CanadianLindsey

In the Casitas rooms the ceiling is angled so the walls of the bathroom never reach the ceiling. The toilet is in a separate room, but the doors are made of shutters so privacy is lacking and sound travels! In the Royale rooms, some have a separate toilet room and a shower with a glass door(like in block 55 or 53), but the old rooms(block 1-9) have an open shower with no door.

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/el-dorado-casitas-royale-by-karisma-all-inclusive My review is up!

Besides paying for all our guests trip, I would have bought my new hubby the gold version of his silver wedding ring he loves so much(it was $6K to get in gold!) And I would have hired a videographer too as we cannot remember much of our ceremony, it went so fast!

Lol!! We had lots of comments about those open concept bathrooms. Not so romantic when one person is "sick"!! Also one of my guests said he had water all over the floor of their bathroom (and all over his GF toiletries!) because of the open concept showers!

Jan 14 2:19pm-Trying "appear" as though I'm working until I'm done work at 3pm. I could go home early since I am done my daily quota(by law, I can't do more), but then I wouldn't get paid for an hour. I'd rather get paid to be on BDW!!!

It's funny how everyone seems to follow tradition and be thoughtful and polite when it comes to weddings, unless it's a destination wedding!! Why does the fact that my wedding is not in my hometown change the rules? People don't complain when they have to travel to a family member's/friends wedding out of province/state. What is the difference? I have spent many hours in the car driving to weddings in my friends small hometowns, paying for gas and hotels, using my vacation days...I never blamed the bride and groom for having their wedding there. It was my choice to go. People need to grow up and realize that if a DW is not for them, then don't go! But DO NOT bring the bride and groom and other potential guests down with you just because you feel guilty you cannot attend!!! Some people I will just never understand (mostly my MIL who was the worst leading up to our DW!!)

Here is what mine said: Join us as we take flight for a much needed vacation and tie the knot in a tropical location! Bride & Groom invite you to share in the sun, the sea and the memories of their wedding on day, month, year as the sun sets on the beach of the resort name Reply card: Yes-My bags are already packed! No-But have a drink for me!

I should be posting my full review of EDR this weeked! Sorry it has taken me so long future EDR brides, but as I started to write it, I realized I had a lot to say!! And I wanted to add in some photos. It is coming though, I promise!!!

We started dating in feb 2003, engaged july 2009, married dec 2010! Eight years together next month and we have never been happier!!

I totally didn't even think about the announcements getting caught up in the Christmas mail, so thank you for that warning! We decided that since we haven't followed any traditions yet, why start now!! Also, since I first posted my question we have received at least 5 more cards or gifts so it was good to wait so we can thank them all specifically for what they sent us. I have ordered personalized thank you cards through vistaprint and I should be getting my pro photos any day now, so it won't be too long until I get the thank yous and announcements in the mail. I will post a picture when I finish them! I think Ur's will say something similar to our invites "we took flight for a much needed vacation and tied the knot in a tropical location!" with our names and wedding date below. Any one have any other nice wording?

It is such a nice idea to ask them formally like that! They will be nice keepsakes too. I wish I had photos of the ones I made. I cut out ugly dresses from magazines like US weekly and then glued a photo of my bridesmaids face over the celebrities face. I told the girls that was the dress I chose for them to wear to the wedding!! They all had a good laugh and loved them!

I can't really see a need for a wedding planner if you use a resort that includes a coordintor in your package. I know with the Karisma resorts they have WC in Miami that you deal with by email/phone and then thay transfer all the info to your on site WC. Ours went very smooth and anything extra I needed(putting candles&favors on tables and setting up our guestbook/postcard table)I just enlisted a good friend to help with and bought her a beach massage for helping us out!

We have had lots of the same comments from our family/friends too. But in the end, we had 24 amazing people join us for 7 memorable and crazy fun days and everyone had the time of their lives! Now when the "no shows" talk to anyone that has come, you can see the look of regret on their faces! Makes me smile inside!! He he! Oh, and the guests that complained the most about how expensive AI is and how wasteful it would be...they loved it so much they bought a package for 9 more weeks at our resort!!

I can't even imagine doing an AHR! Doesn't it make for the same amount of work and money spent as if you did the whole wedding at home anyways? My parents wanted to throw us one, but we talked them into scaling it back to a small dinner at their home with the family that couldn't attend our DW.

