lciz

The reason why some of the photographers are "cheaper" than Victor at Victor Herrera is because of experience. Once a photographer (such as Adrian) reaches a certain level of experience, his prices go up... This is common everywhere in photography. I am sure Sara's will go up soon as well (so book them soon!)! They are so amazing, I would have paid 3000 for them (and it would have still been cheaper than most of the photographers down there!). Good luck!

I love it all!! You are too cute! Edgar, seriously I miss him!! He was our favorite too!! We cant wait to go back, we were so spoiled! I miss room service every morning that I wake up at home ;-)

Yay for MissBliss & IliaPSU on your wedding success!!! Congrats girls!! *Waiting patiently for photos

Aw thank you and yes, I would try to negotiate... Unless you sign up with a package, they may be more concrete on that... Not sure though!

You may want to ask if they cut the cake!! We had to cut our own cake for our guests

You girls are too kind, thank you for all your awesome comments My bouquet came with Ivory ribbon wrapped around it. I too was confused about cake 1 with the ribbon on it, I assume they provide their own ribbon but not sure how to cut through it... I brought large edible pearls to have placed on every layer instead of the ribbon though. As far as upgrading to Excellence Club... We very very much enjoyed it but I doubt we will ever do it again. You get liquor in your room and there is a private club house you go to for all high quality liquor and finger foods. We never once went to the private EC pool and we only went to the EC clubhouse because we wanted to get our monies worth! Other than that, if you dont do the EC, you will never know the difference. We had room 2402 non EC at first and we loved that room the most. Even over the 9456 room that we begged for b/c its the resort marketing room (best room/view at the resort). As far as private beach wedding, I dont think there is a such thing... People are able to come and go on the beach as they wish and the wedding I watched from my balcony (another thing, ppl can watch from their rooms easy) there were sail boats and jet skis going back and forth during her ceremony. You can see the beach from just about anywhere on the resort, so moving it may not help... However, people are usually respectful of your privacy... I had no idea if anyone was near our wedding, but then later in the week ppl would come up to us and tell us they watched our wedding. You will be so wrapped in the moment, you may not even notice onlookers. Congrats to all the brides coming up!!! So exciting!!

Below are a few pictures that came "free" with the gold package... Oscar did them. He is pretty good, they are definitely "cheesy" but since Adrian is very artsy we agreed to have the pics that came with the package taken of us before dinner one night (since we didnt want them of the wedding b/c we had Adrian). That way we have some posed pics and some artsy pics... Oscar was definitely one of the best at the resort... The pics are fun! They will try to up-sell the heck out of you. These were "free" but then they took 97 more pics that they said we could have for $250 bucks.... We said ok (only because A) we do not have any good pictures of us over the 4 years we have been together we take horrible pics together and C) we are an easy sell :/ ) BUT I did go back to the room to get my money and came back only with $150 bucks and told him its either $150 or we willl pick our free 24 and leave... He agreed to the $150! Worth it for us to have some good non-wedding photos of us... finally Also after taking wedding photos, TTD and these dinner photos, we found out that I am the reason we take such bad pictures :/ haha they kept saying "Jamie, you perfecto- LC please try harder"!! What a shot to the ego ;-)

Yes Nayeli did give us a final "bill" 2 days before the wedding and everything was 100% correct.... but you dont pay until you leave the resort.... and when it came to check out time and the front desk people gave us our real final bill from Nayeli (in Spanish & Pesos) I noticed that it was A LOT of money... Like A LOT. I started to panic big time b/c the language barrier is rough sometimes. I was trying to tell the guy at the front desk it was wrong and he kept telling me it wasnt. We went back and forth for a few minutes until I started to tear up and demanded he print out a detailed bill and convert every single item into USD and English... (the bill was just one lump sum, it should never be one lump sum for any resort/hotel) and so I saw that they double charged us, they got Nayeli on the phone and she came to the front desk to apologize (sort of)... It should have never happened, BUT mistakes do happen and thats why I wanted to give you girls the heads up. My husband would have been the type to just pay it and leave, thinking thats what he owed... I know better ;-) Thank goodness!!

