megan11

Hi there! Dress looks really pretty!! Um...I think I am getting a standard two tier vanilla cake. I have ivory roses for my bouqet (ivory rose for my mans boutenniere) and them I am getting pink roses for the maid of honour and the best man. I love pink. Hopefully once the resort turns into a Westin they have all inclusive...I have my fingers crossed for you!

Hi remdog! Sorry I have not been around...kinda fell off the face of the earth for abit...lol. How's the dress shopping going? That sucks about the management change. Are you still going to have the wedding there? Your colours sound awesome!

Hey! YYYAAAHHH!! So happy for you! Â I think I am officially done making all the decisions that had to be made. Just have to make a cd for the ceremony and then I can relax. Â Any luck with the dresses?

I checked out the photographer's website....she does great work!! I can see why you are excited!

Hey there! Glad to hear you heard from Lucia. She sent me the finalized forms for everything and I am officially done planning! Woo Hoo!! Yes I sent the credit card authorization form to her, along with the front AND back of my credit card. I scanned it and sent it to her (do it this way....trust me....way easier than faxing). And yes, the deposit is to confirm and hold the date, then she will send you all the stuff to start planning. Excited?! Â The aqua package pricing that I was given was 3875.00 (I think) with 85.00/person if you have over 20 guests. Hope this helps you out and you are given the same amount. Great to hear you are staying there for your October trip. You will have such a great time! And it will give you an idea of the resort....me and J got really drunk the first night we were there and got so lost we couldn't find our room and had to track down one of the concierge guys to help us out. It is a big resort so it will be nice to know everything about it before you go there for your wedding (especially which restaurants you like the most). I love Caricola...so good steak....and the italian restaurant....yumm!! Â Wow!! That long for a dress to come in? I am glad mine is only taking four months... I guess you gotta start looking sooner rather than later! Looking online helps though. Â How was the surprise party? Â That's great to hear that your photographer can make it!! The wedding planner will be able to give her tips on where to take pics too. Â Just bring another suitcase for your wedding favours, that's what I am going to do. Since you will have a group booking, most tour companies allow extra baggage for the group so I am sure you would not have a problem. Â Nope, didn't get a chance to try on the dress before I ordered it, found it online and pictured what it would look like on me in my head and that's it ( I hope it works out ). I got a Mori Lee dress (#2511) and I have my sister as my maid of honour and her dress is the Mori Lee Bridesmaid #791 in rose petal pink ( I love pink ). It was a great price as well which I was happy about. Have you started looking online for dresses? Mori Lee does have some great destination style dresses. Do you know what style/silhouette you are looking for? Neckline?

Hey there remdog! Sorry to hear about your dad....but you do have to pick where you want to go!! I had so many people tell me to pick somewhere cheaper and I wasn't going to make them happy when we should be able to go where we want to go and be happy. Unfortunately, those people that wanted us to pick somewhere cheaper won't be coming but they would probably complain the whole time anyways so we have the people that we really want to come coming and know they will have a great time celebrating with us. Â That's so cute that Patrick is acting like a little girl, he sounds really excited. Â I had picked out my dress online and then ordered it in August because it will take four months to get in. I am excited to see it tho! Â As for wedding favours.....I have ordered personalized beach bags with our names, the date, and Costa Rica on them. I have also ordered travel mugs with the same logos as the beach bags. Looking into getting straw rafia cowboy/girl hats, pool floaties, bookmarks, sunscreen, spanish pocketbooks, etc. Not too sure how much I can fit in the bags though! Lol...and I am happy that with our group booking, I am allowed extra baggage. Â Have you thought about your Save The Dates yet? My sister gave me a great idea....we got our caricatures done from www.giveacaricature.com and I was really happy with them. And they were done REALLY fast! If you are interested, let me know, and I can show you what they did for ours. They are really unique and the people that have seen them get a kick out of them. Â Oh....and we got boarding pass invitations from.... www.boardingpassinvitations.com ....I haven't received them yet but we got the New Wave Boarding Passes and she figures they would be ready in 6-8 weeks. I figured I would give you some ideas that I was using since I found it to be a big help when I was first starting out and my sister was giving me these ideas. Â

Hey there remdog! I am so excited for you to get your ring! I feel naked if I don't wear mine now....lol. Â I am sure prices may come down with a June travel date, but booking months away doesn't seem to do anything with the price. Especially since the Paradisus is not one of the hotels that if your prices go down from the time you book then they won't honour the lower price. When James and I went there last year we booked a normal gardenview room for 2100 each (including tax) and then upgraded once we got there to the royal service junior suite for an extra 900. We did book 1 month away from when we wanted to leave, which helped with getting a lower price. I am thinking we will have a few more guests coming once they can get a last minute deal, which can make a huge difference in the pricing. You will most likely experience the same thing with your guests. It makes wedding favours and all that stuff kind of a pain with last minute guests but I am planning for that. Â Did you pick your dress out yet?

Hi again Ask.CostaRica! I was reading a previous post about a municipality law stating no fireworks after 9 pm, is this still the case? Â Thanks!

Hi remdog! Lol...I picked out my ring as well and James tried to be all sneaky about it but I knew when he was going to pick it up and really didn't suprise me to much. He did give me a bracelet first....and my first thought was..."where the hell is my damn ring?!" and then he whipped out the engagement ring so I give him credit for tricking me a little bit. Glad to hear you found the ring that you want! That is so cute your FI asked his son to be his best man, your pictures are going to be awesome!! Â We do have 9 people that are renting a house about 5 mins away from the Paradisus...they found a pretty good deal and are not big drinkers so could not justify going to an all inclusive. The house that they are renting really is beautiful and I am sure they will have a good time. Â That's great you changed your location! I am jealous....I want to go too!! He will certainly be shocked if you can keep it a secret! Â As for the pricing that was given to you.....their pricing seemed weird to me and that's why I contacted Lucia from then on and it was definately not $5000 for the aqua package!! Ouch....

