SoonToBeE

I’m giving credit for the template of this review to SunBride and paraisobeachbride2009. I've borrowed their review templates and added a few pieces of my own. I hope I didn’t forget anything. I am going to post in pieces so I (and you) don’t get overwhelmed!! My review will be structured like this… Part 1: Planning a DW and Invitations Part 2: Pre-Travel, Travel and check-in Part 3: Resort: appearance, rooms, location, pools, food, fitness center etc…) Part 4: Clothes (ladies, men, us), Accessories (rings, shoes, veil, jewelry), Hair and Makeup. Part 5: Flowers, and Food Part 6: Wedding Details: ceremony and reception Part 5: Now that we’re back…. I’m posting Part 1 today, but the latter parts will come over the next few weeks. I’m sure someone will feel that some of this should be in the planning thread, but I think all of the pieces are important to my overall DW review PART 1: PLANNING A DESTINATION WEDDING Choosing a Resort I wish I had made more notes as we began planning. What I do remember is that it was stressful. After relishing in the glow of being engaged for a few days my DH and I almost immediately decided to do a DW. We scavenged the internet for details about different resorts and found that we were more confused because there were soooo many places out there and it was really hard to narrow them down. Finally we sat down and developed a matrix to say what we wanted. For us we selected: -Adults only resort (we had been to a few resorts that allowed children and we both agreed that this wasn’t exactly what we wanted for our wedding) -Ala Carte availability for all meals – no maximum number of visits -High quality food -Around $1500 per person -Mayan Riviera -4+ star resort - Have a wedding package and experience planning weddings This really narrowed it down for us to a small handful of resorts (to be honest the ‘Adults Only’ quotient was really what narrowed down the list). From there we narrowed it down to 3 resorts (based on trip advisor reviews, resort pictures and any wedding reviews we could find). We approached a few different travel providers to quote us, and then began aggressively negotiating cost. We have teachers in the family so really could only travel during Christmas or during March. March worked best for us, but if you have the flexibility I wouldn’t pick March for this resort - solely based on cost. It seemed like in mid Feb the rates were pretty cheap, and that the weather down there is pretty good as well. Finally we decided on the El Dorado Seaside Suites. Out of all of our options (GORM, EDR, and some other resort I forget the name of) we chose EDSS for the following reasons: -It was and Adults Only resort -We had been to the EDR a few years before for a wedding and were very impressed with the food, the resort, the service etc. We felt comfortable choosing the sister property of the EDR. -No buffets, and the resort prides itself on providing gourmet food for all meals. -It was more expensive than we were hoping for, but for March break anything we looked at in the $1500 range didn’t seem to be the type of place we wanted to get married at. -It was a 4+ star resort. - After scouring reviews on the BDW, reviewing the wedding packages on the Karisma site (owner of EDSS) we were comfortable that the resort would be able to plan an amazing wedding for us. It also helped that they had a dedicated wedding department and a site (Lomas Travel) where we could view items we could purchase for the wedding. That visibility definitely came in handy during planning. I’ll provide more detail later, but I can say that we were not disappointed with our decision. The resort lived up to the expectations we had regarding food, hospitality, grounds, wedding etc. During this whole process we discussed dates and timing with our friends and family and let people know what we were planning. I think it took us about 3 weeks to pick and book the trip. Of note....During and after the process we had to deal with some frustration from a few friends and family members….again, annoying, but it all ended up okay! Booking our Trip We booked through Flight Center and, as there was only one provider for our resort, we ended up booking with Signature Vacations. We never had to deal with them directly, so I can’t make a comment either way. I have booked with them before and have had no issues. So. We picked a date. We picked a resort. We then had to put down a deposit for our guests to reserve our special group price. It was still 10 months before the trip, so it was really hard to figure out how many people would be coming. We did a quick check with most of our guests (the ones we knew would consider coming) and picked a number that we thought would come (24) and put down a deposit for those people. In the end we had 37 book. As people confirmed their booking, they paid us back the $200 for the deposit. All final payments for the trip were made 4 months before the trip, and were made directly with our travel agent. I didn’t mind doing it this way, but it did feel weird asking friends for money. I’m glad I did it to make sure that people knew what was going on, but I did need to ask some friends for money a few times which was a bit annoying. We booked our trip through Romina Zaver (travel agent) at