scoutley

We were also offered that service before we got there. When we were there, though, neither of us brought it up and no resort people did either. I'm not sure how much they charge, but I've been looking into it here, in Vancouver, and it seems to be between 80 to 100 for an "official" translation.

Ooo nooo. I guess I should get on that soon... Thanks for the info!

I would have the groom and his party already at the altar, then everyone else one by one. For the recessional, you can couple everyone up - I don't think there is anything wrong with having the bestwoman walk back down the aisle with one of the bms. My thoughts, anyway!

I just got my think you cards from VistaPrint today. I love them!! We used the same photo I used for my siggy, with thank you written at the top. The same photo is on the inside in faded black and white. We ordered 40 cards plus a free pen and a free address stamp (will make the thank you card process so much easier, I imagine) for about $57 Canadian. I know it is cheaper on their US website. I actually had fun spending an evening on the computer playing around downloading different photos and coming up with different cards. It took about two and a half weeks to get my order.

No, you can't... Only if you stay at Tulum. The only reason we were at Coba was because we took an upgrade. (They were overbooked at Tulum, so were trying to get people to voluntarily move over to Coba - they offered things like complimentary tickets to the show at the Hacienda, free use of the safe, stuff like that...)

Our guests loved Tulum because it was so close to the beach. We stayed at Coba (were tempted by the "upgrade" they offered on arrival) and it was pretty far to the beach and to our guests. Tulum was definitely more rockin' at night (at least until 11 when the lobby bar closed!). At Tulum we had the choice of getting married at the gazebo or right on the beach, framed by 2 palapas. This beach location is beside the gazebo, but not close enough to get it in your photos. We were very happy with the location we chose! It was perfect for our casual barefoot ceremony.

We just got married at the Bahia Principe Tulum and needed nothing except our passports and tourist visas (the lower half of the form you fill out upon arrival, that you need to keep in your passport until you leave Mexico). No birth certificates. I know, I was really confused after reading this thread, but I just went with what my WC told me I needed. There were no surprises once there! (We did have to get blood tests done at the resort while we were there, but that was an easy process as well!) I say, go with what your WC says. These resorts are like wedding factories and all the WC does every day is deal with this stuff. They really are the experts!! Now that we're back, though, I'm a little confused about what I have to do to "assume" my husband's name. If anyone has done this in BC, could you let me know exactly what we need to do? I've called Vital Statistics, and if you don't get married in BC, then they don't register your marriage. So far I've found an official translator, and I'm thinking I just need to go to the bank, ICBC, etc. to change my name. It all seems so unofficial though...

Jen its so crummy that they were so hard to work with. At least you had a good time on your wedding day! And your photos are GORGEOUS!!!

Calchick- It was pretty much right on 4 weeks to get the photos. Citlalli emailed with the tracking info when she sent it via FedEx. I watched it like a hawk as it made its way closer to us!! But the service seemed so personalized, that I think that if you told Erick that you really really need the photos for your AHR and give him the date that maybe he could ensure that you get that in time...

Same with us re the guests (or guestimates - love it!!). We had a surprise (a friend brought a friend) guest and Jazmin didn't even raise an eyebrow when I told her that we had to add one more. It really seems like you confirm everything with her at the meeting you have a few days before the wedding. I, too, think it was totally worth it to pay extra for the private bar (think you're paying for the "private" not the "bar"). It was absolutely no problem for guests to bring in whatever other drink they wanted - but we found that although there was talk of people wanting wine, in the end they went with what was there... They were just really sticky about food at the buffets, as in, you couldn't take it out. We got married on my Mom's birthday so we wanted to get her a cake and sing Happy Birthday - Jazmin convinced us we shouldn't pay extra for a whole cake since we had one already included in the wedding package, so my sister and I "stole" a piece from the buffet. We tried to walk quickly out of there but the hostess nabbed us. We told her we were told to go and get a piece of cake and she let us go. We had no problem bringing it into the reception though...

Hola ladies... Just wanted to let you know that I finally figured how to attach photos, so I've posted my review of my Jan 30 Tulum wedding on the Wedding Reviews thread!

