hammy0426

Jacjade, one more tip...you could always trying calling the hotel directly and try to negotiate pricing directly with them. I know that one of my TA's called there and spoke with the group rates person and they were able to match the pricing that we got on bookit.com. It would stand to reason that they may be somewhat flexible in their rates if they are talking directly to you. Also, if you book directly through the hotel, they offer that free room for every 5 or 6 guest rooms booked (I know that another bride said that her TA did not end up honoring that deal but if you through the hotel, they may be able to honor it). Just an idea... I think that the reason that we had no problems with any of our rooms is because the WC has all the names of the guests and makes sure there are no issues.

Hi ladies, even though I got married about one month ago...this site was my life line for so long that I can't help checking in every few days... There seems to be a lot of talk about a having a TA or not. although I did not have a good experience with my TA, I called a few different ones in the beginning and asked for quotes. I never hid it from them that I was shopping around and that seemed to help with pricing. I also did my own research on-line myself to see what pricing I could get on my own..ultimately I ended up not using a TA and booking on line and letting my guests book on-line themselves. TA might help if you have a larger party or if you are coming from another country like some of the brides, just keep your options open. I did not block out rooms for my party and unless you are having your wedding on a super busy week or a large group, I don't see why you would need to do so. I had guests booking on-line up to 3 weeks before the wedding and since you give the guests names to your WC before you arrive, we had no problems with the rooms even though the resort was at over 100% capacity. There was no way I could have fronted all that money for each guest room deposit in advance. All of the platinum room guests were all located in the 7000 building so we were close to each other and the non-platinums were on the other side of the resort. Not sure if it is necessary to block rooms for your party. Even if your party ends up in another building or on the non-platinum side, the resort is not very large and all the restaurants and bars are centrally located so we did not have any problems with gathering together.

Carly, great pictures! doesn't it make you want to do it all over again when you look at the pictures...?

Hi Jenn, I recently had my wedding there and had the Divine package also. I can't help with the appetizers because I busy getting pics taken and never got any. Most people said they were good but not enough -my guests only got 2-4 pieces each and I swear either Pilar or the wedding brochure told me that you get 7 pieces per person for the included 25 guests. this might not matter for most parties but we had a long break between the ceremony and the dinner and people were hungry. For the dinner, what ever you do, DO NOT order the beef carpacio! I don't know what it is like here in the states but it was like some gelatinous red goo on our plates -yuck. I think only 2 or 3 people ate it. we had the spinach ravioli for 2nd course and it was good -everyone liked it and ate it. It was served with a green basil/spinach cream sauce over the top. For the entrees, I let the guests "pre-order" what they wanted and supplied the entree count to Pilar before I left for NJ. I had the tuna and although it was overcooked, it still tasted good and everybody else liked the beef and the salmon. For the dessert, we had the almond thing and it was hard as a rock. Nobody ate it because we had cake and then the dancing started. I would recommend trying to substitute the dessert cause you already have one with the cake. If you wanted something light so people are not so full that they cannot eat the dinner, I know the Eternity package has a salad as an option and I wish I had thought about substituting the dessert with a different starter choice. Hope this helps Meg

Primavera, it does seem that there is always a lot going on right before the wedding and it ends up with a lot of added stress. Don't worry, it will all work out. I left my turquoise chair sash's with Pilar. I know you said that you are having aqua and the turquoise color would be almost the same. I like there was 50 of them. I left 8 sand colored table runners. I also left 12 vases that were 9 inches tall, 12 vases that were 7 inches tall and 12 vases that were 4 inches tall (Pilar told me that 4 vases broke but I am not sure what sizes broke). I left 4 picture frames that I used for table numbers and also about 50 raffia fans that I used for the chairs for the ceremony. If you are going to use candles in the vases, I recommend ones that I found at DollarTree -I found oversized tealights that fit perfectly in the bottom of the 4 inch vases. Even being at Castaways which is outside, they stayed light. I wrapped the small and large vases with eyelet fabric and trimmed the bottoms with sand colored ribbon. the candle light flickered through the holes in the fabric. everything that I put on the vases was used with double-sided sticky tape so someone else could peel them off. The star of my vases were the ones that I spent the least amount of time on...in the middle vases, I put small starfish that I bought on line, filled the vase with water and put a waterproof light in the bottom which makes everything illuminated and magnified the size of the small starfish. Pilar put some of my crystal rocks on the bottom and a floating flower on top. It looked awesome, provided more light when it gets dark and looked great in pictures in too. Just trying to give you some ideas...