the Bayview Flight Center in Toronto. We also did contact the hotel a few times during this period to see if there was availability, and to confirm we could get married on the day we wanted to. The hotel was very prompt at returning our emails and they were pretty good on the phone as well. This instilled us with confidence….. A few of our guests did not book with Signature Vacations and booked ‘land only’ rates with the resort through our Travel Agent, Romina. This was the best part about dealing with the travel agent, Romina got us great hotel rates and made sure that all the guests who booked this way were lumped in with our group so that we could all get rooms together. She did a great job and took care of so many details for us. Invitations After we booked and put down our deposit we sent out invitations. We did this nine months before to ensure that people had enough time to plan, book time off and save. I feel like 9 months was a perfect amount of time. I designed our invitations and went with a travel theme. The classic boarding pass was our chosen design and, in each guest's package, we included a brochure about the resort that would (hopefully) get guests excited, answer any questions they would have, and make them feel okay about spending what we were asking them to spend. We wanted to make people know all the great things about the resort. Here is our brochure from our invitations. (the colours did match in the final pieces And you can check out my invites on this thread: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t34172 People really seemed to like the brochures. Most people didn’t even bother to look the resort up online, so it provided a great deal of information for these people. I would highly suggest doing this! Hope this brochure helps other EDDS brides We also got a wedsite from Wedding Window which was amazing! The site was so easy to use and the final product looks so professional. We are so happy that we had a website. We continually added pictures and content to our site to keep our friends and guests informed and excited about the day. It also allowed us to put up some FAQ details so that people could check the website for any details they required. Our guests RSVP'd directly to the website which was very helpful for keeping track of everything.... Next Posting Okay…that’s it for now! My next posting will focus on pre-travel details, traveling and checking in!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Ok Nicky, Carolyn and Jen... I have come up with 4 more questions for you lovely ladies!! Here goes: 1. For those that used your IPOD for your dance.. what was the cost they charged you for the amplifying station and dock? This was 250 as was mentioned before. It worked so well and you couldn't even hear the show over our music. The vows were audible over the water during the ceremony. The speeches were audible at dinner and the music was great as well. The only thing I didn't like is that when you play music from your Ipod there is a few second lag between songs which you normally wouldn't have at a wedding. But I'm not sure anyone besides me really noticed or cared. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 2. Did you guys see any other brides using the wooden aisle runner? If so was it the nasty dark brown color or the nice lighter color? Or do you know if I can request the nice lighter color? We saw a bunch of weddings and none with the wooden aisle runner. Agree that you should negotiate there, because they'll drop the price for sure. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 3. Did you guys do up wedding programs? What were your favors? I want to do red fans with our names and dates enscribed in them, and my programs are going to be the fan type.. I want to place the fans on the seats so they can be used during the ceremony.. but should I have a second favor on the dinner tables? No programs, but we did fans. The fans were okay, but it was windy and I'm not sure that anyone really used (or kept) theirs. I still think it was a nice touch, so I'm still glad we did them. We didn't do any favours, but I did design mini table post cards with a thank you note for each guest. you can see pics of the front at: Handmade Paper goods on Etsy - Unique Place Card - Custom Spanish Postcard by jennle We also plan to send out custom photo gifts to all guests. More details to follow : ) Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 4. Ok did you guys have a list of shots that you needed to have to give to your photographers? And if so was it worth it to do that? I have been compiling a list from everyones examples and would like to give it to my photographer.. would this be helpful for me? And also for those that did the TTD.. was the resort going to charge you the 500 fee to do so on the resort? My photographer is telling me that we have to do ours offsite as the resort would charge me the 500 fee... when my photographer is one of the approved ones We did our TTD at the resort the day before the wedding (and offsite) and didn't have any problems. Not sure if that was because he was staying at the hotel or not.... I would fight and fight on that one. Also, when in doubt, call Mexico and speak to Valeria. It helped for me on a few small things....

