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Quote: Originally Posted by Shay2679 If we're having a minister (that we're paying for through the hotel) perform the ceremony, will they still allow that kind of flexibility? I sure hope so... Your ceremony sounds like it is exactly what we'd love to do...just with a minister! Thanks for responding. When I was planning, I had mixed responses. Paty told me that the minister would not change what he would read, but Micaela told me that I could have them read anything I wanted. In the end, we had a friend officiate, so it turned out fine, but I was really frustrated at getting two different answers and not knowing who was right.

Quote: Originally Posted by 403citygirl Do you have to bring your legal marriage certificate to Mexico for the symbolic ceremony? For us, we did not need to. I hadn't even thought of bringing it. I don't see why you would need one for a symbolic ceremony, but check with your WC just in case.

OH, I'm sorry you're going through this. I can't even imagine! From what it sounds like from your post, it seems your mother is generally unreliable, so there's a good chance she won't be able to pull things together, financially or whatever, to go even for a few days. Maybe you should not talk about the wedding in front of her, because if she sees you excited, she might try harder to go. If no one really talks about it, she might lose interest or lose focus on trying to go there. Or also tell her how much you appreciate her staying with your pets and how she is helping you out so much by doing that? Lol, who knows, she may buy it?! If she does go though, is there anyone that can sort of 'babysit' or keep an eye on her, like a sibling or something? I would try not to stress about it too much before she actually books because it's quite possible that she may not be able to pull things together to actually go. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Mexico City is also very interesting. I really loved that place too. There are lots of old interesting parts of the city, but then there is also the modern business centre, which is cool to see too. It was definately not what I expected (in a good way!) One of my favourite places in Mexico is Oaxaca. It is also an old town with lots of history and lots of very interesting Spanish architecture. I really fell in love with this town. If you go there, I can recommend a small family run resort up in the hills. There is a great view, it's cheap (I think less than $50 per night) but very nice and newly built. Plus the best part is the family. They totally take care of you and hang out with you, take you out, etc. They were really good people to hang out with, just like old friends. It's great if you're travelling alone because you get to meet most of the guests there too. There are ruins nearby to go visit, and you can visit the places where they make mezcal (it's like tequila), and they are famous for their Oaxacan cheese which is incredible! Oh I am so excited for you that you get to choose a great place to go!

We just announced our date and location. We told our guests that we would love it if they could stay at the same hotel as us, but that they had the option of staying wherever they wanted. We also left it up to people to book their own trip, but let them know if they needed help with anything we'd be there to help. It's was just so much easier that way. The more you consult with people, the more opinions you'll get. I had to stop trying to cater to everyone because it is impossible to please all! Sure, some people couldn't make it, but what can you do? We expected that anyways, so all was good. Everything turned out fabulous and it will for you too!

We had our ceremony in the gazebo, so it seemed more private, rather than being right out there one the beach. Although my friends did notice a few people from the beach watching, I was too caught up in the moment to notice any onlookers. Maybe if we were right on the beach, I would have noticed more, since we would have been right out there, but the gazebo gave us some sense of privacy. The hotel had security on the beach in front of our gazebo, to make sure no came too close or sunbathe right in front. I thought this was a nice touch. Plus our wedding was at 5pm, so there were less people sunbathing anyways.

Quote: Originally Posted by athena (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 girl, you better get on that dress shopping ASAP! I ordered my dress 4 months before the wedding and I wish I had the time to do it sooner. My dress came JUST in time, but then there were problems with the alterations, so I literally had my dress two days before we left for the trip - my stress level was so high because of it! Most bridal places recommend ordering the dress 6-8 months in advance, and when I told them when my wedding was, they looked at me like I had a third eye. So I'm glad my sis pushed me into wedding dress shopping when she did!

If you only have a week off, I would suggest going to Antigua city in Guatemala. It's such an amazing little town with tons of history, colourful old buildings, and just a lot of charm. From there, you can do little day trips such as hiking up the volcano, or just go exploring. You'll have to be careful though, if you go too far off the beaten path by yourself, muggings are common. You just have to be careful and use common sense, as anywhere else. South America is amazing too, but I think you need a bit more time to explore that area. Plus, flying between South and Central America can be quite pricey. One of my favourite places is Colonia in Uruguay - so so beautiful with all their old architecture. It is actually similiar to Antigua city. I have been to several countries in South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Chile), so if you do decide to go there, let me know if you have any questions. I'm sure you'll have a great time anywhere you go, and I would love to see your pictures when you return!

