Hello everyone! I just got back from photographing a wedding at Grand Palladium (White Sands) yesterday and thought I'd give you all the update/thoughts I had about this location. I've been following this thread for several months, so thanks to all for the advice up till now!
First of all, the resort is absolutely amazing. Gorgeous, great service, wonderful location... amazing. This particular wedding party had maybe 40-50 guests in attendance plus the bride and groom, and everyone agreed it was paradise. So A+++ there.
The wedding location- very nice. It is a beautiful gazebo/pavillion area with gorgeous views. The only con I could see is that it was pretty close to the beach with all the chairs so it wasn't totally private. But it was actually kind of fun to see all the guests at the resort congratulation the couple after the ceremony and it really gave it that whole "beach" vibe. So... probably B+ here.
The flowers from the resort were amazing. In fact, they were better than some of the weddings I've shot here in the states. Gorgeous. The bride was glad she changed her mind and decided to order them.
Reception: nice. The bride told me that they do charge about $20 per person for the place she chose to have her reception. This apparently covers things like chair covers, cake, champagne, ect (even though it's an all-inclusive resort), so it wasn't horrible. Just kinda funny they'd charge for that. But it was a pretty site and a nice, intimate dinner.
The biggest snafu that I saw was actually regarding the weather. After the ceremony, we were trying to snap a few quick family/friend portraits and it started pouring. Literally raining buckets. Most of the guests were already headed up to dinner at this point, so it was just a few of us left. We were trapped under the gazebo for about 20 minutes, hoping it would die down. The wedding planner/coordinators had already left so we were pretty much at the mercy of the weather. Finally, my photography second-shooter ran to the beach cantina to ask them to call a shuttle to come get us since it was quite a walk to the lobby. The resort workers were more concerned with putting plastic bags on the chair covers than assisting the bride to move to a more covered area. So she wasn't happy that the service was pretty poor in that aspect... that the wedding coordinator didn't stay till the end or help us move to a better location in the pouring rain.
BUT... if it hadn't been raining, I think the whole ceremony would have gone off perfectly. All in all, it was a great location for a destination wedding, and I'd recommend it. If anyone wants to see some pictures, feel free to message me and I'll send you a link... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post them directly on here.