Iberostar Varadero Cuba, WEdding pics

[Cherielee]

We arrived at the hotel around noon....all of our guests received their rooms before us... Bride and Groom were last to get the room...lol...but we were in paradise so it didn't really matter. My husband left our video camera on the plane...we got in touch with the air transat rep from the hotel and she got it back for us within two days...what a sweet heart she was....couldn't believe it!!!

 

We recieved a letter from Belkis at check in to meet her the next morning. The meeting went well...we also, pre booked with her via email to have dinner reservations the night we got down there our wedding restaurant which was the med. restuarnat. So that we could pick out which dishes we wanted to serve at our dinner. We picked the white fish and the chicken both were excellent and I had everyone coming up to me telling me how much they loved the restaurant!! We had more then 30 people in the restaurant and it can definetly fit more then 30 unlike belkis tells you...we had the restauarant to ourselves for an hour then other people came in and sat at the other tables that were open.

 

Wedding day...was the worst day of the week....the day before even the maid came up to us and said "your getting married tomorrow" ahh you should change it going to be BAD DAY...lol...i probably could have ring her neck when she said that...lol....anyway, when we booked the hair appointments with belkis at our meeting she had my mother and bridesmaids going ahead of me at 11 and mine at 12...looking back not sure what i was thinking but i should have been the first to get in...i had to wait for all of them to be done and I sat in that room until 2...wedding was at 3....o back to the weather it was POURING rain the morening we got up and extreemly WINDY...lol...but the rain went away but the wind didn't...thankfully the rain went away...so after my hair i went back to my room and got ready...belkis brought the flowers...they weren't the ones that i picked out but who cares what can you do they were still very beautfiul....we got crosages instead of bouqets for the girls and just tied them on their wrists...loved them...plus they were only 3 cuc...which was nice. Belkis then picked us up at 3:00pm to go to the beach to get married...we all hoped on the cart and away she went...she wanted to pull right up to the beach part...but i asked her to stop farther away so that i could have a chance to get myself together!! Then off went the girls and i had the guys meet them to escort them up the isle...then my ring bearer and my mom dad and me to bring up the rear....my husband was there waiting for me but the gazebo...and walked up into the gazebo and the ceremony was very legal and was kinda awkward standing there while she read it in spanish...but none the less it doesn't last long so that was okay...we exchanged rings they pronounced us husband and wife and then our moms came up and did the sand ceremony...it was a nice touch to take away from the legal part of it and bring it back to some canadian feelings.... after that my mom pronounced us again and the hugs began and champaign was flowing...we did our first dance right away and then the cha cha on the beach or congo line? We brought our photographer down with us JOSH BROWN from Montreal...I can't say anything bad about him...He is such a kind, pleasent, easy going guy, i couldn't have asked for anyone better to take our photos he did an amazing job. All of my guests chated with him and absolutly loved him. THANK YOU TO HIM from the bottom of my heart! Very flexible he did whatever you liked, and had a great personnality. AFter all of our pics we headed to the lobby we had a little bit of time to freshen up and then it was time to go to dinner...FYI at this time of the year 3 i think is the best time to get married because you run out of sunlight quickly...so just keep that in mind.

 

Dinner we had our MC announce the wedding party and then jay and I as husband and wife as we entered the med rest. the dinner went smooth...we didn't want any speeches because we are having a recpetion back home and wanted to leave speeches to that night...then after the dinner everyone just went to the lobby and chilled out until the disco was going on....then we rocked out at the disco all night....it was a truly amazing time....

 

Video...200CUC - WELL WORTH IT....get it if you go...it will be the single most valuable piece you will get from your wedding day....it captures lots of moments that you will want to remember...and have for the rest of your life...that also has to be paid CASH...

 

The resort itself

 

They have room service that is FREE from 11am to 11pm the chicken nuggets are the best!!!

 

The DO NOT have 24 hour bar as noted in the brochures...some food but not worth eating unless your drunk...lol

 

The pool is amazing but FREEZING

 

The bar tenders are all great and all staff are great

 

The weather was okay...so coldish days that none of us even went in the water

 

We did the cateraman that was i think 75 CUC we charged to our credit card worked out to be the same if you changed your canadian money into CUC...

 

We took the scooters down to varadero...the guy told us we had to fill them up with gas at the nearest gas station...YAY we RAN OUT OF GAS then the stupid thing wouldn't start after we had about a two hour delay of finding a gas station and bringin it back to him etc....then i had to beg the guy from the gas statioon through broken english they only speak spanish to come with us to try to start the stupid scooter...ahhh...wanted to scream...so my piece of advise DO NOT take them if they are not full...they should have never let us take them without gas in it that is not our responsibility i have rented scooters many times in cuba and never had to do that so don't make the same mistake that i did....it sucked...anyway after that we headed to the varadero market where you pay some local to watch your bike and then walk through the market...i took my TTD and gave it to a local at the market she was sooo thankfull and it was nice to see and to give it away to someone!!

 

Food

 

The food was Okay...I had been to the paradisus rio do oro in Holguin Cuba and If i had to choose between this resort and that paradisus i would go back to the paradisus...so if your thinking between the two i would go to the paradisus...you wouldn't starve but it could be better...the speciality restaurants were the best choice of food i think in my opinion....and my guests opinion...we had 34 people come down...the cuban i would suggest the chicken or pork chop... jap scrap was a great rest....lots of fun...it was my brother in laws birthday so i reserved a table there where they cook the food infront of you for 15 people we actually sqeezed 16 in the table and it was a blast...we also paid 15 cuc for a cake for him and got his room decorated for his birthday he loved it!!!

 

TTD

 

We also did a TTD session with Josh Brown a couple days after our wedding...AND WHAT A BLAST that was...omg you should do it for sure if you are on the fence you have go to do it for sure. I was able to scoop up a dress from a local bridal store that a rake of dresses for 50 dollars...so i scored but i would still recomment doing it we had a blast doing it and the pictures are incredible again JOSH BROWN you are amazing...

 

thats all i can think about to say for rigith now if you have any qeusetion your best to contact me via email

 

<A href="mailto:[email protected]">cherielee69@ hotmail.com</A>

 

and put something in the subject line so i know its not junk

 

Thanks and good luck to all