Azul Sensatori Brides - POST HERE!

[Afrommert]

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Originally Posted by taylorwd Hiya ladies!!!!!!!!!! I'm back and we had the MOST AMAZING time!!!! AB could not have been more perfect for our wedding. I can't wait til I get my pictures and can share with you. Oddly enough, being a bride I didn't carry around my camera that day so I'm at the mercy of our families and my photog, LOL. Unfortunately, it rained and rained and rained our first 3 days there. Not just sprinkles or mist but full on side-blowing rain. We had to cancel the sailing trip (no worries for all you gals that have booked with Paradise Catamarans...full refund with no problems) and ended up renting vans to take our guests into town for dinner instead. They were getting a bit stir-crazy with the rain. BUT, somebody was looking out for us because we went to bed the night before the wedding to pouring rain and woke up to blue skies on wedding day!!!!!! The clouds rolled in around ceremony time but the first drop didn't fall until the final blessing. Perfect timing if you're going to have rain on your wedding day! I'll write a full review later with all the details but I just wanted to pop in and say that the whole experience at AB could not have been any better. Superb everything: food, staff, beaches, onsite team. Absolutely perfect! Now I've got a lot of catching up to do!!!

WELCOME BACK MRS!!!!!! So happy to see things went awesome, cant wait to hear all about it! Congrats!

[Afrommert]

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Originally Posted by linzappa Hi - I looked through this thread and didn't see any reviews of the Azuls. If some exist, could someone direct me to them? If not, could someone post something? The smaller of the two Azuls appeals to me more I think. Thanks y'all! Happy planning ps. I had a nightmare last night I couldnt' go to my own wedding as I didn't have a dress and I hadn't written my vows or speeches! I literally woke up in a cold sweat.

Hey Linzappa This thread is full of girls who were married at azul sensatori and azul beach and you will find small reviews here on this thread and under planning threads/reviews
Oh no, not nightmares already, I had them the week of my wedding... I was a hot mess!

[taylorwd]

Katie- I absolutely LOVE your pictures, both hair and back of your dress. You're going to be so beautiful!!!

 

The volcano affected our families in Mexico, actually. DH's sister lives in England. She left Mexico on Monday and was supposed to fly to Heathrow on Tuesday. The bummer for her is that she's in the military and had to report for duty Wednesday morning. I think they all finally got out Thursday but she had to use some personal days.

 

Crista- CONGRATULATIONS on the baby date!!!! YAY!

 

AmyKH- Your hair looks stunning!!! It's so you, LOL and I've never even met you...but I just know

 

Ooooh, a new car for your FI! That's exciting! I remember when DH and I made our first real purchase together. It was very surreal.

 

AmyB- Holy cow you're paying more than $400 a night for AB? I remember you saying that you were getting rack rates, and the day we checked out of the resort the rack rate was $520/night for the deluxe rooms, but I just hoped all along for you that since you booked so long ago the rack rates were lower.

 

To answer some AB questions:

For setup fees, we were charged $40 by the onsite team. Absolutely ridiculous given the minimal setup required (We only had 4 tables and each table had a picture frame, a few sets of maracas, and sprinkles of confetti and rose petals). They also had to set out our sand ceremony setup and transfer the hanging corsages from the ceremony site to the Terrace. Seriously, $40 for that? We happily paid it b/c the onsite team was so awesome, but it was a ripoff for sure.

 

Dress pressing: For those of you who remember this discussion a few weeks ago, Tiffany was just plain wrong. I confirmed with her 3 times that the price for pressing was $13.83 when in fact it was $50 for my dress (and $40 for DH's suit, if that helps anyone).

[Afrommert]

Hey Ladies, I keep reading about the donkey cocktail party again, is it available again? Last I heard it was no longer available?

[taylorwd]

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Originally Posted by dirtymartini On another note, I'm doing a private dinner event. Is anyone having a separate cocktail hour before their dinner?

Sara- We didn't do a separate cocktail hour. The ceremony ended at about 4:30pm and we had pictures with everyone until about 5:00pm. The reception started at 6:30, so our guests had 1.5 hours by themselves. Most made use of the time by drinking in the Aquanox bar. You can also get little food bites there. Our thought was that at such a fabulous resort, our guests could take care of themselves for 1.5 hours.

