Paradisus Riviera Brides - POST HERE!

[MissyR]

Ok Michele I just noticed that your wedding is two weeks away! It's going to be fabulous! If there is anything we can do in terms of last minute help let us know!

[yamille]

Thank you for the welcome. I feel like I should be thanking you for your posts. It's really been helping me figure all this stuff out. I am DYING to see it on June 5th....

[cocobobby]

Hi Ladies!!.....Thank You so much for the warm welcome..I can't wait to hear about the visits to the resort!

[cocobobby]

Hey so what did you guys decide about music That is my struggle right now

[nenamono]

Hi Everyone-

Welcoming in all of the newbies!

Sorry Ive been MIA but Ive just had so much going on. I usually lurk for about 5min and have no energy left. Its been craziness for me these past few weeks trying to wrap everything up in the week I have left before we head out on 5.25.08. The wedding is 2 weeks away and Im nervous, antsy, and excited all at once. I have so many pics I want to share with everyone like my bridal shower pics, and planning photos, etc. Hopefully I will work up the energy before we leave. Tomorrow is my bachelorette party so Im looking forward to unwiding with the girls.

Thanks so much for the offer Melissa I think Im good for now stressed but good just send me warm wishes =)

Im so excited Becks is down there right now. Cant wait to hear how her 2nd site visit went.

How is everyone else coming along?

[becks]

Hi Ladies!!!! I'm back and it was GREAT! We arrived Friday, sat by the pool, I had a trial with my hair (notes below), Chris got sunburned, had dinner at Sumire (YUM!). Saturday we spent most of the day with Elisa finalizing plans, menus, etc. She is still absolutely WONDERFUL!! Had dinner at L'Hermitage (still fabulous!). Sunday we sat by the pool and did a whole lot of not very much. Dinner at the reef grill - the rib eye steak is to DIE FOR!

 

Okay, some details and thoughts:

 

General Planning and Prep:

 

If you can, go down to finalize your plans. Elisa spent ALL day with us, showed us 10,000 photos of things that they've done and can do. If you don't want to bring your centerpieces down, they have SO much stuff there, but you have to be able to prep for it, so a visit is great. They also have a swatch book of about 500 fabrics, and they can get more, so linens and such are also available.

 

They will work with you to do almost anything.

 

If you do go, bring photos with you of things you like. We brought photos of some cakes we liked. she made notes and passed the to the pastry chef. I've no doubt the cake will be just perfect.

 

The Beauty Salon at the Spa

 

They are GREAT. Leticia did my hair trial. She doesn't speak a whole lot of English, so bring photos, but there are people who can translate for you if you need something communicated well. I brought photos, she looked thru them and I pointed out a few things I liked about each. She played with my hair a bit to figure out how much curl it had, how well it held up, etc. And she then did a great job. I think, having seen it, I'll go a little smaller, but I asked for lots of volume and she did EXACTLY what I asked.

 

 

 

 

Food

 

We tried about everything on their events menus. The really interesting thing was that the Mexican food was almost universally not so great. The cheese and mushroom empanadas were really the only exception. I think it's because each of them needs salsa and guacamole to make them great, but for finger foods, that's not always idea.

 

The cactus with crab was good, but we are having them do it without the cream cheese. The asparagus and ham was great. The melon and proscuitto was great, but they put little bits of maraschino cherry on top which wasn't great, so we pulled that. The sushi is really good, and they do a lot of non-traditional sushis, including one entirely of fruit which was yummy, but Chris wanted more traditional so that was out. In the end, we will have california rolls, tempura rolls and eel rolls. And we ate a bunch of it with no side effects.

 

For warm apps, we are doing the cheese and mushroom emanadas, the chicken satay (so good!), and the quesadillas (mostly for the kids). We also have a big platter of traditional Italian antepasta.

 

Music

We met with Carlos of Mannia. He is DELIGHTFUL. Having met with him, we decided to have him do everything - from the pre-ceremony cocktails right on thru to the last dance. We would throw out a few suggestions with regard to what type of music we wanted for each of the segments (cocktails, ceremony, etc.) and he would rattle off 15 other things that all worked well.

 

Can't say enough.

 

Other than that, here are a few photos - my camera battery died - so I only got the two hair photos and about 3 taken from the balcony of our room.

 

 

 

[yamille]

Hi Becks,

Wow it sounds like you were really pleased with everything. Your hair looks great! I am going for my 1st visit in June and I can't imagine that I will be disappointed. I read some bad reviews on trip advisor which got me a little nervous but I sort of feel like sometimes those are not accurate. Are you doing your reception dinner in L'hermitage? I read that in a past post. If so, are you doing one of the meal packages that is like $70pp? I'm just wondering how it works if you use a restaurant as opposed to the "imperial seating" situation on the terrace or beach.

I'm happy and excited for you!

[KLC77]

Hi Ladies!

 

I am new to the forum today. I decided to join after seeing your thread about Paradisus. I am getting married there on January 10, 2009 and have just started the planning process (we were originally getting married in St Lucia, but it was really expensive for our guests so we switched it at the last minute).

 

I can't tell you how excited I am to know that I can ask questions of people going to the same resort I am! I've actually read all 40 pages of posts so I'm all caught up! lol And everything has been so helpful...

 

Kelly

[MissyR]

Welcome Kelly! This thread is a great source of information and certainly relieves a lot of the stress of planning! We are all extreme fans of the Paradisus (as you can see by reading all the posts!)

[MissyR]

Thanks for the quick answers! Clearly I am not working very hard today cause I am too busy thinking about my site visit! I am feeling antsy that I will forget stuff to do while we are down there!

 

Anyone heard from LeShay?