dirtymartini

Quote: Originally Posted by GroomsArePeopleToo Wow Wendy, thank you so much for the kind words. Right back at you and Rod. The two of you and your entire DW group were wonderful. It was so cool how we ran into each other on Friday night too. Any way here is the link to your proofs. I will get working on the album right away and I will also be adding those images from Friday night to the collection as well. Congratulations to you and Rod! Wendy and Rod *Gasp* wonderful pictures! Andrew, I saw your package prices online. What do you charge for flying to Mexico for everything?

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd Sara- We didn't do a separate cocktail hour. The ceremony ended at about 4:30pm and we had pictures with everyone until about 5:00pm. The reception started at 6:30, so our guests had 1.5 hours by themselves. Most made use of the time by drinking in the Aquanox bar. You can also get little food bites there. Our thought was that at such a fabulous resort, our guests could take care of themselves for 1.5 hours. AS and AB share the same banquet kit so I thought I'd chime in on this one. We did the Set Menu with the Mahi-mahi and apple-curry risotto. Everyone said it was the best mahi they'd ever had and that it was the best wedding food they'd ever had! Seriously, the food is ridiculous it's so good. OMG the cake the cake!!! Seriously amazing. A frustrating thing about AB is that you get 3 cake choices for flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. We were fortunate that they agreed to do a cake tasting with us onsite and we're so glad we did! By far the best was the strawberry (not necessarily what you would expect). The resort kindly honored our request for buttercream instead of fondant (we hate fondant) and the combined finish product was so good that our guests ate ALL the cake! Not kidding. Some people had 3 and 4 pieces! It's kinda funny b/c we fought for months with Karisma so that we could take our leftover cake back to our room and it ended up being a moot point. I was sad b/c I only got one piece! I didn't dream there wouldn't be leftover cake (2 large tiers for only 22 adults). Had I known I would have had them set some aside for me. Now as for the cake design, we chose option D and it looked absolutely NOTHING like the picture. In fact, it was done very sloppily and was quite a disappointment. I'm really glad we didn't pay the extra $$ for a custom design we liked b/c I would have been livid. We had a private reception on the Blue Terrace. There is no bar right there. You're assigned private waiters to serve your event and they bring all the drinks to you. They're quite speedy so you don't have to wait. As for dancing, the Terrace is large enough that we had plenty of room for dancing. It's a tile/stone floor so we didn't need to rent the dance floor. We had 4 tables of 8 on the perimeter with the dance floor in the middle. Welcome back!!!! I am so excited to hear about your trip! Thank you for your reviews!

Quote: Originally Posted by amandamarieb I am doing a bar and dancing. I am having my reception in the Zazva plaza so the dance floor will be under the plaza canape and the tables will be in a circle around it. Ask your WC to send you photos of the space and explain the layout. Oops, sorry I forgot to mention that I am getting married at Azul Beach, not Sensatori

Quote: Originally Posted by amybermuda I googled bloom boxes and all that came up were fuel cells. I think you mean Blumeboxes, and I am getting those too! They are so cool!! Shop wedding, shower and entertaining flower vases and decorating ideas : blumebox.com

Ohh they have 2 barrels of beer on his back and he wears a sombrero. Just looked it up in the Wedding Banquet kit. Yeah food off a donkey's back didn't sound too appealing.... It could be pretty cute. Take pictures and give us a report!!!

Don't they serve the food off of a tray on his back? I don't know if I heard that or am making it up in my head... :-D I am so sorry, I didn't mean this to sound like I was judging, I just would feel really guilty because I'm a sap!

Quote: Originally Posted by KittenHeart As for the Donkey Cocktail hour, it's funny because FI and I were put off by the Donkey at first and asked our WC to not have the donkey there because we thought it was tacky. She replied mentioning the donkey by his name saying he wouldn't be there and I don't know why but I got teary-eyed and told FI that he has a name and we were taking away his job! We decided it's 30 minutes with him on the beach during cocktail hour, we don't have any snooty guests and I know everyone would really get a kick out of him so we let it go. I thought the donkey bar was a really fun idea. I heard on another post (on the mysteriously disappearing Azul Beach thread) that they no longer had the donkey though?? After thinking it over, I am a huge animal rights person and will just end up feeling guilty making a poor lil' donkey stand there to serve us. Plus, what if it POOPS?! (Was that what you were referring to Amanda?)

