TinkerSofi

Hey! I was just wondering who you flew with to get the 11th person free? I'm working with a travel agent who has quoted me the Azul with air transat, who is guaranteeing every 21st adult free. 

 

Let me know I'm just curious!

I second what @@snswedding2016 said. We booked in May of 2014 so that was a while back. The only company that does chartered flights to AF from Canada is Air Transat so we went with them as well. Sometimes your TA is able to negotiate better promos or deals but it really depends on the time of booking. Who are you using for TA? Does she have a lot of experience with Karisma? 

Originally we wanted to go with Gran Caribe in Cancun, but our TA hadn't really worked with them and so when we got their quote we didn't like their terms. Among other things, they also only offered every 21st free. That's when our TA suggested AF and she had already worked with them many times. Anyway, when she said they would give us that deal, that was just another things among the many reasons why we chose it. I just got an email from Karisma yesterday saying that every 6th person is free with some conditions. I imagine it's only for US brides, but maybe they're willing to cut you a better deal than the 21st person for free. 

Here are some of my thoughts:

 

@@ashhtayy reading your thread is taking me back to my planning days so it's nice to relive it through you! 

 

My wedding nightmares started about 2 months before the wedding I think. Ironically I think I had more wedding nightmares for my friend's wedding where I was a bridesmaid. I kept dreaming that I was the one holding up the wedding, that everyone was dressed (including the bride) and I couldn't find my dress or shoes anywhere - It was a stressful nightmare! haha

 

Here are some thoughts about your list:

 

-Wine on tables: I personally don't think you need to worry about this one, especially if they are going to charge you extra. I don't think I ever saw a single guest up at the bar because the servers were so quick to serve drinks and top you up. I think I had 3 drinks going at all times. They don't like to leave you empty handed! 

 

-Podium: We didn't have a podium and didn't really miss one. That being said, if you want a home base spot for your MC(s) I would maybe just ask for a little table. It won't have the height of a podium but they won't charge you for an extra table, whereas they will charge you for a podium. Might be an easy switch to save some money!

 

-We started our appointments pretty early. Like @@calgarybride2015 said, I really didn't want to feel rushed during the day. I started out with my maids of honour at the spa for mani/pedis at 10:00am and then had my hair and make up at 11 and 12 for our 4:30pm ceremony. We also had a first look so that bumped up our time we had to be ready (3:15pm). I would suggest having one of your bridesmaid order your lunch ahead of time or at the spa while you're getting ready so that it will be ready when you get back to your room. That was my original plan but then the wedding department dropped off mimosas, gourmet bites and quesadillas so I wasn't sure if we really wanted to still order a full lunch after. We ended up ordering room service after all and it took a little while. 

 

-Cocktail Hour - Do you know if there is another wedding on your day? If not, I would suggest the Zky Bar as it is right below you and it should be open as of 5pm, which would work out well with your ceremony time. Otherwise the Cantina would be great but it's on the other side of the resort. Both of these bars are kid friendly, the Gin Bar is adults only. There are the other little poolside bars but they will be closing around the time of your wedding. 

 

-Dietary restrictions - I would let them know when you pay your resort bill (1 month prior) although really if you have any changes you can tell the wedding department onsite and they will make the necessary arrangements. 

 

-Ceremony - I just left the time as is on paper but our WCs onsite told us to tell our guests to arrive 15 min prior, although most people knew to do that anyway. We also started a bit later...although I have no idea how much later (I had no concept of time that day unless someone said we were running late). They kept me waiting downstairs with my wedding attendant while they lined everyone up in the bridal party but the WCs onsite are a well oiled machine. They get everyone organized and where they need to be to make it run smoothly. (for example: Angelica came running downstairs while I was waiting to tell me that the bridesmaids were facing the sun directly and asked if I was ok with them wearing sunglasses and I said of course, but it was nice that they checked with me first)

 

-Sky Deck video - do you mean a hardcopy or just a link to the video online? @@TinkerSofi will probably be the better person to ask about this. I know you can access your video on the ustream site. 

 

You're getting so close to your big day!! Very exciting!

