StephyD

Congrats on getting your day + time!!!!! YAY! That's so exciting :) As for fires, I didn't see any at all while we were there... I'm not sure what their policy is about it. As for gifts, for our girls: I paid for their hair + makeup (we had the Styling Trio from Playa del Carmen come to our room), I bought their jewelry for the wedding day, bought them each a tank top that said ''Bridesmaid'' or ''Maid of honor'', also bought them a ''Love knot necklace'' from Etsy and a body lotion from Bath & Body Works. For our guys: we bought their ties to match their suits, a tequila bottle and a bunch of little nic-nacs (sp?)... a beer glass, beer bottle markers, golf glove, special golf tees...

I totally agree with everything you just said. It's all about personal expectations and wants. No offense taken

Oh, and an update on our pictures: Claudia is sending our DVD with 3000+ edited pictures with FedEx TODAY!! Yay! )) She is setting up the online gallery and it should be ready next weekend. Then next Monday, she is sending us another DVD with 200-300 pictures that have made it through the 2nd round of editing. On top of that, she is letting me pick ALL of the pictures for our photobook. I'm excited! I can't wait to share some of our pictures ))

I'll give my input as a bride who hired a DJ. Look at us arguing, Ellabaja Also no offense to everyone who didn't hire a DJ. For my part, I really didn't want to have to worry about doing anything our reception. I didn't want to stress on a playlist and I didn't want to assign any of our guest to man the ipod either. 1000$ can seem like a lot but to us, it was all worth it. Our DJ brought a nice energy to the reception, the music was great, they provided dry fireworks, they also installed some great lights and spotlights which helped set the mood and gave a nice glow to the room and they brought out balloons for our guests to play with when the party started. All in all, I think the DJ made the night even more fun! That's it for my two cents on the topic

I agree with EllaBaja, altought I booked DJ Mannia for our reception, using the iPod seems very easy and lots of brides do it. EllaBaja, did you have anyone MC your wedding? Most DJs will MC as well.

Why exactly do you think I should be getting a discount? The contract says 6 to 8 weeks and it's only been 7 weeks. She said she's been extremely busy with shooting weddings almost every day. She had all of our pictures edited and received a newer version of Photoshop and decided to re-edit all of our pictures with the new effects. She's suppose to send up the first batch of pictures early this week and will send the pictures with the new edits later on. Plus, we booked her for 9 hours and did a TTD that lasted 4 hours... She has a ton of pictures to go through. I wasn't expecting to get my pictures right away anyways.

It is clearly written in our contract that are pictures are to be delivered 6-8 weeks after the wedding day. (online gallery AND our picture DVD and photobook)

I wouldn't worry. You can pick your ceremony location when you arrive on site. They only book one wedding per time-slot (more than one per day, but not at the same time) so you can have the choice between all of the locations. Also, we had 68 guests at the beach gazebo. There is always a way to set up the chairs to make it fit. I'm pretty sure you can fit 40 guest at the garden gazebo.

Alright, you're a bad influence, I just emailed her again, hahahaha! See... I don't want to harass her TOO much... I'm scared that she's not done and we'll just be like, ''Oh, she wants her pictures right away, screw the last 100 we had to work on'', kinda thing... I want them now, but I don't want to loose any quality or quantity... Let's just hope I get them soon!!!!!

Gosh, it's SUCH a relief!!!! I was scared we wouldn't get it... especially since Rocio had not mentionned anything about the law changing when we were there and when I asked her about it (once I had read about it here on the forum), she didn't really have anything to say about it. No worries about the message, EllaBaja! Take your time Ohhhh... can I please take 2 minutes of you guy's time and vent? I still haven't received my pictures :( Ok, I'm over-reacting since it's suppose to take 6-8 weeks before we receive our pictures... and today is our 7-week wedding anniversary (lol). BUT... when I asked Claudia how long it would take, she said we should receive them the last week of April or first week of May. Last week, I still hadn't heard from her so I emailed her (again!). She then said we should get them early this week. Well, it's Thursday and still no pictures. I don't want to harass her so I'll just wait, but I just can't waaaaaait anymore! It's driving me nuts, I want my pictures now. Ok, vent over I feel much better now! Pheww!

Argh, I have the same problem. I'm from a tiny village (see, 800 people!) in the middle of nowhere. There are 2 rooms we can rent: one, that's at a super nice location, on a lake, tall ceiling, not super nice and pretty big (we won't fill all the space...), and the other one is at a fire hall, with darts games (boards) on the walls, and trophee's and what not everywhere... small, free... but UGLY. I was going to suggest the same thing you just said, hanging lines from one hook to another across the hall and hang lanterns... Maybe get some tall bases with tall branches or flowers? Tall plants?