Thank you Ask.CostaRica for the visuals! We chose the pool side area for the reception (I say "we" but the FI actually picked it). He liked that picture the best out of all of them, but I appreciate your pics!

Hey remdog! You will definately find lots of stuff to do! I recently contacted concierge at the hotel to get a list of activities/tours to send to my guests so they can start getting of ideas of what they would like to do and the attachment they sent me was 22 pages long!! Â I have the same idea with the AHR (at home reception), alot of people could not come because of the short notice I gave them and the resort is more expensive than other places (again well worth it). We are going to spend two weeks at the resort, one week with family and friends, and the other week as our honeymoon. Â Lucia can send you the attachment which has all of the pricing for photography, video, books, etc. Where did your ring go that it has to come back? Â I chose the date February 14, 2011...lol....you are going to laugh at my reasons for picking Valentines Day....I picked it so he could have no possible reason to forget it and I get one BIG anniversary/valentines day present instead of two little ones. Â Lucia will most likely get back to you within a few days....I have packed her email full of messages/questions/etc. and the longest I have had to wait for anything was a few days and that's because she was on her days off. She sent me pictures of the different spots for the reception and we chose the pool area (it was between that one and the caracola restaurant). I let the FI pick the location and he liked the pool area picture the best. They do have one location (beach club) that you do have to pay extra ($500) if you have under 50 guests. It looks really nice but we would rather spend money on fireworks than on the location, it will be a private event either way. I think you would like the caracola restaurant due to the rainy season, it's open to the outside right beside the pool and it looks like a really BIG tiki hut with lots of room (depending on how many guests you will be having). That was my pick but since I let the FI pick, pool area it is!! Â No problem with the questions, glad I could help! I am really excited that you have chose the Paradisus for your wedding as well!

Thank you so much for letting me know about Ciro! Lucia is getting me details/prices. I love the idea of having fireworks!!

Hi Ask.CostaRica! Thanks for your reply! I love Costa Rica and am a big supporter in people travelling there. Your photography looks great and am excited to work with you guys in February!

Hi remdog! Thank you for the congratulations! We are really looking forward to going back to Costa Rica! I don't think alot of brides choose this location because it is a little expensive as compared to other places but I completely think it is worth it. Your FI will definately NOT get bored here! There is so much to do or perfect for laying by the pool and doing absolutely nothing. The reason I had decided on this resort is because the people that work there are so amazing and friendly and honestly speak better english than I do! Also, I have a sensitive stomach (had gotten sick in Mexico at a 5 star resort, and had gotten REALLY sick at a 5 star resort in the Dominican) and not once did myself or my FI get sick at the Paradisus. It's the last thing I want is to be sick on my wedding day (or my guests to be sick)! Their food is so good as well! And the different animals on the resort is so entertaining, monkeys, lizards, raccoons, wild kittens, you name it they got it! I sound like a cheerleader for the resort, but I think instead of choosing different places to go for vacation every year, we will just come back to the Paradisus. Â As for your questions: The DJ was actually in the list of options that I had asked for, they have about three pages of different music options for your cocktail party/reception (bands, dj, saxophone, guitarists, etc.). Whatever you want...they can get it! I am just waiting to get pictures of the different locations for the reception so I can choose which location I would like to have...They do have different locations for the ceremony, all are great, but we chose the beach because I don't want to wear shoes. The photographer was recommended by the romance manager (El Velo Photography), check out their website, they do great work from what I have seen! They have different packages you can choose from depending on who you want to have pictures of (we chose the "all in the family" package which includes 500-800 high res pictures of up to 25 guests and ourselves. We also chose to get a 10 x 10 book made up, their books look amazing! (and I don't have to do the work) They do video's as well but I though pics were good enough for us. We are having a private reception, we will have 23 people at the ceremony/cocktail party/reception (including four kids). In the aqua package, you have 20 guests included, anymore than that is 85.00/per person. We do have people staying outside the resort and just coming in for the wedding (day passes). The contact I have been using is: [email protected] (Lucia Chaves) - she has been absolutely wonderful with all of my requests and she also would have the form to reserve your date. Â Any more questions...don't hesitate to ask! Happy Planning!!

Hi remdog! I am currently planning a wedding at the Paradisus Playa Conchal resort for Feb/11. My fiance and I went there last year and absolutely loved the resort and the people that work at the resort. We have been to the domincan and mexico and knew we wanted to go back to Costa Rica and could not pick a better place for a destination wedding. Â Depending on what type of package you wanted to purchase through the resort...prices range. They have an enormous list of music (recorded background music is for the ceremony) options that you can choose for the cocktail party/reception. We have chosen DJ Memix and their rate is $200/hr with a minimum of two hours. Not too sure on what the flowers/decorations would cost. We have chosen their "aqua" package which includes flowers for myself and my fiance. I am just waiting to hear back for flowers for my MOH and best man. Other than that all the decorations are included with the package we have purchased and they have sent me pictures and I think it looks great (nothing more needs to be added in my opinion). Â I did email the resort itself rather than going through the miami site (I like dealing with someone who is actually at the resort) and she it great at getting back to me quickly. They do have a form that is filled out to reserve your wedding date and what not. Â If you would like any other information, let me know! Good luck with your planning! Â