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Thank you Sally. I look forward to reading your updates.

That's great news. Thank you Ask Costa Rica for keeping me updated.

At least the Westin has a possibility of being an AI resort. They currently have 4 AI resorts compared to 0 for Hyatt. I'm still gonna keep my fingers crossed that I won't need to find a new resort to go AI.

Wow. You've done a ton of research. Congratulations on finally getting to plan your wedding. I'm also a Costa Rica bride. When are you getting married? June 22,2011 at the Paradisus Playa Conchal for us. At least that's what we have booked. The hotel is going to be changing Management so I may have to go looking for a new resort. I look forward to reading your updates.

Welcome back! I went last weekend and I think I found a dress. I really like it but. Yes there's a but, neither of the stores I went to had any of the dresses on my list. So I want to try a few of those on just to be sure. It's casablanca 1936. The picture doesn't do the dress any justice. The top is all sparkle and then the bottom has a bunch of sparkle to but you cant tell in the pictures. It really is so pretty. The hotel thing really sucks. At this point I'm in limbo because I don't know if: any one will even take over the hotel, if someone does will it still be an AI ( that's a must), If they'll have wedding packages. If the Hyatt takes over like Ask Costa Rica said, they don't seem to have any AI resorts. Which would mean I think we would switch hotels. The Hyatt didn't have any packages and the rates they show for weddings is CRAZY. Like $50,000 would get you 5 free nights. Wasn't planning on spending that kind of money. Thus the destination wedding. On another note I think I kinda found a cake I like. How about you have you picked something out? How about flowers?

Thank you so much Ask Costa Rica. Is it still going to be an All Inclusive? This is one of the reasons why I picked this resort for my wedding.

Thanks Ask Costa Rica. I really would hate to have to change locations.

There was a rumor going around another website that after April 30 the Paradisus Playa Conchal would not be resigning its contract. It's no longer a rumor. This is the reply I got from them on Facebook. Looks like I'm back to being a bride without a resort. ;-( I was so looking forward to this place. My only hope now is that someone else takes it over and can have it ready but June 22. UGH.  Megan now I really want to trade with you. LOL  Hi Paula: I am sorry to inform you that we will not be able to confirm any new reservations beyond April 30th, 2011 due to the fact that Sol Melia Hotels & Resorts representing Paradisus Playa Conchal will finish it’s management contract on the resort on that date. This close out applies immediately to all room categories starting May 01st, 2011 Another hotel chain will probably assume management of the hotel however we still do not have any information about it. In the meantime I would like to reiterate that our management and services will remain intact and normally operating until then. Please let me know should you have any questions. Best Regards,

These are great! Thank you for sharing.

I Love the Bubba Kegs!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never go on vacation without one, and wanted them to go in my OOT bags. I just couldn't figure out how to personalize them. Thank you!!!!!!

We are getting married June 22,2011. The reason we picked June was because of kids getting out of school. I will have a step son and needed to wait for him and my brother to be out of school. Spring breaks are different from state to state so it had to be during the summer months. Since June starts rain season I booked it for the first week after they get out of school. Â The reason for CR was because that's where my FI suggested. I'd spent the last year looking at places in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Neither of us have ever been there and there is so much to do and see. Since it's not very often that we get a 2 week vacation if we wanted to see CR now would be the time. I decided on Paradisus Playa Conchal. I wanted some place that had tons of stuff to do both at the resort and outside. That way if people want to go explore they could, or if they just want to hang out there's still lots of options. Â We are going down there in October to stay at the hotel for a week vacation. Although the FI thinks we are going to the Dominican, and I'm not telling him till we get to our layover flight. After I decided that we were getting married in CR I really didn't want to go to the DR any more. All I could think about was CR so I called the Ta and had her change our reservations. Now I'm counting the days till we get there. Â I'm glad you started this thread there doesn't seem to be very many of us.

