futuremrswarner

I had a symbollic ceremony, so I'm not sure if that changes things regarding the wedding package. It cost me $1275 USD for the wedding package, which I believe is the only option available for symbollic ceremony (unless you've requested for another package specifically for their features). I think it's called the Remember Package. For the poolside reception, it was from 8-11pm. We paid for the following: "A private pool party with a cost of 1020 USD per 40 people max and 3hrs of special drinks (pina colada, margaritas, sparkling wine, beers) and obviously shots, as well as drinks you were able to get from the bars on the resort and special illumination and 1 microphone and speakers to connect your ipod and decorated too with chairs and high tables." However, as I may have mentioned in previous posts, it was raining on the night of my wedding, so we were moved indoors. I just checked the Wedding Service Addendum that was signed on the day of my meeting with Jazmin, and it stated that in case of bad weather, we were moved to the Casa Club on the Sian Kaan section. I didn't really need the speakers and all that because I had hired DJ Bob for the wedding and he brought his own equipment. So this option did not include the resort DJ.

Sorry about the late response. Jazmin told me about the deposit before I left for Mexico. The final email she sent me, she mentioned the cash deposit. Again, I'm not sure if this is standard across all 3 of the resorts or if that was just for Tulum. Congratulations!! Can't wait to see pictures. This is a picture of my cake that we got... we had dinner at the Don Pablo on Tulum. We had the 3 milks (tres leches) and it was AMAZING! I had to request for a 2-tier cake from Jazmin though. I asked her to make the 2 tiers smaller than usual just so I can't have the layers. My photographers stayed for 5 nights. I booked their stay for Nov. 10 -15, which was sufficient for the resort to let them photograph my wedding. I'm going through my photos from the trip and my dad's facebook photos. Tequila has square tables from what I remember and what I can see in the photos. My family was there in a group of 7 or 8 and they just put together some square tables to make a long table for them. I believe the settings there are 8-10 people per table.

The white sashes on the chairs were included in the price for the wedding package. I didn't need to pay extra for that. It rained on the day of my wedding, so we didn't end up having the poolside reception. However, I did see another wedding with the poolside reception at the pool by Gran Tortuga. For us, we didn't do the cocktail hour so we just did our speeches during the dinner in Don Pablo. We didn't use a mic or anything, but if you spoke normally, I think your guest should still hear you, even at Tequila restaurant (assuming you're a small sectioned off area in the restaurant). That timeline is pretty much what we had. 3:00-3:30pm ceremony 3:30-3:50pm toast and just quick mingling 3:50-4:15pm group photos 4:15-4:45pm wedding party photos on the beach 4:45-5:30pm bride and groom photos on the beach We took a little longer with the photos, and even then, we had extra time to spare before we had to go to dinner. You should be fine with your timeline.

Jazmin gave me a little note/letter to give out to all the guests to give them a brief timeline of the events that day for those who are not part of the wedding party. It had the time and location of where to meet within the resort to head over to the ceremony site. It was helpful too when your friends and family can pass on the information just in case you can't reach all your guests in time. The letter is given to bride/groom at the meeting with the WC, so you would have to hunt down your guests or have the resort put it in their rooms. If you're referring to communication with the guests within the week, we just use the room phones as much as we could, and made arrangements the night before. Again, having guests pass on the word to each other really helped us. Although it was easy to hunt everyone down for us because all my guests were placed within the same building. That is exactly what my timeline was for the wedding, and I think it worked out great for us. We didnt have a cocktail hour set up, and just allowed guests to do their own thing after the ceremony while we were taking photos. However, it worked out great for them because many of them went back to the room to rest up or change into more comfortable clothing. They all appreciated the little spare time they had. I was nervous about bringing the cash down as well, but I ended up paying the resort all in cash in the end. With the credit card, alot of companies will charge the exchange rate + an extra % so it just didnt make sense to me. The hubby and I ended up paying the resort and all our vendors in cash in the end, and since we exchanged a larger sum, the bank gave us a slightly better rate. You would have to take cash no matter what as the resort asked us to place a cash deposit of about 630 USD during our meeting with the WC. So do bring some cash. We left all the cash in the safe the whole time, and paid everyone as soon as we could so we didnt have to keep the cash.

The red carpet was a free option, if you wanted it. I would just confirm with the WC before you request for it though, just because each WC seems to be telling their brides different things sometimes.

The ceremony took approximately 30 minutes. It wasn't very long, and this is also after we had an extra 5 minutes or so of my sister in law doing a quick reading for us. The new website is difficult to upload photos, but I was able to find this one of us during the ceremony at the gazebo in Tulum.

