rdsjcr

Quote: Originally Posted by beachykeen In the wedding info on the website it states that you're paying $180 per hour for Cds with music technician that will control all of it. I wish I could get ahold of Ana to confirm this but she hasn't replied to my emails for over a month now...... Oh it does- I didnt see that? That would be AWESOME! If I knew someone would be in control, that would be KEY! But I cant get an email back either- oh, how fun haha

Quote: Originally Posted by t1219 Hi Ashlynn! I totally understand where you are coming from! I have decided to go with the resort photographer(as many people have seemed very pleased with their pics). I will have prob 25 people at my wedding and debating whether to do the dj or ipod. I would love to have a dj but it costs so much and would it be odd to have a dj for such a small crowd? Girls- I too, am struggling with this. I cant reason spending this much on a DJ with a smaller crowd (especially when I know they JACK up the prices) My only fear with an IPOD is the transition of things... for example- who will announce us and the Bridal Party when we walk in? Who will switch it from lower key music (dinner) to the Party music? Who will switch our 1st dance, Father/Daugher, etc dances... and so on. Having a DJ will just make things go so much more smoothly it seems. Thoughts?

For those of you who are doing welcome bags- how are you getting your stuff their? Also- I heard they have a COSTCO right near the resort... anyone? haha

Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 I just sent our our invites last week. I wanted to give everyone time to get off of work and save up. Our first deposit is due the first part of June, but I am requesting that everyone replies by May 1st. I just want to have a handle on a budget. Thanks! Your 1st deposit? Like for the wedding.. with Ana? The reason why I ask, is she keeps telling me we will take care of everythign when we get there... and I want to pay now and get a handle of the budget as well.

Where are you guys putting your dress code? And for you RSVP (response cards) how soon before the day are you asking them back? Thanks so much

Where are you getting the dress?

When you guys are sending out your invites... how much in advance are you asking your responses or RSVPs back? Thanks

I have looked through tons of invites on the blog about it. I have a ?? for all of you- since we are Dreams Riviera Cancun brides On your invitations what are you putting?? Dreams Riviera Cancun (are you putting Puerto Morelos, Riviera Maya) anything else under it? or just leaving the resort as the location under the date and time?? Thanks!!

Quote: Originally Posted by wisconsinbride2010 I actually just finished our wedding invites. We sent them out as message in a bottle. We also had custom stamps with our wedding date on it for the response cards. I would post them on here but every time I try it says the file is too big. Let me know if anyone would like me to e-mail them to you. Happy planning!! Hey can you eamil me-- I would love to see them [email protected]

Quote: Originally Posted by ebernard4985 My invitations included the formal invitation, an insert for the Mexico reception and also an insert for the Chicago party. The response card then allows them to RSVP to both, one or none of the parties. This is just saving me the hassel of mailing out a bunch of different invitations. I will be posting my invitations soon! I am also mailing out seperate invitations for our party in Chicago for those who are invited only to that party, and not to Mexico (friends of parents, distant relatives, acquaintances, ect). Hope that helps! thank you so much- it does:) and yes- cant wait to see them!

Quote: Originally Posted by bahiabride2010 With printing, we had Cards and Pockets do the printing, and all the paper and postage the inviations cost us about $300 for 100 of them. Not too steep! We got a few extras just in case and we did assemble them at home. I bought Glue Dots from Cards and Pockets and stickers from Michaels. My Mom added calligraphy to each of the invitations and we used transparent labels from Staples for the return address and the RSVP envelopes. HAPPY PLANNING! Hey! Your invitations are GREAT! I have a friends mom who will be designing ours... I love the pockets that yours came in... you got them from Cards and Pockets? Is it just me or is that website confusing? Can you JUST order the pockets and additional inserts from there- and me do the invitations on my own? Thanks SO much!!

What did you all include in your invitations... invitation, reply card... anything else? I guess what I mean is should we include something about travel arrangements in there? And if you are having a At home reception- maybe a postcard about that as well?

No- I have looked there- just wanted to know ya'll opion/advice on what you are doing...as opposed to reading 100's of pages of stuff

Hey Ladies- one of my bridesmaids mothers is doing our invitations for us I am trying to get them out ASAP... I wanted to ask all of you- who have already done them and are in the process an IMPT. ?? Are you doing anything special with your invitations? I am just wondering as well, destination weddings are not like at home weddings, so do we need to add things in them? I am going to put a little note card or something saying "Look for details for a Welcome Home Party to follow" (or something) as we will be having a welcome home party a couple weeks after for all the family and friends who could not attend. But in addition to the standard invitation and response card... what else are you guys doing??

I am going to have my reception on the pool deck- like most of you- and I really want to hang paper lanterns... Do any of you know if there is a place/way for us to do that?

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 I think that many of us are used to instant responses, but when it comes to planning a destination wedding it seems like you just have to accept the fact that you will have to be patient and wait! Or don't accept it and go crazy. lol. I have been planning my wedding for a little while now (as you can see my join date was back in 2008 but I didn't decide on DRC until over a year later!). So I can say that I have seriously considered a great number of resorts and been in touch with many wedding coordinators. Through this process, I've gotten used to having to wait for responses. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to wait "too" long, but sometimes it happens. Also, when I think about the fact that for every bride that books, there are probably a handful more that are emailing with questions still trying to decide (like I used to be), I start to feel like the wedding coordinators job is pretty overwhelming! That being said, I agree with you that it seems like Ana needs help! I wonder if it would be useful to email resort management with this suggestion? Also, Ana is still relatively new (as is the resort) so hopefully things will get better as she continues to get weddings under her belt, so to speak. I also hate to say it, and this comment does not apply exclusively to Ana but actually to most WCs I've corresponded with, but a lot of the trouble stems from vague or partial responses that we get back to our questions, which leads to us having to send more emails! I often think that if questions were answered fully and clearly the first time around, probably their email traffic could be cut in half!!! I 100% agree with you on that last part.... And I can't imagine how busy she must be- so maybe suggesting help may work... I dont know... but yeh- as more and more weddings happen, they will figure out the best way to handle stuff. They are fairly new. I think my problem is I hate email haha I wish I could just do it all in person and well- that is just not feasible. Oh well...

