82turtles

That's a really tough call... it's hard to imagine these big family events without the kids in the family, yet you don't want to potentially sacrifice your dream resort if no kids end up coming anyways. In our case, FI has a daughter (14), so there was no way we could go to an adults only and leave her out!! That was the main driver, but I also felt like I wasn't going to dictate that people couldn't bring their kids -- it would be their choice one way or another. Most aren't bringing their children for financial reasons, but we do have a few that are coming. I would suggest you talk to your brother and sister in law to get a feel for if they would even bring their kids at all. If they are the only ones with kids who might be coming, and they say no, absolutely not, then that makes your decision easy! Good luck!

The sunset times vary a lot depending on the time of year you're there. I looked it up online, and for mid-to-end of August 2011, the sunset time were sometime around 7:10-7:15pm. I read in a del Sol blog once that they recommend the ceremony starting about an hour or so before sunset time for the best light and pictures. In comparison, the sun will set at about 5:05pm when I'll be there, so I have scheduled my ceremony for 4 pm. So while 6 pm may sound late, for your time of year, that's probably going to be you best time if you want those sunset shots right after your ceremony. I am having my ceremony on the beach, but moving to the beach terrace area for the rest of the evening. One of my co-workers got married at The Royal in Playa earlier this year, and she had everything (ceremony/cocktail/dinner/dancing) all on the beach and said it worked out great, so I'm sure whatever you choose will work out great! Hope they get everything straightened up quickly with your reservation!!

Hahaha, that just cracked me up. I had to do the SAME thing to get half the addresses for his side of people! I had one of FI's best friend's wife get a lot of addresses for me, too, since he wasn't making any headway on that. Must be a guy thing...

Last I heard, there is an outside vendor fee of $300 per category (i.e. would have to pay that fee separately if having outside florist, outside DJ, etc). The exception is for outside photographers -- only have the $65 fee. I have heard that you don't have that $300 fee if you go pick up the flowers and bring them onsite yourself, or perhaps even have them just deliver to the front desk and then set everything up yourself. I have thought about doing that, but really don't want to have to spend my morning running around setting up all the flowers (or make a friend do it) when we should be getting ready and just relaxing before the wedding! I had originally planned on doing real touch, but now that I am finding more and more things I need to bring down to Mexico, the less I want to worry about finding space in my luggage for bouquets for me and my 5 bridesmaids!! The flowers I have seen of the resort's florist don't look too bad at all, so I'll probably just go with them.

I assume you mean for the dinner in the wedding package? No, it is cheaper for kids (about half price), but only if you serve them food off a special kid's menu (chicken fingers & spagetti or cheeseburger, that kind of thing). If you serve them the same meal as the adults are having, then you pay the full price.

Hm, might look like favoring one of the other if you set the in-laws with one set of your parents.. Would one big long table work instead? They could be seated on opposite ends and have other people fill in between. Just a thought

I'm doing almost exactly what you mentioned below! After coming across this site, of course I wanted to go all out with large OOT bags filled with great, but a friend got married in Mexico a few months, and she said not to bother with them. They were more pain than they were worth for packing and such, so I decided to scale back a lot. I am doing small paper-type cheap gift bags and will have in there the welcome letter, itinerary of events, activity book (fun little games and such), photo share card, key card holders on lanyards and some koozies. Might throw in some other small additional items, but we'll see. As for the wedding party, we paid for all of their outfits so as to lessen the burden of being in our wedding (other than the obvious hotel/flight expense). We will be giving them small gifts of some sort, but haven't decided what just yet.. FI is thinking of taking his guys out deep sea fishing, but I don't know yet. I found some cute personalized beach towels or maybe I'll get them all sarongs or something. Don't worry about doing OOT bags if you don't want to. Not everyone does, and more than likely your guests won't know the difference!

Thanks for the info about Anel! I am planning on a welcome reception, but to keep it free we were just thinking of doing a dinner in the Market Cafe (buffet). I believe they will more or less block off an area for the group so it's semi-private. I just can't justify paying $22 per person plus tax & service to have it in one of the restaurants with a set menu, on top of all the other add-ons at this point! Another idea I had thought about was a meet-and-greet at one of the bars. More casual that way and people would be free to go wherever they liked for dinner still. We'll see..

Sad to hear that Sandra is no longer there. I had read reviews that said she was amazing and did a great job with their wedding! Hm, that's a good idea contacting Anel.. I should email and make sure they still have all my info and reservations confirmed! Is Anel's email the same as what Sandra's was?

Very true.. thanks for making that point!!! I had been thinking the same thing but never said it

Thanks for sharing that eBay seller's name! I did some more research on it, and having wire-free ones might make the resort more likely to let us have them. Still need to check to be sure (fingers crossed!)

Replied to the new thread..

Thought I'd reply to this thread so we get shifted over! Short answer.. I'd say you're okay to send it at anytime now. Long answer.. I'd say think about your guest list. If you know that a lot of your people will need to save up money or need notice to get time off work, I'd say send your info sooner than later. In our case, we decided to skip save the dates and just send out the invite with all the travel info way in advance, at about the time people normally probably send STD's -- we sent it out about 9-10 months ahead of the wedding date. Seemed really early, but I wanted to get it on people's mind so they could put down deposits, start watching flight prices, get time secured off work with plenty of notice, etc. Worked out well for us.. Out of the 40 people we know are coming, we have all but 2 with their hotel and flight booked, and we're still about 3 months out.

