Las Caletas 2015 - Faqs, Share Board, Tips & Advice

[chrisandkate2015]

It definitely does seem like we have a similar timeline! I love the personalized macarenas for wedding favors and I plan on making small OOT welcome bags for our guests as well :-) Do you already have your resort booked or are you still researching? I'm just curious what kind of prices you have found since it is still over a year out. I'm getting anxious to give our wedding guests info asap!

We haven't booked a resort yet but we've got our eyes on Secrets.  I've emailed them to ask about group booking rates for April 2015, but haven't heard back yet  I thought about booking a flight/hotel package, but was worried that because we have guests from all over with different schedules it would be too restrictive for some, so we opted to do a group flight discount separate from a group booking rate at the resort so it's more flexible for our guests.

 

I, too, am super anxious to get our info all set in stone so I can launch our wedding website and finalize our invitations.  I want to send out our invites in July/August, so there's still time... I just feel like I'm at a standstill for now waiting for things to be finalized!

[melpaegs]

We are booking thru a travel agent for all of our guests. Since some of our guests have different schedules/pricing caps we are giving them the option of booking a 5 day stay or a 7 night stay all at the same resort. We are looking at Riu, Now Amber or Dreams. Velas Vallarta is a possibility as well and depending on price the new Iberostar Punta Mita. We will most likely be getting our STD invites out once our LC date is booked, then will provide wedding details/vacation booking info on our wedding website. Excited to keep in touch and compare notes!!

 

What wedding colors/ideas are you thinking so far??

 

-Melissa

[chrisandkate2015]

Hi Ladies,

 

I'm also getting married at the end of March 2015 at Los Caletas and coming from Canada (Winnipeg)! I would say to Kate that we booked with Sunwing a flight/hotel package with the Now Amber and had a good experience. We booked with 50 guests in October and got a decent early bird rate for Manitoba's spring break but won't be able to know our exact departure/return dates until the end of this month so you will hopefully be able to avoid that part of the experience. I just found that prices seemed higher with Westjet/Air Canada so I wanted to get the lowest and most consistent rate possible for our guests (how annoying would it be if they were paying various rates? Already i had a couple people saying,,, ohhhh why don't we book last minute it seems so much cheaper?! but Now has been booking quickly and it obviously wouldn't be a low-risk option to book 50 people last minute haha). I was wondering if you ladies have chosen your photographers yet? I've touched base with quite a few in PV and they are either kinda low-end for quality in my opinion or pricier than bringing a photographer from home. Have you seen anyone wiht a good portfolio around the $3500 mark?

 

Thanks!

Hey Ashley

 

Yay for Spring weddings!  Us Canadians need to escape winter somehow  For the Sunwing package you chose - are all your guests flying out of the same location?  I'm still kind of trying to figure out what route I want to take because our guests are so scattered.

 

For photography, I'm going to use the site photographer provided through Las Caletas.  It's not the best of the best in terms of quality, but I'm not going to be too picky!  If I had my way, I'd be bringing a photographer from Yellowknife with me, but we just can't justify that added expense.  My father will be there, too, and he's a hobby photographer, so I'm hoping between the two of them, we'll end up with a few good shots!

We are booking thru a travel agent for all of our guests. Since some of our guests have different schedules/pricing caps we are giving them the option of booking a 5 day stay or a 7 night stay all at the same resort. We are looking at Riu, Now Amber or Dreams. Velas Vallarta is a possibility as well and depending on price the new Iberostar Punta Mita. We will most likely be getting our STD invites out once our LC date is booked, then will provide wedding details/vacation booking info on our wedding website. Excited to keep in touch and compare notes!!

 

What wedding colors/ideas are you thinking so far??

 

-Melissa

How exactly does the travel agent arrangement work?  Do you let your guests know their options and have them contact the travel agent directly for booking?  What expenses are associated with doing it that way?

 

I did the same thing - confirmed our LC date and then ordered our STDs (which have been printed and are officially shipped and en route!!)  

 

For wedding colours we're going with a marine blue/navy and kiwi/lime accents.  I really like that colour palette with the sandy location.  I'm not one for pinks/oranges, so this is a good way to match the beach without being too pink! (I think the fiancé appreciates it, too haha)

Question - the only Adult-Only hotel I've been able to find is Secrets Vallarta Bay, which looks great!  But, does anyone know of any other options?  

[Ashleymacco14]

Hi Kate,

Yes, most of our guests are coming from the same gateway which helps the pricing to be consistent (Toronto is surprisingly more!). Thanks for letting me know about your photographer, I'm sure you will get amazing photos. With a location like a tropical beach you can't really go wrong.

 

As for dealing with our travel agent, it's been a piece of cake. I sent out email invites to our guests that had the link to the Now resort and the travel agents number and email and they book directly through her, then she gives us an update whenever a new guest puts a deposit down. There was no cost to us to use her. Most don't ask for money unless they are doing wedding planning. We also created a website for free on my wedding.com and I found it super easy to use and customize.

 

We have children and teens so we didn't even look at adult only but I have heard that secrets is really beautiful.

 

We are totally being those people and doing pink haha! I love your blue and lime idea but for us the guys are wearing grey and I love the contrast of a raspberry/fuchsia with the water and greenery. What about you, Melissa?

[melpaegs]

I heard back from Lizbeth of Adventure Weddings so I finally have contact with someone from LC, woo hoo!! After talking with my Fiancé we decided to wait until the travel dates for Spring 2015 to come out to lock down our wedding date. Our travel agent said dates should be out in April/May. I'm bummed to wait that long to send out Save the Dates but everyone is aware that we will be getting married next spring and I told them a certain amount to start saving. So they have no excuse!!

