Ocean Turquesa & Coral Brides?

[JasmineClark]

 

 

Originally Posted by TropicLover 

 

Hey ladies!  Thought I'd pass this on to you ;-)  My Wedding Coordinator / TA was recently in Mexico doing site visits to many hotels INCLUDING the Ocean Coral & Turquesa!  She posted a ton of pictures (113 in total) on the Blue Petal Destination Weddings facebook page.

 

Check it out:

 

http://www.facebook.com/bluepetalweddings

 

Hi There!

Do you know if these photos are still available?? I can't seem to be able to access them.

[leahbecker]

Does any one know the standard practice around gratuities? We are doing the paradise pkg with plenty of upgrades and would like to recognize Ana's help. I'm just not sure how much to tip her? A few hundred dollars or 10 - 15 percent of our wedding bill?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[jdavidso]

Does anyone know what the next steps are?? I have booked and reserved my wedding date, and now all that is left in terms of the actual wedding day is picking out decorartions, menu and flowers. When should I be doing this with Ana?

 

Do I send her pictures and ideas of what I want ahead of time or do I pick everything out when we arrive at the resort?

 

When and how can I book a welcome dinner at one of the buffets for out entire group? And also a reserved spot at the japanese restaurant for our wedding party and parents for after the wedding?

 

How do I pay if we do it when we get to the resort if we dont know the exact pricing for all the add ons, can we pay by Visa?

 

As well can anyone comment on the ipod situation we are getting the Paridise pkg and it says it includes speakers and mic and CD player??? do they have a ipod adapter that we can hook our ipod up to? OMG soryy so many questions....I feel so lost....

 

@Guilaine87 we booked with Romantic Plamet in Jan 2012 for our Nov 2012 wedding and we had to put down $200 for ourselves and 8 other guets to secure the group rate and then our guests had 2 months to put their $200 deposit down which we then got reimbursed for the 8 poeple's deposit we had to put up front and now all of our guests are required to pay in full by the middle of July the remainder of the trip cost. some guests are booking on their own but I have advised them we need to know by the middle of July if they are coming or not (just verbally) they can book whenever they want because we are over the 40 people alloted in the package so I wan to be able to budget accordingly and advise the resort and photographers ahead of time how big our wedding party will be.  

 

@modizzle: I have only heard horrible things from other brides in this thread about photographers at the resort so we opted for an outside photographer -Take it Foto is who we opted for they are a very small company super friendly take pictures in a journalistic fashion which I liked personally and they were well within our budget they dont charge by the hour which is great so we are getting them for 8 hours the day of the wedding and then for a trash the dress shoot two days later our package includes 100 photos, photobook, CD with pics, slideshow and about 40 individual prints of a larger size they edit them and we choose what we want all for only $1500 which is amazing I would have loved to get one of the bigger names for the photos but it just wasnt in our budget. They have been really nice and quick to respond however keep in mind that the resort will also charge you around $400 vendor fee and 80 per photographer for a day pass when you book an outside photographer. Seems like alot I know but worth it if pics are important to you.

 

@leahbecker I have no idea what to tip either so if anyone can give some advise around this that would be greatly appreciated.

[TropicLover]

@modizzle, Totally go for an outside photographer!  You may have seen other brides posts about the resort photographer, but basically the guy is not a pro whatsoever.  Just remember that bringing in an outside photographer means you'll have to pay the hotel a vendor fee....but it's sooooooooooooo worth it.  Your memories and pictures are all you'll have after the wedding so you want to ensure they're beautiful!  By doing a little research on BDW you'll find there are a lot of good photographers in Mexico that fit all budgets.  I've chosen Sascha Gluck who's work I love and who's price fit my budget.

 

http://cancunphotosblog.com/

 

Btw if you check out Sascha's blog you'll notice his last wedding was at OCT.  I'm not sure if that bride is on this forum, but congratulations to her!  You look beautiful!

 

Originally Posted by modizzle 

Photography?

 

Hey OCT brides past and present - I'm looking into photographers and am interested in hearing what other people have experienced: I'm not that sure about the in-house photographer - but for those of you who booked outside photographers - any advice? what kind of prices did you get and were you happy?

 

Thanks!

 

 

@leahbecker, I've been thinking about this too.  There are a ton of other threads addressing tipping that you can use the search field for.  With my research I've found that it is a very nice gester to tip the wedding coordinator.  She works long hours, replies to your emails all year and sets everything up for your big day.  I've heard people suggesting a couple hundred dollars ($200 - 300).  Does anyone else have suggestions?
 