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Originally Posted by amandamarieb I'm also doing a private reception and a cocktail hour. We're leaning towards the fmaily style Italian dinner for the reception and mix of the canapes offered on the different cocktail menus for the cocktail hour. What are you planning? Amy, how about you? Food was the most important thing for me going into this but had since changed a bit. Eager to here the menu options other's have chosen.

AS and AB share the same banquet kit so I thought I'd chime in on this one. We did the Set Menu with the Mahi-mahi and apple-curry risotto. Everyone said it was the best mahi they'd ever had and that it was the best wedding food they'd ever had! Seriously, the food is ridiculous it's so good.

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Originally Posted by dirtymartini **After your weddings, can you come back and tell me what your cakes were like? What flavors did you get to chose from, which style did you chose, how did it look & taste, did you think a cake was necessary? Also, where do they have the bar? Did you have dancing, if so, where did you have it & how was it set up and how did it go?

OMG the cake the cake!!! Seriously amazing. A frustrating thing about AB is that you get 3 cake choices for flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. We were fortunate that they agreed to do a cake tasting with us onsite and we're so glad we did! By far the best was the strawberry (not necessarily what you would expect). The resort kindly honored our request for buttercream instead of fondant (we hate fondant) and the combined finish product was so good that our guests ate ALL the cake! Not kidding. Some people had 3 and 4 pieces! It's kinda funny b/c we fought for months with Karisma so that we could take our leftover cake back to our room and it ended up being a moot point. I was sad b/c I only got one piece! I didn't dream there wouldn't be leftover cake (2 large tiers for only 22 adults). Had I known I would have had them set some aside for me.

Now as for the cake design, we chose option D and it looked absolutely NOTHING like the picture. In fact, it was done very sloppily and was quite a disappointment. I'm really glad we didn't pay the extra $$ for a custom design we liked b/c I would have been livid.

We had a private reception on the Blue Terrace. There is no bar right there. You're assigned private waiters to serve your event and they bring all the drinks to you. They're quite speedy so you don't have to wait. As for dancing, the Terrace is large enough that we had plenty of room for dancing. It's a tile/stone floor so we didn't need to rent the dance floor. We had 4 tables of 8 on the perimeter with the dance floor in the middle.

[renee1811]

Wendy, welcome back!!!!! I am SOOOO glad to hear that you had an amazing time, and I cannot wait to see pictures!

[Afrommert]

Sara- We didn't do a separate cocktail hour. The ceremony ended at about 4:30pm and we had pictures with everyone until about 5:00pm. The reception started at 6:30, so our guests had 1.5 hours by themselves. Most made use of the time by drinking in the Aquanox bar. You can also get little food bites there. Our thought was that at such a fabulous resort, our guests could take care of themselves for 1.5 hours.

 

 

 

I did not do a cocktail hour either. We send out pre-travel brochures to all our guest a month before departure letting them know our wedding day time line, and we just sent them to mojoito bar for an hour while we did pictures. We called it cocktail hour and they were the only ones in the bar at that time so it was basically the same thing and it was FREE.

 

Kinda looked like this:

 

WEDDING DAY

Amy & Kenny

02.13.10

 

5pm sunset ceremony / Right side of beach

6pm cocktail hour mojoito bar/connected to building A

7pm Private reception / Zocalo Gazebo

 

I did see 2 cocktail hours during my stay, and in my opinion it was cold near the beach and guest were anxious to get off the sand. They looked nice though, the staff does a great job of making these nice.Im sure there are other locations for this as well. They put high top tables up and white linen and have a tiki bar set up right there for you. Bathrooms are not far, but they are not on the beach. In my case, we didnt have the money to pay for it and wanted to take full advantage of all inclusive so we just sent them to a meeting place and it worked out wonderfully. Also, the breeze bar was open during those hours as well to send guest.

[amybermuda]

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Originally Posted by rkf1046 I am curious if everyone else registered. I of course don't expect that everyone will get us gifts especially those who are coming but I also know that people who aren't coming or understand the logistics of a destination wedding may want to buy us a gift. What has everyone else done?

I didn't want to register b/c ppl coming to Meixco was a gift itself but then I was told to register by my family & friends - people WANT to buy you gifts for your wedding and by not registering, you make it harder for them. It does not obligate anyone to get you a gift if you are registered. The etiquette here says to register!

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Originally Posted by chong Hi. My name is Chong. My fiance Darryl and I are getting marry at Azul Sensatori on October 10, 2010!!! I need some help planning the wedding. I have no idea where to start setup, music, photographer, reception, welcoming bags... there is just too much. anyone would like to share some pointers?

