duprk452

Hello ladies, I know I haven't been on in a while, but I decided to check in for old times sake. We got married on June 18 and I noticed some were questioning the light up dance floor. We did NOT pay for the dance floor, but when we got to the reception site it was there. I asked my WC (Denys) and she told me that it was included. From what I gathered this is the standard dance floor now. We were never charged for it, either. Hope this helps!

Ok, so I found out today that you have up to 6 months after getting married to change your name on your passport for free. Thought all of you would be interested in this. Hope it helps.

If you have never been married before then you do not need an apostille or certified copies of your birth certificates. all you need is your passport and the tourist cards that they give you on the plane.

Quote: Originally Posted by kerrimark2010 Hey Duprk452, Great photos! You look beautiful! About the fabric that's tied around the chairs - was that something that The Royal provided (at an extra cost, I'm sure), or did you bring the fabric with you? I'm thinking of bringing my own in our colors, so any input you have about the size of the chairs would be appreciated... Thanks! Kerri Actually that was something that I decided on LAST MINUTE. Literally, I ordered them a week before we left and they got here in 2 days. I wasn't going to do them at first and after looking at everyone's pictures I changed my mind. This was probably one of the BEST decisions I made about the whole day, because it made a huge difference. Everyone complimented them and couldn't believe how much better it looked than plain white. It just made the whole scenery pop. Someone on here suggested this site, I'm not sure exactly, but I think it was Lady Di. Well, they were great to work with and extremely cheap, too. Satin Sash

Quote: Originally Posted by msglave Duprk452, Love your pics too! I especially love #239 of you! Is #15 the spoon pic? lol! Thank you so much and yes 15 is the spoon pic.. my photographer was scared to get any closer.. she was afraid the flash would spook the make up lady lol

ok.. so here are some of my pics.. I have a lot more to post in both albums but no one told me how long shutterfly took to upload! It takes FOREVER! http://kristenandjason.shutterfly.com/ Hopefully I can find some more pics of the resort that will help you guys out.. In the professional pictures there are a lot of pics of the make up and hair products that they use in SpaZul.. I think my photog was bored while I was getting ready.. lol I will load the rest of them as soon as I have time.

For those who are having difficulty with the amount of guests you have.. I would seriously consider doing an a la carte wedding. This is what we did and it saved us a ton even with our small guest list of 25. This is just my opinion, though. My next suggestion is that if you have a small guest list like we did get a SMALL cake. We had a TON left after the reception b/c people were too full from the dinner and cheesecake. It was pretty, though. I am currently loading pictures to my shutterfly account and will post the link. Don't mind some of the pics in the professional folder, some are not edited yet. I will also load some of the resort so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Welcome back! can't wait to see pictures and of course read the review Hi Laura welcome, 1. The resort photographers are not my personal taste but here is a link to their work ::: Funever Photos ::: You do not have to use them but if you bring an outside photographer than you have to pay the outside vendor fee which is $350 if you booked after December 2. You can have any outside vendors that you would like but you have to pay the outside vendor fee for each one. They offer the mariachi band for the cocktail hour for $700 through the resort. 3. When I went on our site visit we really like Maria Maria's however after seeing Duprke's pictures Pelicano's looks like an awesome spot for a reception. I agree with this.. It all depends on what type of setting/food you are looking for. If you are looking for an outdoor event with lots of seafood options on the menu, I would do pelicanos. They have other food other than seafood, but the seafood is AMAZING. If you are looking for dim light sit down with BIG steaks then Maria Maries is your choice. They are BOTH great choices, though. These would be my top two picks.

Ladies who will be leaving to go to the Royal soon, keep an eye on the weather. Our local weather station is saying first Tropical Depression of the season will be here in 24 hours.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan kenlyn - so glad it was so perfect like I said they should give people that option msglave - I agree with Kenlyn Victor does not get enough credit I featured a wedding he did in Tulum Ale & Pedro Destination Wedding Tulum Mexico Destination Inspirations and just like Kenlyn's pictures you can see what great work he does I did not even put two and two together until I saw Kenlyn's pictures that it was the same photographer lol By the way for past brides who had their reception on the beach was there an issue with sand in food. No one mentioned but I thought I would ask. We are thinking about doing a private dinner on the beach as a gift for our parents. Any thoughts? Nope we did not have any sand in our food. The breeze was nice, but the sand does not move. I will tell you that while we were there they were running a special on romantic dinners for 199.99. There were, however, 5-6 on the beach at the same time.

