amy706

When I was down there - the day I left actually - Dec 6th they had 3 weddings that day Landy was telling me. I saw two of them take place (btw one of them was a famous mexican actor/singer's son). They both did seem beautiful!! Landy has a much bigger team than she used to; they seem to be getting into a good groove. The only thing would be the times/locations you want. I would definitely 'reserve' the spot with Landy now if you know what you want. I did that for mine and re-confirmed it with her about 3x before I ever got down there. I'm sorry to hear about the BM and guest troubles some of you are experiencing but sgbrown is right. Its about you and your future hubby. that's the most important thing and that's what its all about!!!

Sunbride, I did this originally when you put this new thread together but i'm assuming you want a new updated one?!? If so, here goes! Username: amy706 Names: Amy & Michael Date: Dec 5, 2008 Wedding package: Ultimate Wedding extras (and cost): DJ Mannia (1000 for 5 hrs), Fire Dancers ($400 for 20 min), tequila & cigars tasting (cost of buying it), took guests to Tulum ruins, took guests on welcome sunset catamaran cruise Type of ceremony symbolic Coordinator: Sandra then Landy Number of guests: 70 Ceremony location and time: Seaside Grill Gazebo 4pm Cocktails location and time: Plaza outside the chapel - about 4:45 Reception location and time: Seaside Grill - 6pm Photographer: Citalli from Claudia Rodriguez Videographer: resort - with extra time Review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33518 Photos: still waiting to get them... Video: still waiting to get it... Special arrangments: took guests to Tulum ruins, had sunset catamaran welcome cruise, surprised guests with fire dancers, had fabric draped around the Seaside Grill, see planning thread and review for details planning: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t31997 See my review for …. (i.e. any detailed info in your review that you think might be usefull for future brides, i.e. such as Carly saying "see my review for why I was unhappy with the florist" that kind of thing) See review to learn WHY I LOVED: Dreams Tulum, DJ Mannia, my flowers, my reception set up, fire dancers, tequila tasting, catamaran trip...EVERYTHING!

Sunbride, I did this originally when you put this new thread together but i'm assuming you want a new updated one?!? If so, here goes! Username: amy706 Names: Amy & Michael Date: Dec 5, 2008 Wedding package: Ultimate Wedding extras (and cost): DJ Mannia (1000 for 5 hrs), Fire Dancers ($400 for 20 min), tequila & cigars tasting (cost of buying it), took guests to Tulum ruins, took guests on welcome sunset catamaran cruise Type of ceremony symbolic Coordinator: Sandra then Landy Number of guests: 70 Ceremony location and time: Seaside Grill Gazebo 4pm Cocktails location and time: Plaza outside the chapel - about 4:45 Reception location and time: Seaside Grill - 6pm Photographer: Citalli from Claudia Rodriguez Videographer: resort - with extra time Review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33518 Photos: still waiting to get them... Video: still waiting to get it... Special arrangments: took guests to Tulum ruins, had sunset catamaran welcome cruise, surprised guests with fire dancers, had fabric draped around the Seaside Grill, see planning thread and review for details planning: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t31997 See my review for …. (i.e. any detailed info in your review that you think might be usefull for future brides, i.e. such as Carly saying "see my review for why I was unhappy with the florist" that kind of thing) See review to learn WHY I LOVED: Dreams Tulum, DJ Mannia, my flowers, my reception set up, fire dancers, tequila tasting, catamaran trip...EVERYTHING!

Quote: Originally Posted by neen congrats Niels408!! can't wait to hear all about it and see pics so excited to hear i don't have to pay an extra fee for DJ Mannia - that made my day. new question - the iPod docking stations in the rooms...are they standard iPod docks only or will a mini/nano work with them? FI and I both have Nanos and Minis, but no regular size iPod so I need to know if I have to borrow one or if ours will work...we're using it for our welcome cocktail hour a couple days before the wedding... also - if we have a big group going to the ruins, how do the taxis work? will the resort call a certain number of them? will there be a taxi line at the ruins for when we're ready to go back to the resort? thanks ladies!!! PS - I'm FINALLY getting really excited (and really stressed) I just told them a few hours before that I would need about 12 taxis at 1:30 that day. It was no problem at all. Before I left i organized $14 and put them into 12 different envelopes and just put people in cabs in groups of 4 and asked them to ride home together too. it gave people the flexibility to come and go as they pleased. it worked really well actually. i had someone at the ruins who bought tix for everyone and handed them to everyone when they arrived. There are a ton of taxis lined up to take people leaving the ruins so no worries on that end either! yay! so fun! I miss planning:) My ipod nano worked on the ipod docking station!