Hi Chong! Congrats on your engagment! I would start with the budget. How much the trip is, the ceremony, the reception, the dress, the cocktail hour, the excursion, the welcome bags, etc, and decide what you can afford. Then go into the details.

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Originally Posted by linzappa Hi - I looked through this thread and didn't see any reviews of the Azuls. If some exist, could someone direct me to them? If not, could someone post something? The smaller of the two Azuls appeals to me more I think.

Hi Linzappa, the smaller Azul is Azul Beach, but us AS and AB brides (and some others) all congregate on this thread! B/c its all Karisma and the same WCs, it mkes sense. You can also gauge whats going on for the El Dorado resorts. I think they have different sets of WCs, but still all Karisma.

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Originally Posted by taylorwd I'm back and we had the MOST AMAZING time!!!! BUT, somebody was looking out for us because we went to bed the night before the wedding to pouring rain and woke up to blue skies on wedding day!!!!!! The clouds rolled in around ceremony time but the first drop didn't fall until the final blessing. Perfect timing if you're going to have rain on your wedding day!

WElcome back Mrs and congratulations! I saw the weather looked OK for your wedding day. Sucky about the rain at first. Where did you all hang out while it was raining? In people's rooms?

I cant wait to hear all about your wedding, once you settle back in, and have time to type it up of course!!

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Originally Posted by taylorwd OMG the cake the cake!!! Seriously amazing. The resort kindly honored our request for buttercream instead of fondant (we hate fondant) and the combined finish product was so good that our guests ate ALL the cake!

Super sweet! We are doing vanilla with buttercream. I am so excited about the cake now I still need to designate a friend to be the one to save the top tier for us by slipping the staff a $20 or sneak it out some how :-)

Glad you guys got everything you wanted and your set menu was delish. You must be so relieved!

[MaggieandJay]

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Originally Posted by taylorwd Hiya ladies!!!!!!!!!! I'm back and we had the MOST AMAZING time!!!! AB could not have been more perfect for our wedding. I can't wait til I get my pictures and can share with you. Oddly enough, being a bride I didn't carry around my camera that day so I'm at the mercy of our families and my photog, LOL. Unfortunately, it rained and rained and rained our first 3 days there. Not just sprinkles or mist but full on side-blowing rain. We had to cancel the sailing trip (no worries for all you gals that have booked with Paradise Catamarans...full refund with no problems) and ended up renting vans to take our guests into town for dinner instead. They were getting a bit stir-crazy with the rain. BUT, somebody was looking out for us because we went to bed the night before the wedding to pouring rain and woke up to blue skies on wedding day!!!!!! The clouds rolled in around ceremony time but the first drop didn't fall until the final blessing. Perfect timing if you're going to have rain on your wedding day! I'll write a full review later with all the details but I just wanted to pop in and say that the whole experience at AB could not have been any better. Superb everything: food, staff, beaches, onsite team. Absolutely perfect! Now I've got a lot of catching up to do!!!

Welcome Back and CONGRATS!!!! Can't wait to read your review!

[dstinationdrmr]

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Originally Posted by rkf1046 OK, so I am a little unsure of myself now...I had a conversation with a co-worker about why would I register for gifts if I am not inviting everyone to the wedding. We are having about 25-30 people hopefully and I am inviting few work friends and not much of the our extended families. I am curious if everyone else registered. I of course don't expect that everyone will get us gifts especially those who are coming but I also know that people who aren't coming or understand the logistics of a destination wedding may want to buy us a gift. What has everyone else done? I don't see the big deal if you don't want to buy a gift than don't. The conversation just made me start second guessing our decision...I am pretty sure I read some postings about this before, but of course I can't find them.

I understand where your coworkers are coming from BUT it is your day! If you want to register...do it. My FI and I are registered at Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond and Honeymoon Wishes. A lot of places give you a percentage off of the registry items that are not purchased. So my advice would be to register even if people don't get you a lot of gifts at least you can get things cheaper for yourselves that you may have been looking at. Honeymoon Wishes is a site where people can basically give you money. You can set a dollar amount to things that you plan to do on your honeymoon (if you're having one) or you can put that money towards things you want to do at Azul. For instance, you can request $40 for "a manicure to show off your ring" or $100 to go towards your plane ticket, etc. Check it out. Hope this helps!