Wedding Planner

[LisaAnthonyPoppy]

Yep!

[krystinsanchez37]

@@LisaAnthonyPoppy thanks!

[IvanLuckiePhotography]

It was absolutely worth it for our wedding. Erica from Weddings in Playa took care of every last detail and made it easy for us to enjoy our friends and family worry free! And yes, we did save money here and there due to her contacts and recommendations. I definitely suggest you look into it! 

Erica and Martina are pelase to work with, they are super organized and do super  work! I love to work with them and in fact with almost every wedding Planner!

[travelgal78]

Are you having your wedding at a resort? Because 99% of the resorts come with a free wedding planner.

[jennifernoel1]

@@krystinsanchez37 if you're going with a hotel I personally wouldn't. Only because they provide wedding coordinators.

 

and I agree with LisaAnthonyPoppy you can do all the research on your own and compare. I have actually found a lot of vendors here and are still in comparison.

 

You can also think about brining your own vendors from your own town.

[LisaAnthonyPoppy]

Yes! Its 2014 the internet and bilingual translation services on google can keep you in the loop! I was lucky enough to have time on my side! Good Luck!

[lisajgarcia3]

If you have time (to make phone calls, write emails, negotiate and review contracts, keep a budget, etc.) and by time I mean like 20 hours a week to take care of wedding stuff I wouldn't hire a planner. If you were like us and have NO TIME, I would hire a planner. We made the mistake of hiring someone who was really disorganized and she was great in the beginning but once I gave her the final deposit, she made my worst nightmare come true and couldn't be counted on for anything. Go with someone who has a lot of reviews (and by a lot) I mean more than 5-10. My planner had 2 five star reviews and she turned out to be a mistake in the end. Here's my full review of her (sorry it's so long but it might be helpful in your search on what to look out for). Good luck!!

 

 

 

WEDDINGS ROMANTINIQUE

Pros:

-          Negotiated all of our contracts at the beginning of the wedding
-          Made all of our phone calls at the beginning of the wedding
-          Was the main point of contact for all of our vendors
-          Found Beach Palace which we loved regardless of a few hiccups
-          Found Blossom Events which we were so blessed to have
-          Got us a free ice sculpture from Beach Palace (after I had to push her to negotiate it for us)

Cons:
-          HORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE attention to DETAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   o If it was raining on the wedding day, backup plans were supposed to begin at 10am the day of the wedding. It was BLATANTLY raining at 930!!! The backup plan that we discussed that Monday was not carried through AT ALL!!! I got a call at 1 pm and not only had NO ONE started the back up plan but the planner was telling me she wasn’t going to set up in the areas we had ALREADY discussed Monday. After losing it…. Literally losing it… and cutting into time on my wedding day, she finally began to follow the back up plan that we had already gone over a billion times….. and began at 2 pm…. 4 hours late.

   o The planner didn’t time the ceremony accordingly and the bridal party walked out WAY before I was ready to go downstairs. The bridal party walked down the aisle to their music and then nothing. There was an awkward 5 minute pause between the wedding party walking down the aisle and me walking down the aisle. Instead of calling the room to get me to come downstairs she took the SLOW elevator (everyone knew the elevators were slow because they had been slow all week) to come and get me in PERSON!!! After I said a MILLION times to call (because I KNEW there would be a delay if she came to get me in person). Didn’t follow instruction… horrible attention to detail.

   o When Beach Palace employee was holding door open to Sports Lounge, Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” was blaring into the ceremony space while we were saying our vows and the priest was talking she said/did nothing. I couldn’t even pay attention to what the priest was saying because all I could focus on was the rock music playing through that open door.

   o Another employee was texting and the sounds were going off and one of my guest’s had to tell the employee to stop texting, which was the planners job to pay attention to these things.

