brigopens

Quote: Originally Posted by flygirl well, my fi doesn't think it's a really good idea b/c -people don't need beach towels, the resort provides them -we are going to have to lug about 50 towels to mexico (I have 25 OOT bags to make) -and the guests are going to have to find room in their suitcases to lug the beach towels home What do we think? Yeah or nay on the beach towels? We're doing beach towels. Already have 50 of them embroidered and 10 on deck just in case for late RSVPs... We got the towels on sale at Target for $4 each - 10% for signing up for Target card. Found a local place to embroider them, and she was super reasonable (about $3 per towel...) She ships all over the place... We decided to just do these, and tie a ribbon around them and put a tag saying welcome or something like that... Instead of a bag, and they look like they cost way more than they did! In response to your man: - people won't need them, but it's nice to have everyone stand out as part of the wedding party and they'll probably be nicer/softer... - taking 50-60 will be a challenge, but I'm dropping about half of them at home with my mom when I'm home for the bachelor party later this month. Some fo the girls may take a handful each for us as well. - It doesn't take much room to bring a towel or two home. The issue is getting ALL of ttem down there, but it can be done if you want it to...

Quote: Originally Posted by MikkiStreak travel size tequila bottles Careful, most resorts I have seen do not allow you to bring in outside alcohol. You may also have trouble getting it there depending on the sizes, and customs official. Everything else sounds great!

Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs.B 2008 FI and I are starting to think registering - we are definitely going to register at Macy's (BTW - does anyone know if Macy's offer a buy out coupon at the end for the things that are left and for how much?) I hated Macy's. Registering there meant dealing with an annoying wedding registry coordinator. She was unhappy we didn't want fancy china the first day. The scanner didn't work exactly right. We only chose about 5 things that day. Everything we registered for was at least 20% cheaper at Linen's N' Things when we went there the next day. We just never went back to Macy's. I kept watching them and the prices go up and down almost every week. I know it's not my money, but I'd rather my guests get the best value they can and either save some cash, or buy us more stuff!!! Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs.B 2008 but FI really wants to register at either Home Depot or Lowe's for some tools and outdoor type stuff. I think it's a great idea. nothing makes opening the gifts more fun at a shower or after the wedding than knowing that you might get something for "him." Plus, having some good tools around the house save money and frustration in the future... I'm a Home Depot fan more than Lowe's but I couldn't tell you if their registry programs are identical or not... We just ended up using myregistry.com and picking and choosing things from both of those places and a bunch of others... We also registered for 10 - $50 HD gift cards on there. Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs.B 2008 I also really want to register at Crate & Barrel but i think 3 places may be too many... We thought about Crate & Barrel too, but ended up just choosing what we liked from there and putting it on our myregistry.com site. I love that place! But if you're not into using that, then I don't think that 3 is too many at all...

Great topic, as Amy & I were just discussing this. I've been more annoyed by all the people who have not RSVP'd I figure if we spent money for invites, got addresses, put SASE/reply cards, gave people the option of yes-no-maybe and 2+ months to do it, and then paid to mail them... The least someone could do is put an "X" on a line, lick the envelope and mail it back. Anyway, we sent out 144 invites and I didn't get reply cards back from 53 of them. That included several people in the bridal party. Those I can kind of understand since we knew they were coming, but it still would have been nice. Over time, I casaully heard form people as I talked to them, or they called/emailed. Probably about 30 left at that point and I eventually got frustrated enough that I emailed any of the people who I had email addresses for saying the resort was needing to finalize numbers. Remarkably enough, I probably only heard back from about half of the people I emailed. As of now, I still have 14 outstanding invites, and I'm assuming those people won't be there!!! Most remarkable to me were 2 couples who invited us to their weddings around the same time, both of which we RSVP'd to!!! I had originally guessed about 80-90% RSVP rate! Man, I wasn't even close...

