Sarah Do

Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 Hi Sarah, I would really love it if you could please send me some pics for your wedding. We're getting married at the Valentin on 4/3/10 and I'm having such a hard time trying to get any good informatin. If you could e-mail the pics that would be great, my email is [email protected]. Thanks! Jenna Hi Jenna, Our pictures are on our website at Tan and Sarah - The Knot: Wedding Web Page Builder Thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by jayla Those pictures were beautiful--I am seriously all fluttery inside from them and can't wait until I'm on that beach getting married too! You looked wonderful, and I loved those starfish barrettes! Was your bouquet from the Valentin, because it was gorgeous! Fortunately, I am not a Type A person--but I am paranoid about money! I'm more worried of hidden fees or prices changing drastically without a contract. Like I want flower petals for the runner but don't think I can afford the Once In a Lifetime package. Ariadna told me there is a $550 fee for bringing your own flowers. Did you just bring those petals yourself? Ok, now I realize I do sound like a control freak--but trust me, I'm not, I just really want those petals! We only did the moonlight package. $8999usd. Included basic beach set up- no extra frills. I figured the beach was a pretty enough set up and I didn't need all of the flowers, etc. We were just as paranoid about money, which is also why we did it this way. The bouquet was from the resort. Ask ariadna to send you the booklet to pick it out. They have PLENTY to chose from that are included in your package, no reason to bring your own. The music being played at the beach was also included. Ariadna gave us rose petals on the beach as our "present" from her. When you get there and meet with her, tell her you really want petals and ask what she can do for you. She WILL work with you. Another way to save money is to just go out and eat with your family at the restaurant you want and eat off their menu. Getting individual reception meals is expensive. If you are unsure about what restaurant you like, ask her to send you the menus of the restaurants and you can pick with your FI. Also, there were no hidden fees at all. The package was $899 and we only paid $899. BUT, and this is a big but, we did not get a bunch of extras. We just didn't need them. Believe me ladies, when it comes down to it, all the extra crap you get means nothing. You will be so happy to be married to the one you love, the rest will seem like small potatoes.

Ladies, Please see the following link for photos and the like. Tan and Sarah - The Knot: Wedding Web Page Builder Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by jayla Wow! I am so glad to hear that everything went smoothly for you and it was exactly what you had dreamed of! We are getting married there in May and I am worried about the lack of a formal contract. Your review was very informative, and if you post pictures, I can't wait to see them! What kind of music system did you have set up for your ceremony? Jayla, Honestly, I have no clue what kind of system they had set up. That was the least of my worries. All I know is that we gave them our ipod with the wedding songs on a playlist and they played them accordingly. Other than that, you got me. As far as a formal contract goes,I wouldn't worry. Over all, they are very organized there. Ariadna is great at what she does and there is only one wedding on any given day. That way things don't get messed up. As a side not to anyone planning a destination wedding, if you are a super controlling type A personality, this is not a good choice for you as a wedding. I am really laid back and I went with the flow. Here is how I see it. It isnt "my" day. Its "our" day. And when you get down to it, its really only 15 minutes of "our" day. No need to get too worked up over stuff. The important part is the marriage itself. Not the wedding. Wow....I sound like an after school special. Anyway, let me know if you have any other questions.

Hello, I recently had my wedding at the Valentin Imperial Maya on November 21st. I was informed by the wedding planner Ariadna that she would be having a photographer come to the ceremony to take pictures. She told us that there was no commitment required and that if we wanted to buy pictures we could, but that we didn't have to. We were okay with that since overall we are super cheap with our money and don't like to feel pressured. When I arrived at the ceremony, the guys from Blue Lens were already there. The owner Dennis was already snapping away along with another photographer. I already had family there with cameras taking photos too since those were all we planned on having. Anyway, the photographers kept in the background during the ceremony and I didn't even notice that they were there. Kudos to them for that. After the ceremony, we took family photos and then tons of fun photos. My new husband and I had so much fun doing the TTD part of it. Afterward, they asked us if there was any other poses we wanted or if we wanted them at our reception. I was satisfied with what we did, so I told them "no" and let them leave. We met with Dennis a few days later to view our photos. I have to say, I was very very pleasantly surprised. The photos were amazing. They even had a DVD presentation made up for us as well that was so cute and set to perfect music. My husband and I were both a little sad we didn't have them stay longer to take more. As far as pricing goes, we ended up paying $500 for ALL of the digital copies. I can affirm that you will have a hard time finding anyone as talented as them for that kind of price. You can check out their website at Playa del Carmen Wedding Photographer in Riviera Maya | Bluelenscaribe I am not sure what they charge to book in advance, but they seem like they are very willing to come up with packages to fit everyone's budget. Please let me know if you have any questions at all either in this thread or you can PM me. I will email pics to anyone that would like me to. The file sizes are too large to send and I am not very technologically smart.