jacqjade, hmmmm well my bookings were different than yours -long story about being first booked at another resort and then firing our travel agent...so we all booked around the same time through bookit as it was only about 3 months before the wedding! We had many different departure cities and we also had people staying from 5-10 days and arriving and leaving all different days. Because of all the drama with our bookings, I just told everyone to go to the site and book themselves. I did not block off rooms or talk to the hotel about at all. The resort was fully booked that week to the point that they were sending people to other resorts and we had no problem booking or getting into the resort. Sorry I can't be more help... I regret going through a travel agent to begin with at all. I was trying to make to seemless and stress=free for my guests but everyone wanted to search themselves for better pricing. (not that they could find better pricing than what we originally had because believe me, I searched long and hard to find the best rates for everyone). trying to coordinate everyone else's vacation was the most stressful part of my planning. I told my sister who is considering a DW that if she does it, to tell people the location and allow them to book themselves. A lot less stress! One hint for bookit is that some days they have "sales" on the resort pricing and it tells you there is only one day left...the sale will end but it came right back the following day for the same sale price.

I used a fake flower in my hair but I think that a real one would be nice. You should research which flowers last better and keep their shape in the heat before you decide. If the one that you wanted to use ends up wilting in the heat then maybe fake would be better or switch what flower you would use.

Irishdonna, your pricing sounds comparable and it is awesome to have a direct flight. Also great to have a one time price reduction option... I know it is hard to believe in the stage of planning the weeding but from what I found after planning the wedding and then having it, everything has a way of working itself out in the end. and if it doesn't...you will be so relaxed and happy while you are there, that you will not care. I am so excited for everyone because I know that you will have the absolute BEST time while you are there. sigh...I wish I could have my wedding and that week all over again.

Kmart, I has the Devine package. the DJ did the announcing and first dance, etc prior to dinner being served. Then he put an auto music selection to play during dinner. The Dj and MC left during dinner and came back at the last course. Then the DJ hours began and we did cake cutting and then 3 hours of dancing. I am not sure what to suggest to Pilar about the extra DJ hour. I never even mentioned it to her as I did not think that would even be an option of a free DJ hour and I was not going to pay the extra $350 for one hour. Glad I had it because my family likes to dance and drink and we had so much fun. FYI: the DJ/MC brings colored lights to use and flash during dancing. FUN! and it looked great.

Irishdonna, long story but I will make it as short as possible. I originally had a TA and my party was originally booked at another resort. Meanwhile my meddling aunt thought that she could get better pricing so you went to a different TA with about half my party. Annoying because the 2nd TA could not get close to the pricing that I had so I had to get involved with the 2nd TA also just so the rest of my party could have the same pricing. Part of the resort we were originally booked at blew-up and I did not feel comfortable going there anymore. We had already booked our flights. I decided on Now Jade and the 1st TA could not match the pricing I found on bookit.com. We canceled with her and got our deposits back and we booked directly through the website. The other half of my party with the 2nd TA could not give the deposit back if they canceled so I worked with her to match the pricing on bookit.com. That TA ended up calling the resort directly and getting them to match bookit's pricing for the group. This may help work for you if you can get your TA to call the resort directly.... This worked for myself and my party because we had people coming from many different places and arriving and departing on various days so we did not care about being all together on the same flight. Also, my now husband found the cheapest flights from Cheapo-Air.com. We originally found air from Syracuse NY to Cancun with one stop for only $390 round trip per person! but we had to fly out of Rochester so the mother-in-law did not have to fly alone and we found flights for $495 per person the next day. We booked our flights in Aug or Sep for February travel. We were all pretty flexible on travel dates so that we could get good pricing (hence people arriving anywhere from Wed to Sat and leaving Wed to Friday). The pricing for the airfare steadily increased for months but the rest of the party found ok pricing after Thanksgiving. Kind-of a guessing game and somewhat stressful to deal with but in the end I was happy that we did it because we ended up saving enough for us to stay at the resort 12 days instead of 10. Tip #4: It is AWESOME to have close family and friends celebrate the wedding but I highly recommend staying a few days after everyone leaves so that you and your new hubby can enjoy each other alone. With everybody there to celebrate your wedding, sometimes I felt obligated to have dinner with certain people or at certain restaurants so that we could spend enough time with each guest. Besides the actual wedding, the extra 4 days alone that we had was so nice and very relaxing. Highly recommend it.

