AcutieRN

Hey ladies! We just made it home this weekend from the most amazing trip, once in a lifetime! Do not stress about NOW Larimar! Our wedding was absolutely stunning, and Mercy is an angel. We had the wedding beachside, it was a bit windy, but I just tucked my veil under my arm during the ceremony and it was perfect. All of our guests were thankful for the wind as it kept it cool. JB March, can't believe I never ran into you. The resort was a bit bigger than I expected. I kept an eye out though! Sfra, we got married the same day! I didn 't even see you guys, but I did see your reception. Our room overlooked it, it was beautiful. Do not worry about the lack of communication ahead of time. Mercy and Christina can do this in their sleep, they have it down to a science. I met with Mercy on Sunday for our Tuesday wedding. The meeting took about 2 hours and I just reviewed everything we wanted with her. I gave her my decorations and she made some recommendations as well. She talked my hubby (can't believe he is my hubby) into the pomanders. It was our splurge for the week, but they turned out gorgeous. The only thing she didn't use that I had wanted was my rose petal walk way, way too windy out there for that. She used them at the reception. We had our reception and cocktail hour at the terrace overlooking the foutain. It was perfect. We only had 17 people so set up one large table for dinner. Mercy had all the decor moved from ceremony to reception and it looked great. Our guests LOVED the dinner. We did the Divine package and had filet and lobster. Yum. It is by far much better than the steak/lobster you will eat at the a la carte places on the resort. The best desert of the week was our cake! It was so delicious! We had vanilla with strawberry filling. I didn't get much of it that night, but they saved it for me and brought it back to our room. I ate so much of it I was sick throughout the week! I ended up doing my own hair and makeup, and I think it turned out pretty good! Pastor Rick York is great, so many of our guests commented on how wonderful his ceremony was. We used Photo Phil Steingard, his pics are great. We also got the 24 from the resort, they were ok. The videographer did an awesome job on the video! All I can say is don't stress. It turns out great. Our guests had a wonderful time and enjoyed the resort. There were a few mentions that the food wasn't the best they had at an all inclusive but the staff more than made up for that. They went out of their way to help with anything you needed. We stayed at Zoetry and Excellence on our honeymoon week and NOW was as good if not better than Zoetry in service. Excellence was just so so in service, although their food was better than NOW. Zoetry was 5 star in every way possible and we will go back again and again. The only problem we had at NOW was that when we arrived late on Saturday night, they had a room for all of our guests, but not a room for us! I couldn't believe it. They said they were overbooked and hoped to have a room by Tuesday(day of wedding). They wanted us to stay at Secrets, obviously not going to work since we had our entire family at NOW. They would not allow our guests on Secrets property(especially the kids) so my option would have been to lug all of my wedding day stuff the 10 minute walk to the NOW property and get ready in my sister's room. Thankfully Mercy came to my rescue the next day and found us a room with a great view. We did dinner/dancing the night before on LaBaracaza. I can't reccomend that enough. Our guests said over and over that it was the most fun night of their week.(We didn't do dancing night of wedding). Flory is a professional and all of the guys on the boat make it a blast. Don't forget to have a few shots of mamajuana while you are there! Let me know if you have any questions. I am uploading my pics by Photo Phil to my mpix account, they should be there by tomorrow morning. Feel free to check them out(please excuse the one of my husband standing in the shower, I did boudoir photos and they were trying to give me a sexy shot, ha ha! www.mpix.com login email:[email protected] (that is a zero in front of the three) and password is Ben00355 (also zeros). He took about 2000 pics including TTD, but won't have most of them for several weeks. They will have more shots of the reception in them that I will try to remember to post!

