Azul Sensatori Brides - POST HERE!

[amandamarieb]

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Originally Posted by amybermuda Haha I know what you mean. It was more just fun having lights and smoke - I think the pictures will be cute. I'll post some of mine, I know how it could be construed as cheesy but everything else was classy so I think thats what made it cute Um well from my personal experience, a cocktail reception wont help that and neither will a schedule! My mom of all people went back to her room at 7pm (start of the reception) and missed our entrance and had to stand by the DJ during our first song. I almost think no cocktails and telling ppl the reception starts 15 mins early would have made people more prepared. I had to tell some of my friends to go into the reception at 7pm - they were like "why?" and I said "I am waiting here to get announced, everyone should be sitting down now." and my friends were like "oh!" haha If I had to do it over, think I would ask a friend to help the WCs do that as ppl don't always pay attention to the resort staff. The salad was $4 extra and everyone LOVED it. It was spicy and delicious.

Wow, that's a great point about the cocktail hour. I know just the right friend to wrangle everyone. I'll have to talk to my fiance about it though. We are flyig across the country to Boston tonight so I plan on forcing him to review wedding stuff with me while we are on the plane. Hopefully that works. I need to make some decisions!

[amybermuda]

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Originally Posted by dirtymartini Wendy, just looking at your pictures again. I am wondering- at what point did you have all of those pictures taken? Before the ceremony, after, the day after? I want to be traditional and not see my groom until I walk down the aisle on the big day, but then I want some good daylight photos like you have.

I did pictures after the ceremony too. With everything we did being so nontraditional, I wanted there to be something traditional in the wedding. But the pictures ate up most of the cocktail party, so there are pluses and minuses to everything!

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Originally Posted by suzannepdc We did have to pay for the fabric that they use to decorate. We used a purple/eggplant and it was $75 for each so $150. Seems a little crazy for two pieces of fabric, but I think that they have to rent it too, so there's not much you can do. I think the white is cheaper for some reason, but that's all we paid for on that since we did not want the flowers they sometimes put on it (they were expensive and we didn't really think they added anything).

I wonder if your WC thinks you mean a flower arch when you are comparing the 2? There is a gazebo and a canopy (the 4 wooden pillars) but I think you could also buy a flowered arch. I used 4 sheets of fabric on the canopy so it would come down on all 4 sides (see pix recently posted). All were white and cost $300. Yes, that's a lot of money for fabric, but the alternative of buying and bringing it and maybe it being the wrong size greatly outweighed the cost to me.

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Originally Posted by mzgillis316 HI I have a question...what did everyone do about the centerpeices? I am really struggling between bringing down things or just picking the ones from the resort. My dilemma is even though i may only pay 25 buxs for silk flowers and a vase, I may still end up spending almost 50 to 60 buxs in checking luggage. I'm just not sure if its worth the hassle

I had 5 centerpeices which were $50 each. Square vases and total diameter was probably 12-14 inches. They were gorgeous.

I think you need to consider what your theme is, how many tables you have, and how formal your wedding is going to be. The bigger and more formal, you probably need to have big/nice centerpieces. If your wedding is less formal, you could get away with almost anything!

Another idea is to have framed pictures on each table. I used pictures of love birds to denote table seating - so instead of #s - there were really nice 5x5 or 5x7 picture frames. You could go fancy or casual with the picture frames you use and you can use them again. Eveeryone's name card had a small picture of the love bird on it, and they found their table by matching it to the frame.


Check out my bouquet! AMAZING!!!!!

[amybermuda]

I also want to point out to the brides upcoming - if you have pictures how you want things - make sure you show the WC in Miami and bring the pictures (2 copies in case both Lomas and hotel WC want them) to Mexico. They are amazing at recreating things.

 

What I wanted the set up to look like:

 

What it did look like:

 

Google images, look on flickr, and check out other brides on this site!

[dirtymartini]

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Originally Posted by amybermuda Check out my bouquet! AMAZING!!!!!

Wow your bouquet is FANTASTIC!

