sedwards00

we brought 2 suitcases from Portland, Maine to Mexico..and unfortunately for my husband, his daughter and mother (because you fill out the customs sheet on the plane 1 per family and we weren't married yet) he had the "red light" and if you get the red light you get your luggage searched. So his family had 3 checked luggage and 2 carry-on's well 2 of the checked luggage was gifts. The customs agent was pretty cool though and asked if he had receipts for the items he explained to them that he was getting married and didn't think about bringing receipts, he asked how much we spent on all the items and my husband told them around 300 no more the 350 (but we all know it's more than that especially if you've started buying the gifts) they continued to check the luggage and when they got to his mother's he started cracking jokes to his mom so the customs agent could hear about how he was touching her bra and underwear. The customs agent tried not to smile quickly closed the suitcase and told my husband to bring receipts next time. But from what I hear they are really strict about people brining in stuff from the US only because they think that people are going to sell it. But if you legit have things with personalized labels and such that shows it is for a wedding it seemed like they were pretty cool...well at least this guy was. We bought all our stuff online and the dollar tree believe it or not..better deals.

I'm sure they can move the sashes from the wedding to the reception. But I really don't think you will need too. The whole resort is so beautiful along with the décor they have there I'm glad I didn't decide to bring my own centerpieces and such, especially when we brought 2 suitcases full of gifts for our guests (customs was a treat! LOL). As for the reception dinner and choices...when you meet with the planner they will go over the menu options with you and you can pick what type of menu you want offered, then the day of the dinner everyone will have a menu with three choices to pick from for the main dish and also choices for an appetizer. I actually forgot about picking the food type when we met with Erica! We got the private dinner free and I made a mistake on my list above the reception was $600 and above I listed it as the cocktail hour, instead of the reception (they call it cocktail after dinner). Our cocktail hour was free because we did a semi-private. We did however have to pay for the mariachi band. But even though the cocktail hour was semi-private and other people from the resort could come by and have drinks..there was no one else over by the licrio bar so it was "private" even though it was semi-private. We did not do apps, but it sounds like from reading the emails I got back from Erica it's $16/person and it averages out to be 4 pieces per guest..I guess they can figure how much one person can eat. The only reason why we didn't do apps was because it was literally an hour from the end of the wedding to the dinner and we figured that people could just socialize have a drink and listen to the mariachi band. Some people didn't even go to the cocktail hour, but went back to their rooms to change and get ready for dinner. My husband didn't even want the band, only because we wouldn't be able to enjoy all of it due to the photo-shoot after the wedding, but I put the law down on that! The people that did show up for the cocktail hour did enjoy themselves and the band. Hope this is helpful! ~Courts

alright..here's the breakdown cost of our wedding day: harpist-$400 Mariachi band--$640 private cocktail--$600 ($15/person) DJ for private reception-$560 (we just did the dj you do not need the lights, the lights are extra like 1500 or so!) royal wedding package--$1660 extra food--$440 Beach tax--$150 (there's no way around it if you want a wedding on the beach) Adventure Photos-$1150 (for the whole day photography) oh and rose petals and a basket for the flower girls--$20 We saved money by doing the following, we convinced Erica to give us a semi-private dinner at the 630 time only because the wedding was at 5, then the cocktail hour from 530-630 and it only made sense for it all to flow together to have the dinner at 630. She checked with Chili's coordinator the day we met with her and they were able to do this for us for FREE....HUGE savings! <--SHANNON & DENNIS look in to this when you get there!! Then we dropped down the wedding package to the royal and paid the difference. We saved by x'in the fireshow ($750) but like I said someone else already paid for it so we were able to see it before the reception. All in all prior to us leaving we were planning to spend on our wedding between $7854-$10250 depending on if we wanted a photographer....and our final bill after speaking to Erica when we got there was $5620!!! SO needless to say we were stoked! a lot of the savings came from having the early dinner at the semi-private price (FREE!!) which saved us $2730...just in the dinner! But in all actuality I wouldn't of minded if there were other people there...because for the semi-private dinners they put you in the corner of the restaurant that over looks the ocean and you don't even know other people are there...and if you have enough people you basically can take over the whole restaurant anyways!!! Stephanie...to answer your question, I was looking through my emails and unfortunately there is a minimum for a private dinner and that number is 40. But like I told you...where they seat you it's really private and away from the other guests. I'll be more than happy to share photos with any of you to give you an idea of how things were set up for us (ie wedding, happy hour, dinner and reception). Just sent me a PM with your email. I would put it in an attachment on here, but I don't even have enough posts to view these attachments! LOL Oh another thing that we did, we brought our own sashes down, and Erica put them on the chairs for us for free. They were Royal Blue and we actually gave them to Erica afterwards (40 of them)...so if you need Royal Blue sashes for your chairs tell her she should have some from Courtney & Sears' May 10th wedding...I'm sure she'll remember us Once again I'm Jealous of Both of You!! -Courts

You can contact Erica now but just be aware they will contact you a month before your wedding date (that's why my husband was stressed). But don't worry she does enough of these and things will come together. Trust me when I tell you not to worry if she contacts you a month before, because she does so many of these it's second nature to them and nothing is finalized until you meet with her on your second day there. I think the prior contact is just for them to get an idea on what is going to happen and you're not obligated to stick with your choices. You will be slightly worried, but remember to relax! Erica is very flexible..as for outside vendors you may have to pay the $200 fee but Erica may let it slide considering that it is a friend/guest who will be playing the Ukulele and staying at the resort and not a typical "vendor" that will just show up collect your money and leave. We had 43 people attend our wedding some were kids but mostly adults. I too had my hair dresser and her daughter come to the wedding, she did the whole bridal party and my mom and mother-in-law's hair and makeup and I got my mani/pedi done before we left for mexico and it held up for the wedding. If you need anything including the price lists for everything I can send it to you via email. I'm glad to help especially when I was in the same predicament not that long ago. I would have to get that info from my husband considering he planned the whole wedding Soooo happy for you guys, slightly jealous because I want to be back there!! -Court

