Hanna20

Hi there! We had our reception there as well in April and Karla allowed us to give our guests 2 choices (we chose the chicken & beef too)..... I don't think they will let you have 3 but it's worth asking... That restaurant is a great venue, you will love it!

I would say prices started dropping about 8 months prior to our date.... the best price was at 6 months prior and then from there it went up again and didn't drop until about a week before. We had 4 people book the week before we left as the prices were so good at the time. But the other thing to consider is that our resort actually SOLD OUT for the week that we were going so some of our guests had to book at one of the sister resorts instead.

Hi there! We just got married 3 weeks ago in the Mayan Riviera Mexico and we went through the same thing when we first started getting quotes. It was about $1900/person and we thought that was way too high. Basically what I did was check the prices myself online every few days to see if there was a drop... Then when the posted prices were about $1700/person I asked my travel agent to request a group rate for us. At that point the group rate came back at about $1600/person so only $100 less than the posted price. Still wasn't quite where we wanted to be with the price.... So I kept checking every few days and eventually the posted price went down to $1585 and once again I asked my travel agent to obtain a new group quote. This time the group quote came back at $1460/person and that included all fees/taxes. That is exactly where we wanted to be price wise so we jumped on the rate and it ended up being that the prices never went any lower than that. I should mention that we got that rate in October for our April wedding so basically 6 months in advance. I wouldn't worry about trying to get your trip booked so early because guranteed prices WILL go down it's just a matter of when.

Yay! I'm so glad you got in time! May it bring you all the good luck that it brought to me:)

Wow!! My spelling is terrible when I try to hurry! Sorry about all the typos!

Hello ladies!!! Sorry I have been MIA since I got back but I am crazy busy tryingt o catch up on everything at work (and to be hones that is where I did most of my posts and reading for this forum!).... Tomorrow is our legal ceremony so I am also trying to get rady for that. Hannah - starfish is on the mail so you should definitely have it before you leave (not sure how long it would take to get from Canada to the US). As far as a good meeting place for everyone there is a bar in the lobby of each hotel which is usually a pretty good choice. Wd stayed at the Beach/Del Mar so we didn't really venture over to the Mindo/Maya at all but they all have similar set-ups. About the bracelet thing.... they WILL NOT give you an extra one no matter what. You actually have to save the bracelet that you cut off your wrist and give it back to them before they will give you a new one. So DO NOT throw out your bracelet once you cut it off for your wedding. Put it in your room safe and then take it to the lobby and exchange it for a new one. One thing I found about the Iberostar in comparison to other resorts is that they are VERY unflexible on their rules/procedures. Like for example, I was the BRIDE and they refused to let me in the disco without a bracelet even though EVERY bride cuts hers off for the wedding!!! In the end the disco manager came and apologized to me for the "scene" that was caused by them not letting me in but that was only because one of our friends pretty much made him do it! I can definitely reassure everyone about the actual wedding though!!! BEAUTIFUL & PERFECT!! Couldn't have asked for more and I know all of your weddings will be wonderful too!

