tygrrlily

Your OOT bags sound great! I think your guests will love them! We went fairly simple on ours too and everything was really appreciated. We gave separate OOT bags to the kids and they all played w/ the things inside of them: sand toys, sunglasses, books, colouring set, some small toys ($1 bin at target!), a cup of their own. Prob cost about $10 each for the kids ones total. The sand toys were used by the kids and really appreciated by the adults. We had a few teens and we just gave them the same as the adults minus the hangover kit, key holder on a lanyard, and boogey boards that we found for cheap

@@FutureMrsGarcia @@marinah84 - Yes, the shoe game is where you sit back to back each with 1 bride shoe and 1 groom shoe. The MC asks questions and the bride and groom hold up the shoe of the person they believe it is. I like it because it's easy to set up and it's cute and funny watching the Bride and Groom answer differently. Some questions like - "Who makes up first after an argument" or "Who is usually right" etc. almost always has opposite answers. My husband I were apparently pretty bang on for most, and the cutest was the last question - "Who likes Disney more?" (something we both love) and we both put up both of our shoes I've seen it at a wedding too where they asked the audience for questions too but just a note that this can also get pretty risque pretty quickly if you do that haha @@FutureMrsGarcia - I was lucky because I didn't have to pay extra for Adrian! Hmm he's good but honestly Suzie was really good on her own too. The two of them together were really fab because they collaborated quite a bit. Don't think I'd pay an extra $250 personally but that's just me. If you are financially able to and it gives you peace of mind, go for it. I'll upload my event info sheet so you can see everything I did. My menu choices are there I had doubts too about BP at times but honestly it worked really well for our group. We had a lot of young people in their 20s and 30s and the beautiful beach, 24/7 hour room service and proximity to Cancun nightlife really won them over. Plated is an option for Sky terrace but it was $55 a person - we didn't feel that was worth it personally and put the money into other things instead.

@@beckys98 - Np! Glad to help in any way. Just a note that ours is for a December wedding so our sun time is a lot shorter than it would be for a summer wedding. I should add that above

@@calgarybride2015 - We were about a couple rows back from the very front. We were sitting right beneath it with my parents across from us and family members behind us. My mom just closed the bin after we laid the dress flat and anytime anyone tried to open it, she would stay "It's a wedding dress!" My mom is fairly forceful - I love her haha. I think AC do have closets though - we were on Rouge so not sure if it's different (or if she was just saying that). Definitely ask about the closet On the way back I didn't care anymore and just folded it up and put it in one of our empty suitcases

@@calgarybride2015 - Yes ACV selects, but she can make changes too I think. One of our guests reamed her out after getting to Mexico so she made changes to the flight on the way back to rectify the seating on the way there - so I think it is possible based on that. Going there, our guests tried to make changes during online check-ins, but the flight was completely booked up My husband's cousin works at AC and she helped us quite a bit too and made changes where she could. She even worked our gate that morning to make sure our group had no problems. We were super grateful

Hi ladies I just posted Part 3 of my review which deals with extending the reception, offsite coordinator, Zuniga, etc. Link is here in my planning thread: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/77763-tygrrlilys-planning-thread-beach-palace-resort-121914/page-20?do=findComment&comment=1881861 This is what I wrote about extending. We paid $60/table to extend per hour (2014 price?) and we thought it was worth it: Beach Palace gives you a 3 hour cocktail + reception - this was way too short for us. So we paid extra to extend our reception by 4 hours. They quoted us at $60/table per hour to extend and we paid an extra $960 total which in our books was well worth it. I think they messed up a bit because originally it's supposed to be 8 people per table but we had 10 at each + our head table. This was lower than what I had estimated - we had calculated one more table and thought we'd be paying for 5 tables (40 adults). Obviously I didn't question this . We are really glad we extended our reception because it gave made our reception feel like the wedding receptions we were used to going to at home. I know we could have moved over to the public sports bar, but we liked having the privacy, DJ and open bar and lighting, etc. One importnat thing for my husband and I is that we still wanted to maintain certain traditions and have our wedding feel like a wedding even though it was destination. That's why we decided to keep things like entrances, speeches, seating plans, the first dance, etc. It also really distinguished our wedding from our other private events. @ - Thanks! We actually went with the Complimentary ceremony and I just added my own decorations. If you look at my signature, click on part 2 of my review and you can see pics I'm a bit cheap and didn't want to pay thousands for the ceremony though the collections are beautiful

@@calgarybride2015 - We were sitting at the front of the plane where the bins were longer, so yes, it fit! I think I took up 2 bins actually haha. Right behind us the bins had the divisions. I think we were Rouge Plus or something like that