We're not looking forward to lugging a bunch of stuff along with us to our resort. Already taking all fo the beach towels, so room will be limited. We're wanting to pick up candle and the rest of our supplies for the wedding centerpieces in Playa del Carmen. We also want to pick up maracas down there (which has it's own separate thread as of now...) I know there's a Wal-Mart there. Anyone have experiences with waiting until you arrive to finalize this stuff. Specific experiences in the RM area or at PDC Walmart

We love "Sexy Back" and think we may try and make that work...

WOW! That's great that they have contacted you!!! Hopefully that is the first step in the right direction. I agree with Matt, things will change if people continue to be vocal, and also if people go there and refuse to pay when they try to sneak this up on you. I've already signed my wedding contract with no mention of this! I'll be damned if they will either ruin our day or charge me. I wouldn't avoid the resort, but I would know this is a potential problem point. It can be overcome rather easily it seems but may require a little extra energy or frustration. Just make sure to read your wedding contract when they send it to you. Wouldn't suprise me if they started slipping this in there at some point. Hope the planning is going well Matt & Sol. Our wedding day will be here before long, and you're right there with us!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by sheaa good idea! So what about the women? I am assuming no flip flops, but I thought I read somewhere no capris, or even clam diggers. I wonder if a jean skirt would be ok? Tank tops? From Valeria... For the ladies, same story, no sport or beach sandals (flip flops) and formal wear... Looks like it's just the footwear that is a big problem, but I'll let you know once we've been there.

Quote: Originally Posted by brigopens I wrote Valeria to see what she tells me... Ok, here's her reply. I think it would be great if they truly went by this... Dress code... (Only applies for Dinner, in ALL the restaurants) Dress code for all restaurants is Casual - shirts with sleeves - dress shorts or pants - dress shoes or sandals (no tennis shoes or beach sandals or flip flops) Leather Sandals are ok, as long as they are not flip flops (which are the ones with the lace in between the toes) or sport sandals... Maybe we shoudl print this out, laminate it, and carry it in our pockets there in case they give us any trouble...

Quote: Originally Posted by sheaa That makes me happy! The only thing I am worried about now is the dress code. I don't know how to explain to my guests what they can and can't wear. It is so vague on their website. And then their enforcement is patchy at best. Not sure we can get a definite answer on this one before we go there. And it seems that if I tell you my experiences, it may be different for the period of time that you are down there... I wrote Valeria to see what she tells me...

Quote: Originally Posted by brigopens Maybe we can get back to our continued critique/review of the reservation system in this one now... :-) Decided to revisit TripAdvisor and check how the reservationless system has been going. Looks pretty good and I don't think any of us will be disappointed. I'll probably stop posting restaurant specific reviews here unless something changes or someone else has comments/concerns... **There are no more reservations needed in any of these restaurants, our experience with the beepers/pagers for the wait was pretty good! We only had to wait for the D'Italia once or twice, max half an hour. Just walk around, take pictures with the palm trees at night as it is beauty, or go to the martini bar upstairs for one or two! **We never really had any problems with trying to get into a restaurant except the first night we were there. We wanted to go to the Italian restaurant... They told us the wait would be about 45 minutes (and it was) so we had a drink at the Martini bar. That was the only time during the whole trip that we had to wait to be seated. We ate at the Italian restaurant a second time that week and did not have to wait. **No restaurant reservations were necessary during our stay, except for dinner on the beach. We were pleased that we didn’t have to make dinner plans at the beginning of our stay for the entire week…just go to the restaurant we felt like at the end of the day. We preferred an earlier dinner, by 7, and never had a wait. Later diners did, but beepers were given out. **Reservations are not required for any where, they now have a bleeper system, so you can have a drink while waiting for your table. The only times we used this service is for D'Italia and the Fondue restaurants. I'm satisfied that the new system is working. Seems to be less people complaining about the beeper system than there were about the need to make reservations.

