EDR Wedding - Just Got Back - you have to read this...

[heatherjane]

In all Fairness... Re: Boycott El Dorado Royale & Karisma Resorts

 

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EL Dorado Royale Spa Resort Wedding

April 11, 2008

65 People

 

Having just returned from my wedding at the El Dorado Royale on April 11, 2008 I have mixed feelings and want to be upfront and fair about my comments. First off, the staff at the hotel was so kind and amazing and made our week a huge success. I realize there are a lot of unhappy brides out there due to the outside vendor policy and I am 100% on your side. I didn't realize it was as huge of an issue as it is until I got down there.

 

We had a large wedding at the hotel and brought down 64 people in total. Due to the size of our group we had to pay for a private dinner event on the beach. I'm sure when planning a wedding anywhere in the world there are always stresses and things that don't go as you planned so I won't go in to detail. If you are planning on getting married at the El Dorado and have questions please feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to give you some advice.

 

During the planning process I had read in the "Knot Destination Wedding" book that you should ask for a sample of your photographer's work. I proceeded to do this with Lomas Wedding Planners and they sent me a link to the work produced by the photographer that they work with. I'm not into knocking anyone's work but the quality of the photographer was not at the level that we wanted. I believe they were around $800 for the whole package so in a sense you get what you pay for. I asked the resort for other options and they immediately told me we would have to pay $500 for even bringing anyone else in. I tried playing hard ball and suggested we might take our group somewhere else but they didn't seem to care so I was left eating the cost. Fine...I came go grips with this however when we arrived and met with our wedding coordinator at the El Dorado Royale we experienced a bit of a hiccup. Another lady called Rafaello (I might have this incorrect) came out behind the desk and was quite rude to us and told us that Sol Tamargo was banned from their hotel and they were giving us an exception because we had them booked for awhile. She said there were 7 upcoming weddings planned at their hotel with SOL and we were the only ones allowed to have them cover our wedding (they communicated this as if they were doing us a favour) This is not what I need to hear after bringing 65 people to their resort AND paying close to $20,000 to host a private dinner and cocktail reception. Give me a Break!!!

In all fairness all of the other girls that I had dealt with at Lomas including Valeria were amazing. They don't make the policies so they can't do anything about these rules. I assume this is brought down from a corporate level and whomever has made these rules should not be running a company.

 

I have other friends that are in the planning stages of their own weddings but because of this rule I am reluctant to tell them to go there. It is really unfortunate when I think about it because it is such a ridiculous rule and I can't figure out what they based this on...

 

I can't stress enough though that the resort itself, the staff and the wedding was amazing. They will lose business if they don't learn to appreciate their business and allow outside vendors like Sol Tamargo. We had the privilege of working with her Associate Vincent Guihard and his partner Diego. The pictures they captured are incredible and worth every penny. If you are like me I was hosting a beautiful event and wanted a truly professional photographer capturing the memories which they did in every sense.

Married Girl: Heather

 

I know when planning our wedding we had a ton of questions about music and food and timing of events. Believe me...I am as thorough as they come and don't mind sharing my advice....

 

Here is a quick overview of what we did for our wedding:

 

April 5 - Arrival at the resort

April 8 - Wedding Shower at the Casita Pool

April 9 - Boys Played Poker in the Martini Bar

April 9 - Wedding Coordinator Meeting

April 10- Rented Bus to take Group in to Playa Del Carmen for Rehearsal Dinner

April 11 - WEdding Day

*Spa Appointments in the Morning

*Wedding Ceremony at 5PM at Gazebo 55 Which is at the far south of the resort

* Cocktail Reception and Dinner/Dance at White Gazebo Terrace

 

For our Ceremony we had the wooden posts covered in white silk with wooden chairs for our guests. We didn't get them covered and it looked beautiful. We had a wooden walkway covered in rose petals since I had heels on. We did a sand ceremony and had the rings carried in conch shells. We have Sonoma Tharpa. I was worried about the music selection but they were perfect. Romantic but still reflected the Mexican culture. They played Pachebel Canan in D.

 

We then got our pictures taken while our guests headed down to our private cocktail reception which was right beside the tents we rented for the dinner and dance. We ordered a special signature drink for the cocktail reception and played music from our IPOD. We brought polaroid cameras for our guests to take pics with and put them in our albums and write notes. I got these from Adesso Albums.

 

At 7PM my husband and I met the bridal party right outside the reception location and had the DJ play a song for our grand entrance. It was amazing. we then had speeches and dinner served during the meal. My bridal party had a surprise Pinata for our event. We didn't really get to enjoy the cake we ordered so I would discourage against this if you have a lot of people. We then had an amazing dance on the beach but unforunately 11PM was way too early to shut it down. They tried to shut it down at 10:30PM.

 

I had starfish with pink tags and menus printed up for each place settings. I also had fan programs done up that were given out at the event. It was amazing!!!

[LCBride2007]

I see that you've posted this a few times now ... I may remove it from the other threads, just so we don't have duplicate posts all over. And I see that this one has a little more detail at the end. Just wanted to give you a heads up!

[pryzeless]

I am glad your wedding went amazingly!

[shannon]

Thank you so much for posting!!! Since I'm getting married there in just 3 weeks, I am so glad to hear how perfect your wedding was! Sounds absolutely amazing! Please post pix as you get them!! Sounds like the only problem you had, was with the stupid photographer policy- is this right? You've made me super excited about my wedding -thanks again!!

 

CONGRATS!!!

[leigh miller]

i just returned from shoot a wedding there last weekend. no one said a word to me about being the photographer. im hoping when rebecca has time she will come and post how she felt about the resort. im not going to take anymore weddings there however. all the BS is just not worth it.

[Ana]

Your wedding sounds amazing! I can't wait to see pics

[MelanieS]

Heather, thanks for the post and great information. Did the resort also have menus printed for your dinner? I was told they would print our specific menu. What type of spa treatments did you have and would you highly recommend any particular ones? We are anxious to see pictures of your big day.

[KirstenRN6]

Thank you so much for your review! Can't wait to see your pictures! I'm excited for my wedding at EDR in December too! Even though there has been so many bad reviews about their policies, I still feel they will take care of us.

[heatherjane]

Here are our pictures....

del Sol Photography associate photographer Vincent

 

I just love looking at them...

Heather

[kerid]

Your pictures are absolutely beautiful!!! Congratulations!