Originally Posted by leahbecker 

Does any one know the standard practice around gratuities? We are doing the paradise pkg with plenty of upgrades and would like to recognize Ana's help. I'm just not sure how much to tip her? A few hundred dollars or 10 - 15 percent of our wedding bill?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[leahbecker]

@tropic lover - thanks for your suggestion. I was hoping $250ish would be a generous tip, so I'm glad you've heard that range is appropriate. So helpful! @modizzle- absolutely pay the vendor fee for an outside vendor for photography. I've heard fabulous things about Juan Navarro and also Gonzalo Nunez. I'm interested to hear what you decide... I haven't booked one yet, but my top pick is Gonzalo because his work is amazing and his level of service via email is so great.

[AnaS]

Hi guilaine87,

 

We decided not to use a TA for the wedding. We negotiated directly with OCT and got much better deals on the rooms for our guests. Overall everyone saved by booking their flight through kayak and the room through OCT versus everything we have seen from TAs.

The downside is that we had to put down a 30% deposit from the rooms blocked and these money will go toward the wedding and they will return whatever was not used if that happens.

 

Happy Planning!

[TropicLover]

Hey jdavidso!

 

See below for some of my responses. 
 

Originally Posted by jdavidso 

Does anyone know what the next steps are?? I have booked and reserved my wedding date, and now all that is left in terms of the actual wedding day is picking out decorartions, menu and flowers. When should I be doing this with Ana?

When I first started I worked on my vision...mainly the colours I wanted and how I wanted the day to flow.  I gathered online pictures of everything, Pinterest is an awesome website to help organize everything.  From there I would send Ana pictures, have her quote me and then decided if I would go the hotel or bring my own (i.e. lanterns, etc). I saved the menu until later in the planning process, but you can do it sooner if you'd like. 

 

Do I send her pictures and ideas of what I want ahead of time or do I pick everything out when we arrive at the resort?

See my response above.  Also I should say this depends on what type of bride you are.  Some are very laid back and choose everything when they arrive.  I'm a planning queen so I felt better doing it ahead if time just to see what it would like (i.e. the chairs, flowers, etc).

 

When and how can I book a welcome dinner at one of the buffets for out entire group? And also a reserved spot at the japanese restaurant for our wedding party and parents for after the wedding?

You can do this asap.  You can book as many people at the buffet without a charge.  For the other a la carte restaurants there's a charge per person when you exceed 10 people.

 

How do I pay if we do it when we get to the resort if we dont know the exact pricing for all the add ons, can we pay by Visa?

Ask Ana for quotes on everything you'd like have at the wedding and again send pictures....confirm what you want and don't want.  Get everything in writing.  When you get to the hotel and meet Ana you'll go over everything again and then you can pay.  I just heard back from her and she says you can use: credit card (visa or mastercard), travelers cheques or cash.  You can even pay a portion ahead of time if you'd like (only with credit card).

 

As well can anyone comment on the ipod situation we are getting the Paridise pkg and it says it includes speakers and mic and CD player??? do they have a ipod adapter that we can hook our ipod up to? OMG soryy so many questions....I feel so lost....

I think it does, but it's a good idea to confirm with Ana.

 

@Guilaine87 we booked with Romantic Plamet in Jan 2012 for our Nov 2012 wedding and we had to put down $200 for ourselves and 8 other guets to secure the group rate and then our guests had 2 months to put their $200 deposit down which we then got reimbursed for the 8 poeple's deposit we had to put up front and now all of our guests are required to pay in full by the middle of July the remainder of the trip cost. some guests are booking on their own but I have advised them we need to know by the middle of July if they are coming or not (just verbally) they can book whenever they want because we are over the 40 people alloted in the package so I wan to be able to budget accordingly and advise the resort and photographers ahead of time how big our wedding party will be.  

 

@modizzle: I have only heard horrible things from other brides in this thread about photographers at the resort so we opted for an outside photographer -Take it Foto is who we opted for they are a very small company super friendly take pictures in a journalistic fashion which I liked personally and they were well within our budget they dont charge by the hour which is great so we are getting them for 8 hours the day of the wedding and then for a trash the dress shoot two days later our package includes 100 photos, photobook, CD with pics, slideshow and about 40 individual prints of a larger size they edit them and we choose what we want all for only $1500 which is amazing I would have loved to get one of the bigger names for the photos but it just wasnt in our budget. They have been really nice and quick to respond however keep in mind that the resort will also charge you around $400 vendor fee and 80 per photographer for a day pass when you book an outside photographer. Seems like alot I know but worth it if pics are important to you.