Hello, I recently had my wedding at Valentin Imperial Maya on November 21st. We stayed at the resort from November 19th-November 28th. We did NOT have a legal ceremony at the resort. We had a symbolic ceremony. It is the same thing except you don't have to go through all the legal pitfalls and hassles of making your ceremony legal in Mexico. Instead we had someone we new officiate a quickie informal ceremony in California (where we live) to handle the legality of our ceremony. Resort: I could go on and on about how fantastic the resort was, but this isn't necessarily the forum for that. Lets just say that the resort was fabulous and beautiful. Food was great and service was excellent. On a side note: I am aware that it is an all inclusive resort, but please people; bring money for tips! Most of the staff make only $6 a day. They get a special check on Tuesdays for included gratuity, but it isn't much. They appreciate even the smallest amount like a $1 at a meal. I noticed that Americans don't really tip. The Europeans and Canadians do, but Americans as a whole weren't leaving much of anything for these people who are essentially your servants. Anyway....enough of that. Check In: Check in went VERY poorly for us. We have 10 people including us checking in. The resort could find us on their computer systems and could see from our passports that we were who we said we were, but they were very rude to us like they didn't trust us. They kept saying that we needed vouchers to check in. Eventually, we figured out that vouchers mean our email confirmation. Now keep in mind, we had everyone's confirmation code, but that wasn't enough for them. We had to go to the business center and print out the emails just to be checked in. While we were doing that, they checked 6 of our guests in WITHOUT the emails. It was very unorganized all around. The main lady that was helping my Fi and I finally said "I cannot help you, you need to go somewhere else." My advice would be to come prepared for check in. Have emails printed out as confirmation codes are not enough. Wedding Planning: I am not a bridezilla so wedding planning was a cinch for me. Communication with Ariadna was always quick and efficient. We only did the simple moonlight ceremony for $899 usd. We sent in an $800 deposit and received a receipt of the deposit by email. I planned everything in advance like cake, flowers, location etc over emails alone and everything happened the way I wanted it as promised. When we arrived at the resort we met with Ariadna and went over everything again just to be sure. Our wedding was supposed to be at 5:00pm, but when we got there, we realized it was almost dusk/dark by then. We asked her if we could possibly move it up to 3:00 so that we could have sun and she said it was no problem. She was so amazing overall and really seems to care about making everything as perfect and hassle free as possible. Pre-wedding Stuff: Press service came and picked up our wedding attire the morning of the ceremony and we received it back quickly. When I arrived at my room to wait to be picked up, my bouquet was waiting for me. Ceremony: Our wedding was at the beach with a simple set up. We didnt ask for anything decadent or over the top the since the beach alone was beautiful enough. Ariadna was there to make sure that I walked where I was supposed to and didn't get lost. I was very nervous, but luckily there was a beach bar right on my way, so I took a shot of vodka on my way down. The music we picked out was playing right on cue and my lovely soon to be husband was waiting for me. The ceremony itself was beautiful and it turned out better than I could have imagined. The champagne toast afterword was perfect. Minister: The resort provides a minister Kiko Flores. I had never met him, but had communicate with him over email. My husband and I wrote our own vows and program for the ceremony which he allowed. The way he spoke really brought our words to life. Overall, he was great and a kind soul. Reception: We opted to save our money and have a reception at one of the restaurants. We were a small party so we didn't necessarily care about privacy. We asked to just have a normal dinner at the lobster pot with their typical menu. We didnt have to wait when the restaurant opened and were brought right to our table. We received fabulous service and all the champagne we could drink. Afterward, we had our cake brought out and cut it. It was actually kind of nice being in the normal restaurant with all of the resort guests because in a way it felt like they were celebrating with us too! We got the 3 milks cake. I liked it, but some of our guests didn't care for it as it is a little rich. If you have a larger crowd with more diverse takes, you might be better off getting vanilla or chocolate instead. After wedding: We received a nice champagne breakfast the next day. It was really more food than we could possibly eat, but it tasted great. We were supposed to receive a fruit basket and never did. We also never received any towel art the entire time we were there. It was funny to us because every day we were there, all of our guests got animals or swans or rose petals. We didn't particularly care that we didnt get these things, but it is important to point out that they were a part of the package and we didnt get them. Photography: Now this was a huge surprise to me. Ariadna told us that we would have photographers come to the wedding, but that they would only take photos. If we didn't like their work, we didn't have to buy it; and if we did like it, we could buy it. We brought family along with camera specifically so that they could get pictures and we wouldn't be buying, so all in all we were a little skeptical. The name of the company is Blue Lens and the owner Dennis was there with a partner. The photo shoot was super fun and since it was hot we ended up doing a TTD session. We just got to have fun and enjoy each other and the photographers did their thing. We met with Dennis later that week to see the pictures. We were happy with the photos our family took so we were only figuring on getting one or two pictures from Blue Lens. We know how expensive photographers are so we weren't holding our breath. Now, this is where I was surprised. The pictures were AMAZING. I figured that they wouldn't take as good of pictures because there was no guarantee of getting paid, but I was wrong. We ended up loving the photos they took of our ceremony and the TTD session after. They even made a DVD slide show that was so cute and set to the perfect music. Now for pricing. If it isn't obvious now, I should explain we are total cheapskates. And in comparison to all of the radically expensive photographers we looked at in Mexico, they were the best. We paid only $500 for ALL of the digital copies of our photos. We had a little over 600 photos all together. You cannot get a deal like that anywhere else with any of the other companies in that area. And we didn't have to pay some ridiculous fee to have a photographer show up and take pictures at our ceremony. Please ask Ariadna to book them for your ceremony. You will NOT be disappointed. Conclusion: Aside from a few minor glitches, the whole wedding and honeymoon was fabulous. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Please reply to this thread or PM me if you have any question about anything I may have missed. Have a great day and may your wedding be as fabulous as our was!!!!!!

