Aricak64

thanks

JHarris, Thanks and yes the resort did my flowers. I decided since we had such a small wedding and half of the flowers were included in my package that we would just stay with the resort vendor.

hmmm that did not work.

Here are some of my photos. Sorry for the delay.

JoZee84- I got married on April 11, 2011 at 4 p.m. It was around 85 degrees and warm. My husband was in a suit and said it was really hot. In 2010 we vacationed in the Playa Del Carmen area around the middle of June. It was really really hot around 95-100 with pure humitidy. Hope this helps...

Our airline was Continental, which has a closet but since we did not have a 1st class ticket they would not let me put my dress in the closet. We also had a lay over in Houston, so I had to lug around the dress between flights. I was also worried about fitting my dress in the overhead bins, but everyone on the plane was really nice and made sure I had enough space to put the dress in the bin.

Dimax21, I was advised to never check in your dress, so I carried my dress on my flights. I was unable to use the front closet on the plane so we had to put my dress in the overhead bin. My dress was packed in a garment bag along with my shoes, veil, and slip. The dress arrived in Mexico fine, but it was really wrinkled. I wasn't worried since I had already paid for the steam cleaning of my dress. If your carrying on your dress I would advise you to arrange a steam cleaning once you arrive. By time I made it to the resort I was so over the dress thing LOL. Its a pain in the butt to carry the dress there, but its all worth it.