Just had to share that we just received our legal paperwork back from Rocio this week!!! I was scared with the talk about the law changing... but everything went smoothly and we'll be able to legalize the wedding here, in Canada. It took almost 7 weeks to get our document (apostille?), which isn't so bad. Rocio had said it would take 6-8 weeks. YAY! :D

I can't remember the name of the package but it wasn't the diamond one or the renewal of vows... is it crystal? Anyways... it's the one at 2000$. To me, the upgraded flowers weren't needed since we got all of our flowers (except the ceremony table centerpiece) from an external vendor. Plus, Rocio didn't charge us for getting both of my dresses steamed, and my fiance's suit... considering we were already spending so much $$$ at the resort, she gave it to us for free.

Those of you who hired Claudia Rodriguez (or someone from her team) as your photographer, how many pictures did you get? And how long did you book her for? I'm wondering how many pictures we'll be getting and I wonder if it's proportionate to the amount of time you book her, I would assume yes.

Hummm, I'm not quite sure how to link my post... Go to page 76 (of this thread) and my review is post #752. Here, I tried a link: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/27733/any-grand-palladium-brides/750 Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll email you some picture.

I posted a few pictures in my review (see post #752), in case you hadn't seen those. I don't have my professional pictures yet. They take 6-8 weeks to arrive and it'll be 6 weeks tommorow. I'm expecting to have them any day now as Claudia had said they would be done sooner than 6 weeks. Fingers crossed! We booked her for 8 hours + 1 extra hour... and had a TTD that lasted 4 hours.. I'm assuming she has a lot of sorting and editing to do! She's making an online slideshow which I will post as soon as I receive it. I can't wait to have them! Did you get all of your pictures already or just the few that you posted last weekend?

I don't have my professional pictures yet, but this is my favorite so far:

Amazing pictures!!! You look absolutely gorgeous. Congrats! My bridesmaids had the same dresses as yours, in coral.

EllaBaja!! You looked gorgeous!!!! Your pictures are beautiful! I can't wait to get ours Congrats again!!!

I didn't see my DH before the ceremony. To me, it was one of the best decision. We were just so excited to see eachother and it was so emotional! He slept in another room the night before and I had one of the bridesmaid sleep in my room. It was a lot of fun! Our ceremony was at 3PM and it left us plenty of time for pictures. Even at 4PM, you would have lots of time!

The lighting was fine! It wasn't too dark at all. The pictures make it look dark, but it wasn't. We had 4 small votive candles on each table, but DJ Mannia had brought some spotlights, but overall, it wasn't too dark.

Congrats EllaBaja!!! :) I'm sorry to hear that you had a couple of things go wrong, but am glad to know that you still had an awesome day! I agree with you, you have to be very precise about instructions on how you want things. Honestly, I came prepared with tons of lists and spreadsheets and I even made some drawings of how I wanted things on the tables and what not. You can never be too organized Althought, I think Rocio thought I was a freak, lol! I'm glad to say that everything was perfect on our day. Not one little hitch (except the petal toss, but you can't control the wind, right?) How did you like El Grand Azul??? How were your flowers?? I can't remember who you booked as a photographer… was it Claudia Rodriguez? Did you do a TTD? I'd love to see some pictures I'm hoping to get my profesionnal pictures within a week or so… I'll post some more whenever I can.

You are allowed to bring candles. They do have an option for candles already. Ask Rocio to send you a picture of it. It's a lantern and you could just put some rose petals around it as a centerpiece. It looks nice. As for the table set-up for the a-la-carte restaurant, not sure. I did wear my actual wedding dress for the TTD, although some brides prefer to wear another dress and not ruin their real dress. To me, it didn't matter. Plus, my dress didn't get ruined at all. It was all wet and full of sand, but that's it. No tear, nothing, and I even had some lace on it. The water actually cleaned it as it got pretty dirty underneath after the wedding day We did our TTD shoot at the Grand Palladium. I didn't want to pay any extra to go to a cenote or Playa del Carmen. The grounds at the GP are gorgeous, they have a nice rocky beach which makes for amazing pictures.

Our guests all had to make their deposits up to 60 days prior to the departure date. We paid 100$ per reserved seat in advance and got our money back once everyone had paid their balance. We reserved the seats in September so guests could start reserving whenever they wanted keeping in my they had to pay their balance by the end of January. We didn't have a time limit as to when their deposit had to be paid since we garanteed the reserved seats by paying 100$ per seat... We were also with Transat Holidays. It might depend on the TA?

We just worked with Claudia Rodriguez for our wedding on March 31st. I can't wait to get our pictures We booked her for 8 hours + 1 extra hour. She arrived at 1PM, came to our room for getting ready pictures and sent someone to my hubby's room for the same pictures. We had pictures taken with family and friends after our 3PM ceremony... then couples pictures... pictures at the cocktail and throughout our dinner reception. She left at about 10:30, since we were running a bit behing on schedule for the reception. IMO, the TTD is soooooooooo worth it! We had so much fun doing it and I'm sure the pictures are going to be gorgeous!