stephygirl

@@calgarybride2015 - Nope she hadn't gotten it insured yet - not sure why. She was LIVID though. I didn't even bring my engagement ring down to Cancun with me for my wedding. I got a fake CZ made on Etsy and used that, hah! I took my real wedding band though since I wouldn't have been as heart broken if that had gotten lost/stolen.

@@Sophiebride - I chose BP for a lot of different reasons! To name a few - I liked the skydeck, I'd never been to Cancun but always wanted to go, they have great wedding packages, the beach is big and beautiful, there are rooftop pools, and the hotel is close by the airport (about 20 mins away)! I ended up being more than overjoyed at how our wedding turned out. The only other hotel I've been to from your list for a wedding is Azul Fives in Playa del Carmen. This hotel is quite a bit more laid back and secluded than Beach Palace, and is about 45 to 60 minutes away from the airport. The resort has a few pools around the property and also a really nice beach. The property is very very big, and the "hotel" is spread out into quite a few different villa-like structures. The thing I didn't like about Azul Fives is that the resort was so spread out that it was sometimes hard to find where your guests where. The things I did like: Azul Fives also has a stunning skydeck, and you can have both your wedding and your reception on the deck. Contrast that with BP where you're not allowed to have your reception on the sky deck. As far as I know prices are reasonable at Azul Fives as well. Another thing I like about Playa del Carmen is the downtown area that is a short cab ride away - there is great shopping and fantastic night life. Even though I make Azul Fives sound great, I didn't even consider it for a couple of reasons. One - I didn't want to have the same wedding as my friend! Two - my friend who had her wedding at Azul Fives says she will never ever ever stay at an Azul resort ever again (yikes!). She had her engagement ring stolen from her hotel room, and apparently nobody from hotel management cared and said there was nothing they could do about it. This is just one person's story, though. I'm sure there are plenty other happy endings! Overall I think there are positives and negatives about each place, you just have to choose what feels right for you and your guests!

@FutureMrsGarcia @ - Zaray was my wedding coordinator and she was amazing! Very professional and thorough.

@@Danielle1 - Glad it all sorted itself out! I definitely know what you mean about wanting a special place for the reception. I felt the same way. So exciting that it's coming up soon! No need to stress, it will all turn out great. We planned ours in less than 5 months and had the best time!

@@Danielle1 - Hmmm from what I recall the cocktail hour stations don't take up that much room. The Sky Bar space is a big rectangle, with one of the short sides of the rectangle facing the ocean and the other short side facing the lagoon. In the middle of the rectangle there is a kidney bean shaped pool going longways. My guess for how they'd set your reception up is by having the dinner buffet station on the lagoon short side of the rectangle. The cocktail hour buffet station would likely be on the other side (i.e. the ocean view short side of the rectangle). The 10 tables will probably be 5 on either side of the pool. For the dance floor I think they typically create a space between the tables and the dinner stations. Overall I don't think the cocktail stations will change much, because it would have just been empty there otherwise. So I don't think you'll lose space. The reception just may look a little tiny bit more cluttered. Maybe you can ask them if they could break down the cocktail hour stations before your reception started? @ - I felt the same way about communications - but if it's of any reassurance I promise they really start to focus on your wedding in the 1-2 month time frame beforehand. Some of it is just a cultural difference, some is that they're operating on "island time", and some is that I think to a certain extent they have to prioritize their time based on who's wedding is coming up next. I totally feel your pain though about spending so much money and feeling like you're not being heard/acknowledged. If you have Zaray as your on-site WC you'll be in great hands!

@@Danielle1 - so sorry to hear this. They shouldn't just be able to "move locations" on you. Hope everything gets resolved! Just a thought, if you're concerned about location changes, maybe you can leave locations off your invites and put them on an itinerary instead? From experience, we ended up changing some things on our itinerary after we toured the property. We realized we needed to be more explicit on how you access the Palenque Terrace for our reception (since it's behind the elevators on a certain floor). Our onsite wedding coordinator reprinted them for us in color after we made the changes. We also almost didn't even get the Palenque for our reception since our middle-man WC screwed up all our locations! I know the wedding planning stuff is stressful, but it will all work out in the end and I'm sure you'll have the time of your life!

