TheWolferts

All of our wedding party lives in cities across the country so I am delegating 2 of our bags to my dad and his GF to bring down. They are the only ones that will be down there in time for me to hand over all of our decor and OOT bags stuff to because we meet with our onsite wedding coordinator the second day we are there and everyone else arrives the 3rd day we are there.

We leave this Sunday! My clothes are all packed, but our OOT bag items and decor are sitting on my dining room table, as I am slightly panicking how we will get it all down there! I think I will try to pack most of it up tonight.

We ended up having 2 guests cancel last minute so they said they wouldnt refund us the money we already paid on their rehearsal dinners, cocktail party or reception dinners, but they would give us credit towards other things. Since we are less than a week out and have already included all of the things we really wanted in the wedding, we decided to upgrade our cake to a carrot cake (my fav) and we are upgrading our gazebo flowers to include a bit more lilies and less foliage. We are also able to get my dress steamed and my fiance's suit pressed at the resort. We would still have about $9 left over credit, but I am so glad that we were able to at least receive credit with our guests canceling so last minute. Oh btw, she said that the upgrade to carrot cake or red velvet is an additional 20% the cost of the cake. We are getting the $80 round cutting cake, so the additional cost was just $16.

I bought a bag on Amazon.com. My tailor put a thick white plastic over my dress, then we put that in the colored garment bag, to ensure there wouldnt be any color bleed and to essentially "waterproof" it. The bag my dress came in was very similar but I felt like you could see through it a little too easily, so I went with one of our wedding colors! Here is the description: Product Description This high quality Blue / Turquoise wedding dress garment bag is the perfect way to store your cherished bridal gown. Made with 3.5 mil breathable fabric, this garment bag is designed to let your dress "breathe" while it prevents yellowing and odors. The garment bag is extra long (72 inches) and includes a 10 inch side gusset to accommodate most style wedding dresses - even those with a train. This extra long hanging garment bag is perfect for any type of formal wear dress. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Breathable-Wedding-Dress-Garment/dp/B0041NLHOK/ref=pd_sbs_a_24

We are taking our honeymoon about a month after our wedding in Jamaica. Since we will be apart in between our wedding and honeymoon, I am hoping that everything still seems very "newlyweds" when we go on our HM.

We decided that we wanted to wake up together the morning of our wedding day, have breakfast in bed, and get a couples massage the morning of our wedding. We will part ways after the massage and be apart the rest of the day and he will head off to his own room to get ready in. My fiance travels for weeks at a time for work, so we would both prefer to be together as much as we can on the day, especially since many of my friends that have recently gotten married said that they were greeting their guests so much during the reception that they didnt get to spend so much time with their new husband! We are looking forward to some quiet alone time after a week of being around friends and family and before all the craziness begins on the wedding day! He also has to fly back to his job the morning after our wedding so I want to savor the alone time, since I wont see him for another 2 weeks after our wedding.

While I dont think it is expected for the bride to buy her BM dresses, I think if its possible for you to work it into your budget, it is a very nice gesture. I bought my BMs their dresses since I knew each of them was going to have a difficult time even making it to the wedding and I thought it would be one less thing for them to have to worry about when trying to come up with the money to attend our DW. I waited until our local bridal shop was having a trunk sale and I got their dress for about $150 a piece with originally 6 BMs (now I just have 4... one BM paid me back for the dress cost, another still has the dress and refuses to answer any of my phone calls) Some BMs were very appreciative, while others didnt seem like they cared much almost like they felt I should have to pay for them since I am "making" them spend so much money to get to our wedding. Which is kinda funny because my home town is a very touristy beach town and if we had had the wedding there during the high tourist season, they would have had to pay only $40 less than they are paying to go to Mexcio at an all-inclusive... though no one seems to think it would have cost as much money, I actually made a spreadsheet for anyone that didnt believe me! My fiance bought his guy their suits at about $220 a piece because he knew that they too would have issues making it down to the wedding and he is using that as his attendant's gift.

Maybe instead of a full on shower, someone could host a small get together at their house and each person could bring a dish and bottle of wine. Then watch sappy, love movies or have them help you with some wedding DIY projects. Or maybe you could do a low key outting like a mani/pedi appointment together or find a group deal on groupon for something fun and adventurous!

