lexibride

Oh! I forgot to mention that we had the luxury package and yes they did upgrade our room. I have to say though that because it was so very busy, there were a lot of our guests who had to get moved. For instance, or photographer's room wasn't available when he arrived, so they put him in the Master Presidential Suite at The Royal for 1 night! Can you imagine? That big huge suite for just him.....it was kind of funny! Also for all the brides who are worried about getting family from The Gran to The Royal for the wedding - DONT worry at all. All of our guests came over with no issue and we had 4 kids with us too. In addition to that, I stayed at The Gran for the first part of our trip and when we walked over to The Royal, nobody even stopped us once. Apparently if you're a guest of The Gran, you can go eat at Royal restaurants, but you have to pay 50%. So, some of our guests w/out kids who stayed at The Gran wanted to check out The Royal and just walked around freely with no issue at all!

Stephanie - the chocolate with rasberries cake had actual chunks of fresh fruit and it was amazing!! As for the chairs - I never got a choice, however, I didn't ask either. Chef's Plate from what I understand can be booked by anyone at The Royal, it just needs a reservation. Two friends of mine went there last week and they just had a Jr. Suite. They said that the food was excellent, but there is only one entree per night, so you have to check ahead of time to see if you like what they're serving prior to booking!

Our cake was 2 tiers - one chocolate with raspberries and the other chocolate with coconut and take it from me (I'm a cake decorator), the cake tasted fantastic, so if you want Tres Leche cake, I'm sure they'll do it for you. I was one of the brides that didn't have anything filled out prior nor had my balance paid and was super stressed about it, but as soon as you get there, they'll work with you. As for pics - iI brought my own photographer and we were in the same situation - plus we wanted to get right to partying, so we took pics at the hotel. The backgrounds of the ocean and even the hotel itself was really beautiful in my opinion. You can see a quick montage in my previous post.

I'm back!!!! We had a wonderful wedding and a great day too! Yay for no rain on the 15th! Sorry to anyone else who did have rain - we saw many brides who got rained out boo! I finally got on here - I've had to catch up at work before I could do anything remotely fun. Our wedding was great - some bumps in the road but I'll do a review hopefully later on tonight (American Idol finale is tonight, so we'll see how far I get). Bridetobe1515 - I think that you were in the chair right next to me getting your hair done for the wedding!! I was a bit too shy to ask in fact I think your wedding was right before mine in the gazebo (right?) my wedding coordinator was saying how they had to get all the blue petals up before we got there, LOL!! Also I don't know which one of you guys it was, but I could swear that there was someone waving and yelling during our ceremony Was one of you in a balcony room near the gazebo?? I told my husband (lol...I love typing that) that maybe it was one of my online buddies! Here's a montage that my photographer made so you guys can get a sneak peak at our welcome dinner (at Alux), wedding and trash the dress. animoto - Jessica & Brian's Wedding

What does everyone think is an appropriate tip for our hair and make-up people? I'm pretty clueless on that stuff. I'm trying to plan out the amount of cash to bring.

Diane I'll be there tomorrow too! Nope, no luck with the online check in yet - UGH!! Last time I went there I logged in and in 10 minutes picked my room and was done. I hate that nothing seems to be going smoothly and on top of that there is pending rain....just not excited if you know what I mean.

beachbum - I'm right there with ya....I'm extremely disapptointed to be plannign for a year now and now rain to ruin it all? dianep - we are bringing our laptop which has a webcam built in and we are going to stream the wedding live on Livestream - Broadcast LIVE streaming video. There are little commercials during the wedding, but you don't miss any of it, it just pauses the recording plays a 30 sec. commercial and then carries on with the recording. That part is annoying, but I figure it's better than nothing for those who can't be there and want to see it!

So bummed about the rain...hope showers mean passing quick showers!! Lynnie - did the online check in take a long time? I've been trying all morning with no luck!

Jen and Diane - I never had a US WC - I always had Lili as a coordinator. I don't know how that happened really, but she's been mine all along and she was GREAT in the beginning - it's only in the last month that she hasn't returned ANY emails. In fact after I emailed the US planners, they contacted Lili and then she returned one of my emails and as dumb as it sounds, it was in all caps, like she was yelling at me! I have been emailing her for a year and she never did that. She acted like I was wrong for being nervous that I never got an invoice or any appt times or even a menu!!!

Dear date triplets I am so beyond stressed cause Lili hasn't gotten back to me, I don't know if I even have hair appts scheduled and if so, what time, I know nothing about my reception - how much it's going to cost and never got a final bill. I totally have to take faith that it will all come together......

Hi Jen! You looked beautiful and great review! I have to say thanks for putting my mind at ease a bit because I am one of the few that have dealt with an onsite coordinator for the entire time, but the last couple weeks I've barely heard anything at all and I'm SO nervous! You make me feel that everything is truly going to work out and I just have hope that my wedding turns out as beautiful as you say yours was. Congrats!!!

I'd love to know too. We are doing the legal ceremony and have the luxury package and know nothing about the music and if they have song choices, etc.... I'd love some ellaboration on the ceremony music if anyone has it!

Sorry the dress was bought and paid for this morning. Thanks though!

Well I have to say that I'm one of the brides that has been dealing with the resort coordinator from the beginning and I have Lili. She was amazing at first but NOW I've heard nothing from her in weeks. I'm 2 1/2 weeks from my wedding - and haven't filled out the checklist because most of it is included in my package, I STILL haven't made any hair/makeup appts, and haven't paid any of my final payment. I've emailed her at least 15 times in the last two weeks and have emailed her manager twice and have received a forwarded email from her to Lili, but still nothing. She was wonderful in the beginning, but now when it's important that I have all of my information I've got nothing. This is nothing short of a disaster and I can't even BEGIN to tell you how upset I am.

The set is $7 plus shipping?? I just may take it!

Can someone post the instructions that were on bridalinsider.com? I can't get the darn link to work at all. Thanks!

No problem!!!

That's a great idea! I'm actually bringing one for my daughter who has lupus, she has to take breaks from the sun and be very careful - but that is a good idea to buy him one! Thanks - I can't believe I didn't think of that!

It was super easy! At first it was a little time consuming, but after I got the feel for how the paint was going on the paper, it was a breeze!! Don't spend a ton of money

lol - just realized I typed ring bearer as one word - forgive me it's early yet

My ringbearer is only 14 months - he's quite the little spit-fire and I'm extremely close with his mom - she's my best friend, so this little guy means a lot to me. I just don't know what to buy him as a gift. I was going to buy one of those floating canopy things for the pool on his trip, but someone else already beat me to it. Any ideas

Yes, I do plan on selling it when I'm done! Don't really know what else I'd use it for I guess.

I got them from Oriental Trading Company - there's 12 for $30. I think now that it was so easy, I'm going to make some for my bridesmaids with their initial on them!

Sure! I printed the words out on the computer in MS Word. I did the first letters as big as I could make them on one sheet then I made the rest of the letters appropriately sized. After printing them out, I lightly taped them in place on the bottom of the parasol. Then I sat in the sun on my kitchen floor in front of my sliding doors and I could easily see right through the parasol and I painted on the top over the design with acrylic paint. That's about it! If you have any other questions, please let me know

Melissa - thanks for the advice from the other perspective. Yeah I've been tanning, but it's just not doing the trick to make me feel better. Done the nails, should go get a facial....I think in all honesty, it's just nerves and I hope they'll all go out the window like you all say once I get there!!