Linds1204

hi @rvalenka

We just used planner1 for our wedding and they were amazing!!!! Check out my sneak peek gallery for some pics!

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/gallery/album/17603-wedding-sneak-peek/

We worked with Arianna and she was fantastic! Highly recommend

Here is the link to my sneak peek gallery!!!

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/gallery/album/17603-wedding-sneak-peek/

My professional pics won't be ready for 6 weeks, so most of these are guests iPhone photos, so sorry for the poor quality! Hope you all enjoy

@@Naturalbeauti30 Congrats!

Our ceremony was on the sky terrace (amazing!) and our reception was on the Palenque terrace (equally amazing). We had 77 guests.

We had a large group and the Palenque terrace is huge but we utilized the space well.

I'm dying to get some pics up for you girls! But I may have to do it tonight as I can't get on facebook from work to save them to my computer.

You all can also friend me on FB to see pics! Lindsey Spotts

_{Hi Brides!}

_{We just got back from Beach Palace Last night! Our wedding was AMAZING and PERFECT! The BP staff really knocked it out of the park! And I am VERY picky}

_{I hope to get my planning thread and reviews up this week!}

_{Please reach out to me with any questions about anything!!! I am happy to help anyone as I know how difficult it is to plan via email}

_{@@shmanderz pretty sure the dress code was only enforced in Bochelli, which is the Italian Rest (my fav!). Our male guests wore linen pants, khakis or jeans and polos or linen collared shirts. I don't believe they enforced closed toed shoes for the men.
There is no dress code for the ladies. I wore dresses or cute tank tops and white jeans, sometimes with heels, sometimes with jeweled flip flops and no one said a word about dress.}

Hi @@liz24

Congrats!

Traditional etiquette is the mother of the bride should select her dress & color first, and then the mother of the groom should select her dress after the Mother of the Bride in similar formality, length etc but a different color. The mother of the bride dress sometimes is similar to the bridesmaids dresses in color.  The "mothers" dresses should complement each other.

This is all just traditional- it's your wedding, so do whatever you like and what works best for you!

I stupidly told my MIL to be that she can wear any color dress that she wants. I was trying to  make it easy for her. She is apparently wearing pants and a blouse….couldn't tell you what color or what any of it looks like b/c she hasn't consulted me at all. So be careful with giving too much freedom! It has totally back fired on me I wish that I had been more specific.

Good luck!

@@Mrsoats The same thing happened to my with JSAV- they totally try to rip you off! It says on the Palace Pricing info that tax & delivery/setup are included in the pricing of $1,750 for a 4 hour DJ- then they quoted me $2,300 with tax & delivery/setup.

I didn't even go back to JSAV and call them out- I told my wedding coordinator that I wanted a quote from PSAV- same service, 4 hour DJ- $1,350 including tax & delivery/setup. So I hired PSAV

I recommend that you do the same. Seems like the wedding coordinators may get some sort of commission based on the services that you book, which is why they don't even send the PSAV quote.  I don't know that for sure, just thought it was interesting that they never sent me anything for PSAV and they are $1,000 cheaper for the same service...

For all the Mexico Brides!

The Duty Free Limit was just increased from $300 per person to $500 per person! (effective 12/3/13).

This is only if you are traveling by air. Ground will remain at $300

Great news for everyone bringing lots of decor, favors, OOT Bags & bridal party gifts!!

Here the link to the article for those of you who wish to read it:

http://yucalandia.com/answers-to-common-questions/what-can-i-bring-into-mexico-mexican-customs-rules-the-article/#What%20can%20I%20bring%20in%20duty%20free

Hey Girls!

Eyelash extensions do look beautiful! I would recommend getting them done to "try out" a while before your wedding!

I did a test run and my experience was not one that I would wan to have right before my wedding.

I had Novalashes done, which is supposed to be the best/least toxic as far as glue reactions etc go.

I had a terrible reaction to them, not at first it was sort of gradual over a few weeks. My eye are was very irritated and my eyelids were really red. I also had a difficult time getting water out/off of my eyes b/c you aren't supposed to rub them. So if you are swimming, this could be an issue.

I waited for them all to finally fall off, and they had broken a lot of my natural lashes, and it took me a few months to get them back to normal. I should mention that I have very thick, long and dark natural lashes to begin with, so I probably didn't really need them, but, I was really upset when they were finally off that I had lost a lot of my natural length & thickness.

Thankfully they did grow back!

Just wanted to post a little warning! This is definitely not what happens to everyone, but there is a chance that you could have a similar a reaction. 

@@christy531

You can do a destination wedding with a range of budgets. 

