TaraMarie33

I brought 53 guests to the grand sirenis for my wedding and things were a disaster from start to finish. You would think with a group of 53 people spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding - we would have an above average experience, maybe even average. My whole group's experience and ours (my now husband and I) was waaaaayy below average. Our departure transfer were wrong, many people were charged twice at checkout for things, food was terrible, we were stalked to go to time share meetings, drinks were watered down, shuttles took 35 minutes when they said "5 more minutes", etc etc etc. One of the biggest upsets was my rehearsal dinner. I had made a reservation with concerning (which took me almost 2 hours - organizing everyone's rooms, because they couldn't this an one a la cart) - and after confirming the reservation. I wrote it down and went to visit the Brazilian restaurant to speak to the head waiter. I confirmed my reservation with him (Edgar), even talked about where we would set up the table. On the day of the rehearsal dinner, I called concierge (pressed "0") and asked to be transferred to the restaurant for my reservation to confirm once again. The man on the phone said we would have two long tables - confirmed 9pm. I told all of my guests not to eat - because we were having a great big rehearsal dinner, and at 8:50 we headed over to the Brazilian restaurant. We waited in line like everyone else, and when it was time to sit down we were told there was no reservation. This was impossible. With all the confirming I had done, it had to be a mistake. Time now is 9:10, trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile the host and Edgar as speaking poorly about us in Spanish, even so far in the end to call me names in Spanish... I can understand Spanish almost fluently, this they obviously didn't know. They had me wait 40 minutes for a "manager", none ever came. Then they continued to tell us that all the restaurants were closing, so we could go to the buffet for my rehearsal dinner. I was furious. In any other situation at any of resort, someone would at least apologize for the mistake and try their best to accommodate a wedding party. They said they had no staff to serve us this late, no more food left, everything in the book. Needless to say, we ended up eating French fries, fruit and rice for my rehearsal dinner. Not once did anyone apologize or take responsibility - and I'm supposed to now go into my wedding day happy with this resort? How? It only gets worse from here .. The wedding morning, charging my mother and I both for hair and makeup twice per room (four total charges for just the two of us) - when I was under the assumption that we had paid for it the day before. They asked us the pay for the wedding 4 days in advance - before anything happens, then AFTER charge us for all the extras. Why not just have us pay for everything all at once? We had to take time out of our days 4 separate times to pay for wedding things, all before the big day. Another disaster - our wedding group was told we were moved to two different flights home. Although not the wedding departments fault, the hotel rep. was the one who let us know about this, which ended up being wrong information. My now husband and I had to spend hours also dealing with this. At one point one of our guests ordered room service at about 9:30pm - free room service ends at 11pm. The food took 2.5 hours (came around midnight). Upon checkout my guest was expected to pay for everything he ordered because it came after 11pm, when he had ordered at 9:30pm. He ordered 3 meals - that's a sizeable "extra" when room service is free and took 2.5 hours. Disgusting customer service. My wedding day was beautiful, but no thanks to the coordinators - thanks to Mother Nature and the beautiful sunshine. I had brought in my suitcase (and paid extra for baggage) all the candles and decorations I wanted at the wedding. After the wedding they gave them back, 38 candles untouched - why would I bring them and pay for extra baggage if you weren't going to use them at my wedding? Wedding decorations and picture frames were broken when returned to me. I paid lots of money for a DJ at the wedding - I gave him an entire playlist and he still played music that was not on it. He disappeared for several songs at a time, he turned off the music completely during speeches and then was gone to turn it back on. His "DJ" booth was just an old MacBook. Songs were skipping left and right - even our first dance (where my husband was singing along to me with a microphone), the music skips twice. What was I paying for? I could play music off of my Mac and it WOULDNT skip! These are only a few things .. There were 800 other issues that were so disappointing. We had to pay about $8USD per chair at the wedding - and when we saw them the wedding day, they were chipped and tattered and the paint was discoloured differently on every chair. These were my beautiful "upgraded" chairs I was talked into. Not the free chairs, the expensive ones. We were also talked into renting 2 vans, and 1 golf kart for the wedding. I waited over 35 minutes for the golf cart to get my hair and makeup done, and our kart on the way to the ceremony was a half hour late - making my bridesmaids and I a half hour late to my own wedding ceremony. Why did I pay for 3 "vehicles"? We didn't even end up taking the one I rented .. It never showed. We took the resort shuttle to my wedding. The worst part of it all was that no one took responsibility for any of these issues. Not once was there one apology, not one supervisor or manager that ever spoke to us, (outside of the wedding office) and when they finally offered us something ... It was a chance to sit in the spa pools for free. What a joke. I just spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars (we didn't do the free wedding, we upgraded every single thing) - and brought 53 people here, and at one point they told us "you are only 53 people, if you didn't stay with us another 53 people would have booked, we are sold out". Ridiculous. Unfortunately this is a resort who does not care about customer service, or you as an individual at all. Their vision is to fill every seat, and charge them as much as you can. They didn't even offer us free wifi, but asked us to use it to show picture examples for the wedding. The whole week was horrifying. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If God forbid you do have any problems during your stay, they will laugh at you and talk about you in Spanish - then say there is nothing they can do. If there were a 0 stars option I would've given it that rating.

