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CassBob09

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  1. Hey everyone...we got back from the GP a few weeks ago (and then a work trip to Aruba! just a few days ago) and I'd like to share a few things that happened so that you know what to expect. All in all everything went very well however; there were a few frustrations that should not have occurred and that may help you. 1. Even though we were emailing Rocio back and forth she never introduced herself to us. Instead we worked with Erika her co-worker. Kind of rude but, whatever. 2. We met with her several days before the wedding and went thru the catalog of flowers (there were nice options but Cassidy had brought some silk flowers as some that she wanted were not available). Her florist was able to reproduce what Cassidy wanted pretty well. We went thru the menu, the location of our dinner (Portifino...was very good), and discussed about our "reception" which is where the miscommunication began. We left w/ good feelings that things would go well...but more on this later. We brought a box of favors, candles, and other items we made for guests and she put them out at each seat for the reception which was nice that we didn't have to worry about it. 3. Our ceremony was at the gazebo on the beach. It was great. We had about 21 guests come...7 standing for the wedding party and the others sitting. The gazebo was large enough to sit everyone in it. I had all the procession music on my ipod touch in a "procession" playlist. There were only 3 songs and they were in order. They had a couple issues playing it and I could hear the "clicks" thru the speakers as they clicked out of the screen I had setup as if they were playing with it. They played a few seconds of the wrong song at one point and then couldnt figure out how to get back for another. This aggrivated me greatly but, had to move on from it. 4. It was reaaaallly hot that day. Our ceremony was at 4pm and there were no clouds so the sun was right on the gazebo. We were all sweating. This was my second point of aggrivation because after the ceremony, Cassidy and I had so many ideas of cool pictures to take but the photographer decided to "relax" for an hour until the sun went down a bit. If I had a clear head and wasn't so nervous/frazzled I would have suggested we walked around to other areas and take pictures so basically we wasted an hour of picture taking. Not until the next day did we figure out what we did...sucks but we are staying positive that we got some good pictures. We'll see. 5. In the hour that we didn't take pictures we sat in Rocio's/Erika's air condition office and tried to figure out about dancing after the reception. She wouldn't allow us to use one of her speakers...even though they used a nice one at the ceremony she wouldn't allow us to use it after dinner. I had emailed her two times several weeks before and she never answered them (she even claimed we never asked this but I have all my sent emails). I had asked if we could do it in the disco before it opened or on the beach or in one of the "private reception" areas since no other weddings were going on. She said no to all. For the several days after we first met her when she said no i went to every "entertainment staffer" to try and use one of their speaker systems to no avail (they pointed me to their managers). Finally the DJ in the disco said he'd play our songs for us for an hour after the dinner and before the disco opened. VEEERRRY cool of him BUT it didn't happen because we couldn't find him after that. So back to Erika. She said there was no one to "watch" the speaker at that time because it was late...and she'd be the only one to do it. My thoughts: I'm paying you, this is your job so stay so that we can have this one day...our wedding day...to be what we thought it was going to be. Instead we had to argue about this. Cassidy started to get very stressed at this point and was on the verge of tears so we both walked out of the office and I made sure to relax her and reassure her that no matter what everything was going to be great...that we are there together and with our family and friends and we wont let anything get us down. Biggest point I can make is that no matter what happens that you don't expect...just step back, take a few deep breaths and realize it won't ruin the reason your there and you'll have a great time no matter what! Stay positive! After several more attempts Erika said she'd get us a speaker...she set it up at night back at the gazebo and we got to do 3 dances...our first, the daughter/father and the mother/son dance. Unfortunately I had 1.5 hours of music I spent picking out and we didn't get to play it or dance to it. It was about 9:00 PM at this time and it was a nice 3 dances and we appreciated it...of course we would have wanted to dance to everything else but all in all everyone was pretty tired from a looong stressful day. If I had to do it over I would have just ran back to the room and got the little Ipod dock/speakers and took it out to the 24 hour beach bar right after dinner. After everything was done and we had our three dances, several of us ran into the ocean to cool down from a hot day Final notes: the day goes by super fast...I tried but couldn't talk myself out of being nervous the first half the day. Wish I could have handled it better but because of that you may forget a few things so maybe make a list. We wanted to do some pictures around the resort...like at the new church they built....but forgot. We also forgot to take some cool pics around in the nature walks. Go into your meeting w/ Rocio/Erika w/ every question you have written out. If you don't have a private reception, figure out ahead of time those arrangements w/ music. Finally, take your time and relax...enjoy every bit of it because it goes so fast! Good luck to everyone!
