dana

Virginia-I love that dress, it is so pretty. My mom wanted us to do the same thing by getting married in a church. We had some issues though and it's not going to happen. Â My dress fitting is Thursday...keep your fingers crossed!

V- I wouldn't worry about it, at least you didn't find out the prices were cheaper then I'd be mad. My 84 year old grandmother is still working and a travel agent for 50 years (literally) so I had no choice but to go with her. I was sort of disappointed that I wasn't getting any perks, but it doesn't seem like anyone gets many perks anymore. Also, being she is my grandmother she has worked her butt off for each one of my guests that have booked!

Nicyx-Your website looks great. Seems like we both have alot of the same information. Â Aalva-What did you include in your newsletter? I just sent out my pretravel brochures with luggage tags yesterday too!

Virginia-I never used them either, but always wondered how well they worked. Â I completely understand the dress doubt. I found my dress back in December in Pittsburgh (5 hours away) and really liked it. Then went dress shopping with mom and she feel in love with another more formal dress. I liked it, but it was so heavy so I landed up getting the other one. I have had doubts ever since esp b/c my mom really didn't like it that much, but my sister kept reminding me that I kept comparing every dress to it. Then I go for the dress fitting and it's so big and looks awful which didn't help, I can't wait for next week to make me feel better about it. Â Every girl I've heard had doubts about their dress and went shopping again always seem to keep the same dress.

Virginia-I know I was pleasantly surprised by the quality too! I did get the clear mugs. I will take picures tonight so I can send them to you. That's awesome that you got your bridesmaid dresses and they all agreed on one. Â I really don't have much to do. Tomorrow I am going to send out my welcome brochure and luggage tags, they are all ready to go just need to be sealed and sent. I have to make the welcome letter for the OOT bags and make a label and bag up some of the "meds" we bought for the OOT bags. I have to get shoes for my welcome dinner dress and TTD photos. Next week I go back for my second fitting for my wedding dress, I'm hoping it will be better then the last and the dress will look better. Sigh!

Virginia-Sorry, I was away at the Jersey Shore all week with no internet access. I sent you the luggage tags on Tuesday so they are supposed to arrive Monday I believe. I got my cups when I got home today, they are really nice. The logo is a little bigger then I expected, but overalll I'm really happy with them. Â I feel all your pain. I luckily decided that I was only asking my sisters to be in my wedding b/c i knew they would def be coming. It was one of the best decisions I made, so much less stress. Fortunately, most of my friends are coming to my wedding, but my poor FI has barely anyone coming. I think deep down he is hurt, but he seems to not care as much. Â I can't believe I leave for my wedding 5 weeks from today! Â Dreamingofsunshine- I'm not going to do centerpieces. I am already going to be paying out of the nose for all my extra luggage I'm bringing. If I decide I have to have centerpieces I will pay for some flower arrangements, but I doubt it since it will be so expensive down there. I decided to do the chair bows. I got them on sale for 0.59 a piece. Here is the website I ordered from. Â http://www.weddinglinensdirect.com/organza-sash.html Â

SCarp-I did some research at other hotels and it is still cheaper then most hotels. I'm pretty sure that is why all of sudden prices have gone up. They got a new wedding planning company in July who probably told them their prices were way too low and so they are gradually increasing them to what other resorts are charging. If you get the prices in an email before you book you should be okay, (don't let the 2010 price list be your prices) make sure you write what you want and ask for confirmation of the prices are you should be good. One of the travel agents that works with this website deals exclusively with RIU resorts and their non-contract weddings and that was what she suggested. You could try contracting her, I think her name is Maureen, but I can't remember. The same thing happened at the RIU resort in Jamaica I believe about 8 months ago.

Staicy- I feel your frustration also. It sucks also b/c we are both only about two months away from our wedding and to find that out now is hard. From what I am getting quoted it is going to be 1,000 dollars more then what I had originally been told. I know the Boston area is just as expensive and NJ so I know I'm still saving thousands and thousands of dollars. Â Nic-Virginia is right. The media has been making it seem so bad, but in NJ they aren't even calling for rain anymore. Â Virginia-Our rate went down about 4 or 5 months before too. It may go down even more. Â Have a great Labor day. Mine starts today, I work for the military and they give us a 4 day weekend!

Thanks Linds that was what I was leaning towards b/c I love being outside.

For past brides, where did you have your cocktail hour? Even though I was there I can't remember where the Lyrico Bar was? The other option is the Habana bar which I'm almost positive is the bar with the piano off the main lobby?

I just got contacted by the wedding coordinator. I'll email her back, but no prices listed for private reception in the first email. I'll let you know what I find out. Â Staicy- That's funny, I stayed at the RIU Mexico last January, but I like the Riviera Maya better.

Staicy-When are you getting married?

Vlvetter- Oh good, I got nervous for a second.

