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Ack! I haven't been getting email notifications either...except I got shorty's last one. Odd. bcbride- I don't know if they have vases like that, but I think that Ana can source things if you want (love the centrepiece idea, btw!). I would ask her if she either has them or can get them, and the cost. Glass would be a tricky thing to bring down. I wasn't aware that there was a reception hall (our group was small), so our only options for reception were the Mexican restaurant and the Villa Marina (open-air one), so I can't help you with that one. I remember seeing a building that was labeled as a conference centre, so maybe it's in there. bnmarten- We chose the Villa Marina Restaurant (outdoor one). Our options were the Mexican, the Villa, and the Buffet. We chose the Villa, it's most appropriate for a wedding reception (in my opinion). Another wedding that week went with the Buffet option, and pulled some tables/chairs together outside by the lounge beds (it was a small group). We did the Cajun Chicken [i forget what we paid now, it was less than she initially told us (we asked for the lowest price as we were working with a budget) and the price went down]. I wish we would have done the steak though, it was AWESOME. *I think though, that all the dinner options should be the same price, I just remember having to choose the option as far as food dish, but the price per person was always going to be the same* shorty- I think that Shelley was able to get some linens for the tables in blue for the reception from Ana. I think Ana had them brought over from somewhere. So, I think she can source some decorating stuff if you need. I would ask Ana to be sure though.

When I was inquiring about that for our wedding we were initially told that they do not allow external photographers unless they are staying with you at the hotel (like with your party). Anyway, obviously that's not the case...so we inquired about it a bit more, and for the life of me I can't find the email that we got with the price...I think she told us about $200 US, and we couldn't get the price down. But Shelley I believe paid $70 US for a day pass (she mentioned it in one of the previous msgs). I would email Ana and ask.

We got married at 3:30pm, my hair appt was at 12pm (would not have wanted to do it any later!), got room service for lunch (took about 40mins to get there, but soooo worth it), and I was about 25mins late (I think our ceremony actually started closer to 4pm). Pictures lasted about 1 hr or so. Then we hung out in the lobby with cocktails until it was dinner time (6:30pm). I can't remember what the listed price is for dinner at the Villa Marina...we negotiated I didn't get it as low as another bride on here, but we had a smaller group then them too. It's worth it to ask what her best price is!

Nickrista & Ashley- I just sent you guys the pics!

shorty- I used the onsite photographer. I was happy, it was just what I wanted. Well...ok, not entirely true. I really wanted Sol Tamargo, haha. But, just wasn't in the budget. I didn't want to pay the offsite vendor fee to get a photog from Cancun in, so we just went with the resort's photog. Was quick and painless and we are happy with the pics. We also have a TON of pics from our family that was there with us. I'm so glad we missed the whole swine flu thing, it erupted several days after we got back. I feel awful for all the other DW brides that are having to cancel or reschedule their weddings because of it now. I can't even imagine! I'm sending you the pics!

Lacey- We didn't give her anything to say, and I realized walking out there that I had no clue what she was going to say! lol But I was pleasently surprised that our vows were the "classic" vows. She gave her own introduction in the beginning. We didn't have the civil ceremony though, so not sure if the vows would be different in that case. We did have the option to meet with her beforehand if we had wanted to though. BCBride- we did get a wedding pkg as we just booked the jr. suites for us and everyone else, and we only had 14 ppl (total, incl. children), so we didn't qualify for the 'free' wedding. We got the caribbean pkg for $1100. And added on the flower arrangements for the arch and table, the petals down the aisle, the private dinner at Villa Marina, the photog (basic pkg+ extra for all pics taken put on CD), my hair do...and it came to just under $2500. We did speeches at the Villa Marina. We did them near the end of the night (after dinner, before cake), and we didn't find it too noisy at all. Although at first I was a little nervous because there were lots of people in the restaurant. If I were to do it again, I would probably do speeches right when we got there (at 6:30pm), because at that point we were the only people in the restaurant, and it didn't start filling up until about an hour later. Sorry, I don't know how much the day pass is.

Lacey- We too were going to have a grandparent come, she didn't at the last minute, but I was more aware of the grounds etc. because of it. And the resort is very wheelchair accessible. There were at least 3 ppl in wheelchairs that I saw. And, my SIL had her kids in strollers. And, we never had a problem finding elevators etc. There was also a quite elderly couple (like 80-90yrs) there, and they were able to get around no problem. You can also have the bellboys come and pick you up in golf carts if you want. We did that because with luggage plus wedding gown, was a lot to pack to our room when arriving and checking out. The minister that we got was great! She spoke english (accent, but clear english), and we had not met with her beforehand. And she was still great! The vows we had were perfect! The only thing was she couldn't pronounce DH's name properly, but I noticed that all spanish-speaking people had problems pronouncing his ('cause of the spelling).

