athena

Quote: Originally Posted by Geminie Hey guys.. I just saw those videos.. ok so for the first place winner... that song where the man is humming near the end.. it knida sounds Hawaiian to me.. does anyone know what it's called? Also for more amazing videos, check out these guys... they're local to Missisauga... but outrageously priced... but I've also never seen better wedding videos... Japan Trailer on Vimeo Ok im off to go get ready for our engagement shoot! Those vids are awesome. There are some really good ones on you tube! The song is off of 50 First Dates movie: Somewhere Over the Rainbow - by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Quote: Originally Posted by dcheung1111 Sorry guys, I was just reading a few posts back and saw someone else asked the same question! That's what i get for not checking in every day. However, I've got another question: Did anyone arrange for group activities when guests arrived? Any recommendations? I'm thinking of doing a welcome cocktail cruise and maybe a tour of Tulum for whoever stays after the wedding. Any recommendation of company's or vendors that handle this type of thing? When we were at the Royal in 2005, we went to Cozumel, Xel-Ha, Isla Mujeres Catameran tour and Cancun. We had so much fun in Cozumel. We took the ferry over in the morning - I think it was about $18.00. When we got there we rented a couple jeeps ($65 US for the day, but can be split 4 ways) or mopeds. Then we drove around the island. There were lots of other tourists doing the same thing. There is a couple of snorkeling/scuba parks along the way which are neat. Then we caught the ferry back around 5pm. We've been told that you can now rent Polaris Razors UTVs. The Isla Mujeres Catameran tour was awesome too. We bought it out of the lobby of the Gran Porto Real. We took a bus to Cancun, then the boat to the private part of the island. There was a huge slide and snorkeling tours. Then the took us to the public part of the island for a few hours. The whole time on the boat was a huge party with a ton of people. Xel-Ha was an awsome park as well - good for snorkeling. We never made it to Xcaret, but we've heard nothing but good things. There are a ton of these tours sold right at the hotel. Oh, and someone mentioned Zip-Line tours too.

I'm getting a little worried. I wasn't sent any payment/ credit card authorization form. And I sent an email to Micaela 3 weeks ago and no response. I sent another email today, asking her to email back if everything is still good for our wedding. Yikes!! I'm really shocked that you've gotten payment contracts sent to you!!

Hello! I'm getting married in Mexico, but I've been in a wedding at the Palladium Punta Cana, Nov 2005 (brother/sister in law to be). It was beautiful!! We stayed at the Royal end of the resort. We hadn't heard of it until we landed, but we upgraded from the Palace. It is adults only and super delux!! Breakfast by the pool and it's own beautiful lobby. I would suggest the upgrade to this part if it is possible. It really made our trip special! The wedding was amazing. She went with the upgraded flowers, wedding in the gazebo, and dinner at one of the a la cartes (there were 12 of us). They had the horse and carriage as well - it was breath taking. They had lots of pics in the garden and the beach. Not to scare anyone, but another couple got married on the beach and a lot of the pictures the woman was dealing with her hair flying around. They went with the resort photography/videographer and they were amazing. They got a DVD of the day, and beautiful photos. The hand made album is a leather-bound photo album. The pages are very thick and the photos are just gorgeous. I can't say enough about the book - never seen anything like it before. You can try this link to see a few pics of it all: Shutterfly

I was part of my brother/sister in law (to be)'s wedding in Punta Cana, November 2005. We stayed at the Royal Palladium. It was amazing, and the resort was breathtaking. (It's the adults only part of a 5 resorts in one!). They were married in a white gazebo and had lots of beautiful tropical garden & beach photos. They had their dinner at one of the restaurants. (They could have been married on the beach, and had a private reception if they had chosen.) They also had a beautiful horse drawn carriage to take us from the hotel to the gazebo; & then they had some amazing photos in it (it reminded me of Cinderella!). They went with the hotel photography package, and they go this amazing leather-bound photo album, I can't begin to explain!!! I'll try to dig a few photos up to send you!! Congrats & happy resort choosing!!!

I've tried searching the forum, but I haven't found any concrete information. I was wondering if an area could be set up to layout the legal requirements for marriage for the various destinations depending on which country you reside in. Also, it would be great to give the actually addresses/phone numbers to get the documents completed before travel. If this is already here, please just point me in the proper direction. (I got my documentation back, I'm just still worried that it hasn't been done properly!) Thanks Athena

When we were in Playa the closest one was Cancun, so I can only let you know how we found that. We did a "tour" with our resort (party bust that only went to the Coco Bongo). We also rented a Jeep one night and went to Cancun to party that way. We stood in line for about 20min to get in. It was $35 US, and that was cover and all we could drink. But we found it was hard to get drink if we didn't tip. We had a blast there. We found the best way was to do a party bus through the resort. (Trip home was a lot easier!) Hope this little bit of info can help!

(Well I've been so busy lately I haven't had much time to be on this site. So I've just been reading it all and catching up.) Our pricing for our wedding is from January 2008; (they are honoring their pricing from then). And Micaela didn't seem to care when I mentioned we were looking at outside photographers (we decided to go with the resort photography cause everyone else is already booked!!). We're leaving on the 29th of November out of Vancouver for two weeks. I'm getting so excited!!! The only problems I've been having is trying to get our Birth Certificates translated and legalized!!!! And, I guess this is kinda crazy, but I haven't even looked for a dress or BM dresses yet!! Yikes! I'd better get on it!!!