Dinner: It was nice!! The food was amazing. As I said before, while we were taking photos, the dark clouds started rolling in. Jazmin ended up convincing us to move our private poolside dinner inside and eventually we realized that this was the best option, as even if it wasn't raining, it was still quite cool out. So once I accepted this, it was ok. All the guests had reconvened in the lobby bar (or the Office, as it was called for the week!) so they all made their way over to the room for dinner. They did a really good job decorating it and it actually looked quite nice. A couple of the guests were really glad that it ended up being inside, as it was air conditioned! The dinner was fabulous. We chose to do the Taquiza with a couple of modifications. We had fish, chicken, beef and onion and al pastor (on the rotisserie - they were slicing the meat off for each person!!). I don't eat red meat, but apparently it was delicious! I can speak for the fish and chicken though and these were so good! We also had a lady there making fresh salbutes - frying the tortillas as you waited. They were so amazing!!! The dinner came with the warm tortillas, rice, beans, salsas, guacamole and salads. There was probably enough food there to feed about 50 people and if we ran out of anything, it was refilled immediately. The drinks were available all through dinner (beer, tequila, margaritas, pina coladas, and anything else you could make with the ingredients for those things). The service was great, and all in all I am so glad we paid the extra for the private dinner. The general consensus was that the food quality was better than what you get in the a la carte restaurants. DELICIOUS!!!!! Even though we didn't get to eat outside by the pool (one day I'll let it go... lol) it was totally and absolutely worth the extra money for the dinner. I would definitely recommend it. Then you get the privacy for speeches and first dances and the rest of the dances! This is of us doing our first dance to "Better Together" by Jack Johnston, the salsa version. We found an amazing dance teacher here in Vancouver who choreographed a little routine for us in just four private lessons. Nina from Baila Vancouver is the best!!! Very patient and easy to learn from! Cake: We chose the tres-leches. The cake itself was delicious, I'm just not all that crazy about fondant. I actually wish we had taken some with us because I wasn't able to eat enough because I was full from dinner! You can see it in the photo of us cutting it above! Dance: We hired DJ Bob - I imagine that this is who the resort works with. Because we were inside, we got to use the bubble machine, which was fun! He was great to work with. He played the music we requested during dinner and he worked to get people on the dance floor after dinner. We had a lot of fun!! After: When our time was up in the room, the older people went back to the "office" for a drink and us younger ones headed over to the Hacienda. There was a band playing outside so we danced and danced. DJ Bob turned up there and he even had the band play a song for my new husband and I to dance to! After the band was finished, we danced until 3 in the discotheque. It was so much fun!!!

We're back, we're married, we're oh so happy we chose to go the destination wedding route!! I hope you enjoy and/or find this review helpful in some way!! We booked and were married at the Bahia Principe Tulum... This is a photo of our OOT bag, with logo drawn by my talented husband. I think one of my favourite parts of the planning was coming up with different things to include in them. People really appreciated them! Resort: Beautiful resort, excellent service for the mostpart. We decided to take an upgrade to Coba (jr. suite with jacuzzi tub). The room was pretty standard, just a little bigger than the Tulum ones. The jacuzzi tub was nice, but we really didn't use it. In hindsight, it would have been way better had we stayed at the same resort as our guests. We thought it might be nice to have a little privacy, but we spent a LOT of time commuting between the two resorts, at least twice a day (after breakfast for the day, then back to change for dinner, then back after evening activities - whew!). We found that although we would have liked to have had a little more time with just the two of us, our guests appreciated that we made an effort spend time with them!! Wedding: Jazmin: She did a great job. Very direct and organized and I appreciated the fact that she gives you her opinion when asked! I came to the resort still needing to make decisions on what I wanted (flowers, cake etc) and she really helped me decide. She is a very no-nonsense lady, and this helped me keep together emotionally on the big day. Also, when the clouds started rolling in, she was right on top of things, convincing us to move our private dinner inside. Which I didn't want, but we would have been rained out had we stayed with having the dinner outside. Hair and Make-Up: Based on other people's reviews of the hair and make-up done at this resort, I made the decision to go it alone! My BMs helped me with both my hair and make-up, and I think they did a wonderful job. Plus it was FREE!!! Photographer: We had Citlalli of Claudia Rodriguez. She was super nice and very professional. She came to my room while me, my bridesmaids and my Mom were getting ready and was completely non-intrusive. We only hired her for 3 hours, so she also got shots of the ceremony and we did about an hour's worth of photos after the ceremony. We've received the photos and I am so happy beyond words with them. Part of the reason I chose her is because she has a way of capturing emotions in her shots. I think I've thumbed through the album she made for us at least once a day since we got it!! I'm so so glad we paid the extra money for her. She is a very talented lady!!! Flowers: As I said, I arrived without a clear picture of what I wanted. I described colours (bright, no white) to Jazmin and I ended up with the prettiest bouquet ever! I love it!! My bms had the same as me, but smaller. My man and his groomsman had pink (really more purple) orchids. I ordered white orchids for my hair (I ordered one branch, but got two, so lots of flowers to work with). For our parents we had boutennieres and corsages made of gerberas. All were absolutely beautiful! Ceremony: I couldn't have asked for better weather!! It was sunny and so so beautiful. At the last minute they decided to change bride/groom sides, so things were opposite to what we'd rehearsed, but it wasn't really a big deal. I found out later that this was to facilitate better photos - because of the way the wind was blowing. I am so thankful for this because it was a little windy and it was nice to not have had to be pulling my hair out of my face. The ceremony length was perfect, we each got to say the vows we'd written to each other, the documents were signed and that was it!! It was over so fast. I 'm thankful I was able to stay in the moment for the ceremony, because I can see how easy it would be to miss it! We chose 4 songs. We played You've Got a Beautiful Nature by Finlay Quaye while the guests were being seated (the golf cart that picked me up was a little late, so I guess the guests were treated to that song over and over and over!!). We walked down the aisle to Sea of Love by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (I walked to the same song as everyone else), which was a perfect song for the setting. We played Somewhere Over the Rainbow, also by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole while we signed the documents. And for the recessional, we chose I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. Really, the ceremony was absolutely perfect in every way!! (We did the legal wedding, which entailed a lot of signing and some thumbprints. A couple of days before the wedding we had to go to the Hacienda to the Doctor where he took blood from each of us. The cost was $90 US and it was quick and easy and very sterile. Easy!)

