echo2_62

So for everyone waiting on WJ for travel info... I just followed up on my group request and they apologized for the long wait and said it's been very busy hence the longer turnaround period. They've apparently just added another handful of agents to the group to try and get things through a little faster. I've been waiting about ten days and was told to give it until the end of this week still. As for the dress -- I was at Ethos this weekend so Jenna it sounds like you and I had very similar experiences there! The staff was friendly but even though I said it was my first day out they still seemed on the edge of too eager for me to pick a dress right then. The other store I went to was Ever After (16th ave & 2nd St NW) which had a couple nice dresses but was fairly small so not a ton of selection. I think my next stops will be Beautiful Bride down near Chinook or The Bridal Centre in the south. I don't know if I've heard of Cameo and Cufflinks but I'll add them to my list! Let me know what you think of it!! Thanks for the other recommendations for dress shops here too! I'll try them all if I have to!

Quote: Originally Posted by Rainfall Hi! Im from Alberta and I booked my flight leaving Calgary into Cancun with a layover of 1 hour in Huston for 350 CAD Each Person! I don't know what sort of quotes WJ is giving but this is killer deal! I booked through Continental Airlines so they may still have those prices left? My entire wedding booked though CA. Good Luck! Was that cost for a return flight?? If so, holy crap that's a good deal! Honestly I hadn't checked with Continental for pricing. Did you get group pricing at the resort as well then, and if you don't mind me asking what was the ballpark cost for each person then?? The prices I'm getting from WJ are for an all-inclusive package so having a total cost would be easier to compare. Has anyone else found that booking the flights separate from the resort package ended up being cheaper than booking it all together??

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenna20 Hey Echo! This should be interesting...I have been working with a TA as well and had noticed the same thing with pricing being much higher than what I was seeing online. She has since looked into and requested a group rate from WJ and said the same thing about response time. So I will let you know what I hear from her. Your quote is direct fr WJ, so I'll be interested to see how much diff pricing will be. We are currently looking at April 2010, we are pretty flexible with the date. Do you have a particular date in mind? For us price is going to dictate more of when/how we book. Have a great weekend, chat soon! Hi Jenna!! Well it looks like both of us are going to be at the DPA in April then!! And at least with both of us getting quotes from WJ, we'll be more likely to get the best rate since we'll be able to bounce prices off each other. What airports are you leaving from? We have guests from Calgary, Winnipeg (maybe) and Toronto so I'm hoping they can coordinate all those for me. I'm already at a weeks wait to get a quote, so I'd really like to hear from them soon! The last I'd checked, most of April after the 4th was about the same pricing so I think you'll have lots of option. We'll likely lean towards the last couple weeks of the month since we have lots of birthday celebrations early on in the month. On another note, I started my dress shopping today. It seemed that there were so many different features that I liked, but not often a lot all on one dress!! Definitely a few candidates but I'm not sure if I've found 'the one' just yet :S

I know there was another thread regarding the Winnie Couture dresses but the last post was a good two years ago so I thought it might be easiest to just start a new one. Anyways, this is partly a shout out to all the Canadian brides but I'd be more than happy to hear from any of you... ! I haven't been out to try any dresses on yet, but have been searching online for ones that I'd like to see if I could try and figure out my style. I really, really, really (!) like a lot of the dresses from Winnie Couture but haven't been able to find the dresses at any locations near me here in Calgary Alberta. Does anyone know if these dresses are carried here in Southern Alberta?? I'd be willing to drive... just rather not have to take an entire weekend trip down to the US maybe. But for the right dress... who knows...

