shan0487

In the catholic chapel? That will be pretty! Last time we stayed in Nizuc right next to the chapel and this time when we return for our anniversary we will be staying in the Grand section

Right at the 30 day mark was when I was handed over to my on-site wedding planner but my wedding coordinator already had everything cofirmed for the most part

Yay Caitlin how exciting!!!

Love the dress and love the flowers!! You got an awesome deal on the dress!!!

Awesome awesome job chelsea!! I love the programs! I wanted to make these too when I saw it on pinterest but ran out of time haa!

sent you a PM girl! :0)

Yes PSAV and JSAV are preferred venodrs of Palace resorts! I did not have to pay any additional fees!

Mrs Peele- the WC are not very fast to respond- they are on "mexican" time and they are focusing on the current brides... which is a good thing!! You're wedding is plenty far away that you have plenty of time to figure everything out.  Just send your coordinator a email evey couple weeks with a list of questions so she can get back to you! Trust me- you really could just figure out what you are doing once you get to Mexico..these girls are amazing and know how to do their job!!!

What time are you having your event?  Keep in mind it gets dark starting around 5pm in November.  So having it on an open terrace should be fine if you start your event at 6pm.  All terraces at Moon are open and i I don't think any of them are covered.

Aww Chelsea thanks you are too sweet!! 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChelseaCat802 
 

Oh my goodness! You did a BEAUTIFUL job! Brought some tears to my eyes!!!!!

Thank you it was everything I could have imagined and everyone had a wonderful time! I can't wait to return in less than 2 months for our anniversary! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccawley79 
 

Definitely looks like you had an amazing wedding!

PSAV- my contact was dolores alvares- [email protected].  She was great to work with!

Collen-

That will look pretty- anything bright looks great next to the water!

I told him i wanted bright tropical looking bouquets with orange yellow and pops of blue.  I knew what he was charging other girls so as long as my prices were the same I cound;nt complain..if he would have given me a higher cost bouquet I would have told him I needed something cheaper!

check out my planning thread- do what I did- I bought blumeboxes as vases and the girls bouquets were my centerpieces - viola- 2 for one!

Def contact PSAV- I was charged $210 for 1 speaker, ipod hookup, mic and 3 hours of use!!

Ashley-

Nope - just tell them thatat you have the flowers taken care of if they ask and leave it at that.  He will drop them off in the lobby and you will avoid the vendor fee.  I never returned the vases...didn't know I was supposed to hahhah.

Photographer- I hired a local photographer and flew her and her assistant down for 3 days and it was cheaper for me with my comp’ed rooms to do this and have her for 3 days than to hire locally as I essentially only had to pay for their plane tickets and she gave me a great discounted rate to do the destination wedding. Just ask photographers- the worst they can say is no..but who doesn’t want to add a gorgeous destination wedding to their portfolio?! I also liked the fact that one of my friend’s had her photograph her wedding the year before and she did our engagement pictures so I was very comfortable with her. And she ended up being 20 weeks pregnant at my wedding but she still worked her butt off for me! I do not regret this decision one bit she did an amazing job! Photographybykellymarie.com

DJ- we decided not to pay $1000+ for a DJ for 4 hours and wanted to save ourselves $800 and opted to rent the ipod hookup. We had a friend MC the night and thankfully we have a friend who has EVERY song imaginable on his hard-drive so I complied lists- dinner music, first dance, cake cutting, reception music etc with song lists from this website along with requests from our guests..I ended up having TOO much music but that was fine- better to have too much and not get to everything than not have enough…Again this was the perfect decision for us.. our guests were dancing ALL NIGHT LONG and had the time of their lives- def worth saving the $800 or more dollars in my opinion! They had a tech who was there the entire time in case something went wrong. We actually used a laptop instead of an ipod to play the music.

I used the complimentary ceremony and reception package Palace Resorts provides and it was perfect. I was able to make it my own with my starfish aisle decorations and then chair sashes, centerpieces and table runners and maracas at my reception. Saved me tons of money!! And don’t forget you are getting married in paradise- no one is going to remember what color napkins you had! My wedding coordinator Suzette was amazing!! She actually added orange napkins to our tables and added a few extras to make everything extra special! She was soo sweet!

We did the symbolic ceremony (with the resort provided person performing the ceremony and he did a great job and spoke English very well- the best part was he stood away from the ceremony decorations so he is not in ANY of our ceremony pics haha) We did our “legal†ceremony backwards- with moving into our new house a month before our wedding in Mexico- we kind of ran out of time and didn’t get married until a month after we returned from Mexico on December 27th in our living room with my husband’s family pastor and our parents, grandparents and siblings present. I cooked a Mexican dinner which we ate afterwards and it was very casual and exactly what I wanted.

