bride19

Totally forgot to post about the OOT bags! OK, so we did bags for everyone, when really we should have just done 1 per room. We spent a ton of money on them, and a lot of time as we hand stamped everything. Only two people used them throughout our trip, but people appreciated meds, sunblock, aloe vera, and candies. Really, I'm not sure if it was worth it but you have to get your guests SOMETHING for going through all this trouble and expense. I'm glad I did it but if you could think of something else...

Please remember that if they do not proceed with what you requested of them and you gave a deposit, you can contact you credit card company to get your money refunded. DO NOT feel like you don't have any other options. They are a terrible agency and hopefully the word will spread to prevent other brides from falling victim to their sales pitch.

It took about an hour and fifteen minutes for hair and makeup, I didn't think it would be that fast. I ended up having loads of time to do photos before the ceremony but the heat wasn't very good for my hair. So I would say work backwards from the time you want to be done (I don't know if you're doing anything before the ceremony), and give yourself time to get dressed. My appointment was at 3pm and my ceremony wasn't until 6:30 so I had way too much time.

I figured I would do my part and post about my wedding since I really appreciated reading others' reviews. I found it extremely helpful and I think it was part of the reason that my wedding was PERFECT. I posted my review of the hotel on tripadvisor, so I will stick solely to wedding-related info here. Erika Torres was my coordinator in Miami who did all the pre-planning with me. She did an amazing job, and everything we talked about was arranged exactly as planned. On site, Claudia and her team took very good care of me. My fiance and I met with them in their office and we went through the details sheet. They convinced me to buy another flower arrangement and a small wedding cake (supposed to serve ten but it was more than enough for the 28 of us!!). For the free cocktail reception, she convinced us to rent their iPod dock, which was extremely overpriced at $150. I think I could've bought one at that price... Anyway, they put out all the extra stuff we brought just as planned (fans, fabric petals, bubbles, guest book), at no charge. You can only use the fabric petals on the SkyDeck as it would litter the beach. I cannot stress enough that my wedding was perfect. We did not want to splurge on everything, but honestly we didn't have to. Dinner at Le Spoon was beautiful, they put up a sheer fabric partition and took the flowers from the gazebo as centrepieces. The manager at Le Spoon brought the mariachi band over to play for us near the end of our dinner. The food was great, no complaints at all. I saw many other weddings all over the resort, and knowing how much extra they had to pay, I was really happy with what I got. In total I spent approximately $2k on our wedding. The SkyDeck option is $1700 alone, so I think it was an extremely good deal for everything I got. The WebCam on the SkyDeck allowed friends & family who couldn't attend to watch at home (without sound, for some reason). We did not do our own vows, we used what the minister brought. She was AMAZING too, you could tell she did a ceremony every day. She took off right after the ceremony so we were unable to give her a tip. Oh, and because we didn't want a religious ceremony she did a completely secular ceremony without a problem. Everyone loved our ceremony because it was not very long and it was extremely touching. Guests get bored fast at weddings that drag on for hours, and I know it's all about *you*, but enough cannot be said for people actually enjoying themselves. Our only problems were: 1) The nice silver pen that went with our guestbook was never returned to us. 2) We tried to pay for the extra items were ordered and had to come back FIVE times to finally pay. It was to the point where I was just going to make them find me, because I was told, "Be at the office at 11." And no one would be there to take my payment. Other times the machine was down. Not the biggest problem, but it's annoying when you want to enjoy your time and you have to keep running to the main building. 3) As much as other Canadians who were getting married this week tried to convey to the wedding coordinators, they seemed to not care at all that we had terrible experiences with The Wedding Holiday. I assume this is because they get SO much business from this agency, but I warned them that all the negative feedback about that agency would eventually hurt them, as people wouldn't book at Azul Sensatori if they had to put up with the worst travel agency that ever was. Seriously, they overcharged people, they owed me money for months, they said they'd upgraded us when they didn't, they said they booked people in elite seats on the plane (took their money for it too) but never did, didn't return calls, lied non-stop, ugh, it was an awful experience. A bride I met said she almost cancelled her wedding because they were terrible. Claudia seemed more concerned with us telling her how bad they were, rather than saying she'd try and pass the word on to the higher ups. She just kept saying that everything would be fine now at Azul, which we all knew. Anyway, it was AMAZING and PERFECT. Everyone did a great job. I got my hair & makeup done at the Spa by Edgar and everyone thought it was beautiful. He was really fast, so I was done earlier than I imagined to have plenty of time for photos. Use lots of hair spray ladies, it's windy out there! I hope you all have wonderful weddings, and relax!

Avoid. They double charged all of my guests, they billed me for payments they had already received, they don't get back to you very fast, they say they've done room changes and then 4 months later you find out they never did. They also throw in $100 service charge that they say is part of the "tax" but if you compare the prices to itravel2000 or tripcentral you'll notice the tax is an even $100 less.