amanda50388

I got married at 5pm on April 30th and there will be plenty of light out so do not worry and we did not take alot before hand either. We did our group shots after and they turned out wonderful.

We did the sweetheart table, it was no extra cost and were offered it by our wedding planner. I really enjoyed being able to have just my husband and I during dinner together, we were able to talk without having to try to please everyone. It was a very special moment for us doing this, we got to just sit back and be amazed on our big day. Plus we didn't have to chose sides and figure out what table we would of sat at, made it alot easier.

Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH hello ladies! we are back from our quick trip to EDR, and it was just and amazing as we remembered from our wedding moon! They did goof up our reservation, but were able to upgrade us into the premium section (Building 3, right by the Health Bar). we loved the location, and our room. here are some photos of the white gazebo area as requested: the panoramic - ignore the "dip" - my hand isn't too steady..it's really a pretty line in that area. as for the wind- this area does stick out a little more into the ocean/on the beach than the casitas gazebos which are closer to the walkway, or the presidential or chapel gazebo which is a little more sheltered on one side. it's probably equally as windy as Gazebo 55 - which is to say, some days it's pretty windy, some days it isn't. Tips: Make sure you get reservations at least one night in Fuentes, the Culinary Theater. We really enjoyed our evenings there (we did it twice!). And of course D'Italia Casitas is still the best of their restaurants. We really enjoyed Kampai for breakfast & Lunch, and La Isla had a great lunch as well. We saw several of the shows this time - do NOT miss the Circus show - it was really awesome! we also enjoyed the dance show - I think it's superstar or something like that, and the Mexican show was fun to watch too. we passed on the fire show since we saw it before (but it was good!). Other/misc: We had sunny mornings but cloudy afternoons, with some rain as well. Not the best weather, but we were in paradise and certainly made the best of it. We didn't get to go out with Samba Catamaran to Isla Mujeres due to the weather - but the staff at EDR all had really good things to say about them. They were quick to refund our money after we had to scratch two attempts to go, and had great/fast communication prior to our trip, and I would definitely book with them again. We did the 90 minute "membership" sales pitch and our concierge set up the anniversary package as our amenity - 2 free 25 min massages (which we upgraded to 80 minutes!), candle light dinner on the beach and the rose petal decorations in our room. the 90 minutes was worth our time, even though we had no intentions to buy into the program. If you need a transport company to/from the airport - I can recommend cancuntransfers.com. we had a private ride, $82 for both of us, round trip. they were a bit hard to find in the chaos of sharks at the Cancun airport, but one of the airport security pointed us to him. they were on time for our pick up as well. no complaints, and not a shared ride! If there are any questions I can answer, please don't hesitate to ask! Glad you had a fun time!!!! I love the building you were in as well, we stayed in that one the first time we were there and its just so peaceful on that side.

Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH Happy Anniversary to you and your hubby and have a wonderful trip.

Quote: Originally Posted by krobb317 Did you all schedule your hair and makeup trial and day of before you got there? I read a post somewhere saying it was better to do so when you get there…but it made me a little nervous! I never did a hair or makeup trail and had no issues with my hair. I just showed them a picture of what I wanted and it worked out well. The only part i did not like was when she did my makeup at first but she totally fixed that and it looked alot better, but if you are nervous i say go for it, if it helps eases you. I just was not someone who wanted to spend the extra money on a trail run, but to each it's own.

Quote: Originally Posted by krobb317 great thanks ladies! AllieH, would you mind taking a picture of the white gazebo area to capture how windy it is if possible? I feel it depends on the season and the month, it was not super windy just a nice ocean breeze( it felt really nice for us) when we got married there on 4/30/12. So I think you are getting married in a nice hot season that it should hopefully not be that windy, but it always depends on the day and weather,but don't let that stop you from what you really want. We had a wonderful day with perfect weather and nothing went wrong at all, we felt we were given the 5 star treatment. So do what makes you happy and what you dream of it.

Quote: Originally Posted by krobb317 Thanks amanda50388! How well did the officiant speak English? Than seems to be a question I receive most often from family and friends about the ceremony. She spoke well, she followed our ceremony that we had printed out and added stuff in that made it amazing with what we already had. It was a beautiful ceremony and we were lucky to have her officiant as well as she did.