Hello Future Brides, I got married at the Royal on April 11, 2011. As tradition here is my review of the resort and the wedding….. WEDDING: A++++ We (well I should really say I, my now husband wasn’t much help lol) started planning the wedding back in October of 2010. I picked this resort because of the gazebo. I goggled wedding gazebos in Playa Del Carmen and immediately fell in love with the Royal’s gazebo. I also found this forum in December of 2010 and everyone has been so helpful! Besides photographs we had not seen the resort prior to arriving for our wedding. I must say I expected the resort to be great, but once we arrived the resort was way beyond great. I don’t think words truly describe the beauty of the resort. We had the most amazing and beautiful wedding that we won’t ever forget. Our guests absolutely loved it! In fact many of our guests are planning on returning to the Royal next year. AIRLINE: B As I previously stated we flew with Continental Airlines. I carried on my dress and since I did not purchase a first class ticket, I had to put my dress in the over head bin. Our flight was not straight through so I was stuck carrying my dress around between flights. By time my dress arrived at the resort, I was soooo over dealing with it. I was afraid to unzip the dresses bag and see how wrinkled it was. I would recommend taking a straight through flight and if you are worried about wrinkling your dress, purchase first class tickets. The bell boy at the resort was absolutely awesome. When we arrived he took one look at my face and came running over and took my wedding dress from me. Then they handed me a drink, and life was good. J ARRIVAL IN CANCUN AND SHUTTLE SERVICE TO RESORT: A When we arrived the customs line was not long at all. We had a total of five people on the same flight and we booked Lomas airport shuttle service. When we walked out of the airport, a Lomas employee was their holding a sign with my name on it. We ended up having a private shuttle to our resort. My husband learned the hard way; do not purchase beer at the airport. 6 bottles of Corona was 30 dollars. We soon learned our shuttle had bottles of Corona for the ride which cost 2.50 each. RESORT: A++++++++ Again the resort was amazing! The staff is so wonderful and friendly. When we arrived our room was not ready yet, so the bell boy took our bags and the resort gave us our bracelets so we could go eat and drink. Our room was the ocean view Jr suite and we loved it. One of our guests had the swim up suite and I must say it was amazing. When we return next year we may get a swim up suite, but it depends on the price. Our room had big comfortable bed that was decorated with rose petals every day! We got a fruit basket, a bottle of red wine and a letter from the romance concierge. Our bath tub was right in front of a large window overlooking the pool area. The shower in the room was the most amazing shower I have ever seen. We ordered room service a couple of times and the service was great. The food was good and arrived fairly quickly. The food at the resort was really good. We ate at the following places: 24 HR. ALL INCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE: If your drunk then the food is great, but otherwise it is just average bar food. PELICANOS: We did not want to pay for a welcome dinner so all 16 of us went to this restaurant without a reservation. They were able to seat all of us together and the food was really good. I recommend having dinner at this restaurant. NEW! EL MEDITERRÃNEO: We went here for breakfast and lunch. Both meals were very good and a few friends said this restaurant was their favorite for dinner. I highly recommend this restaurant. SPICE: We ate breakfast and lunch here. Everything was very good. I highly recommend this place for breakfast. CLEANERS: Ok the cleaners. This was a major issue for us. We arrived on Saturday and our wedding was on Monday. My previous wedding planner Jael scheduled the cleaning for 11 am on Sunday. The cleaners are not OPEN on Sunday. So when I arrived I found out they were hoping I arrived before noon so they could get my dress. I guess the cleaners close at 12 on Saturday and all day on Sunday. My new wedding planner, Lili, advised me we would now have to have the dress expressed cleaned on Monday. This cost me an extra 30 dollars on top of the 60 dollars I had already paid to have both the suit and wedding dress cleaned. So after getting over the extra cost, I dropped off both items to Lili to have them cleaned on Monday. My wedding was at 4 pm, my dress and the suit arrived at our rooms at 3:40 pm. Yep 20 minutes before the ceremony. The worst part of it was that I had to have my mom sit in my room waiting for the dress all day since I had a hair and makeup appointment. At first I was stressed about the whole situation especially since my dress laced up and took a long time to put on. Then I thought about things and figured the wedding wasn’t going to start without me, so if I am late so what J When the suit and dress finally arrived, they both looked amazing! POOLS: A The pools were awesome! I thought the temperatures of the pools were perfect since the weather was around 90 degrees. The pool staff was great about keeping the drinks coming and taking care of you. BEACH: A It was beautiful! We walked towards the left of the resort (away from the pier towards the gazebo) and there were no rocks. Swimming in the ocean was one of our highlights of the trip. Wedding Coordinator: A I had Jael as a US coordinator. She was great to work with over the base camp website. I’m a pretty patient person so you have to keep in mind that they’re not going to get back to you right away when you have a question. I was ok with this because everything got answered at some point. The week of the wedding I got Lili and she was also very sweet. She has this calm sense to her that just relaxes you. In the US we are pretty high stress and we expect things to get done right away. In Mexico everything is “no problemâ€, and they were right, everything turned out perfect. The day before the wedding we meet with Lili in her office for an hour (if that) to go over any last questions and clarifications. At this time I gave her our chair sashes, candles and other decorations. Lili about died when I told her we wanted to light a unity candle. She advised us it would be too windy and she was afraid we would never get the unity candle lit. We decided to light the candle at our reception which was in door. It all worked out perfectly. I took copies of everything, which turned out to be very important since LiLi did not have my revised wedding script. The day/night of the wedding everything was in place and all of the items were placed in my room the following day. PHOTOGRAPHER: A My father In-law is a really great photographer so we decided we would use him and the resort photographer. I just received the resort photographer’s photographs and I must say they are amazing. I have compared them to other photographs from outside vendors that previous brides hired and they are just as good. My brother videotaped the ceremony and it came out great. Royal Florist: A The flowers were beautiful and exceeded my expectations! Hair and Makeup Spa Azul: A+++++ I got my hair and makeup done at the Spa Azul and they did a great job! I gave myself 4 hours to do this and I was in there for about 3 hours. I brought a picture of what I wanted to do with my hair and I loved it. I had over 50 bobby pins in my hair and probably a whole can of hairspray so not a single hair was out of place the whole night. I also brought a picture of what I wanted for my makeup and she did an amazing job of matching it. I could not have been any happier with my hair and makeup, Alicia did an amazing job. I also had a pedicure and manicure done by Alicia. Ceremony at the gazebo: A+ Our ceremony was at the gazebo at 4pm. I had our guests sit outside of the gazebo for lighting/photography purposes. Everything was set up exactly how I wanted it to. We had a CD with one song for walking down the aisle and another song for after the ceremony. The music was spot on. The ceremony was beautiful and very intimate. This section of the resort is the most private- I’m glad we choose this spot. I took the ceremony and added our own poems and vows. The minster did an amazing job following the revised script. After the ceremony we did a toast and took all of our photos with our guests and then by ourselves. We did the 1 hour cocktail party, so while we took our photos our guest were served appetizers and drinks. We had another CD with music for the cocktail party and we did not have any issues with the music. Lili took care of it. Reception dinner: A We choose to have our reception at the Asian Restaurant. The reception was for 16 people, counting us. We had a semi-private balcony room all to ourselves. The food was amazing and the staff was extremely professional. Due to the heat we were glad to be in doors and in the air conditioning. Our guests are still raving about the food, saying it was the best meal they have ever had. We had the Avocado stuffed with crab pulp au fresh dill vinaigrette, Beef fillet tournedo with fresh wild mushrooms sauce, and the Cannoli trio stuffed with praline & raspberry coulis. Our cake was absolutely wonderful; we had the rose flowered Kahula cake. When we went to leave the restaurant, I walked down the stairs into the main area and received a standing ovation from all of the guests in the restaurant. The staff at the resort made me feel like a princess. Playa del Carmen: A+ After the reception we went to the Fusion Hotel for the fire show. As we walked through town the entire town started yelling and clapping at us, telling us congratulations. We decided to stay in our wedding clothes and it was a great experience. Once we arrived at the Fusion Hotel two teenage girls ran up to me and asked if they could have their picture taken with me since I looked like a princess. I must say they made my night even more perfect. The Fusion Hotel lost our reservation, but was able to get us a table and bought us a round of drinks. Drinks were cheap and the fire show was good. I would not call the show excellent since it was short. On Saturday when we arrived all of us younger “kids†decided to do the party hopper. We had the time of our lives on the party hopper excursion. They pick you up at the hotel and you visit three bars, Senior Frogs, Congo Bongo, and Charlie’s. Photos coming soon! Arica