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be El Dorado Royale - May 8, 2008 Us too. EDR -- 11/26/07

Quote: Originally Posted by Tricia You bring up a good point, we might have someone who could step in and MC/DJ. I will have to look at my guest list. I just feel a bit hesitant asking a guest to "work" at my wedding. So all you want is an airline ticket to join us as our DJ. That will surely be much cheaper than hiring the resort DJ. I may have to consider that option. At almost $2000, I could have you pay for my airfare and 2 nights at the resort and you'd still be a grand ahead... Plus, I can guarantee that I speak excellent English, am probably more familiar with American wedding and popular music and have as large a selection on my iPod!!! I was kidding, but the more I break it down and talk about it, the more I think I shoudl start offering to do this for people... Amy & I will surely be in the mood to head back down by then. As for making our guest "work..." The guy doing it is a musician and used to being in the spotlight. We asked with no pressure at all, and when he was all about it, we said we'd want that to be his wedding present to us... We'll probably make it worth his while too with a giftcard or some other token of our appreication.

Quote: Originally Posted by bre I'd love to hear reviews if anyone has them as I'm a little concerned about this myself. I checked a bunch of photog's site for photos of brides at EDR. Most had their hair done and though you can't tell is the Spa staff did it, they looked good. I figure they probably do more bridal hair than most salons since there' about 3 weddings a day there. Just in case it doesn't pan out so well, we have two stylists that are guests of the wedding! Brian, would you actually fly down a stylist or do you have a friend that could do it? I've put out emails to a couple of EDR couples we have found from the past year or two. I will post what they have to say... I'm not so sure we would fly down a stylist, but Amy's friend does her hair and isn't currently planning on making it to the wedding. if the experiences down there have been bad, we'd likely provide her some pretty decent incentive to join us, whether it was covering her flight or room or whatever... Hopefully things down there have been good for people and it won;t become an issue. Maybe Sol or Matt will have some input as they have shot plenty of weddings there and surely seen the girls getting their hair done... Leigh -- Thanks for your input. April looked great, so that's 1 point for the resort stylists...

Came across the thread for Dreams and found countless pages of help from some of the previous brides. I think we've been lacking in that area here, and am hoping that starting a thread will maybe draw some people out who have been married there... I guess it's somewhat logical that most of the people here are in the process of planning, and once the event is over, are not here as frequently or at all. If you've been married at EDR, or can provide help, we have some questions that we're hoping you can answer!! If you're one of the many EDR couples, please subscribe to this thread so that you don't have to check back here all that often, but can still share your wealth of knowledge about the resort. I started another thread on it, but might as well ask here too... For my fiance, what experiences have you had with the hairstylists there on the day of the wedding?

Quote: Originally Posted by Tricia This is the exact "contract" she sent me when I asked about outside photographers. I have not been told by Lomas that there is a $500 fee for bringing in an outside photographer. I have not signed this contract. It doesn't appear to be a contract. It just looks like policies. We got the same thing, and they call it a contract. There was a page 4 with it, that had a place for bride/groom signatures as well as the WC, date of wedding, and resort. As far as I am concerned, it's a contract. It says nothing about an extra fee. This will be "Exhibit A" if they try to cause problems... Things will go just fine and my $500 will stay in my pocket!

Quote: Originally Posted by jfwolfe72 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). ! Music at all the sites and a sound system/microphone should be included with the wedding package. Quote: Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be oohh - let us know if you get any interesting advice! as for the reception format - were you looking for a playlist of songs, or what and when you should be doing at the reception (ie announcement of B&G, dinner, speech etc?) if playlist - there is a thread somewhere; if reception organization - I don't recall seeing any thread for that Will have to try and find out some info on live music another night, it's getting way too late. As for format, we're all set with music/playlist. I was referring to the latter as for the order of the traditional events at the reception as well as maybe some scripted stuff we can have our friend/MC work off of... Quote: Originally Posted by Tricia I am getting married in the Chapel as well. For the reception I am going to hire the Mariachi's for the 45 minutes and am playing with the idea of hiring a DJ. I am having a hard time picturing my reception going smoothly with an ipod and no one to emce the event. But the DJ is just so expensive. Has anyone heard reviews on the DJ? I agree you need someone to MC, no doubt. I just have a hard time believeing I'd be happy with the $2000 MC/DJ. We're lucky enough to have someone we trust to do it for us. Is that not an option at all for you? Now that I think of it, I'll probably be ready to go back by then, fly me down and I'll do it for you!!!