Hi! I just got back (very early this morning) and had a wonderful time! We did the legal wedding at Tulum, right on the beach and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting! We had absolutely gorgeous weather for our ceremony. We had planned on doing a private poolside dinner (the Taquiza, since one of the reasons we chose to get married in Mexico is because we both LOVE Mexican food), but unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We had to move indoors. I was really really upset at first, but they did a very nice job of decorating the room that we had to use. On the plus side, I had a few guests comment that they were very thankful for the air conditioning! Someone asked about a chapel in case of rain... No chapel at this resort. If you do a search of this thread you will see photos of the indoor rain location (at Tulum), which is Tequila restaurant. When I saw the photos I thought that it sort of looked dark and depressing, but if you go in to the restaurant in the day, it is actually quite airy and bright and the fountain they do the ceremony in front of is very pretty and Mayan looking. Anyway, I will be posting a review with some photos, I'm just going through wedding planning withdrawl and thought I'd add my two cents in! Oh, and we had Citlalli of Claudia Rodriguez Photography and she was wonderful and super easy to work with. We had her for 3 hours (1340 us) and we didn't need to buy her a day pass to the resort because she wasn't there for very long.

Yes, you're "stuck." We booked with Signature and they offered a "price adjustment" guarantee, meaning that if rates went down lower than what we paid (1826 or so taxes in) then we would get the difference back. This didn't happen though. I say wait a little - maybe till the late Spring and watch the prices so you can see how they fluctuate. Then you can jump on it when it looks good. I sort of wish now we had waited a little longer to book because I still think that what we asked people to pay was a little steep.

Thanks for the info on the ATM. That will made everyone's lives easier!! With regards to the steaming... I picked up a little travel steamer for $15 at Office Depot or Office Max or something. It works really well!! We have a lot of linen involved in our wedding too, so I think it will be great, and even greater is the fact that we won't be paying per item for the resort to do it and even greater than that is that no clothing items for the wedding will leave my or FI's sight! I've seen them in other stores, usually in the "men's gadgets" area - you know with the change counters and remote control organizers and whistling key chains.

Thanks for the info on the ATM. That will made everyone's lives easier!! With regards to the steaming... I picked up a little travel steamer for $15 at Office Depot or Office Max or something. It works really well!! We have a lot of linen involved in our wedding too, so I think it will be great, and even greater is the fact that we won't be paying per item for the resort to do it and even greater than that is that no clothing items for the wedding will leave my or FI's sight! I've seen them in other stores, usually in the "men's gadgets" area - you know with the change counters and remote control organizers and whistling key chains.

Or where/how far the closest one is?

Last minute questions are popping up now! I did a search and couldn't find the answer... Is there an ATM at the hacienda? I'm moving along with my plans assuming that there is one. Anyone know if there is or not?

Try Lindsay! She is super helpful and is completely into the destination wedding planning! We, too, found that some travel agents didn't really seem too interested once they found out it was a wedding. And too bad for them because a big group means big commissions!

From what I've understood, DJ Bob is the DJ the resort provides, at 150 per hour. We are bringing our own ceremony songs on cd, plus our own cd with our first dance, mother/son and father/daughter, just in case. So far, he has been great to work with and gets back to us quickly. Will let you know how he works out in my review!!! Good point on it being windy. This is what my parents keep saying to me (they don't want us spending extra money on the dinner when the one in the restaurant is free - I agree that they do have a point, but we are paying for it ourselves, therefore I believe we decide!). I wonder if it is windy now... That would make our decision easy!

JKCZ- I know, its coming up fast. We leave on Friday. I was just at my hairdresser and she reality checked me into realizing that I have TWO DAYS before I leave. I'm stressed one minute and not the next. We're pretty prepared. Just a couple of last minute things we still need to do. If only Jazmin would respond in a timely fashion to my emails, things would be a lot better!! We still haven't decided what we are doing for dinner... I'm waiting on her to answer some questions. We're trying to decide between the outside poolside private Taquiza dinner (which is cool, but quite expensive when you add everything up - extra for drinks, extra 2 hours for the DJ, extra for dessert, I think etc. etc.) and dinner at the Mexican restaurant (free and included in the package). I just don't want to wish I had done things differently when I look back on it!! And RyanAmanda's private dinner looked so beautiful!! Deep breaths.

I just emailed both Jazmin and Paloma about an hour ago and nothing came back to me... I know last week they were having problems though!

Hamster - Don't stress about booking it yet. We were so worried about trying to book early, but the truth is, these companies have big planes and they don't fill up as fast as we all assume they do! We're from Vancouver, and also used Lindsay and there were no problems at all not being in the same city. We booked for our wedding this January in June, and believe me, we had been shopping around since Feb. So don't worry, you have tons and tons of time!

Paloma's email is [email protected] Good Luck!