Part 3 of my review - Here are some things that I wanted to add and a few more reviews Travel Agent - Vanessa Martinez of Centre Holidays Alright here is the big one. I wanted to wait until our trip was completely over before writing this because I didn't want my review of our TA to affect our wedding at all. This is probably one of our biggest regrets and we really wish we had done a bit more research before deciding to go with Vanessa. We found Vanessa from this forum after having problems with our first TA (read about it in my very first post) and at first, Vanessa was wonderful. She was so quick to reply, answer all of our questions, and she did ultimately get us a good rate for BP. However, once we went with her and put down our deposits to hold our block of rooms, she seemed to disappear from the face of the earth and both we and our guests had difficulty getting her to reply. It was like we had a completely different travel agent. This made me so angry because here were our guests willing to book and put down deposits, and yet she was taking forever in returning their calls, emails, etc. We had a lot of guests approach us about it and I would then have to mediate and make sure she responded (she dealt best with me). It's actually a shock that no one just booked on their own - I wouldn't have blamed them at all. She also would give excuse after excuse of why this was. We became so upset we actually sent her a very angry email telling her how unhappy we were with her performance and reminded her that Travel Agents are very much about referrals and word of mouth and that we would NOT recommend her at all based on her performance. The DW community is very driven by reviews. We also asked to be transferred to someone else in the company if she felt she could not meet our needs and expectations. She apologized after that and promised to change, and for a while she was slightly better, but overall we were never happy with her performance as a travel agent. She also went to South America for about 3 months - didn't tell us, took even longer to reply, and basically we had to deal with other people in the company which led to mix ups with payments, etc. Our guests hated dealing with her and we got a lot of grief about her. We got asked multiple times why we chose her as a TA which was frankly pretty embarrassing. We explained what I've written here - that she was 100% fabulous until we decided to go with her, then she completely changed and did not follow through. For our flights, she did odd things like seat family members apart and far away from each other ?? and even split up husband and wives and seated them with other people in the group. We were able to manually change seats on the plane but it really made no sense why she would do that and it frustrated a lot of our guests. Positives - When she does reply she is quick and clear. She ultimately got the job done and she got us a good price on the resort. Negatives - Slow communication and responses. For a DW especially, this is so important. Messed up on some of the administrative things, seating, getting people refunds after double charging them (!). Gave so many excuses about her behaviour Ultimately there are enough good travel agents out there that I would definitely say steer clear of her. I wanted to write this so this review pops up when people search for her name. I think it's important for brides to review their TAs after the wedding is over so people know who ultimately performed and who did not. Unfortunately Vanessa was probably the biggest negative aspect of our wedding and I would never use her again for any of my travels. My husband actually asked me 3x already if I had posted a review about Vanessa yet - even he wanted to make sure that we let people know to avoid using her. I don't like to end on a negative note - we ultimately had an amazing time at our wedding and we loved the hotel, but wanted to help future Canadian brides out. Offsite Coordinator We had Abril Reyes and I have mixed feelings about her. She was always polite and her emails were in perfect English. Sometimes she would be quite good but other times it would take her weeks to reply and only after I sent her 1-2 follow up emails. I was fairly patient because I knew this was the process of planning. We did manage to get everything planned out. What irritated me was when it came time to paying our service order. There were errors on it and we hadn't finalized with Zuniga yet, but she kept hounding us to pay. I also knew from this forum and on FB that a lot of other Palace ladies paid at the resort because of these reasons. We then got threatened by Abril and Zuniga that they wouldn't follow through w/ our service order if they weren't paid in full because it was near Christmas. I understood this but the way they approached it really irritated me because we had given no indication that we would not pay and we were only waiting for things to get corrected before we did. I had offered to pay everything BUT the decor because we wanted to make sure it was right, and they basically threatened to take away our wedding from the spot. I wrote a pretty angry email back and they were apologetic, but it left a sour taste. We also paid our order in full once the details were correct - what we had wanted in the first place. Zuniga I honestly hated dealing with Zuniga. We dealt with Cristina and she was so slow to reply at times, send me updated invoices, etc. Then the debacle that I outlined above. Their prices aren't even the cheapest and of course half the things we rented from them weren't even used because of the rain. I was getting a quote from Latin Asia too but Saku took too long at the end getting me the quote/invoice and Abril was demanding payment, so we had to go w/ Cristina. They did a fine job in terms of set up but I really hated the whole communication process. Scheduling I'm going to post our schedule here and I'll list what we would have ultimately changed in italiacs beside the event 10:00 - Styling Trio coming for makeup + hair (2 bridesmaids + bride) - As mentioned above, wish we had started 30-60 minutes earlier 12:45 - Bridesmaids to be completely finished and dressed by this time 1:00 - Photographer and Videographer come to take getting ready shots of us and Tony - Wish we had been firmer about this time 1:45 - Guests to be seated at this time 2:00-2:30 - Wedding Ceremony (Tony’s brother Ben will be officiating) 2:30 - Wedding champagne toast and big group picture - We really liked this. Thought it was a bit strange initially to do the toast here but it made for wonderful pics and it was just so nice to toast with everyone after the ceremony 2:45-3:15 - Group and Family pics - I gave my sister (our MC) a list of all the groups/families and this did help expedite things and ensured we got a picture with everyone. We forgot to take a pic w/ just my parents though - oops - and my mom is still reaming me out about it 3:30-5:00 - Guests break time while bridal party takes pics - The worst part of our day haha. We should have allotted more time here and maybe pushed our cocktail party back an hour. I wish we had given ourselves 30 minutes break to freshen up and just relax and enjoy being husband and wife. We were also dealing with all of the rain stress and decision making here so this was just awful for us. 5:00/5:15 - Cocktail hour starts - Again, wish we had started it at 6 and pushed everything back an hour so we weren't rushed 5:30 - Bride and Groom entrance w/ Mariachi band to Cocktail hour - They came late so we didn't enter with them. We kind of were already there while guests arrived but it was fine. The mariachi band was really fun and added a nice touch 6:15 - Mariachi band finishes 6:20 - Head over to reception side (Our MC will make announcement) 6:30 - Introductions of bridal party and bride and groom by MC - My sister was a great MC and I'm glad we had one. It helped with the flow of everything and made it seem like a proper wedding still 6:40 - Bride and groom speech - We decided to go first to get the pressure over but it was almost TOO quick. I was a bit flustered because I hadn't had the chance to really look over my speech since writing it (on the plane haha) but it was also nice to get it out of the way right away. 6:50 - Dinner served 7:10 - MOH speech + Parents of the bride speech - I liked having all of these in our wedding. We just kind of played with the timing and had my sister announce the speeches whenever people were eating. The speeches were all great and because it was such a small group, people were actually listening and paying attention - very different from what we've seen at big weddings at home 7:35 - Shoe game - Really fun and we got some good pics out of it. My sister did a great job coming up with questions 7:45 - Best Man speech + parents of the groom speech *One thing we added here is we went around w/ our bridal party to each table toasting the table. This is something that's usually done at Chinese weddings when the bride is in the Chinese dress. I wasn't wearing that, but I always liked the tradition because it's a chance to go over to each table and thank them for coming. It was really easy to do with just 4 tables, and I think people appreciated us walking around 8:00 - Cake cutting - We kind of just played this by ear. It was fine 8:10 - Eat cake and watch slideshow (MC introduce) - As said above, this was such a hit and people really enjoyed watching it. We made sure when making it to include almost everyone that was at the wedding in at least one pic so it was fun for everyone. We paid our DJ extra to have the screen + projector but it was worth it to us 8:30 - First dance followed by party - Our plan for this worked really well. We had a full dance floor from the very beginning, and we didn't have to have the complete awkward first dance 8:40 - Party starts 12:00 - Party ends. Move to Sports bar - We paid to extend our reception by 4 hours and this was great for us because we had a lot of time to dance. I wish we had shifted everything back an hour though and had our cocktail from 6-7 and then our reception from 7-1 but it was fine. After we headed up to the rooftop sky terrace Extending our Reception Beach Palace gives you a 3 hour cocktail + reception - this was way too short for us. So we paid extra to extend our reception by 4 hours. They quoted us at $60/table per hour to extend and we paid an extra $960 total which in our books was well worth it. I think they messed up a bit because originally it's supposed to be 8 people per table but we had 10 at each + our head table. This was lower than what I had estimated - we had calculated one more table and thought we'd be paying for 5 tables (40 adults). Obviously I didn't question this . We are really glad we extended our reception because it gave made our reception feel like the wedding receptions we were used to going to at home. I know we could have moved over to the public sports bar, but we liked having the privacy, DJ and open bar and lighting, etc. One important thing for my husband and I is that we still wanted to maintain certain traditions and have our wedding feel like a wedding even though it was destination. That's why we decided to keep things like entrances, speeches, seating plans, the first dance, etc. It also really distinguished our wedding from our other private events. I know the privacy/length factor isn't important to a lot of people but for us it was worth the extra 1k overall Tipping I know there are a few threads about tipping but wanted to mention who we tipped. We tipped our regular servers, waiters, etc. after getting drinks and meals as did all of our family and friends. The service at BP is excellent and we were happy to tip them. Likewise the maids, bellhops, etc. For our private events, had the same servers/staff each time. Our friends chipped in some money after the first event because we got pretty rowdy and the servers went above and beyond bringing us drinks, cups, etc. My husband and I threw in a lot extra on top of what people contributed - we wanted to make sure we'd get good service for our other 2 events. We tipped solely for our White Party and our wedding, but i think our friends were also tipping the waiters during the wedding when they were brought drinks. The serving staff was excellent - the bar at our wedding was in another room but no one was even close to going to the bar because the waiters were constantly bringing and refilling our drinks. I tipped Suzie and Esperanta of Styling Trio because they are employees and because they did such a fantastic job. We tipped the photographer's assistant during our TTD shoot because he did quite a lot of work - getting into the water, holding lights, etc. We tipped our onsite wedding coordinator Marco at the end when we went back to get all of our things. He really helped us out and we were very appreciative. We personally chose to not tip the photographer or videographer - We were already paying them a sum and it was going directly to them so didn't think it was necessary. So overall we didn't tip for the sake of tipping or according to a list, we tipped who we thought performed well and to ensure continued good service.

