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Although I didn’t post any threads while planning my wedding, I did use BDW on several occasions and feel as though I owe it back to post this thread as a review of my wedding and some things I would or wouldn’t change. Just FYI- it’s a long thread! I hope this helps some of you in your planning! Dress: I loved my dress. It was purchased on clearance at David’s Bridal- a choice I made knowing that I would be “trashing” it after the wedding. Still… it’s really not that trashed, and I still really love it. So win-win! There were no closets to hang this in on the airplane so I ended up laying it across the luggage stored overhead and it was totally fine. Secrets steamed the dress and my grooms outfit so I assume any wrinkles from travel would have been removed regardless. Bridesmaids: I had 5 bridesmaids, 4 of which came to Jamaica (one had a baby!). I told them to find any coral dress they wanted and it worked out perfectly. I’d be lying if I said waiting to see if the colors matched didn’t give me any anxiety though. It worked out great in the end! I made them monogrammed beach bags and filled these with a flower for their hair, sunglasses, a necklace and earrings in a travel jewelry roll, and I made them a jewelry dish, passport and luggage tag holders, and barefoot sandals. I also paid for half of their hairstyles at the resort. My girls are awesome! small DIY items: I am an art teacher and I had a lot of time and materials available to me. I did not want to pay the ridiculous prices for décor from the resort, so most of our details were made by me. These fans were purchased from Michael’s and put on each seat for the reception. I also bought these paper straws and made the little tags for them (not all of these on one straw!)- we put them at the bar and had the bartender put one in each drink. Being the art teacher I wanted to have paint brushes there. I kept seeing cute ones saying something about brushing away sand, which inspired our escort cards. Our favor for the wedding was a magnet. The photo on the front is a print of a painting I made from one of our photos of a past Secrets trip. Flowers: I stalked Hobby Lobby until their RealTouch flowers were 50% and bought all of my florals from there. It cost me $90 for my entire bouquet and 5 bridesmaids bouquets. That was the cost of ONE bouquet from the resort! And you wouldn’t be able to bring it home with you. I had these in my carry on and they travelled really well. Now they are in my living room. I really just grabbed a bunch that I liked and put them together. Love them! We did get a real rose boutonnière for my husband because I didn’t like the way mine came out. Oh well. It was $40 just for that though! Yikes. We used the florals included in the wedding package to decorate around the reception area. I added little charms to the girls’ bouquets with their initials and wrapped mine with a broach that I wore for my sister’s wedding. Centerpieces: Since we only had 3 tables and a sweet heart table, I decided to use the bridesmaid bouquets as the flowers in the centerpieces. This worked out AWESOME. I wrapped gray ribbon around a clean spaghetti jar and added the sand dollar with coral ribbon. I used a gold paint pen to write the table numbers. I made four of these and numbered 1-3, I left the last one blank incase one broke, but none did so I drew a heart on it and used it at our sweet heart table instead. Once there, we filled them with a little bit of sand at the bottom to help hold the flowers upright. I bought handkerchiefs for the centerpiece to sit on since everything the resort provides is white. We used fake tea lights because real ones would blow out on the beach, and instead of using glass votives I made little coral paper mache cups that were way less heavy. I made turquoise tiles stamped with starfish for the jar to sit on… these said Montego Bay on the back, and were scoffed up pretty quickly by our guests as the end of the night. Lastly, some pink gems and additional starfish/sand dollars were added for decoration. I put all of the candles in the mason jars and then wrapped them in bubble wrap in my carry on. Again, no problems at all! Nothing broke. We also didn’t bring any of this home except one jar. Welcome Bags: We brought all of this with us and assembled once we got there. The following were included: Welcome sign/door knocker, bookmark, tissues, suntan lotion and aloe packets, sweedish fish, hand sanitizer bandaids, gym, instagram signs, a note with when to be at the wedding, a mix CD of island songs, and granola bars. I found the welcome/door hanger signs somewhere online and recreated similar ones in Word. We didn’t include any drinks and not much food because it was an all-inclusive resort, but everyone seemed to really like the bags and appreciated the thought. We gave the bags to people as we saw them instead of paying the $4 fee per room delivery fee that the resort charges. Secrets Resort: This