beaz2be

 Oh My Goodness you ladies are soooo close!! I'm so excited for you!!

Hey ladies. Afraid I can't make it Thursday afterall. (work.... yuck!) Have a blast. Hopefully I'll catch the next one.

Hi Ladies, Â Thanks again for the positive feedback and support. I took a bit of a weekend break from the forum and wedding planning and am feeling refreshed about it all. You're all right that this is about our FIs and ourselves and the people who come to celebrate with us. And it will be a BLAST. No matter WHAT decisions we make about cakes, invites, flowers, food etc. etc. The right people will be there and it will be beautiful and festive and just exactly right for EACH of us brides, individually. :-) Â Welcome welcome!! This forum is an AMAZING support as you're planning. So happy you've joined us

You guys should go welcome some "newbies' (helped me finally get there and is nice to do for those b2b's too)

Thanks for the comments and support ladies! I really appreciate it. Glad to know others went through/are having the same emotions. Hopefully once my DIY invitations are done and out it will feel a LOT smoother. :-)

Okay ladies, I am writing this post in a hopes to affirm something for myself. I have been feeling and expressing a lot of negativity over my wedding this past week or two. Both on this forum and just a feeling I've had. It's felt like more stress than fun and that is NOT what I want my planning experience to be. I think partly it's because planning a wedding IS really stressful; partly because I picked up my dress last weekend - which was awesome - but has also made me a bit overwhelmed about this day actually happening and all that needs to be done before that; and partly because a lot of the work I've done to date hasn't resulted in anything tangible, other than bills to be paid. I've done a LOT of planning, hunting, working on invitations, yet nothing is completed and I think that makes me feel like nothing's been done (I know in my heart that's not true but still)... finally, the stress with the WC organization I think is getting to a number of us Brides2Be  So... I am writing it on here to have you guys help hold me accountable. I WILL have a positive outlook on things. I WILL be excited that I'm going to work on invitations tonight and that I'm going to also go look for wedding bands and to have my e-ring appraised locally (for our insurance co.); I WILL try not to get overwhelmed by the cost of the wedding and I WILL try and express my excitement to others (on the forum and elsewhere) and not my stresses.  positivity attracts positivity right?!?! :-)  Thanks for letting me use this forum to express myself ladies. I will try and be a positive reflection to you all as much as possible from here on out. (that doesn't mean no venting from time-to-time obviously. But hopefully not the majority of my posts). YOU GIRLS ARE GREAT!!

I'm so sorry you've been having such a difficult time with them. I feel your pain hun. How would we ever keep our heads without having this forum to support each other and to let us vent?!?! Here's hoping things start to work in your favor more with the them   I think the Canadian suppliers rates are always changing or something because I have the same day-to-day differences in pricing. But, just to set you at ease our rates are pretty similar to yours. I think our guests coming from TO are about $1399 or something (for the Oceanview luxury rooms)... not sure but I don't think that's the total lowest - I think Jr. suites (non-swim up) are a bit less. Vancouver rates are either $1418 or $1458 I forget. Our upgrade rate for premium worked out to be something like an additional $1050 for the two of us (I remember it was about $100 bucks more than doing the pearl package, which was what convinced me to go for it). Our grand total for the week coming from Vancouver I think is just around the $4,000 mark for the two of us.  Give or take, although it does seem the Canadian rates are craziness with their total lack of consistency, at least you know they tend to be somewhat similar. Â

Ditto everyone's thank you to Jaime. Those pics are great! Like others said, I think that 800pp for a whole extra week is GREAT. We're currently looking at moving to another resort for 5-7 days and haven't found anything NEAR that reasonable. Amanda, the bags are just GREAT! Thanks for sharing that website. It's getting so close for you!!! how exciting!! Â Â Have any past brides done the buffet? I'm more of a buffet girl myself than a plated dinner (more casual I feel somehow. And that way big or small eaters can get their fill). Is anyone else considering the Deluxe BBQ Buffet? I'm hoping that the food is good - as it seems all the food at AS gets relatively strong reviews. Â Â Quote: Originally Posted by JaimeCF2BR .... Â Are their any past brides that offered more than one main entree? How did this work when your bill came? Â This is my first successful Multi-Quote...woop woop!! Â

