lea_rai

Hi Tia, The photo is from La Fleur (the French Restaurant)... I didn't get a chance to try it when I was there last April. We had our dinner at Mamma Mia and it was amazing!! If I can help with anything else please let me know! Seems like a lot has changed since last year so I'm not sure how much I can answer in the way of pricing etc. Here's a pic from our photographer, Juan Navarro (who is amazing by the way if you're still looking for a photographer!) Hope everything works out for you! Leanne.

Oh... I forgot to mention that I did have a copy of what was said in the ceremony but I can't find it anywhere in the 100's of emails that I have. I believe Sabrina from Beauty Weddings sent me a copy... You can email her at [email protected] and I'm sure she can provide a copy for you. Take care! L.

Takelly, We did a 'Welcome Dinner' at one of the buffets... If you're staying on the Sunset side then you could talk to your WC to arrange a reservation at the Sunset Buffet (which is the better of the two!). We were not charged extra and it was a great way for people to get to meet each other if they hadn't done so already. Most of our guests arrived on the Sunday or Monday before the Wedding (Thurs) and we had this dinner on the Tuesday evening. I would suggest if you do plan on doing this, make sure your guests are aware before they start making plans of their own... especially if all of your guests are staying Platinum as they can make all their dinner reservations when they arrive. Samcalv1, We had a four course dinner which included, Caprese Salad (Tomato Boconccini), Seafood Bisque, Cannelloni au Gratin, then Tiramisu for dessert. Then we had our Wedding Cake... So Much Food!! You could definitely get away with having just 3 courses then your cake. Most of our guests say they preferred our wedding cake to the Tiramisu. As for my flowers, they are in the pic above with the cake... here's another few shots of them... As you can see they'll match the flowers at the ceremony site to your bouquet. The flowers at the ceremony site will be moved to your Reception to decorate that area for you... They did a great job! I hope this helps... Leanne.

Hi there! All we needed was our passports and if you're having a legal (Civil) ceremony your witnesses will have to provide their passports, travellers visas as well. We needed to bring our passports, travellers visa, $320US for the Apostillate Certificate $50US for the Judge's Transportation Fee to the meeting with Pamela at the resort. Here's a bit of the email that Sabrina from Beauty Weddings sent me... Hello Leanne Raible & Severine Erickson, please receive kind greetings. My name is Sabrina Lopez, and I'm the person who will take care about the legal proceed of your civil wedding at Princess Hotel. Requirements: please read carefully. You only have to follow these easy steps! 1- Couple and the 4 witnesses, need to be at the hotel with 4 working days in advance, weekends are not taken as labor days for City Hall. In case you don't have the 4 witnesses, the hotel can provide them for an extra cost of US 10/each. This cost must to be paid in cash the day of our meeting at the hotel. 2- Couple and the 4 witnesses, need to bring copy & original passports, at our meeting. 3- Couple and the 4 witnesses, need to present the tourist cards you will receive at the airport, at our meeting. You must fill out this form with exactly the same name as in your passport. 4- The service include: legal assistance via email, legal documentation at the hotel, blood test, Apostillate Certificate (legalization of marriage certificate), and sending the Apostillate certificate to your home by private courier. The legalization of the marriage certificate "Apostillate" allows you to have a legal marriage in your country and this proceed will take about 3 months. The Apostillate Certificate proceed will take about 3 months. The Apostillate Certificate IT IS NOT A TRANSLATION of your marriage certificate. It is a legalization that the Central City Hall adds on your marriage certificate that allows you to having a legal marriage in your country. COST__US 320 DOLLARS This amount has to be paid in cash at the moment of our meeting at the hotel. 5- Before the wedding, you will need to cover the expenses of the gasoline of the judge and the cost of US 50 DOLLARS IN CASH. Please fill out this form completely and send me back in the same format I'm sending you, Also it is necessary you send by email the scanned copy of passports (of you both and the witnesses) to check the correct information at the personal file. The 'form' she's talking about asked for was: INFORMATION OF GROOM, INFORMATION OF BRIDE, GROOM`S PARENT INFORMATION, BRIDE`S PARENT INFORMATION, WITNESSES INFORMATION (basically just full names, addresses, occupation, age, etc) As for the dinner, I'd have to say that La Vaqueria was probably my least favourite of all the Al a Cartes... It was good, but not great. Not sure if this is an issue for you, but there's not much choice for anyone who's not a big 'meat-eater'. Also their desserts where not all that good. We had our reception at Mamma Mia (Italian), everyone raved about how amazing the food was and you get a private area just off the main area of the restaurant... also our service was very good. I would also recommend La Haceinda (Mexican)... this was probably the best meal we had the entire trip!! Also, if you're still undecided about your cake at all I highly recommend the Tropical Fruit... it was the BEST WEDDING CAKE I've ever had. So moist, light and refreshing... especially after eating a hugh meal! They also did a beautiful job decorating it... I brought down my own cake topper & ribbon to coordinate with our colours. I've included some pics for you too! Please let me know if I can help with anything... I know how hard it is to try and plan all this stuff from a different country! Take care, Leanne