I downloaded the video from their website using an app. I believe I used Apowersoft Video downloader for Mac. There should be one for PCs as well if that's what you have. I tried many applications but that was the only one that worked 

I think I paid $300 or 350 for set up costs. I can put one hell of a christmas lights display for $2500 here at home haha. 

I had a lot of decor, but what brings up the set up fee is if they have to hang anything, rather than if they just need to put things on tables and stuff like that. I still don't regret it though  

@TinkerSofi, @snswedding2016

 

Hey Ladies!! Did either of you take note of the timing for walking down the aisle on the sky deck? I know it would depend on how fast you walk but even just a estimate. Thanks  

It takes sometime between 40-50 seconds. I know someone had timed it, but honestly when you're there that's the last thing on your mind haha. My song was longer than that, but they just faded it out when I got to the front. You could watch the past videos and get an average from that. That's what I had done  

@@TinkerSofi @@snswedding2016 thanks so much for the info ladies. I spoke to my WC today and she was like ohh I'm in the middle of emailing you back. She Didn't have much to say at all and was just so blah. Everything looks pretty good now with the details so I'm not stressed or anything! I'm so excited though. When did you both meet with the coordinators on the resort? How long did it take?

we met I think on the third day we were there. The appointment took a couple of hours and you will really go into all the details then . The main thing for now is for you to have all the things you have to pay for, but then you go over your timeline in detail and you will get a chance to make any last minute changes if you wish.

We signed the waiver, but as I was getting my hair done Lucely came over (our coordinator) and told us the forecast was clear so we would go ahead and do everything outside. That was such great news. Then Claudia, the Lomas coordinator, asked me if I wanted to add chair covers from the vintage elegance theme for the ceremony for $100. This was also as I was getting my hair done and I said yes. We had 35 chairs and I thought it was a good deal at the time. I was glad I did that because I didn't have much decor, and it added a nice touch when I got up there . 

For the reception what have some of you done for a head table?

Did you have your bridal party all sit together? I saw they have retangular tables and I was thinking of doing that for the head table then round for the guest. I have 10 people in my party including us, bride and groom, and was thinking about doing the Imperial table for 10 people. Now im thinking it probably sits 10 people, but 5 on each side and not everyone on the same side facing the guests. Hope this makes sense and someone can help. 

We did a sweetheart table and then the bridal party sat with their significant others. The reason why we did that was because we only had 30 guests and it would have been 7 of us at the imperial table, so I felt like the rest would have looked a little empty. 

Certainly give them a call to finalize your details before you pay. I didn't have a final call, I think it's something new that they do now. I would go through your summary in detail and make sure you're paying for the right things. Don't make any payments unless everything is correct. They take a long time to refund your money so you don't want to give them extra. I paid $200 over and they took so long to refund it that I just spent it at the spa at the resort

Also, we didn't pay before my deadline. No one was answering my e-mails so I paid about a week late. They didn't say anything. I wouldn't be too worried , especially if you've been trying to get a hold of them and they are the ones not answering. 

Well said @@TinkerSofi!

 

And thank you! Everything's coming together and despite the ranting going on here (by one person)...I'M SO EXCITED!

It is! I found when the center pieces came together that I could finally picture what it all would look like. 

i'm kind of regretting not using gold haha. it looks so pretty  

@@Kjmenden I'm really sorry that you had that experience. However there are certain things that bothered me about your "review". I understand I'm a bit late to the party, but I feel like I need to say what I think. 

1- Your bridesmaids "thought things wouldn't get set up on time" so they did it. You forget these guys do this day in and day out. I am sure your wedding would have been set up wonderfully had you let them to their job and not jumped the gun based on when and how you thought things should have been done. 

2 - "The reviews from inside bloggers" - I'm sorry, but with only 3 posts and one of them being this super negative one, the one that seems to be getting paid is you, not us, who have planned this wedding down to every detail on these forums. There is no way you can prove that people are getting paid to write reviews and while I am sorry that you had a bad experience, it is not universal. 

