J1031

Quote: Originally Posted by leanne1 Hi Ladies so I also recieved my email and was dissapointed about couple of things so just wanted to clarify. My friend is doing our photos as she is a photographer in her spare time and will be staying at the resort 5 night so this is ok? Also in the unforgettable package we get so many free photos if I dont want them can I switch this for something else or put the cost towards decorations? My sister is making me a brooch bouquet as a gift so I asked if I can have 3 small bridesmaids bouquets instead of my bouquet and she said no...... I think this is bit crazy as I said I would pay the difference...... We have been given the ceremony option of 3pm has anyone managed to get it later or is this a good time? Then the meal at 5 30pm so im a bit concerned guests will be hanging around to long???? We are having a private cocktail reception and I think the cost of the lounge seating is crazy so we are just going with the high tables and chairs I hope this will look nice still. Are we able to add more decorations to the space like candles etc???? Has any past brides had the 3milk cake is it nice? Also is the surf and turf menu option nice theres nothing worse than getting a tough steak .. Thanks Ladies its getting exciting now re: candles.. we really wanted candles but since it's so windy we figured it would be a waste so we got flameless votives from ebay, they were about $30 for 48. After I purchased ours, I found them at Target for even cheaper

Quote: Originally Posted by gemma2014 I've finally got a reply.......that the wedding coordinator is out of the office til 16th oct! I'm relieved that I have been acknowledged but it's worrying that brides getting married a few months after mine are getting everything organised with them : ( Can anyone let me know how payment is arranged for the extras ie, reception, extra flowers etc?? Do we pay at the resort when we arrive, or before?? As we have paid for the wedding package already i was curious as we haven't got any prices yet to budget for. You paid for your wedding package already? We were told by another couple who got married here that the wedding cost gets charged to the room. We're getting married in 1.5 months and we haven't given them any money.. I guess I should look into this! lol

Quote: Originally Posted by karolane I will bring a photographer for the 7 days regardless I will pay the 400$ if I have and that's fine with me thanks for all the help ! My fiancé and I are thinking of going on a trip this year ( a year before our wedding ) to visit the locations for the wedding andert with. Wedding planner so we can ask the questions we need to ask . Anyone thinks that's a good idea ?? I just feel like if I do everything via email it will be verry frustrating and stressful. It is a good idea if you have never been there - we have and I'm still having a hard time remembering the details. The resort has quite a few weddings per day so my only concern would be the wedding coordinators actually 'finding time' for you so far in advance although being there already, I'm sure they will do all possible to earn your business

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsMoorsy Quote: Originally Posted by karolane I will bring a photographer for the 7 days regardless I will pay the 400$ if I have and that's fine with me thanks for all the help ! My fiancé and I are thinking of going on a trip this year ( a year before our wedding ) to visit the locations for the wedding andert with. Wedding planner so we can ask the questions we need to ask . Anyone thinks that's a good idea ?? I just feel like if I do everything via email it will be verry frustrating and stressful. Were also bringing our photographer down for the full 7 days, she'll be travelling with everyone so it's just easier-Ha vent gotten any info on the price cause were not planning on telling the resort we have a photographer coming...I have been trying to get in touch with Maria for the past 4 months so I ended up emailing Paloma who also is NOT helpful.. For any brides who are frustrated with the contact...trust me when I say they will not give u much until your 3-4 till ur wedding..its total bull and completely unfair..If our guests hadn't put down their deposits already we would be cancelling and going somewhere else cause I think this is ridiculous cause their are a lot of brides like me that what to know what their budget is and it's really hard when your in limbo for 9 months! You will be ok with your photographers since they're coming for the whole week. I'm not sure why Arrecife needs all of their information - it's actually ridiculous!! If they're responsible for taking the pictures included in each package, why do they need names, flight info, company name etc. of the photographers we're all bringing down? I would maybe look into this just so you don't have any issues when you get down there.. We too were considering switching.. communication has been brutal at best! We are doing a poolside reception and after we looked at the menu, we asked to replace 3 out of the 5 appetizers (chicken pate, sausage salad and potato salad with salmon?? yuk!) with a simple pasta dish and were told $9 per person - makes no sense at all since we are asking for a total of 3 apps instead of 5 and they serve pasta each and every day at the lunch and dinner buffet so it's not like we're asking for lobster! If you have any questions, I'm pretty sure I've asked most of them lol so fire away!

