sarah_prieb

We used the standard cake and it was delicious. We did not serve it as dessert at our reception because we already had dessert. They saved the cake for us and they brought it to us in our room when we wanted it. It wasn't anything fancy, but it served its purpose for pictures and stuff. I'm not sure what pictures you were sent, but I thought my cake was cute. It certainly wasn't anything fancy, but it was cute.

We arrived on Saturday and got married on Thursday. That worked out perfectly. Our group left the Saturday after the ceremony and then we stayed another week. It was glorious! The first week went by so fast since we had all of our friends and family there. The second week we just relaxed....no planning dinners with people, etc. We got to eat when we felt hungry! Such a novel idea. As far as the online check in is concerned, the first time we tried, we were having issues. We gave it a break and then tried again and we were successful. We ended up getting room 255. We had a beautiful view of the pool and the ocean. It was also nice because if we wanted to run up to our room for something, it was quite convenient. The bathrooms by the pool aren't bad early on, but later in the day, they get kind of gross. I used our bathroom almost all of the time....especially when I had to....well, you know. Everyone else in our group was having major issues with the online check in. They just gave up on it and did it when they got to the resort.

As far as the flowers go, we looked at there book of flowers when we got there. You didn't have to pick out one of the bouquets that were already pre-made. You could mix and match any of the flowers that you see. I was kind of bummed because i wanted calla lillies but they were not in season while we were there. We could have gotten them, but at a hefty price. I ended up getting white lillies and deep purple irises. You really do get a large selection. I will have my husband post our menu choices when he gets home. I don't know where he has that stored in his laptop. We personally had decided on the menu before we arrived, but the Royal didn't know anything about our choices until 2 days before our wedding. We had a vegetarian with us as well, and it was no problem for them to fix something special for him. Ceremony options....We used the gazebo. I was thrilled with our choice because we had shade, which meant nobody was squinting in the sun for pictures.

Okay, I have things to say/ questions about a lot of the recent posts. Who is Laura? Is she new to the group, or did she replace somebody? I've never heard of her and I got married 8-14-08. Shay2679- I want to say that I loved Elizabeth Medina and I am more than thrilled that I picked her. I thought she was the only one out there that was THAT good. I looked at your link and that photographer was very artistic. I had never heard that name before so I never checked it out. If you got a good deal, then you are one lucky girl! Congrats on the good find! I would also like to say that we decided to get married at home as well. It was the best idea we had. It took the pressure off and we got to have people do whatever readings we chose and everything flowed beautifully. It wasn't chopped up because of what we were allowed to do during the actual ceremony itself, and then just kind of attach the other stuff at the end. TO EVERYONE: I thought destination weddings were supposed to be stress free!?!?!? I too am a planner. I too had issues with contacting the Royal for final details. When I finally got a hold of them, they told me that we would discuss all the details when I got there. Just like all of you. As everything you have read before has said, things went off without a hitch. Things were better than I had imagined. All of a sudden, I realized how much time I wasted worrying. One of these days I'll learn how to let go. I guess that is it for now.

I had my hair done by my mother-in-law. She has done my hair for 15 years. I had a friend of my who does makeup, and she was one of our guests in Mexico. My makeup stayed on from 3:00 in the afternoon until the following morning. I didn't wash it off because we had out TTD at an insane time of the morning. She used a primer on my face and lips. I didn't feel heavy and my face never got shiny. My hair on the other hand, turned into a mess. I had a headband in, and the saltwater air made my hair quite crazy looking about half way through the reception on the beach. If my hair had been long enough, I would have worn it up.

The Royal is awesome!!!! We had an great time. What was your first choice? I'll set up a picasa photo album so you can see some of our pictures from around the resort, etc... We have pictures from all 23 of our guests on here so you can get a lot of peoples view of what the Royal was to them. I hope this helps!

I know what you mean Michelle. My MIL gave me a run for my money for both the wedding at The Royal and our AHR. Be strong. It will be ok. If you need anything, let me know!

We had 23 people and our group rate came out to be about $40.oo less, per person, per week. Not anything that was worth some of the hassle we had to go through. Next time I go on a group vacation, I would just tell everyone that they are on their own. I'm not jumping through a bunch of hoops for $40.00!