Hi VanCity... I'm from Vancouver too! We had our cocktail hour at the Chill Out Restaurant (aka Thai Beach Club) and we weren't given a choice. Now that the other Gazebo is open I'm not sure if they'll have it there as it's way on the opposite side of the beach. You'll probably have to check with your WC to find out. My flowers were perfect... I opted for 108A. Just a simple White Calla Lily & small green flower bouquet with a white organza bow around the stems of the flowers. They also made the decorations for the ceremony site match my bouquet. The DJ for the ceremony can play the music you want or they have their own too. If you make a CD you have to make sure it's in CD-R format not CD-RW otherwise it won't play on their system. We didn't have a Reception with dancing so I'm not sure if you're referring to that as well. Who's your TA? The TA that I used is Susan Gill of All About Destination Weddings and they are run by Travel Impressions/American Express. They can only book the Riviera side. According to her different agencies all own a block of rooms on one side and can only book those rooms. This may be what your TA is getting at. The resort is on one HUGE property so no matter what side you're on you can use the amenities at either side. For example, we were booked on the Riviera side in Platinum but were able to use the Platinum Lounge/Pool on the Sunset side as there wasn't one on our side. All they do is give you a wristband in the colour for Platinum... there's no indication of which side you're on. Honestly, with all the drama we dealt with on the Riviera side... BOOK SUNSET!! As for one being newer than the other... I'm not sure. The Villa Laguna Suites are nowhere near the beach... they are right in the middle of the property near the spa & main lobby. If you haven't decided which room to get, I would highly recommend Platinum (Make sure you book on the Sunset side though to avoid the problems we had). We only paid about $40 more per night than a Junior Deluxe Suite but it's probably a bit more now (we booked in May '10) but the perks that come along with Platinum are so worth it. You would get a room right near the beach, with possibly a view of the water, private pool & lounge, free wi-fi in your room and in the lounge, first pick at reservations for the Al a Carte restaurants that you can book in the Platinum Lounge, free room service for your entire stay (we took advantage of this... it was awesome!!), unlimited supply of booze in your room, restocking of filtered water, beer etc in your mini-fridge. I could go on... it's so worth the extra $$. Hope this helps! Leanne.

