remdog

 Yea the rates almost doubled. It was going to be $500. Per night per couple,which is a lot to ask of everyone. Especially since the flights are also about $800 per person. The Hilton seems to be beautiful and the WC at the hIlton has been great.

That should be great time for you guys. My MOH lives in California, and just had a baby, I don't think I'll be able to talk her into something like that right now. lol Actually she would be the one talking me into it so I think I'm safe for now.

Welcome farlem311. Dreams pc was on my list of places I considered getting married. That was until the FI said what about Costa Rica. Since he hasnt spoken up about much I figured when he did give his input I should follow it. I wish dreams had a resort in Costa Rica.

I don't think I'm brave enough. How about you?

Hey Forest glad to hear all went well. Just make sure you take it easy so you can dance like Forest at your wedding.

Lol Beachbridein11.

Welcome Merrylee.

I'm kind of sad to say I will no longer be a Paradisus/Westin bride. After waiting all this time to get information about the take over and rates when it came down to it I just couldn't ask my guest to pay that much. We had decided to have our wedding at the Hilton Papagayo. I know it will be an equally nice place. On the good side now we get to have an ocean front room. Yea!!

Now I'm following you around. lol City- Clarkston Paula Location Costa Rica Resort- Hilton Papagayo Wednesday June 22,2011

These are way to cute. I just ordered them for my bridesmaids to wear. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Here's to a speedy recovery Forrest. See that wasn't so bad being called Forrest.

I'm a Trip Advisor junkie. I love reading the bad reviews, just to get a good laugh. It's even better after I've been to a resort and I know for sure that the people who wrote them really are crazy. Now granted they have had some issues lately with bogus reviews from other resorts but some of the other bad ones are very entertaining. I always think really you were on vacation in a tropical location and your having a fit because it was hot, or it rained, or you had to keep the patio door closed for the a/c to work. You got to go on vacation get over it. I guess some people also don't realize that you can make lemon aid out of lemons. It all depends on how you look at it.

Hi Donie and Welcome! I've also noticed the same thing. The bad part is we haven't even booked our trip yet. The reason behind that though is when we started this process the Paradisus owned the hotel we are getting married at. About a month after I put down our deposit it was announced that they would be giving up there lease and another hotel would be taking it over. So then I had to wait and see who. Finally Westin said they would take over the resort, the problem then was that they weren't taking reservations. UGH! We wanted to wait because sometimes as a packages it's cheaper but with the hotel not taking reservations no packages. Finally on New years Day they started taking reservations, so I have my TA working on it now. I still don't know if they will offer any wedding packages or what the rates for the wedding will be. Neither does the actual resort. I would have changed locations but in October we went down there to do a pre site visit and loved it. I really wanted to keep this location even if it was owned by another company. But dealing with this take over had been a HUGE PAIN. I haven't even sent out STD or anything because I didn't really know what was going to happen. Oh yea back to your question, I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that they start going down again.

Thanks Beachbridein11. We live in Clarkston but I work at Lakeside so thats really close to you.

Hi Midwest Brides, My name is Paula and FI is Patrick. You guys were talking about funny names, my last name will be changing to start with a "S" thus making me "PMS", I cant wait for the jokes to start with that one. We live in a suburb of Detroit. Were getting married June 22,2011 in Costa Rica. Thanks Schmiz for starting this thread. I look forward to seeing everyones progress as we get closer to our big day.

When we were there in October we went white water rafting, zip lining, and on a river tour. All were a ton of fun. The company we used was Explore Costa Rica and I can't recommend them enough. GREAT personal service! When we go down in June this is the company I will recommend for all of my guest. Denise the owner is so wonderful. The best part was we had one on one tours where ever we went, not sharing a bus with 6 other people we didn't know. She's also a great source of information and more than willing to share. I found them on trip advisor,but they do have an Internet site.

Thanks for all of the great information. Your pictures are beautiful. We will be getting married in this same spot in June. Although we will be staying at the resort and not the condos. I would love to get the name of the DJ you used. thanks for your help.

Dress update- Moonbasabridal gave me 3 options: Keep the dress and they would refund me $130., Send it back to have it remade but couldn't say it would look any different, or send it back for a full refund. I decided that I would just keep the dress take it to someone local and have them make a few changes. The dress is really pretty and I hate the idea of shipping a dress back. Overall there customer service has been great.

Sorry to hear about your dress Michelle. At least you have time for them to remake your dress. In the end I'm sure everything will turn out fine.

Congrats and welcome smile50.

Beautiful dress!!!! They did such a great job on this on.

Your right Badgergirl. The original has raised flowers and the knock off is all embroidery. Dont get me wrong the dress is pretty I just wanted it to look more like the original.

I saw some of there other work but not this exact dress.

Knock off. Ok I finally figured this thing out here are some better pictures. Not even sideways. LOL

Yes the skirt does look strange on the knock off, you can tell that it was two pieces sewn together. On the original it's got a band around where the skirt is connected so it flows better.