I brought 53 guests to the grand sirenis for my wedding and things were a disaster from start to finish. You would think with a group of 53 people spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding - we would have an above average experience, maybe even average. My whole group's experience and ours (my now husband and I) was waaaaayy below average. Our departure transfer were wrong, many people were charged twice at checkout for things, food was terrible, we were stalked to go to time share meetings, drinks were watered down, shuttles took 35 minutes when they said "5 more minutes", etc etc etc. One of the biggest upsets was my rehearsal dinner. I had made a reservation with concerning (which took me almost 2 hours - organizing everyone's rooms, because they couldn't this an one a la cart) - and after confirming the reservation. I wrote it down and went to visit the Brazilian restaurant to speak to the head waiter. I confirmed my reservation with him (Edgar), even talked about where we would set up the table. On the day of the rehearsal dinner, I called concierge (pressed "0") and asked to be transferred to the restaurant for my reservation to confirm once again. The man on the phone said we would have two long tables - confirmed 9pm. I told all of my guests not to eat - because we were having a great big rehearsal dinner, and at 8:50 we headed over to the Brazilian restaurant. We waited in line like everyone else, and when it was time to sit down we were told there was no reservation. This was impossible. With all the confirming I had done, it had to be a mistake. Time now is 9:10, trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile the host and Edgar as speaking poorly about us in Spanish, even so far in the end to call me names in Spanish... I can understand Spanish almost fluently, this they obviously didn't know. They had me wait 40 minutes for a "manager", none ever came. Then they continued to tell us that all the restaurants were closing, so we could go to the buffet for my rehearsal dinner. I was furious. In any other situation at any of resort, someone would at least apologize for the mistake and try their best to accommodate a wedding party. They said they had no staff to serve us this late, no more food left, everything in the book. Needless to say, we ended up eating French fries, fruit and rice for my rehearsal dinner. Not once did anyone apologize or take responsibility - and I'm supposed to now go into my wedding day happy with this resort? How? It only gets worse from here .. The wedding morning, charging my mother and I both for hair and makeup twice per room (four total charges for just the two of us) - when I was under the assumption that we had paid for it the day before. They asked us the pay for the wedding 4 days in advance - before anything happens, then AFTER charge us for all the extras. Why not just have us pay for everything all at once? We had to take time out of our days 4 separate times to pay for wedding things, all before the big day. Another disaster - our wedding group was told we were moved to two different flights home. Although not the wedding departments fault, the hotel rep. was the one who let us know about this, which ended up being wrong information. My now husband and I had to spend hours also dealing with this. At one point one of our guests ordered room service at about 9:30pm - free room service ends at 11pm. The food took 2.5 hours (came around midnight). Upon checkout my guest was expected to pay for everything he ordered because it came after 11pm, when he had ordered at 9:30pm. He ordered 3 meals - that's a sizeable "extra" when room service is free and took 2.5 hours. Disgusting customer service. My wedding day was beautiful, but no thanks to the coordinators - thanks to Mother Nature and the beautiful sunshine. I had brought in my suitcase (and paid extra for baggage) all the candles and decorations I wanted at the wedding. After the wedding they gave them back, 38 candles untouched - why would I bring them and pay for extra baggage if you weren't going to use them at my wedding? Wedding decorations and picture frames were broken when returned to me. I paid lots of money for a DJ at the wedding - I gave him an entire playlist and he still played music that was not on it. He disappeared for several songs at a time, he turned off the music completely during speeches and then was gone to turn it back on. His "DJ" booth was just an old MacBook. Songs were skipping left and right - even our first dance (where my husband was singing along to me with a microphone), the music skips twice. What was I paying for? I could play music off of my Mac and it WOULDNT skip! These are only a few things .. There were 800 other issues that were so disappointing. We had to pay about $8USD per chair at the wedding - and when we saw them the wedding day, they were chipped and tattered and the paint was discoloured differently on every chair. These were my beautiful "upgraded" chairs I was talked into. Not the free chairs, the expensive ones. We were also talked into renting 2 vans, and 1 golf kart for the wedding. I waited over 35 minutes for the golf cart to get my hair and makeup done, and our kart on the way to the ceremony was a half hour late - making my bridesmaids and I a half hour late to my own wedding ceremony. Why did I pay for 3 "vehicles"? We didn't even end up taking the one I rented .. It never showed. We took the resort shuttle to my wedding. The worst part of it all was that no one took responsibility for any of these issues. Not once was there one apology, not one supervisor or manager that ever spoke to us, (outside of the wedding office) and when they finally offered us something ... It was a chance to sit in the spa pools for free. What a joke. I just spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars (we didn't do the free wedding, we upgraded every single thing) - and brought 53 people here, and at one point they told us "you are only 53 people, if you didn't stay with us another 53 people would have booked, we are sold out". Ridiculous. Unfortunately this is a resort who does not care about customer service, or you as an individual at all. Their vision is to fill every seat, and charge them as much as you can. They didn't even offer us free wifi, but asked us to use it to show picture examples for the wedding. The whole week was horrifying. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If God forbid you do have any problems during your stay, they will laugh at you and talk about you in Spanish - then say there is nothing they can do. If there were a 0 stars option I would've given it that rating. I wanted to post my review / so you can avoid all of the issues I had! I don't know how to do an official review! If anyone knows, I would love some guidance. I want to let other brides know what to look out for with the grand sirenis staff.