Quote:Originally Posted by egagne87 Quote:Originally Posted by futuremrswarner Oh just some quick things as well: Travel Agent: Shelley Elkas from DestinationWeddings.com Airline: Air Canada Rouge Photographer: Photos In Cancun Make-Up & Hair: Styling Trio Riviera Maya (Adira Guerra and his team) DJ: DJ Bob Dinner Menu: - Don Pablo salad - chicken broth - surf and turf - three milk wedding cake I'm wondering about your marriage certificate, did you have the legal wedding and the appostilled certificate was given to you before you departed for home? We are also staying and extra week and that would be more ideal than the mail. We had our legal wedding in Toronto a month prior to us leaving for Mexico. We only did the symbollic ceremony at the resort, which is why I didn't chase for the marriage certificate as much. I'm not sure if the legal wedding certificate will take longer for them to get to you, but with that additional week, it should be more than enough time to get yours.

Quote:Originally Posted by nic817 Thanks for your informative post. It is so helpful to read these details. Which part of the resort did you stay in? Did you find it windy at the gazebo? (Wondering for hair) I stayed in Villa 4 on Tulum. It was the closest block of villas to the main area. I'm not sure if we got an upgrade, but when my family and friends came to my room, they did say that the room we had was bigger (with an additional sitting area). It was not too noisy, because we didn't hear much of the main lobby bar from our room, and we were pretty close to it. On the day of my wedding, there was a little bit of wind, but I don't think it was too bad. My hair was wrapped to one side, left down, and I didn't find that I had to remove the hair from my face during the ceremony.

Quote:Originally Posted by arinmarie10 Quote: Thank you so much for your post - that's awesome that you had such a great experience. Couple of questions for you - How many guests did you have at your dinner? How long did the dinner last? Did you tip Jasmin/Karla, or anyone else that helped with your wedding?? (not sure if this is something some/most brides do!?) Thanks for your help! I had 32 guests at dinner excluding the bride and groom, including the photographers. The dinner started at 6pm and should have ended at 8pm, but I think we went over the time by 15-30 minutes because we were making speeches and taking photos. I did give Jazmin/Karla a tip of USD $50 for their help.

Oh just some quick things as well: Travel Agent: Shelley Elkas from DestinationWeddings.com Airline: Air Canada Rouge Photographer: Photos In Cancun Make-Up & Hair: Styling Trio Riviera Maya (Adira Guerra and his team) DJ: DJ Bob Dinner Menu: - Don Pablo salad - chicken broth - surf and turf - three milk wedding cake

