) Here is installment #3.5 of my wedding review focused on the resort. Beach The property is very nice and very well-maintained and the beach is no exception. All day long you see resort employees raking the beach and making sure that the sand is beautiful and clean. That said, it’s not the best beach you’ll ever see. But chances are if you’re going to the Mayan you probably aren’t going for crystal clear blue waters and white sandy beaches….. So as long as you are expecting that you won’t be let down. The water is clear in parts, but the beach is pretty windy – so it’s not amazingly clear. The beach is brown sand and beautiful. I didn’t really go in the ocean that much, but when I did it was very nice. The beach is broken up into two parts – one part has the beach beds and is swim-able with immediate access to the ocean, the other part also has beach beds but has a retaining stone wall that removes access to the ocean. For obvious reasons the swim-able beach is more popular. Here is the beach from the right showing the gazebo: and the beach from the left The beach also has the notorious ‘beach whales’ – they are very close to the resort on the retaining wall side of the beach and far away from the resort on the beach side. They don’t impede the beach on the swim-able side and make the beach, well, swim-able! We noticed that the sand flies were bad our second week, but didn’t have any issues with them the first week. Not sure what the cause was, but we were glad that we had the swim-up suite to get away from them! Beach Beds The beach beds are a luxurious take on the standard resort beachfront. They are comfortable and private, allowing you to feel like you’re on your own private piece of heaven. And they feel much more chic than a regular beach lounger! There are beach loungers scattered along the beach as well, but for the most part the beach beds are where people want to be. Because people love the beach beds people tend to get up very early to reserve their favourite bed for the day. If you want a specific bed in a good location you will have to get up early to reserve it with towels. If you don’t care where your beach bed is you can usually find one somewhere along the beach later in the day. People do reserve the beach beds with towels, but it seemed like people will remove the towels on good beds if they aren’t being used for a long period of time. There is towel service, and a beach butler along the beach, so you always have a waiter coming to take your drink orders while you sun bathe. Service is slow, but it’s better than getting up I guess! There are also swinging beach beds and double decker beach beds. Both seemed pretty cool to me, until I went in them! The swinging swing with the slightest movement and the double decker beds seem pretty rickety. I didn’t like spending a lot of time in either one of them, but the definitely make the resort look nice! Overall the beach was okay. I have seen much better beaches, but our guests all seemed happy. I really think the upgraded beach seating makes up for the lackluster beach – they make the beach look much nicer than it is. Wedding locations There are three main wedding locations (Pier gazebo, beach gazebo, and white gazebo), with only one being private (beach gazebo). I like the pier gazebo the best, I just think it looks simple and classy and really allows you and your wedding party to decorate it - without a lot going on. The pier gazebo is on display and is not well protected by greenery or beach beds - this is good and bad. You feel somewhat exposed to strangers on the beach, but it's also private because it is really hard for strangers to get close to your wedding. This is important because resort guests LOVE watching weddings! Here are some shots of the pier gazebo: The beach gazebo is set up on the far end of the beach at the edge of the resort. You can really decorate this as you want, and I think decorating is important. Not enough decorations and you'll look like your standing between four sticks! This set up is a few feet from the beach beds and the main beach. The hotel reserves the closest beach beds, but resort guests will clamor as close as they can to the boundaries to watch your big day. It felt really intrusive because gawkers were only about 3-4 metres away from the wedding.! Here are some shots of the beach gazebo: The 'aisle' for the beach gazebo: The white gazebo is located in the middle of the resort. It has the same issues as the beach gazebo, except that it is a permanent structure. It seems a bit overpowering and I'm not sure how good the pictures will look from the inside of the gazebo, during the wedding. I don't think they'll look great, but I don't have anything to back that up other than the pictures below: Overall I would say that the best location is the beach pier. It is private and provides some of the nicest pictures (in my opinion ). Again, the other locations are basically in the middle of the beach, with curious onlookers sitting and gawking a few metres from your wedding ceremony. I was one of those gawkers while we were there (blush). While some of the gawkers are polite, some are not – the topless woman with a mohawk smoking and drinking a few feet from one of the weddings we saw comes to mind. Not exactly what one dreams about on their wedding day

damn pictures! I need to delete that last post and try again with pictures that work! Mods - can you please delete the above posting? And this one too

