plantcityhome

Thanks for sharing your pics!! They were gorgeous and I laughed and smiled the entire time while looking at them!
 

Originally Posted by Missy1 

For anyone who previously went to my facebook page and couldn't see any of the pics I uploaded an album last night so you should be able to see them now (look up Melissa Ventura Mattingly). The DJ was 300 an hour and we had him for 4 hours however the 4th hour was free due to the mix up with DJ Doremixx but we tipped him $50 when it was all said and done because he did a really good job. My ceremony started for 4 and only last maybe 20 minutes. We skipped the cocktail hour with the appetizers and just had our guests meet at the Baracuda Bar which is right next to the Gazebo (its the bar with the swings around it) and we had the Carribean Trio play there since they were free with the package and it worked out well because we ended up taking our pictures right on the beach in front of the bar and our guests really liked to watch. The reception started at 6. Just my advise, get all the dances, speeches and cake cutting over with in that first hour. We had our entrance which everyone loved. They all stood up and danced with their maracas when we came in to "Tonights Gonna Be a Good Night" Everyone said it was the best wedding entrance they had ever seen. Right after that everyone went to the buffet and we ate for about 20  - 30 minutes. Then we did speeches , first dances, and then we cut the cake. Shortly after that it started to rain so they moved us into the ballroom and we danced the night away till 11. I did my bouquet toss and garter toss the second to last two songs of the night. My only complaint was that when it rained they weren't able to move any of the food except for some desserts and my cake to the ballroom so the rest of the food went to waste. It was a good thing everyone was able to eat at least one plate of food before then.

Great info!! thanks so much!
 

Originally Posted by Missy1 

You can definitely save money by buying your own bows and table overlays or runners...they took no room to pack. I was so concerned about the budget as well so at first I was even going to try and bring my own centerpieces but it would have costed just as much to pack or have them shipped. The centerpieces I had were $60 a piece and I thought they came out beautifully. We had four tables for our guests...each table held 8-10 people...so I only had to buy 4. If you have the ultimate packageit comes with the a free centerpiece for the bride and grooms table and a free one for the ceremony table. I got those two to match and had them take the one from the ceremony table and move it to our table for the reception so I had one on either side of the table. I had my entire wedding party all sit at one table with us which was a 11 people. Definitely forgo the cocktail hour. There is no need for it. Your at an all inclusive resort...drinks are free. Have your guests meet at one of the bars around the resort for that hour and if you plan to have the mariachi or carribean trio play the WC will be happy to tell them where they need to be. Be aware that the pool bars close for 6 so if your cocktail hours after that they should probably just go to the lobby bar. I also got a $1500 photo package....if you don't need all those pictures then thats saved money. And the main thing is like I said before don't spend all kinds of money on decorations because in the end the scenery is so beautiful there you truly do not need them. Chair bows, table runners and centerpieces...thats all you need. Don't bother with flowers on the Gazebo or on the side of chairs because there just not nessassary. And also, my bouquet was free and I paid for 4 bridesmaids bouquets which were $60 a piece but I absolutely loved my flowers...they were my favorite part of the whole thing. I sent my WC a picture of what I wanted and they came out exactly like the pictures.

I am unable to view the pics, I am sure that they are gorgeous though!

 

Originally Posted by Missy1 

For anyone who previously went to my facebook page and couldn't see any of the pics I uploaded an album last night so you should be able to see them now (look up Melissa Ventura Mattingly). The DJ was 300 an hour and we had him for 4 hours however the 4th hour was free due to the mix up with DJ Doremixx but we tipped him $50 when it was all said and done because he did a really good job. My ceremony started for 4 and only last maybe 20 minutes. We skipped the cocktail hour with the appetizers and just had our guests meet at the Baracuda Bar which is right next to the Gazebo (its the bar with the swings around it) and we had the Carribean Trio play there since they were free with the package and it worked out well because we ended up taking our pictures right on the beach in front of the bar and our guests really liked to watch. The reception started at 6. Just my advise, get all the dances, speeches and cake cutting over with in that first hour. We had our entrance which everyone loved. They all stood up and danced with their maracas when we came in to "Tonights Gonna Be a Good Night" Everyone said it was the best wedding entrance they had ever seen. Right after that everyone went to the buffet and we ate for about 20  - 30 minutes. Then we did speeches , first dances, and then we cut the cake. Shortly after that it started to rain so they moved us into the ballroom and we danced the night away till 11. I did my bouquet toss and garter toss the second to last two songs of the night. My only complaint was that when it rained they weren't able to move any of the food except for some desserts and my cake to the ballroom so the rest of the food went to waste. It was a good thing everyone was able to eat at least one plate of food before then.

