juliboley

Originally Posted by june2013bride 

 

hello ladies,

did anybody have something different for their cocktail hour? (we are having the strawberry passion package) ei. guest just gathered at the lobby bar to have snacks instead of having the cocktail menu.  any suggestions?  im trying to see if its worth it.  any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

We got married at Playa Azul and had our cocktail hour there on the beach at the cabana thing.  It was really nice and a great place for everyone to hang out while we were taking pictures with the wedding party.  

Originally Posted by julienelson0713 

 

 

Okay, thanks. I feel like sometimes communicating via email doesn't quite convey what the WC is wanting to say!! It just seemed like she was really nonchalant about it, and I was thinking, ummmm this is sort of a life or death situation with some of my guests!!! How did your guests fare on a daily basis at restaurants and the buffet??

They all did fine.  The buffet is massive and there are a lot of choices everywhere, and I think if you tell them about food allergies at the restaurants, they'll come up with other options for them.  I think the WC's are busy doing 2 weddings a day and responding to all of the people that are trying to plan their weddings and since they know that everything can actually be done 2 days before sometimes they just don't sweat the small stuff that they know they can handle.  Unfortunately, when you are planning from afar, everything feels like a giant hurdle.  If I could do anything differently, I would stress less before hand.  I ended up choosing a lot of things differently when I got there even though I had obsessed for months prior that they had to be another way...lol.  They are really nice and will take great care of you.  I was totally amazed at how professional and perfect everything was.

Originally Posted by julienelson0713 

 

Hi Ladies!

 

Did anyone have people with allergies attend your wedding? My sister is gluten free and a few people have nut allergies, and Victoria just said 'ok' (literally just the one word reply lol) when I told her via email about the allergies. Needless to say I'm a little worried! Has anyone dealt with this??

I had a gluten free, a shellfish allergy, and a vegan at my wedding and my WC did the same thing, so I was nervous too.  Don't be.  They took care of all of them without any issue.

Originally Posted by cvincent84 

 

I've just started our wedding website (chelseaandjimmy.com) and was wondering if anyone wouldn't mind sharing their website? I'm interested to see what sort of information people had about the resort on their websites. There's so much information I could put! Thanks!!

 

If anyone is thinking about starting their website I used ewedding.com and LOVE it so far. SUPER easy and they have nice layouts. I paid about $50 for the year and got to choose my own domain name etc. Just a tip! I know there's a bunch of ways to go with the website...but I'd for sure recommend this.

Here is a link to what was ours: http://www.juliannedaniel.ourwedding.com

Originally Posted by Kristina610 

 

 

What is the reason behind saving the receipts for everything? I'm not sure I have all them

If your bags are chosen to be searched, you'll need to prove the total value of the items you are bringing for the wedding or they can tax you on what they believe they are worth.

Originally Posted by julie1025 

 

Hello Brides!

 

My wedding day is May 25th!!! Coming up soon! For any of the past brides, how did you travel with all the party favors OOT bags etc... It seems like I have so much stuff I need to take. Also any advice on what you guys did taking your wedding dress? As a carry on??

 

Thanks ladies!

Carry your dress on for sure.  It gets a lot of attention and makes airline staff a little nicer to you.  We traveled with all of our stuff (OOT bags, favors, decorations, etc) and just had it all spread out in our checked luggage.  Just make sure you carry receipts for everything.

Originally Posted by amcoletta88 

 

That's crazy!! I specifically requested the Palapa, and my wedding coordinator said no problem- we've been having issues with her ever since we switched our package from the Strawberry Passion to the Air Transat package...oh gosh, I hope that we'll have some sort of wedding location when we show up!

 

When we were there in October, Claudia told us that the resort does not plan on replacing the Palapa.  Apparently it was removed because it was rotting and because it is so windy on that beach, it was a safety hazard.  We were initially concerned about it not being there, but the beach is still beautiful and is more secluded than some of the others.

Originally Posted by ArtisticBride 

 

Hello Brides

Did anyone opt out of live music during the ceremony and just used their ipod/mp3 player? (our ceremony will be on the beach).  My fiance has it stuck in his mind for some reason that he doesnt want live music....Just wondering if anyone did this and what the outcome was or how good it sounded.  Thanks for the help!

We used an ipod and it sounded great.  We asked for the violin (which was then not available the day of the wedding) and instead got a flute to just play while people were milling around waiting for the bridal party to show up.  Then we used the ipod for our processional, recessional, cocktail hour, and reception.

Here is a link the the online wedding album I put together of our wedding at Barcelo Maya in October 2012 in case anyone is interested:

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/wedding-album-8844940?vk=qXDa8vUQMk

If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help.

I highly recommend Wendy Hicks with Wright Travel.  She was fantastic.  Her email is [email protected]

We had a symbolic ceremony on a Saturday and we arrived at the resort on the Wednesday prior to that.  By the time we got the resort it was close to 2pm, so we didn't really get to do a lot that day other than check in and unpack.  We met with our WC first thing Thursday morning.  I think you'll probably want to get to the resort on Tuesday.  

