nikkimadril

Quote: Originally Posted by cindyshininger There was no limit, but they had quite a few bottles that were like $40 or so and when you use your coupon it is not to bad. The one that ordered, stepmom, didn;t look at the list, she just let them recommend some. It is fine if you pay attention to the list and prices. We only had 15 people in our group. It was greatm it was just our fault for not paying attention to what we were getting. Of course they want to sell more, you just say no. We had the mexican trio, because it was in the package. I do not think we needed them. They played at cocktail hour and it was loud and almost in the way. Just my opinion, you may like it. We were on the balcony by Desires lounge, whick was real nice, but like I said, I wish we had not had them. We also did the ultimate and there is a difference between menus. We ended up mixing and matching menus. Since the ultimate is the higher end, we had no problems picking off the gold too. I think we could have gone with the wine cellar the night of the wedding and then everyone orders their own dinners. GREAT FOOD They order their own drinks and you order the extra wines. And they did not rush us out of there either. I think you would be happy with that. Ah, perfect. Thank you so much, I think that's what we're going to go with for the wedding. The wine room sounds right up our alley and I have no problem spending $40 on a bottle of wine. BTW, what are the coupons you're referring to?

Hi! I'm doing the same colors, can you tell us what all is still available please?

What is still available?

We're doing different colors. I had a hard time choosing colors for our wedding in Mexico, could not decide between orange and fuschia or blue and light brown (sand). So we picked blue for the destination wedding and orange and fuschia for the AHR. We're doing minimal decorations in Mexico so it wasn't too big of a deal to not use them again.

We're doing a photo booth. Found a company in Denver that does it for a very reasonable price. For each photo strip that is printed there are two copies, one for the guest to keep and one for us. We'll have a guest book set up and put our copy in there and have them sign it. I am so excited for this!! http://getboothed.com/

Quote: Originally Posted by allegraapple Sorry, I don't have any pics of the room, but I thought it was a super cool vibe. Feels like you are in wine bar (go figure). There are bottles of wine lining the wall, and it's a nice private space. Max capacity is around 25 people. Sounds nice, and I think we are probably going to have between 15 and 20 people so it should be fine as far as capacity. Quote: Originally Posted by cindyshininger We used the wine room for our rehearsal dinner. You can order from both restaurants like lilly129 said. The food was out of this world. BUT the cost of some of the wines are $$$$$$. One they suggested was $275 and we did not check the price before hand. So be aware of what you are ordering. It ended up costing us $475 for 3 bottles of wine!!! It is nice and private, you get GREAT service too. The first night all 15 of us went to the mexican restaurant and had no problems getting a big table. Wonderful time and at no extra cost. It seems a bit carzy to pay for food and drinks that you actually have already paid for. We had the reception in the Asian restaurant. We did it as a private one, and it was real nice. The air conditioning was a plus. The menu was picked ahead of time, but all the food was delicious. How many people did you have at your rehearsal dinner? $475 is a lot for 3 bottles of wine, is $275 average or do you think that was on the higher end? I'm with you on the reception thing, I have a hard time swallowing the cost of food and drinks at an all-inclusive for such a small group. Originally we were planning on a large group which would have made a restaurant unlikely. Quote: Originally Posted by BethAnne Cindyshinninger: Do they set a a guideline as far as how many bottles of wine you HAVE to purchase in order to use the room? Or just one bottle and you're set? I'm loving the idea of the wine cellar.. but i have a small group 10-12 and no way am i paying for a private reception when everyone there is paying a ton for our all inclusive benefits anyways. =) Thanks Good question, I would like to know this too. I emailed Ana to ask her about using the wine room but I'm still waiting to hear back from a previous email sent over a month ago, so we'll see. The wedding is 2 months away, hopefully as it gets closer she will get back to me quicker. Does anyone have a menu for the Italian restaurant? I looked at the photos on Facebook but could only find pics of the French and Mexican menus.

Quote: Originally Posted by lilly129 Hey Nikki - you'd get to choose to have your guests order off the Portofino Menu or Bordeaux's Menu. Both have been raved about so I'm sure either one would be excellent for your guests. I think maybe on facebook someone posted a picture of a few menus so you could see what each restaurant has. Perfect, thanks so much. You're the best! I will hunt for the menus now.

Quote: Originally Posted by aubry My wedding is July 15 and I have 10 orange and 10 fuschia sashes, as well as a couple of turquoise and fuschia overlays. I'd like to get $10 for all which covers my shipping from linens direct. PM me if interested. PMing you! I'll take them

Quote: Originally Posted by amberm410 I used Juan Navarro and he does such an awesome job! He is not the resort photographer though so you need to request him. The resort photographers are different. I heard good things about them too but just looking at the differences I liked Juan's creativity. Sorry I don't know about the sit down dinner options as I reserved the wine room and was able to order off the French restaurant menu. I think this answers one of my questions. So everyone at your reception was able to order whatever they wanted off the French restaurant menu? Do you remember about what you paid for the upgraded wine?

Quote: Originally Posted by lilly129 BethAnne - you should talk to Ana about the wine room - I've heard from her and others that it's beautiful. Although you do have to buy upgraded wine to use it the cost of the wine is minimal compared to the cost of a private reception. It might be a nice place for your group! Does anyone have pics of the wine room or any idea what the menu would be if you were to have your dinner there? We will probably have less than 25 people, and I wouldn't mind buying a few bottles of upgraded wine if it means not paying for a private reception.

