Hanna20

Hi, I don't think there is much of a difference in cost for a leagl ceremony. You will have to pay for the bloodwork and then to have your documents translated (I'm not sure if that is done there or at home). The cost of the actual wedding package should be the same for symbolic and legal ceremonies (at least it is at my resort). I think if you explained to your FI all of the reasons that everyone has pointed out then he may also see the benefit in doing the legal stuff at home. It's hard to say because everyone will see it differently but hopefully the two of you can come to an agreement of some sort

Abbie, My sister got married at Bahia Principe Tulum and they did sign a certificate, even though it was not a legal document. This way they have pictures of the two of them signing and I even signed as a witness. If you are having a symbolic ceremony there is no need to have any legal paperwork (to the best of my knowledge anyway). We are getting married at the Iberostar Paraiso and they have confirmed that for us. Just to be on the safe side though you should ask your wedding coordinator and then you will have it in writing in case there is a problem. Your guests definitely do not need to know what type of ceremony it is! Your wedding is your wedding regardles of the formalities! I also refuse to have blood work done in Mexico so this way allows me to avoid all of that!

Hi Abbie, We have actually decided to have a symbolic ceremony in Mexico (so no paperwork required!). We will then legally get married at home when we return... The reason we are doing this is because my fiance wants to feel like we are getting married "for the first time" when we do the Mexico ceremony. He thinks that if we do all the other stuff ahead of time that it will not feel the same in Mexico. So I am giving him his way on this one:)

Hi Abbie, I am from Vancouver BC and we share a wedding date! April 6, 2011 at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach resort! My sister got married at the bahia principe tulum so I can totally picture what your wedding will be like! It is a great resort..... How is your planning coming along? You already have 46 booked so that must be a great feeling! Did you do a group booking or did everyone book on their own?

I requested quotes from about 6 photographers! Our main concern was the cost because the Iberostar also charges a $300 penalty for bringing in external photographers and you also have to buy the photographer and their assistant a day pass! So in total you are paying $400 extra for pretty much nothing! As far as which photographer you should hire, I would recommend looking at their work on their web sites and then emailing the ones you like to provide you with a quote. We ended up booking Vanessa Vargas because she was very quick to respond to my emails and questions plus she offered us a very good deal which I couldn't pass up! You can find photographers from this forum or simply by googling "wedding photographer riviera maya".

Hi Erin, I was in the same boat with the menu... I too was offered the steakhouse menu which to be honest I wasn't thrilled with either! It just seems so casual for a wedding dinner! Anyway I guess I have to deal with it so hopefully it tastes good. We are getting married April 6, 2011 so we are just about at the 5 month mark! If you have any questions that I can answer for you, I would be happy to do so!

Hello fellow Iberostar brides! Just wondering what you have done for your photographers? Are you using the resort's or hiring external? If you'r going external, who do you have in mind??? I am interested to hear your thoughts...

Hi Cynthia, I am too jsut trying to figure out the photographer situation! I started doing a chart as you mentioned but I still haven't quite decided... Who did you end up choosing? Is your resort charging you a penalty for an external photographer?

Hello everyone, After reading a number of posts on this forum I learned about TA Becky from Vancouver! I emailed her with some questions I had and she was super quick to respond! So far so good! She has provided me with some great information and is now looking into obtaining group rates as well as (hopefully!) some freebies! I am very glad to have found her and hopefully all will go well and she can help us with our wedding travel planning! Thanks Becky!

Hi Becky, I'm wondering if you could provide some advice for me.... in your opionion, what is a better route to go? Obtain a group rate and try and get guests to book by the cut-off date or work with a travel agent who can help guests book their travel whenever they are ready? I am having some trouble with our travel arrangements and just wanted to get an expert opinion. Any information you can provide would be much appreciated. Thank you. Hanna

Hi! I'm getting married at Beach on April 6th 2011 and it is the same restaurant for both resorts. Quick question for you... how are you giving your guests an option on the food? I was under the impression that we had to pick one menu and everyone had to have the same thing... Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated! Hanna

Hi Nicyx, We are getting married at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach in an effort to make it more affordable for our guests. We also have some children coming so we couldn't do it at an adults-only resort. Â

Hi!! I was just reading through the posts on here and realised we have the same wedding date as you! April 6, 2011 Mayan Riviera! We are getting married at the Iberostar Resort but we were actually at Bahia Principe Tulum for a destination wedding this past January. Looks like you already have everything under control and you have an amazing number of people booked! We haven't even got our invitations out yet. Its not really that big of a deal because everyone knows when we're getting married and where so they know its coming. The prices you are getting from halifax are also much better than what I am getting at this point to fly out of Vancouver. We are looking at $1700/person if we book right now. Hopefully the prices will get better in the next month or so. I can't wait to be able to breath a big sigh of relief as people start to book and things star coming together! Â

Hi, Â Our ceremony time is at 5pm and we are not doing a cocktail hour. We get the restaurant from 6:30-10:30pm and I am thinking that it will probably be about 7 by the time we get in there due to pictures after the ceremony. The ceremony is fairly short (less than 30 mins) so that would give us 1.5 hours for pictures which I think will be fine. When we were deciding on the time for our ceremony, I used this site http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=923 to see what time the sunset would be on our wedding day. You can check it out for your date as well and it may help you to make up your mind. Since we're getting married in April, the sun won't set until about 7 so we will even be able to get a few sunset shots in the mix. Hope that helps. Â

