Jananaz

Try searching the forum bc someone else asked about this before and there is a thread about the xcaret wedding prices, I just cant seem to link to the page for whatever reason. Here's what they wrote: "Just got back from my site visits and wanted to report that the Xcaret Ecopark is beautiful and very expensive. We loved the chapel but to rent it for the ceremony was $1500, and to have drinks after the wedding it would have cost $2100 plus the cost of all drinks ($4-6 each), dinner was $4000 plus $52 per person for food and $32 for open bar. It's too bad it is so expensive because it was an amazing place. If anyone wants pictures of the chapel let me know."

We just went with our resort bakery cake that was included in our package, so I can't give any recommendations from my own experience. We did go to Akumal a couple times though and passed by Turtle Bay Bakery (like Poohshek mentioned above.) We didn't eat there, but their things looked good Here is a link to their gorgeous cakes: Wedding and Special Occation Cakes Just for your reference, Akumal is about a 20 min drive south from Playa. Worth a visit if you get the chance... it's so beautiful and peaceful! Another option to consider is asking your resort bakery if they can recreate a cake for you. I saw other brides were sometimes able to email a photo to their WC and the WC was able to get the bakery to make the cake to specifications for an extra fee.

Viva Las Vegas and Viva FoxyBride!! Congratulations! You looked gorgeous! I love your cake too, turned out perfect even though it was last minute. And I love that you had soul fool at your reception. Care to share what you had so I can drool a bit? You said DH is from Cleveland... I lived there last year and just looooved going to Hot Sauce Williams. Enough about food... hehe. Congratulations again!!

Hi Allie, Good question... I was really worried about hurricanes too. We had our wedding in the Mayan Riviera Aug. 15. Even though ours was not on a cruise, I worried for months beforehand that there would be a hurricane and we'd have to cancel the whole event. It seems a bit silly now looking back bc everything turned out ok. But with a cruise there is a realistic concern about hurricanes because the route might change. My sister in law was married last October on a RC cruise and their cruise ship did not stop at any of the original ports of call. They did the wedding before departing though, so everything was ok. I think the chances of this happening are pretty small though. Is getting married in the departure city an option? I have been on the Carnival cruise that stops in Key West and Cozumel that leaves from Miami. Maybe you could do a legal ceremony in Miami to seal the deal and then a symbolic ceremony on the beach in Key West. Good luck with the planning

I'm wondering if anyone can give me a recommendation for a nice romantic restaurant or bed & breakfast in the Washington DC area. A friend of mine, who actually lives in Rockville MD just got married and I wanted to treat her and the new hubby to a romantic getaway. I was thinking of either a restaurant or a bed & breakfast... maybe one with a spa? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

No, our sand did not stay in place. I think if you really really want a sand ceremony, then you should do it, and just bring the mixed up sand jar back like we did. But if you can forgo it, then that might be a good idea. We got a glass sand ceremony kit - this one from Beau Coup Personalized Heart Shaped Unity Sand Ceremony Set. It's pretty, but it has a glass jar, and 3 glass vases for the sand. It added to our luggage because we had to keep it packaged in its box with the styrofoam. We did the sand ceremony and the wedding coordinator sent the items back to our room later. Even with tissue stuffed into the top of the jar to hold the sand in place, it moved around and got all mixed up because we packed it with our checked baggage. Maybe if you took it as a carry on it would fare better. Hope that helps!

Hi Kirsten - another Bahia bride! Welcome and congratulations!! This thread is just getting longer and longer... good for you for making it through it all About the reception dinner question, I wouldn't worry about breaking the news to the guests about the limited number of a la cartes. None of our guests seemed to mind the limited number of a la carte meals and in fact, none of the guests bothered to use their a la cartes. Check with your WC on how many a la cartes each guest will have. Our guests that stayed 4 nights got 2. If you're feeling badly that your guests won't be able to try another restaurant, rent a cab and take everyone over to Akumal. It's only a 5 min. drive away and you can treat them to dinner there. My recommendation would be one called the Buena Vida which has a beautiful view of Half Moon Bay, swings at the bar, little "treehouses" in the palm trees where you can grab a drink, and great fish tacos.

