Where to get married in Cuba?

jolene028 · August 31, 2012

I am booking at the Iberostar Varadero, I had like 3 different travel agents get me pricing, I have one that I use all the time but I was worried that I should be using someone that has experience with destination weddings but she came in the most expensive I couldn't believe it, and what do you know the one that I use ever year came back with the best pricing! I am excited I was worried I didn't want my guests paying huge money!

Lydia1120 · January 6, 2013

I am getting married on Nov 20, 2013 at the Blau Marina Varadero resort, formerly the Barcelo Marina. My future brother-in-law has been there and he said that it was beautiful and the food was awesome for Cuba! We are flying through Transat and the tickets were just over $1,000 pp which is perfect. I wanted to stay in that price range to make it affordable for our guests. Well it worked...we have 74 deposits so far and it's only January....The hotel does charge extra ($1,000) for the co-ordinator to work with you, flowers, hair, etc. Transat also offered every 21st person for free and only pay the taxes of just under $300, so we are using the freebies for us and one of our son. The resort also charges an additional $20 pp for the meal after the 20th person. Overall, it is still significantly cheaper than a wedding here at home and definitely going to be much more fun in CUBA!!!!

jolene028 · January 7, 2013

That is an awesome price, man I wish that I was travelling from Ontario, I have family there and our trip is about $300 more from Alberta then theirs is!!! I cannot believe that you have so many people booked that is awesome, we are at 29 to date and we know that there are going to be at least 10 more if not 15 more, and actually that is more than I origianally thought that there were going to be so I wont complain!

And you are right about the wedding being cheaper then doing it at home, it is actually unbelievable how much destination weddings save the bride and groom!

where are you with your planning? You are getting married around the same time as me? I pretty much havent really done that much I have my dress, the website and I got a few wish lanterns in the mail last week other than that I havent done anything... what about you??? there arent a lot of Cuba brides on this site so it nice to come across one!

Lydia1120 · January 8, 2013

Hi Jolene028

I've done a bit given that we own a cottage resort on Rice Lake so I won't be able to do too much from May to September. We decided on a destination wedding as we love to travel. Weâ€™ve been to Belize, Cuba, Dominican, Barbados, Mexico, Jamaica and Cayman Islands and I have to say that Cuba has pretty good beaches. We also chose Cuba as it is the most cost effective for our guests and has the best nightly entertainment (Costa Rica comes in 2^nd).

I'll elaborate a bit and provide some pics.

SAVE THE DATE CARDS

We immediately ordered our Magnet Save the Date cards from http://www.magnetstreet.com/. Paid $2.05 each in total (incl taxes and shipping). See picture attached.

GIRLS DRESSES:

Given that people are paying for their trips, I wanted to pay for the bridal partyâ€™s attire. I bought the girls dresses at www.venus.com and paid $39 each. The girls love the way the dress fits and love the fact that they can wear it again after the wedding.

For the ceremony, I purchased barefoot sandals for the girls from e-bay for $13.49 for a pair. For the reception, I ordered personalized flip flops from www.partyflops.com. I ordered 25 pairs for my guests as well and with shipping, it came out to $9.48 each. I would suggest going to Wal-mart and buying the $3.00 pair instead, albeit they came out fantastic!

GUYS ATTIRE:

My fiancÃ© wanted to wear Cuban attire for the wedding. I did plenty of online surfing before I found a reasonable price www.guayaberascubanas.com . The guys shirts were $28.99 and the pants were $39.99. I also ordered the ring boy attire from there for $32.99 for the shirt and $34.99 for the pants.

I ordered the Leis in black and white to match the girls dresses from ebay.

I've ordered my wedding dress and can't wait to get it in April.

I'll start another response to show you my invitations and what I bought for my OOT bags.

Lydia1120 · January 8, 2013

For the invitations, given that we have such a large party going, I made 30 "Messages in a Bottle" for those people who had already put down a deposit to travel and sent cards to the others. The postage for the Bottles are $10 each so I had them all prepared before Christmas and handed them out personally during the Holidays.

The bottles I purchased from Michael's for $.74

Sand - from our own lakefront (lol)

Shells - ordered from Florida Shells and Gifts https://store02.prostores.com/servlet/floridashellsandgift00/InvoiceAccount?smode=checkout The mixed Nassa was $.99 and I bought 2 (I also bought other shells for decorating the table and had the parcel delivered to friends in Michigan to save on shipping)

Umbrellas - purchased from Micheal's for $5.00 for 100

Labels - ordered return address labels from Vistaprint and paid $8.00 for 50

Ribbon - purchased from the Dollar Store for $2.00

Boxes - ordred from invitationinabottle.com

If I had to do it all over again, I would have just ordered the DYI kit from invitationinabottle.com for $1.99 per bottle...it works out to be cheaper.

The actual invitations, I ordered from www.magnetstreet.com for $2.25 each.