@@LMichelleB - We did use outside vendors. The only thing we did to save money is say that our videographer and photographer were from the same company to save an extra $400 and not pay it for both. We also weren't charged day passes for the vendors. I remember some of the other Palace ladies saying they had to do this, but we were never charged and I never asked about it (obviously ). They each had a second shooter too so we got lucky!

@@calgarybride2015 - Yes ACV but Rouge. They said they had no closet - not sure if this is true or not. But I was allowed to board early so I just claimed a bin for myself and laid my dress and my husband's suit flat. My family members/friends were surrounding me so it worked out okay - they put their bags in different bins

@@calgarybride2015 - Haha I put my bridal gown in the garment bag it came in into another thicker garment bag - not ocd at all

Our guests really loved the sunglasses. We picked up a lot of cheap fun ones at Ardene. I can't remember the price offhand but they were cheap. They were kind of plastic ray ban style but in bright colours so they were obviously cheap (which I liked - didn't look like fake real ones). Our guests loved them and everyone was rocking them all week, esp. because the ocean water was really rough at times and people lost their good glasses! We also got kid ones in the $1 bins at Target - big hit

I think we had about 20-25 rsvps at all :S. I didn't bother hounding people - figured the people that were coming were the people that contacted our TA and put down their deposits. We had some people book in the last month but we were mostly happy to have them because they made the effort to change things around at the end to come. What irritated me the most was my husband's one friend messaged him a week before we were leaving and told us he'd love to come to our wedding because he'd be in Mexico at Moon Palace with his parents. I was happy to have him but it's like it's still a damn wedding - I have to have exact numbers, make sure I had a chair for him, charger, etc. Luckily he was staying at a sister resort so we didn't have to deal with day passes - that would have irritated me so much People are definitely rude and laissez faire about DWs. There really is a misconception that they're free, easy to plan, etc. I always say it's a different type of stress. Hang in there! It does get better and you will have an amazing wedding week. I was super discouraged at a point too and didn't even want to plan for the wedding because we were disappointed in some of our friends. Try to focus on the people that ARE coming

@@Wafflesmom - Both! He came for both my trial and wedding day. He worked on me in consultation with Suzie (who is also awesome). It was pretty funny because they'd do something - like brush a smidgeon on my eye - step back and be like "perfecto perfecto." He didn't work on either of my bridal party though I think he only shows up if you request him (and if he's available). He said he has 27 stylists now or something crazy like that. Honestly though both ladies we had were great - Suzie and Esperanta

@@calgarybride2015 - Thanks Kim!! Yes that's my main tip - everything will be beautiful and wonderful even if it doesn't go exactly according to plan. Just have to let go and enjoy the day. You know how I am w/ all of the details too Hair makeup was at 10am and our ceremony was at 2pm but we had to be ready by 1:45. They were really prompt and our wedding started right at 2. It was myself and 2 other girls getting hair and makeup - we got done in time but I didn't get as many bridesmaid/getting ready shots as I'd have liked. Id probably have liked them to come for 9 or 9:30

Yes I tend to agree with @@calgarybride2015. The people that came just 3-4 nights basically just came for our wedding, and I don't think they had as good a time as everyone else, to be honest, because they were less bonded. The 7 night people treated it like a vacation for themselves as well which is what we wanted and I don't think anyone regretted staying the 7 nights. It let people do excursions and side trips, try out restaurants, and do more than just our wedding - related things. We offered 7 night, 5 night and 4 night packages (priced out all by our TA) and people chose what was best for their budget and work schedules. Agree w/ Kim, if you're only going for 1 week I'd almost say don't plan for it to be a relaxing vacation haha - I'm sorry . As the bride and groom, you also kind of always running around and making sure everyone is having a good time. I do wish we had booked a few more days over just the 7 nights - even like 3 days would have been great to relax a bit more and take a mini honeymoon. I know a lot of the ladies here book another solid week of just them and their hubbies. Another idea is if you want some time alone w/ your husband but can't do the extra time, maybe consider switching hotels? We thought about this but my husband didn't want to leave our guests ultimately and I agreed, so we're not doing our honeymoon until the spring sometime