3 - "The dump of a room that your husband got" - My husband actually got one of the new rooms. It was very nice. So again, your experience is not universal. All you had to do was politely ask for another one, if you were that picky. 

4 - Room service - yes, if you call at 1:30 AM it usually takes them longer because, well, you're not the only one who orders room service. 

5 - People got sick from the welcome dinner - This seems to me like it should have read "I suspect that it was the food" because you can't prove it. Some of our guests also got sick, but we narrowed it down that it was probably due to us using tap water to brush our teeth. We also can't prove it, but hey, it's what happens when you travel sometimes. I can't blame the resort and neither did my guests. 

6 - What exactly do you expect by posting this review? I understand that you are angry, but honestly, just because you had a bad experience it doesn't mean that everyone will. It is also not the place to hijack someone's thread, who by the way, has pretty much her whole wedding planned out, just to voice your opinion and make others second guess their choice. I supposed that had you stopped thinking about yourself for one second and actually checked out the forums you would have realized that. Too much to ask I guess. 

I could go on, but honestly, what for. I don't expect you will read this, because you're obviously just going around and ranting in random places, but at least know that your kind of negativity is not welcomed here. 

@@ashhtayy i'm loving the centerpieces. I think the mason jars turned out really well! I also had a bit of a disappointing run with spray paint. it's a lot harder than I thought! haha. 

I can't wait to see it all with the flowers  

@@sassylouxx Is your FI my FI? lol

 

It was probably 2 weeks ago when he looked at me and said "what am I going to do about my hair?" His barber even joked with him about needing to book his trip soon.

 

My FI get his sides done every Friday and is worried about the same thing...and we get there on a Friday and marry on the Tuesday lol. Luckily his nonna used to be a hair dresser, one of our guests is a hair dresser and they have the spa on site. I figure one of the three will have to work.

 

@@snswedding2016 - Steph, did Sean or Fabio (lol) get their hair cut on site? Or @@TinkerSofi, did Juan? I think he keeps his sides short too? Any experience with the men on your trip using the spa for their pre-wedding cut?

Juan has a fade, so yeah, it was totally an issue for him. One of his friends is a barber, so she cut his hair while we were there haha. When we went to Argentina for 2 weeks he ended up walking into this place and he didn't like the haircut. He's very picky and he wanted to just go anywhere in town when we went to Mexico. As someone who is also picky with her hair, I strongly suggested against it haha. 

@@ashhtayy it was totally fine for us. No one was using their phones to look at their meal. We didn't rent anything else. The string lights were just for decoration but they don't light up the place much. I didn't feel like it was too dark. 

@@calgarybride2015 haha, I thought no one replied to this . It's good until May 

We got the memorable moments package and still brought our own decor. I had some string lights to put behind the gazebo and I think that's what brought our set up fee a little higher. We paid $250-300, I can't quite remember. Definitely hanging things up is what brings the cost up haha, otherwise it's not that much. They did explain to us that the money they charge is just divided up between the guys that actually do all the set up (so the hotel doesn't keep that money) and that's why they ask for cas. They did a great job so I didn't feel like it was unfair. 

@@ashleynv I sent you a PM! If I had to do it again I wouldn't go to the same place for alterations for me (where I bought my dress). I feel like they way overcharged me. My mom got her dress altered with a lady that lives by our house and she paid a lot less for a lot of work haha and it looked great! I can ask for her name and phone number . I haven't heard anything about Sonia's 

Thanks ladies. Yes, it was a lot of fun, partying till the sun came up pretty much haha. 

@ thanks, I can't take the credit for the decor. My mom and aunt did everything. My aunt has a home decor store and she is very crafty. She teaches painting and crafts classes, so you can imagine haha. It was all on the simple side, but she's awesome at taking a couple of things and making it look beautiful . 