Emme and Nicole! Have a great time and congratulations in advance!! I'm so excited for you both! About legalizing the wedding and marriage certificate once you get back to the US or Canada... I've gone through the process in both countries and it's the same process. Neither the US or Canada requires you to file anything with the government to legalize your marriage. So once you're married in Mexico with your Mexican marriage certificate, it's a done deal! As for the name changes, Trish is right - it's really simple. Walk in with your marriage certificate (in Spanish because that is the official one) and they change your name. I haven't heard of anyone asking for a translation of a Mexican wedding certificate, but I did my name changes in Ontario and Ohio, so I'm not sure what the process is for other states and provinces. Marriages in Mexico are fairly common, so I think the gov office people are pretty used to them. The only hitch I ran into was my passport, but that had nothing to do with the marriage certificate. I was told the Canadian gov only lets you change your passport when it's within 6 months of expiry and since mine was only a year old, I can't change the name on my passport for a while. How annoying. Hope that helps!

SusieQ... hehe I can laugh about the luggage now, but the night before the wedding I was like... what do we DO?? Thank goodness the upgrades weren't sold out at that point! I'm guessing you'll be packing light! Courtney, the WC booked us a place at the buffet for the rehearsal dinner. She said it was not really allowed because the buffet is usually first come first serve, but she was able to do it. During our 10 days there we saw a few tables reserved here and there, but it seemed pretty rare. I think if you wanted one of the a la cart restaurants, you could *try* to book a big group reservation together, but the a la cartes get pretty full quickly. Also, some guests may not have extra dinners at the a la cartes outside of your wedding dinner itself because that counts as one. The other option would be to go off the resort for the rehearsal dinner if it's in your budget. There are several really nice restaurants in Akumal that would be perfect.

Hey emme - We did bubba kegs for our OOT bags too and the guests loved them! I'm sure your guests will too Yeah for Canadian Tire having them on sale (man I miss that place). We ended up buying ours online because everywhere here was sold out of the limited edition aqua colored ones and we wanted the ones with the bottle openers on them hehe. And KRama, you're right, it was a bit of a logistical nightmare getting them to Mexico. At midnight, the night before our flight to Cancun, we took one look at the mountain of luggage in our living room (2 large suitcases, 2 garment bags, 2 small suitcases, 1 backpack, 1 large purse.... and one giant Home Depot box full of big ol Bubba Kegs and favors) and decided to upgrade to first class. In first class we got 3 checked bags each at 70 lbs, so it worked out fine thank goodness. Also, I finally got around to doing my wedding review. Here is the link. I'll post more pictures once I get the proof CD from our photographer. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t48951