Hello ladies!! Well we got back late last night and everything was AMAZING!!! I know you're all dying to hear all about it so here goes... Most of our group flew together on the same flight and that went smoothly other than the plane that we were on did not have a single closet on it and therefore they were unable to hang up my dress:( There was another bride on our flight as well and she couldn't hang her dress either. We both had to cram our dresses in the overhead bins. Luckily people were nice enough to not try and put their stuff in the bin that had my dress in it. The other thing I should mention is that I had to put my dress through the security scanner on the conveyor belt and it got the garment bag dirty (I was NOT happy about that but luckily the dress didn't have a mark on it). So make sure you have a good garment bag! Once we got to the resort check in was fairly quick and they upgraded us to an ocean view junior suite. The juniro suite is basically about 5 feet longer than the regular rooms but other than that they are exactly the same. The ocean view was a nice touch though. Karla was waiting for us when we chacked in and we had a brief meeting with her to go over all the details. She is very nice and is extremely organized so you don't need to worry about anything with her. We gave her a cd with some music that we wanted played during our ceremony and she also let us know that she would leave us a letter which contained all of the charges so that we could pay for it at reception. That letter arrived in our room the next day. She also explained that we had to pay the penalty to the resort photographers one day prior to the wedding in order for our external photographers to be allowed access to the resort. Well we didn't do that and our photographers had no problems getting access. We thought we would try to avoid paying the penalty like Tara did but when we went to check out it had been charged to our room so ladies there is no getting around it anymore! Oh well! We had a "rehearsal" dinner with our whole group of 42 at the Meditteranean restaurant and that was really not all that great. They seemed a little disorganized at the restaurant and they had a really stupid set up for our tables even though there was hardly anyone else in there. I would suggest you stick to the Japanese restaurant like Erin had recommended. That was a way better experience when we had one of our a la carte dinners there. Make sure you let your guests know to book their a la carte dinners as soon as they arrive as the reservations fill up very quickly and if you wait a few days you will only get 9pm reservations (if that). The day before our wedding I decided to be a wedding crasher and watch someone else's wedding which took place in the gazebo. That location is definitely very private as compared to the beach so if you don't want strangers around then you should probably stick with the gazebo. It is also more shady as it is amongst the trees. If you ask Karla she will let you know if there are weddings in the days leading up to your weddings and by watching one it will give you an idea of how they set things up etc. On our wedding day we didn't do much in the morning and we tried to stay out of the sun to avoid gettint too burnt! I met my photographers in the lobby at 1:30pm and took them back to our room to get started. We used PHOTOS IN CANCUN and they were wonderful! They stayedw ith us the whole day and at the end of the night they gave me 4 DVDs with all of the photos that they took (more than 2500!!). I now have the daunting task of going through them all to pick my 100 favorite which they will then edit and send to me on a new disk! So back to the wedding day.... Lorena (one of the photographers) did my hair and make up in my room while Derek (the other photographer) snapped photos all the way through. I LOVED my hair and make up! I would also highly suggest that you all put your hair into up-dos as it is pretty windy on the beach and you don't want your hair flying around in all your photos. A couple of my girlfriends and my mom and sister came to my room and hung out while I was getting ready. My bouquet was delivered right to my room and it was GORGEOUS! I just got the flowers that were included in the package and they were beautiful.... I wouldn't have wanted anything different. It took me much longer to get ready than I thought it would so make sure you leave yourselves plenty of time. I was about half hour late for the ceremony! Once I was ready they sent a golf cart to come get me and take me to the ceremony location. There is a pretty long walk way and half of it is through a bunch of trees so you walk for a while before you see the ceremony site and your guests. The ceremony site was beautiful and I was really surprised at how many people had gathered to watch our wedding. I would say we had at least 50 strangers all around watching us! The minster spoke pretty good english so I was happy about that and they had a microphone so everyone was able to hear what we were saying. We wrote our own vows and every single person was crying when we read them!! Even the strangers who were watching cried and I had people coe up to me throughout the resort in the days after the wedding commenting on how beautiful everything was! The ceremony was about 25mins and once it was done they handed out champagne to everyone so we could have a champagne toast. We took tons of pictures with everyone on the beach and then we let everyone go their own was so the two of us could get photos alone. The reception srated at 6:30pm at the open air restaurant on the Del Mar side. I am so happy we chose to go with the private dinner as that venue is perfect! Karla had the tables set up exactly as I specified on my seating plan and they had all of the centerpieces in the middle along with everyone's place cards. The cake was set up on a seperate table and it looked great too! We had hired DJ Doremixx for the reception and they were great! Everyone was dancing the night away.... he brought glow sticks and masks which made everything even more fun. We ended up sneaking out of the reception for about 20mins so that we could go get some pictures take at the beach while the sun was going down and I am so glad we did that! Those are some of my favorite photos! The reception went until 10:30pm and then we all went back to our rooms to get changed. After that we went over to the disco to continue the party. I had cut my bracelet off for the wedding so they wouldn't let me into the disco until I went to the front desk to get a new bracelet:( That just about started a rumble at the entrance to the disco since it was so ridiculous that they wouldn't let the BRIDE in! All in all I am very happy with how everything turned out... the wedding was perfect and everyone had the time of their lives!! You will all have beautiful weddings at the Iberostar! Here are a couple of things that I want to let you know about so that you are aware: - The resort is HUGE!! Much much bigger than I would have ever expected. You will be doing A LOT of walking as their trolleys don't really run regularly. Make sure you take lots of flat shoes cuz you won't be able to wear heels much! - Make your a la carte reservations as soon as you get there. - Go out to the beach early in the morning to "reserve" your beach loungers. I would recommend bringing your own beach towels with you because then you will be able to tell which ones are yours among all of the resort's blue beach towels. - It is almost impossible to find your family/friends in the resort unless you happen to catch people while they are in their rooms. I would recommend letting your guests know that it may be a good idea for them to put an international texting package on their cell phone for the month so that you all have a way of communicating that won't cost an arm and a leg. We had a couple of people who had thought of that (wish I would have!) and it made their lives MUCH easier. - Provide people with a list of important events (ie. rehearsal dinner, group outing etc) along with times & locations so that everyone can plan around them. - Bring ALOE with you no matter what! People will get sunburned and it is very expensive to buy it there. - I highly recommend getting a massage on the beach.... it was wonderful and a great way to relax before the wedding! I think thats all I have for now but feel free to ask me any questions that you may have. I am still trying to sort through the pictures so once I get that done I will try to figure out the best way to share them! Hannah - I will mail you the starfish tomorrow!