resort is absolutely beautiful. We were there on vacation in 2012 and decided that if we got married it would be there. Fast forward two years later, we got engaged and booked our wedding without further discussions. We used a travel agent to handle our trip because it was a group of 27 people! I highly suggest someone to handle all of the details for you so you have less to worry about. We were also upgraded to the preferred side of Wild Orchid when we arrived.The view from our room was incredible. Aside from the beauty of the resort, they are not incredibly easy to work with. I understand the whole concept of email taking a while to respond, but I was made to feel like a crazy bride pulling out all of the stuff we brought with us (or maybe I just really was a crazy bride???). There was also a very strict schedule the day of the wedding. The ceremony started at 5 but guests had to be in their seats by 4:30. There was a fee for every little thing. The only thing we rented from the resort were tiki torches. They do provide lights that look like lamp posts (but don’t tell you about it) so you probably don’t need the 12 we got. They were really good about setting everything up- it looked just how I had imagined it- and never charged us a set up fee at all. We had both the ceremony and the reception at the barracuda beach which is by the volley ball courts. Our photographer was amazing and covered the vendor fee, but we had to pay for her to have a guest pass to come back the next day to do a one hour trash the dress session. It was just a feeling of being nickel and dimed for every little thing when you were bringing the resort a ton of money with a group of people and a wedding. They did give us an extra room the night before the wedding for the groom to stay in. We decided to stay together anyway, so I used the extra room the next day to get ready in with my girl since it didn’t have the luggage clutter and he got ready with the groomsmen in our room since they didn’t really care. It worked out nicely. Myself and four girls used the resort spa for our hair and I also had my make up done because it was included in my package. This was all fine until we got out on the beach and it was super windy. The extensions started to come out. Luckily my mom is a retired hair dresser and was able to remove them and pin up what was left before the ceremony started. The make up was nice and stayed all night- a few weird things were: they lined my lips on the outside of them… making them look huge, they added black to my already dark eyebrows and I felt like Frida Kahlo, and they lined my eyes with eyeshadow instead of pencil. The brows they fixed right away by seeing my reaction, the other things were fine, just different. I wiped off the extra lips and lined my own eyes when we got back to the room. Our Photographer: By far, we spent the most amount of money in this area and it was 100% worth every penny. Misha Earle was incredible. She was so flexible creating the photo package that we wanted and our photos are stunning. I can’t stop looking at them! She kept us laughing all day long and was everything you could want in your wedding photographer. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a photographer in Jamaica. I did a lot of research before choosing her, and don’t regret it one bit. We did get photographs from the resort included in our package—and they are fine. But not comparable to Misha’s photos at all! (There was also a video included with our package… if not included, it would not have been worth the money. The quality is terrible and graphics are quite tacky.) Within 2.5 weeks of our wedding we could view the photos online and within a month we had our photos on a flash drive at our door. I can’t say enough great things about her! Cocktail Hour: We upgrade to the steel drum band for $200. From what I hear, they were awesome. We were off taking pictures with Misha so we only caught the very end of it. We did a first look before the ceremony (my favorite part of the day) so all of our bridal party could enjoy happy hour. DJ: We used the house DJ- I don’t actually know what his name is, but he was pretty good. We didn’t have a choice of who we wanted. He played all of the songs that we requested ahead of time and kept us dancing all night. I only wish we had met him ahead of time to go over the order of when things were happening. My brother in law sang and played our first dance song for us and he didn’t know he was about to play until he was announced. Minor details, but would have been nice to know ahead of time. He did bring a mic/stand and made sure he had the right guitar plug ins for us though, as requested through the weddings manager. The food was really good in the buffet. Some brides say that they don’t have time to eat at their wedding but we didn’t have any problems with that. J They gave us a personal waiter who made us plates from the buffet. We got chocolate for our cake flavor and that was really good. They wrap up