Paradisus Playa Conchal

[megan11]

Hi again Ask.CostaRica!  I was reading a previous post about a municipality law stating no fireworks after 9 pm, is this still the case?

 

Thanks!

[remdog]

Thanks for the heads up Ask Costa Rica.

 

Glad to see Megan that I'm not the only one who picked out her ring.  I bought it yesterday and it is on it's way to be size.  YEA!!!!!!!  

 

That's a good idea about renting a house.  I will keep that in mind if  there are more people who think it's to expensive. Or I'll take a look around when I'm on my Dominican vacation in Costa Rica.  lol.    I did talk to the TA yesterday and she said  in Nov.  we would get a better idea of the summer travel schedule for the airlines so I'm hoping that the air will come down and it won't be $2000 per person for a week ( air and hotel). 

 

[megan11]

Hey there remdog!  I am so excited for you to get your ring!  I feel naked if I don't wear mine now....lol.

 

I am sure prices may come down with a June travel date, but booking months away doesn't seem to do anything with the price.  Especially since the Paradisus is not one of the hotels that if your prices go down from the time you book then they won't honour the lower price.  When James and I went there last year we booked a normal gardenview room for 2100 each (including tax) and then upgraded once we got there to the royal service junior suite for an extra 900.  We did book 1 month away from when we wanted to leave, which helped with getting a lower price.  I am thinking we will have a few more guests coming once they can get a last minute deal, which can make a huge difference in the pricing.  You will most likely experience the same thing with your guests.  It makes wedding favours and all that stuff kind of a pain with last minute guests but I am planning for that.

 

Did you pick your dress out yet?

[remdog]

I think I'm also going to have some of those last minute guest also.  Including my father who is already asking why I don't just go to Disneyland or something?  LOL  No really he did say that today.  To make things worse he isn't paying for anything P and I are doing the entire thing on our own.  Which is fine, that's why we will get married where WE want and not where my dad thinks we should.  UGH!  I've gotten lots of where ever you want to go and when ever we will be there.  Then there is the other 1/2 who are already telling me how expensive it is.  Oh well.  P is SOOOOO excited.  I wasn't going to tell anyone till after I got my ring back, but he has told everyone he knows.  It's so funny.  He's acting like a girl.  I just love it.

 

I haven't started even thinking about dresses.  My BF live in California and is due in early Nov. she really wants to be here for dress shopping so she said in Jan she would com out.  So I don't even want to look with out here.  

 

That's it for now having a surprise 40th birthday party for a neighbor at our house tonight I'm gonna get in trouble if I'm on the computer and not getting ready.  

 

What kind of favors are you doing?  Are you doing any group outings?  

Still haven't heard from Lucia.  I'll hope for next week.

[megan11]

Hey there remdog!  Sorry to hear about your dad....but you do have to pick where you want to go!!  I had so many people tell me to pick somewhere cheaper and I wasn't going to make them happy when we should be able to go where we want to go and be happy.   Unfortunately, those people that wanted us to pick somewhere cheaper won't be coming but they would probably complain the whole time anyways so we have the people that we really want to come coming and know they will have a great time celebrating with us. 

 

That's so cute that Patrick is acting like a little girl, he sounds really excited.

 

I had picked out my dress online and then ordered it in August because it will take four months to get in.  I am excited to see it tho! 

 

As for wedding favours.....I have ordered personalized beach bags with our names, the date, and Costa Rica on them.  I have also ordered travel mugs with the same logos as the beach bags.  Looking into getting straw rafia cowboy/girl hats, pool floaties, bookmarks, sunscreen, spanish pocketbooks, etc.  Not too sure how much I can fit in the bags though! Lol...and I am happy that with our group booking, I am allowed extra baggage.

 

Have you thought about your Save The Dates yet?  My sister gave me a great idea....we got our caricatures done from www.giveacaricature.com and I was really happy with them.  And they were done REALLY fast!  If you are interested, let me know, and I can show you what they did for ours.  They are really unique and the people that have seen them get a kick out of them.

 

Oh....and we got boarding pass invitations from.... www.boardingpassinvitations.com ....I haven't received them yet but we got the New Wave Boarding Passes and she figures they would be ready in 6-8 weeks.  I figured I would give you some ideas that I was using since I found it to be a big help when I was first starting out and my sister was giving me these ideas.

 

[remdog]

Hi Megan,

I love your idea for std's and wedding invitations thanks for the websites.  I started thinking about std's and thought we would have a picture taken while we were in Costa Rica and then somehow using that for the std's but that's about as far as I've gotten.   I love the Boarding passes and I've glanced at a few websites but that's it so far.  I think once I finally hear from the resort I'll be more inspired to start looking at that stuff.  Right now it still doesn't feel real since I don't have an actual date yet.  

 

The one thing I have done is talked to the Photographer and she is willing to go.  It's really nice because I've known her husband since we were in high school and I've been stalking Carries work for over a year.  www.carrievines.com.  She will be staying at the resort as a guest with her husband so that will be kinda cool too.  Usually she does an engagement session but since we won't be out in California prior to the wedding she is going to do a TTD.  She loved the idea of also having p's son in the pictures so it should be tons of fun.  This was really the one thing I've had my heart set on so I'm super excited.   

