andrea2006

Our photogapher posted our mini-engagement shoot that we did two days before the wedding! http://kellyszott.com/?p=1626 She also has some sneak peaks of wedding and TTD in her blog

We didn't have a head table. We had 26 people so we went with the option of 3 tables that can sit up to 10 people. When we met with Jazmin she gave us the list of all our guests and 3 different coloured highlighters to mark who we wanted at each table. She made up a card for each table with the names of who was to sit there, they were all in pink (our colour) writing and had a cute bride/groom picture on them (fyi though make sure you clarify the names with her, I had emailed her the list of names with nicknames in brackets I thought it was self explanatory but it wasn't...for example I had Fraser McDonald (Adam) on the list...on the card she wrote Fraserada). I think we had some kind of upgrade. We were in Villa 21, close to a pool, and beach, right by Gran Tortuga. We were given gold bracelets when everyone had purple. Check in was a bit of a nightmare for me (traveling with and trying to organize a group is not easy) so I never got an explanation of the gold bracelet. A few days later i asked front desk..he says we got robes, slippers in room, and access to exclusive areas. My parents said they got robes and slippers so i don't know that its an upgrade. Also the only exclusive area I saw was the privilege club beach section,,tried to go there and were told we weren't allowed? After that we had too much going on to go ask front desk again.

We just arrived back form a great two weeks at the GBP Tulum. The wedding was at 2 at the tulum gazebo, reception at 6:30 (I think, can't remember exact dinner time) The wedding was a perfect day. I just thought I would give my quick review: My Mom and I had the spa at 10 for French tip manicures (lasted a few days, usually when I get them done I am lucky if they last 24 hours!) My Mom's hair looked great; I was a bit on the fence about mine. She pulled too much of it back and I had a hard time explaining that I wanted more down. I also thought the curls were a bit too tight..in the end once I made it back to my room the wind and humidity got a hold of it and relaxed the curls enough for me. Lots of people on here suggested putting your hair up because of the wind...I know I never would be happy with my hair up so I just did half up, it was crazy windy but my hair survived and I think the hair should be out of my face for most pictures. We had the dinner at Gran Tortuga. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was fantastic. The food was delicious, and the presentation is different and a really fun dinner. We went back with a smaller group for our last al la carte dinner we loved it so much. I had given Jazmin my table favors and they were set up at everyone's plate, she didn't seem completely sure about setting them up when I brought them to the meeting but they were set up nicely. The poolside reception was lots of fun; they even added some bright pink chair and table bows without me requesting it. I had brought paper lanterns and they were tied off some trees around the pool area. We paid for just the minimum bar but they had everything there for us. We had brought an iPod with our first dance song plus 3 other slow songs, I asked the DJ to just play our extra songs at anytime, not all right away, there must have been miscommunication though because right after our first dance he played all of our songs on the iPod. Other than that little mix up I thought he was great, there wasn’t any songs I didn’t love, I honestly feel that if I had made the entire playlist myself, it would have turned out the same! He played a lot of current dance music, then some awesome older songs. Near the end he played one or two slow songs then played our first dance song again as the last song of the night, Husband and I were finishing our last dance of the evening the fireworks from the fiesta were shot off; it was as if they had timed it just for us it was such a perfect end to the dance! I was really happy with the day, but by the end of the week I did have some issues. First off the personalized napkins I gave Jazmin weren’t put at everyone’s plate...they showed up at the cake table later in the dinner, no one noticed thought because the waiters delivered the cake with no napkins. I also did notice them at the bar (still in the box so no one noticed them, I figured I would just give one to people later in the week because I was having too much fun to start handing out napkins) at the reception. On my last day in Mexico I realized no one had given me back my extra napkins (I brought 90, there was 26 people and I know most people didn’t even see them) or my paper lanterns from the reception. When I asked Jazmin about it she informed that the couple is responsible for cleanup of the pool party area because Jazmin and her assistants are no longer working, so my stuff was likely thrown out. This really upset me because no one told me I needed to clean up my own stuff, If they had just simply told me I had to do that it would have taken us less than 5 minutes to gather it and I wouldn’t have had all of my decorations thrown out. So to warn future brides, if you want anything saved from the pool party, make sure you take it with you right then because the hotel just throws it out. The next problem was the cake. Really it was beautiful and tasted delicious, it just wasn’t what I asked for. I bought 8 roses, and told Jazmin I wanted 2 on the top, and 2 at the bottom of each tier, staggered (like one tier flowers to the right, next tier to the left) I had emailed her a picture and she had it printed at our meeting and we confirmed how I wanted the roses placed on the cake. When the cake came out all of the roses were placed in a line down the middle of the cake. It might sound a bit picky but it just bugs me because either Jazmin didn’t give the chef the picture or she did and he just ignored it. It was just such a simple request, and they ignored it. The last issue made me thankful our ceremony was the symbolic one. During the symbolic ceremony you sign a certificate, then Jazmin brings it to her office, you can pick it up between 9:30-11:30 a day after the wedding. Every time I tried to get it I was asked to come back because Jazmin was busy, finally on the 3rd time I said no I just want to pick up my stuff, so they sent her assistant Carla. Carla came out and showed me my marriage certificate with proper spelling (which made me very confused, because there were no signatures on it..)....then the one we all signed during the ceremony in which they apparently spelt my name wrong. It was nice of them to notice and request a new certificate with proper spelling, except I wish they had tried to notify me right away since by the time I finally found out both our witnesses had left Mexico and they don’t live in the same city as us, we know have to mail it for them to sign the new copy, so I am hoping it doesn’t get lost or bent in the mail now! This ended up being longer than I planned. Also I hope this doesn’t come off as overly negative. The Wedding day went very smoothly, the ceremony wording from the minister was beautiful and short (what we wanted). I enjoyed everything so much. One tip would be try getting married on a Thursday (fiesta night) We got soo lucky with the timing of the fireworks, it was such a perfect ending. We brought a photographer so I will post pictures once she has them ready for me! Ask any questions, I will try my best to answer!

