Newbie - very early stages

missroxy · December 31, 2012

Congrats I also suggest you take a travel agent ! Happy planning

LoriGran · December 31, 2012

Hello and Congrats! I am at the early stages of planning for a July 2014 wedding. I was in the same boat and had no idea where to start. I just started researching all inclusive resorts in Mexico. This forum has been such a great help. I have been able to look at real wedding pictures and read reviews on different resorts. I also picked my TA based on the reviews I read here. I went with Wright Travel Agency and my TA is Wendy Hicks. She's been great so far. Best of luck with your planning!

nbateman · January 1, 2013

good luck with your planning and making it to 150 posts so you can download attachments. There are so many helpful templates on this site that you can use for DIY stuff! Definitely recommend a TA or destinationweddings.com!

TealMarie · January 2, 2013

Originally Posted by lgerry

Congrats TealMarie!!!

I would also suggest a travel agent. You can sometimes get some great perks, such as every __ person free, and best of all you don't have to be the travel planner for all your guests! When we were looking at whether to use a TA or not I talked to a couple companies directly to see how getting a group rate would work. Some only give group rates for the rooms and I know westjetvacations makes you call for every guest question or payment, etc!!! That was a big deal breaker since I did not want to have to get on the horn to the travel company every time a guest wanted to know something or wanted to put a payment down.

As for resorts, I'm not too sure what other resorts have both an adults only and a kids section, but we are also getting married at the bahia principe akumal resort and they have 4 resorts on one property, including one that is adults only (Sian ka'an) but it is a little ways inland on the other side of the highway... still connected to the rest of the resort though. I think a lot of the resorts offer some sort of adults section now though, with an adults only pool, etc.

Good luck with choosing your resort!!

I'm hoping getting a TA will help us get a few freebies for guests and/or the wedding, as you mentioned.

Thanks for the suggestion of Bahia Principe Akumal (it sounds huge!), however, we've now decided we'll be looking for an adults only resort. That will make a lot of our decisions easier I think.

LKocelko · January 2, 2013

Originally Posted by TealMarie

I'm hoping getting a TA will help us get a few freebies for guests and/or the wedding, as you mentioned.

Thanks for the suggestion of Bahia Principe Akumal (it sounds huge!), however, we've now decided we'll be looking for an adults only resort. That will make a lot of our decisions easier I think.

We struggled with that choice (adult only vs. kid friendly) and in the end decided adult was best. Since we'll be staying an extra week for our honeymoon, we didn't want to have to deal with kids during that time. We're going to El Dorado Royale (EDR) which my TA has said is one of the best. If you want anymore information there's a great EDR thread on here, or feel free to message me. Good luck!

AllieH · January 8, 2013

I second Lindsey's suggestion - we got married and had our honeymoon at EDR, and it was completely amazing! My review & my planning thread are in my signature if you'd like to check them out, plus the EDR brides thread. Adults-only was a big part of our decision (along with amazing food and great service).

Wright Travel also has some great promos and incentives for booking any of the Karisma properties. Their Azul resorts are family friendly, while El Dorados are adults only (18+).

If I can answer any questions about my experience at EDR, please let me know!

Originally Posted by LKocelko

We struggled with that choice (adult only vs. kid friendly) and in the end decided adult was best. Since we'll be staying an extra week for our honeymoon, we didn't want to have to deal with kids during that time. We're going to El Dorado Royale (EDR) which my TA has said is one of the best. If you want anymore information there's a great EDR thread on here, or feel free to message me. Good luck!

Originally Posted by TealMarie

I'm hoping getting a TA will help us get a few freebies for guests and/or the wedding, as you mentioned.

Thanks for the suggestion of Bahia Principe Akumal (it sounds huge!), however, we've now decided we'll be looking for an adults only resort. That will make a lot of our decisions easier I think.

TealMarie · January 11, 2013

Thanks for all of the advice, we've decided to book at the Excellence Riviera Cancun in November of this year. We chose it based on reviews for the weddings on here and amazing reviews on tripadvisor. Can't wait!

AllieH · January 12, 2013

YAY! congrats on booking your wedding resort! good luck and enjoy all of the planning.

Originally Posted by TealMarie

Thanks for all of the advice, we've decided to book at the Excellence Riviera Cancun in November of this year. We chose it based on reviews for the weddings on here and amazing reviews on tripadvisor. Can't wait!

lgerry · January 12, 2013

Originally Posted by TealMarie

Thanks for all of the advice, we've decided to book at the Excellence Riviera Cancun in November of this year. We chose it based on reviews for the weddings on here and amazing reviews on tripadvisor. Can't wait!

Awesome, congrats! We are looking at this resort for our 2nd week!

mandjphoto · January 14, 2013

Hi Ladies,

If you are a year to 8 months out from your wedding day, I highly recommend a site visit. There is nothing like it. Plus, wouldn't you like to visit the Riviera Maya now?

Best of luck with your planning,

Jennifer