How much was it to upgrade to the color tableclothes and napkins? I've thought about buying and bringing my own, but just not sure it's worth the hassle! thanks, Sarah

^^ oops.. meant to say.. "new/upcoming brides or grooms"

Hi joda, Thanks for getting a hold of Tammy about that! I hadn't thought of starting a whole new thread, but I think it's a good idea and the best approach for the long run, so that more people and new/upcoming brides can find the info they need. If we stay with this thread, I have a feeling it'll die off as those who know about it get married and move on with their lives away from the forum -- as hard as that is to imagine right now!

If you know the name of a mod, maybe you can just PM one that is online? I know the home page will show you everyone that is online, but I have no idea who's a mod and who isn't! Anyways, what I did was post a new thread in the bugs and issues area, but I didn't get a single response. Sure, I think it would help to have more people ask!!

Those look so cool! Will have to ask the resort if they allow them. Also, anyone know how those come shipped?? Trying to limit my luggage if possible and it'd be nice if they came flat

Ah, maybe she did leave then.. I know her email signature also said manager. Guess I need to find out!!! The thread is slow because I think a lot of the new brides/grooms don't know to search for the "Paradisus" name since the resort has changed names. I tried asking the moderators to rename the thread, as I think that would help it at least come up in searches for Now Sapphire, but no response

Hmmm, I had been working with Sandra but haven't had to contact her in a couple months, so I'm not sure. Back when I first started contacting the resort, there was both Daniela and Sandra, so yes, I think they normally have more than just one coordinator. Maybe they added to their staff?? Hope Sandra is still there, since she's taken care of everything for me so far and I heard she was great!

Hi preciosa, You're welcome! Glad to help They used to allow things to be switched out, but about a year ago or so they more or less changed their stance about that, so it's not as likely anymore. In a webinar I listened in on back in September, they said the packages are as-is, you can add to them (for a cost of course), but if you don't have a need for what is included, they will not discount that out of the price, nor will they swap out for other services. It never hurts to ask though. If things are close or in the same kind of category they may be more willing to work with you. For example, since I have an outside photographer already booked but the package comes with some photography, I asked if they could have the resort photog take pictures of our welcome dinner the night before instead, and they were fine with that. I may try asking if that can be changed to some videographer time instead, but I'm not expecting them to go for it!! I think they will let you give away your package extras. For example I've heard of some girls giving the private airport transfer to their grandparents, or giving the included massage to a friend who had helped a lot with the wedding. Could make for some special gifts for a few select guests if you have no need for the features and they don't let you exchange.

You may bring in your own vendors, but there is a fee of $350 for each category (i.e. you'd pay that fee for an outside florist, again for an outside DJ, etc). For outside photographers though the fee is only $65. I am using an outside photog, but just using everything else through the resort (flowers, decorations, etc, etc). Why did I pick this resort.. many, many reasons. Primarily it was because compared to other resort brands I was considering, it seemed to have wedding packages that included a lot for a good price, given that you get the ceremony, cocktail hour with appetizers, and private seated dinner reception for 25 people included in the price, plus extras like the massage, hair/make-up, and stuff. Granted if you go over that 25 guest number, it gets VERY pricey, as I'm finding out since we have more coming than I expected, but I'm still happy with the choice of resort. It looks beautiful and all the wedding reviews have been positive. Some other reasons: the reviews of the resort itself overall were very positive, it's family friendly (we have kids coming), affordable for guests but still a very upscale/luxurious resort, no wristbands, no reservations, close to the airport, more private-feeling beach compared to the Cancun area, among other reasons. Good luck with your decision!

Welcome! Yes, we reserved our wedding day first, then booked the travel.. We were very flexible on dates - didn't have any particular 'special' date we wanted, so in our case I researched a lot and picked a resort first. Then once we had that decided, I contacted the wedding coordinator to get a list of all the availble dates they had within a 3-4 week period that we were looking to travel. Once we had the resort and wedding date secured, then we booked the travel portion. I figured I didn't want to get all the travel set only to find they had no days available!

They have you pick your ceremony and reception location just so they don't double book the same spot. They try to limit to one wedding a day, but they will do a max of 2 in a day if necessary (which is why you have to pick the locations up front). If you get down there and there isn't another wedding scheduled for your same day, I'm sure they would let you switch after you take a look at the options in person. Sandra sent me a document with pictures of the 2 main selections - Tequila Terrace or Beach Terrace. Let me know if you want me to email you that document so you can get a better idea of what each place looks like for a wedding. As for your other questions: 1) In the Divine or Eternity package, 25 basic chairs with white covers are included. If you need more chairs of that type it is $5 each. There is an upgrade option to "tiffany" chairs, which would be $10 each (would have to pay for all chairs of this type, none included already). 2) If doing the Divine or Eternity packages, there is no $500 private event fee for the reception. However, if you wanted a private event for a rehearsal dinner or welcome dinner or something, the fee would apply. 3) To be honest, I've had pretty good communication so far with Sandra. When I was booking and confirming my date, she would reply within a couple days usually. I was pleasantly surprised, given what I'd heard about slow communication. Then later with asking specific questions, I would just send one big email with the questions, and usually got a response within 3-4 days with answers to everything. I haven't had to email or contact her in a few months, since most of my questions have been answered at this point. I'm trying to be pretty laid back about things, and realize that as long as I have my stuff in order for our meeting on site once I get down there, everything will end up just fine!! Let me know if you have any other questions! It looks like an absolutely fabulous resort, and I can't wait to get there! Just under 4 months for me

Hi RFinger, Just sent you a PM with what our quote was. Time of year I'm sure is a big factor in prices, but let me know if you have any questions! thanks, Sarah