lauralane

@@girlinthecity97 good heads up on the beers lady, thank you! And yes, we should all do a Generations Wedding Planning Survivors Club get together someday, that would be amazing! Some questions/thoughts on the music, which is my major to do right now: We are doing DJ All Music who does the songs + the emceeing. @@girlinthecity97, I was wondering how you handled the DJ - did you pre-select all of the songs or just give him an idea of what you like? I am so glad you had such good things to say about the DJ -- that's majorly helping for my sanity right now! Not being able to communicate with him directly is SO FRUSTRATING! He sent along this massive document with thousands of choices that's totally overwhelming me. Well-intentioned, but.... no. I'm thinking of creating my own schedule with general guidelines by hour or section (i.e. these songs for entrances and first dances, Frank Sinatra-ish music for dinner, fun clean versions of 80's, 90's and pop from today for early dance section, hip hop and dance music for last hour) and asking Marisol to pass it along to him. Going through Lomas to communicate this stuff seems crazy, particularly on the emceeing front; like are we just figuring this out the day of... who he's announcing, when, etc?! Also, we have a violin player for the ceremony but there's a total of 10 songs that you can choose from, which I find a bit weird... it's 45 minutes worth of their time but if the ceremony is 30 minutes they really only play for 15, apparently. So that's kind of a bummer, I was hoping he'd play a bit of our cocktail hour too as it's in the same place. They'll play 3 songs in the beginning, 1 at the end and that's that! I just will never get over my sticker shock at all of this stuff. Other than music, I'm cranking away on gift bags (kill me for my dream of margarita salt tins, please!) and last minute shopping. I've become convinced that I "need" a Feyonce tshirt for the ever-so-important airplane outfit

@@girlinthecity97 - giirrrrlllllll... you are like my destination wedding angel sent from above! My version of DF and I literally talk about you like we know you IRL -- "oh did you see that picture that girlinthecity posted on her ig? that roof deck looks insane!" "girlinthecity says we should switch the buffet to a family style at the plated dinner..." You are a lifesaver for all of your detailed tips and descriptions. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And just to pile on everyone else's comments -- you looked STUNNING and your wedding looked absolutely perfect! I can't wait to see moreeeee pics. (Or you can just post them on IG, you know...) So on the note of DF, he has a Very Serious Question to which he can't get an answer from the wedding coordinator to save our lives. Do you happen to recall which beers they served at the reception? Mission critical! We leave in 10 days, I can't believe it! Getting our ducks in a row making sure we have everything for the OOT bags ordered, communications with the bridal parties, packing, picking songs, making a zillion lists, organizing the catamaran thing, shopping, shopping, and more shopping! Fun times but definitely feeling a little frazzled. Trying to remember that these are AWESOME reasons to be stressed!

@@rtscent so cute! can't wait to see how yours turns out. and agreed about @girlinthecity's wedding -- I've been IG stalking too like a huuuuuge creep! so beautiful!

@@CnBWedding yay so glad you like! Send me a note with your email address at lauraleighnash@@gmail.com and I"ll send you the actual pdfs so that you can see which parts we'll need to update. Sorry for my delayed response - I ended up getting shipped to Australia for work and am so upside down! (So random... great timing, right?! In positive news, it's summer here so I'm checking off the summer sundress shopping!) And @@girlinthecity97, thanks for your kind words too! @@girlinthecity97 I think you may actually BE THERE right now! Can't wait to see your pics and hear how it all went -- so, so excited for you!

