2011 Iberostar Brides

[Hannah5611]

Sooo, I havent decided if a DJ is in our budget yet...lol.....and I havent decided on a photographer yet either - lol.....I am waiting to hear from the resort on my ceremony time and menu at this point -

 

DJ and photographer are last on my list because I already have 2 photographers (the resort and Pamela Starr that have the dates open and are going to let me know if they get contacted by someone else for that date)....Since we are renting the catamaran the day after the wedding, it ate up a lot of my budget ....I paid a price for up to 60 people on the catamaran - if everyone books that SAYS they are booking, I will be at like 63 people which puts me in the next price bracket for that boat (which is $1000 more)!!  soooo, I am waiting to have a final headcount (payments are due in 1 month) and then I will talk about the DJ and photographer....I really want it to be super simple - worst case senerio, I use the resort DJ and photographer....

 

Hannah
 

Originally Posted by Hanna20 

Hannah --- quick question for you. Who did you hire for DJ Services again?

 

My FI has now decided that we HAVE to have a DJ who can do the announcements etc (the one at the resort does not do them).

 

Oh and did you decided on a photographer?

[klc52379]

Hey Hannah!  I was interested in learning about the catamaran cruise a bit more.  Could you PM with the link to it?  Since people are dropping like flies, I'm going to make it a blast!

 

[Hannah5611]

Wheres Erinnnnn,.....I am so anxious to see her review and photos!!!! 

[Hanna20]

I think they were going for 2 weeks so we will have to wait a few more days (at least)!
 

Originally Posted by Hannah5611 

Wheres Erinnnnn,.....I am so anxious to see her review and photos!!!! 

[radiochic10]

HELLLOOOO Ladies!
 

 

 We just got back tonight!  It was the most perfect day of my life.  I have lots to tell-crazy stories, much drama went down that week-but the wedding day itself was PERFECT!  It's 1:30am, so I promise to post in the morning.  Just had to check in real quick!  My friends posted pics on my FB page, but I'm only able to put the profile pic in here-the others won't let me copy & paste.  I'll figure it out tomorrow.  I've got TONS of pictures of the whole place.  I will say quickly-you're in the BEST hands if Karla is your WC.  She is amazing!  xoxo, Erin

[nucci]

Congrats Erin!!!  Cannot wait to see pics and hear all about it!!!  YAY Karla is my WC!!!  

[Hanna20]

Hi Erin!!!!

 

Welcome Back! Congratulations! I can't wait to hear all about it!!!! I have Karla too.... YAY to that!
 

Originally Posted by radiochic10 

HELLLOOOO Ladies!
 

 

 We just got back tonight!  It was the most perfect day of my life.  I have lots to tell-crazy stories, much drama went down that week-but the wedding day itself was PERFECT!  It's 1:30am, so I promise to post in the morning.  Just had to check in real quick!  My friends posted pics on my FB page, but I'm only able to put the profile pic in here-the others won't let me copy & paste.  I'll figure it out tomorrow.  I've got TONS of pictures of the whole place.  I will say quickly-you're in the BEST hands if Karla is your WC.  She is amazing!  xoxo, Erin

[Hannah5611]

YAY!!! Congrats to you Erin and I cannot WAIT to hear and see ALL about it!!!!!  And if you want to message me your last name, I can find you on FB

 

[radiochic10]

Me again!  Still trying to figure out how to put the facebook photos up here, so to the girls who don't wanna wait to see them, message me & I'll add you on facebook.  I'll be back on here with a full recap shortly

[radiochic10]

I actually have a free minute, so here I am again.  So we got there on a Monday-exactly one week before the wedding-and Karla had a letter waiting for us at the front desk saying Welcome & she'd meet with us at 6p in the lobby that night.  She also had scheduled our blood tests for the next morning at 9:30am and gave great directions on where to go for that (The medical center on the property...it was easy to find)  When we met with her, she was just so sweet and super organized-I knew we were in good hands.  We finalized some details about the centerpieces and we gave her all of the welcome bags to hand out when our guests checked in,  Our first round of guests came Wednesday-and neither room got their bags at check in.  I wasn't thrilled because I had put SO much work into them & didn't want to track the people down to hand them out-especially since 18 rooms of people would be checking in that Saturday.  I went back to Karla-told her they didn't receive them on check in & from then on-every single room got the bag upon check in.  So if you're doing that-just remind her what day(s) people are coming to avoid any and all confusion.  I had that printed out on the bag tags themselves, but people get busy-reminders help.  The best man & his wife checked in, as did my mom's best friend and her boyfriend.  All 4 of them met us in Karla's office at 6 & filled out the paperwork to be our official witnesses.  Then.....2 hours later, the best man was with me in the lobby trying cigars to help me decide which ones to have the cigar roller make at the reception (was a surprise for my hubby-as he LOVES cigars) and the best man fainted.  And then fell..face first on the marble floor in the lobby.  He woke up with me holding his head in my hands and began to spit out pieces of his TEETH.  I lost count at 15.  The emergency people on staff took us to the medical center-I found his wife *who was shopping with my fiance to distract him so I could figure out the cigar thing and the Dr. at the Iberostar sent us to a hospital in Cancun to get the huge gash in his chin stitched.  Upon arrival to the hospital, we found out he had broken his jaw in 3 PLACES and had to have surgery.  He pulled through like a champ, but my fiance & I were apart a lot because he wanted to be at the hospital-as did I-but I had stuff that had to be still taken care of for the wedding.  I had to get the original 2 witnesses to re-sign the marriage license request and Karla & Ivan (guest services-awesome guy) ended up being our other 2 because we weren't sure if the best man could even make the wedding.  It was a mess & I just thank God he fell forward when he fainted instead of back.  He had never fainted before-but was on a crazy eating schedule-had lost a lot of weight & hadn't eaten anything all day (this was like 9pm that it happened) and with the travel, change in temp, dehydration, etc=it was too much for his system to take apparently.  As you can maybe tell from the story, it was super stressful because I was so worried about him but I also was trying to balance the remaining things that needed to get taken care of for the wedding.

