El Dorado Royale (EDR) Brides - POST HERE!

[mrendic]

Congratssss!!! Everything looks amazing and despite all of the things that went wrong, you will look back on your pictures and remember the beauty of it all! I'm sorry that you had to go through all the negative things that happened, I know that I would be upset too knowing how much money, time and effort goes into it all. I would definitely expect it to be perfect, down to every detail. Oh the agony of being a perfectionist! The thing that would have REALLY upset me was the whole "it was for an important guest" thing. That is NOT cool.... It's your big day, it shouldn't matter WHO else is at the resort and how important they are.

[TheWolferts]

Jillsepher-

 

The tables were set up for our white glove cocktail party at the beach location right next to Gazebo 55. They came with the cocktail party though, once we got to resort, they made us pick what color bows we wanted wrapped around the tables to keep the tablecloth down. She gave us either red, blue or green as options and anything else including white, they charged you for... i thought it was very weird that it was the first time we were hearing about it and thought it odd that they were then going to charge us extra for a different color white. Luckily one of our colors was blue so it wasnt a big deal, but I would have been upset if they wanted to charge me for bows that matched my decor.

Originally Posted by Jillsepher 

Nikki-
Thanks so much for writing such a detailed review. It's good to know the goods and bags of everything. I have every intention of bringing every single one of my emails. That seems to be the warning from all brides. I think, fron what you posted, everything looked gorgeous. What were the small tall tables placed everywhere on the beach? Did you order those or did they come with the wedding?

[TheWolferts]

I was kinda annoyed by the whole rehearsal ceremony thing. For one, the onsite staff seemed visibly annoyed that I requested a rehearsal and then I think to dissuade us from not having one, gave us rediculous times they were available to hold a rehearsal. Our onsite coordinator came to the site for about 30 minutes, but the person that does the music for the ceremony is not there and the m the minister (if you are using the resort's minister) is not there either. Luckily, a friend of ours married us and between him and my matron of honor, they ran the entire thing. If we wouldnt have had our own minister, I think I would have felt very lost and more nervous about the ceremony. At my cousins wedding at EDR, they requested a catholic priest and were not able to meet with him until they literally walked up to the alter! The father of the bride met with the priest right before the ceremony and I guess the priest had a different version of the bible?, one that apparently was missing a section that the couple specifically wanted read at the ceremony. Also, he was asian and had a very very strong accent, so we could barely understand him. One other issue, since he had never met the couple he started talking about how marriage was like football (i guess insert anything that seems American?) and then talked about the Dallas Cowboys... to a church full of people from DC aka Redksins fans aka Dallas' biggest rival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by Jillsepher 

Oh and did you find the rehearsal itself helpful?

[TheWolferts]

Thanks! Even though I have been done with competitive gymnastics for 4 years now, the perfectionist still lives on!

 

I sent an email to my WC with Lomas mentioning the issues, so I am hoping they attempt to make it right and I am hoping that future brides can benefit from it.

 

Btw, our original wedding date was June 9, 2012 at EDR at Gazebo 55!

Originally Posted by mrendic 

Congratssss!!! Everything looks amazing and despite all of the things that went wrong, you will look back on your pictures and remember the beauty of it all! I'm sorry that you had to go through all the negative things that happened, I know that I would be upset too knowing how much money, time and effort goes into it all. I would definitely expect it to be perfect, down to every detail. Oh the agony of being a perfectionist! The thing that would have REALLY upset me was the whole "it was for an important guest" thing. That is NOT cool.... It's your big day, it shouldn't matter WHO else is at the resort and how important they are.

[mrendic]

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

 

Thanks! Even though I have been done with competitive gymnastics for 4 years now, the perfectionist still lives on!

 

I sent an email to my WC with Lomas mentioning the issues, so I am hoping they attempt to make it right and I am hoping that future brides can benefit from it.

 

Btw, our original wedding date was June 9, 2012 at EDR at Gazebo 55!

Luckily for me you changed it! lol. I really hope that they don't have a ton of weddings on the same day- my wedding is going to be even smaller than yours so if they have a bunch of bigger ones, I can only imagine they will be distracted. On a side note, did anyone at your wedding wear their hair down or half up? If so, did the hairdo survive or was it a complete mess? 

[TheWolferts]

I do not recommend anything other than a full updo... it was windy on the beach every day that we were there! My hair was all the way up except for 2 small pieces in the front that we curled, which ended up in my mouth several times during the ceremony adn I kept having to brush them out of my face! My husband even commented on it! LOL

 

Originally Posted by mrendic 

Luckily for me you changed it! lol. I really hope that they don't have a ton of weddings on the same day- my wedding is going to be even smaller than yours so if they have a bunch of bigger ones, I can only imagine they will be distracted. On a side note, did anyone at your wedding wear their hair down or half up? If so, did the hairdo survive or was it a complete mess? 