Quote: Originally Posted by J1031 You got it! And I brought up the fact that they're PAYING guests of the resort.. "minimum 5 days stay or they have to pay the fee to Arrecife". Sorry.. I'm not sure but I think they would have to pay the day pass plus pay the $400 and Arrecife wants all their information as well (names, company name, flight info).

Quote: Originally Posted by KatLew Its 400 to bring a photographer? What about guests who are staying at a different resort - can they purchase a day pass to attend the wedding? You got it! And I brought up the fact that they're PAYING guests of the resort.. "minimum 5 days stay or they have to pay the fee to Arrecife".

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsMoorsy Quote: Originally Posted by KatLew wait, so we cant bring a photographer into the resort??? How much does the resort photographer cost and will they edit and touch up photos and give us a USB of all them images? They will charge you a fee for bringing a photographer into the resort..I have no idea how much they charge but I'm sure it's a lot...That is IF they will even let you..by the sounds of all these post I don't even see you being allowed to bring in an outside photographer anymore and your stuck with Areclife or family taking photos which is such bull.. Like I said were bringing in our own regarless and just passing her off as a friend to bypass the fee's and stuff cause I don't like the resort photos at all.. I emailed Jazmin as we are now bringing our own photographer and good thing I did.. We were only going to bring them down for 4 days and there is a minimum 5 night stay in order to have the $400 fee waived

Quote: Originally Posted by leanne1 I only got the option for tequilla restaurant or don pablo? We like the menu for the don pablo restaurnat but was going to ask about La Gran Tortuga did anyone else get this restaurant as an option? Im a bit dissapointed that all guests have to have the same set menu. I am also wondering if the reception after the meal can be extended till 11pm does anyone else know? Thanks ladies We're doing a poolside reception which was only supposed to run until 10 but they allowed us until 11. Could be different if it's in the restaurant though because if I'm not mistaken, I think they close at 10/10:30 for 'regular' dinners

Quote: Originally Posted by sarakelz how are all of you early 2014 brides getting emails from your WC's? My wedding in at the end of January and I have only received one email response from Maria that basically told me she would be taking a long time to respond to any of my questions. I haven't been able to get any pricing from her or any confirmation on anything other than our wedding date and time of day. any tips?? anyone else dealing with maria? i am trying to be patient and haven't sent that many questios but its 4.5 months away and we are trying to work out budgets and stuff. frustrating! :s I think most of us felt your pain!! It took the resort a month and a half to confirm our wedding date alone - and that was with me emailing them constantly to follow up. Once I got a bit nasty, the responses came. Now we're 2 months away and Jazmin's on vacation?? Also, anyone bringing down their own photographer, they are not at all cooperative unless it is a minimum of 5 day stay. We have distant family members who are going to take our pics and they wanted us to pay Arrecife $400 because we originally planned on them coming for 4 days. I wonder if our parents will end up getting an invoice for snapping pictures at our wedding too lol If you need any pricing, let me know and I'll try my best to help

Hi ladies, We are having our reception at the Hibiscus pool - was told by the resort that it's the most private of the pools in Coba - I really want to bring paper lanterns but have no idea how the space is laid out and not sure if they will work. Do any of you (past brides) have any pictures you can share of that specific pool area and/or any other pools you can recommend? Thanks so much! Anna

Thank you so much, that's good to know. Do you have any info on the Hibiscus pool area?