Wow, Wow, Wow!!! Thanks so much for the very indepth review. It really helps us all who are going to the Royal (& even for anyone who hasn't decided on a location). I got so excited reading your review and looking at your beautiful pics! It sounds like everything will be good for us in December (weather permiting of course!). And thanks for the tip about the orchids!! Congrats to you both!!

If your set on buying it off of ebay, my advise is to check the sellers history. I've bought quite a bit off of ebay, and I've only had 2 negative experiences. Both times, I didn't do my homework on the seller. Good Luck!!

Quote: Originally Posted by kevsgirl Wow!!! They are awesome! How does it work mailing them, just out of curiosity? I mailed them out of BC. to mail them w/in BC it was $7.50 + taxes. To mail them to Alberta & Ontario, was $9.50 + taxes. To mail them to Belgium & Holland was $5.50 (go figure!). I mailed them out on a Tuesday, and guest started receiving them that Friday!! Wow!! We live in remote town, so Canada Post did a good job!! For the postage and customs papers, we attached tags with zip ties to the bottle necks. This way it wasn't stuck to the outside of the bottle! Thanks so much for all the comments!!

Quote: Originally Posted by steph_n_taz Hey ladies, are any of you having issues with The Royal's price point? It seems that most of my guests feel that $1800-1900 CDN (all inclusive, 1 week) with a group rate is still too much... do any of you think that might be too much for some of your guests as well? I know my wedding party will pay regardless, since they are regular travelers, and they know what to expect at a 5 star all inclusive, but some of my extended family aren't so experienced with traveling all inclusive, and it sounds expensive to them. I keep trying to convince them that its DEFINITELY the cheaper route to traveling, but they are so stubborn! This is my wedding day, I don't want to stay at a 4 star, you know? I'm just afraid that my guest list will shrink to only 20 people out of the 40 who initially said they'd come. Sorry, I just needed to vent! Let me know if you have the same issues, and what you'll do about it. We are finding the same thing. But I found alot of people said they would come, and then realized that where we were going it wasnt the stereotypical "cheap mexico". We found that many people were expecting 5 star, AI for $1000!!! We've had the usuall "why did you pick such an expensive place?" - well duh - we're getting married!!! So I think we're all in the same boat on this one. My FI just keeps saying that if they don't want to spend the money, they'll realize what they missed out on later.

Those are gorgeous! I love the colour scheme!

Well we finished our invites!! Due to our long guest list, we decided to do 2 different kinds. We ordered the glass engraved ones from hansonellis. They're awesome. (If we had known they would look this good, we probably would have got them all in glass!!!) For the rest, and majority, of the invites we did plastic. We ordered them from invitationinabottle.com, and did the do-it-yourself resort package of 150. It was really cheap and easy to assemble!! I'm a very picky person, so I decided to do the invitaion printing myself. I used clip art from word, and we purchased the font (i think it was fonts.com). All the invitations: The Engraved Bottles: The Invite Inside:

Congrats! I love the beach view from the gazebo. What a gorgeous dress!!!

Wow! Thanks for the offer Rhonda!! I don't think I have any questions right now. Enjoy your stay at the Royal. It is beautiful!!!

I know that the Royal and Gran Porto Real in PDC are AI, and a beach/garden reception is around $50-60 a person. Thats 4 course dinner and open bar. I'm pretty sure the Royal in Cancun is the same.

Love the idea for the fire dancers! Cancun has a Costco!?! Sweet!!!

When I was in Playa in 2005 we partied there almost everynight. As for the rest of the hotel, maybe try tripadvisor.com

I have my Sirius radio stuck on "Rumba" channel 92. It has a full mix of latin songs; the announcer speaks Spanish and all the commercials are in spanish! For a mellow/rock spanish song, my fav is Santana - Oye Como Va. (I'm sure you can faster versions of it.)

I love all of these different tips!! I've been using movie maker for about 3 years now. It's fun to put pictures faded into movies that relate. I have ran into a few problems with it though - if you make a movie/pic slideshow over 30 min, it can freeze and you loose all your work. Not fun!! Especially since editing can take forever!! Anyone else run into this problem?

Congratulations to you both! Can't wait to see the pics!!

I think its a cool idea - Very original!

Well we just booked 16 people for our December wedding. We are able to do the 2 week trip. I've been checking the Real Resort website and there are some changes to the "free" wedding! You no longer have to stay in the lux Presidential suite. The free wedding will apply as long as you stay in a room with the "Royal Service" upgrade. There are some new wedding packages available too! I'm currently waiting on a reply from Micaela if there are other new perks they will give to someone staying in the Presidential suite. Just to compare rates on travel packages, our cost for a Royal Jr. Oceanview room, including tax and Air Canada first class seats out of Vancouver Canada was $3400 a person. The single rate was $4800. How does this compare with everyone elses travel? I'm getting so excited by reading this thread!!!

Awesome! It is the wedding photographer the Real Resorts chain uses. We have contacted quite a few outside photographers, but it seems our date is quite booked up already! Thanks so much for the responses. It takes the stress off the unknown!