@@laurag85 - Yikes that's a steep price! You should be able to extend your reception. Originally they had only booked our reception from 6pm to 8pm, and I didn't realize it. So the day we got onsite and met our WC i FREAKED out when I realized it was only two hours. We wanted it to last as long as possible - and 10pm is the latest they'll let you go on the Palenque. But....of course that came with a catch. We had to pay for extra time for our lighting and for our DJ. Overall the incremental cost wasn't that bad, although we would have shelled out for the extra time even if it were bad. So in the end our wedding reception was from 6 to 10pm and it was the perfect length for us. At the end of our reception I grabbed the mic and told everyone to meet up at the Sky Bar with their swimsuits on. Pretty much everyone went up to the sky bar and we partied there until really late - it was so fun! @@acw271011 - Thank you so much! I was originally worried about the BM dresses, but I loved how the color popped against the ocean! My BM's got them from Nordstrom's - they were Laundry by Shelli Segal dresses. I can't find them at Nordstrom's anymore but they're still available certain places online (note we removed the gold chain because I didn't like it, hah!): http://www.belk.com/AST/Main/Belk_Primary/PRD~150025995S24119SU/Laundry+by+Shelli+Segal+Tulip+Hem+Maxi+Dress+with+Chain+Belt.jsp?navPath=Women/Shop/Dresses/Casual 1) As far as hair down - I have very fine and very straight hair that does NOT like to hold a curl. That's why I went with a dutch braided side ponytail, with a curly tail. The braided side ponytail was great because it kept my hair off my face and I stayed nice and cool. The curls fell out pretty quickly though...but that's not unusual given my hair type. I didn't wash my hair the night before, but the stylist I went to at BP INSISTED that she wash it...so probably part of the reason my curls didn't stay in! Oh well, it turned out fine overall! 2) My veil didn't mess up my hair at all, thankfully! I bought veil weights from Etsy so that my veil wouldn't flop around in the wind too much - they worked pretty well because I didn't notice it flapping around. 3) Hubby decided upon a 3-piece suit (he's crazy). I just posed this question to him and he said "I was fine but heat rarely bothers me. So I might not be the best case to use as an example. I'd say it depends on the guy." From my recollection, he was sweating, but not overly much so. I was probably sweating just as much (actually probably more) in my wedding dress. He DID buy a linen suit and a linen shirt - which is a lighter fabric overall. Our groomsmen had linen shirts and linen pants. One of them is a sweat-er and it looked like he had jumped into the pool by the time our ceremony was over!

@@laurag85 - who is charging you to set up decorations? Your Beach Palace wedding coordinator, or the outside vendor? I'm curious because my BP WC didn't charge us anything to set up decorations. Granted, that only consisted of a few favors, our guestbook, a sign, and a couple of baskets of flip flops. The rest of our decorations (including centerpieces) were one of the Beach Palace collections. I didn't love the idea of providing my credit card information on the authorization form or giving them a photocopy of my card. But at some point they do have to charge your card and need your information. I think the photocopy is to ensure the information and your signature per the cc authorization form matches back to an actual valid credit card. I have had no issues regarding cc fraud since I provided them a photocopy back a few months ago. However, I did call my cc company ahead of time and told them the specific $ amount of the charge that was to be coming through...and also mentioned that I would be in Mexico from x date to y date so they would allow any of those transactions through as well...but nothing outside of that period!

@@laurag85 - congrats that's so exciting and coming up so soon! Your WC should be sending you a purchase order listing all the costs for the various items you booked. My biggest piece of advice is DETAIL REVIEW the heck out of that purchase order. Make sure you look at times and locations on each sheet as well (my original WC booked all times and locations incorrectly). Also as a tip your fiance and best man don't need to do any of the set up if they don't want to - you can tell your WC exactly how you want things set up and he/she will have their team do it for you! @@SunshineDreamKay - congrats and hope you're enjoying the planning process! I tried to answer what I could below: 1. Maybe reach out to your WC and ask for options? They should know the local business and/or be able to find a couple of options for you. 2. Possibly the shops at Mercado 23? Again, probably ask your WC. Would you be using these during pictures at the cocktail hour? I don't think they'll let you use sparklers inside the ballroom. 3. Are you doing your hair & makeup yourself or getting it done? I had my hair done and it took about 1.5 hours. I did makeup myself, which took a half hour. Getting into the dress, shoes, jewelry, etc. probably takes another half hour. Answering people's questions and organizing everything you need for the ceremony takes forever, too! For example, I was doing my hair from 11:30 to 1. Then I hung out, drank champagne, and ate from 1 to 2. Then I started doing my makeup, answering questions from my WC, talking to my bridesmaids, etc. Then the photographer came and made me take about an hours worth of pictures, and before I knew it, it was 3:30 and I didn't even have my dress on! I ended up being about 15 minutes late for my ceremony - whoops! Best bet is to start on the earlier side rather than later, because the day flies by. 4. Hmmm...I would assume the ceremony itself should be fine if there's air conditioning in the chapel? However, your cocktail hour and picture time will be quite hot if it's at 4pm. My ceremony was at 4pm on June 28th and we were all roasting. It was probably 95 degrees (i don't know what that is in celsius!) and humid. My cocktail hour was from 5pm to 6pm and most people ended up sitting in the shade or inside the hotel area since it was so hot. Me and the husband and family took pictures during this time period and it was a tiny bit cooler, but everyone was dripping sweat. Regardless, our pictures still turned out AMAZING and you couldn't tell all that much how sweaty we all were. It's pretty much going to be hot no matter what you do. Sure, it will be cooler if you move the times later, but then you also run into lighting issues as the sun goes down. Overall advice is do what works best for you and your family - and just make sure you have some ice and face wipes on hand to cool down and mop up any sweat!

