adelaide

I have PM'd you as well I have 45 organza chair sashes in fushia and about 100 paper lanterns in various sizes and colours. The sashes are available now and the lanterns will be available after my AHR which is the 14th. Best of luck!

I love number 1 on you!! OMG! You look gorgeous in it! Good luck with your decision

Congratulations! We stayed at the RDC in Panama a couple of years ago and LOVED it!! My only suggestion would be to request a room close to the beach (which thankfully, we did!) as the resort is pretty big and built on the side of a hill. If you get one of the rooms at the top, it's a long walk to the beach if you forget anything! This was truly an amazing resort.

I have to agree with Islandbride! I wore Maggie Sottero's Rasharna at my wedding in April in Mexico and while it was a bit warm () I didn't even really notice the heat. Get your dream dress, you won't regret it!! ps. Islandbride ~ You looked amazing!! Great choice of gown!!

We stayed in the Royal Club and had our "Welcome Drinks" and Rehersal dinner at the restaraunt in the club.

I probably should have been more clear in my first post The food was FABULOUS. Whether it was room services or the restaraunts, we loved it. I think the part that we didn't like was the "vibe" of the resort. Keeping in mind that we had just come from a resort with really personalized service. This resort just didn't give us the same feeling. The staff weren't as friendly when we checked in, the refused to aknowledge our honeymoon (there is supposed to be a room upgrade and bottle of champagne etc.), the excuse for this was that our TA failed to tell them about the honeymoon when she booked it (which is totally untrue as I was cc'd on all of the emails). We didn't bother fighting it as we just wanted to enjoy our honeymoon, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. So really, we had no real complaints about the resort, it just didn't measure up to the first week and it was hard not to compare the two. No matter which resort you choose you will have a fabulous wedding and memories for the rest of your lives together...so enjoy!!

Hi Tinker, We went to the Valentin for our honeymoon and I can't say that I was that impressed. There were some lovely parts of the resort but for the most part we wished that we had stayed at our wedding resort. That being said, maybe with a larger group for a wedding (rather than a honeymoon) it would be better. Good luck with your choice!

We used Michelle Kauntz from Captured Soul Photography in Kitchener. We brought her with us but found that her prices for the whole week were comparible to the local photographers for 5 hours! Here is her website. I loved Michelle`s work and would highly recommend her! Captured Soul Photography Unique Ontario & Destination Wedding Photographer *Capturing Natural Moments

Hi Girls, My AHR is coming up quickly and I am in need of some decor! We have rented a marquee tent and I`d like to do the decorating myself to save some $$ I am looking for the following: Large paper lanterns ~ cream, light green or bright blue (ideally some of each) I have 30 sage chair sashes from our wedding, so I will need about 70 more. I'm thinking in any of the colours above. I am doing my own flowers, but I would love to have a few starfish on the tables as well. Give it the "beachy" vibe. So maybe 30 or so fairly large starfish. I'm also not planning on wearing my wedding dress, but would love a shorter reception dress. I love the bcbg applique dress or something like it ~ size 6 Let me know if you have anything that you think would compliment the colours/decor that I haven't thought of! Thanks!! A.

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Angela~ i like that dress, adelaide! whereabouts in Canada are you located? ontario by chance? i am looking for a ttd as well, but want to try it on first as i already have one that isn't working out for me!!! Hey Angela ~ the dress is actually at my Mom's house, which is in Cambridge. Not far at all from Waterloo! If you want to PM me, we could figure something out if you want to try it on.

Here you go!!

I have a Maggie Sottero that is a size 10 ~ I bought it to use for my ttd but ended up using my regular gown for the ttd. It is a out of the destination line ~ I will try to find a pic for you. I paid $300 CDN for it but would take $200.

Hey Girls ~ Here is a link to my review! Please let me know if you have any questions at all as I know I didn't cover everything! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...al-club-58481/

Thanks everyone! I keep thinking of things that I forgot to put into my review ~ does anyone know how to edit a post? Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by hoyt75 Any other brides having an AHR? We're having an AHR but not until August!

whoops! I think this is what I meant to do... Claire Williams-Anderson's Photos - Wedding Pro Pics | Facebook cheers!

