Lou

Okay GBP Brides.... I need to be talked down off the ledge. Can you help? We are leaving in less than 3 weeks for our wedding at the Tulum part of the resort, on July 7th, and I am starting to have major anxiety. I'm not too worried about the wedding, it sounds like everything always seems to work out and that Jazmin is great. I am starting to panic about the resort itself. We have 46 people coming with us (way more than we expected) and we have never been to the resort. I've been having nightmares about the resort being disappointing, guests hating it and everyone getting sick. I went onto tripadvisor to try and make myself feel better... bad idea. I know there are always negative reviews about every resort, but it seems like the negative ones about GBP Tulum are increasing... maybe it just seems that way because I am paranoid. Can anyone who has stayed at the resort help to set my mind at ease?

HereFishie, did you have a poolside reception just using your ipod? This has been an issue that a lot of people have talked about, but Jazmin insists that there is no way to use your ipod for the poolside as the resort doesn't have a sound system for us to use. She said I would have to hire the DJ and then he can just play my ipod. Obviously, not the greatest option... If I am making the playlist I'd rather not pay extra for him to hit "play". I'm getting married at the Tulum Gazebo, with dinner at Tequila, followed by a poolside reception on July 7th, 2010. Quote: Originally Posted by HereFishie Our WC charged us a lower cost for children since they can't drink booze. I can't remember what it was though. A few dollars less per child I recall. Can't help you with the DJ since we didn't use one. iPod was the way to go for our poolside cocktail party! Cocktail party is after dinner. We paid to do the private poolside one which was great fun! Re: Cocktail hour I'm not sure if its for all weddings or only certain ceremony types, it should say I think in the documents they sent you when you chose the type of ceremony you wanted. Its directly after the ceremony (it was free for us) and its just toasting. They set up a table and have a couple of bottles of champagne for right after the ceremony so you can do toasts/pictures before you move over to the dinner location. It's a time filler mostly

Welcome fellow Canadian! I will be getting married on July 7th, 2010 in Mexico. Your wedding is coming up so soon, you must be excited! What a nice winter escape for you

Congratulations! I got engaged in March and it took us a couple of months to get organized and make some decisions... now we are booked into the Gran Bahia Principe on the Mayan Riviera and we will be getting married on July 7th, 2010. Just try to think about what is most important to you for and your DF in a wedding day and see where that leads you!

I love all the letters and ideas on this thread! I am trying to figure out how I can distribute letters/gift bags to my guests. We will be traveling to the Mayan Riviera with our guests and obviously, arriving at the same time. I would have loved to get down there earlier and leave things for them at the front desk, but of course, that won't work. If you've already had your DW, how did you efficiently deliver all of your OOT bags?

I wish I had found this thread earlier... it is answering a lot of questions for me!

Thanks Nicole, your info really helped us! I am so excited to know that the poolside cocktail reception might work out! I have just emailed Jazmin all of our information (names, package request, restaurant choice, etc.) so I guess now I just have to wait to hear back from her.... I read somewhere that you weren't allowed to hook up your own ipod, but that was way back on the first 100 pages of this thread (2007...) so things may have changed now, it sounds like. If we can get away with using our own ipod I would love it.... way cheaper for one thing, and it leaves us in control of the tunes which I also like I was wondering, what type of service was included with your cocktail reception. Did they put up cocktail tables or anything? Decorations? Lights? A bartender and server? And most importantly (according to my fiancee) what kind of drinks did they serve? Thanks!

