Kara's Azul Beach Hotel Planning Thread - 2/27/15

[KaraEbeth]

Our Story and Engagement

My fiance, Corey, and I graduated a year apart from the same high school. We had mutual friends, so we knew each other for several years prior to dating but never really hung out. In 2007 we ran into each other at a friend's party and hit it off, we've been together ever since. I must say since it has been SEVEN years since we started dating (and we've lived together for the last four) I was beginning to get a little inpatient with the wedding situation... Most of our friends are now married and/or have kids so we are almost the last ones haha. I knew Corey was popping the question at some point because we had been talking about it but I had no idea he was going to propose when he did.

 

Corey proposed on NYE this past year before we went out to dinner with friends. I was in the bathroom doing my hair and he kept walking in and asking me if I knew how much he loved me...I jokingly kept saying no and to go get dressed because we were already running late (story of our lives, lol). He walked over to the doorway of the bathroom and said I'm trying to tell you something and he looked extremely nervous like he was going to cry. He said, "I wanted to end the year on a good note and start the night off right," and he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I was in such shock all I could keep saying was, "are you serious?!"

After dinner later that evening.

 

 

My ring, what is funny is a few days before this my cousin and I were looking at engagement rings on the Jared website and I showed this exact ring to Corey and told him how much I loved it....he has bought the ring the day before it was upstairs in his dresser drawer. He knows me better than I thought lol! It's on my middle finger in this pic because it was huge on me...I have little baby hands.

Edited August 2, 2014 by KaraEbeth

[KaraEbeth]

<Choosing a Destination>

Given that so many of our friends had been married we had a pretty good idea of what we didn't want.....we knew we wanted to go away somewhere and even considered Vegas as an option....we also wanted early 2015. Neither of us like attention so we did not want some big over the top extravaganza. We debated between southern Florida, the Caribbean, and Mexico. We ended up choosing Mexico purely based on the reviews at our top resort pics...along with $$$ as well. We looked at Punta Cana but ended up choosing RM instead. My first choice was the Royal Playa del Carmen and I am still in love with that resort but it was just too pricey for our guests. We also looked at El Dorado Royale, El Dorado Maroma, Now, and the Secrets resorts. Once I found the El Dorado resorts on the Karisma site, I stumbled upon the Azul resorts.....after reading the reviews for Azul Beach Hotel and weighing the pros and cons, it was a no brainer! We liked EDR but we figured it would be hard to track people in our wedding party down all week since it is so huge. ABH is small and more intimate so I am happy with our choice.