I really like that look! It looks elegant but also kind of sassy . Are you getting a trial done? I wish I had done a Bride tank!! Ran out of time at the end but you saying it only took 5 minutes gives me lots of regret haha

@@Surfingsara - Are you doing it at an all-inclusive resort? I think you might be American but for Canadians all-inclusive vacations are usually cheapest packaged as 7 nights, so for us most people stayed the whole week. Do you want your guests to just stay the 4 nights? For us, most people stayed Sunday - Sunday (7 nights), some came on Tuesday (5 nights) and a bunch Thursday (3 or 4 nights). We put our wedding on the Friday with most people leaving Sunday - the recovery day was really a must! In hindsight I kind of wish we had had our wedding earlier in the week so I could have enjoyed the time after more w/o wedding stress but we needed to have it near the weekend for people that were only coming for the weekend. It also made our group really bond over the week so everyone knew each other pretty well for the wedding

And here's an example of the "cheesy" shots

Hello ladies! I finished part 2 of my review with a ton of pictures. I've posted it in my planning thread here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/77763-tygrrlilys-planning-thread-beach-palace-resort-121914/?p=1881590 Let me know if you have any questions! Cheers

Alright ladies, here is part 2 of my review and all the details about my actual wedding day. I hope you meant what you said about wanting to see pics because I've included a ton of them! Just click on the picture strip to see it bigger Wedding Day Vendors 
Styling Trio

 These guys were amazing. Honestly I cannot say enough good things about them. They cost a lot but I absolutely loved my wedding makeup and it was the best makeup I’ve ever had. I’m also so happy I did a trial because while I liked my trial makeup, they tweaked it to make it even better for the wedding. My sister and cousin were also really impressed and they’re both really picky when it comes to makeup. They used good quality professional makeup and I have to say that the team is GORGEOUS! It was hilarious when they walked into my hotel room the first day - 3 beautiful, tall Mexicans with all of their equipment and rolly bags. It reminded me of Katniss’ styling team from the Hunger Games because I literally had all 3 of them working on me at once at times. Adrian, the owner, was there because I requested him specifically and I’m really glad he did because he has a fantastic eye and is really nice. Apparently he only shows if you request him to be there so make sure you do that! We also had Esperanta doing hair and Suzie on makeup - both fantastic and I would recommend them in a heartbeat. They were probably the vendors I was most pleased about. One tip is to use a primer before they get started because they don’t and my makeup did last well, but I had to reapply some concealer at the end of the night in certain areas. The airbrush was great and my skin looked flawless, but it was pretty windy so it didn’t last the whole night and I had to retouch. Other than that though, just let them do their magic. I looked like myself but a better version of myself - so pleased. I kept my hair mostly down because it is more me, but I will be honest in saying that it was pretty messy at the end of the night. This didn’t bother me, but if you’re a stickler, than get it put up for sure. My MOH did that and her hair looked the exact same at the end of the night after wind, partying, jumping in the pool, etc. A note to the Beach Palace ladies, a lot of my family got their makeup done at the salon. I’d say they were so so - our makeup definitely looked better. My sister and my young aunt looked good but the makeup was heavier than they were expecting (Mexican styles!). My mom really disliked her makeup and thought it made her look older. So just a tip that if you can afford Styling Trio, I’d definitely go w/ them 


 Photographer - Lancelotti Photography I’m updating this after having had a chance to really go through our pics and I have to say I’m very very satisfied and pleased with how our pics turned out. I’m not super photogenic in pics and make a lot of awkward faces (all captured on film haha!) but there are so many that I actually love and I think our photographer captured our moments really well. We went with someone relatively unknown on these boards - Juan Carlos Lancelotti - but I came across his website and I really liked the softness of his pics. He is also incredibly affordable which was important to us. We paid $2800 for our package which included 8-10 hours of photography and our TTD session in a cenote. Overall, I am super pleased with Juan Carlos. I personally like a softer type of photo rather than the super high contrast style - I wanted a more romantic feel even though we’re on the beach and it’s a DW. I think Juan Carlos did a fantastic job - I love our pics, he was super professional the whole way and he really worked for the pics. I also think he’s a super nice individual. I wanted sparklers but the resort was charging crazy prices for them. I asked our DJ and Juan Carlos if they knew where I could get them in Cancun, and Juan Carlos got them for me at cost price and had them shipped to his house! I paid $35 for 50 sparklers - Discomovil tried to charge me $100 for the same thing :S. We actually also already have our edited pics - he works fast! He gave us a cd of 300 edited pics, a highlight video and over 2000 raw images on 4 cds 2 days after our wedding. At first I thought this was almost TOO fast and would have liked more editing, but the more I go through them the more I like them. My criticisms are that I don’t think his TTD pics are comparable to the best seen on this site - I think Del Sol really are amazing here and Samuel Luna as the more affordable version. I also didn’t like that he came a bit later than we had originally agreed on. I wanted him to come for 1 but he came at 1:30 - apparently he had talked about this with our videographer and thought that was best, but he didn’t tell me he was coming later and I did feel the getting ready shots were rushed and I didn’t get all of the pics I wanted here. Also he didn’t photoshop as much as I wanted for some pics (haha!) - mainly that I had a really bad pimple and wanted it edited out. Not sure if I was supposed to express this to him but I thought it was a given that it’d be taken out? I know it sounds funny and kind of trivial to write it down, but it is something. I was able to edit it out myself pretty easily but I'd have preferred him to do it. Otherwise, I think Juan Carlos did a great job and we have great pics of both our ceremony and reception. I do like our candid pics a lot more than the cheesy shots and poses, but I think that’s also partly a Mexican aesthetic and we could have spoken up more (but we didn’t really care to). My husband and I are not photo ppl at all and we actually found the couple photo shoot incredibly draining and not fun at all. In hindsight, I wish we had allotted more time for pics because we were definitely rushed and it was incredibly stressful because we were trying to balance so many things at once. We call the photo part the WORST part of our day haha but that’s how we are - we just wanted to go have fun. And it turns out I like some of the staged pics, but most of my favourites are just the candid moments that were captured beautifully. Overall, Juan Carlos is a definite recommendation from me and I really hope he does become more popular! >> Here is Juan Carlos showing us a pic he had taken. We have all of the outtakes too and I'm a nerd so I like seeing pics like this too 

