Snswedding2016 Planning Thread - Jan 9 2016 (Azul Fives)

[snswedding2016]

@@yycbride2016 it's true that's what Sean and I keep say. As long as the two of us are on that beach, we'll be just fine! 

 

That would be such a nice tradition to go back every year to the treehouse and it works out because he proposed on the week of my birthday so we can time it to celebrate both every year! ha! 

 

@ how goes the selling of your dress? I think you mentioned on your thread that you had some potential buyers. I hoped it worked out. Your dress is so beautiful I'm sure you'll be able to find someone to buy it and then you can focus on finding the dress of your dreams!

 

Mini Update

 

Like I've mentioned I feel like I've really been slacking off in my wedding planning so I don't have too many updates. 

 

Sarongs  - I bought sarongs for my bridesmaids to add to their gift and they arrived today!! I found them super cheap online from aliexpress. They had good reviews and opening the packages up today, I'm very happy with them. They are exactly as described and pretty good quality. Since they were being shipped from China I wasn't expecting them for a while. They say to expect 35-45 days for shipping, so for those who are interested in ordering from them, just make sure you have enough time to receive your order before your wedding. They actually arrived in 2 1/2 weeks so I was really impressed with the delivery time. 

 

 

Bridesmaid dresses - My cousin has been sending me options for her bridesmaid dress. I've left it up to my girls to pick their own dress to match our colour palette. I love that she's including me as she's in Edmonton and we don't get to see each other very often, this is nice way to have her in on the planning! Here are the options she's considering:

 

This one isn't her first choice but it is the best price 

 

These are the other two options. So far we like the one on the right a lot more. It's the Vera Wang bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal. 

 

She's using her bridesmaid dress at another DW she has in the fall (in Palm Springs) so at least she gets another use out of it so I told her if she likes the Vera Wang the most she shouldn't feel bad about splurging a little. I also told her that I like all of the options and I'm happy with whatever one she chooses. She is going to take pics at her appointment as it's hard to tell the true colour of the dresses from the online images. For example the two dresses in the second photo are supposed to be the same colour but it could be the fabric making them look different or the online image.

 

Resort - I had a great conversation with one of the WCs (not my assigned one unfortunately) at AF. She was so nice and really helpful. It really seemed like she was genuinely interested in the vision of our wedding and was offering her opinions on what direction I could go in. She didn't try to 'up-sell' me on any extras and it was really refreshing to talk to someone from the resort with that attitude. 

 

 

[TinkerSofi]

I really like the bridesmaid dresses and I agree that the Vera wang one looks amazing . At least she'll get to wear it twice!

 

Don't feel bad about slacking. I've had many weeks like that and still feel that I'm in pretty good shape planning-wise. That's the beauty of having so much time to plan haha. Talking about time slipping through, this last month has flown by for me! Today I caught myself thinking "yeah, next year when we get married" and then I was like "hold on, it's only in 2 months and a half away!" this was my inside face hahah

 

I'm happy that you had a good chat with a WC . I find I might be always on the defensive when I call because I always call when there's a problem lol. They probably think I'm the psycho bride, which I'm really not haha. I should try and call just to chat .

 

I really liked my first WC but for some reason I don't seem to have the same connection with the new one. I always have to tell her about mistakes on my summary sheet, etc. the old WC was so on too of everything. Oh well, at the end of the day things are still getting done and that's all that matters.

 

What did she tell you about the venues? Did she tempt you to change your mind about any of them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[snswedding2016]

@@TinkerSofi haha your inside face! It's soooooo close for you!! I can't wait to see all the photos from your wedding! I know what you mean I just realized I've now been engaged just as long as the remaining time until my wedding - woah! crazy!

 

I totally would have lost it too if I had the same conversation you did about your photo booth. I didn't really have anything majorly pressing when I called so I think that made it easier. I was waiting to hear back about the availability of the terrace. Ivis said that my group would fit on the terrace to have our ceremony there but she was checking with the hotel about our date and time. When I called and spoke to Maribel she said our group size was a bit big and normally they only have groups of 30 on the terrace. I told her that was what I thought but she could look through my email correspondence and check that I asked Ivis twice to make sure that our numbers would be ok and she confirmed yes. Maribel said she would look into it further and that we could probably fit but it might be a bit tight. We got chatting and she asked me what we were really looking for for our ceremony. She admitted she didn't like the new beachfront structure as well - haha!! I loved when she said that. I told her that the beach was what we initially wanted and that the privacy wasn't a huge deal at first but the more we heard from other people that we started to get a bit worried. She said that with our wedding date being at a slower time of the year (just after the holidays) and our ceremony time being late in the day that most people at the hotel will be getting ready for dinner. She said there may be the odd person that will try and get that last ray of sun but that the hotel is really good at keeping people away from the ceremony area (moving the beach chairs etc). Maribel also mentioned that her favourite gazebo is the one on the beach and that she really likes the entrance the bride and bridal party makes at that location. She started to make me rethink the whole thing. I told her the sky deck would be beautiful but that it just doesn't fit in our budget. She totally understood and never pushed the premium locations which I was really surprised about. 