My Grand Sirenis Trip Advisor review: I brought 53 guests to the grand sirenis for my wedding and things were a disaster from start to finish. You would think with a group of 53 people spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding - we would have an above average experience, maybe even average. My whole group's experience and ours (my now husband and I) was waaaaayy below average. Our departure transfer were wrong, many people were charged twice at checkout for things, food was terrible, we were stalked to go to time share meetings, drinks were watered down, shuttles took 35 minutes when they said "5 more minutes", etc etc etc. One of the biggest upsets was my rehearsal dinner. I had made a reservation with concerning (which took me almost 2 hours - organizing everyone's rooms, because they couldn't this an one a la cart) - and after confirming the reservation. I wrote it down and went to visit the Brazilian restaurant to speak to the head waiter. I confirmed my reservation with him (Edgar), even talked about where we would set up the table. On the day of the rehearsal dinner, I called concierge (pressed "0") and asked to be transferred to the restaurant for my reservation to confirm once again. The man on the phone said we would have two long tables - confirmed 9pm. I told all of my guests not to eat - because we were having a great big rehearsal dinner, and at 8:50 we headed over to the Brazilian restaurant. We waited in line like everyone else, and when it was time to sit down we were told there was no reservation. This was impossible. With all the confirming I had done, it had to be a mistake. Time now is 9:10, trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile the host and Edgar as speaking poorly about us in Spanish, even so far in the end to call me names in Spanish... I can understand Spanish almost fluently, this they obviously didn't know. They had me wait 40 minutes for a "manager", none ever came. Then they continued to tell us that all the restaurants were closing, so we could go to the buffet for my rehearsal dinner. I was furious. In any other situation at any of resort, someone would at least apologize for the mistake and try their best to accommodate a wedding party. They said they had no staff to serve us this late, no more food left, everything in the book. Needless to say, we ended up eating French fries, fruit and rice for my rehearsal dinner. Not once did anyone apologize or take responsibility - and I'm supposed to now go into my wedding day happy with this resort? How? It only gets worse from here .. The wedding morning, charging my mother and I both for hair and makeup twice per room (four total charges for just the two of us) - when I was under the assumption that we had paid for it the day before. They asked us the pay for the wedding 4 days in advance - before anything happens, then AFTER charge us for all the extras. Why not just have us pay for everything all at once? We had to take time out of our days 4 separate times to pay for wedding things, all before the big day. Another disaster - our wedding group was told we were moved to two different flights home. Although not the wedding departments fault, the hotel rep. was the one who let us know about this, which ended up being wrong information. My now husband and I had to spend hours also dealing with this. At one point one of our guests ordered room service at about 9:30pm - free room service ends at 11pm. The food took 2.5 hours (came around midnight). Upon checkout my guest was expected to pay for everything he ordered because it came after 11pm, when he had ordered at 9:30pm. He ordered 3 meals - that's a sizeable "extra" when room service is free and took 2.5 hours. Disgusting customer service. My wedding day was beautiful, but no thanks to the coordinators - thanks to Mother Nature and the beautiful sunshine. I had brought in my suitcase (and paid extra for baggage) all the candles and decorations I wanted at the wedding. After the wedding they gave them back, 38 candles untouched - why would I bring them and pay for extra baggage if you weren't going to use them at my wedding? Wedding decorations and picture frames were broken when returned to me. I paid lots of money for a DJ at the wedding - I gave him an entire playlist and he still played music that was not on it. He disappeared for several songs at a time, he turned off the music completely during speeches and then was gone to turn it back on. His "DJ" booth was just an old MacBook. Songs were skipping left and right - even our first dance (where my husband was singing along to me with a microphone), the music skips twice. What was I paying for? I could play music off of my Mac and it WOULDNT skip! These are only a few things .. There were 800 other issues that were so disappointing. We had to pay about $8USD per chair at the wedding - and when we saw them the wedding day, they were chipped and tattered and the paint was discoloured differently on every chair. These were my beautiful "upgraded" chairs I was talked into. Not the free chairs, the expensive ones. We were also talked into renting 2 vans, and 1 golf kart for the wedding. I waited over 35 minutes for the golf cart to get my hair and makeup done, and our kart on the way to the ceremony was a half hour late - making my bridesmaids and I a half hour late to my own wedding ceremony. Why did I pay for 3 "vehicles"? We didn't even end up taking the one I rented .. It never showed. We took the resort shuttle to my wedding. The worst part of it all was that no one took responsibility for any of these issues. Not once was there one apology, not one supervisor or manager that ever spoke to us, (outside of the wedding office) and when they finally offered us something ... It was a chance to sit in the spa pools for free. What a joke. I just spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars (we didn't do the free wedding, we upgraded every single thing) - and brought 53 people here, and at one point they told us "you are only 53 people, if you didn't stay with us another 53 people would have booked, we are sold out". Ridiculous. Unfortunately this is a resort who does not care about customer service, or you as an individual at all. Their vision is to fill every seat, and charge them as much as you can. They didn't even offer us free wifi, but asked us to use it to show picture examples for the wedding. The whole week was horrifying. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If God forbid you do have any problems during your stay, they will laugh at you and talk about you in Spanish - then say there is nothing they can do. If there were a 0 stars option I would've given it that rating.