Yup freaking out a bit for sure!!! It's so close now.... hard to believe how fast the last few months have gone by. Today is my last day of work and we leave on Saturday. We have 40 people coming with us and 35 of us are all on the same flight! The next couple of days will be filled with all of our last minute running around and appointments galore!! Dentist, hair, nails, wax, etc etc!

Hi Nucci, We are April 6th! Coming up fast.... we leave on Saturday! We chose not to go with the "Mac Daddy" package and instead we got the paradise package (I think thats what its called) and added on the private reception. We hired Photos in Cancun for photography and DJ Doremixx for music. Who did you end up going with? So much to do its hard to find the time to even get on here now but I still try!!

Hello! My wedding is at the Beach/Del Mar on April 6th (coming up sooooo fast!!!) and I did the same thing with the place cards as Erin. So just to clarify.... if you're having a private reception then they will allow you to give your guests a choice of 2 entrees (since you have to have a set menu). You need to find out ahead of time what each of your guests want to eat (ie. beef or chicken) and then you must make placecards that have the person's name on one side and their entree choice on the other side. You also have to prepare a seating chart which you have to send to the wedding coordinator. They need you to do all this so that on the day of they know where everyone is sitting and what they are having for dinner. Does that make sense? I think that Erin just chose to do colour coding but I don't believe that is mandatory. I also agree with you about the fee for external photographers.... It is ridiculous in my mind! We hired an external photographer and we have to pay a fee of $300 (which was the fee with the old company and they are honoring it since that was the deal when we booked). We also have to pay $50 each for day passes for them and also for the DJ (we hired DJ Doremixx). All in all its not cheap but it will be great!!!

It is a bit low cut but definitely supportive.... I wear a C-cup and it holds em up just fine!

