El Dorado Royale (EDR) Brides - POST HERE!

[AllieH]

So I just want to be totally clear on this... With the Free Sweet Wedding Package it says you qualify for this if you have 7 nights at the Casitas and 15 additional room nights. We booked the Casita stay but I'm wondering what exactly this "additional room night" is. My travel agent explained that the additional room night means this... 15 room nights total. My father booked 4 nights so thats 15-4 = 11 more nights and so on. So with all my guests I have a total of 25 nights people have booked. I should be okay right? I would hate to go there and find this isn't true.

Yes you are good!

[ElDorado2012]

Ugh that is so frustrating. I had the same thing happen to me. There's nothing you can do, just try not to let it get you too worried or upset. You're going to have an amazing time with the people who do make it out there.

Originally Posted by AllieH 

aaannnd here come the cancellations. 4 today alone - both couple who swore they would be there. We about a week out from payment, and I expected the number to drop, but it's still disappointing when it actually happens. 

 

Ah well. 

 

[ElDorado2012]

We got married at Gazebo 55 and it was gorgeous. It has the beautiful ocean in the background, on the sand, and it's at the end of the resort property so it's a bit more private than some of the other ceremony sites on the sand. I would definitely recommend it. We had our reception at the Tucanes Pool area and loved it as well. It's sort of shaded in by plants and trees so it's private, but it's right in the middle of the resort so it's close by to everything. I saw a wedding going on on the beach (I believe there is only one area where you can have a reception on the beach) and it looked super fun too. Either of those would be my recommendations If you are doing a private reception and want to save money, skip the cocktail hour after your ceremony and have your guests head over to one of the bars to hang out for that hour. We did that (we went to the Beach Bar-also called JoJo's Bar) and it worked out great.

 

If you have any questions about anything, let us know!!!

Originally Posted by Onelove2013 

This is the best website ever! But 200 some pages of reading everyone's comments is going to take me forever!
I am getting married at the el dorado November 8th 2012!
We are staying in a casita for 10 days and we were going to just do the free wedding. I still don't even know where to have the wedding! All I want is the ocean behind us and barefoot in the sand! we will have about 40-50 people coming so I don't know what to do about a dinner after either!
Please help:)

[TheWolferts]

We too got married at Gazebo 55! We thought the location was stunning and definitely made for some great pics!

 

With your wedding not being that far away, I would figure out which locations you want ASAP, as many of the best locations get booked up quite quickly. We actually ended up not being able to book the original wedding date we wanted because it was already reserved for another wedding and that was over a year out!

 

We had our rehearsal dinner at Tucanes and LOVED it! We did the passed italian style dinner and it was one of the best meals I had there! We had our reception in doors at the Salon Dorado and I'd have to say, having had an event in both, I would have picked the Tucanes location for our reception! One of the only reasons we picked the indoor location was because we thought it would be too hot outside, but they didnt turn the a/c on in the venue until shortly before the event, so it wasnt as chilled as it could be and slightly musty because it had been sitting unsed and warm for some time before our wedding. Plus, people going in and out of the doors let any cold air we had out fairly quickly. People kept commenting at how sweaty I looked ( i know right, who tells the bride they look really sweaty?!), but I am quite the dancer so I was really really sweaty anyways. In hindsight, I would have chosen Tucanes as our reception site.

 

For those of you that went to JoJos bar for your reception, did you feel weird being surrounded by people you didnt know in  your wedding dress? Our onsite WC wouldnt let the wedding party go to our own cocktail party at Gazebo 55 after pictures (thats a whole other story!), so she made us wait at JoJos bar... I just felt so odd standing in my wedding dress next to some strangers in bathing suits and next to people eating dinner. I felt so out of place I was uncomfortable!

 

 

Originally Posted by Onelove2013 

This is the best website ever! But 200 some pages of reading everyone's comments is going to take me forever!
I am getting married at the el dorado November 8th 2012!
We are staying in a casita for 10 days and we were going to just do the free wedding. I still don't even know where to have the wedding! All I want is the ocean behind us and barefoot in the sand! we will have about 40-50 people coming so I don't know what to do about a dinner after either!
Please help:)

 

 

Originally Posted by ElDorado2012 

We got married at Gazebo 55 and it was gorgeous. It has the beautiful ocean in the background, on the sand, and it's at the end of the resort property so it's a bit more private than some of the other ceremony sites on the sand. I would definitely recommend it. We had our reception at the Tucanes Pool area and loved it as well. It's sort of shaded in by plants and trees so it's private, but it's right in the middle of the resort so it's close by to everything. I saw a wedding going on on the beach (I believe there is only one area where you can have a reception on the beach) and it looked super fun too. Either of those would be my recommendations If you are doing a private reception and want to save money, skip the cocktail hour after your ceremony and have your guests head over to one of the bars to hang out for that hour. We did that (we went to the Beach Bar-also called JoJo's Bar) and it worked out great.

 

If you have any questions about anything, let us know!!!

[TammyWright]

Hello Karisma Brides,

 

We have scheduled our Fall 2012 Wedding Webinar for Karisma Resorts for October 6, 2012 @ 6:00pm PST. 