Hi guys! Its been a while - but I promise, I have been getting so much on my list done! October 15th was the date for final deposits and we have 53 guests booked and confirmed! Wahhooo. We might even get a few last minute stragglers. @@vancouverpetunia - the resort did tell me that I am not allowed to use rose petals that are fake for the aisle .. SO, I am going with just a white runner. I did buy 5000 rose petals though, eeeek. BUT thankfully I am able to use them in the reception, so I can add them to my centerpiece idea. RECEPTION DECOR: Reception decor has been a struggle. I've also been trying to make tables for everyone to see how many I need. I settled on 5 tables, and one head table with all of our bridal party. One long head table. What are you guys doing for your head tables? Just sweetheart table? ... Hmm. HEAD TABLE - head table will be including all of my bridal party (5 bridesmaids + me + kenny + 5 groomsmen) EXAMPLE TABLE: ( bridesmaids — bride — groom — groomsmen) —centerpiece —— centerpiece — centerpiece Head table will have 3 centerpieces. HEAD TABLE DECOR DETAILS: I would like the head table centerpieces to look similar to these photos below. Lining the outer edge of the head table. Roses- ivory, white, blush, with hints of dark red roses. SO, one centerpiece in front the bridesmaids, one in front of the bride and groom, one in front of the groomsmen placed on the table. Candles scattered throughout - maybe 20/25 candles total on the head table (varied sizes of candles) + scattered rose petals. HEAD TABLE PICTURES: ** These are all inspiration photos for HEAD TABLE. Not exact - but combination of everything in these pictures of the candles and flowers and rose petals. GUEST TABLE DECOR DETAILS: Candles and mirrors that I am bringing, with rose petals and bridesmaid bouquets. I will also be using my bridesmaid bouquets (that I will be bringing with me) as the flowers for each guest table. *** One bridesmaid bouquet on each table. Approx 10 candles on each table. GUEST TABLE PICTURES: These are inspiration pictures for the guest tables - candles like this placed all over, but with the bridesmaid bouquet placed in-between on each table. ^^ imagine this bouquet is the bridesmaid bouquet, on the guest table. Surround by candles like in the photos above ^^. I sent those details above to my wedding coordinator and am hoping that she understands a bit of what I want. Lots and lots of candles! Lots and lots of roses! Ha! I am bringing 86 candles with me, so that is cheap and already paid for! GIFTS: My giftlist is shrinking! I am so happy to be almost finished. Here is my gift updates: Gifts for the hubby: - Raunchy pictures (still have to do, and get book made) ($200) - Watchbox - purchased but have to get it engraved ($50) - ** TRIP? .. I MAY surprise him with a weekend getaway for right when we get back. Maybe a quick trip to cuba, or something cheap. Going to look into that much closer to the date. ($1000?) - will see how the budget is. Mom: - Necklace - purchased, being shipped. I bought her a necklace on etsy that says "Love you Forever, like you for always, as long as you're living, your baby I'll be". Robert Munch, cant go wrong! She will cry. ($40) Stepfather: - Keychain - purchased from etsy. It is engraved "Marriage made you family, love made you a father" . (About $40) Brother: - cufflinks - purchased from etsy again! ($40) Engraved "I Love you Brother" and one cufflink has a photo of us on it! He will love them! Mother and Father in law: - Picture frame with poem - Purchased and assembled. I wrote (with some pinterest help) a poem for them about marrying their son, and raising the man of my dreams, etc. I had it printed at Staples (98cents) and framed it for them. ($20 Total) Father: Still havent bought anything.. ANY IDEAS? Father of the bride ideas .. ?? Bridesmaids: - Robes - purchased, not engraved. Just cozy silk robes for the day. - Gift Boxes ($5 for all 5 - dollar store, rectangle wood boxes.) -- I put rose petals in the bottom, and bought them all their favourite little bottle of booze for inside (tiny bottle of grey goose for one girl, tiny bottle of jameson for my girlfriend that likes whiskey, etc.) I also have little personalized cards for each other them, with pictures of us in the boxes. I will send you guys all pictures. They were very cheap to make ($15 for the booze, $1 for the box, $1 for the rose petals, $1 for picture printing, $5 for the card = $23 for the boxes each!) - Shoes - I bought the girls shoes for them. I found a STEAL, $12 USD for these gold sandals online at payless.com http://www.payless.com/womens-starlet-embellished-sling/146342100.html -- check them out if your girls need shoes! - Necklaces - I found the perfect matching necklaces at SPRING. Blush, gold and silver. I posted them in the last post. $15 each. - Little toiletries bags: - $5 each from Forever 21. With mini sunscreen, hair ties, lip gloss, and antibacterial gel. TOTAL: $12 TOTAL PER BRIDESMAID: $90 x 5 Maids = $450 Total for Bridesmaids I dont think there are any other people I need to get gifts for? Right? That has everyone pretty covered. I got my maid of honour a little anchor necklace - because she is literally my anchor through all this wedding planning. This planning is like a full time job! My last update .. an exciting one! ... VIDEOGRAPHER!: I had sent out emails to about 10 videographers in mexico. We weren't going to pay for this originally, but we decided we should reach out. I was able to talk a few companies down to an CRAZY cheap price! About half as much as they were asking .. because the US dollar is such a killer, they were really reasonable to lower their prices. So, we have narrowed it down to 2 companies. Gallardo films, and MyLoveFilms. Do any of you have or know anyone who has had experiences with them? They are both great - win win really. I just want to pick one company. We get them for 6 hours, 2 videographers. We decided, you know what? Lets cut costs elsewhere .. and invest in this memory. Any advice on videographers would be really appreciative!!! Photographer update: We were going to fly our photographer with us, but he has to check with his other job if he can get the time off now. SOO .. My uncle may be taking our photos (he is a guest, and has done many weddings in the past). That would be great, and much cheaper than flying an extra person, but if we flew a photographer we could have a million different shoots, and pictures, and no pressure. I feel bad asking family. What do you guys think? Its only about $1000 CAD to fly our photographer out for 4 days. MUSIC; We are hiring a DJ, the resort DJ. But we are still struggling to pick our first dance songs, family songs, and recession songs. Its truly A LOT of work .. AAHHH. And prelude, prelude, bridal party entrance, bouquet toss. There is literally so much planning to do. HELP! Also .. ENTRANCE SONG! AHHH. Another one I need to figure out. My bachelorette party is November 27th weekend, maybe my girls can help me with the music. DRESS UPDATE: I still need to go for my last fitting. My dress is in Michigan, I am in Toronto - so the 4 hours timeline + 2 days to alter is a nightmare these days. Anyway, I will figure that out in the next few weeks. That is all I have for now. I am still looking for shoes for me, jewelry, and a veil. I want a cathedral veil. .. any advice on veil or jewelry would be really appreciated too! I want something very gypsy like .. sandals. but with bottoms, because the sand will be HOT .. and I dont want slivers on the Palapa. Hope you are all well, and have done all the planning! Its a fulltime job. @@calgarybride2015 I dont know how you did it all!

Hey girl! Don't worry, I am living in a full stress zone too. Even getting hives from all the planning. Our finally payments were due today, and we now have 58 guest - holy hell. We though maybe 50, but the number keeps climbing. I have really been debating lately a videographer. It is so expensive, and the prices I'm getting are all in USD - which you ladies know is not great for us Canadians. What do you guys think of videography? In the grand scheme I would love to have those memories captured and edited. But I would also love to have an extra $2000 for our honeymoon, etc. I have so much planning to do. We are around the 80 day mark and things are getting REAL. I wish someone would take the reigns. My fiancé literally wants no part of planning, but I'm a control freak so it doesn't bother me too much. It's just a lot to take on yourself. Also - other grand Sirenis brides, how do you decide on table overlays and such? All the colours:options they send may not look the same in real life. I'm afraid of all my colours clashing and looking cheap (cheap yellow gold look versus light champagne). Ugh.. I just want it all to be planned and done. It gets really exhausting. We are also considering not doing favours (other than thank you cards). An extra $500-$700 that potentially could go towards videographer, for something people may not even use/notice? Thoughts?