@girlinthecity I LOVE THEM!! So cute! I'm not bothered by the non-canvas either.. agree with your fiance that it works for the pool/beach thing perfectly. I was on this burlap/jute kick and I just sent the fiance a link to yours and he was like "oh thank God you found these instead"! So, doubly thank you for sharing It's this one, right? https://www.silkletter.com/promotional-boat-tote-bag.html I saw this random shirt and I think it's hilarious: http://www.thuglifeshirts.com/products/hola-bitchachos-tankand I'm so tempted to borrow the idea for my bags... buttttttt I don't think the "grownups" in our party would appreciate that so much I looooooove the classic black and white/resort chic look in Mexico.. I am just so excited to see everyone's pics. and @@CnBWedding we're also doing gold and blush, great minds!! I couldn't believe the fiance went for it either. I am a graphic designer and illustrator (on the nights and weekends, anyway!) and had the BEST time making my wedding invitations. I'm staring down a lot of travel for my "real" job over the next week and looking forward to plane time to create place cards, menus, welcome notes, etc. I posted on my blog a few weeks back about the process of making my own and the vendors I used to print, which was surprisingly kind of complicated to track down. http://www.ll-creative.com/blog/2015/1/4/my-destination-wedding-invitations If they're of any interest to you, @@CnBWedding, I would be happy to update it with your information or tweak the colors and send you the files! The printing still cost about $200 because I had them tri-fold the invitations for me (I had no desire to do that) so they weren't super cheap, but it was nice to have something "custom" would be happy to share the love if they're your style! @@girlinthecity97 so happy to hear that the rehearsal will likely happen in some form. We each have six people standing up with us, and a friend doing the ceremony for us... so it feels like lots of chances for oops-es! We're at 73 right now for the wedding and I'm like 95% sure that that's final... but I am going to take your advice and add a few additionals just in case. When do you actually leave for Mexico? I am so excited for you that it's SO soon!!

@girlinthecity I nearly just spit out my coffee at "forchid" above -- amazing! I was planning on transferring the bridesmaids bouquets, but maybe I'll pick up some additional stems from Michaels to add in to everything, too. Thanks for the heads up on the sweetheart table and also the place settings for the photographers. I think I'm going to pony up for both. On the chat thing -- you're right that it is random, but a lot of the times they ask who your W/C is and will "transfer" you. I think there's only a few of them that respond so it's super helpful either way when you need a faster answer! I've had Marisol respond about half of the times I ask questions on there. Also, I feel the same about writing soooo much lately but a. no one else cares and/or understands wtf I'm talking about ("Oh pooooooor you, stressed planning a beach wedding!" ) and b, I'm just so excited and grateful to be able to chat with you guys as you're in the same boat! @@CnBWedding - heads up as you still have a lot of time... I still, for the life of me, cannot get to the bottom of what happened, but basically overnight El Dorado and the Casitas booked up for us (they went from having tons of availability to totally sold out) and we ended up with about half of our party at Generations. We loved this resort for the same reason you did; the ability to stay in the adults only property but have guests that needed to in the family friendly one (plus Generation's awesome wedding facilities!) So, it was a little bit of a bummer to realize that we couldn't offer our guests El Dorado as we expected. On that note, we didn't do a room block because it seemed overly complicated and unnecessary with the three hotels. In retrospect, of course, I wish I had! So, not sure how you're setting yours up but that was a huge cluster for me to communicate to guests and could have been avoided. I am still just waiting to see what the hell huge group booked up El Dorado and Casitas -- watch it be some nutty convention!! @@ChiTiff and @girlinthecity - I re-read some of original documents that Marisol sent that and it mentions that the day-of coordinator that you're assigned will be in charge of helping with the processional. I'm thinking that however the rehearsal works itself out (worst case, everyone's doing it with a pina colada in hand on the beach... I'll draw out an aisle in the sand!!) I'll pair a trusted, recently married friend with that coordinator and it hopefully won't be a total disaster! Will definitely be interested to hear what you find out from the Azul bride. Totally off topic, but I've been trying to figure out the veil thing -- I only want it for the ceremony and I want to keep it super simple. I was going to get one made by my dress tailor for $150, which seemed on par with what is on Etsy, etc. but THEN a friend recommended this eBay seller where she got hers for her wedding and this badboy is literally $14. The vendor has tons of really positive feedback and ships super fast, so just thought I'd share if anyone else is looking for a veil! http://www.ebay.com/itm/201017973295 My big to do's this week are to pick the songs from DJ All Music (best name ever!) and ORDER my gift bag stuff... totally behind on that! @girlinthecity did you get your totes yet? So torn between the boat tote and these burlap/jute totes that I found online! Did you end up custom printing them too? Novel over!

@@ChiTiff I totally agree on the constant "no"s... it's so frustrating. I'm to the point that I don't even get upset about it anymore (I'm numb to it!) and I just figure I'm going to go with the flow, and figure a lot out on site. I will share whatever I can learn from this one darn meeting that seems to be the key to EVERYTHING on here so you guys at least have a little heads up!