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) Here is instalment #3.5 of my wedding review focused on the resort. Beach The property is very nice and very well-maintained and the beach is no exception. All day long you see resort employees raking the beach and making sure that the sand is beautiful and clean. That said, it’s not the best beach you’ll ever see. But chances are if you’re going to the Mayan you probably aren’t going for crystal clear blue waters and white sandy beaches….. So as long as you are expecting that you won’t be let down. The water is clear in parts, but the beach is pretty windy – so it’s not amazingly clear. The beach is brown sand and beautiful. I didn’t really go in the ocean that much, but when I did it was very nice. The beach is broken up into two parts – one part has the beach beds and is swim-able with immediate access to the ocean, the other part also has beach beds but has a retaining stone wall that removes access to the ocean. For obvious reasons the swim-able beach is more popular. Here is the beach from the right showing the gazebo: and the beach from the left The beach also has the notorious ‘beach whales’ – they are very close to the resort on the retaining wall side of the beach and far away from the resort on the beach side. They don’t impede the beach on the swim-able side and make the beach, well, swim-able! We noticed that the sand flies were bad our second week, but didn’t have any issues with them the first week. Not sure what the cause was, but we were glad that we had the swim-up suite to get away from them! Beach Beds The beach beds are a luxurious take on the standard resort beachfront. They are comfortable and private, allowing you to feel like you’re on your own private piece of heaven. And they feel much more chic than a regular beach lounger! There are beach loungers scattered along the beach as well, but for the most part the beach beds are where people want to be. Because people love the beach beds people tend to get up very early to reserve their favourite bed for the day. If you want a specific bed in a good location you will have to get up early to reserve it with towels. If you don’t care where your beach bed is you can usually find one somewhere along the beach later in the day. People do reserve the beach beds with towels, but it seemed like people will remove the towels on good beds if they aren’t being used for a long period of time. There is towel service, and a beach butler along the beach, so you always have a waiter coming to take your drink orders while you sun bathe. Service is slow, but it’s better than getting up I guess! There are also swinging beach beds and double decker beach beds. Both seemed pretty cool to me, until I went in them! The swinging swing with the slightest movement and the double decker beds seem pretty rickety. I didn’t like spending a lot of time in either one of them, but the definitely make the resort look nice! Overall the beach was okay. I have seen much better beaches, but our guests all seemed happy. I really think the upgraded beach seating makes up for the lackluster beach – they make the beach look much nicer than it is. Wedding locations There are three main wedding locations (Pier gazebo, beach gazebo, and white gazebo), with only one being private (beach gazebo). I like the pier gazebo the best, I just think it looks simple and classy and really allows you and your wedding party to decorate it - without a lot going on. The pier gazebo is on display and is not well protected by greenery or beach beds - this is good and bad. You feel somewhat exposed to strangers on the beach, but it's also private because it is really hard for strangers to get close to your wedding. This is important because resort guests LOVE watching weddings! Here are some shots of the pier gazebo: The beach gazebo is set up on the far end of the beach at the edge of the resort. You can really decorate this as you want, and I think decorating is important. Not enough decorations and you'll look like your standing betweek four sticks! This set up is a few feet from the the beach beds and the main beach. The hotel reserves the closest beach beds, but resort guests will clamor as close as they can to the boundaries to watch your big day. It felt really intrusive because gawkers were only about 3-4 metres away from the wedding.! Here are some shots of the beach gazebo: The 'aisle' for the beach gazebo: The white gazebo is located in the middle of the resort. It has the same issues as the beach gazebo, except that it is a permanent structure. It seems a bit overpowering and I'm not sure how good the pictures will look from the inside of the gazebo, during the wedding. I don't think they'll look great, but U don't have anything to back that up other than the pictures below: Overall I would say that the best location is the beach pier. It is private and provides some of the nicest pictures (in my opinion!). Again, the other locations are basically in the middle of the beach, with curious onlookers sitting and gawking a few metres from your wedding ceremony. I was one of those gawkers while we were there (blush). While some of the gawkers are polite, some are not – the topless woman with a mohawk smoking and drinking a few feet from one of the weddings we saw comes to mind. Not exactly what one dreams about on their wedding day

Just letting everyone know this dress is still for sale : )

Tracey, I can image how excited you must be...you are going to have the best time! I'm bummed that ours is all over becuase it truly is the best time you'll ever have! AND I should be posting another looooong review in the next day or so. I'll let you know once I do!