   o I asked the planner RIGHT before we left downstairs to the ceremony if she had the wedding rings and she said, "Yes, the florist has the rings"… during the ceremony, the time came for the priest to bless the rings and NOBODY HAD THEM!!!! My sister gave me her fake ring from CLAIRE'S and my cousin's husband gave my fiancé his wedding band DURING the ceremony in front of EVERYONE because the planner FORGOT the rings!!! We literally stopped the ceremony and the priest had to ask the audience for some rings because once again… the planner didn’t remember/screwed something else up. I was so MORTIFIED and EMBARRASSED!!!  

  o The air conditioning wasn’t turned down before the ceremony. Any planner knows that the more people that enter a room the hotter the temperature will be once the room is filled. My planner didn’t bother to turn down the air before the ceremony started so the guests and the entire wedding party were drenched before the ceremony ended. When we were taking our pictures I stopped the session to turn down the air conditioning myself because the planner didn’t bother.

  o The planner failed to mention there would be a wedding next door to ours, so our entry hallway setup (including floor-to-ceiling drapery, led-lit tables holding personalized champagne glasses with guests' names and table numbers on them) had “Baby Got Back” playing while we walked into our black-tie affair.

  o The entire wedding had an itinerary for EVERY SINGLE minute of the entire wedding week:

• 1) I had a spa appointment scheduled that Friday and then had about an hour to spend with family and friends before my hair trial. She failed to mention that we were going to have a budget meeting that Friday so my spa appointment was USELESS. I got stressed out again because #1 the appointment came out of nowhere and #2 when we were going over the final bill, the bill, of course was wrong. If I would’ve known about the bill meeting I would’ve done that meeting FIRST and THEN gone to the spa. Livid doesn’t explain how upset I was that I got robbed of that time with family and friends and how pissed I was that the planner… ONCE AGAIN… didn’t have these things organized BEFORE we left for the wedding.
• 2) EVERYONE had the itinerary printed out and on-hand EXCEPT for our planner. Our reception dinner was supposed to end at 9:15 and me and my fiancé were supposed to give a thank you speech then commence the speeches, garter toss, cake cutting and then the dancing for the night was supposed to begin at 9:35. It was 10:15 and I overheard one of my guests say, “This is dinner is taking forever, come on already I’m getting bored.” Immediately I grabbed the MC and said, my planner isn’t doing her job. You and the DJ are now in charge of following the schedule for the rest of the night. Needless to say, since putting someone RESPONSIBLE in charge of the itinerary, everything was smooth sailing from there. We finally began dancing at ELEVEN PM!!!!... AN HOUR AND A HALF past the scheduled time. We had to buy an extra 30 minutes to continue dancing since we knew our guests would be happier with the extended time since we they were robbed by our planner. The entire time she just sat at her table and ate like one of the guests. No pushing the MCs and the DJ no walking around to make sure everyone is in their stations. My fiancé and I had to be the ones to administer the schedule and it caused me more stress than I planned on. The reason I hired the planner was so that the nightmare of stressing on my wedding day wouldn’t happen. Needless to say…. All of my nightmares came true. She was so helpful in the beginning of the wedding process but with all of the mistakes and headaches and disorganization and lack of attention to detail, she was a complete waste of money in the end. I can’t get back that day or that week so I’ve made peace with the fact that there were so many headaches and stresses which could’ve been avoided but luckily, because of the vendors that were amazing, everything looked beautiful and my guests ultimately had a great experience in the end. I would like to attend my exact wedding in the next life as one of my guests or in other words... as my planner!!!

[LisaAnthonyPoppy]

@@lisajgarcia3 I feel your pain and can relate.

[stefadile]

In many ways I wish we'd hired a wedding planner. We've been having such headache with our venue. The onsite events coordinator left, and only thought to tell us about this on her last day!!!!!! We were assured that our file was passed onto the general manager, and they'd be our main contact. We tried numerous times to contact them, but never got any response. The email address didn't work, and our phone cells went unanswered or our messages were not passed on. Finally we got an email from the new coordinator, introducing themselves, and asking about our wedding details. We wrote back immediately and introduced ourselves, and presumed all was in order. We got a reply after a few days ( good for island time) basically asking about all our wedding details, including THE DATE and if we were staying on the property????????? Seriously? Wtf! I know Jamaica is laid back, but the wedding isn't that far away now( December).Naturally I was upset, but H2b ( who is Jamaican) assured me it'll be alright... we sent an email with all details, including copies of contract signed, cc receipts and emails we exchanged with the former coordinator.