Hi there, Â Karla sent me a pic of the open air Italian restaurant (not sure if it's called El Faro or not). I would send it to you but have no idea how Anyway, you could email Karla and ask her to send it to you too. I am getting married April 6, 2011 and I too am getting worried about the hotel being sold out. The travel agents have put it in my head that if we have a large group we must book as soon as possible or risk things being sold out. The problem is that the packages are so expensive right now that people are not going to want to pay that price. Oh the joys of wedding planning! I though destination weddings were supposed to be easy:) Â

Welcome to my world! I think the travel arrangements are the worst part of the whole planning process. So in regards to the group rates this is how it was explained to me... when you book a group rate the purpose is not to get a better deal due to booking for a large number of people. Apparently the purpose is to secure seats for all of those people.... therefore you are almost paying a premium price to guarantee that everyone gets a spot on the same flight, same time ,etc. That was pretty much the opposite of what I had thought.... I thought that if I was bringing that many people with me I should get a deal!!! Boy was I wrong! So now after obtaining few different group rates, I have been told that we should be booking earlier rather than later in order to avoid flights and hotels being sold out. I know the prices will go down if we wait but I am worried that there may be a chance of things selling out. In other words, I don't know what to do! Our group rate right now would be $1700/person including taxes & fees so that is pretty steep! Any advice would be welcome! Â

Hi Christina, Â I am getting married April 6th in the Mayan Riviera and I am also from the lower mainland. I have tried a few travel agents with the whole group rate thing and what I have recieved so far hasn't been all that great. The prices are pretty much the same as if we all booked individually. I have recently contacted another company (who are canadian and specialize in destination weddings) and so far they seem pretty promising and they will be providing me with quotes on Monday. I can share their contact info with you if you wish.... Â

Hi Kitty, Â Welcome onboard! Reyna is the event sales coordinator and when I first started this whole process she was the one I was dealing with. She will send you a form to fill out and you will have to provide a copy of your credit card and drivers licence. Once they have your deposit they will confirm your date. The the fun starts!!! Hopefully you can get working on your travel arrangements because that seems to be the most difficult part of all this (at least for me anyway!) Â

Hey Erin, Â Looks like we have a lot in common! We are also doing the private reception at Don Alfredo and I too am leaning towards the Steakhouse menu. That is what Karla offered me when I wasn't exactly thrilled with Don Alfredo's menu choices. I thought chicken would be a safe bet for most people and that was not an option on Don Alfredo's menu so she suggested the steakhouse menu because that does have a chicken option. It's funny that you mentioned the magnets because I was looking at those too and thought they would actually be cute invitations as well. Most people put their invitations on the fridge anyway so that would just make it easy! I figure that with a destination wedding there is so much information that needs to be shared that there is no way it would all fit on an invitation anyway. I am currently working on putting together a wedding web site to keep people informed as we go along. I will put the web site address on my invitations and let people know to check it often for updates. The greatest pain in the butt right now is the actual travel arrangements. I have obtained a couple of group quotes but they are extremely high and people would have to book within a couple of weeks for the quote to be valid. I am not sold on the whole group quote idea yet.... I am hoping that the prices will drop as we get closer and we get a better deal but then we run the risk of things being sold out so it's a tough one! What did you do about your travel arrangements?

Hi Radiochic10, Â Thank you for the offer and congratulations on securing Valentines Day! I am sure it will be very romantic for you guys! I too have been working with Karla (via email) and she has been helpful for the most part. We are also getting married on the beach and we want to have a private reception afterwards. I would love to hear what your plans are.... are you going to be using their photographers or someone else? I am pretty torn on that one because of the penalty involved and also having to purchase day passes for the photographers if they are external. Have you chosen your flowers and decorations? Karla did send me a few examples but I have also been looking for pictures of exactly what I have in mind. I actually just ordered my dress a few days ago so its starting to feel real now! Looking forward to hearing from you... Â

Hi Lindobride14, Â I am getting married at Paraiso Beach as it was the most affordable for our guests (or so I thought!). Thanks for the info.... I have been to that part of Mexico a few times so I am pretty confortable with knowing the prices etc. A quick piece of advice for you.... I went to a wedding in the Mayan Riviera in January (wedding was Jan 27, 2010) and I booked my package in Oct just like you said. That was definitely the best time to book pricewise because others who booked about a month later ended up paying more. So my suggestion, based on my experience is that Oct would be your ideal time to book. The only thing is that you risk your preferred travel date being sold out. I guess these are the joys of a destination wedding right? Â

The airfares for April have been out for probably about a month now but the prices are incredibly high. I think July is considered to be the off-season there so you may have more luck with reasonable package prices.

Hi Abbie32, We have the same wedding date! I am getting married on April 6, 2011 at the Iberostar Paraiso resort and I am definitely running into the same issue as you with the group quotes. I have obtained 3 different quotes so far, from 3 different companies and all were the same or more than the regular rates. That is pretty frustrating because it's not a deal at all! One of the travel agents did warn me that if we wait until closer to the day to book then we run the risk of the hotel or the airlines being sold out. She gave me an example of a wedding she was working on for the week of May1-7 and told me that it was already sold out right now! I didnt believe her so I did a search for those dates and she was right. I am sure there may be something available on other sites but that is a risk that does worry me. I also dont want to pay the high prices that I was quoted so I am torn:(

Hi everyone! I just joined this site today as we were able to confirm our date, April 6, 2011 at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach! I hope there are some others out there getting married at the same resort so that we can all trade tips and advice. Look forward to chatting with all you 2011 Iberostar brides!

Congratulations! I just signed up for this forum today because we just confirmed our date, April 6, 2011 at Iberostar Paraiso Beach! I guess we will be working with the same coordinator, venues, etc! So exciting! Hope we can help each other along!