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

[duchovny0901]

It all depends what services you need. If you want just DJ services and no extras I say stick with the resort. I went with DJ Mannia because I also want a lighted dance floor & projector and screen. It came out to be about $800 more in the price if I stayed with the resort for all those services. So I don't mind paying the vendor fee. 

 

I'm just about 2 1/2 more weeks away till my wedding day!!!!

 

So stressed with all the little things that still need to get done! I can't wait for this planning to be over!!! lol

So far we have 94 guests booked! Having a fountain ceremony, carnival terrace cocktail, and Castaways reception!!!!!! So excited!!!!

I am having Gary from Innovart Decorations come in to decorate. He has taken a tremendous amount of stress off of me with this planning. Let me know if you have any questions ladies!!!  

EJM congrats on your wedding! Im sure it was fantastic! I'd love to see pics when u return! I'm getting married August 30 2014 at NOW and my wedding seems to be so similar to yours (fountain ceremony, lots of guests, DJ Mannia booking). I'm very excited to hear about the details of your wedding, including the wedding package you picked as well as your overall costs (if you don't mind sharing of course)! Thanks!

[CrystalRomero]

It's been awhile since I posted. My wedding is 11/29/13 anyone else in that range? I had a major break down this past weekend and decided I didn't like my wedding or bridesmaids dresses so went out searching for a new one and found both I am starting to have extreme anxiety about everything and I'm just not sure why lol I am still trying to figure out what to do for a photographer. A friend was going to do it but she can't come now since she will be pregnant.

[dgirl35]

@Crystal I have my wedding booked too were getting married Nov 20/13. We do not have a photographer coming with us either, I refuse to pay the outrageous vendor fee so I'm going to use the photographers from the hotel. I have checked out their website. There pictures are very nice and would do a better job than any guest that is coming with me. Has anyone else on here used the hotels photography?

[WBA Weddings]

Originally Posted by dgirl35 

 

@Crystal

I have my wedding booked too were getting married Nov 20/13. We do not have a photographer coming with us either, I refuse to pay the outrageous vendor fee so I'm going to use the photographers from the hotel. I have checked out their website. There pictures are very nice and would do a better job than any guest that is coming with me.

 

Has anyone else on here used the hotels photography?

Hi @dgirl35,

 

Congratulations for your upcoming wedding! 

You can see some samples of our pictures at this link: WBA Photos

We hope to work with you for your special day in November.

[dcheer14]

Juli33s- who did your photos?

[CrystalRomero]

I feel like the photography fees are outrageous. I found a few and even with the fee you can find cheaper off the resort. How many days will u be there for? We will arrive on the 26 what package are you doing and decorations? That's my biggest thing. I am doing the basic package and bringing my own centerpieces and all flowers. For 5 tables for vases and flowers including the bridal party I paid $120. The resort wanted $175 for one centerpiece that was just 3 vases little bit of sand at the bottom and a flower bud. I am debating though bumping up to the now to eternity package. Any insight and does anyone have the wedding planner sheet for that package?diddnt realize there was different ones for the different packages lol

[dcheer14]

I was wondering if it is necessary to pay for a bar during the reception? or are there bars open at night near the pool area?

[EJM17]

So here it is ladies..........my wedding review! I'll start off with the negative and end with the positive.

 

NOW Larimar was by far the WORST resort I have ever been too. I regret choosing this resort for my wedding. My wedding ended at 93 guests and you would think since we were a pretty big group we would be accommodated and treated a little better. We definitely were not. To list just a few things that happened to us:

 

-My parents check in AND in-laws took 3 hours as well as other family members

 

-My parents ended up with a room with 2 double beds when a KING was requested 

 

-The "tropical view" isn't so tropical. Some of my guests had the view of an ugly street outside of the resort.

 

-The resort initially offered me a promotion with my rooms - for every six booked I would get one for free. But they failed to tell me the terms and conditions. I had 35 rooms booked and they declined to give me ANY free rooms because none of them were booked under one reservation number. Beatriz who is the supervisor in Group Reservations was horrible to speak with as well as Gilbert. I asked if the Wedding Day Pass of $45 could be waived for some of the guests since they weren't giving me ANY rooms. She refused to bend the rule for me. 

 

-Housekeeping was horrible. OUR ROOM (Bride&Groom) was cleaned at 4:00PM two days!!!!! The day we arrived they had champagne, strawberries, and chocolate for us in the room, they took three days to take the dirty plate out of the room. 

