randi.renstrom

thanks! honestly, i LOVED having the reception inside! i know its not the most popular idea, but it was really nice for us. i think it was more private then outside....we did have a few people look in, but it was no big deal. PLUS it was really nice having bathrooms so close! and to be honest.....its hard to believe....but i don't remember seeing the bar!! they were so busy making sure i always had a full glass of champagne that i didn't pay attention!! i don't think there was a bar set up in the room, but i do know you could get whatever you ordered. one of my cousins brought me out to the lobby bar for a tequilla shot....and afterwards we found out people were taking tequilla shots in our reception, with a much better tequilla! i loved it! it did get a bit warm....but we were also dancing up a storm! and when you walked out into the hallway, you realized it was actually cooler in the reception, its just you are in mexico etc if you are thinking about having it in the ballroom, don't worry, it was great! diahr - about the cake - i wouldn't suggest an upgrade you mentioned you are having a small party, ours was 60 people and we had A LOT of cake leftover! and we just brought a fancy "J" to stick in for a cake topper and it made for some great pictures

the white on the gazebo i believe was standard. it was up a lot of the time when there wasn't even a wedding going on. and i did arrange the meeting before we left. there was a miscommunication and he had a few hours later then i had....so i was waiting in the lobby and eventually went to the wedding office and talked to someone and they got it figured out and he arrived shortly. and yea, i just used that email

http://www.tjuttke.com/2010/12/08/randi-scott-playa-del-carmen-wedding/ there is the link for our wedding pictures.. as far as the DJ we did use Ivan and met with them before our wedding....told them our certain songs we want and our 'do not play' list. worked out very well!! just met in the lobby

hey! i just wanted to throw this out there....i thought you guys would enjoy this my husband ended up taking a last minute trip to costa rica with a friend and his family. they are staying at a new RIU out there. They Royal was our first all inclusive, and let me tell you, sounds like we were totally spoiled by it. Our guests at The Royal who had been to other all inclusives said The Royal blows the others out of the water, but I wasn't sure if they were just trying to be nice. I just wanted to show you the email I just got from my husband: This resort isnt nearly even close to half as good as the royal... To be honest this place sucks... Food at the only two places I've been is bad, random side pool bar food place and then at the sports bar. This place is a JOKE! And the booze lower quality than u can even believe honestly. I couldnt even slam Tj's drink cause it was like rubbing alcohol. Clearly homework wasn't done before this trip, waste of a week when all is considered ... anyways, i'm bummed he doesn't sound happy, but i thought for a positive, it would be reassuring to anyone who was worried about the "quality" of the royal when we were picking out our resort, i was debating between the riu in playa, or the royal, and i'm SO happy with our decision!!

oh my gosh....everyone LOVED the place!!! seriously. my parents - who are very hard to please and had said in the past they would never go back to mexico - is now making it their new vacation spot! i had a few GREAT AUNTS who were probably some of the oldest people htere and they loved it. my husbands grandparents loved the people watching and restaurants (esp asiana). then of course our friends etc....had a great time! our only complaint was the pool was FREEZING but it didn't ruin anyones time at all. we still layed by the pool all the day....they had a great time with the staff.....if you are interested, i highly recommend coco bongo....we went down with the entertainment staff on our monday night there - it was awesome. but everyone loved the place! the food and people and rooms are just great! i would do it there again in a heartbeat! i know you probably "could" find a "nicer" spot....but obviously for more $$....but i don't think its necessary, i thought the royal was perfect!