Quote: Originally Posted by krobb317 Yes a mic is provided with, the officiant will have the mic and she will hand it back and fourth to you during the ceremony, it worked out well for a wireless mic. The guests are not too far from you making it a very lovely ceremony site to have a wedding at.

Quote: Originally Posted by krobb317 Thanks for the information on how hot is was end of may!! I'm getting married may 23rd our ceremony will be at the White Gazebo and reception at Tucanes...I was a bit worried about zero cross breeze as well, was even thinking of changing to the white gazebo area for reception. Does anyone know how windy is it there? I got married at the white Gazebo and it was windy around are ceremony that started at 5pm, but not sand blowing windy and it was nice breeze,it felt wonderful. Then our reception was at tucanes and it was not to hot, but that depends on what your wearing and how warm you get and the temp. that day. Hope that helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by nbateman Received my photos from Magic Vision yesterday and uploaded them to my shutterfly share site if anyone is interested! Also had some guests upload their pics. The share site is awesome, no need to have a shutterfly account to view them and anyone can upload by sending an email to a particular address to get automatically added to the album or by uploading on the site: https://holmanweddingmexico.shutterfly.com/pictures/1831 They look amazing, you look so pretty, congrats again and I am glad everything went so well for you.

Quote: Originally Posted by kelseyrenee I am thinking of using the included group dinner at Cocotal as a welcome party dinner the evening before the wedding. Does anyone know what food is available to pick from for this event? I believe I read somewhere that everyone has to eat the same thing? Seems like it would be difficult to find one thing to feed 40 people - especially since I gave the choice of stuffed chicken breast or filet mignon for the wedding reception and don't want to make people eat the same thing for dinner two nights in a row at such an amazing resort with numerous dinner options! My fiance doesn't care for seafood/fish so that limits what we can pick also - I am hoping there is an amazing pasta choice on the menu, but doubtful. Thanks! Your wedding coordinator will give you that list and tell you what you are able to choose, it is all the same for the courses for each guest but the entree's you can select two different ones and it really was not a big deal. Are guest's enjoyed this dinner and we gave an option of chicken or beef. So find what you two like and pick from that. We did simple stuff that people would like to eat over all and it worked out just fine. Also, the options are completely different from the wedding options so no worries there. Hope this helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by pschopen I'm also from WI!! We live in Madison. We are getting married at EDR in January, and having 55 guests at least.... 53 have booked so far, with more that are still probably going to. We are having a semi-private dinner at cocotal. They are charging us $20 per person for anybody beyond 40 people! This is something we are not happy with. However, we are getting a lot of kickbacks through delta vacations and funjet vacations (which is who people are booking through). We are paying for a 2 hour cocktail party as our reception, and renting their stuff to use for our ipod. They have set up fees for pretty much everything. Just so you know, these are negotiable and we have been able to complain enough to get our coordinator to at least reduce the fees. Overall, I feel EDR has not given us any perks for bringing them more business, and instead we have had more fees. I'm hopeful that when we go down there and have our meeting before our wedding they will give us more perks or netotiate with us more regarding these extra fees. I mean cmon... we are bringing 55 people to their resort!!!!!! I know that all sounds pretty negative. I don't mean it to be, but it's just been our experience prior to going down there. The resort looks amazing, the coordinator has been in touch with me fairly regularly, although it usually takes 2 weeks before she will email me back regarding things. I don't know if this helps much... but just gives you a clear look at what's to be expected. -Paula That's awesome!!! We live in IL now, but did everything for our wedding out of WI because we were still living there and still use our travel agent. Our travel agent seriously was a god send because she took care of everything for us and would deal with issues we had. She even got a swim-up casita for free and then when we asked about our room they wanted to give us another upgrade, but we did not use it because we enjoyed the room we had. Alot of guests got upgraded upon arrival as well. So there is a chance when your guests get to the resort that some of them will be upgraded including you. We also used there Ipod hook up and it worked awesome, plus we did not have to worry about the expense of a DJ, it was perfect since we had 30 of us all together. I had the same issues with my wedding coordinator and my travel agent helped out. Do you have a travel agent through funjet vacations because they should be contacting the resort for you to make sure they are on top of your things and responding back to you, especially with your wedding being in January they should be getting back to you sooner. I know they have alot of brides, but should still get back to you in a timely manner. I would just get on them about it. I hope this helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tiff1037 Amanda - That's awesome!! Small world! We were actually dealing with two travel agents at one point, but we picked La Macchia Travel in Kenosha because they told us about El Dorado, and we fell in love with the place! Jen - Thanks so much! All the info you gave is super helpful! I just found out that they switched the packages (if you book enough rooms) to going from free unlimited private events, to 20% off private events which sounds like what you had. It's also good to know about the setup fees and to make sure to budget that it. Their stuff is awesome, but so not worth paying that much money for. I'd much rather bring some stuff down and pay the setup fee. I'll start saving all my fun questions for the WC instead of the TA too. Thank you!! You have no idea how much that helps! Yeah, my travel agent took us down for a weekend to tour the resorts and we ended up staying at El Dorado for free and paying for just air fair, I fell in love it. You will enjoy it, it has become our favorite resort. I can honestly say that our wedding was perfect and everything turned out amazing. They really do an outstanding job from start to finish even including your stay. We just currently moved to IL less than a yr ago and still use our travel agent back at home. lol!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tiff1037 Thanks so much ladies! Believe me, I've been researching everything I possibly can before we sign anything. Allie's thread about the whole resort has been super helpful too! And after showing my fiancé your husbands ensemble, Lindsey, it's now exactly what he wants for his. Right now, our WC/TA are telling us we don't get to use our private events the day of our wedding for anything.. which we would have used towards dinner or at least part of the extra cocktail hours we still need to pay for. Plus, they're telling us there's still an extra fee to rent Tucanes. I understand if we need to pay for our dinner no matter what option we pick, but to also pay to rent the venue seems like an extreme. I saw a lot of girls on here say they were getting charged extra for fees that other girls weren't charged for, and I just want to make sure I'm not getting cheated on anything.. And once we sign, I know we'll have less power to negotiate anything. Thanks for the link to the new wedding packages, Allie. I'll start looking into that too! I am from WI!!! I just noticed your thread, are you going through a travel agent at all? We did In Germantown, she was very helpful on everything.

