alpwedding2013

We are using Noel Del Pilar for our photographer. He did a great job for our engagement pics. Communication with our coordinator has been slow, but I don't know if it's becaue we are still just over a year from wedding date. Maybe too early for them to get involved? I'm not sure yet.

While in PR last month, we met with Festivo for floral/decorations and with C+M Cakes. We want to use our hotel's wedding coordinator but response has been slow, so we might select vendors ourselves. My only concern is if we would get better pricing from having the coordinator deal with the vendors instead of doing it ourselves. We also got our engagement pics done while there and have decided to use him for our wedding as well.

I think we will ship some of the small trial size items a few days ahead of when we arrive, that way we don't have to pack everything in our suitcase. Some of the other items such as water bottles and things native to Puerto Rico, we'll just purchase when we get there.

We are estimating that our guests would spend about $300/person on flights and $175/night for the hotel rooms.

My fiance and I both love to travel, so having a destination just made sense. Also, when we imagined our dream wedding, we don't think of it in the midwest lol.

Since we are having ours at a national park, we have to wait until they close before we can set up and start the ceremony: 6:45pm- Guests arrive 7:00pm- Wedding Ceremony Begins 7:30pm- Ceremony ends, guests head to Reception site 8:00pm- Cocktail Hour 9:00pm- Food is served 10:00pm- Let the dancing begin!

Aside from the flower girl and ring bearer, we're expecting that kids won't be brought unless a babysitter is unavailable. Since most people will only be attending for a long weekend, that shouldn't be as big of a problem.

We are using our engagement pics for our save the dates, and will also you some of the pics for our wedding website and OOT welcome brochures.

We plan on inviting our wedding party, their significant others and our parents/grandparents to the rehearsal dinner

We like the idea of having a rehearsal dinner with the wedding party and then have a welcome reception/cocktail hour with all our guests afterwards.

They had about 8 round tables set up in Salon Campeche (that was the only room we seen). I don't think it would take too much decorating to be nice, really all about your personal preference. Yes, we are having an evening ceremony at San Cristobal. It's actually more expensive there because you have to have 3 park employees working instead of 2 at el morro. We've gotten a couple of quotes for chairs...garden chairs for ceremony seem to be around $3.50/chair, and about $5/chair for Tiffany chairs for reception. The construction shouldn't affect your ceremony too much. I think most people have their ceremony on level 6 at El Morro, most of the construction is on the stairway going down to level 3. Another thing to do if you would like to save money is getting cupcakes instead of an actual wedding cake. Unless you do the "wedding package" at El Convento, there is a cake cutting fee per person. They said you can avoid the cake cutting by getting cupcakes

KMiller- how's your wedding planning coming along? Have you decided on a location yet? Unfortunately, I can't open up the attachment yet to see the vendors list. We are getting married at El Convento next October and have just started the planning process. Vendors List SJWBCH.pdf

My fiance and I are getting married in Puerto Rico and then taking a short flight to St. Martin for our honeymoon. However, if we had decided to stay in Puerto Rico for our honeymoon, I do think we would move to another resort.

BamaBride- Sorry, it took so long for me to get back to you! We met with Park Services while in PR last week and filled out the permit. We haven't gotten final approval yet, but should have it soon. We have not gotten the insurance yet, but I know I have read some suggestions on either this forum or another, I have to do some more digging again. We are using a wedding coordinator, and will probably use the on-site coordinator at El Convento.

My fiance and I visited El Convento last week and made the deposit for our reception, we are getting married in October 2013. If you get married on a Friday, the minimum consumption in Salon Campeche (their main hall) is cut in half, it's even cheaper if you get married on a Sunday. Also, if you plan on 40 guests, you might be able to get one of the smaller rooms for cheaper too. We are getting married at San Cristobal. We looked at El Morro (it's closer, even walkable from El Convento), but there is some construction going on, and it's a more difficult walk for your guests, especially old guests. In terms of required lighting at the forts, it can get a bit expensive considering your ceremony is only going to last 30 minutes or so. Also, you'll have to rent garden chairs for the fort, etc. We are still early in the planning stage, but I think it was very helpful that we were able to check out the locations last week. Good luck

Congrats and welcome! Hope you enjoy the planning process!

Welcome to the forum!

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome! I'm sure no matter which you'll choose, you'll be extremely happy.

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome!

congrats and welcome!