 

-My husband's family requested another bed to be brought into 2 of their rooms. The beds were never sent.

 

-The night of our rehearsal dinner three of my guests came from a different resort. When they arrived at the entrance they were turned away because they didn't have photo ID. Security spoke with my wedding coordinator to confirm that there was a rehearsal dinner and STILL turned them away. My cousins had to go back to their resort and get their ID's and pay 2 cab rides. 

 

-My wedding coordinator Yeomandry was sweet. I just feel they have SOOO many weddings they don't have the chance to give you all their attention nor are they allowed to bend a rule on that "wedding planner". Mercy the wedding coordinator supervisor made that very clear. I spoke with her the day before I flew out. I expressed my frustration to her about the resort not being accommodating and not offering me ANYTHING for all the rooms and for bringing my wedding. She had the nerve to tell me "well you have understand this is a business as well, you basically only have your food/beverage with us. The rest are outside vendors. So there's only so much we can do for you" I couldn't believe she said that to me! They didn't like the fact I had my decorator, DJ, photographer, videographer, and cake from outside. I didn't want to get myself more aggravated nor have them hate me more and ruin my wedding day. So I accepted the way everything was going to be because there was so turning back or changing anything 4 days before the wedding.

 

-Our last night at the resort with the family (before we left for our honeymoon) we reserved 2 tables at the restaurant Tamarindo and 10 more of our guests ended up joining us last minute. The restaurant REFUSED to set up another table for us when they perfectly well could have put together three tables that were still open. They offered to put the 10 guests on the wait list that was one hour, which was ridiculous because we all wanted to be together. I had all of the 20 guests that were seated already get up and leave the restaurant and we spoke with the hotel manager- Angel Holgado. He apologized for everything that we went through and offered to put the extra tables for us. We declined his offer since everyone started eating at the buffet.

 

At check-out payment for the wedding was made. We paid cash for the wedding. The front desk after they counted the money had the nerve to say they couldn't accept some of the bills because they had writing on them. (We're talking about the littlest thing like a number that is written on a bill) The money was withdrawn from our bank here in the States. Money circulates and we have no control over that and we told them that. That was literally the icing to the cake when they pulled that one. We argued with the front desk and had the manager Angel Holgado come out again. We stood there another hour FOR NOTHING because the person supposedly in charge of bringing cash to the bank came out with a Counterfeit Detector MARKER!!!! The writing on some of the bills didn't matter!!! The manager didn't offer us anything for all the inconveniences the hotel put us through. We are absolutely disgusted with the service and people there. 

 

The POSITIVE - my vendors:

 

-The wedding day was beautiful. I have Gary from Innovart Decorations to thank for that. He did an ABSOLUTE beautiful job with my flowers, ceremony, reception. He was amazing to work with as well. We communicated through Facebook chat and later with the "WhatsApp" application. His prices were half the price of what the resort was trying to charge. It was SOOOO worth it to pay the vendor fee for him. He offers everything and anything a girl can dream of for their wedding. If he doesn't he will make it happen! This is his Facebook link to see his work: https://www.facebook.com/InnovartSRL?fref=ts

My wedding album in his profile is listed as: "Erica & Joseph Wedding" 

 

My photographer Katya Nova and her husband Rob were an absolute pleasure to work with as well as my videographer Mibsan Espejo. I can't wait to see our pics and video in a few weeks! Once I have that I'll post! 

 

DJ Mannia was great! Carlos Martinez was our DJ and MC. He was very easy going and great to work with. Even though we had a live band come in for our reception and we didn't use there services for the whole night. He still made sure to keep on top of everything like (speeches, cake, bouquet toss, garter toss). 

 

-Pastor Mark Lykins was our officiant and amazing to work with as well. He knows English and Spanish. It was very important to us to have the ceremony bilingual since we have some only Spanish speaking family members. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions ladies! 

You can PM here or email me at [email protected] I wish you all luck with Now Larimar! 

I hope your experiences with them are nothing like mine.

[foreverlove]

I was wondering if it is necessary to pay for a bar during the reception? or are there bars open at night near the pool area?

I was wondering the same.

[CrystalRomero]

Ok you have me extremely worried now. What decorating services did you use? I'm thinking minimal decorations so trying to determine if it would be worth it to use the outside vendor. I'm using dj mania though