Photographer - Michelle Kauntz of Captured Soul Photography (Captured Soul Photography • Unique Ontario & Destination Wedding Photographer • Capturing Natural Moments) I found Michelle after getting quotes from numerous photographers in Mexico with astronomical pricing. Michelle travelled with us and we did 3 photoshoots during the week which were all included in our base price (which was cheaper than hiring a local photographer for 5 hours). I really wanted good pictures with a sort of “photojournalistic” style and Michelle did not disappoint! She was also super fun to hang out with and fit into our group perfectly. I would highly recommend her to anyone. We only have teaser pictures so far as Michelle goes through and processes each image before they are given to us. She said to expect upwards of 1500 pics from the week. If the teasers were any indication, I can’t wait for the rest!! All in all the week was amazing and I wouldn’t have done it any other way. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me and I will answer anything I can!!! Claire

Date: March 27 – April 3, 2010 (I will review honeymoon week at the end) Resort: Occidental Grand Xcaret. Riviera Maya, Mexico 30 of us travelled together for our April 1st wedding. 29 adults and 1 child. Travel Agent Dawn Fairbanks, Uniglobe Discover Travel, Guelph ON CANADA Dawn was awesome. She helped us choose a resort and handled all of the bookings with minimal hiccups. Airline Air Canada Vacations Air Canada was great. The luggage allowance was huge! 2 bags per person @ 50lbs each. That was a saving grace for DH and I with all of the wedding stuff (and enough clothes for 2 weeks!). They also had the little tv’s in all of the head rests with up to date movies and television shows which all of our guests appreciated. Resort Occidental Grand Xcaret *ROYAL CLUB* I think it’s important that I point out that I my review is mostly of the Royal Club area of the OGX. Everyone in our group upgraded to the RC when we booked and it was by far the best decision that we made in regards to this trip. There are only 45 rooms in the Royal Club area and it was like our own little paradise! There is a private pool and exclusive restaurant overlooking the ocean as well as upgraded wood pool lounge chairs and wait service. We tried a few of the a la carte restaurants in the bigger part of the resort but were pretty disappointed so we ended up sticking with the private restaurant for the rest of the trip. Here's a view of the outside of the restaurant - overlooking the ocean Our room was FABULOUS!! It was a suite with a living room/dining room and separate bed and bath. Standing shower and whirlpool tub. Two balconies overlooking the ocean on the 3rd floor.   The "living room" in our suite...  Dining Room Wedding Coordinator Marialma AMAZING!! DH and I met with Marialma the day after we arrived at the resort to sort out details. She is super organized and obviously loves her job. She took care of everything, every detail. She made our wedding better than I ever even imagined it could be. She also stayed at our reception until the very end and made sure that all of the extra decor and leftovers (including my stilettos which I abandoned as soon as the reception started) were brought to my room the next day. Wedding Day We were married at 4:30 in the afternoon in the Oceanside gazebo. Marialma took care of making hair appointments at the spa for my bridal party and myself as well as my mother. I was slightly concerned about the quality of the hair styles that we may be able to get at a resort spa but as it turned out I had nothing to worry about. Everyone’s hair turned out amazingly!! I have A LOT of hair and was super concerned that they wouldn’t be able to get it all up or it would end up looking less beachy and more “prom-yâ€. My stylist was a superstar, she seriously couldn’t have done any better. I made sure to tip her very generously.lol. The girls and I got ready in our suite, which was perfect. The only downside was that when we ordered room service my mom had to go down and bribe the restarant to go faster as they said it would be 1.5 hours for our food to arrive! They did end up bringing it up more quickly and my mom did return with a bottle of champagne, so all was not lost! We did our own makeup, which turned out fine. I always hate when someone I don’t know does my makeup – it just never turns out even remotely natural to me. Ceremony Marialma picked us up in a decorated golf cart for the ceremony! So cute. She had everyone else in place and ready to go when we arrived. I had burned a cd of the ceremony music and given it to Marialma ahead of time. She waited with us and made sure everyone did everything as they should. They handled the music perfectly and each song was played exactly as it was planned. I thought the music was a bit loud when I was walking down the isle but I guess they wanted to make sure everyone could hear. The ceremony was beautiful and the officiant was clear, concise and spoke remarkable English. We had asked for a non-denominational ceremony but they didn’t have anything for me to review before hand so we just had to hope for the best! We were absolutely not disappointed! The whole thing was simply magical. I can’t wait to see the video! "Limo" Reception We chose to have a private reception ($50 pp) which I think was a great decision. I wish I had better pictures of the reception setup – our photographer sent us teasers but there weren’t any of the tables etc. The centrepieces were even better that I had hoped for. I had originally wanted hydrangea for flowers but the cost was a deterrent (as was the fact that they had to ship them in from Canada..lol) so Marialma gave me some more local options and we ended up going with a type of carnation mixed with another flower that I can’t seem to remember the name of... They turned out great though and I’m super glad that I didn’t opt for the more expensive option – we can have those at the AHR reception venue  Food We started with an asparagus soup which was wonderful and chose to have the surf and turf option which was filet mignon with shrimp and lobster sauce for the main course. It came with some kind of veggies and potato ( I think..to be honest, I wasn’t hugely hungry at this point so I only sampled the dinner). Everyone loved the steak and we had tons of compliments on the food in general. The desert was some kind of cake with orange sauce which is not my kind of thing but DH seemed to like it. We ended up upgrading the wedding cake to make sure that it could feed 30 people. We chose chocolate with white icing. It was pretty basic but tasted really good – and it wasn’t one of the more “important†details to either of us. There is the option to upgrade to something more fancy if you would like to. Servers Holy smokes! These guys were awesome! Seriously , I would have a half finished glass of champagne and there would be someone replacing it. I actually stopped the waiter at one point to tell him that I wasn’t done and he said that he was replacing it as it was too warm and I should have cold champagne...well, okay no arguments here!  It was pretty windy and some of our lanterns didn't survive...  Dancing We chose not to hire a DJ (as the cost was $800 for 3 hours) and just hired the sound system instead (for about $200). I burned a cd for the dinner music and another 2 for the dancing and Marialma switched them for us. This part actually really stressed me out. I spent a lot of time choosing music to try to appeal to the whole group and to keep everyone dancing. It turned out great and everyone had a fantastic time. There is an a la carte restaurant that is pretty close to the reception area and we even had random people up and dancing. It was super fun and the next day I had a bunch of other guests at the resort thank me for the music. Â