Hello ladies! I was reading through the posts and saw that some of you ordered the "Emily" cover-up and weren't totally happy with it.... This is sort of unrelated but I just got my Victorias Secret order today and I absolutely LOVE one of the items that I ordered so I really wanted to recommend it to my fellow April brides in case some of you are still looking for things....at least those of you who still have time to actually order stuff online! I really wanted to buy a nice light dress that I could wear to dinner one night and I came across this one and decided to go with it... It fits so well and looks so cute on... very flattering too! It has a shelf bra built in so you don't even have to wear a bra and it still looks great! Just thought I would provide a mini review:)

Hello fellow April Brides! I know it was talked about on here a while back about what to get as a gift for your wedding coordinator at the resort.... I actually just told my wedding coordinator that I would really like to bring her a gift and asked her if there was anything that she would like from Canada..... she was so grateful and went on and on about how nice that was of me! Anyway what she said was that she loved any aromatherapy kinds of things (so I guess body spray, lotion, candles, shower gel, etc). So my idea now is to go to Bath and Body works and buy a bunch of things that I could put into a basket for her once we get there. I think that kind of stuff is expensive for them in Mexico (on their low wages) and is a luxury so I think it will be a great gift thats also budget friendly for me!! Just an idea for you all who were maybe trying to get ideas fo what to get them.

Lua, Cute dress! I am actually heading over to H&M on my lunch break today to see what they have.... I wanted to tell you that I went to my local Old Navy last night and I bought that tunic cover up that you ordered..... I ended up buying the pink one and I love it!!! It is very cute on.... fits great and is very comfortable. Looks like a million bucks!

Hi Hannah, I never heard back from you about the starfish.... am I leaving it at the resort with Karla or would you like me to mail it to you once we get back? If mail then PM me your address please! OMG...... 15 days till we leave!!!! I can't believe it's coming so fast! I had my bridal shower last weekend and that was awsome and tomorrow I have my "bachelorette" shindig..... I think anyway! My friends are being very secretive with me about it.... I have no idea what we are doing, where we are going or even who is coming! All I know is I have to be ready at noon and that is when I am being picked up! This does not help me plan my outfits at all!!!!!!! Oh well I am sure it will be great whatever it is! 2 weeks..... 2 weeks..... 2 weeks!!! CRAZY!!!

Hi Laura, Have you tried ordering what you want from OldNavy.ca (the Canadian site)? I woinder if shipping would be different getting it through there? I also just received a 30% off coupon for Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic (just for the Canadian stores) which can also be used online so if you're interested I can email it to you....

Hi Hannah! Yes it is JUST around the corner! We leave in 19 days and the wedding is in 23 days! I still can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Karla was away on vacation for a couple of weeks so I am now in the process of finalizing all of the last details with her. The only things that we have left to do are: finish the playlist for the dj, make place cards & seating chart, finalize a couple of details with the photographer, buy a shirt for FI and maybe a couple more clothing items for myself. I had my shower this past weekend and that was great, my friend did an amazing job! She even took a picture of what my bouquet is going to look like and she had flower arrangements made for the shower just like it.... they were beautiful and very thoughtful! My bachelorette party is this upcoming Saturday (I think.... they are really keepng me in the dark about it) and that is about it. I received the starfish from Erin.... it's very cute and sparkly! Can't wait to pass it on to you! Do you want me to leave it at the resort with your wedding coordinator or would you rather I mailed it to you?

You still have lots of time so be prepared that the price you're going to be given right now by your TA is going to be really high! We were shocked when we got our first quote..... our TA suggested that we wait till we get closer to the date and then get another quote as they always start out very high and then generally go down as it gets closer. We ended up booking our group rate in late Oct for our April wedding and that was the best timing cuz we got a really good price and we also had the option of a one time price adjustment if the price went down between then and the final payment due date (which was in early Feb). We actually just found out last week that the Beach and Del Mar are completely sold out for the week that we are going so those people who were waiting to book last minute to get a better price must now either book at the Lindo/Maya or not come! And the Lindo/Maya are going for a good $300-400 more per person than what we paid!! We decided to pay the peanlty to bring in an external photographer because I didn't really care for the work of the resort photographers. We also hired DJ Doremixx (who Erin also used and loved) and he is very highly regarded by everyone who has used him so we are excited that we went with him. We didn't book the "mac daddy" package, we went with the symbolic ceremoney on the beach and we are also doing the private reception at the open air restaurant. It's getting so close now.... just finalizing the last details and before you know it we're going to be on the plane! I would be happy to share some of our photos after we get back if you are interested.