Hi jacqjade, I'm not sure if I am reading your question right but i did not end up using the Ipod for the reception. I thought that I would need to and had my sister make a "dinner play list" on her Ipod but the DJ just played some soft dinner music while we ate. I'm sure he would let you hook up your Ipod if you want to play your own songs but to me, it was just background music and I would rather have them chose instead of having myself or someone else get up to manage it. I had two people for the DJ service (both were included). One was the MC or head DJ and he did the announcing and then the DJ or assistant played and cued the music. When we arrived to the reception site, the MC announced the wedding party, we had our first dance, father/daughter dance and mother/son dance. then the MC/DJ played dinner music and left while we ate dinner. He came back right after dinner and he announced the cake cutting, did a bouquet toss and garter toss. Then he started his 3 hours of DJ music so I feel like I got a lot more time and service than I was expecting.

I originally went through a TA but she had a difficult time matching the pricing we found on bookit.com. I ended up leaving her and booking on-line (we already had our flights booked long before separately). Our hotel only pricing ranged from $99 per night for non-preferred tropical view to $147 per night for preferred ocean front view. Booking flights can be tricky but we found ours cheapest during Aug and Sep for travel for Feb. Specifically, I checked flights for weeks on a daily basis and found that the pricing dropped a bit each day right after lunch and would go back up by the time I left for work. My party was arriving on different days and some from different locations so it worked for us because we could not travel together anyways.

I originally only had the DJ for the 2 hrs that comes in the package. I had my sister come up with a dinner play list on her Ipod to play during dinner but the DJ was all set up when we got to the reception site. The MC announced the wedding party and we had the first dances to the music we chose. They played a set track of music during dinner on auto and then came back for the cake cutting. Then the 2 hrs of DJ started and Pilar gave us an extra DJ hour for free. I thought that the 3 full hours of music and dancing was the perfect amount of time. A lot of wedding parties travel to the Beach Bar or Sports Bar after the reception so that you can keep the party going. Also, if you have your cocktail hour at the Beach Bar, you can bring your Ipod and the bartender will hook it up so that you have music playing there also. The speakers at the bar go soft sometimes and the bartender said that it was because of the wind coming off the beach so its not the best sound system but better than renting the equipment or not having any music during cocktail hour.

Sara, I thought that the flower bouquets were small. the brides bouquet is the size of most bridesmaids bouquets at home. I debated using parasols for the bridesmaids or beautiful Asian fans but I could not find any that I liked enough -I wanted something nicer for the girls than the less expensive ones I bought for the guests but could not find one that was nice enough or had the design that I liked. I ended up paying for two bridesmaids bouquets and they were pretty small and definitely not worth $65 but I wanted the flowers so I paid it. They were pretty, just small. A while back another bride mentioned a florist in Cancun or Playa Del Carmen that did her flowers for way less money and she was happy with them. I think it was a bit of a hassle with the resort for her but in the end I think Pilar agreed and told her that for the price she got, that she did not blame her for going with them. Maybe Lisa still has the info...

Shannon, when I was researching Save the Dates, I saw a cute idea of sending a message in a bottle. At the time, it was too much money to spend for the Save the Dates and the plastic bottles looked somewhat cheap to me. but since you probably do not have too many bridesmaids, you could actually do it yourself; get nice glass bottles, write a personalized message to each bridesmaid on burnt edged paper, put a bit if sand, maybe some small seashells or items that have to do with your wedding color or theme. It would not be too expensive to send as long as you do not have too many bridesmaids to ask. Also saw a hint somewhere to tie a string around the message and hang it outside the bottle and stopper to easily pull it out. Also saw a tip to put a bit of coconut oil or maybe something that smells like the beach on the bottom of the stopper so that they can smell something that will remind them of the vacation to come...