Videographer - Indigo Weddings Again, we went away from the popular choices on this site and went with Indigo Weddings. I liked the cinematography style of his videos - I want our video to be more like a music video and less just a recording of our wedding if that makes sense. He was also quite a bit cheaper than some of the other videographers which appealed to us because while we wanted a video, it wasn’t our main concern. Matias is super super nice and friendly and we really liked him the day of our wedding. He was unobtrusive but always present and I’m looking forward to seeing our video from him. He and our photographer actually knew each other from before (they’re both from Argentina) and we had them come under the same “team” to save on vendor costs. He definitely let the photographers do their thing before he stepped in which I thought was really professional. We paid him $1900 for our package which includes the highlight reel and main video and 9 hours of coverage. I’ll give a better review after we get our stuff, but his communication is great and he’s super friendly (and cute! haha has to be said ). He also was really professional and stayed the exact amount of time we had paid him for. We had to do a couple of cheesy shots (i.e. dancing under the chandelier at our ceremony spot - see pics below haha) but I think it’ll look awesome in the video. I’ll give a better update after we actually get our video from him and I’ll post the highlight reel for sure if you ladies want to see it >> You can see the staging in the bottom pics (hilarious pics!) but I hope it makes for a good video! 


DJ - Discomovil I think if you can afford to get a DJ, definitely get one for your wedding reception. We used the UE Boom and my own playlists for our other 2 events which was fine, but it did definitely amp things up by having a real DJ and turned it into something more special. The DJ can read the crowd, take requests, etc. For us, this was money worth spending because we wanted our wedding to be a big party and we were definitely successful here! So that being said, I do have mixed feelings about Discomovil. He did a fairly good job at our wedding - he didn’t blow us away but he did play everything we asked him to and made changes when necessary. What I don’t like is his communication and how he was inconsistent with the way he charged people - it left a really sour taste in my mouth. I had asked him about sparklers (recommended from NJBride) and he tried to charge me way more than he did Sandy, and when I asked him about the price jack, he told me he did her a favour. When I read that, It was kind of like okay… that makes me feel great. I think he should be a bit more consistent with things like that. Our photographer got us the same ones for $35 - way less!! He also said he’d bring balloons to our wedding (the coco bongo style ones) but there were none there. Positives: he did play mostly things we liked and he was accommodating with people’s requests. We had a really great dance floor, and he rolled with the changes we had to make last minute. I do think though our friends are an easy group because everyone wanted to dance - another DJ would have probably accomplished the same. He had a cool DJ booth - added to the atmosphere. Negatives: communication - he never even came up to me to introduce himself or anything, the way he was inconsistent w/ pricing and didn’t keep his promise of bringing the balloons. I also think he was just okay as a DJ - we’re from a big city so we’re used to songs that are mixed together well, etc. I also didn’t like some of his song directions (started playing boy bands at one point - we are not boy band people!) but he did change the song when asked. Not sure if we were expecting too much, but we did pay quite a bit for everything and he was the vendor I was least impressed with. 
Bloom Bridal I got my bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, hair flower and a bunch of boutonnieres and corsages from Bloom Bridal in Toronto. I decided to go for real touch because I’m extremely picky and wanted my bouquet to look a certain way. I loved my bouquet and it was 100x nicer than the complimentary one given to me by Beach Palace (mixed pink and ivory roses). The bridal bouquet was huge and looks amazingly real - I got a lot of compliments on it. Judy is the owner/creator and she’s kind of expensive but I think she does a fantastic job. I didn’t like the first bouquet she made and she made a bunch of changes according to what I wanted. I’d recommend her 100% and I’m really glad I got a nicer bouquet. My husband and groomsmen ended up NOT wearing their boutonnieres because they said it looked weird w/ the suspenders and no jacket. I would have made them wear them anyway had they consulted me (haha!) but it’s fine - though that was definitely wasted money. The boutonnieres and corsages were nice and cheaper than what Beach Palace was quoting us on. I got calla lillies for the bridal party, roses for the fathers, and a calla lily and rose corsage for the mothers. Overall, definitely recommend Bloom Bridal. Maya Floral I got my centrepiece flowers from Marvin of Maya Floral and the flowers were great - no complaints. He created exactly what I wanted, delivered them on time and they lasted great. Our wedding was at the very end of the week so we unfortunately didn’t get to enjoy them for very long. I would 100% recommend Marvin - quick to reply to emails, prices were better than the resort, and met all of the requests/changes I made. I ordered 4 round centrepiece flowers for the guest table and 1 oval shaped one for the head table with 2 smaller arrangements for either side. We got a lot of compliments on them and they looked great on the tables. I wanted to have real flower centrepieces and I was happy w/ the ones we had. Getting Ready Styling Trio came in at 10am to do makeup for myself and the 2 in my bridal party. In hindsight, I wish we had had them about 30-60 minutes earlier because we were a bit rushed at the end. As I mentioned above, they were completely fantastic and I cannot say enough good things about them. We took some pics of the ladies and groomsmen getting ready and they got the footage of me getting into my dress and my mom giving me the pearl necklace she gave me. I'm very glad btw I got a pretty robe because I'm wearing it in a lot of these pics and I think it does look nice. Also a bit of an awkward side note, I basically had 4 men watching me get changed into my wedding dress . My ladies all covered me and I don't think they saw anything other than what I look like in a bikini, but it was still a bit awkward. Not sure how else to get the "changing" pics though? Ceremony Our ceremony was absolutely beautiful and I’m very happy with how it went. My mom helped me oversee the set up of the Sky Deck for the ceremony space and it turned out lovely. They forgot to put one of the reception centrepieces on the table, but the set up still looked very pretty and exactly how I had planned. One of the best/nerdiest things I did and I’d recommend anyone else to do it if you’re as picky as I am (haha) is I outlined every decoration detail with pics and instructions for the coordinator and my mom. Everyone laughed at me for doing it but they said it was really helpful and it enabled them to follow my instructions to a T . Also I’m glad I splurged on some of the extras here because even though you’re only in the ceremony space for like an hour, this is where the bulk of my pics are and I love all of our ceremony pics! So the upgrades we had - tiffany chairs, chandelier, crystal curtain - were all totally worth it in my book! We added program fans, rose petals in cones and scattered along the aisle and faux floral bouquets on the aisle chairs. Another thing I’m glad for is wearing a veil. It blew around like crazy and I had to push it out of the way a bunch of times, but I think it looks really romantic in the pics. 