Quote: Originally Posted by rosieposie Thanks! I feel the same way, I don't think we'll have that many guests and don't know how many of them will actually get up and dance so we don't think it'll be that worth it. Hopefully your dance floor is their new standard. Did you have to pay extra for the person to run your ipod? i saw someone on the bus on my way to work this morning doing this with her eyelashes and i thought of you!!!! i was peeking and she seemed to be doing a "ribbon curling" action with the spoon. i wanted to ask her about it but there were too many people between us. No, as far as I know I did not pay extra for them to run the ipod and that is EXACTLY what she was doing. Like you would be curling ribbon with scissors. It might be the new cool thing to do, who knows?

Quote: Originally Posted by nursegrad2010 Hey girls! I'm new to the board and still haven't pick a date or place and The Royal is a top contender. I just have a couple questions for those that have been there... How "private" is their beach? I know no beaches in Mexico are technically private, but is their beach super crowded? How often does that ferry come and go and do you really notice the crowds coming on and off it? That's really my only biggest concern... other than that I love the place... and I especially love how it's adults only and 5th Avenue is right around the corner!! I've read through some past posts... how has the transition been from the US office to the Mexico offices? I'm almost afraid to send anything through to them and not get any reply. I can only imagine how incredibly busy they are right now. Thanks for your help! Ok, I did not have a ceremony on the beach, but I can tell you that the beach is pretty private after 4. If I were to do a beach wedding I would have it on the beach at Pelicano's. This is the largest area and the most private. Most of the people are on the other end of the beach. The ferry to cozumel can come 1-2 times a day, but some days it doeesn't come at all. You will never notice the people coming off of the ferry, because they go straight into town.

Quote: Originally Posted by PaperBagPrincess Duprke - What a great review! Thank you for all the details, very helpful. Although I now feel like I want to buy the make up team a proper eye lash curler.... but maybe the spoon works better, easier to keep clean being dishwasher safe and all? hahaha Actually, to be honest, my eye lashes have NEVER been so long. So maybe they're onto something that we're not. My best friend actually wants to learn how to do this for herself.

Quote: Originally Posted by rosieposie thanks duprk for the review! you looked beautiful! i was wondering about the blood work process and not upgrading the dance floor, thanks for the details. sorry if i missed it, but did you hire a DJ or just let your ipods run with playlists you mentioned? looks like you had a wonderful wedding =) congratulations! No, we just did playlists on an IPOD. We didn't want to spend the extra money on the DJ and honestly they have someone there working your IPOD and he is pretty good at it. Actually now that I think about it I'd call him the DJ, lol. For us, it just wasn't worth it. We saw some of the DJ's playlists and did not like one of their songs on it so we would have had to create a new one anyway. So after all the time and effort all we would have been paying him for was to press play. I guess that's just our opinion. Now granted we didn't have any cool balloon animals or masks, but we still had fun.

Oh and I wanted to let everyone know that I went to the Social Security office today and had no problems getting a new card. Tomorrow I will try to tackle the DMV

Quote: Originally Posted by prettypigpig Girls, I am currently at Royal PDC, did the menu sampling, will post pics and comments later. Zulma is super sweet! and so far the weather is very nice, except it poured last night, and the reception at the Central Garden had to squeezed into the time share sales office! I am sure I saw some of the girls' wedding during this week...heehee..they were all beautiful:-) While we were there the weather got bad one day while were in the pool. It lasted a good 30-45 minutes, but we didn't let it bother us. We just stayed under the bridge thinking it would pass. Well all of a sudden the wind came out of no where and was GUSTING HARD. There were a bunch of lawn chairs and tables that ended up in the pool and peoples things were flying EVERYWHERE. It got pretty crazy.