The next day-the favors showed up at Karla's office!! The ones that I sent back on Jan. 6th that were lost in space.  I took it as a sign that it would all be alright.  That didn't end my stress though.  Most everyone else checked in on Saturday.  By Sunday, my father-who is normally the most responsible person I know-lost his passport.  I spent much time with him reporting it lost, calling the embassy, ripping his room apart searching for it.  We reported it to the front desk-eduardo-I think his name was-TOTAL jerk.  That is the one complaint I have-the majority of people at the front desk suck.  My dad is standing there asking if anyone found his passport & the guy cut him off "No-NEXT."  ooooohhh--that made me mad.  Then my aunt's kids (not kids-20 & 25) had an issue with their room & were basically told 'too bad' so she asked me to step in.  I did & eventually it got fixed.  But not before I spent LITERALLY 3 hours trying to put out other people's fires. Then the photographer we flew down asked me to change his flight the DAY BEFORE my wedding.  I'm online in the lobby and trying to fix it-this took up nearly 2 hours and had me in tears.  Tara said when she got back to let other people solve their own problems and I SECOND that suggestion.  I'm the type who loves to help and believe me-it bit me in the butt.  Then my maid of honor (my sister) and another b-maid got hammered 4 hours before the rehearsal-my b-maid missed it altogether & the only reason my MOH made it was because I had my cousins nearly break down her door to get her there.  She really never parties and it showed...but I wasn't mad-just annoyed because it felt like I spent almost the whole week taking care of everyone else.  It was exhausting.  My hubby & I did get to spend time together and the best man got out of the hospital Saturday...he rallied and somehow stood up for us at the wedding.  Damn impressive

 

At one point, I said to Karla that I wouldn't be surprised if it rained because nothing was going right & she gave me great advice.  She said the brides who spend tons of time worrying about the weather always seem to have bad weather...she said it was weird how it worked out that way.  So I let go of the weather,  and it was perfect.

 

We got the saxophonist to play for our wedding and it was SUCH a good call.  It sounded sexy and beautiful for a beach ceremony.  My flowers were PERFECT as were the ones for my bridesmaids.  They gave my flower girls TONS of petals and they did great.  Karla walks you through the whole thing-walkie-talkie in hand.  They have security that keeps people away from the actual ceremony & clears the path for you. The "Mac Daddy" package was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and I'm so glad we went with it.  We were in building 10-1st floor-right on the beach.  I highly recommend it.  It's also right next to where the reception was and in the same building as the presidential suite we got the night of the wedding.  The day after, they brought incredible breakfast in bed and we stayed in that room til they kicked us out.  Then we just walked right back to the other room-they don't make you check out of your original room so you can go to the presidential suite-which they didn't explain ahead of time, so I thought we'd have to pack all of our crap.  We didn't.  I got hair, make-up and nails done that day at the salon.  Beautiful job.  Note to my acrylic nail girls out there-they ONLY do regular manicures-no fills or anything.  I made it work even though I could have used a fill They put my extensions in no problem and thankfully-I asked about eyelashes ahead of time.  They'll put them on but you have to bring them! (*had to call my sis & have her bring them from home)  Give yourself plenty of time.  My mani-pedi started at 11am, then they did the hair and then make up.  I made it to the presidential suite at 3 & the wedding was at 4:30-so that was perfect timing.  And call Karla and the people in her office-they will get a golf cart to drive you around the day of the wedding so you are on time & don't run into your fiance!

 

The champagne hour before the actual reception was AWESOME.  Both my hubby & I loved this because it gave us time to relax & visit and kind of put a freeze on how quickly it was all passing by.  We soaked up EVERY second.  Then DJ Doremixx announced the bridal party & we all walked into the reception area.  When he announced us, my hubby & I walked in & I was swinging a plastic ball & chain over my head-it was hilarious!  He LOVED the cigar roller-OMG-even his friends talked about it for days.  The food was wonderful (we got roasted potatoes & steamed veggies instead of a baked potato & corn on the cob) and then there was the cake.  GET CHOCOLATE CAKE.  OMG-WOW.  It had this chocolate filling that is like a smooth brownie-it's the best cake I have ever had & everyone said that!!!  They decorated it exactly the way we asked for too.

 

The DJ isn't the one 'on site.' He was $900 and worth EVERY penny.  My hubby's 86 yr old grandmother was even dancing.  It was magical.  He gets everyone into the whole thing and mixes the music perfectly.  He knows traditions-announced my 1st dance, my dance with dad, bouquet toss, etc. and works with you ahead of time to get the right songs for everything.  He even found the songs I asked for & played every one.  I AM a DJ-(radio-but still, I know music well) and you can't do better than this guy & his company.  They are amazing.  Spend the $$-it is absolutely worth it.  You've put so much effort in-you'll want a microphone for speeches & someone who knows what they are doing.

 

I think that's about it.  Everyone had the BEST time.  It really was magical and worth every bit of stress and $$ we put into it.  You made the best choice getting married at this resort. They are pros who go the extra mile and are genuinely happy for you & will help you in any way they can. 

 

I'll post pics as soon as I can figure out the new facebook layout to copy & paste them!

;)Erin