Ocean Turquesa & Coral Brides?

[ggallo]

Hi All,

I am loving all of this information!  I wish I had this a couple of months ago.  My date is set for 5/5/13 at 3 PM at OCT.  I have been frustrated with Ana's response to my questions.  This last time took 12 days and an email from my travel agent to the manager to get a response. 

 

Could someone tell me if things get better once arriving?  I am nervous that if there is this much of a lack of communication now, how will it be then? 

 

Also, can any former brides let me know about this photographer they are requiring you to use?  Any good? 

 

Thanks!

[IchibanCowgirl]

I just wanted to say thank you to all the brides that have posted on here! Everyone has helped ease the pain of planning and the stress! I'm so excited to be leaving in 9 days for oct! My wedding is on 12.12.12! I have the fabulous Gonzalo Nunez to photograph my wedding and when I get my photos I will post when I get back!

[Danitree]

ggallo. My wedding is booked for January 10 th 2013 we will arrive at resort January 6 th 2013. I am still having problems in communication with Ana. When she does get back to me she explains that she is busy with her current weddings and is very apologetic, but it is still frustrating as my wedding is coming up so soon. From what I've been told it is much better once you arrive which helps me to understand why there is such a lack of communication now, she is simply busy with the brides that are at the resort currently. I am beginning to stress more and more as I don't get responses as soon as I'd like being that my wedding is a month away but I am just trying to trust that she does this all the time and knows what she's doing......I hope! Haha! As far as the photographer on resort goes I can't say for certainty but when I asked that same question on the forum a while back I was advised to not go with the resort photographer as I would be disappointed. As I say I don't know this information first hand. I have booked with Dean Sanderson and am very happy I did. There is a fee associated with having an outside vendor I believe it's $300 but I figure it will be worth it. He and his wife have been so helpful in the planning aspect and have answered questions above and beyond what they are required to do as photographers. I also found his prices to be very reasonable. Hope that helps!!

[ggallo]

Thanks Danitree!  That makes me nervous as well that Ana is still less responsive to you even though your wedding is right around the corner.  Please let me know when you return what your experience was.  (Although there is nothing I can do about it now!) 

 

I wasn't aware I could use an outside vendor for photography, Ana made it seem that I would HAVE to use the resorts.  But I'm going to move forward with someone else since you can do that.  THANK YOU!!!!  I will look into Dean Sanderson. 

[jdavidso]

Hi ladies I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get around to writting something I have been soooooo busy at work since we have been back, were to start well let me tell you everything was amazing totally exceeded our expectations. I was to worried about the lack of communicaton b/w me an Ana, but let me tell you she is the most wonderful organized person and she will go above and beyond.

We had just under 50 guests with us, the weather was great resort was nice, not to full at the time we went. I will break it down into categories for all fo you to make it easier

 

Hotel/roms/entertainment: the hotel was well laid out not to big not to small we were upgraded to an ocean view near the main pool bar, it was lovely the rooms are spacious and make for good pictures when getting ready. Housekeeping was great only had one guest have an issue with their room and they were moved right away. The lobby was spacious and welcoming the lounge areas on the terraces were great to relax sit back and have some drinks

although there was no nightlife (they would play music) we made our own it alternated from the pool bar to the lobby bar and in each area we had a great time and finished the night at Route 66-my friends are all in their 30's most single and everyone commented about how this was the best trip they have ever taken. We did hit up Cancun for a night and got VIP set up with Coco Bongo best time ever........

 

Food:was all very good, nothing to complain about was it gourmet no, but it was delicious none the less, no issues getting into the al la cartes and there is no limit to how many times you can go to them which if you travel to all inclusives is not always the case. Take advantage all are good, we tried everyone and were not disapointed. Buffet was decent, we also had a very good experience because the hotel was not very busy so there was never any wait or lines for food or booze....

 

Wedding: the wedding was amazing we had a beach ceremony at 3pm at the far side near the priveledge area and yes there is an ugly fence on one side however it is WAY more private Ana and another employee stood at either end of ceremony and wouldnt let anyone walk by while the wedding was taking place, we legally got married there as it was very important to me to have my Dad walk me down and be there when we were married as we dont live in the same city anymore so they wouldnt have been able to attend at a courthouse the blood work was easy didnt hurt at all very clean and all together the process was very easy to legally get married there. the ceremony was short we were able to add in our own vows at the end we did not meet the officiant before hand but it didnt mater to us.