I do understand that... and know that I need to just take a step back and breathe I guess it is just hard... especially being in that I come from the wedding planning business- I am used to quick responses... but I know this is a different circumstance. Point taken and I will breathe. It does make me feel better and comforting knowing that brides do say that the closer you get the better it gets and all the pics of weddings turn out amazing. Thanks.

Quote: Originally Posted by TA Jill Honestly, it's like this at almost every resort. I know it's frustrating, but try to be patient. You have to remember that not only is Ana answering the emails from every bride that is considering getting married there, she's also answering the emails of every bride that has already confirmed a date, meeting with brides that are there for site visits, and attending to the weddings that take place daily, sometimes multiple times a day. On your wedding day, would you rather Ana was taking care of just your wedding, or in her office answering emails?? I know it's frustrating, we've all been there, but rest assured, dreams does lots of weddings and they do a great job, or they wouldn't be so popular. The best thing I can suggest for everyone, is please try to put ALL of your questions in one email, don't email her a couple of times every day with a couple of questions in each email, can you imagine how many emails she probably gets in a day, it has to be very overwhelming! And my other suggestion would be to get your TA involved. If you're not getting an answer from Ana or you're unhappy about something, ask your TA to help. They may not be able to change the outcome, but it's worth a shot! Good Luck! I do understand all of the above BUT maybe they should consider getting more help.... like more than one Ana. I mean I always email her One email with all my ??s on it and even then, I am not getting answers. I am still waiting to hear from my ??s last week. I know people say rest assured everything will be fine and work out and etc etc but when you are the paying bride you dont feel like that AT ALL! Its not about being a bridezilla, its about we are paying a lot of money and just want to know what is going on.

I am pretty sure (again not real sure b/c she doesn't answer me) that we can send her what we want (NOT on these options) and they can do them... it will just cost more... correct??

Gosh- I am so frustrated... it honestly scares me... that I am going to get my guests to put all this $$ in and then we put all this $$ in and things not go smooth. Not trying to be mean but how hard is it to answer emails? If I didn't have so many people already booked, I would consider changing resorts, but then what if other places are just the same?? It makes me so much more mad to see a lot of you just as frustrated. I am still waiting on an email from Friday to be answered, that I have now resent her twice and nothing. have you guys told her the packages you want? flowers you want? decor you want? etc? i cant even get her to open my emails to see those things!

Cool! Are you honeymooning? We are getting married Oct 24 at Dreams Riviera Cancun and we will be there from Oct 20-25.. then we are going to Secrets Maroma and will be there until Oct 30. What are ya'lls plans ??

Quote: Originally Posted by nbills511 rdsjcr - just saw that you are booked at Dreams Riviera Cancun.....what made you guys decide on that resort?? OMG- It took me what seemed like FOREVER to decide. I was deciding between Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Riviera Maya. What made me choose Riviera Maya was the cost. The flights alone there are MUCH MUCH cheaper. Once I decided on the place- then I battled with the place. I had it finally narrowed down to Dreams Riviera Cancun and Aventura Spa Palace- the thing I did not like about Aventura is that it is located on a lagoon- not actually ON the beach. Also- Dreams is fairly new as it was just opened in Oct 2009. I used Trip Advisor A LOT to see peoples resposes and photos (not just the resort's photos). I am also using a wedding planner/travel agent from destinationweddings.com. You pay $50 and they help TREMENDOUSLY!! They help with all your decisions and then work as your and all your guests travel agents! (and once you book your hotel and etc- you get the $50 back) I am still not 100% sure on all the prices- but you will find once you book that all the people down there are on their own time. They do not answer emails like we do-- they take a few days and they will drive you crazy!! So the earlier you can jump on it, the better! Let me know if I can help you anymore! Robyn

Quote: Originally Posted by nbills511 I live in Charlotte!! Close enough to Raleigh Yeah! I have lots of friends in Charlotte! Where and When are you getting married?

Quote: Originally Posted by Boo Oh I havent negotiated the price yet, we are not sure if we want to use the ipod anyway or go the DJ route things that were negotiated were at Secrets Maroma, things like cocktail hour, chiavary chairs, speaker /microphone for reception, mariatchi trio etc. basically as part of our cocktail hour package these items are now included... I found that it was tougher to negotiate price and easier to just get things that you would want anyway included Are you having your reception at DRC or Secrets? Sorry- I am confused- hahaha.

Quote: Originally Posted by Boo DRC uses 2 dj’s Dorremix and Mannia According to Ana (and I believe the wedding prices on the website) DJ services are 300 USD + taxes per hour minimum of 3 hours Dorremix prices however, they let it out of the bag to other DRC brides which Ana now does not allow, is that their prices are actually USD 650 for 4 hours So USD 650 vs. USD 1200 for the same 4 hours!!! I was soo soooo mad when I found out, like the hotel tells us we have to chose between two DJs and then what in the world are they charging us an extra USD 550 for Sorry it feels like I am just going on rants here, don’t get me started So what happened? Did you end up getting for the better price?? That is CRAZY!!