LisaAnthonyPoppy

@@JennyZ Ahhhhh I see I see.... Mind if I share a similar experience with you? Didn't think so so I will begin. How you handle your accommodations, RSVPs, and overall logistics is very personal and should be because after all it is YOUR beautiful wedding. Down memory lane... I did what you did. Sent the email to family. Had a great idea that everyone could stay at this big villa sol y luna. It could all be so perfect ... Syke! The email was sent announcing our wedding location, the villa we wanted to stay at and some other stuff, probably similar to yours. Immediately I had people say they couldn't come. So I omitted the regretful parties off of the circular. Then I wanted everyone to tell me when they could have their deposits in and so forth. That was a flop Everyone's budget was different, everyone's needs were different. We needed to let people book their own accommodations. Some places you do need to get a head count and enough rooms together ahead of time to get the group rates, I totally understand that! ... But some you do not! We had the same dilemma as you. We solved it by stopping while we were ahead of our selves mentally. Sent out another email lol to tell everyone "just kidding" that we decided to shop around a bit more for lodging and once we found where we wanted to stay we would let people know and if they wanted to stay there great if not, no biggie! We found a great place eventually that gave me a wedding code so if family wanted to stay they could and they could book whenever they wanted! No longer did we have to worry about when people had their deposit together, if they RSVP, etc etc. Some people still haven't booked anything and the wedding is 6 months away! Some people booked at the same place as us! Some booked at an all inclusive Eco resort on the other side of Playa! And you know what? We don't need to worry anymore. Although we bumped people who we knew weren't coming from receiving occasional updates, when the time came, we sent our invitations... To everyone. They were received very well. They were very much appreciated. So, if me sharing how we handled our initial planning makes things a little clearer for you then I'm happy! But by all means you can totally be in a wedding frenzy and crazy like me and we still love ya!

@@JennyZ wow your invitations sound really special. Who wouldn't get excited receiving an invitation like that! Ok here's my thoughts, if you care about them and genuinely want them to attend regardless of the save the date responses, you should go ahead and make the splurge (maybe a thrifty splurge mentioned below) and send an invite. Couple reasons; You might be surprised that some people may change their minds once they receive an actual invitation. Get to thinking about it more....It happened to me. Not that weddings are about gifts AT ALL. Destination weddings are a splurge in and of themselves for any attendee so I believe it is pretty common for people not to give gifts or if so maybe small, but upon receiving an invitation maybe your loved ones that can't go will bless you in other ways. You won't have any doubt or regrets your mind will be clear that you sent everyone an invitation. Any invite is better no invite. Maybe send a different invitation to those who may not attend? Could get tricky if it's siblings and one receives a different invite than the other so exercise caution here. Although most of my side of the family can't attend (how'd I get the short end of the stick lol) they wanted to and I wanted them to feel apart of it so I sent them an invitation. Having done so I do not regret it and am very confident the time and effort was worth it. I made all of my invitations myself. Each invitation took about 2 hours a piece to make. I cut down card stock for main invitation, RSVP, and extra info cards. Painted waves with watercolor paint. Printed everything. Adhered them to pocket invitations, applied ribbons... So forth. Take some time and let your heart be your guide! Hope this helps.

@ heck ya! And I bet your guests loved it too! Is Azul a hotel? If so, you took what could of been the typical hotel wedding (some that I've been to not knocking hotel weddings) and totally transformed it into a magical atmosphere. Again, I'm really impressed! You gave me inspiration. I was trying to think of ways to make a big venue with a small guest list not seem so overwhelmingly disproportionate. Your ideas helped me envision a cozy space! Thanks!!

Yes, I am marrying at a beach club. The bakery I had in my mapchick near my venue was no longer in business... and then a pretty popular cake maker in Cancun had a delivery fee that was justifiably high bc she would have to come all the way from Cancun, so we scratched that idea. After a couple of days I found Pasteleria La Migaja. We are doing a lemon batter with raspberry filling. )

@ oh wow! I can't believe they constructed a light way for you like that so perfectly! That's awesome!!!!! Really cool. It was so romantic as the back drop on some photos! Good vision.

Wedding is in about 6 months and everything logistically is falling into place beautifully! I have just secured my last vendor (all of which are really nice and helpful). PM if you want the deets.... She's a baker by the name of Carla and her bakery is Pasteleria La Migaja. She is on Facebook. I do not think she has an official website. She is SO warm and very quick to reply. That paired with her beautiful designs, numerous flavors, and fair price made it a no brainer. If any ladies are needing to hire a baker near PDC check her out! Very pleased!!!

@ How did you set up the wall with the lights and the string lights above the dining area? Did you have to give them the instructions, or did you just hand over the items and ideas and they constructed it all for you? Would like to know any tips. Thanks!