Yeaa for you that's so exciting to be done. Can we trade places? At least for the planning part? Â I have made a few steps in the right direction though. No not on the dress, although today I did ask my mom if she wanted to be a part of that, of course she said yes. She's not afraid to speak here mind so I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Stay tuned for an update on that one. LOL So here's my few steps: I think my colors are going to be Aqua (of course) Chocolate Brown, and sand. I think it goes with the beach theme and I love Browns. I also picked up the paper to do my Save the Dates. I thought since P was so willing to help with spreading the word I didn't really need anything fancy. He kept joking oh yea I can spread the word no need for anything formal. Ya gotta love um. Although I think I'm going to wait and send them out after we get back. That way my TA isn't getting a million phone calls about prices when she really wants to wait till Nov to see if airfare drops. Â It's not a lot but, at least it's steps in the right direction. Are you sure we cant trade? lol

As of today it is official I am now a Paradisus Playa Conchal bride. Paperwork has been signed and sent back. Yea! The only problem is on the paperwork Lucia sent back had the wrong date. It was the date we are meeting in October and not the date of our wedding. At least it was the correct month. It seems crazy that I now have a date for my wedding.

Your dresses are beautiful. I did at least start to look online and bought my first Bridal Magazines. Really I only got the mags because my hair dresser was picking on me because I hadn't bought any yet. I think I want something with some type of straps so maybe V-neckish, kinda mermaid but up a little higher ( I don't know what they call that) I like beading and lacy. I did see a few in the magazines that looked ok, not perfect but at least a start. Guess I just need to head to a bridal shop and see what they have. Maybe next week. Â The surprise party was good. We told him it was an engagement party for us. Since he lives across the street it was a good cover for all of the cars and he really was surprised. Later in the night he said are you guys really engaged? It was kinda funny. Â After a long ordeal with Apple our TA finally got our hotel changed. Apple was going to charge $3600 for just the hotel it was crazy. So she got us a refund from apple for the hotel, and then rebooked it with someone else for $1600 less than apple. It was such a mess, thank goodness for a good Ta she really earned her money on this one. It also was good to see her work under a tough situation so I know she'll do a good job. Â I think Costa Rica in October is still at this point a surprise for p. I've been worried because I wanted him to print the forms from Lucia so I just sent him the entire email, not thinking that in the email I told here we would be down there for a week and could we set up a meeting. If he had been acting like his normal self I wouldn't have been worried about him reading the email, but since he's been so into this I thought he might just read it. Today he said he printed the forms and no mention of our vacation so he might be back to his normal self. Â Your prices sound more reasonable, I cant imagine that they would have gone up that much. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Â So here's a story for you. Logan and P went to a benefit garage sale yesterday and there was a wedding dress for sale. Actually I think it was a flower girl dress but Logan said Dad lets buy that for paula so she has a dress for your wedding. P said I think she may want to buy her own dress maybe we could find her something else. So when I got home I had a lovely chain, with a large flower pin and a plastic frog watch attached to it. Since he couldn't get me the dress he talked his dad into getting that for me. He was so proud, he made me close my eyes and walked me over to my new treasure. It was to cute.

Yea I finally got the reply from Lucia with the forms. June 22 isn't taken yet so if I get the deposit in I should be good. It said I could email the request form but how did you send the credit card authorization form back with a signature? Is this how you paid your deposit ? Her email wasn't very clear about how to send the deposit so I'm just assuming that's what that authorization form is for. Still not sure on the aqua price but really those details can be worked out while were down there. I have a meeting set up with Lucia for when I'm down there. I'm having my TA change our hotel for our October trip to the Paradisus. I decided that's were I really want to stay and if we are going all the way down there what the heck. I was trying to be cheap but in the big picture what's a few hundred $. Then I will really be able to tell everyone how great it is. So if you need me to do anything for you while I'm there let me know. I'm so excited this is finally starting to feel real. Tonight at work someone told me it takes 8-10 months to order a wedding dress. Ugh I wasn't planning on going shopping till January. If that's the case I have to start shopping now. Wasn't planning that one.

Thank you!

