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whit-Bride

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  1. Hi Ladies, I see there is a lot of discussion about photographers right now... from my experience with the resort photographer I would definitely reccommend you all hire someone from outside the resort! I was happy with how our pictures turned out but like I said in some of my older posts... I was discusted with the photoshop's customer service/lack of it. They were a nightmare to deal with and my one and only regret from our trip/wedding was not paying the extra to hire someone else! Hi Aubrey, My Husband and I were legally married at OCT in August 2010, and we received our marriage certificate 4 months later. I am not sure what the process is in the States... but in Ontario I just had to take it to be translated/notorized (which cost approx $30) and then it was legal and I could changed my name etc. It was actually much easier than I thought it was going to be. Hope this helps. Whitney
  2. All Future OCT Brides, I want all of you future brides to know that even though I have been discussing my Wedding pictures with the resort photoshop over the past couple months... they have DELETED ALL OF MY WEDDING PICTURES knowing that I wanted a disc of all of them! These people are horrible... they do not negociate or show any compassion or concern. Please keep this in mind so you do not have to do through the pain and heartbreak that I am going through right now! Whitney
  3. Hi Jessica, I haven't been on the blog in a while... but I got married at OCT in August and used the hotel photographer. Their photos were good however I am very disappointed with their customer service, they will try to rip you off any chance they get. I am still having a hard time dealing with them and still waiting for my photos from 3 months ago. I spoke to the Wedding coordinators (Ana & Arianna) about it, but the photographer doesn't work for the resort directly and there is nothing they can do about the situation. So I hope all you brides keep that in mind... I wish I used someone else because of the headache they have cause. This was and has been the only bad thing from my whole expirience at OCT. Happy Planning! Whitney
  4. Hey Nadia,  60 days will go by fast...!!! lol  We did welcome bags too which included... personalized "welcome" tags, a wedding disposable camera, sunscreen, aloe, a person margarita recipe card with a mini tequila bottle, a custom made tri-fold brochure, mints, bottle of water, etc.  For our parents... I made them all scrapbooks. The book was leather an in my wedding colour "blue" and had pictures from the night my husband proposed, our engagement photos, our stag & doe and my shower. I left some space so that I can scrapbook pictures from our trip and wedding day for them to add to the book to complete it.  I'm glad Ana got back to you! Let me know if you have any other questions... I'm happy to help in any way.  Whit
  5. Â Hey Nadia, Â I would email Ana to clarify regarding the photographer... I found it difficult to communicae with her via email and sometimes I went back a few times about the same topic to clarify. She seems to write her emails very quickly and does not go into detail... so maybe force her to be more specific. Â I recieved all of our vouchers from our travel agent prior to our departure. We got them at the same time as our etickets. So I would contact your travel agent regarding this... and then when you are in Mexico, you will give the voucher to the tour operator(s) when you are booking your excursion(s). Â I would definitely keep all of your emails with Ana. I did, and then I printed certain ones regarding pricing before we left for Mexico. I brought the emails with me to our first meeting with Ana... and they definitely came to good use because she ended up having to lower a few prices that I had emails for. Â I brought A TON of stuff with me!!! I had... 6 centre pieces (with stones, orcids and floating candles), 36 tea lights, a picture mat for signing, welcome bags for everyone, dispoable cameras, bubbles and gifts for our wedding party and parents, etc. Packing was a bit of a nightmare... I ended up giving acouple things to each of my Bridesmaids and also to my parents. I bubble wrapped everything that was valuable or fragile and made sure they were in a carryon. We were planning on bringing an extra suitcase but once we packed it and weighed it... we found out it was going to cost $260 plus taxes. So we ended up repacking everything again. So if you are bringing alot... I would reccommend that you start packing acouple weeks in advance and asking close family/friends to help. Â Glad to help! Â How are your plans coming along? When are you leaving for OCT? Â Whitney
  6. Hey Nadia, Â Trust me... it was a $60 USD charge to withdrawal cash from the lobby ATM! We even went to Ana about it to see what we could do, and she said that the charge is common. So we ended up borrowing American cash from family and paying them back when we got back to Canada! Â I see you asked about having dinner on the beach... it seems like they are charging a lot for this. You may want to consider what my Husband and I did the day after our wedding. It was a sunset cruise excursion (including a very good 4 course meal on the beach, which was set up privately), this was $100 USD per person with lobster, and you can also request steak or surf and turf. Price is less... and you get more out of it. Â We used the onsite photographer because it was included in our "Euphoria Package" through transat/nolitours. Our package included the use of the photographer prior to the ceremony, during the ceremony and then about an hour after the ceremony. We had over 200 pictures to choose from, plus the ones that our friends and family took while the photographer was posing us and taking our pictures. Â And... Thank You! Â Whit