Just picked up my dress and my fiance just picked up his suite from the tailors... they are both perfect!!! We head to Mexico next weekend

Thanks. This wedding needs to get here fast! I keep thinking of little additional things to do or add on and I am driving myself crazy! We leave next Sunday and I think I have "weddingitis"! LOL it's the term I have been using to refer to my tendency to not want to focus on anything else but wedding things until we leave! Hence my writing this at work in the middle of the work day

What was the additional fee for the red velvet or carrot cake?

We are getting married on the beach, but I am wearing wedges for the ceremony, then changing into heels for the reception. I am a foot shorter than my fiance so I didnt want to look so small in all of our pictures. Any time I am remotely dressed up (going out with friends and even work), I wear heels, so I cant imagine not wearing heels. Plus, I didnt want to get my dress hemmed for my wearing heels at the reception and not be able to walk down the isle easily because my dress was too long. We opted for the wood walk way that will go all the way up to the alter, so myself and my fiance will be standing on it throughout the duration of the ceremony.

Maybe it'd be better if you gave your TA a list of features you had to have, a list of nice additional features, and a price range you are comfortable with and are comfortable having your guests pay. We did that with ours, so she didnt even show us properties that fell outside that range. Also, the TA will likely have different prices than you are able to find online doing your own research as the TA's company might be running a promo or the TA might know if the resort is running any sort of promo that brings it within your price range. Our wedding is at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya, Mexico and without the 20% off for all of our private events, a $1,500 discount on our suite, and 20% off for all of our guests, I dont think we could have managed to have the wedding at the resort. Having a DW can be pricey, but it would definitely cost more to have the same wedding in the States. We are serving filet mignon with a lobster tail which is only $32 pp at EDR versus in the states the same meal was $110 per person and that didnt include drinks! We are having our dream wedding at EDR and we definitely couldnt have done that in the States.

We reviewed our final spreadsheet about 6 weeks ago so I am very familiar with all of the pricing and things included in the packages. I am having my hair and make up down as well, and doing a rehearsal trial run the day before the wedding. The trial day is cheaper, which is nice if you are doing both, but I am not sure why if you are just doing the wedding day hair and makeup, you couldn't say you want a hair and makeup "trial" on your actual wedding day. Make sure you get the bride and groom 15% off discount which is included in the Free Wedding Package (so I am assuming in the paid packages as well). Also, make sure you factor in the 10% mandatory "service charge" that is due at the time of the service. Yes, the only cake flavors are vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. I get so jealous when I hear about other couple's cakes at other resorts! I guess you could technically pay the outside vendor fee (ha yea right!) and get your cake outsourced. My cousin got married at EDR in September 2010 and said that if she had to plan it again, she would not bother spending money on the cake because 1) teh cake is covered in fondant so not very tasty, 2) she said the cake was very dry, almost stale, and 3) because all the meals come with dessert, not a single person had a piece of cake, so she basically wasted a couple hundred dollars for a 3 tiered cake. My fiance isnt a big cake person and we both are very excited for the dessert we selected, so we are actually just ordering the small $80 cutting cake, so we can do the cutting of the cake ritual. We are doing it at the beginning of the reception, so that people arent sitting there waiting for cake when dessert time comes! I thought the breakfast in bed the morning after the wedding was odd as well. We are leaving the day after, as well as a majority of our guests, so we wanted to get up and be around the resort to see everyone off. We arent staying in seperate rooms the night before our wedding, so we requested our breakfast in bed the morning of our wedding to get some calm, alone time before everyone is pulling us in every different direction. After breakfast, we are getting our beach massages and then parting ways to get ready. I have a huge smile on my face just typing this, Im so excited! They were also really good about altering the menus for our tastes. My fiance and I detest salmon, but we really wanted the omelette and french toast option so they let us change what we wanted in our omelettes. I think the point of us ordering it ahead of time rather than just ordering room service is because the wait wont be as long if they are already preparing it, and I dont know that all of the items on the breakfast in bed menu are generally available on the regular room service menu. I have been working with Valeria and sometimes she is quick to respond, some times it takes a couple of days, but overall, I have been happy with Lomas. I always get a very fast response if I do their online chat service. While you wont get your specific WC every time, they can all address specific questions about EDR and are in close proximity, as I once was chatting with Natalia, and she said "hold on, Valeria is right here, let me ask her" and I got the answer to my question right away!