 

We had our reception on the lobby terrace from 7-11 we paid the extra 2 hours and this was one of the BEST decisions we made as we were not ready to end the party even with the 2 extra hours. Afterwards we headed down to the beach party (we were lucky enought to have our wedding the night of the hotel beach party) the food was amazing compliments all around we choose the salmon carpaccio, lemon/vodka sorbet the surf and turf (which they cooked to a med/rare as per our request)  and then creme brulee, the wedding cake was tres leche and was delicious. We choose and ipod set up for the ceremony and the reception they supplied all the speakers ect with our package paradise package and the did a great job I didnt know they would supply someone so we had asked our MC to deal with the IPOD but didnt need to as they took care of it. I had all my songs laid out into seperate playlists so it was to use. The service was great and we had a great time.

 

Decorations;we brought with us table runners, napkins, chair sashes, sea shells, lanterns, chineese lanterns to hang, luminaries with all different sayings, made menu frames, and instead of using a guest book we bought a bunch of old vintage mexican post cards and got people to write their well wishes and adivce on those so we can keep them in a scrap book as our guest book we also hired mexican maracas to make 50 personalized maracas they were a big hit with the guests and they loved these as our wedding favours. I left all my non personalized decorations behind for Josie another bride and Ana was fine with that.

 

Hair:I had hair and make up included but choose only to get my hair done as i have sensative skin and didnt want to have alot of makeup on I wanted to look natural Litzy did a great job on my hair it looked just like the picture I gave them to duplicate and it stayed all night

 

Photography:we hired Foto Take It......so wonderful to work with young, nice friendly quick to respond I cant say enough good things about them they arrived at 12 and stayed until almost 10 and then returned for a trash the dress shoot a couple days later. I love their work and was so happy we hired outside the vendor fee was worth it as these pictures and our memories are all we have from that week. if anyone is interested in seeing the photos to give you ideas about the set up, locations decorations ect feel free to take a look at the wedding pictures they are on the webpage for foto take it under clients services Jan and Jon it is password protected the password is janjon there are alot of pictures 3 seperate galleries but it may help ease some worries for future brides. They also have an amazing turn around time, as you can see it was under 3 weeks. http://www.fototakeit.com/blog/jan-jon-gallery/

 

All in all the wedding was amazing I wouldnt have changed a thing it was the best week of my life. We honeymooned at the El Dorado Royale which is also a amazing resort and loved every minute the most relaxing week and outstanding food we have ever had....

 

Good luck to all the future brides if anyone has any specific questions feel free to contact me..

[Danitree]

ggallo. When I approached the topic of an outside photographer with Ana I just made it lie, there was no other option. I told her he was who I had decided upon. Don't get me wrong it does get pricey as they add a $300.00 "outside vendor fee" (I checked bak in my emails and got my invoice for my wedding today) plus they charge and additional $80.00 for a day pass for the photographer as well. But I say it's worth it to have great photos! Ill be doing a TTD with Dean as well! Good luck! Ill for sure keep you sted when it's all said and done but let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help where I can! P.s. heard from Ana again today will keep you posted as to whether she is becoming more available to me etc...

[ajhutch]

@IchibanCowgirl - Goodluck!  I bet you are getting so excited with everything coming so fast!  I'm having Gonzalo photograph our wedding as well and I have to say he's been fantastic to work with and has helped to set our minds about the whole process!  I can't wait to see your pictures!

[leahbecker]

Jdavidso- beautiful photos. Thank you for the great review. Does anyone know about bringing electronics to the reception? We are having our reception on the lobby terrace and I'd like to bring a digital photo frame, just not sure if there are outlets that would be compatible... Thanks for the help!

[TriSportBride]

Hi all,

 

Just got back last week from OCT (and honeymoon at SilverSands).  All I can say is WOW!  We used Sweet Fire Photography, and we're crazy happy with how the pictures turned out.  Have a peek!

 

http://vimeo.com/user14370373/review/54746931/755d169e44

 

~h

[ggallo]

Danitree, thank you again!  I booked Dean and am so excited!