I wanted to show you a bit of my inspiration and I have finally narrowed down a color scheme/palette. My Colour Scheme: BLUSH, CHAMPAGNE, IVORY, with hints of BURGUNDY. Similar to this: CEREMONY: Chairs - White Tiffany (60 of them, approx.) will have final numbers in October. (45 pesos each) - shown below. Chair Covers - will bring with me, 60 chiffon sashes as shown below. *will need to be set up on tiffany chairs ** JUST ordered from aliexpress.com - $275 for 60 chiffon sashes. Will let you know how they turn out! Aisle - White Runner (500 pesos) + flower petals. I have ordered and will bring rose petals with me. I would like them to be scattered on the white aisle runner. ** Ordered 5000 rose petals from alliexpress.com for only $40 CAD! Aisle inspiration below - except with white runner underneath! Pomander balls - ** I will also be bringing pomander balls with ribbons just to be hung on the chairs. 1 hung at the end of each aisle. (havent ordered these yet) Last update .. my bridesmaids dresses came in!! Take a look.. they are STUNNING. Picture is a little dark, but they are blush pink, Donna Morgan. Really light, and so beautiful on all of the girls. Even the ones with little boobs! I also found those necklaces this week, they are blush and navy (the men are wearing navy) with hints of gold and silver. Perfect match! My maid of honour isnt in the picture, neither is my gay best friend - he will be wearing navy pants with a pink top to match the girls. Thats all for now. Happy updates. xx Tara

@@calgarybride2015 - I keep saying archway, but I think it is just the "arch".. I had a vision of a different one. They quoted me about $800 CAD, I think we are going to go with it!! Comes with flowers along the top and sides, etc.

My date is January 7th, 2016 .. So it's coming!! I just got a quote from Adriana - 45 pesos for each chair (white Tiffany chair) and then 75 pesos each chair if I want the gold ones PLUS external fee. She also quoted me for some archways - quotes were over 10,000 pesos. Things are getting crazy.

Just finding this thread now.. I have to say that $1250 per person quote is INSANE! My guests and I paid $1700 per person from Toronto. Holy hell. We felt pressure with the American dollar so we just went with it. Now we have 53 guests and counting . We are hoping not to have more than 60. I went a little crazy with my dress ($4000 CAD) and our rings, so I don't want to get wild spending on the wedding. We are bringing our own photographer (flying him down and paying all expenses) in exchange for wedding photos. Pretty awesome deal!! $1700 CAD for his trip and we get unlimited photos! Anyway, I'm having a tough time figuring out decor with the resort. Can't decide if I want to have the free wedding with upgrades or the presidential package. Seems like everything is adding up very quickly!!

Hi guys! So they only have white Tiffany chairs at the resort - not champagne or gold. Adriana is looking into seeing if they can get them from external vendors... So we shall see. The archway I wanted is being quoted at about $800 CAD so I am not sure what I will decide on that yet. Does anyone have an extras price list ? They haven't sent me all that info yet because I guess t isn't close enough. I have less than 5 months, so I really need to start working out a budget and making some decisions! I think I am going to go with the free wedding and then upgrade - but I don't know how much all these upgrades are. I know the palapa upgrade is about $1000 - everything else is up in the air. Maybe the presidential package is more convenient? Ahh, I don't know!

Hi guys .. I need some advice! I am in LOVE with these tiffany chair decorations. https://img0.etsystatic.com/030/0/8818542/il_340x270.625672610_gmq7.jpg I have no idea though if they can be recreated to look like that. I am assuming that chiffon is ivory, not white - which I think looks better than a stark white. Have any of you seen any brides with this sort of chair design or DIY? Please let me know!!

@@calgarybride2015 .. I would love that! That way I can see what they will look like.

@@yycbride2016 thanks for all the information! I wonder if AC Vacations will have anything like that as far as credits and such. UPDATES: BRIDESMAIDS ROBES: I finally got some things done today! I searched high and low for bridesmaid robes - etsy, amazon, everywhere. I finally settled on some robes on amazon.com - I found them to be much cheaper than the ones on etsy, and am just going to get them monogrammed locally! Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KC7TIN6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 They came to $17 per robe USD, which is a bit more Canadian, but all 6 robes totaled $114. Much cheaper than anything I have found on etsy. I will keep you posted with how much the monogramming costs, I may even opt out of it! I bought 5 baby pink (one size fits all), and one white robe for me! Does anyone have any information on ironing on monograms onto silk robes? I know its easy for cotton, but for silk - I dont want to burn the house down, hah! PAPER LANTERNS: I finally found the thread on here about making "throwies" for paper lanterns. Another bride mentioned the resort charging about $10 a lantern, I am going to give the DIY thing a try. I ordered LED lights, batteries and 20 lanterns today - totaling $65 for everything, working out to only $3.25 a lantern! I bought 10 12" lanterns, and 10 14"lanterns. Obviously the bigger the lantern, the higher the price - but I didn't want dinky looking ones. I really want the lighting to be on point! I am thinking, just the lanterns - and after Christmas I am going to buy some white string lights. And have a few candles on each table. LOTS of lighting!! I am hoping the lighting and my nude flower arrangements will be all the decor I need. I am going with all white lights, some blush and burgundy decor. Simple, and classic. I am not very creative with DIY projects, but hopefully my MOH and fiance can give me a hand with this one. I have read about brides assembling the throwies and packing them in their checked luggage, leaving next to no work to be done in Mexico. I have also read about a few brides who have assembled everything a day or two before the wedding. I highly doubt I will be wanting to do any of that nonsense while I am there, so I am opting for option 1. Hopefully it is not a waste of time! Thats all I managed to get done today .. and it took me about 5 hours. GUH. Ill keep you all posted with my progress! You guys keep me inspired, thank you!

