tammikins

hey thats really nice of you. I'm letting my Finance have the room for the night and going to bunk with the BMs on the condition that he is out by 8 am and doesn't come back . I'm going with Claudia Rodriguez for photos. I keep flip-flopping about the package i want but i think i settled for the 5 hour package. That will take me from 30 minutes before the ceremony up until 1 hour into the reception. She said because the package is 5 hours or more then I either have to pay for their entry into the resort or provide them with dinner. I'm paying for their dinner, but i wonder if that means they stay later because they will be eating on "our time". Any thoughts?

No! i'm comfy here lol. I'm trying to figure out room requests because I guess those have to get mailed in the next few days. I love the Palladium Addict site because they have so much info including descriptions of specific rooms. Does anyone know how the photographers know where to find you? Last time I talked to the photog she just told me she'll meet me in my room. I guess they just ask at the lobby?

yep, transat now does all of the sections except riviera. Sunwing does riviera and they're fairly inexpensive too. According to my TA, sites like expedia do something about "back rooms" which basically means that if the resort is overbooked then you get sent to a comparable resort. Usually not a big deal, but if you are there for a wedding it becomes a problem. So, it is better to go direcly through the travel operator, either with a TA or on your own. Honestly tho, I would recommend going through a travel agent. My TA coordinated everything for me, moved some of us to white sands (technically a higher price category) for free, got my fiance and I 1st class on our flights when we paid for the regular flights, and is supposedly getting us an upgrade at the resort. So lots of perks with using a TA. Meg, if you want, send me a PM and I'll let you know the name of my TA since you're in Vancouver you might want to go thru her. Also, in answer to your question, my TA told me that she can arrange for all of us to be close together (can't all be in the same building because we have about half in colonial and half in white sands), or if we want, we can have some "distance" from the rest of our guests. lol I guess it would be weird being next door to your in-laws on your wedding night. when I went to the palladium last year with my parents, I shared a room with them and there was a couple next door that was, uh, very vocal so I was medicating myself with benadryl so I would be able to sleep through that lol. It was awkward. lol I'm rambling cuz I have too much to do.

lol yes and no. it feels like there is so much to do simply because i feel like nothing is planned - flowers, sand ceremony stuff etc. i know its stuff that i really dont need to worry about but still. There's a few little things left like making the programs for the wedding day. Also, since we're there over christmas i need to get my christmas shopping done before i go and get stuff for the in-laws that are going to be in mexico with us. oh, and i still have final exams - but who cares, I'm getting married!!! and when am i going to need to know Business Ethics anyways? lol. yes, totally excited now. Oh ya, and there is the legal wedding coming up on friday so i suppose i should get the marriage license and buy travel insurance. Man, I gotta get off BDW and do things.

Hi Meg, I have to say, the prices that we paid were lower. Initially we paid about 2100 total inc taxes to go out of Vancouver from Dec 18-25. Then the prices dropped a lot, so we got our packages for just under 1600 total. Keep in mind that since we're technically there over christmas it is considered peak season. The best thing that happened with costs was I kept checking the transat site for lower rates even after we paid our deposit. As soon as I saw a price lower than the one we paid I called my TA and she negotiated the lower rate for us with transat. As far as I understand, a lot of travel agents don't do this after you pair your deposit, so in some ways it pays to shop for a good travel agent yay less than 2 weeks until I'm there!!!!!

Hey! Just wanted to say welcome as well. Vancouver is a beautiful city and I'm sure you will love it. One of the few cities in the world where you can go surfing and skiing in one day . When are you moving up here?

The grand palladium recently added a church. they do catholic weddings there. Here are links to a youtube clip showing church photos and wedding info Church photos: YouTube - Grand Palladium Catholic Church Catholic wedding info: http://palladiumaddict.net/MRP/Docs/...ddings2010.pdf

I just went through this with my fiance this morning. I was looking at him last night and couldn't help but notice that he looked kinda pudgy. Then on my way out this morning I looked in his car and saw bags from fast food places. With his new job he doesn't really have time to eat properly. I called him up and told him that I'd be making his lunches from now on. Also, I told him we'd be going to the gym. I didn't say I'm not attracted to him because I thought that would really hurt him. I also made it more about me ("hunny I want to start going to the gym with you because I want to get in the best shape of my life and I want you to motivate me"). He took it really well. Good luck!