Having finished writing this out, I realized it was kind of long so I apologize but hopefully it helps give some ideas of how to narrow things down! I'd started out by grabbing at least half a dozen magazines from the travel agent and just going through them over my lunch break or during commercials. I'd flag the page corners for the places that I liked for one reason or another, with little thought on how they compared to other resorts (because it was the first pass). Lots of brochures will have a wedding symbol indicated next to the resort description if they are available so check for that first thing! One easy way to keep yourself from flagging EVERY page is to have an idea of what you consider reasonable to ask your guests to pay. Would you pay $2400 for a friends/cousins/co-workers wedding? This will weed out some of the higher end resorts that will naturally attract over some of the less-expensive places. As I started mentioning some of the features to my FI, I realized very quickly that the next step was finding out some of his likes/dislikes. Big resort, small resort. Near a bigger city (Cancun) vs. a smaller one (Tulum). A great night life or more quiet and intimate. Beach vs. garden wedding. Really, really hot & steamy or just comfortably hot. All the friends you can imagine, or just family and very close friends? Those kind of questions can help direct you to certain locations over others. And of course remember to ask yourself those things too! Next, start comparing the resorts you've flagged based on location. Compare all the ones from the Mayan Riviera together. Then the ones from Puerto Vallarta, then Bermuda, then Cuba etc etc. I found that when you look at them in smaller groups based on location, you'll be able to pick out what is common to all of them and focus on what makes that resort stand out from the one right next door. After you've narrowed down the resorts by area, you can start comparing them to each other. I agree that you should make lists as you go! Write down what it is that you like or don't like about each place so that when you compare it to another it's *your* preferences that guide you, not just the pretty pictures Hopefully this helps narrow down your search list (going through this narrowed my list to 14-16 resorts!) because my next step was to hit the internet. TripAdvisor has reviews for just about every single resort you can find. I found the reviews to be very helpful because some places that were obviously meant to look very attractive on paper did NOT appear to be so fabulous to the people who had visited them! Take it all in with a grain of salt however, because some people are FAR more specific/picky about what they believe is good service or high quality. To me though, it seemed fairly obvious with the more that you read. Check out the wedding packages as you go. Some simply will not fit you or your style. Cross those places off your list. Identify which places need to be contacted to get any wedding information and indicate those separate from the others. It will save time flipping back and trying to remember which ones they were! Does the cost of the package matter to you? Are there complimentary packages or package bonuses based on the number of guests booked at the resort? What upgrades/changes can you make to the packages? What are the legal requirements for weddings in the country of choice and can you meet those? Have you thought of a date yet? Or even more generally a month? Remember to consider not only your own country's holidays, but also those of the locations that you plan to visit. Dominican Republic I believe is very clear that the week leading up to Easter Sunday is a Holy week for them. This means limited staff onsite, less excursions off the resort will be available and many shops could be closed all week. If these things are important for you or your guests, pick another week! Also remember spring break, university exam periods, summer vacations for schools etc. These are especially critical depending on whether or not you have children attending. Also, many of these periods are quite a bit more expensive and are considered "peak" traveling times. And although no one could possibly expect you to accommodate the schedules of all your guests, it may be important for you to consider the schedules of VIP guests, such as siblings or parents (for example, teachers can find it difficult to get time off during the regular term and may only be available on breaks scheduled for the whole school). Some of these things might eliminate some months at least if you can't quite narrow it down to just one. Start looking at prices in the months that work for you. Most travel magazines can tell you what seasons are high and low for each place but google it if you can't find it. The prices of the resorts will vary throughout the year and some will fall off your list as you start to figure out what those costs will be. Talk to a travel agent and find out what group rates or booking bonuses you can receive. End story - go with your gut!! If you continue looking back to one place or another then there is probably a reason why! For me, I knew there were some advantages of a couple resorts over the others, but I was always comparing them back to just one place that I finally realized I REALLY wanted. If you only get your choices down to three places that's totally okay too because once you start contacting the resorts to see what availability they have on the dates you prefer, you might have to choose one over the other anyways! So sorry again if this was a long read, but it's what got me through my selection process with a minimal amount of grief. Good luck!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenna20 Congrats Meghan...I'm also an Alberta Bride! We are considering DPA as well. There is lots of information on many resorts as well as site inspections etc. I noticed a great posting today from a BDW member from Vancouver that booked her hotel separate from flights. She booked her flights through westjet who now has a groups department and offers a 10% discount to wedding parties! Great news for us out west. It might be something to consider. She has seen significant saving due to booking the wedding this way, $700 pp savings!! Why did you choose DPA over other Dreams resorts? Happy Planning! Hey Jenna! Although we haven't done any bookings yet, I have also found that WestJet has shown considerable savings for some of their vacations! P.S. I LOVE westjet! I currently have a request in through their groups department to find out what group rate I can get, so when they get back to me I will for sure post and let you know! The only drawback so far - they told me it can take anywhere from 72hrs to a week for someone to get back to me (www.westjetvacations.com). I'd been working with one travel agent but sadly the prices that she was coming back with were continually higher than others I'd been seeing - and by a couple hundred dollars or more sometimes! When are you thinking of getting married? You should check out the westjet vacations site because they've got some good prices listed right now! As for why I chose DPA instead of the other dreams resorts, it honestly had to do a lot with location. My FH and I were at another resort just a couple minutes north of Playa del Carmen last year and we really liked the area so when it came time to looking at resorts, that was where we started. Neither of us wanted to be up near Cancun and Tulum was a bit far south. So the DPA was a happy medium!

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenna20 Congrats Meghan...I'm also an Alberta Bride! We are considering DPA as well. There is lots of information on many resorts as well as site inspections etc. I noticed a great posting today from a BDW member from Vancouver that booked her hotel separate from flights. She booked her flights through westjet who now has a groups department and offers a 10% discount to wedding parties! Great news for us out west. It might be something to consider. She has seen significant saving due to booking the wedding this way, $700 pp savings!! Why did you choose DPA over other Dreams resorts? Happy Planning! Hi Jenna... noticed you on the DPA site... will take your answer there And YAY for more Alberta brides!

Thx Ginalyn!!