Quote: Originally Posted by ashjanbro Thanks Karla, I will check into Marshalls as well. Amy, I think we have the same bridesmaid dresses. Is that a Jasmine? YES! It is a Jasmine from the B2 line, I think?!? What color did you get! Oh and my mom actually carried on my dress. They put it in the first class closet. They said the toughest part was putting it through security. it got a little smooshed going through the security thing... Oh and nothing broke in my suitcases. I wrapped it all up.

Quote: Originally Posted by ashjanbro Amy, I was wondering the same thing as Beth. Did you have any problems with your stuff? Did anything break? Did you carry on your dress? How many suitcases did you end up taking? Was there an additional charge? Ashley Hi Ladies- I packed 4 huge suitcases. i weighed them at home beforehand to not exceed 50 lbs. and my FI and I each took one extra big bag (our airline internationally allowed 2 checked bags less than 50 lbs at no charge) and then I had two BMs each check 1 add'l bag for me. I checked their airlines as well and had the same policy. We made it through customs fine. My MOH got stopped and they questioned her. They asked for invoices on all of the stuff and she was able to talk her way out of it. So heads up that it's a possibility! Check your airline about international flight baggage policy!

OMG No way?!?! I was trying to keep my eye out for you!!! welcome home! cant wait to see your pics and review!!! Were you on the bus from the airport with my aunt and uncle?!?! So random and funny! Congrats on becoming a Mrs!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Melissa24 Amy- Your review is awsome!! I have been having horrible nightmares about the food after reading Karla's review, and definetly feel better after reading yours. Who did you use for your photographer? Did you use the one at the resort or someone diffrent? Oh and did you have your make-up done at the salon? Hi Melissa- I used Citali from Claudia Rodriguez. Will post a review when I get the pics! Plus post the pics of course! I did not have my makeup done there. My step mom did it for me. I gave the free makeup job to my MOH. She liked it although my step mom 'smoothed it out' a little.

Quote: Originally Posted by sdtooley Absolutely wonderful review Amy! You have made me even more excited about having my wedding there next summer. I enjoyed your very positive outlook and comments about everything. You answered a lot of questions that have been going through my mind. So thank you for such a detailed review! I am curious about your DJ because he sounds wonderful! How much does he charge and how long did you have him there for? Thanks again and I look forward to reading more! I had him for 5 hours for $1,000. I think its $850 for 4 hours and then we added an additional hour for $150 more. I've only ever heard great things about him. Sunbride- is there a certain mod that moderates for DT or riviera maya? good suggestion!

Quote: Originally Posted by BC Bride2be Congrats Amy, you looked beautiful!, it was so wonderful to hear that everything met your expectations… and then some!! I was worried about the salon and getting my hair done but feel much better now knowing yours went so well! I’m curious to know how your video turned out as well, can't wait to see your pro pics! Did you email your vows/written ceremony before going or did you just give it to Landy when you got there? thanks again for the great review! I'll let ya'll know about the video when we get it... who knows when that will be. I feel a bit nervous we didn't get it before we left (but we left DT the day after our wedding). I send Landy the whole ceremony before and then I brought copies just in case. But when we got down there she had already sent the ceremony on to the minister so he could practice. He did a great job! The vows we wrote ourselves and just brought them with us. We both read them off of a paper. We didnt have the minister do the whole repeat after me thing on our personal vows. Happy to help! The brides who came before me were SOOO instrumental in my planning. I'm happy to give back in anyway I can!

