what did you not receive exactly? We were going to book with first choice for a wedding in mexico and they verbally promised us the world. We went with DH in the end and they ruined everything so we cancelled and got our money back.

Hi. We felt like we had just been on any other holiday except for the 10 min wedding service. We did not get the room upgrade - which is guaranteed, the gift on departure or the cake as everyone had to leave the restaurant due to mosquitos (i know this is not their fault but the cake was not returned to us). The things they did provide could be easily arranged in the hotel with no charge as it was AI. We spent the first day trying to speak to the rep who just told us to come back later. He was given a message to pass to us but could not be bothered doing this so our first day was wasted. I thought they would attempt to make it a really special time but no extra effort was made - ie room decorated, drink on plane, upgraded seats (discounted price). When we got back I planned to write to them but then I read the brochure for this year to find the wedding package was half the price than we paid (for the same service), we only booked in Oct 05 and I know brochure prices can change but I felt we should have been advised as it is a big difference and we got nothing extra. I have complained and the person who wrote back had the nerve to tell me about her wedding and wish me happy future holidays. I have responded to this but reading about their customer service I dont think I will get anywhere. I hope I have not gone on to much but I would research fully what you get with them before you book.

If you didn't get the package and facilities you booked and the rep didn't help, keep complaining.

However:

Keep the complaints concise and state what you want out of the complaint.
I found with my complaints to First Choice that if I added a side comment about a minor matter, they would jump on that and totally ignore the rest of the letter, in their minds closing the incident. Until of course I reopened it. Then they would try that with the next one etc.
Persevere until you have to threaten legal action, or you could just contact Ros and see where you stand anyway. In your circumstances it may be the best option.
As I understand the system, you will not get anything back on the grounds that the price reduced to half of the price you paid, that is down to bad timing and nasty tour operators. You will also not get anything for not getting little extras that one would have thought included unless they are in the contract.
You will have to concentrate on claiming compensation for not getting the package/facilities you were due and so will have to clearly establish the facts (dig out the old brochures). I may be wrong , which is why contacting Ros is the best idea.

You have not stated the hotel and country, which would be quite useful as my daughter is looking at this sort of thing for next year.

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I will await their next attempt at a letter and respond as you have advised.
We went to Cuba - Melia Cayo Guillermo - it was a beautiful place and I would not change the location. Other people got married through Thomas Cook and had an excellent rep who ensured everything was ok, you always saw him with his guests. They also have the wedding co-ordinator who was great but there was just no effort from First Choice and we only saw the rep once on our first day.
If I felt we had received 100% from the company and made to feel great then the money would not have bothered me, it's just extremley frustrating as we can not get this day back and do it again. I will not give up with them.
Thanks

sorry to hear your wedding wasnt special enough. Some of these companies are quick enough to take your money, we lost £800 with thomson nearly two years ago for our wedding documents, we were going to dom rep. to get married a hurricane stopped us we received refund for ourselves and 10 family members but couldnt get the £800 back for documents, ended up geting wed in registry office at home, they dont care!! Just thought i'd have whinge with you. We even tried ABTA they recommended we didnt take it any further, after months of sorting out documents this is the last thing you want. Dont give up too easy.

Hi. We got married in Cuba in January this year at the Pardisus Rio De Oro. The holiday was fantastic but the wedding package was just ok. To be fair, the hotel staff tried but so many things went wrong we could only laugh our way through the day! This didn't matter though because we still had a great time.
What has been a problem is actually getting our wedding certificate! 8 months on we are still waiting and firstchoice are not interested in helping us at all - just fobbing us off with excuses. They claim that there is only one judge in Cuba who can legalise wedding certificates and this has caused a back log. I have just found an article where a couple were also told this when waiting for a certificate from the Dominican Republic - in actual fact it had been sent to the wrong address and they only found out when it was retruned to the Dominican Republic!
I don't want to put you off because we are still glad we did it this way (provided that we are actually legally married - of which we have no evidence as yet!) but just be aware there can be problems!
Good luck with whatever you decide

