PaulsGirl

We have Completed our Save the Dates!!!! My sister and I (with a little help from FH lol) spent alll day today prepping, printing & putting together our Save the Dates! I'm still in love with them and here they are!

When I was speaking with Maydelin back in May I was able to reserve my ceremony location (the beach) and the time (3pm). We talked back and forth about reception ideas as well. We could either choose the option included with the wedding package (in one of the a la cartes at a specific time), on the beach (fee per hour) or poolside (fee per hour). FH and I have chosen the Poolside but have not reserved it as of yet.

Morning Ladies!! For those of you that have purchased a second dress for your TTD... Did you let your FH see the dress? I'm wanting to buy a second dress but am having a hard time choosing one. My actual dress has really fine details & a lot of lace that would be ruined & ripped by the TTD shoot. I'm wanting to purchase a long flowy bridesmaid dress as my TTD. BUT my issue is that most of these come in colours and I'm terrible at knowing what it will look like in white. I'm thinking of taking my FH into the dress store to help me choose one out as he's pretty good with visualizing what things will look like (yay for graphic designers!) Anyone else let their FH see their TTD?

Our wedding/honeymoon is going to total about $7,000-$8,000. Week #1 in Cuba = $2500-3000 (hotel, airfaire, food. alcohol & excursions) Week #2 Cruise = $4500-5000 (cruise, airfare, transfers & alcohol + spending $$)

Hey Chela! We're getting married there May 5, 2010!! We're there May 1-8 so our vacations overlap

I'm buying a second dress for my TTD shoot. Originally, I wasn't going to and was totally wanting to use my wedding dress. BUT after going over budget and being absolutely in love with my dress, and also wanting to wear it to my AHR, I've decided to buy a flowly white bridesmaid dress instead. The top layer of my wedding dress is lace and I think the TTD would ruin it too much and I wouldn't be able to wear it to my AHR.

We're going to Cuba May 1-8, 2010 (We're wedding date twins by the way - Go May 5th!!!) We've had our trip booked for about a month and have just received tentative flight times. We have our initial deposits down ($200) each with the balance being due February 28th. You should be able to talk to your travel agent and get you booked in for May!

The other thing that you can do is call another agency for a quote, and if they give you a lower rate, try and find out the details (especially the airline). Once you have this info, go back to your travel agent, give them the details and see if they can match the rate. This is what I had done initially. I had gotten a quote from the 1st TA which seemed kind of high. I then went to Kim to actually not only matched the price but beat it. Once Kim had given me the best deal, I had gone back to the previous travel agent but they couldn't match it so I went with Kim instead

I had exactly the same problem that you were having. Some of the girls that I was considering for the bridal party were on the fence about coming. I just talked to them about it, explained that I really wanted them to be a bridesmaid, but also understood if they coudn't make it and it was okay to decline. I found after I asked them to be bridesmaids though, that they jumped at the chance and it swayed their decision to come to the wedding!! Once they knew it was important for them to stand up with me, they are making every single effort possible to be there. I would just talk it out with them

I was dealing with more than one agent at a time and I too felt pretty bad about it. But in the end, its all about what you can afford and what truly is the better deal. We ended up going with Breakaway because it was the lowest price and she was completely willing to meet us on the weekends or evenings (unlike another TA I was dealing with). Also, my mom has booked numerous trips with them before and prefers to book with them. Hopefully Kim can get you a good rate!

I've been speaking with Kimberly Withers there She's been really helpful so far.

I did I was finding rates online that were good, but when I found the travel agent, it was awesome! It was $1,022 + tax basically. I went through Breakaway Travel in Oshawa to book our group rate

We booked this resort already from May 1-8, 2010 and were given a firm price of 1253.50 (taxes included). We have already put down our deposits securing our spots on both the plane & the hotel. We even have tentative flight times through Air Canada. We actually booked this back in May of this year and so far all of our guests have received the same price and no one has had any issues booking. It's likely because we're not going until May so any issues will have sorted themselves out by then.