one more thing - they really don't nickel and dime you. linens are included with everything, don't worry!! we didn't run into any extra charges to be honest.....and just so you know. we brought our own white isle runner, that they taped down for us, then i used Maya floral, and they spread out the flower pedals i got from them, no big deal

i was married in Nov and I was just checking it to see what was going on....so i thought i might answer a few questions 1) if you are getting your dress pressed at the royal, i suggest asking about it right when you arrive. it only takes 24 hours to do....but when they return it, you have to be in the room to check it out etc. so just for your own sake, do it as early as you can so it can just be hanging in your room so you know everything is fine and you don't have to hunt it down. i ended up getting my dress back the day before....but i remember waking up that morning being like "uhhh....when am i going to get it? and what if something is wrong?" but saying that - everything was just fine with it and when i called to check on it, they told me to wait in the room and they'd send someone with it right at that moment 2) here is our cake. it was one of the options that came with the basic package. its hard to tell just how big it is!! we had 60 people.....and probaly had about 1/2 the cake leftover! they brought a big chunk up to our room for us they "say" it feeds 35...but i don't recommend upgrading unless you have like 100 people 3) pictures - we did have almost a 2 hour break between our cocktail hour and reception. i don't think you need quite that much, but iff you can make a break, i think it will be helpful so you don't feel as rushed. don't worry about others and entertaining them, trust me there is plenty of stuff for them to eat/drink/relax! but it did help us get group photos on the beach, by the gazebo, and in town. but what we did, as soon as the ceremony was over, we had everyone wait at the gazebo, pile in, and we took a group picture right there before people could scatter. then at our cocktail hour, we made a point of taking pictures with me/husband with either individuals or couple or families, to get pics with everyone. then after the cocktail, we did bridal party pics etc. hope that helps!

so i just thought i would share my at home reception with you guys at first we weren't going to do an AHR. we had 60 people go to mexico....we figured we'd be seeing most of our family soon afterwards between xmass and new years....but my extended family (mostly grandma's) really wanted to see me in my dress. so we decided to do cocktails/drinks/a happy hour type thing last night. we were expecting 125-150. my husband is from milwaukee, and i am from minnesota, so we didn't expect people to make the 5 hour drive but many people rsvp'd and were making a weekend out of it. well as i'm sure you have heard - MN gets DUMPED on friday night into saturday and all day saturday!!! awesome so i wake up, in panic mode because i don't know if we shold cancel or not. looking outside - i didn't want to go to my own AHR! but then i talk to the venue, they said we'd be charged for the food whether we go or not, but we wouldn't be charged for the alcohol. so we are like, well if we are going to be paying like $1500 we might as well go eat and drink what we can! so we tried to contact people -tell them it is still on but we didn't expect anyone to make it, no hard feelings if you can't go etc..... well we had some people from out of town come up on friday night, so they were all ready to go. i'm all calmed down and go to my hair appt and the roads are just ridiculous. it took me 45 min to get out of the parking lot, and once i finally did, i couldn't stop at a light etc because i couldn't start up again because i would be stuck. so im back in tears - on the phone teling my husband we aren't doing this - people can't drive and im just getting to the hotel and staying there. well he talked some sense into me and we went on with the night. so it was suppose to go from 4-8:00, but we had the room til lmidnight and they said we can still be in there drinking etc if we want. so it all starts, im like thinking its going to be like 15 of us who were all at my house the night before eating and drinking and staring at each other all night. well it ended up being like 40 of us.....and the people who showed up were all like people i eidnt expect to come at all! they looked at the pictures, ate a lot of food, drank, and everyone was having a great time! it was awesome! the time flew by, everyone got along great, we had beer pong and card games going.....the bartender was giving us a ton of free drinks/shots (we were just hosting beer and wine) and most people ended up staying until midnight! about half the people got rooms at the hotel. and about 15 of our friends ended up staying and drinking in the room until about 2 in the morning! so what i thought was going to be just a disaster turned out to be a great time! i guess in saying this, i wanted to pass on my thoughts about an AHR. before it was going on - i was thinking it wasn't necessary. we had our wedding, it was perfect, this just seemed like a lot of work for something we were doing to please people who didn't go to the wedding. so if i were to do it over again--i don't think i would have one, just save the money. BUT if you do have one - i also had a great time, and i did get to wear my dress again and it was nice to see people i don't see too often, and they loved seeing the pictures. even the people who were at our AHR who were at the wededing, enjoyed the setup and seeing people who were at the wedding again - like a mini reunion. but also, i seriously woke up to like, a major blizzard. im sure some of you are from MN (see the video of the dome collapsing??) and yes i did get upset.....thought this day was ruined.....but after i just thought 'what happens will happen, can't control the weather' and i just went with the flow and i couldn't have been happier with the turnout! so i just want to say you can't get upset if things don't go exactly as planned. if you let that bother you, you might miss out on something that even though went not as planned, it will still be a great time! i don't know if that makes sense, but i hope you know what i mean everyon had a wonderful time, i think i was smiling from about 4pm-2am and just didn't let the uncontrollable upset me so that is my story - and i hope it helps to keep others relaxed and don't let things stress you out!