 >> Our ceremony set up with things we added: chandelier, crystal curtain, gold tiffany chairs, faux floral details and rose petal cones We had my husband and his groomsmen walk out first after the guests were seated (to no music). Our officiant, my husband’s younger brother, was already standing at the front. Next our wedding party song played (Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It’s a Wonderful World) and the groom’s parents walked out followed by my bridesmaid (sister), the MOH (cousin) and then our 3 adorable ring bearers w/ their parents (our nephews are only 2 and 3 so our siblings walked out w/ them which was a nice touch). My nephew was carrying a sign that said “Here Comes the Bride.” After that, there was a bit of a pause as our “flower girls” (my brother and cousin) both spread out flower petals down the aisle for me. My coordinator suggested doing it here so the petals would be fresh for when I walked. Apparently it was really funny while they were doing it because we had 2 grown men as our flower girls . My coordinator in the mean time went to go get us in my room. I walked down to a piano instrumental version of Elvis’ I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You with both of my parents and it was really lovely.

The ceremony was perfect. I had written out what I wanted for my husband’s brother to read from, and he did a great job. I’ll upload a copy later but basically it’s a bunch of stuff I got from this website. There were some funny moments too and we have great shots of the audience and us cracking up at points. We did include a sand ceremony and it was really nice. I ended up buying some cheap vases from Dollar Tree and coloured sand from Michael’s - spent less than $15 total instead of getting one of those expensive kits. We’re not sentimental at all so we left the sand there on our balcony when we left - I just took a few pics of it before we left . After the ceremony, we had our toast w/ all of the guests and then took pics w/ the whole group and each family and group to make sure we had at least one professional pic w/ everyone. After, our guests had a break (my sister the MC announced it) and we went off to take our pics. I wouldn’t change anything about our ceremony - thought it was perfect. 

Rainy Day Decisions So on to the biggie - it RAINED on our wedding day after a week of pure sunshine! I was checking the forecast nonstop and I wasn’t sure what to do because everything I had planned for was for that outdoor Sky Terrace space. We got lucky during our actual ceremony - and it was beautiful - the rain held out and the set up was gorgeous. Our wedding co-ordinator onsite, Marco, was absolutely awesome and I’d kiss the man if I could. While we were taking pics after the ceremony, Marco came up to us and gently told us that the rain forecast was 80% rain, and asked us if we want to move it inside. He didn’t pressure us at all but basically just told us the facts and told us that if we waited it out and it rained, it could take up to an hour or two to move everything later (meaning a break in the wedding). They had already started setting up our reception and everything was absolutely beautiful. He showed us the back up spot of the ballroom and I almost had an anxiety attack because it was the ugliest place I have ever seen. It looked like an old conference room - horrible carpet, beige walls with no windows or anything on them - the wedding would have been so awful in there. If I could at least get draping and lighting, it might have been okay but we would have to leave all of our Chinese lanterns and lighting we had paid for outside because they were already wet (literally over 1k down the drain). I think you ladies who have been following my planning thread know how important it was to me to have a beautiful wedding - everything I planned focussed around this. So I asked him (begged!) if there was anywhere else we could use and I mentioned the Palace member room because I remembered reading a review here that allowed them to use that space. He took us there and the room was great - all glass windows, big space, and even though we couldn’t have all of our lighting, it was pretty nice as is. So he went to speak to the Palace Members team and Tony and I were holding our breaths. Well we got lucky and we were able to use the space! He also waived any rain movement fees (usually $25/person!) which we were so grateful for. So we decided to keep our cocktail event upstairs on the Sky Terrace so at least some of our decorations and lighting could be used, and then move the reception inside where we’d be guaranteed the wedding. This decision was made about 1/2 an hour before our cocktail was to begin, so we had a lot of help from family members and friends to help the Palace team transfer everything over while we finished taking our pics. It was a tough decision to make because we could have chanced it and kept it on the Sky Terrace, but I’m so glad we decided to move it because it did rain quite hard later that night! >> Starting to set up for our outdoor reception on the Sky Terrace before it got moved inside Cocktail Party Our cocktail party was on the Sky Deck in the originally planned space and it was gorgeous up there. My vision would have been really nice had it all worked out haha. The lanterns strung everywhere and in the pool were beautiful - my husband and I joked that we hoped our guests took a lot of pics because that was basically over 1k in lighting down the drain. We also had a nice lounge area that couldn’t be transferred either. The mariachi band was a lot of fun (though they came about 15 min late) and they played good songs - definitely recommended. The food was great - we ordered the cold hors d’oeuvres w/ a few changes and they were probably the best apps we had all week. There was a sushi board and some other cold apps that were different from what we’d had earlier in the week and they were delicious. They also seemed fancier, and people really liked them.