I found it super useful to have a list of the groups of people you want pictures with. With the excitement of the day, I definately would have missed having pics with certain groups of people. (Plus my mom kept asking me, "Do you have pics with so and so?", "Make sure you have pics with so and so". I was able to shut her up by telling her not to worry, it was all on the list!) My sis ended up being the coordinator, rounding up the different people for the pictures. We had 38 people and wanted to make sure we had pictures with everyone, so thank goodness we made the list. It made things run so much smoother, but still took almost an hour to do! We did all the group pictures right after the ceremony, so everyone was sure to be there. Also, a very good point about holding the bouquet low when you're walking down the aisle. I never thought about that at all, and just happened to look at myself in the mirror with the bouquet just as I was leaving the room and noticed that the way I was holding them, the way they felt most natural to me, was way too high. The top of the bouquet was almost at my chin and covering the top part of my dress, which was my favourite part. So yea, very glad I was able to catch that before I walked down. It felt kind of unnatural to hold the bouquet low, but it looked better. Definately experiment with this with your bouquet beforehand!

Wow, those are amazing! I love the first one with the pearls - so classic and sexy! Gorgeous!

Quote: Originally Posted by pdcbride09 We don't know if anyone will be staying at an AI resort. I looked up quite a few and nothing is less than $1200pp! I know that that includes all your food and drinks..but how much can you really drink is what we feel. There are a lot of boutique hotels that do offer some sort of breakfast. We rececently stayed at La Tortuga ourselves and loved it. The breakfast that is included is PHENOMENAL!! extremely filling so you can even skip lunch if you wanted to. And a week there is only $700 I believe if booked 90 days in advance so I feel that's worth it..especially getting the beach club passes as well. I just don't want our guests to have to stay at just one resort or force them to to pay that amount of money. Especially w/ these airfare prices on the rise. Is it really worth it w/ the AI's?? We've never actually stayed at one so really can't compare. Do you really save money or is it more of a "we don't have to leave to eat/drink" convenience Any tips/suggestions would help as we are going to be sending out our STD'S and need to give our guests some info on the area. I feel pretty confident w/ Ajua. I'm hoping it really is as stress free as so many people say!! Thanks for the info!! I know how you feel about not wanting to force people to stay at a certain place. We just told our guests where we were staying and how much it cost, and then left it up to them to decide if they wanted to stay with us or at other hotels or resorts. We had 36 guests and only 7 decided to stay elsewhere. Those 7 guests we pretty much only saw on our wedding day. Depending on which AI you stay at and what time of year, prices can be reasonable. We stayed at the Gran Porto in May (cheapest time of the year) and the hotel and flight cost $1200 per person (for 7 nights including tax), flying from Seattle. That's the cost for the Junior Suite, which is the cheapest room, but still very luxurious. The hotel is a 5 star. Compare this if you stay at La Tortuga: 7 nights for $700 for 2 people. Flights say $600 roundtrip per person. Total is $1900 for 2 people. Round that up by $100 for taxes and such, and that equals $1000 per person. So the difference of $200 per person is not much considering how much you get at an AI. We got a good deal because we booked the flight and hotel together and that saved us a lot. When you're looking at the AI cost, look at booking flight and hotel together to save $$. We checked with a few different TAs and found that it was cheaper if we booked everything directly with the hotel. Plus we got a wedding coordinator with the wedding package. It was my first time at an AI too; I've always stayed at the boutique hotels when visiting PDC and love that experience. But I have to say, the AI was incredible! Especially since the food there was so freakin amazing! And the big pool on the beach was great for our guests that didn't like swimming in the ocean. For us, I think we had the best of both, since the Gran Porto is right off 5th ave, so our guests could still have that experience of being in the town and come and go as they please. Also, we saved on the reception too, since the open bar is included (even for guests not staying there), whereas if we had it in a restaurant, the open bar cost would have been too high. The thing is too, that if some guests stay at an AI and some don't, it's not as easy to meet up with people because the AI people will obviously want to eat and drink at their hotel. Another thing we liked about the AI was that we could have big group dinners at the different restaurants and then not have to figure out who pays what after since it's all included! That was a big plus! We found that our guests usually spent the days at the resort beach or pool, and then wandered around 5th ave in the evenings.