I dont think EDR allows those. We wanted to have a beach bonfire cocktail reception and Valeria told me that they didnt allow anything flammable on the beach because embers from the fire could drift over to one of the many buildings they have with a dried glass palapas roof. Which makes sense, but was a bit of a bummer because a beach bonfire is very "us"!

I feel like this braid is more bohemian than child like... if you braided pigtails or one long braid, then perhaps it would look childlike haha I never would have thought that I would be considering a braid in my hair on my wedding day, but when I saw this, it just really fit with everything else in my vision.

I was thinking of doing something very similar to this style, but with a little bit different bun, so it doesnt quite look like a birds nest LOL I thought it was very original looking and looked not so coiffed, very beachy romantic.

We requested ours back 12 months in advance of our wedding date because we had to pay for all of the events on a per person basis 4 weeks prior to the wedding and we figured there would be a couple of people we would need to track down. Though I still to this day have never heard back from quite a few people... I didnt know people could be so rude! It's just not that difficult to check "no" and send it back in the already post marked envelope we provided them.... but I digress... I ordered our OOT items about 6 weeks ago, with many of the items coming from Amazon and we have the prime shipping option so mostly everything was delivered within 2 days of my ordering it. We leave for our wedding in 10 days and unfortunately just had 3 people cancel, so we are now stuck paying for their dinner at the reception, rehearsal dinner, and cocktail hour as well as all of the OOT bag items we purchased. I almost feel like it is easier and better in the long run to underestimate the total guest number because you can always buy more or add on people last minute, but cant always get your money back

Since we are only 2 weeks out, we had to pay our final balance and those 3 guests were confirmed at the time... my dad gave us money for the wedding, so anything left over, we wanted to use towards our honeymoon. We have some left over already, but it would be nice to have the couple extra hundred dollars back. The one couple is a good friend of mine, so would it be crass to ask them for the money since they canceled so last minute?

I know the safes are pretty small in the Junior Suites, but I am not sure about the Casitas. We have to bring our laptop and will be bringing down our portable iPod player as well, so I think we will just have to keep them well hidden in the bottom of a suitcase maybe... Maybe we could bring a lock for the suite case to have a larger locked storage area? I am also curious if everyone will be wearing their engagement ring in the pool and on the beach. Normally I would not want it on if I were in the pool or on the beach, but 1) it seems odd to not where your engagement ring when you are at the resort to get married and 2) I am nervous about leaving it in the safe. Perhaps I will just bring the box down with me and wear it, but have the box in my bag so I when I take it off, it will go directly in the box.

I will probably drape mine over my arm. It already has lots of rucheing (sp?) and I am definitely getting it steamed when I get there. The only reason I dont want to shove it in to a suite case is 1) it's pretty heavy so if I can carry it on to the plane I dont have to mess with it again until we land in Mexico because we have a nonstop and 2) If they lose our luggage, I can go without some clothes, but not my dress!

Thanks for the tipping tips! LOL

Rooms are paid for, but they have waited until now to book a flight...

So my FH and I leave for the wedding in 10 days and I just had 3 guests tell me they dont think they can make it. One couple that was coming just broke up, so now only the guy is coming and the other is a good high school friend and his date. I think I had let me guard down being so close to the wedding that I figured that at this point, everyone was all paid up and going, and I only had to worry about the little things. Now I cant help but be a little upset obviously because my friends aren't coming, but also because we have already paid in full for the cocktail hour, rehearsal dinner, OOT bags, reception, etc for the those people and I dont think we can get any of that back *sigh*

Well I know she isnt coming to the wedding at this point and I am just going to keep her BM gift that I also bought before she and another BM canceled. The other BM has been slightly more supportive but didnt come to my shower and didnt even call me the day of the shower. It is amazing how much you learn who are your true friends when planning a wedding. It has kind of shocked me how non-chalant some of my girl friends have been, basically acting like the shower, bachelorette, and wedding are no bigger than canceling a coffee date or dinner. It's also especially rough when someone says they cant afford to come to your wedding, then they invite you to theirs fully expecting you to be there, while at the same time announcing on their Facebook that fantastic vacation they just booked. My fiance says I shouldnt take it personally, but it's kinda hard not to