LKocelko

Quote:Originally Posted by nbateman Anyone who's gotten married at EDR.... my WC changed from Alejandro (Alex) to Claudia. She emailed me for the first time this morning, and boy is she thorough!! Had a ton of questions for me and considerations that I didn't even think about! She's asking me about decorations for Gazebo 55. I have two white sheers and about 30 chairs. I know people have not to decorate this space to much, but how little is too little and how much is too much? Considering the two flower hanging things or chair bows? Thoughts?? She also asked about the Cocotal dinner which we're having after the ceremony, suggested table runners and votives, think anyone would even notice? What's the atmosphere like there? And finally...timing for the welcome party which we have at 6:30pm, sun will be setting so should i have it in the daytime, maybe 5ish or just have the tikis and candle bags? She didn't mention a cost for those.... Don't have a ton to spend either! Help! I had Claudia, and I was super happy with her responsiveness/thoroughness. I had mine at the Presidential Gazebo, which I think is a similar feel, but small location. There are pictures on here somewhere, but we brought our 'sheers' because I couldnt' stomach the $200 price tag PER SHEER to rent it for the 20 minutes that my ceremony was. We were able to buy two for only $80 and just bring them. We also did chair sashes, and again bought/brought them (at sixty cents a chair) as opposed to renting for $4 per chair. Honestly, it's so beautiful there that you don't need a ton. If you decide to bring the in the hanging flowers, you could always bring them after to use as decoration at the reception. I wouldn't worry about decorating for your welcome party. Where are you having it? So you're having your reception/dinner at Cocotal? And you said about 30 people? I think if you wanted to make it stand out a big you could bring in some decorations. We bought our table runners (haha I sound crazy) also from the same website as everything else, and they were only like $6 each or something like that. I think I have a few pictures of Cocotal posted on my Facebook, if you wanted to check, just from our trip. Little votives or seashells or something like that could go a long way. We just had our AHR and used beer bottles wrapped in yard - cheap and easy. Or you coul buy some mason jars/vases at the dollar store and spray paint them for a little color. Pinterest has all sorts of stuff

They actually say that it can hold up to 100 or so signatures, since most people sign for two. Etsy has all sorts of cool stuff! I've also seen where people each sign a square of fabric, and then you make it into a quilt. Or I guess you could take a pre-made quilt and have them sign.

Hm I tried posting a picture - it's not working for some reason. I'll try again when I get home, maybe there's something going on since I'm at my work computer. Until then, this is a link to what we bought. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/139920959?ref=fb2_tnx_title

We actually just had our AHR on Satruday. I will say, it was more work/stress than our actual wedding! We ended up having almost 100 people there, so it was a lot. We had a casual brunch buffet at this restaurant by us. We had two long "display" tables where we brought all the stuff from our wedding - the sand ceremony frame, some of our programs, menus, placecards, copies of the ceremony script, etc. I also brought/hung my dress for people to see. Ou DW was only our immediate family (20 ppl) and I had everyone telling me how nice it was that we brought all that stuff, b/c it made them feel a part of it. We also played all our pictuers on a slideshow on the TVs around the restaurant, which was nice to be able to do. Though it was a lot of work, I'm really happy we did it. It was nice to celebrate with everyone (even if it did reaffirm my DW decision!) As for a guest book, we wanted something a little different that we would actually use/display. I knew if we did a traditional "guest book" it would just collect dust. We bought this off Etsy, and it is now proudly hanging in our bathroom It's nice to look at it and see it everyday.

The beef tenderloin at Cocotal was PHENOM. Hard to see here, but that and the rice were amazing.

The biggest draw for the cake was it was only $35 - too good to pass up!

We got the petit cake, just because I wanted to do the cake cutting. They said it would only feed two, but almost everyone from our 20 guests had some! I'm not a big cake person, but my husband said it was amazing. We got chocolate. Are you having it at a restaurant? We did a private reception and chose the mango cheesecake for everyone.

The apple pie is ammmmmazing. SO yummy. We never had the other one.

Quote:Originally Posted by nbateman anyone have any input on how many songs I should have on my pre-ceremony playlist? Do they start the music once people start arriving or sometime around 15-30 min before the ceremony? We were told guests had to be seated by 3:15 (our ceremony was at 3:30) so we had about fifteen minutes (4 songs) of music. They stated playing it at 3:15. However if you're worried, I'd put extra songs on there. When your groom or the mother's start coming down the aisle, they'll change it. I was really happy and impressed with how good they handled the audio. Just be sure to mark everything clearly. In our iPod we had it listed as: 1. Guest seating playlist 2. Mothers walk playlist 3. Bride walk playlist etc. Let me know if you need any more info!

We literally did that haha! We tried to be so careful transporting it home as a carry-on, but once we landed it was just a total mess. There was no way I could leave it like that and display it in the house. So we bought new sand, and re-did it, we just didn't tell anyone. Oh well, looks good now! Probably better than the first time

I used Forever Frames for ours. A little on the pricey side, but I love it. It has our name, date, and location engraved. In addition there is a "keeper plate" to go on top of the sand, where you are able to put little momentos, and a place for a picture. Very happy with the customer service we got from them. They also have TONS of different sand colors to choose from.

I went with one - it flew off the second I got to the end of the aisle! But I'm glad I have it, because we got cool pictures with it after. Plus it was only like $30 on Etsy.

My dress was by Enzoani - the model looks too skinny in my opinion!