We were also looking into this when planning our wedding. We wanted to stay in PDC for the same reasons as you. In the end we decided AI was easiest (and cheaper for the ceremony/reception/coordinator) for our group. We stayed at an AI that was in PDC, right off 5th ave, so it worked out perfect for us. There are SO many non AI hotels on 5th ave that you can choose from though, in all price ranges, so it depends on what you're looking for. Do you want a hotel that includes breakfast? That has a pool? That has a beach club? I would look for a hotel that has a beach club, so you don't have to pay for chairs on the beach. If we stayed in a non AI, we would have stayed at La Tortuga. It's adults only though, but has a beach club and the rooms look very nice and some have jacuzzis in them. The best thing to do is to go on Trip Advisor and check out the different hotels and reviews. As for your ceremony and reception, if you are using Ajua, they will have lots of suggestions for you. You can have your reception at various restaurants on 5th ave. Good luck planning and let us know what you decide!

Are you using a TA or booking directly with the hotel? With 60 people, I'm sure you can get a discount. What kind of problems are you running into with them not accomodating your group? Another option if you want to stay close to shopping and nightlife is Playa del Carmen. Hang in there! Once you decide and book the resort, it's such a weight lifted off your shoulders!

Quote: Originally Posted by Kriswim Hi! Thanks so much for this review! I am getting married at the hotel and I am nervous about so much! This puts my mind at ease. I have decided to use a TA b/c we have about 60 people all staying at the hotel. I emailed Micaela and she said that there was no discount for groups. But i had heard there was! Wierd. maybe she misunderstood. I will let my TA handle it now. Thanks again for sharing all this information - it will come in handy! Unless the policy has changed, you can definately get a group discount for a group of 10 or more. When I was inquiring about it through the hotel, I dealt with the reservations people, not Micaela. She might not know about stuff like that. The TA got a pretty good discount for my family who were travelling together too.

We came in under budget. We didn't want to spend more than 10K, and ended up spending 9k. This included absolutely EVERYTHING, including our rings, gifts, hotel, airfare, getting legally married at home, etc, and even the after-wedding costs such as dress cleaning, thank you cards, and photo gifts. We had 38 guests and a private reception. I really didn't feel like we skimped on anything either; we just didn't do a lot of the extras such as DJ (we hooked up our laptop to the sound system), OOT bags, programs, etc, and we stuck with what the wedding package offered, nothing more, which was more than sufficient for us. I kept track of everything we spent mostly because I was curious as to how much the whole thing would cost. We paid everything on cash, so I wanted to keep track of it all. It also helped that we anticipated for after-wedding costs. I agree that you have to prioritize what's important to you and let the not so important stuff go. It was so easy though, to get sucked in to all the little details and want to have the best of everything. One of my moments was when I received my invitations and envelopes. I found the envelopes to be cheap-ish, made with thin paper, instead of that nice thick paper. I was going to go out and buy better quality envelopes, but then thought to myself, "Is it worth the extra effort and expense for ENVELOPES?! Are people going to really care? Or even notice? And even if they did notice and thought it was cheap to have thin envelopes, do I really care that they care? Not at all! I have more important things to think about. Use the freakin' envelopes and move on with your life, lol!" Not that envelopes would break the bank by any means, but these little upgrades here and there do add up, and you always want more! So yea, I had to say that to myself on a few occasions when I almost splurged for something unnecessary. Honestly, what I remember from the day was not the centerpieces or favours, etc - it was sharing in the moment of marrying my love with our close family and friends. Staying on budget felt really good too, lol!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by foxfirejg Wow! Your wedding looks like it was fantastic! I just started considering this resort, and I was wondering if you have any tips on booking and how much things cost? Also- how did you rate the beach while you were there? The pictures look great, but I don't know what the current status of the beach is! The beach was not the greatest; there were sandbags in some places. What we usually did if we wanted to go in the ocean (if we weren't lounging by the pool), was go next door to use the beach at the Royal. It's much better there; however you can't use their chairs. If you walk past the Royal though, there's a spot with a bunch of hut like umbrellas that you can use for free. The beach at the Gran Porto is fine though if you want to relax in a loungechair or hammock, but not the best for swimming (although there were still lots of people swimming there). I knew this ahead of time though, so it was not a problem for me. Our priority was to be close to 5th ave so that our guests could wander off in the town if they didn't feel like being on the beach or pool, which they really enjoyed doing. I didn't use a TA to book. I just booked the room and flight through the hotel website. You can get a discount if you have 10 or more people, but the discount isn't that significant. I did get 10 of our guests a group rate through a TA. The Gran Porto books up pretty fast, at least for the less expensive rooms like the Junior Suite. The people that booked later had to get the more expensive rooms because that was all that was available. Depends on the time of year too.