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I posted on here, but we finally have our date confirmed at the GBP Tulum (July 7, 2010) and we have 25 people booked so far! We are expecting between 40-50 people to make it, which is WAY more than we originally planned! I have just received my first email from Jazmin asking where I would like to have the reception, etc, and I am looking for some advice... I have been reading through the forum and am only up to page 100, I will keep going but I am too impatient to read all the way through before I ask for help, please forgive me if these questions have already been asked! Here is what we are thinking for our wedding day: 6:00pm ceremony at the Gazebo, followed by drinks in the lobby bar for our guests while we take some pictures. 7:30 - dinner ... here is where we need some help. Our choices are the Tequila or Tortuga restaurant with a set menu. I have heard lots about the Tequila and think it sounds great, but I haven't heard anything about Tortuga. Has anybody had their wedding dinner there? The menu is a bit different, and it is a "Rodizio" which is a Brazilian mixed grill. I am wondering what this is like... we are leaning towards it just because it would give our guests more choice over what they are eating. Next, we LOVE the idea of the poolside reception, but we just don't have that much money to spend on our wedding, we are doing this on the cheap side. Here's what I was thinking though, after dinner in the restaurant (around 9?) do you think we could have a cocktail hour/DJ rental beside the pool to have our first dances etc.? After that we could just head to the disco for more dancing, but it would be nice to have some private time first. Does anyone have any ideas if that would work out, and how much it would cost?

Thanks Bride-chill-a and Joss! Joss, did you just find a local travel agent in The Peg? Or are they part of a big company like flight centre. I am still hoping to find one who has lots of experience with DW's. Bride-chill-a, thanks for the tip about marissa at Flight Centre, unfortunately I had a horrible experience with them a couple of years ago and I am still maintaining my own personal boycott....

And thank you too Im1984! I have some guests that will book their own travel no problem, but I wouldn't mind having a TA people could contact if they don't want to seek one out on their own. I could start going to travel agents here in Vancouver, but I was hoping to find on that specializes in weddings.... I have just emailed BDW to ask about their travel agent services.

Thanks Emme! The more I've been reading here, the more I am sure that i could handle the planning as long as I find a good travel agent. I have been overwhelmed trying to find a resort, but the Gran BP seems to have good packages, seems like a nice resort and is close to some cool mayan ruins. Can I ask what wedding package you booked? And are you going to have to pay extra for your poolside reception?

Hi everyone, My fiancee and I would like to get married July 2010 and we are just starting our wedding planning. We are pretty interested in the Gran BP and I have found this forum so helpful so far! We think we will have 30-50 guests and we would like to have the ceremony in the gazebo and the reception in a restaurant. I love the idea of the pool side reception, but i think it is beyond our budget. Does anyone know if you can do speeches during the reception in a restaurant? We are thinking of renting out the disco for a couple of hours for dancing... For those of you who have already had your weddings, did your guests organize their own travel? or did you have a travel agent book everyone? We have guests coming from Vancouver BC, Cairns Australia, Sacramento California and Dublin, Ireland so we are not sure what to do.... I have been looking at destinationweddings.com, a website where they book everything with you, contact the resort and set up a wedding website for you. has anyone used them or heard anything about it? Finally, we are trying to decide if we should stay at the akumel, tulum or coba section of the resort. any suggestions?

Congratulations to everyone on their engagements! Marriage I can do.... now I am just hoping I can survive the planning process.. My fiancee and I are hoping to get married the first week of July, 2010 (we are teachers... need to go during the summer) on the Mayan Riviera. We are pretty overwhelmed right now trying to pick a resort. We are currently looking into the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum/Akumel/Coba. Has anyone had experience with this resort? Also, we are trying to get a travel agent or someone to help us. Has anyone here used destinationweddings.com? It seems like a pretty full service website, they act as a travel agent, booking flights for you and your guests, coordinating with the resort, and setting up a wedding website. We are thinking of using them because we really want someone who knows what they are doing to help us. Any thoughts?

Hello, my fiancee and I have been together for 7 years and we are just starting to plan our wedding (Engaged in March). Our families live in Canada and Ireland (i'm canadian, he is irish), so we have decided to have a destination wedding to give a really awesome vacation to our many friends and family that have to travel. We are hoping to go to the Mayan Riviera next June/ July (we are both teachers.... so we know it will be hot, but those are our holiday times!) and are just beginning to research. I am hoping that this forum can help us to find the perfect wedding location!