mochamakes3

The morning of our wedding I was trying to come up with our play list. I asked my seven year old nephew to choose between "Pour some sugar on me" or "White Wedding" by Billy Idol. He chose "white wedding." I just thought it was funny and didn't even really hear it in the background.

If you really want specific flowers, here's what I did. I had my heart set on orange calla lilies, but didn't want to pay the MP price. So I ordered real touch flowers and made my own bouquet. When we got to MP I asked our WC if I could have the comp bouquet incorporated into mine. They added fuchsia roses and it turned out beautiful. I made the BM bouquets completely out of real touch flowers and no one could tell they were fake. Our civil ceremony started at about 3:10 and by 3:25 we were married and the ceremony was over. We had the cocktail hour immediately afterwards in the adjacent area. It lasted one hour. At the end of the hour, our WC announced that cocktail hour was done and that the guests could go the lobby bar until the reception. My mom still laughs about the way it ended.

Still available! PM your info and I will send a shipping estimate.

The membership is not cheap, and not something you would purchase just for your wedding.

I did all the bookings, since I am listed as a beneficiary they let me do everything. When I priced out the options a few months before the wedding, the price for a package deal from Canada vs. booking our own flights and using the membership was a little bit less. My MOH booked through a TA and she said it was a couple hundred less. Looking back, I would have offered her the difference. We were only 5 nights away from the 75 night mark. But, here was the process. About 8 months before our wedding I contacted Palace Resorts and arranged a room block for 30 rooms with a wide range of dates. We did not have to pay any deposits to secure the rooms, and I could have booked as few or as many as I wanted. When we booked our room, we had to pay 20%. The balance was due two months before arrival. The unbooked rooms were released one month before arrival. We were still able to make reservations within our block up until a few weeks before our arrival. For the additional benefits with a membership, everyone in the group takes advantage of all the membership benefits. This is usually two free excursions, a free mani, free pedi, free 25-min back massage for each person. Even my 7 year old nephew went for a mani and pedi. Everyone gets the $1500 palace dollars, no matter whether they book with a TA or directly. As long as you have a group booking, you're entitled to the booking perks as you reach the different room levels. We had a few guests book outside our membership, and they were not included in our room night count. We had Geraldine Flores, she is not a WC. She is only the wedding sales contact in Miami. She was actually the third person to handle our reservations. From my experience, nobody in the Miami office knows a thing about how to treat customers. They were all slow and made mistakes. That office was the only reason that made me regret not getting a TA.

LanaM, We were able to arrange a golf cart to transport some of our guests from our rooms beside Lake Terrace to the Bugambilias Terrace. It didn't cost us anything because we are Palace VIP. There's usually golf carts driving around that you can have drive you. I know we snagged them quite often.

We booked our wedding through my parent's membership. It was maybe a couple hundred more than using a TA. But you definitely get more benefits booking through a membership. If guests complain about the difference, you can remind them about the free tours, mani, pedi, massage and superior rooms. The bride and groom also got another free massage when we were there, in addition, when we met our WC she offered us a free photography package. We didn't use the photos because we had friends doing our photography. You could always use a TA to arrange flights? We had people traveling from about 7 different cities, so we just called the airlines and asked for a wedding group discount.

Here's my comments to your additional questions.

I am also having trouble editing my ads to include a picture later. I thought the red x was displayed so that you could delete the picture?

Here's the picture, it wouldn't let me edit the post.

I purchased a set of garters to wear on our wedding day, but forgot to put them on. I am selling one of the garters to a lucky Colts fan. This is handmade with sheer organza and royal blue satin. There is a football charm and a Colts horseshoe applique. It is a really beautiful item and would be great for your "something blue."

I guess they caught onto us all bringing our own decor to save money. I only paid $55 for a set up fee three months ago. They were supposed to charge me once for ceremony and once for reception, but I only got charged $55 total. And it looked beautiful!

Hello ladies! It has been a few months since our wedding and I am now ready to part with some decorations. I have 30 Fuschia Satin Chair Sashes and 30 Tangerine Satin Sashes that are available for sale. I also have 8 Fuschia Satin Table Runners. Everything has been cleaned and is in excellent condition. These colors are beautiful in a tropical setting. I am in Canada, but I will ship elsewhere.

It's been a little while since anyone checked in. Would any of you like to share how the process is going?

If you want to go the knock off route, DO NOT TRY ON THE ORIGINAL! The knock off dresses made are based on pictures, not the actual patterns that the designer has. There will be differences and you may end up disappointed. Try on dresses with similar shapes to make sure it suits your figure. Most of the dresses are custom made to your measurements, get proper professional measurements and send those instead of just a basic size selection. If you try on the original and fall in love with that, either pay full price, try to find a sample, or buy a used version. You wouldn't settle for a man that's pretty close to your FH, so why would you settle for a similar dress. Keep an open mind and try not to stress about late shipping. P.S. Don't be surprised if your dress arrives in a tiny package wrapped in a plastic bag. That's why they make steamers and irons.

