Hi, another newbie... but not newly engaged. Could use some help!

AlishaLeigh · January 18, 2012

Hi everyone,

My Fiance and I will have been engaged 2 years next month. We have been too busy with work and family to plan our wedding but we are finally trying to get the ball rolling.... again.

We tried planning our wedding for April 2012 in Cancun, at the Me Melia resort because we took our first vacation there together and it is also were my fiance completely surprise me with his proposal. So naturally we wanted to celebrate our wedding at the hotel we enjoyed so much. To our disappointment, the hotel isn't very accommodating when it comes to wedding planning. For over six months I would email their event coordinator and then not get a response for a week, and the response still never answered my questions. And every time I told her the date I wanted, that date was suddenly taken! She did this to me 8 times, our date went from the beginning of April to the end of June. And every time this happened, she would just say, "Well we need $2,000 dollars to book your date." Yet she didn't send a contract or a real lists of costs, until I asked numerous times and even then, there were holes and gaps and unanswered questions, which did not want me to send that much money when I had no idea what I was paying for. Deciding that email wasn't working very well,I asked for a toll free number to call and speak with her. She "happily" (her words) gave me a number and said she looked forward to speaking with me. Yet, after I tried the number.... it was disconnected!!!! So I emailed her saying we needed a date asap and I really wanted to get everything planned out. And this where I hit my last straw, when I didn't hear back from the event coordinator for 3 and half weeks. Her response after three and a half weeks...... "Sorry for the delay, I was on vacation." Vacation???? I couldn't believe it! I am not someone that normally posts things like this, but I have been in the customer service industry my whole life and I couldn't believe how disrespectful and unhelpful she was with something as important as a wedding and that I was going to bring 45 guests. I would think any hotel would love that sort of business. I hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else, it was extremely discouraging and disappointing and I haven't really looked into anywhere else yet but I would like to. My fiance and I want to look into Cabo instead, because it is such a shorter flight from Seattle.

Sorry for the long post, I needed to vent to start fresh again and hope it might help someone as well. I would really appreciate any advice and tips from anyone. And also any ideas on Cabo weddings. I know it is very last minute but my fiance and I would still like to try and have our wedding this year. Our whole reason for choosing a destination wedding is because its supposed to be less stress but you also have to be less picky, which I am completely on board for, just need the right place. We are planning on touring a few hotels in Cabo next month for a quick weekend trip. Anyone have any places that would be good to look into??? Again I apologize for the long post... promise there won't be more. I appreciate any help! I am hopping to not get so discouraged again.

(And don't get me wrong, the hotel is an amazing place to vacation, just not a good place to plan a wedding.)

I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks!

starchild · January 19, 2012

Yikes, sorry for the bad experience. Often things move much more slowly in other countries than we are used to but that is a little ridiculous and I certainly wouldn't send money without a contract either.

Cabo is a great place for a wedding. If you haven't already, check these out:

Cabo Wedding Forum | Cabo Wedding Resort Reviews

We have tons of happy Dreams Cabo brides:

Dreams Cabo Brides, Dreams Los Cabos wedding Reviews, Dreams Los Cabos Social Group

If you want to get some ideas of pricing, you might want to try one of the BDW Travel Agents. They Specialize in Destination weddings. You can contact them HERE!

Happy planning!

Moments That Matter · January 23, 2012

Congratulations and welcome to the forums! I have any had the privilage once to shoot the ME - Melia and it was fantastic. Such a quaint little resort with lots of little corners to shoot.

Here is a link to the wedding I captured there: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.437070314486.221756.18683524486&type=3

Let me know if you have any questions!

Best of luck

Linkn