Thanks everyone, this is so frustrating, because the typical female in me wants to jump on it and fix it right away, but I know I should wait for things to calm down. GERRRR!!!! At least mom stopped crying now. I guess an episode of intervention made her realize that there are more messed up families than hers. Its interesting that some people said that its due to jealousy. I can see how that might be true, but its hard to think that he would say something so mean while just trying to protect me. I think I'm going to take a walk out to a field and scream. thanks for your support everyone!

so a bit of background - we have our legal wedding coming up in 2 weeks then DW a week after. We had an adorable little venue set up (only 8 ppl were going to be present). then my brother finds out he has to mark exams the day of my wedding and there is no way he can get out of it. So FI and I decide that it is important for my brother to be there, so we were trying to move the wedding to the university where he works. And its a very VERY ugly place, but it was more important for my brother to be there. This past sunday I went to help my brother's wife paint a new store she's opening up, with the plan that my brother and FI would come over later to help. FI went to the mall that morning and stopped by the casino that opened next to the mall. Well, he just happened to walk away with $1000 in about 20 minutes. This is like the second time he has been to the casino since I've known him. I guess when my brother and FI were driving over to see me at the store I was painting, FI told my brother he went to the casino. All is fine and happy until my brother calls my mom late that night to say "mom, i'm worried about [FI], I think he has a gambling addiction". This morning, I told my mom about the money FI won, so she told be about what my brother said, and I just explained that my FI is totally not like that and all was fine. Since I was pretty mad at my brother at this point, I told my mom next time she talks to my brother, to tell him to bring these kinds of problems he has to me, not go crying to mommy. I had a final exam this morning. My brother calls me about 5 minutes before the exam starts, and i told him, hey, no big deal, I appreciate the concern but there's really nothing to worry about. He starts saying that "[FI] is just a random guy who lives with [me]" and pretty much said that he doesn't know him from a hole in the ground until we get married. Then he goes on to play detective and ask about why I thought he was in debt when i first met him (when he knows full well its because of a car accident that is still in the process of being settled and caused him to miss over a month of work and cause a ton of medical bills). I had to go because I had to write the exam so I kinda cut my brother off and todl him I gotta go. After the exam I call my mom at work and she's just sobbing, because I guess my brother called her and told her the same thing. I'm really angry that he would say those things about FI. Honestly, whats going to change for my brother in 2 weeks when we sign the marriage certificate? And after I go through all this trouble to change my wedding just so that my brother would be there, and both FI and I spend like 12 hours to help his wife on our one day off. I don't want to tell FI about any of this because I know it would just kill him to know that my brother would say something like that (he doesn't have too many friends and values my brother's friendship). I don't know what to do and I'm so hurt and angry.

A wedding we went to a few months ago, the bride and groom states that instead of the glass clinking thing to get them to kiss the guests needed to do the wave.

haha I love these because in some capacity, either FI or I are guilty of most of these - yes ladies, we can be annoying too. What FI does that drives me crazy is when we're watching a movie and some bit of crude comedy happens (like someone gets hit on the head or falls or something), FI starts laughing and pretty much repeats what he just saw on screen, so he'll be like "hahaha, did you see that guy, he just got hit on the head with a watermelon" or something... Yes dear, I was right here. it pretty annoying because he's really smart (an engineer) and has a good sense of humor, except for people getting hit on the head with watermelons and stuff

Hi Everyone, thanks for your advice. I can honestly say I feel like a total idiot now. After talks with the airline and the travel agent, I realized that we had 6 people no longer going in our group - 4 friends that had to use a different airline because of the departure dates, and my grandparents who can't go because my grandpa was just diagnosed with a serious heart condition . Anyways, because of these people no longer going with us, we actually had lower numbers that made us no longer eligible to be considered a group - but with all the stuff going on with my grandparents I sorta forgot about it. Our travel agent actually didn't tell me this, but she did a lot of talking to the airline to ensure that we kept our group rates and not have to pay extra. Because of this, we were sent to a sort of airline purgatory where we weren't quite individual travelers, but also not quite a group. I guess thats why we didn't get the reserved seats. I called the airline company to try to pay them extra to reserve something half decent for us, and I found out that my travel actually upgraded my fiance and I to business class for free (I guess she didnt want to tell me because she wanted us to be surprised). and I found this out AFTER I sent her an angry email with some, let say, choice words. We're thinking we'll give the business class to my parents because it has the extra leg room for my dad Of course i sent her another email apologizing profusely and thanked her for all the work she did. but Man oh man, do I feel like an idiot. I guess I am now officially a bridezilla <--- me!