Hello All, I will be posting my review of my wedding at VIM in a separate thread. It will be called "Valentin Imperial Maya Review by Sarah Do." A simple search for Valentin Maya will make it show up. Please look for it later today or tomorrow. And, as always, feel free to PM me with any questions.

Quote: Originally Posted by bochisgirl2010 hi everyone! Sarah Im down here in RM on site inspection visits...they were expecting here the hurricane IDA this morning but changed direction and wasnt even raining today...it was the last couple of days but not any more! I think tomorrow will be sunny and warm again!!! theres nothing to worry about!!! congrats!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! You have made me waaaaaaayyyyy less stressed! Have a great visit!

Quote: Originally Posted by cait713 Good luck Sarah! When my fiance and I stayed in Riviera Maya in June, the forecast was thunderstorms everyday for 4 days. We only actually saw rain once-and it was super quick, 30 minutes and then gone completely-the sun came back out, it was like it never happened! I'll cross my fingers for you! I'm sure your wedding will be lovely, no matter the weather As a side note-the fine print in the Valentin wedding packages say that they require a certain amount of business days in Mexico before the wedding-I think 4 or 5. If you're leaving the 19th and the wedding is the 21st, were you able to get around this rule? I've heard that some resorts are lenient on this... Hey Cait, Thanks for the well wishes. We are getting around the business day thing by only having a "symbolic ceremony" in Mexico. We are having a good friend ordained here in Cali and giving us a quickie legal ceremony here, then going to Mexico for a non-legal ceremony. We will consider the Mexico wedding our real wedding, but it will be legal in the states. We did it this way because I didn't like the idea of going and getting my blood drawn and having chest x-rays in Mexico plus having to go through all the legal hoops of then having it be legal in the states. Let me know if you need any more specific details regarding this process.

Just a comment. I am starting to get worried. Looking at the weather forecast, it looks like it is going to be all thunderstorms during our trip. We leave on the 19th and the wedding is on the 21st. EEK!

Quote: Originally Posted by t777a i will post a review when i get back, and if i cant post it in time i will email you (sarah) to make you know how things went before your wedding, but i will do my best to post as soon as i get back Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!! I will do the same for all the others when I get back too!!! Have a fabulous day!

t777a: Congrats on your upcoming wedding!!!! Can you please let me know how your trip and wedding was when you come back? I leave a couple of weeks after you. I am having a lot of luck dealing with Ariadna. She seems to be a very organized and responsive planner. Just want to make sure all went smoothly with you since I am next in line.

Quote: Originally Posted by jayla Does anyone know on average how much their guests will or have paid for their stay at the VIM? Hi Jayla, My guests are staying from November 19th-November 23rd (4 nights). For round trip airfare as well as the stay it was about $1400-$1600 for the guests. This is based on 2 people sharing a room. It ends up being about $700-$800 per person. Keep in mind it is MUCH cheaper to have people share rooms rather than having people travel single. Upon rigorous searches, we found that it was actually cheapest for us to book directly through the Valentin site vs. Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Beachdestinations.com, and cheapcarribean.com. Also, we had a flight cancel on us and the booking place was very courteous and switched us to a better flight with no hassle.

Does anyone know if it is cheaper to book activities in advance (horseback riding, ruins, etc) or through the resort itself? I am assuming that it is better to do it in advance, but perhaps book transportation once you are there.

Quote: Originally Posted by t777a or raining They can do a reception at any of their restaurants at the resort. Most of them are indoors.