 

@leahbecker I have no idea what to tip either so if anyone can give some advise around this that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[modizzle]

Hi Guilaine - 

 

People might surprise you. We booked our wedding for Nov 16, 2012. We had a complicated group rate booking out of Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and mostly Toronto -- in the end the best deal was Deposits ($250 pp) due March 21 - Full pay due Aug 15. I sent the invites out on March 10, and was SO SO worried. But guess what?? 57 PEOPLE BOOKED BY THE DEADLINE! And my travel agent at Blue Petal Weddings in Vancouver got an extension for 26 more seats - deposit extended to April 26 -- but i didn't tell people that ; )

 

BRIDES: I shared our "save the week" e-invitation here in case it helps anyone - we basically embedded this image in our email. it's actually a photo of the seat holders from another Destination wedding we went to, and i fixed the fonts in photoshop and did it that way.

 

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by guilaine87 

Wow! After reading pages and pages of threads I don't know what is holding us back from booking! It sounds amazing! We were totally set but once I found out about the payment schedules we backed off! We are want to book for May 2013 and I am currently working with www.destinationweddings.com they have been amazing. They quoted us through Transat and to get an early booking discount we would need to put $200 down each and pay the full amount by end of November. This would also apply to our guests which I think is a bit unreasonable considering how far away it is. Did anyone have guests that booked on their own rather than using your TA? If so were there any issues with that. We are trying to figure out if we should hold off for a month or two and then book it but I am worried about loosing our date and location we want for the wedding. We are looking at the wedding package that includes the Terrace. Did anyone get any deals on that package? I know some of the other resorts will offer discounts on the wedding packages or on your trip.

 

[modizzle]

Hi Guilaine - 

 

People might surprise you. We booked our wedding for Nov 16, 2012. We had a complicated group rate booking out of Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and mostly Toronto -- in the end the best deal was Deposits ($250 pp) due March 21 - Full pay due Aug 15. I sent the invites out on March 10, and was SO SO worried. But guess what?? 57 PEOPLE BOOKED BY THE DEADLINE! And my travel agent at Blue Petal Weddings in Vancouver got an extension for 26 more seats - deposit extended to April 26 -- but i didn't tell people that ; )

 

BRIDES: I shared our "save the week" e-invitation here in case it helps anyone - we basically embedded this image in our email. it's actually a photo of the seat holders from another Destination wedding we went to, and i fixed the fonts in photoshop and did it that way.

 

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by guilaine87 

Wow! After reading pages and pages of threads I don't know what is holding us back from booking! It sounds amazing! We were totally set but once I found out about the payment schedules we backed off! We are want to book for May 2013 and I am currently working with www.destinationweddings.com they have been amazing. They quoted us through Transat and to get an early booking discount we would need to put $200 down each and pay the full amount by end of November. This would also apply to our guests which I think is a bit unreasonable considering how far away it is. Did anyone have guests that booked on their own rather than using your TA? If so were there any issues with that. We are trying to figure out if we should hold off for a month or two and then book it but I am worried about loosing our date and location we want for the wedding. We are looking at the wedding package that includes the Terrace. Did anyone get any deals on that package? I know some of the other resorts will offer discounts on the wedding packages or on your trip.

 

[modizzle]

Hi Abby, 

 

thanks for this! still learning to navigate this forum so i didn't even see this till today!

 

We have 57 booked now - and a few sort of random pairings that COULD make the bathroom factor a bit awkward, ha! adds to the adventure though..

 

sorry to bug you for more - but for nightlife -did you stick to the resort the whole time? 

 

and did you do a rehearsal dinner?? with such a big group I fear how much the actual wedding is going to start costing.... so i'm not sure what to do about a welcome thing or a rehearsal dinner....

 

 

Originally Posted by Abby V 

Sorry it took so long to reply. I had to study for an exam and submit a couple of essays last week :S

I just want to start off by saying that for those that are concerned because there is no disco, there is ALWAYS something going on, at night, by the pool bar and being outside is 100x better than being stuck inside some club, in my opinion.

TropicLover - Ok, the day we were married, it was SOOOOOOO windy. It was one of the windiest days in the 17 days that we were there. I was okay with it because I was praying that it would not rain. The wind wasn't bad on the lobby terrace, but the beach OMG it was windy. My bridesmaid with the curly hair regretted not wearing it up because it kept flying in her face!

Modizzle - The resort will be great for 70 people. There were always huge group of people everywhere and they have a little bit of everything to accommodate different people (like the 4 VERY different pools). Seriously, the downfalls to the resort are barely worth complaining about. I mean, I'm not at all a fussy person. For example, the toilet is in a separate stall and it's a frosted glass door that doesn't go all the way to the ceiling. It is in the bathroom which is open concept, so god-forbid you forget to take your Dukoral. It was awkward at times, but really not that big of a deal. There were so many great things about this resort that those small things are so minor. Everyone we travelled with said it was their favourite because of the staff and entertainment.