2013 Now Larimar Brides !!! Any out there ???

[KnC2014]

Does anyone have pics of the bridal suite or know the cost of renting the bridal suite? Thanks

[jennifer8913]

Originally Posted by KnC2014 

 

Does anyone have pics of the bridal suite or know the cost of renting the bridal suite?

 

Thanks

Hi! It is $150 to rent out, here are my pics, hope it helps. I am glad I did it because it was a much closer walk for me to the fountain then my room would have been and it was very hot and humid that day.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chawny]

I have my Wedding date booked for Dec 16th 2013 4pm at the Fountain we were just planning to have the dinner at one of the restaurant has anyone else gone this low key and have advice or experience to share. This date is quickly approaching I finally had a chance to sit down and read a lot of these posts which has been very comforting..... It is a very small group going just 12 of us including the Bride & Groom, 1 MOH and 1 BM because we paid for 6 of these guests I am really struggling with spending money on separate reception with just us and 2 small kids and the mom's. I feel like in some way I will miss out on the one dance with my husband but seems almost silly for me to spend the money just to have the dance.

Any thoughts or advice from anyone who has been there. 

Also they want to charge $450 for the fabric to go on the gazebo at the fountain any cheaper ideas on this front?

[DR2015]

I will be staying at NOW and meeting w/ Mercy to conduct a site visit next week. I would be more than happy to ask her any questions you may have! We will be departing 9/7/13 post all question prior to then!! -happy planning!!

[mvee1025]

Hello Girlies!

 

Just got back from our wedding and am more than happy to help with any questions you might have.

 

Ask away!

[ksassy1115]

Chawny- We are trying to be economical and decided to bring our own ipod dock to play music after dinner to have our dance instead of paying them to do this. Our group is somewhat small and I don't see why we need to spend that much on a dj or their music equipment.  My fiance bought an i-home from ebay that is small enough to fit in one of our suitcases. I just hope they allow this!

[ksassy1115]

Congrats!!! Any suggestions you have...must do or must not dos? How about the reception...where did you have it, bring your own decorations? Music? Any advice would help!

[mvee1025]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksassy1115 

Congrats!!! Any suggestions you have...must do or must not dos? How about the reception...where did you have it, bring your own decorations? Music? Any advice would help!

Thank you!

 

I booked the fountain for the ceremony & the pool for the reception.  The morning of the wedding your WC checks the weather and reviews any possibility of rain with you so that you can discuss plan B's.  You have to sign a paper by noon with your final decision on locations.  Because there was rain in the forecast, they gave me the Castaways Restaurant as an option which actually was the location I wanted from the beginning but wasn't going to pay 5,000 to have the reception there.  Turns out it drizzled during the ceremony and poured rain right after so we definitely made the right decision.

 

Ceremony:

* For the ceremony I bought fans and bubble containers placed on top of Chivary gold chairs.  I did not spring for the walkway with kiss balls for $1500 or extra fabric.  I wanted it simple and timeless.

* I had the saxophonist which played really good.  We wanted to have me walk to my own song so the saxophonist stayed a bit into cocktail hour as long as I had the cocktails in the same location which was fine.

* One thing that worked out was the wedding party did enjoy cocktail hour for about 15-20 minutes before going and taking more pictures.

* I also booked Pastor Mark Lykins.  He speaks English very well in fact he used to live the US and now lives down there.  His ceremony was very well executed and he was very personable.  I highly recommend him.  He does both religious and casual ceremonies or will combine both for you which is what we did.

 

 

Reception:

I'm pretty particular about things but also wanted to be sure that I got things as economical as possible so I brought 80% of the decorations.  This include table clothes, Menu's, tea light glass candle holders I bedazzled with white candles and table numbers for the reception.  I again rented Chivary gold chairs.

 

I also had a candy table so I lugged down with me containers with labels and candy, the scoops and personalized candy bags.  I also had a cigar bar.

 

We wanted to have the fresh cigars made for everyone but thought we could get cigars there already made and save some cash.  I brought with me cigar cutters, personalized match books, a sign for the table and a table cloth.  The last detail was personalized cigar labels we put on the ones we bought.

