lcraney

Awesome, thanks for the dress info! I will check Mori Lee out.

Hi WisconsinBride2010! Your pictures are beautiful and I am happy to hear the rain stopped for your special day! That is awesome! I have been searching HIGH and LOW for orange bridesmaid dresses the color of your bridesmaids' ones. Where did you find them in that color? I am having a really hard time finding anything bold orange like that. I was surprised to find this search so tough! Any advice on where to look? My two sisters are the only bridesmaids I need to find that orange for. Any ideas would be totally appreciated, thanks! Congrats on your beautiful day!

That is a great summary of info for your ceremony and her answers. Thanks for posting. It helps to see what conversations people close to their wedding date are having. Have a great time!

Hi guys, I had the craziest thing happen yesterday. I had originally decided to go with the sound system instead of a DJ and then we just changed our minds due to a growing feeling of stress about who would be in charge of music all night. We also wanted to ask about rehearsal dinner options. Â Well I sent the email to Gabriela in the afternoon about all this, and when I checked my email again later in the evening, she had already responded! I have never heard from them less than a week later for any requests. So this to me seems like they have made some progress with organization over there, which is great! I was shocked and more than pleasantly surprised. My wedding is not till May 14 2011, so I always assume there are more pressing details/weddings they are dealing with and it will take some time for me to hear back. Â Gabriela also let me know that I have been assigned a WC named Ana, and that from here on out I was to direct my inquiries to her directly. She was nice, answered my questions, and super friendly. I was very impressed. Â So I think they are in the midst of settling things over there and having more efficient systems for responding to all the brides. Hold tight. Â Also, thanks to those who shared about the fireworks and silly glow sticks and just overall ease of having the DJ Ivan. I think you put me over the edge for a yes to the DJ. I was really having trouble deciding and I feel now like a huge weight has been lifted because I know he rocked and plays good stuff and also has fun stuff to bring along for the party. Â thanks! You all rock. Â Â

Leanne & Adam 5/14/2011 Â

Leanne & Adam 5/14/2011 Â

Hi KD2011! Â I decided to use a travel agent because I noticed she was able to get a hold of people and get things done a lot faster than I was when I tried to do it on my own. Also, she was able to provide packages that included flight, airport transportation and hotel stay all in one price for my guests, which seemed much easier than going through the hotel, and also cheaper and more convenient overall. Â Because all-inclusive resorts charge per person, getting a "wedding rate" isn't like your typical wedding block reservation of rooms. So you might want to look into that further. I am not sure how it works going through the resort, or if you can even do that without having to reserve all the guest rooms yourself ahead of time, which could cost a lot. Definitely worth investigating. Â But my advice would be to go through a TA that will save you a lot of trouble and dealing with your guests' travel plans. A TA will take care of all that, and typically not charge you anything because they get commission from resorts and airlines. Â hope that helps! Welcome!

Hi Cathy! That was a really awesome review. Super helpful in so many ways! I have a couple questions if you have a sec to answer them-- --Did you do a symbolic ceremony or civil? You said you sent a script early to the officiant, which I hoped we could do. Too bad she did not rehearse but at least she said what you wanted, which is cool. --was your sand ceremony container provided by the resort or did you guys bring all that yourselves? It is really cool looking! --For the reception--why did the music have to stop at 1030pm? Just curious if this is when everything has to stop typically or if you chose that amount of time. We are getting married at 6pm and hoped we would do a buffet and be done eating at around 830-9pm so we could party until like 11pm-12am at least. We might have to come up with a plan b if we can't rent the equipment later than 1030pm. --was there any kind of rehearsal time for everyone before the ceremony? Like a night before rehearsal with dinner or even just a day rehearsal or something the day of? Just curious. I really appreciate your help and I wish you the best. I am happy to see how awesome your day was. Congrats! Sincerely, Leanne

Hi guys! It has been a while since I was on here, I have been busy planning stuff for the wedding and just generally enjoying summer in Chicago. I just went through some of your posts and I got excited/nervous again for the wedding. I am getting married May 14, 2011 at 6pm. I asked Ana if we could push the time back a little but I guess there is someone else getting married at 4pm so it won't work. I am a little bummed but it's not that big of a deal, hopefully. Anyone on here the 4pm person? It would be fun to know who will be taking the plunge before me that day! I just wanted to reach out to everyone and say hello and wish you all well with your planning and creativity for your weddings. I will try to be on here more as my wedding date gets closer and I start to freak out a little more. haha. Cheers!

Quote: Originally Posted by roxmysockz Updated with new entrys Laura & ? - 2/26/2010 Carina & Ari - 2/27/2010 Pam & Kevin - 3/9/2010 Ashley & Perry - 4/4/2010 Amber & Jeff - 4/10/2010 normajeane77 – 4/11/2010 Kcgcristyn - 4/17/2010 Stephanie & Jamie - 4/24/2010 Courtney7865 - 4/24/2010 leighkarem - 4/26/2010 Jennifer & Michael - 5/7/2010 Jessica & Robbie - 5/15/2010 Margaret & Matthew - 5/15/2010 Megan & Jason - 5/21/2010 Ashley & ? - 5/30/2010 Rachelle & Randal - 6/3/2010 Nancy & Bruce - 6/11/2010 Erica & John – 6/19/2010 carlychristine - 6/22/2010 Evelilna & Phil - 6/25/2010 Aleka & Maka - 7/7/2010 Leah & Chris - 7/9/2010 Allison & ? – 7/24/2010 Kelvin & Leydi - 7/30/2010 John & Lili - 8/1/2010 Thao & ?? - 9/3/2010 Casey & Ron - 9/18/2010 Sarah & Joe - 9/18/2010 Vix1383 – 10/16/2010 Kym & Bryan - 10/19/2010 Emma & ? - 10/23/2010 rdsjcr - 10/24/2010 wisconsionbride - 10/28/2010 Rachael & Alex - 10/31/2010 Chelsey & Travis - 11/5/2010 April & Reggie – 11/6/2010 JFazzina - 11/11/2010 Ashley & Mark - 11/15/2010 Kate & Cam - 11/19/2010 Tracy & ? -11/26/2010 lnf_munchkin - 11/27/2010 t1219 - 11/30/10 Angela & Craig - 12/8/2010 allegraapple - 12/12/2010 rscherle- 2/19/2011 roxmysockz - 4/8/2011 Saymyname74 - 3/12/2011 Hi! I don't know if I officially let everyone know but you can add Leanne&Adam 5/14/2011 to the list! Hooray for all of us!