hahaha no not at all. i was afraid for my group! a group of our guys would be parked outside of one of their rooms....which was RIGHT next to the towel stand and some days were just ridiculous. they first had rosario and crew play "i like it" on repeat over the loud speakers. AND THEN they would go and blare it from their room speakers on repeat.....or at 9am.....

thanks!! im so excited to get home to see the pictures TJ sent us today! (Over 1,000!!!) those dresses - i LOVE them! i had a range with the bridemaids.....most are "bigger" in the chest area but then i have one who is like the smallest girl in the world! but they all liked them and were happy with the fit i was wondering if that was you jess! i felt weird like, introducing myself to anyone or asking, you know? but its kinda crazy how small of a world it is!

i LOVE that starfish clip!!! congrats to all the new brides!!! and as you can see....everyone comes back saying that everything is perfect and not to worry, and its true!! obviously you will worry, because who wouldn't worry about their wedding? just don't let it consume you too much. when you get stressed, try to just take a step back, and trust all of us who say it works out perfect, and enjoy the planning! i'm seriously bummed my wedding is over....of course because i loved it so much, but i also miss the planning part! our photographer (friend of ours) just posted his teaser pics for us.....the rest will be up tomorrow (over 1,000!) and we will get the cd of pics tomorrow too....i can't wait! but here is the link http://www.tjuttke.com/

Thanks! I love writting/talking about it....so I just kept going When we were there it did seem rather windy at night....I have no idea if this was the norm, or just when we were there etc. We were really only down at the beach a couple of the nights....but the day of our wedding I know it was windy during our ceremony (I had a piece of hair that wouldn't stay outta my face - use LOTS of hairspray!!!) But I really don't know....I just know for the Catamran, the waves were insane! Then the night we went down for our dinner, we thought it would be way too windy for our dinner (that was at 6:00) BUT I know most people do have their reception on the beach and everything turns out perfect! So, I guess if you have always wanted the beach reception, I'm sure it will be great!! If you aren't sure....I know a lot of people had said how they would hate to use the ballroom....but I just want to let people know it is very nice! We all loved it, and to be honest everyone was more concerned with dancing and talking that they probably didn't even notice their surroundings I don't know if that helps you at all.....but either way I am sure it will be great!!!

I just posted my review in the resort section......its long.....but i wanted to include everything! I tried to post pictures but it didn't work.....so once we get our pictures back from the photographer I'll post it for you guys. Please ask any questions you might have! I'd love to help because I'm just so happy with how everything turned out!

to be honest....my wedding coordinator was never set on any 30 or 45 day out checklist etc. but for my own comfort, i basically wrote out an itinerary of everything for that day. it included EVERYTHING. table numbers, who is at what table and their meal choice, when the eremony was, all decorations etc. then i just sent that over a couple weeks before hand. but i also gave her an "updated" one when i met zulma at the resort just in case there were changes. so as long as you have the basics ahead of time, if you have to add/change a couple meals when you get there it really isn't an issue.