MsBliss Almost time for you!!! I am soooo excited for you!! We paid the $500 and the $45 per person over 20 ppl... You shouldnt have to pay the extra $45 though if you only have 18 ppl in attendance. We got home at midnight last night... exhausted isnt even the word for it!! So much fun though Also make sure you double check your check when you leave... They DOUBLE charged me for everything and it was in pesos and so confusing, I refused to leave the resort until they converted everything to English and into USD... Thank God I am incredibly detail oriented or they would have gotten us for double our money. I almost had a heart attack! Have safe travels!! and most importantly enjoy your soon to be husband and take in every moment!! CONGRATS!

Hi Danak71! We just picked them up in the "Brides" section of Michael's and bought the chalk marker to go with it, then someone at the resort wrote on them for us

Oh man Sarakafka, Im sorry, I know that is frustrating I came on here to tell the girls to make sure that they understand that the top cake tier will be thrown away after one day. We told them that we wanted it for our last night here and they said they would freeze it for us, then I called down for it tonight and they said they threw it away, no one told us So just an FYI... Then I read your post Sara and I felt your pain. I was pretty upset about the no organization thing and the having to also push play for my own first dance and father/daughter dance... I was running around like a crazy person hoping that no one but me noticed that. They ran out of our meals and among other things.... I just had to stay positive and take in all the love around us and even with all the issues I still wouldnt have traded it for a wedding back home, it was still magical and romantic... I just had to deal with a lot of things I thought I wouldnt have to... But like you said, make the vows meaningful and notice all the things right with the day.

oh no I am so sorry you are frustrated!! I totally feel your pain though, thats how I was right before I left! but I do promise you your wedding will be so amazing and gorgeous!! I watched the brides wedding that was crying the other night b/c of N and it was just stunning and perfect!! Its really hard to mess it up here, which may be why N is so "whatever" about getting back to us... It does NOT excuse her behavior but rest assured your wedding will be amazing. Going to Cancun for flowers is actually not a bad idea though. Just dont stress yourself out, try to enjoy the whole process, even the hiccups! I promised my husband that no matter how hectic or frustrating the planning (or lack thereof) got I would always take a deep breath and appreciate the process... We are all so lucky to have our wedding at such an amazing place, where most ppl will only dream of ever visiting... Just remember what the day is truly all about and know that everything will be perfect for you Good luck and safe travels!! BREATHE!!!

No one seems too alarmed about the guy that left, I am assuming that he is fine (and a jerk)... I too feel so much for the bride though. Honestly how does it get to that I wonder? There had to be so many red flags... You´d think you´d know your man enough to know if he were capable of something like that... But enough of that sad talk... You chicks are about to get married in the most gorgeous place ever!!!! I am so excited for each of you!! We only have 2 more days left here, I cant believe it! Where is the time going?? I was having a glass of wine outside last night and some girl came up to me to compliment me on my dress (that I seriously bought at Marshalls for like $15 bucks... I didnt get one compliment on any of my BCBG dresses!! but ppl swoon over my bargain dress Jeesh ;-) ) anyways, she started small talk and her poor eyes were beat red so I made a joke about the booze getting to her and she said "NO, I havent had one drink, I have been crying all night because I am getting married tomorrow and our wedding coordinator is no where to be found and when I went over everything with her earlier she had all the wrong info and Im so scared that nothing will be right!" poor thing I told her all about us and myself (she had no idea I just got married here), etc.... Her WC is, surprise, N! She felt a little better knowing we all felt her pain, I even told her to come on here to vent if she needed to but that I promised everything would turn out gorgeous regardless!! I miss Gustavo Ok gals, TTYL, Im off to the beach!!

We were just updated, the groom bailed on the wedding on Friday... He flew back home that night, not sure about the rest of the guests or the bride though. Poor thing

Thanks Sharon! I have no idea why the groom didnt show up! We were just told about it while we were getting ready for our wedding. I had so any questions about it but no one had any answers :/ Possibly he was drunk, groomsmen have a way with wanting to get the groom as drunk as possible! Luckily we agreed to a 2 drink max before the wedding and then all is game after I didnt even get a sip of alcohol though, I was too nervous and didnt want red eyes in my pics!! (although that went to hell b/c I pretty much cried the entire time!) We got our wedding video yesterday! Its so adorable, but hard to watch myself on film. I just look so unnatural, I could never be an actress Yesterday the wind wasnt too bad, the day before we had a romantic dinner on the beach and the wind blew over an entire bottle of full champagne onto my dress and then the huge bamboo structure broke off the concrete and almost hit us, we had to run for cover and had to finish our meal on a brick wall. So, I guess the wind does come and go!! Hopefully it goes for you all!! Also since it wasnt too windy last night I wore my hair down and curly and the wind still took my curls from me! Stupid wind, I just want my hair down already!! We had our reception at the private terrace away from the beach. It was really pretty and it was windy but completely manageable, and didnt bother us, with the exception of my poor candles!