Las Olas closes for the lunch/pool time at 6pm. My reception was ready to go by 7pm-ish but I don't think we ended up moving over there until about 7:30 or 8pm. I think beinbag had hers at Las Olas also and I think they told her 8pm but if I remember correctly, she was able to get in there earlier.

Hi jaqjade, I wanted to do the projector thing also but it did cost extra. I cannot remember how much it was going to cost but I did not want to spend the extra money for it so did not end up doing it.

Tip # 3: If you slouch like I do -remember to stand tall at all times and keep your shoulders back. I don't mean to sound like our mom's but it really makes a person look better and you will notice in your pictures.

The bamboo room has tons of space for dancing. Lisa great pic -it really shows how the room looks. Across from the wall of bamboo are two full walls of windows. It looks very bright in there during the day. when I saw it in person, it was a bit smaller than I thought from previous pictures but in reality it would be great for a party up to about 50 guests. I had the Divine menu and for first course my FI chose beef carpacio -I do NOT recommend it. Only a few people ate it and I know it is raw meat but it looked like some gelatinous red gue. 2nd course was the spinach ravioli -I thought that the spinach would have been in the ravioli but it was a spinach/pesto sauce which was really good. main course -I gave everyone their own option before we left and gave the options to Pilar once I got there. dessert -pecan something...I only know of one person who even tried it and said that it was rock hard. Since you get cake (although it does not taste like US chocolate cake), I would ask the WC if you could substitute the salad that they offer in the Eternity package instead. Just a tip for brides out there: Everyone wants beautiful pictures so make sure that you time your ceremony and pictures to occur with enough day light. Remember that days are shorter in our fall/winter season. I was there at the end of Feb and it was dark by 6pm and even taking pics on the beach during 4-6pm the lack of bright sunlight and beautiful blue waters that you get during brighter hours. Also, photojournalist pictures are fantastic but only if you yourself are comfortable. I don't like getting my pics taken much and I thought that it would be easier than it was. It probably is mostly myself and not feeling comfortable but you could see it in a lot of my pictures. Why not try having FI or a friend take some pictures of you now so you can begin to get comfortable in front of the camera and learn how your face and expressions translate in pictures. I wish I had taken that into consideration and "practiced" in front of a camera first.

Hi Jessiphi, I was worried about the decorations also. I am not sure if you have gotten through this whole thread but I brought A LOT of stuff with me for decorations for the same reasons. Ummm....I had 4 extra bags to check in besides our 2 suitcases of luggage. And I had about 5 family members bring some stuff in the 2nd carry-on bag allowed. I didn't end up being able to use all of the stuff because I switched from inside at the bamboo room to outside at castaways and the wind would have blown out some of the candles and the flower decorations that I brought. I liked how the tables looked with my decorations though and do not regret personalizing the space. I am only sad that I could not use all of the decorations. I don't know if you are planning on doing welcome bags but this is where I would cut out stuff. I did beach bags, travel mugs, personalized deck of cards, hand sanitizers, water-proof money holders, etc. If I was able to go back in time, I would cut some of that stuff out because most people bring their own beach bag. I loved the travel mugs because the bar will fill them for you with whatever drink you want and it does stay colder longer but most people did not even use them and they took up a lot of travel space. I still love the cards with our monogram on it but there is so much to do there that I only saw them being used once. If you are doing a home reception afterwards, it might be just as nice to do favors there with something like that and not have to cart it with you. We got the video about 4 days afterwards because we slacked on supplying him the background music to put to the video. typically I think that you would get it about 3 days afterward the wedding so you should have it before you leave for your home reception. My only suggestion is that he wanted copies of the downloaded music of our choice. we had not prepared for that and did not have the music to send in an email to him like that -he wanted the actual music and not just the names. He ended up choosing his own pics for music for the CD so I did not get all my songs on there. Although he did get a copy of the song that we walked down the aisle so I was happy about that and 2 out of the other 3 songs were songs that I like anyways so it worked out for me.