the top of your cake and give it to room service so you can order it whenever you want for the rest of your trip. Our last night, we took the cake and a bottle of champagne to the beach and enjoyed what we could before we left! I made the wire cake topper, and we brought the ribbon (left over from my bouquet) with us which they added to the cake. We never got the cake topper back, but then again I never asked. The flowers pictures are the ones included from the hotel. ***********having trouble with the photo uploader... guess you'll have to visit Misha's website to see the cake! Welcome Party and Rehearsal: We didn’t do one, technically. I watched some other Secrets weddings on YouTube and basically just paired people up so they knew who to walk with. I walked with both of my parents and we had 4 girls, 6 guys so that was the only coordinating we really had to do. I tried to make reservations for the whole group ahead of time at hibachi. They wanted to charge us $30 a person to book this (at one of the resort restaurants, nothing private). So we didn’t book it. Once we were there we tried again with our hotel concierge and they made the reservation for 27 with no additional charge. Because it was hibachi the tables seated 10 each so it was a little divided, but it was nice to have everyone together this first night. I’m sure there are other things I’m forgetting, so feel free to ask away. You can see a feature of our photos from Misha at http://mishaearlephotography.com/#!/images/featured-weddings/courtney-matt-secrets-wild-orchid/ and if you click on slideshows the rest of them are there. I’ll post a few, just so you can get an idea of how seriously incredible she really is!
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Hi ladies , wondering if there are any other brides on here that have been or are getting married at the Dreams in Hualtuco anytime soon. I just confirmed my date of April 8th ! Yippee. I would just love some feedback from others and can't seem to find much on here that isn't years old. Thanks !!!
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Hi there I'm needing reviews of your resorts beaches. This will help me narrow my choices down I hope.
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Hello! I am trying to choose a resort for my 2016 wedding and think I have narrowed it down to the 2 subject resorts. Has anyone been to either or both of these resorts who could give me some advice on which to choose? They both have pros and cons but I cannot make a decision!! I want to have my ceremony on the beach and the reception either on the beach or poolside. The Barcelo seems to charge a bit more for packages and extras from my research, but might have the nicer, more secluded beach area? Help please! Thanks!
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Help! Destination Wedding Planning - Renaissance Aruba
lwalsek posted a blog entry in lwalsek's Blog
HELP!!! I am in the very very beginning stages of trying to plan a destination wedding. My fiance and I want to have our destination wedding on Renaissance Island through Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino. Does anyone have any tips or guidance on how to first approach planning this? My fiance really wants to get an idea of pricing before we dive in commit, but at this point, we have no idea if we'll have 10 or 50 guests. Should we get married legally in the US first? Wedding party? Is it a lot to ask people to come to your wedding that is being held out of the country and then ask people to commit to being IN the wedding? Has anyone dealt with Renaissance Aruba? Are their vendors for flowers, photography, DJ, makeup, etc., worth it? What are the pros/cons of working with a travel agent? Do you really need one? Should I try to block off rooms for my guests or give them all of the information to make their own travel arrangements? Any tips or advice on how to begin with this would be great! Laura-
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I know many brides have chosen to have their reception outdoors and the pictures look beautiful. However, it is very slim chances of finding indoor reception photos. Please share any photos you come across in the resort ballrooms to help give inspiration and tips to other brides. Can you please share the name of the resort and ballroom name in the post as well. Thanks!
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Hi Cabo Brides, I am wondering if you can give me insight on the photographers at the Riu Palace. Our wedding is in September 2015 and I am wondering what you thought about the local photographers. I have talked to a lot of brides who have mentioned their photos are priceless to them and to make sure to find a good photographer for the day. Did you use the photographer that's located at the Riu? Or did you use an outside vendor? Did you get what you were looking for in the images, if you did use the Riu photographers? Any suggestions would be greatly appropriated.
