AlmostMrsRJF

So as I said before, I had my call with Joannis yesterday. We were supposed to have a call last Monday, but she had an emergency and had to leave. She works out of the Miami office and is my coordinator until it's time to discuss things with the on-site coordinator. I did ask about the communication issues and got a reasonable response. They are dealing with multiple brides, so it is difficult to keep up with everyone especially if you're contacting them early. (I guess that's why we didn't talk until 60 days out.) She also said that a lot of the questions we ask have to be sent to the on-site coordinator and that they only available for limited time periods during the day. She said that was due to them being in meetings with brides at the resort and putting on the wedding events. It makes sense even if I don't like it, but it also makes me be a bit more understanding about the delay in hearing from them. So at 60 days out, we have no locations reserved for the wedding, cocktail hour or reception. She said that she would get in touch with the on-site person to let me know if the locations I requested are available. I gave her a 1st and 2nd choice for the ceremony gazebo. We want the Catholic Chapel if possible because it's air conditioned or the Tucan Gazebo. I also requested the Tucan Terrace for the cocktail hour and reception. She sent me a bunch of documents right after the call including the menu, photo packages with Smile Market, DJ services, list of restuarants (including limits on party size) and if anyone is looking for anything, please PM with your email address and I can forward. Overall, the call went well. I got some info that we need to make decisions about our events. As of right now, we have 19 people in our party. She said that we could still have a private reception if we want since we are only 1 person off from the minimum. I'm just not sure which is better. I have a question for you ladies using Smile Market as their photographer. Are you doing the "getting ready" or any of the other "moments to remember" sessions with them? I tried to get out of the $500 fee they charge for it, but they are not letting me. It seems so expensive for an hour of photos. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share the info.

I had my call with Joannis yesterday and the private events rate has changed. Private events are $400 per table of 8 or $50 per person. It includes setup and takedown for the basic white linens. If you have additional items to add to your tables, they are charging $100 per table for setup. However, you can choose to setup things up yourself to avoid the fee.

Your dress is beautiful and you look great in it! Thanks for posting this and the tips about the barefoot jewelry.

Krsmith, thanks for the great review! Congratulations on the wedding and opening your own salon! Sending wishes for much success to you!

Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself down there! I'm very excited for you!

Congratulations and have a safe and wonderful trip! I can't wait to hear all about how your wedding turns out!

No, none of them are married. I'm just trying to move forward at this point and focus on more important things like our ceremony. Thanks for the encouraging words! Wow! I was wondering what the charge to make a reservation for the restaurant for the welcome dinner. I'm thinking showing up the day of will work out better. Then you everyone can just order what they want. Thanks for the idea to just show up! That's what we'll be doing with our group. Right now, I believe we'll have 17. It is ridiculous that they want to charge you for a big party. Congratulations! You look stunning! I can't wait to read your review! Love your jewelry! I'm having some trouble finding what I want and I was thinking of getting in touch with Chelsea Red. I feel like I may be cutting it close though since we're about 70 days out. How far in advance did you place your order?

Everything looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing with us! Congratulations to the happy couple!

Thanks Speckles, stefn1218, and CafeDelMar! You guys made me feel better that I'm not going crazy. I'm going down to the store this weekend to look at both dresses together and will decide then. Thanks for the support!

So I have a dilemma and I would like your opinions... So I had major drama with my bridesmaids when shopping for bridesmaid dresses. I made the mistake of sending them 2 choices and asking which they liked. That opened up the door for drama. Only my sister said she would wear what I wanted out of the 4 of them. Two just didn't like the choices and one had concerns about the strapless because she didn't want to have issues with support being top heavy. The 2 who didn't like the choices proceeded to send me a bunch of pictures of things that didn't work for me or everyone in the party. Eventually I got fed up because it was becoming way too stressful trying to please myself and please them. I told them that this picking their dresses was the most stressed I had been during the entire process and that I was considering not even having bridesmaids because I didn't want to deal with the drama. It just really go out of hand. So I made appointments at Alfred Angelo and David's Bridal to go shopping with them. They all said they could make it. On the day of the appointments, the 2 who didn't like my original choices showed up to the one hour appointment, one hour late. The people at Alfred Angelo were nice enough to let us continue even though my consultant had another appointment during that time. They tried on the dress that I had decided on (with major attitude - faces all scrunched up, rolling eyes, etc.) When it was time to order, the 2 bridemaids who were there on time ordered and the 2 late ones said they didn't have the money to put down their deposits. They said they would come back within the next 2 weeks. They went back the next week and found a different dress that they liked without me. I was getting ready for a massage at the time (I mean getting ready to lay on the table for the therapist to walk in). They called me and asked about having a different dress. I told them to text me a pic of the dress and it was a similar style to the one my other bridesmaids had. I told them fine, get it. At that point, I just wanted the dress fiasco done. A couple of days later, I felt hurt by their actions, truly disrespected. Then I thought I was just being a crazy bride and tried not to think of it. Every time I did think or talk to someone about it, my feelings got all hurt all over again. I mean if a bride asks you to be in her wedding, you should just go with what she wants, right? So far, the whole situation still feels wrong and now I'm having second thoughts about letting them have 2 different dresses. One is a halter in a satin material and the other is a strapless in a silk/tafetta material. They look similar but I feel like they don't go together. I'm considering going to the store and changing them to the same dress if I can. I'm sure it would involve some cost to me, but I'm thinking that I'll feel better about it if I did. The look for the entire party would be the same and I think, more put together. What do you ladies think? Am I being a crazy bride? What would you do in this situation? Sorry about the long post, but I really want to get an objective opinion.

Very cute! Nice picture. Just send a reminder before the wedding to people not to forget their luggage tags.