So after all the song questions my fiancé made a great cd of instrumental music fur Elise for guests seating short piano intro for moh canon for me buttterfly waltz to sign canon rock version for us to walk back down the aisle

Hey Ladies So Jazmin emailed me the itinerary for the wedding. She said at 1:45 they would have pick up in the lobby for group and groom and take them to the wedding site (Gazebo). I figured past brides might be able to answer this quicker than Jazmin...what do they mean by group, would it be all of our guests and groom or just groom and his groomsmen? Also then in the evening they pick everyone up form the lobby and bring to the restaurant? We leave in 6 days!

Jazmin told me this about the included music: For music during your ceremony, In the package is included music from a cd player, but it is an standar, for the bridesmaids we have instrumental music, for the brides walks we have the wedding march but in a nice pop version and during the signing moment and at the end of ceremony more instrumental music

I am looking for suggestions for songs during the ceremony, what have other people used. So far I am thinking: Bridesmaids walking in : A little more by skillet (still not 100% sure though) Bride walking in: ?? still debating the traditional march or something different Signing the papers: You raise me up by Josh Groban End of ceremony: Turn it up by Aaron Lines (Fiancee is set against this though because he doesn't like country, still trying to find a compromise) Any suggestions? Also our thoughts are with you and your Fiancee Katie.

Hey Krysti Did you have the option of them putting the red carpet down or did they just put it down without telling you? Also it seems all the prices Jazmin gives me are more than what everyone else is getting. They are charging me $86 for a 3 tier cake! And they are charging me $75 for a bouquet of roses, even though it looks like the same size of bouquet as the ones in the catalog

The one thing that changed our minds about renting speakers was that Jazmin told me that if we rented speakers we had to sign a waiver saying we are responsible for the speakers if anything happens to them making us responsible for up o $2500 in damages. If you have a DJ he is there to look after the equipment so its not your responsibility. From the quotes Jazmin gave me it was only $70 less to go with speakers. We are going with the DJ so it is less for us to do and worry about. In saying that I don't really mind if the DJ doesn't announce anything...but if it does matter to you it seems lots of people have complained that the DJ doesn't do any announcing.

Yes she actually replied to me tonight too. What a relief, I was really stressing about sorting stuff out considering it is only two weeks away.

Has anyone had trouble getting a hold of Jazmin lately? She usually replies within 3 or 4 days but it has been over a week now. I am trying to confirm prices for receptions with or without dj and we are leaving in two weeks!

I know this question has been asked but...the resort doesn't give you problems if your photographer is booked into the hotel? I planned on just telling Arrecifce and Jazmin a friend has now offered to take our pictures. Should I email them and give advance notice of this?

