KathyW

The only restaurant that has a dress code is the reservations only restaurant at Maria Maria..the guys had to have on sleeves..We had one guy with us who had on a tank and they made him go put on a button up but everyone was wearing flip flops and sandals so they arent that enforcing of the dress code...all the other restaurants you can wear whatever or atleast we were never stopped for dress code issues... pretty much summer attire is fine.. and swim wear during the day is totally fine..I would just bring regular clothes for the dinner time but nothing real fancy

Hi! Ok so we just did the free wedding because we booked 5 nts at the Royal Presidential suite. Money well spent btw! We did the private reception but you have to have 20 guests to get this (which you get to pick your location), otherwise it will be a semiprivate reception and you can only have those in the restuarants. It will cost an extra 30 dollars per person to do the private reception. You can just email your coordinator a head of time and stake your claim on time and location otherwise if you wait until the 45 day mark which is when you do all the forms with all your details for the wedding. If you wait till then it could be too late and the location may already be booked. So my advice is to do everything in writing with your WC as soon as you make your decision on venues. We did our private reception on the gazebo terrace and used the gazebo for dancing (ceremony was at 5 and reception started at 6:30-9:30) The latest you can be out there is 10 though. Yes we did have a DJ. We booked Ivan from DJ Demorixx who was absolutely wonderful. If you have a younger crowd I would highly reccomend getting the dj. Plus the DJ brings the lighting and decor and really makes the gazebo look fun and beautiful. Worth the money!!! We used Cecilia Dumas and she was super amazing, which we booked on our own and booked her a room at the Gran Caribe to avoid the outside vendor fee of 375 I think... It was well worth the money also because I did not hear great reviews on the hotels photographers. If you want to see more pics you can friend me on facebook. Just private message me and I will give you my FB info Hopefully that was helpful...if you have anymore questions feel free to ask...Im here to help all of you brides who are where i was at one point... Its so hard to plan your dream wedding at a place site unseen so its really helpful to be on this site and have brides who have been there done that!

Hi! Thanks for the nice words! Yes I would totally reccomend the Gran Caribe and Gazebo terrace for your group of 20 people. I think its the best spot for a smaller group as the other terraces are much bigger and I would think would be less intimate. I loved the terrace just because it was super private and the space made it feel like we had a larger group. We had 34 people and we all fit perfectly. It was super private! Also I reccomend you use the Gran Caribe gazebo over the Royal because the Royal gazebo is very out in the middle of everything over by the pool area so much more public. THe Gran gazebo is between hotels and there are gates on both sides so less traffic..we didnt have anyone in our area the entire time we had our ceremony or reception. They keep it closed off so its private... As far as food goes, we werent able to taste anything before hand since we didnt do a site visit prior to the wedding trip but we had the chicken florentine and beef fillet and everyone loved them both. I also had 1 guest who had the linguini and she said that was great also...So if you stick to the basic meals you wont be dissapointed! Everything was fabulous!

Hey Wonderful April brides just got my prof pics back and wanted to share a few of my favs... I cant believe April has come and gone and now were left with amazing memories and beyond beautiful pics..and each other of course! Whos working on baby makin now?? heheh

I envy you girls who still have their weddings coming up..I would give anything to rewind that day! It was beyond perfect! You will love it!

ask away....

By the way the master swim up suites at the Royal are super fabulous. If we didnt want the extra room in our suite we would have loved the swim up suite.. you have a nice pool area outside.. its awesome! Ugh just thinking about this place makes me want to go back soooo bad! The Royal is amazing..we spent our whole honyemoon comparing everyplace we went with the Royal and nothing will ever look the same! We are planning to go back soon!!! hehe

Thanks so much! Yes we chose the free package just because we didnt plan to add much from the resort since we brought most of our own stuff down with us. Plus we wanted the presidential suite anyway I know the judge alone is like 400 or 500 I cant remember what it went up to this year so with the free wedding you dont have to pay for that. I think you need to decide what kind of room you really want and what extras you want and figure out cost for cost..make sense? Since we didnt need flowers, band, or centerpieces we were fine with the free package. Hope that made sense... as far as centerpieces go, my mom made them and since we only had 4 tables we only needed 4 centerpieces so we just packed them in our carry ons... piece of cake. We ended up bringing down 2 20x20 boxes packed with all of our OOT bags and wedding decor and it suprisingly all made it in one piece (my hubby works for UPS) so i think that helped alittle! lol Anyway let me know if you have any other questions Good luck!!!!