OK, totally not in my realm, but I need to ask. Anyone had experience or hear how things went with the har people at EDR? My fiance is thinking of having them do her hair that morning, as are some other girl's in the party... Depending on price, we're wondering if it might make more sense to just bring someone with us so they get to enjoy the vacation and she can be more confident in who's doing her hair... Any thoughts/advice would be helpful.

We're working on what we want to do for our tables at the reception. Wondering if anyone can give some guidance or has experience with buying candles down there? I know there's a Wal-Mart. Any bought votives and/or holders there or anywhere else in Playa/Cancun?

Quote: Originally Posted by bre Has anyone else signed their contract with EDR? In it it stipulates: "Musicians, Photographers, etc. not booked by the hotel's wedding department are the sole responsibility of the person hiring the service." I'm not sure how they would try to enforce a $500 fee if it is not previously disclosed in the contract. We'll see what happens but whatever is the outcome, I know in the long run we will be MUCH happier with photos from Vincent, rather than the highly unprofessional hotel photographer we met during our site visit. Also, the hotel photographer isn't available for receptions- where all the fun photos come from. Agreed, in the end it's not an option to use their provided phtographer for us. Thsi is one of the things I am most interested in watching pan out. As I've said before, if they want to play hardball on this one and screw with my fiance on her wedding day, there will be hell to pay!!! This is my official smilie for what that will be like... I will have a copy of my contract and all of my emails in hand, just in case it comes to that!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Millie & George Hi ya Yes, I have attached below an extract from my email that the w/c from lomas sent me: There is a special fee for outsider photographers of 500.00usd, unfortunately she wont be able to purchase just the day pass, but to pay for this amount, is a special policy for outsider suppliers... But we can all but try hey?? Did you know they even charge for chairs that you need for your guests 3usd for a plain white chair and upto 12usd for a decorated chair, unreal!!! Millie xx Would be interested to see the entire email. Can you PM it to me or email it to me? Do they make any other additional comments on booking your photographers for a specific number of nights, etc... I know about the chair charge, but I believe it's $6 for regular chairs and $12 for covered? I understand that they need to make their money, no different from the nickel and diming that occurs with at home weddings, except there's more competition that the current EDR monopoly allows for. Not to make you any more unhappy with them, but if you want chairs on the beach for your wedding and then at the reception site, you're gonna pay twice. I've been trying to get that fee dropped, but am having very little luck with that. So if you need 50 uncovered chairs at the wedding and then reception site, you'll pay: 50 X $6 = $300 for wedding chairs and then 50 X $6 = $300 for reception chairs... Wonder if they will recharge us for moving flowers, rose petals, etc...

Quote: Originally Posted by bre A trusted friend will act as the emcee. Same here, I forgot to mention that. Anyone have a "format" for reception stuff? Something we can go off of and give to our MC to run the festivities? If there's just a post, point me that way. otherwise, maybe it's something I should look harder for or start a new post for?

Quote: Originally Posted by Millie & George Hi Tricia I too am getting married in May at the El Dorado, whats your date? I couldnt bear to have the resort photographer so I have booked Vanessa Vargus her pics look fab. Although because I caused such a stink with Lomas on the costs of bringing my own photograher I think they have my cards marked, so I think I will deffo have to pay the $500, great!!! Love Millie & George I'd still try avoiding the topic, and then add her to your guest list. Worst case scenario is that they make you pay. Did they specifically tell you what their "policy" is?

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsV-to-be ditto. though I am still playing with the idea of the trio - we'll see closer to the time Tempting, I agree, and we may consider it semi-last minute... I'm sort of doubting it though. Have to email some of my sources and see if they thought any of the live music options were worth the cost.

iPod for both the wedding and reception here... We entertained the idea of the trio, but it was so expensive for such a short time. We really felt we could do more for our guests with the money we were saving... I've seen pics of weddings there with the 10 piece band and all. Looked amazing, but I can only imagine how much they spent to have them there, or how short it seemed like... And the DJ? For $1500 bucks? What a rip-off...