Tygrrlily's Planning Thread - Beach Palace Resort - 12/19/14

[ABfutureSulli]

@@tygrrlily Your wedding looks wonderful! Glad you had a positive experience and congratulations!! I have few questions about the pre-wedding events.

 

Who did you work with to get the deal for Coco Bongo? I'm hoping my friends and family can go and would like to work out a group rate if possible.

 

I'm also having my welcome part at the Planeque terrace. The party starts at 7p. What is the lighting like out there? Is it necessary to rent additional lighting? Same question for the infinity terrace? Also I've looked through the Zuniga catalogue and I don't see the lighting stands. How much did those cost? And did Zuniga charge you a daily set up fee for all of your events?

 

Thank you!!

[tygrrlily]

@@ABfutureSulli - I worked with Gerry - Gerardo Dominguez Rodriguez <gdominguez@@PalaceResorts.com>.  His rates were comparable to others we found, and I got a free admission as the Bride/group organizer

 

What time of year is your wedding?  We were there in December so it was pretty dark at 7pm.  The Palenque terrace is huge so you will prob. need some extra lighting - same as Infinity Terrace.  We paid 2014 prices but the strands were $150.  Zuniga did charge a daily set up fee but it was less for our other events. You might be able to negotiate something with them, esp. if you get a similar quote from another vendor like Latin Asia.  We worked w/ Cristina who was a bit tight and wouldn't really negotiate w/ us, but I've heard better things about Lily.  We dealt with Latin Asia too late so we didn't really have a lot of time/wiggle room for negotiations

Edited March 1, 2015 by tygrrlily

[ABfutureSulli]

@@tygrrlily ok great! I'll email Gerardo to see what we can work out. My wedding is June 7, 2015. I'm not sure what time sunset is there in June but I'm guessing a little later than 7p. idk... I just would hate for it to get dark while we are out there and not have additional lighting so I'll prob go with renting somet for bothe events. I'm working with Celeste at Zuniga. I'll def ask her Abt deals she can work out since we are using them for three events.

 

Thank you!!!

[linaco80]

@@tygrrlily hope you are doing well, amazing thread and glad all was wonderful I wanted to ask how you packed your tumblers? I am afraid that mine break

What do you recommend. and THANKS in advance

[tygrrlily]

@@linaco80 - We had a few crack but we were pretty lazy w/ our packing.  We packed the lids and straws separately then placed the cups 1 in each other and then just placed some bubble wrap around them.  Most were fine but we did have a couple crack - luckily we brought a few extras  

[linaco80]

@@tygrrlily Thank you!!! I was thinking to stack them up...I didnt think of bringing extras but now I will I appreciate your help!

[Trex]

I am also getting married at Beach Palace and really appreciate the tips on scheduling of events as I'm nervous about the flow. We have alloted two hours for photos. I initially thought this may be too much time and was actually considereing revising this but based on what you've said, it sounds like we may need it. I may even tack on an extra 30 minutes as well to take that breather / freshen-up / cocktail time! Excellent advice! I am a little concerned over  the threat to lose your wedding spot over the mix-up and payment of your service order though. Doesn't sound very customer service focused and makes me wonder what we are heading down to.

 

Looks like the venue isn't the only thing we have in common. Vanessa Martinez of Centre Holidays is my TA as well and I can't say enough good things about her! She also did my sister's wedding last year (which I was MOH at and therefore a big part of the planning process), and Vanessa was an absolute God send. For both weddings, Vanessa has gone above and beyond anything we ever expected from a travel agent. Not only was she able to get us an incredible rate (much better than what other agents quoted), she was super-friendly, responsive and beyond helpful. All of my guests are able to fly in and out on the same schedule but my sister had about 15 people who were basically in and out at different times than the rest of the group and Vanessa managed to take care of everything. My sister didn't get married at BP, but when we had an issue come up at her resort, I contacted Vanessa from the destination and she was on it and got it resolved before my sister could morph in to Bridezilla on the resort staff (trust me, it didn't take much for her to have the bridal melt-down!). In addition, Vanessa went out of her way to try to secure some additional perks for us.

 

I know that this is your review and you are entitled to detail your own experience, but I think it's truly a disservice to other brides to discourage them from using Vanessa. I also dealt with her while she was out of the country and even though we had access to other people in her office for us and our guests to contact while she was away, she still responded to all of our emails. While I will grant you that they weren't as prompt as the replies I was accustomed to receiving when she was in the coutry (which I expected), I still heard from her the same day. I think the longest it took to receive a reply while she was out of town was about 5 hours, but given the time difference, and the fact that she was on the other side of the globe, I thought this was very resonable.

 

As for plane seating, we just received all of our documents last week and I've already fielded frantic phone calls from our guests about the seating. ATTENTION BRIDES - this is done by Air Canada, and NOT by the TA. We are able to change our seating during the online check in any time in the 24 hours before we leave, which we will definitely do.

 

As we all are, I am super excited to be getting hitched to one of the best men on the planet and appreciated the tips here in your review, but I definitely cannot agree with you on the travel agent front. Vanessa is amazing and we will be using her for years to come!

 

I will post a review of my own wedding here as soon as I am "wifed-up"!!

[tygrrlily]

@@Trex - I'm glad you are having a better experience using Vanessa as your TA. You are certainly entitled to your opinion - as am I, particularly in my own review thread .

 

Unfortunately based on my own personal experience using Vanessa, I cannot in good conscience recommend her to the brides here at all. People are of course able to and will use whomever they want - I can only write about my own personal experiences. I stand by my opinion that she was a terrible agent and was one of the worst parts of our wedding planning. We worked with a lot of vendors for our wedding and she was by far one of the worst people we dealt with. I think I gave a fair assessment of her services. I do hope that she DID improve and I do hope that she can learn to be consistent with her service and that other brides won't have to deal with the same stress that we did.

 

Good luck with all of your planning. We had a fantastic time at BP and I hope that you do as well

[tygrrlily]

Hello ladies!

We got our wedding video finally!  It took Mattias a bit longer than expected because he was so busy, but we are very pleased w/ the final project.  Mattias is super nice and fixed up some things we requested w/o hesitation.  Our final video is about 1 hour long and has our whole ceremony and all of the speeches!  Didn't expect something so comprehensive, but it was really amazing to look back and relive the day.  I'm so glad we splurged and got the video.  Our pics are amazing too but to actually be able to go back and relive all of those moments - truly priceless.  I actually wish we had kept him for longer to get more dancing shots and us jumping in the pool at the end of the night, but that would have cost way too much haha

 

Here is our highlight video if you want to see an under 4 minute version - I think I've watched it oh at least 20 times now

 

https://vimeo.com/122755657

[Meandhim]

OMG! loved it! watched it 3 times so far...haha! Did you pick the song? I wasn't going to do a video but now after seeing yours I'm changing my mind again! was it expensive?