Oh another tip: If you want to eat anywhere besides the buffet (which is actually delicious!) From noon-3pm you have to go to the lobby of the hotel and in the back corner of the lobby bar, La Habana. They take reservations for dinner and they're are two seatings 630 & 830. I was there the whole week and only ate at Chili's, Don Manolo(the buffet ), Yashima, and Botafogo. All of which was excellent. My husband loved the buffet and Chili's. So the earlier you get there to make your reservations the better, especially if you have a large group. it's first come first serve.

we just got married on the 10th of May this year and we sent out our save the dates a year in advance. This whole process was a good experience for me, but for some reason was very stressful for my husband. I guess it was due to the online planning and not being able to physically be there. But when it came to it everything fell in to place and was beautiful. Here's what the days leading up to our wedding was like: May 7th: we arrived at the airport and my husband and I were given a private transfer to the hotel which was really nice! When we arrived at the hotel we were given an upgrade due to the number of people we had booked for the week. Our room number was 0047, though it looked like the rest of the rooms, it was conveniently located near the pool on the first floor which was nice especially if you needed to use the bathroom, it was closer than it was to walk to the restroom at chili's. That night we got a note to meet with the wedding planner at 930am May 8th: we met with the wedding planner Erica. Erica is da bomb-diggity! She was really nice and very accommodating to our needs. ADVICE... this meeting is where everything is planned from the flowers to the songs being played at the wedding and wedding package. Make sure you know exactly how many people are going to be attending where they charge for the private meals/reception per person and also they need a head count for chair on the beach. They do not however charge for kids which is great!. ALSO YOU MAY WANT TO CHOOSE THE ROYAL WEDDING PACKAGE INSTEAD OF THE CAPRICE..WE INITIALLY PICKED THE CAPRICE AND SWITCHED TO THE ROYAL AND SAVED ALMOST $700 JUST ON THAT...EVEN AFTER PAYING THE EXTRA PER PERSON CHARGE. Here is what we picked for our wedding: 500pm--Beach wedding w/ harpist (who was amaz-ballz. Highly recommend him!) 530-630--semi-private happy hour at the lirico bar with mariachi band 630-830-semi-private dinner (yes semi private at this time) at Chili's--chili's was the only restaurant that was able to accommodate the size of our group. The food I thought was really good and our guests seemed to like it. 830-1130-private reception w/ DJ at the daiquiri...we initially wanted to do a fire show but cancelled it, however some else had paid for the fire show and we were able to see it from the daiquiri bar. Initially we were concerned about the DJ, but he was very good and played current music from the US and spoke English well. after meeting with Erica, we decided to go with Adventure Photos for the pictures. We met with him and picked out our photo package.--I would also recommend Adventure Photos! The price was reasonable and they did an awesome job. After we met with Sergio from Adventure Photos we were done planning our wedding day. NOTE: ALL PAYMENTS ARE DUE 24 HOURS BEFORE THE WEDDING We paid for the wedding on the 9th...we had contacted our bank to advise them of our travel so we could use our debit card in Mexico..however we didn't tell them we were going to be dropping several thousand dollars in one transaction. According to our bank for security reasons they only allow 3,000 withdrawal per day. MAKE SURE YOU LET YOUR BANK KNOW ABOUT THE LARGE TRANSACTION prior to paying the bill...it was slightly embarrassing but they allowed us to use their phone at the front desk to call our bank that's when we found out about the 3,000 dollar amount. Like I said in the beginning when May 10th came around, everything fell in to place and the wedding was perfect! Erica was awesome and you can tell she works her butt off!!! So the only thing you should be worrying about prior to the wedding is, should you have a mojito or Miami vice at the pool. Congratulations guys! Courtney

good to know about the safe. It's nice to know that the resort staff was helpful I'm a little relieved. We leave in 30 days!!

Awesome ideas, never would of thought of using brown but I'm sure with the labels it's gonna look cute! Thanks

Ladies! I'm having trouble finding bags for my kits. What are you using for bags and where is the best place to get them! Thanks

Congrats! So excited! We leave in 40 days!! Keep us all posted when you get back!!!

I bought the watches yesterday on ebay a lot of 50, assorted colors for 29.99 w/ free shipping

What we are going to do (because I love to save money) is have my FI's daughter make the logo/design, scan it on our computer and then buy the heat transfer paper and print them out myself. You can buy the paper at walmart, staples and even amazon.com has it. Say I have control issues but this way if it's screwed up its no one's fault but my own. If you decide to go this DIY route make sure you reverse the image (under the rotate setting) so the picture and any writing you have will come out the right way!

Or www.orientaltrading.com got some cute large hibiscus tote bags for $11.50/dozen. My FI will have his daughter design a logo for our wedding and we will get it made into iron on patches and put them on the bags! She's 10 and is excited!!

I just ordered 40 today for $11.20! Awesome score compared to other websites!!

I just ordered the watches for our OOT bags..how are you making the labels? I love the idea and would like to "borrow" it if you don't mind