I agree. Choose the area first, then narrow it down to the resort. It will be much easier that way. Playa del Carmen and Cancun are great if you want to be close to shopping, bars, restaurants, entertainment. We stayed in a resort in PDC and our guests loved the fact that they could just walk up to 5th ave for all the shopping, entertainment and nightlife. It was good because some people in our group were not beach people and had we stayed in a place not close to town, I don`t think they would have enjoyed it as much. I preferred PDC over Cancun, just because of 5th ave and the sort of intimate small town feel to it. Cancun has bigger bars and restaurants like the Hard Rock, whereas PDC has tons of smaller local restaurants, pubs, street vendors, etc. Just depends on the preference of you and your guests. Maybe first choose if you want to be close to town or prefer to be in an isolated resort (which of course you can take taxis out). Then go from there. Good luck choosing!!

Our hotel used tall hurricane candle holders with tealights and from all the beach receptions that I saw there, they all stayed lit. Something like this:

Wow, two weeks, that's so exciting!!

Welcome! I'm sure you'll find lots of help on this forum!

Yes! We used Cecilia for our wedding in May. She was a lot of fun to work with. I wrote about her in my wedding review: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t23916 I will have some pictures up shortly!

Some food shots. These are not the best pics, but you get the idea. SALAD SALMON RASPBERRY TART DESSERT There was also another dish, but no one got a shot of that. Food quality was amazing!!! So so yummy. I was quite worried about it since food was very important to me, but it exceeded my expectations!

