engaged maya

Quote: Originally Posted by gowiththeflow I'm relatively new to these forums. We just got engaged last weds and already planning for next Feb! I am looking at the CAT and this forum has sooo much info! Thanks ladies! Im curious if the private reception pp cost includes all drinks as well. From what I've seen so far, some resorts charge pp for a private reception, PLUS extra pp for drinks during that time! Seems a bit crazy! The private ceremony is $60 per person and $3o for the Kids. That will include all your food and drinks for the private reception. We had the grill menu which was nice because they grill it for you on the spot. We also had side iteam coffe, tea, different fruit and cakes. It was a lot of food. People really enjoyed it and from what i heards, the grilled fish was the favorite. Hope this helps. Maya

Quote: Originally Posted by josietoms Oh Maya i was hoping you would come back and tell us all how it was. Like L&C in love says it makes me even more excited and confident i have chosen the right resort. Do you have any price lists or anything that we could look at just to give us an idea of how much extras are. So pleased you had the best day you could wish for :-) Hello Everyone Just to answer some of your guys questions: So for the extra prices first: We did not have a legal wedding because if we wanted one we had to wait until very late to reserve our date (as I am sure most of you have experienced this) so we just had the non legal ceremony which I think is called renewal of the vows ($399). Further, we decided that we wanted to spend money of various extras rather than have a legal wedding. (In Chicago it was $10 to get married legaly which we did the day we got back). So for the extra. The flower center piece, bride bouquest and the flower for the guy comes with the wedding package. Elena will send you a document containing about 12 different flower options to chose from. I went with pink roses and then got 6 extra bouquets in white roses for my bridesmaids. Extra bouquests were $25 each. We also got extra decorative flowers ($50 each) that went on the side of the white tent and were transfered to the private reception. If you have over 20 people, which we did, attending the ceremony you have to pay extra $12 for each chair over 20 and that covered chairs, champagne and cake I believe. For us we had 47 people minus 20 that's included in the package minus 16 people in the wedding party that were standing in front. So I got extra 10 chairs. All of the bridesmaids and I got our hair done at the spa. There were two women that worked on 10 of us starting at 9 am and finished by about 2:30. The up-dos were $54 or $56 each, I foget but it was one of the two. The DJ was $100 and he did a good job. Our DJ did not speak english so I had various people from the wedding party take the microphone and announce things like the wedding dance, parents dance, flower toss etc. It was fun. The private reception varies by the menu. We did the grill menu which I think was almost $60 per person. It def added up with the private reception, the DJ which I think was overpriced ($450 for 4.5 hours) but he really did keep everyone dancing, flowers, and other extras, but then again I really wanted all of it because we had so many people that made the trip. I was aware of all of prices so I kind of budgeted ahead of time and decided on what I wanted to spend extra money on. We did the private dinner at the beach $130. I feel that this was money well spent because we finally had some time to ourselves and this was us alone at the end of a very fantastic and busy week. I think someone asked if they have tent colors other than white. I didn't ask but I would be really really surprised if they did. Everything, the chairs, the tablecloths in the dinner, the balloons on the enterance, were white so I would be surprised if they had all the same stuff in a different color. Hope this helps. Thanks Maya

