jaccat15

this is great - thank you for sharing!

thank you !!!

covering everyone's fee's is amazing - we are only covering the maid of honor's hotel and then giving the rest of the bridesmaids extra gifts in their welcome bags - i got cute beach cover-ups from victorias secret, jeweled flip flops from jcrew and little straw beach cosmetic bags. for the groomsmen, my fiance paid for all of their outfits for the ceremony since it was specific - white linen shirts and navy linen pants.

i would LOVE to use vista for my welcome letters for the OOT bags. What do you use for that?

great list! thanks for sharing!!!

yes! Cecilia can send you the book of options. First give her an idea of what you are thinking so she can prepare the info for you

hi everyone! i can't believe my wedding is 2 1/2 months away - crazy how time flies!!! does anyone have any info concerning hair and make-up appointments for the bridal party? how does the spa handle this? any experience? i have 5 bridesmaids plus my mom, the grooms mom and grandmother - any thoughts are appreciated!

That makes sense then - as long as they are on the beach it's public property basically.

oo thanks for clarifying!!!! good to know

No children are allowed at this hotel - even to visit for the wedding. The best option if you have families traveling is to have them stay at a nearby family friendly hotel and then the parents can come to the wedding, leaving the children with a babysitter at their hotel. Any guest for the wedding that comes to the hotel for the wedding from another hotel will have to pay a $100 guest pass fee for entrance to the property. You can either pay this for them or ask them to pay for it - it's up to you.

hi ree ree! mine is almost 3 months away!! crazy!!!!! i'm having my ceremony on the beach but you can get cute ones on victorias secret.com like knitgirl said. Also look on Zappos.com too!! if you want something a little more fashionable, I know Tory Burch has wedge flip flops too that you can probably get at Bloomingdales or maybe Nordstroms. Good luck!!!!

hey Kits- it's really not a lot of money - i think it's about $25/pp for cocktails and desserts and i think the bonfire is $200. What gets a little pricey is the extra lounge furniture that we may want - i'm working out those details now with my fiance's parents since they are the ones throwing it I have a question re: placecards and table #'s - I'm going to assume cecilia has the table #'s but i want to confirm with you guys - or do we need to bring our own? We are obv doing our place cards here and shipping them down before hand but I was wondering about the table #'s.

Quote: Originally Posted by mellyrobert Hello Ladies! I have not been on in months but I have some questions for everyone... Our wedding date is 12/6 and we are trying to reserve Portofino for 20 the night before for our rehearsal dinner. Celcilia said that it depends if the resturant is going to be open that night. Has anyone had any experience with reserving or planning there welcome/rehearsal dinner? Also, how is everyone selecting there decor for the reception? Are you bringing stuff down or leaving up to Cecilia? I have our invites getting made and will send out in Sept. and JUST got my STD's. Sending them out this week- seems kinda late! All of you ladies are so organized! Hi!!! We are having a beach bonfire for everyone after dinner time so people can enjoy the resort on their own terms and meet us afterwards. We are thinking about having our bridal party and parents only do a hibachi table at the japanese restaurant but we're still thinking about it since it would be around 30 people including significant others and spouses. Cecilia said if we wanted, she would set us up with our own tables at the Caribbean night buffet which out by the pool terrace that night so we'll see. As for decor, I picked everything from Cecilia and am shipping place cards, fans, and the welcome bags ahead of time. I would rather not make this complicated and am leaving it up to the experts to make it a beautiful night

Quote: Originally Posted by LChavez Thanks. Will your marriage certificate list your marriage on the date your Rabbi married you in the States? This may sound silly but I don't want to have two wedding dates, but I also dont want to go thru the hassle of getting legally married in Mexico. yes, the marriage certificate will list the date in the states - which is 2 weeks prior to our date in mex - but we are really only considering it paperwork and our real wedding date will be the mexico date Our Kettubah (which is the Jewish marriage document) lists our Mexico date as the day we are going to be married under Jewish law. Def don't go through the hassle of the legal mexican wedding - it also turns into a bigger hassel when you get back to the US. You can always just go to the courthouse, get your license - the next day go back with 2 witnesses to sign off on it - and be done - seriously, you should only consider it paperwork. Have a symbolic ceremony in Mexico either officiated by your hotels recommendation or someone else, or you can bring your own person to do it.

