Any Grand Palladium brides?

[StephyD]

Well, I just emailed her from work. We'll see if she answers.

 

I emailed her on June 16th, June 23rd and July 1st... asking if everything was okay. I emailed Roccio on Monday and then again Ariadna today. I just find it weird since she was so quick to reply before. Oh well... I'll wait and see. It's not like I'm getting married in a month either.

 

Have you decided on a ceremony and reception location? Are you having a cocktail hour??

[Ellabaja1983]

Right... I know there was one point where I was trying to get some information from her and it took about a week and I was freaking out because to me it was a big deal!!

 

We have decided to actually do a "renewal of the vows" on the beach. We are going to get married here prior to going down because it makes the process a lot easier. My FI is previously divorced so it was going to take some extra paperwork to take care of things. The other thing that kind of pushed me that was was that we needed four witnesses there with us three business days ahead. Not all of our people are staying for an extended period of time and I didn't want anyone to spend extra time if they couldn't afford it.

Reception area... I'm not sure. I'm trying to figure out what I want. I was thinking I wanted to have a dinner at the steakhouse restaurant as I have been told that it is very good. I'm debating though. Our wedding is at 1PM so it's a tough time to figure out what to do...

 

What have you guys decided to do?

[StephyD]

My FI wants to get married here beforehand as well... I, on the other hand, don't want to. I guess we would same a lot of paperwork problems and what not, but I still want to get married down there.

 

We are having the ceremony at 4PM and a cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 (I think!) and the reception will start at 7PM. We are having the private reception at La Laguna. I'm not sure about the cocktail hour, but I do want something to do for our guests while we take pictures.

 

We booked DJ Mannia for the reception, Claudia Rodriguez for pictures and Playa Weddings for the video. I went with Adrian for makeup, he's from Playa del Carmen.

 

I was about to choose my flowers with Ariadna... I'm getting bouquets for 3 bridesmaid, 5 boutonnière for the groomsmen + dads, 2 corsages for the moms and centerpieces. I want a few decorations for the ceremony but can't make up my mind. I'm not getting the red carpet... I'll have petals instead.

 

That's about where I'm at! Haha! I still need to figure a few things out. We went to check out wedding invitations here in Montreal last night, it's soooo expensive! It's nuts...

[Ellabaja1983]

Wow, I feel so behind after reading that!!

 

For us it just kind of made the most sense, because of the extra paperwork regarding my FI's divorce. I had thought of it but was a little worried my FI wouldn't want it, but he was totally game for it. So, that made it easy. We would either have to do it here before or after really. I know there is a document here in the States that we can do through the State Department, but it's just easier this way.

 

As I said, I'm not sure on the whole cocktail hour and dinner because of the gap in time...I want to do it because I like the idea of giving them something to do during the photos for us. The other thought is for us to book a dinner/reception later and that would give them time to go refresh, relax, and come back to dinner after. I'm thinking we won't do the DJ and if we do the music it will be something we bring from home. I want to do the whole dancing piece (our first dance, etc.) here at the AHR to include everyone in that.

 

I need to contact Claudia for the photography... did you contact her directly? I'm not sure about the video... or the make-up. I personally don't wear make-up, so I'm not sure what to do there. I was thinking of seeing about doing it at the Spa with my hair, if that's an option.

 

For flowers I know we are doing bouquets for the bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the groomsmen. I don't think we are going to do anything for the parents, but I'm not sure.

 

For invites/STD's I made boarding passes that we are sending to serve as one for those that we are inviting and for those we are not inviting to Mexico we will just send out a littler to let them know what is going on and that a formal wedding for the AHR will come later.

[StephyD]

ARIADNA EMAILED ME! Ok, I'm so glad she did!!! She said my emails went to her Spam... so I guess we need to be careful about that!

 

All your plans seem wonderful That's the great thing about this forum, we all have different ideas and opinion and we learn so much from eachother!!!

 

I contacted Claudia directly from the contact info on her website. She has been awesome to deal with. Her prices are definitely not cheap, but her work is amazing. We would have paid the same price if we got married here.

 

I'm sure you'd be okay with the hair and makeup at the spa! I've read great things about it somewhere on the forum.

 

She explained to me the whole thing about making the wedding legal in another country after getting married in Mexico in the email she sent tonight. I'm too tired to read it all and look for the information I need from our city hall's website... it does seem complicated, but I think it would be doable. I'll look into it tomorrow.

[Ellabaja1983]

Awesome!!! I'm glad she did... I'm going to email her today to make sure she got my information for the deposit because I never received a confirmation email from her yesterday that she got it.

 

I will contact Claudia. I have been told that she isn't cheap, but it's worth it. I've seen her work (a friend of mine got married at GP White Sand three years ago and used her), so I know I want to use her! For us, that's really the only other thing for the wedding that is going to be an additional cost... it works though because the Renewal of Vows packages are pretty cheap!

 

Hey, if it works for you to do it down there and then make it legal, that's awesome! If we didn't have any other added factors (like FI's divorce) that's how we probably would have done it too.

 

So - did you get the flowers figured out?

[StephyD]

I sent a bunch of pictures to Ariadna of what I wanted. She came back with prices but I asked for example of the florist's work. I'm scared to ask for something and get something totally different!! She's suppose to have pictures sometime soon... She's been telling me some flowers weren't available and that we could replace them with other flowers, etc... so I just want to make sure I like what I get. I definitely know what I don't want, so that's a start, haha!

 

What are your wedding colors? My girls will be dressed in a dark turquoise and all the flowers will be orange. The guys will be in grey suits.

[Ellabaja1983]

Oh nice! I can't wait to figure out the flower piece! I'm open to different kinds of flowers for the most part, so hopefully I won't have any problems!

 

My colors are eggplant and orange. The girls dresses are eggplant and I'm planning on doing the flowers for the girls in orange and my flowers to be the dark purple. I'm not sure yet about the attire for the guys... I've been thinking I wanted to do linens so they aren't too warm, rather than the suits.

[Sarah_K]

Hey Ladies!!!!

Well, I just got back from my wedding about a week ago. EVERYTHING was perfect! I was kind of freaking out about the amount of un-knowns when I went down there, but everything turned out better than I could have imagined. Don't forget that the wedding planners down there do 5-10 weddings a week. They know what works, and have every detail under control. (Hurricane Alex started dumping gallons of rain on us half way though the ceremony, and Erika was able to make it seem like no big deal. Everything still went off without a hitch. All of our guests ran up into the gazebo and stood with us for the last 5 min of the ceremony. It was actually pretty awesome). We had our ceremony at the beach gazebo, dinner at one of the buffets, and the reception at LaLaguna. Everything was decorated beautifully. It was perfect

 

My photographer (Luz María Avila) put together a slideshow:

CHAD +SARAH

 

We have also set up a Snapfish site for our guests to post some of their pictures of the trip (password: Mexico) Snapfish: Groups: Share:Registration

 

I have my at-home-reception next weekend...be looking for a more detailed trip report after that!

 

(Please let me know if you have any questions, or if either of these links don't work)

[Ellabaja1983]

Sarah, it's great to hear this! Your pictures are absolutely beautiful! How long did you book your photographer for? Also, out of curiosity, what time was your wedding? I'm going to look into the photographer you used as well! I just love all of your pictures!