[dirtymartini]

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Originally Posted by taylorwd We were adamant about not seeing each other before the wedding, so all our pictures were taken after the ceremony. The ones taken at the resort (the ones with stormy skies if that helps you differentiate!) were taken between the ceremony and the reception. The ones that are bright, sunny, and blue sky were taken the day after. After group pictures finished, we had over an hour to shoot just ourselves around the resort, and for the day after, we shot around town for about 4 hours. I can't remember, have you done a site visit? If not, then the cutoff in our slideshow between day of and day after shots is the black and white one of us walking up the sand dune. That's the first day-after picture. For timing the light, we purposely planned a 4pm ceremony and 6:30 reception. The sun in April sets at 7pm, so we knew we'd have plenty of light still left and wouldn't have long shadows in our pictures. LOL not that it mattered with the rain! Our thought was that we were paying all this money to bring down our photographer so we wanted the best possible lighting for our pictures.

I haven't been down for a site visit yet. Schedules are tough

Was it easy to get to all of the places you went to around town? Did you walk or drive? I think we'll have to do what you did and do the day after, although I would rather just sit around and be a giddy new bride, hehe. Who did you hair for the day after shots?

[dirtymartini]

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Originally Posted by amybermuda I also want to point out to the brides upcoming - if you have pictures how you want things - make sure you show the WC in Miami and bring the pictures (2 copies in case both Lomas and hotel WC want them) to Mexico. They are amazing at recreating things. What I wanted the set up to look like: What it did look like: Google images, look on flickr, and check out other brides on this site!

Oh, how perfect! I think their recreation looks even better than the picture you sent them!

[amybermuda]

Hi girls, here is my ceremony. It meant a lot to me and I would appreciate if you kept it for your eyes only and did not distribute outside of this group. I took information from this website (see http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-script-21660/ ) as well as The Knot and ministers websites around the world. We wrote our own vows together for what was important to us.

 

If you are doing the legal ceremony, you can change some of the set ceremony, however since the judges do not speak perfect English, you might want to have your guests do readings - such as the sand ceremony, hand ceremony, or poems.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Our Ceremony - for posting on BDW.doc

[taylorwd]

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Originally Posted by dirtymartini I haven't been down for a site visit yet. Schedules are tough Was it easy to get to all of the places you went to around town? Did you walk or drive? I think we'll have to do what you did and do the day after, although I would rather just sit around and be a giddy new bride, hehe. Who did you hair for the day after shots?

No worries, most people can't afford a site visit. We didn't do one either and it all turned out perfectly!

Andrew (photog) rented a car and drove us around town. We too were quite bummed about having to leave the resort the day after to take pics. Until we saw the pictures! I wouldn't trade those for anything, including for more time at the resort!!

LOL, I slept in my wedding day hair and when I woke up it was still pretty much perfect! She had so many pins in it that it was pretty much stuck in place. Thankfully! B/c I wouldn't have wanted to take the time to do my hair that day.

[KittenHeart]

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Originally Posted by bigboponthebeach If you don't mind me asking, who is your DW.com TA? We are considering cancelling because I'm more frustrated with the communication or lack thereof, than a bride to be should be in month one. :-(

I had the MOST TERRIBLE DW.com TA and complained to his manager multiple times before demanding to be switched to a female in my time zone who could handle more than one thing at once. If I hadn't done that I would have had a COMPLETE breakdown, so I say switch and switch now. Talk to their manager and be adament you want to be reassigned. I have heard Grace is fantastic, my new TA is Patti and she was unbelievable and basically fixed a ton of mistakes my previous TA had made and was overly communicative which is much better than MIA for 3 weeks which my previous TA pulled on me twice.

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Originally Posted by dstinationdrmr The suite @ MGM still sounds amazing. I love that hotel. You're gonn ahave sooo much fun! I just rold FI your plans and he's trying to make it work. He loves Vegas more than I do. He's sitting here suggesting that we make it legal for New Year's. Lol! Too bad I gotta work.

I can't wait! Haha, that's so cute! You guys should come out at the end of this month and get married the same weekend

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Originally Posted by mzgillis316 HI I have a question...what did everyone do about the centerpeices? I am really struggling between bringing down things or just picking the ones from the resort. My dilemma is even though i may only pay 25 buxs for silk flowers and a vase, I may still end up spending almost 50 to 60 buxs in checking luggage. I'm just not sure if its worth the hassle

I will post a picture of my flowers. I ordered real touch stems and rented vases from Lomas. Kiara negotiated my vase price down for my by 50%! So I had the submerged orchid stems in 3 different colors, 3 different size vases with a floating candle on top, I thought it looked gorgeous.

