chong

I forgot... the dress size is 6 for both Silver & Red.

I have two completely different bridesmaids dresses.

Silver Strapless & Cocktail Length Dress for $40 + Shipping

Red & Olive Green Belt (attached) Strapless & Cocktail Length Dress for $40 + Shipping

Please send me a message if you are interested.

Chong

I got the exotic gazebo for our wedding. Yes, I was also told that candy cane wrap is standard and cannot change it. No worries. Just say OK to your Miami WC and talk to your on-site wedding coordinator when you get there. They don't care. I just show them the picture of what I wanted (NOT candy cane wrap) and they just did it for me at no charge!
 

Originally Posted by nv+gms 

Also - early on someone asked about the exotic gazebo decor - re: candy cane wrap.  Apparently that is the std for that decor.  If you want the swag look you need to pay more. The sheets are shorter for the exotic gazebo decor and cannot be hung in the swag style.  I am currently trying to find out what this upgraded price is because I need to finalize my payments in the next couple days. 

We didn't know either till we got there. We didn't take our laptop but one of the songs we wanted was already on the CD for the ceremony and one of the songs were on the wedding coordinator's laptop. It's always nice to have more than enough music so you can pick and chose if you change your mind at the resort. We had iPOD for the reception.
 

Originally Posted by Less is more 

chong,

 

wow good to know didn't even think of that.  Did you use an ipod or CD?  If CD how did you add the additional song......iguess we r taking the the laptop so we could burn CD if need be.

You don't have to worry! As long as you provide them with the music (i.e. bridesmaids entrance, bride entrance, signing paper & exit songs) they will play it in order without any problems. We actually did not have the music for signing paper and exit songs and they were able to help us find one from our music list and their music list. We didn't think we needed signing paper song (since it's a symbolic ceremony) but it was nice to have the song when we watched the video at home. He actually started to play it while we were doing the sand ceremony... it was really nice.

If you don't have the budget to hire someone to play the music, I think you will just fine with the CD and/or iPOD.
 

Originally Posted by jazz04 

What is everyone doing for their ceremony music? I'm a little nervous about using a CD player, is that what they provide? Has anyone hired anyone from the resort to play? I was just starting to think about what I'm gonna do.

**** Updates

SOLD ITEMS

1) Starfish

2) Hand Sanitizers

3) Lanterns/Battery/Lights

PENDING ITEMS

1) Maracas

2) Single & Branch Orchids

Hi,

It's been awhile since I've been on this thread. I got married on Oct 10 and it was beautiful!!! I have attached few pictures from my wedding.

I posted few items for sale so if you are interested please PM me. I can definitely meet you in person to deliver the items. Chong's Wedding Stuff

Ladies,

I have posted few items to sell from my wedding. Let me know if you are interested.

Chong's Wedding Stuff

(2) fake orchid table decoration for $5 plus shipping - you can use it for sweetheart table or guest signing table.

(29) blue organza chair sashes for $10 plus shipping

(4) 70" x 70" Round Table Blue Satin Table Overlay for $15 plus shipping

(1) 60" x 102" Rectangular Table Blue Satin Table Cloth $5 plus shipping

This is the best picture I have of the blue satin table cloths.

(10) bubbles with tag & (5) bubbles without tag for FREE as requested with a purchase

I got married on October 10, 2010 and it's time for me to get rid of wedding stuff before 2011 starts. If you are interested, please PM me.

(27) White Finger Starfish 3-4" for $10 plus shipping. I planned to use it as a place card but never got to use it - BRAND NEW! I bought it for $30 including shipping.

(10) Bed and Body Works Hand Sanitizer with Holder (name tag not included) for $10 plus shipping - I bought Hand Sanitizer for $1.50 and $1.00 for its holder. We bought assortment of hand sanitizer scent. Great gift for your bridesmaids with the OOT bags.

