mexicobrideIndiana

I stayed at Isla Palace for my honeymoon in June. I am so jealous of you guys! I got married in Mexico at a bigger resort an then came to the Palace for a honeymoon. My husband and I both wish we would have had the wedding at the Palace. The staff is amazing. It had just opened when we were there and only five other couples were staying in the hotel at the time! I have heard it has been that way for awhile. But daytrippers come to fill up the place until three each day. It was nice, crowded and loud during the day and quiet and all to yourselves at night. We can't wait to go back. Any questions let me know. I didn't read all the replies but it seems there is concern about the bar next door maybe? The pirate show place I am assuming. Don't believe the complaints you here about it. It wasn't that loud, didn't even remember it was there most of the time. Oh, while you are on the island you have to go to the turtle farm (you can walk from the Palace), rent a golf cart and explore the island, go to the fire show that the resort puts on. Congrats on picking such an awesome place!

Hey ladies. I got married at EDSS in June. It was awesome, you will have a blast. I haven't read all your messages but wanted to let you know that if you have any questions, ask. I will warn you: All this planning you do ahead of time won't really matter. I was very concerned about planning everything out early and making sure they knew what I wanted when we got there. I also got a sheet ahead of time with times/places/items screwed up but not to worry. They will sit you down a day before the wedding (seems like short notice but it worked) and ask you again about every detail and take care of things then. Also don't freak if when you get the resort nobody knows anything about your wedding. When we went to check in we mentioned that our wedding was in three days and who did we need to talk to about some arrangements and the guy checking us in was like, "you are getting married HERE? this WEEK?" it freaked us out. But the wedding people are seperate from the resort people and will eventually make their way to your room to find you. They just do everything very SLOW and RELAXED. Anyway, don't worry too much about your details because I promise you it will get worked out. Enjoy!

i just got back from having my wedding at el dorado seaside suites. we used the resort photographer and our pics were amazing! i was really shocked. in fact, my travel agent is so impressed with them she is going to use some for her website. i was initially nervous when i looked at the karisma website and saw their sample pictures. but i can reassure you that our pictures were 100 times better than i thought they would be and the guy really knew what he was doing. i know people are really picky about their pictures but if there is anyone on the fence about hiring outside the resort and paying hte extra money, or trying to save a buck by taking the resort photog i would recommend the resort photog. i would have paid twice as much for my pictures and still felt like i should have paid more!

A fellow destination wedding bride I was in contact with wore the Dessy dress for her wedding...she looked great in it and told me that it traveled really well too!

i haven't been to isla yet but we are going for our honeymoon! if you haven't already, i would recommend getting on IslaMujeres.info - Your Guide to Isla Mujeres Mexico. they have a ton of info about the entire island and all the places there are to stay. great forum, you will get lots of pictures and opinions if you ask for them! hope this helps!

I got confused in the packages as well (I am at a different resort but same sort of deal.) In fact, about a month ago I went ahead and paid for the most expensive package and about two weeks later realized that I was spending a lot of extra money for what I really was going to want...lucky for my my WC refunded my money immediately and we got the free package instead. If you are staying seven nights or more it seems to be the better deal to take the free package. I think they charge so much for the packages for the people that are not spending all their money staying at the resort for so many nights in the first place, and the packages is how they make their money off these people who aren't paying to stay for very long. Does this make sense?? Anyway, I agree with the others that the free package would be better in the long run and just adding on to your package.

i have been a bridesmaid nine times. the whole production of a traditional wedding has never been appealing to me, and it always seemed like at the end of the day the brides never really felt like they enjoyed or relaxed at all during their weddings and receptions. so many people have said to me, "if we could do it over again, i would run away and get married somewhere. it would have been so much better." so we are just taking their advice and running with it! planning a DW has not been stressful at all, i never wanted a ton of people invited in the first place and the nice part about having it in Mexico is it gives you an excuse to not invite many people!

thank you for letting me know about not meeting Valeria. do you plan on tipping or getting gifts for the onsite WC then? or do we send something to Valeria?

any past brides have any recommendations as to what cake/flavor to order? anyone have advice as to which flowers to order? there are so many to pick from, just wondering if anyone had gorgeous flowers they would like to recommend from the resort

i understand where you are coming from! i did not want to spend that much money on pictures but was really nervous about the hotel photographer. our wedding is in June and I wanted a preview of their work. the hotel sent me the website to see the pictures which were good but i really wanted to hear it from a bride that had been through it! so i just kept asking on these forums and at trip advisor if anyone could send me their photos to look at. after awhile i did get some responses and was happy to see the photos were good and some even sent my their videos...now, that was my experience. i have heard some hotel photogs are awful, so you should for sure look into it!!

i have read the threads about tipping but am unclear as to if these people are tipping their personal WC's that they have hired, or the ones that are from the resort? again, does anyone know if we actually meet with Valeria or Monica once we get there or do we deal with other people from the resort once we are there? I have heard there are two men that help once we get to the resort and I would hate to bring a bath and body works gift bag for them!