Guestbook- I received a free shutterfly guestbook offer so I used engagement photos and photos over the past 7 ½ years to complete our book and it makes for a nice keepsake.

I also made other things via vistaprint- I made a thank you note using a card template and one of our engagement photos that we handed out to everyone the night of our rehearsal/welcome dinner thanking everyone for coming to share out special days with us. One of my bridesmaids created a timeline for me- we had one for the bridesmaids, one for the groomsmen and one for the wedding guests. I needed one for our guests as our wedding was at Sun Palace and I had arranged for private transportation to and from the resorts for my guests and they needed to known when and where they were being picked up at. If you would like me to send you pics or templates of anything just let me know!

I think that is it…. if not I will add more later. Sorry this is so long overdue but I hope I can still help future brides and feel free to ask any questions!! Again this website is AMAZING and I couldn’t have had the amazing wedding that I did without it!!! 

Centerpieces- I used the bridesmaid’s bouquets as centerpieces for the reception tables along with plain yellow boxes I bought from blumeboxes.com and decorated them myself. They worked great! And way easier than lugging down glass vases to Mexico as these things are made out of cardboard and fold right up!

Sand ceremony- Another last minute thing… I wanted some sort of sand ceremony that I could display after the wedding so I originally planned on purchasing a customized etched frame on Etsy..but then I talked myself out of it as I didn’t want to spend $60+ for our sand ceremony. So then I looked into etched mason jars…then I decided 2 weeks before we left that hey- we have mason jars and I can buy an etching kit and make them myself (our first name initials on the small jar and our last name initial on the big jar)..so with help from a friend- viola I made them myself and they are displayed on top of our TV for a great reminder.

Maracas- I ordered yellow and blue maracas from Amols (large size) and they turned out great. They were the favors for our reception. I bought the tags from Michaels (again with a 40% off coupon). Printed the “instead of tapping your glass, let’s toast with Mexican class… Stand and shake with all your might, to see the groom kiss his bride tonight†with my printer and then bought orange ink and a starfish and seashell stamp for the tags (found in the dollar bins at Michaels). It makes me smile when I see my maracas in people’s houses!

Bridesmaid shirt- I wanted to get my girls shirts to wear while we were getting ready at the resort. I wanted orange tank tops..let me tell you what- it is dang near impossible to find orange tank tops. I finally found razor back tank tops on Amazon. I had to order one in each size and had half of my bridesmaids try on the sizes to decide what size everyone needed. In the end I found the etsy shop kustomdesignzbyk and she was a godsend! She ended up ordering the remaining shirts I needed herself and applied the iron on decals for me! So I only had to do 4 or 5 of them myself, thank goodness! Well I should say my fiancé did them for me as he is way better with an iron than I will ever be! So if you want to make your own shirts contact her she is amazing and can custom any order!

ccawley- You don't tell them...they don't need to know anything! I just got the complimentary bridal bouquet and bout from the resort and then on the wedding day I acted like a family member surprised me with the bouquets- there is nothing they can do about it if you don't tell them! I think it was about $65 for each bridesmaid bouquet. My sister didn't get an opinion in my wedding- you must be nicer than me haha. Is Begonia a blue color as well? I'm no longer familiar with the David's colors- even though I felt like I was there every other week in 2012 going with bridesmaids to pick out their style dresses! We did the ipod hookup- it worked great...granted it was a lot of hours of work the last couple weeks making the playlists but was well worth the $200 bill vs the $1000 for the DJ! We had a family friend MC and it worked great. Did you contact JSAV or PSAV. I went through JSAV an they are A LOT cheaper than PSAV! If you need a contact person let me know and I'll give you the girl I worked with! That is exciting!! Just make a to-do list and cross off a couple things a week and you will be fine- that's what I did..and then when you get down to the last few weeks- you'll realize you don't "need" programs or extra decorations or whatever it may be- I crossed off a lot of things off my list by just deciding I didn't need it and didn't need to spend the money on it- no one would notice!

I can't help you with the lights but I can help you with the florist. I used Marvin at Maya Floral and he was a lot cheaper than the resort. He is slow to respond but if you put something in the subject line he can notice right away he will respond quicker. He will drop off the flowers in the lobby so you will not have to pay an outside vendor fee. Good luck and let me know if you need anything else!