First of all, a marriage is legal worldwide no matter which country you get married in. As long as it is a civil marriage registered with the government in the country where it is performed. We chose to get legally married in Mexico because we didn't have time to do it before hand, and I didn't want just a symbolic wedding. I figured if we had that much trouble once we returned, we could reaffirm our vows in Canada. So now that we are complete with the whole process here's my opinion. Before we left, we had to order the long form versions of our birth certificates, which cost about $30 each. When we were in Mexico, we had to have blood taken at our resort. For a civil ceremony in Mexico, we paid $300, this included translating all our documents to Spanish and the blood tests. We also requested additional copies of our marriage certificate for $14. When we returned, I tried to assume my husband's name with our marriage certificate, but was told to have it translated by a certified translator. It cost 20 cents per word, or roughly $60. If you want the contact info for our translator, please PM. I scanned the originals and sent them to her via email. Within a week, I received 2 certified originals of the translation. So cost wise, getting legally married in Mexico and being able to assume my husband's name cost us $420. I'm glad we did it legally in Mexico.

Usually, our smallest group for dinner was 14. Sometimes we would call before we left our room, other times we would just show up and wait. The restaurants can often accommodate everyone, but not always at the same table. We would usually get assigned three or four tables close together. The only time we were spread out was at Mo No Hana, the Japanese restaurant in Sunrise. We had a table of ten in the back, a table of 6 on one side and a table of 8 in the middle. Just make sure everyone knows where to go and what time to meet. They were not impressed when 2 people would show up and ask for a table of 18. On the plus side, pretty much everywhere is near a bar so you can drink and snack while you wait. The Brazilian restaurant even hands out pagers.

How does the rest of the top look? Is it allright? I would ask the vendor for a refund. Take the dress to a trusted seamstress and see if they can fix it, and how much it would cost. Hopefully, there is enough fabric at the bottom to save the skirt. When you received the package did you write on the delivery slip that the box was crushed? If you didn't note damage to the box on delivery, you might be out of luck for the tiara. If you can find someone that will guarantee that another dress will be complete and shipped out within the next two weeks, you shouldn't have any trouble getting a new one delivered before your wedding. But be prepared for a lot of stress. I ordered a new dress two months before our wedding, I am a whatever happens, I'll deal, type of person and it was damn stressful! They kept delaying shipment and I ended up getting my dress a week before we left. I had to rush around trying to find a seamstress to get alterations done in two days. Good Luck!

All of the decor that is included in packages gets moved to the receptions. No, your family and friends cannot use their credits to buy things for your wedding. You could use your grandparents credits to pay for tours/golf/salon or upgraded wine. For the wine they usually check the bracelet number though, so you'd have to do it with them there.

Here's a few pictures of our treat table.

Rae, don't worry about your guests heading to one of the bars. We had both cocktail hour and dinner reception, and in between our guests still went to the Nizuc lobby bar for drinks. But I really think you should consider paying for the 6 nights, look at the calculations: Cost: $260 * 6 = 1560 Savings: $600 for reception + 4 nights refunded ($148 * 2 *4) = 1784 Plus, maybe you can convince her to throw in the cocktail hour. So it might cost you more upfront, but in the end you will save some money.

Thanks so much ladies! It worked out perfectly that it was sunny when we started, a little overcast while in the ocean, and finally the only rain of our whole trip. The only thing that didn't work out was our underwater shots with our personal camera But everything that our photographers did was wonderful.

Hi Erin, yes, I think we have been for a while. I liked your slide show comment if that helps. haha Good luck with your AHR, it feels good to have it all done. Especially with all the new baby planning you will get to do. I feel you on the getting rid of the messiness, DH can not wait to rid our house of miscellaneous wedding crap.

Someone did copy the original post in their reply. Here is the link: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/56206/10-things-every-dw-bride-should-know-from-the-get-go/50#post_1310429 It is all great advice. But I think the most important is to allow yourself to become addicted to this site. You will find a ton of support and answers to most of your questions. If nothing else, you will find a bride that got married at your same resort and will give you faith that it will all turn out beautiful (in most cases).

I miss all you ladies too. I know some of us became facebook friends, but that's no excuse. If I haven't added you, send me your email in a PM. I would hate to lose complete contact with everyone. I can't believe how quickly time flies. We had our AHR over the weekend and I am so sad that all the wedding stuff has to go away now. We got our pro album, but are waiting on the prints so we can send out our thank you cards. Meggers, I hope you get your photos soon. Teira, I'm already telling DH that we are having a vow renewal after 10 years so I can finally find my dream dress! And also trying to convince him that we should go on a honeymoon.