becks1581

Hi ladies! I've been very MIA from the forum in the last couple of months but thought I'd stop by to see how everyone's planning is going! It was a sweet surprise to see that Terra (best and most fun photographer-EVER) had posted our magazine page :-) Glancing back at the last few pages, it seems like everything is going well. Let me know if you have any questions...H3R was great and we loved our vendors. In fact, I was really surprised to read that Allibe thought Ivan was no flexible. We changed several things the week of our wedding...like reception location, size of dance floor, etc and he never blinked an eye. Basically, if there were problems, we didn't know (which was fine by me!!) Marvin was AWESOME for flowers too! I'll try to keep in better touch b/c I know how helpful it can be to talk to a past bride. I can also be reached on my email; [email protected]

Hi girls...we got some exciting news last week that I wanted to share with the HTR brides... Our wedding in going to be featured in the Nov/Dec issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons Magazine!! Our amazing photographer submitted our images and we just found out that we were selected We're obviously SO excited! I'll keep you posted when the magazine comes out so you can take a peak! Aquabride--Congrats! HTR is a great place to get married. Let me know if you have any vendor questions. We used mostly our own vendors that I found through this site. I'm always happy to help!

Thanks April! I just sent you my info... We had 70 guests come with us to Mexico

Ooops...I did my math a bit wrong. We actually paid a little less than $1700 but of course it all depends on how many tables and bridesmaids you have! I'd be happy to answer any other questions. Selecting flowers for a destination wedding when you can't preview anything in person is definitely a stressful experience!!!

I just took a look at my contract. It looks like my prices were a little bit more (but still significantly less than what I was quoted by other vendors). It probably has to do with the types of flowers I requested. Our resort let us chose whomever we wanted for vendors so I priced out 3 or 4 different florists and found that Marvin gave me the most for my money...most others couldn't promise orchids for my budget! In total I believe we paid a little less than $1500. My bouquet: $165 Bridesmaids: $75 each Mother's presentation bouquets: $55 each Bouts (orchids) $12 each Floral Chuppah (incl. aisle petals): $350 Chair flowers: $20 per corsage Centerpieces: $95 each (roses, orchids, tulips and calla lilies surrounded by 5 floating candles) In this pics you can see a comparison of the bride, bridesmaid and mother's bouquets: And here's a pic of the flowers Marvin provided for our cake:

You can see my short after-party dress hanging in the back of this picture. It's made by Sue Wong and the bottom has ostrich feathers. I wore it to the bar at the resort when our reception was over and I'll also wear it to our AHR next month.

I wore purple Kate Spade heels for dinner and dancing and LOVED them! Our ceremony was on the beach so I wore beaded Steve Madden sandals to walk down the aisle.

Jumping into the pool during the last song of our reception is a feeling I'll NEVER forget! About 20 of our guests jumped and after seeing the girls jump I knew I didn't want to miss out on the fun! Everyone was so shocked that I jumped in wearing my dress. Everyone danced and sang in the pool and kissing my new husband in the water while reflected on the night was the most amazing feeling EVER!!

We also used Marvin for our wedding on May 7, 2011 at Hacienda Tres Rios! He did our centerpieces, chuppah, ceremony chair flowers, aisle petals, bouquets and bouts. His customer service was fantastic...he brought us centerpiece and bouquet samples a few days before the wedding which was very reassuring. He was also very affordable. Orchids were far more expensive at most other florists I researched and Marvin did an impecable job!! Here are a few pics from our day...

A pic of La Tortuga...sigh, I want to go back right NOW!!!

We stayed in Mexico for a total of 12 days. We arrived to HTR on the Monday before our Saturday wedding. This was great b/c it gave us time to meet with our vendors and finish up last-minute details before guests arrived. I think that a lot of our guests were surprised to arrive on Wed and find me essentially stress-free. We left HTR on Monday and spent 5-nights at La Tortuga Hotel in downtown Playa del Carmen. I HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking for a change from the all-inclusive. It was really fun to be able to wander around the town, try different restaurants and do a few excursions. The inside of the hotel is very calm and serene so it felt like our private little escape...just what we needed after 4+ days of being the center of attention!