@@ChiTiff it looks like it would be ballrooms in case of rain, but that they would make some accommodations to jazz it up a little.. here's my convo with Marisol on this.

@@girlinthecity97 and @@ChiTiff - omg yes to the seating chart last night!! I never got why people thought it was such a big deal but it's honestly like a game of chess! I really, really like the idea of a sweetheart table... is Lomas charging extra for that? (Let me guess...!) @@ChiTiff - wait, you're April 25 right? Or did you bump it up? I'm March 7th -- it would be so cool if you were there at the same time! We're doing the pier for the ceremony + cocktail hour, and the sky deck for the reception at night. Also.... as a Chicago friend... HOW EXCITED ARE YOU to get the hell out of this madness?! Have either of you girls figured out what to do about a rehearsal? I think someone was talking about trying to get the hotel to allow this. We requested it and they said no, of course... I sort of understand because the pier is a public area, but I was hoping to bring it up again once we get down there. The fiance is of the opinion that we don't need one but I do not want it to be a big mess walking down the aisle! I am sort of considering designating an area of the beach and just winging it the morning before or something as a last resort! I am so excited but a little overwhelmed too! My second-to-last dress fitting is tonight... another step @@ChiTiff oh, and this is ridiculous to type but I honestly have not thought even ONCE about a backup location and rain! (Huge DUH moment!) I just hopped on the Lomas chat thing to ask but no one is answering so I'm hoping they email me back and I'll share. With any luck, it would be a closeout of one of their restaurants, all of which are gorgeous and I'd be really happy with. The only thing I'd be a little bummed about would be a ballroom-like setting because I feel like I don't have nearly enough decor for that... I'm sort of counting on the pretty outdoor setting to do a lot of the work for me! We did a tour of the property though and didn't see any rooms like that though, so now I'm really curious. I'll let you know what I find out!

Hey ladies! Just checking in on the chain -- I'm not sure why my work doesn't understand I have a wedding to plan and is insisting on keeping me so busy right now @@girlinthecity97 - I did pick the family style menu because our wedding coordinator Marisol really talked it up when we went to visit. She compared it to the Argentinian steakhouses like Brazzaz or something with passed trays of entrees by different waiters... it sounded like a fun way for everyone to try a lot of different stuff. I believe that only the sides and salad type things are served per table to pass by the guests. The food there is so good in general that I'm pretty much thinking there's no bad choice! On the whole flower thing... I ended up just picking one of the pre-set bouquets and calling it a day. We're doing less flowers that I would have anywhere else (I love flowers!) but we're basically only doing bouquets for me and my bridesmaids! I hope it looks OK the day of but I honestly am just sick of dealing with it... that's the spirit, right? My fiance is NOT into the whole "let's go pick them up!" idea so I'm glad to hear that SOMEONE is sticking it to them at least a little bit... you go girl! I bet it will be beautiful! GOD BLESS YOU for sharing your vendor for the totes... I've been looking everywhere and these are so cute and so reasonable. I am SO EXCITED that it's so close for you! Two weeks! I'm at almost exactly one month and I just can't believe its' almost here. Super super excited to see your pictures! @@rtscent - your job sounds way cooler than mine! I love the idea of bath products for the bags. I really need to get it together and get my stuff ordered. @CnBWedding (and really everyone else!) on the guilt thing... oh man, yes. I may have had a little too much wine on my bachelorette trip to Sonoma and had a total ugly-cry meltdown with my sister on this topic. Our group of friends and family have such diverse life situations -- for some, this trip is NBD and for others, it's a huge expenditure. I was lucky to have visited this summer... we actually checked out two resorts, EDR and Generations and then another resort that was very nice but definitely no Generations. At the end of the day, our guests are spending probably $300 more than they would have at a less pricey one but I think the experience at Gen/EDR is so far superior to anything else, that additional cost is more than worth it. When I'm feeling really guilty about it all (or another person makes another, "wow it's so expensive" comment and I want to barf) I try to remind myself that I am 10000% positive that our guests (and yours!!) will have a vacation of a lifetime... wedding aside! Cheers, ladies... super grateful to have this forum, both for the moral support and the tips and tricks!