(10) Maracas for $5 (without the tag) plus shipping - it's a great gift for kids or for your reception in OOT.

(20) 8" White Even Ribbing Round Paper Lanterns for $10

(3) 12" White Even Ribbing Round Paper Lanterns for $2

(11) CR2032 Button Cell Lithium Battery for $3

(31) Blue Diffused 10mm Superbright LEDs for $5

I would rather sell all of them to one person for $15 plus shipping.

(6) weighted fake orchid for $3 - we used it for submerging it in the vase (pic attached)

(30) single fake orchid for $5 - we used for decoration on the reception tables

(3) branch fake orchid for $2 - we used for decoration on the reception tables

more to come...

I got married on Oct 10, 2010 at 530pm. We actually met an hour before the ceremony to take some pictures with the day light. Once the ceremony was over.. the sun was gone very quickly. You don't see the sunset much cause you are in Mexico. I highly recommend you getting married around 3-4pm-ish if you are planning to take some pictures with daylight. Also because it's October.. there are tons of mosquitoes at night...we had a very breeze night so mosquitoes eventually went away but it was very painful for first hour into the reception on the beach. Depends on how long you want to take the pictures (before or after) will determine when you need to have the ceremony. I thought 530pm was little too late... though this was perfect for us since we took pictures before the wedding and we had less bystanders watching our wedding.

Here are some pictures from my wedding. By the time we were done with family/friends pictures... the sun was GONE! You can see that there was a great sunlight during our ceremony and by the time we were done with the pictures (my sister and I).. the sun was gone!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mwise17 

Does anyone have ideas as to the best time of day to get married in Mexico in October?   My TA is needing the info. pronto and I don't know!!!?????

Anyone?

Meredith!

You look gorgeous!!! Congrats!!!! We are suppose to get our pro pictures next week. I am soooo excited!!!

Someone asked about the setup fee... we had a lot of stuff for our WCs to setup. They charged us around $60 - don't remember the exact cost but it's all depends on how much you bring for them to decorate.

Chapa,

I brought my own bows for the reception and paid for the ceremony chair bows. Everything is setup before the wedding starts...

Originally Posted by Chapa 

I have a question for past brides.. did any of you have sheer bows for the chairs at both the ceremony and reception site? Do you really need to buy double? Did any of you bring your own?

I paid mine 2 weeks before my wedding day. I highly recommend that you do not add anything you are not sure about. You can always add things once you are at the resort. Once you pay for it, that's it. You can only use your credit on the LOMAS products. We were able to negotiate to use the credit for spa service. It was GREAT! I agree with Meredith.. the sky deck massage was great! my hubby liked it so much, we got another massage while we were there.

Originally Posted by arkae 

hi ladies! maybe some of you who have already gone down and had your weddings can answer something for me.

 

my understanding is that final payment is due to karisma, through the off site wc's in miami, 30 days out. what happens if you make changes or remove options on your detail sheet once you get down there with the on-site wc.....are you refunded the $$? does the hotel give it to you before you checkout? how does it work?

 

thanks!!

First.. Meredith!!! Hope you have a wonderful time in Mexico. You will be a beautiful bride!!!
 

Gemma,

We got married on Oct 10, 2010 at AS. We had 27 guests and both the ceremony & reception were on the beach.

We LOVED our beach ceremony and the reception. We only needed 4 round tables for the guests and the sweetheart table in the middle. We did rent the dance floor for everyone to dance - probably it wasn't necessary. I do not recommend the yoga place as your reception area... depends on the number of tables you need to setup, it's really hard to set it up around the poles. That's why we decided to have the reception on the beach right next to the ceremony area. It's near the BBQ area and the bar. So we were able to use the existing bar and BBQ area was used to cook our food FRESH! It's really up to you what you want. We wanted BEACH everything and we LOVED it.