Quote: Originally Posted by amy706 FOOD AT THE WEDDING- Grade: A We did the buffet. Originally we thought we had to because we had 70 people and then we learned we could do sit down if we wanted but upon thinking about it decided to do a buffet anyway. We didn’t want dinner to drag on too long, especially since the DJ had to stop by 10:30. we wanted time to dance and party! Anyway, everyone I spoke to said they thought the food was great. We had the ultimate package so we had the gold menu. We chose items from the gold menu and some from the silver. Here’s what we had. I tried to have a bite of each thing and everything I tried was quite good. I don’t recall it all (too much champagne plus it was dark in there so I couldn’t always tell what I was actually eating). Here’s what we had and comments where I recall. 2 appetizers Bruschetta with prosciutto, tomato, and fresh basil --- THIS WAS AWESOME!!! LOVE LOVE SHRIMP FRIED QUESADILLA – don’t remember 1 soup Tortilla Soup – didn’t eat 2 salads GRILLED VEGETABLES WITH AGED BALSAMIC Caesar salad with blackened chicken – this was actually REALLY good. I was surprised by how good the chicken was. 3 entrees Surf & Turf, Mignon and Shrimp with a gravy sauce and malted butter --- the filet was actually delicious! Fresh Salmon in a puff pastry with a delicious peppers sauce – kind of blah Chicken Breast filled with a creamed spinach with peppers sauce – I don’t remember this but I had several people comment about how good it was. 1 dessert Fruit tart with amaretto mouse ** this is what I ordered but I noticed they also had tiramisu out there for dessert. That was nice of them! J OHH!! I also wanted to say that I was SOO impressed with the set up for the buffet as well. It was beautifully done. I havne’t seen any photos of it yet but will post some when I get it. Beautiful! RECEPTION SET UP- Grade: A We changed to the Seaside Grill (from the beach- original plan) as it was really windy the first 2 days we were there. It ended up not being that windy so we could have done it on the beach but the transformation of the Seaside thanks to Karla letting me use her chiffon material to drape around the ceiling- was gorgeous. Obviously we brought down the paper lanterns, we brought LED candles they placed all around, etc. Looked great- I thought. HUGE thanks to Karla for letting me use the material. Landy just charged me the $150 set up fee. THANK YOU KARLA CAKE- Grade B I only had the one token bite of cake and it tasted great. I went with the GOLDEN 03 (WITH FLOWERS THAT MATCH OUR BOUQETS) Flavor : VANILLA Filling: STRAWBERRY. I wish I would have eaten a whole piece of packed a piece for later. I heard from people that it was great. In my opinion it didn’t look exactly like the picture but it was still pretty. I wasn’t terribly picky about this. I do wish that I saved some to eat though. I was too busy dancing at this point! MINI-MOON- The MEZZANINE (small boutique hotel in Tulum)- Grade: A The day after the wedding, we went to the Mezzanine. It was exactly what we needed. Only about 9 rooms. Completely solar and wind powered but very chic and cool. Gorgeous beaches, incredible rooms. 1-4pm every day 2 for 1 margaritas. HIGHLY recommend it! It was sort of expensive (we had the master suite for 450 bucks a night- but the regular rooms are much less!) Oh and they have delicious food. The breakfasts were AMAZING. And fabulous organic thai food! mezzanine | tulum, mexico I would do it all over again exactly the same a million times over! You all were such a support and help to me so feel free to ask me any questions! PM if I can help with anything!!! I just realized an entire post - a big chunk of my review did not post! FLOWERS – Grade: A+ on bouquets, B- on corsage/boutinierres I was nervous about the flowers after talking to Cant Wait. However, when we talked to Landy I showed her a picture of what I wanted with a small change (add bird of paradise). And the bouquets were GORGEOUS. I loved them, loved them. I too was VERY disappointed with the selection from the florist. Seriously… just roses… in Mexico!?! So taking everyone’s advice brought pictures (and sent them earlier to Landy- she had them). And they created it beautifully. I hadn’t really thought out what I wanted for boutineires and corsages for the moms and grandmother so we just decided on the fly. They had limited colors on the lilies so we went with white- which was a little plain on the GM in their khaki linen suits with white shirts but oh well. The corsage was just 1 gerbera daisy on a string basically. It wasn’t such a pretty color (more purple than fuschia) but you gotta roll with it a bit when in mexico. Most important to me were the bouquets and centerpieces and they NAILED it. Landy gave the florist the little light things for the vases and the clear rocks for the vases and they looked really cool! WEDDING CEREMONY- Grade: A Scheduled for 4pm and started on time. Landy did a great