@@EriLu11 I still feel clueless and my wedding is in 6 weeks, so at least you're not alone! We chose GRM for the exact same reason: one. dang. kid!! Definitely read back through this forum, and it may be worth engaging with a travel agency to help manage some of this stuff for you. There are a ton of travel agencies that will plan your wedding for free for having your guests book through them. Karisma has a list of preferred vendors so if you are set on doing the wedding at GRM (which is a great choice because I visited in June and I'm now just DYING to go back for my wedding!!) then it makes sense to use an official partner that will know a lot of the answers to your questions. There's a travel agency called Wright Travel Agency that is really helpful on this board and I totally kick myself for not working with them or someone like them. I'm doing my ceremony on the pier -- this video totally sold me on that: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152047123023090(if you can't see it, "like" Lomas Weddings and then you should be able to.) My reception is on the skydeck which we booked unseen because it was still under construction when we went down there... but the rest of the resort was so freaking beautiful we knew it was a safe bet! Here's some photos that girls on this board sent me -- I don't think it's quite done in these yet but you get the picture: I'll post a review and lots of pictures after my wedding in early March! @@ChiTiff bringing your own is such a good idea! I don't think anyone in my party is that skilled to put them together, though, so I think I'm just sucking it up and picking one of theirs. I agree with you -- it's not something I'm willing to gamble on (because I'm a huge wimp and I hate confrontation... I can just imagine having a total meltdown in the lobby!!)

@girlinthecity I have spent basically my entire week on the Lomas website, so here is the link to the "performances" page which includes the Cigar Roller for $550 (which you may already have) http://www.weddingsbylomastravel.com/planning/Performances. No clue if they're good or not, though! On the outside vendor thing... after I saw your message the other day I used the chat feature to ask Lomas about bringing them in from the outside and they basically said hell no. Maybe it's one of those things that the resort people will let slide but Lomas won't give on? I found another girl on here mentioning that she did what you're saying and they weren't thrilled but let her get away with it.... that was a few years ago though. Just wanted to share -- it would be horrible for them to hit you with a big fee like that that you weren't expecting! Maybe someone else on here has advice for how to handle that. I still cannot get over them more than doubling the cost of a bouquet to change the hydrangeas from green to white!

@@girlinthecity97 - Thanks for that tip, lady! Her florals are absolutely beautiful (and your cascading orchid bouquet sounds beautiful!); I will definitely reach out to her. So, you do not have to pay the $800 off-site vendor fee to use her? (Or do you know that answer, @@AllieH?) I am so sorry that I can't help you much with any of your questions except that I can email you photos someone forwarded me of the pier if you want to send me your email address! It looks like there are two distinct sides of the pier; you could work with your on-site coordinator to do a cocktail reception up there. We chose to do the cocktail reception to fill that break between the ceremony and the reception; but really, the whole resort is basically one big cocktail reception! There are plenty of places for guests to go hang, grab a drink, and then come back for the reception. So I honestly think you'll be okay, whatever you decide. My personal opinion on the DJ thing is just to stick with the plan of a playlist. Unless he's like... Calvin Harris or something, most people don't appreciate the art of a good DJ and you'll all have just as much fun with an awesome playlist he puts together for you ahead of time instead of having him doing it live! That way he'll be able to hang out and dance, too. Just make sure you have a plan for announcing your entrance and the bridal party and all that, if that's important to you. (This did not occur to me until a week ago, watching wedding videos!) Maybe it's just asking Lomas for a mic so that your DJ friend can do it. Finally, just remember that this will somehow all come together and you'll be ok! I totally get why you're freaking out but seriously, you'll be at your wedding and all of this will be behind you and you'll just be having fun --- @@AllieH - thanks for the tip on labeling the songs. I think we will do that! Also, good call on getting everything done ahead of time... I think I just need to sit down and make some decisions