I live in DC (so wedding price points are similar to NYC). We are doing a large wedding, 75 people, with  A LOT of extras that most people don't do for a DW, and it's still costing us about half of what we would have spent in DC, for 3 days worth of events.

My wedding is in a month, so I don't have my final tally in yet on cost.

There are a lot of resorts that give perks & freebies to brides depending on how many guests you have.

For example, because of the size of our wedding, we are getting all of our events for free, and our stay at the resort for 7 nights for free! This allowed us to be able to contribute towards some of our guests rooms, and allowed us to spend more on extras for the wedding. 

However, if we didn't add on extras (decor, flowers, entertainment, rentals, entertainment etc), we could have our wedding for almost nothing. If we went with the basic setup provided and just added a DJ, our wedding could be under 2K. 

I hope that helps! Feel free to PM me if you want any more details or specifics! 

Past Brides!! I need your help please!

Did any of you have the symbolic ceremony? If so, were you able to get a script of what the officiant was going to say, or were there choices of different scripts?

I am a month out from my wedding and don't have a clue about the ceremony! Am I supposed to provide a script??

EEEK! Please help!

Any info is greatly appreciated!!! thanks! 

Hi @@yancn

Congrats!!!!

Are you using a travel agent to handle your group block and guests bookings for you? My TA is coordinating all transfers for our guests. It is included in our group pricing. BP does not have a shuttle, so either you would need to find a way to coordinate this or your guests would need to pay for a taxi etc, which could be chaotic and stressful for you to coordinate.

If you don't have a TA yet, let me know! A lot of us on this forum have Wendy Hicks from Wright Travel (owners of this site) and she is AMAZING. I would be happy to give you her info. 

I and many others would probably second my advice to for sure get a TA, but not just any TA, one that specializes in Destination Weddings.

Good luck! 

Hey @@esahunnie

Great chatting with you last night!

Here are some of the photographers we talked about:

www.elizabethmedina.com  <---- go to her blog to check out her weddings, she is amazing!

www.delsolphotography.com   <----- you can search del sol's site for beach palace and look at photos from other weddings    there to get an idea of what the sky deck and reception space looks like. They are also awesome and have done a lot of BP weddings.

www.saraniweddings.com  <---- sarani is a BP approved photographer, also does video, you can get a package with both.

Florists:

www.vanessajaimes.com  <---- who I am using after i spied her arrangements she did for a del sol bride married at BP

www.mayafloral.com  <---- I have heard a lot of brides use Marvin

The resort also has a florist they coordinate with you, and they can do a lot, just depends on what you are looking for. 

I will email you the brochure from Zuniga, who is the rental company for lighting, and any other rentals if you don't want to use the Colin Cowie Collection. Zuniga also has a florist they work with that you can use and you won't have to pay the outside vendor fee. 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Lindsey

They closed down the miami office office summer of 2013, so everyone works with a coordinator who is in Mexico. You will work with a coordinator until about a few weeks before you leave, then you are assigned your onsite coordinator for when you arrive at the resort. 

@@MM2MJ this is less formal, but you could always send a save the date electronically….either by e card, or a designed email and just say Coming Soon! The wedding of ______&_______. May 2015 Costa Rica. More Information to follow

Then once you decide on the resort and date, send your paper save the dates via mail. 

Hi @@beccafries

congrats!

There are lots of smaller weddings at beach palace. I don't think they charge to use the sky terrace like some of the other resorts do. My wedding is pretty large, so I qualified for a lot of free things, but I know you can qualify for free things with smaller groups too. 

do you have a travel agent yet? I can send you my agents info, she is amazing and works with lots of palace brides. Her name is Wendy Hicks, there are plenty of mentions of her awesome skills on the beach palace cancun forum.

Let me know and I will send you her info

Hi Brides!

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Did/Is anyone using the Colin Cowie Collection for your reception tables? I am having a difficult time getting my coordinator to commit to it, she keeps giving us quotes from Zuniga with similar things a la carte, but it is not the same. Just curious if anyone else had this problem?

Also- for those of you who used an outside florist for bouquets and had them dropped off at the lobby....did that work? Were you able to avoid the outside vendor fee this way? We are using the resort for centerpieces etc, but I really want to use an outside florist for the bouquets.

Any feedback would be appreciated! 

thanks!
 

Lindsey

Wendy is my new agent and she is great! You will be in good hands with her.