This is ridiculous. Just tell this guy that your numbers have already been turned in and there isn't anything you can do about adding another person. I have had some people "invite themselves" to our wedding also and I think it is rude. Especially when you are cutting people that you would like to be there already.

are we suppose to tip the wedding coordinator? or the judge or the photographer?? valeria has been my WC but i think i heard somewhere that once we get to the resort there are different people we deal with. do we tip them all, or not at all? and if we tip them, how much?

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indypitty, did you choose a resort? which one? did you contact melissa at beach bum vacation?! glad your plans are taking off! we are getting to mexico the same amount of days before hand that you are and that is fine i think!

i did message in a bottle invitations. i ordered the plastic corked bottles off of ebottles.com and then ordered the paper invitations from invitationsbydawn. just bought the sand and tiny shells at a craft store, bought some tropical postage off of zazzle.com and tied a little starfish with string around the cork in the bottle. also put a little bit of coconut scent inside the bottle. shipped them in the mail as is (for plastic bottles you don't have to put them in a box or package or anything, just put the stamp right on the bottle) and am still getting tons of compliments on them. they were cheap and easy and my favorite thing about the wedding so far!

i have booked a wedding with a karisma hotel but not with azul. my experience has been great so far. my understanding is that lomas is the company karisma goes through to plan/order for the wedding. there is a wedding planner that takes care of your arrangements and then once you get to the resort there is another wedding planner specific to that resort that takes care of the arrangements from there. i don't have nancy, i have valeria and she has been awesome. i have screwed up my order tons of times and she has made all the adjustments right away. hope this helps?!

yikes, why are you leaving el dorado? have you had a bad experience with them? again, I have heard that excellence is awesome. but don't know anyone who has gotten married there so i can't be of much help.

i haven't been there but i can tell you that my best friend had her honeymoon there in October and loved it. Also when I was trying to decide where to have my June wedding, my travel agent who has been everywhere in the area recommended the el dorado properties and the excellence resort. she had a destination wedding and she said if she knew then what she knows now she would have chosen either of those two, so i would say that is a pretty good review!

does anyone have any suggestions for music for the ceremony? i think i have to pick out three songs for our ceremony and can bring my own if i choose...i really like the versions of somewhere over the rainbow and what a wonderful world by that hawaiian guy and would like to find something similar to walk down the aisle to that is light and fun. any ideas?

we are staying at the isla palace resort for our honeymoon. it is the new all-inclusive resort on the island...there are only two all-inclusives there. i have heard great things about it....i know they do weddings, and for pretty cheap i have heard. they have a wedding planner there at the resort i think if you are interested. the only thing i am wondering about is whether we should have gone all inclusive at isla or not...it seems like such a fun place to run around that maybe we should have branched out and tried one of the local hotels instead. but if i had decided to get married there i would have definately gone with the palace resort just because i think it is so much easier to have everything there in one place for you and a planner that is familiar with the hotel. the other upside is because it is new, i have heard there are only like four guests staying there at a time and the staff is totally catering to their needs...fixing them meals especially for them and waiting on them hand and foot. you might want to look into it!

my travel agent recommended El Dorado properties. She had a destination wedding in the riviera maya before she became a travel agent and got married at a different resort. She has been to almost all properties in the area now. She told me that if she knew then what she knows now, she would have picked an el dorado propertyf or her wedding. she just explained the differences between those hotels and we ended up choosing the seaside suites since it was smaller.

i am going to Isla Mujeres for my honeymoon in June. We are actually getting married in the Riviera Maya and then going to the island to finish off our trip. Doesn't it look awesome? Not too sure about weddings there but I can tell you that a wonderful resource for info would be IslaMujeres.info - Your Guide to Isla Mujeres Mexico There is a chatter board and people are asking/answering questions on it constantly. just start a new thread asking about weddings and i am sure you will hear back immediately with quite a few opinions. and if you go, i hear you must try the "ballpark tacos!"

I am trying to find someone who has been to a wedding here before. I am getting married there in June and would like some advice on the photographers, reception, flowers, etc. Any info would be great!

hello, i am new to the forum. My name is Darla and I am getting married at the el dorado seaside suites in mexico, on june 19th. any advice anyone can throw my way would be awesome!