amc83

Hi Ladies, Well, we just got back on Monday night from the wedding/honeymoon and we had an amzing time! I was trying to think of a few quick tips that I can give to help you all out as you plan. I guess I would start by saying not to stress too much about the "unkown" factors if you haven't visited the resort before. Many of the small details I was actually able to work out with Candy once I was on site. She is great, and very detailed even though the pre-wedding communication may not show that. Many of the decisions are easier to make once you are on site, such as how your space for dinner tables will be set up, what area you will have your dancing/post dinner party in. Pictures help, but sometimes it is hard to really visualize it until you see it in person. Not to worry though. Candy will be very thorough in recording all of your detailed requests. Restaurants - As far as the restuarants go...the food is really good. Much better than I expected for an all-inclusive resort. If anyone is having their wedding fairly soon, they have 3 of the restaurants closed right now, which I'm sure Candy has informed you of, but they are rotating all of their menus in the 3 restaurants that are open (Italian, French, and Mexican), so depending on which night you have the wedding, that will determine which menu you can choose from. I wasn't able to see the other 3 restaurants that are closed right now (steakhouse, seafood, and oriental), but of the 3 that were open, I would say the Italian is definitely the nicest. Just from looking at pictures, I wasn't a fan of the Italian restaurant, but once I saw it, I was a fan. They have an alcove area off the right side when you walk in where we had the reception, and we had enough people to fill that area up so there weren't any other guests near us in our section, and even though our dinner was not considered a "private event", it felt private. We had about 50 people all together, but it looked like they could fit a few more in that section if you arranged the tables differently. I would give a heads up though that if you have a med-large party, and by that I mean probably 40 or more, the dinner will probablu take longer than you plan. Our dinner took a little over 2 hours, and really cut into our dancing time that we had planned. We ended up having o rush through the cake cutting and eating dessert, just to have a decent amount of time for partying after. Dancing - For the dancing, we opted to have the ipod system to save some money and also because we were a bit particular about the music we wanted, but in the end, I was VERY disappointed with the ipod system. We had it set up near the swing bar (which is very cool, by the way), and there was literally only one small speaker with a hook-up for your ipod and you couldn't make it louder that boombox level or else it would start crackling. It was fine for us because most of our crowd was more into relaxing and having drinks at the bar, but I would definitely recommend having a DJ. **another tip on the dancing portion....If you have it near the swing bar, your guests can just go up to the swing bar to grab drinks rather than you having to pay for an open bar for that portion of the night. Although there will be other guests that are allowed to hang out around there, it really wasn't that bad. It stays open until 11:00, but we ended up offereing each of the 2 bar tenders there $50 (USD) to stay open later and they were very accomodating and were ready to stay as long as we wanted. Spa Appointments - I had a spa day for all of the girls the day before the wedding and it was a ton of fun. They have a really nice spa there and the massages/facials were good from my experience. However, I was very disappointed with their nail/hair/make-up skills. My nails in particular turned out ok even though they smudged from her not using a top coat, but 2 of my other friends who had theirs done had their cuticles cut very badly in muliple spots...no bueno. I had a trial hair/make-up run on that day as well, which I HIGHLY recommend if you are going to use their services, and I was not at all happy with either of them. I don't want to knock them too much because they were very nice, I just think their skill level is very limited, and there is also a difference in cultural asthetics I think. Needless to say, I ended up cancelling the wedding day appointments for myself and bridal party and my friends ended up doing it for me. Like I said, I wouldn't say don't go there all together, but just be careful if you have something very specific in mind because it seemed like they have only certain styles they are used to doing and if you deviate from that, they may not be able to do it. Well, I don't want to load this with too much info that may not be helpful at all, but these were just some of the things that stuck out in my mind. Feel free to let me know if you have specific questions and I will do my best! Good luck with your planning ladies! Amanda

Hi Ladies, I am actually leaving tomorrow morning to head to Blue Bay for my wedding on Friday! We are staying in Mexico for another week afterwards for the honeymoon, but I will be sure to post a link for my pictures as soon as I get back....along with any helpful things I find out from going through the whole experience. Amanda

Hi Ladies, I noticed quite a few people mentioning photographers and for those of you who have not decided yet, I just wanted to give everyone a great recommendation for the photographer we are using, Bellathee (Belathée Photography - New York). She is actually based out of Seattle, but also works in NYC as well since her business partner is there. She will be traveling down to Blue Bay for 3 days to cover a good portion of our weekend events, plus the wedding. We also got pretty lucky and she will be doing our engagment shoot here in NYC since she is out here sometimes with her business partner being here. All of this for less than $5000, which I thought was amazing. I don't mean for this to sound like a sales pitch, but she has been great to work with so far and very professional. There are 2 photographers, Dorothee and Annabel. Dorothee is the one doing our wedding, but I have met them both and they are great. Hope that helps! I also recently received some pics of the flower arrangements for centerpieces if anyone needs those.... Nurse, good luck with your wedding! Hope everything is amazing for you. Would love to hear about it when you get back and see pics.

Hi Ladies, I just want to confirm what everyone has been told for the cost of extra people above 20 guests for the reception. I was told it would be $18/person beyond 20 people. I saw that most of the rest of you said that Candy told you it was $10/person beyond 20. If anyone has an email from Candy quoting this, that would be great if you could forward it to me at [email protected], just so I can show her that I know she has told other people differently. Thanks so much ladies!

Hi Ladies, I just want to confirm what everyone has been told for the cost of extra people above 20 guests for the reception. I was told it would be $18/person beyond 20 people. I saw that most of the rest of you said that Candy told you it was $10/person beyond 20. If anyone has an email from Candy quoting this, that would be great if you could forward it to me at [email protected], just so I can show her that I know she has told other people differently. Thanks so much ladies!