We had Erick Rodriguez for 5 hours. It went by sooo fast. I wish we had him for longer but we got all the pictures we wanted in 5 hours. The more is better... but we couldn't afford additional hours. I would say you need minimum of 5 hours - 30 min getting ready, 30 min ceremony, 30 min family pics, 1-1:30hr two of you, 30 min dance,speech, etc, 1 hr eating, 1hr or more dancing, etc....

You can check out my wedding planning journal (link is provided on the signature) for the makeup & hair. I had Amy and she was GREAT! I had no complaints

Originally Posted by gems2104 

Hi ladies

 

In need of some real help. Have only just started to make plans for my wedding next April 19th. Have got my dress and wedding rings bought but now starting to think about the details for the resort.

 

Started to think about colours but finding it really difficult. Was thinking of having all white (flowers, chair cover, bows and organza over the wedding area) but not sure. Does anyone have any pictures they could forward to me to help? Any colour would give me an idea.

 

I've started looking at the recpetion areas and was thinking of having it on the beach as we're getting married on the beach. Has any had their wedding and reception on the beach? If so what was the layout like and was it ok to be on the beach or would you recommend another area?

 

I was hoping to get a seperate room for the night before the wedding so we didnt see each other on the morning of the wedding. Has anyone done this and how much did you pay?

 

Ive got a package already paid for with the photographer, but was wondering who you would recommend out of the 2 choices the hotel offers? And how long to have them for? As my package only covers and hour and Im not sure how long the wedding etc will take.

 

I was thinking about getting my hair and make up done at the hotel and was wondering if anyone used their services or did it themselves. Which is better?

 

Sorry for so many questions, didnt realise getting married abroad would need so much organising and decision making. Thought it was meant to be easier. I was sooo wrong!

 

Thank in advance for anyones help

 

Gemma

XXXX

We had Family Style reception dinner. I am not sure about BBQ but the Family Style dinner was a lot of food. Nobody finish the platter. I posted a picture of our family style dinner platter somewhere page 1060s. We didn't have cocktail hour and we are glad we didn't. We just opened the bar early for everyone to get their drinks (to make sure they stay around the area). We had more than enough food that I would've been MAD if we had cocktail hour where everyone was full from little finger foods and not able to eat our delicious robster tail, steak, shrimp, chicken, ribs, etc. But it's all up to you what you want to do!!!
 

Originally Posted by mzgillis316 

Hey Ladies...I'm sure its been bought up before but has anyone done the BBQ deluxe buffet for their reception or cocktail hour? ...we were thinking about having it for our welcome party...There is a lot of food listed but I'm unsure as to how much food they actually give you... if its a pp rate do they make just one peice  of steak for each person ? I'm confused

 

btw CONGRATS AND GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE UPCOMING NOVEMBER BRIDES!!!!

I LOVE steel drum - not too Mexican so we decided not to do it. I thought there was a band that plays steel drum - you can check it out on the LOMAS website.

Just a note... the site WC asks you for the following music:

1) Music for bridesmaids entrance

2) Music for bride entrance

3) Music for signing the paper

4) Music for exit

We did not consider music for all these... but luckily we had extra music to play. Make sure to have all 4 music ready to go.
 

Originally Posted by Michele4172011 

Hi ladies!

 

Tisha-- I love love love your engagement photos. Were they taken in Maryland? If so, I would love to know more details. I have been wanting to do them, but wasn't sure where to turn.

 

Gemma-- I am getting married 2 days before you, so we will probably see each other there! I may also do just white for the ceremony decor, with a splash of tan and maybe one color. I figure that my MOH and mom will have pretty colors on. I just can't decide. Feel free to PM anytime and we can chat. Nice to know I have someone so close!

 

Question-- has anyone heard of a steel drum band they have at the resort? I was thinking this would be a great option for the welcome cocktail party. Either that, or we can put reggae on our iPod. I want something different than the reception.

 

How about ceremony music? What is everyone doing?