We had one long rectangle table seating everyone including our photographers at the end of our table. They appreciated being seated with us and to be honest, it would have been awkward to have them off to the side alone. Plus, I just really loved them! Not even joking, the Friday wedding before us the groom didnt show up to the alter!! Can you imagine!! Well, dont, thats crazy! We paid $200 bucks for our table to be lined with tall pillars filled with water and floating candles and since the wind is so nuts, not one single candle stayed lit for more than a second. I was pretty sad about that and am still contemplating asking for my money back. The long table was great for us, very intimate and everyone felt like a part of the family... It was nice I brought paper lanterns as well, I just love how they look in pics!! Unfortunately due to the wind they wouldnt stay up for us :/ I hope the wind is a fluke for us and dies down for you guys!

We actually did hire a DJ but then cancelled last min b/c we only had 25 ppl... It wasnt costs that got us, it was having speakers blaring in the ears of our guests that made us cancel. We even lost our deposit, which we knew would happen, but still having a DJ for only 25 ppl was just a bit much for us. Otherwise I think a DJ would be awesome!!! We planned on a DJ the whole time and my husband and his groomsmen are breakdancers so having a DJ was really important to us, but after we did a test run at home we realized the DJ would be more overpowering than the reception all together so we scratched it. Glad we did b/c after toasts and my BFF singing to us, our reception was over so fast! Again though, if we had even 5 more ppl we would have gone with the DJ!. With that said, we brought our own iPod speakers that worked great. Its $400 to rent the ipod speakers here for the reception, but we happened to have bought $150 Bose speakers for Xmas one year that worked perfectly. Also, for the ceremony, they have an ipod dock to use with no charge. I named all my songs "Guests seating 1 through 8" and "bridesmaids entrance 1" "bridesmaids entrance 2" and "bridal march"... and they still got it all wrong, so again, triple check! I seriously could not have been more clear with our songs and I ended up walking to our bridesmaids entrance 1. how they messed that up I have no idea! No one but me noticed though... so thats good! all thought it was important to me to walk to a string version of my parents first dance... oh well! There are ipod speakers in every room as well, so we made a honeymoon mix that we have been playing non stop :-) ! My BFF got this shot of my shoes!

Sharon99, We brought $200 in 1 dollar bills and we are tipping the waitstaff at the resort here and there depending on their service. Some people just do their job and walk away, those we may leave a dollar or nothing... Others go far and beyond for anything and everything you could ever ask for and you become close friends with them, those people we take care of... Then we never wait for anything at all, ever! Its worth it... We did not tip N, we will send her a gift when we return to the states. At the wedding we tipped each of our bartenders and waitstaff $15 each. They deserved it. We did not tip the officiant, we just used the resorts... I say if you bring your own officiant in to the resort, you should tip them some. We are sending our photogs a tip or a gift after we receive our photos... The tipping can get out of control, so just give when you think it is well deserved. We tipped a waiter when we first got here and he was not nice to us and later again, still not nice to us. So we are saving our tips for those that really go out of their way. As far as the rehearsal dinner goes, I really didnt feel it was necessary to spend the extra money when we are already at an all inclusive. We had ours at the Mexican Fiesta and they put all the tables needed together for us so that everyone had room and we were all together, so it was just like a rehearsal but without the extra costs. We sat everyones welcome bags there for them... Well, N was supposed to set all this up for us but when we arrived no one had told the waitstaff about our rehearsal dinner there, good thing I showed up early and we threw everything together quickly... Our guests never knew the difference. It ended up being a blast!! I wish I knew where N was, Id make her email you all back!!! Again, she left at our reception and was never to be found again, she was supposed to help with the cake cutting and all of that, we had to locate a knife ourselves and just get what we needed done, done. We had vanilla with vanilla, carrot cake (my husbands fav) with vanilla, chocolate with vanilla.... Everyone swooned over the vanilla and vanilla... I am craving it right now actually!! We got the curtains for $50 for the gazebo and it really made a difference. totally worth it!

