missbizzybee

Congratulations, Rocio! So much to be excited about!!! Yes, you need to make sure you tell customs that you have less than $250 worth of merchandise per person (to avoid hefty customs fees). If cost is not an issue, no big deal if you are okay with paying the fees, but it really is quite a bit! You also have to make sure it's clear that it's for your wedding and not for commercial sale. We had a total of 12 large boxes of decorations, favors, and OOT bags, which we divided up among family members (each person took one box). We prepared all of the packing and included a letter in both English & Spanish with the following information: 1) that the items were not for commercial sale and were for our wedding 2) wedding date and location 3) contact information of bride, groom, and wedding coordinator 4) that all items totaled to less than $250 Truth be told, our items totaled far over $250 per box, so we made our own receipts for each box. We basically put the letter with attached receipts of box contents on the top and bottom of each box (in case TSA opened either side to inspect), and we also printed out a copy in an envelope for the person checking in the box to carry along with them in case they asked at customs (with verbal instructions of what to say if questioned). Everything made it to the venue without a problem, and truthfully, we probably over-prepared for the encounter with customs. However, there were some inspections that were much more diligent than ours, so better prepared than sorry. We were asked by a few people about the contents of the big boxes, and we got used to explaining in Spanish that they were decorations for a wedding. That question was always followed by "how much total are in each box," and by then, we had memorized what was on the receipts we had made...so we said something like "a little over $200 maybe?" If you want to PM me, I can send you the receipts and letters we used. Hope that helps! Jenn

Thanks, Denielle!!! You looked so beautiful yourself! The dress looked amazing on you!

Hi, jordanb: 1) Yes, I brought my own decorations, and if you bring them in yourself, your coordinator will set up for you. You'll just have to set up a meeting when you arrive to go through all the directions. 2) Yes, we had 3 different menu choices for the guests (vegetarian, lamb, and snapper). I prepared a seating chart for the waiters and the wedding coordinator of which guest was sitting where and what their meal choice was, and on the place cards, I had a sticker on the back indicating the guest's entree of choice. You should not have a problem having 1 vegetarian option and 2 meat/fish options. If you have guests with allergies to certain foods, they are also flexible (i.e. I chose meals from a combination of packages and mixed & matched). 3) Yes, we had two light up dance floors, and it definitely made the party! It added a lot of nice light (we opted for all white during the wedding party entrance and dinner, and they lit up in different colors during dancing). They charged $700 per dance floor plus the $950 fee for the DJ, which included additional lighting outside the dance floor. Hope that helps! Jenn

Hi, mae1564! The bottles are true vintage bottles from the late 1800s! I sourced over 150 bottles from a very interesting bottle collector in Australia and brought all of them to Mexico with us. Anyway, I worked pretty closely with Fernanda from Planner 1 Events (they are based in Cancun). Since I brought all my decorations with me but needed someone to set up (i.e. put flowers in the bottles), Fernanda and I worked together on a deal where she provided flowers, set up, etc. and then bought all my decorations from me for future use in other weddings (so it was great because I didn't have to carry them back to the U.S.). So if you're interested, she has all of my decorations now that you can rent (including the candelabras I designed myself and had laser cut in the U.S.; they are similar to the Jon Russel Ghost Candelabras, but I modified them so that they take votive holders with battery-operated candles instead of tapered candles, which would blow out easily on the beach...and I made the laser etching cleaner & more modern...Fernanda also has my frosted votive holders, which fit perfectly in the candelabras since they were made for them)! She is great to work with, speaks very good english, and is REALLY on top of everything. If you need the pricing and catalog of their decorations & services, I can send you that information (just don't know what she's pricing the decorations she got from me at). Unfortunately, the bottle collector I bought those aqua bottles from only has a few left since I pretty much bought all of them from him! Plus, I think it would be easier for you to rent from Fernanda rather than going through the painstaking process I went through of bubble wrapping each bottle, packing in boxes, dividing up among family members and making receipts and signs for each one, etc. Trust me...it was a huge pain!!! Let me know if you have any other questions! Jenn

Hi, Ladies! So excited; Claudia from Claudia Photo Studio just sent us a few teaser photos from our wedding on May 12th! Can't wait to see the rest!!! If you haven't booked your photographer yet, I highly recommend Claudia!!!

WOW!!! That is some impressive packing!!! We packed so last-minute, and it was a nightmare! We ended up having to divide TWELVE 3'x3'x3' boxes among family members...all just wedding decorations! I think that was honestly THE worst part of the wedding planning process!