That works! Thank you so much

Hi everyone! We have 48 people confirmed and probably will have 6-10 more so we were leaning towards the Flamboyan pool for our private reception (there will be close to 10 children as well) - this one seemed the biggest however when I mentioned to Jazmin that privacy was important, she suggested the Hibiscus pool. I looked it up on the resort map and it seems very close to the restaurants so we figured we would have a lot of other resort guests walking by. Any thoughts or pictures anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Also, not sure if anyone is aware of this but we weren't too fond of our guests spending over $1,000 each to come to our wedding and only having pina coladas and beer served during our cocktail hour and additional 2 hours of reception - we got quoted almost $2,600 to have liquor and wine (for the additional 2 hours only) and that wasn't even top shelf quality. $25/person/hour is out of the question as my MOH is paying $45 for an open bar for 7 hours for her at home wedding. Jazmin said we could bring our own alcohol and there wouldn't be a charge for them to serve it. Sounds ridiculous that we would even consider bringing our own booze to an all inclusive but for $500 we can get premium quality stuff and doesn't break the bank if you want your guests to have more choices. Thank you in advance!! Anna

This is the response I got from Jazmin today: some of the other dj's are still allowed. DJ Bijan is not anymore allow for some issues in our property, nevertheless If still wish to book an external DJ vendor let me know to send you contact with another option

I still haven't heard back from Jazmin or Paloma. When I originally asked Paloma re: external dj fee she replied with the cost per hour for the resort photographer and when I asked about it again, she never answered my question. I will try Jazmin again today and hopefully get a response soon. This whole thing with confirming details 3 months before the wedding doesn't fly with me! We have 46 guests who already put down a deposit for November and we're supposed to wait until 3 months before to see if we can even have the type of reception/dj etc we want??

Hi Ladies, Just a heads up, I contacted DJ Bijan to put down a deposit and he informed me that going forward, GBP will not be allowing external DJs. He said he has a few weddings booked there already so they obv will be honouring that but going forward we cannot use anyone other than the resort DJ. I have contacted Jazmin, our coordinator to see if this is correct - nothing back yet but I will update as soon I hear back.

Thanks ladies, I'll definitely look into a travel agent if things go sideways but so far so good. Hoping the communication starts getting better as well haha

Gotcha! Maybe I should start being a little more persistent too!! Word of advice, get multiple quotes from Westjet.. I think we have 6 or 7 now because they came back each time with a different rate - all way more than what we were hoping for. Finally got one today that's $350 less per person than all other previous quotes (for the same week mind you). Makes NO sense. There's a girl named Tracy that we dealt with who gave us the best price.

Wanted to share our wedding favor idea for those who have not decided yet.. We are going to give each couple/single a bottle of tequila. Figured it goes with the theme and it's something our guest will actually enjoy (I was never one to use personalized shot glasses from people's weddings haha). To serve double duty, we are also using the favor tags as a seating chart. Hope that helps

We are still in the process of negotiating a group quote through Westjet so we haven't given them a booking number. Paloma said she will assign us a WC to go over all of the details (and confirm the reception) once we submit. Seems kind of silly to me though.. what if by the poolside reception area isn't available and we already paid for the trip (and we don't want to do semi private). Have you given them your booking number and it's still not confirmed? I'm sure it will all come together

I was told the same and we are doing the same thing.. the day after you

Most of our guests live in the same city so we have decided to personally deliver the oot bags a couple of days prior to departure - we are only inviting closest friends and family so these are people we see regularly. My luck, our luggage would get lost and the goods would arrive the day after our wedding haha

Thank you so much!!

Regarding getting a WC assigned to you.. Paloma told me that we would have to provide her with our booking number prior to her assigning a wedding coordinator to plan the details. We have had numerous issues come up with invites and had to start from scratch therefore it's setting us back time wise. Does anyone know if my FI and I book, does that booking number qualify or does it have to be for our whole group? With the delay with invites, we decided to leave it up to our guests to book on their own as they have several departure cities available to them as well as overlapping dates and our group quote is actually substantially higher than online individual pricing at the moment. Thanks ladies!

Hi, If you want a private poolside reception including dinner, it's $60/pp for a minimum of 50 people - so you're looking at $3,000 but this is with setup and a buffet style. Not sure what they're charging for just the reception Good luck!