yup, i was nervous about giving them the dress to steam....but it was just fine. i called to have them pick it up, and it was delivered two days later, i just had to call becaue you have to be in the room when they deliver. but no problems what so ever as far as food....when we did our tasting we thought the beef was by far better then everything else, that is why we didn't do something else. but it is a very good fillet. all the guests loved it. it is a little "pink" but some of our guests who only eat well done meat said they loved it. we had one girl send it back to be cooked a bit more.....but ours was cooked perfectly.

for our menu we did a caesar salad (same one as at Maria Marie's - it was awesome), then we did the mushroom soup, and my fiance and i couldn't choose between two fillets - the one with mushroom sauce and the one with pepper sauce - so we did that as our two options. and then we also did a vegetarian for a few who don't eat beef. and we had one person who needed a gluten free meal and there was no problems at all. i just gave them all very clear directions and on the place settings it was clear who had what and we had no issues. everyone LOVED the food! the vegetatian meals i heard were good, but small. the gluten free i heard was "heavy". then for dessert we had the chocolat mousse cup that everyone was obsessed with (i didn't get to eat mine because i was too involved in the speeches ) and then we had tres leches. which i know people have said before....but the cakes are MUCH bigger then you'd think! the one for "35 people" i say would easily feed 90! plus people are so eager to start dancing they miss the cake. we had 60 people, and about 1/4 of the cake was brought up to our room afterwards.....which was a BIG piece......and that doesn't count all the cut/non eaten pieces! but it was all VERY good. and the service was ridiculous! no ones glass went empty

kerri!!! i honestly thought about asking you if you were on this board....but if you weren't i would have sounded like a huge nerd....and my fiance was being a big enough nerd as it was i'm hoping to get my review up for people tonight. but honestly all i can say is if you are worrying - stop and relax and just remember there is no need to worry ps - there is already a group of people talking about going back to celebrate our 1 yr.....and they are bring the idea to US. so trust me, your guests will love it!

hey! so we literally just got back, and i just wanted to check in. everything was PERFECT! we were there saturday-saturday, with the wedding on thursday. we had 60 guests, most of who stayed the whole week, a few who came sunday/monday/tuesday. but seriously everything was awesome. all the guests loved the resort. everyone is already asking about our 1 yr anniversary celebration and having a reunion down at the royal. i heard so many people say they had the best week of their lives and loved our wedding! everything for the wedding was great, don't worry at all!! our only problem was our 3 hour delay because of the snow back in MN. i'll work on my review and i'm sure i will have that up shortly!

i'm leaving in the morning!! crazy!! i'm actually just starting to get nervous...and not about the wedding...more about getting people there and liking the resort etc we have a party bus picking us up at 7am (there are 25 of us on the first flight, and 17 of them are taking this bus - easier and cheaper then cabs/leaving cars etc at the airport). but im sure i'll check in sometime and definitely give a big review when i'm back! i can't believe it's here!! i'll be there the 6th-13th, getting married the 11th with 60 guests. i'll let you know how it goes! adios!

i booked a private trip with Catamaya the night before my wedding. we are just doing snacks etc, this quote was for 60-70 people (we also asked them to pay their own transportation, 10 bucks for them vs 600 for us....) As follows will find the quotation for a group of 60-70 people: SUNSET Charter with Snacks The standard snacks are: Guacamole, Mexican salsa, tortilla chips and assorted nuts. And full open bar! Hours From 4:00pm to 8:00pm Cost US$2,800.00 SUNSET Charter with Angus Hamburgers The lunch includes Green salad with Italian and French dressing, Guacamole, Mexican salsa, tortilla chips and an hamburger that our chef grills on our stainless steel grill on the back of the catamaran. And full open bar! Hours From 4:00pm to 8:00pm Cost US$3,200.00 The roundtrip transportation from The Royal Playa is US 10.00 per person.

