mrspfafftobe

Hi Everyone! My wedding is coming up FAST and my fiance and I have started some DIY projects for the big day. We are proud of them so I wanted to share with everyone for ideas and inspiration! You will see our monogram a lot which will be everywhere at the wedding - including projected onto the dance floor :) Dinner menus (this isn't the final version/wording but you get the idea) Matches for our cigar bar - we met on match.com so we incorporated their logo. We are using kraft paper everywhere in our wedding, so we decided to go with kraft paper welcome bags. We really wanted to give out cloth totes, but I think these turned out great and they were a much more economical option. We designed a custom rubber stamp and I hand stamped both sides of 50+ bags. Since the stamp was an investment (around $50) we wanted to find another use for it. We found online really cheap but sturdy paper coasters and we hand stamped about 150 of these. I can't wait to use them for our welcome cocktail party!! Here's a close up... I love the fact that every one will be a little different from variations in the ink. They're not perfect but I think the imperfection adds to the "rustic" feel of the wedding. Cute paper straws! I have to give all the credit to my fiance for these, he did this whole project start to finish - design to execution - on his own (300 straws!).... "Too much sun, too much fun" kit for our welcome bags Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have questions or are looking for sources - we got everything online for very reasonable prices

Thanks everyone!!!

It's April already (!!!) so I'm wondering if anyone has reviews from weddings at Le Reve this year or last year since this thread was started?! I know there are a lot of weddings in April, May and June.... how is the wedding planning going for all of the spring brides?? As for myself, every day I get a little more checked off the list and a LOT more exited. I pretty much stalk the internet for new pictures of Le Reve and also the del Sol blog just to see their latest and greatest shoots. I cannot wait to be in Playa again

We are just finishing packaging up our invitations for our June wedding so I wanted to share their beauty with everyone! We did letterpress invitations with The Goosefish Press in Boston, MA. We found them through a referral from my fiance's sister. I think they came out really well, we are super happy! My favorite part about them is the custom A&A monogram the designer made - we are incorporating it into almost all of the printed goods for our wedding. The envelopes are from www.paperpresentation.com, the Lilac twine is from Etsy and my mom sewed the burlap ribbon bought from www.save-on-crafts.com. We found all of the vintage stamps on eBay and found our Boston-based calligrapher on Etsy as well (AshTreeCreations). Hope you enjoy as much as I do!!

Hi Matt, I've been looking for dark plate chargers and blue linens just like in your picture second to the bottom. Do you have any idea who the couple worked with for rentals? Such great inspiration!!

Hi - I am getting married at Le Reve in June and they do allow kids for the day if you do a buyout of the hotel, which is 25 rooms. They offer very good room rates with the DelSol/BDWF promotion.

shelby825 - Half and half... that sounds like what I want to do! Did you end up doing it/how did it go? Just the blessing sounds really cool. I do want a traditional wedding and we also want the ceremony to be a legal one, but the Cosmic/Mayan ceremony just seems too cool and special NOT to do. Our guests would remember being a part of that forever! We are inviting all of our guests to the rehearsal dinner the night before - perhaps we could do a short spiritual ceremony before the dinner. I don't know... just an idea... thoughts anyone??

All of the Le Reve brides out there - I need your help! I am getting married at Le Reve in June 2012. Before we sent out save the dates last week, 50% of the hotel was already booked. From talking to other friends and family who haven't booked yet but are going to, I am certain that the rest of the rooms are going to sell out ASAP and we will have many more people at the wedding than we originally anticipated. I'm obviously concerned about what this will do to our budget, but I am mostly worried about where our additional guests are going to stay. Where should we direct them?! Has anyone else had overages or are you planning for overages? I really wanted a small intimate wedding which is why I thought Le Reve was perfect, but more people than we thought are excited to come. I guess that is one of the downfalls of trying to plan a destination wedding - hard to control the guest list! Does anyone have suggestions for a second hotel? I know Azul Fives and The Tides are right next door, but I think those are kinda pricey. Petit Lafitte is right next to those and reasonable in price, but I wasn't really impressed with the accommodations when we toured. Anyone have any opinions on Sandos? I haven't been there - is it walking distance or would the guests have to rent a car/take a taxi? Thanks for your help!!