 

I was thinking about doing Bubba Kegs and then filling those with stuff as a welcome gift to put in everyones room.  Since those won't really hold to much I may have to go the beach bag route also.  I can already hear p complaining about taking a bunch of stuff down there though.  I may have to just ship it so I'm not dragging stuff through the airport.   

 

Did you try your dress on some place prior to ordering it?  

[remdog]

Yea I finally got the reply from Lucia with the forms. June 22 isn't taken yet so if I get the deposit in I should be good. It said I could email the request form but how did you send the credit card authorization form back with a signature? Is this how you paid your deposit ? Her email wasn't very clear about how to send the deposit so I'm just assuming that's what that authorization form is for.

 

 

 

Still not sure on the aqua price but really those details can be worked out while were down there. I have a meeting set up with Lucia for when I'm down there. I'm having my TA change our hotel for our October trip to the Paradisus. I decided that's were I really want to stay and if we are going all the way down there what the heck. I was trying to be cheap but in the big picture what's a few hundred $. Then I will really be able to tell everyone how great it is. So if you need me to do anything for you while I'm there let me know.

 

 

 

I'm so excited this is finally starting to feel real. Tonight at work someone told me it takes 8-10 months to order a wedding dress. Ugh I wasn't planning on going shopping till January. If that's the case I have to start shopping now. Wasn't planning that one.

[megan11]

Hey there!  Glad to hear you heard from Lucia.   She sent me the finalized forms for everything and I am officially done planning!  Woo Hoo!!  Yes I sent the credit card authorization form to her, along with the front AND back of my credit card.  I scanned it and sent it to her (do it this way....trust me....way easier than faxing).  And yes, the deposit is to confirm and hold the date, then she will send you all the stuff to start planning.   Excited?!

 

The aqua package pricing that I was given was 3875.00 (I think) with 85.00/person if you have over 20 guests.  Hope this helps you out and you are given the same amount.  Great to hear you are staying there for your October trip.  You will have such a great time!  And it will give you an idea of the resort....me and J got really drunk the first night we were there and got so lost we couldn't find our room and had to track down one of the concierge guys to help us out.  It is a big resort so it will be nice to know everything about it before you go there for your wedding (especially which restaurants you like the most).  I love Caricola...so good steak....and the italian restaurant....yumm!!

 

Wow!!  That long for a dress to come in?  I am glad mine is only taking four months... I guess you gotta start looking sooner rather than later!  Looking online helps though.

 

How was the surprise party?

 

That's great to hear that your photographer can make it!!   The wedding planner will be able to give her tips on where to take pics too.

 

Just bring another suitcase for your wedding favours, that's what I am going to do.  Since you will have a group booking, most tour companies allow extra baggage for the group so I am sure you would not have a problem. 

 

Nope, didn't get a chance to try on the dress before I ordered it, found it online and pictured what it would look like on me in my head and that's it ( I hope it works out ).  I got a Mori Lee dress (#2511) and I have my sister as my maid of honour and her dress is the Mori Lee Bridesmaid #791 in rose petal pink ( I love pink ).  It was a great price as well which I was happy about.  Have you started looking online for dresses?  Mori Lee does have some great destination style dresses.  Do you know what style/silhouette you are looking for? Neckline?

[megan11]

I checked out the photographer's website....she does great work!!   I can see why you are excited! 

[remdog]

Your dresses are beautiful.  I did at least start to look online and bought my first Bridal Magazines.  Really I only got the mags because my hair dresser was picking on me because I hadn't bought any yet.    I think I want something with some type of straps so maybe V-neckish, kinda mermaid but up a little higher ( I don't know what they call that)  I like beading and lacy.  I did see a few in the magazines that looked ok, not perfect but at least a start.  Guess I just need to head to a bridal shop and see what they have.  Maybe next week.  

 

The surprise party was good.  We told him it was an engagement party for us.  Since he lives across the street it was a good cover for all of the cars and he really was surprised.  Later in the night he said are you guys really engaged? It was kinda funny.    

 

After a long ordeal with Apple our TA finally got our hotel changed.  Apple was going to charge $3600 for just the hotel it was crazy.  So she got us a refund from apple for the hotel, and then rebooked it with someone else for $1600 less than apple. It was such a mess, thank goodness for a good Ta she really earned her money on this one.  It also was good to see her work under a tough situation so I know she'll do a good job.

 

I think Costa Rica in October is still at this point a surprise for p.   I've been worried because I wanted him to print the forms from Lucia so I just sent him the entire email, not thinking that in the email I told here we would be down there for a week and could we set up a meeting.  If he had been acting like his normal self I wouldn't have been worried about him reading the email, but since he's been so into this I thought he might just read it.  Today he said he printed the forms and no mention of our vacation so he might be back to his normal self.  

 

Your prices sound more reasonable, I cant imagine that they would have gone up that much.  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

So here's a  story for you.  Logan and P went to a benefit garage sale yesterday and there was a wedding dress for sale.  Actually I think it was a flower girl dress but Logan said Dad lets buy that for paula so she has a dress for your wedding.   P said I think she may want to buy her own dress maybe we could find her something else.  So when I got home I had a lovely chain, with a large flower pin and a plastic frog watch attached to it.  Since he couldn't get me the dress he talked his dad into getting that for me.  He was so proud, he made me close my eyes and walked me over to my new treasure.  It was to cute.