 

I also wanted a photo booth so I searched for an old school Polaroid camera with instant pic's, brought with me film, tons of props and a back drop. - THIS WAS A BIG HIT!  Not only did people use it for the photo booth, they also took the props and danced with them which made for some great pictures!

 

For the cake table I brought my own cake riser, knife and server set, cake topper and individual letters that spelled "WE DID".

 

For the sweetheart table I brought my toasting flutes.

 

I booked the Divine package which came with the centerpiece that I was underwhelmed by but it wasn't the end of the world.

 

I bit the bullet on bouquets for the girls (I had 6 BM's), roses at $45 each and centerpieces for each table + two for the sweetheart table each at $185.  I was going to use Florista Trunco for these.  She was very responsive throughout the process and much more economical then the Now.  I placed the order with her and never heard back from her.  Thank goodness I never gave her money but this made me spend almost three times more with the Now then I would have spent with her.

 

I did book the resort DJ+MC.  I'm really glad I did!  You give them ideas of what type of music you like, give them some songs and they took it from there.  The MC was nice to have just because he kept things on track and the crowd entertained.  They also did mood lighting which helped set the ambiance.

 

The other thing I was happy I did was extend the reception an extra hour.  Things went by SOOO fast that another hour would have been nice.

 

But the absolute best thing?  Booking an outside photographer, Caribbean Emotions.  Both Michael and Pascal are very funny and very easy going.  They kept the entire wedding party entertained and did Great pictures.  My wedding was Wednesday they came back to share both the video and pics on Friday afternoon.  The video is a little over an hour long and we ended up with over 1400 pictures!  I had them come at the beginning of the day and they stayed until 10.

 

So what would I recommend?

* PhotoBooth

* Resort DJ

* Pastor Lykins

* Caribbean Emotions.

* If you have the opportunity to do the reception at Cataways - DO IT!  We saw a wedding at the pool the next night and it was just ok.

 

What was not worth it?

* The center pieces.  Although they were beautiful, they had candles that were not lit the entire night which did not settle very well with me especially at $185 a pop.  Look into other centerpieces without candles.

* The candy table was well received but it wasn't a must

* Regarding the fountain, MAKE SURE the fountain is turned down for your ceremony if you have it there.  I didn't think it was bad during the ceremony but watching the video make me sad that that's all you hear.  CE actually dubbed music over it to try to hide some of it.

 

If you can afford to do the Divine package and you like surf and turf do the steak/lobster meal - it was delicious.  Everyone kept saying it was the best meal while on the resort.

 

I do feel I need to warn you about the onsite photographers - WBA.  The video that came with the package was for the ceremony only and for 30 minutes only.  The video contained the ceremony for only 24 minutes and then they filled in the the last 6 minutes with the resorts commercial.  We asked them to remove it and fill it with our ceremony content which they did.  The 24 photos you get are 4x6 printed not on a CD and are given to you with an album that has either lizzards or dolphins in front.  The actual videographer and photographer were very friendly while the workers at the actual hut were obnoxious, unprofessional and down right rude.  We got into several confrontations with them and eventually had to get the resort manager involved to solve the problems.

 

Also my WC could have been on top of things a little more.  We requested a rehearsal before the rehearsal dinner.  We were supposed to meet at the fountain at 5:30 and I had to go look for her so we were late to our own rehearsal dinner.  There weren't enough boutonnieres for everyone so I had to pull one out from my bouquet, the front chairs were supposed to be saved for the parents but weren't and the fountain while blocked still had people passing through with their swimwear.  We asked the have napkins folded a certain way, they were stuffed in the water glasses, none of the candles were lit.  She was very nice and her heart was in the right place but I believe she could have done better.

 

Overall I would rate the actual wedding a B+.

[Chawny]

Ksassy1115- I am pretty sure they would us ipod docking system for wedding included in basic wedding pkg not sure you will need to bring anything to actually play. Are you just going to one of the restaurants for your dinner or have you got a separate reception area booked. your wedding is almost a month before mine are you getting excited? I have been debating bring my own tulle for the gazebo what are you doing? 

[Chawny]

Congratulations glad to hear everything went great over all how was the whole experience at the hotel and with wedding are you happy with your choice in the end. I do have WBA booked for my photos and I am a little worried :/ given the review congrates again and thanks for the input