Beautiful! Congratulations! Thanks for posting!

I have had the same thing happen as well.. My mother won't go to Mexico, but she still wanted an invitation for keepsake reasons. To make it easy on yourself send an invitation to everyone you would like to come... Ya never know..

@@Icis I totally agree with you 110%. I had a real problem with this. I can debate the case with endless fact based data but it seems like the to do here is just keep your mouth shut and pay up. Lol Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone! Praying for success on our weddings! Good luck

I use zazzle for all of my wedding programs, menus, Escort Cards. I bought the membership so I get free shipping for a year. And I'm only telling you this bc.... Depending on your head count, you can make all the custom documents you want at a very low price. The options are endless! And usually the more you buy the lower the price. So for example,I bought escort cards for 40 cents a piece. Not too bad! Pretty sure I saw wedding programs for around a dollar a piece. I don't know how Savy you are, but you could make them? Maybe lol I made my own water color pocket fold wedding invitations with ribbon and they turned out beautiful. So maybe you could add your own little touch for hardly no money at all and just be surprised at how resourceful you are. I know how much goes into planning and you don't want to overwhelm yourself. Good luck!!

Does anyone know of any experienced hair stylist that do finger waves well near PDC? They can be tricky and it's 50/50 that a stylist has experience styling them. Thanks!

We are hiring a dj for our reception for 5 hours 7pm-12pm. I will walk out onto the beach at 7pm. So I just figured the dj can set up and play music for cocktail hour and dancing later on. For our ceremony music we had planned on using our own iTunes playlist in which we have downloaded songs, and crossfaded, and shortened to the right amount off of the songs as needed. We had intended on just plugging our device to the boss sound link speaker. But now I'm pretty sure that my Bose sound link that I have thought of using with my ceremony precessional music won't be loud enough. I've used it on the beaches before and you could hear it just fine for lounging. Is it going to be loud enough to hear from where my children and myself will be waiting, out of view, listening to the music as our clue as to when to walk?.... Probably not! Plus given the fact the they are walking down and I am walking down to two non traditional songs by The Killers, is it going to be loud enough to convey the songs as personal as they are? Probably not.... Not really worried as there is a solution to everything but I'm writing for 2 reasons- 1.) To hear what others did with their ceremony songs for ceremonies directly on the sand near the ocean. 2.) To present ahead of time potential sound dilemmas to eliminate last minute headache. Thanks!

@@dreamweddings Hey Joyce! How are you doing? My anxiety has calmed down and I feel a lot better. I've spoken to everyone and we worked out a good scenario. Thank you for taking the time to respond and remain sincere. I wish you lots of business and success. Xo

Exactly! No negatively necessary. Just wanted to know if other brides had pros or cons of paying upfront so thanks for publicly answering in a positive manner. @@kmk2016

@@AllieH thanks for your help on the pros and cons. I really appreciate it. @@kmk2016 who are you using for your photographer? I spoke to 5-6 and none of them req full payment prior to wedding ( not knocking your photographer sware just curious). It's good you feel comfortable with them, that's how I feel about my photographer. Flowers, def understand that could you imagine prepping all the flowers and then not have someone not pick them up or pay, that would suck. I love making flower arrangements lol. I spoke to a 2 other Djs but they couldn't match me on the price of the dj I am thinking of hiring. I guess what's adding fuel to the fire is that there was a really bad review of them on here that I read right after I mentally "hired" them. And I read it, it was like a brides nightmare. So I privately emailed the company's owner and he was so upset he emailed me right back and said he fired that dj and assured me that wouldn't happen. So then later that week I noticed that bad review was removed. Because the owner is so good about correspondence I feel good. Just thinking if he sends a dj that's already paid in advance, what's the quality of service. So there's my dilemma. Should I go with my gut and hire them? What do you think? And thanks for not getting on here and being negative. Appreciate that!

@@AllieH actually it's not. Usually in a hire for service, not goods, a downpayment is required to reserve the date and the other half once services are rendered. I see you paid your resort, you say... Your situation is pretty typical as I understand hotels and venues need to be paid up front. I'm having a private wedding and reception and am hiring individual vendors that are not affiliated with hotel so it's a little different. I'm talking about private vendors. Thanks.

They film everything and they edit it to make a video. I looked into it bc I want to have videography but I can't afford the prices. It's a lot. But totally worth it if you can afford. I'm setting up a tripod and recording the wedding or having my nephew who's 17 record it.

