MsBlissMpls

Thanks Jass7. We booked the regular swim up room because we confirmed with N. that we have 35 rooms booked for our wedding party so we get the complimentary wedding package, and the next upgrade would be the RTT. Hearing that you like it makes me feel better. - We have someone staying at our house while we are gone (but not sure how much attention this person will give to our little guy vs. just watching TV) so we have also scheduled weekend & evening guests to come a play with Sampson (he likes to run around the house with us and play hide & seek). Geckos, super cute unless you thing they may crawl into your bed, or you might step on one in the middle of the night. When I stayed in India (by myself) a few years ago I had TWO baby geckos in my room running around the walls. I was so freaked out, but the communicaiton was so bad with maintenance that I just sat there watching them as they cackled at me all night, asking them to get out of my room. They finally went out the crack by the door and I ran over & shoved my yoga matt under the door... problem solved. At least in Mexico I'll have my awesome fiance to help them out of the room. I'm thinking we will stick with Adrian as a solo shooter, just because I look at the cost of upgrading and it's a little out of our comfort level for an additional cost (if anything we want to upgrade to llciz's "brochure" room !! After reading llciz's comment on the INSANE wind to my fiance he finally said "well maybe we can use the gazebo". We were so set on the sand, but I know he loves my hair down, so I think we are moving the wedding location for my hair - that's funny to me.

Kind of sad We booked a swim up room for 10 nights (already miss our kitty, but he'll be in good hands with his full time kitty-sitter) .... Hopefully we can get a free upgrade. Or I guess we can just be okay with walking around naked regardless of anyone else at the resort ... but I'm pretty shy, so that probalby will not happen. Crossing my fingers for a little complimentary wedding upgrade.

lciz - You are awesome! Congratulations! Your photos are beautiful!!! I LOVE your dress. Such a beautiful couple!!!! I'm so excited for my turn. I have hired Adrian as well, but we were thinking how nice it would be to have a second shooter. IF you happen to see this do you think it would be work the additional price to upgrade for an addtional shooter? Did you have ony Adrian or did you hire two shooters? CONGRATULATIONS!!! I can almost feel the sun from your rooftop. I love it

Thanks for the support ladies! lliaPSU - We will definately meet up. I'll try to remember your face from your photo I'll try to find you sometime on the 14th or 15th, so I can get some tips on what to ask for and what not to ask for....and how your meal tasting goes. Fun! Okay, the idea of meeting up is making me very happy. Jass7 - yes. losing ones mind seems to be normal. Everytime I see that head hit the wall I flinch and then laugh. Thanks! The funny thing is that there would be NOTHING in my planner. So, a blank planner would definately take less than 10 days to prepare. ha. I was reading on the Excellence Riviera Maya thread that they also use N. - So us brides at EPM do not have her undivided attention.

LOVE the pinata idea. I was planning to ask about it, once (if ever) we hear back from N. 10 days and 4 emails and still not a work back. We are leaving in 10 days and do not have 1 thing outside of the wedding date and time confirmed. Maybe our emails to N. are too nice and not bossy enough? I don't get it. Comical. I am starting to move towards the opinion that I would NOT book through EPM again because of the communication.

I also remember being told we could not do a tasting, but I'm going to ask about it again.

Both are seem like great photographers. I looked at both and we decided to go with Adrian Herrera. We are thinking of switching to Victor just because he comes with 2 photographers, and we really like the idea of getting lots of different angles for each moment. If I remember correctly Adrian was quite a bit less expensive than Juan (which did factor into our decision), but that is a personal consideration of course

Just some simple stuff like how much it would cost to add a few white peonies into the bouquet that comes with our package, etc. I'm past frustration and have moved on to surrender. I have my sweet groom, awesome dress and my cute cake topper. I'm just done with it all. When I do finally get to meet N. I don't want to have any frustration built up in me because I'm sure she is doing her best. I just want to be happy & calm. So deep breathes & maybe a yoga class tonight!

A frustration is brewing in me because I emailed N. last Monday with questions and still have not heard back (emailed on Friday to check in and ask if I could get some answers over the weekend because we only have 1 weekend left until we leave). The only problem I'm starting to have is that in her last email she told ME to "let her know ____ right away" however, I can't let her know anything until SHE responds to questions. The frustration is getting bigger.

