airsusie

@@Maurindy2016 yes, i had to pay extra. she sent us a bunch of options and the prices varied depending on how much you wanted the lights to cover. We chose the biggest dance floor she offered which was 6 m X 6 m and lighting and that structure w/ the curtain things to go around all ten tables. The price on that ended up being $750 for dance floor + $1,800 for the lights and w/ taxes, it totaled $2,958 (remember this is for may 2015). The lowest one offered was $2,088 which had the lights covering a smaller area so I think it just depends on what you want.

@@lizzjameson weather was perfect the whole weekend luckily. 80s and sunny. I didn't check the weather because I didn't want to stress about it, but was later told it had been forecast to thunderstorm over the weekend, so don't rely too much on the forecast! Congrats and enjoy!

Hi - I got married at the Finest last year May and can't believe it's almost been a year! I just sold my wedding dress so it was making me nostalgic for the planning, so I came by the forum. Someone was saying they weren't sure how the wedding looks on the beach, so I thought I'd share a couple of pix of our reception on the beach. This is on the beach right in front of Las Dunas where we had the cocktal hour. We had a dance floor, but no floor under the reception or tables. We had given guests a big heads up on this, so everyone was barefoot or wearing sand friendly shoes. Also, here are some of our professional photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153874383291209.1073741828.666626208&type=1&l=32ddd1ce18 Congrats everyone!

@@lizzjameson loved the fire dancers. we actually saw them when we did our planning visit and decided to have them. u should just check w/ your wedding coordinator that the finest won't be doing a show with them around the same time that your guests are there which is what we made sure of. otherwise, it won't be as "special" ... attached a few pix. tried to upload some better pix, but the files aren't uploading. i think they are too large.

Our one requirement for the wedding is that we wanted a good live band instead of a DJ. Totally glad we spent the money on it. We and our guests LOVED Balance La Banda and the dance floor was packed all night long. We got tons of comments afterward about how much fun the dancing and band were. We weren't sure how good they would be from the youtube clips and were worried it might be cheesy, but those clips do not do them justice. They did play a lot of stuff from pop charts - Bruno Mars, Rhianna, Maroon Five, but fun songs from the 70s and 80s too (Journey, disco stuff, rock songs). They were supposed to take breaks between sets, but just kept going because we the fire dancers ran a little long. They will DJ as well (they picked the best dinner music - jazz covers of pop music - several guests asked us about the music) and did all our MC-ing too - we gave them a schedule (i.e. introducing the first dance and father daughter dance and toasts as well). We skyped and did a lot of whats app-ing with them beforehand. So great to work with. HOpe this helps! Here's a clip they have on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozILlP2DTic

@@SusanMarie813 playaweddings was my videographer. we checked out a few and he was our favorite by far. very happy with how the highlight video turned out. also, i did use the hair sylist there and was really happy with my hair. i did a trial run in march and thought it was just okay, but in may for the actual wedding, it turned out even better. i didn't use them for makeup though. also, i did do formal invitations that i sent out three months before the wedding. we did an electronic save the date with our website info six months beforehand. by the time i sent out the actual invites, a lot of people had booked or let us know they were coming, so the actual invites + posted reply cards are somewhat of a formality, but i still wanted to do them. i'm a sucker for nice stationery though. i'm glad you are having good experiences with destinationweddings.com i started out w/ them and had a series of bad experiences, so ended up giving up on them before i settled on the finest, getting my deposit back, and going with wendy from wright travel.

thanks @@texheather! here is our video highlight. you can get a sense of the hotel rooms, views, the resort, beach, etc. we are very happy w/ how it turned out and glad we decided to go w/ a videographer. you can see from the video that the beach goes up against the nature preserve, so it feels very private. posting on this site makes me relive the happy memories again. enjoy the memories and planning everyone! https://vimeo.com/132940054 (password: playaweddings)

@@texheather i reset the link ... here you go: https://picasaweb.google.com/106000194200672006868/WeddingPixForOtherBridesVenues?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNG5vOj7jfWdWg&feat=directlink got our professional photos back. they are amazing and obviously look so much better, but there are over 600 and we haven't gotten a chance to put a sampling together for folks.

hi all! we got back from our wedding this past weekend and it was amazing! the weather was perfect for all our events and everything went off w/o a hitch. we are in awe at how smoothly everything went. we had such a fantastic time and are still getting non stop messages and notes from our friends about the weekend. i am so excited for you all to have this experience! a special treat was meeting @@AandM2015 there! obvi, we don't have the professional photos yet, but our friends have been posting and sending pix, so i put some of them together into an album for other brides so you can get a sense of the venues and backdrops for all the events. pictures are easier than describing. enjoy!

