TheWolferts

We used this walk way at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya, Mexico. I really did aid in my walking down the isle in wedges, rather than trudging through the sand. I think it was $150 to rent and it ended up looking slightly different. Instead of the wooden slats lying horizontally across the isle, as in the picture, they actually ran long ways down the isle. The entire isle was comprised of sections of the slats. So not quite what was pictured but still useful!

I wore this strapless Calvin Klein dress with a blue ribbon as a belt. I had initially wanted a similar "rosette" texture to my wedding dress, but decided against it, so I was so excited when I found this dress for the rehearsal dinner!

Planning a destination wedding would have been A LOT more nerve racking if we had selected a country that we had never been to or a resort that at least one of us hadnt stayed at. We got married at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya Mexico having attended my cousin's wedding there almost 2 years prior. I fell in love with the property and the entire trip, I kept wishing some of my close friends or other side of the family could experience how great that place was! I thought it was really helpful having been through a DW there because the onsite wedding coordinator for the resort could easily tell me about locations, quality of venue and food and I knew what she was talking about. Also, I had a fear that if we flew blind and picked a country/resort we hadnt been to, I would feel terrible talking up our wedding and vouching for the resort, if when we got there, it left a lot to be desired. We decided on picking a new location neither of us had been to for our honeymoon and loved it! It was nice to experience something and some place new without the added pressure of hosting 50 friends and family members. I knew the resort we got married at quite well, so it was nice that guests could ask me specific questions about things at the resort before arriving and while there. I might have felt like a bad hostess if I was clueless about the resort.

I wasnt sure if I wanted a veil either and I certainly did not want to spend money on a veil and then feel pressured to wear it, so my grandmother actually made my veil for under $10 and I LOVED it a lot more than any I tried on in the store. I ended up wearing mine for pictures away from the beach and walked down the isle in it. But it got so windy that it kept hitting my husband in the face, so my MOH leaned in and whispered "I think it's time to lose the veil"! HAHA so i subtly leaned back and she luckily got the comb out with a little tug. After the fact, I am glad that I have quite a few pics with me in my dress and the veil so thats always an option too.

We did not do bows (im not a bow person) at the ceremony. I liked the look of the wooden chairs on the beach. I thought they looked more natural sitting on the beach than covered chairs. We did get chair covers for our reception and had colored tableclothes to add a pop of color. I think the colored table cloths with the chair bows might have been too much color. I used a lot of white in our wedding to as an accent color so it worked out well for us.

Regarding the MOH bouquet... I opted for the orchid and sea grass bouquet for myself at $300 and got the BMs a white stargazer lilly and sea grass bouquet for $70 a piece. I didn't mind the flowers, but they fell a little below my expectations. I felt that my flowers looked a little yellowed and plastic-like and the BM bouquets used a lot of that junky filler green leafy stuff which I despise. Could I go back in time, I might have done something in lieu of real flowers, maybe not fake flowers, but I have seen some cute bouquets using old broaches and shells.

I didnt wear these down the isle, but I wore them on our wedding day getting ready! They are from Nine West and are $49.

My grandmother made our chair decorations. She just bought raffia and some colored ribbon at the craft store. I ordered 8-10 inch white finger starfish online and we glued them on once we got down to Mexico. SUPER EASY!

LOL I am not sure if this is typical of DWs or just ours, but we found that most people did not get us gifts, even people that attended the wedding. It actually really surprised us that some of our good friends and/or immediate family did not give gifts. My husband and I make sure that if we get an invitation to someone's wedding, whether we go or not, we get a gift. We invited over 100 people and got maybe 17 gifts. Thank goodness for my showers or we would be needing to buy almost all of our registry! Did any other Mrs. have the same experience?... or was it just us?

Thanks! We are so happy with how they turned out!

Our photographer just posted some of our pics to her website: http://www.andreanigh.com/blog/?p=5289 I cannot wait to get prints and frame these!

Hey everyone! Thanks for commenting, but I dont think I will be posting anything additional to this thread. I am ready to just enjoy married life and stop thinking about the planning that went in to our wedding Word of advice, create your planning thread before your wedding, while you are still excited about the planning aspect! Best wishes to you all!