@@calgarybride2015 thanks for your thoughts. Those mirrored mine exactly You gotta be careful when hiring services when the reviews can be skewed. That's all I'll say. Now if I can hear from other brides on the vendor, or other non commercial sites, get good correspondence, that's something I can bet on. Oh my photographer, I think I'm most excited about him. He's super cool, professional and isn't pushy, offers his opinions, listens to mine. We agreed upon 2 hours of journalist style photos with a few photos or FH and I together on the beach. I'm hoping no more than 10 mins bc I want to eat drink and socialize. He's not requiring before ceremony photos like some photographers. He didn't recommend journalist style bc he thinks we need more 1 on 1 shots. We respect his professional opinion but we are just going with 2 hours. His name is Gonzalo Nunez. He doesn't require full payment til wedding lol Ya.. I've been away. School started back up and my oldest is in school. I spend a ton of energy planning parties on the side, and have been kinda busy with that... Just needed a mental break from my own stuff. What about you? How's your planning going? Find anything good??

I've taken a break from the wedding planning process for a few months. Burnt out? No, but I feel like I can take a breather because mostly everything has been picked out, planned, and agreed. However; there is one thing that keeps popping up in my mind. Our DJ that we have proposed hiring says it is the company's policy to have half down upon hiring and the remainder of the payment to his company no later than 2 weeks PRIOR to the wedding. All other vendors require remainder payment upon arrival or services rendered day of wedding. If we are paying half up front when reserving, I think that would cover any overhead. Not saying we won't do it but anytime your pay-paling large amounts of money to another country weeks before receiving a service, there's that feeling like, what incentive do they actually have to show up? Etc. etc. I work in research and development and I am very thorough with my "digging" sometimes that I feel like it's a curse. :/ I would like to know of any other brides had to pay for an intangible service such as a dj upfront weeks before wedding. Also would like to know if anyone has pros and cons about doing so. Thanks!

My parents are not coming either. We are still moving forward. It sucks really bad. My father can step mother can not attend for financial reasons and my dad has bad arthritis. We are hoping if we get any extra money saved we can buy them a ticket and maybe they could stay with us. My mother won't come. She is convinced after reading this website... http://mexicovacationawareness.com That talks about the terrible things like balcony falls, random cartel road block violence in cancun, rogue waves, that it is FAR too dangerous. She said she would be worried the entire time. I've told her that I have been 4x and love the Mexican people, and trust me I have ventured out probably too risky. Meeting locals and going out on their boats (just us girls) and going to casino in cancun at night etc. But we have to respect them, they gave us life. And really I wouldn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. So hold your head high and excuse their absence with grace. I'm sure you will be missing them just as I, but we must all follow our path.

I've got all the contact info you need. Email addresses cell phone numbers etc. let me forewarn you although it is entirely possible to plan your own PDC wedding yourself at a beach club (we have) working with them - grand coral, only will give you major headache. Friendly, helpful, yes. Organized and thorough no . After working with them for 4 months alone I hired a wedding planner who was even more clueless and screwed everything up. There is a lady on here named Joyce Mnguni who is very experienced with them, if you can afford her. I got so tired of this place after 8 months total planning I literally cancelled and started from scratch with another amazing beach club who has been outstanding. I'm not bringing you down but if your gonna tackle this yourself you need to do a mental warm up! PM if you want to know any more! Good luck, grand coral is a beautiful place

@@laquanharris dbl check with them on times. My guess would be 3 hours and you can do what you want with it. But that may not be the case We have Tight tight funds and we are doing a dj. We found one that is giving us 20% off the normal cost. So 5 hours 640. We figured music keeps the party going or slow songs etc. people are coming all that way to see us, I want them to have a great time. iPods can't "read the crowd" But iPods CAN save you hundreds of dollars that you can use in other ways more important to you! So it's a personal decision! The dj we are using is audio cancun. Good luck so much to decide upon

That's good to hear, and I am glad that it is not possible for vendors to remove negative reviews of themselves on here. This website has allowed me to hire pretty much all of my wedding vendors of over 12k based on reviews alone. The company we wont mention but you are correct on the type of vendor. Luckily he seemed to take my email seriously and addressed it hopefully right away with his client. Maybe the client felt bad and asked to remove it. Thanks for letting me know the scoop

Go minimal or go home! Seriously no one wants their hotel vanity cluttered with mini bottles of sunscreen or hand sanitizer. Instead... write (there's a thought for the 21st digital century) in cursive, a meaningful letter on how they have impacted your life, a good time you two have shared and why you asked them to essentially bare witness to your wedding. Go get a large container or two of Monin syrup. Prickly Pear is Killer in margaritas Go get some tiny zip loc bags or similar. Pour the syrups in the mini bags. Like a half ounce to an ounce. Give them to your guests, label them or whatever you want to do. Allow them to pour them in their margaritas. 1 or 2 per guest. They will love them, They will use them. they will be happy.... And you can bet they will be begging for more! Give them that and the letter and you will have an amazing welcome gift. Cheers! I hope I didn't sound mean... not at all the case! I support everyone's ideas! Always!