Brooke- I think Shelley brought her own minister and photog. She was really happy with both. I just used the ones from the resort, so I can't help you there. Lacey- the service there was great! All the staff was really friendly and helpful. We tipped as well, I think you get even superior service if you tip here and there. Actually, my theory is you can get anything you want with tips. Drinks suddenly become stronger! But that's been my experience at all resorts, not just this one. Everyone that travelled with us was really happy with everything! Actually, everybody said it was even better than they had thought! (some people were concerned before going because of trip advisor reports- incl. DH). They were all really impressed. Two couples had never been to an AI before, and the two other couples had been to several other AIs in Mexico. In fact SIL really liked how it wasn't a huge compound (only 800 rms, I believe) while still being a resort with all the ammenities. We had no bad experiences. For the dinner I believe you pick one dinner option, but I didn't ask the question, so I'm not sure. I would ask because they did up special kids meals for the kids, so they would probably be able to do something, like half chicken-half steak, or something!

Hi Brooke! I did my hair at the spa...I was...happy with it, but not totally impressed. I brought in several (ok, well, 15 pictures) of how I wanted my hair (all the same style). I did it half up, half down. Lots of hairspray was used (understandable with the wind and humidity)...but my hair ended up looking stringy in the end. It was ok, but when I look at the pictures, I wish it looked more natural. If I were to do it again, I'd do the hair trial. I may have changed my style after that. I did my own makeup, I spent a small fortune on makeup before I left especially for high humidity (shine) and staying power. I'm really glad I did my own makeup. But, that's just me, I'm pretty particular about my makeup. I would try and do most of the planning, decision making stuff before you go. I did, and I'm glad I did. Everything doesn't get finalized until you meet with Ana once you get there, so don't stress if you haven't decided on say, cake flavor or something. But, I think it makes your mtg with Ana easier and you have asked all the questions already and figured out what you want, so it goes smoother. I say this because the bride that went the day before me, had a 2 hour mtg with Ana, and seemed a bit stressed that everything was taking so long, and didn't seem to have all the options that I did. My mtg was less than an hour and that included visiting the site and asking last minute questions and decisions (like flower petal colours down the aisle, cake flavor, song choice). But, I brought my own latex flowers (if I hadn't, I would have chosen the flower arrangements beforehand), I knew where we wanted the reception dinner, menu, I brought a picture of how I wanted the arch to look, I knew all the prices of everything, and had received a quote before we left. So, in short, I guess I would make all the big decisions beforehand, or decisions that are important to you, but you definately don't have to have to have every detail decided...Ana looks after most of the small stuff anyway!

I'm back, I've uploaded a bunch of pictures to my photobucket acct. This is the link: Ocean Coral H10 Wedding pictures by map2000 - Photobucket I've written captions under each picture, so click on it and the caption will come up under the picture. It might be easier to view them in 'slideshow' mode. I've purposely left out pictures with actual people in them (like us). But, if you would like to see pictures of us (to see what it looked like all put together) I can email them to you. (DH would kill me if I actually put pics of us on the internet-sorry...) I will be back later with more info about my wedding etc, but our toddler is sick (not related to our trip) and have been busy with that. Ashley- I would think that they would be able to easily fit 40 ppl on the beach (I'm not really sure exactly where the terrace weddings take place, but I would think that they could fit 40 ppl just fine too- all the terraces by the lobby were quite big).

.....I'm baaaack!!!! This thread has been busy...took me a bit to catch up with the posts, haha! Anyway, super tired, flight came in really late last night, but just wanted to let you ladies know that everything went fantastic...we had a perfect wedding (and week). Super happy with everything! I will come back and write up the details...but will be going to bed soon. I can't remember who asked (sheri?)... but it also took a while for Ana to get back to my TA by email, but she always did in the end (and there was a ton of emailing back and forth). There were 3 weddings that I know of this last week (including mine), that may be why she's taking a bit to get back right away. Krista- congrats on booking your date! We did our semi-private reception dinner at the Villa Marina...and I didn't plan anything for afterwards (was immediate family). But it just happened that there was live music outside by one of the pools (by the lounge beds), and we did our first dance and father/daughter dance and hung out there until late. Worked out perfect! The atmosphere was great, felt like we were hanging out at a private pool party. Sheri- no disco, but there was always music playing by the lounge beds at night, dancing etc, and twice there was live music. Lots of people stayed out late in this area. Pool bar is right there too. For food, I think the american restaurant (forget the name right now) was open until 3am. Steve&Julia- there is a spa at this resort. I had my hair and nails done there, but I opted to do my own makeup (I could have had it done there though if I had wanted to). Our cake was basic, was just right for us though. I didn't look into it much, but maybe there are other options if you were to pay extra (I just took the free cake included in the pkg). varsitygolf- I don't know the answer (we only had 14 ppl), but how many guests do you think you will have? ...I'll be back later with details...

