Future Mrs. M

Quote: Originally Posted by jdrewett Anacj13 My wedding is at the Xcaret Chapel on 11-15-10! If you decide to do any additional candles or decor, we should share. I am bringing my photographer too. Exciting!!! I definitely want to do extra decor in terms of candles etc so great idea!! Our ceremony is at 2:30. What time are you doing yours? Also - how are you transporting all your guests? We are going to get buses but have to find good pricing options since we'll need two buses and limos too!

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan welcome and congrats that is another dilemma we are working on FI's suit and the groomsmen Hi! Where in CT are you from?

Quote: Originally Posted by Tricey628 Haven’t heard back yet about the contract but I can’t wait to have that done and out of the way too! I was thinking about the people not booking through the TA problem, and really, if that happens, worst case scenario we end up with less than 10 rooms booked and have to cancel it. But we would know that ahead of time I think, and I really doubt we would have less than 10. Becks~ Your cruise sounds awesome! So jealous!!  My 2 best friends were married before me, one has a 2 year old and is thinking about trying for another, and the other is pregnant. I can’t wait for the days when we are all able to take girl trips together…We never really did it in college since we were all too poor, and now it’s baby-making season lol! Ana~ My rates are about $192 so it’s a little more, but I’m kind of thinking that’s related to time of year? We are January, and Jill had said it goes up even more in Feb and March… All in all $192 sounds good to me, especially compared to what the individual rates and online rates were. Who thinks it’s steep? The free room I’m not sure about yet, but I was pretty sure it was a free room for the whole week if you book a certain number of rooms, 25 was the current number… All of our rooms are all inclusive, and I asked our TA to include roundtrip transfers for everyone too. Scottsdale is actually where I got engaged! I absolutely love it there, I lived in Phoenix for 2 years and spent a lot of time in downtown Scottsdale. It’s gorgeous. I think my high school graduation was at the Pok Grand Lol…. I’ve heard of a lot of weddings there. My immediate family is still in the Poughkeepsie area too, so I try to come back as much as possible. A few people have mentioned how steep it is for Mexico...I think they thought it was $185 Per night...but it's not. It's 185 per person per night. That's awesome that roundtrip transfers were included in yours!! Ours is only for their rooms. I think people would find it a little better if the transfers were included.

Quote: Originally Posted by lisanicole Did you go to Iberostar? How was it? I have never been there! We did end up going. We really thought the chapel was very cute and the area around it would have been perfect since it is private. At the end of the day we decided to stay at the Hacienda Tres Rios because that is what we had our heart set on and we're doing our ceremony at the Xcaret Chapel. We were able to see two of the Iberostar resorts - 1) I think was the most basic one and we saw the most upscale one. I wish we had taken pictures but we forgot our camera for that visit We were able to see the beach area there too - that beach is PERFECT and AMAZING!

There is nothing set in stone like everyone's mentioned. We are having our wedding on a Friday so on Thursday evening we are doing a huge welcome party for everyone/rehearsal dinner on the beach:) This will be a fun way to start off the festivities.

Typo! I meant Scotsdale!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kristin Loch I am Novemebr Riviera Maya at Dreams Riviera. Does anyone have any helpful info? I've never been there. Hi Kristin - we visited there during our site visit in December. The place is gorgeous and the rooms are really nice!! We didn't chose it because at the time we were looking for resorts with onsite chapels. The place is gorgeous though so you are going to have a great wedding.

Hi Girls!! Attempting to revive this thread for us Riviera Maya girls!!! We have shifted our wedding date to 11/12/2010 so that we can have our ceremony at the Xcaret St. Francis of Assisi Chapel! We have updated our website and hoping more people will book soon. How do you guys get people to book? I'm worried airfare will keep going up:/ What time are you guys having your ceremonies/reception. I heard from Xcaret that the sunset is at 5 in November....

Hey girls! Do you mind sharing what rates you got? For the free room was it for one night or more? Our rate for rooms was $185/per person. Some people think it's steep but let me know if you guys got a better deal. Also - do you girls know if all the rooms are all-inclusive? Someone asked me and I didn't know what the right answer was. When we were down there for Memorial Day there were some people wearing bracelets and the guy checking us in said it ws because they were not in "All-Inclusive". I'd like to know in case a guests books that by accident. Tricey that is too funny - I've been to a couple of weddings at the Poughkeepsie Grand. My Fiancee is from Patterson/Carmel. I'm from Stamford, CT so I love going to the Danbury Mall. I LOVE LOVE Arizona!! We went to Scottland a few years ago and fell in love with it.