Congratulations! Your dress is beautiful!!! Wish I ran into you; we got married a week before, but we only stayed through Monday, the 14th!

Hi, Ladies: They offered an $80 per day upgrade to a master suite to pretty much all our guests when we got there. We were upgraded to a Master Suite because they did not have anymore Oceanview Junior Suites; it was beautiful!!! We had two bathrooms, a living room with two leather sofas, a dining room, an eat-in kitchen with fully-stocked bar, beautiful sliding doors, which looked out to the living room and balcony from the master bedroom, walk in closet/changing room area, etc. The room was so big that we threw after parties nearly every night in our suite! I think the $80 per day upgrade is well worth it, especially if you're having all the bridesmaids and your parents meet in the room for getting ready photos beforehand. Happy planning! Jenn

Hi, LuckyGal4! We used a harpist for our ceremony, but we were told by our wedding coordinator that they have iPod hookups to play through speakers on the beach. Since we had the harpist, we used 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the bridesmaids and "Canon in D" when I walked down (I couldn't think of anything else, so it was very last-minute)! Let me know if you have any questions!

Sorry - the attachment somehow did not go through! THERoyal Wedding of Jenn and Mark - Final.pdf

Hello, Fellow Brides! First of all, congratulations to everyone who got married in May! I browsed through some photos, and you ladies look absolutely stunning!!! I just returned from our INCREDIBLE wedding at The Royal PDC on May 12th and honeymoon around the Riviera Maya and feel like I have SO much to report on! If I could relive our wedding in Playa ten times over again, I would! There was so much love, happy tears, laughter, hugs, kisses, dancing, partying, meaningful exchanges of well-wishes, etc. We had a huge audience for both the ceremony at the Gazebo and at the reception at Pelicanos Beach; it was so nice to have strangers come up to us, telling us how touched they were by our wedding vows (some even re-telling the story of how we met in high school) and what a ball we were having at the reception. For all the future brides, I can't stress how important it is to take a step back with your husband during the reception to soak it all in because time sure does fly! In summary, we had the following: Wednesday - Dinner at Maria Marie, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Mandala Thursday - Private Catamaran for 26 people including half-day of Snorkeling, Dinner at Spice, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Coco Maya (here are pictures of the catamaran/snorkeling tour: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178323835630675.36469.100003591791826&type=3) Friday - Welcome/Rehearsal Cocktail Hour for 70 guests at the Sol and Mar Ballrooms (international open bar, hot & cold hors d'oeuvres), Dinner at Asiana, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Blue Parrot (also watched the fire show) Saturday - Wedding Ceremony at the Gazebo, Cocktail Hour at the Gazebo Garden, Reception at Pelicanos Beach, After-Party at Coco Bongo Sunday - Farewell Brunch at Pelicanos Restaurant If you call ahead of time, the restaurants will section off a part of the restaurant to accommodate your guests. I think since we had a pretty big guest list, the resort was VERY accommodating to us and made sure we were well-taken care of and that our guests were happy. I can help answer any questions on this and get more specific. In order to help our guests communicate, we invited everyone to a Facebook Group Page for our wedding and added each event to the page. It served as a great forum for everyone (who left wifi on their phones while turning cellular data off) to follow what we were up to, any changes to scheduling, for guests to get in touch with one another, to ask questions, etc. As our guests arrived, they simply logged onto the page to see what the latest and greatest was...could see the latest status update as "We are currently at Pelicanos Restaurant - come and meet us, and we'll be drinking at the pool after!" or "Come to Room 991 to pick up your Welcome Bag & Brochure!" Finally, I had custom drawstring bags made with a design I created in Adobe Illustrator (says "I partied like a pinata and got smashed!") filled with various travel goodies I get for free at my job at Johnson & Johnson (i.e. Aveeno sunblock, Neutrogena face wash, Clean & Clear body wash, Korres makeup, Bandaids, Neosporin, Benadryl, etc.). I also made welcome brochures outlining the wedding week timeline (among other things) to help guests navigate their way through the week. Our guests mentioned the Facebook Page and Brochures were a HUGE help (not to mention they loved the bags & goodies and used them at the beach)! I will definitely share our professional photos and video when those come in, but my uncle/godfather sent our family a pretty good summary of our wedding along with some photos from family/friends' cameras/phones (see attached). One of the many highlights of our wedding was when my husband, Mark, did the garter removal (and a ridiculously-inappropriate accompanying dance) to his song-of-choice: Rick James' "Super Freak"...I just love that someone captured this on video because this is what I have to live with every night! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3206432476591&set=o.224700187636439&type=3&theater We also had an incredibly meaningful ending to the night with our last song ("We Are Young" by Fun): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3205231406565&set=t.100003591791826&type=3&theater Anyway, more to report on later, but just wanted to check in and let all the future brides know that everything will be wonderful!!! You are getting married at a beautiful venue (all of our guests were so impressed with the venue selection) where fun is absolutely guaranteed. My biggest word of advice is to have your day-of timeline buttoned up and to meet with your DJ, wedding coordinator, photographer, videographer to go through every last detail of the timeline. If you ladies need any help with anything or would like me to send over any files, I would be more than happy to help!!! Enjoy all the planning because life will seem so suddenly incomplete when it ends! Jenn