Quote: Originally Posted by saymyname74 Ladies, Do you know when spring break is in Cancun? I am getting married 03/12/11 I think that is around the time of Spring Break. Which I may want to avoid. Hi I actually changed my date to avoid Spring Break in 2011. It is tough to say because Easter is very late in April, the 24th. I wanted the 30th but due to spring break I thought it would be too crazy. My fiance also noted that Spring break for college does not correspond with Easter and is early March. So I felt that from march 1 to May 1 it would be too busy for us. The hotels are at higher volume and pricier during that time so if you can avoid it, I would try.

Hi everyone, After pouring over the various locations and resorts in the area, I finally chose DRC as my wedding venue and am super excited. I have a million years to wait--I reserved May 14, 2011 (really early, I know) about an hour and a half before sunset. I wanted to give all our friends and fam a year's notice and also give us time to save up, so it made sense for us. Now I guess I just sit around and only plan a few little things until like a year from now. That does not sound so bad to me! I am grateful to everyone on this thread for helping me get a sense of this place and the packages and whatnot. If anyone new has any questions about basics I am glad to answer them. Happy Weddings, all!

Hi all, It looks like you are starting to book weddings at this resort that just opened. I spoke with a couple who happen to have gone just a few weeks ago for their honeymoon and could not have been happier. The pics of the pool and beach were stunning! Wondering about any info you have gathered about the wedding site. Is it on the beach? I am thinking that in a year or so when I get married, the kinks will have been worked out and this place will be an amazing place to do it! keep me posted on your progress. thanks!

I have not reached out to anyone yet due to still being in research mode. However its starting to make my brain hurt so I am sure I will just pick one soon! ha! Oct 30th sounds like a great time! You'll get away right when it starts getting cold! Well keep us all posted on what you decide and I am definitely interested in your buddy's Barcelo info. Does she know yet how much rooms are in a wedding block? That is something that seems tricky to pin down, and its an important part of it all for us because we have guests on budgets. If she has any info on that that would rock! I'll send you what I find. So far that unofficial site for Barcelo seems pretty helpful. cheers to the weekend!

Hi! I am also looking for info about the Barcelo Maya Resort. It looks awesome! I am sorry but its still really early for me in the research phase so I don't have much to offer in advice yet. But I saw you were in Chicago too and thought I would reply with well wishes and let you know I will keep you posted as I go along. We are looking for an April-May 2011 date. How about you?

I decided I wanted to go skydiving for our 4 year anniversary and my fiance (always the planner) took charge and set up the whole thing. We planned on staying in a ridiculous "Theme Room" in a campy hotel in Illinois on our way to a place just over the Wisconsin border called Skydive Midwest (who are awesome, by the way). My fiance later told me that he had an epiphany on the Thursday night before our weekend trip. We were just grilling out, and he suddenly realized he wanted to propose when we skydived. We had been living together for almost a year and been together for 4 years and we were a pretty adventurous couple, so it just made sense to him suddenly. So without me knowing, he came to this decision and started freaking out Thursday night. By Friday morning he had gotten off work to go hunting for the ring. By Friday afternoon he had found the ring and called my mother to ask for my hand. Then he called his family and let them know. Finally he called the skydive place and changed the jump to a secret engagement! All this was done by Friday night, and we left first thing Saturday for our weekend adventure. By Sunday, the day of the jump, he must have been a nervous wreck but I never would have guessed it was anything besides skydiving nerves. We almost could not jump that day because it threatened to rain and the clouds were thick all morning. But Skydive Midwest knew that my fiance and I had to get up in the air so that he could propose! When the weather cleared enough, they called our names and we suited up to jump. But we had been called up in front of 50+ people who had been waiting all day for the clouds to break so they could jump. I was confused. My fiance told me that the guy he had dealt with was a Red Sox fan and was hooking us up because we are fans too. I BOUGHT that story! I figured Red Sox fans are a devoted bunch, so who knows what they will do for each other! Little did I know it was all part of my fiance's plan. The jump itself was incredible and everything you would expect it to be, but when I landed in front of the love of my life on his knee with a ring in his hands saying such lovely things about us and our future, I think the adrenaline rush was taken to an entirely new level. I was completely shocked and truly did not expect it AT ALL! The Skydive Midwest people took a ton of pictures, so we have our "moment" etched in time forever (As well as my face frozen in utter shock and amazement). And when we got back to the hanger, everyone on the ground had been told what was happening and was cheering. I told my fiance later that it was the most well-planned rash decision anyone has ever made. Our "big plunge" has begun our journey filled with many more plunges to come. I cant wait to see how our future unfolds in even more exciting ways!

I am currently researching for an April 2011 wedding in the Carribbean either on the Mexico side or in St Lucia. I am open to any place in that area, so if anyone has any advice, feel free to pass it along. Thanks!