Alana, that's ok. It all worked out, I ended up finding some similar at save-on-crafts! They should be here in time:) Skygirl: We are doing the Divine package as of right now. That may end up changing to the middle package once we get there though. We only have 20 people coming and we can't figure out if it is really worth it to do the higher package. We are taking everyone out for a nice dinner the night before the wedding on LaBaracaza and we felt like the only reason we were doing divine is because of the upgrade in meal to platinum. Since we are taking them for a great dinner the evening before we think we may be safe downgrading and getting the silver dinner option. So much of what Claribel told me is no longer an option, even with emails from her, that I am not sure I can justify spending the extra money on the higher end package. In the beginning they were willing to substitute for things, like since I am doing my own hair and makeup she said we could exchange that out for possibly using tiffany chairs. Same with the flowers,since I won't be using them they were willing to swap for something else. Now that it is no longer the case it seems like a lot of the Divine package we won't be using. I can't make up my mind! It will all work out and be wonderful no matter what, I just want to do what is best for the money. Oh well, that was the chance I took when planning a wedding at a resort that was changing ownership. Things change! Are you for sure going with Divine? I think it is the way to go for sure when you have a bigger party.

That is too bad Angel's is booked. I am sure your girl will do great though! I would just make sure you get her to forward you (or since you live so close show you) some proofs before you pay the entire amount to her. Especially if you are having a bigger order with centerpieces and bridesmaid flowers. The one I ordered through Angel's is a special "destination wedding" order that just includes the bride and groom. I think that is the only time they will do less than the $450 order. I think my bouquet was supposed to be 12-14 inches, and I think it is that! I am not doing centerpieces. We thought about it, but the concern started to be about how to get all of our stuff down there safely. We are already pushing our limits, ha ha! Looks like we will each have two large checked suitcases for a total of 4, plus all of our carry on gear.I may also have another large bag that I will have a family member check, trying to condense now. When I started all of this I really didn't think about the transporting part of all of this! The OOT bags alone are almost an entire suitcase,and we only have 20 guests! Then on top of that I have gifts for family members, decorations(although minimal they still take up space) and most crazy of all is all the products I am bringing to be beautified on my wedding day. I am doing my own hair and makeup, I am kind of overly picky about others doing it so I am bringing an arsenal of supplies! Good luck with the flowers, I am sure they will be beautiful. It is so crazy how real these real touch flowers are!

Oh, and Skygirl, thanks for the idea of alternating sash colors! I actually found some at save on crafts and they should be here this week. Even with purchasing new ones and upgrading shipping it is going to be cheaper than renting from resort! She said they would charge me $3 per sash per chair at the wedding ceremony and then again for the reception. No way!

Ok, here are some pics, they look soooo real and even feel real!

Skygirl: This is what I did! I ordered from Angelsaccents and could not be happier. The bouquet is stunning and looks real. From the photos I have seen of the real bouquets that the resort provides, there is no comparison in size. Mine is huge, stunning. I am actually a bit worried about carrying it on with me, I was hoping it would fit in my dress bag! I am not sure how big the ones at the resort are, but they told me they would not split it into 2 or even into wrist corsages for that matter. I am just using it as extra decoration on the table. I am just getting other flowers in my package that are similar. I don't see any reason why they need to match perfectly. I think if you just do the similar colors, you will do great. I got both my bouquet and boutonniere for I think around $150. It was important to me to have peonies because of a memory of my grandma's peony garden, and I knew they would be outrageously expensive in DR. I will take a pic and try to attach in a little bit. Go with real touch! You will not be disappointed, especially if you use Angel. They are so professional and the flowers are more than I could hope for . That being said-they book up fast so put your order in ASAP!

Ok girls, I have been reading a bunch but I still can't get a good consensus. I am thinking about doing my first Brazilian one week before my wedding. What does everyone think about this? I don't tend to get ingrowns, and not very sensitive in terms of rashes. I am just a brunette with olive skin, so you know how fast that stuff grows, ha ha. The question is should I do it the first time right before my wedding? I'm nervous because some of these horror stories! I live in Denver and wouldn't have a problem finding someone reputable. Help!