Quote: Originally Posted by randi.renstrom thank you so much for the review!! my fiance thinks i'm crazy, whenever there is a new review i get SO excited it sounds like it was perfect though! i do have one question....which is kind of random....when we were there in May, the 24 hour lounge was SO hot! and you said it was ice cold. im wondering if they decided to add, or turn on, the air? when we were there it was ridiculously hot in there! There was only one day that we went in there and it felt hot, but we all chocked it up to sweating out alcohol. We did notice that day, however, that after about an hour in there it started cooling off quick. So, maybe they wait until certain times of the day to turn it on, or maybe someone complained, but we always said okay it's time to go sit in the AC when we wanted to go to the VIP room. Also, people complained about the heat in Spice, but we didn't find there was any problems with the temperature.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Duprke - thank you for such an awesome review! I am still laughing about the spoon lol by the way so where did the blood work happen? did you have to wait a while. By the way looks like they upgraded on their dance floor. That is such a nice dance floor! when we went on our site visit the weddings we saw just had these wood planks. Kenlyn - I know I can't wait to be there lol love the reception at Pelicanos they should give that option to everyone. What a great spot. The blood work is done in the wedding center. Let me tell you that if I was scared about ANYTHING that this was definitely it. No, we were the first appointment that morning so there was no line, but the list was a mile long. The doctor comes from the hospital and speaks English perfectly. She has a travel case full of antiseptic wipes, needles, and other stuff. What I liked, though, was that the needles were in plastic cases that were sealed and she says, "Now I show you that I break the seal." I did not feel apprehensive about it at all after that. The one thing I will warn you about is that she does not baby-fy you at all like they do in the states. She doesn't say okay now you'll feel pressure... yada yada yada. No, it's just WAM you're stuck.

