Shermul

We're bringing a photographer with us. He is an amazing photojournalist and travels! He will be staying at the resort for three nights. If you are looking for a photographer, I would highly recommend him, I have been in weddings he has shot and we refer to him as "the photo ninja" because he'll all of a sudden do things like hang from rafters in order to get the perfect shot, but you never notice him. James Berglie Photojournalist www.JamesBerglie.com Be Photography, LLC. www.bephotography.net As for flowers, I am using the resort florist. I've sent Alejandra pictures of what I'd like the flowers to look like, and she is going to let me know if soemthing similar can be done. Our timeline is as follows: 4pm ceremony on the beach (the Rabbi said the ceremony will be 30 minutes) 4:30pm cocktail hour on the beach with Mariachi 5:30-6:30pm break 6:30pm dinner reception Sunset is at 5:30ish so this works perfectly for us.

Here is the response from Alejandra to me asking about table lengths and pictures (and I've attched the PDF): Enclosed you will find the pictures of the Tropical Restaurant for a private reception. I confirm that for the tables set up, the longest one is of 12 people, the head table can be of 2 -8 people. For the 12 people long tables, we do not put the two ends, is 6 and 6 on each sides so the guests does not get the back to the head table. In the picture you can see what I mean. It is ok if you want to have tables of 12, 10, and 8 chairs. No problem with that. The length of the tables in meters is: 12 people – 6 meters 10 people- 5 meters 8 people- 4 meters TROPICAL RESTAURANT.pdf We went through Apple Vacations for our Travel Agent. If you are still looking for one, I highly recommend him and his Team!!! HARRY PIERSON Destination Wedding Specialist Apple Vacations Destination Weddings Phone: 610.325.1804 Email: [email protected] So the date they gave us for our guests to book/cancel their rooms by without any additional fees was 160 days prior to the travel dates we set. We made our RSVP date, 1 month before that so that we could invite additional guests and they would be able to take advantage of the great pricing we got in our room block. While it seems like asking for RSVPs 5 months ahead is unfair, they had to book their rooms a few weeks after that, so it was also a reminder. We sent out invitations 8 weeks prior to the RSVP date. Save the Dates were sent out 12 months before the wedding date. There were some people that could not give me an RSVP due to personaly reasons, so we counted them as yes for now, and we've asked them to give us a final answer by 60 days before the wedding. Hope that helps. I believe you have to give your numbers to the resort 60 days before, so you should take that into account. Also, expect about 20% of your guests not to respond so leave time to hassle them. This is what the water beads with the lights look like in a wine glass. I think I like the tall water glasses better, but this is the picture I have from our test run.

Hi Everyone, We are getting married here Jan 2015 so only 2.5 months to go. We're a very large destination wedding of about 100 people. We had originally chosen a package and then realized it was cheaper to just go the a la carte method for us. We have hired a local rabbi to perform our ceremony, are doing a private reception dinner in the Tropical restuarant (its the only one we fit in) and a coctail hour on the beach with the mariachi band. I didn't want a hair trial, I'll be fine with just getting my hair done for the wedding day, and there were other things in the package we can do without. At some point Connie will introduce you by email to Alejandra who will be your day of wedding coordinator. She is great at answering questions. I would number them and make them simple and put a bunch of questions in one email with space, she copies your email and responds to each question in red right under what you wrote, and attaches any photos you may have requested. I recently asked her for photos of the Tropical restuarant all set up for a wedding and she did just that, providing me with photos from three different set ups. We are hiring the internal DJ for the reception. I have to admit I'm nervous about this. We had two options: Internal for $100/hour or external for over $1000 for 4 hours. We were informed that the internal DJ does not speak any english, so if we wanted an MC, the external is our only option. Don't be fooled though, we still need to provide a full song list to the internal DJ (not looking forward to putting that together), and I'm slightly nervous about communication, but we have a bridesmaid who is fluent in spanish and promised to help. I've heard no review on the internal DJ so you can understand where my nervousness comes from, but we really don't have a choice, the external DJ pricing was too high. As for taking things with you, we're taking everything with us. I've got two bags already packed of favors, welcome bags, and wedding party gifts. My mom is bringing a trunk full of plastic cups and maracas for all of our guests. So yes, its a lot, and good to plan in advanced how your getting everything to Mexico. For decorations, we are making tablerunners (Alejandra has provided me with lengths for the 8, 10, and 12 people tables). And bringing water beads and color changing lights with us for centerpieces. We're hoping the resort will allow us to use two or three extra glasses per table to make our center pieces with, and a large bucket to hydrate the water beads. The lights last for 14 hours (we tested them) and change colors slowly between 7 colors. looks neat. My advice, start planning early. Ask all your questions and don't hold back. If you don't hear back from Connie in a week, send her a followup email. Alejandra will provide you with a planning worksheet when you start working with her about 2-3 months before the wedding date. This is where you select your cake flavor/shape, and how many bouquets you need and what type of flowers you want, and how many people you have total, things like that. And ask her lots of questions, she has all the answers! She has been great to work with. Oh, I should also mention what I learned about rehersal/rehearsal dinner. We have a large family/wedding party. So we will be doing a rehearsal dinner the day before. While we can't book a table, Alejandra said that they will put together a table for 40 people at the buffet for us for 6:30pm, right when they open. This is good enough for us as we don't want to pay another $990 to reserve a private restaurant for 4 hours. As for the rehearsal, that depends on if they have another wedding the day before, timing, and availability of staff. They will let us know when we arrive what time we can do that the day before the ceremony. So just be aware, you probably won't be able to do it exactly when you want it. Please feel free to ask me more questions ,and I would love to provide more information after our wedding in Jan as well. Congratulations and good luck.

Just booked for Jan 2015... Thank you for all of the information you have posted on here, it really helped in deciding on the resort.

We love our Travel Agent!!!! Harry Pierson ([email protected]) from Apple Vacations... specializes in destination weddings.

love your tags!!! Would you mind sharing the site that you got the tags on? Thanks!