brownsugarbride

Hi Ivan- Sending you a PM!

Quote: Originally Posted by TuffLuv Hello brides, I'm also an 2014 April bride. My FI and I will be getting married April 12, 2014 at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. This is a good forum. I love getting ideas from other brides. Congratulations! I've heard great things about Hard Rock!

Quote: Originally Posted by agale86 DON'T IPOD IT! DJ Ivan with Doremixx is worth EVERY penny you will pay for him. I got married in June and we hired him and used his light up dance floor. He made our wedding fell like a nightclub! No one stopped dancing the entire night! If you are looking for a big celebration or party, then you should definitely put money for a good DJ into your budget. I went through a period where Ivan didn't respond right away, but I just emailed him a couple times with the same message and he got back to me. GOOD LUCK! I emailed him awhile ago and he still hasn't emailed me back. My wedding planner is working on it, but it still is a little frustrating to not hear back from a vendor like that.

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsPeele2B I'm crushed... I knew this could be a possibility but I just wasn't prepared for that answer. I'm upset, I'm hurt, I'm angry and mad. Not to be petty... but I helped her with everything, I went over the top for her wedding, bridal shower, bachelorette party, baby shower christening... and the list goes on. I don't wanna sound whiny, or cranky but I'm just hurt and disappointed. I don't know what to do because I don't want her to know. I'm also very passive aggressive so, I'm bound to ignore her at the drop of the hat (immature I know). I'm just..... reeling with emotion right now. So allow me to have the moment of dramatics. Anyone else gone through this? How did you cope? How did you maintain your relationship? this -ish sucks man. I'm SO sorry. That's really tough---I can only imagine how you are feeling right now. Did your friend say why? Destination weddings are a mixed bag, because the very thing we love about some of them (lower costs---sometimes!) is because many of our guests can't/won't make the trip.

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsPeele2B Hey shugapop I can't wait until I get to that point. I'm still feeling very lost in the sauce of it all. I'm not sure if this has been asked or not but did anyone do Return address labels? Or stamps? I'm on a budget and I'm trying to decide which would be most economical. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free People may disagree, but I'm not doing any RSVP cards at all. I'm asking people to either RSVP on the website or to call. (Or are you talking about something completely different?)

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsHK Hope it works out for you, and let us know what you end up deciding! I love the idea that Allie had of cream cheese frosting. Oh man, now I'm craving velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! haha Also, I'm not sure where you are at with your decor plans, but if you want to see a list of the things I'm renting out from my wedding with pricing and photos please send me an inbox message. I have lots of lighting, mason jars, lanterns, etc. Happy planning! I will definitely send you a PM once I figure out my decor. I've been really careful about buying anything on my end, because I don't want to waste money on things that won't fit into my decor. Renting honestly sounds like a better option. If you have any suggestions for my venue, I'd love to hear them! http://www.bluevenadobeachclub.com/english/weddings.html

Quote: Originally Posted by AllieH Mmm...cream cheese! I want tres leches cake though..I wonder if that would be completely over the top?

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsHK I would email Zaida and see what she says about buttercream holding up down here. Even if you don't end up ordering from her, she'll be able to advise you one way or another. I know when we leave our butter out around the house down here it usually melts a little bit, so fondant may be a safer bet. Aside from the little bite with our cake cutting photo, I didn't even taste our cake our cupcakes! The night went by so fast and I totally forgot to grab one. With the excitement of the dinner, speeches, first dance, and entertaining everyone, you may not even have a moment to sit down and enjoy your cake. I love the idea of surprise churros! We has nachos and empanadas as our midnight snack surprise. Yes, I am worried about the cake melting but we are big foodies and I like things to taste good! I will take your advice and send her an email. I am so geeked about the churros!

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsTobeD Hmm..that's a tough one! I can only imagine how hard that would be.