Wedding Coordinator- We had Denys and I LOVED her. She makes sure that everything is taken care of. The only complaint I have about the whole wedding situation is that we had to meet with her on Wednesday at 4:00, Thursday at 10:30 to do the blood test and then Friday was the wedding. This made it difficult for us to make plans or go on excursions. Most excursions don’t come back to the resort until 6 and they leave at 10, so it wasn’t very convenient. But she had a stack of other weddings she was working on that week. The day we did our blood work there were 8 other couples doing the same so she was busy. She was so helpful, though, in calming me down. We found out an hour before the wedding that all of the playlists had been erased off of our IPOD. My husband says he has no clue how this happened, but I’m pretty sure he tried syncing it before we left to add more music for the plane and he forgot to sync the wedding playlist too. I started to panic for a moment and then everyone started working. Denys told me to sit and stay calm while she went find a CD player because luckily I had brought my ceremony and dinner music on CD’s for backup. Then, my girls all started going through their I Phones to make playlists. Literally, in 20-30 minutes the problem was resolved. Also, when they were setting up they had put all of the chairs and whatnot inside of the gazebo and I thought this was just to clear the walkway until the ceremony started for other guests, but when I asked her she realized that they had made a mistake and she was quick to have them move everything. Ceremony- We had our ceremony at 2:00 p.m. and it was HOTTTTTTT! My dress was not heavy at all and I was sweating my butt off. It was so bad that I had seen a short white linen dress in the window of the resort gift shop that I liked and I ended up buying it to change into. Also, the direction the sun is coming from makes it difficult to see without squinting. If I could change anything I would have done the ceremony later that day, but there were other ceremonies after us so it wasn’t possible. The judge speaks English fluently and said some very moving words. Don’t ask me what they were, though, because my husband was holding my hand and shaking so much that’s all I could concentrate on. Matt is definitely right about having the ceremony inside of the gazebo. I mean it would have been nice because it was cooler in there and there was less of a glare, but it was SOOOO dark in there for the camera that it was hard to adjust. It did look like they had lights in the gazebo so I would ask if you could use them. The champagne toast after the ceremony lasted about 30 minutes, but words to the wise the champagne is strong. My MIL does not drink much and after two glasses was almost drunk. Dinner- Everyone is still raving about the food at our wedding. This was by far the most delicious food we have ever had. We had the salad off of the vegetarian menu. I think it was the three lettuces salad with tomato & warm watercress. Then we had the Beef fillet with Dijon mustard varnished with Provençal herbs and mashed potatoes au gratin. Lastly, we had the cheesecake with chocolate. All of it was soooooooo good. We got all of the filet’s done medium and no one complained, even my sister who likes hers burnt. I would try to speed dinner up a bit. It seems that they wait until everyone puts their fork down, but some people were just picking at the food that was still in front of them, because they were waiting for the next course. It took us an hour to finish everything. Reception- My one piece of advice is that you should definitely pay for the extra hour. By the time we finished the first dance we only had about an hour and a half left and we were just getting things cranked up. One of our friends ended up putting up his credit card to pay for the extra hour, which he didn’t get to enjoy because he was in the office trying to pay for it. It was just a big mess. We didn’t even have time for bouquet tosses or garter tosses. I wouldn’t change a thing, though, because we had SO much fun. Everyone is still raving about it, and our single friends have all declared that we should be ready to go to their wedding at the royal. They loved it so much that they want to do the same thing. A few people on here mentioned that they standard dance floor looked like two pieces of plywood and this could not be more wrong. When we got there we were surprised to see that the standard dance floor was actually white and lit up. Now, it did not light up different colors, but it did light up. One thing I did not notice until the end of the reception was that the lights under the tables were not lit up. I was a little disappointed about that because when I showed people pictures of what it would look like, that’s what I showed them. The waiters there will wait on you hand and foot. Jose’ was dedicated to me and my husband only and I blame him for how drunk we were. LOL No really, he will not let your glass go empty and he is very good about keeping time for you. Actually, when we walked up he made us two fresh tequila sunrises and brought them to us without us even asking for a drink. He kept on telling us that it was “our party†and that he would make sure we enjoyed every minute. He was amazing! There were also three or four other waiters there that were for your guests. The open bar is huge and contains anything you want. Photographer- I brought my photographer with me from Louisiana. She is AWESOME at what she does and I could not have asked for anything better. Her prices were so reasonable that we thought it was too good to be true, but she went above and beyond. She followed me around all day long and got shots of my hair and make-up being done, we did some pre-bridals with just me, and she took some pictures of the guys. She also did the ceremony, reception, and trash the dress. We felt very comfortable with her, because she was very upbeat and happy the whole time. She was not a bossy, demanding, or uptight photographer at all. You can tell she enjoys what she does! Flowers- We had the resort do my bouquet and the centerpiece at the altar and they were gorgeous! My flowers were so fresh you could smell them from a distance. Hair and Make- up- I was a bit worried about this prior to the wedding, but it all turned out well. Needless to say I think I had two cans of hairspray in my hair by the time they were done, but it was probably for the best because my hair did not move an inch or frizz out. This is difficult to accomplish with my hair. I did a simple up-do to the side with flowers in my hair so it wasn’t anything that she couldn’t handle. They had books and pictures for you to look through when you got there, but I had come prepared with my own. My make-up came out wonderful, but while she was doing it I got REALLY nervous. When she began curling my eye lashes, I did not know what was going on. When I opened one eye to peek and see what was going on, I saw that she was curling them with a SPOON! Yes, a spoon that you eat with. We all got a good laugh out of it and a somewhat decent picture of it.