I can't agree with the "you are what you eat" statement more! I have lost 47 lbs since last July (I'm only 5'1) and it all came down to what I ate! I really did eat the same thing day in and day out which consisted of protien and veggies as well.I had been on weight watchers for years and couldn't understand why I kept gaining not losing! It was def not a clean diet for me. I also ramped up the cardio and started to include lots of weights and interval cardio, and wow, what a difference. I am down to the last two weeks and can't believe that clean eating has transformed me. Good luck and thanks for the post!

@Prettyfinebrown: Welcome! Sounds like you are getting much more response already than most of us have in the last year! That is great. Sounds like you are way ahead of the game. Congrats and happy planning. I am wondering if any of the April brides may be able to help me. I know several of us are going to be there at the same time. I arrive Saturday night the 14th and we are being married Tuesday the 17th. I ordered my chair sashes months ago and they came in, no problem. I opened the packages to iron them today and upon closer inspection, they are totally different colors! They are supposed to be sage green, 10 are sage and 10 are neon lime green. I bought from Ebay and seller no longer carries them. Ahhhh! I refuse to pay the resort $3 per sash. My question is does any of you have sage/light green chair sashes I could buy from you after you are done? I know it is a long shot, but just thought I would try. I leave in two weeks and all the others I am seeing on ebay would ship too late. Thanks girls!

HI! I am in a bind, my sage green chair sashes came in and 10 were one color green and 10 were another color! The shop won't respond to me. I leave for my wedding in exactly two week and I need some chair sashes now! Would you consider selling the sashes separate at this point? Could you PM me pics just to make sure they are close in color? I would be willing to pay to upgrade shipping depending on how much you are asking for them. I just don't want to pay the resort 3$ per sash! Thanks Amber

Sani, Welcome! The reception dinner is a bit stressful currently. We also only have 15 guests. I was also planning on doing a non private dinner at one of the resturants. I was told that we could do so, but there would be no guarantee that we would all be seated together at the same time or in the same area of the resturant. The other negative for me was that we had to pick food from a fixed menu from that resturant and all of our guests had to eat the same thing even though we may not have been seated together. For me, I felt like I wanted the security of us all sitting together so I choose to do a private dinner at one of the few areas they can accomodate that.I was told that since April and May are high season that the resort will be at capacity and that it would be hard to seat us together. We choose to upgrade our package because once I started adding in the things that I knew we wanted the price quickly skyrocketed from the basic package into something much more expenisve that even the highest wedding package available. They charge you for EVERYTHING! It all depends on what is important to you and if it is worth the upgrade. Good luck! Mandy, Thanks for that picture! I am considering changing my wedding to the foutain from the beach based on the new setup! I am just so worried about the wind at the beach.

Andrea: Welcome! The pamphlet is unfortunately wrong. It seems that they have not done a lot of updating of their literature since many things have changed in the last several months. My understanding is that 50 people and above are required to have the buffet dinner, and it is a higher cost at NOW as well. Since both NOW and Dreams are run by AMresorts, I do believe their wedding packages are similar if not the same. Check out the other thread on here for NOW-New resort opening-NOW Larimar, there is tons of great info on there. Good luck!

Alana, No, I am so glad you shared it here. I love seeing what everyone else is doing. It looks like you have everything together and ready to go! I can't believe the hotel overbooked by 100 rooms. My Travel Agent said not to worry because my group has a contract so they won't be able to kick us to another resort. That being said, we do have a few guests who booked on their own and she said they may be bused to another resort. That would be awful. They have messed up a bit of stuff it sounds like. Is your reception dinner private at the Castaways? If so, how did you get that? I wanted it there, have an email from Claribel confirming it from months ago, but they still said no way. I don't get it. Maybe if yours is private, they won't let me have mine private the next night due to closing the place down for two nights at over capacity? SkyGirl, thanks for the info. I have called a few times. I keep getting Christina, which is awesome, but she keeps referring me to Mercy, who I never hear back from. I think my frustration comes from the first 10 months Claribel never responded to me and I feel like I lost out on a lot of what I wanted because of this.Also, a lot of what she told me was false information or information that has drastically changed. I can't wait for 3 weeks to hear back from these girls, my wedding is in 3 weeks!!!Ahhh. Christina did say that since I have such a small group we can do a plated dinner even though it is at the Carnival Terrace. Hopefully it will be good! I am trying to keep calm, the reason I wanted a DW was not to stress. I don't really know why the resort is in such a mess right now. Makes me more than nervous.

