TinkerSofi

I had originally budgeted $1500 for the dress only but I ended up paying $799 for the dress and $150 for the veil. It was a sample gown which originally was at $900.

I'm glad everything worked out!

@@Lilgabri03 no, he has more packages, he has some that go up to 8 hours of pictures for $1950 and the 8 hours of video are $1750. We just wanted to get both photos and video so we had to split our budget for that in half and that's how we ended up with those packages haha. My dad now offered to pay for pictures and he said why we don't add an extra hour so I have more of the reception . That means I can just bump up to the next package. Octavio did give us a deal because of the $800 that we need to pay, so he's giving us an extra hour of service for free. It's a small portion of the $800 but I understand because we're not paying that much to begin with! haha We weren't interested in a trash the dress session because we are having another wedding reception in Argentina for my family and we'll do it then but I know you can add it to whichever package you choose. You can also choose to have a TDD instead of the couples session

@ you got an amazing deal! @@Lilgabri03 I'm paying $1900 for 4 hours of photos and 3 of video. plus the $800 vendor fee so $2700 for the whole deal. I'm considering adding another hour to the pictures. We also get a DVD with all of our pictures and some prints as well.

I really liked Sarani but I agree with @@mazarin I wasn't sure if it was worth the extra money. The pictures are important but they do end up in a box or a cd and you look at them once in a while, but mostly they collect dust. I didn't want to blow half my budget on pictures. We ended up going with Octavio Montes for photos and video you guys just made my day! hahah. Well I guess it makes sense since they're already charging you an arm and a leg for that deck!

@ really? just with the always and forever package? that would be great!

hopefully you were able to find it, but this is the one I have from the e-mails with my coordinator 888-280-8810. Last time I called you go through a menu sort of thing and you might have to wait a while for someone to answer

@sueann20 hey no worries. I felt the same way! Things really get going once you book and reserve your date . Once that is done everything seems pretty easy actually haha. I'm doing both, the ceremony and reception at the Sky Deck . i'm not too sure if we will have a cocktail party but if we do we won't do it there because we can't pay more surcharges per person

ok good , just wanted to make sure. thank you!

Awesome! Sarani does take really beautiful pictures

In my mind, I think taking the time to see each of our guests, if possible, and giving them the invitations personally is a nice touch. But is it tacky? Does it look bad rather than mailing them to everyone? Most of our guests live in the same city and we see them pretty often.

We're keeping it pretty simple for the ceremony. They give you the basic stuff such as white linen for the "altar" table, 24 white wood chairs, and the gazebo is included at the deck. We're adding two white sheer fabrics for $100 each, two small corsages for the gazebo at $75 each and I'll probably buy pomander balls online to hang on the chairs by the aisle. I will probably buy a floral arrangement for the table that we can then use for our head table at the reception. As for the chairs, they charge, I think, it's $15 per extra chair over the 24. I'm not sure if we will rent out chairs for everyone. We might add some more over the 24 but a friend of mine rented chairs for everyone and half the guests were standing anyway haha. It won't be as complete as the memorable moments package but we really couldn't afford the extra $3000. It's only half an hour anyways. I'd rather spend the money on the reception. I was under the impression that the $1700 was only to have the ceremony on the deck. I mean, I don't have to pay it twice to have the ceremony and reception but I do need to add the $15 pp for the reception up there. Who knows, maybe they charge that price once, regardless of whether you want the ceremony, the reception or both up there. I would definitely clarify with your coordinator once you hear back from them. I'm right there with you! I'm the type of person who needs to know how much it will cost before I take the plunge haha. It is so overwhelming. I honestly don't think you can go wrong with either of these hotels. I didn't visit the moon palace but I went to beach palace and we loved it. We chose Karisma because their prices were a little lower than the palace resorts, but you might get a good deal too with moon palace. We haven't visited Azul Fives yet but from the pictures and other research it seems like a comparable hotel, at least with the beach palace. Here is the link to the banquet kit for Karisma hotels http://karismahotels.uberflip.com/i/183324 if you go to page 12 that's where the buffet style menus start and they have the price right there. There might be a surcharge depending on the venue that you choose, it's $15 per person. The way it all works is very similar to the palace resorts. When you book and you get a certain amount of rooms booked under your group you get the always and forever package for free (if you live in north america). This is basically your ceremony with some basic decor as well as some other perks like discounts at the spa and a free semi-private dinner. We're using that dinner to have a welcome dinner the second day we're there (you can use it towards your rehearsal dinner). This includes 40 people and anyone over that number is $25. If you check a few posts before this one @@kmk2016 posted some info on how much children are and how you can play around with the numbers if you have quite a few kids in your group. You can also organize other events for an extra price. They also have a promotion that depending on how many rooms are booked under your group you get free extra events like cocktail hours, semi-private dinners, unlimited events, etc. Everything else you want extra on top of the always and forever package you have to pay for. For example, you can upgrade the decor for the ceremony, or just like with the Palace resorts, you can pay a fee per table to have it decorated according to one of their signature packages. They also have a vendor, like the Palace resorts, called Lomas. They rent out everything extra and sell you the flowers, etc. For the reception, you pay on a per person basis for the food so you can have as many people as the maximum for your venue. For example, you can have 200 people if you do your reception on the beach. I'm not sure if we can extend the reception, it's actually on my to-ask list because we would also love to party until 2 am . I could let you know once I find out! Unless someone already has that answer. Anyway I don't want to turn this into a novel but I hope that clears some things up for you.

ohh ok, then the price makes more sense now . That's around how much it would cost us if we added that too.