 

Thanks XOXOXO

Many of our guests brought NICE pants/dress. You do NOT need them. some people do dress up to go to the restaurants but most of them just wore light clothes (shorts!) over their bathing suite for breakfast and lunch. For dinner, we did wear nice beachy clothes but anything close to what we were to go to fancy restaurants in the states.

Originally Posted by CanadianLindsey 

Does anyone know if men can wear nice jeans to dinners or do they have to wear dress pants?  Our guys are all looking for light weight dress pants and I thought we could save them some money and stress.  On the website it only says no shorts....

Someone asked how much is the setup fee. I paid $60 for the setup fee. We also checked 4 bags ( 2 free and 2 paid). If you are bringing a lot of items, it's hard to determine how much money you are actually saving....

arkae,
I bought my table clothes from TableClothsFactory. They were Great!

Originally Posted by arkae 

Thanks Chong!! ....a website would be great whenever you have a sec

Nikki,
I also brought my iPOD and plug it into their sound system. Worked great! I do recommend bringing your charger. I had one of my friends go back to the hotel room and got us a charger during the reception.

Originally Posted by Nikki O 

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 am not sure about color table clothes from LOMAS. You should ask your WC. I bought mine as you can see in the pictures in the earlier post. I have navy blue color table clothes for 4 round tables (sits and 1 rectangular table cloth for the sweetheart table. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing from me. If this is not the color you are looking for... you can definitely find table clothes for a good price online. I will look for the website I used when I get a chance.

Originally Posted by arkae 

Hi Ladies! Does anyone know how much Lomas charges for coloured table clothes? I wanted to see if we had options beyond the white at the hotel but I can't find anything but coloured runners on the Lomas site.

 

Thanks!

Thanks We bought individual candles and place them in the votive holder for guest tables and bought votive candles for our sweetheart table. No matter how they look in the pictures, all those candles blew out during the night. We did have some windy night though on the beach....

I've seen the battery candle lights being used at the resort. I thought it was really cheap and corky but actually did not look too bad in a nice setup. You might want to consider looking into that.

Originally Posted by Nikki O 

Thanks for the pictures Chong!! Nice centerpieces!! They were similar to what I had in mind. Did you use the regular votive holders? In your first picture the holders looked deeper but in your second picture they looked just like any regular votive holders.
 

Thanks murmel for the info!! I like the idea of adding extra height to the holder but I am not sure if paper is ideal since it could catch fire? I am also not very crafty so it might not look as nice =( I might try lantern style candle holders but I wonder how much they go for. I need about 50 of them! And I live in Toronto Canada so I am not sure if there is a Michael's in the city...

 

 

Hi Ladies.

I am putting together a list of item I am planning to sell. I thought I give you a sneak peak of some of the items you might be interested. Let me know - please PM me.

27 - White Finger Starfish 3" to 4" - we decided not to assign our guest seats so did not use any of our new white finger starfish. I am planning to sell them for $22.

Swarovski Crystal Blue Starfish Brooch - I was planning to use in my bouquet or something... but never used it. I am planning to sell it for $15.

25 - $15 for Navy Blue Organza Sash

Nikki,

I am not sure what's like in Mexico in May but it was pretty windy for us on the beach in October. We thought we had a good clearance from the tip of the wick to the rim of the holder but every one of them went out sometime during the night. I think it's really depends on the weather. I posted some pictures of our reception tables.

Originally Posted by Nikki O 

Quick question for those who got married on the beach or is planning on doing a beach reception...I am thinking of doing a simple rose bouquet in a vase with votive candles around it as centerpieces. However, it can get really windy in the evenings so I think if I get a deeper holder then I should be fine. Right now I am looking at a holder with the height 3 1/4" (from where the candle sits flush at the bottom to the rim) and the candle is 1 3/4" high from the bottom to the top of the wick. So there is about 1 1/2" clearance from the tip of the wick to the rim of the holder. Do you think this is enough of a clearance?

