Las Caletas Couples ~ POST HERE!!! (**All LC Brides...PLEASE READ 1st post, red text)

[lesley_mexico_bride]

I think I remember Kelley telling me the tables sat 6-8. I think I did a mix and had about 6 tables besides the bride and groom table. We had about 45 people. We also stayed at the Westin for the wediding and had our rehearsal dinner at the River Cafe. like choeft201. Actually, she helped me get in contact with the guy, thanks again! He arranged a "coach" bus service with a tour guide. People loved the margaritas and guacamole I remember. It was a good price also. We stayed at Dreams PV for the honeymoon but our guests had already left. I found some really cute bags at forever 21 for 1.00 each. I took their whole supply! . I gave one bag per couple, singles got their own bag. It had water bottle (dad bought bottles in mexico at Sams) with our label (I made and brought down), an "oh sh*t kit" with medicine (wholesale generic packets online) and first aide (dollar store), a mini bottle of local tequilla (my dad got from Tequilla, Mexico, he lives in Guadalajara), my dad also put together a trail mix snack, wristlets with a whistle and plastic ID holder to hold cash/key/cards, monogram breath mints, monogram sunscreen chapstick, monogram playing cards, postcard, etc. People loved it and it did not cost a lot. I did a lot of DIY, and I am not crafty. Go to your local dollar store (I love dollar tree) and find free label templates online to help cut costs. I used vista print for postcards/printed materials, found wholesale ID badges online, and I found the wristlets on oriental trading company online.

 

[lvietti]

Lesley I love the BAGS!!! Okay that's what I was thinking of doing and that helps! 1 bag per room and a separate bag for the single rooms... Thanks for the info and help! I'm over here trying to figure all of this out and going crazy!!! :)

[lvietti]

Okay I feel like I'm blowing this forum up with questions, but I guess it's that time for me.

 

Does anyone have a picture of their guestbook table? How was it set up, did you get extra decorations/centerpiece?

[laurinmarie]

LC was a great and beautiful place to get married when I got married November 13^th 2011. Now that Kelley is gone, from the changes I have heard about I would not choose to get married there now. I would for sure find a different location with Kelley’s new company. When I did my site visit with Kelley months before the wedding she took me to a few other location choices as my mother is a travel agent and has other brides wanting to book. Those locations were amazing and I would go there purely based on Kelley being there. She made the ENTIRE experience amazing and relaxing. She really knows her stuff and from what I saw of the people she was training at my wedding… I would not be comfortable with her replacements and from what I heard they were the owner of the properties girlfriend and not a qualified wedding planner. That is just my honest opinion from all that I saw and experienced.  Las Caletas would have been cancelled if Kelley was not doing my wedding. I would have lost the cash and ran for the hills!

Now on to my review…

The day of the wedding my 3 bridesmaids and my mother and I took a cab to BocaDeTamalirin and boarded a zodiac and fled to the island. Upon arrival we were told that 2 of the girls had to go get massages ASAP and after would be the other two girls. We were all VERY impressed with the massages and felt the 1 hour for $50 was more than fair priced. While the 2 girls were doing that the rest of us were down at the beach playing in the water and finishing our thank you speeches. As soon as they were done we had to swap spots so that was sad because I really did not get much time with the group as a whole. After massages I practiced walking down the stairs and such and soon found out all of my groomsmen and grooms flowers had arrived dead. The girl’s flowers were amazing but the men’s were horrid. Kelley being the amazing person she was salvaged the situation and found some shrubbery and took from other arrangements and made entirely new boutonnieres and they turned out GREAT! Not what I spent months picking out... but no one noticed! The bridal casita was cute and perfect for our needs! The showers have zero pressure so that was a major negative and ICE COLD! Just not the way I thought I’d be showering for my wedding at all!!

