aventura spa palace

[angelov321]

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Originally Posted by mmmissyyy Hi Ladies! Just got back from my ASP wedding yesterday and my new husband and I had a blast! As did our guests! Thought I'd pay it forward and give my review to help other brides like you all have helped me in the planning process - so here it goes: - $1500 PROMO: When we went to use this promotion they said that we didn't qualify because 4 of our room nights were comp'ed due to our group contract. So they broke up our room reservation by 4 and 3 nights instead - therefore we only qualified for $750. We had to fight them on this, and they had to make some calls to the Miami office but eventually we got our $1500. The funny thing is after all this we barely used any of our points because we were so busy! - CHECK IN: The only complaint people had was how long the airport transportation took to get to the resort because you have to stop at a bunch of other resorts until you get to ASP. It took anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours for some people. But then they arrive at ASP and are presented with a cold towel and fruity drink and all is forgiven. - WRISTBAND: I took mine off for the wedding, but if you lose it they charge you $75 PER DAY to replace it. I lost mine. Don't lose yours. - ROOM LIST: Make sure you ask for this when you check in. This group list with everyone's room numbers was worth its weight in gold to us when trying to find guests and figure out when people were checking in. - WEDDING DAY: I literally had no idea what was going on until I was walking down the aisle. We had our ceremony at the Coba Gazebo at 5pm, Cocktail Hour @ Pandero Terrace at 5:30pm, and reception @ Maracas Terrace at 6:30pm. We were extremely happy with all of these locations. We went with the Mexican hor dourves for the Cocktail Hour and Cajun Buffet for reception. We also hired the Mexican Trio to perform for the Cocktail Hour and they were great. There was SO much food leftover I felt so guilty for letting it all go to waste. Everyone had stuffed themselves during Cocktail Hour they weren't even hungry for the reception, so if I could go back I'd just have guests go straight to the reception after the ceremony. - CEREMONY: Make sure you know what the minister is going to say! Me and my husband are not religious at all, and were very surprised when our minister began delivering to us a religious ceremony. - CAKE: We went with the complimentary cake with the Shells and Heart Shape design, strawberry inside. I'm not a big cake eater, so I only tasted the cake as it was shoved in my face by my new husband haha. But it was really beautiful and much bigger than I thought it would be from the pictures! - SOUND & MUSIC: Originally we bought a Bose speaker dock to use for our reception, but once we were there we decided we might as well hire PSAV to hook up our iPod because we didn't think the sound would be enough for our 36 person reception with the wind and talking. The sound was great and it was nice to have microphones for the wedding party and our parents to give their toasts. - ENTERTAINMENT: Around 8:30pm we headed to the Disco because it was really hot outside and all our guests were sweating, and because Tuesdays and Saturday nights are Karaoke night! This was so much fun! Our group took over the entire karaoke and disco and it was a perfect segway into dancing afterwards! - WEATHER: Warning for other brides getting married in June/July/August - the weather was clear and beautiful, but extremely hot and humid this time of year! I had a very light dress and by the time we ended the ceremony and were taking pictures I was dripping sweat. My bridesmaids had to keep following me around with cold towels to cool me off haha. I was SO happy that I brought a second shorter dress to change into. Just a thought. - HAIR & MAKEUP: I got my hair and makeup done at the ASP salon. I had Hugolina and she did a great job (despite her inability to speak much English). Definitely bring a picture of what you want, but they have books there also for you to look at. And some of the girls at the desk can translate what you are going for. Example I wanted up, simple and sleek. I was very happy with my decision to wear my hair up. Originally I wanted it down and curly, but it was so windy and humid I knew it wasn't going to work. My bridesmaids' hair just went flat and frizzy the second they stepped outside. - PHOTOGRAPHY: We decided to use the resort photographer and we had Carlos. He got some pretty good shots, but the sunset lighting was so beautiful I wish he had used less flash and more natural light in his shots. Also I wished he had given us a little more direction sometimes, but overall we got some pretty good shots. I would recommend bringing a friend along who's vision you trust who can help art direct the photographer while you are posing. After looking at the photos there were a few things I wished we could have changed if I had been able to see what we were doing wrong. (if that makes any sense). Here's a link to our pics: Palace Resorts Wedding Photographer pictures by mc_wedding - Photobucket - DINING: We decided to have a group dinner every night with all 36 of us at a different restaurant every night. They were very accommodating towards us when we would show up unannounced with that many people. Often splitting us up into tables of six, but it worked out really well. - GUESTS: We arrived on Wednesday for our Saturday wedding. We pretty much didn't sleep from the time we arrived until Monday when everyone left. It's easy to get stretched too thin, because we were constantly running around trying to make sure all 36 of our guests got some personal attention and knew we were so grateful to have them there. Make the main pool bar the central meeting point for people upon arrival. It's much easier than waiting around the lobby all day trying to greet everyone. And make sure to schedule some alone time with your fiance! Whether it be a massage or breakfast in bed. We barely saw each other all due to all the commotion and excitement! Anyways I hope this helped! Email me at melissa.leong@yahoo.com if you have any more questions! Good luck ladies - you're going to have a blast!