Hi we've just got back from cyprus & we got married we also booked with first choice. the brochure stated we got a room upgrade but i emailed the hotel before hand to make sure this was done & it was. We didn't get the wine & fruit in the the room but we asked the hotel & the next day we got them. After the wedding we should have got breakfast in bed which we didn't so we faxed the wedding co oridnator Who arranged the meal for 2 for us & because we didn't get the breakfast in bed they gave us a bottle of champagne with the meal. i must admit we did have to ask for these things they weren't just done for us but once we did ask they were arranged, i wasn't going to come home with out them giving them to me either as they were part of the package apart form this we did have a very special time & loved every minute of it.
I'm very sorry you didn't have the same experience we did & i hope you get it resolved soon.

stacey

We have been waiting for our wedding certificate since Feb. We got married in Cuba and was told the certificate would take 3-6 months. I have now been chasing it twice a week since Aug 13th and been told:

We don't know where it is
We are going to issue a new one
We are not going to issue a new one
It's in England but we don't know who with, the hotel sent it.
We will contact Cuba who sent it to find out what courier has it (this has been going on since Oct)
We will call you later today (they didn't)
AND that now it has been made a priority. NOW 10 months after the wedding they are making it a priority.

I feel that I have been fobbed off and that they are not doing anything. Is there no system in place in Cuba to track the certificates? Surely the FC rep should question why they haven't seen it. But no money is in their pockets now and it seems they don't care.

We have been waiting for our wedding certificate since Feb.

As you paid FC to arrange everything then a cobtract exists. Under English Law they are in default.

Stop wasting you "valuable" time ringing and writing.

Take Legal Action against them. You could still be trying to sort it out this time next year.

You can always contact Ros Fernihough, Travel Law Solicitor,
who has helped many members of HT. Tel :- 01922 621114

fwh

Hi.
I got married with First choice in may 05. Firstly we upgraded our flight (to cuba), chose the little finishing touches that is suggested in the brochure as it was our wedding. Was really excited until one day when I just happen to be glancing on the first choice site and see that the flight has changed. We hadnt been told about it at all. No Premium, no legroom, no tv's nothing on a 10 hr flight. I wouldnt have been so mad if they had told us. After about 7 weeks of rows with them we manage to change flight. Gets our premium money back, lots of appologies etc.
We then get to the hotel, very tired and worn out etc to be told that we dont have a wedding!! That was it, I was truly about to kill someone at that point. Goes to bed and I will say thanks to the superb staff at the hotel it was all sorted in the morning. First choice hadnt told them about the flight/date change. The wedding was fantastic, everything I wanted. It did take 8 months a threat of legal action to get our wedding certificate. It has to go to the british consulate before it comes to you.

Just a general point for anybody thinking of getting married in Cuba. Cuban weddings are fairly low key for the simple reason that people simply can't afford to push the boat out. Spending a lot on a wedding is an alien concept to the locals and they will be unfamiliar with what most European couples would regard as all the essential 'trimmings' for a wedding. Cuban bureacracy is also fairly laissez faire in its attitudes and approach and in particular there is never any sense of urgency. It's a basic fact of life in Cuba that nothing ever happens when they first tell you that it will!

So unless you can cope with that sort of thing and in particular unless you don't have a fixed idea of what the 'prefect wedding' should be, I would suggest that you think twice about getting married in Cuba until the TOs offering such packages have been able to train up Cuban hotels and staff in what couples from the UK expect. They will get there but for the moment expectations of what a wedding consists of are clearly still really different.

SM

We got married in May 2006 using First Choice at Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar in Mexico and had the best time. They said they would have upgraded our flight but as there were 23 people on our booking they would have had to upgrade all of us which was not possible.

The only thing FC did for us was sent a form asking us to fill in what we wanted for the wedding which they then faxed over to the hotel and made sure we sent copies of the relevant paperwork so we couldn't be refused the wedding once we were there. Me being a control freak contacted the hotel direct about 6 weeks before and started making arrangements of what we wanted to make sure everything went OK.

We basically got everything we wanted plus more (room upgrade, fruit basket, champagne in room) but I don't think it was down to FC more the hotels policy for couples getting married. And the wedding co-ordinator at the hotel was amazing.

Also, if we had booked the wedding direct with the hotel it would have cost us a lot more so we didn't mind paying First Choice what we did £950 (approx.) when we could have booked it ourselves for more and got the same service.

We did get extra leg room seats on the way home though, but that might have had something to do with one of friends nearly breaking her leg & ending up in a wheelchair for the whole holiday.

bes01 said, on Sept 10th .....

I will not give up with them

.

So have you ? No feedback bes01 ?