emmapalmer

That's why I love this forum. We get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in everyone's experience. Your share will help someone make the right decisions in their planning. Love Emma.

adorable.

@@kuoling . Giving my +1 for Iberostar. I had guests that stayed and would not stop bragging about how beautiful the resort was.

@@JennyZ I read every post. Glad to see the all your struggles in having your love ones attend are slowly coming together. Wish you the best wedding in the Riviera Maya with your friends and family.

My best advise is to pay as much as possible in Canadian dollars. There are plenty of online booking sites that allows you to pay in CDN. Your Canadian travel agent should also accept payment in CDN. You may also want to consider hiring a Canadian photographer/Videographer and pay in CDN. We hired Decordova Photography for our destination wedding in the Riviera Maya and was able to pay in CDN.

I'm loving the save the date cards.

@@ashleyrm with prices that high you may also want to consider bringing in your own destination wedding photographer. We brought our own photographer at a fraction of the price of what the resort photographer would have cost.

@@maria1488 What is the $1000 fee? Is it a fee to bring your own photographer or what the resort photographer costs? Sometimes it's better to bring your own destination photographer to get a better service at better rates. We experience something similar at our wedding. Our resort wanted $3000 so instead we took our own Canadian destination photographer for half the price.

@@pykx82 Congratulations!! Now it's time to finalize all the little details. Pick the dress, choose your flowers, decide on your first dance song, and book your photographer.

That is great advise!!

Tulum was really a magical place that you will surely love. Coba is also a great choice. I'm surprised there was no mention of a day trip to Isla Mujeres or Cozumel. There are plenty of activities you can do in both. In Cozumel there are another set of pyramids to visit, you can rent scooters and go around the island, have an ice-cream while you walk around the town.

What a yucky feeling. Stepping on seaweed. I didn't see any in the small man-made beach at Occidental Grand Xcaret - Riviera Maya. However, there were plenty piled allong the rocky areas of the shore.

The alternative ceremony site is a great question. Ours was the resorts hall in case of heavy rain. - you can ask if they provide a cart shuttle from your room to the ceremony - refreshments near your ceremony location - gown steaming to remove any wrinkles from your travel - gown storage so that your fiancé does not see it - if they can book all your guests rooms close to each other - possible outside vendor fees - if you are bringing in a non-resort florist, make-up artist, photographer - if you’re having the ceremony on the beach are you able to request a specific time ( morning is best ). I will locate the list of questions I had. I had several good ones that I will add later.

One of our wedding guest stayed at Barcelo Maya because it was near to our resort. They joked that we should have had our destination wedding there. Apperantly it was that nice.You will love it there!

Yes, there are plenty of beautiful locations for wedding photography near Playa Del Carmen. The caves that you mentioned are called cenotes. We wanted to go do some trash the dress photography in them but did not get to in the end.

Use the search bar at the top of the page. Enter your search keyword. Press enter.

I've only got an upset stomach from eating mangos in excess in Mexico. Stay up to date on your hepatitis shots and you should be fine less Montezuma revenge.

The Jellyfish is a beautiful restaurant/venue for a wedding. We were there a year back for dinner and loved the place. There is a small beach in the front which gets very few swimmers, however there is tourists that walk across the lot. Much more private then on the beach infront of the resorts. You may also want to consider bringing your own photographer instead. In many cases it can work out to be more affordable than local or resort photographers. In our case we brought our own photographer from Toronto at almost 50% less of what our resort photographer was asking.

Future Toronto area gal.

@@islandbride2016, I'm give a plus one to the area north of Negril as @@rachelchic81 mentioned. The beaches there are beautiful for a destination wedding in Jamaica. Hotel Riu Palace Tropical Bay & Hotel Riu Negril are at Bloody Bay which is a little more exclusive than the stretch of beach where Sandals Negril Resort & Spa is located.

I wasn't aware of airplanes closets. I folded mine with curved creases to avoid harsh wrinkles. It fitted nicely into a hard shell carry-on suitcase with only the dress, shoes, jewelry inside. Arriving at the hotel I used the steamer setting on the iron to removed some minor wrinkles. It got further steam cleaned when it got stored by our wedding co-coordinator. Keep the iron at least one inch away from the fabric if you are using it to steam.

The red Calla Lilies are so pretty. A unique floral color that will add touch of contrast. A few more items you will want to include as part of your budget is photography, video, and resort vendor day pass fees. The vendor day pass fee is a charge from the resort to allows entry to your outside vendors. The fee may be applicable to your outside DJ, wedding decorator, makeup artist, videographer, and photographer. You may want to ask your resort what the fees are as they can be $500USD+ per vendor. We didn’t know about this until we declined the resorts photographer. You will also want to request from your resort their photography and video packages. If their prices are too high you can look towards bringing in your own. In our case it was much more economical to bring out own photographer from Toronto.

Our resort’s photographer wanted almost $3000 for 6hrs and 24 un-edited photos . We needed full day coverage from 8am-11pm so we decided to bring our own photographer. We got our full day ( 11hrs ) photography with all our photos edited for almost half the price in Canadian dollars. Shop around and don’t be afraid to ask for discounts . Lv Emma.

Were you able to find the name of this location? We also wanted to do a cenote shoot after our wedding but unfortunately ended up canceling to tour with family instead. Really do your research and re-verify if you are told of a location. Moments that mattered told us one of their cave photos was shot at Cenote Azul. When we requested this location with our photographer he mentioned that Cenote Azul does not have a cave or a semi-cave. That it was an open cenote frequented by locals and tourists. L It wasn’t nice to be misled by MTM.

@MelissaH113 Thank you for sharing detailed review of your experience. I have been officially nominated as a bridesmaid and will be assisting my bestie in planning her DW in Mexico for 2016/2017. She is thinking of Cabos, and likes the thought of doing it at the RIU. If you don't mind, I or we may need to pick at you with questions based on your experience at this location. Ty.