Nicburn, I might be interested. I can't see the picture because of my status. If you could email me the picture that would be great. I would also be using it for a TTD. Thanks [email protected]

I cant tell you how happy I was to see this post. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has to hear, why did you pick that place, Why cant you just do it around here. Maybe you should pick a place that's not so expensive. OMG people shut up! If you don't want to come to my wedding then don',t I really don't care if your there or not there. Ok well maybe I do and my feelings have been hurt a few times. Then I remind myself or my Fi reminds me how much fun we are going to have in Costa Rica. It really makes you appreciate the ones who have said, Name the place and the time and we will be there. No questions asked. As for everyone else they can look at our beautiful pictures and I can BRAG about how great it was. AHHHH I feel so much better now. I may have to keep a count of how many times I come on here between now and June 2011. LOL

Hi Megan, I love your idea for std's and wedding invitations thanks for the websites. I started thinking about std's and thought we would have a picture taken while we were in Costa Rica and then somehow using that for the std's but that's about as far as I've gotten. I love the Boarding passes and I've glanced at a few websites but that's it so far. I think once I finally hear from the resort I'll be more inspired to start looking at that stuff. Right now it still doesn't feel real since I don't have an actual date yet. Â The one thing I have done is talked to the Photographer and she is willing to go. It's really nice because I've known her husband since we were in high school and I've been stalking Carries work for over a year. www.carrievines.com. She will be staying at the resort as a guest with her husband so that will be kinda cool too. Usually she does an engagement session but since we won't be out in California prior to the wedding she is going to do a TTD. She loved the idea of also having p's son in the pictures so it should be tons of fun. This was really the one thing I've had my heart set on so I'm super excited. Â I was thinking about doing Bubba Kegs and then filling those with stuff as a welcome gift to put in everyones room. Since those won't really hold to much I may have to go the beach bag route also. I can already hear p complaining about taking a bunch of stuff down there though. I may have to just ship it so I'm not dragging stuff through the airport. Â Did you try your dress on some place prior to ordering it?

Thank you Becky we have actually decided to get married in Costa Rica since it was going to be to difficult to get there. Ok and my FI really liked the idea of going to Costa Rica since neither of us has been there. Thank you for your help and at some point I will get to Huatulco just not for our wedding.

I think I'm also going to have some of those last minute guest also. Including my father who is already asking why I don't just go to Disneyland or something? LOL No really he did say that today. To make things worse he isn't paying for anything P and I are doing the entire thing on our own. Which is fine, that's why we will get married where WE want and not where my dad thinks we should. UGH! I've gotten lots of where ever you want to go and when ever we will be there. Then there is the other 1/2 who are already telling me how expensive it is. Oh well. P is SOOOOO excited. I wasn't going to tell anyone till after I got my ring back, but he has told everyone he knows. It's so funny. He's acting like a girl. I just love it. Â I haven't started even thinking about dresses. My BF live in California and is due in early Nov. she really wants to be here for dress shopping so she said in Jan she would com out. So I don't even want to look with out here. Â That's it for now having a surprise 40th birthday party for a neighbor at our house tonight I'm gonna get in trouble if I'm on the computer and not getting ready. Â What kind of favors are you doing? Are you doing any group outings? Still haven't heard from Lucia. I'll hope for next week.

Thanks for the heads up Ask Costa Rica. Â Glad to see Megan that I'm not the only one who picked out her ring. I bought it yesterday and it is on it's way to be size. YEA!!!!!!! Â That's a good idea about renting a house. I will keep that in mind if there are more people who think it's to expensive. Or I'll take a look around when I'm on my Dominican vacation in Costa Rica. lol. I did talk to the TA yesterday and she said in Nov. we would get a better idea of the summer travel schedule for the airlines so I'm hoping that the air will come down and it won't be $2000 per person for a week ( air and hotel). Â

Today I changed our October vacation from Punta Cana to Costa Rica. It was the last day to make changes on our reservation and all I can think about is Costa Rica so I thought why not just change the entire trip. So I did. We will be staying at the Allegro Papagayo it was $1000 cheaper than Paradisus but I thought at least we would be able to see the area. The best part is I'm not going to tell P till we get to the airport. Won't he be surprised. I love surprises now I just hope I can keep it. I'm so excited this will be a tough one.