 

Thank you in advance!

Houston Brides! I am now MRS!!! It went by so fast that I cannot believe we got married in Mexico. I am anxiously waiting for my pictures... 2 more weeks to go! I will share them as soon as I get them.

I thought I ask you guys first before posting it online for sale... I have few leftover items from the wedding and thought maybe it would be easy to sell them to Houston brides where I can just meet you... Let me know if you are interested. I have posted couple items here for you to look at.

27 - White Finger Starfish 3" to 4" - we decided not to assign our guest seats so did not use any of our brand new white finger starfish. I am planning to sell them for $22.

Swarovski Crystal Blue Starfish Brooch - I was planning to use in my bouquet or something... but never used it. I am planning to sell it for $15.

25 - $15 for Navy Blue Organza Sash

I only have couple pictures to share...

For those of you who were curious about the food...

You ladies been busy. I've been on non-stop business trip since we got back from Mexico I think I won't be home much until end of this year. I am sorry if I haven't been here to answer any question but please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you haven't heard from me.

jazz04, we brought few decoration stuff to Mexico. You can check it out on my wedding planning journal.

One thing I have to say is that...We were very busy. we got there Wednesday afternoon and the wedding was on Sunday.  We really wanted to greet everyone when they arrived at the resort so we spent many hours at the lobby (and it was worth it). I know some brides say they went out to Cancun or Playa de Carmen to get stuff.... I don't know if we were able to do that with such a busy schedule.

We checked 4 bags and carried 3 bags with us. We took table cloth, ribbons, maracas... sounds a lot but we had a really simple wedding. I got some pictures from my friends so I will post them little later. I am not the best decorator either...but I knew I wanted something simple. It's all up to you what you want to take with you. The location was perfect. I don't think having too much other decorations will make a huge difference. Sorry if this is not helpful but you have to figure out what's important to you. I have to say... nobody really notices anything but the bride/groom and the beach!

 

Originally Posted by jazz04 

Hi chong,

Since you are a past bride I just wanted to ask you what extra decor should be brought to the resort. I am just now starting to think of decorations and things extra I should buy. Any suggestions, I'm not the best planner and it seems everyone on here is.

 

 

We had Erick Rodriguez for 5 hours. We rushed few things with him... and wish we had him for more hours. We only had him for 30 mins for getting ready, 1 hour before the wedding ceremony, 30 min ceremony, 1 - 1-1/2 hour after the ceremony, 1/2 dinner/speech, 1 hr of dancing and whatever. It goes by really fast! But we could really afford him for 5 hours. It's tight but you can get all the pictures you want for 5 hours.

I am not sure how much you will really save by taking your own gazebo fabric. I thought it about it too when I heard the price of the fabric. But instead I got the Exotic Gazebo package - $220. It comes with the fabric and the hanging flowers. It was the BEST deal. I didn't like the wrapped up fabric around the pole so I asked the WC at the resort to just hang them. Your Miami WC might tell you that you cannot do it except for what the picture is shown on the website but that's not true. You can talk to WC at the resort and they will do it for you for no extra charge. This way you get what you want. I didn't mind the white fabric. Actually it looked realy nice.. I will post some pictures.
 

Originally Posted by herbie76 

Hi ladies, I'm after some advise.

Photographers- who are you using and what coverage time are you having? I'm really not sure how long they are needed for can you help??

 

Also does anybody know the dimensions for the sheer for the gazebo near pier? As i'm thinking of taking my own, to get the right colour and save money, Is anyone else doing this?

 

What other things are people taking to cut the costs?

 

Chong can you send me the templates- [email protected]

 

Thanks ladies

I highly recommend the family style dinner. we LOVED it. I would assume it will work with itouch but you should ask your Miami WC.

I had Erick Rodriguez as our photographer and did not have the video package. We had one of our relatives video our wedding instead.

