*JillD*

Congratulations on your engagement! You'll find lots of other brides here that are also getting married at NOW Jade and lots of great information. Good Luck!

Ahhhh Melissa, I LOVE seeing your pics, they bring back such good memories of my wedding Great review, I'm so happy that most everything turned out very well for you. Thank you very much for your kinds words, you & your group were wonderful to work with!

Congratulations! welcome to the forum, good luck with your planning!

Congratulations on your engagement and good luck in choosing a location!

Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to the forum!

I really like the limes and the peacock feathers, but I'm not sure I like them together. I love how the limes pop, but I feel like the feathers don't have enough color, if that makes sense. I'm picturing white flowers in the middle of the limes, but I don't think that would go with your color scheme. Maybe the ribbon idea in a shade of blue, so it will bring out the blue in the feathers?

Wow, great opportunity for some lucky couples!! Matt, I just sent this to one of my clients getting married at Dreams Cancun on 7/24! Jill

Quote: Originally Posted by peterpanpixiedust That is the address I have had since I signed in December/January. And it's Claudia's. So if it's changed to that, it's been since the beginning of the year at least. Also, if that's Cecilia's, then it seems like they share the same email (but mine always says Claudia Cantilla in the name box)? Hmmmmm? Any help? I believe that is just claudia's email, usually the second wc is weddings1 but I don't usually converse a lot with Cecilia, as claudia handles most of the weddings that I work with.

Quote: Originally Posted by LeydiBug Hi. Thanks for the info. above. What happens when you book through a TA for a certain price. Then find out later that hotels.com is offering much cheaper rates for you hotel. Will travel agencies "match" the lower price? Thanks. It really depends on the TA and the supplier that they booked you through and if you did a group rate or not. Some suppliers will allow us to re-book guests at the lower rate, without a charge, but other suppliers will charge to re-book, so sometimes it's not worth it. Be sure when you are comparing prices on a different site that you are using the exact same dates, the exact same room, and that you go through the site until the end when they may add additional costs, like taxes and fees. And if transfers were included in your price from your TA, make sure that's included too. You just want to make sure that you're comparing apples to apples. And then I would ask your TA about matching the rates and he/she will be able to give you a definite answer if it's something they can do and if it's worth it for you. Quote: Originally Posted by roxmysockz Meh, same thing happened to me I booked in January of this year thought i'd wait until at least a year to go before asking for any details etc. Requested the pool deck in April and now 3 months later she replies saying its taken... Shows that sometimes you try to be considerate to other brides and not take Ana's time but then you could loose out. Wonder what location etc I would be left with if I didnt read this forum and know to request it beforehand! While I think it's important to let Ana now right away where you want to have your reception, ceremony and cocktail hour, I've heard that the first choice of location goes to the larger wedding on that day. I don't know if they've changed this because I think that's unfair, but you may want to ask Ana about this. Also, for future brides, if you have your heart set on a particular location, I would probably choose a less popular day of the week for your wedding, like monday, tuesday, or wednesday, because it will be less likely that there are other weddings the same day. Quote: Originally Posted by nikkimadril I've heard these coupons mentioned before. Do you get these just for having your wedding there or is this because of something else? Anyone know? they are usually a promotion that they offer at different times of the year and as someone else mentioned, they are sort of like discount coupons, you don't really get anything for free, but if you are going to go to the spa for any treatments or want to order an expensive bottle of wine, do dinner on the beach, etc... you can use them towards these items to save some money. Quote: Originally Posted by BethAnne Ok- I need to vent. This whole communication business with Ana is NOT going well and im very frustrated. I have a small group of around 12 and i was told we could have our dinner in the wine room after our ceremony if we spent 60$ minumum in upgraded wine. I thought, sure! its beautfiul and were only out 60 bucks on good wine to have a nice reception without paying extra per person. This is exactly what her email said. Today i get an e-mail stating "oh beth anne, just want to make sure you understand that its 60$ minimun per couple, and it goes according to how many guests you have- example if you have 10 guests.. you would have to spend at least 300$ minimum on upgraded wine to use the room" This is BOGUS!! I'm so mad. I just feel like something is doomed to fail in the end because the communication is so crappy. Of course because of small group we can have it in one of the restaraunts (semi-private) for no extra charge, but its not a guarantee, and we wont know this info till the day we arrive in cancun. talk about stressing for the next 6 months?? geez. =( I think someone else already mentioned this, but if you don't want to pay for a private reception, why not just show up at one of the restaurants and ask for a table for 10, we did that several times during our wedding, one day for breakfast, I think we had 15 people, 2 other times for dinner there was 10-15 of us, I think. Dinner I think we may have had to wait a few minutes, but breakfast we got right in.

Congratulations Leanne! SMB is a beautiful resort, you will love it!

I tried to jump back into week 9 this week after not doing it for a couple of weeks, ouch! I was dying! So, I stuck with it and just walked when I needed to, but I couldn't believe how hard it was after just a couple of weeks, I can't do that again!

