tiffandjohn

Hi cris, sorry for the delayed response. I don't check this account too often. After doing a lot of research it seemed that we were very limited to either Mexico, Cuba, and Dominican if we wanted a catholic wedding. Visiting all three countries, I would say Mexico by far had the superior resorts which would accommodate and please all 50 of our guests. Not to say that Mexico didn't have it challenges in convincing our family and friends to come. Mexico was in the news often leading up to our wedding with a lot of negative press. Our guest definitely had their concerns about the drugs and violence. However, doing a little online research, I found that all the crazy stuff we heard on the new was by the U.S-Mexico borders. We got married in Mayan riviera , which was thousands of miles away from there. It's unfortunate that Mexico as whole has to get such a bad rep because of those areas. Not sure where your group is traveling from, but I would definitely avoid border crossing by car. Our entire group was from Toronto, so we all pretty much flew to cancan and took a transfer bus to grand palladium resort. Safety was definitely not an issue once we got to the resort. They have a lot of security, just to get in the resort, not just anyone can come in. All of our guests had such an amazing time. Even the most skeptic of our family and friends who insisted in staying in the resort for the entire week ventured out. A lot of them took the public transportation and visited playa del Carmen, a near by town. A lot of our guests also left the resort to check out the ruins. I would definitely go back to Mayan riviera for a vacation, especially since last time I was too busy with all the wedding chaos. Hopefully this gives you a better insight of Mexico! Good luck with the wedding planning

For all brides looking to have a catholic destination wedding, look no further and book your stay at the Grand Palladium. I did a lot of research online, and found the chapel ( Nuestra senora de las nieves) on the Grand Palladium property by far the most breathtaking chapel in any resort within the Cancun and Maya Riviera surroundings. Our coordinator Erika was amazing, her entire wedding staff were true professionals and took care of every detail. All you need to get married here is a letter from your priest granting permission to get married within the Catholic church and a certificate of completion for the premarriage course. My fiance and I, attend church every Sunday, so getting the letter was no problem. And we attended a weekend course of engaged encounters back in Toronto. check out our highlight video and photos on studio 67's blog http://studio67blog.ca/2011/04/tiffany-john-married-in-the-mayan-riviera.html http://studio67blog.ca/2011/04/magic-in-the-mayan-tiff-john-their-story-in-pictures.html

I was researching for the longest time for TTD locations in Maya Riviera. I really wanted to go to the Tulum Ruins, but couldn't get enough details on how to get a proper permit. I was finding contradicting info on the net, from buying $10 permits per camera vs getting an official permit from the Mexican government because we were dealing with historical property. Instead of dealing with this headache, we ended up going with my wedding coordinator Erika's suggestion which was the salt water pool within the Grand Palladium Resort which we were staying in. It made everything so much easier, the location was absolutely beautiful!!! Our photographer and cinematographer/videographer were Wanda and Brian of Studio 67, who came down with us to Mexico from Toronto. They did an amazing job on our trash the dress shoot! We did the TTD shoot 2 days after the wedding. We managed to to wake up 5:30 in the morning to capture the sunrise. The early wake up call was absolutely worth it!!! Check out our TTD photos and mini video on studio 67's blog. We loved it!! http://studio67blog.ca/2011/05/hot-in-the-mayan-tiff-john.html So if you are staying at the grand palladium ( riviera, white sands, colonial, or kantenah ) consider doing your trash the dress at the salt water pool!!

oh yes and we were able to include filipino wedding traditions, just need to inform your coordinator who has to run it by the Priest for approval

Catholic chapel in mayan riviera grand palladium is absolutely beautiful!!!! Can't go wrong getting married there. It's located on the Colonial side of the resort beside the lobby. Here's a highlight video and pictures of our wedding to see all the details of Nuestra senora de las nieves http://studio67blog.ca/2011/04/tiffany-john-married-in-the-mayan-riviera.html http://studio67blog.ca/2011/04/magic-in-the-mayan-tiff-john-their-story-in-pictures.html

Hey Ladies, Just came back from Grand Palladium last weekend. We're also another Canadian group of 50 from Toronto. Half our group stayed on White Sands, the other half in Colonial. We had the most amazing wedding! Worked with Erika for over a year. Her and her team are true professionals. We had 50 guests so we had a private reception at La Laguna. The food was really good, no complaints. We requested for menu 8, and we changed up the dessert. We hired DJ Bob who was also awesome. We had a catholic ceremony at Nuestra Senora de las Nieves Chapel. This resort, the ceremony, and reception definitely fulfilled our dream wedding! All our guests had an amazing time, they were sad to go home We're going to have our civil in Toronto this week. It's nothing special, we just want to make sure everything is legal here. Studio 67 also flew down with us from Toronto and took care of our cinematography and photography. They went above and beyond our expectations. Brian and Wanda are so talented in capturing our story. To share with future brides, here's a little highlight video of our wedding day. http://studio67blog.ca/2011/04/tiffany-john-married-in-the-mayan-riviera.html PS-To all future Grand Palladium brides, try to provide as much detail as possible to Erika, it makes everything easier for them to get you your dream wedding!.