risa1818

I have an EXCELLENT TA named Nanda from Beach Bum Vacations. I know Jess also was wondering about one for her honeymoon, and I highly recommend mine! She has been nothing but wonderful to work with, with me and my guests, she even set herself up on the base camp so she gets copied on all the emails that Maritza (WC) and I correspond back and forth on. When I was waiting to hear back about the dance floor, Nanda (TA) even followed up about it after a few days had gone by. I was referred to Beach Bum Vacations by some other brides on the destination weddings board on theknot.com. All those brides have had nothing but extremely positive experiences with this agency. I highly recommend getting in touch with them!  Nanda van Zwam Certified Travel Concierge â€"Travel the world with us" Beach Bum Vacation Toll Free: 1-877-943-8282 Ext 13 www.BeachBumVacation.com  I can not even believe how terrible of an experience you ladies are having with that other agency. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this completely UNNECESSARY stress! Planning a wedding is stressful enough and then to have to deal with this?! I really hope in the end that this all works out for you ladies (which I am sure it will) and then you can just focus on an amazing wedding!

That is a great idea! I am gonna email my photographer and see if he would be interested in this. You are totally right, I would rather spend the money on a hotel room for them then just give it to the resort! Â Runningbride- Thanks for your advice too Â

Hmm, I definitely to sit down and calculate all this and see if I should change my package or not! Â Is anyone making their photographer a guest for the wedding? I am thinking about doing this, but I am nervous that I could still get hit with the $350 fee. Not sure how they would handle that if I just listed him as a guest. I just think it is unfair to have to pay such a high fee when their photographer is not good. I don't mind making him a guest, just not sure if I will get caught for it...haha.

Are you saving a lot going from the Luxury package to the free one? Are you having a private reception? I keep going back and forth with myself about downgrading from the Luxury but I am just unsure. I guess I should do some sort of spreadsheet and compare rates for things and see. Â Â

Sounds like you are having an amazing time! I am so happy to hear that is beautiful! Let us know if you spy on any weddings you see going on while you are there  I know you are using Ivan Luckie for your engagement photos, is he going to be your wedding photographer as well? Do you know what his wedding packages start at?  I was seriously looking into Juan Navarro for our wedding photographer. His prices looked good and I really like his pictures, but wanted to know what Ivan charged as well.   Any brides on here used Juan Navarro?  Enjoy the rest of your trip and thanks for the updates Â

Just wondering for you ladies who are having bridesmaids what you are doing for flowers for them? I obviously don't want to go through the resort for that, but I'm not sure if I can go on 5th Ave and find a flower shop and maybe pick out some different flowers and at least make little bouquets for them? My mom is really good at that kind of stuff, so she offered to help me put them together the night before. Â Anyone who has been down there know if there is any places where I can buy flowers like that? Â Thanks!

Hi Reid! Trust me I had to do some back and forth about this until my TA from Beach Bum Vacations emailed me and said "Great news, they will give you the basic dance floor for free if you do not want to hire the DJ" Â Now, what the basic dance floor is exactly, I do not know. I don't know if it is a light up one or not. At this point, I don't really care because I just needed a dance floor and was not going to pay that kind of money to rent one. We will have lighting there so I am not too worried about it. I am just happy that they finally got it for me! There is a post on here a few pages back that is from a bride who said that she got the dance floor for free without asking for it and it was light up. Hopefully that is what we will get! Â I took Maritza some "looking into" to come to that answer. I would say that you know of several ladies who got a basic dance floor to use for free and that is what you would like. If they try to dance around it then suggest that you speak to someone higher up than her. I didn't have to go that far since my TA handled it. Are you going through a TA at all? Â Let me know how it goes!

I'm so sorry to hear that. I really hope this all works out for you ladies dealing with this. Any reason why they canceled all these flights? Â **Sending positive travel vibes your way*** Â

Yes, I am doing the luxury package. After much persistence, I did find out that they will give me the basic dance floor for free! Hooray!! Â My WC is Maritza. She has been pretty good so far. She responds back within a few days usually. My TA is also copied on all the emails and has an account set up under my wedding with the basecamp site, so she sees all the communication and will follow up if Maritza takes too long to respond. For the most part I think it is working out well but I am still about 10 months out... Â What package are going with? Â

Thanks so much for the info.! Glad to hear that you enjoyed your site visit Â

I'm getting married on the 12th! I will still be there when you have your wedding though Â

Apparently my WC Maritza keeps telling me that I have to hire the DJ to get the dance floor. I am trying to have my travel agent who did all the booking and who supposedly has a "great relationship with the resort" to see if she can get a different answer or find out what she can do. They quoted me $700 just for the dance floor rental!!! Â If I can rent the floor for $400 I will consider that over the $700 rental fee or even the $850 DJ fee. Â Can you send me that checklist you have that says that by any chance? Â Thanks for the info Â

Ok so I thought that I read on here that when everyone was talking about the light up dance floor that someone had said that the resort provided a dance floor but it was not light up...? Â I guess I am just super annoyed because I was not going to originally get a DJ but since we are having our reception on the beach, I want to make sure we do have some sort of dance floor set up. Â I emailed our WC Maritza and she basically just said that the DJ can bring it and it is $850 for his services that are from 1-3 hours. Does anyone know what the official word is on this? Â Thanks!!

Hi Denise, Â I would love to see some pics of your wedding! I would also like to see your itiniaries and invitations or anything you have that was related to your wedding! Â So glad to hear that you loved everything!! Â Â

I just booked today!! We are getting married on June 12th at 5pm in the Gazebo and then having our reception on the beach! Â So far the wedding coordinators have been good. They created that basecamp website where you keep in contact with them and they respond through there. They have been responding within a day and my TA who is EXCELLENT made sure to sign up on it as well so she is copied on all the emails/threads and when I have a question she asks them directly also. Â I was nervous about having the wedding there after reading some of the bad experiences on here, but even though it has only been a few days I have been happy with everything so far ( crossing my fingers that I am not jinxing myself as I say this). Â I feel like its finally going to happen now

 Really? I am gonna try to follow up on that...if that is the case that would be amazing!!  Thanks for the info.

Really? I am gonna try to follow up on that...if that is the case that would be amazing!! Â Thanks for the info.

Hello all, Â I have a question about the $400 fee for a minister or officiant. I never noticed that before when I was looking at the package, all I saw was the fee for the 4pm wedding. Do all of you ladies have to pay that fee? Has anyone found a different officiant or person elsewhere and brought them in to the ceremony? I am sure there would be the fee for that as well. Â

Hi ladies!! Â I am new to this board. I spent hours last night reading through it and I can not even tell you how wonderful and SUPER helpful all the information was! Â A little about me: I am 29, live in Boston and we are booking our date for The Royal tomorrow!! We will be getting married there June 11, 2011. I am so excited!! Â I was a little concerned at first since I read about how terrible the WCs are there but I am confident it will all work out and we have a wonderful TA from Beach Bum Vacations who has been amazing! Â Just thought I would introduce myself and again this board is really excellent! The information here has already been so helpful to me! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you ladies! Â ~Marisa