Hey Girls, Alana, we are in the same boat. We will be arriving April 14th and our wedding is the 17th. The hotel is so overbooked that they have downgraded all of us to garden views from ocean views and it seems that none of us are in the same area of the resort. This is awful because I have two grandma's who were helping two couples out with baby care coming and their rooms were supposed to be side by side. No longer.And to make matters worse, they are supposed to reinburse us the money we paid for the upgrades and they have stated they have yet the money is no where to be found on any of our cards. We even have a few people who didn't book with my travel agent that may not have rooms, even after they paid for them a year ago.AHHHHH! I also still have no idea where we are having our dinner/reception.Mercy only gave me the options of the Terrace by the fountain(I have since learned this is the buffet rest, which we don't really want) or the beach. How can there only be two options? I have sent info that states I was told I could use castaways, but since the resort is overbooked it doesn't seem to matter much. They are doing what they want at this point. I feel frustrated. I have spent more time feeling frustrated about the resort that not. Why can everyone else get a response? Is it just that I have Mercy and not Christina?

Ahh, I have been wondering the same thing...anyone know about tipping? How about how much to tip the wedding coordinator? I am so bad at that stuff, should just leave it up to my FI

AshaJ, welcome! Don't stress! It all works out. I know I started stressing last month for sure with two months to go. I started thinking about the very few weekends I have to get everything done! My wedding date is April 17th. So far they are offering them $100 to downgrade. I think that is about what they paid to upgrade, but still annoying. My worry now is that they will be in another part of the resort far away from us. Apparently they are not doing any "private" receptions in any of the sit down resturants anymore. At least that is true for the peak months. They say you can do non private at 6:00 or 9:00 and that they can non guarantee that your group sits together. They also do not give you the menu that comes with your package. Have the reason we are doing the Divine package is so our group gets the platinum dinner, so we wanted private. They would give you a menu from what that particular rest. serves that is set. Sooo, depending on how many people you have coming I guess you could chance it. Asha to answer your question, we are handing out our bags the day after arrival. We are a fairly small group, only 17 of us. There are only 9 bags to hand out so I figured I could make it to each guest. We know we will be taking more luggage than we are allowed, we are lucky in that we have family leaving from Denver with us and they have offered to carry it for us. I imagine we will have 5 checked bags total. But we are going to be there for 2 weeks as well! Sommer-I need to do my tanks as well. Do you guys have Hobby Lobby's up there? I know I have seen some iron on stuff there before. It may not say bride but you could use glue that holds up in the wash with regular stones? That is what I was thinking about. I hope you have Hobby Lobby, I find it so much better than Michaels.

Ha ha, who's counting, I know the feeling! If you guys can check Men's Warehouse now if you are interested. They seem to be carrying them in Colorado already. Also, JC Penny's has the blends. They look nice, but we want full linen. I had a friend get married a few weeks back in the Penny's vest and pants and it looked amazing. I hope we can find something now! I may just email SS and see if they will send us out at least another jacket since our measurements are so off. Sounds like a couple of us are in the same boat, but I only have a month. My FI doesn't seem a bit worried and he buys suits for work all the time, so I imagine he can figure it out. Oh, on a good note we did also get a linen shirt from SS, it is awesome. Color is great, he wanted mint green to match our colors. It fits perfect! Again, their quality is awesome.

