HereFishie

There is no restaurant at the Hacienda as of April of this year. However, the Mexican Fiesta is not free. It's about $12usd per person to attend it.

There are 2 different types of Poolside reception you can have so make sure you know which one you're asking for and what you're getting with it. I know Tsleege had a full reception poolside... that means dinner was also poolside instead of in a resort restaurant. We had a poolside cocktail party, which was after the dinner at the resort, just speeches and dancing. They're very different prices. Â Welcome to all the new GBP Brides!

No one in our group of 43 had any problems using both the ATM's nor having items stolen. As the bridal couple, you get the safe for free so might as well make use of it. We brought travellers cheques and used the ATM where we needed. I think it was like $3 for the transaction? It's pesos that comes out as that is their main currency

For those asking about the Mayan Blessing... we had it. It was magical. Absolutely a breathtaking ceremony that blew all of our minds with the spirituality and meaning. Note that it is a symbolic ceremony only so you do have to be legal beforehand! There are some pics in my FB link in the sig as well as my review. Feel free to read that and let me know if you have any questions. Â Re:Coba or Tulum ... We stayed at the Coba and I'm glad we did. The Coba has Jr Suites so there was alot more room on my wedding day to get ready... when you have 2 hairdressers and 2 bridesmaids plus yourself all getting ready in one room, you need the extra space! It was a godsend that day. Re: how far the Coba is to the beach... I guess everything is relative. There is the "beach bus" that is running every few minutes all over the resort so if you don't want to walk the 10 min down to the beach you can get the bus. To each his own though... Â Re: Speakers... Eugenia is amazing. If you want it, she will find a way to make it happen for you! She let us use the hotel speakers and we just plugged our Ipod in for our music. It was perfect. Our private poolside cocktail party reception was at the White Sands pool bar (right outside the Akumal main lobby by the pool) it was beautifully decorated and we had no problem with party crashers or noise. They also provided a microphone for speeches! Â Any more questions feel free to ask

We didn't use them as our official photographer because we had one but the package provided 5 free pics so they were there shooting our whole wedding anyway and then tried to sell us the pics. They did a nice job. If we hadn't had a photographer, we probably would have bought them but our guy got all the same pics and he was a guest so it didn't cost us anything. They seem to really do alot of effects to the pics I noticed. They're cool though.

If its just about shallow water pools, there's several areas for children at the GBP. Including Kids Club

Our preference was the Coba but we chose that for 1) price and 2) they have jr suites. The other 2 hotels have just plain hotel rooms. WHen you're getting ready for your wedding, you need alot of room to spread out all your crap!I had 5 girls in my room and we didn't feel cramped at all. Having the separate "living room" with a table was nice. That's where I set up the makeup station As for the bands, I'd agree. No one notices them except other bridal parties. The only thing you're NOT supposed to be allowed to do is go into the Royal Golden lobby if your wristbands aren't gold. You and your hubby will get the gold ones. Rest of your group won't. As for meals, they honestly didn't give a crap where you stayed vs where you ate. We went twice this year and ate in Tulum, Akumal and the Coba equally. No problems or concerns at all.

We decided not to have a head table. We put 1 member of the bridal party at each table This way they could also sit with their spouses.

Quote: Originally Posted by Patourn Hi ladies, Quick question for all of you recently married....how much did you tip your wedding coordinators? Just trying to factor in our budget. Does 100 seem reasonable? We tipped Eugenia $80 USD. She would've got more but we spent the extra tip on the flowers when she overcharged for them.

I know Tlseege! Hubby is already talking about going back there next April for our first anniversary! Great pics at your AHR Wendy! If it was possible, you look MORE amazing than when we met at the Premier Lobby on your wedding day! Congrats to all the recent wives of GBP and newly engaged and planning brides! You've picked one of the best resorts out there!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by msamanda Hi guys, We are thinking of bringing our close family friend who is a photographer as our guests to photograph our wedding. Has anyone done this recently or planning to do this, now that the new rules have have been implemented for no outside photographers? If it is our guest will there be any problems? Thanks! Congrats to all the new brides, your photos are amazing! We did this end of April. No issues at all

Set your mind at ease! We had 40 guests with us and every single person was absolutely thrilled and amazed with the resort! We have people planning another trip there next year! It exceeded all of our expectations!! Waybuloo, we did a welcome dinner (meet & greet) on the 2nd night we were there and it was a breeze. I contacted my WC well in advance to ask about it and she set the whole thing up at one of the quieter buffets. They even made this cute swan heart thing on our table with place markers and everything! Didn't cost us a thing either. Ours was at the Cozumel buffet in the Premier Lobby.

