Puerto Rico Brides!

[evie]

Yeah Samantha! Glad to hear it worked out with El Conquistador! Very cool about the Oprah show by the way. I am happy for you. I am still at El Convento. Picked a dress, sent the save the dates, and...that's it so far!

[samanthag]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evie Yeah Samantha! Glad to hear it worked out with El Conquistador! Very cool about the Oprah show by the way. I am happy for you. I am still at El Convento. Picked a dress, sent the save the dates, and...that's it so far!

Thanks Evie!
I'm sooo happy to hear that you are rolling right along with the planning! And EL CONVENTO is sooooo beautiful!!!!
I would luv to see what your dress looks like! Did you email me a picture of it? I remember you were debating on two diff ones right?

[KEE LAC]

Ladies, there have not been a lot of post to our thread! Do I still have some P.R. brides out there?

[evie]

Yes we are still here Kee Lac. I am set for May 16th, 2009, at El Covento in Old San Juan. I am trying to decide between a DJ or Band. The hotel has a wedding planner and she gave me a lot of choices for music. She suggested a string quarter for the ceremony with a soprano singing the ava maria, a guitar duo for the cocktail hour, a DJ for the ceremony and a bomba/plena band for 45 minutes as a surprise for the ceremony. Sounds good to me. Samantha-so nice to hear from you. The dress was one of the ones I emailed you. The Anne Barge one. I created my own save the date cards on zazzle.com. I used a photo of the hotel as suggested by others on this forum as the cover of the save the date card. You can make your own stamps, etc.. on zazzle. It's a good site.

[samanthag]

Hey Evie I found ur dress on my email. It's beautiful!

It sounds like you have things all planned out. I'm sooo excited for you!

Your wedding is right around the corner!! And now you will be getting married before me so I'll be following in your footsteps!

[MsSunshine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evie Yes we are still here Kee Lac. I am set for May 16th, 2009, at El Covento in Old San Juan. I am trying to decide between a DJ or Band. The hotel has a wedding planner and she gave me a lot of choices for music. She suggested a string quarter for the ceremony with a soprano singing the ava maria, a guitar duo for the cocktail hour, a DJ for the ceremony and a bomba/plena band for 45 minutes as a surprise for the ceremony. Sounds good to me. Samantha-so nice to hear from you. The dress was one of the ones I emailed you. The Anne Barge one. I created my own save the date cards on zazzle.com. I used a photo of the hotel as suggested by others on this forum as the cover of the save the date card. You can make your own stamps, etc.. on zazzle. It's a good site.

Evie, your wedding is going to be gorgeous! I was wondering if El Convento can do really small weddings (10 to 25 guests) and are they expensive? I was looking into PR previously and wanted to use a venue on Isla Verde side. My DH has been calling and emailing with no response back. I was so discouraged that I gave up on that venue. Would you mind sharing any info you have for El Convento. Are you getting married at the church across the street? It's a beautiful place. Thank you

[evie]

Hi MsSunshine,

 

El Convento has a big ballroom where up to 150 people can be seated-I am having only about 30 or so in the ballroom! lol So there will be ALOT of dancing space. They plan on maybe using square tables to give the appearance of fullness-they can also block off an area. El Convento also has smaller rooms-one that has beautiful decor which they use for smaller parties. They are reasonable in terms of price. I actually have the prices somewhere in my email I think...I can forward you everything if you give me your email address. We are getting married in the church across the street!! It is very old but beautiful. We visited El Convento recently and were able to see three weddings! We saw their set up and they were very good. The wedding planner is on site which helps. Many people get married in El Convento in their atrium-which is gorgeous! I almost did it there. It is truly beautiful. Also, the food options are great. You can have open bar and a mojito or sangria station, etc.. For the church you give a downpayment -about $50.00 then they give you a list of things you must submit (like baptism certificate etc..), then you have to be interviewed by the priest and he will decide whether or not to let you use the church (sounds scary). The total cost for the church is about $400.00. Send me your email and I will send you what I have on El Convento. Every night for one hour the hotel offers for free wine and cheese for its guest on the patio which is very nice. The surrounding area is great! Great shopping, good restaurants, and there is a trendy restaurant called BARU where many people hold reherseal dinners.

[MsSunshine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evie Hi MsSunshine, El Convento has a big ballroom where up to 150 people can be seated-I am having only about 30 or so in the ballroom! lol So there will be ALOT of dancing space. They plan on maybe using square tables to give the appearance of fullness-they can also block off an area. El Convento also has smaller rooms-one that has beautiful decor which they use for smaller parties. They are reasonable in terms of price. I actually have the prices somewhere in my email I think...I can forward you everything if you give me your email address. We are getting married in the church across the street!! It is very old but beautiful. We visited El Convento recently and were able to see three weddings! We saw their set up and they were very good. The wedding planner is on site which helps. Many people get married in El Convento in their atrium-which is gorgeous! I almost did it there. It is truly beautiful. Also, the food options are great. You can have open bar and a mojito or sangria station, etc.. For the church you give a downpayment -about $50.00 then they give you a list of things you must submit (like baptism certificate etc..), then you have to be interviewed by the priest and he will decide whether or not to let you use the church (sounds scary). The total cost for the church is about $400.00. Send me your email and I will send you what I have on El Convento. Every night for one hour the hotel offers for free wine and cheese for its guest on the patio which is very nice. The surrounding area is great! Great shopping, good restaurants, and there is a trendy restaurant called BARU where many people hold reherseal dinners.

Evie, The church issue sounds nerve wrecking lol! I heard that there is a long waiting list to get married in that church. Also, do they have a bilingual priest? Unfortunately, I don't speak spanish but my husband does. Since I ma in the U.S. is it really required for me and my better half to meet with the priest before deciding our fate lol! Isn't that the church where Marc Anthony & Dyanara Torres got married at? I did look at El Convento's pricing and it mentioned something about food & consumption. I hope it's not an arm and a leg cost lol! Here's my email address : [email protected]

Thanks again for your help

[evie]

As for the church-once you tell them what date, if it is free they ask you for a down payment and they book you (in pencil-lol-really). Then once you gather all of your documents you make an appointment to see the Priest and he interviews you. It then goes from pencil to pen. They told me it is not a difficult interview. I am not exactly sure what the interview will consist of but the woman from the church told me not to worry. Yes, it is the church that Marc Anthony got married at. And yes they do have a bilingual priest-my boyfriend does not speak Spanish. Regarding meeting the priest-yes you have to do it in person. I tried to get around that also because it is expensive to fly back just for a meeting but she said I had to. Maybe you will get lucky! But there are other churches nearby I believe, if that doesn't work out-you can always get married in the hotel's atrium.

 

Regarding the food and consumption-a lot of the resorts/hotels are like that. Each room has a minimum amount that they charge for the room (depending on the day of the week you choose). So say the price is $10k for the room on a Saturday-you must reach at least $10k. You can reach it by ordering that much in food and drinks-then the room fee is covered. If you have a small amount of guests and your food and drink price doesn't reach 10K you will have to make up the difference. But if you book one of the smaller rooms the price is less. I believe the prices are listed on their website...it may not be but I have them somewhere. I will email them to you later today.

[evie]

Samantha-did you ever find a TA? Any suggestions?