These are so cute! And such a reasonable price! Thanks for posting Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like the first dress better. It looks better on you than the model! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe check with your TA again and ask her if she could contact the Miami coordinators just to see what's going on. We booked the last week of May and got our confirmation right away. The coordinator had sent my TA an e-mail with information, etc. but she didn't Cc us. Our travel agent thought we were cc'd so she didn't forward it to us. Anyway, no big deal but sometimes there's misunderstandings like that. 8 weeks seems like a long time, especially when a lot of us have already received confirmation even when booking later than you. Maybe the $6800 are including the trips? It seems like a lot for only the ceremony and sky deck reservation. Also, I'm not sure if they charge you the $1700 to just have your reception at the Sky Deck. I thought you just pay $15 pp on top of the menu. The $1700 is just to have the ceremony up there, or that's what I thought at least. Make sure they're not upgrading your ceremony with the memorable moments decor. That's another $3000 almost. Unless that's what you want, make sure you are getting their "complementary" always and forever package. It won't be complimentary for you but at least it will be cheaper than $3000. It's $950 if you're having a symbolic ceremony. We thought the upgrade of ceremony decor was a little too expensive for half an hour and decided to add the memorable moments to the reception tables instead.

@@sueann20 I've been focusing most of my research on doing almost everything at the terrace but here is what I know so far: If you use the free dinner included in the memorable moments package it's just in one of the restaurants. They reserve a section of it off for you but there are other hotel guests there, so you can't really have any dancing or things like that. It's basically just a dinner. You also need to pay $25 pp for anyone over the 40 people maximum The Sea pier gazebo holds a maximum of 32 people with long tables or 24 with round tables for a plated reception. You also need to add $15 per person to the price of food (food is also on a per person basis but they have a range of prices) For the beach reception, you don't have to pay an extra fee on top of the food. You just pay for the menu, which included 4 hrs of open bar and it has a huge capacity, something like 200 people. I'm not sure if you can go for dinner to the Flavours restaurant and then have a party at the beach. I hope that helps!

I would like to know this too!

I agree. Then I'll know how many tables I need to pay for as well as how much the reception will cost me . It's just easier to visualize everything when you know the size of the wedding!

@@Vickiw89 we are paying $250 for the amplifier for 4 hours. It has a microphone too. For the reception, the amplifier is included in the memorable moments package. I read somewhere that reception at the terrace can only go until 11 . I can't remember if I read it in something that my wedding coordinator sent me or on this forum. I'm right there with you and wish they would allow you to party until 2am haha. For me that's the biggest compromise in terms of having a destination wedding.

@@Vickiw89 oh that's great! We are going to be there from the 9th until the 16th ! The petit gourmet is a buffet style as well. It has a few less options than the family style or the BBQ buffet but it's cheaper and since we have to pay the $15 per person on top of that we decided to go with that one. We didn't hire a DJ. We're just renting the amplifier and bringing an ipod so I can't speak as to the dancefloor. I imagine you can probably rent one if the DJ doesn't have one but since the terrace has ceramic tiles I don't think it would be a problem to make a dance area rather than having a dancefloor. Perhaps some other girls here would be able to answer that one better. The $1700 is only for the terrace ceremony. So if you have the ceremony in the garden or anywhere else you don't pay it. The $900 -ish is for the memorable moments package. Therefore, you would be paying the $1700 + $900 for your ceremony if you want to have it in the terrace. Let me know if you have more questions! I'm still pretty new at all of this as well but I'll try to answer anything I know.

Ok, so I think i'm in pretty good shape. Time to start making the envelopes today. I'm so excited! I'll post pictures of my DIY invites soon.

@@Vickiw89 congrats! We're getting married only a few days after you on Aug 13 . I'm not sure what the conversion is to pounds, but they are charging us $1700 USD to have our reception at the terrace plus $950 or so to have the wedding package. I know the $950 gets discounted after you have a certain amount of people booked in your group and the wedding package becomes free. I think that is only for a north american market so you might have to pay them . This is just for the ceremony. As for the reception itself, yes, you pay the price of the food on a per person basis and then add $15 pp for the terrace. For example, we chose the petit gourmet, which is $22 pp and then because we want to have the terrace we need to add $15 pp to that. So our reception becomes $37 per person including food and 4 hrs of open bar. We hired Octavio Montes for our photos and video so we only have to pay the $800 outside vendor fee once. I'll send you a PM with his prices but they are also on his website.

@@kcole123 I hope it all works out! I'm glad that at least it's not all on you and you have some help now. It definitely makes the stress bearable. Let us know how it all turns out!

I personally think blush goes well with other pastels. What if you go to home depot and get little paint swatches of the colors you want and see how they look together? Maybe it's just something that no one has done before but it doesn't look bad.