msbritbrit57

I actually can't remember his name. We need to e-mail Ivan to find out because we really enjoyed him. He was a younger guy. We did have to somewhat decide when to do the bouquet toss/first dance/etc., but we liked the flexibility of deciding when seemed to be a good time for us. We just had my sister-in-law run up and tell him when we were ready to do a certain event. Granted, we did our dinner playlist, right into the first dance/mother-son/father-daughter dances, so we really just had to tell him when to do the bouquet toss and everything else was pretty scripted.

We absolutely loved working with DJ Doremixx. We gave him a list ahead of time of the music we wanted to play during dinner then gave him a few "must-plays" and "do-not-plays" for the reception. The DJ we had (there is a team of DJs available) was incredible and kept our group of 35 dancing all night. The DJ mixed songs rather than just playing one song after another, so it had more of a dance club feel than just an iPod playing.

We went back and forth on this, but in the end we decided to keep things as simple as possible when it came to the ceremony. I would say it probably depends on how simple your ceremony is (i.e., wedding party or not, extra readings/songs during the ceremony or not). We had neither of those things, so we thought it a little extraneous to give people a program.

LOVED Sarani! We worked with James (photo) and Clara (video). They were amazing to work with and very creative. The video pretty much brings everyone to tears in our friends and family. http://saraniweddingsblog.com/2012/06/08/brittani-travis-cancun-destination-wedding/ Very punctual and very flexible with what we wanted to do.

To add to the recommendations for Gazebo 55, we got married there and it was just gorgeous. You can see some our pictures from the location at http://saraniweddingsblog.com/2012/06/08/brittani-travis-cancun-destination-wedding/ (also recommend Sarani, who is one of the recommended photographers for Lomas and thus has no outside vendor fee). We did our reception at the Mexican Gazebo behind building 5, and it was so perfect. The resort fought us on doing it there, but the wind at all of the locations on the beach was extremely strong during our stay, so the receptions in that area looked very uncomfortable the week we were there. It may be better other times of year, but for our wedding week (mid-May), on the beach for a reception would've been bad. The Mexican Gazebo area also shielded the very light sprinkling of rain we got during our reception as the palm trees over it create a canopy over the tables. It was also very private, and the DJ set up in the gazebo area, creating a sort of stage for the various points in the evening.

We did pretty minimal decorations, and it turned out beautifully. We bought some bags of cheap seashells and sea glass to spread over the center of the table around some cheap aqua-colored candelabras. We also got some table numbers made out of seashells off of Etsy that were perfect. I'm not sure why Valeria is saying that you can't do the setup. That's complete bull. No one at the resort cared whatsoever that we did our own. The DJ, food, and chairs were all set up an hour before (and this is standard!), so you have an hour to set up after the staff is done. As for DJ, we ended up getting Doremixx for our group of 33, and we have no regrets whatsoever. The flow was really great that way, and the DJ's music was so much better than any playlist we were going to put together. I can't recommend the DJ route enough.

Everyone who gave us gifts at the wedding stuck to checks or gift cards. We registered most of our items through Amazon in order to encourage guests to ship to our home instead of trying to lug a gift to Mexico. Nikki - we had a similar experience regarding gifts! We invited approximately 100 guests and have only received 13 (albeit very generous) gifts so far. We certainly don't "expect" gifts from anyone, especially people who traveled all the way to Mexico to celebrate with us, but I did find it a little odd. Like you, my husband and I always get gifts whether we go or not. f we don't go to a wedding, we actually tend to get even bigger gifts to make up for our absence (unless it's a very close friend or family member, of course - another reason to splurge). Most of our close friends and family leave across the country from our home, so everything turns into a destination wedding for us. I know the rule is that you have one year to give the couple a gift, but in my experience, most couples' registries are quite depleted by the wedding date.

I'm pretty sure Claudia is no longer on the list. I believe it was taken off there right before we booked our wedding because we had been interested in Claudia as well before that.

Our wedding had 33 people - there was another there that day that had 30 and another that had 150. Those were the only ceremonies I heard about that day, but there may have been other smaller ones. We were pretty unhappy with how the rain alternative situations were handled. We were originally booked to have our reception at the Mexican Gazebo but were told we may need to move or risk losing our food service if it started raining. At our prior meeting with the WC, she had told us the Health Bar was the alternate location for the reception, which we were totally okay with. Then less than half an hour before the wedding (seriously!), the WC calls my room and tells us that the 150-person wedding is right across the sidewalk from the Health Bar and does not plan to move to its alternate (indoor) location, so we have to move indoors to accommodate them. I told them that was unacceptable, and we would stay where we were unless they came up with a suitable alternate since we didn't have indoor-appropriate decorations to move the wedding to an indoor location (not to mention we didn't want to have our reception indoors). Luckily, my husband and MIL ended up speaking to the WC and informing them that we would be having the reception at the Mexican Gazebo. The rain held off except during the first dance (presenting lovely photo ops), and the weather was great. For some reason, the WCs at Lomas and EDR were extremely against doing a reception at the Mexican Gazebo from the beginning and continuously tried to give us excuses as to why it would be a bad venue. (Of course, they weren't offering any alternatives that didn't involve shutting the reception down at 9pm or moving indoors). Very odd. My MIL decided the reason for all the pushback was that that location was farthest from the kitchen, so food service was inconvenient. We really couldn't recommend that location more though. With only a small, quick rain shower, the only area that even got wet was the dance area (we didn't need to rent a dance floor because the ground was flat). The palm trees served as a canopy over our tables, and the area looked amazing.

