daniepps

Great review! I knew you'd have a good time.

Quote:Originally Posted by nv+gms Anybody try to get an estimate for a teired cupcake cake? I've been waiting for over a month to see if they can do it and if so - how much - but no response yet Quote:Originally Posted by Chapa I did and it was some ridiculous amount for only 40 cupcakes. I believe it was $474.

I had a 3-tiered cupcake cake for 50 people and it cost $568.

There's really no way to say what they'll charege because they charge based on the amount of stuff you have and what they have to set up. I only had centerpieces, place cards and favors that I gave to the guests. They only charged me $25. I've heard some people have paid as much as $50 for set up.

Hi Meghan, So all we need to bring is our iPod and they will plug it into their sound system? There is no need to bring anything else? What about charging? How did you charge your iPod during the reception? Thanks. Nikki I would recommend fully charging your iPod before you use it. Mine was charged and the charge lasted the entire 2 hours of the cocktail reception and 4 hours of the wedding reception. Originally Posted by Nikki O Chong, Meghan said the sound system charges the iPod while it's plugged in. Did you use a different sound system? The beach is rather loud so you may want to think about renting their sound system if your reception is going to be at the beach. The sound system I used at both the welcome reception and the wedding reception did not charge the iPod. It wasn't a docking station. It just had a jack to play music from the iPod.

They were very reasonable. Flowers weren't that important to me. I just had them because everyone said I should but I was impressed with what we got. I only wish the bouquets were a tad bit bigger.

I had silver overlay tablecloths and they were $5 per table. Extremely inexpensive considering what they charge for other things.

They were WONDERFUL!!! I do n't htink you have the option to choose though. I had Veronica who was the event coordinator for the reosrt and Israel who was the wedding coordinator. I believe they're just who happened to be on duty that weekend.

You won't find out who the onsite WCs are until you get there and have your meeting with them.

The nearest bar that a group of people could gather at the easiest is the Zocalo bar. Zavaz restuarant has a bar but it's not one that people can really gather at. I used my cocktail party for the welcome reception as well so I didn't have an organized cocktail hour. If you make sure people know exactly what time the reception will start you probably won't have to worry about making any detailed plans for people to go someplace. They'll find something to do and they'll be at the reception on time too!

I had escort/place cards and wind wasn't an issue for them at all. The WCs set them up on a table for guests to pick up when they arrived at the reception area. Hello Brides 2 Be: My ceremony was scheduled to start at 3pm but didn't actually start until about 3:30 and was over around 4pm. The reception was scheduled for 4:30-8:30 at Zavaz Plaza. It didn't actually start until 5:15 or 5:30. I didn't have an organized cocktail party. Most of the guests gathered at a bar at the Mexican restaurant (can't remember the name right now) and waited for the reception to start. I do think anything longer than an hour to an hour and a half will cause people to start getting antsy. Regarding the time the reception starts and whether it should start after the bar closes I really don't think the time it starts will be an issue. The WCs are great at making your area a private area and guests are pretty respectful as well so you won't have to worry about your reception being interrupted. And if your reception is at the Plaza Zavaz there really is no bar near that area. I know it may seem close on the map but it's actually not very close and that area is pretty seculded. We had people looking at the reception from their balconies but it wasn't like that reception area was blocking a path to a bar. Hope this helps.

The location near the pier is actually the one next to the beach BBQ as well. It's also the one with the ramp to come down. Quote: Originally Posted by TLGnhci Do you know if they charge you to do the sand ceremony? I haven't thought about that too much just yet. They don't charge you for the actual ceremony but if you get the vases and sand from them they'll charge. I actually ended up getting my vases off ebay for $20 (including shipping) and I paid $8 for the sand. Quote: Originally Posted by arkae Can anyone - maybe someone who's already been or made a site visit - give me some idea of the size of the beach gazebo by the pier? I got married at the gazebo near the pier. It's the bigger location. I had 50 guests and the WCs told me that the other beach location was too small to hold everyone. The bbq closes at 3pm so if your ceremony is after that you won't have to worry about people lurking near your wedding I was assigned a WC as soon as my date was confirmed but it seems like Karisma has changed their process a lot. My TA contacted Karisma to confirm the date and once the date was confirmed the TA contacted me and sent the CC authorization form so that I could make the deposit to hold the date.

Yes, we had the dock and the amplifier for the reception. It was listed on my detail sheet and it's $250. If you're having a cocktail reception and you want it there it's $150.

BTW I'm not sure if you've booked your flight yet but Airtran has a direct flight from BWI to Cancun and it's usually pretty reasonable. The majority of my guests took that flight and it was $345.

