jfwolfe72

Hello again! My planning tends to go in bits and spurts and I'm wondering if I should be doing more! Anyway, have any of you gotten married (or will be getting married) in El Dorado Royale's chapel? If so, how did you have it decorated and what did you do about the music?

That is exciting that you've got a date and a place! That's one of the most difficult parts of this whole planning process! I'm going to be getting married there in April and I think my ceremony is scheduled for 5:00 pm (sunset is at 7:09 that day). We'll then have dinner at 6:30 and then the dancing starts at 8:00, I think? I've been such a bad planner lately.... Anyway, I've been working with Monica and she's been great so far. I've got no complaints except about the photographer thing and that you can't have an outside vendor bring a cake in! Other than those things, everything has been going smoothly and I hope it continues! Good luck w/ your planning and let us know if you have any more questions as they arise!

i didn't know about this either, but i also added it to my favorites so I can click every day!

Thanks so much for the review, Jilly! And congrats, congrats, congrats on your wedding!!

Did Valeria contact you to ask you about things to finalize or did you have to reach out to her? Since we've picked the location for the ceremony, are having the "free" wedding reception at El Cocotal, having a Welcome Mexican cocktail party the day before the wedding, and having a private reception for the cake and dancing after the free reception, what else do we need to do? I don't want to get down there and get all stressed w/ what we have to plan! Yikes! I hope the resort knows the drill well enough and will take care of everything for us. We can't wait to hear your review!

Hi Shannon! Welcome! I'm also an EDR bride - getting married there in April - just a little bit before you do! I can't wait! Let us know if you have any questions about the planning process.

We're going to have 5 to 8 appetizers that the resort provides -- I think it's a Mexican themed based cocktail party. We're also getting a donkey that will wear a sombrero and carry Corona.... :-) I hope the donkey won't mind this too much!

Since we're getting married in the chapel, apparently they have a sound system and pre-selected songs already (and I don't believe I need to pay anything extra). For the reception, we're just going to pay for the sound system (I think it's something like $350) and then set up our MP3 player. We are also going to have a Welcome Reception on the night before the wedding and we're going to get the 9-person mariachi band for that - i'm really looking forward to that!

I ordered one yesterday! I didn't see it on eBay any more, either, but I did a new search with starfish blue and garter in the search box and i found it -- also for $18.95 + S&H. Thanks so much, Jilly!

I'm using Claudia Rodriguez and will put her on our guest list. If they require us to pay the $500, we'll do it, but only if they press the issue.

I love it, I love it, I love it! And that eBay seller is going to be one happy person with all of the orders that she will probably be getting soon!

Quote: Originally Posted by JENESIS THe card in the orange envelope (underneath) is the rsvp. Wording: Because you have shared in our lives by your friendship and love, we Jenesis Fields And Gavin Byrne together with our parents invite you to share the beginning of our new life together when we exchange marriage vows Friday, the twenty-ninth of June Two thousand and seven at six o'clock in the evening. Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort Los Cabos, Mexico These are beautiful, too! Where did you get them?

Quote: Originally Posted by A10CALGAL Sarah - suprisingly, the pricing is not bad at all. The pocketfolder I'm ordering is $1.10/each. Then the invitation mats are $8.25 per package of 25 and the invitation that you print on is also $8.25/pkg of 25. The little inserts are around the same. So overall, for 50 invites I will be spending just under $140. There is no minimum order, other than the fact that the mats & invites are sold in packages of 25. I know nothing about invitations - this price seems very reasonable and I love your invites - but did the company also print your invitations or did they just supply the materials and then you had to take them to a printer? And if you had to do that, how much did that cost? Thanks!

I am going to luck out -- my former roommate is just beginning to get into the photography business and she offered to do an engagement shoot, shoot our legal ceremony, and shoot our AHR for free. We'd only need to pay for the photos. FI and I are really not keen on the engagement shoot and don't know if we're going to have a professional take pictures at our legal ceremony, but I suggested she do the boudoir session and she enthusiastically agreed! I KNOW she will be an amazing photographer - she majored in it and art (photojournalism?) in college (I believe) and I've seen some of her pictures. Let me know if any of you DC/VA/MD girls would be interested in seeing her work after she gets up and running. The first year or so I'm sure she would offer terrific deals to build up her portfolio.