Still so excited for you!! Congrats again!!! You have been so helpful with my wedding travel plans and hope you can find someone as helpful as you have been to me!!! Ana

I'll email you her email now. She's been really responsive and awesome to work with. Her name is Aura and we were also able to meet with her and she showed us both chapels.

Thank you for all your input - it really has been a ton of help. We only had a few people that were booked but their travel was booked for 4 days before the wedding anyhow. We reached out to most of our guests and they all understood and told us that they were planning on being down there early anyway. We are going to go ahead and switch days and have it at the time we want at the chapel we love!!! 13 was significant to me since it's been my lucky number forever...but I thought about it and realized that in this case it may not be that lucky since the ceremony time was going to be so hard to manage. We're lucky that the chapel is available on 11/12th and are so thrilled to be able to get married there!!

Since we're doing a Catholic Ceremony we were thinking of just doing the legal here right before we leave but haven't decided yet. A Catholic ceremony isn't recognized as legal in Mexico so we would have to do the civil part either here or there. We were thinking about doing it during our welcome party since we're having that on the beach the night before the wedding and signing the papers in front of everyone on the beach almost like a small beach wedding:) What are you guys going to do if you do the legal before you go? Are you going to have a real judge down there? Are you signing fake papers or the ones you're getting from your town City Hall?

Quote: Originally Posted by ahollo02 I am in the process of booking my photographer. I am using Cecilia Dumas.. she has great reviews and the price is good! She wants a 10% down payment to reserve the date. She asked me to wire the money to her bank and gave me the account number and such. Has anyone ever wired money before? How does it work? I'm assuming this in not weird to wire money to vendors, is it? You can wire money through your bank. I was asked to wire money for the deposit with our resort but I felt funny doing so especially paying the fees. There is a thread I posted with the same question on this forum and a few girls gave good suggestions so check it out. You could always ask her if she would take a credit card payment, that's what we worked out w/our resort in the end instead of doing the wire transfer.

We were having this same dilemma because the chapel we love was only available at 11am. We would rather keep everyone together and have it flow a little more smoothly. We wanted everyone to get the day to relax and unwind at the pool beach and get ready after lunch for our ceremony. We are doing a rehearsal dinner/welcome party the day before the wedding so it will be tough for people to get up that early especially all the bridesmaids since they'd have to be up extra early for hair and make up. I think if you do it later you give your guests more time to do their own thing. The in between can throw people off.

Quote: Originally Posted by badrianne The A/C bus cost $850 and held 60 guests. It had tv screens so it would have been fun to bring a movie or something. Great pictures! You must be so excited to have them back:)! Was the bus nice or was it more for a fun excursion? We are going to need to rent buses to transport our guests from the hotel to the chapel reception. Would you happen to have any pics of them? THANKS!!

Great deal on the bargain!

Congrats Mrs!! I hope your wedding was amazing!! Your planning thread is awesome! I'm sure all the details went over really well with your guests and in your pictures! I love the seashell for the ring bearer!!! Where did you buy it? You're so lucky that your FIs family member lives in Playa! I would love to use that idea. Do you know where his aunt got the personalized tequila and pashminas?

That's awesome! Do they have a website? I'm going to look on google now:)

Our hotel charges $3 per room for bag delivery. We are thinking of leaving their bags w/the front desk and having them get them at check-in.

They look awesome!

I love Paloma Blanca! I almost bought one and was so set on it. I'm wearing my Mother's veil and when I went back the second time to try it on with the veil it didn't work. The material is so perfect and light though! You girls are going to be so set with that in your destinations.

Do you guys know if their team is able to travel to resorts? Our resort is 10 minutes from Playa del Carmen and we have about 12 that will need their hair done as well.

Great job! I love all the items you gave your guests in the OOT bags. I'm going to look up those flasks for our bridal party

We havent picked our honeymoon resort yet BUT we are leaving the resort we are getting married at a day or two after the wedding and going to a different all adults only resort in the riviera maya.