I guess it would depend on what time you had the reception on the beach that would determine how crowded it is. We were given two options for reception sites... Right in front of the gazebo (this was subject to how high the tide came up that day) or the beach in front of pelicanos right by the pier. We chose to be by the pier. Our reception was at 7pm. We had some onlookers from the pier but nobody intruded on our reception. It was kind of fun. I felt very special that day! The spot in front of the gazebo is much less private though. You are really in the middle of the action on the beach. I would imagine that even if you had a later reception like we did, it would not be very intimate. When we were having our pictures done between 5:30 and 7:00 people were incredibly rude. They didn't really care about what you had going on. They would not walk around the photographer to be nice, they would walk through the photo because it was easier. Just a few tidbits of info!

I did use my real dress for the TTD. I have to tell you (just in case anyone freaks out about this like my MIL did) I hung my dress to dry afterward, and you could not even tell it was in the ocean. The dress looked brand new! I wore that dress for our at home reception as well. I did get it cleaned because it did have a layer of "saltwater film" that I could feel. I couldn't see anything wrong with the dress though. I was a little concerned that it might turn yellowish (like armpit stains) but it didn't! So go into the water with gusto! No caution needed!

I know nothing about erosion problems!!!! I just finished our wedding ( August 14,200 at the royal. I noticed nothing! Maybe I just don't know what to look for but I have to say, nothing stood out. We were in fact, the only beach for miles that was still beautiful and pristine with very little rocks and erosion. I'm not an expert by any means. I guess people who live there would know better, but in my opinion, the beach was beautiful.

Oh stop Elizabeth. It is true, lot's of primer is the key! It is like painting your house red. Without primer, it will be streaky and look terrible, but with primer everything comes out smooth with fewer coats of paint! That is the key to good makeup with no washing the night before and very little sleep! Although, I'll take the compliments anytime people want to hand them out!

Are you sure about that $100.00 policy? We had booked our wedding BEFORE the policy was in place so they allowed us to have the FABULOUS Elizabeth Medina. We did not have to pay a $100.00 fee to keep her. I'm wondering if the fee IS in place for new brides who want outside vendors. I head nothing about it. They never even attempted to get us to pay a fee to keep her. Hmmmm. As far as the menu goes, I'll ask my hubby what the things we chose were called exactly. Everything we had was absolutely delicious! I'll let you know. Also, I know I have been saying that I would get a trip report out but I have been crazy busy with our AHR. Now that is over so I have some time freed up that I can use productively for that. It was a wonderful three months (our pre-Mexico meet and greet in July, our two weeks in Mexico for our wedding in August, and our AHR in September) but it is soooooo wonderful to be back to normal life and actually be able to relax when I come home from work instead of rushing around trying to finish an endless list of things to do! I'll get my trip report out ASAP. Happy planning everyone!

Hey everyone! Thanks for the kind words. Just so everyone knows, I don't normally look that way in the morning! Fortunately when you only sleep for 3 hours and you don't wash your face before you go to bed, not much of your makeup comes off on your pillow. Plus, one of my girlfriends is a killer makeup artist and she was in Mexico with us. She used a lot of primer on my face. Her purpose in this was so that I wouldn't get shiny in the hot Mexico sun, but it worked just as well for keeping it on while sleeping! Getting up at 5:30 was not easy, but it was totally worth it. I LOVED my...I mean OUR slide show and pictures. I have watched the slide show at least once every day since we got it. The first week that we had it, I probably watched it 100 times...maybe more. Elizabeth is the best! We love her and everyone will here our great reviews (I have a really big mouth)! Thanks Elizabeth! You can use our pictures as much as you want for anything you need!

Hey Khowell15! I just wanted to let you know my thoughts on Gran Porto vs The Royal. We stayed at the Royal but we did go over to the Gran Porto to check thing out since we had access to everything there. IT WAS LIKE A CIRCUS OVER THERE!!! Kids were running all over the place and yelling. There wasn't a relaxing area in that resort. I love kids, but when I am on vacation, I don't want to deal with other people's kids because the parents choose to not deal with it. It was absolutely obnoxious. Also, when we were walking through the hallways at the Gran Porto, I felt like I was walking through a dark cave. Everything at the Royal is so light, airy, and open. Much better. I just wanted to throw my opinion out there.

First of all, I want to say that the wind really dies down at night. There was just a nice breeze when we had our reception which was perfect. Everyone stayed cool...even me in my big dress. Second of all, I was worried about the dance floor too. It doesn't look like much but it worked out perfectly. It wasn't shaky or anything. We had 23 people for our reception and it was a sufficient size. I think if you have any more people than that though, it might be a little small.