When you go to all the resorts, I would get a copy of their private events menus & all costs associated with private events- If you are planning on having any wedding functions as private. If you're having more then about 40 guests (varies by resort), you usually have to do private. Paradisus' food prices were really high, easily 3-4 times over other resorts and I think they charged for your open bar too, which makes no sense since you are staying at an all inclusive! Palace resorts are one of the more generous with what you get free depending on how many rooms you book. You can get all your events for free! Have Wendy go over all of that with you and take it into consideration when making your choice based on your budget. You don't want to pay an arm and a leg for food or drinks when your guests are technically already paying for that in their room costs. Good luck!!!!

Our wedding was originally booked at Azul Sensatori

The outside vendor thing is not why we cancelled, I wish that was the reason! The resort actually had nothing to do with it, and if you are undecided for your wedding, I would definitely look at them! Our wedding would have been beautiful there and will be just as if not more beautiful at Beach Palace. Most of the resorts have their own policies vendors and fees, doesn't matter which you go to. Beach Palace is a bit more accommodating then others that I have seen.

My advice to you, is under no circumstances, use DestinationWeddings.com for your wedding. Use Wright Travel agency and no one else. TRUST ME!

Hey Bella So I don't know if this is going to work, but so far this is my plan for flowers to avoid the outside vendor fee. I am going to have just my bouquets/boutineers done by an outside florist and have them delivered in the lobby (I read that other brides have done this and you don't have to pay the fee). For the rest of the flowers I am going to have them done through the resort so they can set them up. I would love to use an outside florist for everything, but the outside vendor fees add up and I already have an outside photographer and an outside videographer. I figure, the pictures that you are going to frame and hang up in your house are going to have bouquets in them. You're probably not going to hang any pictures of what your centerpieces or table decor looked like. The OCD perfectionist bride in me wants certain flowers and a certain look, so I totally understand using an outside vendor. Unless the price that you're getting from Marvin can make up for the $800 vendor fee and still provide some extra savings, it's probably not worth it. If you have the $500 fee in writing from the wedding coordinator, I would make them honor it. If it makes you feel any better at all, I originally had my wedding booked at another resort and their outside vendor fee was $800 even if you went out and picked up flowers from a florist! They also wouldn't even let you bring in a DJ. You had to use their contracted DJ, and their prices for EVERYTHING- flowers, decor etc was a lot more then at Beach Palace. Not sure if that makes you feel better or not, but it was worth a try!

Hi Ladies! Officially booked for 3/8/14 at Beach Palace! So excited! Is anyone else a March bride? I have a few questions for you ladies that are probably further ahead in the process. I was assigned my wedding coordinator 9/24/13. I emailed her a week ago but still haven't heard back. I know they are slow to respond, but is this normal? Did any of you get an initial email from them after you booked? Or did you have to make the first contact? One other question- I think I read somewhere about there being an additional fee to setup events on the beach or terrace. Does anyone know what this fee is? I can't seem to find it anywhere! Thanks!!! Lindsey

I know there is a walmart in cancun. I've heard there is also a party store nearby the walmart. I think it's a shopping center wtith a bunch of stores. I don't know what type of autentic mexican candy you will be able to find at walmart, but I have heard they stock different products then the us walmarts, so that's worth a shot! Does anyone know if Beach Palace will waive the outside vendor fee for a photographer if they stay at the resort?

Thanks Riz! I just reached out to them. They were super nice, but they don't have any rooms available there either

Hi Murmel Thanks so much for your response! My TA is currently trying to move us to a another Karisma resort, but we still haven't gotten a response from them and I am really worried. Our wedding date is 3/8/14, we are hosting private events from 3/6-3/8, so we would need at least 3 nights. We are in the US. Do you know any Canadian tour operators that we could reach out to? I really REALLY appreciate your help! Thanks! Linds

Hi Allie,

Thanks so much for your help! I REALLY appreciate it. 

We are hosting 3 private events, a welcome reception, dinner and wedding reception.

I am not sure if we will have 80% staying...we have about 65 people booked, but based on the turnout we already got, we think we are going to have 100+. I will try to work with our planner to see what she can do.

Thanks so much for your advice!

Help!!

Hey sensatori brides!

So, I am basically freaking out....my wedding is in March of 2014. We originally blocked 25 rooms. We already have 31 rooms booked.

I just got a call from my wedding planner letting us know that the resort is totally sold out during our wedding! We haven't even sent our invitations yet (they are currently being printed). We also don't even have all of our bridal party or family booked. Our wedding is over 6 months away....I can't believe the resort is already full! Has this happened to anyone else?

I know we could probably get another room block at a near by resort, but the day pass fee is $79 on the day of the wedding and $99 for any other days. It doesn't appear that Karisma will waive this since it specifically notes that you have to pay the fee even if the guest is staying at another Karisma resort.

I don't even know what to do, and like I said, I am totally freaking out! 

Anyone have any advice or has anyone else dealt with this?