Iberostar Quetzal/Tucan

[qupid21]

Anyone have ANY opinions on photographers... So far I'm not 100% sold on photopro and I was wondering if anyone had used them and could tell me what they thought... I've also been looking at outside vendors like mtm and others I can't remember right now... But if you have any ideas I would love to hear about them!!! THANK YOU!!

[SamIAm85]

Hello Ladies!

 

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since our wedding.  Everything turned out great.  The resort is beautiful, you girls will love it!

 

We had our Welcome Dinner at Bonsai, the Japanese restaurant.  Dinner included sushi, vegetable tempura, hibachi style steak, shrimp, chicken and fried rice.  The food was delicious, the steak was my favorite.

 

Our wedding dinner was at La Hacienda, the Mexican restaurant.   The appetizers were amazing, and a lot of our guests loaded up on them, they did not realize a meal would follow.  Tortilla Soup and Steak and Potatoes followed.  For cake, we went with vanilla cake and vanilla frosting.  Lane and I were quite impressed with the taste of the wedding cake.  From our experience, desserts in Mexico don’t taste as amazing as they look, but the cake was very good. 

 

(La Hacienda Restaurant)

 

(La Hacienda Restaurant)

 

(Wedding Cake)

 

Alejandra is a great wedding coordinator.  She is very sweet, super helpful, and she worked her butt off.  All my e-mails were answered with in a week.  I brought 3 suitcases of table decorations, fans, maracas, guest book, etc. to her office two days before the wedding.  She took care of everything and I did not have to think about any of it once I handed it off to her.   I did not feel like bringing a ton of stuff back home and maybe selling it on the internet, so I left all of my candles, vases and floating flowers with Alejandra.  Hopefully other brides can use them and not have to pack as much stuff themselves. 

 

I spent hours creating a music playlist for dinner and it turned out to be a waste of time.  I assumed we could play the iPod during dinner, but since we had a semi-private dinner we could not play our own music.  We had a total of 44 guests and pretty much had the restaurant all to ourselves.  There may have been 2-3 tables of random people at dinner, I did not even notice them. 

 

As part of our package, a minister was provided by the resort.  It turned out great.  Hector was our minister and he gave a beautiful ceremony.  I had no idea what to expect, all Alejandra told me was he had traditional vows.  I was worried our ceremony would only last about 5 minutes but Hector had so much prepared.   Between the vows, sand ceremony, reading, and Hector talking (he also threw in the blessing of the hands) our ceremony lasted about 20 minutes. 

 

We had the white canopy set-up that was part of the package.  Carpet and white rose petals for the aisle were added at no additional cost. 

Also part of our package was a centerpiece, bouquet and boutonniere.  We added boutonnieres ($10/each) for our dads and corsages ($15/each) for our moms. 

(Ceremony set-up)

 

(Centerpiece and Groom's Boutonniere)

 

(Corsage)

 

(Bouquet and Dad's Boutonniere)

 

I got my dress steamed and pressed once we arrived at the resort.  It cost $30.

 

Manicure/pedicure was included in my package.  You could not give it to someone else or use that amount towards something else in the spa, so I just went with it the day before the wedding.  I got the French manicure; it turned out just ok and was chipped by the wedding.  I was pretty laid back in Mexico, but I wish I would have done shellac back home with mom and sisters.  Their nails looked great the whole week.    

 

My biggest piece of advice is don't sweat the small stuff.  I noticed once we arrived in Mexico I didn't care as much when the little things were not going as planned.  I was so laid back at the resort, I was at the pool until 1 pm the day of the wedding.    

 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!  

 

Samantha

[Canadagoose]

Hi Samantha,

 

Congratulations on your wedding!  I'm really glad that everything went well.  Your photos are awesome!  They really help a lot. I have two completely random questions for you at the moment.  (I know that I'll have more later). 

1. The sand ceremony - How did you go about organizing that?  Did you bring it with you, or did the hotel provide everything? If they did, how much did it cost? 

2. The banquet tables - If I wanted to bring a table runner to put on the table, do you have a guess as to how long it should be?

 

Congratulations again!

 

Deanne

[Canadagoose]

I know that your wedding is in 10 days Jessica.  I just want to say good luck!  I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.
 

[SamIAm85]

I just told Alejandra we wanted to include a sand ceremony and the minister had his own reading/script for that.  We brought our own sand, vases and funnel.  They will also play a song for you while you pour the sand.  The whole for our funnel was so skinny, our song (2 minute 38 seconds) was finished before we were done pouring the sand (that was a little awkward).    

 

I asked a few times how long tables seating 12 people were.  I got a different answer each time; 6.5 meters and 32 feet.  It was so confusing trying to figure out what they really were that we just guessed and made our runners 10.5 feet.  They turned out to be a little short, they just about reached the end of the table but no fabric hung down the sides.

 

Let me know if you have any more questions.  

[Jessicalynne]

Originally Posted by Canadagoose 

 

I know that your wedding is in 10 days Jessica.  I just want to say good luck!  I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.

 

Thank you!!! I'll come back with lots of updates and pictures

[Trace2013]

Gorgeous!!! Congratulations! Everything looked so beautiful.
 

[Canadagoose]

Originally Posted by SamIAm85 

 

I just told Alejandra we wanted to include a sand ceremony and the minister had his own reading/script for that.  We brought our own sand, vases and funnel.  They will also play a song for you while you pour the sand.  The whole for our funnel was so skinny, our song (2 minute 38 seconds) was finished before we were done pouring the sand (that was a little awkward).    

 

I asked a few times how long tables seating 12 people were.  I got a different answer each time; 6.5 meters and 32 feet.  It was so confusing trying to figure out what they really were that we just guessed and made our runners 10.5 feet.  They turned out to be a little short, they just about reached the end of the table but no fabric hung down the sides.

 

Let me know if you have any more questions.  

 

So if I make them 12 feet / 3.5 meters that should be more than enough.  Thanks!

[Canadagoose]

Does anyone know if the resort will allow us to release sky lanterns?  (We are making sure that the ones we get are biodegradable.)

[Jessicalynne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadagoose 
 

Does anyone know if the resort will allow us to release sky lanterns?  (We are making sure that the ones we get are biodegradable.)

 

Hi Canadagoose,

 

I actually wanted to do this too b/c they're so beautiful! unfortunately a lot of hotels in Mexico won't let you do this b/c if they did allow it, with the amount of weddings they have each month/week/day, it would actually be harmful to the environment. I'm positive Iberostar Tucan doesn't allow it as Alejandra told me this for the above reason. I got married in June, so it may have changed in the last couple months, but doubtful