Hi - Thanks again for the sushi restaunt pics. I heard that the steakhouse has a view of the beach, but you can't tell in the picture I have. I only have one and it shows the inside but I will send it to you. I found a few more pictures on tripadvisor (they have a ton of pics of the resort from prior guests) and you can see more of the steak restaurant, but still not the outside area. I am just going of the description that I got from Candy as well as the concierge desk. They both said has an ocean view...

Pribrzl, would you mind sending the pics of the sushi place to my gmail account at [email protected]? I have been having trouble with my other account that I gave you earlier, so I'm not sure if you sent them or not. Sorry and thanks! Here is the spa menu for anyone who is interested... LISTA_DE_PRECIOS_SPA[1].doc

Thanks, pribrzl.... that would be great to see some pics of the sushi place. I am trying to decide between that and the steakhouse because they said both of them have outside areas, which is what I was looking for. The pics I have of the steakhouse don't really show the outside area, so I am just going with what they told me on that. Also, if anyone is planning a spa day for the girls or something along those lines, I just received the spa menu of services. Let me know if that would be helpful for anyone. Their prices are really reasonable.

Pribrzl - do you happen to have any pictures of the sushi/oriental restaurant in the area you are talking about outside of the pool? I am interested in having our reception there, but Candy didn't have any pictures to send me. If you have one and have a second to email it to me, that would be amazing! My email is [email protected]. If anyone needs pictures of the other restaurants, i.e. the French one, the Mexican one, the Steakhouse, I have some. Not sure how to post them, but let me know your email and I can send them.

Hi Ladies, pribrzl, thanks, that makes me feel a little better that I am not totally getting ripped off with the room situation. The drug stuff is definitely something to be cautious about, but don't stress too much about it. One other thing to be careful about though would be to make sure your guests schedule their transportation to and from the airport with either a car service or a marked cab, and that they don't just hop in a random car when they get there...you know those ones standing outside the airport asking if you need a taxi. Who knows where you could end up. I am supposed to be getting some more information from my planning lady this week with details of things, so if I get any pics or info I will definitely pass them along!

Quote: Originally Posted by pribrzl Hey guys, Just wanted to let you know that we need to do something about the prices being quoted for rooms. I just found on hotels.com rooms for 2 adults, at the weekend of my wedding (May 23rd) for $149 for two people - that's $60 less than the quote I got and I am bringing 110 people to the resort! I cannot believe it! I am planning on calling Candy this weekend to discuss and also Dario, the reservation manager. Cecilia originally gave me the prices for the rooms, but she is no longer there. Also, I'm SO SORRY for all of you that have been asking for pics from the hotel - I have some and tried a few times to post them but was unable to. I PROMISE to email you them this weekend (at a business trip this week). In the meantime, you can check out Our Story - this is someone that I know that got married there. There are quite a few pictures of the ceremony and reception. Amc83 - there are many different areas you can use for the reception and rehearsal. We arte doing a cocktail hour for the rehearsal, so we don't have to pay again for the private dinner party. The two hours of cocktail ended up being less expensive than a private dinner and everyone can have dinner afterwards. We are doing ours in an area right outside the italian restaurant - SUPER nice, with contemporary furniture - it's great!!! As far as putside areas, you can do it on the beach (an area wright outside the buffet restaurant), by the pool (but can only serve buffet style dinner - they can't do a formal dinner there because there is no kitchen around it), or in the sushi restaurant, which is where I am doing mine, it's an open type of restaurant, next to the pool. Candy had sent me some pics also, I will make sure to include all of them on my email this weekend. I'm asking again, does anyone know how to post pictures directly here, on the thread? Thanks, pribrzl! That is definitely helpful. The rooms quotes are something I have been struggling with as well. Because I hired an outside company, they are handling all of my travel for my guests and it is through a travel agency, not directly through the hotel. The rate that I signed a contract for is actually MUCH higher than what is online right now. When I signed the contract to lock in the group rate, it was actually comparable to what it was for people to book on their own, but the rates have since dropped. If Candy doesn't give you a better rate, I would just suggest telling your guests to book directly online and then keep track of who books on their own and give the hotel a list of people who will be in your wedding group upon arrival. I would be interested to find out though if they do give you a lower group rate. I actually had to put up quite a large deposit to hold the rooms for my group through my planning company, and if I don't fill all the rooms that I blocked through them, they will not give me back the deposit....Really crappy. Once I fill the rooms that I blocked, anything after that, I am just encouraging people to book on their own and get the lower rates.

Hi Ladies, I can't tell you how happy I am to have found this forum. I am getting married at BBGE on June 12, and have been anxiously awaiting some answers on things as well. I am having about 60guests, which sounds somewhere in between what most of you have. I have hired an outside planning company, which I thought would make things much more seamless than they have been, but that is not the case. It has only added a third party in the mix, making my wait time for answers even longer. At his point, I am just wondering about reception places and also rehearsal restaurants as well. We are planning to do the private party for the reception, but just want to do something at one of the restaurants for the rehearsal so it is cheap. Does anyone know if they will allow you to make reservations at one of the restaurants for a group like that? I have a feeling they are going to want to charge us for a group reservation even if it is not a private party.... pribrzl, would you mind sending me any photos from your site visit if you have time. I am particularly interested in any places where they will let you have an outdoors reception if you have any pics. Thanks! Look forward to trading info with all of you!

Hi All, I stumbled across this forum and found a lot of the info very helpful and wanted to share some of my planning experience so far as well. My Name: Amanda Wedding Date: June 12, 2009 Location: Blue Bay Esmeralda, Playa Del Carmen Mexico Look forward to sharing with and hearing from other brides!....or grooms if they are on here posting