Thank you for the review!!! It was very helpful! Im so gald everything went well for you. The pictures are beautiful! You both look so happy. You definitely helped eased my concerns quite a bit. I can now breathe again.

I do have one question: why were 4 of your room nights not part of your group contract? Im just curious to know how they originally booked you. I dont want the same issue when I get down there. Thanks!!

And congrats on your new marriage

[CristiandJamie]

Missy, thank you sooo much for your review and glad that everything turned out great! You look great in the pictures and ASP did a good job. I'm using the onsite photographer and was curious about their work so it's good to see some pictures.

 

Also it's good that you got the promo dollars and was curious to see if other brides getting married after June 1st would qualify even though they booked before the promotion started.

[nicdeb928]

Thank you for the review mmmissyyy! it helps us brides to be so much...im so happy to hear how much fun you had and how everything turned out wonderful...do you have any pictures of the pandaro terrace and the marracas terrace? also did you use the horse and carriage and if so were your guests able to see you coming in the coba gazebo? Thanks again and congratulations!!! nicole

[mmmissyyy]

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Originally Posted by skadow Do you think that they will give you an English translated ceremony script? That does sound like a good idea. I am glad to hear that the group dinners went so well. I might do more of these now. Also, it sounds like you didn't have a rehearsal ceremony run threw? I might request this now. I want to know whats going on! So glad things worked for you. I guess its good to hear you had to much food. Would have for it to be the other way.

Our ceremony was in English, and we did not have a run through. Yazmin just told us that the guests and wedding party needed to arrive 20 minutes early and she would tell them what to do, and 10 minutes before the wedding she would come pick me up from my room. It was very nervewrecking those 10 minutes sitting in my room by myself!

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Originally Posted by skadow Your flowers are amazing. Did the resort do those or did you bring them? All of the girls and guys flowers are really beautiful. I love your dress btw, you look amazing. Congrats again!

Thank you! My flowers and my husband's boutonniere were real and from Palace Resorts. Yazmin had a sample bouquet in her office for a wedding going on that day and we were like "Yeah we'll just do what they're doing." The bridesmaid and groomsmen flowers were actually silk! I bought them on Etsy for about $200 total and brought them with me. Wedding Package for mmmissyyy by jdleggans on Etsy

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Originally Posted by angelov321 I do have one question: why were 4 of your room nights not part of your group contract? Im just curious to know how they originally booked you. I dont want the same issue when I get down there. Thanks!!

Originally we were booked for 7 nights. But since our group booked 70 room nights we qualified for the group wedding benefits and 4 room nights were free. So the resort split up our reservation by 4 and 3 room nights. It was annoying but easy to resolve once you talk to them about it.

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Originally Posted by nicdeb928 Thank you for the review mmmissyyy! it helps us brides to be so much...im so happy to hear how much fun you had and how everything turned out wonderful...do you have any pictures of the pandaro terrace and the marracas terrace? also did you use the horse and carriage and if so were your guests able to see you coming in the coba gazebo? Thanks again and congratulations!!! nicole

I chose not to do the horse and carriage, I just did the golf cart. But based on where the golf cart dropped me off, I don't think any of your guests would see you arrive in it anyways which defeats the purpose of having it at all.

This album has more pics from the cocktail hour and reception.
Jaime Nguyen Album pictures by mc_wedding - Photobucket

Happy to help ladies!

[julieswedding]

Aventura Spa has the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen anywhere! You will be more than pleased! The bouquets, the boutineers and the extra flower arrangements we had at the gazebo entrance were amazing! My daughter did have the horsedrawn carriage, but choose to use it at the end so both her and her husband could ride in it and get photos. It was beautiful - like a dream! We all could see them get picked up in it ,after their beach photo session, they rode them around the resort and it brought them right back to the Pandera terrace next to the Coba Gazebo. No one had trouble seeing them at all and we got a lot of beautiful photos of them. They both said it made it feel like a fairytale wedding!! One other thing that made beautiful photos was the fireworks. Tons of compliments on those!

Shutterfly | View share

[nicdeb928]

another question..were there microphones during the ceremony? i went to a wedding on the beach once and because of the waves and the wind, nobody could hear anything the bride and groom were saying...

[mmmissyyy]

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Originally Posted by nicdeb928 another question..were there microphones during the ceremony? i went to a wedding on the beach once and because of the waves and the wind, nobody could hear anything the bride and groom were saying...

Yes there were microphones. There were no problems hearing us during the ceremony.

[Jackie22]

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Originally Posted by nicdeb928 another question..were there microphones during the ceremony? i went to a wedding on the beach once and because of the waves and the wind, nobody could hear anything the bride and groom were saying...

Yes there were microphones and speakers. The sound quality of the ceremony was great in the DVD I purchased.
I would recommend buying the DVD!

[julieswedding]

Sound quality was great for us also. Definately get the dvd. It is included in all color packages for the ceremony, we added an extra hour for reception and dancing. Well worth it!

[amywuts]

I've started a new thread posted Aventura Spa Palace Wedding Review.

 

Let me know if I can help with any questions!