TheWolferts

Quote: Originally Posted by Mamzaleg I'm getting married in April and due to our large group size, the white gazebo is our only reception option. I was thrilled about being near the water but all these posts have now made me super paranoid!! Will it be too windy?? Will my guests not enjoy it and get sandy food? Has anyone had their reception at the white gazebo? We are having a tent will that help? It won't have sides though? Your advice is appreciated!!! Also, can someone tell me if the resort uses key cards or actual keys? I am planning our welcome bags and we want a landyard in them. Thanks!! How many guests are you expecting? How many have confirmed?

Quote: Originally Posted by kelseyrenee I've seen many posts that Toucanes is hot for a reception. Should I see if I can move my reception from Toucanes to another spot? I am expecting about 30-35 guests and am getting a DJ because I want to dance... but I don't want to sweat! Wedding date is April 24, 2014. I was at EDR is March this year and it would not have been too hot at that time but I'm afraid of the end of April. I originally picked Toucanes because it's not terribly far from my ceremony and cocktail party at Gazebo 55 and figured it would protect against wind or rain. Any input is appreciated! We got married in early May 2012, had our rehearsal dinner at Toucanes and our reception at Salon Dorado... I regret not having our reception at Toucanes!!! We had 42 guests and I felt like the Salon Dorado was a big space for our group. I even did tables of 6 to spread everyone out, and it just seems too big. Everyone in Tucanes was the perfect size. We wanted to have a/c which is why we went with the indoor reception, but people were in and out of the doors so much that the little a/c the few units were putting out, quickly disipated. I think the resort didnt turn on the a/c to that room until right before our ceremony because it was super warm in there. Granted I had a rouched silk mermaid dress so there wasnt a lot of room to breathe/sweat, but I was melting. We would have been definitely happier outside.

Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH We did a majority of our pictures on the rocks on the beach near the salt water "pool" and near the main lobby bridge/palm trees, so our guests weren't watching us take pictures. Because Gazebo 55 was such a hike for most of our guests, it made sense to keep them secluded at that end of the resort while the wedding party ran around taking pictures. By keeping the cocktail party at our ceremony location, some of our older guests were able to stay put and rest a little before walking back to the reception area.

Quote: Originally Posted by JenniferM Maybeachbride-I'm so excited about the paddle boats and kayaks and we are definitely snorkeling. The food looks amazing I'll have to check out the Petit Gourmet too. For anyone that had the ceremony at Gazebo 55 and the reception at Tucanes, where did you have you serve cocktails? I wasn't sure if they just hang out on the beach handy for pics or move early to Tucanes. Also is 2 hours right for cocktails? We had our ceremony at Gazebo 55 and our cocktail reception off to the side of Gazebo 55. Our cocktail reception was about an hour and a half and many guests complained of it starting to get too warm and them starting to get drunk! So 2 hours might be a bit long to have your guests drinking in the sun LOL.

Hi ladies!!! My husband and I are hoping to book a March trip to somewhere warm and fabulous in March... Thoughts on location and/or resort?! We have high standards after staying at EDR twice, but I dont think we want to splurge that much, so we are looking for a great "bang for our buck"!

Quote: Originally Posted by jennifandr5 Thank you so much for the reply! I really appreciate you taking the time its a shame about the heels since my fiance is like a foot taller than me. Maybe ill just be barefoot at the ceremony and cocktail hour and then i can wear them at tucanes afterwards. thats great info about airplane mode and wifi! i didnt know that. Allie thanks for your info too and the pictures!! Also- did you girls run into any trouble at customs? im so worried they are going to tell me i cant bring my decor through. any advice on that? Im actually using one of those large hard covered golf bag cases for most of the breakable items but its going to be huge! Jen, My husband is a foot taller than me so I was determined to wear wedges.... when there is a will, there is a way!!! Was it difficult to walk in the sand? Not too terrible and we had the wooden runner so once I got on that it was great! If you use the runner, I would suggest that you ask they pull the runner up to the altar so that you can stand on it throughout the duration of the ceremony Would I wear wedges all over again? YES! I actually found really cute white wedges at Charlotte Russe for $5 so that I wouldnt care if they got sand in them or got dirty. I made sure that my reception heels were about the same height as my wedges so that my dress hem would look good with both shoes. I was nervous about walking in the sand too, so I actually ended up getting the same "wedding wedges" in blue (one of our wedding colors) and I wore those for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, so that I could practice. Dont worry too much! I dont think you would regret the little bit of "struggle" to get through the reception in wedges, but if you are anything like me, I cannot stand being so much shorter than my husband so the pics would have bugged me if I didnt have some assisted height!