@@snswedding2016 yeah, I wish we would have been able to do a honeymoon right after. I agree with you, I didn't feel like we rested much while we were there haha. It was still so awesome to see everyone and i'm so happy we went with a DW. I had totally forgotten about the wedding part too while we were there haha. I think that's what helped me to relax on the day of, that I had been hanging out with these people for almost a week and it was never a dull moment. I knew the wedding would be awesome  

I don't blame you! I'd be reading those vows every day too ahah. Juan actually wrote his that morning....on a hotel notepad bahaha. I actually burst our laughing when he pulled that out during the ceremony. It was just so him though and I loved it . 

OMG!! as I was reading your review I couldn't help but to also think about my experience, both being so wonderful. You both looked amazing and just so happy!! It's funny, I used the same way to describe our wedding day. It was better than I could have imagined. 

That's frustrating about the excursion on rehearsal day, but hey, it could be worse! Juan actually planned an excursion for us on the rehearsal day. They sold it to him like it was 4 hrs (to which I reluctantly agreed after a LOT of pressure from him), but when we got in the van they told us it was the whole day. I was fuming. I get back at like 5pm, I had a bunch of messages from my bridesmaids who thought we'd be back at like 12 and hadn't heard anything from me. No one knew what was happening and I had to plan all the little things out. Then I had Juan who could not understand how I could possibly still have so many things to do, so he obviously didn't get why I was so mad haha. To sum it up it was not such a sweet day before our wedding day. I was basically pissed off at Juan haha.

I absolutely loved your vows. And...this is why I hate writing things, because I could never come up with something so beautiful. Both of your vows were so heart-felt. I loved them  

I also loved the first look pictures , I love his reaction. That's always my favourite part hehe. 

Don't you wish you could go back and do it all over again?! 
 

Hey!! I just wanted to see how your reception in Argentina went!!

Can you believe I just saw this? I didn't see that there was a new reply on this thread

It went great! It was so nice to have such a big family reunion. There's a lot of us, so it's hard for everyone to be under the same roof. Everyone was super excited. We danced until 5am haha. The place was great, the food was amazing!! 

I was so happy, I got to dance with my grandpa. He was so happy too, it totally made my night . 

Overall it was also a great two weeks. Juan fit into my family like he had known them for ages haha. He loved everyone and everyone loved him. I was a bit stressed about this because, you never know haha. He totally wanted to stay there forever! 

more pics!! I was afraid it would freeze if I tried to upload all of them at once haha

oh, PS: Ironically enough, I made it the whole night on my wedding dress, in Mexico, when it was like 32 degrees but not in Argentina . Half way through the reception I got extremely bloated for some reason and I couldn't breathe in my dress anymore. Luckily, I had my backup dress. Turns out I got a stomach flu that lasted 3 days, but at least I didn't get it badly until the day after the reception. When the party ended my stomach started to hurt and I felt disgusted by everything (perfect cue for my whole family to ask whether I was pregnant already haha). There was something going around. 6 guests who were coming from out of town had to cancel because all 6 got a super strong stomach flu. My mom, grandma and aunt were also sick the day before, even though no one ate the same thing. Super weird. 

excellent! I look forward to being added . I just PM'd you with my name and @@calgarybride2015, I added you  

Could everyone please pass me their fb names? I'll put the group together

Juan and I are totally on board. I do agree with @@calgarybride2015 that $4000 per person might be a bit much for us hahah, especially if I end up going back to school (which i'll hopefully find out about in the next couple of months). 

Early 2017 works for us and I'm sure we can find a good price point for a resort. I might be biased but the Karisma resorts are really high on my recommendation list and some of their resorts are at decent prices. The food alone there is just amazing. 

I have been to the RIU Cancun. It's nice, it's close to all the clubs which is a huge plus. We walked there every night and back. The good thing is that if, for example, we stay at the RUI Palace las Americas (right next door to RIU Cancun) we can go visit and eat at any other RIU. With so many people I don't know if that will even be an advantage or if it's just better to stay at our resort every day and save a couple hundred bucks. With that said, the beach is much nicer at the RIU Cancun than the one in Palace las Americas. 

I would also love to go back to Playa del Carmen. We didn't have a chance to go visit the town when we were there, but we can always rent a car while in Cancun and drive down there for the day. It's not a big deal. 