Hi everyone, Well, we’ve been back now for a few weeks from a beautiful wedding and very relaxing vacation at the Bahia Principe Akumal. I’m finally getting around to doing this review. It’s bringing back so many good memories, I wish we could go back! We had such a great time having our wedding at the Bahia Principe and it meant so much to us to be in such a beautiful location with friends and family. Anyways, here’s my wedding review. I could have gone on and on and on (and used the word beautiful about a hundred more times than I already have). If you have any questions about anything I don’t review here just message me and I’d be glad to help. Alright, here we go (this is pretty long!) Wedding Coordinator – A+ As previous reviewers have noted, Yuritzia, the wedding coordinator at Bahia Principe Akumal, is very hard to get a hold of until about a couple weeks before you wedding. But once we got to the resort, Yuritizia put us completely at ease. We met her in the lobby bar the afternoon that we got there and she had all of our information in a big binder including all my emails and a list of all the details we still needed to discuss. At the meeting, we ran through everything from the reservations she made for the welcome dinner Friday night to all the details of the day of the wedding for Saturday. Yuritzia had a backup plan for everything (e.g. rain during the ceremony, or rain during the poolside reception) and lots of good recommendations. After the meeting she walked us around to the venues and showed us the spa, the Dolce Vita where our dinner was going to be, the location of the ceremony and poolside reception. After the meeting, we had to run back to the room to get our sand ceremony kit and name cards for tables to give those to her. I also chose flowers right at the meeting with Yuritzia. The day of the ceremony, Yuritzia had everything timed and planned and did a really great job of directing everyone. She took a lot of stress off of us by being so organized. Ceremony Officiant – B+ The ceremony itself was really beautiful. Ours was technically a renewal of vows since we got legally married in the States. The officiant was really sweet and had a very nice ceremony. She spoke perfect English. The only thing was that the ceremony was a religious ceremony and neither Josh or me is religious. So that was a bit strange for us. But the sentiments she expressed were still true. Overall the ceremony lasted about 15 minutes and we really enjoyed it. Ceremony Location – B+ We originally had our ceremony planned for the Akumal beach location by the hammocks, but ended up changing it to the pier because it was going to be so hot at 5PM. The breeze from the water cooled things off nicely. The ceremony also looked really beautiful for us. We were right out there on the dock overlooking the ocean and it was just gorgeous. The reason I wouldn’t give the ceremony location a top rating though is that it was beautiful, but there were probably 100 people watching, taking pictures, and swimming. We didn’t mind the people watching – everyone was really nice and respectful, just some of the photos are kind of funny with some guy in a speedo in the background. Being out on the pier also made it really hard for our photographer to get photos aside from getting on a boat and taking pictures from the water. Overall, the ceremony was very nice though. Flowers – A The flowers turned out beautifully. I chose pink roses for myself and the maid of honor and pink rose boutonnieres for Josh and the best man. I brought my own ribbon for the bouquets, but forgot to tell Yuritzia to ask the florists to do wraps with pins instead of ribbons. But they still turned out quite nicely. (I’d recommend you bring a photo of what you want or email it to Yuritzia beforehand so you don’t forget.) Yuritzia suggested white orchid corsages and boutonnieres for the parents and those turned out gorgeous. We ordered a couple extra large centerpieces that we used for the ceremony, then Yuritzia moved these to the reception and then later we moved them ourselves to the poolside reception. I don’t even think we saw a picture of the centerpieces beforehand, we just told Yuritzia that we wanted centerpieces with pink roses and she came up with these really pretty rose centerpieces. We added fuschia rose petals for the aisles, also Yuritzia’s suggestion. Ceremony Music - A The ceremony music was perfect. We gave Yuritizia an ipod the day before the ceremony with four songs: one for the maid of honor/best man walking, one for me and my parents walking, one for the signing of the certificate, and one for the recessional. The timing was perfect. Yuritizia had a resort assistant who was designated just for changing the songs on the ipod. Our recessional song was “All You Need Is Love†and everyone on the beach started singing along. I guess everyone, American, Canadian, British, German, Spanish and all the other nationalities at the resort, everyone knows the Beatles! Spa (Hair, Makeup, Nails) – B- I would recommend the spa at the resort for hair, but not for nails or makeup. At the last minute, I couldn’t find my hair picture, so I just used the books and magazines that were at the spa. Most of the hair style books they had were spikey kind of