job playing all the right music at all the right times. The ceremony itself was gorgeous. The minister spoke very good English and read our ceremony word for word. We had my brother and Mike’s aunt each do a reading. We had them pick it out or write it themselves. They both made their own or a combo of something written with their own. And then another aunt read the hands ceremony and she personalized it and made it fit us more—I LOVED that it was so personal this way. Loved the readings. Then since we didn’t do a unity candle (normal mom role) I had the moms each read a part of the sand ceremony. They all 3 came up together. Everything went really smooth. BUTTERFLY RELEASE- Grade: C My FI was very big on this idea. Landy tracked down this vendor for us then we dealt directly with her. She was nice enough… 30 butterflies cost about $160. Mike had a really hard time direct depositing ½ the amount before we left. He spent hours on it and each time he’d ask her for a number he needed, she’d give him a whole different bank info. It was weird and we started getting nervous it was sketchy. When we got to DT, she contacted Landy actually while we were meeting with her. So anyway, we decided to do it which meant we had to cab into Tulum and go to the bank to direct deposit the money. We gave Landy the other half of the money and Michelle dropped the butterflies off to Landy right before the ceremony. We only told the flower girl about this and after Mike and I kissed, when I turned around the flower girl was at the tail end of releasing the butterflies. I assume Landy must have come over and handed them to her but I didn’t see. I have yet to see a single picture with a butterfly in it so I’m not quite sure if this was worth both the money and the hassle. Like I said, this was mike’s thing, not mine. Hopefully at least one or two of those babies will show up in a picture or two!! Contact info: Michelle Weil Treviño Imago Riviera Maya Liberación de Mariposas Cel (99 1113920 Liberacion de mariposas, Mariposas para eventos, liberar mariposas COCKTAIL HOUR- Grade: B We had our cocktail hour in the plaza area outside of the chapel. I actually liked the location as it has that sort of hacienda/Spanish feel to it. I was doing pictures most of the time but did get to spend a few minutes at the cocktail hour. I didn’t hear much being said about the mariachi band although I saw them and it was cool to have them. I popped one app in my mouth- it was fine. Nothing to rave about but good enough. Here are the apps we had: 1.- MUSHROOM STUFFED WITH CREAM CHEESEWITH BLACK TRUFFLE 2.- SMOKED SALMON ON MELBA BREAD 3.- PROSCIUTTO AND MELON We asked Landy to serve margaritas and mango daiquiris and I gave her those little umbrella drink toothpick things. I saw a couple people walking around with a cute margarita glass with an orange stuck in the toothpick. It looked cute. I was told that the drinks and apps would be passed but I got the feeling they were sitting in a table in the middle of the plaza. No biggie though. People lingered a while at the beach taking pics. Then everyone was shuffled over to the Seaside grill for the reception. Mike and I were introduced, did our first dance, etc. DJ MANNIA- Grade: A He was great. We had some special instructions in terms of not only announcement song, first dance, etc but I surprised mike by singing him a song in the middle of dinner. Carlos was the only one who knew and he did a great job. Anyway, we gave him a suggested list of songs to play but told him we trusted him and to use his best judgment and keep the crowd going. He played mostly songs from our list but went off a little. At the end of the night, I noticed he did not play one single slow song! I had some on my list- mostly for the older folks but truth be told- nobody except maybe the parents and an aunt or uncle or two really cared. We danced all night. It was AWESOME. I had given him enough money for the cold fireworks but we changed location from the beach to the seaside and he was not able to light them off. He was ready to give me money back but at that point (tipsy and SOOOO happy with the whole day) I let him keep it as a tip. Boy was he excited!! J FIRE DANCERS- Grade: A-We had arranged this ahead of time for a cost of $200 for 20 minutes for 3 people. A pretty good price I thought. Well Can’t Wait warned me when I saw her but they recently switched vendors and the price doubled. I was annoyed and tried to get more out of it from Landy but she would’nt budge. It was a surprise for our guests and they enjoyed it but it was more than we wanted to spend. I asked Landy how come she didn’t let me know before I left (b/c I confirmed this detail with her not too long ago). She said she just found out. Hmm.. would have liked a proactive communication beforehand but it it is what it is. And quite frankly I bet all of them have been swamped with no chance to breath and catch up post closing and reopening.