MARRIED AT THE CAT 4/30/2010 Hello Current and Future CAT Brides Justin & I just came back from having our wedding at the Catalonia Riviera Maya. I've read everything on this thread and all is accurate so I am not going to go through all the details of the wedding since most of the info is on here. However, if you have any specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer or help in any way. I completely understand the stress that comes with planning a destination wedding so I can help in any way I can. Below I provide some information about our wedding and if you have questions about anything, please contact me. We had 47 guests so we had lots of people at the resort. We arrived on Monday and the wedding was on Friday. Elena is extremely nice and helpful and it was a pleasure working with her. We met with her on that Tuesday to finalize all the plans including picking flowers and meeting with the DJ. We had a rehersal dinner at the Mexican resturant. This was initated by us only. I had all the wedding party meet me at the spot where we are to get married and then we walked through how we wanted everyone to enter. Elena helped us reserve a dinner at the Mexican place for 20 people but she was not part of the rehersal. On the wedding day, people just told her that we rehersed how we wanted to go down the aisle. I had pink roses for my bouquet and white roses for my 6 bridesmaids. I also ordered 2 huge flower arrangements ($50 each) that were set on for the ceremony and then later transfered to the reception. We had a private reception with the Grill menu. It was delicious and everyone really liked the food. The chef grill the meat on the spot. We had about 3 servers, and a bartender. We also hired a DJ for 4.5 hours. It was $100 per hour but since we had lots of guests, I wanted to make sure we had good entertainment. He played exellent music and we were very pleased. Our photographer was Ivan Luckie and he was awesome!! I completely recommend him to anyone. He was there all day and took many, many pictures. He also has a great personality and got along with all the guests. He brought his associate and friend, Giuliana Aranda, and two of them tag teamed and had great picture ideas and were so fun to work with. We also did Trash the Dress. I completely recommend this. We went to the cenotes on Sunday and took some great shots in the water. We won't receive the photos for about 2-3 months but I did see some of them on their camera and they looked amazing. On our last day there, we did the the private dinner on the beach. This included wine, champaine, lobster, steak, and a few other tasty dishes. It was amolutely amazing. They set it up on the beach with lights and romatic music. We had our own server and even the chef came down to ask how the food was. We had an amazing experience and had some time alone which was really nice. Completely worth the money!!!! That is the basic of our wedding. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to post or contact me directly. For all you future brides, Do not worry too much, as you will have a beautiful and amazing wedding just like we did. We loved everything about our experience at the CAT and would not change a thing. Thanks everyone Maya

Hi guys, I also wanted to inquire to those that had a private reception bar, how much space did you have to dance? We have about 46 people coming and we are going to get a DJ. Plus, we have been taking dance lessons. So I just wanted to see if they arrange the tables and chairs to provide some dancing room. Thanks Maya

Hello Everyone. I am having the hardest time getting information about what the airline does to transport the wedding dress. I will be traveling from Chicago via Mexicana airlines. I called the airline and they had absolutely no idea. I called them on 4 different occasions and everyone I talked to was not able to provide me with an answer. I also called O'Hare and they basically had no idea. I'm so frustrated about this. Can someone help!! Maya

Hi Everyone Thanks on the advice for DJ. I think we might just go for the Ipod. Thus far we have 65 people coming to the wedding which was a bit more than we originally planned so I just wanted to make sure people have a fun time during the reception. I also wanted to inquire about the food menu for the private reception. They sent me the menu with the options and they all looked fine to me. I was wonering for people that had the private reception which menu choice you picked and what you thought of the food. Thanks Maya

Hello, Has anyone used a hotel DJ for their private reception. I was wondering what you thought of the DJ. Let me know Thanks Maya

Hello ladies, I have a question about such a minor detail (compared to decision on a photographer) but are you guys using real of fake rose petals for the wedding, for the flower girl. I was gonna use fake but my fiance is all about naturals. Would I, I guess, have to order real roses from the resort then rip the petals? Thanks

Hello everyone, I was wondering what you guys have playing as you are/will be coming down the aisle. I have not discussed this with Elena so I am not sure what is the norm. Do they just play a CD they have or do you pick your own music. I was just curious what other people are planning on doing. Thanks!! Maya

Thanks Erica. Sounds like this is the way to go. I really appreciate the info. Take care!! Maya

This is great info. and very helpful. Thanks everyone! I will def check out destinationweddings.com this week. I guess do they just assign you a TA? If you guys have any recommendations let me know. Cheers! Maya

Hello everyone, I was interested in hearing on how everyone is taking care of booking hotel and flights for your guests. Do you have them do it on their own? Do they have to contact CAT directly to day they are there for a wedding? Travel agent? Also are you aware of any group discounts or anything if you do it a certain way? Let me know. I am in the process of researching. Thanks everyone for your help. Maya

Thanks for all your advice. This message board has def eliviated some stresses. I actaully did get an email back today finally after 3 weeks of trying. I am in the books for April 30, 2010

Hello everyone, I am having trouble getting ahold of the WC at the CAT. I keep calling and either no one answers or the assistants tells me she will respond to my email but it never happens. From what I read, she is great but for whatever reason, I can't seem to get anyone to answer any of my questions. I am trying just to confirm a non legal ceremony and I had some questions in general. Anyone else experiencing similar issues?? Advice would be helpful

Hi Claire, Did they provide you with a price list of food/drinks/DJ? Also with respect to DJ do you know what's the deal with that? Do you bring your own music or do they have their own, or I guess can you do one or the other?