updos. I ended up showing the stylist a picture of Miley Cyrus’s hair from a German issue of In Style! My maid of honor, my mother in law, and one other guest got their hair done as well. They all got updos, and they turned out really well, but they were totally in the hands of their stylists because they did not bring pictures and the stylists didn’t speak English. For makeup, I think it would be best to just do your own. My hair stylist at the spa also did my makeup. This consisted of foundation, eyeshadow and lipgloss, nothing else. I ended up doing the rest myself. As for nails, I’d say it’d be best to do nails yourself too. I don’t know whether it was the humidity or what, but the polish just wouldn’t dry. Hours later it was still smudging. Dress Steaming – A We got my dress, the maid of honors dress, Josh’s suit, and my parents clothes all steamed and they turned out great. The laundry service comes to pick up the clothes in your room and then drops them off in your closet or hides the dress if you request that. The service gets billed to your room for when you check out. I don’t remember what the price was, but it seemed reasonable. Just be sure that the laundry people come to pick up your clothes. We called them several times and they didn’t come until a day later to pick up the clothes. Dinner Reception – B+ We had our dinner at the Dolce Vita. The other option was the Frutos Del Mar right next to Dolce Vita. The Dolce Vita is a bit of a walk from the ceremony location. We did our family photos after the ceremony and met everyone over at the restaurant. We ended up having a champagne toast at the ceremony and then ordering another round for the reception toasts. For dinner, we had to do the set menu. We went with caprese salad for appetizer, tomato soup, the chicken or the grouper as our entrée option and the tiramisu. The only complaint our guests had was that the serving sizes for the appetizer and the entrée were tiny. Josh described the soup as Spaghetti-os minus the spaghetti. The tiramisu was delicious. After the dinner, the servers brought us Mayan coffee which they set on fire - it was pretty spectacular. Cake – A+ We had the dulce de leche cake, the regular size that comes with the deluxe wedding package, and it was delicious! We brought our own cake topper and Yuritzia sent this back to us the next day with the sand ceremony kit. Poolside Reception & DJ – A If you get married at the Bahia Principe Akumal, I think the poolside reception is a must. The location, right by the White Sands bar in front of the lobby and by the pool is just so pretty, and noting beats dancing your first dance in the moonlight. The DJ actually played Dancing in the Dark later in the night, so it was just a matter of time before some had a tie on his head! ☺ The decorations with white lights and white balloons look beautiful. Not everyone danced, but it was still a good time for those who did dance and others just to chat and enjoy the atmosphere. I actually never saw the DJ the entire night, but I think he might have been the resort DJ because the music selection was similar to what we heard in the disco the night before. We gave him an ipod with about 30 songs on it to get him started. He played some of these, but also added in a bunch of other songs and a few we didn’t even know. Photography – A+++ Our photographer was Tim Cothran and I cannot recommend him enough. We love our wedding photos, and we loved working with him. He was just awesome awesome. In his spare time at the resort, Tim went around and researched places to do bridal shots and portraits after the ceremony. Tim was really easy to work with and adapted to all the surprises we ran into. After being told we weren’t allowed to take a professional photographer to the Tulum ruins, Tim had already thought of a plan for us to go to the public beach and he had also spotted a great little rocky place overlooking the ocean. The rocky place he found turned out to be beautiful! I can’t even explain how above and beyond Tim went to capture great shots for us despite the incredible August heat in Mexico. There are some angles he got where we were wondering, how did he do that?? Overall, we were just really impressed. Now, here’s what you’ve been waiting for… PICTURES! I’ll post some more in a week or so. If you just can’t wait, you can see them on Tim’s site: Blog - Tim Cothran Photography Blog Oh, I should mention also we used Cancun Valet for airport transportation and they were great. And last but not least, a big A+++ to all the previous Bahia Principe reviewers. Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and advice! Hearing others' experience first hand made planning a destination wedding so much less intimidating and much more fun. For those of you still planning weddings, here are the links to the previous reviews. Special Thanks to All the Lovely Previous BP Reviewers Martha - http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t27192 RyanAmanda - http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t27192 Trish - http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t19450 Scoutly - http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t38254 Jkcz0702 - http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t38680

