El Dorado Royale (EDR) Brides - POST HERE!

[AllieH]

thanks for the info Nikki!!!

 

She quoted me $500 - $600. So divided between 40 guests (which is what we have told EDR for now), and that's $12.50 to $15.00 per person. We are only bringing stuff for the ceremony & reception decorations. I was expecting more of the $5pp at most. $5pp I can deal with. $500 or $600 isn't going to happen - I will deputize friends and family to help if that's the case. I guess we won't really know until we get onsite though. Which means I will not do many add ons at all, since I can't assess where we are with our budget without a realistic number for the decorations. 

 

DW planning is such a joy sometimes!! 

 

 

 

other than the pain with Lomas, it really has been pretty great so far. Too bad they are such a big part of the planning... 

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

Allie-

 

Our total set up charges for the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, cocktail hour and reception ended up charging me about $5.50 per guest.What are they quoting you?

 

At first I thought it would be nice to save some money and have friends and family take care of some of the set up, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted myself and our guests to not have to worry about setting anything up, and I think it was definitely worth it to just show up and have everything ready to go.

 

 

[murmel]

Originally Posted by Stina9562 

 

 

Murel, what do you think of Azul? I see you were married there. I was thinking about taking our kids there. Have you been to both locations?

The Azul Sensatori is wonderful. How old are your kids? We had to get married at the Azul because we had a number of young cousins and friends with kids. But I cannot begin to tell you how great our experience was. The hotel is only about 450 rooms, so it's easy to get around and find things. The staff and food is excellent. And if you're kids are old enough (I think it was 5 and up) you can put them into the kids club. The parents of all the kids could not stop raving what an amazing program it was. Drop the kids off around 10 am, get them back for dinner around 4:30pm. Then after 7pm til 10pm they went back to the kids club and watched the night entertain show. Meaning the parents all enjoyed their own vacation and time-including having dinner without kids! (they usually took them to the buffet around 5:30pm) Anyway the funny part was that the kids had so much fun, they were begging to go back to the kids club. They have tennis courts, rock climbing wall, video games, dance club, beach activities, some crazy inflatable ball that the kids get into and walk on water! 

 

I had visited the Azul Beach years ago, and it was very quiet and small. Last year they finished renovating the whole resort, so I am not sure how it is now.

 

And we have had friends stay at the Azul Fives. They say it is a nice resort, but still going through some growing pains. (i.e.. all the restaurants were not open, not enough staff, etc. ) 

 

Funny enough, (we don't have kids yet), but we have enjoyed the Sensatori so much that I would say it is still my favourite resort. We have now stayed there 5 times. And we travel a fair bit, I think we have been to Mexico over 20 times now. If you want any specific details or pictures just send me a PM.

[TheWolferts]

Now that I obviously dont need my wedding dress any longer, I am thinking about getting it cleaned and selling it... though I have very mixed feelings about it and I dont know why! I will definitely ever need to wear it again and it does take up a lot of space in my closet, but I also get really sad when I think about not having it in my closet

 

I bought it new for around $1350 and from what I have seen on this message board and others, it has been selling used for about $800. The cleaning looks like its going to cost around $250. While I know I wont make a ton of money off it, part of me thinks it would feel good to sell if to someone that may not have the budget to buy the gown brand new, but loves the dress as much as I did.

 

What else is everyone doing with their dress after the wedding?

[msbritbrit57]

We just returned from EDR and our subsequent honeymoon in Merida on Monday - hoping to get a full review up soon.  We had a wonderful time (despite the impending worry of torrential rain looming over our big day)!  

 

[msbritbrit57]

We just returned from EDR and our subsequent honeymoon in Merida on Monday - hoping to get a full review up soon.  We had a wonderful time (despite the impending worry of torrential rain looming over our big day)!  

 

[ElDorado2012]

I am definitely going to try to sell mine after our wedding

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

Now that I obviously dont need my wedding dress any longer, I am thinking about getting it cleaned and selling it... though I have very mixed feelings about it and I dont know why! I will definitely ever need to wear it again and it does take up a lot of space in my closet, but I also get really sad when I think about not having it in my closet

 

I bought it new for around $1350 and from what I have seen on this message board and others, it has been selling used for about $800. The cleaning looks like its going to cost around $250. While I know I wont make a ton of money off it, part of me thinks it would feel good to sell if to someone that may not have the budget to buy the gown brand new, but loves the dress as much as I did.

 

What else is everyone doing with their dress after the wedding?

[ElDorado2012]

$12 to $15 per person is way too much. I paid $5 per guest for set up for the ceremony and reception (price quoted from Valeria). Do you have a lot of extra decorations that you are bringing? I wonder why they'd quote you so high?? I'm only bringing one thing for the ceremony - a sign for the water bottle table, and then I just have the usual for the reception - place cards, menu's, favors, sandbox tray (for the place cards), and then I purchased some antique gold votive holders that I'm bringing with me for each table. For all of those items I was quoted $5 per guest.

Originally Posted by AllieH 

thanks for the info Nikki!!!

 

She quoted me $500 - $600. So divided between 40 guests (which is what we have told EDR for now), and that's $12.50 to $15.00 per person. We are only bringing stuff for the ceremony & reception decorations. I was expecting more of the $5pp at most. $5pp I can deal with. $500 or $600 isn't going to happen - I will deputize friends and family to help if that's the case. I guess we won't really know until we get onsite though. Which means I will not do many add ons at all, since I can't assess where we are with our budget without a realistic number for the decorations. 

 

DW planning is such a joy sometimes!! 

 

 

 

other than the pain with Lomas, it really has been pretty great so far. Too bad they are such a big part of the planning... 