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Hmm that seems weird to me, cause yeah Valeria told me if I did the white sheers that they would be included in the decorations.. but colored ones were charged for.. I wonder if cause they cream that they were considered a color...?? I asked for white...and got cream?!? Oh well, in the end it was worth it. BEST WEDDING EVER! We're in the process of putting together our slideshow and our guest gifts for everyone who came to the wedding. Are you guys doing anything special for your guests to thank them for coming?

After much thought, I've finally decided to sell my dress! I love this dress and hope that I can find someone else to love this dress as well! It is a Jim Hjelm, style 4311 (sorry, can't find any pics of it online!), it retailed for over $1700. Size is about a size 10. In my opinion this is the PERFECT DW dress! It has just enough structure so that you don't have to worry about your body - There is fine boning to keep you in tight and flattering rouching across the body and bust to hide any...uh...imperfections you may have (and really...who doesn't need that?). The dress is chiffon so it is really light and airy, I wore it in Mexico on a blisteringly hot day and felt cool and comfortable (considering that I was wearing a long dress in the heat of the day!). Under the skirt there is stiffer fabric to keep the dress off of your legs and give it some structure (which also makes you feel cooler because you don't have dress sticking to you!). If you plan on doing a TDD this also means that you won't see anything if the dress gets wet (top and bottom). This dress also traveled perfectly - I folded it nicely into the overhead compartment of the plane and hung it up at the hotel. After a few days in the heat all the wrinkles were gone and it didn't even need to be pressed. I'll post some of our pro shots (courtesy of Jon Rennie - Toronto Wedding Photographer - Jon Rennie Home) and will try to post a few more in a few days. The dress has a long chiffon train that is very light, flowy and PERFECT for a destination wedding dress or a trash the dress dress. The sash is made form sage green satin and is fully detachable. Actually...I made the sash myself. It's yours if you want it! As you can see the chiffon of the dress makes it perfect for your destination wedding! How would you not feel like a princess (or supermodel!) in this dress...? See! Sash is detachable and dress without the sash is beautiful and classic. I am 5'3" and wore the dress without heels. Here are some crude measurements.... Dress would fit someone 34"-29"-37" with comfortable allowance for 1-2.5" either way. Train is 20" long (after skirt ends on ground) but could easily be made smaller if you wanted, from the top of the dress to the bottom of the skirt the dress is 50". Willing to answer any questions anyone may have. Hoping to find a good home for the dress I love! PM me with your best offer - but post any questions specifically about the dress here so others can see it.