Keira, I love the photo in your signature of you and Steve at Niagara Falls. I grew up in Ontario, so I spent a lot of summers visiting there. Such a beautiful place. A couple years ago we went back and hit up all the horror houses and tourist attractions and that was lots of fun too! Nightmares scared the crap out of me!!

Hi Ladies! I'm back from my wedding at Bahia Principe Akumal on Aug. 15..... I've been really awol from this site for a while, but I promise promise to post pics and a review some time this week or next. We got back from Mexico on Saturday and thrown right back into work and grad school, but I'll have something up soon. To answer some of your questions, I did see the resort photographer last week doing a wedding, I think it was Thursday. I didn't see the photos, but the poses he was picking looked good, and the couple looked happy. The great benefit of the resort photographer is that you don't need to pay the guest pass fee. For those of your bringing in an outside photographer, the fee is $90 USD per day, which they actually convert to pesos and then bill you in pesos, so you're at the whim of whatever the conversion rate is the day you check out. We brought our own photographer whose work we really really love. We paid for him and and a guest to stay at the resort with us though so we didn't have the guest pass fee. We did however have 3 guests staying at the resort next door, the Grand Oasis, and paid for guest passes for them for 2 days each. We thought we'd go the honest route and pay for the passes, though quite honestly, the Grand Oasis is a 20 min walk along the beach (a very hot 20 min walk) and later in the week when we met up to do trips, there was no problem getting on to one resort or the other. Dress steaming... we got my dress, Josh's suit, maid of honor's dress, and my parents clothes all steamed. I don't remember how much it cost, but it came out to be reasonable. They did a great job and everything looked perfect. In fact, my maid of honor's dress was looking a bit big when she first put it on at the resort and it was all wrinkly. After the steaming, the fit turned out perfect, I think because pressing it just gave it a better shape. Both of our dresses were silk taffeta and the steaming took out all the creases beautifully. The only issue we had with steaming was getting the laundry people to come pick up our clothes. Yuritzia said she sent someone... 2 phone calls and a day later, someone finally came to pick everything up. Despite that, I would really recommend the steaming service. For those of your who have Yuritzia for a wedding coordinator, I think you'll be very happy with her. She's AWESOME. She left for a well-deserved vacation last week, so we actually ended up meeting Karla briefly to wind up wedding stuff, and Karla seemed fantastic too. If anyone is headed to the Bahia Principe Akumal soon and wants my wireless internet login card, just let me know. It was $11 for 12 hours of wireless internet, and I probably only used 30 min. I have no idea if it will still work, but it's worth a try. Just PM me. I want to thank everyone on this board for all their help with planning, especially Tsleege. I think without this board I would have had no idea what to expect. You ladies are great! And for those of you planning upcoming weddings.... don't stress, just try to enjoy

Congrats!!! :)

Have a great time Joanna!! Trish...... maybe I just missed this earlier... but do I see on your ticker that you are pregnant!?

I'm so glad everything worked out!! You look GORGEOUS!

Quote: Originally Posted by jkcz0702 Congrats on booking your wedding. I think as long as your debit card is backed by Visa or MC you should be fine. We did the Special Cocktails package because that included what our guests were pretty much drinking. We were able to tip and get some other drinks for those that wanted something else. At the Dolce Vita we did the melon proc. I think minestrone soup and then grouper and chicken for the main dish. Our wedding cake we chose the 3 milk everything was really good. I have never been to Mexico in August we may go this August I hear it is really hot but they have the pool and beach so on the days besides the wedding you will be cool!!! Thanks for the info Jen! From the sounds of it, our wedding is going to be following along the lines of yours!! Evening ceremony, dinner at the Dolce Vita, poolside reception after. Good idea about the tipping to get other drinks and just sticking with the special cocktails package. Does anyone know if we can get in touch with the resort DJ now? I don't know which one we booked, all I know is we have him or her from 8:00-10:30.

Quote: Originally Posted by magaliscious Hello! I'm not a huge review writer and my wedding day involved finding out about the Air Transat recall of passangers at the wedding dinner. My husband was misinformed by the photographer between the ceremony and the posed shots that we would be leaving the next day (5 days into a 14 day wedding and honeymoon). So for half of these pictures at least one of us thought we were flying out the next day! I thought I'd post them because inspite of all the things that can go wrong a wedding at GBP is amazingly stress free and so worth it! Claudia, the photographer did a great job and Liam, the groom, did a great job of pretending! http://claudiaphoto.com/slideshows/c...l/maggie_liam/ Maggie, your wedding was beautiful! Liam did a great job of pretending and you look gorgeous!! The children you had at the wedding were adorable too. How was Frutos del Mar for the reception dinner?