We then got rushed off to lunch and as we sat down we were informed Fernando (he got brought in secretly and was not to be doing our hair as they fired him for not wanting to sign on fully with Las Caletas, he has a shop and wouldn’t close that so they let him go is what I was told from Kelley however I refused to use anyone else so she brought him in for me as it was a Sunday and the head guys would not be there) Anyways we were told Fernando was nervous on time and 2 girls had to race to shower and we had to eat fast… I had bumped up my time by 1 hour both directions on the wedding day and it is clear that was not factored into the time we had to get ready!!!! Once we were all showered we got started on hair and makeup with Fernando and his team. They did me last... which was a huge mistake as I legit DID NOT have time for photos with my bridesmaids or mother. I had people pinning my hair as I was essentially putting on my wedding gown. I did not have my hair turn out ANYTHING like the photo in neither my trial nor my wedding day but to be honest…. I LOVED IT! Fernando just has such talent and skill that is unmatched. My makeup and hair could not have turned out better!!!!! Now here is where things go sour… We got time for maybe 5 wedding photo shots here... it turns out the groomsmen and groom got about 30 so it shows just how behind getting ready we all were. Oh yes that reminds me... my hair flower got lost and had to be replaced by roses… Some staff member moved my flower from the fridge and it went missing the day of the wedding I was told. On another random point… we used Vallarta Adventures photography and we had Gino as our head photographer! HE IS THE BEST ON THIS EARTH!!! I could not even imagine about being happier with our photos…. I am very picky and very very critical and he did such an amazing job with the wedding and trash the dress photos! HE WAS SO NICE, GENUINE AND AMAZING! He chatted with us, kept me calm, kept me smiling and honestly made the day 100X better. One of my biggest wedding memories is how amazing he was and how much I miss him!

So Kelley came and told us to start making our way down to the beach… well it was time... the guy s made their way down the aisle.. As my second girl was half way down the aisle… the music stops….. She freezes and just stands there... I am back with Kelley and I hear this and freak out... and Kelley tells me also a heads up the microphones are not working you will need to yell your vows…… music still not working… I AM ABOUT TO PASS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally the DJ restarts the song and the girls continue on… It was horrible… well at this point I am still up at the top and she was to radio him when to start my song… well all of the sudden it starts…. So I actually had to pick up my dress and RUN towards the stairs because it was all planned out to start walking at a certain point! I raced down the steps and stopped just before everyone could see me… and as me and my dad were going down the stairs he kicked over about 4 candles and broke the glass which I then stepped on… so perhaps ask for the candles to be farther apart down the steps so that does not happen to you. The ceremony went great we had to use Chuy because from what I heard they had just recently fired Brad… who I was SUPER excited to use…again another choice by the owners to cut costs and such…. Chuy did great and the ceremony was great…. Except for the song that we were to walk off to the aisle never came on and we stood there stupid waiting for it... only to realize he had it on low low low volume so nobody could hear it. I spent MONTHS looking up PERFECT songs and I stressed over and over how important music was to me and I was assured the DJ would be great. Anyways… went into wedding photos… it got dark ASAP and I was assured if we paid for the extra time ahead it would not be that dark so I was very ticked we didn’t get very many photos. One tip is to just give the family ahead of time a warning on the group photo… it took us a very long time to even get people to WANT to come over for the group photo! Such precious time wasted

Next I went and changed dresses and Kelley was great to be a lookout for me! I came back and we went right into dinner... the food was AMAZING and service was great and the staff couldn’t be better. During dinner I heard a Johnny cash song being played so I went up to Kelley and asked why this was... I sent a list to the DJ of dinner songs. She goes well is this not on your iPod?? I said it very may be on there but it is NOT on the list of songs to play I gave the DJ a month before the wedding……….. Essentially all of the dinner songs were just my iPod on shuffle instead of doing the songs I requested and paid for! Afterwards we did speeches and the microphone was still not working but you couldn’t possibly do speeches without it so we had to keep trying and it kept cutting in and out and being scratchy and that was probably the second worst thing… the first being the DJ totally totally failing at his job. So after speeches we cut the cake and it turned out amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY YUMMY We then went down to the beach for the slideshow… the staff had set it up during dinner and it was fantastic!!! After this we did the Fire Lanterns and those turned out amazing everyone was in awe! We strategically had our first dance song start right after we demonstrated the fire lanterns so we had that in the background and not everyone was staring at us! After this we began the dance and that was great. Soon I realized the music being played was nothing that I had on my list... so I went up to the bar and Gino the photographer comes over to me with my iphone and is like hey we are confused what songs do we play.. I said I sent the DJ a list a month ago... he said oh k can we just play something else? I said No I have family and friends and we want to listen to our favorite songs!! I asked if I needed to sit down and rewrite out the songs list ON MY WEDDING DAY and he said ok no we will figure it out…. So they went over and plopped my iPhone back in and started playing more songs... I was told the DJ would download the music onto his own system I did not have my playlists updated because it was never to be the main source of music at my wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So then they began to play 5 flogging molly songs in a row and if you know that band you need major stamina to dance!! It’s all Irish jigging!!! I was honestly so disappointed and my main wedding memory is just how bad the DJ screwed up!!!!!

