AllieH

Oh I LOVE your garter Gale!!!! and for 16 people in the health bar, I'm not sure you need their amplifier system either. Do you guys plan to dance, or do you think it'll be more of a chat-eat-laugh sort of event? The one nice thing about their system is includes a microphone, if you're planning to do introductions, speeches, toasts, etc. It would also include someone to keep the music going, so one of your guest doesn't have to worry about that.

uhm, yeah, $7 per cupcake is nuts. they certainly aren't worth $7 each!!!!! and the inconsistencies in the pricing quotes really drove me over the edge when I was doing my planning as well. Quote: Originally Posted by Maybeachbride So Valeria just quoted my $7 per cupcake with a minimum of 10. It is crazy how inconstant the pricing is! Bubble wrap is the best route for the fragile items. or if you have other soft things you can stuff inside, and then wrap the outside with the bubble wrap, that should work too. the main thing is to wrap them inside & out though. I would also consider carrying those on - baggage handlers are notoriously rough on checked stuff.

so cool! congrats to you!!

you are so welcome! and thank you ha - see, I told you I had it, and sent it on to the next brides! Happy 1st anniversary!!!

Hi - I'm not sure which resort you're looking at, but I know when I estimated shipping costs for large boxes from Texas to Mexico (Riviera Maya for me), it was well over $500 for FedEx or UPS. Unless you know someone who does import/exports and can help you, it's probably a better idea to recruit some friends and family to help you carry your decorations down to mexico. the $25 or $35 per bag may be much less expensive than the shipping charges. Plus...there's a chance your stuff could get held up in customs, and not make it to your venue in time - no matter how early you send it. It's a huge risk, and most brides choose the luggage route.

Yay! it's all coming together! The $5pp seems to be more common with Valeria, but it isn't the first time I heard it. When I got onsite, my onsite WC mentioned that they "usually charge $5pp for set up", but were willing to do it for the same price as they usually charge for hanging the paper lanterns ($150, paid in cash). So it does seem to be a new policy. And they will likely tell you that your friends/family can't do the set up b/c it will get in the way of their staff - so just be prepared for that. I wouldn't rely on the wifi for Pandora/music. It may work ok, and it may not - to be safe, I'd go the playlist route.

hi! congratulations! are you working with a travel agent? they can quickly help you narrow down your options and weigh the different resorts. I'd highly recommend a travel agent if you don't have one already.

hi Ashley, I'm sorry to hear it wasn't the spa-resort experience you'd hoped it would be!!! We were married (and honeymooned!) at El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya. It is definitely a romantic resort for couples - and their spa was really wonderful. We stayed in the Casitas side - a resort within a resort. The entire property is lush, well kept, and definitely worthy of 5 stars. The food is gourmet - and we had no complaints at all about the food. The service was beyond amazing too! Was everything perfect? No, but the things that weren't perfect were very minor, and the resort always did their best to make things right. There are links to my review of the resort in my signature, and my profile has a number of photos of the resort (and our wedding) too. We really fell in love with EDR, and can't wait to go back (if you can't tell!) Good luck with all of your planning!

oops - quoted this one, and then forgot to reply! no converter needed. they have the standard US plugs. a small power strip might be helpful though if they have lots of gadgets to charge. my husband & I would rotate charging our iPads each night lol we had beach towels in our rooms in the casitas every day - they would replace them in the evenings. And when we had guests visit with us at the casitas, housekeeping never hesitated to give us extra beach towels for them. I think it's the same way in the Royale side - unless your guests are taking excursions, a beach towel isn't really necessary. We did borrow our beach towels from the room when we went snorkeling, but I was paranoid about leaving them behind - of course there's a huge charge for them.

I would suggest either the martini bar (in/near the main lobby) or the beach bar (next to Jojos down on the beach). depending on the size of your group. Guacamayas is an option - but we found that the cigarette smoke bothered us so we didn't hang out there. the other bar we liked is down by the casitas - near Kampai. it's another beach bar, and was never crowded. it has great lounge furniture too - perfect for a group. it's only open until 10 though. the other 3 bars are open much later. the martini bar has more room I think. the beach bar does have tables and chairs, but only a few barstools (and swings). Quote: Originally Posted by Maybeachbride I am using the free dinner for a welcome dinner/rehersal dinner Saturday night since my wedding is on Sunday. I want to have everyone go to a bar after but I have no idea how to narrow it down. Ladies who have been there which one would you recomend? Riz - we stayed in the casitas for our entire 10 day stay, and LOVED it. I would do it again. the casitas are larger, and they are more private - better yet there are pools for every set of buildings, and they aren't super busy (although you don't have to stay in the casitas to use those pools). at the very least, move over to the casitas for the honeymoon portion of your stay. highly recommended!