Hey Generations brides! I'm 2 months out and needing to wrap up the final details. Was wondering if anyone knew or had recommendations about a few things I'm kind of stuck on in the planning process! 1. Ceremony music - I originally wanted the violinist, but I just got his song list and they're some pretty heavy classical tunes. Does anyone know if he's more flexible in person with what he plays? If you don't choose a live option, how does music for the ceremony work? Could we pre-load an ipod and will the coordinator play it from speakers? Does it sound OK? 2. Flowers - I asked to swap out the green hydrangeas for white hydrangeas in the bouquet "BB-07" and the price went from $90 to $200 because they're "imported".... does this sound crazy to anyone else!? Can we wait until we get on-site for the flowers? (We get in Tuesday and the wedding is Saturday.) Our Lomas contact told us that we had to do this ahead of time but I wonder if she's just saying that because she'd prefer we purchase these things through her. 3. Table decor - same as above - I'm really struggling to visualize the centerpiece options and tablecloth colors -- I know there's the gallery online, but the thumbnails are tiny and would love to just pick a few things on site; has anyone waited to do this? Will Lomas let us get away with it? My general idea is a champagne table runner, transferring the bridesmaids' bouquets into vases for the tables and adding tea lights. Nothing crazy! I'd just like to be able to see things like the vases, actual colors of the runners, etc. 4. Food - we picked the family style menu on the advice of Lomas; it sounded like everyone gets to try a ton of food, and they also mentioned that it's all served/passed, not just plunked down in the middle of the table! Has anyone done this? Thanks, ladies! I'm so excited, can't believe how fast it's coming!

Hi ladies! Was digging around for some more pictures and found these: http://deansandersonweddings.com/2014/06/virginia-anthonys-generations-riviera-maya-wedding-photos/ Enjoy!

@@kfracassi Well, I'm pretty biased but I think you're making a great decision! I'm doing my wedding at Generations in March but plan on staying at EDR Casitas -- and I truly think it's the best of both worlds And that goes for both you and your guests! Please keep in mind that there's probably more options that I won't list here because frankly, I don't know about them. I was pretty dead set on what I wanted (the pier!)... so best to contact Lomas and make sure you're aware of all of the options. They gave us a tour of the restaurants and they're nuts. Like beautiful, Vegas style restaurants with infinity views of the ocean... if you did your wedding at any of these, I'm sure it would be beautiful (and that's my very happy backup plan in case of terrible weather!) But, that said, here are two options at Generations for your ceremony and your reception: 1. The pier! There's a lot of awesome pictures of the pier, but after seeing it in person I maintain that none of them do it justice. I was initially into it because I'm NOT into beach weddings (I don't want strangers watching my wedding!) and it protected us from any threat of inclement weather, while still allowing the most beautiful water view. But then I saw it in person, and it did all of those things but in an even better way than I could have dreamed. It's so much BIGGER than it looks in all of the photos -- I think that very high ceilings help create that feeling. And it's also a bit higher than I'd have imagined, so you feel like you're on a boat floating in the ocean It's a T-shape, which is pretty apparent in the photos, but you can imagine how that lends itself to a really nice setup for receptions or cocktail hours... lots of special areas and nooks for photos, food or cocktail stations, etc. Pretty much all of the photos on here are of the pier (and are what sold me in the first place!) http://www.weddingsbylomastravel.com/hotels/El-Dorado-Generations-Riviera-Maya-By-Karisma/gallery 2. The roofdeck! This one, I know much less about. And to be honest, was not even on my radar when I selected Generations. I knew I loved the pier idea and that was it. We're just now in the process of sending out invites and our estimate ranges from 60-100 -- we have no idea how many people will really come. When we mentioned this in June to our wedding coordinator, she said that we needed to do the reception on the roofdeck in order to be sure that we could accommodate the highest possible number of people. I didn't even KNOW they had a roofdeck (it's actually still under construction!), and I was hellbent on the pier for everything! But, seeing the ridiculous care and attention to detail that the hotel put into the restaurants and the resort itself, we knew this was more than a safe gamble. To really be extra sure, we ate dinner at the highest restaurant at the resort that night and at sundown, the view over the water was insanely beautiful! (If that doesn't make sense, know that all of the restaurants at GRM are stacked on top of each other. The pier is one floor above sea-level, at the first floor of the hotel. The water view from there is already beautiful, and every floor higher just gives you a broader scope of the scene! So, imagine that the roofdeck, which I believe is 6+ floors up, has an incredible view of the ocean.) @@ChiTiff was kind enough to email the photos that her wedding coordinator sent her recently - if you'll email me at lauraleighnash@@gmail.com I'd be happy to pass on the love It's still under construction but I get more and more excited with every photo! So, thinking of all this on top of the fun to be had next door at the adults-only EDR -- I'm feeling pretty excited. You should be too They literally built Generations thinking of weddings, so we're all in good hands. Hope this helps! Cheers, Laura

@@NickiLynn1116 that is so helpful - would NEVER have thought to ask that, thank you! I will probably bring florals over from the ceremony to the reception. I've read that it's better to work with the hotel coordinators on site versus the Lomas planners ahead of time - any opinion on that? Hearing what other girls did is so nice because I feel like I don't even KNOW what to ask for or "dream of" Thanks again!