I am also curious about the makeup. I know I could do it myself, but I love the idea of relaxing and having someone do it. I've never had airbrush makeup, but it sounds awesome.

LCIZ - That is so great to hear!!! I'm very excited for you! When I sit here and think that we are all sending emails with lots of questions and she is in the process of finalizing the "Current" couples questions, I can see why it takes a few days. She is a busy woman! A lot of the answers she sends back to me include the fact that she checks with the floralist and looks for other options, so I an see why that would take a while. Does anyone know if she sends a Selection Sheet for our final selections or if we send all of the final options to her in an email?

Tammy - This looks like an awesome opportunity! After I re-looked at the date I realized I will be in the air on the way to the resort at that time... and meeting with N. a few hour later If it were only a week earlier I could really get some things crossed off my list before we leave.

lcilz - your survival poem is great! You are almost there. As the first of our April of brides I wish you all the best, and lots of happiness! N. has been very nice in explaining what is available and the price to upgrade to other options. I think we're totally switching gears and doing white & green flowers instead of the bright pink that I was hoping for. It's not that huge of a deal, but after looking at so many flowers and finally picking "the ones" it's kind of a bummer to have to switch.

I had my heart set on dark pink peonies and they do not have them in April in Mexico Could not be any more bummed about that.

If you have any emails of the answers at the lower prices make sure to print them out and bring them with you. Typically they will honor what was previously said to you if you have the email confirming it.

Sharon99 - Your Etsy purchases are super cute! I thought it would be fun to "leave behind" some fun wedding stuff that other EPM brides could use for free, but not sure how that would work - or with the turnover on the wedding coordinators, if it would translate and "pay forward" longer than a week or two (or even a couple of days).

lliaPSU - Your wedding is coming very quickly!!! We will be there at the same time. Ours is on the 17th but we arrive on the 14th, one day after your wedding I have also read that the reception includes 3 hours so if it starts at 7pm the package would include up to 10pm. We are starting at 6:30pm and going to 9:30pm, then heading to the theater for a show and dancing at the disco afterwards.

Thank you for the information! I am thinking we will base our flower decisions on staying away from the vases and getting things that are perhaps stuck into Styrofoam or something that we will not have to worry about returning.

I'm doing a flip flop for the ceremony, all of the photos and most all of the day (dress will be hemmed to the flat). And then switching into a heel for dancing at the disco (we are not hiring a private DJ). This way my dress will be lifted and not be so close to the dirty disco floor when I'm dancing & walking around in the evening. At that point I figure no one is looking to see if my dress is exactly the right length to the floor (it's dark & people are drinking). I really wanted some cute flip flops that were a good quality (they are my wedding shoes after all so these Badgley Mischka Isabel Sandals were perfect for my taste - and they will match my peony bouquet. I got them both online from DSW. Love them both!

My fiance bought a centerpiece for a dinner on the beach we had last year and we brought it back up to our room. I'm guessing that would be the same situation here... especially if you consider buying from an outside vendor would mean that the vendor would have to come back to get them if they were "rented" - and that seems like an unlikely thing to happen. I'll let you know what I find out. I'm not sure about the hair & makeup. I'm just getting it done for free with the package. No trial run, just bringing a photo of the look I want, and leaving time to be able to wash it all off/out and do it myself it it's not what I was hoping for. I am kind of scared though, becasue I saw a photo of a recent EPM bride's hair (and they had a photo of the salon doing her hair) and it was really not my style. I hope they are really good and know how to do lots of softer, not so hairsprayed/crunchy curls, looks.

I have a question on the centerpieces. We get to keep them afterwards, right? I'm asking because some of them have many vases (for example item PC-21) or wooden boxes ( item PC-08) to hold the flowers and part of me feels like it seems like a rental, but a bigger part of me says we're paying for them, so we should get to keep them. Ideally I'd like to either have all of the flowers sent back to our room (how beautiful that would be!), or ask each couple to take them back to their rooms. What are your plans for the centerpieces afterwards? Maybe no one cares about that part - but I love flowers and can already see myself smelling them for the whole week we are in our room after our wedding!