yes, one thing at a time, for sure. there are no hard and fast rules about invites for a destination wedding. if you are satisfied with the STDs, and don't want to do formal invites, then don't. I had a bit of a SNAFU, and my STD's ended up being electronic rather than the postcards I'd envisioned. I'm a big paper girl (scrapbooking, etc.), so formal invites were a "must have" on my list. I used the invites as a reminder for final payment. They were sent in late July for our November wedding. They included the RSVP (so I could get entree choice), RSVP for the welcome dinner (because I didn't know when everyone's flight was getting in), and a card with a link to our wedding website (this had all the travel/resort info on it). We also did a welcome letter to let everyone know we appreciated them being there. I had one given to them when they checked in (the staff was not thrilled about this, but they did it anyway), and then one was tucked in their OOT bags (which we gave them at the welcome dinner). I was planning to share some deco with another bride, and it took some pushing to get the wedding coordinators to agree to hold it from her wedding to mine. They were eventually agreeable to doing it, but we ended up not sharing. I'm honestly not sure how well it would have all worked out, so I don't know that I'd rely on that for a decoration you absolutely have your heart set on having. I'd do it with stuff that'd you'd like to have, but if something doesn't work out and it's not there (can't find it, whatever), it won't totally ruin your day. they are ok with brides bringing their own. they will charge you a set up fee for it. this amount can vary widely if you try to get it quoted with your Lomas WC. they tend to like to price this and have you pay for it once you get onsite (in cash). this was one of my biggest stresses leading up to the wedding - even though it all worked out fine in the end. only one recent EDR bride was successful in getting her Lomas WC to quote and let her pay for set up before they got onsite. they will generally start with a quote of $5pp (per guest) as the set up charge if you bring your stuff. I never got this quoted to me - but other brides did. I'd use that as a general guideline, depending on what decorations you're thinking of.

this is true. so a married couple can have $600 total, doesn't matter how it's distributed. if it's two friends traveling together, it needs to be distributed to $300 each. the amounts represent what you can have as "gifts" - not your personal items. so these would be your favors, your OOT bag items, etc. now, how closely they monitor this is very subjective - we went through with 5 pieces of luggage and my dress, and both of us got the "green light" at customs - zero questions. My mom also carried a suitcase of stuff through, and they had zero questions about it either. but i have heard of brides who have been pulled aside and asked for their receipts. it's definitely better to be prepared!! here's the information on the Mexico page of the US State Dept. site: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html Customs Regulations: Please refer to our information on customs regulations. U.S. citizens bringing gifts to friends and relatives in Mexico should be prepared to demonstrate to Mexican customs officials the origin and value of the gifts. U.S. citizens entering Mexico by land borders can bring in gifts with a value of up to $75.00 duty-free, except for alcohol and tobacco products. U.S. citizens entering Mexico by air or sea can bring in gifts with a value of up to $300.00 duty-free. Please refer to Mexico’s customs guide for passengers for more information, including on requirements to declare cash or other financial instruments exceeding the equivalent of $3000 U.S. dollars.

hey Amanda! have a wonderful trip!! I hope you like 5's, and can't wait to hear your feedback. happy almost-anniversary!

hi!! I think all of us brides are picky. rightfully so! have you considered one of the El Dorado resorts? I can vouch for their food - it's gourmet, and all delicious. Their service is top notch. I'm not as familiar with El Dorado Maroma or Seaside, as they are smaller resorts. But I do think they'd fit the bill for a more private ceremony. And EDM is close to Secrets Maroma I believe (at least, we saw Secrets from the boat when we went snorkeling from Marina Maroma!). Our wedding/honeymoon was at El Dorado Royale/El Dorado Casitas Royale. We chose Gazebo 55 for the privacy aspect. It's at the far end (south), so is one of the more isolated areas. There is still a building of room overlooking the beach gazebo, and we did have onlookers who watched our ceremony from their balconies. We also had quite a few people on the beach, but they kept a respectable distance! here's a picture where you can see the building behind our ceremony: here's another where you can see our ceremony set up in the background - the people on the beach didn't get any closer than the sign you see. we had our reception/dinner at Tucanes, which was great! the lush landscaping really made it private. here's Tucanes in the daytime: hope that helps with some ideas. happy planning!