Originally Posted by herbie76 

chong can you email me the templates for you passport, save the date, bubble aqs i cant seem to open them on here

 

I have found what you write so helpful, we were just trying to decide what menu to have and family menu was one of them so we have decided to go with that. Also about the ipod docking station, do you know if it works with itouch? We only have 18 of us going so bit extreme to have a dj.

Can i ask what photographer did you use? Did you have a video?

 

Thanks

 Michelle

x

for those of you planning to use iPOD... it worked out GREAT for us. our WC ended up staying the entire night as our DJ. let me know if you have any questions.

I saw a wedding reception at Zavas Plaza. What do you mean by privacy? I realized no where on the resort is really private. We had beach wedding and beach reception. People were able to stand and watch the wedding and the reception. I thought our reception was private since it was away from the mojito bar & pool bar where everyone pretty much hangout all night. Also, I was pretty annoyed with the wedding party when they were blasting the music until late late night. Our music was loud but by the beach so it did not disturb too many people. It is taped off around the Zavas Plaza but don't think that people are not around to watch and possibly crash your wedding reception

We had our dinner reservation as a rehearsal dinner at SPOONS. The food was DELICIOUS!!! I was really surprised at the food quality and staffs.

We took about an hour to take pictures after the ceremony and told everyone to stay at the reception area!!! You can open the reception bar first so people can start drink and wait for you. You don't want people to be missing when you guys come back and be introduced.

by the way, we picked our signature drink when we got there. it's called mango tango. everyone LOVE the drinks when we had our rehearsal dinner. So instead of mojitos we had mango tango for toasting after the ceremony. it was frozen drinks but they were soooo good.

when they say buffet... it's really not buffet. we had our beach reception near the bbq area. remember that we had family style meals. they cooked all the food right on the bbq grills and waiters carried BIG platters with food and served everyone. each table had the big platter with the leftover food and they were able to trade food with others and serve themselves more later. we had our private server just for two of us to make sure we are served. and there were 4-5 other waiters serving our guests. we had about 27 guests. it was the BEST. so many variety of food... we wanted to make sure we provide good food for the wedding. we had the same thought... they all paid to be at all inclusive resort and did not want to have just steak or chicken or fish. we had that option for our rehearsal dinner. we had more than enough food. people were sooo stuffed and cannot finish the plates. they do not replenish the food. let me know if you have any questions.
 

Originally Posted by nv+gms 

Great planning journal!  Congrats!

I have the same number of people.  I am having a private reception at Zavas plaza.  #1 I wanted the privacy #2 I like the look of the location #3 its yours for the entire time scheduled #4 private bar = quick service. 

Afterwards - I just learned today that the "teen club" transforms at 11pm into an adults only dance club with dj.  My coordinator (who was on site for a 10-10-10 wedding) said that it was more lively than the mojito lounge.  Mojito lounge has some music/bands but definitely more subdued according to my TA - e.g., no dancing.  When I asked if it was "teen like" in appearence - she said no.  Maybe brides that have been can give their opinion on the quality of the teen hangout turns adult only after 11???

I am doing a coctail reception but as a welcome cocktail.  The time in between my ceremony and the reception will probably be less than 1.5 hrs - I am going to advise people to gather at a bar for a drink in between or go back to their room for a siesta if desired!

I am almost 100% certain that we will go with that menu.  I think it has something for everyone.  That or the Mexican buffet. 

Reasons:  versitile menu - people can select what they want.

Downfalls: buffet

Trade-off:  There is no pick and choose menu that allows guests to decide what they want.  I don't feel comfortable "choosing" a menu for over 40 people when they have already paid to stay at an all-inclusive resort where every restaurant allows them to choose according to their tastes.

What I would have preferred:  a pick an choose menu with some variety that is plated and served. (from what I understand - doesn't exist)

 

My TA told me that many items are placed into warming dishes and then there is a BBQ set up to cook/grill main courses.  I'm assuming that they replenish as needed.