[murmel]

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

 

LOL thanks!

 

They said they wouldnt do butter cream because it would melt, so they did fondant and even that was a mushy, melty mess! I thought it tasted really good and was very moist.

 

As for the bar at toucanes, they did not use another bar for the event at our rehearsal or my cousin's rehearsal.

 

One other thing I forgot to note, I had literally begged them to put us in an air conditioned restaurant for our wedding reception and they said they did not allow private events in any of their indoor restaurants... while dining at the Casitas D'Italia, my father mentioned to the matre'd (sp?) that he was here for his daughters wedding and he said "oh the one we just hosted in this restaurant 2 nights ago?" When I asked him about it, he started stuttering and said "oh um it was for a very large wedding, like 40 people" then I said "Ours is 40 people and they wouldnt let me have it here" and he goes "umm it was for a very important guest"... not sure what that was about but I was FUMING! I cannot stand being lied to and it really upset me that EDR did not give us the option of that reception location when I specifically asked and said that we would paid extra money to get it.

Great review! Sorry to hear that some things were less than stellar. But as an outsider looking in- the wedding and your details looked beautiful! The cakes all look rather sad down there (I swear no one knows how to decorate down there LOL) And the language barrier seems to always create some issues, or lost-in-translations oops. Hopefully your experience will allow future brides to learn from this. 

 

Your dress and the colours were beautiful! Try to concentrate on the special happy moments and the other issues will soon fade  

[ElDorado2012]

Wow. Thanks so much for the detailed review, and the pics!!! I am a MAJOR control freak and all of this makes me extremely nervous regarding how things are going to look and go. I really need to try to relinquish control and just go with the flow but it's so hard when you have a perfect vision in your mind... I agree that because it's a DW, everything likely won't be perfect, but considering they do SO MANY weddings at the resort, you'd think they'd have it down by now. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of the disappointments. I love that your guests were so thrilled with their vacation and stay at the resort. That, to me at least, makes everything worth it.

 

Please send along some more pics when you get them!! I'd love to see any more you have of the Tucanes area set up, as this is where we will have our reception. Also, what was the weather like? How hot was it? Were you guys miserable in their suits when you were outside, or not too bad? How did everything go with them playing the music on your ipod during the ceremony? I'm a bit nervous about how that will go...

 

Thank you

 

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

I do not recommend anything other than a full updo... it was windy on the beach every day that we were there! My hair was all the way up except for 2 small pieces in the front that we curled, which ended up in my mouth several times during the ceremony adn I kept having to brush them out of my face! My husband even commented on it! LOL

 

[mrendic]

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

 

I do not recommend anything other than a full updo... it was windy on the beach every day that we were there! My hair was all the way up except for 2 small pieces in the front that we curled, which ended up in my mouth several times during the ceremony adn I kept having to brush them out of my face! My husband even commented on it! LOL

 

Thanks!! That's really helpful

[TheWolferts]

ElDorado2012-

 

It was 88 degrees the day of our wedding with a "feels like" 94 I believe. The guys were all in light grey, light fabric suits and were carrying around hand towels to wipe themselves down for pics! I think they were a little miserable, but I could tell that my husband was trying not to complain since he knew they all looked great and that I wanted them to wear their jackets I was so sweaty that my dress actually clung to my leg when I walked down the isle, causing my to trip a bit. Our wedding was at 5 and it was significantly cooler at 6 or 6:30.

 

I too was nervous about the music during the ceremony, but it was perfect! I made a "Ceremony" Playlist and renamed the songs for when I wanted them played (i.e. wedding party processional, bride's music, and recessional).

 

Here are some more pics of Toucanes (sorry most are sorta dark and I dont have that many, I will try to look for more):

 

 

 

The large chandeliers in Toucanes

 

Originally Posted by ElDorado2012 

Wow. Thanks so much for the detailed review, and the pics!!! I am a MAJOR control freak and all of this makes me extremely nervous regarding how things are going to look and go. I really need to try to relinquish control and just go with the flow but it's so hard when you have a perfect vision in your mind... I agree that because it's a DW, everything likely won't be perfect, but considering they do SO MANY weddings at the resort, you'd think they'd have it down by now. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of the disappointments. I love that your guests were so thrilled with their vacation and stay at the resort. That, to me at least, makes everything worth it.

 

Please send along some more pics when you get them!! I'd love to see any more you have of the Tucanes area set up, as this is where we will have our reception. Also, what was the weather like? How hot was it? Were you guys miserable in their suits when you were outside, or not too bad? How did everything go with them playing the music on your ipod during the ceremony? I'm a bit nervous about how that will go...

 

Thank you