Azul Fives Brides 2015

[andreaberretta]

Hello, 

 

I'm going there this weekend and I'll make sure I come back with answers!!!!

 

The lounge is located right were the club house is. Imagine that there's the beach, then as your approach the hotel there's the pool area, and at the other side there's this club house with 3 floors; the first floor has mm like 3 different restaurants, the second floor is the lounge which has a little terrace, and the third floor is the terrace with the bungalow at the end for a picture perfect ceremony. 

 

I tried explaining myself with the pictures attached.

 

I'll also be doing the After Party at the lounge, so I'll make sure to know every detail now that I'm going there; because extra hours are really expensive. 

[kellymenning]

Question for you all - for those of you doing your reception outside, did you have to get lighting? Or do they have lighting? Thanks!

[TinkerSofi]

@@andreaberretta great info! I look forward to know what you find out. Our reception will be running to the max allowed at 11:00 pm so we need to find another venue to continue partying haha. 

 

Does anyone know if we get refunded the $1700 if our wedding can't be held at the terrace due to rain? It would be double sad if we're not refunded, let alone unfair. 

 

@ i'm having my reception at the sky terrace and they do seem to have really good lighting. We're not renting anything else but probably bringing some string lights to add ambience, not really for providing more light. I'm not sure how it works with the other locations

[kellymenning]

Yet another question for you girls - do we have to rent a dance floor? I wish they provided a free dance floor. Everything is adding up so quickly! Yikes! 

 

Also, does anyone know where we can see other brides reviews with pictures who got married here? It would be so helpful if there were some. 

[mazarin]

Hi ladies,

 

I'm thinking of giving out customized mini patron bottles as favor. Has any of you done this before? I've been told there's a walmart and a liquor store in Playa Del Carmen. Anyone knows if we can get some there? I can bring stickers and customize it ourselves. Azul fives offers other brands but somehow I wanna do Patron and they don't have that...any ideas on how i can accomplish this task?  

[jasoncwms]

Greetings everyone, 

 

Something is telling me that I may be the one and only guy on this thread, lol. Anyway, here I am

 

My lovely fiancee and I have been jointly planning everything. At first we were looking for places local here in NJ, but realized that the good places cost so much. We visited about 5 different venues, but in the end we kept coming back to the idea of a destination wedding. 

 

She found Azul Fives and loved it, showed it to me & I was shocked how nice it was as well. 

 

So my question to all of you is, do you just use the wedding coordinator they set you up with? Or is it better to actually use a travel agent and have them set it up. 

 

Our wedding will have about 40-50 people, with most of them coming from the NJ/NY area. We are planning for next June. Ideally we don't want to go overboard with the cost & try to keep it no more than 15k at most. 

 

Just want to know everyone's thoughts on if we should use a TA instead of their coordinators. 

[kellymenning]

@@jasoncwms

 

Hey! Welcome to our little forum! I would definitely recommend using a travel agent or a travel group. Using one of those type groups will definitely help because they can get a block of rooms for your group, group rates, etc. Then once you've booked Azul Fives, you'll get assigned a wedding coordinator who is with Karisma properties who owns the hotel. The coordinator will be based out of their Miami office, but will get everything set up for you for the wedding. Then when you get to the hotel for your wedding, the on site coordinator has everything from the Miami coordinator and takes care of you from there. Since most of your guests will be traveling from NJ/NY area, I would say it'd be best to use a travel agent or destination wedding travel group. I don't know if any travel agents will actually coordinate your wedding for you. Other people may know that. 

 

Also, since June is a relatively off peak season travel month, then you should be able to keep the costs down. Our wedding for 110 people is costing us about $17k for everything at the resort (ie food, decorations, rehearsal dinner - which we got included b/c of our group size, welcome cocktail party, post ceremony cocktail party, reception, etc.). I think with your size group you may be able to get some events free. 

 

Hope that sort of helps. Sorry if I sort of rambled. I'm not an expert on the hotel so other people on this forum could definitely have some other ideas and suggestions for you. 

 

Good luck!

 

PS - I'm super impressed you're taking the lead on this stuff. Your fiancee is lucky!! It's a lot of work.