  7. Hey Nadia, Â Trust me... it was a $60 USD charge to withdrawal cash from the lobby ATM! We even went to Ana about it to see what we could do, and she said that the charge is common. So we ended up borrowing American cash from family and paying them back when we got back to Canada! Â I see you asked about having dinner on the beach... it seems like they are charging a lot for this. You may want to consider what my Husband and I did the day after our wedding. It was a sunset cruise excursion (including a very good 4 course meal on the beach, which was set up privately), this was $100 USD per person with lobster, and you can also request steak or surf and turf. Price is less... and you get more out of it. Â We used the onsite photographer because it was included in our "Euphoria Package" through transat/nolitours. Our package included the use of the photographer prior to the ceremony, during the ceremony and then about an hour after the ceremony. We had over 200 pictures to choose from, plus the ones that our friends and family took while the photographer was posing us and taking our pictures. Â And... Thank You! Â Whit
  8. Â Â Here are a variety of pics for you ladies to see... if there is something specif you want to see just ask and if I have it I will post it for ya! Â Mrs. Reigns
  9. Thanks Lisa!  Here is some information regarding the questions you asked me....  1. There is always nightly entertainment at the resort (shows in the theatre, disco at the pool bar, and always something different going on in the lobby/on the lobby terrace... like Karaoke, mayan dancing, etc). The entertainment staff also tries to recruit people to go into town to places like coco bong. We never left the resort at night because we had fun every night as a group doing different things at the resort.  2. The Excursions we went on.... - Catamaran/snorkeling/ Isla Morales- was $92 USD per adult - Sunset cruise/ romantic lobster dinner on the beach- was $100 USD per adult - The 6 man boat to go deep sea fishing- was approximately $80 USD per person (I think... I did not go on this excursion! lol) * If you want more information on excursions/ pricing... email the in house travel agent before you leave for Mexico. Thats what I did... and it was very helpful.. Their names are Mario & Antonia and the email address is Concesionot@trafictours.com  3. Our Rehearsal was at 5pm, followed by dinner at the Japanese restaurant at 6pm. Our rehearsal dinner was with our wedding party and parents only... which was 12 people. I believe the total number of people who can sit at the Japanese tables is 14... so if your group is larger than that then they will not fit all together. This may be why Ana said it would have to be later.  4. I have a few pics of the lobby terrace setup... and will try to post them tonight. I would not worry about lighting though. There is enough light up there to see. They set up luminary lights for us to kinda separate "our area" from the rest of the lobby terrace. I also had some tea lights to decorate with our flowers etc.  5. I feel fantastic being Mrs. Reigns!!!!! Our entire week at OCT was amazing and our Wedding day was even better than I ever could have imagined!!!! I was a very happy Bride and would love to do our Wedding day again and again without changing a single thing!!!!!!!   I hope your planning is going well... make sure you enjoy every moment of it because when your time comes it will fly by! Take lots of pictures and enjoy all of the little moments between now and your big day!  I am going to try to upload some pictures for all of you ladies now!   Whitney Reigns Â
  10. Hi,  I also had the Euphoria package... and found the upgrades and add ons expensive! We managed to get a few prices lowered though... so just remember that those prices are just a starting point! lol  As stressful as the planning is... everything will be perfect once you are down there!  We tipped a bit... but I wouldn't say we tipped a lot! He gave a good tip to Arianna though... she seemed to go out of her way to make sure everything was perfect for us!  Hope this helps! Whitney
  11.  Hi Nadia,  The 4 post archway with white linens and 3 flower arrangements (2 Hanging and 1 Tabletop) was originally quoted at $350 USD, but we ended up getting it lowered to $250. We paid additional for the other 6 flower arrangements and the upgraded bouquets as well.  There was no additional charge for the Sand Ceremony... we brought everything we needed from home (The sand and the Vases). Ana/Arianna just set it all up for us at the Ceremony and let the Justice of the Peace now we were doing it.  And No... I meant $60 USD to take any cash out of the hotel ATM in the lobby!!! Keep that in mind!!! lol  Thanks, Mrs. Reigns