thanks so much for that explanation Raychel! Also, MObride, good call on the spot test. Last year in mexico I found out I was allergic to pineaple after having one of those yummy drinks, and then having a huge rash on my chest. Hopefully won't happen with the tape Hardware store, here I come!

Hi Sarah, As of right now I'm not planning a cocktail hour. Here's what I know so far: reception at 3:30 at the beach gazebo. then photos, and then private reception at La Laguna. We are not getting a DJ (other than DJ iPod lol) and our photographer is Citlalli Rico from Claudia Rodriguez Photography. I'm very skeptical about using the spa to get my hair done, but for the sake of experimentation, I just might. I'm doing my own makeup too. We are still considering doing some kind of welcome thing, whether its a welcome dinner of cocktails by the salt water pool... not sure yet tho, need to figure out the rest of the finances. I'm so stoked for the photos, and I'll definately post them along with a very detailed account of everything that happened

lol this is kinda silly... my dress fits perfectly so I don't need any alterations so I don't want to bother with getting the built-in cups. the dress is strapless and has a corset back where its all open. So I don't know how to get more lift. Anyone have any ideas??

I was rcently invited to a friends wedding, and the RSVP card said there is only one seat reserved for me (not that I personally need two lol). I was hurt by this, especially because I was already engaged. To my friend's credit I did JUST get engaged pretty much as she was sending out the cards and I didn't know my fiance for very long. I went by myself and although I was with a bunch of my best friends I was kinda bored. You cant assume that just because your single guests know everyone that those are the people they would want to spend an entire week with. As for costs, I'm paying about $80 per person for the reception and ceremony, but the costs that the guests are paying to be there are approximately 20 times that amount. I know its a tough call, but you should think about what scenario you like more: not having your friends there at all, or having your friends there, and some people you dont YET know but might be friends with by the end of the trip

A friend of a friend got legally married in Mexico. Same thing that all the other girls already said - so expensive to get the papers transferred. But unfortunately they ended up divorcing. This was SOOO expensive for them. They had to go back to Mexico to do this and pay a ton of money. But then again, I don't thinkk any of us are thinking of divorce - in fact getting legally married in Mex may be more motivation never to divorce . For me, we decided to do the legal part here. The cost of the blood tests we would have to get in mexico is how much the process is going to cost. Also, the wedding package is about $800 less for the symbolic ceremony (and thats the difference between the smaller "real" wedding package and the bigger symbolic package) so huge diff. The problem lies in that we sorta told almost everyone who are going to Mexico that it won't be the real deal when we are there. Surprisingly, no one seemed to care. Oh and another thing, since we are getting legally married within a week of leaving for mexico we get to reap the benefits of being honeymooners at the resort - meaning room upgrades and some other perks!