HI Missy!

Congratulations!!!

It is so encouraging to see that the wedding was under $8k with 45 guests! That is wonderful!

Do you have any budget tips that you can give?

Thanks!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Missy1 

And to the brides stressed out about decor and such, less is more. Trust me on this, the scenery is so beautiful you really don't need much.  I bought the centerpeices through the resort and they came out beautifully. I brought the chair bows and table runners with me and bought 10 paper lantersn through the resort. I have 45 guests and with everything inlcuding the dj and and additional package of pictures my wedding costed under $8000. I have pictures up on my facebook, just go under my tagged pictures, i just turned off my privacy settings so you should be able to see them : http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=23442211

Hi, we are working on our website in order to try to send out our STD magnets by the end of the month.

I am on the Wedding Party page and struggling how to word it. We really aren't having a wedding party except for my sister and his brother (stress free plan, no hurt feelings or drama) but struggling with how to word this, start/finish this page LOL

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!

Great! Hope it helps!!

We ordered magnets this past weekend!

How exciting! Congratulations!!!

 

Originally Posted by SharonMydung 

My wedding invitations came in today, it looks great I am sooooo happy.  The invitation looks like a passport but in orange.

I apologize in advance if someone has already mentioned this (nothing came up in the search)

But as you look for STDs options, check out Pear Tree Greetings.

We stumbled upon them this past weekend

www.peartreegreetings.com

This is a great thread, great info.

Our date is late April and it seems that sunset is around 7pm

We originally booked 4pm for ceremony but just put in a request to see if we can move it to 5pm.

So that timeline would be as follows:

5 - 5:30 - Ceremony

6 to 7 - Cocktail Hour

7 to 10 - Reception

Looks like a 4pm or 5pm start would work, either way

Hello Ladies!

Do you have any ideas as far as group excursions?

We are at Dreams Riviera Cancun!

 

Originally Posted by Maritza919 

Aww that's my fiancé's birthday. I saw on one of the boards you can check what time sunset is and we kind of based it on that. I wanted to take pics with the sun out and also with the sunset in the back as well. Where are you getting married? We're getting married at Azul Beach.

Thanks so much for the feedback!!

We liked April as it appears that it will be warm but not sweltering, you know what I mean?

Thanks about the wind! We are hoping to have the reception on the Pool Deck and don't want people to be too "chilly" to enjoy themselves.
 

Originally Posted by Samantha88k 

plantcityhome--I have been to the Cancun/Playa del Carmen area a few times during April and each time it was definitely warm but I would say that depending on the wind it wont be too chilly at night by any means. A late afternoon/early evening ceremony would be just fine.

Hi Maritza,

We are booked for April 27, 2012. We are currently set for a 4pm start but trying to get a better handle on the weather to see if we should try to push to 5pm.

Thanks!!!

 

Originally Posted by Maritza919 

Hopefully someone can answer this. Ive been wondering too. I know at times it can get very windy so I nixed tall centerpieces and my hair being down. I'm getting married 4/7/12. I think the weather is in the 80's. I did ceremony at 5pm sun doesn't go down I think til 7ish so hopefully it won't be too hot. When are you getting married?

Maritza

I have been looking online and on some sites see that while it may get chilly at night, it appears to be nice during the day in April.

Has this been your experience?

For anyone who got married in Mexico in April, was the sun really hot?

If you had an afternoon ceremony, 4pm or 5pm, did you feel that it was too hot?

Did it get really chilly once the sun went down?

Great comments regarding picking start time for ceremony.....

For any brides that got married in April, how was the temperature once the sun went down? Was it chilly?

We have picked a time of 4pm on a Friday evening in late April 2012 and just trying to make sure that this works to get good pictures but at same time, if reception doesn't start until 7 (this is around time that it seems that sun will be setting), we also wanted to make sure that it didn't really start to get too chilly since hoping to have reception on the pool deck.

Any advice? 

For any brides who got married or who are planning to get married in April, how is the weather suppose to be?

Thanks for much for this summary!

 

Originally Posted by Carbaholic 

Hi Sunshine,

 

I completely understand where you are coming from - choosing the resort was BY FAR the most stressful part of the wedding.  I agonized over it for months: how much is too much to ask people to pay?  What if the food isn't great?  What if the rooms aren't nice?  What if the drinks suck?  What if what if what if?  The actual wedding I couldn't have cared less about, I just wanted everyone to be happy.  