Carlos was amazing to work with and did an incredible job keeping everyone pumped all night! From my review... DJ MANNIA- Grade: A He was great. We had some special instructions in terms of not only announcement song, first dance, etc but I surprised mike by singing him a song in the middle of dinner. Carlos was the only one who knew and he did a great job. Anyway, we gave him a suggested list of songs to play but told him we trusted him and to use his best judgment and keep the crowd going. He played mostly songs from our list but went off a little. At the end of the night, I noticed he did not play one single slow song! I had some on my list- mostly for the older folks but truth be told- nobody except maybe the parents and an aunt or uncle or two really cared. We danced all night. It was AWESOME. I had given him enough money for the cold fireworks but we changed location from the beach to the seaside and he was not able to light them off. He was ready to give me money back but at that point (tipsy and SOOOO happy with the whole day) I let him keep it as a tip. Boy was he excited!! J

Quote: Originally Posted by ida Amy, Beautiful wedding! You looked gorgeous! Congratulations! Thanks for the review! btw, was the bonfire worth it for $50? How long did it last? Yean Yeah the 50 bucks was a set up fee for the staff. I paid it in cash to Landy. It was a nice chill thing to do. $50 wasn't that much amongst everything else but it probably lasted - with a decent flame- about 80-90 minutes. If you do it- just ask for extra wood. i bet they'll leave it for you?!?! Snacks or smores or whatever is extra and per person. i didnt think that was worth it. I bet you could bring our own (buy it at the supermkt in tulum)- rather than pay teh $12 per person or whatever it is for the food at the bonfire.

Quote: Originally Posted by neen Great review Amy!!! So happy things went so well! Everything looked great - can't wait to see pro pics! Question - how many tables did you have at your reception? I love that your dancing area was in the center of the room, but not sure if we can have that for ours since we have 8 60" tables....? we had 9 tables plus our little 'sweetheart' table for just us. So you should be fine!!! It worked out perfectly to have the dance floor in the center! Quote: Originally Posted by ERnurse Amy congrats on your beautiful wedding!! Did you have the resort videographer there, if you did how was his work? I love those bouquets!!! they are so tropical and pretty, exactly what i have been looking for but haven't been able to find any real nice pics. Did you pick that bouquet from what they offered at the resort or did you bring an inspiration pic with you? we did have the resort videographer. We actually had him stay a bit extra as well. We didn't get the dvd before we left so i have no idea. I emailed Landy to see when/how we'll get it but haven't heard back yet. I'll keep you posted! I had some inspiration photos. there was nothing in their flower guide that was remotely near what i wanted. I brought a picture and said- i want that but also add this and that. It was pretty close and i liked what they put together! If you like mine, bring a picture of it (and send it ahead of time) and you can tell her to take away X or add Y, etc.

Okay one of my BMs just posted a pic of the BM bouquests on facebook. Here you go!

Quote: Originally Posted by can't wait! Amy, I just re read your thread (my hubby was talking to me on the first read) and noticed you said your immediate family got upgraded for free! WHAT?!?! This pisses me off to no extent. My check-in was a nightmare!!! And my sister and father had to PAY to be placed in the same building I was in. I needed them close because they helped me with everything and so I told the front desk to just put them in my building and we would pay the difference! What a load of crock! This is what bothers me about DT. They are so INCONSISTENT. sorry, just had to rant. Oh, and you're right, their "oceanview" rooms are not really oceanview. I was in 6203 and can only see the palm trees. Make sure you get an ocean front OR a room on the 3rd floor. Yeah, I agree. I dont really get that. Each of my set of parents (2 rooms) plus my 3 brothers and their families and my aunt/grandmother each got upgraded to a DREAMs jr suite when they paid for an hacienda jr suite. Then like I said after that it was hit or miss. Most others were hacienda but a couple of friends randomly were put in dreams rooms. I guess its just timing and availability Even if it is based on that it makes no sense why they gave you such a hard time about it?!?!?! My TA's boss visited DT in b/n when they announced the reopening but before the opening and he toured the place with Daniel. I'm wondering if that helped put in the word to take care of my group!?! I'm sorry you had that nightmare, Karla. Ugh.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blkatz Amy-I forgot to ask you what time your ceremony started? I am thinking about the sunset cruise also-it sounds super fun Our ceremony started at 4pm! It was beautiful, although we were def rushed to get pics in before the sun set a little after 5. The cruise was awesome- highly recommend it! There is a cheaper boat if you have 50 or less!

