Real Wedding: Chelci & Nick's Destination Wedding

El Dorado Royale ~ May 2018 ~ ​Photographer:  Caribe Photo.  

​Why did you choose Romance Travel Group?  I received the referral from a friend who worked with Romance Travel to plan her 104 person designation wedding. The confidence that Shelli made me feel was great. I was very impressed with her responsiveness and her knowledge and experience on destination weddings.

How did you select the resort? What were the deciding factors? El Dorado Royale was recommended to us by Shelli after we told her the things we wanted from our destination wedding resort. Such as good food and a place that could accommodate a large (75 person) destination wedding. She found us the most perfect resort to have our wedding!

Tell us about your wedding dress – How did you find it? Who went shopping with you? How do you feel wearing your dress? I found my wedding dress at David’s Bridal. My dress was perfect. I did not want to spend more than $2,000 on my wedding dress. I invited my Mom, Sister, Mother -in-law and sister in-law. David's has a huge selection so I tried on probably 60 dresses. I knew as soon as my sister zipped my dress that it would be the one I would ware on the big day. It just felt right.

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Describe the booking process for your guests. Did they find that to be easy to navigate? Our Guests found the booking process to be easy and very painless. I really do believe the ease of booking was one of the reasons we had such a successful turn out.

What were some of your biggest fears or things you worried about as your wedding date drew near? How did you get through this? One of my biggest fears about my destination wedding was the lack of control I had in executing all of the details, but as a destination bride you understand that is going to be a fear when you decide to have a destination wedding. However, I had nothing to fear, the staff knew exactly what they were doing. The wedding was flawless. I put my confidence in my wedding planner and coordinator and I told them everything I wanted and nothing was left out!

Were your guests wowed by the resort and the all-inclusive concept? What was their reaction upon arrival? My guests loved El Dorado Royale. The lobby is breath taking, the food is out of this world. My guests loved the beach bar and the nightclub at night. We all gathered at Spot pool during the day to enjoy the sun and swim up bars.

How easy/difficult was it to travel with your wedding dress? Did you carry-it on, where did you store it? Did you get a lot of comments at the airport? Traveling with my dress was super easy. I put it in a dress bag and took it on as my carry on. It was no big deal. The resort offered to steam it for $15. Very easy. No need to worry about traveling with your wedding dress!

Tell us about your wedding – did you have a traditional wedding with a cocktail hour, dinner reception and dance? What was different about a destination wedding compared to a wedding at home? Our wedding consisted of a ceremony, a cocktail hour and a full reception. We got married at the White Gazebo at El Dorado Royale. We had our cocktail hour and reception right next to the gazebo on the beach area. It was perfect. We had a steel drum player for the ceremony and reception. We decided to not decorate the Gazebo as it was already beautiful enough with the beach setting. We had our own bar set up on the beach and we had the donkey for the cocktail hour. For the reception we went with the Costal Bliss theme, we paid for the outside strung lighting and the light up dance floor which was amazing. We used DJ Max to DJ our wedding, he will play anything and everything you want. We went with the BBQ beach display food option which was well worth it, our guests loved the food. We had the Caribe Photography for 6 hours of coverage. The wedding was perfect. Our wedding would have cost us double the amount of money if we had it in our home town. We got so much more for our money plus a vacation and memories with 75 of our closest family and friends.

What was the best part of having a destination wedding? The best part of having a destination is the chance to spend multiple days and a vacation with family and friends. We hosted a Welcome Party our first night all of the guests were at the resort and then a rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding. So we had 3 nights of private events that we got with our guests, not to mention the full days spent at the swim up bar!

What is your most favorite memory of your wedding experience? My favorite memory from my destination wedding is after the ceremony, looking out at our guests to see 75 of our closest friends and family here with us in Mexico. We all made a special bond that we will have the rest of our lives.

Would you recommend Romance Travel Group to other couples who are considering a destination wedding? I would 100% recommend Romance Travel Group to ANY ONE who is looking to plan a wedding. I already have 1 couple who is considering doing a destination wedding after they attended my wedding and were so impressed. I am also trying to convince my sister to go destination and use Romance Travel when the time comes for her big day!