Hi Lauren! Another FW destination bride here. welcome to the boards! We got married last year in early Nov, and the weather was PERFECT! We had 1 rainy day out of the 10 that we were there. The other days were picture perfect. We got there Oct 31st, and left Nov 10th. Even the rainy day wasn't bad - it'd sprinkle off and on, a downpour for 10 minutes, and then just a cloudy day. I got some fantastic photos that day, even though we didn't get to soak in the sun. People were in the hottubs, and gathered on the beach beds - it was still really enjoyable to be there. The highs were in the upper 70's, low 80's. lows in the low 70's and upper 60's. I would definitely have a pair of long pants and a lightweight jacket - some windy nights were a little chilly. the rainy day: and a picture perfect: if I can help at all, let me know!

these are really cool! totally unique. I love them! Quote: Originally Posted by jnitschke Ok.. I have another contender idea for centerpieces. This is totally different. I just stumbled on this yesterday. They are these flower covered wine glasses, with led tea lights in them. Here's what they look like in light and lit up at night. The lit one is off a website.. a little different, not painted and made of vellum. If I were to do this I'd do better and less sloppy painting and do them on vellum. plus, I think I'd paint both sides... or maybe use a pattered paper instead of painting. They assembled in less than 5 mins... so they're really quick and easy to do. Here's the table mock ups I did with it. .. I would also add some votives or tea lights like in the sample picture. What do y'all think?... This one or one of the other two?

hi Jade! congratulations!! I'm not an expert on the Azul resorts, but I know that with Lomas Weddings (who plans all the weddings for the Karisma Resorts), there is an extra per head fee if you choose to have a private event. That may be a cocktail, or it could be a buffet or sit down dinner. Those fees are really reasonable compared to what it would be if you planned the same event elsewhere, as the fees mostly go to have the wait staff and bartenders dedicated to your event. For example, we had a sit-down 3 course meal with steak & lobster tail, and it was $28pp. That same meal probably would have been $100pp in the US. Have you looked at the banquet packages yet? I don't see the current one posted, but I can share the one I have from planning our wedding. Keeping in mind that prices & menus may have changed.. I can send it to you if you PM me your email address. As far as the packages, when we were deciding which one to choose, we listed out all the amenities of each of them, and realized that for us, the Free Sweet Wedding was the best choice. We really didn't want/need the things that were "buy ups" and included in the other packages. We were lucky that we ended up having just enough rooms w/ double occupancy to fill the Free Sweet Wedding deal. So you really need to weigh out what is included in each package, and decide what's important to you. and yes, look into a GIVC travel agent if you don't have a TA you're working with yet. they have additional incentives available, and a private cocktail reception is one option you can choose (at least it's available if you book through Wright Travel, I'm not 100% sure what other GIVC's can offer). if I can be of any help, please let me know!!

hey JEM - welcome to the EDR thread!!! I have to echo what Amanda said. I felt the same way you did - we hadn't been to EDR before our wedding, and I was sooooo nervous about it. It was absolutely AMAZING. the resort is gorgeous, service is fantastic, and their weddings are gorgeous. we used a TA, and she primarily did the rooms, though she did help some folks with their airfare too. It was much easier than trying to get everyone to book and pay by myself. like Amanda, we kept the decorations and extras to a minimum - the beauty of the resort really shines through, and I didn't feel the need to do a ton more. if we can help you with ANY of those ideas or decisions, please let us know. Quote: Originally Posted by JEM236 Hi Ladies! I am new to this forum. I just booked our wedding on May 31, 2013 at the El Dorado Royale. I am really excited but a little nervous booking a place site unseen. My FI and I chose a destination wedding because we both have small families and most of our friends and family are spread all over the place. I also didn't want to be a bride that had to pick details from a million different vendors and I want to be able to party and see my friends for more that a few hours. Plus who doesn't love the beach? Did you all use TA's? I found the rates to be better and we are only using her for the rooms, not airfare. I am super nervous because I have read some bad reviews about the site I used - destination weddings.com. I am also nervous about the how all the little extras from the resort will add up. I guess I am looking for some reassurance and some wedding buddies.