Ok Ladies I finally got my prof pics back and posted a review. Im not sure if this link will work but if not just go under reviews of the Gran Caribe posted today... Hope this is helpful http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/gran-caribe-real-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/4491

Ok Ladies I finally got my prof pics back and posted a review. Im not sure if this link will work but if not just go under reviews of the Gran Caribe posted today... Hope this is helpful http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/gran-caribe-real-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/4491

Ok Ladies I finally got my prof pics back and posted a review. Im not sure if this link will work but if not just go under reviews of the Gran Caribe posted today... Hope this is helpful http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/gran-caribe-real-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/4491

Ok Ladies I finally got my prof pics back and posted a review. Im not sure if this link will work but if not just go under reviews of the Gran Caribe posted today... Hope this is helpful http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/gran-caribe-real-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews/4491

Hi ladies, I just got married here on April 6th and am working on my review. Im kinda waiting to post it until my professional pictures arrive so I cant post those with it...But should have it posted by the end of the week. But if you have any questions in the meantime feel free to message me... Our wedding was beyond amazing.... I know there are some brides on here that posted some not so fabulous reviews which freaked me out prior to our arrival but really they exceded our expecations. We had our ceremony in the gazebo and had our reception on the terrace with the dj/dancing set up in the gazebo..I havent seen any brides do that set up but I thought it was perfect. It was secluded but also gave us the beachy feel. I couldnt have been happier with how everything turned out. Food was super yummy. We had 34 guests and there was not a single complaint!!!! My only complaint was that the time flew by waaaay to fast so be sure to enjoy every single minute of it! I am so excited to see the prof pics..We hired Cecilia Dumas and I am confident the pics will be super aweseome as well...stay tuned!!!

Hey ladies, Im back finally! 3 weeks of traveling has been amazing but its nice to be back home! Our wedding was beyond my wildest dreams! It makes me smile when I think back on that day. It was beyond perfect but went way to fast! As wonderful as our wedding experience was, it was also a time of great sadness... My hubbys grandma passed away the day before our wedding and while on our honeymoon my grandpa had a brain bleed and had to have brain surgery and is not doing well... Then the hubby got really sick on our honeymoon and ended up losing his wedding ring in the ocean on the last day of our honeymoon! Geez when I see it all laid out there I cant believe were still standing. But aside from all that it was a dream come true! We are still waiting for the prof pics but we have some taken from friends that I will share. We couldnt afford to pay our photographer to do TTD session so we just had our friends take the pics Anyway we havent got the prof pics back yet but Im anxiously awaiting them. I will post the TTD ones and as soon as we get the prof ones Ill post those also... Hey those of you who are back and done with the wedding stuff, how are you feeling now that its all over? I have this constant feeling like I have too much time on my hands.its bittersweet I guess... Its crazy how we spend so much time on wedding planning and its all done and over with in a blink of an eye. Anyway Im so happy to hear all of you girls who are back had fabulous weddings and you all look beautiful in your pics! Thank you all for all your ideas and support. My wedding would not have been as amazing as it was without all of your ideas and support! You girls rock!!! xoxo

Hey I will be posting pics and a review on the gran caribe brides and the royal thread so stay tuned. I am returning from my honeymoon sat nt and as soon as I get my pics back nxt wk ill post everything. But everything was beyond amazing!