We custom ordered a suit and had a decent experience. That being said my FI won't be wearing the suit we ordered from sudiosuits. The biggest problem, as others have mentioned, is that they seem to be made for longer slim fit body types. We even ordered classic fit and added 2 inches to waist and chest measurements.(We did custom sizing)My FI is about 5'10" and around 175 lbs. The jacket is too tight and the slit in the back is way too high. I measured the jacket and it is about 2 inches shorter than the length measurement we actually sent them. So the flap in the back looks like it gives him a bubble butt! He hates it....the pants fit decently although as others have mentioned the rise is off. It is very short through the "family jewels area" . We even told them a measurement much longer than it actually was and in the notes said our main concern was the rise being too short. He said he would wear the pants but would be uncomfortable all day. I did measurements of him, and of an existing suit, and he was measured professionally as well. All of that being said, the actual quality of the suit is amazing for the price. He was very pleased with this. He is contemplating ordering another suit and emailing them our concerns about sizing, but we are down to crunch time! We leave in 4 weeks. We did get it within two weeks of ordering and were pleased with the service we received. He was at Men's warehouse today and saw a similar suit that he may try. It is $300 but he has a 50% off coupon from another purchase he made there. We may just go that way since we are low on time. All in all I would say ordering from this company is iffy. The service and quality is good, but as another poster mentioned I think they may take a standard suit for a "petite" guy and add custom changes. I think if you can order a standard size a bit larger than his actual size and then have alterations done, you may be ok. Good luck girls!

I would like reviews on this as well. I think they may have just started using it as an option, but am not sure. And get this, my soon to be mother in law just called and said our travel agent called and said NOW has overbooked rooms the week of our wedding. They are now downgrading everyone who paid for ocean view rooms to garden view. How is this even possible? We paid 6 months ago! My guests are all freaking out and I haven't spoken to my travel agent to see what is going on. To be honest I have been getting more and more frustrated over the last 10 months since I made my decision to go with this resort, but this takes the cake. What if we show up and they tell people there are no rooms? Ahhhhh! One month away from what was going to be a stressfree gorgeous wedding and now the resort seems to not only over booked weddings but rooms as well.

Hey girls! Garanic:Welcome to the forums! They have been a ton of help for me. I would have been clueless without them. SommerC:Thanks for the info on efavormart, they are much cheaper! I just wish they had a little bigger selection in petal colors. I may have to change it up a bit for those prices though! I finally heard from Mercy today. Apparently the aisle runner for the beach is 10 ft long if anyone is wanting to get petals. I am going to try to do a moderate coverage, so won't be needing as many as I thought. She did confirm that Castaways is no longer an option for a private wedding reception dinner. She stated that currently the options are beachfront, ballroom or Carnival Terrace(I think this may be the buffet) overlooking the fountain. I asked her about the quiet pool that Vav had and she said that is not an option. I am not sure if that means for me on my day or in general. Honestly I am extremely disappointed at this change in rules. None of those venues are appealing to me in any way.I would love to do the beach but the wind and heat are a huge factor! If I would have known this months ago it would have made my resort decision a little different. She said they will be doing 3 weddings on my wedding day. Grrrr.............I told her to reserve the Carnival Terrace for us, I guess that is the best option. From what Vav and Sarah said they make it awesome no matter what, so lets hope for that!

I have seen a few pics where they just do a white runner, I think that is included in the gazebo decor.When doing a beach ceremony it looks like they just lay it down on the sand. I was planning on covering this with a dense pack of rose petals. Mercy told me silk is ok and that they will clean them up after the event so it is not like litering. I have done a lot of research and I think for the price that www.petalgarden.com has the best quality and color options. They also have a calculator that helps you figure out how many petals you need. If you buy in bulk you can buy 3000 in a bag for about $50. For dense packing on 15 ft it is approx 4500 petals. I have no idea though how long the aisle is! I was going to just buy at the resort, but they are 25$ per bag and a bag consists of only petals from a dozen roses! That wouldn't get me very far. My only two decorations that I really wanted were the petals and pomander balls. I am also disappointed in the pricing for those, I think it is like $12 per pomander plus 15$ per hook to hang it on! If you need 8-10 that is crazy! I decided to purchase some tissue pom poms off of Etsy. They come flat so will not take up much packing space and were inexpensive. I got 15 so I can do the aisle as well as hang some in the archway. Hopefully someone may know about the length of the aisle! I can't wait for this to get here, 5 weeks left!