Quote: Originally Posted by JenniferM Thanks everyone for the great suggestions! I thought 2 hours sounded a bit long but that is what they suggested. I think I will plan for 1-1.5 hours and look into JoJos free is always better. Does anyone know what type and quality of PA they have at the resort? My fiance wants to buy a system and bring it down rather than pay for the one time use there. I wouldn't mind so much except we will have so much baggage already and the cost...But his heart seems set. On a side note of rants. I am feeling rather stressed. We went with the sweet package and now many of the family that was supposed to go to the wedding are dropping out so what if we don't get the minimum number of rooms? And my parents are complaining about the cost of the resort. I don't find this at all fair because they told me they wanted to stay someplace that had soft beds, great food (they are very very picky eaters), great reviews, fun events, great locations, etc, etc. So I really took this into account when picking the resort and now they're complaining and talking about staying at some resort that has 25% recommendation on TA! AHhhh I don't know why I even bothered since my fiance and I are paying for everything. Sorry for the rant...it's been a stressful weekend. We rented the system and had are music all set up on our Ipod it worked out wonderful, instead of having a DJ. The speaker we brought was not loud enough and we really like that we used there system instead of what we had. I would just say test out your speaker before deciding and if it's loud enough use that or look into some cheap options at stores. If our's was loud enough I would for sure have used it, but it was not and my husband wanted something with more sound.

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? They can give you options for your cocktail hour, I am not sure how long it is I would ask the wedding coordinators. I know the beach is an option not sure on the rest because we never did one. People just went and got drinks at reception site and they were kind enough to severe our family and friends drinks early and waited for us to come back from pictures.