Sara, a bit of a story about the Castaways/Los Olas.... I had 32 adults and 5 kids in my party. When I had originally asked Pilar about the space a few months before the wedding, she had said that the venue was large and better suited for a party of 80+ people. I had thoughts of having beach side for dinner tables, the far side for the dance floor and the bar area for drinks and lounge furniture. Eventually she agreed for us to have it there but then stupid me...I switched it back to Bamboo room because the pictures are so pretty of that room. When I got to the resort and wanted to switch to Castaways, I had a very hard time switching. After my negotiation skills, Pilar and the food and beverage manager agreed. Now the trick of that was that I agreed to let other customers on the other side and the restaurant was open to other people on that side. For me, it did not really bother me because we had dinner later and ultimately, they were the ones that would have been uncomfortable, not me and my party. I figured that people who did not like it would leave and anyone who stuck around was cool enough to join the party. We did have a couple of girls join the dancing and festivities and the more the merrier. We ended up with one section closest to the beach with access to the bar. I originally thought that it would only fit my tables for dinner but actually it was a huge space and we had more than enough room for 4 long tables, dance floor, DJ, cake table, etc. I don't know how big your party is but if you set it up early enough with the WC, you should not have a problem reserving the space. If she will not keep the whole space open for your party depending on the amount of guests that you have, I recommend that you still use the space. The only thing that I would have changed is to have the center bar area reserved also so that guests felt more comfortable. you could use some of the lounge furniture there and set up a nice lounge area for the guests that don't dance or need a rest. One last thing, if you are doing any decorations, it is pretty windy on the beach side (which is what attracted me there) but it makes it hard for anything light or candles to stay lit. If you wanted candles or something I would recommend the battery ones because it would work better. I was nto able to use the votive candles that I bought or the dried flowers that I had to place along the runners. just an fyi... -Meg

here is some more random pics from my family and friends http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1424191934#!/album.php?fbid=10100414286119215&id=12413660&aid=3012073

here is a link to my photos from the photographer.... over 400 pics there but you can get the general idea without having to through them all http://www.octaviomontes.com/meghan/index.htm

Hilla, I can't really remember the actual timing of it all. I know that we started the reception late due to the pictures. I know the DJ played a set music track during our dinner period and then we had 3 hours of DJ/dancing. I did not pay any extra for the extra hour or for him playing through the dinner. Although the DJ did tell us that Pilar gave us an extra hour for free....