Awesome! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!

Thanks Allie! Probably obvious, but just basic white chair covers, too?

Hey ladies! I'm wondering if anyone has photos or can describe the base table set up for receptions. I'm leaning towards customizing my own package instead of going the Memorable Moments route, but it would be helpful to know what we're starting with. White table cloth, white chair covers...? Or literally nothing? Thank you!

@@ChiTiff will you send me the pics of the sky deck too? lauraleighnash@@gmail.com if you wouldn't mind!

@@Christinagiovanni - agree, the swamp isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things! @@rtscent - would love to see your skydeck pics! I'm lauraleighnash@@gmail.com if you wouldn't mind sending my way. @@ChiTiff - yes, totally with you on the chair covers!! I'm not understanding the value of those... I would love to see what just a plain chair looks like How are you finding the options of what you can switch things out for? Just through that planning section of the Lomas site, or are you literally finding pictures of other stuff altogether that you'd bring yourself, and asking them for pricing to put it up for you? I want like a book of things to choose from with a cost per piece, and I'm thinking it doesn't exist On the bricks/beach thing: Hearing other brides on the El Dorado board discuss the bricks in the ocean was my biggest hesitation in choosing this resort and one of the reasons we decided to visit to be sure it was the right choice. The bricks are not awesome, but everything else is so amazing, we both left feeling totally confident that the bricks were NBD and that our guests would have a great time. Here's two photos that I took with the bricks in the background so you can see them. They're definitely weird (and I am definitely crossing my fingers that they magically sink to the bottom in the next 6 months!) but again, the rest of the resort outweighed the weirdness for us. El Dorado Royale next door, which you and your guests would have access to, has a nicer beach area with different style ocean barriers - they're more like sandbags so they look more natural. And we actually found that we kind of liked them, because they created these really shallow, calm areas to swim in (especially because we had a barracuda incident at another hotel!!) @@Christinagiovanni - agree that the swamp isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things! It's actually how the whole area would be if not for development, I guess, so authentic It's just quite different than some of the other hotels.

@@kmk2016 - totally understand where you're coming from. The hotel and wedding folks were pretty vague about the timing of it, but inferred it would be sooner than later... however, when we asked the workers, it was clear that it wasn't something I could count on. (mostly from the expressions on their faces ) BUT - I was able to get on board anyway because from the pier, you can't really see the blocks because it's so high and you're looking straight out instead of down. And also because as much as I like to think I'm an ocean baby, I spent prettyyyyyy much my entire visit there at one of the swim up bars @@rtscent - so excited for the Sky Deck! Have you seen any photos or anything from the hotel of what it's going to look like? I trust that it'll be amazing, but I'm so anxious to have a vision of what it'll look like!! I'm really into the hanging globe lights but don't know how they'd work on a roof!