Hi Tracey! Things have been so crazy here, I can't believe that I still haven't finished my review. I did some more work on it yesterday so hopefully will post something in the next few days. I want to get it finished soon! I've just been travelling so much. Actually...I'm in Calgary right now! As for your question, you do NOT need to get your documents translated before you leave Mexico, actually in our case it would not have been accepted as an official translation by the Ontario government. I went to get my documents changed at Service Canada and they turned me away because I had not used an ATIO (Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario) certified translator. They stated they would not accept any translations from any other translators. I assume you may run into the same issue in Alberta, and I found their equivalent of the ATIO - the ATIA: ATIA Home Page. I contacted a few in Ontario and asked for their rates and ended up getting ours done for around $50 Canadian in a matter of a few days. I have heard about other brides waiting months to get their translated documents back from the resort as well. Once I had my proper translation I went to a Service Canada and was able to get my license and health card changed in about 30 minutes, here is the list of Service Canada locations in Calgary: Find a Service Canada Centre Near You it's better to go there because you can change everything at once. Hope this helps. Once I figured out the translation piece it was pretty easy.....now I just have to wait for my new documents to arrive! Your wedding is getting so close! You must be so excited! ATIA Home Page

so sorry for the lag on these!! I am going to do a bunch more this weekend! There are more coming I promise

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Thats so exciting!!! Wow that was fast too!!! You guys are making me want to get married LIKE now! lol... Do you have any you would want to share with us? I know they would be beautiful!!! And yeah we are definitley going the free route... It makes no sense if you don't have too!! Agreed - I think the silver/ gold packages are if you don't have enough people or don't upgrade to the swim up.....but even still, it's cheaper than paying the $2500. Also, the flowers kind of suck (or for me they did) and the cake will likley be dodgy (Mexicans are NOT known for their cakes!) so you won't get 2500 worth of value from it. I am so jealous....I want to get married at the Seaside again!!! You're so lucky you still have it to look forward to! It truly was one of the best experiences of my life Anyone planning to go back for the one year anniversary at the resort? I'm trying to get my hubby to plan a trip in Feb of next year..... And yes...we NEED to see some pro pics!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Thanks for all the great info Jen!! Wow! Love your wedding review so far as well!! Yeah you really are setting the bar high for us brides and having to do our reviews as well!!! lol I am actually glad my ceremony time is set for 3pm now.. although I know I had to set it at this time especially in Nov for the daylight savings time and all that... but that should be lots of time for good lighting for our photographer. Just got confirmation that all 18 guests are booked and ready to go.. well flights booked and deposits down for the hotel!!! We actually bought the flights for the 10 guests flying out of Calgary here, and are just having them pay us back... for each person though the cost of the flights is only 575! Taxes in! Not going through our TA on this cause she has to get her commission in there and bumped the price way up! So all in all our guests only ended up paying 1691! I am stoked about that!!! Tracey, I am so glad that everything is coming together for you! So exciting. I remember how excited I was when we finally booked....noone else seemed to really get how exciting it was....but I do You're REALLY getting married now, and people are REALLY coming! I am glad you are enjoying my reviews, they take SO LONG to write, but I hope I'm able to help you girls out. I'm really writing with you in mind -trying to remember everything I would have wanted to know before we left. I just posted another one.... If you still have questions I (and Carolyn and Nicki I'm sure) am here to help answer them. Congrats again on booking! That is such a huge milestone.

Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) Here is installment #3 of my wedding review focused on the resort. Location We really wanted to stay in the Mayan Riviera and this was one of the reasons we chose our resort. Even though we were about an hour and a half from the airport we were very happy with the location of the resort. To the right of the resort is a huge open beach area with the next resort about a 25 minute walk away. The beach in between the two resorts is pretty barren (and not maintained – it’s sad how much garbage you see), but you can always spot a few people on walks between the two locations. To the left of the EDSS is the Hidden Beach nudist resort ! Wahhoo! Before we left I read numerous other reviews from people saying that you could see the resort and the nudists, but you really can’t- unless you are going out of your way to watch them. It should be noted that the Hidden Beach guests are permitted to come over (clothed) to the EDSS with full use of the EDSS facilities. It all sounds more salacious than it actually is. We wouldn’t have known about the other resort if we hadn’t been told by other guests! Having been to Mexico before I was surprised with how free we were to leave the resort on foot. We felt pretty safe just walking along the beach over to the other resort (though I wouldn’t have gone alone). Though, when we left the resort with a cab the resort took down our room number and the details of the cabbie to keep track of us. Not sure if this is normal, but I’ve never seen this done at other resorts… Resort Layout The resort seemed just the right size for us. It was laid out nicely not to feel too large or too small. The same people are always working – most work two shifts a day with one day off a week – so the resort starts to feel a bit familiar in that you recognize everyone who works there, and they recognize you. We would see the same people at breakfast and dinner. Crazy. It did start to feel a bit small after two weeks, but it really is a decent sized ‘small’ resort. Also, the way the paths are laid out you there is a lot of walking that can be done if you so choose. The link here is the most up to date version of the resort map. Pools The hotel has three main pools, which seemed like a reasonable amount of pools for the size of the resort. The infinity pool is the pool by the spa and the Los Cottoros swing bar. This pool is nice, but very quiet. This seems to be the place to go if you want to be: a)topless b)covered in baby oil and grizzled to a crispy brown hue Most of the people at this pool were bakers – though a few of our guests did do laps at this pool and found it suitable. This area was surrounded by some beach beds, but mostly beach chairs and umbrellas The activity pool – is the main pool. It is much louder and constantly has activities going on throughout the day (water polo, volleyball, bingo, dancing, etc). I didn’t personally take part in the pool activities (that scene in ‘Meet The Parents’ kept coming back to me. Volleyball in the face….not thanks : ) but DH and many of the other guys did. They seemed to enjoy the activities (and the drinks at the swim up bar). The Activites crew were fantastic – so friendly and welcoming. They really did a great job at making us feel part of the action. The activity pool is surrounded by beach beds which go quickly. You have to get up and reserve them or you could be out of luck. We didn’t really care because, with 36 of us, we always had a bed….inevitably someone would get up early enough to reserve a bed! The Gaviotas swimup bar also has a larger pool beside it. It is a quieter pool (depending on who is staying in the rooms beside the pool!). We only went there the second week. We wish we would have gone here more. This swimup bar actually gets sun the whole day, vs the other bars that have the swimup ‘bar stools’ in the shade. It should be noted that all the pools are salt water pools. Not great for hair – but great for clothes when you are deciding to do a trash the dress! We did swim up along the lazy rivers and into a few swimup bars. The temperature of the water was really cold! It was refreshing after a long sit in the sun, but not something you would really hang out in for long. Also, we noticed the swim up river we were in was continually filled up with a garden hose. A few of our guests got a little sick, now I wonder if it was from accidentally ingesting water from the swim up pool. I’m guessing that the water from the hose wasn’t very potable…..?!? Rooms We stayed in block 36. It was far enough away from the Colibri swim-up bar for us. For those who want to be part of the action I would suggest having you, and your guests, in block 39 and 40. If you are there you are basically on top of a giant bar and guests will literally swim up to your room (we saw this with one wedding while we were there). You can see here how close the rooms are to this bar. I