Wedding Date: January 13, 2024 ~ Resort: Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta ~ Photographer/Videographer: Del Mar Wedding Photography ~ Bridal Gown: The Wedding Shoppe ~ Tux Salon: Men's Wearhouse Why did you choose Romance Travel Group? We chose RTG because it had stellar reviews, was recommended on several destination wedding Facebook pages, and was based out of our home state of Minnesota. We had an amazing experience with them and are so glad the reviews were right. What led you to choose a destination wedding? We chose a destination wedding with the encouragement of a couple of friends who had done destination weddings for their own marriages and highly recommended it. I was in graduate school and didn't have time to plan a wedding, so doing a destination wedding was the perfect idea for a getaway and involved immensely less planning. What were some of your biggest fears about having a destination wedding? Our biggest fear of doing a destination wedding was the cost. We wanted our loved ones to be able to attend and didn't want them to spend a lot of money. We also weren't sure how many people would want to or be able to come after finding out it was going to be a destination wedding. All our fears were put to the side when out of 130 people invited, 102 said yes. It was absolutely incredible and everyone had the BEST time. Describe what it was like working with the wedding coordinator at the resort?
Our wedding coordinator was amazing. She was easy to get a hold of and connect with and she put all of our worries at ease. She was extremely responsive to our questions and needs and gave us all of the information we needed to pick out our package and added decor. We gave her our color scheme and the decorations and flowers exceeded all our expectations. She met with us the year before the wedding for food tastings and a tour and met with us when we arrived to go through all the details. She was incredible at our rehearsal and made our entire vision come true the day of the wedding. I truly could not have asked for anyone better-- HIGHLY recommend Nayely Tello at HZ PV. Tell us about your wedding dress – How did you find it? Who went shopping with you? How do you feel wearing your dress? I accidentally found my wedding dress the first time I went shopping at the first store I went to. I went into the day with my mom and grandma planning to just find some styles that I liked but came out with the perfect dress for me. The person helping me didn't ask for my dress size but somehow came out with 8 or so dresses that all fit. However, in the dress I chose, I felt like a princess. I felt absolutely beautiful and felt that way every time I tried it on thereafter, I knew it was the one for me. I did, however, jump in the pool at the end of the night, so it might not look or smell quite as nice anymore. :) Describe the booking process for your guests. Did they find that to be easy to navigate? Based on the feedback I heard from guests, the booking process was fairly easy to navigate. It was nice having a website dedicated to booking the rooms with the different prices laid out. Shannon was very accommodating and quick to respond to any needs or questions my guests had. She also helped move and add people at the last minute to be in rooms together, find them a room when they originally were not coming, and help make the prices as cheap as possible. I have already had two people ask what company I used for my destination wedding because they were happy with how it went and want to use them for themselves or other friends/family. It went so smoothly. Were your guests wowed by the resort and the all-inclusive concept? What was their reaction upon arrival? The guests had nothing but good things to say about the resort. They were very impressed and had an absolute blast. They loved the all-inclusive aspect and gave good reviews on both the food and drinks. The people that stayed in the club tower said the drinks were definitely stronger from their bar—hehe! The staff were so friendly and it was really fun to see so many people we knew when walking around since the resort wasn't super big. The airport was busy and crowded but only about a 20-30 minute drive to the resort, so once people got to the resort, they were happy, relieved, and had an absolute blast, as did we. How easy/difficult was it to travel with your wedding dress? Did you carry-it on, where did you store it? This was one of my biggest worries leading up to traveling for the wedding. I had searched this question on many destination wedding sites. It ended up being much easier than I thought it would be though and it went really smoothly. I bought a trifold extra long dress garment bag on Amazon and was able to put both my dress, my husband's suit, and our shoes in it. I was able to fold it up and carry it on. I asked the flight attendants if there was somewhere it could hang. They had a closet for business class that didn't have any other jackets or anything in it. They hung it up for me and it worked great. I didn't have to steam my dress or anything when I took it out, it was still in great condition. 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? We had about a 20 minute ceremony with my pastor officiating who we flew down from Minnesota. We then had a cocktail hour with yummy hors d'oeuvres and a coconut station, which was a hit. We did a traditional dinner reception and extended our dance an extra hour. Everyone was on the dance floor the entire time as soon as the floor was open. It was so fun!! I think compared to a wedding at home, a destination wedding was nice because I just showed up to the wedding and reception. All the work was done for me, everything was set-up perfectly, and all the workers knew what to do and where to go. I didn't have to give any directions. The resort does weddings so much that everything flowed smoothly without needing any guidance from me. It also was nice because it was more relaxed and laid back being on a beach and we were able to continue the party after the reception because no one had to go home! What is your most favorite memory of your wedding experience? My favorite memory of my wedding day was when all the wedding guests ran to the dance floor once the DJ opened it up to everyone. It was so fun to see how excited everyone was to dance and have a good time. During one song, everyone was stomping to the beat and I thought the dance floor was going to break--it was incredible. We had so many random people at the resort come up to us the next day as well coming up to us and telling us how beautiful our wedding and reception looked as well which was nice to hear. We also did a private catamaran excursion for our "rehearsal dinner" with our bridal party and 10/10 would recommend it, everyone had so much fun! In what ways did Romance Travel Group make the planning less stressful for you? Romance Travel Group helped make everything so easy and stress free. From the start of the planning process, Abby gave us multiple resorts in multiple locations based on what we said we wanted and based on our price ranges, which was nice so we didn't have to do our own research. Once we decided on a resort, RTG helped us get set-up with our wedding coordinator. Shannon then took over and was so responsive to emails and questions, sent out reminders for our guests on multiple different occasions when different deadlines were coming up, and was a nice buffer so my husband and I didn't get questions about travel. RTG did a great job at helping our guests and troubleshooting where necessary. I have nothing but great things to say about them and the work they did to help make our destination wedding a huge success. What surprised you the most about having a destination wedding? I was surprised at how many praises we got about how beautiful the wedding was and how happy guests were to have come. We had so many compliments afterward about how much fun guests had and how some of them want to do a destination wedding now. I knew it was going to be pretty because we were on a beach, but it was absolutely breath-taking and I was so glad that all our guests had a good time and felt like the money and travel was worth it. Comments are closed.
|
Meet The AuthorsWe are passionate about destination weddings and love helping couples make their wedding dreams a reality. We are the destination wedding experts. Categories
All
Archives
November 2024
|