Quote: Originally Posted by prairiegirl SoonTo Be... did I read that right?? they charged you for the sheer fabric on the pier gazebo they didn't charge me.. it was included in the free wedding from what I understand. unless you requested white versus cream or whatever was free for me... (i have no idea.. haha) it was all perfect anyways... Yep...they did. The sheers were cream too!! I tried to find the 'free sheers' in my barrage of wedding emails and couldn't find them....so in the end I resigned to pay the $75 for them. I even asked if they were free (because I thought they were) and they told me the best they could do was give us them for $75. BAH! Oh well.....good to know.....now! I am so jealous for all of you with weddings still to come. I wish I was going back : ( Also, our photog posted a slideshow from our day.....so you can check out more pics! Now I want to go back even MORE!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jodz10 Hi Everyone, You have another EDSS bride in the group! We've booked for January 2010, and I have been freaken out a bit about it, but I have read a few posts on here and seen that a few members have gotten married recently and were very pleased with the resort! Thats great to here, a bit of weight off my shoulders lol. Its hard to know what to expect when you are organizing from so far away. Looking forward to chatting with all of you:) Okay...I bet you're all sick of posts from me... but just wanted to welcome you! Good luck with the planning - Hopefully we can answer any questsions you may have! Cheers!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Ok thats awesome! I will reel and deal with them when we get there! What sort of things did you guys end up getting deals on?? Ok I have some more questions... 1. What did you end up using for your centerpieces? Did you like them? I ordered plain vases that the resort filled with water (3 square vases of different heights per table). Vases came in at $7 USD per vase. The tallest vase was reserved for a bouquet (we had 6 tables - enough for my bouquet and the 5 BM bouquets to serve as the main flowers) and the 2 smaller vases were filled with fake flowers (I had bought from Walmart for $4) submerged in water. I brought a bag filled with fake flowers that matched the flowers in my bouquet. In the end you couldn't really tell they were fake...and I didn't end up with one photo of the centerpieces. In the end they cost $126 (6 tables x 3 vases x $7/ vase), nice but I probably could have done less. We also brought our own table numbers that they added to each table. I printed out a table chart and the WC greeted each person and told them where they were sitting. It worked out very nicely. I cleared all of these small pieces with Lomas so no extra charges were incurred (make sure to confirm this during your meeting so that you don't get charged extra fees by the WC), That said...they are doing all of the set-ups themselves, so be sure to thank them (in money and words) for all of their hard work. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 2. What about your dress.. did you carry it on with you? Or have to fold and get it crumbled in the overhead things? Okay...some people may shake their heads, but I made my FI board the plan with me when they call all the people needing extra assistance, with small children etc. I waited until all of the needy people got checked in, and then got on the plane. That way we could reserve an entire luggage compartment for my dress and his suit. Shameless, I know. But we got a full compartment on the way there and back. We also made sure to close the door to the compartment to stop people from putting there stuff in our compartment....and kept an eye on it to tell people it was full. We didn't have any issues and the dress was fine (we also got our clothes steamed by the resort - cost about $20 for my dress, his suit and 3 shirts). Well worth it (you can book through WC) Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 3. Did you have to repay for the chair bows and chairs for the reception or can they just be brought from the ceremony site and negogiate that when I get threre? They are trying to charge me twice for the same damn thing... That's BS! Don't pay it......wait to fight it while you are there if you are getting nowhere with Lomas. That's insane. They did covers for our ceremony and our wedding for no cost...AND the Lomas contact told us that decoration was included in the private event fee. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 4. Did you have a cake? If so did you like how it turned out? And if you don't mind.. how much did you spend on it? No cake.....and no one even noticed! That said...everyone I spoke to said they don't do cake well in Mexico....their idea of cake is a flatter blander version of our cake. We did a Mexican flan (part of the $11 meal) and it was great. And I was prepared to hate it....! Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 5. Again... I am trying to figure out if I am spending way to much on my wedding... what was your guys final costs for your weddings?? If you could let me know that would be awesome!! Thanks ladies!! I'll have to look through my records...BUT here is what I have on me right now: Ceremony: Free Sweet Wedding package (booked swim up and had 37 guests) Blood tests - $250 US 11 extra chairs - $88 USD White sheer fabric for gazebo - $75 USD Total $413 USD Flowers: BB7 Bouquet (did not look as advertised) - $50 USD 5 bb6 Bouquets for BM (withed and dead - waste of money) - $250 USD Groom buttoniere B1 (different version came - ugly!)- $25 USD Total $325 USD Photos: Brought our own photog for hundreds of dollars more than resort cost. Best decision for us. Welcome Dinner (used our wedding reservation that came with free package) 5 extra dinners @ $25 USD/ person over 30 - $125 USD Total $125 USD Wedding Dinner: Set course menu 1B, 37 @ $11 - $407 USD Vases - 3x7x6 - $126 USD Total - $533 USD Reception Dance Sound system for 4 hours (Ipod hoockup) - $250 2 Extra hours of music - $50/ hour + $2/person/ hour - $248 (it did rain and they only charge us for 1 hour...but this is the price they quoted us) Tiki torches and bag lights - $135 (waste of $, think they do this for free regardless) Total - $633 USD Extras Spa (wedding hair for me) - $60 USD Steaming of suits and dress - $20 USD Total - $80 USD Total: $2109 USD, with conversion to CDN dollars came in more around $2600. We paid for it all on our own and we wouldn't change the way we did it, was well worth the cost...especially for what we go. That said - I would be more detailed on the flowers when ordering and wouldn't order chair covers (we got them for free) or tiki torches. Okay...again...sorry for the super long post. Hope the details help everyone.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S I also forgot to tell you ladies that on sat I am going to try on my dress for my mom and sister... and we are taking some pics!! So I will finally be able to post some of them for you to see my dress!!! So excited!! I thought of another question too.. when you guys signed your marriage certificate... did you use your maiden name or your new name to sign it Tracey! So exciting, how was the fitting...I got a bit stressed out after mine (did I make the right choice?!?) and a little bummed that the picture of me in the dress in my mind didn't match the picture of me in my dress in person. I hope you aren't feeling that way....but even if you are you're normal : ) Send some pics! And yes, Maiden name is the way to go, but the WC should lead you through all that and will tell you how to sign your documents (exactly like your passport!)