Thanks girls! I would love to blame the size on the bridal store, but my sister has gained alot of weight in the past 5 months. I guess I really didn' realize it until she tried to put the dress on. We talked to Alfred Angelo this morning and they said their dresses are designed to be taken out two sizes, which still probably wouldn't work, but my other sister it would work for. So my sis from California is going to take it back with her and take it to the Alfred Angelo there and see what the seamstress can do. If it will work she will send my sister her dress which is a few sizes bigger. If it won't work they can order her a dress that will arrive in 4 weeks and we'll just have to pay the rush fee on it. Sigh! I feel so much better knowing there is a solution. Â Vlvetter-Where did you get the cup sample from? Please tell me it was not from discountmugs.com. I already ordered the acrylic tumblers from there. I will be getting them by September 10th. I'll let you know how they are when I get them.

Well girls I have had it with dresses! I lost it last night, my youngest sister does not fit in her dress b/c it is too small. We bought the dress back in december and she fit perfect into the sample size. We picked it up 3 months later in March and when she tried it on she could not zipper it about 5 inches, but I didn't freak b/c she said she was going to lose the weight (and had been working out everyday) and she had 7 months to do it. Well, my other sister is here from California right now and made her try the dress on last night and she can barely get it on! It is so small now that there is no way we could even do anything with alterations. Now we are 2 months out from my wedding and I don't know what to do. My other sister is going to call Alfred Angelo for me today and see if they can get it rushed to us in a month. I'm so mad at her for not being real with me. If she told me a few months ago that she knew she wasn't going to be able to fit in it we could have ordered a new one then. Does anyone else have any other suggestions of options?? I'm so sorry for the vent! Â Jen-I wanted to give out things before hand too, but that was also my concern that people wouldn't bring it with them. I'm just going to give all my immediate family members an extra bag to bring down. I think I may go buy really cheap luggage and that way I can just leave it down there when I'm done. I wasn't going to do a full OOT bag, but it just seemed to happen that way. I got bags from Dollar Tree and the acrylic tumbler cups. I decided to do a small first aid bag too, really only decided that this weekend. I had too much wine on Saturday and my intuition was down and I started buying things online..haha. So I will have beach bag, two cups, playing cards, key/tip card holder, motrin, pepto, shout wipes, aloe. I think that is it.

Thanks girls-the sad part is I had such a horrible experience at the bridal store I did take it to an outside person to do alterations. Can you imagine what the bridal place would have charged me.

Well Girls the dress fitting didn't go so well. They convinced me to order the wrong size and now the dress is about 2 sizes to big and it is going to cost me $400 to get my alterations done. I felt horrible in the dress in the dress b/c it didn't look anything like what it is supposed to. I know she'll do a good job and get it looking good, but it was very dishearting. Â On the upside I got so much stuff accomplished today for the OOT bags and luggage tags.

Lindsay, I am wondering the same thing. Â Â Girls- I'm going for my first dress fitting today. I can't wait!

aalva-I wouldn't worry about it yet. You'll have options of where you can cut costs.

Sorry, I meant no brides had the reception on the beach not got married on the beach. I know lots of brides have done that.

Virginia-I ordered the acrylic tumblers from discountmugs.com last night and the are going to come in by the second week in September so I'll let you know how they are. I know you were looking at ordering them too.

Vlvetter-That's okay, I feel the less you inquire the better. I know that one past bride they told her she had to pay a per person fee if she had it at chili's and wanted a sit down dinner, but she did the buffet and it was included in the price. She was the only person that I know of that had pay per person. I'm just going to wait for them to contact me, it should be in the next week or so and then go from there. I hate money, it causes so much stress! Â I had the fact sheet since I booked last november and there is no mention of a per person fee so we'll see. I actually booked a 2009 package so I'm not sure how that works either. Â Stephanie-We didn't do a group rate b/c everyone would have had to travel and stay the same amount of time. I let everyone book seperate through my travel agent. This worked great for me and I had no stress with the booking process. The only down side I learned from this forum is that when you book the group rate, people like to procrastinate to book and then sometimes you can lose the deposit or the group rate. I have about 10 procrastinators at least and I'm not stressed about it at all.

I'm trying to take a deep breath. Are you saying that it is an add'l 20 dollars on top of the private reception price. This is not what past brides have had to pay. It was a straight fee of $1700 for the private reception, that included the food. The beach reception must be new thing, no one on the forum has gotten married on the beach yet.

Staciey, there is only one option for the dj. The WC will ask you if you want to have a private reception and that includes the dj and private reception. Â SCarp-You should read through this forum, we've all read through it from beginning to end and it will have a wealth of information. I sent my STD's out about 10 months early and I did an RSVP with my STD's so I had an idea of how many people were thinking of coming. I am not doing invites though, next month I am send out pre-travel brochures and luggage tags to those that have booked. If I were you maybe you should just do invitations now. Also, my FI and I stayed at the RIU in January 2009 and it was slightly more expensive then what we are paying for November this year. It really isn't that much more to be honest...maybe at the most $100-200 more for the week. It's a great time to go, much cooler temperatures! I would have done it at the time again, but then we would have been engaged for a 1 and half and I wanted to get married sooner.

Hi Girls  I have a question for the past brides. I am buying the Caprice package which includes a hairstyle for the bride. I was reading the spa website and it looks like you can not book anything that is included in your package until after you get the "gift certificate" from the wedding coordinator once on the resort. Is this true? I want to book my hair appointment now so I can get the time that I want. Can anyone advise?  Thanks