ERCbride2b

Good morning ladies! I am hoping to ease your minds a bit re: your concerns about Veronica! My brand new husband and I were married at ERC on 10/28 and the whole thing could not have gone any better! We were very happy with the whole experience! Chuck and I opted for the symbolic ceremony and we had 4 other couples joining us. This was not a first marriage for either of us, and the main reason we selected a destination wedding was was to ensure our wedding was about the two of us, and to avoid as much of the stress as possible that comes with more traditional wedding planning. (Also, I lost my mom (and best friend) very suddenly the day we told her we'd set our date. This made planning VERY difficult for me initially!) Anyway, that's just a little background... I was initially in touch with Neomi - we confirmed our date, etc. with her. Then she left and EC was without a coordinator for a time...Enter Veronica - I had a few concerns myself in the couple of months leading up to the wedding: email response time, no clear/definitive written confirmation of requests, etc. However, Chuck and I are both fairly laid-back people and we trusted that it would all come together as it was supposed to... We arrived at ERC on Sat. 10/25, with our wedding scheduled for Tues. 10/28 at 4 pm. The resort notified Veronica that we had checked in and she called our room to setup and appointment that day to meet with her...she's normally off on Saturdays, but was there for a wedding that took place that day. We met with her for about 30 minutes or so, where the majority of details (she already had notes for everything we had discussed, but I guess because so many brides make last minute changes, she didn't put anything down on the "official" form until we met.) were hammered out: location, flowers, cake, music, dinner after wedding (we did not have a reception), did we need the groom's suite (YES!), how and where she would pick each of us up for the wedding, etc. She also setup dinners for our group of 10 for Sunday evening and followed up on making sure the driver we'd hired thru the concierge for a trip to Playa for our group on Sunday was all ready to go! She went way beyond her WC duties for us!! Chuck and I had a very specific budget and most of it had already been spent, but I really wanted professional photography! The info I had received ahead of time listed a few photo pkgs (we were only doing the basic wedding - didn't include any photography). We discussed this at our meeting with Veronica and she informed us that we could hire the resort photographer ourselves (not going thru ERC) and if we paid him cash, we would get a much better package for our money! So, she brought Mauricio (photog) over to meet us and to see if we could work something out. He assured us he could and would work with us, so we set up a meeting with him on Monday (the day before the wedding) to hammer out details. Chuck and I walked away from our meeting with Veronica feeling really good and positive about our upcoming wedding!! We were very impressed with her! Any concerns I'd had prior to arrival were completely alleviated by the end of that meeting! I reminded myself that this was Mexico and they have very different ways than what we are used to here in the US! On Monday, Veronica called to meet with us again to make sure we still wanted to do everything we had agreed on originally on Saturday and showed us the options for the chair ribbons. We stayed with our original plans, and selected our ribbons (bluish/aqua)! Our group of 10 had dinner together at Agave on Sunday, and then at Chez Isabelle on Monday. (At Chez Isabelle they gave us a private room in the back! It was perfect!) We also had our meeting with the photog on Monday and we got a very good deal with him! First he showed us photos of the wedding that occurred on the Saturday of our arrival - they were gorgeous!! We selected his package of 70 pics + CD with wedding and beach photos. We upgraded a little to get additional photos taken around the resort. If we had selected the resort's package with him, we would have only received about 40 pics and only wedding and beach photos. On Tuesday morning, Chuck stopped at the front desk and got the key to his suite. We relaxed with our group on the beach and then went to get ready around 1:30 or so! Veronica picked us up as planned and made sure everything was perfect and ready at the wedding location (on the beach) before she allowed us to make our grand entrance!! (we chose to walk down the aisle together). The wedding was amazing - our minister spoke beautifully, and had all the traditional wedding stuff - vows, rings, etc. Afterward we took many, many photos with Mauricio and Juan. We then headed to our wedding dinner at Spice, where we had one of the teppanyaki rooms! After the amazing dinner, they brought out our wedding cake, which had 2 birthday candles in it (Chuck and I have the same birthday (Oct 2 and so we decided to get married on that day!) The candles were there because we happened to mention about our birthday's to Veronica - this was a little unexpected extra!! Veronica made a point to find us each day for the rest of our trip to see if there was anything she could do for us! What an amazing experience we had! Please do not fret!! Veronica will take very good care of you and you will feel as though you are her ONLY concern!!! Please PM me if you have any questions, or would like a link to our wedding photos if you're considering using the resort photog but have reservations.... Sorry so long, I just wanted to ease any concerns you have!! Veronica is AWESOME!! Kris

Hello all! We are just back from our 10/28 wedding and honeymoon at ERC, and I miss it so much already! I am working on a long, detailed review, but in the meantime I wanted to quickly post that we, and our guests (10 total) had an awesome experience at ERC! About halfway through our wedding planning, Neomi (ERC's wedding coordinator) left...I was in a near panic as it took some time for them to find a replacement. Well, they didn't just replace their wedding coordinator - they took it to a new level when they hired Veronica!! Veronica was absolutely great from the start! She was always quick to respond to my emails and once we arrived and met with her, any concerns I had just faded away! Veronica took great care of us, going way beyond the call of duty! She took the time each day we were there to seek us out and see what she could do for us... If you are planning a wedding with Veronica, let me assure you that you are in very good hands! I will post all the details soon - if you are interested. I love lots of detail when reading a review or trip report, so mine will undoubtedly be long! In the meantime, happy planning! Kris

Melanie - I love the book! I don't have enough points to download the templates, so I have PM'd you w/ my email address, if you have a chance to send them to me! Thank you so much! Kris

Flygirl - Have you had any more luck locating these shoes? They would be PERFECT with my dress as it is ivory and has soutache lace detailing on it!! Plus, I have several other pairs of Franco Sarto slides and they are so comfortable - I love them! Kris

SMF47 - Congratulations! My FI and I are getting married at the ERC in October this year. I have never been there either, and found it basically the same way you did! I am constantly checking for new reviews on TA - and am concerned about some recent thefts reported at the resort. I am going to have our travel agent contact the resort with my concerns and see what they are doing about that! (I figure as a travel agent, she may lend more weight to the situation since she recommends resorts to unsure folks!! Hoping to hear a positive response soon! I absolutely love what I've seen and read about ERC, so I sincerely hope they are getting to the bottom of this! We were able to book the wedding when we made our deposit! We are using our travel agent for all the bookings since there is a small group of us going. Once our wedding was actually booked, I did receive more timely responses from the WC. She will email you your options (with pics and prices) for all of the details, i.e. bouquet, boutteniere, decorations, etc. If you PM me with your email address, I can forward some of that to you... Happy planning! Kris

Hi there! I am another newbie to this board... My name is Kris, and my FI Chuck and I are going to be married at the ERC on October 28, 2008!! This is a great forum - I've been enjoying reading many posts and am looking forward to many more!