Quote: Originally Posted by jkcz0702 Congrats Amy sounds like a awesome time! I am interested in the catamaran how long was the cruise for and what time did it leave. Sounds like a great time the cruise leaves out of Cancun right. It was a 3 hour sunset cruise and it left out of Puerto Adventuras- so only about 30 minutes away. They took us in huge (and nice) greyhound type bus. It flew by although in retrospect we should have brought some cans of beer with us! On the way home we took the CDs we brought for the boat and put them on so the party continued! They also do a snorkelling daytime cruise which looked fun but we wanted to maximize the number of people who could come. In Dec the sun sets around 5:10 so they picked us up at 2:30, we left by 2:45, boarded the boat and got settled and probably left by 3:30 and arrived back at the marina at 6:30 and back to DT at 7ish. The sunset was gorgeous! BEACH BONFIRE- Grade: B That reminds me - we arranged for a bonfire with Landy for after the boat. She recommended we do it at 9pm b/c before that they were playing a movie. It worked- we just paid $50 cash for it. i gave that to landy during our meeting. Well come 9:15, i saw no flames on the beach. So i had to ask one of the staff to call Landy and they did and she came down and had someone light it up for us and set chairs around it. It was pretty mellow at that point but it was nice. They didn't leave any extra wood so once it burned down it was pretty much done. This was the night b4 the wedding though so i was fine with going to bed early!

Quote: Originally Posted by Blkatz Amy I am so excited about your review! It sounds like you had an amazing time. We are also having DJ Mannia and every review of him makes me more and more excited. When you did your site visit last year did you discuss everything you wanted with Landy? I really loved your set-up and I kind of want to see if we can do the same. Congrats again We met with Sandra when we did the site visit and we had literally just (barely) decided on DT so it was more of a Q&A and scoping the place out. We really didn't discuss everything we wanted at that point. That evolved over time through email and then finalized when I got there. The one thing we did finalize was the location of the ceremony and reception- beach by seaside grill and that nobody else would be at the seaside that night. As i said we ended up moving to the Seaside from the beach for the reception so that worked either way! As for the set up, I brought a spool of white and turqouise tulle with me. We decided not to bring down star-fish etc and I was fine with the way it looked! I personally liked the colored flowers vs. white on the aisle runners, etc and preferred not to have flowers on the gazebo. We liked the flowy look. Maybe would have looked better with chiffon vs. tulle but it was nice still. Let me know if you have any more questions!

Quote: Originally Posted by rachelannmartin Wow Amy everything looks beautiful and seems like you had a wonderful time! CONGRATULATIONS With all of the stress and drama in regards to the DT closure, I am so glad that you walked away happy. Congratulations again Amy and thanks for posting such a detailed review. Quick question, is the last photo of your ceremony your wedding bouquet? I'm interested seeing how your flowers turned out considering all the issues that Karla had. THANKS RACHEL!! No, the last photo of the ceremony was the centerpiece that was on the ceremony table for the ceremony. i think it may be what they used as the centerpieces for the reception as well. I dont have a shot of my bouqet straight on yet but will post one when I get one. And i'm sure Citali will have one once she sends it to me. In the meantime, you can kind of see it in this pic of me and MOH. I was very happy with the flowers.

Quote: Originally Posted by sgbrown What an excellent review! Thank-you sooooo much for taking the time to write it - we all really appreciate it. Your reception set-up looks so beautiful. I'm so glad you had such an amazing experience. It sounds like your guests loved everything, too. I am really excited to see Citlalli's pics. I originally tried to book her, but there was a scheduling mix-up so I had to choose Freddy from Claudia Rodriguez' team instead. It seems like everyone from Claudia's team is amazing though. How many hours did you book Citlalli for? I've asked for 3 hours, but please let me know if you think I need 5 hours. I'm not very keen on having reception pictures taken. I just want some pics before the ceremony while we're getting ready (like you did), during the ceremony, and then pics of our families, wedding party, and of Mike and I (of course!). Do you think we'll be too rushed in your opinion? Thanks again! I can't wait to see more of your pictures when you receive them. I think 3 hours might be pushing it. we had her come 2 hours before the wedding for each of us individually with our fams and bridal party. then we took a bunch during cocktail hour. You need time for him to take pics of the details etc. I think the 5 hour package would be well worth it!!! I dont think you'll regret it! That whole team does amazing work. i can't wait to see our proc pics!

