KirstenRN6

As promised, here is my review for my December 2008 wedding at EDR. Overall, we had a great time, minus a few mishaps. I’ll do my best at breaking down the details for all of you. Of course, feel free to ask me any questions. Wedding coordinators: Since March I have been dealing with Valeria via email planning our wedding. I have to say that she was awesome. Her response to my emails were quick and very detailed. I felt very comfortable working with her. Towards the end I felt we were a little rushed with getting all of our final payments in. I actually had to remind her at one point that we were already 30 days pre-wedding day and our final payments weren’t done yet. I felt a little nervous sending such a large sum of money via fax, but Valeria wrote to confirm that she had received my payment as soon as it arrived. The onsite wedding coordinators were awesome as well. We had Marisol for our coordinator. We met with her the day after we arrived. We went over all the final details. Everything was just like Valeria and I had planned. Of course they will try to sell you a few extras while you are there. We were suckered into a few things…..ha! They also scheduled a time to have my dress and David’s suit pressed at this time. This was one bump in the road that was kind of irritating. They scheduled to pick up my dress the day of the wedding at 10 AM and return it by 1 PM. It was perfect timing because I would be at the spa during that time getting my hair and nails done. Well they didn’t pick up my dress until 10:45 and didn’t return it until 2:15. It completely messed up our time to be ready for pictures at 2PM with our photographer. So I highly recommend getting you dress and grooms suit pressed the day before the wedding to prevent this hassle. Photography/Videography:David and I were so blessed to have won a contest here on BDW from an amazing photographer named Kristi Klemens of KLK photography from Newport Beach, CA. Her fiancé Paul Bennet, has his own Videography business (Blue Sky Videos). Both of them joined us at EDR for 3 days to capture our wedding day and then do a TTD session the next day. We had so much fun with them! Kristi and Paul are young and so fun……….we hit it off from the start! I know we will have a lasting friendship with them. Not to mention that their work is AMAZING! You would never know that the two of them have only been doing this for around 4 years! They are definitely blessed with the amazing skill of capturing a moment! Here’s a link to her blog with a few “teaser†pictures from our wedding and TTD: The Gift Wedding:Our wedding was held at the Presidential gazebo. Our wedding was at 4 PM. I loved this gazebo location simply because we had such a small amount of guests with us (13, including David and I). It has a lot of lush greenery around it too, which was nice. Gazebo 55 is just to the right. I like that one too, but it is definitely more fitting for larger weddings. The sound system they used is really good, the music was so pretty!! Our minister was Aleena. She is one of EDR’s English speaking ministers. She is so articulate. She spoke everything from memorization, never once looking at a paper. My guests thought that was amazing. I truly felt she was speaking from her heart to David and I. We also did a sand ceremony, and used the sand ceremony picture frame. We even “borrowed†a little sand from where we both stood. The frame made it home in one piece! The ceremony was about 30 minutes total. Our reception was a Tucanes. I loved this location! It’s not next to the water, but honestly, you probably don’t want to be. It can be SO windy by the ocean! They decorated the table so pretty…..just how I wanted it! The wait staff was great too. We did the family style dinner, which was perfect for our little group. It was fun to pass all the trays of food around to everyone. We also used the sound system with Ipod station for this event. Again, very good quality. For the cake, we just got the small heart shaped cake. We really only did this just to have one and to keep tradition. The cake tasted okay, nothing special. Spa: I did get my hair done the day of the wedding. I brought a picture for them to go by. They did a good job. My “doo†definitely wasn’t going anywhere. I also got my nails retouched. I got a really good manicure and pedicure before I left, so I decided to just have them do a French nail polish on nails. I also got a massage later in the week with my maid of honor. They do a good job, but of course everything is WAY overpriced. EDR: EDR is definitely a beautiful resort. The grounds are very well kept. Beautiful flowers everywhere. We stayed in a Casita (3031). The 30 block is further away from everything, but it’s newer, so that’s why we wanted that particular block. They definitely pamper you in the Casitas. The concierges are nice, but they seem to call you a little too much, always wanting to know if everything is okay. The food at EDR is pretty good. But I have to say that I am definitely not in to all the “foo foo†gourmet food. I am a country girl and definitely prefer good old meat and potatoes. Cocotal was the best for breakfast, they had the most “normal foodâ€. Unfortunately, David and I got very, very sick a few days before we left. Full fledged montezuma’s revenge. It was awful. Not sure what we ate or drank. A few of our guests got sick as well. Just go prepared with plenty of tummy medicine. As for the beach, I’m sorry to say that I was really disappointed. I knew ahead of time that the huge sandbags were spread out across the whole resort, but once you see them, it’s really an eye-sore. For that reason only, this resort might not be the best choice if you are wanting the pretty, white, sandy beaches. Deep down that is what I wanted, but our wedding was still amazing and I wouldn’t change it for anything. So hopefully that explains most details. Again, contact me if you have any questions. Having a destination wedding was an amazing experience! You will love every moment of it!