I thought that getting a travel agent for a destination wedding would be best because of all of the coordination needed between all the group members. So far I have just been fixing her mistakes. There were a few things that I pretty much brushed off, for example, after I already booked the date with the wedding coordinator, she tried changing that date with me because the flights were more convenient for another date, and even went as far as emailing the wedding coordinator at the resort about getting my date changed. Thank god the coordinator checked back with me and I told her Hell no, she's not gonig to change the date. Then, she told some people in my group that they are being upgraded. I just got their tickets and see that they haven't. I don't have the heart to tell them they won't be getting the upgrade. Again, not a huge deal because its still the same resort (I hope! lol). So the problem now is that from the very start (we booked in June for our December wedding) I told this travel agent that I want a seat on the flight with extra leg room for my dad (he is very tall and has circulation problems in his legs). I told her I would pay extra for this. She said two things: a. that those seats aren't available until the day of the flight because the airline wants to make sure that you are able-bodied to help people to the emergency exits. She also said that we will have a block of seats reserved on the flight so we can take our pick from those. So yesterday she forwards me all of our e-tickets and I go to do the seat selection online on the airline's website. I wanted to do this as soon as we booked but the travel agent told me that she didn't have the booking number which you needed to get into the website. Well, now that I have that number, ALL the seats are booked except for a few scattered in the back by the bathroom. no 2 seats are together. I know that none of the reserved seats are ours because the ones that are ours should be marked differently on the site. So now not only does my dad have to squish without the leg room, but I don't get to sit near any of my guests, I don't even get to sit beside my fiance. ON THE WAY TO MY WEDDING!!!!! AND I get to sit beside the stinky bathrooms. I emailed my travel agent basically saying "you told me all these things, so fix it". But honestly, I don't know if there is anything she can do about this if all the seats are taken. Plus she just left for "research" (aka, vacation) so I doubt she'll get back to me any time soon. Its not like they are going to take the seats away from people who reserved them months ago. Its really upsetting, because this travel agent specializes in destination weddings. I know it sounds really minor but I'm so extremely upset about this. I just wanna cry.

Hi Christina, I'll write these down so I can remember to find out. I'm totally wondering about the flowers too, because I want to do orchids in my hair, and I don't want to do the real flowers because they wither pretty quickly in the sunlight, so I have to bring some fake ones with me. The problem is I don't know whether they have orchids as one of the bouquet options and I dont want to get flowers that don't match with what I have in my hair. haha sounds so minor, but we're allowed to worry about these things as brides, right? Anyways, I'll definately find out for you!

Yes, the time certainly does fly by. My good friend got married 2 months ago, and she said the last month goes by so fast that once the wedding rolls around you don't know what hit you! aaah!!!! Anyways, since it seems like I'm one of the next people that are lurking around this forum to get married at the palladium, I was wondering if any of you guys wanted me to find anything out for you - like anything you want me to investigate . I guess you can e-mail Rocio, but she might not reply until after I get back (lame joke, sorry). Let me know!

Hi Meg, I paid back in April, but here's what I remember. I think she sends you some forms to fill out. I filled those out and it asks for your credit card number. There's something on those forms that you usually have to fill out when you normally give people you credit card info that wasn't there. It was either the cardholder's name or the expiry date. I just added that on to the form myself. I faxed it to her, and she got it, and then asked me to send me photocopies of the front and back of the credit card and also my drivers license. This is so sketchy - I was so nervous that I would enter the fax number in wrong and it would go to some "random" place in Mexico. I didn't though. I phoned the next day to make sure they got the fax and Erika told me that they had it, and my date was reserved. And omg that date it coming up in a month!!! Hope that helps.

Hi! hopefully you'll read this even tho your post is a little old. I've been to the palladium three times and am getting married there in December (yay!). I went to La adelita once in my three trips and don't think I will be going back there. Its pretty boring - the food there is like the "mexican station" at all the buffets so I think your guests might get bored with that kind of food. Also, the decorations in that resaurant sort of hurt the eyes. I LOVE Mare Nostrum. If I wasn't having a private reception I would have dinner there. Its very classy. The food is great. I can honestly say the best fish I've ever had in my life came from there. But then again, if you don't like seafood, you might not be that impressed. However, I think its got a very romantic atomsphere. I'm not sure but I think you can pick a menu from any restaurant tho. Anyways, have a fantastic wedding!

I'm glad this was briught up - at my wedding there's going to be 2 single girls (and they already decided among themselves which one is going to catch the bouquet) and one single guy - FI's 16 year old brother who would probably turn a wicked shade of red if he touched the garter. I was thinking of doing sommething like asking who has been married the longest, and presenting them with the bouquet, and saying something about hoping that our marriage would be as happy and successful as theirs. As for the garter...not sure yet.

Hi Everyone! Yes, I got a reply from Erika, Rocio is on vacation, don't know for how long.... But poor Erika is getting 1000+ emails per day from us crazy brides! Now I feel bad for complaining. It must be so hard to keep up with the emails, the people that are having their wedding those days and having to do it all in your non-primary language. On a whole other tangent... any brides who have had their wedding already, I was wondering how the cake and flowers were? Do you get to pick? Do they look nice? Thanks! T.