2016 Brides! Let's Wait In Here!

[TheBHolders]

@@MissAmber26 I love mexico, but the locals still harass you to buy things like cocaine and Marijuana... just say no. I will be going to a wedding in Montego Bay in may and I am dreading going. My fiance and i say all the time that we are glad we chose mexico. The safety in jamaica is like non existent, we love being able to leave the resort in mexico and many of the locals are very friendly and eager to show you a good time and teach you about their culture. Also, no resort topped what palace offers and the flight prices to jamaica are outrageous

[MexicoWeddings]

Hi Ladies, 

 

Congrats to all of you! The Mayan Riviera was the perfect place for my wedding. I hired GRUPO Events and did a private Villa Wedding which was amazing in every way. They know the area perfect and have professional suppliers. In addition to the wedding day, they also planned the stag, stagettes, a welcome dinner, beach party and all the tours for my group. They offer a full level of service and free consultations! Definitely worth an email. 

 

Something that I loved was their Photo Booth we hired from them for our Wedding day. They created a super uniqeu scrapbook on site and all our guests absolutely loved the experience! 

 

Check them out and let me know if you have any questions! 

 

www.grupoevents.com

 

Good luck and happy planning ladies! 

[Msmimi]

Happy planning fellow 2016 brides

[Marieisgettinghitched]

hello ladies and congratulations to all!!  I'm new to BDW and I see that there are a lot of Moon Palace brides in here; would you guys share your experience with the booking and planning process with Moon?  I've read so many horror stories on the Paradisus thread (I actually read through all 68 pages!) that I'm scared out of my pants!  Long story short, this is my second time "planning" and we lost all th deposits we made for my 1/17/15 wedding that did not take place.  So we're now trying to plan for a small wedding (about 30 people) versus an original wedding for 400 and budget is very tight.  I appreciate any tips!  Thanks! 

[Wafflesmom]

@@Marieisgettinghitched Congrats on your engagement! I'm so sorry to hear about your first time planning but this forum is a great resource to help you successfully plan your upcoming DW. We are going to have about 30 people at our wedding and have set a $10,000 budget for the wedding (minus flight and accommodation costs). So far we're managing to stick to our budget and still get a lot of what I wanted. The only thing affecting our budget is the poor exchange rate of the Canadian dollar.

 

In Canada, we usually book our flight and accommodation as a package with the airlines. Our travel agent/destination wedding specialist took care of this for us and also took care of contacting Moon Palace to get our wedding contract. Once that was finalized, we were assigned an offsite wedding coordinator to plan the logistics of the wedding with us. Our coordinator has been nothing but great. She replies to my questions and email messages within 24-48 hours (usually 24 hours) and even gives me a heads up of any changes to vendor fees. I think I would have been more stressed out had she not been so helpful. In terms of planning, this forum has also been very helpful so ask away! I hope this helps out somehow. 

[krystalball]

Hi 2016 Brides!

 

I am currently in the very early stages of planning my wedding, all I've done so far is narrow down to Riviera Maya (with Punta Cana as a second option) sometime in April 2016. I've engaged a destination wedding travel agent to get quotes on travel packages since I'm from Canada and we generally book our flight and hotel as a package with the airlines. 

 

I'm trying to pick a resort based on location, amenities and reviews, but most of all price. Since I want my guests to be able to afford to come, I'm trying to stay at about $1,400 per person (I'm estimating about 40 guests at this point). My travel agent got quotes for about a bunch of resorts and the quoted prices were all much higher than I expected. I had been basing my short list on the prices online for April 2015 and the quoted April 2016 rates are 15% to 30% higher, and all at about $1,500 or above. The travel agent said she thought they were high too, and suggested I wait until April of this year to get new quotes since they may be lower then.

 

So for all my Canadian brides planning a 2016 wedding - did you come across the same issue when getting quotes? It seems like many others on this forum were booking over a year in advance so I'm not sure if I should ask another travel agent for quotes to see if they can get better pricing... I know I can use any perks to offset the costs for my guests, but I was hoping to have some of that money left over to hire a DJ, photographer, etc..

