I can't tell you how glad I am to have found this forum. We're in the earliest stages of planning a wedding for November 2018 and decided almost immediately after attending our first destination wedding in June of 2016 that it was definitely what we wanted. I was interested in Punta Cana and Mexico for ease/cost of travel and landed on Karisma resorts after hearing wonderful things about the food. My TA also let me know that in her experience, she's yet to find an AI resort in the DR that impressed her when it came to food. Any thoughts on that? Food would have been my only complaint about our June 2016 experience at PlayaCar-- we weren't dazzled by the food, and we've got some big-time foodies in our group.
Speaking of which, we're very fortunate/unfortunate to have a massive group of loving and fun-loving friends and family that love to travel. We're expecting 100+ at our wedding, although I certainly realize that we may be overestimating how much people like us (ha.) and would be willing to spend to come celebrate with us. I've currently got my eye on the SkyDeck for the ceremony and Zavas for the reception. Of course, if our numbers spill over 100, we're pretty much limited to Zocalo Gazebo for the ceremony and Beach Building #3 for the reception. Not that these places don't look great-- it looks like some of you have done spectacular things with those venues so I won't be devastated if we have too many to use the SkyDeck/Zavas. Anyone else planned a large destination wedding at Sensatori?
My original choice was Azul Beach Riviera Maya, but that was quickly eliminated when our guest list came together (I was told they don't have a venue that accommodates over 65, which seems crazy since the beach is such a wide-open space with ample room for chairs, but, I digress). I'm now aiming for Sensatori, unless we have an overwhelming amount of interest, and then I suppose we may have to think about relocating to Fives where the SkyDeck holds 200.
Anyone have experience they'd be willing to share about a time-frame? I want to give my guests, and my fiancé and I, as much time as possible to save so that's why we've already begun planning. The TA we're working through is DestinationWeddings.com (again, I'd love any reviews on them as well). Does everyone generally do a group contract?
Also, as we may postpone our honeymoon to 2019, does anyone have any idea what the Always and Forever package costs if you don't qualify for it free and what the stipulations are to do so? Thanks and sorry in advance. I'll be here a lot in the next 18 months.