liked being farther away.....but you may not. I’m not sure if our travel agent arranged it, or whether the hotel arranged it, but our entire group was spread out in blocks 35 and 36. It was amazing to have everyone so close together. If you can get this done, I would highly suggest it. We went to a DW a few years ago and everyone was spread out – I feel like it made it harder for people to become closer because everyone was so far away. We were always meeting people in and around our rooms – on the way to the beach, on the way to dinner, etc. It was great! The rooms at the resort were fabulous. Marble flooring, glass showers, a Jacuzzi in each suite, very very clean. We each had a robe in our room, which came in handy on the day of the wedding. Nothing says ‘I’m fabulous’ like hanging out in a robe with all your dearest friends! The showers were huge, but were salt water – so beware of scary hair! We loved our swimup room and spent many hours laying out on the beach chairs (and swiming down to the bar) during our second week there. It was perfect for us. We were able to order room service, nap, apply sunscreen, listen to music and avoid sand flies all at the same time. Each room has an in room mini-bar. We went and spoke to the concierge one day to ask for more beer (8 per day) in our fridge. They obliged and fully stocked our fridge with lots of beer every single day! Hurrah. This came in handy when people would inevitably come back to our room for pre-dinner drinks. My suggestion is to make friends with your concierge and to let people know (in a polite, nice way) that you have brought many people to their resort and that it is your wedding. Usually you get spoiled when you mention those things… We did have some troubles with our toilet and our AC (leaks!). The service staff was almost immediately dispatched to our room and the problem was quickly fixed each time. The toilets are not a huge issue….it’s hard to expect 1st world toilets in a third world country. The room had lockers in each room. They were great –decent sized with no issues. Also, each room has a dvd player. We brought music and listed to music when we were sitting on our swim up patio and when getting ready for dinner. It was great! Laundry Service We did use the hotel’s laundry service. It was cheap and quick. I got my dress steamed and my DH got his suit steamed. We are very glad we did because our clothes on the wedding day looked crisp, not rumpled. Grounds The grounds were clean, lush and well landscaped. Workers were always cleaning (raking the beach all hours of the day, painting a wall, trimming a hedge….always working!). The property had no litter on it and we were very happy with the grounds of the resort. Concierge As I said before, make friends with your concierge! And…if your hotel has a time share or property presentation you should consider going. As we were ther for a week we were content to spend 2 hours in the presentation. It was a hard sell for about 2 hours, but we did get to go tour the other suites in the resort and got $200 USD for it! We used the money against room charges and a trip to Coba. The hotel is very flexible with their gift certificates from the presentations – you can use them for anything at the resort – jewelry, tours, room upgrades, internet charges. I really liked how flexible they were. Okay….that’s all I can write today. I’ll finish off part 3 later, it is quite a long post. Still to come…the beach, wedding locations, restaurants, bars, fitness center etc…. thanks for the kind words. The BDW fourm was a huge help to me when I was planning my wedding. I only hope I can pay that forward a bit with these reviews!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodz10 Thanks everyone for your input on the ceremony time. I am really going to push for an earlier time now! OMG now I am soo worried! There better be earlier times availalbe! Oh and 'SoonToBe' I really like the idea of the TTD the day before the wedding then you can relax the next day and not have to worry about getting up early for more pics. Don't worry about moving your ceremony earlier : ) As Nicky said, you have lots of time to change. I would reccommend starting to work directly with the hotel to plan everything. Your TA is too busy to be able to respond as quickly, and thoroughly, as you need her to! [email protected] is the email address I used. I worked with Valeria and she was fabulous! When I was at the hotel they said they only do 2 weddings a day....so you should be able to move it up without any issues. Chances are your date and time and location will be free! Also...the TTD the day before we so great : ) I loved it....as long as you have an extra dress! Also...I posted my second review of our wedding. These take so long, but I hope all this work helps you ladies! Jodi, my post may provide some help to you because it focuses on pre-planning..... Nicky's right...we're here to help use us!

