Need to Vent

[destinationcabo]

So....I'm a fairly new member and already I went MIA for a while. I was just getting so frustrated. I guess I am just not the patient person that I thought I was.

I have been e-mailing with the Resort WC for over 6 weeks now. We FINALLY reached a decision with date, time, cost, etc. (which I was very pleased with I must say).....then she sends me the contract last week and now wants me to pay the ENTIRE (location fee, food, taxes, and fees) cost of our July 2008 wedding before January 2008!!

FI and I were planning on paying for most of our wedding with our tax returns but now since it's due so soon, the majority of it is now going to have to go on a credit card which we were trying to avoid. The other problem I have is that she wants us to pay for the reception food up-front in this "non-refundable deposit" (aka - the entire cost), but we only have an "estimated" number of guests. I'm worried about what will happen if our guests start backing out.

Well....bottom line is we will probably suck it up and pay what/how she wants because we really like the place and I don't want to start all conversations from scratch. But I just needed to get this whole story off to people who care and understand the frustration!

Thanks....and have a great day!!!!

[rodent]

have you thought about changing the withholdings on your W4 to get some of that tax refund earlier? If you are getting a big refund each year, you probably want to adjust your withholdings anyway because you are losing interest on that money.

 

I wouldn't want to pay all that upfront though. First, I'd start working on that problem.

[Spazz]

I think that is sort of odd that you need to pay everything upfront. I personally am just putting down small deposits on things and don't need to pay anything else until I get to the resort. I would be a little uncomfortable paying a full non-refundable amount, especially since you are unsure of the exact number of guests. I don't really have any advice though. If your heart is set on this resort, I guess you need to follow their rules?

[starfish kate]

That seems a little shady to me... I've never heard of paying for the entire wedding 6 months before the wedding. I hope some other girls getting married in Cabo will comment, then you have some back up when you go back to your coordinator. Good luck!

[chicago88]

Wow... I can't believe they want all of the money up front. Maybe you can negotiate and pay for a certain # of people and tell her you'll have the entire head count a couple weeks before the wedding.

 

I haven't paid anything to the Riu yet and I think I pay for everything at our meeting a couple days before the wedding.

[TATrisha]

Which resort are you getting married at? That seems VERY odd.

[destinationcabo]

Thank you all for your responses!

So background story here:

We, as well as several of our guests, have timeshares in downtown Cabo, but we want to be married on the corridor. So we first had to find a resort on the corridor that would let us get married there without charging us a fortune for not staying there. To help off-set the cost of this, we decided we would get married on a Monday or Tuesday. Our second issue was that we are having about 5-10 children attend the wedding so we wanted a place that would give us a "children's menu" option. And our last issue was that FI really wanted the reception area to be private - away from hotel guests, vendors, etc. So after reading on this forum, looking at EVERYONE'S pictures, searching hotel websites, etc. we agreed on Casa del Mar for both the ceremony and reception. However, we are trying to stick to a budget for this wedding because we both have kids and are paying for this wedding ourselves, so we are cutting costs and negotiating every place we can. I'm not sure what the original costs are for Casa del Mar, but in the contract it strictly states there is a $5000 non-refundable deposit due to hold the location and date. Well because of the weekday wedding and other factors, we are keeping our total costs to Casa del Mar just at about $5000, so the WC there she cannot change the amount of the deposit due so that is why we are having to pay for the total wedding up front......

So sorry about the long story.

[Sharonie]

Is this typical for this resort? Is it a normal practice? It still seems kinda odd, I've never heard of any other resorts asking to pay so much let alone the whole amount up front.

[NYJen]

First of all, I know EXACTLY how you feel. I struggled with the "policies" at my location too and yes, it's very frustrating.

 

As long as you're ok with paying $5000 for the wedding, here are some ideas for you.

 

1. Get a 0% credit card for a year and put the money on that. You'll just have to make the minimum payments until next October and by then you'll have gotten your tax returns and your wedding gifts which you'll be able to apply to the bill. If Casa del Mar accepts Amex, get their Blue card - you earn rewards on it as well as get the 0%.

 

2. Don't worry about if your guests back out, you can always upgrade the food and drinks you'll be serving. Maybe have lobster and a more elaborate cocktail hour. Bottom line, the money won't go to waste.