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Hello, I'm new here. I just got engaged 2 weeks ago and I've been searching for a wedding venue for about a week. We have our hearts set on Jamaica because of the culture, food, overall vibe, and beautiful beaches. We'd like to get married in Negril or MBay at a beach hotel that has ceremony options other than the beach. I love the beach but we don't want our ceremony in the sand. I'd much prefer to be in a gazebo, in a garden, or on a balcony with the water in the background (a must). Does anyone have any suggestions? We're expecting about 50 guests (including about 5 kids). Right now we're leaning towards Moon Dance Cliffs and just shuttling to the beach. I LOVE the ceremony site at MDC and they have good reviews. I've been in touch with the head office and they've been very nice and responsive so far. But if we could find a place that's on the beach, that'd be ideal. Thanks for your help!
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The Best Destination Wedding team was fortunate enough to visit beautiful Riviera Maya in the beginning of December. The main focus of this trip was hosting the 2nd Annual Sponsor Appreciation Dinner, which was held at Playacar Palace. While visiting, we were able to tour several other resorts, as well, including: Azul Beach Hotel Relevant Threads: Newbie Azul Beach Azul Beach Hotel Post Here Azul Sensatori Relevant Threads: Azul Sensatori Brides Post Here El Dorado Royale Relevant Threads: El Dorado Brides Post Here Le Reve Relevant Threads: 2012 Le Reve Brides Post Here Site Visit at Le Reve Moon Palace Relevant Threads: Moon Palace 2013 Brides Moon Palace 2012 Brides Playacar Palace Relevant Threads: 2012 Playacar Palace Brides Newbie Playacar Palace March 2013 On the night of December 4th, BDW hosted a dinner party at Playacar Palace for current sponsors and some of the biggest resorts in Mexico, including AM, Dreams, Karisma, and Palace. The event took place in the South Solarium, which is adjacent to the pool and surrounded by palm trees, the perfect set up for an outdoor dinner party. The night started out with cocktail hour while guests mingled and introduced themselves to other wedding vendors in the area. Once guests were seated, the team (site owner Tammy Wright, Sales Manager Stephanie Coleman, and Account Manager Alyssa Wuestefeld) gave a presentation including highlights from the past year, campaign tips and recommendations, and exciting announcements for 2013! Several companies were honored at the event for having been a sponsor of BDW for over three consecutive years. These sponsors include: Cancun Photos Del Sol Photography DJ Mannia EM Weddings Gilda Badillo Professional Photographer Ivan Luckie Photography Juan Navarro Photography Moments that Matter Photography Victor Herrera Photography As the night moved on, dinner was served and conversations continued! The Best Destination Wedding team thanks everyone who participated in this BDW tradition and is already looking forward to next year's event! To view all photos of the event, click here. BDW would like to thank the following companies for helping with the event: Photography: Photos in Cancun Flowers: Xochitl Flores Location: Playacar Palace Audiovisual: Plug In Audiovisual
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I just returned from a 2 week trip to Mexico which consisted of: My wedding w/ 90 friends & family on 11/19/11, Honeymoon, Birthday & Thanksgiving...needless to say November was a very busy month. I will be focusing this article on my destination wedding experience at the Iberostar Paraiso del Mar but feel free to ask questions about any of the above events as I am happy to talk about those too! To start off I want to say that picking the location for me was the hardest part of planning my wedding so if you are in that stage, I promise...it gets better. I would highly recommend 2 things which really made this whole process much easier for me: 1) Pick a resort with an onsite wedding coordinator 2) Get a travel agent who can help you with suggestions on locations, book yours and your guests travel itineraries, be our on call contact for anything travel related (you will be glad you have this when your guests start asking 101 questions about traveling). Ok so let me break it down for you... The Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar was a HUGE hit across the board. This was the time of our lives and so we hear - the time of some of our guests lives. It was Chicago meets NY. Most of our guests are in their early 30's / late 20's. My husband is from the Midwest and I am from NY. As most of you know the personalities from these two locations can't be more different. It must be the magic of this place but by the end of the trip it seemed like there were friendships made that could go