So here is our review, which is REALLY long and takes up two posts.. lol sorry! Airline- We flew Continental Airlines and we have mixed reviews about them. First off let me just say that these things do not reflect the airline as a whole, but simply some of the people who work for them that we had to encounter. Overall, our flights were amazing. They were on time and went as smoothly as possible. We especially liked that there was a TV at each seat with Direct TV. (Which of course you had to pay 6$ for, but to keep us occupied we didn’t mind at all.) The problem came in when we were boarding the plane in New Orleans (where we are from). The lady who checked our bags specifically told me to ask if I could put my dress in the first class closet. So, when we loaded the plane I asked and the man looked confused. So I told him I would ask the stewardess. He did not realize that my fiancé’ was loading directly behind me and when I walked off he said “I don’t know what she’s so worried about that thing for, she’s going to wear it once and then sell it on EBAY! Who cares if it goes in the closet?†Well, if you would know my husband, you would know this didn’t go over well with him. The stewardess that I decided to ask about the closet was just as rude, and the dress ended up in the overhead compartment. Now, when we got to Houston it was a COMPLETE change. Everyone at IAH was extremely cordial about it. The guys transporting people on golf carts all stopped to say congratulations and when boarding the plane the steward stopped me and asked me if he could put the dress in the closet for me. So, maybe it just depends on which airport you go to. Ground Transportation- We chose Best Day Travel to do our transportation and we had no problems at all. They did not realize that on our flight alone we had 14 people traveling with us, but they were quick to get a larger van to accommodate us. The driver stopped for us to get a drink on the way to the hotel and even let one of our friends sit in the front with him and listen to HIS IPOD. (The driver had some interesting choices on the IPOD, too. It was hilarious!) He cut up and joked with us and also told us some of the best places to go while we were there. Hotel- This hotel is AMAZING. It is the cleanest, most well kept hotel I have EVER been too. Everywhere you go someone is working on something or cleaning something. While we were there we saw them gardening, painting, changing tiles, etc. They do all of this without interrupting your stay, and you’re actually grateful to see them doing this. They definitely take pride in their work. They are also very accommodating. My father-in-law drinks whiskey and whiskey only and they didn’t have any in his room so they brought him a whole fifth of it. We thought that it was really cool that there is a photographer walking around to take pictures of you. One day there were two parrots you could take pictures with. Another day there were two guys dressed in authentic Indian outfits, there was a huge iguana, and one night they were out there taking romantic pictures of couples. You are not obligated to buy any of these pictures, but you can go to the photo station any time while you are staying there and purchase them if you wish to. It’s kind of like a cruise line does. Restaurants- The only restaurant that our group had complaints about was the Mediterranean restaurant. There were so many of our guests who did not like the food there that my FI and I chose not to even try the place. So, I can’t give you first-hand knowledge of their food. We ate at Spice every morning and it was so good. Gabriella makes the best omelets! So good that I wish I could have brought her home with me. At breakfast Spice has an omelet station and a pancake or French toast station along with the many many choices on the buffet. We only ate dinner at Spice one night (our first night there, because none of the guys wanted to get dressed for dinner) and the spaghetti bar and grilling stations (with steak or chicken) are pretty good. My sister does not care for too much spaghetti and she went on and on about the spaghetti there. We ate at Asiana twice and it was great. When you get there they give you spring rolls as an appetizer and they were really good. The fried rice tastes more like Thai rice, but it was still good. The steak and the beef filet were my favorite choices. I would not try the duck at Asiana, two people who were with us did not like it. It was very fatty. Maria Maries was by far our favorite restaurant. It is a little nicer than the other restaurants on site. I think the guys had to have a collared shirt to get in, but it’s worth it. They steaks there are phenomenal and the grouper was just as good. We ate there twice as well and would have probably eaten there more if possible. The only advice I have is that when you order a salad at the restaurants they usually serve them with a balsamic vinaigrette unless you ask for something else. I was kind of confused the first night when my ceasar salad didn’t come with ceasar dressing, but the waiter fixed it immediately. We ate Pelicanos for lunch most days because of convenience. It was extremely close to our room and there was no dress code. The salmon, tuna, seabass, scallops, shrimp, aracherro are all good. When you arrive they give you salsa and guacamole to start off with. The salsa throughout the entire resort is more of a pico de gallo than a salsa, but it’s still good. We did have a visitor, an iguana, one day while eating at Pelicano’s, but he did not bother us. We were actually interested in seeing him, since this was the first one we had seen the whole trip. 24 Hour VIP room- This is basically the only place in the hotel, other than your room, that is ICE COLD! It’s nice to go in there and get away from the heat every now and then. They have a fully stocked bar and two kegs of beer in here. There is a buffet full of food (Which is usually cold), and I didn’t care for it too much. It’s usually chicken nuggets, jalapeno poppers, onion rings, chicken wings, etc. There are two pool tables and a ping pong table. There are also a few TVs and a bunch of board games that are in a hutch by the door. There are sofas and chairs to relax on and even a balcony with lounge furniture for those who smoke. Room Service- We ordered room service twice and both times it was extremely slow. We ordered about an hour and a half before the wedding for the girls to have a snack and it got there literally five minutes before we were set to walk down the aisle. Needless to say we were scoffing down food. The other day we ordered it after a long excursion and we fell asleep before it got there. Bars- Our room was right next to Tradewinds bar, so we spent a lot of time here during the day. Luis and Lopez took good care of us. I read a lot of reviews about how the bartenders did not make the drinks strong. Well, those people must have some strong livers, because our drinks were usually half liquor. At night we went to the lobby bar or tequila bar. In the lobby bar there was entertainment every night. Usually it consisted of a band, live act, musical show, and something that got the crowd involved. The first few nights we sat and watched, but after that it seemed like the same thing. There are also two pool tables in the lobby, so some nights we stayed there and played a game or two. The tequila bar is outside, so it can get muggy every now and then. The waitresses there knew us by name and joked around with us a lot. One of them kept hitting on my husband, which I thought was hilarious so I egged it on as much as I could. I loved the tequila tasting section. It basically looked like a pirogue filled with ice and ten different kinds of tequila. There was one that I wanted to try but wasn’t brave enough to do. It was in a clear bottle with no labels and had a bunch of whole peppers in it. I wish I would have tried it now, but I was too chicken then. Oh well! Pools- we stayed in the back pool the entire time. This is where the swim up bar is located. The ONLY complaint that I have about the pools is that they close at 10. There were several nights where we would have enjoyed going for a late night swim to cool off and we couldn’t. It was quite frustrating. The entertainment staff at the pool is hilarious, especially Rosario and Alex. There was aqua aerobics, soccer, drinking contests, bracelet making, salsa dancing, fresh coconuts filled with rum, etc.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Steph I am so sorry to hear that you went through that. That is really just horrible I bet though it was noticeable to you but to anyone else and you probably will not be able to tell from the video. I still however cannot believe the minister called you and spoke to you in that way. That is completely unacceptable. Did you tell Zulma that she did that? Duprke - good to know about the cake Also my cousin and a good friend of the family are going to be playing the Spanish guitar for our ceremony. Does anyone know if the royal will provide the sound system and set up? Or is that extra? There is a sound system that is provided for anyone with a private reception. I do believe that the sound system was provided for the ceremony, too.