The cocktail hour was actually kind of miserable for me because I started feeling really sick at this point. I’m not sure if it was all of the stress of the venue change or because we were so tired and hungry from taking pics and had had nothing to eat, but I felt borderline nauseous and like I was getting sick. I took some Tylenol cold and felt better at the reception, but the cocktail party was really hard for me and I didn’t feel like talking to people or taking pics. My tip here is to space things out - I really wish we had done some pics before the ceremony so we could have had some time to relax before the cocktail party. Things were so rushed I didn’t even have time to touch up my makeup until the dancing part of our reception when I changed my dress! So I don’t look as good as I’d have liked in my reception pics, but I also didn’t want to leave people and the fun. I think having a half hour to an hour to just breathe and relax would have made a world of difference in how we enjoyed the afternoon. Luckily my sick feeling passed and I had a blast during our reception. Our welcome/guestbook table turned out great. We did an instant photo guestbook using a Fujifilm camera and I got some props from Michaels for pretty cheap after one of their coupons. I had decided last minute I wanted to do a paper fan backdrop over the table and this turned out AWESOME. Got the fans on sale from BHLDN and my family put them up exactly how I wanted. It looked really beautiful! The guestbook is probably one of my favourite things and turned out so well. People really liked taking the instant pics, and the messages we got are so nice and heartfelt. We used colourful washi tape to tape the pics in but I’m going to switch them out for photo corners when I have more time because the tape is coming loose. For the guestbook, I used the photo book scrapbook I made for my husband as a gift. We’re huge Disney junkies so I ordered the book from the movie UP, and made a scrapbook of pics of us in all of the places we’ve been. So our guests also got to look at the pics of us in the book before putting in their own pictures and messages. Of course I was so busy that I didn’t actually finish the scrapbook until the day before our wedding haha. My husband was passed out in bed and I was sitting on the floor frantically trying to finish it up - ahh. But it is something I adore so it was well worth the time/stress. We also had pics of my husband and I and old wedding pics of my parents, his and my grandparents (and one of Mickey and Minnie haha) - people really liked looking at them. Reception Our reception in the Palace Elite room was very pretty. They still were able to use my tablecloths and linens, candles, frames, etc. I’m VERY happy that I decided to bring all of these things because they made our reception look like a proper wedding, and distinguished it from our other events where we used the complimentary Palace stuff. You can read more about my decor things scattered through my journal and see the pics below. The dinner was okay - we chose the Italian buffet but subbed in steak. It was probably the best buffet of the week but we were all kind of sick of buffets. My husband regrets now not upgrading to plated for our wedding but that would have been an extra $55 per person so I’m totally fine with the menu choice. I didn’t eat very much - a combo of nerves, tight dress, excitement, etc. - but what I did eat tasted fine. Our servers were fantastic and literally would ask you if you wanted a drink when you still had a drink in your hands. We did some of the traditional things - speeches, cake cutting, first dance, but got rid of the bouquet and garter toss and father/mother dances. The speeches were all really well done - funny, heartfelt and people were just laughing and laughing. My MOH was so sweet and I cried during her speech. Her gift to us was SO sweet - a vintage wine in a wooden box with messages from everyone that attended the wedding for us to read if we ever had a hard time in our relationship. She had coordinated this during the week and it was a complete surprise. The Best Man killed it as expected and people were dying of laughter - we have the best pics of everyone just cracking up. My MOH and I made the slideshow and it was a huge hit! We did a family section, friend section and then one of my husband and I and it was so much fun to watch. I was holding hands w/ her and we were bouncing like giddy children while watching haha. The cake was not at all what I had requested and I would say do not pay the extra upgrade decor fee - just keep it simple. It looked fine but I am definitely glad we got the cake topper and gold tablecloth to jazz things up. The LOVE mugs didn’t work out as I had planned - I think the fake flowers look kind of obviously fake - and it wasn’t arranged the way I had wanted, but I didn’t care the day of at all. Haha but looking at pics now and me being me, I wish I had rearranged them a bit nicer . I had I think 2 bites of the cake (red velvet) and it was okay - the frosting was more cream cheesy than I’m used to for red velvet, but it was fine. The cake wasn’t all that important to me so I’m fine with what we got. We gave maracas as our favours with the “Shake for a kiss” tag on them and they were a huge hit and people shook them several times for us to kiss - worked really well! The reception is a bit of a blur to me but there are little moments that I remember really happily - it’s true how everyone says it goes by so fast!

 We did our first dance to All of Me by John Legend and our original plan was to have everyone surround us with sparklers but we weren’t able to use them inside. So my sister gave the mic to my uncle Leon who is the life of the party and killed it at Coco Bongo so everyone knew who he was, and when the song transitioned to the faster Tiesto version, he got on the mic and said “Uncle Leon says let’s get this party started!” and it was awesome - everyone started dancing and it was a great start to our party. Tony and I immediately ordered round after round of shots from the servers which was a great idea because it got everyone drunk quickly which made for a better dance floor. All of the older people left soon after, but the younger friends and family members stayed and we had a pretty consistent dance floor of about 20-25 people til midnight. Tony and his friends are hilarious when they’re drunk, and the shirts quickly came off and a whole bunch of crazy dance offs ensued. He even ripped his brand new suit pants doing crazy dance moves! I changed into my TTD early on so I could actually dance too which was a good call. I couldn’t wait to get out of my wedding dress and breathe . Our party went to 12, then we told everyone to meet us at the roof so we could light the sparklers and jump in the pool. We gave my phone to a server up there and we have the most amazing pics of everyone playing with the sparklers then jumping into the pool one by one haha. I love our friends - this might be my favourite memory of the wedding and the whole week there. We had about 15 people in the pool at the end of the night and it was just such a great way to cap everything off. We had been joking about jumping in the pool after the wedding all week so it was funny that it actually happened. Everyone was super drunk and happy and I think our wedding was really a blast. We left after that and we got into the hot tub that the housekeeping had drawn for us with rose petals and ordered room service. We slept in really late the next day - there’s NO way my husband would have been able to to a TTD shoot the next day, so I’m glad we had done ours in advance. For you ladies, if your husband is a big drinker def. think about if you want to do it the next immediate day or not. We had our honeymoon breakfast from Palace that looked great but tasted kind of weird haha, and then just had a relaxing day on the beach w/ everyone enjoying that the wedding was over . I really wish we had booked a few extra days to enjoy being married in paradise w/o all of the stress and pressure. It was funny because when it was over, we high fived each other and were like wedding over! It was really one of the best days of my life but I will be honest in saying I’m so glad the stress of planning it is over! Post Wedding Reflection All in all we’re really pleased with the way our wedding went. It was definitely disappointing that it rained and we had to change our venue, but luckily for us the changes were okay. Tony thinks it was actually for the better because it was nice and air conditioned inside and it would have been a lot muggier outside. In hindsight I definitely think it’s a bit ironic how things worked out. I cared SO much about the decor and look of everything and was a complete perfectionist in planning everything and NONE of it worked out haha. We had a lot of wasted decor and rentals which definitely sucks, but our wedding was still beautiful. Honestly the day of the wedding I was very laid back - I think the anxiety attack of the welcome party kind of taught me to let go. So I didn’t sweat anything and even though things weren’t done perfectly how I wanted them originally, everything was still beautiful. I am so incredibly grateful to my family and friends for helping decorate and w/ the move. They executed everything so well and I know a lot of them were super stressed at the time as well. My best tip I can say is know that everything will NOT work out 100% to plan probably, and that that’s okay too. I kind of wish I had a separate coordinator or decorator to do everything for me and so that my family didn’t have to stress out as much as they did, but I think at the end of the night everyone had a blast which is probably the thing that was most important to me. I also decided at a certain point that I couldn’t obsess about everything because then I wouldn’t just enjoy the moment, and I obviously wanted to just live and breathe my wedding if that makes sense. SO I’m glad to say that my wedding day was truly the best day of my life and being surrounded by family and friends and knowing that people had travelled all the way to Mexico to celebrate with us - it is a truly unbelievable feeling and I still get teary thinking about it. I remember dancing at one point and looking around and realizing that everyone there had travelled all that way for us - and it just made me so happy. 