Adults only works for us, we're not planning on kids for a few years so we're good. But if anyone wants just a regular family resort, we're ok with that too. 

Should we make a fb group? Maybe it will be easier to keep the discussions more organized and we can have polls about price points/resorts/locations etc. I can open one up. 

@@ashhtayy hahah, oh men. I'm lucky that I have a guy who loves to shop and who loves expensive things (for better or worse haha). I still ended up scanning a bunch of things that he didn't agree with, and vice-versa. His response was, well, if we don't ask for the good stuff now when are we going to do it? Plus, we get 10% off for a year on the stuff that people didn't get us, so we kept in mind things and price ranges that we would be able o afford later on.

We needed absolutely everything since neither of us lived on their own, so that made it a little easier. Our registry ended up being 12 pages long! I had a lot of fun doing it, but I definitely did what the assistant told you. I added a bunch of things in store but then I found similar products for half the price on their website, so I added those and deleted the very expensive items. Just make sure you have a bit for every price range. Don't take it too seriously, after all it's just a wish list, but it doesn't mean you're going to get all those things . A girl can dream right?

I really like your rings, and I like the idea of engraving it. I was going to do the same, but in the end we decided to take that money to Mexico and spend it there. The wedding plus a move in the horizon kind of limited our funds haha. Maybe for our first year? I think it's a very cute idea, and useful, you know, for those moments when one of you forgets your anniversary date but you're too afraid to ask bahahah (in our case that would be Juan ) 

I did a little facebook stalking!! So guys looked so good. I can't wait to see and hear more from your trip and your wedding. Congrats Mrs!  

I think they could do the fake cake. It's worth it to ask . I honestly loved their cake, it was so delicious. I'm glad we got one

You definitely do not need any decor for the rehearsal dinner. We used it as a welcome dinner for everyone and didn't have anything. I wasn't really into checking the decor that day because I was really really sick. So sick that I only got through my hair trial but couldn't do the makeup. I had to rebook it for another day,so I was glad that I had 2 or 3 days in between the trial and the makeup. I'm not saying that will happen to you, but just something to consider. I think I just had bad/good luck, depending how you look at it. At least I got sick before the wedding and I was fine for the day of.  One tip, avoid tap water at all costs, that includes brushing your teeth, fruits and vegetables with their peel and uncooked, etc. The second I stopped brushing my teeth with tap water I felt like normal again. Anyway, this comment got sidetracked, haha I just wanted to say that you don't need decor . 

Don't feel bad about the gift registry. We made one at Home Outfitters and while we didn't get gifts from everyone we did get a few and at least you're giving people ideas as to what you want and need. We put it on our website that we did not expect gifts but we had made a list of things we wanted to buy in the future for our new home at Home Outfitters. I didn't advertise it or anything, but if people asked what we wanted for a gift I told them about it . I think I only put that I had a registry on the bridal shower invite. 

Maybe try Cuba or Mexico as options. I know the Dominican can be a little more expensive than the other two. December is usually quite a bit more expensive, especially during the time when your fiance will have his vacation time. Fares usually become cheaper after kids return to school, for obvious reasons. I went to Mexico a few years back, left around Jan 4th but still paid $1700 for an ok resort. I know prices have gone up a little since then because of our dollar but search around and get a few quotes. Maybe talk to a TA to see what their opinion is, this is what they do for a living and they're able to see patterns more clearly than us. In my opinion, it's possible to find a resort in your price range at any time of the year, however, you might have to give something up. For example, when we went in January, we paid the same as we did when we went in August, but the resort wasn't as nice. 

Something to consider is getting married in the summer. We got married in August and it really wasn't that bad. Yes, it was hot, but the weather was extremely nice and I don't regret it. We all had a blast. Our ceremony was short (about 10-15 min) and after the sun goes down the breeze really helps if you're doing an outside reception.  We were able to get a really nice resort for a decent price. Maybe don't wait until August, but perhaps late June is not too hot yet and your fiance will have time off  

AF is the best, you guys will not regret it! . There is a lot of frustration during the planning process, but it all works out in the end and they set up dream weddings over there .