 

Wedding theme I'm going for is vintage/rustic. Lots of candles, tiki torches, lanterns...lace, burlap. Colors will be aqua, coral/peach and white.

[vik123]

Hello Ladies!

 

My name is Viktoria, I live in Ontario Canada.

 

My fiancé and I are getting married at Las Caletas somewhere between feb-april.

 

I have been hesitant to put my deposit down without a resort confirmed!

We originally had book Dreams for out guests to stay at, but I am sure you have all herd about the resort takeover. It's so frustrating!

 

My WC suggested waiting until they have released new quotes for a weeks stay under new management. They keep delaying and delaying! I want to get invites out ASAP.

 

I have done a lot of research in the area on other resorts that are comparable, NOW Ambar seems absolutely wonderful! I tried very hard to get decent and comparable quotes for my guests, no luck.

 

The cheapest qoute I got back was in early January for 1800$ pp, tax in. Not bad! Just don't want to get married right after the holiday season. After that-- prices have greatly increased, 2000$ pp. average. still not crazyyyyy, but I originally ball parked 1500$ with that being the ave price with Dreams. I wish Hyatt would release prices, the resort will be brand new and gorgeous!:)

 

Any other ladies still resort shopping?

--Anything decent within a decent distance to LC?

 

I'm thinking about just confirming with LC a date and sending STDs out. Resort TBD! Lol

 

Hope everything's going well with you girls,

[leahjuly]

Hey LC Brides! Im actually getting married there in three weeks!! Im happy to see a new LC thread because during my planning I was felt the old ones were a little outdated to be very helpful for me. Here are some notes based on some of the items you've already been discussing:

 

 

- Blanca is my wedding coordinator. She's been pretty good, I don't have any major complaints. After we paid the deposit I didn't hear from her until about four months before the wedding. I was a little concerned because I didn't know what the process was and how much they provided, how much other brides brought, etc. Reading the threads on this site really helped me knowing what other brides did. Basically Blanca and LC are super flexible and if you want something just ask and they'll tell you what they can provide or let you know about how you can get it. For example we didn't want to upgrade the whole bar, just the tequila (FH is mexican so the family will want the really good stuff) so we're getting our own locally for a great price and bringing it. Plenty of other venus wouldn't allow this. All the planning is a very collaborative process that I feel really good about at this point. We also asked to modify the menu they sent us and they did it with no problem. I didn't like most of the decor I saw in photos they sent and I was worried about that but Im pretty excited to see what I have planned. Its a little scary not being able to see mockups the way you would working locally with a florist, but I think it'll be good.

 

 

- resorts: my guests are staying at Velas Vallarta. The resort itself is the most gorgeous in the marina area and the staff on the ground is super friendly and helpful however I would NOT recommend them for a group event at all. The events manager is HORRIBLE and her supervisor wont return phone calls or emails either. My FMIL is insistent that we host a small welcome event (drinks/snacks) at the hotel and its going to cost a fortune and oh right, its three weeks out and we still cant get timely responses to get the damn thing planned.

 

Viktoria, you're not going to get a resort near LC (its really isolated) but you want to look for one close to where the boat leaves from, either the main marina in Puerto Vallarta or the marina in Nuevo Vallarta (your choice). I was a little confused about this before I visited a few months back. Our hotel is in the "marina district" and its an easy walk to a marina, turns out even though its technically the same marina, is a different part and not walkable to the LC boat so long story short we have to pay for the bus to get our guests there. Its a lot more expensive than taxis but we thought that was much too complicated to arrange. I don't know about Nuevo Vallarta but I don't think there are even any hotels, certainly not on the beach resort type places, within walking distance to the PV boat. Its the main marina where the cruise ships dock. If you look on google maps and zoom into the marina, you can see Vallarta Adventures labeled there. 

 

 

- photographer: I asked if we could meet with the LC photographer when we went on a site visit but I was told that wouldn't be possible. I didn't like not knowing my photographer so we started looking elsewhere. On the previous LC thread many brides raved about Photo Shoots Vallarta so we set up a meeting with them. We totally hit it off with Eva and she was amazingly helpful with tips for Las Caletas since she has shot there plenty of times before. She made recommendations to the timeline based on the lighting for the time of day/year to get the best pictures which can be a huge issue at LC. It gets darker there earlier than sunset because the sun goes down behind the mountain and many brides have been really disappointed that their photos were in the dark. Photography is one of the most important things to me so her help was invaluable!! Photo Shoots Vallarta's prices were actually a bit cheaper than the in-house photographers so when you add on the $300 to bring someone else the prices were really similar. 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions and I'd be happy to weigh in based on my experience! 

[vik123]

Leahjuly,

 

Thank you for the information, greatly appreciated!

Velas Vallarta looks beautiful! I have heard good things

 

I am trying desperately to stay within the 1500$ mark. Harder then I thought.

 

Right now looking into the Riu's -- hard finding something for everyone. Wide range of travellers! Everything from newborns, to party animals, and elderly.

I'm sure your day was amazing!

[melpaegs]

Wedding date and resort is officially booked. We are getting married at LC March 24th and our group is staying at Riu Jalisco in Nuevo Vallarta. After everyone goes home, the hubby and I will be going over to Now Amber for our honeymoon :-)

 

Colors for the wedding are mint, coral/peach, ivory with touches of lace, wood and burlap. Lots of candles, soft lighting. Theme is vintage travel so if any of you have pictures from LC weddings with colors/themes like this I would love to see them!!

[Trayceelynn]

HI Ladies,

 

I am Tracy and i am getting married at LC Feb 07,2015 and super excited!! 

 

We went through a TA for a package deal but also hotel only at Beunadventure Grand and spa in

Puerto Vallarta.

We 50 guests coming and starting to get super excited. This forum is awesome as it is a great place

for ideas.