Hello, Fellow Brides! First of all, congratulations to everyone who got married in May! I browsed through some photos, and you ladies look absolutely stunning!!! I just returned from our INCREDIBLE wedding at The Royal PDC on May 12th and honeymoon around the Riviera Maya and feel like I have SO much to report on! If I could relive our wedding in Playa ten times over again, I would! There was so much love, happy tears, laughter, hugs, kisses, dancing, partying, meaningful exchanges of well-wishes, etc. We had a huge audience for both the ceremony at the Gazebo and at the reception at Pelicanos Beach; it was so nice to have strangers come up to us, telling us how touched they were by our wedding vows (some even re-telling the story of how we met in high school) and what a ball we were having at the reception. For all the future brides, I can't stress how important it is to take a step back with your husband during the reception to soak it all in because time sure does fly! In summary, we had the following: Wednesday - Dinner at Maria Marie, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Mandala Thursday - Private Catamaran for 26 people including half-day of Snorkeling, Dinner at Spice, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Coco Maya (here are pictures of the catamaran/snorkeling tour: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178323835630675.36469.100003591791826&type=3) Friday - Welcome/Rehearsal Cocktail Hour for 70 guests at the Sol and Mar Ballrooms (international open bar, hot & cold hors d'oeuvres), Dinner at Asiana, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Blue Parrot (also watched the fire show) Saturday - Wedding Ceremony at the Gazebo, Cocktail Hour at the Gazebo Garden, Reception at Pelicanos Beach, After-Party at Coco Bongo Sunday - Farewell Brunch at Pelicanos Restaurant If you call ahead of time, the restaurants will section off a part of the restaurant to accommodate your guests. I think since we had a pretty big guest list, the resort was VERY accommodating to us and made sure we were well-taken care of and that our guests were happy. I can help answer any questions on this and get more specific. In order to help our guests communicate, we invited everyone to a Facebook Group Page for our wedding and added each event to the page. It served as a great forum for everyone (who left wifi on their phones while turning cellular data off) to follow what we were up to, any changes to scheduling, for guests to get in touch with one another, to ask questions, etc. As our guests arrived, they simply logged onto the page to see what the latest and greatest was...could see the latest status update as "We are currently at Pelicanos Restaurant - come and meet us, and we'll be drinking at the pool after!" or "Come to Room 991 to pick up your Welcome Bag & Brochure!" Finally, I had custom drawstring bags made with a design I created in Adobe Illustrator (says "I partied like a pinata and got smashed!") filled with various travel goodies I get for free at my job at Johnson & Johnson (i.e. Aveeno sunblock, Neutrogena face wash, Clean & Clear body wash, Korres makeup, Bandaids, Neosporin, Benadryl, etc.). I also made welcome brochures outlining the wedding week timeline (among other things) to help guests navigate their way through the week. Our guests mentioned the Facebook Page and Brochures were a HUGE help (not to mention they loved the bags & goodies and used them at the beach)! I will definitely share our professional photos and video when those come in, but my uncle/godfather sent our family a pretty good summary of our wedding along with some photos from family/friends' cameras/phones (see attached). One of the many highlights of our wedding was when my husband, Mark, did the garter removal (and a ridiculously-inappropriate accompanying dance) to his song-of-choice: Rick James' "Super Freak"...I just love that someone captured this on video because this is what I have to live with every night! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3206432476591&set=o.224700187636439&type=3&theater We also had an incredibly meaningful ending to the night with our last song ("We Are Young" by Fun): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3205231406565&set=t.100003591791826&type=3&theater Anyway, more to report on later, but just wanted to check in and let all the future brides know that everything will be wonderful!!! You are getting married at a beautiful venue (all of our guests were so impressed with the venue selection) where fun is absolutely guaranteed. My biggest word of advice is to have your day-of timeline buttoned up and to meet with your DJ, wedding coordinator, photographer, videographer to go through every last detail of the timeline. If you ladies need any help with anything or would like me to send over any files, I would be more than happy to help!!! Enjoy all the planning because life will seem so suddenly incomplete when it ends! Jenn THERoyal Wedding of Jenn and Mark - Final.pdf

