Now Sapphire Weddings Formerly Paradisus Riviera

[zeman321]

Did you use the resort photographer? What package did you get and how many pics? Right now I'm looking at about 1100 for the photographer

Sent you a PM

[SoozeCruise]

@@jeffandrobyn thanks for the info! Any recommendation on DJ and photographer? I do wonder if the outside florist fee is still enforced if you go into town and pick up the flowers yourself and it's not the obvious "meet the florist right outside the resort gate the morning of." Sorry for the million questions; it's just starting to look like the costs might balloon a little more than I had hoped!

[jh0510038]

@@jeffandrobyn thanks for the info! Any recommendation on DJ and photographer? I do wonder if the outside florist fee is still enforced if you go into town and pick up the flowers yourself and it's not the obvious "meet the florist right outside the resort gate the morning of." Sorry for the million questions; it's just starting to look like the costs might balloon a little more than I had hoped!

 

I did all my research on the DJ and went with DJ Movil over DJ Mannia about $200 cheaper. A cost savings of about $400 even with the outside vendor fee of $300.

 

I am using outside florist I never heard from Ramon in regards to not being able to meet at the gate so I am going to do it. I will go off the resort if I have to, the flowers from the resort are EXPENSIVE! I do have a lot of centerpieces and bridesmaids bouquets though. I can let you know how the exchange goes between my florist and us next month. 

[jeffandrobyn]

@@SoozeCruise

 

We are using Disco Movil - Ricardo is great. Super fast to respond on emails and very helpful. We are saving almost $400 with him, and that's with the outside vendor fee. For photography, we are using Juan Navarro. He has great reviews on here, and then someone I met at a work conference coincidentally brought him up when he heard I was getting married in Mexico. 

 

We don't have a lot of flowers for the wedding itself, but we want to do mason jars with floating roses in each for our welcome cocktail reception the Friday before the wedding. We're not going to mention to the resort that we're doing that. Our plan is to go to CostCo, buy the flowers, cut them ourselves and just place them on each table. 

 

As far as other decorations go, my suggestion would be to research the cost of buying them versus renting from the resort so your costs don't balloon. For example, we want to use lanterns as part of our centerpieces. The resort wanted $250 for 6 of them. Crazy!!! We bought them on Amazon for $11 each and will fly with them. Same thing with chair sashes - $5 at the resort per chair or we bought them for 35 cents each and will then pay $1/chair set-up fee. Your costs don't have to skyrocket. 

[jh0510038]

@jeffandrobyn 

 

Where did you get your chair bows for so cheap? 

[erobin223]

For those of you who used outside vendors, does the resort charge the outside vendor fee for each one (photog, DJ, etc.) or is it a one-time charge?

I was told that the outside vendor fee is for each vendor, but the photographer doesn't count as an outside vendor. Instead you must pay for a guest pass for your photographer and crew.

[erobin223]

We took the napkins, chair sashes, table runners, lanterns for the centerpieces, and the wooden V's for the centerpieces, and of course the thank you gifts and cards. We used the resort for the flowers. I ordered 1 bridesmaid bouquet,1 extra boutonniere, 4 centerpieces,flowers for her hair and the cake, and a lazzo. They charged 783 total for all the flowers not included in the package. We had 27 adults and 2 children and the total bill was 4370.26 (Plus the $500.00 deposit) We did not go with a DJ because we only had 28 people. I bought a bluetooth speaker and it worked great! I did not pay for any extra lighting....their prices were outrageous! We had the lanterns on the table and it was perfect...didn't really need any more. I kept the final bill if you want to know prices on anything else. Let me know!       Those pictures really don't do it justice...it was beautiful! The colors seem dull in the pics. Oh, and I found the table runners on Etsy for $6 each! We also took the silver chargers....at his mothers" insistence...I'm not sure if they would have used chargers or not.

Do you have any pictures of what the reception looked like at night?

I was told that you can print your own Lanterns but you list bring all the bulbs and cords too. The price for setting up the lanterns is $100 and $150 for each pole that you rent. I am looking at buying LED Chinese lanterns from Oriental Trading Company.

[SoozeCruise]

@@jh0510038 agreed on the outrageous floral prices! I hadn't realized how close your date is! You must be so excited! As for me, I joined here the day we sent our deposit to Anel, and I'm getting eaten up with anxiety over the costs already! Yes, if you could let me know if Ramon takes any issue with continuing to meet the florists outside the gates that would be much appreciated! I actually just received some prices from Florerias Lucy and they are FAR more reasonable, but she said she wasn't aware that meeting the brides outside the gates was no longer an option. Maybe they've resorted back to allowing this practice? I really hope so!

@@jeffandrobyn thanks for all the suggestions! I've already spent several late nights going back through these threads and bookmarking Oriental Trading Company and other wholesale providers of things like table runners, sashes, etc. My guest list is much larger than I anticipated so I'm definitely going to have to forego their decoration fees and the like so that I can keep my costs down. I will definitely look into Disco Movil since I see 2 recs for them in a row!!

[jeffandrobyn]

@@jh0510038 Tablecloth factory. They're still on sale, but just for a little more. I think I got a black friday deal. Now they're 49 cents each which is still a great price. 

[erobin223]

We took the napkins, chair sashes, table runners, lanterns for the centerpieces, and the wooden V's for the centerpieces, and of course the thank you gifts and cards. We used the resort for the flowers. I ordered 1 bridesmaid bouquet,1 extra boutonniere, 4 centerpieces,flowers for her hair and the cake, and a lazzo. They charged 783 total for all the flowers not included in the package. We had 27 adults and 2 children and the total bill was 4370.26 (Plus the $500.00 deposit) We did not go with a DJ because we only had 28 people. I bought a bluetooth speaker and it worked great! I did not pay for any extra lighting....their prices were outrageous! We had the lanterns on the table and it was perfect...didn't really need any more. I kept the final bill if you want to know prices on anything else. Let me know!       Those pictures really don't do it justice...it was beautiful! The colors seem dull in the pics. Oh, and I found the table runners on Etsy for $6 each! We also took the silver chargers....at his mothers" insistence...I'm not sure if they would have used chargers or not.

 

Where did you buy the chair sashes and napkins? What was the vendors name on Etsy? Did you get charged $1 per chair for bringing your own chair sashes?