Just realized I didn't post any pics of the ceremony set up. Here you go! flowers lining the aisle

Quote: Originally Posted by ashjanbro Amy, You mentioned that you led the rehearsal. Did you write your own ceremony? Who was the officiant? Were you impressed with him/her? Who did you use for a DJ? If it was the resorts DJ, do you have any suggestions? Thanks thanks thanks! I 'wrote' the whole ceremony (borrowed from bits and pieces that I found on bdw and online). So I knew the flow of the ceremony and who i wanted to walk with who and the order,etc. So i pretty much ran it. Although Landy helped guide us with a few things I didn't know. You know i dont even know the officiant's name. We did a symbolic ceremony. he did a great job. Had perfect English and everyone understood him. We sent the ceremony to Landy in advance so she could give it to him to practice:) We used DJ Mannia. he was great and for a great price, I thought. So I cant help on the DJ at DT although I heard he doesn't really announce things like you'd want- which is why we went with Mannia. Plus he had GREAT reviews! Let me know if I can answer anything else!!!

Hey ladies-- had such an incredible experience i wanted to get the review up asap for ya'll with weddings coming up! CHECK IT OUT! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...518#post627728

FOOD AT THE WEDDING- Grade: A We did the buffet. Originally we thought we had to because we had 70 people and then we learned we could do sit down if we wanted but upon thinking about it decided to do a buffet anyway. We didn’t want dinner to drag on too long, especially since the DJ had to stop by 10:30. we wanted time to dance and party! Anyway, everyone I spoke to said they thought the food was great. We had the ultimate package so we had the gold menu. We chose items from the gold menu and some from the silver. Here’s what we had. I tried to have a bite of each thing and everything I tried was quite good. I don’t recall it all (too much champagne plus it was dark in there so I couldn’t always tell what I was actually eating). Here’s what we had and comments where I recall. 2 appetizers Bruschetta with prosciutto, tomato, and fresh basil --- THIS WAS AWESOME!!! LOVE LOVE SHRIMP FRIED QUESADILLA – don’t remember 1 soup Tortilla Soup – didn’t eat 2 salads GRILLED VEGETABLES WITH AGED BALSAMIC Caesar salad with blackened chicken – this was actually REALLY good. I was surprised by how good the chicken was. 3 entrees Surf & Turf, Mignon and Shrimp with a gravy sauce and malted butter --- the filet was actually delicious! Fresh Salmon in a puff pastry with a delicious peppers sauce – kind of blah Chicken Breast filled with a creamed spinach with peppers sauce – I don’t remember this but I had several people comment about how good it was. 1 dessert Fruit tart with amaretto mouse ** this is what I ordered but I noticed they also had tiramisu out there for dessert. That was nice of them! J OHH!! I also wanted to say that I was SOO impressed with the set up for the buffet as well. It was beautifully done. I havne’t seen any photos of it yet but will post some when I get it. Beautiful! RECEPTION SET UP- Grade: A We changed to the Seaside Grill (from the beach- original plan) as it was really windy the first 2 days we were there. It ended up not being that windy so we could have done it on the beach but the transformation of the Seaside thanks to Karla letting me use her chiffon material to drape around the ceiling- was gorgeous. Obviously we brought down the paper lanterns, we brought LED candles they placed all around, etc. Looked great- I thought. HUGE thanks to Karla for letting me use the material. Landy just charged me the $150 set up fee. THANK YOU KARLA CAKE- Grade B I only had the one token bite of cake and it tasted great. I went with the GOLDEN 03 (WITH FLOWERS THAT MATCH OUR BOUQETS) Flavor : VANILLA Filling: STRAWBERRY. I wish I would have eaten a whole piece of packed a piece for later. I heard from people that it was great. In my opinion it didn’t look exactly like the picture but it was still pretty. I wasn’t terribly picky about this. I do wish that I saved some to eat though. I was too busy dancing at this point! MINI-MOON- The MEZZANINE (small boutique hotel in Tulum)- Grade: A The day after the wedding, we went to the Mezzanine. It was exactly what we needed. Only about 9 rooms. Completely solar and wind powered but very chic and cool. Gorgeous beaches, incredible rooms. 1-4pm every day 2 for 1 margaritas. HIGHLY recommend it! It was sort of expensive (we had the master suite for 450 bucks a night- but the regular rooms are much less!) Oh and they have delicious food. The breakfasts were AMAZING. And fabulous organic thai food! http://www.mezzanine.com.mx/home.html I would do it all over again exactly the same a million times over! You all were such a support and help to me so feel free to ask me any questions! PM if I can help with anything!!!