First of all I agree with some of the other comments that if you've already tried giving these friends an honest reason as to why they weren't invited then you shouldn't feel obligated to continue reasoning with them on it. If she keeps making you feel guilty using the excuse of having been the one to introduce you two, then I'd keep in mind who it is that likely knows you and your FH as individuals and as a couple the best, and I'm assuming that would be your MOH and BM. That being said, if they are still persistent about getting an answer from you, I would simply tell them that the resort/package that you've chosen has restrictions on the number of people allowed or on the number of people that can be accomodated for your ceremony/reception/dinner. That way it may seem more like the resort is the limitation and that you're not being the evil bride playing favourites. Good luck though, and I hope your other friends are overwhelmingly understanding to make up for these friends being so demanding.

Thanks everyone! I was so happy to find a thread specifically for the resort that I'm hoping to book! I've already been getting some great help and really appreciate having somewhere to ask questions without always having to send them off to the WC. Thanks again!

Sorry that last msg posted twice - I don't know how to delete one of them! Just another idea for where to pick up items is in the Avon catalogs! I just got the latest one and they have their 150ml (5 fl.oz) shower gels on for $0.99 each with any brochure purchase (regular price will be $10 soon!!!!). I'm not sure how they'd handle some larger orders but it'd be worth a try! There are ten different scents right now too. You have to go through the catalog though - the offer isn't available online. Also, their actual travel size bottles of the same product are 50ml and cost $1.99 regular price. Finally, the online website has antibacterial hand gels on sale right now for $0.89 if you prefer scented ones over the regular store bought kind. Avon Shopping

Did most of you just go for a week long trip? I'm trying to juggle my dates with what works best for the marriage requirements in Mexico (arrival 4 business days ahead). Do the four witnesses also have to be there 4 business days ahead, or just any 4 days ahead - I was a little confused on that one. Also, who did the legal marriage in Mexico vs. the civil/symbolic option? I'm just wondering if it would be less frustration dealing with all the translations and stuff. And I'd love to read more reviews so hopefully the new posts work!

Quote: Originally Posted by cdnvb9 congrats and welcome to another Alberta bride Thanks! I'm in Calgary too! Did your picture happen to be taken during Stampede?!? I've been really happy with how many Canadians are on this site so that not all the suggestions are U.S. based.

This is an awesome list... and great ideas along the way too! But there's one item my FI suggested last night that wasn't on the list and was too funny not to share! Now keep in mind that we have probably about 2/3 guests that are friends and 1/3 family (with good humour). His suggestion? Condoms! Tropical flavoured ones too! Now I realize that this may be less tasteful for some guests - like our grandparents - but as long as we know which bags go in which rooms, I think ours friends will be getting a special treat!!

This is an awesome list... and great ideas along the way too! But there's one item my FI suggested last night that wasn't on the list and was too funny not to share! Now keep in mind that we have probably about 2/3 guests that are friends and 1/3 family (with good humour). His suggestion? Condoms! Tropical flavoured ones too! Now I realize that this may be less tasteful for some guests - like our grandparents - but as long as we know which bags go where, I think ours friends will be getting a special treat!!

Great thank you Gina!! I'm still trying to get familiar with how the forum works so I appreciate the link for the OOT gifts!! Since I'm waiting to get some price quotes right now, I'll email DPA to get an idea of what dates are available and hopefully all the details will come rolling in at the same time!

Oh yes and one more question. Part of our debate between January and April is the weather. I've been to Playa del Carmen in April before and was lucky to have a full week of sun, sun, sun but I've heard that it can also be more rainy than in January? On the flip side, what temperatures are considered "cool" that we'd be expecting in January? I don't really want to worry about packing evening clothes on top of everything else that I need to remember! Thanks again!

Okay it has taken me the better part of my morning to get caught up on just a portion of all these posts but I am SO glad that I found this site! I'm totally new here and don't actually have anything booked yet, but DPA is my #1 choice and we're looking at either January or April of 2010. I'm still nervous that I don't have a lot of time to organize everything but from the sounds of it, a lot of you have had really great experiences so I'm hoping your luck will run my way! Gina & Andrea - your pictures are beautiful!! Thank you so much for posting! If anyone has new or old ideas about gift ideas for the OOT bags, can you please post them? I picked up a few along the way but can definitely use some more! Also, for those of you that have been or already booked your wedding, did you contact the WC before booking your flights and packages, or did everything get done at the same time? I'm not entirely sure which order to start this in! Thank you!

Thanks everyone!! Ginalyn, thanks for the offer! I'll probably have some more questions once we actually get our reservations done. A couple to start off though - which wedding package did you go with? And how many guests did you have there with you?

My name is Meghan, my FI's name is Geoff. We're looking at getting married (hopefully at Dreams Puerto Aventuras!) in either January or April of 2010. I found this site while searching for brides who have already had their weddings at DPA so I'm hoping to get a few more questions answered along the way..