I'm not sure what happened to my response on that last one! But what I had said was, I think you'll be ok with a 4pm ceremony, just make sure you start on time and keep all your peeps focused during photos so you get all the shots you want before the sun sets. Citlalli is really good at doing this anyways. When are your spa appts? Mine were at noon for hair and make up at the Casitas Spa. We were done around 2:30 and then had enough time to get back to my room and get our dresses on.

Quote:Originally Posted by rpingree001 Yikes! I'm getting married in 2 weeks and also have a 4pm wedding. I wonder if we should try and move it up a half hour or so? I'm sure the resort could accomodate and then still have our dinner at 6:00pm. Except that might mess up the spa appointments. Ugh! So excited that you loved Citalli though. I'm using her too and very excited!!

There is wi-fi in the main lobby only, as far as I know, but we didn't use it. The lobby also has pay internet (3 computers) half an hour for $6US.

We used an ipod for our ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner music and wedding dance. It was so much cheaper and just made more sense than a dj(we also had only 24 guests). The resort had someone run the ipod during the ceremony and it went very smooth. For the cocktail and dinner/dance we had our MC just start playlists and keep an eye on it for us. We had our guests email us 2-3 songs they liked and then incorporated them into our cocktail and dance playlists. I have to say, our wedding was the first time I have seen everyone get up and dance, all night long, and I think the fact that our guests had personally picked the songs helped!!

For many of the same reasons as you. We have heard about and witnessed too many weddings where the bride and groom spend tens of thousands of dollars and don't even enjoy themselves or spend all night people pleasing and worrying over every detail. We wanted an intimate, stress free wedding where everyone knew the bride and groom personally and we could just enjoy every second of it, being ourselves, having fun and making memories. I think we succeeded as our wedding in Mexico, just 3 weeks ago, was amazing for us and a huge hit with the 24 friends and family that spent the week with us! I highly recommend doing a DW!

I am wondering if other brides have sent out announcements post DW to guests who couldn't attend/distant relatives and family friends who weren't invited. If so, when did you send them and how did you word it? I don't want it to seem like we are fishing for gifts or anything. We are wanting to send out wedding announcements that include a photo from our professional photographer, but they won't be ready until January and we were married Dec 1. Is that too long? Also should we send them to our guests too, along with their thank you cards maybe? HELP!! Thanks!!!

We didn't have any safety issues. Us and our guests left the resort a few times to go scuba diving and to Xel-Ha/Coba and took tour buses everytime. They are great and really take care of their passengers. I would say for the Mayan area and Cancun airport, nothing has changed with safety or using US$ since I was there in 2008.

We just got back from our wedding at EDR on Dec 1, 2010 and it was amazing! Girls you and your guests will all love this resort! I'll be writing my full review soon, but I just wanted to give my thoughts on your question. The one thing my husband and I would change is our times. We had a 4pm ceremony(Gazebo 55), cocktails at 6pm(Health Bar), dinner at 7pm(Tucanes Bar/Pool). There was enough time in between all the events, but the sun goes down so early so we were scrammbling to get photos done after the ceremony before we lost light. Also, private events end at 11pm, so if we had had our ceremony at 3pm and dinner at 6pm we would have had more dancing time! Just little details, but things you think of after!! (we also only had our photographer-Citlalli Rico-for 3 hours so that affected our photo rush! We wish we could have afforded to have her longer, she was so great and worth every penny!)

I am going to try and recreate this hairstyle but with a bit more loose peices flowing from the bun(with the help of my clip in hair extentions!). I am not a fan of the perfect curl/prom look, especially for a beach wedding, but I still wanted an updo. Hope it works!

My FI changes our ceremony music everytime he listens to the playlist I made! Now he is not allowed to listen to it anymore! If you want something simple and cost effective for your centerpeices, you can do what I am doing and just rent/bring vases to pop you and your BM bouquets into. It helps that we only have 4 tables and I have 3 BM! Also vistaprint is great for last minute programs. We planned on making ours, but we left it to the last minute and then ran out of ink and paper! I figured it just wasn't meant to be so I paid for the fast shipping and just ordered the big postcards for programs. One more thing to cross of the list! Good luck and have a great wedding!

I am happy to see more EDR brides on here...seems like the EDR thread is so slow! My wedding is in one week so I will soon be able to share with you first hand details. If you have any specific questions or things you'd like me to check out/bring back, let me know before I leave for Cancun on November 27!