Any Eldorado Seaside Brides??

[SoonToBeE]

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S Carolyn!! Thats so exciting!!! I know it will be amazing!! I can't wait to hear all about it too!! I know I keep seeing all of Jen's amazing photos too and makes me want to go there even sooner!!! SO nice!! I can't wait to hear all about her wedding too!! I am now having issues with the photographer... saying I can't customize my own package... which is so bogus cause this is what Nicky did... how many hours are you guys hiring your photographers for?? I want to 5 hours and they are telling me that the price on Lomas's site can't change because it would cost the same for me to hire them for 5 hours without using a package... does that make any sense

We ran into the same issue....I think you used to be able to do a custom package, but I wonder if Lomas has recently made the change. I think if you contact the photographer before you contact the hotel then they can give you a different package....but after you have made arrangements through the hotel you can't get a custom package.

Ridiculous....we ran into the same issue. It was the last straw for us and we ended up bringing our local photog which worked out so well. I have the contact name of the manager for the weddings department. I can give you their information so you can go direct to them. They should be able to authorize a custom package. It's ridiculous what they do with the photo packages.

On another note...the coordinators at the resort are so fantastic. Vania and Celina are so great to deal with. By the end I was so frustrated working with Lomas because it seemed like we were continually being ripped off and that they weren't able to customize much.

Once we got to the resort we were able to negotiate down a few things and were able to make some changes that would have been more dificult through our Lomas contact. Vania and Celina are available every day (except Sunday) and go out of their way to make their wedding guests happy. Leading up to the wedding we had a few questions and some small changes and we were able to quickly pop into their offices to make these small changes. It was great.

These ladies are gems - make sure you give them a tip before going...I don't think enough people tip them for all their hard work, and they really deserve it.

[SoonToBeE]

Tracy - you may want to think about contacting the resort directly (Vania) to see what they can do...or you may want to contact their manager to see if a custom package can be made! PM me if you want the details!

[Tracy_S]

The onsite WC sound pretty good.. I am excited about that.. I am still in the process of booking the photographer... my fiancee says we should book them for the 3 hours and when we are there to slip him some more money and hopefully get him to stay a little longer... so we'll see how that goes.

 

Jen I've seen your wedding pics on facebook and they are so NICE!! I am so excited now!! Another bride on this forum just went there on a site visit and sent me a message that she will be posting some pics... so I am excited about that too.. Can't wait to hear all about your wedding... are you doing a review on here or just going to let us know the details in our thread here??

 

Carolyn... you must be SUPER excited... you leave this Sunday!!! I hope everything is ready and good to go...

[Tracy_S]

I forgot to ask.. Jen are you all settled yet? Can I start the millions of questions I have for you lol... let me know when you are ready!!! HAHA

[SoonToBeE]

Tracey,

 

I am all settled...you can start the onslaught. I plan to go through the pics this weekend and begin writing my full review. I hope to have something posted next week. I also plan on doing a 'what I would do, what I wouldn't do again.'

 

I finally remembered to bring the contacts at the resort for you, so I will email you separately. I'll also post the pics of all the different set-ups at the resort.

 

In other news....I'm getting our documents translated today! I posted my translation on Translators, Translation Services, Translation Jobs - Translatorsbase.com and had about 15 bids, in the span of a day, from freelance translators. The process so far has been really easy. I have selected my translator and am going to send her my documents today, I should have my translations shipped to me in a week for only $35 US (for the long form marriage certificate and the short form certificate).

 

The next step is to get the translations notarized and then I can take them to an Ontario Government office in order to get the marriage registered here, so I can change my name.....I keep you guys posted!

[prairiegirl]

tracy, did you get anything figured out with your photographer yet?? Remember I totally skip out lomas, never even talked to them about it, just found who they accept.. and emailed mexican weddings directly...

 

hopefully your working something out, unless they have 'closed' that loophole...

 

nicky

[Tracy_S]

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Originally Posted by prairiegirl tracy, did you get anything figured out with your photographer yet?? Remember I totally skip out lomas, never even talked to them about it, just found who they accept.. and emailed mexican weddings directly... hopefully your working something out, unless they have 'closed' that loophole... nicky

Well sounds like they may have closed that, cause they are now telling me they cannot customize any packages anymore... but Jen has given me the managers information so I may try and email them to get the photographers to customize it.. you know though I didn't even think of saying I don't want to go through Lomas I would rather just go straight through them... hmmm maybe I should give that a try too.. I have heard now from a couple other brides that maybe 3 hours would be long enough.. and my fiancee said well what if we slip him some extra money when we are down there.. sort of under the table to see if we could get him to stay an extra hour... so could try that too.. but so far I have asked for a quote on a four hour basis and haven't heard back.. but I will let you all know how it all goes down!!!

[SoonToBeE]

I would suggest doing all of your negotiating while you are down there.....much more flexibility. They gave us a deal on torches, music (we extended our party until midnight instead of just until 10) and candle bags when we were down there. I tred negotiating from here with the Lomas people and got nowhere....only when I was down there did I get a deal.