We're also doing the traditional reception back home a month after our DW. We also felt we needed to do something for those who couldn't make it to our DW. Besides, my parents are paying for the AHR, so I figure they can do whatever they want - I think the AHR is more for them than for us.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan So far it sounds like $100 isn't overpriced. I was a little shocked at the price, but I guess it's worth it because it's the day I'll be the most photographed of any other day. I think $100 is reasonable for someone good to do your hair for your wedding - but I definitely wouldn't pay $200 or $300! $150 - tops.

Looks like EDR is only charging $66 (right now) for you to get your hair done in their spa. That's not bad at all - I wonder if the hairstylist is any good, though....

And from Monica: "Cancun is sunny again! The hurricane passed by, we just got lots of rain and wind but no damage to the property or our people; we are safe and back in business!" I must say that so far, my experience with Monica has gone smoothly - I'm glad to hear that people have been pleased with Valeria as well. Hopefully the WCs have gottten up to speed and have worked out all of their past kinks!

Hello there! I'm getting married there next April. At first I was really, really confused and frustrated about some things, but they seem to be working themselves out. And all of the reviews that I've heard from brides after the fact really were happy with the way things turned out there. I'm working with Monica at EDR (Lomas) who has been pretty organized and responsive so far. You're also in luck b/c most of the 2008 prices have been posted, so you won't get more sticker shock when you see how some things have gone up like I had. For example, a two-tiered cake price in 2007 was $270 or something like that - the 2008 price is $320. Everything has gone up in price! Let us know what specific questions you have about planning a wedding there. However, the hardest part is over - you've selected a place and the date. Next, I would hook up with a travel agent who can coordinate your and all of your guests' accomodations. One thing I've learned about EDR is that the prices on the rooms go up a lot, also. A travel agent should be able to take a very minimal deposit and get you and your guests locked in for the current rate (which is likely to only increase so the earlier your guests book, the better). Pretty much all of my guests have booked for our April wedding. Good luck, take some deep breaths, and have fun! Planning isn't too bad at all!

I think it's time to get on this exercise bus! I've been meaning to get up before work (at 5:30 am) everyday with my FI and go to a local gym (to which we're paying $67.00/month in membership fees. However, since we joined over a year ago, we've gone about 3 times - seriously! So, I don't think that plan is a workable one. I hate getting up early in the morning! My office has a pretty nice gym in the basement of our building, so I'm going to try to go there during my lunch break starting on Tuesday! Really! I just need to buy some shower shoes first.....

We didn't get it - we figured we'll just go with things and deal with whatever comes up - that's probably pretty naive and stupid, but sometimes I like to live life on the edge, ha ha!

I do laser on the bikini area and on my arms. I've been doing electrolysis on my face for years! Laser on the bikini area does hurt, but it's not unbearable. And the clinics typically have numbing cream that you can put on prior to your treatment (but you should also take the Advil) and they also have ice packs if you need them. I've heard that using numbing cream lowers the effectiveness of the treatments, but I haven't noticed much of a difference. I'm very budget conscious, but I think that the laser was a very wise investment. You can find really good deals on packages at different clinics. If you get a bikini package, they might throw in something like your under arms! And they have very flexible payment plans (like 6 months or a year w/ no interest) or something like that.

Hmmm....that didn't work.....let me try it again.... Well, I have a jpeg file that for some reason won't allow me to upload it. If you want, let me know what your e-mail address is and I'll send them to you via e-mail....

We're going to be having our Welcome Reception at this area. I'm just going on word of mouth (Monica's) as to if it's a good area to have this. I've attached the pictures she sent to me of this area if that might help you to visualize better.

Thanks, Morgan! Those are all VERY helpful tips - I need as much beauty help as I can get - I typically am not really focused on looking great all of the time, or even 95% of the time, but I want to knock my FI out on our wedding day. :-)