My timeline didn't attach before but here it is... Wedding Day Timeline (for Pictures).xlsx

Thanks Samantha! I'm a bit of a ridiculous Excel spreadsheet-maker so I definitely have time-lines. I'm attaching the one for the day of the wedding (getting ready, pictures, etc) but feel free to PM your email address to me and I can send you more of my stuff. Our ceremony started at 5pm and we did a 'first look' before the ceremony. It was super hot for pre-ceremony pics but starting at 5pm worked nicely because we got the pretty sunset light during dinner. Also, it wasn't too hot at all for the ceremony or dinner. We had a great breeze and everyone said that they felt really comfortable. The GREAT thing about booking DJ Doremixx is that he provides you with a very detailed spreadsheet for the reception time-line. We were able to put our song choices for the special dances on there and he ran the reception schedule to a tee! I emailed him my completed time-line the week before we got to Mexico and then we went through it again when we met the week before the wedding. For an overly-organized type like me, it was great to have that reassurance! The resort did the cake. I decided that it was best to have them keep it simple (less chance for disaster) and then we gave them the purple ribbon and cake toppers. Our florist brought the fresh flowers (free of charge!) to complete the cake. It turned out better than I anticipated.

A few more. LOL...once I get started it's hard to stop!!

Hey! I'm so sorry that I've been terrible about checking in on the forum since we got back. Our wedding weekend was FANTASTIC and more than we could have hoped for. I was really impressed with how organized and accommodating Allibe and Luis were. We even decided to change our reception location to the pool (great decision) right before we arrived to Mexico and it was no problem. Allibe set up meetings with all of our vendors on the Tuesday before the wedding and we settled all of the last minute details. She also arranged to have linen and chair samples brought by and they were perfect. We arranged to have our welcome bags left at the front desk each morning and they were given to our guests at check in (for no additional charge). Thursday night we had a beach barbeque at the volleyball court area. Planner 1 did the decorations and we also had a surprise fire dancer show which was a big hit. DJ Doremixx provided music and lighting. We had 2 guests with birthdays that night and we were able to surprise them with cake and a birthday song. Friday night--I was concerned about setting up a large party reservation. I had to ask around a little bit when we first go there but the concierge finally put me into contact with Samuel who is one of the restaurant managers. We had not problem setting up a reservation for 6pm (25ppl) at the Mexican restaurant. This was a great location for the dinner. The brought out several appetizers and we did a surf and turf for everyone to make it easier for the restaurant. Saturday--Wedding day! Allibe and Luis did an fantastic job of having everything set up just how we envisioned! The ceremony was gorgeous and the reception set up was more than I could have asked for. We set up a 'shoe check' on the beach before the ceremony. When the ceremony was done, everyone was immediately greeted with champagne. We had a mariachi band start playing after 'the kiss' and then lead everyone from the beach to the pool for the cocktail hour. I really recommend our vendors, especially DJ Doremixx for DJ!!! We had the owner Ivan. He met up with us on Tuesday to go over plans and totally KILLED IT at the wedding!!! Clearly I'm biased, but I really think it was one of the best dance parties I've seen at a wedding. You really can't beat ocean breeze, a light up dance floor (I was worried it would be cheesy but it's amazing!) and great music. The HTR staff had a lot of fun with the reception too. At one point, the DJ started playing that 'shot shot shot' song and then the waiters came out with 2-liters of blue tequila something...and started pouring it into guest's mouths. LOL...even our aunts and uncles were taking part. PLUS...nothing beats jumping in the pool during the last song of your wedding reception! We had about 20 of our guests (including my husband and me) go for a swim in our wedding attire. SO FUN!!! I also really recommend our florist. He was very reasonable and brought samples of everything to our meeting on Tuesday. The chuppah was gorgeous too. He was Marvin from Maya Diseno Floral. So there are my random thoughts for now...there's a ton more and I'll post as things pop into my head. Please ask any and all questions you have. I'd love to help out and share my experience. I'll post a few pics. I've you're interested in seeing more you can go to our photoshare site: www.mykodakgallery.com The email address is [email protected] The password is: MEXICO We have a few professional pics too. Go to www.terradawn.zenfolio.com. You can click on Tillery Wedding to see some pro pics. I'm so excited for everyone with their weddings still to come...I want to get married every year :-)