OKay okay...this weekend I'm going to write my review! I need to : ) I've been bogged down with AHR planning and thank you card writing! More details to follow....with pictures!

Quote: Originally Posted by Maya28 I think you should go for it!!! I'm actually doing my TTD before my wedding because my photographer won't be able to do it the day after the wedding but doing a TTD was a MUST!!! We did ours the day before the wedding (with a different dress) and I would highly reccommend doing that! With so many people on vacation with us we didn't get much time to ouselves. Doing the TTD the day before was amazing because it gave us a day together, hugging, kissing, and hidden away from the rest of our guests. It was really romantic and got us in the mood for the wedding. That said, we were lucky enough to come back and get some really great shots with some of our guests at the resort. We did some amazing pool side photos that everyone really enjoyed. My only regret is that we ran out of time on the wedding day for more some great portraits.....we have amazing pictures of us together on the TTD day, but with the time crunch weren't able to get as many on our wedding day. Over time it won't matter, but I'm a little bummed we don't have as many portraits of our wedding day right now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Oh ok I will have to use that advice when we are down there then.. ok so you ready for this?? lol.... here goes: 1. Did you have a hair and/or makeup trial at the resort or just on the day of? If so, were you happy with the results?!! I had a hair trial done here before I went, I took about ten pictures from every angle. I printed these pictures out in colour and gave them to the woman at the salon who was doing my hair. That said….she didn’t really speak English very well and didn’t really understand what I wanted when I tried to ask her to do something different. Luckily one of my BM’s speaks Spanish, so she was able to explain what I wanted. I would suggest bringing pictures of you with your hair done so they can copy it. That seemed to work out the best…..especially with the language barrier. I did my own make-up. I went to MAC and Sephora and did 2 make-up trials. Then I did my hair and makeup a few times leading up to the day so I was comfortable with the look and so that I knew how it would look at the end of the day. I also took some pictures of my makeup at the beginning and end of the day to see how it came out on film. From there I made modifications, I was happy with what I ended up with, when I went to MAC the guy taught me how to shade properly and did one side of my face and he let me do the other. This was perfect because I learned how to make it look the way it should look….not like a 5 year old did my make-up ; ) Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 2. Did you use your Ipod for the ceremony and dance music? For the ceremony it’s easier to bring CD’s. Bring your cd and clearly label each song and what you want it to be played for (processional, signing, etc). The best way would be to rename the songs so that when they are put into the laptop (they use a laptop for the ceremony) it says what part of the ceremony they are for, instead of the song name. That said…we didn’t do that. Vania met up with us to review each song so she knew what needed to play at each part of the ceremony (another reason why they are fabulous), I didn’t label the songs but she made sure they played at the right time. Everything went off perfectly without a hitch. We did a reception, so we played music during dinner (on Ipod) and music from our Ipod for the dancing after the reception. They set up an amp that connects to the Ipod and is also connected to a mic. The mic was perfect (same one is used during the ceremony) and our guests were able to hear the speeches and hear all of the dinner music. We had 3 different playlists (first dances and parents dances, dinner music, party music) and painstakingly determined ahead of time when each song would play. It was a lot of work up front, but SO worth it in the end. We really could hit play and go. There was no issue at all and the music was great. The only small problem was that Ipods usually play a song and wait a few seconds to play the next song, leaving a few seconds of dead air. You don’t notice when you are listening…but you do notice when you are dancing. Though it was fun to have a few seconds to guess what the next song would be : ) Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 3. Did you book a dancefloor or do any speeches? No dance floor, I didn’t think it was worth it. It was hard dancing in the sand and my feet were pretty exfoliated by the end…that said, I’m not sure it’s worth the money…. We did speeches during dinner (opened with MC, did Best Man and MOH speech before dinner, open mic during dinner the parents speeches & our speeches as soon as dinner was served.) it was perfect. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 4. Did you do the private cocktail party and reception? If so which menu did you go with and did you like the results? We did a private event on the beach (wedding reception) and used our booking at Arricifes for our welcome dinner. I am glad we did both, but SO glad that we did our private event. We did the 1A set course menu – Mixed salad, pork tenderloin and Mexican flan. I was worried that the menu would be terrible and would be small. It was $11/ person. The food was pretty good, they did a very good job and were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING at dealing with the food allergies and restrictions our group had. Vania (on site wedding coordinator) called the chef about 4x during our planning meeting to make sure all of our guests were safe to eat the food being served. It was amazing. The portions were decent and the flan was actually really good. I was very happy we did the $11 menu. It wasn’t amazing but after struggling to remember what had been served at every other wedding we attended we realized “good†was good enough for us. For those who may not have been full after dinner (or who got hungry from dancing) the Sandwicherie stand was open until 2. You can get fries, sandwiches and other snack foods all night long, so guests were free to nibble away all night long. It did rain before our dinner and in a matter of 10 minutes we were moved into the open gazebo area beside the Sandwicherie, it was actually better than being on the beach, much more intimate. Also, I was worried about the evening entertainment being too loud for our event. I can attest that we had no idea what was going on with the evening entertainment….couldn’t hear them at all. Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S 5. For your room category did you get the upgrade to a higher category or did you book the honeymoon suite? If not was the room satisfactory otherwise? We booked the swimup which was perfect the second week. We were so happy that we booked it. It was fun to have guests over to the swim up too. If you want to have a party swimup room connected directly to the pool you should ask to be in block 38 and 39 (I think) it connects to the Gaviota’s swim bar and means that you have a pool basically at your door step. For quieter room you’ll want to be in blocks 36 and 37 which are connected to a swim up bar, but no pool. The whole second week we didn’t go to the beach, we hung out on our back swim up deck…..perfect! Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S I think I will start with 5 and go from there... thanks in advance Jen No problem! Sorry for the crazy long response.....just want to give you all the details you would ever want to know ; )