Hi Ladies, Quick question for you all. Is ANYONE having any luck with their WC these days and with negotiating the prices on ANYTHING?! I finally got a reply from Carolina from a few emails I've sent over the past few weeks. One was inquiring about flowers/bouts/corsages etc. and asking if there's any kind of quantity rate available and so forth if we get X types in certain amounts. (You may all recall my wedding is pretty big so looking at 9 bouts, 4 corsages, 6 bm bouquets etc). She came back with this:  Unfortunately when it comes to our onsite florists, they have the set prices and do not work around the prices since all flowers are usually importedL I did update the detail sheet with all of the flowers you gave me though..honestly, the best bet would maybe bring artificial ones or have them wear a flower in their hair…but I definitely know what you mean, I’m sorry that my hands are tied regarding the flowers…I always hear complaints and I feel terrible I can’t do anything, so I try to give you other optionsJ  I feel like this is all I ever hear from her "Sorry, I can't do anything". What exactly is her purpose then, other than writing things on the detail sheet? Should I stop bothering to try and get anything negotiated?  sorry this is rant-ish. I'm frustrated after waiting weeks just to hear this again.

JaimeCF2BR thanks so much for all your research. The info on the heels particularly helpful for me and I really appreciated all the pics too! Â Â Quote: Originally Posted by daniepps I'm not sure what you get in terms of packages but I really don't think the Premium room is worth it unless you're going to get a Premium Swim-Up. The regular premium rooms are no different than the Jacuzzi Jr. or the Luxury Jacuzzi. The Premium Swim-Up has a hot tub outside as well as the pool and they say people can't come to the premium side if they aren't in premium rooms but our guests came and got in the pool outside our room every day and there was never a problem. Â We really looked into this difference too and I agree that if you're going to do premium it's only really worth it for the swim-up w/ outdoor jacuzzi. Even then we contemplated, but we were quoted a price that was only about $100 bucks more to do premium swim up (with free wedding) than upgrading to jr. swim up (with pearl package). We knew we wanted the swim up so that helped make the decision. Â I think that everyone's correct, apparently only premium people are "supposed" to be in premium section but I've heard they don't really stop people from coming over. Other than that main benefits are the added aromatherapy stuff, the extra butler service and the wi-fi. Oh and something about no towel cards or some-such but I've forgotten exactly.

First of Daniepps I am SO SORRY to hear you're going through that. That just sucks and is NOT good business. This may sound totally callous (but I'm a lawyer so it's natural haha) I'd sue 'em. Seriously. It was a separate contract in an of itself (if you book before X you get $50 credit, if you book 21 rooms you get BGSF promo). You have it in writing. I think you'd have a good claim against them. Sorry if that's awful advice. I really do just feel angry for you and want to see you get what you deserve. Â Â Â I'm Canadian too. I asked our WC about this and she says that if your TA is a GIWC you qualify (no Canadian/American issues, unlike many other promotions). Our TA confirmed that she is a GIWC so I'm waiting now for the WC to respond by putting it on our detail sheet. Her response time has basically dropped from 24 hrs. to 2 weeks. I'll let you know if I come across any problems but you SHOULD be ok. I'd ask your TA about it directly. I think some of them like to keep it a secret and then act like they're footing the bill to get you some 'surprise' extras right at the end. Â FABULOUS INVITES Maggie!! Â

Love your photos. You looked gorgeous! I absolutely love love your dress. On a selfish note I also loved your photos because they've set my mind at ease about being able to wear normal heals and walk on the wooden planks without killing myself. hahahah!

Hi ladies, Just wanted to let you all know I'm still here and stalking Haven't had much to say recently (and haven't been doing much wedding related at all actually). But I have been scanning through the thread on a regular basis. Â TLGnhci I'm not using destinationweddings.com but I feel for you on the constant changing of rates and information etc. I feel like that too on my end w/ my TA and it is TOTALLY taking away from the fun of the whole wedding planning. It's just exhausting trying to keep everything straight all the time and haggle over every issue. Part of the reason why I'm just not doing much planning these days is I think I need to just let it all go for a bit because I was becoming waaay to stressed about it. Good luck hun. My main advice would be to keep any emails that confirm any prices quoted to you. Then you can always have them to fall back on. And try to remember that all this stress will be SOOO worth it in the end. Â (PS I don't know why that paragraph is bold and I can't seem to undo it. haha)

Sounds perfect! You're getting the word out to people right away and doing real invitations well in advance too. I think this is ideal (and I too think paper invitations are the way to go ultimately). Â I agree with the others that it really depends on your situation: when the bookings are due, if you sent out save the dates etc. Our wedding is at the end of May as well and we sent out Save the Dates about 11 months out. We're going to be sending out our actual invitations about the end of September/beginning of October (depending how fast they're done). Still gives people a lot of time that way. Â I personally get torn between giving people a lot of notice and being told that "etiquette would frown" on sending invitations out too early.