Never mind I found the pic I have been looking for, It was from wesjor17's photos, I love the two of you alone in the gazebo, it is so gorgeous!

So after a LOOOT of stress we decided to book a photographer in Calgary. I am calling my TA in the morning to book her flight. I know this question has been asked but...the resort doesn't give you problems if your photographer is booked into the hotel? I planned on just telling Arrecifce and Jazmin a friend has now offered to take our pictures. Should I email them and give advance notice of this? Also one of the brides on here recently brought her own photographer I believe and had a gorgeous picture taken of her and new hubby in the gazebo, i believe dancing? I am trying to find who it was and look through her photos again, anyone remember?

For those of you that used a resort DJ were you able to make requests? Or bring an ipod with your must have songs and have him mix them in during the reception? I am trying to find our perfect wedding son..and in the process i am finding lots of songs I want to hear at some point!

I am from Fort McMurray so we were limited in travel companies, we ended up going with Air Canada and they don't offer much bonus for groups. Sometimes this whole wedding plan stuff gets really overwhelming! Also Trish I noticed you added me to the brides roll call..My wedding is actually March 1 haha.

Yeah bringing in my own photographer isn't really an option since I am leaving in a month. When we decided on a destination wedding I had looked into the cost and it would be about $3200 just to fly the photographer and assistant in plus then the cost of there work. Once I saw some of arrecifes work I decided I would rather not spend the extra money to fly someone in. I just feel like arrecife knows the area so well they will do a great job. I know I would get more pictures per dollar if I flew someone in, but then it would be at least a few more $1000 dollars. My question was more of realistically how many edited pictures do I really need. It seems most people get about 100 photos, so I just figure if I go with the basic package then add on reception coverage and a TTD I will end up buying a bunch of extra pictures and it will end up going to $3000 anyways...so maybe I would be better off with just getting a package.

Hey Ladies...I am having some major anxiety here! Pictures are VERY important to me, but I am not sure how many pictures I really need...I do not want to skimp on pictures, but I also don't want to lose sight and go overboard and get way more pictures than I need. I decided I wanted arrecife to cover the reception just so I would be sure I would have nice pictures of our first dance father/daughter dance, bouquet toss, etc. I also want to do a TTD on another day. My original plan was get the basic $540 package then add one reception coverage and a TTD. My only worry was know I don't get professional pictures of the cake cutting and this only leaves me with 100 pictures between the 3 "sessions". When I asked arrecife about my options they suggested I get the akbla180 package ($3200) which would cover the morning, the very end of dinner for the cake cutting, the reception and a TTD on another day. This gives me 180 pictures, a dvd slide show plus some printed photos and album that I can trade for more digital pictures. Thoughts?

Has anyone ever had french polish done by the spa? Jazmin sent me the spa brochure but I don't see anywhere about getting french polish (usually it is listed separate because most places charge an extra $10 or so for it..) So does anyone know if they can even do it?

The only thing I can think of is doing pictures before the ceremony...personally I would just do the 1pm ceremony, but I have heard of weddings where they do pictures and everything before the ceremony..just depends on your preferences.

So can you only really see the fireworks if you are at the hacienda? Also has anyone used their bridesmaids bouquets as centerpieces before? I asked Jazmin about some kind of vase, she said they are $12 from the flower shop...I don't want to buy a vase just to throw it out because I am not trying to bring them home with me. Has anyone done something other than buy vases, I told Jazmin I would be fine with ANY kind of glass, even a large drinking glass...sometimes I think she doesn't quite understand what I am asking through my emails though.

For those who have been to the resort lately how does the fiesta on Thursday's work? I heard they have fireworks, does anyone know when and where?

Thanks!

Really? Did they just hang them from the palapas or were they actually strung up over the area? Also does anyone know the prices for getting your hair done and a mani/pedi at the spa? I think the price lists are on here or the official thread, but I don't have enough posts to download anything yet.

Less than two months to go! For those who have had paper lanterns over the dance floor..how much string did you bring? Jazmin suggested 30 meters, that seems like a lot and I am not even sure if I could find a pack of that much string. She said 30 meters just in case Has anyone ever had their hair styled but left down by the spa, all the pics I see are nice, but up-do's. I know it might be warm and windy but I know I want my hair mostly down, just a bit pulled back. We have only booked our reception for 2 hours....I figured after that if we wanted we could go to the lobby bar then disco if we wanted even later. So do you think 2 hours will be enough? So much to do!! Eeek!