you can never go wrong with Sol as a photographer. Stunning...lovely. You must be so happy! I also love all the little details you had. Love the orange and pink too. aww....seeing this makes me want to get married all over again : )

hOkay, here’s my second installment of my wedding review: Part 2: Pre-Travel, Travel and check-in PRE TRAVEL I like to be a little organized and like to take care of my guests (whether at my house or traveling hours on a plane to watch me get married ). So, when it came to planning our event, I wanted to make sure I set our guests up with all the information they would need before, and during, the trip. That’s why I came up with The Mexico list – a list that goes through key details about the resort (packing list, overviews of each restaurant, property map, customs details, etc). I’ve attached it here….. and our guests loved it! Our pre-travel was pretty simple. We qualified for the EDSS ‘Free Sweet Wedding Package’ because we had a fair number of guests, and we upgraded to the swim up room. We costed it out and it was cheaper to upgrade to the swim up than it was to pay for the silver wedding package (~$2.5k USD). In the end we are so happy we booked the swim-up. We basically spent our honeymoon week at our swim-up instead of on the beach. And it was fun to hang out with our guests there the first week. Packing was a bit difficult because we decided to bring a lot of wedding details with us (place cards, fans, flower decorations, etc) they ended up making our bag a bit heavy, but luckily we were able to move some of our heavier items into other people’s bags. We also gave all of our groomsmen and bridesmaids their gifts before we left. That helped remove some weight as well. Booking Wedding Details From A Far A great part of the EDSS wedding packages is that you don’t need to get any of your documents translated before hand. Before we got to Mexico we provided the resort with scanned copies of passports for us and our 4 witnesses. We also had to fill out a document with all of our details, and the details of our parents. This was all done via email and was very quick and easy. Another part of pre-travel was booking all of our wedding details. As part of our wedding package we got a wedding coordinator from Lomas travel and also day-of wedding coordinator. They were great before, during and after the wedding. They made everything run smoothly and took off a lot of stress with the planning process. DH and I spend a long time reviewing all the options on the hotel’s wedding web-site: Beach Weddings, Anniversaries and Honeymoons in the Riviera Maya and the hotel baquet kit: http://www.karismahotels.com/wedding...t-kit-2009.pdf. We loved the online site because we could easily determine what details we wanted to have for our wedding whenever we wanted. After we had narrowed down a few options I spent hours upon hours going back and forth with the wedding coordinator to determine what our final wedding would look like. You really don’t need to book anything before you leave, but we preferred to do that. You can realistically show up and book everything the day after you arrive at the hotel…and you can add anything you want to your package. We added a few things while we were there, and I am glad we did. Overall we were very impressed with the caliber of service that we received from the online wedding coordinator (Valeria), I always received a polite, informative response in 1-2 days. The only frustrating part is that the online coordinator does not have that much power, so you really can’t bargain with them (but you can bargain on un-booked items when you are in Mexico booking your final details). Lomas is a business and will try to milk you for as much money as they can…..frustrating, but they do provide a great deal of visibility to wedding options and provided great service. I only hope some of the profit they made from me is trickling down to pay their service people well. They deserve it. The Flight We flew SkyService. I was worried. I have never flown SkyService before, but I didn’t have a great feeling. Their baggage limitations are quite restrictive: maximum of 2 pieces weighing a total weight of 20kgs (44lbs) Star Class passengers: maximum of 2 pieces weighing a total weight of 30kgs (66lbs) I wasn’t sure I would be able to pack for 2 weeks, have a wedding and bring wedding related details for less than 20kg. I didn’t, but our family and friends were very helpful and took some heavy things. I was also worried about our departure. We were leaving on the first day of March Break and I know the airports can be an absolute zoo…. All my worries were unfounded. SkyService had one of the best check-ins I’ve ever seen. They were continually monitoring the lineup and were continually, seamlessly, opening up check-in desks as more people arrived. They also have clearance to fly out before all the other airlines (they told us it was a test program) which helped make check-in and departure go very well. We flew out around 5:30 a.m. so it was a really early morning….but we did get to Mexico early. I’m glad we left this early! I had called the airline ahead of time and they do not have a special area to hang dresses. As a result, I am ashamed to admit, I forced my then FI to pre-board the plane when they call up first class passengers, people with children, and those needing