I would suggest doing all of your negotiating while you are down there.....much more flexibility. They gave us a deal on torches, music (we extended our party until midnight instead of just until 10) and candle bags when we were down there. I tred negotiating from here with the Lomas people and got nowhere....only when I was down there did I get a deal.

Also....if you are in the MR check out Sol Tomargo or Claudia Rodriguez del Sol Photography Claudia Rodriguez, Photographer, Cancun & Riviera Maya Be careful though...TTD sessions in MR can be as expensive as a wedding! That said, we just did our TTD in MR in a cenote and it was sooooo fun and we got some very unique images. There are more posted at Toronto Wedding Photographer - Jon Rennie

Never too late and you'll LOVE doing it. It's such a romantic way to spend your anniversary. One of my friends at work is doing he own TTD session after her 3 year anniversary. I LOVE IT! Post pics when you do it.

Has anyone used any online translation services to get their documents translated? I just posted my marriage certificate translation on Translators, Translation Services, Translation Jobs - Translatorsbase.com and had about 15 bids, in the span of a day, from freelance translators. The process so far has been really easy. I have selected my translator and am going to send her my documents today, I should have my translations shipped to me in a week for only $35 US (for the long form marriage certificate and the short form certificate, including all certifications and shipping). To post my translation I just completed a project request form on the Translators Base website that outlined the services I required and included some other details they would need to translate my documents. From there I received bids via email and could filter through these bids by awarding business, declining business and corresponding with vendors to get more information. It was really well structured and pretty easy to use. In 24 hours I have found my translator, sent her documents and she says they'll be ready in a day. Not bad for 24 hours! I was interested to hear how others have translated and want to hear if anyone has any success with online translation services. I think (hope) that the translator I have selected is good. She seems great so far : )

Was just in the MR for 2 weeks and didn't experience any issues. I can't speak for 2010....but last week you wouldn't know anything was different. We went on a few excursions and guests of our used the public collectivo without any issues at all. We had a few guests go into Playa several times and they said they felt completely safe.... Our travel agent told us that unless you are going to a border town, trying to buy drugs or prosititutes or doing other things you shouldn't be doing.....that you were basically safe. Good luck!