Forever Friends and Everlasting Memories in Port Perry are also great stores! We tried on dresses there as well and they had a great selection of of both wedding & bridesmaid dresses

I was finally able to dig up the wedding package that Maydelin at the Laguna Azul sent me The email address to reach Maydelin (at least the one she sent me) is [email protected] Some other info she told me: - You can reserve a private a la carte after 8:30pm for a private reception for $150 CUC per hour - If you'd like an earlier dinner, you can reserve the beach, poolside or a la carte for a private reception for $150.00 CUC per hour (this includes beach/poolside decorations) ***We're Doing a Poolside*** - At the current time, the hotel does not have a pricelist for extra bridesmaid flowers, decorations, etc (this will hopefully be released once the hotel opens September 1st) - For $18 CUC per person, you can upgrade the dinner meal included in the wedding package to lobster (this is only charged for the guests that want lobster) Wedding Package IBS Laguna Azul W-S 09-1.doc

I got my dress at Val's Bridal in Courtice. They had about 3 racks of lightweight dresses in various price ranges. I ended up buying an Essense of Australia though that wasn't a destination dress.

I thought it was going to be a nightmare to find my dress, but it was the 3rd one I tried on! I tried on like 20 more after that, but always kept coming back to "the one".

Oh we have our photographer hired as well He's an old friend of ours and is giving us a great deal. Engagement pics, wedding day & a trash the dress session for $800 + the cost of his trip. Amazing deal Gotta love friends. I just sent off the final surprise gifts to ask the rest of my girls to be bridesmaids. We also just decided to have our At Home Reception...at home! LOL Hall rentals were insane and I can't justify spending that kind of money. The destination wedding is supposed to be skipping all of that nonsense lol.

I got super swamped this weekend with family stuff but I found where it all is on my computer I'll email & post it hopefully tonight.

I just found this post! I'm a May 5, 2010 bride as well! We're getting married in Varadero, Cuba. So far we have booked our trip, reserved our hall for our Jack & Jill and are working on selecting our bridal party (we were having issues since none of our friends are commiting to coming). I've also purchased my wedding dress! FH has designed our save the dates so now we're finalizing our guest list and will be printing them ourselves shortly! I feel so behind!

Hey Ladies! I thought I'd start a thread all about the Laguna Azul so that we can help each other out. The delay of the opening of the hotel makes me nervous, but its been posted that it will be 100% fully operational as of September 3, 2009 (yay for my May 2010 wedding LOL) How have you made out with contacting the wedding co-ordinator? How far along are you with your planning! I'll check my wedding information tonight and see what I can post in terms of their wedding package to help other brides if they'd like to choose this resort.

I definitely have it on my computer at home. Can you send me your email in a private message and then I can forward you the documents tonight? The wedding package (I thought) for the Laguna Azul was an amazing deal. It was $700 CUC (so about $1000 Canadian) and included quite a lot. We are then paying extra to rent the private poolside reception for a few hours (at $150 per hour). There were a lot of options so I will dig up what I can for you

I'm staying with the strapless version I couldn't believe I had found it so easily so I just kept looking around but yet compared everything back to "The pretty lace dress". My mom knew then that it was pointless to keep looking, we tried on the dress again, and the rest is history! My favourite features are the fabric under the bust, the corset back and the lace details. I'm short so it is going to be a fairly expensive alteration to bring up the detail from the lace and save it, but its sooo worth it. I love simple elegance and thankfully my mom, sister (MOH) and aunt all said it was 100% a "Lisa Dress". I can't wait until it is in!

We went shopping yesterday for the first time and it was definitely a ton of fun We went to the first store and tried on quite a few dresses, however I loved the third dress I tried on. I was too nervous to commit that early in the say so we went to 2 other dress stores. Didn't like anything at the 2nd, but at the third store, they had the same dress I loved however in a different colour & style of back. I tried it on and then for sure it was "the one". I ended up ordering it yesterday! Now to wait the 5-6 months for it to come into the store!!!! It was a little bit over budget, but so worth it. It was Essence of Australia D586 in white with a corset back It's beautiful and fits my style perfectly. Here are some pictures of the dress I tried on. It was ivory but I wanted it in white. The last picture is blurry but oh well! LOL and on the model:

Quote: Originally Posted by geneine20 Hi off topic here but wondering how you decided upon the Ibero Laguna Azul? It's one of my options for price but can't find much info/pictures on it. Thanks! Since we're pretty easy going, we just sort of jumped in. It's opening late this month/early July so there isn't a whole ton of information on it yet, however it is now on the Iberostar website. We chose it basically on the description available, and on the brand name. Iberostars are fantastic hotels and have a great reputation. The price was also a major factor for us. The wedding package was also a good deal. Once this hotel opens, its likely that the price will go up and be comparative to the Iberostar Varadero. We chose to go with the brand new resort since it will be clean and has almost a whole year to work out the kinks. Pretty much just got a good feeling from the description, the brand, it being a brand new 5 star and just went with our gut reaction to book it