Tilly in the Sun

I'm PMing you about the OOT bags :-)

You are so beautiful by Joe Cocker. FI picked it (which was beyond shocking because he is totally into heavy metal and I thought he would have picked Pantera or something LOL)

I am so sorry that you are having to go through this when this should be one of the happiest times of your life. I really hope that things are getting easier for you...sending love and positive vibes your way xoxoxo

Your pics are so good! I love your dress...you guys look great! Thanks for sharing! Really cute song too :-)

great pictures! Thanks for sharing and congrats!!

They are all so amazing!! You are a GORGEOUS bride and you and your hubby look so in love! Thanks so much for sharing!

Barrierunner it looks like we are going through the same thing. In our early emails from Sept Yahimara stated the 8:30 private dinner was free, and in the email I got yesterday she is now saying there is a charge. I sent her a copy of the earlier email where she said it was free and now I am waiting to hear back from her. In the early emails I was also quoted 700CUC for the ceremony so this is something else I am going to have to clarify with her. Like you said, the last thing any of us want is to get down there and be bombarded with all these 'extra' fees. It's not okay to keep adding hidden costs to things, so we all need to make sure we bring all copies of any correspondance we have with the resort.

I just asked Yahimara to clarify this for me because in the emails she has sent me in the past two days, for the private dinner at 8:30 there is still the 15CUC charge (18CUC for lobster). It could be that there is a charge to just have the dinner at 6:30 (private or not), but there isn't one for the later time if it isn't private? Maybe all the confusion is coming from them changing their prices? If they were quoting different people different things before than it's bound to cause a mix up. Hopefully we can all get this figured out soon :-)

Yahimara sent me some pics yesterday of the walkway to the ceremony. First there is a bridge, and than sand all the way to the gazebo. I have tried to upload them here, but can't seem to figure it out (it says invalid file eventhough it's a jpeg) Send me a PM with your email if you'd like me to send them to you :-) Cheers!!

Barrierunner, that's a great idea about the first dance right after the ceremony. The more we think about having a later dinner, the more it makes sense...someone mentioned that the only downside is we may have some guests who are a lil tipsy at dinner, but who are we kidding - I think we all will be (and it should make for some hilarious speeches LOL). I sent Yahimara an email as well about the later dinner, so if I hear anything I will keep you posted :-)

FI and I were talking and we're both not too keen on the idea of paying for the disco, but we would like some private time with our guests. I came up with this, but would love to hear if you guys think it sounds okay Our ceremony is at 4pm so afterwards we could do cake and champaigne, followed by pictures. I figure that will take up a good two hours(ish) Everyone could go freshen up, and meet in one of the bars for around 7, where we could all have a few drinks before dinner. We'd have a private dinner from 8:30 -10:00 and than we'd only have an hour to wait before the disco opens up at 11. We could do speeches during dinner, and than hopefully having a later dinner would help everyone to stay up for some dancing!! Does anyone know if the charge is the same (15CUC per person, 18CUC for lobster) if we're having the private dinner at 8:30?

The Melia Varadero has a beautiful gazebo overlooking the ocean

congrats! you looked gorgeous! thanks for sharing

wow your pics are all fabulous! I love the slideshow...I actually found myself getting teary eyed during a few parts! You and your hubby looked amazing! Congrats :-)

Congrats! You look so happy and beautiful!

This is what was sent to me in Sept about the dinner and private reception. Ron n Mel I didn't realize it was 8CUC per person per HOUR!! That's a little (ok a lot) ridiculous!! We'd be better off grabbing trays of drinks from the hotel and bringing them to the disco. If you want a private dinner reception we have three different a la carte restaurants with different menus: Steak House Restaurant “Monserrate†Healthy Meals Restaurant “Basora†Cuban Restaurant “ La Insular†Times tables: From 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm (with extra charge 15.00 CUC/pax) From 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm (free of charge) The lobster offer is available in all the restaurants. If you want a private party after dinner for dancing you can reserve the disco/aqua bar or meeting room from 9.00 pm to 11.00 pm. For that you should pay 150.00 CUC for the location and 8.00 CUC/Pax for the opened bar.