 

 

[ElDorado2012]

TheWolferts - I was just asked by Valeria to request that DJ DOREMIXX bring an MC to the event, because they have seen that, "particularly with DJ DOREMIXX, the dj cannot peform announcements and play the songs at the same time." What was your experience with this? Did the DJ announce when it was time for the toasts, the father/daughter mother/son dance, garter toss, etc.? Did you ask him to bring an MC?

 

Another interesting note I just received from Valeria was: "Please note your DJ DOREMIXX will be in charge of the dinner reception program such as timeline for first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, announcements, speeches and then the party time." So she's basically specifying that the DJ is in charge of the flow of the evening and not the event staff/coordinator at the resort. I find this interesting... I know you had a lot of trouble with this, so I'm wondering if maybe Valeria is specifying this to all brides now after hearing of the issues you had with the timing of everything at your reception. Anyways, thought that was interesting.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

Now that I obviously dont need my wedding dress any longer, I am thinking about getting it cleaned and selling it... though I have very mixed feelings about it and I dont know why! I will definitely ever need to wear it again and it does take up a lot of space in my closet, but I also get really sad when I think about not having it in my closet

 

I bought it new for around $1350 and from what I have seen on this message board and others, it has been selling used for about $800. The cleaning looks like its going to cost around $250. While I know I wont make a ton of money off it, part of me thinks it would feel good to sell if to someone that may not have the budget to buy the gown brand new, but loves the dress as much as I did.

 

What else is everyone doing with their dress after the wedding?

[TheWolferts]

I just got a response back from Valeria and apparently our onsite coordinator, Martha, reported back to Lomas Corporate that the DJ did not help her manage the flow of the reception. They also told me that its a common thing to happen when the DJ doesnt have another person helping them... first off, DJ Doremixx did have another guy with him helping him quite a bit from what I noticed and my cousin used a "resort approved" DJ for their wedding and it was one guy that basically didnt MC at all and messed up all of the wedding party's walk in songs. It was kinda funny though since they had picked"Kung Foo Fighting" for an asian friend of theirs to be introduced to and their spanish friend ended up being introduced to it haha. Now that I think about it, the DJ acted very annoyed while at the reception, yet was sooo nice during our meeting. I wonder if his demeanor was different because he had a run in with the WC staff prior to the reception?
 They obviously dont make it very easy for outside vendors to come onto the resort property for weddings.

 

I think Valeria is making a point to say this because 1) she knows I post on this board and 2) they dont want to take responsibility for actually running the event themselves. Regardless, i dont care whose job it was to "run the reception", I just know I shouldnt have had to run it and I would think that if they had questions about who would be running it, the onsite coordinator should have asked me or our DJ who was going to be in charge of it and she could have shown up at our meeting with the DJ that was right outside of the WC's office. If it's not the WCs job to handle the timeline and events at the reception, than whose is it? What if I a bride didnt have a DJ??

 

Originally Posted by ElDorado2012 

TheWolferts - I was just asked by Valeria to request that DJ DOREMIXX bring an MC to the event, because they have seen that, "particularly with DJ DOREMIXX, the dj cannot peform announcements and play the songs at the same time." What was your experience with this? Did the DJ announce when it was time for the toasts, the father/daughter mother/son dance, garter toss, etc.? Did you ask him to bring an MC?

 

Another interesting note I just received from Valeria was: "Please note your DJ DOREMIXX will be in charge of the dinner reception program such as timeline for first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, announcements, speeches and then the party time." So she's basically specifying that the DJ is in charge of the flow of the evening and not the event staff/coordinator at the resort. I find this interesting... I know you had a lot of trouble with this, so I'm wondering if maybe Valeria is specifying this to all brides now after hearing of the issues you had with the timing of everything at your reception. Anyways, thought that was interesting.

 

[ElDorado2012]

I couldn't agree with you more. You should in no way be responsible for maintaining the timing/flow of the program. I really can't understand why it's so hard for the onsite coordinator to take care of this, or, for the coordinator and DJ to WORK TOGETHER to do this. Seems like a no-brainer to me. It's not even that much work, it's just watching the clock. Thinking about this is really frustrating me... So, DJ DOREMIXX did bring someone else with him to your event? Did the DJ announce the toasts/dances/etc. or did the other guy announce them?

 

Originally Posted by TheWolferts 

I just got a response back from Valeria and apparently our onsite coordinator, Martha, reported back to Lomas Corporate that the DJ did not help her manage the flow of the reception. They also told me that its a common thing to happen when the DJ doesnt have another person helping them... first off, DJ Doremixx did have another guy with him helping him quite a bit from what I noticed and my cousin used a "resort approved" DJ for their wedding and it was one guy that basically didnt MC at all and messed up all of the wedding party's walk in songs. It was kinda funny though since they had picked"Kung Foo Fighting" for an asian friend of theirs to be introduced to and their spanish friend ended up being introduced to it haha. Now that I think about it, the DJ acted very annoyed while at the reception, yet was sooo nice during our meeting. I wonder if his demeanor was different because he had a run in with the WC staff prior to the reception?
 They obviously dont make it very easy for outside vendors to come onto the resort property for weddings.

 

I think Valeria is making a point to say this because 1) she knows I post on this board and 2) they dont want to take responsibility for actually running the event themselves. Regardless, i dont care whose job it was to "run the reception", I just know I shouldnt have had to run it and I would think that if they had questions about who would be running it, the onsite coordinator should have asked me or our DJ who was going to be in charge of it and she could have shown up at our meeting with the DJ that was right outside of the WC's office. If it's not the WCs job to handle the timeline and events at the reception, than whose is it? What if I a bride didnt have a DJ??