Hello, Fellow Brides! First of all, congratulations to everyone who got married in May! I browsed through some photos, and you ladies look absolutely stunning!!! I just returned from our INCREDIBLE wedding at The Royal PDC on May 12th and honeymoon around the Riviera Maya and feel like I have SO much to report on! If I could relive our wedding in Playa ten times over again, I would! There was so much love, happy tears, laughter, hugs, kisses, dancing, partying, meaningful exchanges of well-wishes, etc. We had a huge audience for both the ceremony at the Gazebo and at the reception at Pelicanos Beach; it was so nice to have strangers come up to us, telling us how touched they were by our wedding vows (some even re-telling the story of how we met in high school) and what a ball we were having at the reception. For all the future brides, I can't stress how important it is to take a step back with your husband during the reception to soak it all in because time sure does fly! In summary, we had the following: Wednesday - Dinner at Maria Marie, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Mandala Thursday - Private Catamaran for 26 people including half-day of Snorkeling, Dinner at Spice, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Coco Maya (here are pictures of the catamaran/snorkeling tour: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178323835630675.36469.100003591791826&type=3) Friday - Welcome/Rehearsal Cocktail Hour for 70 guests at the Sol and Mar Ballrooms (international open bar, hot & cold hors d'oeuvres), Dinner at Asiana, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Blue Parrot (also watched the fire show) Saturday - Wedding Ceremony at the Gazebo, Cocktail Hour at the Gazebo Garden, Reception at Pelicanos Beach, After-Party at Coco Bongo Sunday - Farewell Brunch at Pelicanos Restaurant If you call ahead of time, the restaurants will section off a part of the restaurant to accommodate your guests. I think since we had a pretty big guest list, the resort was VERY accommodating to us and made sure we were well-taken care of and that our guests were happy. I can help answer any questions on this and get more specific. In order to help our guests communicate, we invited everyone to a Facebook Group Page for our wedding and added each event to the page. It served as a great forum for everyone (who left wifi on their phones while turning cellular data off) to follow what we were up to, any changes to scheduling, for guests to get in touch with one another, to ask questions, etc. As our guests arrived, they simply logged onto the page to see what the latest and greatest was...could see the latest status update as "We are currently at Pelicanos Restaurant - come and meet us, and we'll be drinking at the pool after!" or "Come to Room 991 to pick up your Welcome Bag & Brochure!" Finally, I had custom drawstring bags made with a design I created in Adobe Illustrator (says "I partied like a pinata and got smashed!") filled with various travel goodies I get for free at my job at Johnson & Johnson (i.e. Aveeno sunblock, Neutrogena face wash, Clean & Clear body wash, Korres makeup, Bandaids, Neosporin, Benadryl, etc.). I also made welcome brochures outlining the wedding week timeline (among other things) to help guests navigate their way through the week. Our guests mentioned the Facebook Page and Brochures were a HUGE help (not to mention they loved the bags & goodies and used them at the beach)! I will definitely share our professional photos and video when those come in, but my uncle/godfather sent our family a pretty good summary of our wedding along with some photos from family/friends' cameras/phones (see attached). One of the many highlights of our wedding was when my husband, Mark, did the garter removal (and a ridiculously-inappropriate accompanying dance) to his song-of-choice: Rick James' "Super Freak"...I just love that someone captured this on video because this is what I have to live with every night! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3206432476591&set=o.224700187636439&type=3&theater We also had an incredibly meaningful ending to the night with our last song ("We Are Young" by Fun): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3205231406565&set=t.100003591791826&type=3&theater Anyway, more to report on later, but just wanted to check in and let all the future brides know that everything will be wonderful!!! You are getting married at a beautiful venue (all of our guests were so impressed with the venue selection) where fun is absolutely guaranteed. My biggest word of advice is to have your day-of timeline buttoned up and to meet with your DJ, wedding coordinator, photographer, videographer to go through every last detail of the timeline. If you ladies need any help with anything or would like me to send over any files, I would be more than happy to help!!! Enjoy all the planning because life will seem so suddenly incomplete when it ends! Jenn pinata 1 color.pdf THERoyal Wedding of Jenn and Mark - Final.pdf

