Azul Sensatori Brides - POST HERE!

[LaurenR]

Enjoy your wedding! Looking forward to seeing photos!

 

@@LaurenR

We booked a catamaran for our guests. It was actually a perk we got with our TA. Included up to $1200 food and bev credit. We have the catamaran for 4 hours and will be going snorkeling too. Thought this was a great way for everyone to meet each other and something fun to do as a group. Some people opted out, but we have about 30 going on the boat. It's through Lomas Travel, and they will come to the hotel to pick us all up and take back after the excursion.

I like your idea of doing a welcome party with live music. Ive also heard of some people doing a smores event on the beach!

[JoJoCouture]

Who are y'all using for a TA?

 

I am trying to get my date confirmed and am SO incredibly frustrated. My WC is Ashley & she is not terribly bright. I called 3 times on Friday and asked her if we were down for 6/29. She put us down for the 30th. The 30th was NEVER mentioned. Ever. So now we are kind of back to square one. My only hope is reading y'all's post that say things get better!

[kmk2016]

Who are y'all using for a TA?

 

I am trying to get my date confirmed and am SO incredibly frustrated. My WC is Ashley & she is not terribly bright. I called 3 times on Friday and asked her if we were down for 6/29. She put us down for the 30th. The 30th was NEVER mentioned. Ever. So now we are kind of back to square one. My only hope is reading y'all's post that say things get better!

If you are American you can't go wrong with Wright Travel and they would be the only TA I would use... Especially with karisma! If you are Canadian (like me), I am using Laurie Lee Rosser (a few of us on this site are) and she is fabulous... Id recommend her to anyone.

 

 

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[atyson03]

@@JoJoCouture I'm using beach bum vacations and my TA is Nanda and she is the absolute best!! I love her. She's seriously so nice and responds to my emails within a couple hours if not an hour!! I highly highly recommend Beach Bum vacations

[MandM2014]

@@JoJoCouture  I recommend Beach Bum Vacations as well!! They are great.

[icoangel78]

@@JoJoCouture I think you have the same WC as me, I have Ashley too and she doesn't respond to my emails either until at least 3-4 days and as long as 9 days later. the travel agent I use is Hannah at Legacy Travel. shes really good, respond back same day right away or within a few hours if not then next day. keep in mind, the travel agent does not do your wedding planning so you will still have to work with the WC in Miami

[kmk2016]

Taking a week to hear back from the Miami team is typical and in looking at other resorts (not karisma), it seems almost all companies face this same delay. Problem lies in the fact they are coordinating for anywhere between 5-10 weddings a day between all the properties because there are only a handful of them in the office- multiply that by the number of brides planning weddings over a 1.5-2 year period and they are swamped. As long as you know it takes that long, and formulate communication with clear questions... I have heard it gets much better for most brides leading up the your wedding date.

 

 

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[atyson03]

@@MandM2014 who's your agent??!!

[icoangel78]

ok brides can I please rant on here?! this is how crappy the WC is. I had to ask her how to book the dj (vs her letting me know) then once the dj is booked I had to ask her how to get the song list to the dj. If it wasn't for this forum I wouldn't have known there is a list for the dj that we fill out and send back to them!!! isn't that their job to give us all that info?!? it's one thing to be SOOOO late on replies and another to not even reply with all the info in the emails!!! argh! what's the point of a WC when the bride has to ask for everything and arrange everything and know more than the WC?!?

 

I don't even want to complain to Miami bc afraid they will screw me over. I'm thinking after everything is over to give them a call and talk to management but with so many business they have I don't even think they would care and I'll just end up wasting my time!!!

[Cj1053]

You can get a lot of perks going through a TA. You will still have to work with a WC from Miami. Just keep in mind that it is typical for them to take time to get back to you. When I started, it was sometimes a week and up to 2 weeks for my WC to respond. But as my wedding got closer she would respond immediately.
 

Who are y'all using for a TA?
I am trying to get my date confirmed and am SO incredibly frustrated. My WC is Ashley & she is not terribly bright. I called 3 times on Friday and asked her if we were down for 6/29. She put us down for the 30th. The 30th was NEVER mentioned. Ever. So now we are kind of back to square one. My only hope is reading y'all's post that say things get better!

So I had written a blog with a few different entries and I'm going to post 2 of them here because I thought the info might be helpful...especially for bride's just starting the planning process.