the distance. Everyone got together like they've know eachother for years and partied like it was their own special day. I felt like it wasn't only our marriage but a marriage between our groups of friends & family. It was the best gift they could have given us. I have a feeling this hotel was made for us in regards to the vibe & energy - I have my travel agent to thank for this because she recommended it to us. Again, don't go into this blindly...get yourself an experienced travel agent to help you pick the right place. So anways, if you like to have a good time and want your wedding to be a blast...fun and full of energy - this place is for you. They obviously have the beach, they have a number of different pools, a spa, a nightclub, swim-up bars (which were a huge hit), and gotta love the all inclusive part. The food is very good considering. The room rates are extremely affordable. And since most of my guests were coming from Chicago & NY there were daily direct flights that we also very affordable to Cancun... which is about 25 mins away - very easy! Once you decide on a hotel at the Iberstar location (since they have 5 hotels on their Playa del Carmen property) they will assign you to a wedding coordinator. We choose the Del Mar because it was the most affordable and they had the largest reception space for our 90 personal guest list. After a few wedding coordintors came and went we ended up working with Luciana at the Del Mar. All I can say is you will be very pleased! She has her SH*& together. Sorry to curse but its just the only way to convey this. I know the feeling of being a nervous bride and she can be a little slower on the response time than you'd probably prefer but trust me shes not overlooking a single email. She may not get back to you right away but when you do hear from her she will have your answer. Also - the day of, she was 100% by my side. Having her there to help me with the many arrangements made was the only reason our wedding came out the way it did. I could NOT imagine doing a destination wedding any other way. You need an onsite wedding planner. Otherwise...good luck because you will need it. Its way too hard to do this without someones eyes and ears and knowhow at your location. Luciana set up EVERYTHING for us except the DJ and photographer...which, as you know, is a lot considering how much goes into planning a wedding. Our flowers were AMAZING let me add. I hadn't seen them until my wedding day so I was just crossing my fingers that she conveyed my image to her vendor and yes, just like everything else...she nailed it! As for our DJ - we choose DJ DOREMIXX based on reviews that we found on this website. They were awesome. The owner of the company met us a few days before the wedding to go over all the details and names of our wedding party. Can't say enough about them either! Our photograper was a local woman who did our engagement pictures. We flew her down and put her up in the hotel. As long as your photograper stays at the hotel you won't be changed an "outside" vendor fee. Otherwise I believe its 100 dollars if you don't use their photographer. Our Beach Wedding: Nov. 19th 2011 Our ceremony was located on the beach and thankfully the weather cooperated. To be more discriptive... It POURED up until the time of our ceremony and as we lined up to go down to the beach the rain stopped. It was magical to say the least. Our officiant looked and spoke like she was a Mexican movie star. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony - even some of the groomsmen cried. Following the ceremony we had our toast and greeted our guests. We had our cocktail hour on the beach as well and that started as soon as the photographer finished our post-wedding pics. I choose to start my ceremony at 4 so we could get some colorful shots...very proud of my timeline and will be even more proud when the professional pictures come through It was a blast and we hired a performance by Tamboras De Agua (fire dancers & drummers)! What a way to kick things off. Our reception was held at the pavillion by the beach and the food from the Don Alfredo restaurant was served. This is an open air space that usually serves a buffet daily but they cleared it out and decorated the space for my formal event. It was a total transformation! All the decorations that we brought, including the hanging lanterns, were put together by the hotel staff. The party was one for the books. The dance floor was hot all night with our favorite tunes. We ate, drank, danced and had the time of our lives. We can't say enough about our experience with the Iberostar. It exceed our wildness dreams and didn't put us in the poor house either. We will be back there one day and have already discussed renewing our vows on our 10 year anniversary. Thank you Iberostar for making our dreams come true!