Hi echo73! We went to Le Reve in September and did our menu tasting. We haven't finalized it with Arlenis but we have pretty much picked our menu. I am (still) working on our detailed site visit review but I'll try to do that soon with pictures of the food and everything - stay tuned!! I will say though that all of the food was AMAZING and the tasting lasted almost four hours! Their upscale dining was one of the main reasons we picked Le Reve - food is really important to us. The best part about our tasting experience was the CAKE! We wanted Le Reve to make our wedding cake since it is part of the 5 course menu. For the tasting we asked to sample the tres leches (which is one of their standard deserts) and then we asked them to make a white cake with raspberry filling (not a standard desert). Not really grasping the idea of "white cake", they ended up making us the tres leches with raspberry filling and it was AMAZING! They added handmade raspberry coulis on the side. It was the most delicious cake I have ever tasted, and the presentation was beautiful. Le Reve can't do fondant or fancy cake decorations, but I know for a fact that our cake is going to taste incredible and that is all that matters to me. If you are set on cupcakes or a fancy cake, I have heard that Dolcet in Cancun is pretty much the best/only place to go. http://www.dolcetcakes.com/ Again, I'll try to find time to post more about the food soon!

My sister is a master hair stylist and has been doing my hair my entire life, so naturally I want her to do my wedding hair. I'm not sure if she would even charge me, but if she does, her normal prices are WAY lower than what I've seen on this thread and I know for a fact I'll be 100% happy. I also think my sister or another stylist guest I have coming could do a great job on makeup (even though that's not their specialty). Have any other brides brought their own make-up artist or done their own, i.e. - NOT used someone from Mexico? My only concern is that the climate/weather will be too different and the products/application techniques we're used to back here in the states won't work well down there. Any thoughts or suggestions on this??

Our budget right now is $40,000 and even though we're early in the planning I think it's going to be really hard to stick to that! We anticipate around 50 people (we really can't go over that!!) but costs still are adding up exponentially. I do have $2,500 budgeted for my dress (I'm going shopping next week!) and we already bought my beautiful Tacori wedding band for around $2,300 and are spending $5,700 on photography (del Sol in RM), so that's a BIG chunk right there. Those things are all important to me, though, so it's worth the investment. Honestly I'm not thrilled with how much we are spending, but I'd much rather spend that on a week-long trip with my closest friends and family in a beautiful destination than on a traditional one-day wedding back home. We live in Boston, MA where weddings in the city are just crazy! For $40k here, we'd have a very basic, no-frills wedding - just not worth it to us!

I really want to get my FI this really nice Breitling watch he wants. He bought me a beautiful Tacori engagement ring and wedding band so it's only fair that he gets a little bling too. We'll see if I can save up enough money!

I am so excited to announce that I, too, will be a 2012 Le Reve bride!! We just finished the contracting/deposit process with Arlenis for June 16, 2012 and could not be more thrilled!!! We haven't been to Le Reve yet, but we knew this was the place for us from pictures and reviews and information on this site. We also considered Esencia, which also looks amazing with an incredible beach, but unfortunately the rooms were too expensive even with the generous discount we were offered. We feel so lucky to have found our perfect resort after months of searching! We are going for our site visit over Labor Day weekend and I will be sure to post pictures and reviews.

Hi everyone! Has anyone heard of or used Laura Corrales of Premium Flores in Playa del Carmen as their florist? My WC suggested her as a great local florist, however I haven't been able to find any info on her or the company here on BDW. They have a Facebook page with sample pictures that look nice, but I'd love to read reviews or references. I guess I can always ask the WC to get references from past brides. Thanks!!

Hi Eveyone! I am so excited to announce that I will be a June 2012 bride in Playa del Carmen, MX! We have just finished the contract with our resort and are working on the photographer and videographer as well. Although this is my first post, my fiance (he even has his own account - love it!!) and I have been reading this site pretty much since the night we got engaged. We are both SO excited to be having a destination wedding and to finally have picked out a date and location. We definitely couldn't have done it without this form and we look forward to all of it's resources as we start to plan our wedding!!