Here is a list of things that are good know know during the whole booking/planning process
-Your first WC will be based out of Miami. You won't be working with the onsite coordinators until you arrive in Mexico.
-More than likely you will have your meeting with the on site coordinators the morning after you arrive. I tried to schedule this time in advance as we were trying to arrange an excursion, but was not able to.
-If you bring your own decorations there is a set up fee which is $5 pp. I have read most brides have been charged $250 regardless amount of ppl. I'm going to bring my contract from the resort that says $5 pp so I won't be over charged.
-You are not able to meet with the ministers ahead of time. We were not so keen on this. However, my WC provided me a few different packets of wording the minister could use and we picked our favorite and made a few adjustments. We then sent it back to the WC and she provided it to minister.
-If you get the Always and Forever wedding package you will be provided 2 full menu options for your breakfast in bed and you pick one ahead of time. This will be added to your wedding detail page. They are very accommodating if you need to make changes with the menu.
-For the candlelit dinner in the Always and Forever package, you will be provided 2 separate set menus by your WC and you choose 1. This will be added to your detail sheet and your WC will also confirm a time for you. I had a friend go to this resort and do the candlelit dinner and she said it was very romantic and enjoyed it very much.
-The cost for the 2 for 1 Sky Massage is $123. A bride highly recommended that we do this. She said it was absolutely amazing! You can book this with your WC ahead of time and she will confirm your spa time and put it on your detail sheet. All spa appointments are paid for at the time of service and not with your final payment with WC.
-We booked DJ All Music through the resort. We were provided a sheet to fill out which includes: bridal party introductions, bride and groom introduction, song for first dance, father and daughter, mother and son, cake cutting, garter toss, song choices during dinner, song choices for the reception, etc. This has to be sent back to your WC 45 days before wedding. You could also have the DJ choose all the music, but we liked being able to pick a lot of the songs.
-There is an $800 vendor fee for any vendors you use outside the approved ones by the resort. I tried getting the resort to work with us on this one and it was a no go. There are 2 approved photographers for Azul Sensatori. I fell in LOVE with Sarani (who is not one of the 2) and really wanted to use them, but the vendor fee was steep. Talk to your photographer and see if they'd be willing to work with you. Based off the package we chose Sarani was willing to adjust the price of our package to even things out better. She has been so unbelievably responsive to emails and so far we have been thrilled with her level of professionalism, ability to work with us on our requests, and most importantly how quickly she will get back to us.
-If you bring your photographer and they stay at the resort as a 'guest' you won't be required to pay vendor fee.
-You can request a rehearsal for your wedding once you have your meeting with the on site WC. I again tried to plan this in advance (bc I'm 'the planner' in the relationship) but was told we had to wait until we were there.
-I had friends who had been to resort tell me they stayed on the 'family friendly' side to make the trip more cost effective and she said it was wonderful and no issues being on 'family side' and not adult side.
-If you are trying to decide on a resort and looking into budgeting, the website for Azul Sensatori that has all their decorations, flowers, photographers, etc. is weddingsbylomastravel.com
-if you book the dinner that's included for up to 40 people at Spoon your WC must confirm the time of the dinner and add it to your detail page. Each person over 40 will be $25.
-keep your receipts when purchasing gifts, welcome bags, etc as you may need to provide them when you go through customs.
-Have fun. Yes, there are lots of decisions to be made and even more questions to ask...but it's your wedding. Enjoy the experience

I'm sure I'm forgetting to add some good tidbits in here, so feel free to ask any questions you may have.
Ok...here's the other one that had some links...

It's been awhile since I posted a blog so I thought I would give an update.

My fiancé and I decided that we were going to do the 'legal' wedding in Texas and have the symbolic wedding in Mexico. We found a gorgeous chapel in the Texas Hill Country to have our outdoor ceremony at. I wore a short white lace dress with blue Kendra Scott earrings and cowboy boots here is a link to the chapel we got married at http://chapeldulcinea.org
We got married on June 16, 2014 and it was perfect.

We have paid our final payment for our photographer and for the resort. As it got closer to our due date our WC was very responsive. I've still thought of questions and she will respond the same or next day. I truly think they are very overwhelmed and put the most focus on the brides' dates that are quickly approaching. Be patient as it will all come together.

We have finalized all our decorations and I'm so happy with every decision.
We bought maracas to put on each guests' table setting at the rehearsal dinner. We bought them at amols.com
We purchased pink, mint and white paper lanterns in different sizes to go in the gazeebo at the reception from http://paperlanternstore.com/
We found a variety of decorations for the reception tables at Michaels. I had a 50% off your entire purchase coupon and got everything for a great price.
I bought sheers for the ceremony gazebo at http://www.tableclothsfactory.com/ We purchased two 40 yard bolts of fabric for $63.
Finding icicle Christmas lights in the middle of the summer wasn't easy. We ended up ordering ours from http://www.christmaslightsetc.com

The best part was booking our honeymoon. We are going to be in Mexico from Thr-Wed (getting married on Sunday). We are only going to stay 2 extra days after our wedding as we booked a 2 week honeymoon to THAILAND!!! I'm a traveler at heart and so excited to honeymoon in such an exotic country.

I know I've said this in previous posts, but try and not let the small details stress you out. I had some personal things occur related to the wedding and I allowed it to stress me out.....AND....I got shingles 3 weeks before our wedding. I can laugh about it now, but it wasn't fun and Iooked horrible. This is brought on by stress. Not saying this would happen to you, but stressing is not worth it as everything will work out in the end. I can promise you that, as I'm 11 days out and counting, and it's all come together perfectly and I couldn't be happier.