I know there were a bunch of questions regarding group quotes and flights, so I thought I would try to answer them all in one post All quotes (whether group or individual) are going to vary depending on the time of year you are getting married and when you book. Sometimes there are promotions like "kids free" or "early bird pricing", etc.... And as someone else mentioned the kids still have a small fee associated with them for the cost of transfers and taxes. If you are getting married in January, your prices are going to be higher than someone in May. The same is true with quotes, the prices will vary depending on the promotions that are running at the time you get the quote. Travel agents can get you the same perks that the hotel offers, the nice thing about having a travel agent work with your group, is that they will organize everyone for you, answer your guests questions, and help you with contacting the wedding coordinator (well most will if they have ever worked with destination weddings) Someone mentioned getting a quote from the hotel, but then having to find someone else to book the flights through and the prices being higher. This is because the airlines do not pay travel agents to book flights. So if someone called me and wanted me to book flights for their group, but weren't booking the resort through me, I would have to charge them a fee per ticket, in order to make anything. Honestly, booking flights can be somewhat of a nightmare because of all of the fluctuation in price, so if someone contacted me to book airfare only, I would just say no. It's too much of a headache and most people will not pay the extra fee for the help. I think that was everything, there were too many posts related to this topic to multi-quote

It's really not bad if you follow the program. Sometimes the first day of a week would be tough because it was new, but by the second day of that week I was usually fine. I finished this program a couple of weeks ago and have since missed going to the gym for the past two weeks!! I'm going tonight and am going to try to do the week 9 workout, I don't know if I'll be able to finish with two weeks off, but I'm going to try!

awww, thanks girls! I never would have found the program, started it, or continued it without all of your support! I was watching the biggest loser last night and they had to run a marathon, all I could think about was that I only did 30 minutes straight, and these contestants were jogging for 4-6 hours straight! I had a hard enough time just getting through 30 minutes, lol! For anyone just starting, it's defiinitely do-able if you stick with it. Now I just need to work on improving my speed a little bit.

anyone still doing this? I just started week 9 today, jogging for 30 minutes straight, I can't believe I did it!! I can't even believe I stuck with the program, but I'm very proud of myself! How's everyone doing?? I'd love to hear about everyone's progress!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Hi all, We got married on May 7th and I wanted to share some photos with you. I used an outside photographer and I think she takes a while to finish the photos, however she posted 4 teasers on Facebook. Check them out. Welcome to Facebook | Facebook Here are some amature photos that one of my guests took. Shutterfly | View share Also, for those of you using an outside photographer but have the package that includes the resort photographer, make sure to schedule a separate session during your visit. Here are some photos that they took the day after the wedding. Our Dreams Honeymoon I'll try to post a review soon. Basically everything was beautiful. Jen, everything looked wonderful!! You & Michael make a very beautiful couple, I can't wait to see all of your pro pics, the teasers were great, I can't even imagine how good the rest will be. Congratulations again!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kelie11 Hi JIll, I know this might be a lot to ask. But, I am trying to find out if the names of the "Tequila Terrace", "Main Pool Terrace", and "Mexican Patio" will remain the same. I have sent e-mails for a week and have gotten no response. I have to order printed itineraries asap. If you talk to one of them, would you mind asking? Thanks I'm sorry, I didn't see this until now, I'm glad you were able to get your questions answered! Quote: Originally Posted by laurenvuitton Just talked to my TA for over an hour, she has advised me we have to switch resorts. She is not getting any answers from anyone over there, and all the TA's from destinationweddings.com have said the same thing and have heard various complaints from people that have just visited there for weddings... SOOO stressed. Really?? I checked out the reviews and while they are not very good, I think that during a transition like this, some problems are to be expected. AM won't let the resort tank, but like any ownership change it may take a couple of months to get all of the kinks worked out and to teach the staff the way that AM does things at their resorts. I didn't look to see when your wedding is, but if you have some time, you may want to hold off and see what happens. But I completely understand too

Quote: Originally Posted by carolina24 there's no charge for the rehersal...we're doing ours and then going to one of the restaurants for dinner. as for the hotel rates...do not book directly with the resort!! I would definately recommend TA Jill from this site. I started out with a local TA and he sucked!! TA Jill has been awesome to work with and she has amazing prices!! Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 yes I second that advice..:-) go through TA Jill. That was one of the best decisions I made during my process. I tried a local TA and I am still waiting for them to get back to me..LOL Quote: Originally Posted by wilsoml2 I third the advice for TA Jill. It's so nice having someone else deal with all of the booking stuff instead of having our guests calling me to ask questions. She's even able to arrange transportation between the hotel and airport which I'm not entirely sure the hotel does if booking through them. Thanks ladies, you're all very sweet! I just hope that I've been able to make things easier on you. I know guests will still always contact the bride and groom with questions, but hopefully it's a little bit less knowing they can contact me to get some of their questions answered too!