 

So now I'm going to wait and see about the terrace to see if it is available and if it is then we'll have to decide which way we want to go. I think we've agreed to wait until the BDR to make the final call. I know the beach is a really unpopular ceremony choice at Azul Fives but if the beach is clear of people I'm okay with others hanging out in the pool watching (that doesn't bother me so much). We did initially really want that beach ceremony feel so we may end up sticking to our original plan. I'm really glad we're going in Sept now to see it all in person. 

 

I 100% agree with you about our new WC, my first one (Lynda) was amazing and I miss her! She should be returning in July so I'm going to try and request to be transferred back. 

[snswedding2016]

Some updates...

 

I got a bunch of emails from my WC tonight at 10:30pm …I can't believe she was working that late tonight! She gave me some good news. The Terrace is available and confirmed for our wedding!!! Now I know what you're all thinking ….I just posted at the end of the last week about how I was feeling better about the beach ceremony situation. I do feel better about the beach and it was our initial idea for our ceremony venue but if I can have a guaranteed private ceremony and not have to pay extra …AND we have a beautiful view, I think I'm sold!! When I spoke to the other WC on the phone last week she said they were waiting on confirmation from the hotel about approval so I was really worried that they would reject it saying our group was too big. The more I see additional photos of the terrace I really do think that this is the perfect ceremony venue for us! It will be pretty simple in terms of decor as there is no gazebo or structure on the terrace which actually doesn't bother me or my fiancé. In fact we may save some money here because we won't be able to use the full decor package I requested (sheers and hanging corsages are useless now without a gazebo). My WC recommended added the decor items we want a la carte and I think it will end up being cheaper. I might even decide to bring some/make my own pomanders. @@TinkerSofi I think you made your own right?? I have to go back through your thread and look for them! Now I just have to go through my decor list and see what I actually want to keep and what I can get rid of. 

 

Here are some additional pics of the terrace:

 

 

 

Excursion Day

 

We're are trying to organize an excursion day with our guests. Unfortunately we can't afford to pay for everyone but we do want to organize the event to make it nice and easy to book if our guests our interested. I think it would be fun to be able to do an excursion as a big group. Considering we have 8 kids in our group we wanted to pick an option that would be kid friendly but also fun for the adults. We've decided on Xcaret! There are a bunch of shows, animals cenotes, caves, an underground church…so much to see! http://www.xcaret.com

 

Over the weekend I spent some time comparing prices between a couple different tour operators as well as calling the park directly. Everyone was really helpful and the park gave me fairly competitive rates compared to the tour operators and the woman I spoke to is going to speak to her manager to see if she can get me a further discount for a larger group. We decided to go with just the basic park admission and not add the extras as I hear the food package isn't worth the package price and not everyone wants to go swimming with the dolphins. Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to add transportation in a package with the admissions price or to try and arrange for transportation on our own/through the hotel. I feel like we could save a lot of money if we got a bunch of taxis to take us there rather than added $25 USD to every person's admissions price. My TA is asking around as well with her connections to see if she can beat the prices. She also told me that's she's been with her family and loved it and that they are going back in Sept. So that's always a good sign.

 

 

 

Bridesmaid dress

 

My cousin went for her David's Bridal appointment (in Edmonton) and has ordered her dress!! She sent me a pic of the swatches and I realized that Malibu and Capri definitely fit within our colour palette but Pool is a bit too green. In a lot of the images online it looked a lot more blue. I gave my girls a list of colours that would work from the David's site (as a reference) so it's good to know that one of them doesn't really fit. My bridesmaids in Toronto will not likely be buying their dresses from David's but they are using those swatches as a guideline.

Edited June 3, 2015 by snswedding2016

[TinkerSofi]

I think the terrace would be great! I'm actually considering switching now that about 25% of our guests have cancelled . I don't know if it's worth paying the $1700 for 30 people. Who knows, I might be bluffing and might just keep it anyway hahah. 