Okay brides, I am going to try to give you my review. I am going to try to talk about different things than the other brides reviews so that you can get another review. First of all, let me tell all of you to stop sweating the small stuff -I did not believe the other brides that said the same thing but it is so true! After the first day, I totally relaxed and everything worked out perfect and even better than I imagined. So by now, we all know that you meet with Pilar or Ana when you. get there and we set everything in detail. Pilar was Awesome! We sat together and put together a model of the table decorations that I brought and she even had more ideas and finishing touches that I had not even thought of. I ended up changing my reception location from the Bamboo room to Castaways. Don't worry, the Bamboo room is beautiful and great location but I decided to change it for two reasons: I felt like the bamboo room was actually too much like a wedding reception room that I could have gotten at home and I really liked the outside/open feel of Castaways. the other reason was that I have big drinkers in my family and it is so close to the Blue Bar that I feared that if we did not get the service quick enough from the waiters that my guests would end up hanging at the blue bar (I actually saw that happen to one wedding and there was only about 5 people dancing in the bamboo room and the rest of the brides party was at the bar). I liked Castaways because you had the servers for the wedding or if you wanted a drink fast, there is a bar right there too. Once I post some pics of all the dancing that went on, you will see how much fun we like to having dancing and why it was a concern for me. The ceremony was perfect. I had mine on the Pergola and I loved that you could see and hear the ocean in the background. My only advice on that would be to review with the WC and/or your father about when he gives you away. I am the first daughter in my family to get married so we did not know really what to do. and Pilar told my FI to stand on the wrong side so there was a shuffle there between me and FI and I ended up just standing on the wrong side during the ceremony....not sure if he misunderstood or what but oh well. Oh and I wore a veil and the wind had it blowing in my face and all around -totally annoying and I do not recommend it if you are on the Pergola or the beach (unless you could do the small half face one..it prob wouldn't move). And Tiffany's video showed that her veil was perfect at the garden location so I guess it depends on where you are. The cocktail hour was at the Blue Beach bar. I missed most of it getting pictures taken. Two complaints about it: one -I believe that the wedding book said that the appetizers feed 7-8 pieces per person between the 4 apps that you choose. I had 31 adults and the since so many of us were doing pics during this period, I did not order any extra apps besides the 25 people that come with the package thinking it would be fine. My mom was upset because each person only got about 2-4 pieces each so they were hungry. the 2nd complaint was really about the photgrapher I guess, the pics too so long that it extended the cocktail hour for about 3 hrs and without enough apps, people were getting ansy. The bartender at the beach bar is great and we were able to hook up our Ipod to the bar speakers so that was nice to not have to pay extra for music. About the decorations: I got all 36 vases down there unharmed and I think only 4 broke during the set-up/breakdown. I left all of them there for any of you guys to use so you don't have to cart them. I am not sure which 4 broke but I originally had 12 vases that were 9 inches tall (cylinder with a small lip on the top), 12 vases that were 7 inches tall (tall cylinder and slimmer) and 12 vases that were 4 inches (looked like a juice glass). You might be able to see them in some of the pictures. I had wrapped some of them in eyelet fabric and placed candles in those ones. The other ones I had water in with starfish and gems on the bottom with waterproof lights to illuminate them -those were the best and came out great. The fabric that I put on the other ones are on there with double sided sticky tape so it can be easily removed for future use. By far the crystal curtains were the stars of the show! I was feeling guilty bring that huge box down there and spending all that money but in the restaurant, they flowed in the breeze and sparkled and shimmered. Castaways have sort of a "water/fish" theme and the curtains looked like sparkle seaweed or something. It was awesome!. We had the divine package and the entrees were good. the tuna was a bit over cooked but still tasted good. my FI order the beef carpacio for the first course and I am not sure what it normally is like but it was not very good and most people did not eat it. 2nd course was the raviolis and it was with a pesto sauce which scared me at first by the green color but it was really good. The package comes with a dessert which I don't think anybody ate. I would suggest seeing if you could substitute a salad or something instead of the dessert because you have the cake anyways... The cake was pretty, I had emailed pictures of the styles that I liked to Pilar and it was simple and pretty. The taste on the other hand is only ok -definitely not something that I would have ordered at home but I didn't really care about it. The DJ was great! I gave him a play list before we got there and I brought an extra one with us -which we needed and gave to him the day before. The DJ contacted us the day before we left to set up a meeting to discuss. We had some flight difficulties so we missed the first appt and I was busy so I sent my FI to meet with him and everything was great. He did not play all of the songs that we listed but I was more trying to get an idea for him of the types of music that I wanted which he totally got spot on. They also have lights that they use so it gave the dance party a different feel. We had an MC that announced us, the wedding party, first dances, speeches, cake cutting etc. Pilar gave us an extra DJ hour for free so we danced the night away. The photgraphers: I used an outside photographer, Octavio Montales for the wedding and used the resort photographer for my welcome dinner. I was definitly impressed with the resort photographer and the quality of his work. Tiffany also posted her pictures of the wedding and I think that she used the same guy and hers came out great! Don't be nervous about using the resort photographer if you don't have the money to an outside photographer. My photographer was great and I like almost all of the pictures. The only thing that was hard for me was that it took so long for all the pictures to be taken. we were so sick of pictures that by the end, you could see that our smiles were fake and that we were no longer into it. Because it was February and daylight was not as long, he had to use special lighting to make some of the pics work and I was totally impressed by his knowledge and the pictures during that time. We ended up with over 400 pictures on a CD to take home which is great because we have the rights and can print them out anywhere. Oh, the videographer was great! It really captures the moment and the ceremony and the feeling even better than the pictures and actually the disk is my current favorite. I will post the video and some pics soon. Let me know what questions that you have for me... -Meg