Skygirl: I think you are prob. right. Maybe some girls do a lunch reception or something? I emailed but haven't heard back... Does anyone know approximate length of the runner on the beach? I am trying to order some rose petals and have no idea how many to get.

Hi girls: It seems like a three ring circus at the resort right now! I think that Claribel must have left some sort of cluster for them to sort through and that is what is causing all of the issues. I am 5 weeks out and am just over the stress. I am going to go down there and if they marry us great, if not I guess I can get myself and 20 guests a free week out of it since I have documentation that they reserved my date and time! Ha ha... Skygirl, thanks again for the number to reach Christina/Mercy. As of right now I have been told that they will make an exception for us on the three day rule even though we are only having a symbolic ceremony. I was able to provide proof that I was told this didn't matter. Apparently it does, so for all of you girls coming up...be there three BUSINESS days in advance. They will count Saturday as a day if you get there in the morning. It is apparently too stressful to plan the wedding in less than that. It will all work out! I am just glad that I finally got a response from someone after 10 months. I had to threaten leaving with my guests and getting married elsewhere! If your wedding is close, hang in there and be persistent. Hopefully you will hear back if you keep on them. I do have a question...since we were told last year we would have all the dinner venues to choose from as well as beach/pool, what are they doing now if they have three brides a day? Say we all want the pool reception? When I signed on to this resort for the wedding they were promising one wedding a day, so I wasn't worried. Now it seems there are limited options for reception venues. What are they doing if everyone wants one place? Good luck everyone!

Sky girl, Thanks for your response. I am now pretty worried. My travel agent has gone as far as to email the GM of AMresorts on this one. I have the save email that proves I was told otherwise. This is absolutely not ok with me. We are very seriously considering changing our plans completely now and finally not getting married at NOW at all. Scary as I only have 6 weeks. I refuse to pay the $500 it will cost to change my flight plus the money to spend two extra nights there. REFUSE!!!! Can you tell me what number you are using to call them? I can't get a respnse from this person named Mercy to save my life. Thanks- Supposed to be having my bachelorette tomorrow and now so stressed about this I can hardly enjoy this. Ahhhhh!!!!!

Hey girls: Vav, thanks so much for the info on the spa doing your hair. I have been really back and forth on this as I am using clip in extensions as well. Your hair looked amazing though! Ok, so I have a new dilemma. Mercy was just assigned as my coordinator after much pushing through email to get some sort of answer on some questions I had. I hadn't heard from anyone at the resort since May of 2011 and my wedding is in 6 weeks! I just needed some basic questions answered and was getting a bit antsy. At any rate, I was trying to plan excursions for the fam, and we all arrive on Saturday, my SYMBOLIC ceremony is Tuesday. Mercy informed me that for both symbolic and legal ceremonies you have to be on the resort three BUSINESS days prior to your ceremony. Saturday and Sunday apparently aren't business days. This question was asked directly to Claribel, granted it was in May of last year, but I was told for symbolic I need to arrive "a couple of days in advance to plan the details of the ceremony". Saturday gives me 3 days, and this isn't even legal. I bought my airline tickets 8 months ago! It will cost a fortune to change it. I can't come in any earlier as I can't get off work anyway. I tried to email her immediately and ask if this was truely what she meant to say and she never responded. That was 3 days ago. I am now on a bit of a freak out...I have Photo Phil lined up for Tuesday, Pastor York for Tuesday, as well as half my family leaving Wednesday. What am I going to do? Not to mention they can't seem to get my time right on my confirmation, a problem I don't think I should be dealing with six weeks out. Does anyone know if this is true? Most of us have been under the impression that the 3 day rule is for legal ceremonies only. Anyone been there recently do symbolic only and arrive a couple of non business days ahead? I am trying not to freak...Help please!