you can do all the paperwork and legally get married by the state before you go down and have that same person marry you in mexico. i think the law says where ever you get your marriage license, the civil ceremony must be within that state - all paperwork really. we are having our Rabbi marry us the week before (in our apartment with 2 witnesses) and then having our real jewish ceremony in mexico - which will be our wedding day.

i know it's a lot of people we are inviting but we had to since it was hard for my fiance's parents to come to terms with the destination wedding idea - my parents were so excited, it was pretty funny! yes, we put the money down as a deposit and as people book, the TA is crediting us the amount to make up for it. it all will even out in the end but it's a lot of money to have to hold the rooms. I guess it's the trade off by providing your guests with a great rate. Since our rate is pretty good (I think) yet not has good as some other rates we have experienced at other (not as nice) hotels in the area, we decided to off set the costs for our guests by paying for everyones transfers to and from the airport. We thought this would help everyone by taking care of it. P.S. - MY WEDDING IS 4 MONTHS FROM TODAY!!!!! YAYYYYYYYY

yeah we cut the list too and we came out with that many people - crazy. the reason for the destination wedding is to keep it smaller so we think we will have anywhere from 40 people to 90 max - but you never know! FYI - the hotel is allowing us to wait a little longer to give another deposit on the rooms - til about mid-August , this should def help phew!

Quote: Originally Posted by pryncesslinda Hey girls I need some advice.. my FI is driving me absolutly insane about our group rates! We have a wedding planner up here who has been working on group rates with two travel agents and they have been going back and fourth for weeks now tryign to negotiate the lowest possible rates. All of a sudden this weekend my FI decides to start searching for rates on .com's... well of course when you get soem 40% off sales, rates look fab, but they wont hold those rates until next April. They can change any day! So he wasn't getting this so I had to call them and personally speak to them about our situation, destination wedding, not sure # of rooms, etc. Well they would give us these 40% off rates if we book today. Umm hello? my guests arent ready to book yet. Our dave-the dates only just went out! I just dont think he understands that we aren't just booking a 2 person vacay. Also our Planner and these TA's are going to be coordinating all of our guests transfers and other small details. So we had a big conference call today with our planner and the TA, me and my FI. They gave us thier final quotes and helped explain to him more of exactly what they are helping us with. I think they are good rates, and he thinks they are insane! The rates we got today were $100 cheaper per person per night than what we thought they would be when we signed contract for the actual wedding at SMB. Ughh! I dont know what to do. He doesnt want to go with the TA thats been workign on our rates for weeks, and I dont want our guests to "fend for themselves" either. What to do what to do! Please help im going crazy! Using a TA is much easier for you and your guests to use for this. Once you sign the contract with the TA, you will be all set and won't have to worry about anything. The rate you and your guests get through your TA are most likely cheaper than what is posted online and you will get the benefits of upgrades, resort credits and/or comps when your guest book through your TA as a part of your group. Your guests can chose not to book this way - and you can't really control this -but offering them the TA makes it easier for everyone. I am actually going through something now with my room block and the hotel and our TA - we reserved 40 rooms and they required a large deposit back in March when we signed the contract. Since my save the dates went out, only 17 rooms are booked and based on our contract, we now owe another deposit to keep the rooms held. My TA suggests we decrease the amount of rooms to 30 in the contract and she is checking with Secrets to make sure if we go above 30 rooms, the rate will still be honored. A little stressful also bc our invites are going out this weekend to 245 people and we are asking everyone to book by Aug.1 - ughhhhh!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by pryncesslinda general question: how can i find the wedding review page for SMB on here? I cant seem to find it. do we have one? im trying to get ideas for centerpeices and set-ups. Anyone else using Secrets Honeymoon registry? and if so are you registering somewhere else too? Both of our parents keep saying that we NEED to have another store option. But we live together and dont need or want another toaster, coffe maker, etc. And really would love (and need) help for the honeymoon, excersions, etc..... maybe since the whole "honeymoon registry" idea is pretty so-to-say new, the older generation just dosnt get it..... what are your thoughts? there is a great review a few pages back on this thread and you can also check the section of the board too. I sat with Cecilia and she showed me options for centerpeices and I picked one we are doing large glass hurricanes with candles and an assortment of our flowers in them and around the table. Nothing too crazy or fancy. Ask Cecilia to send you the pics of the centerpeices they have - she will help you! As for your registry - we aren't doing the honeymoon registry but we are registered at a bunch of stores. We have been living together for a year and half and don't "need" anything but we are registered for nicer stuff. We also have an amazon.com registry which we have a flip video camera, and a Wii on there you should also think about gifts for your bridal shower too. I have also heard of other things like registering for "seed" money for a house - instead of people writting you checks or cash, they can go through this site. I believe it's called the Wishing Well - but I could be wrong. Good luck!