  12.  Hey Ladies…  I’m back from our Wedding at the Ocean Turquesa and it was incredible! I have written a basic review of everything for all of you… but if anyone has any specific questions about the resort or our Wedding just ask and I will answer it if I can! J  The Resort: The Resort is beautiful, well maintained and cleaned. The entertainment staff and bartenders are very friendly and speak English very well. However the Lobby staff do not speak or understand English very well which can be frustrating at times. The pools are awesome and the beach is great when you are looking for a quiet place to rest. However there is a fair bit of seaweed, they clean it everyday but it keeps coming back.  A La Carte Restaurants: We ate at all of the restaurants and enjoyed all of them except for the Italian one (we are used to eating authentic Italian food and it just didn’t compare.) However some of our guests did enjoy it.  Excursions: We did a group excursion to Isla Morales (includes Catamaran, spinnaker, snorkeling, swimming with a shark- optional, the market/exploring the island, drinks and lunch). Arianna spoke to the inhouse travel agent at the resort and arranged for us to have a private excursions, so it was only our family and friends on our bus and catamaran, which everyone really enjoyed. The day after our wedding, my husband and I went on a sunset cruise & dinner on the beach excursion. The sunset cruise was ok, however the dinner on the beach was incredible. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was breathtaking. Many of our family and friends went on some other excursions and this is their feedback…. The Mayan Ruins and extreme adventures was a hit with everything. They said it was hot and tiring but it was a jam packed day of fun. Swimming with the Dolphins was a hit but it is extremely expensive and they make you lock up your cameras and then charge you $25/picture or $110/disc of all of the pictures. This disappointed many people. The boys went deep sea fishing and this was also a private excursion. They had a lot of fun and all want to do it again.  Meeting/ Blood work: We had a meeting with the Wedding Coordinators and our 4 witnesses our first morning in Mexico. They copied our passports and tourist cards, and verified all of our information. We then went over all of the details for our wedding and final pricing. Once we had everything sorted out, we had our blood work done. My Husband watched as they opened the new needles to make sure everything was clean. My blood work went perfectly fine. However my husband had a little complication. He ended up with a large bump on his arm filled with blood. Luckily our best man is a doctor and we also had 2 nurses with us… so we had them look at it and it turns out that the needle went directly through his vein and there was not enough pressure put on it immediately after. The bump did go down in about 15 minutes, however he had a pretty back bruise for the rest of the week (luckily he had a long sleeve shirt for our Wedding)! I would recommend putting a lot of pressure on your arm for at least 15 minutes after your blood work to avoid this happening to you or your groom.  The Wedding Coordinators: Ana and Arianna are awesome. Ana took care of all the pricing and legal documents. Arianna is the one who decorated and handled everything for us during the week. Arianna booked all of our a la carte meals for the week, she arranged all of our spa appointments (and arranged for us to use the other spa facilities- Sauna, hot tub, steam room, etc.), she made sure we had an upgraded room (they upgraded up to privilege and to a large suit), she took care of ALL of our decorations that we brought down (centre pieces, candles, picture mat, bubbles, disposable cameras, name cards, etc.), she answered any questions we had throughout the week and was very friendly and helpful! *FYI make sure you have more than enough cash on you for the things you need to pay for in cash. We forgot that the Justice of the peace had to be paid in cash and went to take some American money out of the hotel ATM and they were charging an additional $60USD surcharge to withdraw money.  Rehearsal: Ana and Arianna took care of our Rehearsal the day before our Wedding. They explained how everything would work and let our entire Wedding party and parents walk through it as many times as we needed to.  Rehearsal Dinner: We had our Rehearsal dinner at the Japanese restaurant (with our Wedding party & parents). Everyone really enjoyed the food and the fantastic show. I would highly recommend this. I had many people comment on how great it was to have our rehearsal dinner there because it was a show and dinner and the food was awesome. After dinner we went to the Lobby Terrace and gave everyone their gifts and went over any final details for our Wedding day.  Our Wedding Day: My Husband had a separate room for our wedding day so that we did not see each other before the Ceremony. I went for breakfast with my Bridesmaids and then we went to the spa to use the Jacuzzi, hot tub, sauna, steam room, etc. This was a very relaxing way to start off the day. Our hair appointments and my makeup were from 11am-2pm (this was for 4 updos and 1 makeup… with 2 hairdressers working). The hairdressers do not speak English well. One of them could speak a little English but the other one could not speak any at all. We brought lots of pictures to show them how we wanted our hair done and they did a great job. I am very picky when it comes to my makeup and was nervous about having them do it… however it turned out perfect. I did not want to change a thing! All the ladies at the spa were very friendly and complimenting me a lot… I was known as “Wedding Barbie†at the