Everything looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing with us! Your hair looks amazing too!

Thanks! I will try this and see what happens.

Hey Jamie5280, I sent you a PM with my email address. I couldn't download your templates from here. Something about the permissions. When you get a chance can you pretty please email them to me? How did you go about going around the WC in Miami? I think I may need to do the same thing. Who was the manager you contacted? Congratulations on the new endeavor! All of your DIY projects were great! I only hope mine come out just as nice. Happy Birthday to Coco and Shan! Welcome Letter.docx Rehearsal Dinner.docx OOT Bag - The Big Day.doc Maracas 1.docx Maracas 2.docx

I'm feeling frustrated with Joannis myself, but I thought I was just being an anxious bride. I emailed her, she didn't respond after a week so I emailed Michelle Farinas and then heard from Joannis. She offered me times for a call this week on Tuesday and I said either Wednesday or Thursday at 5. No response. I sent another email saying I was available next week. I'm not sure what locations we have, if any and I don't want to be stuck in a "bad" location. We'll see what happens. I wish they would just communicate better. I don't understand how anyone can be in this business and not communicate with their customers. I think you've inspired by Jamie5280! Your tags and welcome kit look great! That's great that they booked and that you had extras. Thanks again for sending those documents to me. Quote: Originally Posted by coconoir1908 Haha.... can you ladies believe that I had 2 people book just last week? OMG.. funny thing is they saw my facebook message (I had talked about the countdown and tagged EACH of our guests that is on facebook). she called me and wondered why she wasn't tagged.. and from there I learned that she had booked but forgot to tell me since she didn't use my travel agent. Thank God for packing extras.. but the only thing they will not have are the escort cards since I had those made from an etsy vendor.. 66 guest + Bride & Groom.. We are going to shut Moon Palace Down.... Party!!!

I did hear from her today to schedule a call to go over everything. I'm hoping to nail down details with her this week. I believe she works out of Miami though, so I'm not sure who my on-site coordinator is.

All of your DIY items came out so nicely! Your girls are just too cute! I thought they weren't allowing that any longer. The information is no where to be found now. Does anyone know? Congratulations! Can't wait to hear all about it! I'll be reading this one today! Thanks for sharing! Congratulations! I can't wait to read your review either. I'm glad to hear that the concierge level room is nice. We're having that one too. Enjoy your honeymoon!

Love love love your Loubs!! That's a nice touch of sexy under your dress! I'm rocking blue shoes too for our day. I'll have to post some pics later.

Glad to hear your feeling better about things! I'm thinking about things the same way. At the end of the day, it's all about our union anyway, so we're not letting them rain on our parade. I'm getting very excited too! I have a lot to do though still, but I feel like I'm not too behind. I went for my first fitting last week and that really got me excited. I'm counting down the days!

Hey Smoylan! Have you heard back from Joannis yet? I haven't yet and our wedding is the day before yours. I went ahead and emailed her on our 90 day mark (last monday) and haven't heard back from her. I did get an out of office reply that she was out that day, but I had hoped to hear from her by the end of the week.

Gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing these! We're using smile market too and I was a little concerned, but you look fab!

You know, I think all of us go through this during this destination wedding planning process. The fiance and I both have some hurt feelings about people who aren't coming to our wedding because of money reasons. You try to respect it and then they turn around say something crazy that they recently or will be spending money. Neither one of fiance's brothers are coming for this reason and right after they decline, one called and said "you guys should come check out this 65 inch TV I just bought" and the other bought a car and went on and on about buying expensive jewelry. It's not like you care what they spend their money on, you just feel lied to because you find out they really could afford the trip, but just didn't want to. Why can't they just be honest and tell the truth?! So as I've been dealing with hurt feelings for a lot of things, I read this article in Oprah magazine of an interview with Gabrielle Union. She was talking about ridding yourself of bad friends as it related to something she went through. (Not saying that you should get rid of friends though.) In the article, Gabrielle said a lot of times we become loyal to people in our lives that don't feel that same loyalty to us. It made me realize that we do have lopsided relationships with people. I'm not saying this is true in your case, but I'm learning that now in my case. Now that things are in perspective for me, it doesn't hurt AS much and helps me to deal with it better. I hope this helps you and I'm really sorry that you're going through this.

I was going to say this same thing! Congratulations!

Hey Ladies, So I'm putting together my invites this Saturday with my sister and I'm anxious to get that done. I'm also planning on updating our wedding website this weekend. I haven't touched it since September. Did everyone do engagement photos? I have been initially saying that we weren't going to do them, but now I'm rethinking it. Lately, I've been saying how we don't have a lot of recent pictures of ourselves, so it seems like a nice time to do it. It also adds more work in finding a local photographer to get them done. Also, did anyone do boudoir photos? I have received a few emails from those photographers saying that I "won" a photo session from this bridal show I went to a couple weeks ago. Valentine's Day was great too! The future hubby surprised me with an edible arangement on Monday with chocolate covered strawberries and then 2 dozen red roses on Tuesday. He makes me feel so loved! That night, we went to see Kevin Hart (a comedian for those of you who haven't heard of him) and he was hilarious! Definitely the best V-Day I've had. I hope it was great for you all too!

Speckles121, My TA contacted Michelle Farinas (our Miami contact) and Michelle said that as long as the rooms were available it wasn't a problem. She said that it's so far in advance that most people wouldn't have an issue booking a day before the contract date. We actually added extra days after the wedding just in case people wanted to stay an extra day or two. I guess we didn't think anyone would want to be there 3 days before the wedding. I'm just glad it worked out. Ditto that! I love the venue too! You guys look like you went on a photo shoot for a magazine!