El Dorado Royale (EDR) Brides - POST HERE!

[kitesurf_bride]

As long as they are paying overnight guests at the resort, I am pretty sure they can't say anything. We have two friends that are coming that are both amateur photographers.

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by jfwolfe72 However, we had our wedding booked (including telling her where we'd like to have the ceremony and what kind of private event we'd like to have) since January and she just asked me today about our location and private event - if we'd like to pick those yet! Yikes! But I do think that if I stay in contact with her and document everything, things should go just fine. Thanks!

We worked with Faith to start, and then when she was "promoted" we were changed to Monica. Honestly, our relationship was quite rocky, and the ball was getting dropped quite a bit in transition. I felt like we were having English-Spanish communication issues. She asked for all of the details that had already been discussed like you mentioned above even though she assured me that she "got all of the past emails from Faith..." The final straw was when we asked to move the wedding earlier due to ligthing and sunset around 5 PM. She wrote to confirm that we would start the wedding at 5 PM, but warned me about the lack of light since the sun sets early in November!!!

Anyway, we got uncomfortable enough that I wrote and complained as did our travel agent. We were changed over to Valeria and she's been top notch since then. I have not heard that Monica moved or left, so that would be news to me.

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be I haven't dealt with Monica. I was dealing with Monica, but apparatently she was promoted and now I am dealing with Valeria.

Did you mean Faith? Or has Monica been promoted as well...

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Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be I really wanted in an open air facility, but it may not work for us. We can have it at Tucanes if we have under 50 people. or if we have 64+ in house guests we can have it at La Isla. but if we have in between 50 and 64 guests - then there is no open air option - this is the only real thing I have been disappointed about!

Hmmm, interesting info... We are in almost the exact same situation but have nt received this information. Who told you about these restrictions? We've been talking about using Tucanes and I'm fairly certain Valeria knows we're over 50 people. I think I prefer that location over La Isla anyway... you could always do it onthe beach. They shouldn't have any limitations on #s there...

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be With the free wedding package - were you asked to pay a $100 deposit? We were. Reilly thought it was super weird to pay it, considering it is a 'free' wedding - and they had no idea what we were planning on doing with the wedding (ie have more then 12 guests) I didn't think too much about it - and just paid it, since we are having a larger wedding - I knew it would go towards something! But it does make me curious!

The $100 was a deposit to hold the wedding date, etc... Seemed quite standard to em and I never thought twice about it. They did charge it twice to my credit card by mistake, but I caught that and the "mistake" charge was credited back... I know this deposit goes towards future expenses most definitely.

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by kitesurf_bride I did find out that if you hire the hotel photographer, listed as $500... that is only for 1 hour! That is not very long and his work is not very good. Has anyone else used them and can we see any pics

I haven't seen that it was limited to 1 hour, but it's certainly just the ceremony and some shots aroun dthe resort afterwards...

I was not impressed with the quality at all. I have samples from several people that I could email to you. PM me with an email address if you are interested.

We're very excited to have booked Elizabeth Medina. Her work is amazing and she's done weddings at this exact resort before. It wasn't cheap, but we decided pictures are definitely one of the places that you don't want to cut corners. She'll be there for 8+ hours to capture everything!

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by DarrenB Since you brought up photographers... You think they would classify friends that are at the wedding, staying at the same resort (who happen to be photographers) as outside photographers? My thinking was that if they are staying there and invited to the wedding, they shouldn't be able to contest it.

We have a great friend who is in the wedding party that is also a professional photographer. She will certainly be taking some pictures throughout the day and week.

My thought (based on discussion with several previous brides/photogs/msg boards) is that we will just add our outside photographer to the guest list. We're putting her up for one night after the wedding. She'll be nothing more than another friend on our guest list who is taking good pictures. if that's a problem, I'll deal with it once we're down there. I've seen no written policy on the use of outside vendors, etc...

I'd recommend not getting into this with your wedding coordinator. Once you bring it up and have been told, you're obligated to submit to their stupid rules. IF it becomes an issue while down there, it's not going to be any worse than just giving in ahead of time. I really highly doubt they would kick your photographer off the resort or anything. Besides, on your wedding day, you girls have the right to be a B!+ch if they start making issues...

There's a whole thread on this elsewhere if you want to search for it, with Matt Adcock (great photographer) spearheading a effort to protest this or choose a different resort.

[MrsV-to-be]

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Originally Posted by brigopens Did you mean Faith? Or has Monica been promoted as well... Hmmm, interesting info... We are in almost the exact same situation but have nt received this information. Who told you about these restrictions? We've been talking about using Tucanes and I'm fairly certain Valeria knows we're over 50 people. I think I prefer that location over La Isla anyway... you could always do it onthe beach. They shouldn't have any limitations on #s there...

Opps - sorry I typo'd. I dealt with Faith right at the begining, then I dealt with Manuela who was promoted and now I deal with Valeria. I haven't dealt with Monica before.

You may want to check with Valeria about that. I thought she had known about how many guests as well (considering in my application and an email with Manuela - I stated that I would be having 40-70 guests) but was offered Tucanes as a place.
I totally prefer Tucanes - but if I have too many people - I guess it won't work! If I do fall in between the 2 restrictions - I will have to have it on the beach. I didn't want to - but now that I have thought about it - I'm okay with it. We've flown all the way down there to get married on the beach - we might as well celebrate there too!

[MrsV-to-be]

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Originally Posted by brigopens The $100 was a deposit to hold the wedding date, etc... Seemed quite standard to em and I never thought twice about it. They did charge it twice to my credit card by mistake, but I caught that and the "mistake" charge was credited back... I know this deposit goes towards future expenses most definitely.

We will totally use it to go against something as well. The only reason why I stopped to question it, is that Lomas had no idea what type of wedding we were planning. For all they knew, we were only going to use what was included in the free wedding package...in which case there would be no expense to put it towards. Also, it wouldn't go against our hotel expense, since we are paying the full trip amount to the travel company we are using.
But at any rate - its not a big deal, since I'm not in that position!

[jfwolfe72]

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Originally Posted by kitesurf_bride We also had to pay a $100 deposit and were told that it would go toward our other expenses, like flowers, etc. We are doing the Mexican Donkey party also! I did find out that if you hire the hotel photographer, listed as $500... that is only for 1 hour! That is not very long and his work is not very good. Has anyone else used them and can we see any pics

I have heard not good things about the hotel photographer. HOWEVER, if you decide to go with an outside photographer, EDR will charge you $500 or you must pay for a 2 night stay for the photographer.

[brigopens]

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Originally Posted by jfwolfe72 I have heard not good things about the hotel photographer. HOWEVER, if you decide to go with an outside photographer, EDR will charge you $500 or you must pay for a 2 night stay for the photographer.

I've addressed this previously... There's no written info on this "policy" and we have legitimate guests on our list who are professional photographers...

I'd raise hell if they tried to prohibit some of our guests from taking pictures...