Hey ladies! Jumping in on the forum fun I've been creeping around here for months and have so appreciated everyone's contributions to this board, so I thought it was time to contribute a bit, especially since I visited the resort in June. We stayed at El Dorado Royale and went to see the wedding set up at Generations. So, here's my brain dump. I'm getting married at GRM on March 7, 2015. We're doing the pier for the ceremony and cocktail hour, and the sky deck for our reception. We visited the hotel in June of this year and absolutely loved the set up for weddings -- the pier is insanely beautiful! I think I saw someone mention earlier on the forum that the pier looks like it could be claustrophobic - noooo way! It's so, so much bigger than I thought from the photos. This is a total guess, but I'd guess that the roof of the pier is 20' high so it feels really spacious. The sky deck wasn't done yet but based on the quality of the rest of the hotel, we left with no doubt that it would be amazing. All of the restaurants are in one tier of the hotel, and as you get higher and higher the view just gets more beautiful. So, the Sky Deck should be pretty good We're doing our wedding a little earlier to take advantage of that view - the ceremony at 4, so by the time we get to the reception up there, we're hoping to have the sunset for dinner so that we can still see the ocean. Our wedding planner is Marisol, and she said she'd send me pictures of the first reception at the skydeck after it happens in October - it didn't seem like there were any plans for it to be completed before then. (Mentally willing that girl to join this board!) Has anyone seen any renderings of it or anything? Though we were staying at El Dorado Royale, they gave us tours of the rooms and we had dinner at the Asian restaurant at Generations, Jade. Generations reminds me of a really nice Vegas resort in Mexico - the rooms have to be seen to be believed - they are HUGE! And so nicely done. The restaurants literally made our jaws drop with the decor, food and views, and it's really cool how they light up the pool at night and all of the balconies. The only downsides: 1. I am not at at all confident that the bricks in the ocean will sink by next year. There's absolutely no control over that and we were asking some of the guys working on the project and they looked at us like we were nuts when we were like, "soo, are you thinking 6 months to a year?" 2. The whole resort is oriented so that it faces the ocean, so this sort of does not matter -- BUT, good to have a heads up that the other side that you enter on is pretty much a swamp right now. And by pretty much, I mean 100% is. It's really jarring, especially because we entered through El Dorado, which is so nicely landscaped. We were told that they have plans to do a lot with that area, including adding walking paths and even kayaking. I'm not a landscaper so I have no idea how long that will take, but it seems.... ambitious This is another thing that I'm not holding my breath will be completed by the time I get married there in March and plan to let the guests know... the entrance is your first impression so I don't want them to have a huge WTF moment on the way in! Eeeeeven with those two things though - the positives of the resort so far outweigh both of those that we're totally confident and so, so excited to bring all of our loved ones here to celebrate with us! So, all that said, we really liked the adults-only, romantic vibe at EDR/Casitas - it's quite different than Generations. So, we're having our cake and eating it too and staying at EDR with the wedding happening next door at Generations. I think our guests will be split between the two resorts. It could get a little tricky because EDR guests don't technically have access to the restaurants at Generations because it's a tier higher, but we're not anticipating that being a big problem. We've gotten the OK for the wedding and rehearsal dinner, of course, and we'll just plan the other group activities at EDR. We don't have many kids in our party, which would probably make this much more complicated if so. Here are links to the photos that we took at Generations of our dinner at Jade, the pier, and the weird swamp thing! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDQ1RSSTE1RENfTUhIZEtJSmV2dVByclBDa2s4/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDVEtOSW1RZWE1YUJ3bk8tSXRJaGNiVmhGU0Vv/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDaTdZZjUxVkdNTC1ha0V2cHRLeEtYdFBJS1R3/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDak9EYl80anUwREdwdmpid3JOSDZWY0VFLVg0/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDbS0xd2VVbWhGY00zYjk3OXBRYVVCa1cxSHU0/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDclJoZHFUZld0MVNMaGJLYS1pejZFTzRjNndj/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDclgxVGkzcWpMWEdVbmJ3RlluV3FIZHJobExZ/edit?usp=sharing Hope this helps someone out there! Glad to "meet" all of you Now my turn for questions! @nicatella @ChiTiff @@Christinagiovanni - I'm with you guys on wanting to customize one of the decor packages. None of the Memorable Moments are quite right. I'm not planning on doing the Brides Dress Rehearsal, so any idea how I can see what the options are? A PDF floating around or anything? I found some of the stuff on the Lomas site but its hard to envision it all working together. Gracias

Hi there, this photo might help a little bit - it's uploaded to my Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDN0tHdVZhWjFvNDA/edit?usp=sharing I took this when I visited the resort in June of this year. What you can't see is that to the left of that there's a rock wall type thing that juts out into the ocean. Not particularly attractive but also all the way to the side so really not that big of a deal. The resort property is slightly elevated from the beach itself, so you have to take a few steps down to the beach. This means that your view of the beach and the shoreline is pretty much obstructed unless you're right there at the edge, so the water just looks really pretty and blue for the most part! Here's an example of what I mean though this mostly looks like the photos from the website, so nothin' you haven't seen! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDYURUSDZJZFNkdW8/edit?usp=sharing Hope that all helps!