Paradisus Riviera Brides - POST HERE!

Hi Ladies!!!!! I'm back! It was wonderful!

I'll do a full review eventually, but some highlights:

Best parts:

Leticia, at the salon did an amazing job on my hair. I want to have her do it every day. Bring her photos and sit back. Wow. I also loved having my makeup artist there. She was GREAT. And made my mom look like a million bucks, too.

Carlos from Mannia - I can't say enough. AMAZING. If you have any doubts about your DJ, cancel them and get Carlos. Totally wow. The special stuff we asked him to do was perfect. Timing was perfect. And he MADE the party. Plus, he gave me copies of all the special mixes, etc. that he did. In all seriousness, if I ever have need of a DJ again, I will be flying him up here.

Nathaniel Thompson, photographer extraordinaire. You may have seen some of the sneak peek photos he posted on his blog. For the record - I don't look that good, and I'm not that photogenic. He is fantastic! Plus, he is about the nicest guy you've ever met and was a great addition to the party. His assistant Norm was just as great, and Norm's wife was such a hoot we dragged her into the party too! We're talking about a reunion tour and we're going to be planning it around Nathaniel's schedule, just to make sure he's there. And this time we're going to make him bring his family, too!

Worst parts: We had some bumps with the hotel - at one point I just about lost it.

1) We were promised (in writing, and then confirmed again verbally two days before we left) that all of our guests would be in the same building, they had all the room configurations, special needs etc. When we arrived on Wednesday, it was a catastrophe - people scattered; families of 4 in a king bedded room with no pull-out sofa, etc. We spent nearly 4 hours on the day we arrived trying to sort the mess out. In the end, only some was resolved - there will be quite a bit more work on this front - refunds will be issued.

2) We were supposed to have 5 tables of 10 reserved for dinner on Thursday. We arrived to find that we had 4 tables of 12, and in people's efforts to sit with friends and family, we took over a fifth table. Perla let me know that the fifth table was reserved for another group and that those seated at the table had to move. When I asked her to let them know she told me that it would be better coming from me. WTF?!?! Of course the other group never showed and the fifth table remained empty. Grrrrr.

3) On friday at the welcome dinner, I realized that after my entree had been served, eaten and cleared that about 1/2 of our guests hadn't even been served their meals yet. I had to hunt people down to get an answer - the waiters all looked at me with blank expressions, the captain of the restaurant didn't give me a straight answer. So, I had Perla, Orfanel and the director of food and beverage gathered and used my scary voice to let them know that I was done listening to excuses and that if ANYTHING went wrong the day of the wedding they would lose their jobs.

All that being said, the wedding was PERFECT. And I can't say that enough. I don't know where the disconnects happened, but for the wedding, they got it 100% right.

I'm not quite sure what my advice is with regard to the hiccups. I thought I'd triple checked the rooms, but clearly a fourth run was needed. On that front, we'll see what happens with refunds. The Thursday thing... I think the lesson was learned. On Friday, my advice is to insist that SOMEONE be there throughout your event to make sure things are running smoothly. I think the problem was in the absence of an authority, servers or whomever weren't paying attention and got sloppy.

Glad your back Becks, sorry about some of the problems you had. your sneak peek pics were beautiful btw. Congratulations!

Welcome back Becks Your wedding pics are so beautiful! I am so glad your wedding was just the way you imagined!

Yay Becks! Congratulations. So glad that the wedding itself was wonderful. I think we've all been waiting for you to get home. Can't wait for more pics and review. Thanks for all the info already.

Yamille- thanks. I think we are going to go with the ipod thing and see how it goes. Lucky for me my FSIL has 1700 songs in itunes and is going to make some playlists for us. The only way we will go with the dj is if we get a bunch more people who book. But I doubt they will (that may be wishful thinking on my part lol).

YAY BECKS! Congrats and welcome back! Thanks for the honest review - I am anticipating the hiccups but I know how frustrating it can be after you have told them 12 times how something should be and it's not done right..

Glad that you loved Carlos - we are still with SWANK but who knows .. we may just switch over!

Welcome back Rebecca!!!! You looked amazing cant wait to see more.

Sorry to hear about some of the issues but it certainly sounds like you made sure they knew the error or their ways and hopefully correction for any future occurances.

How many hours of photography did/do you ladies have for the wedding day?

We are bringing our photographer from home so it will be unlimited..

Welcome Back Becks and Congratulations!! I'm so glad the wedding day went perfect.

I have a couple of questions about the room situation because I too have been promised that all my guests will be in the same buildings together. How did the hotel fix this problem? What did you mean by you are waiting on some refunds? Did the hotel agree to reimburse some of the guests for the room errors? Way to go, if they did!!!

What restaurant did you have dinner at on Thursday? For that large of a group did they charge you? Perla informed me that we could not have a large group in any of the restaurants at the same time for dinner!! Just curious how they handled it. Also, what did they do about getting the rest of your guests served?

Also, did you use a CD for the music during your ceremony? If so, who was in charge of making sure the right songs were played at the right time?

Thank you so much for the review!! And Congrats again!!