 

Appreciate any insights - I want to start planning sooner than later as I'm a procrastinator and I need all the time I can get, lol

 

[Wafflesmom]

Hi 2016 Brides!

 

I am currently in the very early stages of planning my wedding, all I've done so far is narrow down to Riviera Maya (with Punta Cana as a second option) sometime in April 2016. I've engaged a destination wedding travel agent to get quotes on travel packages since I'm from Canada and we generally book our flight and hotel as a package with the airlines. 

 

I'm trying to pick a resort based on location, amenities and reviews, but most of all price. Since I want my guests to be able to afford to come, I'm trying to stay at about $1,400 per person (I'm estimating about 40 guests at this point). My travel agent got quotes for about a bunch of resorts and the quoted prices were all much higher than I expected. I had been basing my short list on the prices online for April 2015 and the quoted April 2016 rates are 15% to 30% higher, and all at about $1,500 or above. The travel agent said she thought they were high too, and suggested I wait until April of this year to get new quotes since they may be lower then.

 

So for all my Canadian brides planning a 2016 wedding - did you come across the same issue when getting quotes? It seems like many others on this forum were booking over a year in advance so I'm not sure if I should ask another travel agent for quotes to see if they can get better pricing... I know I can use any perks to offset the costs for my guests, but I was hoping to have some of that money left over to hire a DJ, photographer, etc..

 

Appreciate any insights - I want to start planning sooner than later as I'm a procrastinator and I need all the time I can get, lol

 

Hi @@krystalball! It's still early enough so see if you can speak to other travel agents. Some agents have better contacts than others and it wouldn't hurt to get different quotes. Our wedding is in January 2016 and we were trying to get quotes in September. We knew we wanted to get married in Riviera Maya and it was hard for us to find pricing in the $1500 mark. Of course, we are on the other side of the coast and our choice of airlines were a little bit more limited since we refused to book connecting flights (Air Canada no longer offer direct flights from Vancouver). To make it easier, we told our TA that we weren't fussy on exact date or week so the cheapest package in January would work. She sent me quotes from Sunwing and Air Transat which were around $2300. In the end, she found us a deal with Air Transat for $2030 which is a lot better than $2300. We know it's a lot to ask of our guests but at least Palace resorts offer $1500 resort credits per room for a 7 night stay. It was a little bit of an incentive. Our guests have a year to save up so that's also nice. We do get a 1 time price adjustment if the price drops. However, with the Canadian dollar being so low, I think the prices will just go up for us. I'm hoping not but that seems to affect everything else for us!

[krystalball]

Thanks @@Wafflesmom!

 

My travel agent was also taking up to a week to respond to emails at the quoting stage of the relationship, so I've gone ahead and found another travel agent that's much more responsive and hopefully can get me better deals. So far her quotes have been a bit less, but not by much.

 

Seems as though it's the dollar causing the increase in pricing, though both travel agents couldn't or wouldn't give me an answer as to why there's been a huge jump in price from one year to the next. Apparently the increase is generally 8% - 10% max and I'm seeing 15% to 30%. Too bad the airlines aren't passing along the decrease in fuel costs...

[LeighC]

Gah!  I'm so excited to officially join this thread!  Has anyone given any thoughts to the planning of their day yet?  The packages I am using include a 2 hour cocktail party and a 4 hour reception.  Right now, I have a 3:00 ceremony listed, followed by cocktails (while we do pictures).  Do you all think that 2 hours is too long for the cocktail?  I don't want people to be bored, but I also don't want to only use an hour if I'm paying for two!

 

Any other El Dorado Seaside brides on here?

[rebecca90]

Moon Palace is a really fun place to get married. Let us know if you have any questions.

Hi I'm getting married at the moon palace Oct 2016. I'm so excited. The TA said r WC, will contact us 3 months before the wedding, is there a way I can get in contact with them sooner.

Thanks xx