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Originally Posted by chong What?!? I think I just got ripped off. My WC told me $150 per fabric. I am only having 2 blue fabrics to decorate my gazebo and it will cost me $300. I need to follow up on this. I am struggling with the same question. However, I decided not to have much flowers but many candles as a center piece since we are having a beach reception at night. The candles and its holders are too expensive to rent from LOMAS. I think you need to look at the price they are offering for each piece and decide what is the most economical choice. Chong

Are you sure they didn't mean $150 for the two of them?

Yeah, don't rent candle holders from them. I brought all my candles in glass holders and just packed them well in my suitcase, worked out great!

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Originally Posted by daniepps For all past AS brides, does anyone remember what the Zavaz lounge is like? It's supposed to be a bar inside the Zavaz restaurant. I'm trying to find a place to tell my guests to gather for an "informal cocktail hour" in between the ceremony and reception while we take pictures. I'm paying for a cocktail party the day we arrive as a welcome reception and I don't want to pay for another one after the wedding. My reception is at the Zavaz plaza so I was thinking the Zavaz lounge would be convenient. So can someone give me some information on this location and if it's not a good place can you recommend some place I can tell people to gather at?

The Zavaz lounge from what I can remember is outside of the restaurant but you may have to go through the restaurant to get there. It's nothing fantastic. It's just a wooden bar outside with people eating at tables to the left and right of it. So it's definitely informal... how many people are you having? It's not a big area so just make sure it can fit everyone.

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Originally Posted by taylorwd We were adamant about not seeing each other before the wedding, so all our pictures were taken after the ceremony. For timing the light, we purposely planned a 4pm ceremony and 6:30 reception. The sun in April sets at 7pm, so we knew we'd have plenty of light still left and wouldn't have long shadows in our pictures. LOL not that it mattered with the rain! Our thought was that we were paying all this money to bring down our photographer so we wanted the best possible lighting for our pictures.

DH was adamant about this as well so my pictures are all taken after the ceremony.

Wendy was smart, doing the wedding at 4pm would have been better (hotter but more light) we ran late too so we quickly ran out of light but still managed to get in all the shots before our reception which I belive we were nearly an hour late too... oops!

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Originally Posted by amandamarieb I am actually moving my ceremony flowers to the recpetion and placing them in blume boxes. (I am getting full-on bouquets and handging them from the chairs closest to the aisle. Because they are bouquets they can be easily picked up and plopped into the blume boxes.) I am also going to Jo-An fabric and having different pieces/styles of beautiful vintage inspired fabircs cut and will places those large fabric squares underneath the blume boxes. That way I don't have to pay beyond the whte table clothes which are included but each table will have some personal flare. I had gone back and forth with a lot of other, and much more creative ideas, but the hassle of bringing things with me and having to assemble things there really put me off. I think it is easier this way and am sure it will still look lovely.

I think that sounds great! Gorgeous and unique

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Originally Posted by amybermuda I did pictures after the ceremony too. With everything we did being so nontraditional, I wanted there to be something traditional in the wedding. But the pictures ate up most of the cocktail party, so there are pluses and minuses to everything! Another idea is to have framed pictures on each table. I used pictures of love birds to denote table seating - so instead of #s - there were really nice 5x5 or 5x7 picture frames. You could go fancy or casual with the picture frames you use and you can use them again. Eveeryone's name card had a small picture of the love bird on it, and they found their table by matching it to the frame. Check out my bouquet! AMAZING!!!!!

I didn't experience a second of my own cocktail hour, it was there to keep everyone else entertained while we took pictures. The funny thing is, a lot of people followed us around while we took our pictures taking their own! I really can't believe I didn't get a picture with the donkey... all that donkey business and he was gone before we knew it!

I did something so similar! I had vintage lovebird playing cards I found, all different and put them in holders on the seating cards table and had my MOH's mom artistically write the instructions on the chalkboard. It worked out, everyone figured out how to match their bird card to their table, I loved it

You're right, you're bouquet is GORGEOUS!!

[KittenHeart]

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Originally Posted by amybermuda Hi girls, here is my ceremony. It meant a lot to me and I would appreciate if you kept it for your eyes only and did not distribute outside of this group. I took information from this website (see http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-script-21660/ ) as well as The Knot and ministers websites around the world. We wrote our own vows together for what was important to us. If you are doing the legal ceremony, you can change some of the set ceremony, however since the judges do not speak perfect English, you might want to have your guests do readings - such as the sand ceremony, hand ceremony, or poems. Good luck!

I'm really glad you feel this way! I wrote my entire ceremony and personal vows as well and I have been very hesitant to share it because it feels so personal to me.

I totally respect it and thank you for sharing!