We didn't hear anything for a few days, so we decided to call. Turns out the new coordinator is also the new General manager. She was quiet impolite, and impatient with us ( really didn't appreciate this, after all of this messing about). She told us she was not able to find any record of us paying deposit( even though we mailed it to her). She basically asked for everything we already sent again, and told us she would have to "review" the prices we were previously quoted!!!!! ( Surely a breach of contract??). We re-sent everything yesterday,and got a response today asking for a break down of the food/ drink quotes we negotiated in January. I'm so fed up, exhausted, and frustrated with this situation. I know planning a wedding isn't easy, and a DW is a bit harder with the added stress of not being in the same country/ cultural differences etc... but this really just takes the biscuit!! Really wish we'd hired a planner, to deal with all of these issues.

On a positive note, the vendors ( decorations/ mke-up artist) we've booked, have been so good, they always respond to emails, and follow up

on emails/ calls. Anyway rant over.... but if we had a choice again we'd hire a decent planner!!!!

Edited July 17, 2014 by stefadile

[dreamweddings]

 

If you have time (to make phone calls, write emails, negotiate and review contracts, keep a budget, etc.) and by time I mean like 20 hours a week to take care of wedding stuff I wouldn't hire a planner. If you were like us and have NO TIME, I would hire a planner. We made the mistake of hiring someone who was really disorganized and she was great in the beginning but once I gave her the final deposit, she made my worst nightmare come true and couldn't be counted on for anything. Go with someone who has a lot of reviews (and by a lot) I mean more than 5-10. My planner had 2 five star reviews and she turned out to be a mistake in the end. Here's my full review of her (sorry it's so long but it might be helpful in your search on what to look out for). Good luck!!

 

 

 

WEDDINGS ROMANTINIQUE

Pros:

-          Negotiated all of our contracts at the beginning of the wedding

-          Made all of our phone calls at the beginning of the wedding

-          Was the main point of contact for all of our vendors

-          Found Beach Palace which we loved regardless of a few hiccups

-          Found Blossom Events which we were so blessed to have

-          Got us a free ice sculpture from Beach Palace (after I had to push her to negotiate it for us)

Cons:

-          HORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE attention to DETAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   o If it was raining on the wedding day, backup plans were supposed to begin at 10am the day of the wedding. It was BLATANTLY raining at 930!!! The backup plan that we discussed that Monday was not carried through AT ALL!!! I got a call at 1 pm and not only had NO ONE started the back up plan but the planner was telling me she wasn’t going to set up in the areas we had ALREADY discussed Monday. After losing it…. Literally losing it… and cutting into time on my wedding day, she finally began to follow the back up plan that we had already gone over a billion times….. and began at 2 pm…. 4 hours late.

   o The planner didn’t time the ceremony accordingly and the bridal party walked out WAY before I was ready to go downstairs. The bridal party walked down the aisle to their music and then nothing. There was an awkward 5 minute pause between the wedding party walking down the aisle and me walking down the aisle. Instead of calling the room to get me to come downstairs she took the SLOW elevator (everyone knew the elevators were slow because they had been slow all week) to come and get me in PERSON!!! After I said a MILLION times to call (because I KNEW there would be a delay if she came to get me in person). Didn’t follow instruction… horrible attention to detail.

   o When Beach Palace employee was holding door open to Sports Lounge, Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” was blaring into the ceremony space while we were saying our vows and the priest was talking she said/did nothing. I couldn’t even pay attention to what the priest was saying because all I could focus on was the rock music playing through that open door.

   o Another employee was texting and the sounds were going off and one of my guest’s had to tell the employee to stop texting, which was the planners job to pay attention to these things.