you can also check the weather channel.com's website - they have a great little tool: Wedding Planner - Set the Date, Average Monthly for Playa Del Carmen, Mexico i was there in march and the evenings were strangely chilly this year, but i think that was trend everywhere this year. When you asked the locals, they said it was unusal for it to be so cold.

Quote: Originally Posted by knitgirl13 Now, if it was a DJ I could justify the costs but we said we'd bring music on an IPOD. I wrote back and told her we wouldn't need the use of it, but she just said ok and left the contract the same... I'm not comfortable signing it... Ugh, it's stressing me out already. I considered just switching to Excellence Playa because their coordinator seems more helpful, but my fiance really prefers SMB and the beach looks amazing so I don't know... Here's what it says on the contract: Sound Stereo System for Ceremony $180 usd +10% tax $ 199.80 (speakers, microphone) Music will be bring by their own. Sound Stereo System for Reception, 3 hours, $180 usd +10% tax $ 599.40 (speakers, microphone) Music will be bring by their own. Cecilia will revise the contract a lot for you - it really doesn't end up really having any bearing for a while anyway. We have made so many revisions and additions in the past couple months that the contract I originally signed isn't including a lot of our additions. I wouldn't worry - if you don't need the speakers or microphone, just let her know you may only need an extension cord and she will help you out. It's also very challenging getting your point across on email. TRUST me - this is the BEST beach in the area, i wouldn't switch. Take a deep breath - you can also wait until you get there before your wedding to make adjustments, it's not like a wedding in the states that needs every detail planned a year in advance. I'm 4 months and 6 days away from my wedding and we still have some little details to talk about with Cecilia but I'm going to wait until it gets a little closer.

For the ceremony, we are having a harpist (he actually plays in the lobby a couple nights a week and is amazing) and since we aren't using the photo package included in the wedding - Cecilia is crediting us $180 for the sound system to use for the ceremony. For the reception - we are using DJ Mannia - set up in the ballroom. Maybe that is what she has listed? I couldn't imagine it being $800 for some speakers and an extension cord. if you are having a smaller group, your i-pod might be fine to use. Bose and Sony make a great docking station and Logitech is another good brand. We are using our docking Logitech station for the beach bonfire the night before the wedding and it should be fine.

i had no idea what it was either until i asked it's also know as a "Welcome Bag"

I'm working with Samuel Luna and he has been a pleasure to work with so far. He even met us when we were down in the Riv Maya area for another wedding just to meet and get to know each other - very nice. He pricing isn't as much as Elizabeth Medino or Del Sol and his quality and style are comparable. Check him out: Flash Portfolio | Top Mexico Photographers | Mexico Destination Wedding Photographer Samuel Luna

Quote: Originally Posted by zelda062 Has anyone had trouble from their families by selecting an adult only resort for their wedding? Secrets Maroma Beach is on the top of my list, but I don't know how people might react if they can't bring their kids. My family specifically asked those with children under 18 if they were even planning on bringing them before we booked an adults only resort - we only have about 5 children in the family. It was a big deal to me and I was only focusing on family-friendly resorts at first. Once we got confirmation that they wouldn't be coming anyway, we went forward. I have encountered an issue with one of my family members who now is not coming due to this - and it does hurt me but we have let them know that they can stay at a hotel nearby and still come to the wedding (without the child). just ask your family members how they feel - if there are more than 10 kids, i may steer away from adults only - but remember this is your special day/weekend and people will do whatever they can to be a part of it. One of the members on here - Boo - is having her ceremony and reception at 2 different locations so the children can attend. I believe she is spliting with SM and Dreams. That is always an option too. Good luck!