I think its a great idea to "register" at Lowes! Try this website http://www.myregistry.com/ I think you can "pin" items from any store to the list. If this particular site wont do that, I know there are a few out there. My MIL also wanted to host an AHR, but my husband had been to another couples AHR and he didnt like the feel of celebrating twice. Plus our families live so far apart that his family would be the only people that could attend, so my husband didnt want the AHR to feel "all about him." I keep prodding my hubby for a 5 year vow renewal! Less than 4 years to go

Cool! My cousin got married at EDR in Sept 2009 and when I was flipping through some of the flower, cake and table set up options on the Lomas site, I saw pics from my cousin's wedding

Talk to your WC again and you might mention that you have been informed by several previous brides that the outside vendor fee covers the vendor company, not a per person fee. You can even use my name specifically if you want. I know that other brides had other issues of WC either not being well-informed or trying to "work one over" on new brides, so they brought up other brides' experiences and pricing quotes and were then able to negotiate the price down. We had an outside DJ that brought his assistance and there was no additional $800 charge.

We used DJ Doremixx and he brought an assistant. We only incurred the $800 outside vendor fee. I dont think EDR can charge a per person fee, as its one vendor coming in to provide service. If they do tack on extra, I would definitely fight the charge!

We did family style for our rehearsal dinner and it was my favorite meal of the entire trip! The food was all very fresh and tasty and our guests loved it! I definitely recommend it!

We had the wooden runner and also stood on it throughout the ceremony. I;m glad we did it for aesthetic reasons and for assistance walking down the isle. My husband is a foot taller than me so I knew I was wearing heels for the reception. Since me dress was long, I wasnt sure what to do about getting it hemmed, so I bought a cheap pair of white wedges to wear during the ceremony. I practiced a bit on the sand during the rehearsal, which I highly suggest doing. I did almost wipe out on the day of the wedding though because my dress stuck to my leg when i stepped on to the wooden isle. Thank goodness my dad had a firm grasp on me! The wooden runner fit into our budget without having to skimp on anything else we wanted, so we went ahead and spent the $200. I would reserve it if I were you, and if you get closer to the date and you would rather spend the money on something else, you can always get it taken off your order.

We used Destination Wedings for our travel agent-related things for our wedding, but I was hoping that some of you ladies could recommend some general travel agents that specialize in trips to Mexico. The hubby and I are trying to put together a group trip next winter

My wedding had quite a few major hiccups as well and it still kinda gets to me, though my annoyance about things that went wrong has lessened LOL So dont worry, you aren't the only bride that didnt have everything work out fantastically.

I thought the food was a bit better at EDR as well. I did hear some construction while we were on our porch, but for the most part, I didnt notice it. Murmel, did you get a drink in a coconut yet?!

It was great! El Dorado Seaside Suites is basically a mini version of EDR. The only thing I thought was slightly better at EDR was the food, but I could have just ordered a couple of not so tasty things because my husband thought it was just as amazing. For anyone taking their 1 year anniversary trip, dont forget your marriage license! I completely forgot to bring ours and they were hesitant to give us our annivesary package (i.e. dinner on the beach, massage, etc). They actually ended up allowing us to email them a picture from our wedding at EDR as "proof" LOL. Since we got "married" in the States (i.e. got the paperwork done) a couple of months before our wedding day, our marriage license would have said that our one year anniverary was in March, so Im not sure what good our actual marriage license would have done for them, but they were pretty pushy with us showing it to them. You would think that they could look up our stay and wedding in their system, but apparently no. I loved EDSS, but am definitely glad we did the wedding at EDR!

I made a reggae playlist for our beach cocktail hour and made a spanish guitar playlist for our rehearsal dinner. Look up some stuff by Otmar Liebert on John Clarke if you want some great Spanish guitar music that wont put you to sleep.

The wedges I had were about 5 inches with an inch platform and an ankle strap. It was obvisouly more difficult to walk around in the sand, but I tested them out the day before at the rehearsal. They werent impossible, but you do have to focus on not falling, especially if the wind is blowing your dress in between your legs and/or your dress is sticking to your legs because your so hot! I wont lie, I almost ate it once, but I latched on to my dad and im not sure anyone noticed. Just keep smiling! LOL That being said, I would still 100% wear wedges again because of the hem and height issues.

I'm about 5'3" and my husband is 6'2" so not having some height to my shoes was NOT an option. We got married on the beach so I found wedges that were about the same size as my nice wedding heels. I wore the wedges in the sand and then switched into the reception shoes, so I did not have any issues with the hem length. I found some really pretty cork wedges with white straps and they worked out really well! If i were you, Id be afraid to get my Badgley Mishkas anywhere near the sand, especially if they are satin, the sand will tear them up.

We are only going to be there May 11 through 15th. Congrats on the baby!

16 days until we are at El Dorado Seaside Suites!!! I cant believe it's been a year!

My husband wore nice khaki shorts with a button up shirt and seemed very appropriately dressed.

It's like Florida... If it actually does rain it will b for a very short time. We had a 50% of rain on our wedding day before we went down and it didnt rain at all. Don't worry!

It's like Florida... If it actually does rain it will b for a very short time. We had a 50% of rain on our wedding day before we went down and it didnt rain at all. Don't worry!

I think they look great!!! I REALLY wanted callallies for our wedding (they were my parents wedding flower), but our WC said they werent in season so I felt like i "settled" with the flowers we used. Seeing yours makes me wish we had gone the fake flower route!