Where did you get these purses? That is a fantastic idea. 2 weeks is so close! I feel excited at 4 weeks out, can't imagine what you must be feeling. Did you finalize your meal plan? What did you pick? I'm so curious for good ideas. Are you taking any decorations down with you? Do you have any unanswered qustions or have they been good to get everything finalized for you before you go? All of a sudden I have a ton of questions. So Exciting!!!

Thanks! I'm so excited I could explode. Instead of exploding I'm trying to focus on working out We're keeping the bags really simple with only the bag & two other big items. We are on a budget so I wanted to stick with a couple of simple things that are memorable. 1) Because the bags were so expensive they are part the present... hopefully they like them. 1 bag per couple with the couple's last name embroidered on them. I ordered them but haven't gotten them yet. If I could do this over I would have gotten the Target bags becasue they are so cute and tropical & less expensive. But as we stand they are coming and they are part of their gift. 2) Other than the bag I did travel mugs for each person (I think I put a photo a few pages back) that came out to $3.something each and I only had to order 25 of them, so that was nice because I don't have to pay for a bunch of extras. Honestly, our group is full of non- alchololic drinkers, but when we are in Mexico they will have ice water & probably a few blended drinks, alcholic or not, I know my guests want their drinks cold and not warm when we are in the sun. So I know these will go over well. We're putting a little tag on this item that says something like "Drinks melting in the sun is never any fun, bring this mug to the beach & to the pool to keep things nice & cool" Not quite perfected wording yet, but we'll get there. 3) Underwater camera for our group excursion. We thought this would be good because they suggest not bringing a good camera on the trip (partly because they want us to buy their expensive photos during the excursion), but we wanted everyone to have a camera for ziplining & snorkeling that they would be comfortable with losing or dropping. It's a tough camera that you can drop without harming it. We ordered these on Amazon and got 10 for about $64.00 We will give one per couple being there are 24 shots per camera and I didn't see people carrying their own camera and taking that many photos. Most couples would probably trade off who carries it, etc. For this we will have a little tag that says something like "Snorkeling in the sea or an adventure trying something new, Use this waterproof camera & be sure to share your photos when you are through..." on the back of the tag we'll have info on our WikiAlbums Group where everyone can upload their photos for sharing with the group. (We picked WikiAlbums becasue of their privacy policy) 4) Not so much a gift as something for our ceremony, we are putting cute little containers with sand from the beach where we'll be married (we'll gather it once we get to Mexico) with a tag that asks each guest to spend time sending their intent of well wishes and happiness infusing the grains of sand. At the ceremony each guest will put in thier sand in first as the foundation to our sand ceremony. We'll add our colored sand on top of the sand from the beach. It is important to us to have everyone there to participate in our ceremony, being they are all so special to us. This is how we decided to do that. There will be a tag on this item as well, explaining all of the above. 5) I was SO close to buying personalized matches and little heart candles. I started to get out of control and was going to by "extras" of these for our at home reception and the cost went up to $150. I realized I was going crazy & needed to stop. So neither Mexico guests or AHR guests get these. I just had to stop. It was hard not to buy these because I really love candles and part of our theme is "Love & Light" - so hear shaped candles with matches would be PERFECT. It still is hard, but I'm not buying them..... for now. That's it for us. Every time I go into Target I get SO close to spending another $50 on cute little asprin or sunscreen or chapstick - the good ideas are so endless, but then I go back to deep breathing and I snap out of it. Buying stuff & getting creative can totally suck me in and if I'm honest to myself I started doing it as a "Thank You" to our guests and then I realize that something else takes over (maybe nerves, or wanting people to like me, or say I'm doing a good job?? ) and I really do have to stop. So I'm done for now. As long as I can remember to breathe & put the wallet away!

No problem. Funny thing is I would have LOVED to get these bags for $2.50 each, but I already bought personalized bags from an Esty shop for $8.00 each. I think I even said "OH NO" out loud at Target when I saw them.... Glad someone got to get this deal!

You wedding has so many great elements! I hope to have a few of the many that you incorporated. Every thing is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!