I don't think there's a difference in cost for a symbolic vs. legal marriage at the resort but if I would've gotten legally married at the resort we would've had to get there on Tuesday which probably would've cost another $1,000. For the legal ceremony here I paid $25 for the license and $70 for the ceremony. I got married at the county administration building in Prince George's County (right by the bridal shop.) I think the costs vary by county but it shouldn't be that much difference in price. You just have to wait 3 days from the time you get the license until you actually get married (and that may vary by county too). We got to the resort on Thursday around 2 or 3 and we had our meeting on Friday for the Saturday wedding so you getting there on Thursday for a Monday wedding shouldn't be a problem at all.

I got them all a pair of designer sunglasses. I ended up getting them all off ebay so they were cheaper than they would've been in the store. The prices were different for each pair. $50 (Juicy Couture) $90 (Marc Jacobs), $100 (D&G) and $160 (Christian Dior). I gave my maid of honor the most expensive pair because I felt like she did the most to help me with the wedding. I also paid for them to have their make-up done for the wedding. If they just suggested you get there earlier I wouldn't worry about it. Just tell her it's not in your budget. I don't know what the requirements are for a legal ceremony but for a symbolic ceremony you only have to be there two days before the wedding. We got there on Thursday and our wedding was on Saturday. If you're doing a legal wedding and they're saying you have to change your arrival because of that you maybe you can change it to a symbolic wedding and get married in the US legally before or after your Mexico wedding. I've heard some horror stories about the legal process in Mexico so I just went with the symbolic ceremony there and got legally married in Maryland the day before we left for Mexico.

My TA told me that it's based on the lowest class room that anyone in your group gets. For me it was 3 nights in a Jacuzzi Jr. So the credit was the price per person times 2 for 3 nights in a Jacuzzi Jr. suite MINUS the taxes and transfers (even though I only had 4 out of 50 people stay for 3 nights in a jacuzzi jr). I was told that it is issued as a refund, not as a discount towards your room (but I believe another bride said she was able to use hers for a room for her photographer.) WHATEVER YOU DO MAKE SURE YOU GET IT IN WRITING AND ON YOUR CONTRACT!!!! I've been going back and forth with dw.com regarding this promotion since I got back from my wedding on August 5th! When I got home, after going back and forth with my TA for over a month she told me that since it wasn't written into my contract I wasn't eligible for it. So I ended up going to management and had to send them all the emails between me and my TA and finally last Friday I was told that I would be issued the refund. I still haven't gotten it yet. They said I should have it by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. So if I don't have it by next Wednesday, I guess I'll be back on the phone.

 Yes, I had a microphone at the ceremony. I didn't request it. It was just there. The beach is actually quite loud so you will need it if you're getting married on the beach. We used it as well as the minister. If you rent the audio equipment at the reception, a microphone comes with it so you don't have to request one. I don't remember a microphone at the welcome reception but we didn't need it either. Â

 I had two teenagers who I used as hostesses. They handed out programs and bubbles and put down the petals on the aisle.  It took at least two weeks for me to get my playlists together. I wanted to make sure they were long enough. I had at least 6 hours worth of music.

I actually had two playlists for the reception. I had one titled reception playlist 1 which was the music that we played during dinner. The other one was reception playlist 2 which had our first dance as the first song and we just let it play from there. We really had no problem at all. I just told the WC to play the 1st one when we sat down and when we got up to do the 1st dance I told him to switch to the 2nd playlist. Relax! I promise you won't have a problem!!!! Â

No more than one minute! I actually started my song and then had the hostesses lay rose petals down the aisle and I waited for a few seconds before I started walking and I still didn't get halfway through the song and it was 3 minutes and 15 seconds long. The WC faded the music out. You can ask them to play the entire song which I did and they said ok but I was running over 30 minutes late and the minister and the videographer had another wedding to do so they kinda rushed me.

No I had the pearl package so I didn't have an included dinner. I used the Mexican Donkey Cocktail menu and had the reception on the pool deck. I wouldn't say it was background music because people were dancing so it was actually loud enough to be considered a party. Â

It's the same equipment they rent for the reception. It cost $150 for the welcome reception. I never asked about the difference in price but I assume it's because the welcome/cocktail reception is only 2 hours and the dinner/wedding reception is 4 hours. I never even asked for it. I just noticed it was on my detail sheet and I just went along with it. Â

We just asked one of our guests to do it. The microphone comes with the rental of the sound equipment. If you don't want to do that I'm sure one of the WC's will do it for you. They're at the reception the entire time. Â