Hi Ladies! Just got a confirmation - we have 36 guests as of today .. still a few family members from out of town to book (later one). We estimated about 50 guests, so I am right on track and budget. My fiance has a best girlfriend (childhood neighbour) in our wedding party and she just got a job and may not be able to make it. I had paired her with my gay best friend, standing on my side for the wedding. SO .. now we may be in a bit of a predicament. What is the protocol on him asking another person at this point? ALSO . for the dance, now we will have two dudes dancing, and walking down the aisle..... strange I think lol. What do you guys think? Also @@yycbride2016 and @@calgarybride2015 - you guys mention a free wedding with a certain number of rooms ... and also acvacations has special offers too.. my TA knows nothing about that. Do you know the stipulations? With 36 guests, surely we would qualify, right? I have booked the palapa and private beach as well!! @@calgarybride2015 - how far off resort is it? How did all of your guests get there ...? @@yycbride2016 - your decor looks awesome! I thought I wouldn't start gathering stuff until october/november .. maybe I am a bit behind schedule. What are you planning to do for flowers?I am thinking of ordering silk bouquets and bringing them with me. Let me know your thoughts ladies! I cant seem to find any more Grand Sirenis brides out there ..

I have been reading other planning threads and have completely forget I havent ever mentioned ANYTHING about how my fiance and I met or got engaged! I thought I would add a little bit here, so that it made for a more complete story! Kenny and I met about 6/7 years ago now - working at a restaurant together. He actually trained me on my first day! We didn't get along at first, I am not a great listener. My management team told me to stay away from him .. he was a lady killer they said, haha! I was dating someone else, and so was he - but we became great friends. A few years later .. Kenny chased me around enough to score a first date. (we were both finally single!) We had our first date at the Dip, an Italian restaurant in Little Italy. Sometime around June, 2011 we decided to give this whole relationship thing a try. 3 months later we moved in together - 6 months later I got accepted to a great program abroad and we both decided to moveto Melbourne, Australia! We lived and worked in Melbourne for about 9 months. In November 2012, we set offf for Southeast Asia to backpack for about 7 weeks. We finally got home from our year abroad in 2013 and immediately began working, saving, and a bit more traveling, of course. Kenny is half Belgian, half Trinidadian - so before I commit to anything I had to meet his whole family! In 2013 we went to Europe so I could be introduced to Kenny's Belgian family, whom live in Ghent. In 2014, we went to Trinidad and Tobago to meet the other half of Kenny's family. I loved them all so much! This past August (2014) Kenny and I went to the up north for our annual Gastaldi's cottage trip. Although the weekend was rainy and wet, it ended with a HUGE surprise! While we were on the boat, kenny pulled out his guitar, started singing "All of Me" by John Legend, and asked me to marry him! The ring .. HOLY, the RING! I loved it. He had his brother take pictures, and it was probably the greatest day of my life. I think I was shaking for 24 hours. I couldnt stop staring at this beautiful ring he created. He ended up going to a jeweler 5 or 6 times and designing it on his own... so special. Here are a few pictures! Thats all for now! I just figured I would share. Much love, and happy Monday! I also have a few questions for you guys! -- What do you think of flying out a photographer instead of paying for one? Resort is quoting me about $1500 for the day to take pictures of the wedding.. One of kennys friends offered to do it but we have to pay for his trip. We are thinking of flying him out for the day before the wedding, wedding day, and day after ($1100!) - saves us $400 and we have 3 days of photos?! What do you think? Has anyone done this before? -- Hair and makeup for my girls .. I dont know if they expect it to be done. Its quite costly I think to have it done for all my maids (4 girls, 1 guy - so just 4 in total). Or I am thinking of treating my mother and mother in law to hair/makeup instead? Thoughts? -- How far out do the men have to get their suit fittings? Recommendations? -- How much decor to you think I can realistically bring myself? I want to bring all my own flowers (silk flower bouquets), I would love to bring my own chiffon for the chair covers. Favours, and lighting (tea lights, string lights, etc). Am i outrageous to bring that much? All advice is welcomed!! I need it! 6 months out, and I am starting to freak out about not having planned any of that yet! Thank God for my TA keeping me on track, she is AMAZING! If anyone lives in the Toronto area, I need to recommend her to you! @@TinkerSofi @@MarisaQ @@JenniferH114 @calgarybride2015

Hi! I am getting married at the Grand Sirenis in January! 6 months out now. Looking forward to your planning thread. Feel free to follow mine for updates too!

Hi there! So sad I missed out on these - do you have any other decor items to sell? I am located in toronto as well!

Hi there! I am very interested in these items. Did you ship them to the resort? How did you manage to get all 60 there?

Hi everyone! Its been a while since I have updated my thread, I thought I would get everyone caught up. The past few months we have finally solidified our venue, date, and sent out invitations! Now I am making a list of about one big thing a month to get accomplished. I have learned quite a bit in my process so far, so I hope you find some comfort in my mistakes and don't make the same ones! INVITATIONS: I have mentioned before that I don't really want a "beachy" theme, I want more of a classic vision. Nudes, burgundy, blush, hints of gold. Our invitations follow the same sort of style. Our budget was $1000 (because we didnt send save the dates), and it came to $580 with postage, invitations, printing, calligrapher, stickers, information cards, etc. We also didnt have an RSVP card - so I made a wedding website for guests to RSVP electronically. www.weddingwire.com/tarakenny My invitations were a little DIY - not totally, but I made my own belly bands out of thick glitter paper, and attached square labels to them. If you need more information about how to make them, inbox me! I just used heavy duty glue dots to attach the square to the belly band. Had to do some measuring and such, but after a few hours it was all gravy. This is how they turned out! ** TIP: Attach a return address! Kenny and I just moved, so we didnt have return labels on our invitations (plus I thought they were tacky) BUT .. huge mistake, because now, a month later I am finding out some people didn't get there invitations - and there was no address to send them back to. AHHH!) BRIDESMAID DRESSES: I finally found THE dress for my girls. My maid of honor and I went to a few places, and nothing made her feel quite as beautiful as this dress. She said she felt sexy, which made me happy - I want all my girls to feel special and beautiful! The dress I chose is the Donna Morgan Laura dress - in blush. I REALLY didnt want to pick a pink, (Im not very girly), but I think it will be perfect for the rest of the accent colours. I will have them wear burgundy accessories, and darker bouquet. http://www.donna-morgan.com/blush/laura-blush/invt/d0869mxeblh$230 USD My girls unfortunately wont be able to try it on (the ones in Canada), because it is based in the US. But we will get all the proper measurements and it shouldnt a problem. I told them to be ready to order by mid June. I will keep you posted!! ** TIP: all bridesmaids should order together, or the colouring may be off. Sometimes the dye varies order to order, so you want them all to order at the same time! BOOKINGS: Deposits to travel with us are due by June 15th, so we are a few weeks out. 17 guests have booked so far, some of them only traveling the few days before and after our wedding, not the whole week! (Which is fine with me!). We are expecting about 40 total, so I will see how many actually decide to book. Beware brides, despite having a website and invitation with all the info, you will still be asked 100000000 times the same questions. Depending on how many people book, we are thinking of throwing a little celebration when we get home. (hubby doesnt like the idea, but if only 25 people come, I may want one night with all the people who couldnt make it!) Thats my only update for you ladies. I hope I have more soon. Trying to bang things off the list one day at a time. xx T

