Okay for whatever reason my first post never was published..... so lets try this again... lol HI everyone!! I am officially going to be getting married at the HRHPC on May 29, 2015!!! I have been looking at this site for answers and it has been a life saver! SO I decided to become a member and participate!! I have a few questions that hopefully you guys can answer for me. 1) When scheduling my wedding and reception plus cocktail hour, I have been curious about if I should wait til my rooms are booked and get the incentives OR pay for everything in advance? ANy ideas which one would be easier? I already have all of my locations picked out along with decore etc. My worry is that if I wait til I get the incentives I may not have the ability to book with creative and the venders to help set up the venues. I am also worried about being guranteed by venue- if I do not pay for the venue ahead of time, that I may not get my requested area. 2) Okay so lets talk about Miami. I LOVE my coordinator but they are very vague and big on you going through them for everything! I have been contacting the individual venders as well as my WC. I know that for weddings over 30 people there is an additional cost per chair and decore. I am doing the Elegant Ivory Collection and found out that people of 30 will be charged an additional $8 per chair and $10 per sash! Thats INSANE FOR JUST CHAIRS AND FABRIC. I had previously read that waiting ti lyou get to the hotel- is the cost effective way to go.Should I just hold off on bringing up the number of people attending the "wedding itself" til I get down to the resort? Will this save me money in the long run? What can I actually hold off on buying/ planning til I get down to the resort? I want to ensure my reception, wedding and cocktail sites are all in order but what else do I need to schedule in advance? Where can I effectively cut costs? 3) Also can someone explain to me why the Allinclusivehotelweddings.com has the exact same PDF for wedding prices as your WC gives you, yet the prices are CHEAPER on this site?! BTW this is a travel agent site, I have access to it and would be glad to send the PDF to anyone else to look at. 4) My wedding currently without incentives and membership rates is at $16,000 and after rates and bridal incentives it drops down to $6,000. These prices include the hotel and airfare. I am trying to keep my wedding under $10,000 and have done great so far. I have booked my decore through Creative my lighting etc through JVSA (their preferred venders) and cut costs where I can to make it a fantastic event. Any other ideas on cutting costs would be great! 5) The infamous, and whispered about FIRE- DANCERS...... who has them, how do I get them.... cuz I want them for my cockatil reception!!!! LOL. Plus I want to do Chinese wish lanterns (bio degradable ones) you know, if you have seen "The Hangover Part 2" the end of the movie where everyone lights lanterns and watches as they float up into the sky...... yeah I want that too. Anyone know if this is possible? If thats a big "negatory" who said no- "Miami"? Cuz then I want to bring them down with me to the resort and press my luck there! lol Thanks so much with your answers and if anyone needs to know anything- let me know, Ill try to help the best I can. Thank so much ladies and congrats to everyone!!!!