Quote: Originally Posted by amandances Hi Ladies! I'm approaching the 6 month mark and trying to settle on a photographer. Our Wedding is March 29th. Sarani is the only one of the "approved" vendors I liked but she herself has been booked since we first booked EDR last March. Her two associate photographers James and Lunic are available but I don't know if I like their work as much. Did anyone use them??? If you didn't use the "approved" photographers were there any outside photographers you liked? We'd be willing to spend the 3 night stay rate for someone really good. Also if you do use an outside photographer do they make you pay the 3 night stay fee for the photographer and assistant? I know it's either 3 night stay or $800. Would it be $800 total or photographer and assistant? 3 night stay is less. Thanks!!! Amanda I have heard other people say they have used James and they have liked the work he has done on their wedding day. I would ask your wedding coordinator the details of what they charge for outside vendor fee for the photographer just to make sure, since they are the one's helping you with fees and get it in written, so they can not change there mind and tell you something different later.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mamzaleg Hi guys Our wedding is in April and we have the white gazebo beach for the reception. This was really our only choice based on our large group size. I was super excited about it, but after reading the posts am now scared about wind and sand?? We are having a tented reception but the sides are open..is sand blowing into peoples eyes or food something I need to be worried about? Has anyone else had their reception at this location? Our ceremony is at gazebo 55 and I'm completely torn on decorations. Any other brides who had their ceremony there? If so, I'd love to see pictures for inspiration!! Lastly was anyone able to negotiate with the spa? I have a large bridal party and was hoping they'd come down from $85 for hair and $85 for make up for each girl. Suggestions?? Thanks so much!!! The spa is pretty set in there way of charging for hair and makeup, I mean you can see, but I have never seen there prices changed with any other brides, those are pretty much set prices.

Quote: Originally Posted by TheWolferts 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"! I heard Now Jade is good, but that does have kids or if you book a fun for less deal it will be cheaper and you don't find out where you are going till week before you go. We did the Azul properties and ended up at Azul fives, it was okay, but they also do a fun for less El Dorado deal. They say most likely you will end up at El Dorado Royale with it being bigger, I would just start researching and looking at reviews. I don't blame you on the picky part, I am scared to try any other resort other then Karisma properties, especially since you know what you are getting.

Quote: Originally Posted by TheWolferts 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 agree with Nikki wear what makes you happy!!! I was not a normal heel wearer so I went barefoot that was my choice. So do what you want and makes you happy its your day!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by JenniferM Our wedding was at the end of April, it is hot, but not like dripping sweat hot, but you are in Mexico.We got married later in the evening at 5:00pm and then took pictures with Sarani and reception was 6:30-10:30pm. There are bathrooms real close by, which are right next to La Isla and not a far walk at all, which was awesome.

Quote: Originally Posted by JenniferM Yeah we have heard about that one. I cant' wait to see the final pictures. We have been to all of the resorts, but the generation's when touring them for our wedding. The only Azul we did not stay at was Azul beach. We want to stay there or at the new generations Riviera Maya one, but who know's we will talk to our travel agent and see, since she goes alot and get's to see them all. I see you are getting married in April, it is beautiful weather during that time. We stayed in a swim up casita for 10 nights and loved it and the best part no rain any days with the beautiful sun shinning down.Best of luck with all the planning.

Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH I can't believe your one year will be here before you know it, When do you guys leave for that? We are going to be going next fall because we have a baby boy on the way in January and thought he will be a little bit older by then so we are going to go and enjoy a kids karisma property. I just have been thinking lately how badly I just want to relax in the water at El Dorado Royale, lol!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by amanda50388 I did the BBQ buffet all of that is including and it was wonderful. Also, I never did a cake or anything because you seriously get a buffet of desserts and the table is filled. Our guest's said it was one of their best meals as well. All the meat came fresh off the grill and the sides were place on one table. If our guests were still hungry they could go up for more, it was really nice having so many options to chose from the steak and mash potatoes were my favorite, but seriously all the food rocked. Below is a picture of the dessert table and across the way the chef's were cooking the meat across the grill and the sides were placed next to the grill.

Quote: Originally Posted by JenniferM Does anyone know for the BBQ menu that is offered for private events, are all of the items listed included or is it pick and choose? So for example will we need to choose to meats and two veggies, etc. I did the BBQ buffet all of that is including and it was wonderful.