This is going to be a long one. Be prepared. My experience with Bahia Principe Tulum, Jazmin and her assistant Karla, was great. I believe I placed my deposit around November 2012 for my wedding in November 2013. Jazmin introduced herself to me 2 months later, and by then, she had confirmed my wedding date and time for me. Based on the posts from the past brides on BDW, I had written down a list of questions for Jazmin already, so I asked her as much as I could with the first email I sent her. During that time, her email responses were within 2 weeks to a months time, but all my questions were answered. By March, I had essentially finalized all my wedding details with her, including the wedding location, the reception dinner menu, the cake, and the poolside reception. The 2 months leading up to the wedding, she reminded me of the guestlists, and helped me to finalize my flowers (including addtional flower arrangements I wanted for the ceremony location). She sent me a final email once every detail is confirmed to give me the details of our meeting time and what I needed to bring to her. The day of our meeting (2 days after my arrival), I was waiting in the lobby for my meeting with Jazmin, and I was introduced to Arrecife Studios representative by Karla. The rep started chatting with me about photos, even though I had already emailed their office that I would not require their services. I had to tell the rep this information, and she went to reception to confirm details of the photographers to ensure they are staying at the resort for the minimum of 5 nights before she was willing to provide me with a cancellation form. Jazmin came to get me before the rep came back, so I had asked Jazmin for the cancellation form and she was able to provide that to me and helped us with that. The meeting was very good because I saw that Jazmin had printed out all the emails I had sent her regarding the wedding details, including the photos that I sent for the extra flower arrangements I wanted and the way I wanted my bouquets and boutonnieres. She had essentially all the details down to the crack and confirmed everything with us again. She asked for the CD for the music at the ceremony, and all the decorations that I wanted for the ceremony and reception. She was very good at making notes of how I wanted everything and put it on sticky notes on each of the items that I had. At this meeting, she also requests that you bring a cash deposit (she'll let you know the amount on her final email). So at the meeting, she confirms for me where I wanted the flowers to be delivered on the wedding day, and where guests and the groom would have to meet before the ceremony, how we wanted the ceremony. The day of the wedding, our wedding ceremony was at the Tulum gazebo at 3pm. The guests, groom, groomsmen and father of the bride had met around 2:30pm in the lobby to be led to the ceremony location for a quick rehearsal and just simple instructions on what they needed to do. Jazmin was there with them the entire time. The flowers were exactly the way I wanted them, and they were delivered to the bride's room right on time. Around 2:50pm, the driver came and knocked on our door to pick us up with the golf cart to the ceremony. Karla was with me and the girls with her walkie-talkie, chatting with Jazmin at the gazebo to signal the girls out on time. I heard the music playing and it was exactly the songs I wanted at the right time. Throughout the ceremony, Jazmin and Karla stayed to make sure everything was running smoothly. After the ceremony, she helped with the champagne for toast. When that was complete, she pulled Richard and me aside to confirm the poolside reception. This is important for other brides with the poolside reception, the resort will check the weather for you throughout the day, and they will advise you to the best of their ability if there is a chance of rain at night. If there is, they will advise you to move to the indoor location. At this point, which ever option you select will be final. If it rained and you chose to stay outside, the resort will not refund you for not being able to have your reception. If it didnt rain and you chose to go inside, they will not allow you to move back outside. So at this point, Jazmin informed us that there was a low chance of rain, so we decided to stay outside. Dinner was at the Don Pablo for us (great option by the way). Jazmin and Karla were there as well to meet us at 6pm to make sure everyone was at their tables. We had one table where they merged some guests names together so they had to fix that and bring additional settings. Otherwise the dinner went well. When we first started the dinner, there were not many guests in the restaurant with us, so we started our speeches as soon as the first course was done. It was really quiet in the restaurant so mics/speakers were not needed at all. Other guests in the restaurant were also very accomodating. I noticed that Jazmin and Karla came into Don Pablo to check up on the dinner every so often. At this time, we noticed that it started to thunderstorm outside around 6:30pm. Richard and I had to speak with Jazmin about the poolside reception. She told us low probability of rain, but now there was a thunderstorm, so we asked if it was still possible to move inside. She only told me she would try her best, and confirmed for me before the dinner was over that she was able to move us to the Plan B location at Sian K'an. The menu was exactly as we decided on, and the cake (tres leche/3 milks) was delicious. I had requested that the cake be 2-tier, and she was able to deliver that as well. Our guests LOVED the cake - some had 2nds and 3rds, and some even packed some for midnight snack. After dinner, she was there to show all of us where the trolley was waiting to take us to the Sian K'an location. She made sure everyone was on the trolley first before we left. She didnt come with us, but she did send Karla with us to confirm that everything was ok before she left. The reception went well. We were able to have DJ Bob for our reception, but this was only the case because I had made a deposit in January 2013 before the resort changed their policies. Apparently, the resort has new management who changed all the rules to not allow external vendors for anything. I believe DJ Bob is working with the resort to work out a deal, so not sure how that will end. I was at the resort for an extra week, so I didn't really bother chasing Jazmin down for the marriage certificate. I got that a day or two before I left Mexico, and she returned all the decorations. So overall, I would have to say that I had an amazing experience with Jazmin and Karla. I could not have asked for better WCs. Here's a picture of the two of them. The one with the glasses is Jazmin, and the other is Karla. I've typed a lot. If any brides have any other questions, let me know. Happy planning and hopefully, your experience will be as pleasant as mine

It's hard to hear from other brides that their experience were that much of a nightmare. I would've freaked out if that was me. Luckily, my experience was not bad at all, dealing with the WCs from Tulum. I can write a review for those of you getting married on Tulum and working with Jazmin, if any ladies would like to hear, let me know.

This was in the Tulum lobby. They have pillars in the Coba lobby as well, and I believe the Coba lobby has 3 pillars. The Akumal lobby is some kind of statue, so it doesn't look the same.

Yes, I used Photos In Cancun, but I had a hard time arguing my way out of that one. Derek is from Toronto and they're friends of ours. I had sent an email to Arrecife Studios to let them know I wouldn't need their services, but they didn't reply me. So I took it as they're ok with it. When I arrived at the meeting with the WC that day, you actually meet with Arrecife representative first, and they gave me a hard time, but Derek and Lorena stayed at the resort for the required 5 nights, so they couldn't really say anything.