Hi there! I have seen your review and your thread comments about the Grand Sirenis. I have just gotten a GREAT quote from my travel agent ($1730pp from Toronto CAD).. way cheaper than anything else with the dollar being so low. Did you have any concerns about Grand Sirenis? Would you have changed anything after the fact? We are probably going to get the Presidential Package... but only because we love the idea of the Palapas. You went with the free package, right? How was the food and how much was the Palapas upgrade from the free package? I am hoping the TA can get us all in the same sort of area - which block rooms would you recommend? Hopefully something near the pool area. Did you two upgrade your room? Or just in the same block as your guests? Last question - they haven't sent me the "extras" price list - do you still have it? Could you please send me a copy.. Did you seem to remember how much the videographer was? Sorry for all the questons - this was not one of my original resorts, so I don't have much information for the Grand Sirenis. Thank you so much!

Wedding update! We just got a great rate for the Grand Sirenis. Thank God. $1730 from Toronto with transfers. I think as soon as I can confirm they have our wedding date available I will book it ASAP.

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone! I wish we just booked in December when our quotes were $1800. Land - only prices were only $1160 CANADIAN! INSANE! We should have just booked it! But 13 months out seemed crazy. We are going to wait it out and see how the dollar does. I think in the next few months, we will see gas prices go back up and the CAD get better, which will give us much better rates. Destination brides a few years ago had it so great. Dollar at par, and prices were very reasonable. Lucky ducks! @@TinkerSofi - the Azul says they do not charge if you bring flowers with you, only if you get a vendor to come in - which is awesome. We may just do silk fake flowers for the archway and for the bridesmaids bouquets, bring them from home, and assemble them when we get there! Could save us $1000 right there!! @@emmapalmer some of the off resort fees are crazy too! The dreams is $300 for flower vendor. But again, nothing if we bring them in our "suitcase" as they said. Videographer we were quoted $350 with the dreams, havent checked for Sensatori yet. Dreams also includes a photographer (only 50 photos though).. My uncle is a photographer, we have asked him to do some of our photos .. during the week, at the wedding, and perhaps the next day? Haven't decided yet. He is FREE! Haha. He said he would be honored, so that is awesome. Saves us a TON if we are getting photos all week (rehearsal dinner, wedding, day after). HAIR/MAKEUP: I haven't thought of hair and makeup really yet. Too long away. I will just have it very boho - down and curly, natural makeup. My bridesmaids will probably do the same, so no big expenses there. GIFTS: Totally forgot to include this. I see "OOT" bags, what is that? Out of town? I wasn't really planning on doing many favours, other than for my bridal party. The girls - I am going to get tote bags, and bikini cover ups that can double as robes for our wedding day. The boys - they will get engraved flasks! Maybe I will get tote bags for everyone. I read a review that it helped so you could spot other wedding guests on the resort by their tote bags! Has anyone found any for a reasonable price? We haven't looked into my fiances attire yet. He wants to wear all white and then a navy suit jacket. No ties. Then his groomsmen will be wearing navy suit pants and the same white shirt. We were thinking of doing just pocket squares for them, not flowers. CENTERPIECES: I was doing some more research last night and decide I am going to make my own pomanders and put them on every other chair at the ceremony, and then use them for centerpieces at the reception! I may bring some candlesticks as well for the reception to add some dimension.. I also fell IN LOVE with some pearl pomanders (also on candlesticks) that I can't wait to make. Have any of you made something like this? I feel like I've hit the jackpot bringing fake flowers .. Not for everything of course, but for all the things people dont usually touch - like the arch, etc. So ascetically pleasing for pictures! Here are the photos: " /> Here are the photos! Sorry, they didn't upload correctly.

Hi there! We never sent out "save the dates", we just reached out to our family and friends who we are inviting to tell them the week we are planning to go away. We picked the week based on when most of them could make it, so we didn't want to spend money on save the dates. Instead, we are splurging a bit more on our invitations. I didnt go with the traditional "passport" or any themed type of invitation. Our wedding is themed just like an at-home wedding, but just on a beach instead! My colours are gold, burgundy, nude. (although our bridesmaid dresses are coral and boys are wearing navy, haha) - our decor colours are gold burgundy and nude. One of my bridesmaids is a graphic designer, so she made it all for me. The body of our invites will be in gold foil, cursive writing. Our names will be in black. We are printing them on white linen paper, and our names are going to be in black letterpress. I don't realllllllyy know what it all means, my bridesmaid just sent me pictures and I approved haha. Our envelope will be black, and we are printing nice cursive labels for them. It wont let me upload the picture for some reason, so just send me a PM and I will email it to you!!