Hello, Fellow Brides! First of all, congratulations to everyone who got married in May! I browsed through some photos, and you ladies look absolutely stunning!!! I just returned from our INCREDIBLE wedding at The Royal PDC on May 12th and honeymoon around the Riviera Maya and feel like I have SO much to report on! If I could relive our wedding in Playa ten times over again, I would! There was so much love, happy tears, laughter, hugs, kisses, dancing, partying, meaningful exchanges of well-wishes, etc. We had a huge audience for both the ceremony at the Gazebo and at the reception at Pelicanos Beach; it was so nice to have strangers come up to us, telling us how touched they were by our wedding vows (some even re-telling the story of how we met in high school) and what a ball we were having at the reception. For all the future brides, I can't stress how important it is to take a step back with your husband during the reception to soak it all in because time sure does fly! In summary, we had the following: Wednesday - Dinner at Maria Marie, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Mandala Thursday - Private Catamaran for 26 people including half-day of Snorkeling, Dinner at Spice, Cocktails at the Tequileria & Cigar Bar, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Coco Maya (here are pictures of the catamaran/snorkeling tour: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178323835630675.36469.100003591791826&type=3) Friday - Welcome/Rehearsal Cocktail Hour for 70 guests at the Sol and Mar Ballrooms (international open bar, hot & cold hors d'oeuvres), Dinner at Asiana, Dancing in Downtown PDC at Blue Parrot (also watched the fire show) Saturday - Wedding Ceremony at the Gazebo, Cocktail Hour at the Gazebo Garden, Reception at Pelicanos Beach, After-Party at Coco Bongo Sunday - Farewell Brunch at Pelicanos Restaurant If you call ahead of time, the restaurants will section off a part of the restaurant to accommodate your guests. I think since we had a pretty big guest list, the resort was VERY accommodating to us and made sure we were well-taken care of and that our guests were happy. I can help answer any questions on this and get more specific. In order to help our guests communicate, we invited everyone to a Facebook Group Page for our wedding and added each event to the page. It served as a great forum for everyone (who left wifi on their phones while turning cellular data off) to follow what we were up to, any changes to scheduling, for guests to get in touch with one another, to ask questions, etc. As our guests arrived, they simply logged onto the page to see what the latest and greatest was...could see the latest status update as "We are currently at Pelicanos Restaurant - come and meet us, and we'll be drinking at the pool after!" or "Come to Room 991 to pick up your Welcome Bag & Brochure!" Finally, I had custom drawstring bags made with a design I created in Adobe Illustrator (says "I partied like a pinata and got smashed!") filled with various travel goodies I get for free at my job at Johnson & Johnson (i.e. Aveeno sunblock, Neutrogena face wash, Clean & Clear body wash, Korres makeup, Bandaids, Neosporin, Benadryl, etc.). I also made welcome brochures outlining the wedding week timeline (among other things) to help guests navigate their way through the week. Our guests mentioned the Facebook Page and Brochures were a HUGE help (not to mention they loved the bags & goodies and used them at the beach)! I will definitely share our professional photos and video when those come in, but my uncle/godfather sent our family a pretty good summary of our wedding along with some photos from family/friends' cameras/phones (see attached). One of the many highlights of our wedding was when my husband, Mark, did the garter removal (and a ridiculously-inappropriate accompanying dance) to his song-of-choice: Rick James' "Super Freak"...I just love that someone captured this on video because this is what I have to live with every night! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3206432476591&set=o.224700187636439&type=3&theater We also had an incredibly meaningful ending to the night with our last song ("We Are Young" by Fun): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3205231406565&set=t.100003591791826&type=3&theater Anyway, more to report on later, but just wanted to check in and let all the future brides know that everything will be wonderful!!! You are getting married at a beautiful venue (all of our guests were so impressed with the venue selection) where fun is absolutely guaranteed. My biggest word of advice is to have your day-of timeline buttoned up and to meet with your DJ, wedding coordinator, photographer, videographer to go through every last detail of the timeline. If you ladies need any help with anything or would like me to send over any files, I would be more than happy to help!!! Enjoy all the planning because life will seem so suddenly incomplete when it ends! Jenn pinata 1 color.pdf THERoyal Wedding of Jenn and Mark - Final.pdf

Hi, Amanda: We are using Claudia from Claudia Photo Studio. She has a great team of talented photographers: http://claudiaphoto.com/asociados.php But here is Claudia's personal work: http://claudiarodriguezphotography.com/wedds2.php Good luck! Jenn