No one be sad about the swim up room! People pay extra for it for a reason, because they love it! It just wasnt for us and some of our guests because we like to keep our curtains open all the time for the view... But no worries if you are in one because, again, some people love those rooms!! Again about the hair, all I wanted was my hair to be down and long and curly, its actually the only reason i grew it out over the last year!! But the wind is just so crazy, you will see. Just test the beach out when you arrive with your hair curly and go stand down there and be the judge. I just figured I would give you girls the heads up because it isnt something you can control and its just way to crazy to have your hair down... another bride was married here this weekend and she said she couldnt hear her husbands vowes over the wind even with the mic again, just some info I am passing along! I had 10 pages of excel with EVERY SINGLE detail for our wedding that I gave N, N laughed and said I did all the work for her and she just copied and pasted all my details into her wedding sheet, so that way there was no confusion... Well our seating chart had our guests name and their exact meal written under thier name and also thier name tag had thier meal option as well and they still did not make enough... We only had 3 vegetarians and yet they made 6 vegetarian meals and then a few people who ordered the steak or the seafood was stuck with vegetarian meals. My guests made their meal choices 4 months ago... I emailed them to N several times as well as giving her print outs.... So again, just make her triple check!! I took all our centerpieces to my room and the flowers are still alive and beautiful!! I am sure i will have to return the vases when we leave, which is fine because i dont want to travel with them... I will upload more photos soon!! Any other questions?? I am happy to help!

MsBliss... Adrian had an assistant with him that took some photos as well (Hiram)... If photography is important to you I would say its worth it. Just an FYI Adrian takes a lot of artistic photos and thats what we were looking for, but with that said we had the resort photog (Oscar) take some photos as well and they were very traditional. We may actually pay extra to have extra photos from Oscar just because we want the mix of art (Adrian) and traditional (Oscar) now that we are here... Photos are priceless and even though we have maxed our budget, extra money to get the pictures you want is absolutely worth it! So I say go for it... All the Herreras are great, only Hiram speaks good English though, but even with the language barrier it all went smoothly and very fun! We stayed in the Spa view Jr Suite (basic room) for the first night, then they upgraded us to room 2402 for the next 3 nights... It was AMAZING. we had 3 outside beds on our balcony and a personal pool. Unreal and for free! After our wedding we upgraded to room 9456 for our honeymoon, we chose that room from hearing others talk about it. Its ridiculous (its the room they use for brochures and web marketing)... Its an ocean view, 2 story excellence club. There are a lot of benefits to Excellence club and for our honeymoon it was totally worth the extra money. BUT with that said, when we come back we will probably just ask for room 2402 again and not upgrade to excellence because its all just wonderful and the excellence is a great perk but not worth the money the second time around... Unless we win the mega millions, then we will always go for the excellence club! :-) I wouldnt do the swim up only because there is absolutely no privacy in them, everyone can see you in your room and we have been enjoying clothing optional in our room and on our deck ;-) You dont have that option at swim up. I am a die hard foodie and all the food here (with minor exceptions) has been amazing! The Toscana for lunch is to die for, we have been here 6 nights and still cant bring ourselves to eat lunch anywhere else. Breakfast is great there too! Although we have been ordering a lot of room service, for breakfast and for a nice 2am snack fest :-) Thank you all for the kind words, we are really enjoying ourselves here! I just wish I could be here to meet you all!! I have been spending computer time during my husbands napping ( I cant bring myself to nap in this beautiful place!) so keep the questions coming and I will answer when I can!! (so weird that I have a husband now- so fun!!) Also, all the people here are great, guests and workers a like. I hope to continue friendships from here even after we return to the states!! Buenos Noches