Quote: Originally Posted by EmmaGaussoin This is the same information that Ana gave me. It is much too hard to pay that when I can pay for my own sound system for less than that. Exactly. Especially when you can use it again if you buy it yourself. I'm still looking for the perfect sound system... Emma, what do you think of this? http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Portabl.../dp/B002BSH9TE

Perfect. Thanks everyone!! I'm definitely going to wait. I love this web site...

Quote: Originally Posted by jpcmartin Nikki and Emma- What price information do you have to use the sound system from the resort? I believe when I spoke to Ana she told me that the price for the sound system would be under $400 for both the ceremony and reception. Maybe this is because we are not having a cocktail hour. I was told $180 for the ceremony and then $180 per hour after that. With the ceremony, the cocktail hour, and then a 2 hour reception that's $720. Seems ridiculous to me.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I definitely would prefer to wait. I won't run into any problems legally when we get back though? I'm not sure how that works as far as the paperwork. When I change my name, I just need the marriage certificate, it doesn't matter how many days it's been since we were married before I change my name?

Ok, so after much discussion between FH and myself, we have decided to get legally married here in the States before our "wedding" in Mexico. Lots of reasons for this - it's so complicated and expensive to do it in Mexico, we've already postponed our wedding twice and really just want to be married already, etc. We are keeping this between the two of us and our anniversary will be on the date of our wedding in Mexico. We're planning on getting married here in July. The wedding is in September. Now, here's the part I need advice on; do I do the name change thing now, or can I wait until we get back from Mexico? I have already bought our tickets and have my passport with my current (unmarried) name. I have read that you should wait to change your last name until you get back because if something does not match up it can cause a world of frustration when traveling. Advice please?

Quote: Originally Posted by mlabbe We paid for it out of our wedding budget. My wedding band also came out from that, so that was our reasoning! Same here. We budgeted for both wedding bands and mine was a bit for expensive than his!

Thanks for the information...testing

Quote: Originally Posted by EmmaGaussoin Bummer! Thanks for checking that out. I'm still on a hunt for the perfect ipod dock. No problem. I am still on the hunt too, so let me know if you find anything

Tripadvisor really helped me. But take everything you read there with a grain of salt, because of course there is always going to be that really difficult, impossible-to-please guest at a hotel. I really liked Dreams because they are known for destination weddings (the one I chose does 3 weddings a day). Once I picked a chain, tripadvisor helped me narrow down the specific hotel based on guest photos and reviews. Hope that helps!

Perfect, thank you!

Quote: Originally Posted by EmmaGaussoin I really liked it too and I'm sure I will use it again. I'm not quite sure how big it is (if I can carry on). I haven't bought it yet but I am definitely thinking about it because I don't want to pay for the DJ or the sounds system at the resort. I will check the measurements to see if it is small enough to carry on. From reviews it seems that the bose system may be too quiet for the beach. The reviews for the Ion system seem better. Good luck to you and I will let you know how things go if I do get it. Hmm...weight is 45 pounds and measurements are 22.5X19X15.2 inches. Height and width and weight is too large for Frontier as a carry-on. Boo.

Quote: Originally Posted by amberm410 Congratulations! Your wedding is not very far away! We carried my dress along with my FI suit on the plane. We had a connection so one one of the flights the flight attendant hung them in the cock pit and the other flight we had to lay them across bags in the overhead. After the wedding I sent my dress and his suit back home in my mother's suitcase. I checked the TSA guidelines and you can bring your wedding dress on with you, it counts as one of your two allowed carry-ons.

Quote: Originally Posted by EmmaGaussoin I think I am going to buy this or something of the sort because I just can't see paying that much per hour to rent their sound system. Just another suggestion to you guys. Amazon.com: Ion Audio iPA03 Portable PA System with iPod Docking Adapter: Electronics How would you get this to Mexico? Carry-on or pack? I love this idea, especially because we are having an AHR and I can use this for both!

Quote: Originally Posted by roxmysockz SDbeachgirl - Congratulations on being a Mrs now!! Thanks so much for the review glad you enjoyed it even with some issues. Cant wait to see any pictures x Yes, congrats and thank you for the review! I was originally a little worried because we first scheduled our ceremony for 4:30 and then I checked the sunset times and wanted to push it back to 5pm. Ana refused but from everyone's reviews it seems like the ceremony usually starts half an hour later anyway! So that's hopeful...lol

Quote: Originally Posted by 21aholden The $60.00 is with tax. Here is a line from an e-mail I receieved from Yazmin "the charge per guest is $ 26 usd + 11% taxes + 15% service for cocktail and $48 usd 11% taxes + 15% service per person for dinner." I don't believe there is a price difference for buffet v.s. sit down but I can't say for sure. I was told by Yazmin you CAN substitue the cocktail hour for additional guest. Hope this helps, best of luck! Ok, that makes sense. Thank you!! It's all a little stressful for me because we have not had anyone book yet and the wedding is three months out. The last email I got from Ana was her asking for my guest list. Trying not to freak out but it's a little nerve-wracking!