Gran Porto Real Resort and Spa, PLAYA DEL CARMEN May 13, 2008 Schedule of events: 12:30-2:15 Hair and makeup appt 3:00-4:30 Bride and groom photos in the town 5:00-5:30 Ceremony and champagne 5:30-6:30 Group photos 6:30-7:00 Bride and groom photos on the beach during sunset 7:30-8:00 Chinese tea ceremony at the reception site 8:00-12:00 Dinner, slideshow, games, and dancing Number of guests: 36 Wedding Coordinator: Micaela Rebelo Reception Coordinator: Walter Dagri Photographer: Cecilia Dumas Gran Porto Real -no need for a day pass for guests of other hotels -no fee for outside photographer (although this may have changed, not sure) -didn’t nickel and dime us for everything. In fact, there were a bunch of things that they did not charge us for, that I would have expected. For example, we rented a projector for the slideshow, extended our reception time to an hour extra, and got an extra main course for one of our guests. All of these things had a price tag on them but we were not charged for it. We settled the bill the day before the reception and never got charged more than that. -no deposit at all; just paid for everything upon checkout -We booked our flight and hotel directly through the hotel website which got us a better price since we booked them together. Since our guests were from all over the country, we just gave them the hotel name and they all booked separately. There was a group of ten that booked late and ended up using a TA to get a group price. 7 guests opted to stay at different resorts. -Stayed for 7 nights and paid $1300 per person including flight from Seattle -We arrived on Sunday, met with coordinators on Monday, wedding was Tuesday Private Indoor Reception We met with Walter the day before to go over the details and he also showed us the reception location. We had a few extra requests and he was able to accommodate everything. For example, they set up an area for our Chinese tea ceremony and even made the special tea for us using the ingredients that we brought. We opted for the indoor reception at the hotel ballroom and it was great. The walls were glass and were looking out onto the street. Food was fantastic. We had a 4 course served meal with open bar and I was stuffed after and couldn’t finish everything. We chose the salmon and the quality and presentation of all the dishes were stunning – equivalent to going to a high end restaurant in North America. We ended up extending the party for another hour. I don’t know how this happened, but at some point near the end of the night when we were dancing, some staff wanted us to fill out comment cards for the hotel before they would extend our party. This was not cool, but I think someone took care of that. I had my sister set up the centerpieces and namecard table beforehand and she did a great job. The staff could have done it too, but I trusted my sis more to do it. I had brought table number holders with me, but we just ended up using the ones provided by the hotel. I wish I knew that they had provided these so I didn’t have to buy any. We brought a laptop for our slideshow and also for the music. Everything hooked up to the hotel’s speaker system fine as well as the projector they provided for us. Cost was $40 per person for guests staying at the hotel, $50 per person for non guests, and half price for children under 12. Cost included taxes and tip, and we didn’t have to pay a penny more for anything else. We had a served dinner and had about 5 servers working the entire time, plus they set up our own private bar as well – all included in the per person cost. Ceremony We chose the symbolic/religious ceremony package which was $900. Since we had a friend officiate, it cost $750, but they wouldn’t let us just pay the lower price. Instead we had to spend the $150 on other stuff, which we spent on upgrading the cake, adding some flowers to the chairs, and adding flower petals to the aisle (from what I understand though, the prices and packages have changed now). After seeing the gazebo, we knew it was the place we wanted to have our ceremony. Funny, because when I looked at the photos the WC sent us, I didn’t like it all that much. I loved the white curtains on the gazebo – that just completed the look. I also liked doing it in the gazebo because our guests were able to sit in the shade. The site comes with a red carpet that goes down the aisle, but I had them remove that because I didn’t like the look. The rose petals were much prettier. I liked that we didn’t have to choose the ceremony site until we got there. The cost of the ceremony included setup for everything, the dj for the music, speaker setup, wireless microphone, etc. At first they put 18 chairs in the gazebo, which I thought was too cramped, so we changed it to 12. Everyone was very accommodating. They also had security guards on the beach to make sure people weren’t coming up close to the gazebo during the ceremony. Nice touch! Wedding Coordinator We met with Micaela the day before the wedding to choose the flowers and confirm the ceremony location. She was very nice and accommodated our needs. Hair and Makeup I got this done at the resort spa and it cost $45 for hair and $45 for makeup. One woman did both for me and did a fabulous job. She even helped me to apply the fake lashes I brought. Good thing I brought the glue too, since she didn’t have any. One really cool thing she did was curl my eyelashes with a spoon! I had never seen that before! I was so happy because she made me look amazing and did such a better job than when I got my trials done at home. I was so incredibly happy with the way my makeup turned out! Photography We hired Cecilia Dumas who was an absolute pleasure to work with. She was so sweet and made us feel super comfortable. We got the 6 hour package which cost $1400. There was no contract to sign, just a 10% deposit to secure the date. We send the deposit through Western Union and there was no problem. We paid her in full when she arrived at our hotel room the day of our wedding. She came on time, which I appreciated. She brought an assistant too, who was also very friendly easy to work with. We did photos beforehand in the town and it was so much fun. She was good at directing and posing us when we didn’t know what to do. For group pictures, we wrote out a shot list of all the different groups of people we wanted to get formal pictures with. This definitely helped a lot in getting them done much faster and it ensured that we didn’t miss out on anyone. She was very good at directing all the people too. For the 6 hours, she took around 770 shots. She then chose 175 and edited them and printed them out. She sent me a disc with high resolution files of all pictures. I received the disc and printed pictures about a week after I got home. Before I hired her, I knew her editing style and thought that it was fine. It wasn’t exactly what I preferred to have, but I also could not afford to hire the more expensive photographers that could edit the pictures the way I wanted. So instead, I edited them myself and am 100% happy with the way they turned out. Overall, I am very happy with our decision to hire Cecilia. She was so easy and fun to work with! Disappointments 1.In the wedding package, it states that we get a free room upgrade, which we did not receive. We got a Junior Suite and were supposed to get upgraded to a Junior Suite Ocean View. I know this was subject to availability, and they said that there was nothing available for the oceanview suites, but if we wanted the oceanfront suite, we would have to pay for it. I was really disappointed that they couldn’t just upgrade us for free, like I thought they would. Our suite was fine, but the fact that it faced a cement wall was not cool. In the end it didn’t really matter because we weren’t in our room that much anyways, but it would have been great to get the upgrade. 2.The wedding package also states that we get a guaranteed king size bed, which we did not. We got two double beds instead. Mind you, we didn’t complain to the staff because we were just too tired after our flight and were just happy to be there. And then we didn’t want to pack up everything again and move rooms. It would have been nice to just get the correct room in the first place. 3.I really don’t think the front desk staff really knows what is included in the wedding package or maybe they just don’t care. Because we got married there, we were entitled to a 5pm check out instead of the standard 12pm. The staff kept telling us that we had to check out at 12 until I insisted that we got married there and our package included the 5pm checkout. 4.We didn’t get our cake topper back (which we brought there). 5.We paid for the ceremony and reception at checkout and our credit cards got rejected. I didn’t know what was wrong, but in the end they had to split up the payments because for some reason they couldn’t put the whole amount through at once (we didn’t have any balance on the credit card so we knew it wasn’t because we were over limit and hubby had used the credit card that morning and it worked). So instead of putting the entire amount on my credit card at once, they had to swipe it 3 times with 3 different amounts that added up to what we owed. Good thing she thought of doing that! I recommend paying for it all at least the day before you leave in case something like that happens. I was starting to panic because we had to go catch our flight and the stupid credit card wasn’t working! All in all, I am very happy with the way everything turned out. Not everything was perfect, and there’s always some unexpected stuff that comes up, but the most important thing was that I married my man and we spent a great week with family and friends. Destination weddings all the way!!!! I’m so happy we got our intimate wedding that we wanted, in a beautiful location. By the way, the wedding packages and prices have changed since we had our wedding, so you’ll have to get the updated information from the WC.