I've been working with Adriana for one of my brides and she's been very helpful and responsive. I did ask her about potential renovations and she indicated that there are no planned major renovations at this time, the biggest change will be the names of the restaurants, as the current names are sol melia brands, so they will be changing to AM brands. Other than that it's a beautiful resort and I don't think there will be too much to change! Hope that helps!

How's everyone doing? anyone finish yet? I was at the end of week 6 last week and never did my final workout, which was 25 minutes without stopping. I'm so mad at myself because now I feel like I won't even be able to do it because I've been such a slacker this week. I did go for a 4 mile walk/jog with hailey the other day, I had planned to jog for 25 minutes, but I couldn't do it with her. She doesn't stop talking and I really have to get myself into a zone and concentrate on my pace and my breathing, so she totally threw me off, but at least I exercised. Then on Tuesday I went to the gym, jogged for 15 minutes and did a step class. So, not horrible, but not great, I'm just really mad that I'm not on track with my program!

Quote: Originally Posted by SDbeachgirl Hi All! I just wanted to say that I have 1 week from today until my wedding! I'm super excited. We will arrive this Sunday...yippee! I can't believe it is finally here. Thanks to everyone for all of the info and tips. I certainly could not have done this without the forum. Congrats Jen! I hope you're having a fantastic time in Mexico!

I'm not sure if this was already posted, but here is the press release about the change. AMResorts Set to Add New Now Resort to Mexico Portfolio the good news is that AMresorts has great resorts, so you will be in good hands!

Congratulations Emily, what a great story!

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan For those that have a long wait in between the cocktail and reception or just reception I would suggest going to a bar off the resort. Just in case it sounds like the royal is pretty crazy and strict with outsiders. Maybe you can appoint someone to take the outsiders group to hang out. About two blocks away is a really fun bar called the Tequila Barrell. They always have $1 beers and 2 for one specials. Of course right up the street is othe bars to but this one has a really fun atmosphere during the day. Tequila Barrel Sports Bar and Grill in Playa del Carmen Mexico This is also just a thought but maybe you could contact the bar and ask them if you have a big group they could cut you a deal to have an open bar for a few hours or maybe the first 5 drinks on you. I know it is not ideal but just a thought. It may be sort of akward to ask guests to have to leave the premises and than on top of that have to pay money to go kill time. For any older guests and wine lovers there is also SUR Steak House - Playa del carmen Sur steak house Beware though this place is pricey but the food and drinks and above all the atmosphere are amazing. Finally my favorite place of all La Tortuga Hotel & Spa Playa del Carmen - La Tortuga Hotel Spa - Playa del Carmen Riviera Maya Mexico It is only a block a way, I know many of you have heard me talk about it. They have an amazing bar and it is just a little oaisis in the middle of playa. They are always willing to negotiate with a big group so def call them tell them what you are willing to spend and I am sure they can arrange something. We are doing our first look here and pictures with our bridal party. We were engaged here and I cannot tell you how amazing the service and staff are here. I was wondering how your dad decided on La Tortuga for the second part of his stay, now I know Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Hi girls, as you can see I am a vendor now as well as a member here on BDW I started my own blog ( Destination Inspirations) specifically for inspiring those planning a destination wedding. I wanted to personally thank you girls because it was you guys that really helped me come up with this idea. You guys help inspire me daily and I can't wait to see all your amazing weddings So thank you again Congratulations!! I'm glad you were able to get everything squared away with your new venture, let me know if there's anything I can ever do to help! Congratulations to all of the upcoming brides, your weddings will be beautiful! Try not to stress, I know it's easier said than done, but believe me, it's not just the royal that is slow to respond, it's every resort. And all of the resorts have the policy changes, price changes, vendor changes, etc.... just remember the reason you chose the royal in the first place and have faith that everything will come together. I know it's stressful planning from another country and not being able to take care of things in person, but as a former destination bride, I promise, everything does come together once you arrive in paradise. The wedding coordinators really do know there stuff and take good care of you!

It really depends, but most of the time I've found booking direct with the hotel, the prices are more expensive. And if the hotel does have a lower rate, most of the time a TA should be able to match it. Also, the hotel isn't going to help you with the organization of your group. I know that the TA's here on the forum all specialize in destination weddings and we all make sure that everyone in your group has flights booked, has transfers to and from the airport, that the wedding coordinator and the concierge are aware of who the members of your group are, when they are arriving, and that you are well taken care, answering your guests questions, answering your questions about the wedding planning portion, and the list goes on and on... Using a TA that primarily books vacations is a lot different than working with a TA that works primarily with destination weddings and there are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that brides & grooms aren't aware of, a lot of time and effort goes into getting everyone's travel arrangements made. And in regards to whether or not orbitz has better prices. Check out the review someone posted a few weeks ago about their guests being bumped from Dreams Cancun, that had booked on orbitz. If the resort is overbooked, they will bump guests that booked through online discount sites first, doesn't really seem worth it to save a couple bucks!