I'll give the info that I can off the top of my head. For our reception on the beach, it was $50.00 per person if they stayed at one of the resorts owned by this company. If they are staying at another resort, it is $60.00 per person. It doesn't matter if you get a buffet or plated meal. Our reception was wonderful. The food was great. We only had a cake that was supposed to serve 12 people and we had 23. It didn't matter that we didn't get extra because everyone was full after dinner and your dinner includes a desert. We had them store our cake in a freezer and we just called them and told them what night we wanted it so that they could thaw it out and have it delivered to our room for a romantic night alone. Our wedding package also only included 12 glasses of champagne for a toast after the ceremony but they gave us enough for everyone without being asked. I'm glad that we didn't go ahead and pay the extra money for more of these items. We did not pay for any extra decorations other than the centerpieces on the tables. It really wasn't needed. The centerpieces were $50.00 a piece. I was happy that we did this. After our reception we gave one to both sets of parents, we took ours, and we gave the other one to some friends of ours whose anniversary just happened to be the next day. For the next week our room smelled beautiful! Every time we walked in, all you could smell was lillies! I will try to remember what the cost of day passes were and I will let you know. If you have any other specific questions, feel free to PM me and I will help with whatever I can. Oh yeah, one more thing. We did go over to the Gran Porto since we had access to all of their facilities. It was like a circus over there. There were kids running all over the place and screaming. The food wasn't nearly as good....although it was more "kid friendly" fare. The hallways were dark and I felt like I was walking through a cave. At the Royal, everything was bright and open. Just beautiful. I am very happy that we payed the extra money for The Royal. It was definitely worth it. I don't think our trip would have been at all relaxing if we stayed across the street.

Hey there. I just got married at The Royal on August 14,2008. We had 23 guests at our wedding. The dance floor was an adequate size for our group but not everyone was dancing at the same time. It was plenty sturdy for us. With a guest list of 90 though....I'm not so sure. It will probably be too small. If you want to see our slide show or pictures, there is a thread that is something like: The Royal, were kids allowed that day and other questions. There is a link on that thread. I would love to post it here for you to look at and keep it easy but I am not to bright when it comes to computers. I had to have my husband post it on the other thread. Good luck!

Elizabeth was worth every penny. Not only does she do an awesome job, but I didn't even notice her a lot of the time. Of course we had our more standard poses...family, bridal party, etc. But as far as the ceremony was concerned or the reception, she got great photos without inconveniencing us and our guests. When she "posed" us during our private photos between the ceremony and reception, it was really more like "light direction". She would kind of tell us to make out, or look past him, have fun, or whisper in his ear. Stuff like that. She never actually posed us. It just seemed really natural so the pictures ended up looking like "us" rather than some cheesy prom picture type photos.

WE LOVE ELIZABETH!! She was worth every penny. I'm so happy that we decided to have her do our photos. Now I'm looking forward to seeing all of yours!

Awe shucks. You are all making me blush. That truly was the best day of my life and I was really relaxed. We got married at 5:00 and wee were at the swing bar with Mario and at the pool until 3:00. At that point, I figured I better start getting married. Not your typical wedding. Exactly what I wanted.

On Sarah's behalf from her husband, here's all of our pictures and slideshows from Elizabeth. We absolutely love her and her work. Slideshows: Our wedding day Our TTD session Pictures: Our Pictures PASSWORD: KEVINANDSARAH Enjoy (because we sure did)!! Sarah (and Kevin)

I'm hoping that I can get my husband to show me how to post our slide show tonight when I get home from work. I'm useless when it comes to computers. Hopefully we will have time to get that up! Thanks for the wonderful comments!

I don't know if I did this yet or not so sorry if I am repeating. I've been slow getting my trip report up because I am getting ready for my very fast approaching AHR. September 20th is right around the corner! If anyone wants to see pictures from our wedding at the Royal, you can check out our website kevinsarah.com - Home

I have to agree with aeroo. We initially had planned the wedding on the beach but switched it to the gazebo at the last minute. First of all, it was WAY to hot in August to be out in the direct sunlight. There was a lovely breeze in the gazebo and more importantly, there was shade! Nobody was squinting for pictures and nobody had sweat dripping down their face. Secondly, it was definitely more intimate. There were no old men in speedos in our pictures....that was a huge plus! When we did go down to the beach after the ceremony to take some pictures, I was amazed at how rude people could be. Everyone kept walking right through our pictures and they couldn't have cared less. It took us twice as long to get our photos done because of all the rude people! Keep it in mind. The gazebo might be a better option.