I'm back from our wedding at EDR! The wedding day went perfectly! I'm sure all of you will love it. I will try to write a review soon, but I too have trouble accessing this site often. Unfortunately David and I got REALLY sick the last few days we were there and are still recovering. So when I have a little more energy and some more pictures to post I will try to get my review up for you. It's obvious they do weddings all the time, so don't worry, they will take care of you! Here's one pic of my husband and I at the "swing bar" (guacamyas bar) after our wedding.

Thank you so much for posting your pictures so fast! You looked absolutely beautiful! We leave Monday for EDR! I'm hoping the weather will hold out for us. The forecast shows rain ALL next week...........ahhhhhh! Welcome back.......and Congrats! I look forward to reading your review.

I've ordered a few flowers from Gabbymac. She is from Canada. She ships really fast and usually has a lot of flowers on sale. I don't know her website off hand, but just type in Gabbymac in Google and her site will pop up.

I'm not sure how many people the presidential gazebo location will hold.......I'm guessing at least 30, maybe more. We really only have about 12 seated guests. There is no way they should be making you pay for the sand ceremony......that is just WRONG! I've never heard of Carolina, but Valeria is very good and is very on top of things. So I trust what she tells me. When you talk to the coordinators onsite at EDR, maybe they can help straighten things out for the sand ceremony. But for now, at least you have a back up plan. The slideshow from Elizabeth Medina was posted about a month ago on this thread. I saved it on my favorites.......I loved it so much. Probably because this couples wedding party and guest size is similar to what we are having and the same locations as us...etc. Here is the slideshow: Lauren and Ryan Good luck! Don't worry......everything will fall together!

Yes, per Valeria, they will do the sand ceremony for you at no cost. That was a huge relief for me too. We choose to go with the presidential gazebo after I saw the recent slideshow Elizabeth Medina posted here ( Lauren and Ryan). It just looked more lush. Also, it seemed to be more private. The only reason I was going to use Gazebo 55 at first is because there is no sandbags behind you. But in the pics of the presidential gazebo, you couldn't really see them. We have an amazing photographer, so I'm sure she will get shots at the right angles to hind the sandbags. I'm getting excited......only 4 more weeks....yay!!

Hello all! Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on this thread. I am counting down the days until we leave for Mexico!! I got my final spreadsheet from Valeria today. There were quite a few things she forgot to add, so I had to send it back to her. Things are falling together nicely. I'm trying not to stress over things too much and just let things happen. I asked Valeria about the sand ceremony, and she said that I could bring my own sand ceremony supplies and the minister would still perform it for us. I was a little worried after I saw the post from BandE2008 that said they were charging them if they didn't buy the supplies from EDR. Valeria assured me this was NOT true and that they would still incoorporate the sand ceremony as part of our wedding and the minister would do it for us. Here's some of our wedding details: Welcome/Rehearsal dinner at El Cocotal night before wedding Wedding ceremony at the Presedential Gazebo Wedding reception at Tucanes Bar - we are having the family style dinner, and the Ipod station with speakers for this event. We have 16 guests coming. Our photograper is Kristi Klemens (I won this free photography/videography package here on BDW!!) Her fiance Paul Bennet will be the videographer. Kristi is amazing.........I can't wait to work with her! They are staying at the resort for three nights, so I don't have to pay the outside vendor fee! Let me know if you have any questions about my final details. I am trying to keep things pretty basic. Thanks for your review pryzeless!! I can't wait to see your pro pics!

Congrats! Great pictures!

Wow! I am super impressed! I feel like a slacker compared to you....ha! ha! You are going to have a beautiful wedding!

Welcome back! Can't wait to see pictures!

So beautiful! Congrats!

Your pictures are amazing! You looked beautiful! Congrats!

Absolutely beautiful!!! Congrats!

Absolutely beautiful! You are a great looking couple! May you have many years of happiness together!

We decided to skip the whole invitation thing and just send out announcements after our wedding in December. It seemed kind of pointless to send out invites when we knew the majority of them weren't going to come. But I do understand what some of you say when you wanted to have invites just for the sake of having them. But for us, we decided against it. Either way, it's all depends on what you want.

I LOVE your slideshow! Your photog was amazing and the two of you looked great! Congrats!

That's a beautiful dress! It fits you perfectly!

Those are really great pictures! You definitely choose a fantastic photographer! I can't wait to see the rest!

Very pretty! You look great!

I am so sorry about the videographer thing........what a bummer!! I glad you were able to still have a goos time though. You looked beautiful!

Beautiful wedding Kat! I'm sorry that bad stuff happened though. I guess that is inevitable sometimes. You looked beautiful! Congrats!

Welcome to the forum! I'm an EDR bride as well........let me know if you need anything!!

Very pretty..........Congrats!

There have been quite a few Dreams Tulum brides on this forum. I'm sure you will find what you are looking for! Congrats!

You will definitely find lots of ideas for your beach wedding! Enjoy putting together the details!