@@Danielle1 - I think they technically serve drinks there from 9am to 1am. I think the latest our group stayed out was 1am so I didn't noticed them closing anything on us. Although the servers did leave around midnight so you'd have to go to the bar to get your own drink. Also one night they were cleaning the pool and kicked us out of the pool around 10pm. They don't do that if there's a big group there though! Yes, only one side open to the public - you can definitely go over to the other side any time you want! @@FutureMrsGarcia - Haha sounds like you have a fun crowd going with you! By 1am my whole group was exhausted! People will definitely try to get you in the pool. They tried to get me to come in but I wanted to wear my dress, and not only did I think chlorine might ruin it, but I was also worried about how long it would take to dry (and I was heading back to the states in 2 days). I just hung out by the edge of the pool - I could have put my swimsuit on but I wanted to wear my dress as long as possible . I still had such a blast there though! Honestly the pool at the sky bar is so much fun. Our whole group went and partied there both the rehearsal dinner night and the wedding reception night!

@@FutureMrsGarcia - so true about the partying all night thing! Our reception was from 6 to 10pm on the Palenque, and they abruptly turned off our music at 10pm (although thankfully it was the last song anyway). We made an announcement on the mic that an after party would be held at the Sky Bar and that everyone should change into their bathing suits to swim! IT. WAS. AWESOME. Such a fun after party.

@@Danielle1 - sounds like a good plan! Yeah - I know when we first talked about doing it a lot of people said they wouldn't miss it......and then ended up not being able to make it for one reason or another! 75 is a lot though, especially so far in advance! You should have a great time!!

@@Danielle1 - The sky bar north has a pool as well, and both are open for the day. At night, they kind of barricade your side off with tables for the buffet, dj, etc. However, note that the other side of the sky bar WILL be open to the general public. Also, there is a women's bathroom on the sky bar south side and a men's bathroom on the sky bar north side. So, there will likely be people sneaking over from the other side to use the bathroom on your event side. I know there was a wedding on the Sky Bar the same night as our rehearsal dinner - we all partied on the sky bar afterwards and some of us girls snuck over to the other side to use the bathroom over by the wedding. Also, I'm sure your BP coordinator will tell you that 100 to 110 people is fine. She will probably tell you that you can fit up to 200. But keep in mind that is probably the MAXIMUM they can fit up there. Meaning that is a very tightly packed, bare bones space. If you're looking for a decent-sized dance floor (one where you don't have to break down tables), buffet tables, cake table, DJ, and tables for all your guests - my guess is it would be a very tight space for your group size. Sorry to stress you out and make you anxious about this, I just want to make sure you consider your options. I just separately asked my husband "do you think you could fit a 110 person wedding on the sky bar at beach palace" and here was his response: [7/27/2015 2:51 PM] : not comfortably? seems a bit much you could just packed @ - i think your lanterns will be perfect! Totally know what you mean about wanting to allocate most of your budget to the wedding; that's exactly how we felt!

@@Danielle1 - 200 people?!?!? I can't even picture how that could be physically possible, but I guess they know better than me. I just can't imagine all the tables and a large enough dance floor being able to fit. But like I said, they should know better than me. To give you some idea - you should check out this pinterest board, especially the aerial view and the sky bar pictures. https://www.pinterest.com/allinclusivegal/beach-palace/ Also, watch the video at this link - you can see the aerial view of a setup of a wedding on the sky bar south: http://weddings.palaceresorts.com/en/hotel/beach-palace We did not rent lights for the rehearsal dinner - it was bright enough even after the sun went down. I think they had set up lights for us? I can't exactly remember! I'm sure your reception will be special - not only because of the music and decor differences, but also because people will be so excited about your special day!

@@Danielle1 - Sorry I think you asked this before and I translated "rehearsal" to "reception" in my head ! We did not have any centerpieces for the rehearsal dinner. We pretty much did a no-frills rehearsal dinner - no music, no decor, etc. I think everyone had a good time and nobody really noticed or cared about the lack of decor. It was mostly just a fun dinner to welcome everyone - and my husband and I gave quick speeches thanking everyone for coming (sans microphone). Any update from your WC on size of your reception location?