Ask Costa Rica I didn't think you were being pushy. I truly love how willing you are to share your vast knowledge and insight with us. It's been a huge help already and I'm sure as my planning continues I'm going to tap into that I few more times. When I was looking into Mexico and the Dominican those forums are filled with brides who are sharing the few bits of information that they get from the WC or have brides that are going down check into things for them. We are lucky to have an expert who's down there and goes to more wedding than anyone else. What more could you ask for. After I get my date confirmed with Lucia, should I let you know on here or fill out the form on your web site. My first pick of dates is going to be June 22,2011. If that's booked already then I'll do what ever date she has that week. I would like to do the trash the dress. I loved those pictures you put the links up for. Ours might be something new for you because I would like FI's 7 year old to be in some of ttd pictures. I think it will be great to have the 3 of us playing in the ocean in our wedding clothes. Â Megan, I love the date. It did make me laugh a little though. Only because of why you picked the date. I chose our date because P and I both have birthdays around xmas and I wanted to get gifts in the middle of the year to. I thought I'm not the only one who picks the date for the biggest day of her life around gifts. lol. Â Today I got an email from the US rep. it was a very nice email but didn't have any information that I hadn't already read on the web site. I was surprised by the price of the Aqua package. I thought I had read on the web site if was $3850 ish, but on the one she sent me today it said $5000. Of course I went back to look at the web site and couldn't find it again. Â So here is my ring story. P and I have talked about getting married since last year but $ was tough and we couldn't afford it. I had been research countries for over a year ( Mexico and Dominican Republic.) Last week I said we have the money now and I want a June 2011 wedding. He said ok how about Costa Rica. "Welllll, I haven't really looked into going there but I can". Ahh many wasted hours looking at those other place. Oh well. Costa Rica I will look. At first I was really excited, then I found out about rainy season in June, nope we cant go there. But feeling bad because he really isn't the wedding planning type I though if that's the only thing he's going to ask for I really should look into it a little more. Plus as we've discussed he's a busy body. Those other places really wouldn't have worked. Then I found out rainy season in June is really only 1-2 hours of rain per day and that isn't bad. Now the ring, so a few days after the first conversation I was at work and found this great ring that I love. After the sale price and my associate discount it was going to be a great price. So I came home and said I found this ring blah blah blah and he said well then go buy it. The sale doesn't start till tomorrow so I've had to wait a week before I can even buy it. Then it has to go out and get sized. I did tell him that once we got the ring he did have to actually ask me to marry him. lol I never do things the normal way. So really I'm not engaged yet. LOL He did ask his 7 year old son to be his best man though. After he explained what a best man was. I'll let you know when I actually get engaged. We are going to the Dominican at the end of Oct so I'm not sure if he's going to ask before we go or while we're there. The first question after you tell everyone you got engaged they ask oh when is the wedding? I want to be able to say June 22, 2011, Costa Rica, here is the information for the TA. We did tell a few people only because I couldn't keep it a secret but most wont know till after I get my ring. So that is where my ring is. At the darn store with my name on it. Â You said that you had a few people who weren't staying at the resort what is the name of the hotel the others will stay at? I have someone already who isn't going to be able to afford staying at the Paradisus but still wants to be down there for the wedding.Plus she was going to be one of my bridesmaids. Is the other hotel close? and is it less expensive? I thought I read some place there is one close but it's not an AI which I think is fine. Look only one question tonight I think that's a record.

Sorry Ask Costa Rica I didn't realize you were part of El Velo Photography. After going back and looking at all of the pictures it finally clicked. Â I looked up your June special which looks like a great package is that also for 2011? If you could also send me a price list that would be great [email protected]. Not that I would need anything more that what the package has to offer. I really think that the person I wanted is going to be out of my price range with travel expenses. Your pictures are beautiful and look like what I'm looking for "capture the moment not pose the moment". I was also considering doing a trash the dress. Is this something that you do? I think some of the best wedding photos come from that kind of setting. Besides I'm never going to wear it again I might as well get the most out of it. Â You guys aren't just Photographers at El Velo it seems your also great Costa Rica wedding advisors. Thank you for all of your help and I look forward to hearing from you.