I have over 50 "Tears of Joy" stickers and 17 glassine envelopes that fit the tissues.  If you're interested, you can have them and pay for postage only.  I would bet postage is maybe $1.  I would probably want to put a few stamps on the envelope to make sure they make it.

Originally Posted by mrsnova 

 

For past brides that have done OOT bags..

 

How did you distribute them? Did you do it yourself or did the hotel staff help? How did you do this when guests arrive on different days?

 

We have about 30 guests so not too overwhelming to hand them out ourselves but thought it would be cute to have it waiting in their room for them..

 

Thanks!

We hand delivered all of ours as our guests checked in.  It was a nice way for us to welcome them all to the resort personally, but we did end up spending most of a day in the lobby greeting people.

Originally Posted by chrisdior 

 

Ladies, is it safe to order flowers from the resort? I'm confused I see a lot of girls ordering else where? Please let me know why.

Absolutely!  I had originally planned on making my own bouquets, but the resort flowers were gorgeous and I was so happy with them.  Here are some pix of mine:

I take that ack. It looks like photobucket swapped the order but I think you'll figure that out.

Hi!  I'm debating what beach to have the ceremony at, coral beach or playa azul. I heard Coral beach is more private?Help!

We had our ceremony at playa Azul and our reception at Coral Beach. Playa Azul is the furthest from the busy part of the resort, and you and your guests are transported there via trolley style golf cart. I have been in 2 weddings at that beach(including my own) and there was no one in te water behind the ceremony either time. There are no beach chairs near it so it doesn't get as much tourist traffic. Coral beach is directly in front of the coral grill which is one of the buffets where everyone at the resort eats. There is a lot of foot traffic there as everyone has to walk by it to get to lunch or dinner. You will likely have the coral grill in the pictures of you walking down the aisle but the shots facing the other direction will be gorgeous. It was very important to me that there weren't resort buildings in the background of my ceremony pictures so I chose Playa Azul. There are benefits to both though, so it really depends on what is important to you. In my opinion, playa Azul is the more secluded beach though and I can send you pictures of both.

Our wedding had a Mexican theme, so we used coffee cans (easy to pack because we packed our OOT bag stuff inside of them) and then our WC took the flowers from our Huppah and put them into the cans to make the centerpieces for our reception.  The talavera tiles were coasters that we made as our wedding favors with our wedding date and names on the back (not as easy to pack because they are heavy):

I got my Dad a vest, tie, shirt, and pants at JC Penney.  It was similar to the groomsmen attire, but not exactly the same:

The groomsmen got their outfits from J Crew:

I'm the worst because I got married at Barcelo on October 20th, but I have yet to post my review.  We had our ceremony and cocktail hour at Playa Azul and our reception at Coral Beach (dinner inside because of last minute rain and party/dancing outside on the beach).  Claudia was our WC and she was awesome.  Our photographers were Nora & Chris, also fantastic.  If anyone has specific questions that I can answer, please message or mention me directly. 

I swear I'll get that review up soon.

I just sent you an email with the song info :-)

Originally Posted by mrsnova 

 

oh and one of the other big reasons we choose the mint package was that after being outside in the heat (especially in June for you) all week and the wedding day we thought it would be nice to be inside with air conditioning for dancing and everyone to enjoy themselves!

 

Have you thought about using your ipod instead of a DJ? I have heard from brides that it worked out perfect and they liked being able to choose all their songs. I downloaded an app called weddingdj and it is great! It organizes all your songs by category (recessional, first dance party, etc.) and fades songs in and out. One of my friends is being our "MC" to announce things and make sure things run smoothly with the music. Just a suggestion, but I know how fun a DJ can be!

We went with the ipod option and it worked out fantastic!  I created a separate playlist for everying, (ie, there was a playlist called "Processional", one called "Recessional", one for "Reception Dinner Music", "First Dance", "Dance w/ Dad", "Reception Dance", "Cake Cutting", and "Last Song of Night".  This made it super easy for the MC to find where to go next.  For the reception dinner and the reception dancing music, I turned on the cross fade option on the ipod, so it was like having our own DJ.  It was the most fun part of the planning for me to pick all of the music, and after the wedding guests asked for CD copies of the music. It's super easy for me to burn it now :-)  Our dance mix was awesome and I'm still working out to it now..lol.

I love it!!!  I think that length is perfect too.

I have 50 Chocolate Brown Satin Chair Sashes from our wedding that I'd like to sell.  36 of them have been used,cleaned, and ironed, but the others are in the original packaging.  Asking $20 obo.  Paypal only.  Will add $6.50 for Priority Flat Rate Shipping.

We got married on 10-20 and our wedding was at 4:30 with a cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 and the reception starting at 6:30.  It was completely dark by the time cocktail hour was finished.  If you want to get any pictures after your ceremony in light, you'll probably want to move it up a bit.  I just copied these pix from some of my guests to give you an example of the light (Sorry the pix are huge):

4:30 pm

5:30ish

6:45 (we are sitting directly next to the window, so you can see how dark it is)

Since you still have a couple weeks it might get darker earlier still.  Ask your WC and look online to find average sundown.  Our ceremony was 12 minutes long and we had plenty of time for pictures before the reception, but always best to err on the side of caution.