I'd like to do a cocktail hour before dinner, but it seems like everything they have on their Banquet Kit is minimum 2-hours. There the International Open Bar to extend the bar after the 4-hour Private Dinner, but I wonder if I could do this beforehand. I liked the Italian dinner, but I thought to myself "We're going to be in Mexico. What's the point in going to Mexico to have Italian food?" Plus my FI's family is 100% Italian, so they are hard to please Italian food-wise since they make it so well themselves! I really like the Petit Gourmet or BBQ Deluxe, since that is supposed to be great option if you're having your event on the beach (as I think I will) and it has so many choices. I might also just choose from one of the set Group Menus. **After your weddings, can you come back and tell me what your cakes were like? What flavors did you get to chose from, which style did you chose, how did it look & taste, did you think a cake was necessary? Also, where do they have the bar? Did you have dancing, if so, where did you have it & how was it set up and how did it go?

Quote: Originally Posted by mzgillis316 That is absolutely ridiculous its listed on their website why would they switch up out of nowhere. I can assure you that we spoke with the resorts booking agents last week and we are also receiving a free room b/c we booked 20 rooms. It was an incentive they were offering. Oh we're receiving a free room... for two nights.

Quote: Originally Posted by amandamarieb Wait what? What reason are they giving you exactly? I am also booked under the same promotion and everything seems to be fine on my end so far. You do know that the B&G promotion is a refund after your stay? And that you get the lowest level of room for the fewest amount of nights booked by any guest? So for us that means simply getting around a $950 refund after the fact. I did not read the fine print that the promotion is only for the fewest amount of nights booked.... that is really shady if you ask me. What if I had 50 people book Deluxe rooms for 7 nights but 2 people in the Superior Room for 2 nights (that's really not how it will really be, but for example) so I only get 2 nights free?? I should just tell the people who are only staying 3 nights to not come!!! Argh!

Ok, well I just spoke with Kiara and she is going to try and straighten this out. On another note, I'm doing a private dinner event. Is anyone having a separate cocktail hour before their dinner?

Soooooo, I just learned from my travel agent that Azul is being a stinker and trying to not give me the bride & Groom Stay Free promotion that we booked under. We booked under a promotion that B&G stay free as long as we book 16 rooms... well we booked 22 rooms. Also, we were supposed to receive the free Honeymoon package, which includes a free room upgrade. Apparently, they're not giving us that either? I am not sure why this process is so difficult for me!!!!! Has anyone else had any problems like this?

Quote: Originally Posted by KittenHeart To be honest, I doubt they'd ask for extra to set those items up. I am bringing string lights and paper lanterns with lights in each. Those will probably be extra. I also have a guestbook table and an escort card table with a lot of items so I'm pretty sure it will be extra. LOL! How on earth are you getting all of this stuff down?!!

Has anyone heard anything about the two photographer companies that Azul works with, Caribe or Matias Cano?

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd Alrighty girls, it's time for me to check out, unwind, have some cocktails in the Mexican sun, and marry the love of my life!!! I have been on cloud 9 all day today, people say I'm glowing! It helps that my staff threw me a surprise party tonight, which was just the sweetest thing. Some of my family is already there, and when I talked to them today, they just raved and raved and raved. HOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAY! I guess we done good Good luck with all the planning over the next couple weeks! AmyKH and Katie, I can't wait to hear where you're at when I get back! I think you're up next!!! Thank you for keeping me sane, ladies. I wish I could take you all with me!! We'd have one hell of a good time!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! Yayyy! Have a WONDERFUL time and I am sending dry wishes! Sorry for all of the posts, I am bad about checking new posts and I try to respond to as many as I can! I am going to SC with no access to email until Sunday! YIKES!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Katie~ Sara, you are probably feeling mad at your FI because now it's going a bit wrong and getting stressful. stick to your guns - it may have been his idea, but you agreed to it as well, and I know how easy it is to want to throw it back in their face when things start to go wrong (I know because a DW was my FI's idea and I used to get mad at him every time something started getting stressful or going wrong. Then I realised, when it goes well, I'll thank him for it too, and I did also agree to it.) I know it's hard but do not let wedding planning make you stress at your FI - just remember why you agreed to marry him in the first place and that when you strip it all down, the only 2 people who really, REALLY matter on the day are you two. the rest is all just a bonus. chin up girl You're right - I am just stressed and losing sight of what really matters! Thanks for the support, everyone!