Yesterday, we were able to make all of our dinner reservations at the Grande and the Suites for our stay next week! Just one more day of work to get through before we leave! I am very impressed with how quickly and well they dealt with taking our reservations over the email. They were so prompt in making the reservations and they sent us a confirmation email to confirm all of the restaurants and times we requested. I hope this is a sign of the fabulous service we can expect next week!

We got our suits at a Macys sale too! Kenneth Cole suit originally $600, for $200. All the guys loved them!

MsBritbrit, How big was your wedding? Were there a lot of other weddings on the same day as yours?

I am almost positive Claudia Photo is on the list of approved vendors as my cousin used her and we were given the option of using her as well.

Oh also, once we got to the resort, we just asked if we could stay in the castias building that was closest to the "regular" side of the resort and they were able to put us in there, so we didnt feel far away at all! We were literally right next to the Casitas archways that tell you that you are entering into that side of the resort. My cousin got married at EDR and used Claudia Photo and her pics turned out great and from what I can tell, they use the photoshop techniques you are looking for.

We ended up going with the free wedding package because we didnt really want any of the additional items offered in the cheapest wedding package (i think its around $2k), so we figured, if we have to spend the $2k, we might as well spend it on our room if the wedding package isnt anything we are thrilled about. We booked 21 rooms and ended up getting about $1,300 back towards our room with the Bride and Groom Stay "Free" promo. We also get about $1200k back for our 1 year anniversary stay for booking 21 rooms. Having stayed in a regular room prior to our wedding there, the Casitas are just leaps and bounds better than the regular rooms! We had guests that wanted to see our room and they actually took pictures it was so pretty! Nice vaulted ceilings, private beach bed on your deck, in door and out door shower, bigger jacuzzi tub (which they fill for you with bubbles and rose pedals the night of your wedding). I dont think i could not stay in a casitas again if we go back! I had Valeria as well and I thought she was great to work with. She does sometimes take a while to get you a response, but try the live chat function on the Lomas site. Sometimes you can actually char directly with her or the person that you are chatting with will be in the same office, so the person you are chatting with can ask specific questions to your coordinator if they are not super busy. Quote: Originally Posted by chiquita8302 Hi!! I was also considering not doing the Casitas, just because I wasn't sure if we wanted to be so far away, and they were expensive... but my TA after informed me that they can discount the casitas just like the regular rooms... so basically, wtih the free wedding, we're barely paying any more to stay in the Casitas. That has to be 7 nights, though I think. I hear you with being a teacher! We are going on Feb vaca because 2 of my BM's are teachers. It is dificult- it makes our package more expensive for everyone because we have to travel during that prime week, but what are you going to do! I've been just starting to talk to Valeria, and so far she seems super sweet, has lots to share... the only thing is her feedback takes probably about a week, but I guess they keep her very busy. When she does reply, she does so in detail to any and all e-mails I've sent her. She's been sending me pics for inspiration and everything to help me choose. So far so good! Good luck with the planning!!

We are staying Tuesday through Sunday and having dinner at 8:30pm each night, except for Saturday when we have 7pm reservations.

Did you attend any of the nightly shows? I think the 8:30 reservation slot is our best bet as the sun wont even be fully down by 8:30 and I dont want to rush if we do an all day excursion, but I am afraid that we will miss any of the fun nightly things.

Thanks! What time did you make your reservations for? We were hoping to eat at 7:30 or 8pm but they said their seating times were only 6:30pm, 7pm, 8:30pm or 9.

For anyone that has already visited the Grand, can you make any recommendations for the best restaurants? Also, I have read that you have the ability to make reservations shortly before your trip via email, has anyone done this? Do any of the other nearby Iberostar properties (suites and beach) require dinner reservations for a la carte restaurants? Thanks! We leave for our HM in 6 days!

So after a lot of debating, my husband decided he wanted to go on our originally planned honeymoon. Yay for that as we were both very excited about selecting this resort originally, but especially yay for him showing signs of recovery/feeling better about the loss of his father. Iberostar Grand Rose Hall in Montego Bay here we come!

Well the dates they are offering are from now until mid July. It has great reviews on trip advisor, but I just cant see how they would offer their rooms for less than $100 a per person night.

Perhaps sprite and blue curacao? Quote: Originally Posted by Jillsepher Allie- Where did you get the template for that and did you tell Natalia you were sending a custom Cocotal wedding to her? I love it by the way!