  2. Holy cow, we leave in 3 days for our wedding on Monday!! It doesn't seem real...it came up so fast!
  3. Ayla, I was wondering the same thing about a private reception. So far Rocio seemed adament about needing 40 people. We only have 25 to 30 and are told we have to have it in one of the restaurants: Mexican (adelita), Mediterranean (Mare Nostrum) or Italian ( Portofino ). I'd think if we were willing to pay then they'd let us...perhaps not. There is a nice terrace off the Italian restaurant that seems like it could give more privacy than being "roped off" inside the other restaurants. Also we only get to choose 1 meal for everyone...I sure hope all 30 people have the same tastes...seems silly we can order normally from the menu...what happens if we just all showed up as if it were any other night to one of the restaurants, we'd be able to order anything right? Also it's becoming aggrivating not hearing back from the resort in a more timely manner. We've got just over a month to go and it takes a week to hear back from them
  4. Has anyone gotten a list of the type of flowers that can be ordered for the wedding? How limited are we in the selection? I wish I knew what I could pick from before going down there...if anyone has such a thing can you let me know? Thanks! (only a month and a half to go!!!) Cassidy
  5. sometimes it can take him a few days but i think its because he might be busy. I know he's got several weddings this month already. Usually he gets back to all my emails. I'm trying to finalize the contract with him for September. i'm not sure his "policy" on prices so i dont want to list them as he may change them but ours was reasonable...less than a majority of the others out there that i've looked at.
  6. i've got a very worry-some family...always wondering about the drug wars they hear about and the swine flu nonsense. Don't worry...I told them if it was a serious problem, more serious actions would be taken to cancel flights and close resorts. 36,000 people die from the normal flu every year as it is. It was an overblown media event. My wedding is in September and I'm going whether there's a flu, a hurricane or a swarm of locusts (or mosquitos in the case of Mexico).
  7. We are booking Ivan Luckie (Luckie photography). His prices are very reasonable and his pics look great as well. I'd recommend using the search option and type him in...there are a few threads here that have links to some of his photos. Maybe you'll like him. There were a few other people that booked him from this forum but i dont think they've had their weddings yet. With his reasonable prices it leaves room possibly for us to book a videographer as well...assuming they don't have too high of prices.
  8. three months to go! booked a photog now looking for a videographer...any suggestions (who have reasonable prices)?
  9. I dont think you can go wrong with this resort. It has EVERYTHING!!! This is where I proposed to my fiance and it's where we'll return to get married. Here's a site that has a lot of info about the resort: Palladium Addict - Grand Palladium Mayan Riviera there is wedding pricing info, room info, pictures, activity info, etc. Hope that helps
  10. Hi everyone! Cassidy and I have booked our trip and confirmed with Rocio our date...Sept 7th (please no hurricanes, please no hurricanes) and going for a ceremony in the gazebo on the beach (hopefully not too many snack shak guests will be loitering...i'll rope them off if i have to). I think we've got most items lined up...not sure though, Rocio hasn't really asked any questions but, I guess we're still kinda far out. Does anyone have some examples of photographer portfolios that work out of the area down there? I'm debating whether or not to fly one out there or hire one down there...my concern is professionalism and quality. Especially for video because I haven't heard much about any wedding videos being taken there...any suggestions?