Welcome back swong! Congratulations!!

We had our ceremony at 500pm and it was a half hour ceremony. There's no way we could have done any more than 60 minutes of photos before it started to get dark enough that the pictures suffered. We did our photos before our cermony to take advantage of the light of the day

We had the Special Cocktails which includes beer, sparkling wine, pina coladas and margaritis only. $5 per person for the 1st hour, $3 for each additional hour per person. So it was $8 per person for the 2 hour reception. It was WELL more than enough... if people wanted other drinks, they could go to the lobby bar for other drinks.

I said I was getting a trial makeup with my MOH and spending the day with her... he never suspected a thing! He even commented on my makeup when I got home!

Quote: Originally Posted by waybuloo Have any of you ladies either brought or know anyone that has brought a dress off of ebay the custom made dresses from China?? It seems ridiculous prices, one on there at the minute for £4.99!!!! Might just order it & see what happens!! I got mine on Ebay from one of those sellers. It was $120 custom. Check out this thread for reviews on different sellers http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ts-here-36700/

Congratulations swankster and swong! Enjoy every minute of it!!

Quote: Originally Posted by abbie32 Hello, I am so excited! My wedding date is FINALLY confirmed for April 6th, 2011 at the Akumal beach hammocks location. I can't wait to start booking everything in. I already started working on my boarding pass invites. haha Our vacation package from Canada is only for the Tulum or Coba resort, so which one would you recommend staying at? I'm so happy that I can still get married at the Akumal beach location, despite not staying there. Do you have your dinner and reception at the same place as your wedding or do you have them where you are staying? Just curious. I thought I read somewhere that you had to have your dinner and reception where you were staying. Thanks! Congratulations! We stayed in the Coba and were very very happy with our choice. Having the extra space that you get in the Coba rooms (they're Jr Suites) makes all the difference when you're in the room with your bridesmaids getting ready! You generally have your dinner at the same location as your wedding location... so for us, we were staying at the Coba but the wedding was at the Akumal hammocks location so we were offered the Dolce Vita or the Frutos del Mar for our dinner. These restaurants are at the Akumal. Makes sense because the WC for the location of the wedding would be arranging your dinner. If you had a dinner at a different location, then 2 WC's would be involved. Way too much chance of things going astray!

Women can get away with practically ANYTHING there. As long as its tasteful, women aren't going to get hassled at all about their clothing. No swimsuits of course but really anything else goes. No different than at home... you wouldn't go to a nice classy restaurant at home in short shorts and a boob tube!

Fantastic pics Wendy! I love the detail shots too!

Quote: Originally Posted by waybuloo Your photos are so lovely, I wish we were still allowed to bring in an outside photographer. Do you think they would know if I brought in my own one & just said they were my wedding guest? Like just brought them a day pass & said that they were staying at another hotel? One of our friends and a guest of ours was our photographer. When I told the WC that, she didn't even blink. She just said... ok! I think if they're from another resort and you get a day pass, its going to be harder to pretend they're a guest though. If they're a guest of the resort though, they can't prove they're not friends of yours!

Lua, my Hubby and I met on POF as well! Every now and then you find a good one on there!

Quote: Originally Posted by waybuloo Sorry you didn't rate the resort much this time round though....got me a little worried?! Oh well am booked now!! Everyone's experiences are different. Our guests and us didn't find any of the problems that Erica did. Remember to take all reviews with a grain of salt.. good or bad

We didn't plan any excursions for our guests. It was busy enough as it was and we wanted people to feel that it was their vacation, with a wedding thrown in... not the other way around