For what it's worth I think you should also go with what will work the best for YOU! We had a tricky time too because there were only days available at the beginning and the end of our planned trip. Then it turns out many of our guests from the USA are coming for 5 days (rather than the full week). In the end I decided to do it pretty close to the beginning of our trip - arrive Wednesday and wedding Friday, May 27, 2011. I made the decision for ME because I knew I would be a stress case until the wedding was over and my vacation could actually start. hahaha  So... try and think about what you want personally and don't worry too too much about everyone else. After all, if they're going all that way for your wedding they'll be happy to have it any day during their trip I'm sure. :-) Â

I haven't used the online chat so I have no advice on that. But I just wanted to set you a bit at ease. I have Carolina and up until this month she was pretty quick (24-48hrs) to respond. Recently she's been taking about a week as well. She apologized in her last email and also said she's swamped and that she has a TON of brides in the next few months. I can't help but think it might have something to do with the turn over there seems to have been with the Miami WC office and some WCs leaving. Anyways, point being I too am 9 months out, so I figure us 'future brides' are just being put on the back burner a bit. Â Not that this helps your frustration - but just so you know that others are getting the same turn around times. Â

Thanks Maggie (and all the ladies) for the suggestions on this. I talked to my TA about it and she set me at ease a bit. She told me that it's not really that the resort is booked up but that the majority of the basic level of room that the offer to the tour operators for the best price is pretty much gone. (She said there's only one left). So basically, it will be more expensive for people to book from here on out. She also said that we may need to look at different tour operators because some might be able to offer what others can't (ie. the allotment for them isn't used up etc.) Â If worst comes to worst and the resort IS sold out, then we will have to try and negotiate with the hotel for those guests staying at other places. I do think that it will be okay in the end. I'm still a little unnerved by the fact I'll be sending out invitations and there may be problems for those guests who try and come after they receive the invite, but I can't waste the energy worrying about something unknown that I can't control - - right?! Â Â

Yay for the dress!! Congrats. I think that's one of THE most exciting parts I really quite love that cake! I love the little mini ones. Do you know if they charge the usual price no matter what cake you order? The price of the cake is already one of those things that I'm flabbergasted by with AS. So I'm wary of requesting anything too elaborate. Â

Those are awesome!! I really like the star ones too. I may follow up on this with you in a few months (haven't been doing much of any wedding prep other than invitations these days). I'm going to probably checkout our China town and a few major Chinese dollar/department stores we have here in Vancouver. Maybe they'd have similar up here too..... Thanks for sharing!!

Ladies, Â My TA has me all freaked out because she keeps talking about how the resort is almost fully booked etc. (prices are skyrocketing and so on). I know it's the long weekend when we are getting married, so this may possibly happen, but we're still 9 months out?!?!?!?! It can't be THAT full already?!?! We had a guaranteed group rate available already and while many people took advantage of that I still have lots of guests saying they plan to come (but aren't ready to book so far in advance). I wasn't planning on even getting the invites out until October! Â So, what do I do if the resort is fully booked but we still have people wanting to come? Does anyone know if guests at the Azul Beach can come and use the Sensatori's facilities? And do you have to pay the guest fee (of $80 or whatever it is) for people from another Karisma property to come to the wedding? I'm not too worried if I know that, if the AS sells out, then people could book at the AB or another El Dorado resort and still come spend time with us and be at the wedding itself. Â Anyone have any insight to share?

Great review daniepps. So glad you had a good experience!! Â

I agree. Love the Mori Lee dress. I too like both colours but think the dark purple would look amazing in Mexico

uuuugh. That sounds tough (I don't do criminal law thank goodness. Don't think I could handle that kind of thing easily on a day-to-day basis). Well, welcome back to less intense topics (like bouquets and invitations). Â

One of the main good things about being a lawyer is I will never have jury duty. hahahaha. Hope you enjoyed it. (At least it was a relatively short trial).

That's my one main concern too with the idea. Although my mother vows she will take it as her carry on and protect it with her life. hahaha. Â