I also have NO regrets in doing a destination wedding. It was a lot of work and frustrating at times, but we had such a fun time and we feel so close to our family and friends that attended. People have repeatedly told us that they had an amazing time and we got told that it was the best destination wedding ever. I’m SO glad I spent the time and money on all of the extra little things because I honestly think it made a difference in how people enjoyed the week. It was extra money spent for sure, but completely worth it. I do wish that my husband and I had booked a few extra nights to stay there afterward. Our wedding wasn’t until the end of the week and we had a lot of obligations and stress before. But all in all, it was the perfect week with the perfect group of people and I wish I could go back and relive it Let me know if you have any specific questions! Here are some of our "photoshoot" pics. I'll post the TTD pics later

@@FutureMrsGarcia - Our reception was in the Palace Elite room! I write about it extensively in my review (finishing it up now). Basically the ball room is awful so we begged to have it elsewhere. We had our ceremony on the sky deck and the reception was supposed to be sky terrace, but you'll read about what happened to us We wanted to have our white party on the beach originally but it's $12 per person for dinner set up and $6 for cocktail - decided to use that money on a cigar roller instead! The Infinity overlooks the beach and pool so the views are pretty. It's actually super private because no one else is out there at the time. We had our event at 7 and the sun goes down around 5 in December, so it was completely private. You could definitely give speeches. We actually felt more private there because of the intimate size of it. The Palenque has all of the lagoon side rooms overlooking it so we had A LOT of people watching us (and some were even taking pics which was kind of weird). I'm a big foodie too and I'd say the food at Beach Palace is okay overall. Thought it was good for Mexico but it was by no means gourmet - not what you're going to find in Chicago for sure. We also tended to find the simple food tasted better (and all of the Mexican food is delicious!) than when they tried to be overly fancy. The private event buffets are okay. Some dishes are really good but some are also really bad. We had 3 private events - the Caribbean buffet was awful. The meats were really dried out and the salads were kind of weird. Definitely the weakest one. The Mexican hors d'oeuvres were really tasty and perfect for a welcome party. The BBQ buffet was actually pretty good and everyone enjoyed it. We did the cold hors d'oeuvres and italian buffet w/ a few substitutions for our wedding and both were pretty good. We really liked the cold hors d'oeuvres - there was sushi, roast beef, etc. so it seemed a bit more special than some of the other cocktail menus. Overall I actually found they did fish and chicken a lot better than beef and pork. The beef and pork dishes tended to be over cooked and really dry, whereas the chicken and fish tended to be moist and tastier. We made a few substitutions which you can do but just make sure it's like for like (salad for salad) and you get a maximum of 2 changes per menu. I'll upload my planning form later on and you can see our specific menu choices

We had this on our website: PACKING TIPS What to Bring: - Passport (with a copy safely stored) - ID and travel documents - Carry On Bag (pack hot weather clothes and your bathing suit in your carry on so that you can enjoy the resort even if your room is not ready yet!) - Small bills for tipping (bartenders, transfer people). Tips are NOT expected but they can be a great gesture when you get good service - Wedding Attire - White attire for our White Party - Pants and shoes for men (Some restaurants require men to wear pants and shoes) - Sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat - Aloe vera and mosquito repellent are a good idea - Drinking hat and dancing shoes What NOT To Bring - Beach Towels (these will be provided) - Hairdryer and Flatiron (the Resort provides a Chi Hairdryer and Chi flat iron in every room!) - Iron (they provide one in every room) - Alcohol... All-inclusive! You will even have alcohol in your room - A gift! We feel incredibly blessed to have our friends and family travel so far to be part of our marriage celebration - your presence at our wedding is your gift to us! and this in our pre-wedding passports: Travel and Packing Tips Check in is at 3pm so pack a bathing suit and essentials in your carry-on so you can enjoy amenities immediately even if your room is not yet Passports must be valid for at least 6 months from date of departure (Therefore June 21, 2015) Men should pack long pants & covered shoes assome a la carte restaurants have strict dress codes Remember to pack a WHITE OUTFIT for our welcome White Party and your wedding attire (please no golf shirts, shorts or bathing suits to the wedding) Bring lots of singles and small bills to tip the Staff Mexican currency is Pesos, but US dollars are widely accepted In December, the temperature averages 27-28 degrees Celsius during the day and 20-21 at night The hotel supplies beach towels, CHI brand hairdryer & flatiron, & clothing iron The voltage is the same as North America

Haha if I could find a way to upload them all I would! Yes I used Lancelotti photography - not popular on these boards at all. I went w him because I liked the softness of his pics and because he was priced very well!

@@acw271011 - I just spent almost 3 hours going through all of our wedding pics trying to narrow down ones I want to show you ladies and I'm at 157!! Haha oops - let me try this again! As you can tell, I'm very happy w/ our pics