Hey girls I just wanted to check in with you all and let you know our wedding was AMAZING!! Ours was on Wednesday and we had Flora. You have nothing to worry about, she was a delight and she made sure everything was exactly how I wanted. My wedding was seriously a dream come true! The only issue that we had was pertaining to the photograher and the outside vender issue. Elsa told me originally that we could avoid the outside vendor fee if we booked them a room. So we booked them a room at the gran caribe and we were at the royal. Well 15 mins before flora comes to my room and says the photographer can not come to my room and take pics unless we pay the outside vendor fee...I was a lil annoyed but we just nded up meeting her at the gran caribe and took our pics there instead of the royal. In the end it wast really a big dea and we avoided paying the 350 fee... the rest of the day was perfect. Ivan was our dj and he was super awesome. He even surprised us with fireworks during our 1st dance that we didn't pay for. I could go on and on but ill save it for the review. Were going on a 2wk hawaiian cruise now so ill post pics ad more details as soon as I return on th 23erd. Message me with any questions and id be hapy to help anyone who is worried like I was. But seriously the absolute best time of our lives... you will love every minute of it! Can't wait to post r pics

hey girls I just got back from the royal, our wedding was on Wednesday and was beyond amazing! We had the time of our lives and pretty much everything was perfect! I plan to do a reiew and post pics as soon as we return from our 2 wk honeymoon cruise to hawaii just wanted to jump on here and let you all know there is nothing to worry about. We had Flora as our wc an she was great...I worried for nothing! The only glitch that I want to share is pertaining to the photographer and outside vendor thing. Elsa told me we could avoid paying the outside vendor fee if we just booked a room for the photog at the gran caribe but found out 15mins before the wedding that they would not allow the photographer to take pics of us at the royal if we didn't pay the vendor fee so we just had to go over to the gran caribe where the photog was booked at and took our pics there.... let me know if you have any quesions otherwise ill post everything when I return on the 23rd!!

Hey girls its been a busy month! I can't believe I leave in 5 days...time is going way to fast! I'm having a rough time trying to keep track of all the little details and am worried I'm going to forget something important! Anyone else starting to feel anxiety creepin in?lol how are you girls getting your dress down? Mine is on a cardboard thing to keep the chest from being smooshed so I can't lay it flat or let it get smashed... are you girls going to cary it on or has anyone found a clever way to pack it? I'm not sure if the airline (continental) will let me put it in the closet if I'm not in frst class....wht do you think? Anyway for those of you girls who are leaving in the nxt week what all do you have left to do now? I can't shake this feeling like I'm forgetting things iyiyi whoever told me that destination weding planning was the less stressful easier route to wedding planning was definitely wrong! Haha

Congrats Shay, I can say from the last 10months of the whole planning process it goes by so fast so enjoy every minute... I cant believe that we leave next Friday for the Royal... I have been working with Flora as she is the WC for most of the weddings but her father passed away so she is out till next week...Hope things go smoothly once we arrive! Im still nervous but what can ya do..I will post pics as soon as I return but we are going on a 2 wk Hawaiian cruise afterwards so I wont be back till the end of April...stay tuned! Its been a blast being on this site and getting sooo much planning ideas and advice...I definitely wouldnt have been able to survive the last 10 months without ya all! XOXO

I got a couture cake and am also doing oot bags...I don't know if the staff will deliver them or not but I just plan to greet my guests when they arrive as most are traveling with me and I'm just gonna give them their bag as soon as we get to the hotel!

I will definitely be posting a review and pics when I return, trust me after being on here for the past 10 months I know how important seeing reviews and pics from other brides is.... So stay tuned and wish me luck that we are able to have a good experience as we are stuck with Flora for our onsite WC which I havent seen to many good reviews on here about her... iyiyi

It sounds like Flora is the main lady for the weddings...I will let you all know how she is when I go in a few weeks..wish me luck! Just to be safe though, I'll be apointing a friend to handle all the main decor and details... Im nervous!

I did in both black and white hehe love it!!!

Hi Girls...I just need to vent alittle..So I am less than a month away from my wedding and I had asked Elsa to make sure that I did not want Flora as my WC and asked if I could have Diana and she told me yes then today she emails me and says sorry Diana is not available and Im stuck with Flora....Im like nooooooooooooooo I dont want her as I have heard nothing but horrible things about her. Im totally stressing now! Ugh!!! The sad thing is it does not appear that there is anyone to go to if she is not doing her job... I feel helpless! Looks like Ill be assigning my friends to do the WC duties since I cant count on this chick to do it! Ugh so annoyed right now!!!