JoZee84- when is your wedding? I noticed all the prices went up for 2012. The minster, JP, Rabbi, etc is 400 in 2011, but in 2012 the price went up to 500.

"Is everyone else doing a cocktail reception as well? If so what's your time frame from wedding to reception? I feel like our reception will be over by 8pm, and I was really hoping to go out in playa afterwards. That seems to early to me, I dunno. The wedding starts at 3pm. Is everyone doing bridesmaid bouquets? I am working on this now, waiting to hear back from Marvin at Mayo Diseno. It seems like our budget keeps expanding-- and we really need to cap it because there is still the AHR to pay for! Any suggestions on how to find more affordable flower options?" We are doing the cocktail reception following the wedding. My wedding is at 4 pm at the Gazebo. The cocktail reception is directly after the wedding and also at the Gazebo. Our dinner is scheduled for 6 pm and will be over aroun 7:30 pm. I think we are going to go out after the dinner too. I'm trying to choose between the Fusion and Blue Parrot. Our wedding party is really small so I went with bouquets for the bridesmaid party. If you have a big wedding party the resort flowers could get quite expensive.

SUZY851-We thought about doing the private reception and dancing, but 90% of our guests are not into dancing. I was hoping to find a show or something everyone would enjoy. We arrive on April 9th and leave on the 13th, so unfortunately we will miss you. We decided to do a full honeymoon after the wedding-a 10 day cruise through the Panama Canal. I will definately look into the Blue Parrot!

Thanks for the info. I do believe I have heard about the Blue Parrot, I love your idea of having the rehersal dinner there. My wedding is April 11th, 2011. Congratulations!

Hello Brides, I am four weeks away from my wedding date. We are having a small wedding, 14 guests total. The wedding is at 4 pm, 4:30-6:00 pm toasting, cake, drinks, etc. and then the semi private dinner at 6 pm. Do to the small size of the wedding and my wedding party, a dancing reception really doesn't work for us. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could plan to do with my guests after the dinner? Thanks! Arica

April does seem to be a very popular month. I had all of my guest book back in November and some of my guest did not get the rooms they wanted (ocean view). My TA stated the rooms were selling out quickly.

2011 Brides kshows - February 12, 2011 MichelleCrock - February 26, 2011 Elizabella75 - February 26, 2011 DiahR - April 1, 2011 GC2008 - April 10, 2011 Aricak64-April 11, 2011 pineapplebride - *maybe* April 2011 Suzy831 - April 16, 2011 Jennie0521 - April 28, 2011 ChicagoBride2011- May 1, 2011 speedy130 - May 7, 2011 SarahE786 - May 15, 2011 rosieposie - May 22, 2011 Maritza - June 3, 2011 risa 1818- June 12, 2011 Jozee84- June 15, 2011 JHarris - June 17, 2011 Bride2B22- June 21, 2011 Sweetle - June 24, 2011 Prettypigpig - July 4, 2011 Heidi88- July 22, 2011 miadionne - July 23, 2011 nikkiscriv - July 25, 2011 Augustbride2011- August 20, 2011 duffeje - September 2, 2011 Bride2bDebbie - November 20, 2011