Congratulations! We just got married there and it was fabulous!

Quote: Originally Posted by tchuchuca Hi ladies! I desperately need some help! I've officially booked Royal PDC, but now I'm worried about some things! Can ya'll shed some light for me? 1. I've ordered the Classic wedding package- does it seriously not have an officiant? I have to pay extra? We're doing the legal part here in the states before we go, so this is really just a Symbolic ceremony. There's not just this person with the hotel that can do this? I just can't justify spending another $350 for some guy to read some words that are legally binding... Am I nutz? It is a strong possibility! 2. A lot of my attendees are extremely budget conscious- can they stay at one of the other properties (if there's one that's more economical) and take a shuttle to the Royal? Do they have to have day-passes? I just feel guilty asking people to shell out all this $$$ without any options. Thanks SO SO SO much! 1. It looks like the wedding package doesn't include the officiant. Would you be open to the idea of having a family member or friend officiate? That's what we did. I wasn't too keen on that idea at first, but then I didn't want a minister performing it either, since I didn't want it to be religious. It turned out to be very special for a loved one to officiate and she was thrilled that we asked her. That's the only way I can think of to avoid the extra cost. $350 seems like a lot for a 15 minute ceremony. You should ask the WC what your options are. Sometimes the WC translates the ceremonies (the legal ones), so maybe you can ask if they will read your ceremony for you. I don't know, it doesn't hurt too ask. 2. If your guests are staying somewhere else, they do not need to pay for a day pass for the wedding. We had some guests stay at a few different hotels (not their sister hotels), and did not have to get a day pass. If your guests are super budget conscious, they can even stay at one of the hotels on 5th ave. There are tons there, with all different price ranges, from $50 per night. Then they would be walking distance to the Royal. The Royal's sister hotels are the Gran Porto Real (right next door) and the Real (about 10 min walk, and free shuttle is provided, but that property is not beachfront, but WAY cheaper than the Royal or Gran). Your guests have tons of accomodation options there!