Hopefully Reyna can clear things up for you and give you a definitive answer.... As for your question about whether or not it would be too cold to have your reception in the open air restaurant in Dec... I think you would be alright. It won't be "hot" and some people may need a cardigan but it definitely won't be freezing! You can always do a google search for average temps in the Riviera Maya in Dec and that should give you a better idea of what kind of temp you should expect. I also saw your post in another thread about photographers and I wanted to make sure you knew that the Iberostar charges a penalty if you bring in an external photographer. We chose to pay the penalty so we could use someone other than the resort photographer but some people may not want to fork out the money for the penalty (I think the penalty may be as much as $500 now!).

Hello! If you read back a few pages you will see that a few others wanted to stay at the Lindo and have the reception at the Del Mar but I don't believe they were allowed to do that. The Lindo & Maya have a different restaurant they use for receptions and they also have different wedding coordinators too. The Tucan is not part of the complex.... it is further south (past Playa del Carmen I think) so they would also have their own wedding coordinator. I would email them directly to find out if their packages are the same or not. Hope this helps a little bit! We leave in 3 weeks for our wedding.... staying at Beach and having our reception at the open air restaurant at Del Mar!

The Beach and Del Mar are sold out for arrivals between April 1-5 so as long as your guests are planning on arriving April 6th or later then they should be fine (for now anyway). I can't remember when your wedding is so this may not affect you at all but the same thing could happen as you get closer to your date as well.

Hi there, We are using Photos in Cancun for our wedding in April in the Mayan Riviera. Their prices are incredible compared to most of the others and they do really good work. I just copied and pasted this from their web site http://www.photosincancun.com/ $750. Small Wedding Package- Two photographers Includes 3 hours of digital photography covering pre-ceremony, ceremony, various family groupings, individual and bride/groom portraits, this package is perfect for anyone that wants the basics covered. We will provide comprehensive editing and retouching to a minimum of 30 Photos of your choice. Hi Resolution images are released to you on DVD. Same Day Delivery.

Hello April Brides! I just wanted to let you all know about something..... we are getting married on April 6th at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach and as of right now our resort is officially sold out! I didn't think that actually ever happened! We had some potential guests who were waiting to book to try and get a better last minute deal and now they are out of luck! Our resort actually has 5 resorts in one so the two 4.5 star ones are sold out and now all thats available are the three 5 star ones which are all more expensive! Just something to keep in mind and maybe let your guests know that if they wait too long then they may lose out all together. P.S. It is now March so we can officially say we're getting married "Next Month"!!!!

Hi Girls!!! Well it is now March and I can officially say that I am getting married next month! I wanted to let those of you coming up after me know about something though.... we had some people who insisted on waiting to book their tripo in order to try and get a better deal last minute...... WELL our resort is now sold out! Both the Beach and the Del Mar so all that is left for our dates is the Lindo or the Maya (both of which are more expensive). I had never really heard of a resort actually selling out before but apparently it does happen! So I wanted you all to be aware and to let your potential guests know that if they wait too long then they may be out of luck! Apparently 2011 is one of the biggest years for destination weddings ever in history! Something to keep in mind! Other than that, here is where we are now with our stuff: I pick up my dress on March 9th (it will be totally finished, alternations and all) My FI and I are tkaing his mom shopping in the states this weekend to try and find her a dress (and us some clothes!) My shower (that I didn't really feel right about having) is on March 12th My bachelorette party is on March 19th (I think... they're trying to keep it a surprise!) I have to make my place cards and seating chart I have to send Karla the final details sheet We both have to finish writing our vows (we're doing our own) We have to finish our playlist for the DJ How is everyone else doing? I'm really excited to receive the starfish pin.... It's going to be my "Something Borrowed"

Awesome! Thanks so much:)