10-days until the wedding day and 5-days until we leave!!! We are leaving Monday morning. Allibe has helped me to set up vendor meetings all day Tuesday so hopefully once Wed rolls around and the guests start to arrive we'll be ready to relax and have a good time! I finally feel like everything is pretty much in place. I'm picking up my dress today and meeting with the photographers that are coming with us to Mexico...just to go over scheduling, etc. For the dinners, both Ana and Brooke have told me that they had absolutely no problem setting up large party dinners. I just don't think that Allibe is able to bend any of the rules. I plan to talk to Luis and the restaurant manager when I arrive to set everything up. I'll definitely let you know how that goes but I'm thinking (hoping) that it won't be a problem. (And I DEF don't want to shell out another $400 for a dinner at an all-inclusive!!)

Thank you Brooke! Your wedding sounded amazing! I think that I saw your mom's review on TripAdvisor and I was so happy to see the great review and hear that all of you guests loved the resort. I am getting married at HTR on May 7...right around the corner! We are doing a beach BBQ on Thurs night and having the wedding on Saturday. I have a quick question for you...Did the resort charge you the $20 per person private event fee for the cocktail reception? On Friday night we were planning to make a dinner reservation with our family and bridal party (20 people) but Allibe just told me that the resort will only make a reservation for 10 so I'm brainstorming the options for that evening! Thanks and I'd LOVE to see any pics that you have. I'll PM you my email address.

Thanks for your review Wings, It sounds like your wedding was beautiful! Out of curiosity...what were the ceremony options in case of rain? I know that we could move the reception to the ballroom but Allibe never really told me what we would do if it was raining too hard to have the ceremony outside. These are the things I'm starting to worry about now that I leave in just over a week!!

I did something similar with the stick-people...We will stable these labels to the top of ziplock storage bags to make our kits... Wedding Weekend Survivial Kit copy.pdf

Hi ladies... I was wondering if any of you have heard from Ivan recently. I've been emailing him with questions about my wedding and haven't heard anything in weeks. I'm a little concerned about the lack of response since we leave for Mexico in less than a month and he is doing the music for both our reception and welcome party. Hopefully he's just out of town or something but I figured I would check in with the rest of the forum to see if anyone else is having this problem with communication right now! Thanks!!

White linens for the round dinner tables are included. If you want specialty linens (different colors or textures) then you have to pay for them. We are getting special tablecloths and tiffany chairs for the reception through Gamanteles. This is one of the vendors recommended by HTR and that Avi recommended a few months ago. Emailing with them is a little tough due to differences in language but Allibe is setting up a meeting with them when we arrive to look at samples and nail down the details. I actually gave Allibe the contact info for all of my vendors and she is going to set up appts with them all in one day...she's been really good about organization lately which has made me very !

Hi girls, I haven't been on here in a while but I am getting married at HTR on May 7. All of our RSVPs are in and we will have 68 guests :-) We are having our ceremony on the beach, cocktail hour on the martini terrace and reception on the round plaza. We are also doing a welcome bbq on the beach area where the volleyball net usually is. I posted some pics a few pages back. It sounds like a lot has been changing and evolving since I started my planning over a year ago. Like Eadon, I did almost all of the leg work myself including finding my own florist, photographer, DJ and mariachi. We also hired an outside minister because I wanted to be able to have a little more control over the ceremony. When we started planning there were no restrictions on vendors but also no list of 'extras'. That's ok though b/c I actually chose this resort because it allows so much flexibility!!! At first communication was slow with Allibe but I promise that once you hit the two month mark things are more quick!! Definitely let me know if you have any questions about vendors, etc!

BTW...did anyone ever hear from Wings after her wedding? I wonder how everything went??