   o I asked the planner RIGHT before we left downstairs to the ceremony if she had the wedding rings and she said, "Yes, the florist has the rings"… during the ceremony, the time came for the priest to bless the rings and NOBODY HAD THEM!!!! My sister gave me her fake ring from CLAIRE'S and my cousin's husband gave my fiancé his wedding band DURING the ceremony in front of EVERYONE because the planner FORGOT the rings!!! We literally stopped the ceremony and the priest had to ask the audience for some rings because once again… the planner didn’t remember/screwed something else up. I was so MORTIFIED and EMBARRASSED!!!  

  o The air conditioning wasn’t turned down before the ceremony. Any planner knows that the more people that enter a room the hotter the temperature will be once the room is filled. My planner didn’t bother to turn down the air before the ceremony started so the guests and the entire wedding party were drenched before the ceremony ended. When we were taking our pictures I stopped the session to turn down the air conditioning myself because the planner didn’t bother.

  o The planner failed to mention there would be a wedding next door to ours, so our entry hallway setup (including floor-to-ceiling drapery, led-lit tables holding personalized champagne glasses with guests' names and table numbers on them) had “Baby Got Back” playing while we walked into our black-tie affair.

  o The entire wedding had an itinerary for EVERY SINGLE minute of the entire wedding week:

• 1) I had a spa appointment scheduled that Friday and then had about an hour to spend with family and friends before my hair trial. She failed to mention that we were going to have a budget meeting that Friday so my spa appointment was USELESS. I got stressed out again because #1 the appointment came out of nowhere and #2 when we were going over the final bill, the bill, of course was wrong. If I would’ve known about the bill meeting I would’ve done that meeting FIRST and THEN gone to the spa. Livid doesn’t explain how upset I was that I got robbed of that time with family and friends and how pissed I was that the planner… ONCE AGAIN… didn’t have these things organized BEFORE we left for the wedding.
• 2) EVERYONE had the itinerary printed out and on-hand EXCEPT for our planner. Our reception dinner was supposed to end at 9:15 and me and my fiancé were supposed to give a thank you speech then commence the speeches, garter toss, cake cutting and then the dancing for the night was supposed to begin at 9:35. It was 10:15 and I overheard one of my guests say, “This is dinner is taking forever, come on already I’m getting bored.” Immediately I grabbed the MC and said, my planner isn’t doing her job. You and the DJ are now in charge of following the schedule for the rest of the night. Needless to say, since putting someone RESPONSIBLE in charge of the itinerary, everything was smooth sailing from there. We finally began dancing at ELEVEN PM!!!!... AN HOUR AND A HALF past the scheduled time. We had to buy an extra 30 minutes to continue dancing since we knew our guests would be happier with the extended time since we they were robbed by our planner. The entire time she just sat at her table and ate like one of the guests. No pushing the MCs and the DJ no walking around to make sure everyone is in their stations. My fiancé and I had to be the ones to administer the schedule and it caused me more stress than I planned on. The reason I hired the planner was so that the nightmare of stressing on my wedding day wouldn’t happen. Needless to say…. All of my nightmares came true. She was so helpful in the beginning of the wedding process but with all of the mistakes and headaches and disorganization and lack of attention to detail, she was a complete waste of money in the end. I can’t get back that day or that week so I’ve made peace with the fact that there were so many headaches and stresses which could’ve been avoided but luckily, because of the vendors that were amazing, everything looked beautiful and my guests ultimately had a great experience in the end. I would like to attend my exact wedding in the next life as one of my guests or in other words... as my planner!!!

 

Hey Lisajgarcia3,   It its really sad to read your posts because no bride should experience this.   We are wedding planners in the Riviera Maya, I know you can never get your day back,  and it sounds to me that you and your planner did not do a lot of communication prior to the wedding.

 

so many things can be avoided when the is a greater communicate between bride and planner.  Also ask questions even if you thing its silly because it may actually be important for your wedding. 

 

I wish you a happy marriage