@ashhtayy I'm so happy you're finding it helpful. Wedding planning can be stressful especially when you're planning a DW and you can't just drive over to the venues to check things out or meet the vendors in person. Us brides (past and present) gotta stick together!!
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First, everything you have listed is in US $, correct? Yes, all numbers are in USD (I figured it would be easier to leave it that way since that's how it will show up on your wedding builder)
Pre-Ceremony
Semi-Private Dinner (included in the A&F package. Up to 40 people, set menu at Flavours. Kids not counted in numbers if they are ordering from the children's menu) FREE
-Menu- smoked salmon, nut crusted chicken breast, apple crisp
Rehearsal Ceremony (time and date TBD onsite - we did this the day before the wedding at 1pm) FREE
*Did you use your semi-private dinner for your rehearsal dinner? Good to know kids ordering from the kids menu are not considered one of the 40 people (lol sounds bad, but helps with planning!) Because our group is larger than 40, I was thinking of inviting our wedding party, their significant others and our family. I feel bad about excluding non-wedding party guests but I think that’s what we will have to do. Food was delicious? We blended a few of the menu options with our favs. Hope its delicious!
We did use our semi-private dinner for the rehearsal dinner. Oh yea, we totally depended on the kid's eating from the kid's menu (plus they wouldn't have liked the regular meal...all of our kids were under the age of 8 though). We opened up the invite to our entire group (secretly hoping some would back out). After we counted all the wedding party members, family and partners we didn't have many people left over so we just invited everyone. Luckily it worked out and we had 37 adults RSVP yes. I made it an event on our Facebook group page and asked everyone to RSVP by a certain date as we had to confirm numbers with the resort. The food was really good. Usually I don't love chicken for events (I find they are often too dry) but it was really good. We had one vegetarian and my WC in Miami originally said that she would have to eat from the buffet and I couldn't pre-select the menu. I decided to ask the onsite WCs about it and we were able to pick something so that she wouldn't be going to the buffet while everyone else had a plated meal.
Cocktail Hour FREE
Location - Zky Terrace/Bar (came with hor d'oeuvres, sparkling wine post ceremony and a signature drink. We had "Tequila Party". Cocktail tables with ribbon in our wedding colour)
**We got lucky on this one...not sure how but we qualified for a free cocktail hour. If we didn't we would have just done an informal cocktail hour in the Zky Bar**
*HOW? Did you plan to pay for it but they said it was complimentary when you had to pay your bill before your wedding? I want this! Our Miami WD said to do our cocktail hour on the Xky Terrace (as opposed to Sky Deck where C & R are) because it was cheaper but definitely not FREE. Also, ‘Tequila Party’ is not in my Private Events Banquet Kit? The only options are Asia Pacific ($38USD), Viva La Roma ($23USD), Mexican Fiesta Cocktail Party ($18USD), The Deluxe ($41USD), Mexican Donkey Bar (pay per item), and White Glove Cocktail Party (pay per item).
Ok so this one is a bit of a mystery to me. When I see you tomorrow I'll give you some of my theories but really I can't explain this one...which I know isn't super helpful. My WC in Miami told me about this about 2 months before the wedding. Originally we were just going to not pay for a cocktail hour and just tell our guests that meet at the Zky Bar for drinks before the reception. They didn't tell me ahead of time what my hor d'oeuvres would be but I didn't really ask either since it was complimentary (I just made sure there was at least one veggie option). I didn't try any of it (we were taking pictures) but our guests said they were delicious! "Tequila Party" was the name of our signature drink. When we were there for the BDR in September, we did a menu tasting and they also asked us to pick a signature drink. At the time we didn't know we were going to get a cocktail party and we were also scheduled already on the Zky Terrace so I was kinda confused why they were asking about a signature drink but I didn't question it. We wanted something that had tequila in it, we asked about some of cocktails from the cantina but they couldn't do it so the food and beverage manager went away and came back with "Tequila Party". It is tequila, amaretto and sour mix...basically an amaretto sour with tequila in it. haha! It's really good!!