Quote: Originally Posted by chevy14 Tilly, you mention your guests will have the option of lobster or chicken....are you paying the extra $25 per person then? When does the resort need to know who is having what? And what is this about an $8 per person charge for drinks at the private reception I haven't heard a word about that! As far as I know, it's 18CUC per person for lobster and I thought it was a lower price for chicken. I will have to check through older emails to see what was actually quoted. I think I will try to have everyone's choice in by no later than one week before, but that is just my thought...I will let you know if I am told anything different. And for the private reception (after dinner, the 'dance' part) It is 8CUC extra per person plus 150CUC to rent it from 9-11. I like you you are having your dinner from 7-9. How were you able to get that time slot...I was only given from 6:30 - 8:00 or 8:30-10:00. Maybe that's what the gala reception is?

We are getting married May 18th at 4pm...originally it was at 2pm but I asked for it to be a little later so there would be less time between the wedding and dinner. It looks like we are having dinner at 6:30 but haven't picked which restaurant. Does anyone know which ones are inside and which ones are outside? We will also give our guests the option of chicken or lobster. I'm really interested to know about the gala dinner as well! I haven't heard anything about that. We go back and forth about the disco vs private dance...cost wise disco is obv better for the wallet, but I like the idea of having our own space for a little while. It really bugs me though that they are charging $8 per person for drinks at an all inclusive! There doesn't seem to be many free perks here like at other resorts. But I am sure it will all be worth it in the end and we'll all have beautiful weddings!!

I haven't heard anything about the resort photographer but I am sure they will be nice photos...the reason we are bringing one down is just because from what I understand Cuba doesn't have the same technology as we do here, so the pics may not look as 'nice' as they do on sites like this. For us, we are paying for the entire wedding ourselves so there wasn't anyway we could afford to cover travel costs plus their own package charge. I would suggest looking into newer photogs that just want to build their portfolio....it took some time to find one but we're really glad we did. If anyone would like, I can send my photo a msg asking if she knows anyone she can reccomend...or you can check her website out Heather Windsor Photography and maybe she will be able to help out

Quote: Originally Posted by JNL2011 what are people doing for photography? we got very lucly with this one...pics are important to me so this was an area I allowed myself to splurge on. We found someone online that has been doing weddings locally for 8 years, but has never done a DW so she said we just pay for her trip and we can have her for three days in Cuba, and will make a slideshow and provide all the pics on a disk. We got a free guests every 21rst person (just pay the taxes) so we're using those for her and her asst.

how frusterating! I would try to see if there is anything they can do to help cover even some of the cost considering you have been booked for months. Keep us posted on how it turns out and good luck

Hey I'm from Toronto area as well and had a similar issue when we started to think about places to go. We actually ended up changing our original idea of Punta Cana to Cuba because the cost was a little better for our guests, and to us it was important to have as many family and friends with us as could make it. Also, when we were looking we all booked for one week, but I had one uncle to couldn't get the full week off work and asked me to check into four day rates and the price difference was next to nothing...just a thought that you might wanna see if it's just a few extra bucks to go for the full week. Good luck!!

thanks guys! You're right that it is out of our control and things like this happen in life. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and spent the day on the phone talking to new venues and we were able to find a new location for the stag and doe (great idea for the stickers shell!! I talked to my aunt who works for a printing company and she will do them all for free :-). So far our family and friends have been so supportive and have offered to help make food/games etc as our old location provided everything. And we have a few appointments to check out AHR venues, but we have some time for that because we aren't doing that until Sept. What a difference a day makes!!

congrats on finding a great venue that's nice to your wallet! It looks beautiful and your guests will love it!!

I am not sure if this is the right place for this, but I just needed to vent a little I got a call yesterday morning from our stag and doe/AHR venue saying that they have gone bankrput and have closed!!! I feel like you only hear about stuff like this happening in movies, but now we are scrambling to find another venue asap because our stag and doe is in less than two months. It is so frusterating because we have tickets printed with that date and location, and now we're gonna have to change them (and they are really cute) and for the ones we have already sold we have to call everyone and let them know the new info. On top of that, we lost our $1200 deposit. I understand that the recession has hit everyone hard, and I can't really be mad at anyone, but it's really exausting to think of doing all the legwork all over again to find a new venue(s). Plus being out all that money is a huge piss off. Looking on the bright side though, this has just made us realize even more that we are doing the right thing by getting married down south...soo much less of a headache!!