The straw is from a Hawaiin skirt I bought at the dollar store and just cut it and the Tags I created in Powerpoint.

jolene028 · January 9, 2013

Wow this is unbelivable I cannot believe that you have done so much, it actually makes me feel a little guilty that I havent done more! Everything looks so good I love your invites they are great I bet your guests loved them. I was going to wait until April when my dress comes in to start looking for bridesmaid dresses I would like to find simething super summer like!!! Are you you guys doing OOT bags? I was going to but we have about 30 people already and more to come, so I may just grt everyone travel mugs or something like that!! Again everything looks so great!! I am very jealous

Lydia1120 · January 9, 2013

Originally Posted by jolene028

Wow this is unbelivable I cannot believe that you have done so much, it actually makes me feel a little guilty that I havent done more! Everything looks so good I love your invites they are great I bet your guests loved them. I was going to wait until April when my dress comes in to start looking for bridesmaid dresses I would like to find simething super summer like!!! Are you you guys doing OOT bags? I was going to but we have about 30 people already and more to come, so I may just grt everyone travel mugs or something like that!! Again everything looks so great!! I am very jealous

Thank you! Yes, the guests absolutely LOVED the invitations! When we initially planned a destination wedding, we figured that we would probably have about 35-40 people attending. To date, we have 74 people who have put their deposits to attend and of course, I had already started on the OOT bags so needless to say, they are costing me soooo much more than what I had budgeted for but the good thing is that Transat has given us our tickets for free given the amount of people we are bringing. Also, I'm only going to give one OOT bag per family. But don't feel guilty....I have so much done as we own a business and I won't be able to do anything from April to September so I'm trying to get as much done in our off season months. So far, I have the following:

1. Personalized flip flops for all the ladies (same as picture above)

2. Bridal Entourage T-shirts (I cleared out Walmart in the fall, when they had black halter tops on clearance for $1.00 and picked me up 25 black and 1 white for me) Then I ordered the "Bridal Entourage" Rhinestone Iron Ons from E-bay for $3.99 each and the "Bride" for $4.99.

3. I made my own Luggage Tags and ordered the clear plastic from www.waresdirect.com for $7.64 for 50 and I ordered the colourful coils from www.orientaltrading.com for $3.09 for 12

4. I ordered Love Playing cards from www.orientaltrading.com for $8.76 for 12 and will personalize them with my dyi labels

5. Tote bags from www.orientaltrading.com for $32.46 for 50 bags (I'll just decorate them ....i chose these as people can re-use them for grocery bags)

6. Mini Purell bottles; ordered off e-bay $25.99 for 100 which I will label "Spread the Love Not the Germs"

7. Buttons for the men (My fiance always says "Are you F*&^% Kidding Me?" so we had buttons made for $54.50 for 50 buttons, lol

8. Travel Mugs I bought at our local Dollar Store for $2.00 each and only got 25 for the men...tagged with "to Have and to hold and to keep your beer cold"

9. White Silk Fans I ordered from E-bay for $36.88 for 30

10.First Aid Kit from the Dollar Store for $1.25 each (i just added Advil, Pepto and Gravol tablets to the package which I purchased at the local pharmacy) Tagged "Party On, We've Got your back"

11. Made my own 'Activity Book" for the children

12. Made our own passport which has all the information about the trip, wedding, etc. (got my template from here which was sooo great)

13. Printed a little Spanish Book for all the bags.

14. Package of travel size Kleenex at the Dollar Store $2.00 for 12 and created personalized labels for them "Tears of Joy, Tears of Laughter, Tears of Happliy Ever After"

15. A bottle of water wherein I will personalize our own label (these can be so expensive online and yet so cheap to make...just buy sticker paper and create your own label)

My fiance says that I over did it, and I probably did, but I just love to give! LOL...Here are some pics. I don't have everything assembled yet but just organized to assemble later on. Let me know if you need any templates.

this is only one of the pages but I have 12 pages in total

I'll post more as I complete the projects. All in a big tote so that I can work on them in February, lol.

jolene028 · January 9, 2013

Again awesome job, I will stay tuned for more!

does the waresdirect ship to Canada? I have been looking everywhere for luggage tags, so if they do that will be a big help!!!

thanks for the insperation I will have to get craking now!

jolene028 · January 9, 2013

Another question, how did you get the words on your travel mugs or did you just make a tag for them?

Lydia1120 · January 10, 2013

Originally Posted by jolene028

Another question, how did you get the words on your travel mugs or did you just make a tag for them?

Originally Posted by jolene028

Again awesome job, I will stay tuned for more!

does the waresdirect ship to Canada? I have been looking everywhere for luggage tags, so if they do that will be a big help!!!

thanks for the insperation I will have to get craking now!

Waredirect does ship to Canada but it's very expensive. I know that Staples also carries them and much more afforable than having them delivered here. As for the travel mugs, you can buy full sheet label paper at Staples and then print them out and stick them on the mugs or make tags. I don't like to put permanent personalizing on items as most people won't use them after the wedding. I'm tagging my mugs. Here is the pic...let me know if you want me to email them to you.