  11. We are getting married at the GP. We actually stayed there back in October and thought it was great. It is a very large resort but, we didn't mind. They have trolleys driving around that you can hop on and even the bell boys that drive around on golf carts will drive you if you flag them down. Everyone was very nice and accomodating. We did get lost a few times at first while walking around but got to see a lot of the naturaly beauty (forest like walkways, animals, etc). The beach was fine for us, we did a lot of boogey boarding and swimming. There are some rocky parts depending on where you venture off to but for the most part we were fine. Just have to be aware and careful where u step. We floated instead of walked
  12. Hi Amelie, The GP is a very nice place. We were there back in October and got engaged there. The place is HUUUGGGEE and has lots to see. There's actually 4 different places/hotels to stay in. I think it will be great for pictures because there's so much nature to take in. They have what seems like miles of walk ways thru the forest atmosphere. Very long stretches of beaches and a couple of gazeebos to pick from. We tried to get a date for June but there's hardly any dates other than in the middle of the week. We picked early September...hoping the hurricane season will be kind to us. There's some good info on weddings at this site: Main Wedding Page and general info on the hotel: Palladium Addict - Grand Palladium Mayan Riviera and Rocio's email is: weddings.riviera@fiestahotelgroup.com She's kind of slow in getting back to you which is aggrivating but be persistent
  13. Hi Amelie, The GP is a very nice place. We were there back in October and got engaged there. The place is HUUUGGGEE and has lots to see. There's actually 4 different places/hotels to stay in. I think it will be great for pictures because there's so much nature to take in. They have what seems like miles of walk ways thru the forest atmosphere. Very long stretches of beaches and a couple of gazeebos to pick from. We tried to get a date for June but there's hardly any dates other than in the middle of the week. We picked early September...hoping the hurricane season will be kind to us. There's some good info on weddings at this site: Main Wedding Page and general info on the hotel: Palladium Addict - Grand Palladium Mayan Riviera and Rocio's email is: weddings.riviera@fiestahotelgroup.com She's kind of slow in getting back to you which is aggrivating but be persistent
  14. So, I met my bride to be about 3 years before I proposed. I was attending a friends birthday dinner at the Macaronni Grill I was walking from the parking lot to the restaurant and saw this girl walking towards the door as well. I thought, "wow, she's hot" haha. Romantic huh? I tried to walk faster so I could get in front of her to hold the door open as she walked it but an old guy got between us and she went in first I hoped that she would be in the same bday group but figured there was no way. Lucky me she was a friend of the bday girl and I made sure to sit as close as I could. Not being the type to flat out hit on someone, I did my best to be charmming and witty...I must have done something right because we hit it off and we began an amazing friendship that led into an amazing relationship. We fell learned about each other, from each other and had many great times together. Well, about 1 year after meeting I was sitting in front of my computer and began writing what I wanted to say to her when the day came to propose...I knew I wanted her as my wife. I've always wanted to take her to Italy and propose on a hillside overlooking the water. I wanted to tell her how we began at a chain Italian restaurant and now, in at the real thing, I wanted her to marry me. I had everything planned in my head and I wanted it to be a dream come true.... Fast forward one more year and we were aproaching our 2 year anniversary. I wanted to go to Italy in March and propose the same date we met but, I was unfortunately having some monetary problems and couldn't afford the trip to Italy so I was a little bummed. I wasn't going to let that stop me. Sometime around August 08 we booked a trip to Riviera Maya and were going to stay at the Grand Palladium. I thought, "if I can't do it in March, I'll do it in October" (though we met in March, we began our "official dating" in October...lots of anniversaries to remember haha). I had kept some notes of what the ring she had wanted and I snuck off to jeweler and got an education on diamonds. It took me several trips but I found the right diamond and setting and told them to put it together. 2 days before we left for our vacation I picked up the ring and was just about ready...I had a few more things up my sleave but I'll get to that. We arrive at the Palladium and I casually walked the place until I found the gazeebo and knew that's where I wanted to propose. We spent a few days relaxing and then the 21st of October approached. My heart was pounding the entire day. The hours flew by and I began down the home stretch. I told Cassidy to get ready for dinner and I'd be back in a bit. I headed out to the gazeebo and set up a table w/ 2 chairs. I ordered a bottle of champaign w/ strawberrys in the glasses. Pink flowers were scattered over the table and I had the ring in my pocket. I went back to get Cass. We walked toward the gazebo and she wasn't sure what was going on. I said "hope u dont mind dinner by the ocean". I've done several suprises like this before in our relationship, so she had know idea what was going on. I sat her down and she gave me a card she had gotten. I read it, though vaguely remember what it said because I was so nervous but, tried not to show it. I brought out a gift I had made for her...this was my big "lead in" to the question. I had prepared a leather bound book. It's really a photo album but, I made it into "The Story of Us". I had hand drawn several pictures that represented main events throughout our relationship. The first page had a sign of the restaurant where we met and led into a picnic setting which was our first date. I drew several of our favorite outings and activities we've had together and told her this was the road we've taken and times we've shared as we fell in love. I drew a picture of our first pet and our first home together. The final picture was the beach w/ a palm tree and told her our adventure has brought us here, to the riviera maya on our anniversary. She read thru the book again and looked over the pictures. There was tears in both our eyes. We clinked glasses and had a drink. I told her I had one more page to add to our book...I told her that we'll continually add pages and photos to this book as its incomplete. I pulled a page out of my back pocket that was folded up and handed it to her...she unfolded it and saw a drawing of a diamond ring. As she was looking at it I got down on my knee, under the gazebo, overlooking the ocean. She kept looking at the picture unsure what to think and finally looked at me on my knee. I told her how much I loved her and that I always will. I told her I want to share the rest of my life with her and I told her I want to marry her. She was in shock...she was absolutely suprised...and she said yes! I love Cassidy with all my heart and I'm excited about the day that we return to the Riviera Maya in about 8 months to get married
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