Quote: Originally Posted by JenK Thanks for the info! I'll email Sensatori to ask them. Would you book a resort hoping that not all guests go?? That makes me nervous but I really like a smaller resort! Also, if by any chance more people come than you expected, they can stay at a nearby resort and get day passes for the wedding. That was our backup plan!

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd Oh don't you worry, your guests still have a lot of time to book!! Your wedding is still 7 months away--easy peasy! Don't let it get you down. Your DW wedding will be better than anything you would have had here. Your memories will be better, your guests' memories will be better...it's a win-win! I feel very sure I'll come back and report nothing but fabulous news for you AB brides and hopefully I can help put you at ease Thanks Taylor, that makes me feel better. I am just stressing over the little window our TA gave our guests to book. Why do they do that

Quote: Originally Posted by JenK Thanks for the info! I'll email Sensatori to ask them. Would you book a resort hoping that not all guests go?? That makes me nervous but I really like a smaller resort! Jen, we thought we wouldn't have a lot of people to invite... but when we finished our lists - it was over 200 people!! And only 40 of them are coming!! DON'T stress over this, I did too but in the end, people just can't fit it in their schedules/budgets. For this reason, we're planning on doing an At Home Reception - something small but we definitely need to celebrate with family & friends that couldn't make it down. Don't know when or where yet, but it's something we have to start planning!

Quote: Originally Posted by cjb0arder13 Azul Beach weddings are few and far between on here and I have lots of questions! Me toooo! I can't wait to hear a report! After our Travel Agent switch, we're only have a fraction of people sign up again My mom wants me to sue the old TA who lost our contract. Whatta jerk!!! I am really depressed by this news today. And I'm getting mad at my FI for being so anti a big wedding that we ended up doing a DW. I wish I weren't such a damn pushover!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by amybermuda I got a pair at my shower too! Sara - what? This sounds like a job for your bridal party! Do you think you have someone you can tell that will get the word out or throw you a happy engagement party? Doesnt have to cost a thing - just meet after 5pm for drinks somewhere?! I think I'm going to buy them for myself We're not having a bridal party. We're very modern and neither of us wanted a wedding party, which worked out perfectly. His father wanted to throw us an engagement party but my FI is so stinking modest that he doesn't want it to be another "buy me gifts" occasion, since we're doing the DW and the AHR. And we've been engaged since October, so it's a little late for that But, I do have a couple of incredible friends that are getting me excited. I was actually a bridesmaid in one of their weddings 2 weeks ago, and even though she's not an official bridesmaid, she and another girl are excited that my wedding is next and are planning all sorts of stuff. I am so grateful to have them as friends!

Oohh look what I just found! So fun! “Just Married!” Flip Flops

Quote: Originally Posted by amybermuda Don't worry - it'll be your time soon - I actually talked more on this site daily about my wedding than I did weekly to actual live people!!! Are you doing an AHR or do you expect all of these people to come to Mexico? Just curious b/c we are doing an AHR b/c FI has a big family too (6 kids - even tho some are step) and most of them had kids and therefor eno $ to come to Mexico. Thanks, I really haven't felt like a bride yet because of them completely ignoring us. I don't even think any of them congratulated us. We are also doing an AHR, haven't worked any of those details out yet though. My FI's two brother's can't go because the one's wife won't travel with their 2-year old and the other's wife is expecting, so that was how I was able to convince my FI to do it. He thinks it's just another way for us to ask for presents, but I just want to be sure we get to celebrate with everyone. And - we spent gagillions of dollars on all of these people for their weddings and babies, so why can't I want presents too?

I am EXTREMELY sensitive, even though our wedding is months away. My fiance's sister is getting married next month, and his brother & sister-in-law are having a baby in Sept (he's 1 of 6, big family) and no one is even acknowledging that we're getting married. I know this is me being a spoiled brat, but is it too much to ask to have them ask me "how's it going?" It really has me upset.

Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd For reception options, you'll need to email your WC to find out which areas are available to you. Karisma has recently changed what the options are for their private receptions, plus the location also depends on the number of people you have going. Some of the areas, like the Wave Lounge, can only accommodate a small number of people for a sit-down dinner. We're having around 40-45 people. For now anyway, who knows who will back out by November! Quote: Originally Posted by taylorwd You should look up reviews on here about bringing your own Ipod docking station. Some say it worked out okay for them, others say that with breezes and ocean sounds, they couldn't get their music loud enough. We're renting their sound system and playing music directly from our laptop. I will, thanks. My FI has the same ipod dock that they rent out, it's really good but I'll look into in more.