Have a great time Joanna and congrats in advance!!! As for the credit card/debit card question - has anyone got a response on that yet? I'm pretty sure if your debit card is Visa or Mastercard backed, then it's not a problem bc they'll run it through the same system as the credit card system but it will come out of your bank account rather than be billed later. I've gota question about drinks. Hoping yall can help me out. Yuritzia emailed me the price list: National bar -$17/hr -- beer, rum, vodka, tequila, cocktails, gin, and whiskey International bar - $24/hr -- beer, tequila, rum, vodka, whiskey, chivas, cutty sark, cocktails, gin, house wine, sparkling wine Special cocktails - $5/hr -- beer, pina coladas, margaritas, sparkling wine I'm kind of partial to pina coladas myself, but I'm wondering if pina coladas and margaritas and included in the national bar and international bar prices as cocktails, or are pina coladas and margaritas $5 extra per person. Also, is it worth the $24pp to get the international bar? My dad's kind of into chivas regal. What drinks exactly are included in the all inclusive anyhow? I heard Dos Equis definately is, but Corona is not. What other brands are included/excluded? We've booked the Dolce Vita for dinner. We'll be doing a set menu... any recs? Thanks ladies PS... this weekend is supposed to be the hottest weekend for the whole summer in Houston- up into the 100s and very humid. I wonder if August in Mexico is going to feel like that all the time!

Alrighty... I guess I'll go ahead and book the spa for hair then. Pedis at home is a good idea! Yes I think Paloma is like the coordinator of coordinators. She's definitely the one to get in touch with since she's much better about returning emails - sometimes I heard back from her in minutes, and always within 12 hours.

So ladies who have already been to the Bahia... is the spa worth the money, or is there even an alternative place to go? I remember reading that you really need to bring a photo.

have a great time heidi! well... it's less than 3 months til our big day now. is this when i should be hearing from yuritizia? tsleege, can you tell me about the restaurant choices on the akumal side? i know you did the poolside and that has its own set of menu choices, but was there an akumal a la cart that you would recommend? is the arlequin the only one that overlooks the water? i'm guessing that one's not available as a choice though, right?

Hey Emme! Congratulations on booking! I haven't been to the Bahia Principe yet, but I just got an RSVP from my uncle and uncle who said they can't come, but they've been before and thought it was a great choice! I'm so glad most of the ladies on this board were able to re-book in different locations or on different dates. It's such a relief. Best wishes to all of you! Ok... I just got an email from Paloma saying the DJ is now $170. When they sent the price list before it was $150. $20... not a big deal, but do all the prices change like this? And if so, when?

I feel so so badly for all you ladies that had your weddings cancelled because imo the Canadian airlines overreacted. When heidi broke the news, I couldn't even believe it! You put all that time and hard work into planning wonderful ceremonies and making sure the location was great for you and your guests, and this whole swine flu things comes out of nowhere. I'm really glad to hear that the Bahia Principe is working with you and offering other dates and accomodating changes. Is there any way you could fly to the US and then to Mexico and still go ahead with your plans? Or is Canada just not cool with that? I kind of see why the Canadian airlines were more worried than over here - I'm from London, Ontario originally, but live in Houston now, and when SARS hit I worked at a hospital, and everything went so badly I don't think Canada wants to risk it again. Whereas over here in Houston, we're so close to Mexico that we know there really isn't as much we can do and there is no point in restricting access to and from Mexico over here. Anyways, for those who are wanting to reschedule later in the summer at the Bahia Principe, I wouldn't let hurricane season throw you off much. I'm booked for August 15th, and I was worried about that too. But I checked the statistics, and they're really pretty low. There are people in my group who were worried about hurricane season, and then there were others who were like, heck yea for lower prices! Oh, and a word on lower prices... if anyone thought the swine flu was lowering ticket prices, they're mistaken bc prices for my date have been the same for a month despite news of drug cartels and swine flu. Nyssa, Jamaica sounds awesome!! Corvette, that is so great that you got a new date... I'm sure flights will be back to normal by then bc the Canadian airlines will come to their senses. Best of luck to all of you... keep us posted!!

Really!? I'm so sorry to hear that. Can you do a civil ceremony at home and then post-pone the destination part? Was is BP that cancelled or the airline?