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ludlows23

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About ludlows23

Wedding Information

  • Wedding Date
    December 30, 2017
  • Wedding Location
    El Dorado Maroma, Riviera Maya, Mexico

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  1. I used place cards that I had printed in advance and then I bought a stamp at Michael's and stamped the place cards that had shrimp and left the beef selections without a stamp. I also gave the wedding coordinator a list of the selections and described the "code" to her. It worked very well. While it was breezy the day of the wedding, the place cards (folded over style) were low enough to the table that they didn't blow away. The table numbers, were another matter entirely. Despite having a heavy base for the stand, they all blew over, but people found their place anyway - we only had 5 tables so it wasn't that confusing.
  2. Hi all - we just got back from our wedding and did OOT gift bag​s, which were a big hit. Here is what I did: ​Bags - we did these eco friendly coffee sack bags and I love the way they turned out. We just put a palm tree/beach graphic on the front and the location of the wedding on the side. No names or dates because we didn't think people would want to use them with our names on them. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1353895917 ​Cups - These also turned out great but weren't used a lot at the resort. For some reason, at my resort, no one else was using their own cups, so I think my guests were hesitant to do so. Hopefully they use them at home! We did put our names on these and the koozies below. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1345007866 ​Can koozies - like the cups, these weren't used very much, but we got a lot of compliments on them. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1345924990 ​Hangover kit bags filled with bandaids, advil, pepto bismol and Zantac. Bag purchased on Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1353895923, contents purchased on Amazon. ​Playing cards ​Snacks - some purchased on Amazon, some purchased at Costco - Nuts & seeds, breakfast bars, fruit snacks, Goldfish ​I also got fans from Etsy for the ceremony, but we didn't end up needing them because it was breezy so no one was really hot. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1345007868 We put them all together at the resort and the front desk handed them out as people checked in for no additional charge.
  3. ​Adding my 2 cents.... ​We got married on the beach in Mexico in December and opted for the dance floor. I think it was a great decision - while the dance floor did get sandy, it wasn't slippery and we had people up and dancing almost all night. There was never a time when the dance floor was empty. It was easier to dance on the dance floor than it was to walk in the sand, but our beach was a very powdery sand. Plus, we had some older people (my husband's mom is 86) who probably wouldn't have danced if we didn't have the dance floor.
  4. ​We just had our wedding in Mexico in December, and we decided to serve the guests a dessert from the menu (we chose a chocolate mouse/crème brulee combo), which everybody loved. We bought the smallest cake possible to do the cake cutting. We had done a cake tasting before the wedding, and while the cake itself was awesome, we didn't like the fondant icing. So this worked out great for us - I'd recommend it if you are on the fence about the cake. We got the best of both worlds.
  5. ​Hi Brides, ​I spent a lot of time lurking on this site as I was planning my destination wedding, so I thought I'd post some thoughts about how it all turned out. ​We got married at El Dorado Maroma on Dec. 30. EDM is a smaller resort, but don't let that deter you - it was absolutely awesome! The resort is beautiful, the beach is one of the best in the world and the service is outstanding. We loved that it was a smaller resort - we had about 35 guests stay there and we could always find people in our group without any trouble. The restaurants were great - 5 restaurants in total and a good variety of food. The only "downside" with this resort would be that the nightlife is pretty quiet, but we were an older crowd and it didn't bother us at all. One of the nights was the wedding and another night was New Year's Eve, so we had plenty of stuff to do. ​Weddings by Lomas is the company that provides the wedding services - we had Shelley as our coordinator and she was great! We picked the resort in February for the December wedding and over that whole time she was very responsive - I never had to wait more than a day for a response and most often it was quicker than that. She provided me a lot of information to help me plan - at one point she sent me pictures of every flower that the florist had in my color scheme so I could pick what I wanted in my bouquet. So while there is a huge number of pre-arranged flower arrangements for bouquets, they basically made me a custom one and it wasn't very expensive. We also had a few last minute guests and she accommodated this with no issue. ​When we arrived at the resort, we had the pre-wedding meeting and met the on-site coordinators (Paty and Nelly) and Shelley. They went through all of the details of the wedding - down to every decision that I had made along the way to make sure everything was in place. They even helped me pick out some music for the ceremony that I hadn't gotten around to and downloaded a few songs right at the meeting to help us choose what we wanted. After that meeting, I had no concerns about the plans for the wedding. ​On the wedding day, Paty and Nelly brought me my flowers mid-day to make sure that I liked what the florist had put together and they were beautiful. They also brought me the hour by hour weather report for the rest of the day and I had to decide whether to keep everything on the beach or move some or all of the events inside. All week before the wedding, the weather reports for the wedding day showed 80% rain, but the forecast improved and when Paty and Nelly arrived the worst of the forecast was 55% chance of rain right when the ceremony was scheduled. It was a touch & go decision, but I looked at another weather