Hola Ladies!! I am laying on my rooftop bed writing you all while my husband takes a siesta before our romantic dinner on the beach!! I tried to catch up on all of your messages so that I could write and calm all your nerves but I am short for time, we have a photo shoot tonight before dinner so I must get ready! A) first thing first, the wedding was absolutely stunning- it all went better than imagined and I couldnt have been happier with the outcome!! N was great, although she did leave half way through our reception, never to be found again. She also messed up our champagne breakfast in bed and our photo shoot that came "free" with the gold package, among a few other details... Just make sure that she triple checks EVERYTHING that she told you. She will say "no worries, relax, I got everything covered" several times, and so I listened to her and all those times were incorrect. The biggesting thing (which you will not have to worry about) was the Mexican time change. The day of my wedding the clocks were to be turned an hour ahead but N told all my guests and bridal party it was an hour behind, so we had 2 bridesmaids unaccounted for come wedding time due to this misinformation... Fortunately my bridesmaids are quick at getting ready!! WITH THAT SAID C) Everything, including the mess ups, didnt matter come wedding time. Seriously, everything was impeccable and gorgeous!! Every guest we had cried when they had to leave because it is just so perfect here. The wedding was beautiful!! D) Adrian Herrera was AMAZING!!! I have a friend for life with him and Victor and Sara and Hiram... I love them all. They were totally reasonable, fantastic and I am so happy they were a part of my day. We even woke up at 345AM this morning for an unexpected TTD session. I was not interested in a TTD b/c I am in love with my Vera dress but I loved Hiram and Adrian so much I made an excuse to see them again, The session was awesome! E) Any brides having their wedding on the sand, it is INSANELY WINDY, I mean INSANELY windy. So make sure hair is up and out of your face. I had mine at the Gazebo and it was perfect for us. Then all our other pics were on the beach, I lost my Veil in the wind... SO again, just be careful with your hair. down and curly is so pretty but it will only stay like that for about 10 mins.... So hair up!! F) Christian does funky hair for updos and Sonja does an amazing job with fun updos as well, just be very very clear on what you want and have pictures with you! Make sure you request one of them, 2 others did not do a good job on my bridesmaids and they were pretty upset. other than that, Sonja did my hair and I cried because it was 100% perfect and what I asked for. G) They use Mac and they do great make up... Although I had her put my eyelashes on and I did my own. My MIL had hers done and it looked beautiful. No airbrush but at least they use good makeup. H) If you have the gold package but have your own photographer, you can have them take photos another time to compensate you for what comes with the gold package. Thats what we are doing tonight. We are having a romantic dinner on the beach and having the resort photographers take our picture tonight, that way we have a variety of photos from our trip. I) OMG girls, this place is just way too amazing, I am speechless when it comes to this resort and how much fun we are having here. J) the spa is PHENOMENAL!! K) I had the gold meals substituting the salad with a Caprese salad and a Avacado/Cilantro soup. It was all SO GOOD!!! My dad is a chef and he thought the food was wonderful, so did all of us. The only down side, N got some meals wrong and people were left with out thier optinos and had to have last minute substitues... Although the substitues were good in taste, our guests were a little disappointed that they did not get the right meal. L) Hmmm, the cake was option 1 with edible pearls (that I brought) it had fondent (sp) and a few layers of mixed flavors... I am not a cake snob, nor do I care for cake but OMG it was SO good!! We had a couple tell us it was better than their $980 cake at thier wedding 2 months ago. Ok so I have to go!! Again, everything was so perfect. Let me know if you have any questions!! Happy Planning!!

So, I FINALLY heard back from N and as far as my wedding planner and details go that she sent over, everything looks absolutely perfect!! OMG, now I am uber excited!! All that stressin for nothin! I cant wait to touch base with all you ladies and let you know how everything turns out and then to hear all about your gorgeous weddings!! WOOHOO!! Congrats to us :-)

Ahh, your poem!!! I LOVE IT!! Too cute :-) Girls, since I am the first of us to be taking the plunge, I promise not to forget you and I will come back with updates and pictures asap!! Happy Planning!

We are getting married on Sunday and our actual rehearsal is Friday so on that Friday we are doing the Mexican Fiesta as our rehearsal dinner. We were going back and forth on a rehearsal dinner but anyone over 20 ppl and there is a $22 per person charge, so we nixed that idea and just went with the Mexican Fiesta! I still havent heard back from N... But I am so excited that we leave in 3 days, I dont even care anymore! As long as everything comes together in the end, we will be ok :-) MsBlissMpls sorry about the flowers :-( Whats your plan B?

Hey girls! Dont laugh but I wanted to share with you all the[totally cheesy] poem we put together for our welcome bags... Just in case you were looking for any ideas. :-) This Survival Kit was made just to say We are thrilled you’ll be with us on our wedding day! There's a nutrition bar to give you some energy And Carmex, because SPF in the sun is key. We packed you some Tums if your tummy should ache And incase of bad breath we added some lifesavers to take. There's Aleve if it's ill that you feel And some Band-aids if you should scrape your heel. We can’t forget the most important thing, something you hold A Koozie to make sure your beer stays cold! We’ve put everything in this handy pack So you'll know that the bride and groom have got your back. This kit was created so that you can see How much you mean to the Bride & Groom to be!