spa. lol After the spa my Bridesmaids and I went back to my room to finish getting ready, and there was a fruit basket waiting there for us. Then Ana came to drop the bouquets off and to check and see how everything was going. At 3pm the groom, groomsmen, and our guests had drinks and hor’derves on the Lobby Terrace. Which from what I heard was very nice. The photographer called to see if I would like him to come and take some pictures before the ceremony, so he came at 3:30pm to take pictures of me, my Bridesmaids and my parents. At 3:55pm Arianna came to my room to walk us down to the ceremony. We had our ceremony on the beach at 4pm. We had a 4 post archway covered in white linens with 2 hanging flower arrangements and 1 table top arrangement. We also had 6 bamboo posts with large flower arrangements on top of each to create a longer aisle. We also had rose petals along the aisle. Our flowers were white lilies and white roses. They were absolutely beautiful. The ceremony was between 20 and 30 minutes long and consisted of… the justice of peace welcoming everyone and reading a traditional Mexican vow, we then did the signing (along with our 4 witnesses), then we said our own vows to each other and she pronounced us husband and wife. We also had a sand ceremony because my husband has a daughter and we wanted to do something special with her. As we did the sand ceremony, our best man read a peace that describes what the sand ceremony means. Once the ceremony was over, we had a champagne toast with everyone. The photographer took pictures for about an hour and half. First he took photos of the whole group, then us with our parents, and then us with our Wedding party. Once he was done with the group shots everyone left to get drinks in the lobby together while the photographer took pictures of us on the beach. Our Dinner Reception was at the Villa Marina (which is the restaurant outside by the pool/beach) from 6:30-8:30pm. Arianna did an incredible job setting up. I gave her a detailed drawing of how to setup the decorations I brought down and asked her to use all of the flowers from the ceremony however she wanted. I was blown away… it looked even better than I imagined. When we arrive at the Villa Marina with our guests, the bartender greeted us with a signature drink that he made for us (which happened to be in my wedding colours/theme). This was an awesome touch and I was so happy that they went out of their way to do this for us. We had a few speeches here before dinner was served and it was very quiet and we were separated from the rest of the restaurant that opened at 7pm. Dinner was 4 courses. Salad (from the salad bar), soup (which was a seafood soup with puff pastry on top), steak with potato and grilled vegetables, and desert (from the desert bar). There was a lot of food and I don’t think anyone finished every course. The soup was very good and had a lot of seafood in it. The steak dinner was also very good, however I was not able to eat much of it because I just didn’t have much of an appetite on our Wedding day. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. We had one guest who can not eat red meat, so she had fish instead. We also had 2 children in our group (2 and 5 years old) and they had chicken strips and French fries). They were very accommodating to allergies and children regarding the menu. We had our Dancing Reception on the Lobby terrace (over looking the pool/ocean) from 9:00pm-midnight. After dinner everyone had 15-20 minutes to go to their room, grab a drink, etc. while Arianna had all of our decorations moved from our dinner to the terrace. She set it up with semi private barriers so that no one would walk through, she setup a sound system for us to plug our ipod in, she provided our own waiter to serve us drinks and clean up after us, she had our picture mat setup on a table for all of our guests to sign, she had our cake setup here as well. Our cake was a 3 tier square cake. Bottom and top tier were chocolate and middle tier was vanilla. The icing was white and we had lilies on top. The cake was very good, and we had a lot left over so we told Arianna to share some of it with the other resort guests who were out on the terrace and they all seemed to really enjoy it. We still had some more cake left over at the end of the night, so Arianna told us she would put it in the fridge and if we wanted anymore in the next few days before we leave then she will get it for us. We started the dancing with our first dance followed by me and my Dad and my husband with his mom. We then setup our playlist and let it go in order. Arianna stayed with us the whole time. She helped us with the Wedding cake and made sure everything went smoothly. When my Husband and I went up to our room at the end of the night, it was completely decorated. The window treatments were made into butterflies, we had a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries, our bed was covered in red rose petals and had two swans made out of towels, our bathtub had bubbles and more red rose petals and the lights were set nice and dim. It was beautiful. The next morning we had breakfast delivered to our room, with more champagne (which we ended up bringing this bottle home with us). After breakfast we went to the spa and had a couples massage. It was a great start to our new life together. While we were out of our room Arianna had brought all of our decorations back up to our room (wrapped and cleaned just like they were before our wedding), and she also had all of our flowers put into our room… which smelt fantastic for the rest of the week!   