Yay!! We are also getting married before we go, but we may just pick up the papers and come home and go to bed! LOL

Awesome! My fiancé actually wanted us to consider Moon Palace as a venue. He attended a relative's vow renewal there and had nothing but great things to say about the resort!

Hrm..that's not going to help me much! LOL I also noticed that you recommended your flamenco guitarist, Camilo Nu. He is absolutely fantastic! Now I'm even more torn between the mariachi band and guitarist. Can you post the information about how to get into contact with him? Also, if you wouldn't mind, can you PM me the costs?

Belize is on my short list for the honeymoon. (We will either stay in PDC or go there.) What did you think of it? Would you recommend going there for an entire honeymoon?

Just to clarify, brides have reported that they met vendors at the gates of their respective resorts to avoid charges (not necessarily the lobby). I'm not sure about EDR, but it might be worth finding out whether this is a viable option if a bride is looking to save.

I'm not getting married at EDR, but I know that a number of brides at other resorts have gotten around the outside vendor fee for florists by meeting the florist at the entrance of the resort on the day of the wedding. Even with the delivery fee, you'll probably come out better purchasing from e outside vendor. There are a number of different florists that come recommended on the boards if you search for reviews.

I would just say that you and your fiancé are having a very small and intimate wedding with family and close friends.

My wedding planner told me that no resorts in Riviera Maya allow the lanterns anymore because of the fire hazard. I really wanted them as well, but felt a little better about not having them due to the potential impact on the environment.

I'm kind of torn about my wedding cake. I'm not looking for an incredibly fancy or complex cake, just one that is reasonably pretty and tastes good. Plus, I'm getting churros as a surprise for my guests so I don't want to go to overboard on the cake. However, I'm worried about my cake standing up to the heat in Playa Del Carmen, even in April. I really don't like the taste of fondant, but I'm worried that my cake will melt in the heat. I much prefer butter cream frosting. Is there anyway to make this work, or should I just suck it up and get fondant?

What you mind sharing your cake vendor as well? I want my cake to be pretty of course, but taste is paramount for us. Your description of your tres leches cake is divine!

What fantastic stops! I would probably want to get off the ship and stay in any one of those places!

Wow, that's great! My plan was to get a relatively small cake and churros, but now you have me thinking that I should just go ahead and get a regular sized cake as well.

I am still knee-deep in wedding planning, but my top two choices are either Playa Del Carmen or Belize. It really is going to depend on how many vacation days we have and what our other travel plans for the year are.

For a five minute show at my location it costs approximately $540. Honestly, I think that the price I have is on the low end because it isn't at the resort, if the prices in my NOW catalogue are any guide (I had previously considered Now Jade as a wedding location). For example, I am paying about $375 for a 45 minute set from a five person mariachi band. At the Now Jade, a 6-person mariachi band playing for the same amount of time would be $1,100. That's almost a 300% markup. I'm sure the markup won't be necessarily that bad for fire dancers, but I can't imagine that the fire dancers on the resort are going to be cheaper. One option might be to hope that there'll be a fire dance show at your resort. Usually the resorts have fire dancers at least once a week that everyone can see for free.

I am definitely moving hotels after the wedding. One thing I am doubtful that I want to do is to stay at another all inclusive. The reason is, there are so many fantastic restaurants in the Riviera Maya that it would be a shame not to try some of them. The other option for us is to go to Belize, somewhere I've wanted to visit for a while. The problem is that we also have plans to go to Malaysia for a big conference a few months after the wedding, and I'm not sure that my fiancé is keen on the idea of spending a lot of money to go on our honeymoon (when I sold the destination wedding as a way to save some money)! If I stayed in the Riviera Maya, I would like to stay at Le Reve The only issue is that it looks like they are booked for some of the dates that I wanted, so I'm looking for hotels like it. I'm not sure what hotels we would stay if we went to Belize.

I'm not sure what company the Blue Venado uses, but they list performer prices in their online catalogue available on their website.