 

I didn't make the pomanders. I got them from Michael's. I haven't seen them in a while. I had bought 4 and then thought I needed 2 more but they didn't bring any more. Turns out it was a good thing because I think 4 of them will be plenty .  

[jswllms]

I'm thinking of going with the terrace as well! I love the sky deck but $1800 for 30 mins is a lot

 

 

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[snswedding2016]

@@jswllms that is exactly how my fiance and I feel. It is gorgeous but I think the terrace is a great compromise especially since our group is smaller. 

[snswedding2016]

Not too much to report but here are a couple of updates...

 

Centrepieces:

 

So Sean loved my initial centrepiece demo except for the colour of the blue mat. He thought it was too blue and it reminded him of lego - lol (note: he LOVES lego, so why is this a problem? your guess is as good as mine). He was hoping for a softer blue and something that wouldn't be so harsh against the white table linens. After I let my ego calm down ( ) I realized that I agreed with him and wanted to keep searching. I did some more hunting for options and found these great cloth napkins at Indigo. They had the blue we wanted and it has a mix of blue and white that will go nicely with the tables I think.

 

Please ignore the huge creases, I didn't iron them before I did these demos. I also think we're going to fold them in a bit to make the surface area of the napkin smaller (see second photo). We tried it with its full size and Sean and I both agree that it looks like the centrepiece gets a little lost.

 

 

 

 

Original centrepiece demo (I definitely like the light blue and white napkins better...sigh, he was right)

 

 

 

I was at the mall on the weekend with our flower girl and we went into Claire's because that's what a 3 year old wants to do of course! When we went in, I found a flower girl wedding section that I had no idea existed. While the little miss was trying on everything in the store and collecting items in her purse (haha - we did put them all back eventually) I found the cutest flower girl robe!! It's a bit pricey, considering it is so tiny and it costs more than my bride's robe I got at Target. I'm hoping that there might be a sale.

 

 

 

Optional Excursion:

 

My TA got back to me with prices through her contact for the Xcaret group excursion. We're looking at just the basic admission to the park but with transportation. I was able to talk to the park directly at get a price of $109.65/adult and $55/child (5-11). The price my TA got was close to what the park was offering but slightly higher $111/adult. Her contact is a guy she works with a lot at Lomas, which is the vendor we're using for our wedding at Azul Fives. While I didn't necessarily want to use Lomas (their prices tend to get over inflated rather quickly), I thought if they could price match to the what the park was offering than it would be worth while to keep it with the company through Azul Fives as well as I like that idea of using a contact that my TA trusts. Not that I don't trust the park but I feel more comfortable knowing that he wants to maintain a good relationship with my TA as she sends him a lot of business. I contacted him yesterday, within minutes he responded to my email and price matched to the prices of the park. The adults were slightly cheaper than the park and the child prices were a couple of dollars more. Most of our kids in our wedding are under 5 so that works out. I also really like that we'll be getting private transportation in a mini bus for just our group. We can also set our own pick up and drop off times. Now the trick is to get numbers. I need a minimum of 10 people, which I don't think will be a problem but I don't want fully commit until I know. Last night I sent out an email to all of our guests inviting them to the optional excursion and also setting up an event on our wedding facebook group. So far I'm very happy with how this is all working out. Hopefully we'll get enough people who are interested!

 

 

 

[Meandhim]

@@snswedding2016

 

Just doing a  little catch up...terrace is beautiful!! and that excursion looks awesome! I was thinking of doing the same thing...planning a group excursion, I wish I could afford to pay for it. I have 2 kids (both under 2) and 2 seniors with limited mobility so I haven't found anything yet. 

Claire's has a flower girl section?? Which mall?

Love the centrepeices! I Like both the Mat and the napkin!

[snswedding2016]

@@Meandhim we're in the same boat. I wish we could pay for a group excursion for our guests but it it simply isn't in the budget especially since we're covering the costs of the our parents trips. Let me know if you want more info on Xcaret. It looks really fun. One of our kids in our group has mobility issues as well and over 50% of the park is wheelchair accessible, so that's a huge plus!   

 

I'm super excited about the terrace now!! I just want to go and see it!

 

The Claire's with the flower girl section was at Markville Mall - I'm not usually up there so it was a total fluke I found it. I'm not sure if all Claire's has that section. They also have a ton of cute flower crowns, signs for your flower girl to carry, baskets, wands etc!