oh, nevermind, I don't have cajun chicken on my menu...it's called chicken 'new orleans' style...that's the same thing right? (half chicken marinated in honey and mustard, slow cooked...does that sound the same?) PS. Thank you so much for answering all my questions, I leave in less than a week and I'm getting a little high strung...hehe.

lol, thank you! Was the cajun chicken spicy?

Hey Shelley, I have one more question (last one, I promise...)...What menu did you have at the Villa Marina? I was sent the menu selection, but I can't decide what to get for the main course. Thanks!

Shelley, did you bring down the blue linens, or did the hotel supply them for you? LOVE the view from your room btw!

Shelley, I'm so excited to read that your wedding was great!!! And I'm glad to hear that Ana is great too, I haven't heard back from her in a couple weeks, and I'm starting to stress a little as I'm getting closer to leaving, so I'm glad to hear that everything went down without a hitch! It's too bad you were so sick for the original day I got a worried for you when I read that part...but that's fantastic that she reorganized everything/everbody for the next day! Was it food poisoning that you had? I just have two questions...did you have your dress steamed there? And how long was your meeting (to pick everything out)? And if you wouldn't mind emailing me some of your pics... [email protected] Thank you so much for taking the time out of moving to update us on how your wedding went! It was really helpful!

Shelley, I'm so excited to read that your wedding was great!!! And I'm glad to hear that Ana is great too, I haven't heard back from her in a couple weeks, and I'm starting to stress a little as I'm getting closer to leaving, so I'm glad to hear that everything went down without a hitch! It's too bad you were so sick for the original day I got a worried for you when I read that part...but that's fantastic that she reorganized everything/everbody for the next day! Was it food poisoning that you had? I just have two questions...did you have your dress steamed there? And how long was your meeting (to pick everything out)? And if you wouldn't mind emailing me some of your pics... [email protected] Thank you so much for taking the time out of moving to update us on how your wedding went! It was really helpful!

bcbride- what is this 'privelige' pkg you speak of? Shelley- Yay for your wedding approaching soon!...then am I the next one? Yikes!

Kaycee, that is sooooo helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about your experience! I was wondering if you were able to get all the pictures on CD? Or is it just the 60 pictures you picked to get developed that go on the CD?

Cherie- thank you, those are the flowers I will use at our wedding, Kaycee- Ack! I'm so excited you're back and everything went great!!! I second bcbride's questions and comments! What did you do for your reception? How did your hair turn out? Which ceremony setup did you do? Did they have a steamer for your dress? I'm sure I'll have more, but those all all the ones I can think of off the top of my head As an aside- my flower pics disapeared (they worked all day yesterday), anyone know if I posted them wrong? They're still in my photobucket acct.

Hey ladies! My dress arrived today, yay, only the alterations left now! I also got my approval photo for my 'real touch' flowers. (I'm going to try to attach the photo). Hopefully the photo worked...anyway...got me to thinking, does anyone know if they have a steamer there for the dresses?

Oooohhh...I want to see them! If you can't post them, my email addy is on the top of pg.6.

We're having a symbolic wedding and not telling any of our guests. The wedding is supposed to be the same and you sign papers and everything. I just don't want to deal with the bloodwork and then waiting for the marriage certificate etc. We are going to have a commisioner come to our house and 'sign the papers' either before or after. I've heard of people doing both, I don't think it matters, just personal preference I think. I think we'll apply for our licence and get the commisioner all lined up and then do it just after we come back. But our wedding will always be in Mexico, in my mind the legal stuff is just that.

bcbride- Although we didn't pick a side on purpose, we ended up just doing the ocean coral side (through signature). Did you hear anything back from Ana about the outside vendor fee discrepancy?

I haven't heard anything about the entertainment...I remember reading some things about it on either tripadvisor or bookit, but I can't remember exactly what was said...I can't wait for the February OCT bride to come back and tell us about the resort and her wedding!! On another note, our wedding day has been booked for April 16th, 2009!! Yay!