Just had our wedding at El Dorado Seaside Suites with our own photographer from Canada. No issues, no extra fees, no hassles. We had cleared it before and they did stay for three nights, but it was seamless...... just thought I'd give a little update

Tracey, I am all settled...you can start the onslaught. I plan to go through the pics this weekend and begin writing my full review. I hope to have something posted next week. I also plan on doing a 'what I would do, what I wouldn't do again.' I finally remembered to bring the contacts at the resort for you, so I will email you separately. I'll also post the pics of all the different set-ups at the resort. In other news....I'm getting our documents translated today! I posted my translation on Translators, Translation Services, Translation Jobs - Translatorsbase.com and had about 15 bids, in the span of a day, from freelance translators. The process so far has been really easy. I have selected my translator and am going to send her my documents today, I should have my translations shipped to me in a week for only $35 US (for the long form marriage certificate and the short form certificate). The next step is to get the translations notarized and then I can take them to an Ontario Government office in order to get the marriage registered here, so I can change my name.....I keep you guys posted!

Tracy - you may want to think about contacting the resort directly (Vania) to see what they can do...or you may want to contact their manager to see if a custom package can be made! PM me if you want the details!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tracy_S Carolyn!! Thats so exciting!!! I know it will be amazing!! I can't wait to hear all about it too!! I know I keep seeing all of Jen's amazing photos too and makes me want to go there even sooner!!! SO nice!! I can't wait to hear all about her wedding too!! I am now having issues with the photographer... saying I can't customize my own package... which is so bogus cause this is what Nicky did... how many hours are you guys hiring your photographers for?? I want to 5 hours and they are telling me that the price on Lomas's site can't change because it would cost the same for me to hire them for 5 hours without using a package... does that make any sense We ran into the same issue....I think you used to be able to do a custom package, but I wonder if Lomas has recently made the change. I think if you contact the photographer before you contact the hotel then they can give you a different package....but after you have made arrangements through the hotel you can't get a custom package. Ridiculous....we ran into the same issue. It was the last straw for us and we ended up bringing our local photog which worked out so well. I have the contact name of the manager for the weddings department. I can give you their information so you can go direct to them. They should be able to authorize a custom package. It's ridiculous what they do with the photo packages. On another note...the coordinators at the resort are so fantastic. Vania and Celina are so great to deal with. By the end I was so frustrated working with Lomas because it seemed like we were continually being ripped off and that they weren't able to customize much. Once we got to the resort we were able to negotiate down a few things and were able to make some changes that would have been more dificult through our Lomas contact. Vania and Celina are available every day (except Sunday) and go out of their way to make their wedding guests happy. Leading up to the wedding we had a few questions and some small changes and we were able to quickly pop into their offices to make these small changes. It was great. These ladies are gems - make sure you give them a tip before going...I don't think enough people tip them for all their hard work, and they really deserve it.

Okay...a quick posting. I sent this message to Tracy, but thought that you all would be interested: I took photos of each wedding location and took some shots of the area around it to show what you would see while you were standing up there. Weddings are kind of crazy at the resort and people actually come by to watch, setting up chairs and watching the wedding. The portable gazebo and the white gazebo are really close to the beach beds, so you have to deal with people sitting about 10 feet away from your wedding.....gawking. I was one of those people our second week there Most people are respectful and watch from a distance. While we were at the resort we saw 4 weddings and during one there was this topless woman with a mohawk smoking close to the wedding. It was insane how disrespectful she was of someone else's special time.....oh well. I guess it's her vacation too! We chose the pier gazebo - it is so open that the hotel can clear a wider area without 'viewers.' I didn't notice one single person watching the wedding because they were so far away. That said, all the setups are very pretty. I'll try to post the pictures as soon as possible for you!

Hey all...we're back on Monday but I probably won't be able to post anything until later in the week. Need to catch up on life first....then on internets : ) Wedding was perfect. we're so happy we did it here. I have pics of ever location set up and will post those soon.

Okay ladies...I'm justonline quickly. If you really want any pics taken while I'm here please PM me. I'll do my best to make it happen!

Okay ladies...I'm justonline quickly. If you really want any pics taken while I'm here please PM me. I'll do my best to make it happen!

I leave on Saturday!!!! Whee...too bad our flight is at 5 am....