 

Here's my take on it:

We stayed at the resort at the end of last April (2010) with my family (my parents already had the trip planned before we got engaged) and my FH and I rented a car to check out other resorts that were recommended to us. In the end, after driving all over the Riviera Maya, we still went with Dreams RC.  Two of my sisters who came with us have kids (so 4 people in one of the rooms) and the bathrooms didn't bother them.  To clarify, the actual BATHROOM (where the toilet is) has a door.  Yes, it's a frosted glass one.  But there IS a door!  Same with the shower.  The sinks and bathtub are in the open space.  The only situation where this might be a problem would be if you were staying with a complete stranger or had a teenager staying in the same room.  The rooms are beautiful, otherwise.

 

The food was amazing when we were there and only one of my sisters got sick (we were 9 adults and 3 kids in total) and I'm pretty sure it was because of all the alcohol and the food that she's not used to eating.  Don't forget that even in Canada or the US, if you go for Mexican, French, etc food, people get sick!  It doesn't mean the food was bad, it's just that we're not used to the richness/oil/fat of some of the dishes!  So maybe the recent reviews were just from a bad batch of food or not even, I don't know.

 

The towel game happens at every resort I have ever been to - I have yet to stay somewhere where people don't try to pull this.  It's frustrating, for sure.  We didn't have a problem with it, we even got the palapas by the pool some days, but we weren't there at peak season (and won't be again for the wedding) and we didn't really care where our chairs were.  The setup of the pools is such that no chair is really in a horrible spot.

 

I will agree that the noise is an issue.  We brought our iTouch that has a "white noise" app on it, so we were fine (there's a iPod docking clock in the rooms) but my mom and two of my sisters wore earplugs.

Also, there really isn't a ton to do in the evenings - the Lobby bar has live entertainment for a few hours, which is fun but that's about it.  We were fine with going to bed early on that trip but this time, we just plan on making our own party wherever we go!  We'll be enough people that I don't think it will be a problem.

 

In the end, my FH pointed out:  People will complain about things no matter where we choose, so let's choose a place where we know most people will be happy with most of it.  That's the best we can do.  We knew we loved the resort and yes, it was a bit pricier than we wanted, but I haven't been nervous for a single day since booking!

 

Not sure if this will help at all, but that was my experience!  It's awful making choices for other people so I completely empathize with you

 

Good luck and I'm so sorry this was so long!

L.

 

 

 

I had the same initial concern but I check my account regularly and know that if for some reason I were to see any crazy charges, I would challenge them via AMEX.

I am not sure what type of credit card you plan on using but I did get a surprise of a Foreign Exchange Fee.

Has anyone else run into this as well?

Originally Posted by kad1010 

Hi!  Just wondering if anyone else was uneasy about sending their credit card information down to the resort? I am so afraid it will be printed out and left sitting around for someone to see. It has all the information on the card.  I really want to book my date but I am so uneasy about this part. I am also considering a site check, just so I can see the resort before we make our final decision. I know it's what we want to do but I spent hours yesterday reading this thread and I am so nervous about all the decorations, etc. that I may need to bring down with us. When I first thought about a destination wedding I just assumed that decorations were included!

Thanks much!!!!!!

 

Originally Posted by JayKay 

They look great! I always wondered how people made them themselves but now I understand!

I have asked around and have heard back from those of you who had 4 hour reception and have gotten some really good feedback

Are any of you planning for 3 hour reception?

Have any of you already had one? If so, did you go to the "club" afterwards? Do you wish you would have added the extra hour?

Does anyone know if you can add the extra hour the day of? or must it

 

Originally Posted by plantcityhome 

The standard reception is 3 hours but know that you can add an hour.

 

My question is, is the 4th hour worth it?

The standard reception is 3 hours but know that you can add an hour.

My question is, is the 4th hour worth it?

Thank you for these pics! You are right!

 

Originally Posted by sarcrook 

I have a pic of an Ocean View (inside the room):

 

 

 

..and Plunge Pool (outside):

 

 

 

Honestly..their rooms are AMAZING!!  I don't think it matters which you pick - your guests will be thrilled!! 

 

 

Thank you so much!

 

Originally Posted by sarcrook 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Deck Area..because it is on the beach but not on the sand!!  We did a site visit in January and I have to say I think it is the best option!! 

 

Here are some pics we took...

 

 

 

 

Here is a pic from a view above - you can see the Gazebo & Deck Area..

 

 

 

Thanks so much for your feedback and suggestions!

 

Originally Posted by Sharon99 

I think they look great! I agree maybe change the font a little and I would also change (Friday). Not put it in parenthesis. Great job!

Thanks for taking a look!
 

Originally Posted by acireta 

love the little palm tree graphic. Maybe you could jazz them up with some swirly fonts? Nice work so far!