app, and looked at the radar and decided to take my chances with the weather. ​We had selected Bridal Moments to be the photographer and our assigned photographer was at the pre-meeting and discussed timing and any specific shots that I wanted to have. They brought 2 photographers and they split up to get both the groom and I while we were getting ready. A few minutes before the ceremony was to begin, Nelly arrived at my room to take me to the beach. The weather was perfect - sunny and a little windy but that just helped people not be too hot. The ceremony was quick - and I don't remember much of it, I was so focused on my husband! But the guests said it was really beautiful. ​After the ceremony we had a 1 hour cocktail party before the reception started - also on the beach, right next to the ceremony. The groom and I did most of our pictures during this time, but we were close enough to the guests to get a lot of shots with them as well. The photographers seemed thorough - I haven't seen their proofs yet though. ​The reception (also on the beach) was excellent. The food was great - we got lots of compliments on everything. We had chosen the filet and the shrimp as entrees, and a mousse/crème brulee dessert, which people raved about. We just got a small cake to do the cake cutting with - we thought people would like the dessert from the menu better than the cake. The cakes were good, but the fondant icing was a little too sweet. ​We used DJ Max as the DJ and he was outstanding. I had given him lots of song suggestions and he picked all of the best ones and the night went without a hitch. Our guests were up dancing for the entire night - which is exactly what I wanted. DJ Max also changed songs for me if I didn't like something he had chosen. ​The service at the reception was top notch! The waiters and bartenders took note of what the groom and I were drinking and we never had an empty glass all night long. Many of the guests also tipped the waiters because they were so great. ​Another thing that we really appreciated was the location of the ceremony and reception - the resort had us away from the main beach seating area, so there weren't really any other people around. Sure, there were some people walking along the beach during the cocktail hour and reception, but overall it was very private, which was different from other destination weddings I had been to, where the ceremony was surrounded by people at the beach, in their bathing suits, watching the whole event. ​When we finally got back to the room, the resort had decorated it with rose petals and had brought back my bouquet and cake and a few other things from the reception, which was a nice touch. ​As part of the wedding package, we had breakfast room service the next day, which was also outstanding. There was an amazing amount of food - we couldn't eat it all, but everything tasted great. ​Overall, we both feel like El Dorado Maroma and Weddings by Lomas exceeded our expectations for our wedding. We were pleased with everything and wouldn't have changed anything about our wonderful day. Sorry for the long post, but let me know if you have any questions.
  6. I know that this is too late for the original poster, but hopefully it is helpful for other brides reading these forums.... We used DJ Max for our wedding at El Dorado Maroma in December. We picked him through the Weddings by Lomas group. He provided us with a huge pdf file with multiple song lists - which wasn't well organized at all and had songs duplicated throughout. But I didn't really use his list as I had a specific music theme in mind. He also provided us with a spreadsheet where we filled it out for the music throughout the evening - introduction of the bridal party song, first dance song, songs during dinner, first song of the "dancing" part of the night, etc. This was really helpful in thinking through the format of the evening. I ended up making a long list of songs that I wanted played after dinner - based a lot on lists throughout this site and others. On the day of the wedding, DJ Max was awesome - everything went very smoothly and he played almost my entire play list but made it sound great - picking the order of the songs to keep everyone moving. Everyone danced almost all night long - it was a blast. My guests loved the music throughout the entire evening. Only once did a song come on that I didn't like and I asked DJ Max to skip to the next song and he did right away. I'd highly recommend using a DJ. It took all the stress out of the evening and they really know how to make the night go smoothly. Do your research about songs you like and give the DJ a good list to go from - and they will take it from there. DJ Max also said that they could download any song they didn't have right there at the reception - if there were any requests that hadn't been on my list. Here's my list of the "party songs" for the evening. We were an older crowd - all over 40, so we went with 70's and 80's dance songs. Rick Springfield Jessie's Girl Kool & the Gang Celebration Michael Franti & Spearhead Say Hey (I love you) Sister Sledge We are Family Garth Brooks Friends in Low Places Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long Rick James SuperFreak Violent Femmes Blister in the Sun Dexy's Midnight Runners Come on Eileen Abba Dancing Queen Michael Jackson Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough Billy Idol Mony, Mony Def Leppard Pour Some Sugar On Me Otis Day or the Isley Brothers Shout Neil Diamond Sweet Caroline Romantics What I Like About You Village People YMCA KC and the Sunshine Band Get Down Tonight James Brown I got you (I feel good) The B-52s Love Shack A-ha Take on Me Talking Heads Our House Joan Jett I Love Rock & Roll The Commodores Brick House Wild Cherry Play that Funky Music Lynyrd Skynrd Sweet Home Alabama Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville Chic Le Freak Cindi Lauper Girls Just Want to Have Fun Four Seasons December 1963 (Oh What a Night) Lipps, Inc Funky Town Murray Head One Night in Bangkok Peter Gabriel In Your Eyes Earth Wind and Fire September Bob Seger Old Time Rock & Roll Journey Don't Stop Believing Bee Gees Staying Alive Martha Reeve Dancing in the Street
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