[Lilgabri03]

Welcome!!! I am also pretty impressed that you are taking a lead. I absolutey recommended dealing with a travel agent on these kinds of things. I went through five travel agents before I picked one that I felt was the best. If you are interested I can give you her contact information as she has been amazing through this whole process. Just let me know :-)

[jasoncwms]

@@jasoncwms

 

Hey! Welcome to our little forum! I would definitely recommend using a travel agent or a travel group.  Using one of those type groups will definitely help because they can get a block of rooms for your group, group rates, etc. Then once you've booked Azul Fives, you'll get assigned a wedding coordinator who is with Karisma properties who owns the hotel. The coordinator will be based out of their Miami office, but will get everything set up for you for the wedding. Then when you get to the hotel for your wedding, the on site coordinator has everything from the Miami coordinator and takes care of you from there. Since most of your guests will be traveling from NJ/NY area, I would say it'd be best to use a travel agent or destination wedding travel group. I don't know if any travel agents will actually coordinate your wedding for you. Other people may know that. 

 

Also, since June is a relatively off peak season travel month, then you should be able to keep the costs down. Our wedding for 110 people is costing us about $17k for everything at the resort (ie food, decorations, rehearsal dinner - which we got included b/c of our group size, welcome cocktail party, post ceremony cocktail party, reception, etc.). I think with your size group you may be able to get some events free. 

 

Hope that sort of helps. Sorry if I sort of rambled. I'm not an expert on the hotel so other people on this forum could definitely have some other ideas and suggestions for you. 

 

Good luck!

 

PS - I'm super impressed you're taking the lead on this stuff. Your fiancee is lucky!! It's a lot of work.

 

That's good to hear about your cost. Definitely backs up what we thought, in how this will save us some money in the long run. I appreciate the advice. I think I will end up using a TA after all. 

 

 

Welcome!!! I am also pretty impressed that you are taking a lead. I absolutey recommended dealing with a travel agent on these kinds of things. I went through five travel agents before I picked one that I felt was the best. If you are interested I can give you her contact information as she has been amazing through this whole process. Just let me know :-)

 

Yea, I used the search on the Azul site for their "GI Wedding Consultants" aka travel agents here--> http://www.karismahotels.com/giwcsearch

 

Found one here in NJ who I already contacted. Fiancee and I will be talking to her tomorrow night after work. But sure, we would love to see who you used as well. In the end, we just want someone reliable & will respond when we send questions lol.  

[TinkerSofi]

Greetings everyone, 

 

Something is telling me that I may be the one and only guy on this thread, lol. Anyway, here I am

 

My lovely fiancee and I have been jointly planning everything. At first we were looking for places local here in NJ, but realized that the good places cost so much. We visited about 5 different venues, but in the end we kept coming back to the idea of a destination wedding. 

 

She found Azul Fives and loved it, showed it to me & I was shocked how nice it was as well. 

 

So my question to all of you is, do you just use the wedding coordinator they set you up with? Or is it better to actually use a travel agent and have them set it up. 

 

Our wedding will have about 40-50 people, with most of them coming from the NJ/NY area. We are planning for next June. Ideally we don't want to go overboard with the cost & try to keep it no more than 15k at most. 

 

Just want to know everyone's thoughts on if we should use a TA instead of their coordinators. 

Welcome! Our wedding is about 40-50 people as well for August 2015. I would recommend that you go through a travel agent. They take care of all the traveling arrangements which is something off your plate. Shop around, some don't charge you anything because the hotels are the ones paying them for booking so many people with them. It's good that you already know which hotel you want to go with, it makes it way easier so just find a GI certified agent and you're good to go. 

 

In terms of costs it can really go overboard if you want to but you can also keep the costs down if needed. We're at around $17,000 for everything (including attire, hair and make up, rings, trips, etc. and the wedding itself). The wedding itself is going to cost us about $7000-$8000. Mind you we upgraded a few things such as the ceremony and reception location and the decor for tables. We also got an outside photographer and videographer so they charge $800 to let them into the resort. We're still going with the free wedding package and you can too as long as you have a minimum amount of guests (just our immediate family was enough) and if you're from North America.