http://www.juanphotos.com/blog/?p=11781 Hi Everyone, Here's the link to our professional pics... If anyone is still looking for a photographer, I would definitely recommend him! We've been back for a few weeks now but here's what went on while we were down for our Wedding on April 7th. We arrived on April 1st and came home on the 10th. As for the resort, we had some issues from day 1. Most of our guests were all booked on the Riviera side but due to the explosion in November '10 our Platinum guests were moved to the 'New Platinum Area' which is basically Junior Deluxe suites right beside the lobby that they are calling Platinum. We were told by our TA that we could request a swim-out room in this area and we were ok with that. But, when we arrived at our room we went all the way to the top floor. Pretty sure you can't swim out from there! When we talked to the Front Desk we were told that it was a 'downgrade' to be put in one of the swim-out rooms and that is was not possible for us to be moved. But here's the thing... my sister and her friend actually booked a Junior Deluxe Swim-out and when they checked in they were told by the Front Desk that there were being 'upgraded' to the swim-out in the Platinum Area. WTF?!?!? We went in to her room just to check it out and what do you know... it's exactly the same room. We were pissed. Not only did we get lied to numerous times by the Front Desk staff but we went through 4 days of arguments with them. I really don't feel like we should have had to argue with them about this as it was our Wedding and we had brought over 30 people to their resort. We were NOT impressed. Finally, our on-sight representative with American Express fought tooth and nail for us and we were upgraded to a Villa Laguna Suite. These suites are the most expensive in the resort and are very beautiful... not sound-proof though. We had the pleasure of being woken up the morning after the wedding by horrific country music coming from our neighbours. The great thing about these rooms is you have access to a private pool area which is incredible! The buffets were both great... the Sunset side seemed a bit better. We didn't get a chance to try all of the A la cartes but I can definitely say 'to each their own'. We had an amazing meal at La Hacienda' (Mexican) but a few of our guests didn't care for it at all. The steakhouse (La Vaqueria) was probably my least favourite but it was still very good. We didn't spend too much time on the beach... the 'Platinum Area' on the beach near the Chill Out Restaurant (Thai Beach Club) looks NOTHING like the pictures you see on the website. There are no beds and chaise lounges, just beach chairs (and not many either). This was kind of a disappointment. We did find another 'Platinum Area' on the Riviera side but it's basically just your regular beach chairs in a roped off area. These areas claim to have have butlers but I think we only saw 1 come by within the hour we were there. I'd have to say the pools are much better to spend time at... especially the swim-up bars closest to the beach. We had no problem getting chairs and they were much more relaxing than the main swim-up bar that seemed to be frequented by the 'spring break' crowd. Unless you plan on getting completely trashed and listen to awful music you will probably want to stay away from that pool. Wow... This is starting to become a rant. Ok.. I'll stop complaining. Feel free to PM me if you have any concerns about the Riviera side... I'll tell you everything I know. As for our wedding we couldn't have imagined anything better. Me and a few of my bridesmaids got our hair done at the spa. I gave my makeup session to my Mom as I had a friend do my makeup. Everyone LOVED their hair and my Mom's makeup looked amazing. All you have to do is bring them a pic of the hairstyle you want and they'll do it! We all got ready in my room and the ceremony started at 4pm. It was a perfect time as it was starting to cool down so we didn't die from the heat. We did the civil ceremony and the judge we had was AWESOME! She made the ceremony enjoyable for all of us... cracked a few jokes... made it really light and easy-going. My hubby and I are laid-back, fun people and the last thing we wanted was some stuffy ceremony. The DJ played our music in the perfect order... mind you we made the CD in the right order (make sure it's a CD-R... NOT A CD-RW as they won't play). Ceremony music first then we added a bunch of songs to be played during the Toast and Cocktail Hour. We had just the right amount of time to get lots of pictures while our guests enjoyed the cocktail hour at the Chill Out Restaurant before the dinner reception at Mamma Mia at 6pm. The dinner was really good... we chose to have 4 courses but definitely could have just done 3. We had the Caprese Salad, Seafood Bisque, Cannelloni au Gratin, and Tiramisu. By the time dessert was served everyone was stuffed and we still hadn't cut our wedding cake. We chose the Tropical Fruit cake and it was incredible! Best Wedding Cake I've ever eaten!! We stayed in the restaurant for way longer than 1 1/2 hours but no one rushed us out. We did our first dance in one of the Palapas near the Riviera Lobby & Disco. It was perfect! We just used our iPod dock and did 2 songs. One for Sev and I and the next for me and my Dad and the wedding party. Then we just went and hung out at the Riviera Lobby Lounge for drinks. I really just wanted to chill out and wasn't in a partying mood. It was great though... we just took over the lounge for a few hours and it was perfect! Alejandra, our WC, was great. We met with her the day after we arrived and we sorted out the last minute details. The bouquet & boutonnieres were beautiful as were the decorations at the ceremony site. I had favours for all of our guests that they put out before everyone arrived at dinner. I was also able to arrange a 'Welcome Dinner' for all of our guests at the Riviera Buffet on the Tuesday before our Wedding. The put us all at seperate tables though which I didn't really like. The dinner & service, however, were great!! We went to CocoBongo for our Bachelor/Bachelorette party... I would highly recommend it! It's a once in a lifetime experience. We were able to get 20 people to go, so Sev and I were able to go for free! It's a $50 US charge for transportation, admission and open bar. We were picked up at 10pm and we got home around 4am. Our Amex rep was there and I guess he told them that it we were getting married and they put us up on the big screen and gave us shots! Hilarious!! Needless to say, you probably don't want to do this the night before the wedding!! We slept until 1pm the next day and felt a little rough. Even with all the crap we dealt with, I would still recommend this resort! It was absolutely beautiful and our guests had an great time. Please feel free to PM me if there's anything I can help with... I'd be happy to help out! Best of luck to all the future GRP/GSP brides!!