extra assistance. We waited until everyone who really did need extra help boarded, so we weren’t pushing in front of the elderly or those with strollers ; ) I still think we did need some extra assistance…..I needed to find space to put my dress and his suit (yes, selfish I know….but I recommend that you do it). We scurried to our seats and laid out our wedding clothes and fit our bags into the overhead storage bin. We then closed it and politely told anyone who tried to put their things in our bin that it was full. We told them it was our wedding and everyone was really nice about it. I think the key was being polite : ) The flight served food which wasn’t bad – an egg bagel with cheese, and some granola snacks. There was an in-flight movie, but I slept. The flight landed on time and customs was without event. Getting to the Hotel Once we landed we were ushered through the airport and found our Signature Vacations reps and the bus. The reps were easy to spot and made sure that everyone was on the right bus. We didn’t have any issues boarding the bus or with any luggage going missing on the buses either. The resort was about an hour and a half from the airport. There were no other stops and, outside of two other couples, we basically had the bus to ourselves. I had contemplated ordering a private bus, but I am so glad I didn’t. As we had an early start everyone slept most of the way…. They had a tour guide who sold beer and gave a little overview of Mexico. It wasn’t memorable in any way, but was not bad. And then the bus pulled up to our resort….. I had a small moment of panic. We just asked 36 people to spend their hard earned money on a place we’ve never seen. What if it wasn’t great, what if people didn’t like it, what if we had made the wrong choice?!? The front gates were not nearly as impressive as other ones we saw, which was also a bit worrying. The drive from the gates to the resort was about 2 minutes, and ran along lush green, well maintained wilderness. Then we pulled up to the front of the resort and bounded out of the bus. This is the arch leading into the resort lobby. Nothing spectacular, but pretty. This is a shot of the road leading up to the front lobby. We stepped off the bus and were instructed to find our bags (ie. Make sure they made it on, and off, the bus!). All the bags were left under the arch and we were ushered into the lobby the check-in. John grabbed my hand (I think he could tell I was a little worried) and we went into the lobby and I immediately began to feel a bit better…. The Lobby and Checking In Everyone was so friendly to start with. We were offered sparkling wine and water and were moved to the back of the lobby to sit down to go through check-in. And it was only 9:30 am because we had such an early flight. At this point in time my body clock was absolutely confused…..fortunately champagne is suitable at any time of day This is a shot of half of the lobby, the front door is on the right. There is a gift shop, 2 computers with internet access ($6/hour, $3/ half hour) and a excursion desk. This is the area we were ushered back to: They moved all of the seats to the walls to create sitting room for everyone. The hotel completes all the paperwork they need before buses arrive, so check-in is really quick and easy. We sat through a 5 minute speech by the front desk staff (welcoming us to the resort, going through the check-in process, etc). We then were each called by name and given our documents to sign. The hotel gave us our safe key and were told to come back at 3 to check-in to our rooms. The process took about 1 glass of champagne….which I think is about 10 minutes : ) This shot is the back of the lobby looking to the front doors. The bell boys (I guess?!?) are amazing. You can see them there. They keep track of all arrivals and departures and shuttle you to and from your room. We made quick friends with them as we had friends arriving each day. We wanted to make sure we were at the front desk to welcome each guest, and with their help we were able to! The lobby computers (2). You could also borrow books from the ‘library’ and borrow movies from the front desk. We didn’t do this, but we did see people doing it. So we had our room numbers, our safe keys, and no place to go for five hours. We stepped out of the lobby... …..hmmm what to do. Oh, right….we’ll go to the swim up bar. Okay...that's it for today (phew!!) my next post will review the resort and have more pictures of the resort! Also, most of these photos are mine. But others have been sourced from here: jtrue24's photos and albums on webshots They have lots of pictures of many other resorts if you are interested! The Mexico.doc

Hello everyone!! As promised, I'm finally starting to post my review of the wedding! I am going to post in parts because, really, there is so much information. Here is my first posting, which probably may not apply to many of you: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...475#post777169 Also...I agree with everyone on the ceremony time! My biggest regret from the day is picking a later ceremony time (4 pm). Our ceremony shots are amazing, but we ran out of time to get all the couple shots we wanted because of lighting (as John mentioned) and time. I would have picked 3 or even 2:30 for my ceremony time. That said...4 wasn't terrible, just not the most ideal timing