 

Gilberto Machain, an Inside Sale Associate and former Wedding Coordinator, will be a panelist and will give a presentation as well as be on hand for a Q & A session.

 

I will also be a panelist to answer your travel questions about rates, group blocks vs. individual packages, etc.

 

This is a great opportunity for current Karisma brides and grooms or those considering the venues for the wedding location to get your questions answered. 

 

Hope to see you guys there!

[CanadianLindsey]

 Feel free to ask questions instead of reading all 200+ pages, the answers may be different now anyways! I agree with the other girls, Gazebo 55 and Tucannes are the way to go! And book fast so you don't miss out on them. Having a private dinner is worth the extra cost so you can have some privacy and do things like, decorate, speeches, dance, slideshow or whatever traditions you want to incorporate. If you have dinner in a restaurant they won't let your group even sit together let alone do anything else.

PS Casitas are amazing! I want to live there forever!! 10 days will be heaven for you

Originally Posted by Onelove2013 

This is the best website ever! But 200 some pages of reading everyone's comments is going to take me forever!
I am getting married at the el dorado November 8th 2012!
We are staying in a casita for 10 days and we were going to just do the free wedding. I still don't even know where to have the wedding! All I want is the ocean behind us and barefoot in the sand! we will have about 40-50 people coming so I don't know what to do about a dinner after either!
Please help:)

[jnitschke]

I know what you're saying.  I read every post too.  It took me months, but I have an entire notebook of advice and tips that I've gotten from here... the saddest part of reading it is seeing how the price of everything keeps slowly going up.  But still, this site is the most useful thing I've had for wedding planning... not to mention how awesome all of you ladies are, very supportive.

Originally Posted by Onelove2013 

This is the best website ever! But 200 some pages of reading everyone's comments is going to take me forever!
I am getting married at the el dorado November 8th 2012!
We are staying in a casita for 10 days and we were going to just do the free wedding. I still don't even know where to have the wedding! All I want is the ocean behind us and barefoot in the sand! we will have about 40-50 people coming so I don't know what to do about a dinner after either!
Please help:)

[CanadianLindsey]

 Married life is mostly amazing, sometimes frustrating but always changing! Lol!!  

Originally Posted by AllieH 

Thanks for the heads up Lindsey. I think you're right about the whole situation...

 

how's married life treating you?

[ElDorado2012]

I'm def. not one who loves having attention on myself, so I did think it was going to be awkward being in my dress at JoJo's. I was even thinking about that when we were walking up to the location after the ceremony. But, once we got there and our group settled in, I didn't feel that way at all. The group spread out from the bar, to the bean bag chairs, to the tables over by the beach, so it wasn't like we were just awkwardly standing as a group in one spot. Everyone we ran into just smiled and told us congratulations, which really put me at ease. There was actually another small wedding party there at the same time as us, which was cute. They had gotten married at the same time but at the gazebo across from the chapel. Anyways, hope that helps any future brides

 

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

We too got married at Gazebo 55! We thought the location was stunning and definitely made for some great pics!

 

With your wedding not being that far away, I would figure out which locations you want ASAP, as many of the best locations get booked up quite quickly. We actually ended up not being able to book the original wedding date we wanted because it was already reserved for another wedding and that was over a year out!

 

We had our rehearsal dinner at Tucanes and LOVED it! We did the passed italian style dinner and it was one of the best meals I had there! We had our reception in doors at the Salon Dorado and I'd have to say, having had an event in both, I would have picked the Tucanes location for our reception! One of the only reasons we picked the indoor location was because we thought it would be too hot outside, but they didnt turn the a/c on in the venue until shortly before the event, so it wasnt as chilled as it could be and slightly musty because it had been sitting unsed and warm for some time before our wedding. Plus, people going in and out of the doors let any cold air we had out fairly quickly. People kept commenting at how sweaty I looked ( i know right, who tells the bride they look really sweaty?!), but I am quite the dancer so I was really really sweaty anyways. In hindsight, I would have chosen Tucanes as our reception site.

 

For those of you that went to JoJos bar for your reception, did you feel weird being surrounded by people you didnt know in  your wedding dress? Our onsite WC wouldnt let the wedding party go to our own cocktail party at Gazebo 55 after pictures (thats a whole other story!), so she made us wait at JoJos bar... I just felt so odd standing in my wedding dress next to some strangers in bathing suits and next to people eating dinner. I felt so out of place I was uncomfortable!

 

 

 

 

[AllieH]

Our wedding is about the same size, on Nov 5th but most of our group will be gone on the 6th. We are staying over until the 10th. 

 

We are going with Gazebo 55 and a private dinner/reception at Tucanes. Right now, we are at about 40 people total, so similar size. I agree - get your locations reserved!!! The other locations I liked was the Chapel terrace, or the Presidential Gazebo. 

 

Good luck with the planning! 

Originally Posted by Onelove2013 

This is the best website ever! But 200 some pages of reading everyone's comments is going to take me forever!
I am getting married at the el dorado November 8th 2012!
We are staying in a casita for 10 days and we were going to just do the free wedding. I still don't even know where to have the wedding! All I want is the ocean behind us and barefoot in the sand! we will have about 40-50 people coming so I don't know what to do about a dinner after either!
Please help:)