The way the "free wedding" package works, it really makes sense to do the 7-night stay in the casitas. We were also worried about being too far from everyone, but when we showed up to the resort, they told us they had upgraded almost all of our guests to the casitas, so it worked out really well. They seem pretty quick to upgrade people if you ask when you check in. One of our good friends actually had booked the lowest level room on the EDR side, and he ended up in the Building 32 (the newest/nicest casitas). His room was even way nicer than our casita. We had stayed in the swim-ups on the EDR side when we got engaged though, so if you decide against the casita, you should totally request Building 55 with a swim-up. It's fairly secluded and has both a swim-up and great ocean view by Gazebo 55. Another reason to go with the "free wedding" (and they may do this with all weddings, I'm not sure) is for the refund back from all of the rooms people use while they're there. We ended up getting $1800 back from our guests' stay. Originally we had heard this had to be put toward credit at the hotel, but we ended up getting it back on our credit card. Also - if you end up being somewhat far from the other side where your guests are, you can rent bicycles to go back and forth quickly or just call for a shuttle. We really enjoyed the short walk over there though, and actually ended up just having all our friends and family come hang out at our casita pool most days.

My (now) husband and I are both attorneys, and we looked into doing everything in Mexico for the legal ceremony. It just seemed like a huge (and very expensive) headache when we could just walk over to the courthouse. I was somewhat hesitant at first as to how to handle it as far as our friends and family (since we couldn't help but tell everyone after we did it), but everyone seemed to understand completely. We did the legal ceremony in the states on my birthday at lunchtime with just the two of us and the bailiffs as witnesses. It was really cool to have the ceremony with friends and family in Mexico but to have done the legal part of it with just the two of us wearing whatever we happened to have on that day. We used Sarani - the price wasn't too high, and the photographer and videographer they sent were really great and very creative with their shots. We also kept decorations cheap by bringing everything with us. We bought all of it at a craft store in town and had our moms set everything up prior to the reception. So long as you're doing things outside somewhere, you really don't need many decorations or any elaborate table setting.

For make-up, I just let Claudia do whatever. She asked what color I preferred around my eyes, so I went with pinks since my eyes are hazel.

Yes - I had my hair and make-up done by Claudia at the Casita Spa. She was wonderful. I was a little nervous about having it done without a run-through ahead of time, but everyone there was doing a wonderful job. Two other brides were in there at the same time as me, and everyone's hair looked amazing.

As for transportation - your WC shows up to your room (or wherever you decide to get ready) to pick up you and two others. The other girls in my room just went over to the concierge who rung for a couple large shuttles to come pick the girls and the photographer/videographer up to take them to the site ahead of them. The WC also coordinated with the other shuttles to be sure all of my guests had arrived at the site before we headed over, as my grandparents were having trouble getting a shuttle from their room. Set-up - Our reception was set up an hour prior to the reception. This allowed my family plenty of time to get our table settings out and set up our picture station for the guestbook. (We bought a new Polaroid camera so that people could take a picture of themselves at the reception, tape it into our scrapbook/guestbook and sign next to it with whatever well wishes they might have for us. It worked out really great! The extra shots from the leftover film ended up being some of the best pictures of the night!)

As for transportation - your WC shows up to your room (or wherever you decide to get ready) to pick up you and two others. The other girls in my room just went over to the concierge who rung for a couple large shuttles to come pick the girls and the photographer/videographer up to take them to the site ahead of them. The WC also coordinated with the other shuttles to be sure all of my guests had arrived at the site before we headed over, as my grandparents were having trouble getting a shuttle from their room. Set-up - Our reception was set up an hour prior to the reception. This allowed my family plenty of time to get our table settings out and set up our picture station for the guestbook. (We bought a new Polaroid camera so that people could take a picture of themselves at the reception, tape it into our scrapbook/guestbook and sign next to it with whatever well wishes they might have for us. It worked out really great! The extra shots from the leftover film ended up being some of the best pictures of the night!)