The Photographer: We used the resort Photographer. He was friendly, spoke English very well and had many good ideas and poses for us already planned out. The day after our Wedding, he gave us a print out with all of photos he took in thumbnail size so we could look at them and decide what we wanted to get. Our package included 25 prints (but no disc). After looking at the 200 photos that he took, we wanted to get just a disc with no prints. The photographers would not do it though. They told us the next package above ours is for 30 prints and the same 30 photos on a disc and it costs $500USD. We were shocked and I was upset by this, so we went and spoke with Arianna… she tried talking to the photographers but the manager was off until after we left. She told us to pick our favorite 25 photos and that she will look into getting a disc of all of the pictures for us. We are still waiting for her email to see where we stand regarding this. FYI, Daniel our Photographer spoke English well however the other staff at the photo desk did not speak or understand it very well at all. This was a very frustrating part for my Husband and I.   We truly enjoyed every moment of our Wedding Day and would not have changed a thing about it. J  I hope that is information is helpful for you future brides… I know I had many Brides help me while I was planning my Wedding. If any of you have any questions though… ask away. I know it can be frustrating when you are trying to plan your special day and aren’t getting responses from Ana right away. However everything will turn out perfect…. Ana is just busy helping the Brides who are there right now.   Mrs. Whitney Reigns J
  13. Quote: Originally Posted by klarson Hello everyone...I recently decided to change my venue from the Grand Riviera Princess to the Ocean Coral & Turquesa but as many have stated am having a hard time getting in touch with Ana. Can anyone please email me whatever info you may have on weddings? Thanks in advance. Kendra Hi Kendra, Sorry I do not have any information on the wedding packages offered through the resort because we picked one through transat/nolitours (a canadian company). I have information on add ons and different stuff like that if you have any specific questions.... ask away. P.S. Ana is really slow on emails. She will eventually get back to you though. I usually get my travel agent to send her reminders when I don't hear from her. Whit
  14. Quote: Originally Posted by lisafleury Yes Whit that was VERY helpful and I would love to see what Ana sends you once receive those pics and info from her - hopefully she won't be too tardy in sending it to you! I'm particularly interested in seeing what the Lobby Terrace set up is as we had decided to go that route so that our reception would be more private, despite the $55/person she quoted us. I'm really happy to hear that she's flexible and is willing to let you have your rehearsal dinner at no extra cost - the Japanese restaurant looks really nice and from what I understand offers some entertainment too. Do you actually know what is happening during the evenings at OCT? I read that the Scores restaurant turns into a sportsbar at night but haven't seen any nighttime information anywhere on their site.... do any of you past OCT Brides happen to have this info? I was thinking of getting a pub crawl organized for our guests - I've heard that Senior Frog and CocoBungo are A LOT of fun... I'm so excited to hear and see how your wedding turns out Whit and I have no doubt will be absolutely fantastic as you are so well organized! Thanks again for sharing all the great info Lisa Hey Lisa, Once I got under 4 weeks away from our wedding, Ana has been much faster at replying to giving me information/details. She sent me a photo of the lobby terrace, but it is not a great one! So I will send you a bunch when we get back from getting married! I have not heard much about the nighttime entertainment. Acouple past brides told me that it is pretty quiet around the resort at night, but when you have a group of people with you it is easy to entertain yourselves. Ana also told me that the sportsbar is open late. I'm so close to being ready... but frantically trying to get all of the last details inorder right now! I never thought I would have so much to do for a destination wedding... but boy was I wrong! I probably did it to myself though... by planning so much stuff and buying so much stuff to bring down! I'm getting really excited now though! We leave in 17 days and get married in 21 days!!! How's your planning coming along? Whit
  15. Quote: Originally Posted by Drinalynn Hi Everyone... I'm a Noob and wanted to introduce myself here. I'm getting married at Ocean Turquesa March 16th 2011. I haven't gone through all of the posts in the thread but have a few questions I want to make sure none of it has been covered here before asking again. Who knows, I may also be able to provide some helpful input here myself, through my own experience. Looks like a super forum and very helpful stuff on here... Congrats & welcome! Where are you in your planning process? Do you have your dress yet? Wedding theme? Etc. If you have any questions ask away... If I can't help then I'm sure someone on here can! Happy Planning! Whit
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