Quote: Originally Posted by ChicagoBride2011 When I was there in April for my site visit Zulma said that they had 120 weddings that month. I would say 3-4 a day. This past Saturday they had 3-4 on the beach alone and I think one in the courtyard. We met SOOOO many people who were getting married it was ridiculous and I don't think any of them were BDWers

Quote: Originally Posted by msglave Duprk, Is your sash color David's bridal mermaid? I'm not sure if it would match the david's bridal mermaid.. but they were aqua/tiffany blue This is where I ordered them from-- 8x108 Satin Sash - TiffanyBlue/Aqua50618(10pcs/pk) I didn't end up getting them all back, which i was a little disappointed about because I wanted to be able to give them to someone on here, but we were so busy the last few days I guess I forgot. I do have about 5-6 that were not used that I brought home. They come in packs of ten and are VERY easy to transport.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Everything looks beautiful I especially love the cake! The cake was SOOO good.. and it looked amazing! We had chocolate with almond and the cake itself is chocolate with an almond flavoring.. it tasted wonderful, but rich! We actually had the waiters get a few people milk. LOL However, it was wayyyyyyyyy too much cake. the middle layer got eaten, but they brought the top and bottom layers to our room because that's how much we had left and I am ashamed to say that most of it went to waste. I had no clue that they would put the pink flowers on the cake, but I loved the way it turned out.

Our photographer stayed at the resort with us and we did not have to pay anything for her other than the fee to have her as a guest at the wedding just like you would have paid for any other guest. They were actually very accommodating with her too.