Hi everyone! Here's the link to our Professional Pics... I'm having a bit of trouble writing a review on here but feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Especially if you and your guests are staying on the Riviera side. We had quite a few issues with our 'Platinum Rooms'. We were down there from April 1st - 10th. The wedding itself was absolutely beautiful and Alejandra, our WC, was awesome! http://www.juanphotos.com/blog/?p=11781

If you look above at my earlier post... it's the second set of pictures. It's a small covered area near the Laguna Villa Suites. Doesn't look like you can fit very many ppl in there tho.

Yup... those are the options. If anything, they should deduct some $$ from the cost of the wedding. I guess the Yuppa will have to do but it just breaks my heart that the Gazebo may not be available. It was one of the main reasons we chose this resort in the first place. I've seen so many pro photos with the Gazebo and they are simply amazing. Fingers crossed that it will be available. I have been told by Alejandra, our WC, that it might be by April. They aren't guaranteeing it tho. I would highly recommend getting your TA to contact them. Mine was on the phone to the Head of Sales at the resort. I think her name is Azalea. I just got my contract today... but there is a big difference between the cost of the package on one page, then it's $500 more on another page. I'm still waiting to hear if it's still $2000 like I thought. We decieded on the 'Royalty' Package as we have about 40 ppl. Have you been given any prices yet? I've you'd like, PM me with your email address and I'll send you any info you like. Cheers!

Hey Denise! My wedding is on April 7th. We arrive on the 1 and will be staying for 10 days. I can't believe it's only 2 1/2 months away!! Do you have a Destination Wedding Planner/Travel Agent that you are dealing with at home? If so, I'd recommend them contacting the resort on your behalf. That's what I did and finally got some answers yesterday. Still waiting to hear if the Gazebo will be open by April... this is a major factor in why we picked this resort. I was so stoked to have the ceremony there! I did receive and email showing the alternate sites... but I'm not super impressed by them. The first set of pics is the one they've set up near the Thai Beach Club restaurant... the second set is near the Laguna Villa Suites I've you'd like, PM me and I will keep you posted with any emails I recieve that I think would help you out. I know how frustrating it can be to not have answers. Yesterday, I saw a little bit of 'Bridezilla' come out! Take care!

Thanks Tamara, I guess that's ok if we get moved to a different category of room but let me tell you it better be one of the Laguna Villa Suites. I've been told by my Wedding Planner, that all would be fine by the time we arrive, but it doesn't seem to be that way. I just wish they would keep us posted with these kind of changes. I know a lot of my guests will be a bit disappointed that we'll be far from the beach and that we won't be in the Platinum suites (they're gorgeous!). When are you headed down to Mexico? L.

Hi Misshh and all my fellow Mexico brides, Thanks for all the information! I'm getting married at GRP in April and having our reception at Mamma Mia as well. Just wondering if you could PM me some pics of the restaurant. When I 'google' it there seems to be 2 different pictures that come up. They don't look very similar so it's hard to believe that they are the same restaurant. Of course, I can't seem to get any answers from our WC, Alejandra. I emailed her on Jan 5th and still have not heard back from her. SO FRUSTRATING!! My guess is that you stayed on the 'Sunset' side in Platinum... Did you happen to notice how the construction on the 'Riviera' side is coming along? Many of our guests are booked in Platinum suites as well and I've heard that the pools are closed in that area along with the Platinum Lounge, of course. I'm waiting to hear back from my travel provider to see what the status will be by the time we arrive as I don't feel it's fair that we've been charged the full amount for these rooms if all the amenities are not available. My email address is [email protected]. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated! I wish you all the best!! Leanne.

Angie... You're are such an inspiration to all us brides to keep positive even when the worst things can happen! You were the first person I thought of after hearing of the tragedy at GRP as it was all your helpful emails and info that made us decide on the resort in the first place. I hope everything works out well for your wedding in a couple of weeks... You deserve it! My WP, Susan is heading down there in a few weeks... She'll get the lowdown. I'll be sure to post any information I receive. According to Alejandra (my WC), the resort is supposed to be up and running normally for our big day in April 2011. Fingers Crossed! All the best to my fellow GRP brides! Leanne.

Hello everyone! I'm looking into this resort for our wedding in April 2011. Just have one concern really... I've read a lot on Trip Advisor about theft from the safes in the rooms. Just wondering if anyone experienced this, what was done about it, etc. Otherwise, this place seems to have everything we want! Look forward to hearing from you... Thanks!

Hi everyone, My name is Leanne... getting married April 2011 in the Mayan Riviera. Thinking about the Grand Sunset Princess or Dreams Riviera Cancun. Any advise or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!