Reception
Location - Garden - FREE
Decor - we brought our own and then asked for all of the flowers from the HC08 arrangements to be divided among the tables to add to the centrepieces
Set Up Fee - $250 (this included candles, books, vases, signs, favours and string lights)
Menu - Set Menu 2 (Beef Carpaccio, Pork Rib Eye, Creme Brulee - No wedding cake)
Originally $20/pp ...somehow we qualified for a discount and paid $14.40/pp (x50)
Kids FREE (if ordering from children's menu)
*Set-Up Fee: I know we won’t know the décor set-up fee until we arrive but how was your experience with this? What it a negotiation or did they just say $5 x 50 adult guests = $250?
This is the one I was most nervous about as it seems to really fluctuate wedding to wedding. At our onsite meeting I asked how much it would be and they said they would have to see all of our items we brought from home and they would determine the cost. The day I dropped it off, I ran into one of the WCs and she told me it would be $250. I was expecting that they would count kids in the numbers and that it would be anywhere form $5-7 per person. It was a lot less than I expected so we just paid it and didn't negotiate this one.
*Menu: WOW again with the discount. Was this something your Miami WD told you when you made your selection? According to our listing that would be $20USD pp.
So this one we did book it at $20 pp and then when we got the cocktail hour we also got a discount for the food. They said we qualified for a promotion....I was so shocked that I just didn't question it. I was so nervous that it would suddenly go away which is why I waited until after the wedding to post about it. 
So we did know ahead of time but we only found out about the discount 2 months before the wedding.
Sound Equipment - Amplifier and microphone $250 (for 4 hours. We brought our own playlist and plugged it in - no DJ)
*I remember you saying you were meeting with a friend to teach them how to use the Wedding DJ App. Did you set them near the amplifier or were they able to sit them at their regular table and control it from the iPad/iPhone from there? I had a friend that has said if we decide to use the app he’d be happy to control it I just don’t want to have to segregate him for too long!
We actually didn't use the Wedding DJ app we used a program called QLAB instead. It's a program that allows you to build in sound cues with the music you load into the program. So with the press of a space bar you can pre program how slowly you want your processional song to fade in and out for example. This allowed us to not worry about the transition between songs - this program was more helpful for the ceremony which was I was more concerned about. The amp and mic were set up at a table close to our sweetheart table and dance floor but our friend did have to go to the table to control it as our laptop was plugged in over there. Our friend who helped with the music was also our MC so we just went over the timeline of when he needed to bring down the music for speeches and he would just walk over. It worked out well because we timed each speech after a course. We only had a maid of honour (after appetizer), best man (after main course) and a thank you (after dessert) speech. For the dance portion he really just hit play and every so often went over to adjust volume or skip to a different track. @perianjay will definitely be more helpful to explain how the app works...it is totally foreign to me.
Misc
Outside Vendor Fee - $800 (photographers)
2 for 1 massages (A&F package) - transferred to our honeymoon at El Dorado Casitas Royale (they gave us 2 for FREE)
Honeymoon Breakfast in Bed (A&F package) FREE
Candlelight Dinner on the beach - transferred to El Dorado as well FREE
*Massages: Okay, wow again. Are you and Sean the best negotiators ever or was there some serious luck on your side? Was this a resort mistake or a kind gesture? Again, did you coordinate ahead of time with Miami WD or was this done on site?
haha! I know I thought the same thing...I think that because we transferred it over to their sister resort that maybe El Dorado has a different honeymoon package and maybe we lucked out and got them both for free that way? They also had this really nice hydrotherapy room that we used...kind of like body blitz for any Toronto gals who have been. We let our Miami WC know we wanted to use it at El Dorado and she put it in the builder. We picked the day and time of the massages on site at El Dorado with our personal concierge.
*Honeymoon Breakfast in Bed: We made our selection for this as well. YAY! We chose the morning after all our guests’ leave (we are staying for a total of 2 weeks – the last 5 days will be just us at AF). When did you do yours?
Since we transferred all of our honeymoon stuff to El Dorado we decided to do the breakfast in bed the day after the wedding. We thought we would need recovery time anyway post wedding. The funny thing was that we ordered it for 11am (this was scheduled on site) thinking we would be really tired and hung over and we were up and ready at 8:30am- lol! go figure!
*Candlelight Dinner on the Beach: We picked this one too! Couldn’t justify paying for the pier or the Sky Deck option.
Neither could we although it does work differently at El Dorado. They have a "candlelight beach restaurant" essentially they have all these little palapas along the beach and they can have multiple candlelight dinners every night and the weather doesn't really matter because you're covered. The dinner was really romantic by the ocean!
