c and m

We had our 2 big groups book with a destination wedding planner in Vancouver. Marsha Steeves. It depends on the tour company, but we got a free trip for every 9 that booked with her. She also got everyone a free room upgrade and everyone was staying in the same area, which made it easier to get groups together to do stuff after the wedding day. Â We used Dean Sanderson as our photographer. He has an album in the vendors section on this site. he was awesome to work with!!

1. yes they do set up a head table right on the sand! We were really impressed with the setup. Head table on beach side, then guest tables, with buffet and bbq at back of beach. they also set up a table for our wedding favours beside the bar.  2. We used Dean Sanderson as our photographer. He was amazing!! He is based in Canada, but spends at least half of the year in Playa. Here are a few shots from our wedding  http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/gallery/album/view/id/7887/user_id/30142 Â

We used Dean Sanderson. Â http://www.deansandersonweddings.com/ Â Here is his website. He was great to work with and spends a lot of time in the Mayan shooting weddings...

My suggestion is to use a professional photog. A few reasons. 1- after the wedding, all you have is the pics. You want them to be amazing for yourself and the people who couldn't make it... 2- If your friend with the good camera is paying to be there, should they be responsible for 'working' during your ceremony and reception, or just relaxing and enjoying time with everyone. 3- good camera or not, if you don't love the shots, it can cause some bitterness. For example, at a friends wedding, the brides best friend was the 'official' photographer, but he had a few drinks and started just taking pics of girls he thought were hot! Â Here are some of our shots from a photog on this website at the GSP Â http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/gallery/album/view/id/7887/user_id/30142/page/

We didn't have our reception at the Thai beach, but we did have a big dinner there one night and it was easily the best a la carte there... Corey http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=416062&id=722095011

We had about 40 people and had the beach reception. We used our included 20 person a la carte reservation the night we got there for the 2 families and bridal party. It worked out really well!! The beach reception was well worth the money, a great time was had by all http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=416062&id=722095011 Here is a small sample of our photos. we used Dean Sanderson from Canada. He was fantastic! Everyone loves our shots Corey

We also just back from our wedding at GSP The wedding was amazing, the gazebo is beautiful. We were a bit worried about the weather, but the clouds parted, and we were able to go ahead with the beach reception. The food was amazing, even the wine was drinkable (the wine in the buffets and a la carte's tastes like bad grape juice). We wanted to do a toast after the ceremony, but the resort charges $20/person! Retarded, so my friend and I took a cab to Walmart and bought 10 bottles of decent sparkling wine for 15$ a bottle. Took it back, gave it to Sandra, and she cooled it and served it after the ceremony. There was a corkage charge of 10$ a bottle opened, but I'm not sure if it ever showed up on our bill... The reception was great! We had a Mariachi band playing during dinner, and they were amazing!. We didn't bother with a dancefloor, it was great fun dancing in the sand. The food and service was amazing. Iliana and Jose were running around like crazy keeping cups full! If you have a big group, bring some walkie talkies to keep track. If you want to do any group excursions, look into doing them on your own. We arranged some van taxis to take everyone to Tulum for a day and it cost less than half the cost of using a tour company. We used the same guys, brothers(ask the bellmen for the 'twins') to go into town, shop for a couple hours, take everyone to Alux restaurant (In a cenote!), and bring us all back to the hotel. For 20 people it was $160 for the taxis. Cabbies down there will regularly take you where you want to go and wait for you... Overall, it was an amazing experience!

I would recommend bringing frs radios, especially if some people have upgraded to platinum and some haven't. It's not like back home, where you can just text each other to see where you are...

Any thoughts on wine? My family are all 'into' good wine and don't want to drink the resort swill. Is there somewhere nearby or in Playa to get decent wine? Can we just sneak it into the reception or will we be forced to pay corkage?

Does anyone have any ideas about getting good wine at resorts? I know the house wine is usually pretty bad, where is a good place to get wine offsite to bring to the reception?

2 weeks!! We decided on the private beach reception for 41 and the basic package, which we got thrown in for having 10 platinum rooms! A few more people tried to upgrade, but they are sold out of platinum suites. Could mean the resort is actually pretty busy...

We are using Dean Sanderson. We really like his stuff. He is based in Vancouver now, but I know he spends winters in the Mayan. Really cool stuff

Thanks Leslie, Great review! Always nice to have fears from tripadvisor put to rest

Some great ideas!! Thanks

try one of the el dorado resorts. We are going to the Seaside suites for our 2nd week. Apparently Forbes travel ranked it top 10 romantic resorts worldwide!

Wherever you go, make sure you look at the prices of wedding packages before you decide on a resort. Even though you are going to an all inclusive, the prices for things like champagne toasts, beach receptions, etc can be HUGE. Our resort wants $20 US for a toast!! it's a little annoying, the way they rip you off Good luck though, it'll be a blast no matter where you go

Great review! Glad to hear it went well. We're also staying a 2nd week, but going to a different resort, the El Dorado Seaside

Great review!! very helpful. We are also staying for a second week, but going to The El Dorado Seaside. Thought we'd try something different

We are secretly getting married here first. I think we are going to use a wedding commissioner in whistler and do it on the mountain somewhere with a couple friends who don't really know any of our other friends and won't be in Mexico as witnesses

We're also using Dean, he's great!

Another thumbs up for Dean Sanderson!! We are also using him for both the wedding and ttd. Great stuff, and he is easy to get along with

Does anyone the day fee for the resort? We have a few friends that are staying elsewhere but are coming for the day... Thanks

Pelican 10, check with your TA as some will only book your trips, but some, for an extra fee, will book the travel and deal with the resorts. We are using Marsha Steeves out of Vancouver and she has been really helpful. We just tell here what we want, and she deals with the people in Mexico. Everything will be all set up when we get there

Thanks Jenn, I do read tripadvisor carefully. You're absolutely right about the way people complain, you read one really bad review followed by several completely opposite ones! great to hear that your group had a good time