Hi everyone! I have decided I should start a planning thread - I figure I should share my experiences as I go. A little bit about me .. I am from Toronto, Ontario. I got engaged in August 2014 and am planning to have a Mexico (on the caribbean side) wedding in January 2016. So far, planning has been quite a process and I haven't even booked a resort yet! Kenny (my fiance) and I knew we wanted a destination wedding from the beginning. We are avid travelers .. backpackers, living abroad, that sort of thing. Our families and wedding guests are from all over the world (literally!), which makes planning a destination wedding a bit of a hassle as far as booking through an agent. STARTING TO PLAN We started in November by setting out to Mexico to search for a perfect wedding venue. We went to see 5 resorts, and have narrowed down our list to 2.. The Dreams Tulum and the Azul Sensatori. We wanted to give our guests extra time to save for our wedding, so we didn't book a venue right away. We are finally ready to book now - and our TA gave us prices that are WAYYYY above our budget per guest. (budget = $1800 per guest). Our rates given this week were between $2100-$2400 per guest double occupancy from Toronto. After visiting these resorts ourselves - we deem it outrageous to charge that much per head. (Especially when I have seen bookit.com deals for about $1500 including flights for these resorts). So, because we are now at a loss.. We are reaching out to other resorts to see what their quotes are. Unless there is a great deal - we will just continue to wait it out... see if the prices go down. Although that is really risky for us, considering we are getting married the first week of January. Its a bit stressful, because I have my invitations all designed, and ready to go ... but without a date/time/place! ARRGGHH. In the mean time, I have started a list of things that i CAN do while I wait. (decor, dress, color schemes, etc). I really never realized how much planning goes into a wedding. I wanted someone to do it all for me ... we can only wish. THE DRESS: This was another process. Dress shopping was REALLY difficult for me. Im about a size 2, so I always swam in the dresses I tried on. Nothing but $14,000 designer gowns fit me. The cup sizes were all huge, the backs so high, the waists like a paper bag. I went to about 8 shops total. And went back and forth from style to style, fell in love with quite a few, but nothing was really PERFECT. I wondered what was wrong with me. Why a dress was speaking to me... why I wasn't crying. Why nothing was quite right. I was even asked to do Say Yes To The Dress Canada, and didn't find anything. So, one day I just decided. If you like it, buy it. So this search can be over and done with. I showed my maid of honor a pictures of the dress I have been looking at online, and as we walked by a small boutique we saw the EXACT dress in the store. I made an appointment for the next day, went in, tried it on, and gave my deposit. I splurged a little (about $3000 for my dress, not including alterations). BUT, I think it will be stunning when it comes in my size. The dress is Allure Couture c288. Its truly so beautiful! Havent quite decided if I am going to have a veil or not yet.. I may get a cathedral veil for pictures, and then just have a headpiece or flowers for the ceremony/reception. What do you think? DECOR/COLOR SCHEMES: I know even though I haven't picked a resort, we will get married on/near the beach. So I have started to plan out my color scheme, archway, chairs, that kind of stuff. The more I research, the more I realize I have expensive taste. I also realized I really like dark/deep colours, which doesnt exactly fit with a "beach" theme, but why does it have to be a beach theme? I have chosen coral for my bridesmaids dresses (the girls really wanted coral, I wanted burgundy, haha). BUT, instead of burgundy dresses, my decor colours are going to be burgundy, nude, gold. I have decided I want them to have bouquets of deep red calla lillies, about 25 in each bouquet. I think I will buy silk, or fake ones and bring them with me .. I found a website online $85 for 105 fake calla lillies - making about 4/5 bouquets. As far as my archway - I want it to be draped in chiffon. I don't know if resorts do that .. or maybe they do for $$$$$$$$, but I am thinking of just bringing my own with pictures to set it up. I am going to go with Tiffany Chairs and have white chiffon decorations on the back row of all the chairs in the ceremony. Only the back row so they it doesn't look too busy. I will use the same decorated chairs for my head table at my reception. FLOWERS: I know I want those calla lillies for my bridesmaids, for myself I will probably have a mix of white/burgundy/gold flowers. I think they are usually included in the wedding packages. I want quite a bit of flowers on my arch - two circle chunks of them on each side of the archway down halfway in the middle. I may outsource and get a florist off the resort, depending. The dreams, and other resorts charge upwards of $300 per bundle of flowers on each side.. CRAZY. They also charge $6 per tea lights.. ha, insane. I hope to bring SO much stuff with me. I will probably use my bridesmaids flowers as centerpieces for the reception, which will bring in the burgundy tones. RECEPTION: My overall vision is clean, white, burgundy, gold, crisp. Nothing too tacky like shells on tables, or nothing too bright. I want it very "glam" looking, not "beachy". Although, nothing against the beachy theme. I just want more of a warm winter feel. I envision a lot of lighting, a lot of white chiffon decoration, and a lot of flowers. Not much other than lighting and flowers. I think I will buy tons of tea lights, or small candles and bring them with me. I may/may not have chinese lanterns. Depending on the reception venue, they may look cheap. But I really like them! MUSIC: Probably going to hire a DJ. Probably going to have to rent a sound system for the ceremony for music.. Dreams charges like $275 just to use microphones for vows. GEEZ! I'll keep you posted on how much that stuff costs at other resorts. You would think it would be included for the ceremony at least? DINNER: Not really sure about any of the food options, etc yet. I know that most venues with over 40 guests have buffet style - which I think is horrible when you are charging me about $100 per person to eat. I would prefer a plated meal for that price, but we'll see depending on where we book. How have the dinner prices worked out for you guys? BUDGET: Our budget was originally $10,000 - not including rings, dress, or our trips. $10,000 just for the wedding at the resort. I don't necessarily want a cocktail hour, I would rather use that money for an extra hour in the reception. The dreams only includes 3 hours .. do other resorts include 4? That would be awesome. How much is it usually to have an extra hour? I don't know if $10,000 is doable. It is seeming at a place like the dreams, it will be tight. Ie: $250 set up fee if you bring your own decorations. $300 fee if I use an outside florist. $870 for the DJ for 3 hours. $4 per table napkin... LIKE HONESTLY! Crazy! I would love to hear about pricing for other resorts. Either that, or I will be bringing in ALL of my own stuff, haha - and still probably ending up paying more than $10,000. Previous brides - is $10,000 a realistic price? Let me know. It seems like until just before the wedding you really get the pricing, which seems crazy considering we are bringing thousands of dollars into the resort. Anyway, that is all the planning I have done so far. It gets kind of crazy, and I could literally spend hours doing research - its sooooo much work! I never knew. Maybe we should all elope, haha. Good luck planning. I welcome any feedback, advice, comments you guys have! I attached a few photos of some of my decor ideas.