We booked through catamaya. We have 4 hours with snacks, open bar, snorkeling etc. We are really excited for it!

kshows-i LOVE the card box! i might have to try to be crafty and work on one of those!! nice work!! i'm getting married nov 11th, and i haven't been real active on the board, but i do read it every day and i love it. i don't respond because most of the stuff i would say has already been said and i don't want to just repeat info i'm sorry to hear about all you with flight trouble! i'm sure when the day comes it will all get sorted out we are leaving nov 6th, with the wedding on the 11th, returning on the 13th. we have 60 guests going and (cross my fingers) so far everything has been going great!! we invited everyone we would to a 'normal' wedding (about 200) and are very happy with our 60 going. we haven't had any problems, and our wedding coordinator denise has been awesome! for awhile it would take her a long time to respond, but as we got closer (about a month-2 months out) she has been responding within 24 hours. i don't have any complaints, which almost makes me nervous because i'm thinking its too good to be true and something will eventually happen! we are also trying to keep things rather simple and low key so we don't stress about things. instead of a rehearsal dinner, we are doing a private catamaran trip for everyone as kind of a thank you the night before the wedding. but since we are doing that, we aren't doing oot bags etc, which i think it making things easier because there is no worry of how to get it down there and to guests etc. but oot bags are awesome, and i know people would enjoy that too - so i'm also kinda bummed we aren't doing them we are doing an AHR because most of the guests who are going to mexico are friends/family friends (besides our parents/siblings and a few aunts/cousins etc). but the majority of my family isn't going and it is hard on my grandparents not to see me in my dress etc. so we were going to do just a small, happy hour type of AHR with drinks and appetizers on Dec 11th at a restaurant in town. we are going to wear our dress/suit and have pictures all around etc. we thought we'd keep it small, and my fiance is from milwaukee (we live in minnesota) but people keep telling us they will see us in dec! so we'll see what happens but i just wanted to check in, and let future brides know that although many people do struggle with the wedding coordinators etc, i couldn't be happier. and i will definitely be writing a very lengthy review when i return because i know those were my favorite things to read i get SO excited when i find a new review, or find new pictures of someones wedding at the royal. thank you to all those who have posted reviews/pictures - those are what reassure me that i know our wedding will be perfect and our guests will have a great time. im not nervous about our wedding at all - i get nervous because we picked this resort/vacation and our guests are spending their money on what we picked! anyways, thanks again everyone for all your input!

i've gotta say i am SO happy with whoever mentioned marvin for the flowers!!! i contacted him two days ago about flowers and he gave me an awesome quote....and just sent me some pictures of the flowers i mentioned i liked!!! i couldn't be happier!! thanks

i may be in the minority on this....but over the past few weeks my wedding coordinator has been great! i have been rather busy with my sister's wedding that is in a few weeks so i haven't had a chance to concentrate on my own too much (which is in nov) but my coordinator has emailed me a few times, out of the blue, to ask me if i have any questions or anything she can help me with! then i have sent a few emails to her....and it took a day or two to respond to me, but i was fine with that. i know how busy they are, and just look at how many of us there are on this board, think of the # who aren't here! and dealing with all their demands etc. i know people have had problems, at the beginning of my planning i lost my ceremony time and confusion with my dj/confirmations etc, but i'm trying to not let things bother me and everything seems to be going great! i don't want to jinx myself here....but i just don't want people to think EVERYONE has these problems, you know? i've also been dealing with catamaya, and although they are very accommodating etc, they take up to a week to respond. i think that is just how things go down there, you know? anyways, i just wanted to throw that out there i'm getting very excited and so are all my guests, and am very confident the wedding with be great! and it's a destination wedding, i wanted it to be more relaxed, stressfree etc, and so far i don't have too many complaints! my biggest complaint is we are getting more guests booked then we expected....so our per person charges are whats killing us, but how can i really be upset when we have such a great turn out? just gotta go with the flow and be excited for your perfect day!

this might be a dumb question....but where do you post reviews now? like after someone comes back from their wedding? i read that in the forum they use to post in, that they can't put new ones up anymore......