We did finally dance the night away and had the fire dancers come eventually! They were amazing and 100000000000% worth the money! DO IT! Of course the night came to an end and it got very chaotic and confusing trying to grab bags… I was told the staff bring our stuff back to the boat… they just brought it down to the dinner tables... so I had to start asking guests to grab bags and carry them to the boat! Some of which bags I didn’t get back to days later. My makeup and toothbrush bag got carried away by someone and that also took me a day to get from the guest so try to avoid that from happening to you! On the boat ride home they played a VERY VERY VERY dirty vulgar song and to this day am sooo ashamed my grandparents had to listen to Lil John – Get Low! That was very bad judgment on the boat staffs part. We did get very rowdy on the boat and had ppl hanging upside down from the bars doing shots and it was a total hoot! Again Gino the photographer was in the middle of everything taking great photos and just being such a team player! We got off the boat and boarded the bus to get home and it was a fantastic night! 3 days later Gino came to our new hotel for Trash the Dress photos and they were amazing! I am just waiting on my photo book and canvas print in the mail and then it’s all over! I am open for questions if anyone has any and I will post some photos soon!

 

Thanks!

 

Laurin

[laurinmarie]

[laurinmarie]

[laurinmarie]

Hello! We had our ceremony at 5:15 I believe and by 6:15 I would say it was pitch dark on November 13th 2011

[lvietti]

Wow Laurin, I'm confused, you said you would go anywhere Kelly is...and not chose Las Caletas because she is gone......, yet she was your coordinator and your entire review is NEGATIVE? Or majority of it, those of us about to get married are excited! You and and all of us have a right and can appreciate an honest review, but I'm still confused. You said you wouldn't use the new coordinators because of what you "kind of witnessed" and I know they were a month in of "training" I was there for site visit in October, yet yours was crap anyways? And that was Kelly? 

 

All those problems should have been taken care of by KELLY, period! She should've known the flowers were dead before they arrived, she should've fixed the DJ problem. I'm anxiously awaiting the reviews of people recently with the new coordinators. I know one already posted day after wedding with Dennise and said it was AMAZING and she said she is a picky bride. I appreciate your feedback, but maybe on a Sunday they had to call in a different DJ? It was a replacement? Stuff happens and she should've fixed your list. I'm sorry that happened to you. I would complain to her.

 

I also had my hair done by the new person Joel when I visited in October. From my understanding (via Kelly) Fernando decided not to stay with them because of his shop, that was his decision, that is not getting fired- those are two different things. And to be honest I'm glad I can include my hair and makeup in the contract and pay by credit card if need be and not worry about hauling 300 plus in cash to the island. Joel was GREAT my makeup was flawless and I went to Rhythms of the night that night, was sweating BULLETS due to the humidity and you wouldn't have ever known.

 

I met Dennise in October and she seemed fine- she was one week in and took diligent notes with Kelly. Being someone who cancelled my local wedding 5 months out due to Drama, it's one day, you make it what you make it. Are you there for show? Or for marriage- and a I agree that we pay a lot of money, that's why I'm going simple, because for me, it's about the marriage and the people you are with, not the show. 

 

I personally am really excited to marry my future husband and that is it. It could be on the front porch of my house and that would be fine. I really think people lose sight of the real reason we have a "wedding"

 

So, Laurin I really hope you have some positive memories to fall back on, I only read a few in your review and I'm sorry your view of the day was so bad, thank you for sharing. 

 

So for all of us Upcoming brides, it'll be great- I have not read a negative review on the new ones yet from anyone WHO actually had them as a coordinator. Being a teacher, I think it is very wrong and unfair to pre-judge their planning skills- I have no doubt Kelly was great, but obviously mistakes were still made. we are all human and it's just one day!

 

So....back to the real reason I come to this forum for planning ideas.....Does anyone have a picture of their guestbook table- just curious where it is set up location wise and size?

 

 

[Krs398]

Well said Ivietti. I definitely agree with you on everything. I was confused on all of that.

 

But Laurin, it still looks like your wedding turned out beautiful (love the table set up and colors)! and the pictures look so great!  Did they have those candle holders on the tables already there?  Did you use their videographer?

 

For those of you who had a good experience with the DJ, would you suggest not having a strict list to follow?? I don't want to make out a huge list if he's not going to play what I want.  I'd rather give him an idea of the music I like and then have him take it from there.  

[lvietti]

KRS398  I think I'm going to give a style with a few specific requests and just let it go, I'm only having 25-30 people at the wedding so they can request as well. I think it's up to people's preference. Some are really specific on music

 

On another positive note...Dennise the new wedding coordinator who is currently on her honeymoon in Thailand just responded to an email I sent 2 hours ago..ON HER HONEYMOON...I'd said I feel pretty good with having her.

 

I'm also curious about the videographer, my grandparents can't make it so I think we have to do the video so they can see it when we return