@@jeaninealvarez congrats and thanks for posting. i'm glad/relieved to hear it went so smoothly. thanks for the info about the flowers, especially. i was going back and forth about having DIY centerpieces and the hotel flowers and just told teresa i wanted eight floral centerpieces, so am glad to hear they were worth the money. is that the same boat that is by the wedding gazebo? it turned out nice in the photo! you look beautiful - congrats again!

you probably will be fine w/o a dance floor. we have to have one since our reception is going to be on the beach. yesterday was our rsvp deadline and it looks like 79 is our final number!

@@SusanMarie813 it is! four weeks from tomorrow. i can't believe it. your OOT bags are cute and your dresses look great too. we don't have a wedding party and we are getting OOT tote bags printed w/ a design our friend did for us, but they haven't arrived yet. will post a pic when they get here. we're down to the last minute details for sure. we are doing string lighting for the reception, but haven't decided on a lighted versus normal dance floor yet. leaning toward lighted dance floor because i'm worried it'll be dark out on the beach. the thing that is going to take the most time b/w now and the wedding is making these little donkey pinatas (i know; they look like terrier dogs. lol) to attach to our OOT bags (there is a donkey on our OOT bag design. haha)!

just went back and read the posts to see if there was anything i forgot. someone (i think @amandapanda) was asking about rehearsal dinner venues. teresa said you could do this at any of the restaurants. i think they charge you per person. my fiance and i discussed at length and actually decided not to do a rehearsal/welcome dinner and use that money toward a 4 hour welcome snorkeling/sunset cruise (through seasons tour) and have them back on the resort in time for dinner instead. that way the guests get something "extra" and can still take advantage of the many restaurants that are included anyway. also, i will say about the beach is that the water is beautiful and turquoise (maybe not as much as further south in places like tulum, but still beautiful). however, there are a lot of little sticks and pebbles in the sand. it's not super smooth, fine sand. in a way, it's nicer because the beach is rustic and more natural looking w/ shrubs etc, but just a heads up in case it was something you had your heart set on.

hi everyone - we just got back from a four night planning trip at the finest yesterday. it was great ... the resort is beautiful. we didn't want to leave! the food was good. the service was fantastic. we spent an entire afternoon w/ teresa doing a tasting and going over all our options. she is wonderful. we also met with the tour group operator who was helpful. i would upload the pix, but there are a lot of files, so here's a picasa album w/ captions explaining the various venue sites. feel free to download the images for yourself. most of the pix are of outside venues. teresa told us that the only inside venue for now is lizo. las dunas is covered so you can still do cocktail/reception there if it rains. our group booking deadline has passed and we will be closer to 80 (gulp!), so it's too big a group to do sky bar (although we are planning to do our welcome cocktail hour here on thurs). sky bar is definitely a beautiful space. we'll do ceremony on the beach, cocktail at las dunas, and dinner on the beach outside of las dunas. lizo is going to be our rain backup for the ceremony and reception. what i really liked about the wedding gazebo and beach areas is that they are fairly private, especially once the sun goes down. i also got a hair/makeup trial. the hair was fine and i will go with the spa for that. i wasn't crazy about makeup, but she really tried. i had to keep asking her to make little corrections, but i know it's difficult to do makeup on asian features if you're not famiiar with them. i knew this was likely to be the case, so i'm asking a good friend to do my makeup instead. the restaurants were good - very solid for an all inclusive. we didn't try all the restaurants, but obviously liked some better than others. the wedding food was all very good too. the design and layout are just really nice and well done and thought out.