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A growing trend of destination weddings is offering lower costs, gorgeous settings, and such options as condos for the whole family instead of traditional hotel rooms. “Cost is a major factor why a couple will choose a destination instead of a wedding in their area,” says Richard Markel, President of AFWPI (Association for Wedding Professional International). The group that is attending a destination wedding will be smaller, and because “the bride and groom are not responsible to cover hotel nights, only those that really want to go will attend,” he explains. Another way to save is to choose a destination that is closer to home. The gorgeous white sand shores of the Mexican Caribbean are just a few hours away from the north-eastern US, and about an hour away from south Florida. Many airlines have direct flights to Cancun from multiple US cities, such as JetBlue, American Airlines, US Airways. During low season, it’s possible to snatch up roundtrip tickets for about $300. When it comes to choosing the venue, an upcoming trend in destination weddings are condo hotels, as they offer luxury apartments with kitchens and multiple bedrooms, ideal for families, for the price of one room at a regular hotel. “Where condo hotels really shine is the ability to have the family attend, and they can save with the kitchenettes,” says Richard. New York Daily News, in a recent article about condo hotels and savings for families, interviewed a family of a Manhattan architect, 40-year old Alexander Argento, who has stayed at Condo Hotels Playa del Carmen, a group of luxury condominiums in the heart of the town and right by the beach, with his wife and 6-year-old son. Alexander says: “for about $300 a night, we had two bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a full kitchen, so we prepared our own breakfasts and lunches on most days and saved money on meals,” he said. They also stocked up on drinks and snacks from a nearby Walmart, says Alexander in the article entitled, “Condo Hotels: a Great Way to Have Family Vacation Fun on the Cheap.” When your hotel is situated in town, and surrounded by multiple choices for shopping, eating and entertainment, this also helps cut down on taxi fare to and from a resort, and keeps the guests entertained, as well as free to come and go as they please. The developer of the properties, Jack Perlman, takes pride in the fact that a wedding party at his hotel can enjoy being “in the middle of it all.” He says: “Guests at my hotels are not confined by the limits of a resort, as it often happens with wedding groups that choose to stay at all-inclusive resorts, tucked away in the jungle.” After all, when guests take care of their own accommodations and airfare, the biggest expense for the couple is the wedding reception and dinner itself. Indigo Beach Club, located at El Taj Oceanfront, one of the Condo Hotels, offers multiple dinner and reception options for guests. Sit-down dinner rates start at $36 per person and include a 3-course gourmet meal: (www.condohotelsplayadelcarmen.com/weddings/wedding-package-ceremony.php). Rates at Condo Hotels Playa del Carmen start at $185 per one bedroom unit. Wedding groups receive a 20% discount. To learn more about weddings at Condo Hotels Playa del Carmen, please visit www.condohotelsplayadelcarmen.com/weddings/index.php or email [email protected]. ABOUT CONDO HOTELS PLAYA DEL CARMEN Condo Hotels Playa del Carmen consists of five distinct luxury condominiums with 100 units total: Villas Sacbe, Porto Playa, Maya Villa, El Taj Beachside and El Taj Oceanfront. The properties provide the services ofa 5-star hotel, such as 24-hour front desk, maid services, airport pick-up, parking garage, gym, babysitter, Spa, health café, beach club and two 5-star restaurants. Each condominium is surrounded by a private courtyard with landscaped gardens, a fountain and a swimming pool. Playa del Carmen beach is steps away, and the convenience of the best restaurants, nightlife and shopping is within easy walking distance. For more information, please visit www.condohotelsplayadelcarmen.com. For media inquiries and for high & low resolution images, please contact: Raminta Tsopelas 917-721-1977 [email protected]
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