We just got married at the Occidental Grand Xcaret in the Riviera Maya MX. It was amazing and had everything on your list! Here's the most important detail *ROYAL CLUB*. The is the OGX's exclusive area. There are only 45 rooms and it is like a little resort within the big resort. If you have more questions or want to see pics ~ pm me Good luck with your search!

Quote: Originally Posted by luv2sun Our photographer has put some of our pictures on her website: http://www.sweettreephotography.com/index2.php Click on "this kind of love" at the bottom and then "over the rainbow". We are so thankful that we had such a talented friend join us. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your pictures!! You looked stunning!!

Our photographer gave us a "sneak peek" of our pics a couple of days ago. The rest will come in June...and I can't wait. Here you go... Claire Williams-Anderson's Photos | Facebook

Jenna! Your pictures are beautiful! We saw the set up for your reception when we arrived on the 3rd. I was wondering if it was for you guys. Totally stunning! I will post my pro pics as soon as I get them. We brought our photog with us and I know she has a few other weddings to process before ours. I am so impatient though! Congratulations to all the April brides (pre or post wedding!)!! I can't believe I've been married for almost 3 weeks already ~ It just flew by!

Quote: Originally Posted by SandalGirl There are some of our teaser pics from our photographer in my bio - feel free to take a peek! Awesome pictures!! I hope that ours turn out half as good!

Hey Girls! We were married on April 1st at the OGX and it was Fantastic. Seriously amazing. It was everything I had wanted and more - Marialma went above and beyond. I will write my complete review when we return from Mexico!

We are dancing to "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor. My dad picked it and I think it is fantastic.