[Tracy_S]

Oh ok I will have to use that advice when we are down there then.. ok so you ready for this?? lol.... here goes:

 

1. Did you have a hair and/or makeup trial at the resort or just on the day of? If so, were you happy with the results?

2. Did you use your Ipod for the ceremony and dance music?

3. Did you book a dancefloor or do any speeches?

4. Did you do the private cocktail party and reception? If so which menu did you go with and did you like the results?

5. For your room category did you get the upgrade to a higher category or did you book the honeymoon suite? If not was the room satisfactory otherwise?

 

I think I will start with 5 and go from there... thanks in advance Jen!!

[SoonToBeE]

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S Oh ok I will have to use that advice when we are down there then.. ok so you ready for this?? lol.... here goes: 1. Did you have a hair and/or makeup trial at the resort or just on the day of? If so, were you happy with the results?!!

I had a hair trial done here before I went, I took about ten pictures from every angle. I printed these pictures out in colour and gave them to the woman at the salon who was doing my hair. That said….she didn’t really speak English very well and didn’t really understand what I wanted when I tried to ask her to do something different. Luckily one of my BM’s speaks Spanish, so she was able to explain what I wanted. I would suggest bringing pictures of you with your hair done so they can copy it. That seemed to work out the best…..especially with the language barrier.

I did my own make-up. I went to MAC and Sephora and did 2 make-up trials. Then I did my hair and makeup a few times leading up to the day so I was comfortable with the look and so that I knew how it would look at the end of the day. I also took some pictures of my makeup at the beginning and end of the day to see how it came out on film. From there I made modifications, I was happy with what I ended up with, when I went to MAC the guy taught me how to shade properly and did one side of my face and he let me do the other. This was perfect because I learned how to make it look the way it should look….not like a 5 year old did my make-up ; )

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S 2. Did you use your Ipod for the ceremony and dance music?

For the ceremony it’s easier to bring CD’s. Bring your cd and clearly label each song and what you want it to be played for (processional, signing, etc). The best way would be to rename the songs so that when they are put into the laptop (they use a laptop for the ceremony) it says what part of the ceremony they are for, instead of the song name. That said…we didn’t do that.

Vania met up with us to review each song so she knew what needed to play at each part of the ceremony (another reason why they are fabulous), I didn’t label the songs but she made sure they played at the right time. Everything went off perfectly without a hitch.

We did a reception, so we played music during dinner (on Ipod) and music from our Ipod for the dancing after the reception. They set up an amp that connects to the Ipod and is also connected to a mic. The mic was perfect (same one is used during the ceremony) and our guests were able to hear the speeches and hear all of the dinner music.

We had 3 different playlists (first dances and parents dances, dinner music, party music) and painstakingly determined ahead of time when each song would play. It was a lot of work up front, but SO worth it in the end. We really could hit play and go. There was no issue at all and the music was great. The only small problem was that Ipods usually play a song and wait a few seconds to play the next song, leaving a few seconds of dead air. You don’t notice when you are listening…but you do notice when you are dancing. Though it was fun to have a few seconds to guess what the next song would be : )

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S 3. Did you book a dancefloor or do any speeches?

No dance floor, I didn’t think it was worth it. It was hard dancing in the sand and my feet were pretty exfoliated by the end…that said, I’m not sure it’s worth the money….

We did speeches during dinner (opened with MC, did Best Man and MOH speech before dinner, open mic during dinner the parents speeches & our speeches as soon as dinner was served.) it was perfect.

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S 4. Did you do the private cocktail party and reception? If so which menu did you go with and did you like the results?

We did a private event on the beach (wedding reception) and used our booking at Arricifes for our welcome dinner. I am glad we did both, but SO glad that we did our private event. We did the 1A set course menu – Mixed salad, pork tenderloin and Mexican flan. I was worried that the menu would be terrible and would be small. It was $11/ person.

The food was pretty good, they did a very good job and were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING at dealing with the food allergies and restrictions our group had. Vania (on site wedding coordinator) called the chef about 4x during our planning meeting to make sure all of our guests were safe to eat the food being served. It was amazing. The portions were decent and the flan was actually really good. I was very happy we did the $11 menu. It wasn’t amazing but after struggling to remember what had been served at every other wedding we attended we realized “good†was good enough for us.

For those who may not have been full after dinner (or who got hungry from dancing) the Sandwicherie stand was open until 2. You can get fries, sandwiches and other snack foods all night long, so guests were free to nibble away all night long.

It did rain before our dinner and in a matter of 10 minutes we were moved into the open gazebo area beside the Sandwicherie, it was actually better than being on the beach, much more intimate.

Also, I was worried about the evening entertainment being too loud for our event. I can attest that we had no idea what was going on with the evening entertainment….couldn’t hear them at all.

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S 5. For your room category did you get the upgrade to a higher category or did you book the honeymoon suite? If not was the room satisfactory otherwise?

We booked the swimup which was perfect the second week. We were so happy that we booked it. It was fun to have guests over to the swim up too. If you want to have a party swimup room connected directly to the pool you should ask to be in block 38 and 39 (I think) it connects to the Gaviota’s swim bar and means that you have a pool basically at your door step. For quieter room you’ll want to be in blocks 36 and 37 which are connected to a swim up bar, but no pool.

The whole second week we didn’t go to the beach, we hung out on our back swim up deck…..perfect!

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Originally Posted by Tracy_S I think I will start with 5 and go from there... thanks in advance Jen

No problem! Sorry for the crazy long response.....just want to give you all the details you would ever want to know ; )