@@SusanMarie813 am here now! It's really great and will post pix when I'm back. The resort and venues are all beautiful. We've made most of our decisions and can't wait to come back in two months!

hi @@SusanMarie813 i hope planning and all is going well. it's funny you ask about decorations -- teresa just e mailed me asking me if i want to meet with the decor company when i'm there. we are definitely not doing our own. i'm assuming we will go with the very basic options. i'll have escort cards and menus which will add some color, but as long as there are flowers and good entertainment, i'm not v picky about other decor type things.

@@SusanMarie813 here's the videographer price info: http://playaweddings.com/WP/playaweddings-photovideo-pricing-2014-15/ thanks for posting pix of the venue. did you still want me to take pix when i go? you'd asked me earlier to do so. lemme know.

@@SusanMarie813 that map is great. thanks. @@NE112015 i have it ... uploading file. 2014-15 Prices.pdf

@@SusanMarie813 Our photographers are M&J Photography. We were deciding between them and Elizabeth Medina. We Skyped with and liked them both, but ultimately decided on M&J. Our videographer is Playa Weddings. For music, probably going with a band, Balance La Banda, instead of a DJ. Just think it'll be more fun for us and the guests. We looked at a bunch of videos for various bands and liked them best. Teresa sent me a link for the house band and we weren't too impressed.

@@SusanMarie813 beautiful!!! i ordered my dress back in november and it's due to arrive any day. it was originally a ball gown skirt, but i had it made to have a mermaid fit, so i have yet to see how it will look. @@Pixistick - am not using the resort photographer/videographer for the wedding day pix, but since they are part of the pkg, i asked if we could use them for the rehearsal dinner and teresa said okay. i haven't been in contact w/ them yet.

hi @@SusanMarie813 the spa pricing is actually on their website ... i don't think it includes the breakdown in hair and makeup prices (they just gave me a total price for our massage, makeup, hair), but you can e mail them at [email protected] they were pretty responsive when i was booking for our trip in march. congrats on getting your dress! such great news!

When we go in March, I'm getting a hair and makeup trial to see how it goes, but yes, am planning on doing it all there. If I don't like it, I'm not sure what I will do! If you're going a few days before your wedding, maybe you can get a trial too just to put yourself at ease. I e mailed w/ Teresa maybe last month and she said she didn't have pix of the venues yet since the resort wasn't open. I bet if you follow up with her, she can send them now. I will take some in March and post them here. I'm not sure what I had in mind for the rehearsal dinner, but we are thinking we will have fire dancers as part of the rehearsal dinner, so I assume it'll have to be a venue that is close to the beach. We also want to do the ceremony on the beach, but not sure about the reception. We have tentatively hired/decided on a band (still need to sign the contract), so whatever place can accommodate them. What are you doing for OOT bags? Someone else was asking about the group room block. I'm sure you can do it directly w/ the hotel, but I went w/ Wendy with Wright Travel and she's been great so far.

@@amandapanda - there are a couple of us posting on another board. i'm also getting married in may there! may 30, 2015. when is your wedding date? i will be going to visit in march, so will let you know my impressions http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/topic/78597-finest-20152016-brides/

@@SusanMarie813 yes, definitely will do and will try to take pix too! i just finished addressing all our formal invitations and sending them out tomorrow. our first deadline for hotel payment was actually due a couple of days ago and i think we're still on track for about 60, maybe closer to 70 actually. i think people are keen on having a vacation with this crazy cold weather on the east coast!

@@SusanMarie813 So excited for you! You are talking about signing a contract for the room block, right? We haven't signed anything with the resort -- got a confirmation letter from them saying our date was reserved. We also did a group block contract, but through Wright Travel. Approx. how many people are you expecting? We are expecting around 60 people. I will let you know how it goes in March. Let me know if you want me to check anything out specifically. I have a long list of things to go over that I sent to Teresa (venue spot, flowers, decorations, group excursion, etc). She has been great so far. I am pretty sure we will be getting married on the beach, but will take a look at the other options obviously. Our biggest stress right now is music. We have been looking into getting a band -- I wasn't crazy about the Youtube clip that Teresa sent me for the house band. We are talking to someone else on Saturday and keeping our fingers crossed