SCarp

There is a live show at the Lyrico bar every night at Riu RM, at 9:45pm. Some of them were really cool shows, like the Michael Jackson and Grease. But some were kinda boring. I think every night the band played out in the court yard and they were REALLY good. But, for the most part, the Riveira Maya Riu is the most classy, but least crazy resort. There is one 24 hour bar and my guests ended up there almost every night. But its the sports bar. They don't play music after like 12 so its not a good place to dance unless you bring your own (but they made us turn ours off when it was late, i guess for other hotel guests who were asleep). I've heard the Disco bar is fun at one of the other Rius there, but we never made it over there. We were usually tired from pool partying every day! No matter what, you will find stuff to do, there's lots of options and lots of RIUs you can check out.

The minister waiting for the bridal party to arrive. Not the flowers on the sides, the ones that came with package. Here's one of my hair, I brought the flower, got it on Amazon, and the hairdresser put my veil in for me and the flower. The second one is taken in the courtyard near the Lyrico bar and where the band plays at night.

Below, some reception photos from Chili's. The first one is part of our head table that had some of the flowers icluded in the package set up on it. The second is one of the three long tables they had set up for the rest of our guests. As you can see, we had no decoration for these tables and I honestly never even thought about it, but if you wanted some flowers or candles or something you could have put them throughout the table. This pic was taken right after the appetizers were dropped off to the table and everyone had their champagne. The third one is the cake table and she included some of the flowers on that table, and my mom put those pictures up behind it. We brought the cake topper and cake cutting set.

Autumn, They give you two big bushels of flowers that they use to decorate the gazebo and then they put it on your tables at the reception. They are pretty. I will include a picture. You can bring extra decoration for tables but we didn't, my mom and Tyler's mom just brought a stand to put baby pics on at the cake table. But like I said, with any flower decoration just send a picture to Nancy through email and they do well with it. We chose Chili's because its somewhat outdoors and we just wanted to take advantage of being in Mexico I guess... plus through reading reviews on here and hearing about the food options, it sounded like more people were pleased with the selection at Chili's, basically we got options for entrees ranging from filet, ribeye, chicken, lamb and maybe one or two more, and they were SO delicious. Then we had salads, appetizers, and desserts included. I actually never ate at Botofogo's when I was there so I can't compare them, but I think most people liked that restaurant too, just depends on if you want fancier indoors restaurant or less fancy outdoors? My hair took about an hour. She did so good! I know its impossible not to worry about how your hair will look, but I really think it'll be great!

Below is our cake (supposedly for 15 people but fed all 40) and what my mom and Tyler's mom brought for pictures. The flowers were included in the wedding package (Royal package). Below that is the bridesmaids at our head table... the flower on right is the centerpiece they included for the tables. This is at Chili's.

The centerpieces included were just the flowers that they put on the sides of the gazebo, which are very pretty, maybe 3 feet long? But I chose not to worry about bringing anything else for centerpieces, and actually my mom and Tyler's mom brought a set up of baby pictures for the cake table. I will upload some pics, hopefully by end of today! With contacting Nancy, I truley wouldn't worry too much. As long as you have your confirmation number and you know your wedding is scheduled there, she is really busy bc I think she coordinates all the weddings in all 4 or 5 hotels down there. They said there are alot of them in April and May so she might not be contacting you as quickly if yours are this spring. She does a great job though, and if you send her exactly what you want in pics, she'll get it!

Here's the link to my review: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/68969/stephanie-s-riu-palace-rm-wedding-review#post_1539218 Let me know if you have questions!

My wedding was at Riu Palace Riviera Maya on January 28. I am so glad I chose to have the wedding here. Travel Agent: A++ We used DestinationWeddings.com and am SO thankful we did. Our travel agent was named Debbie Ryan and even though she's in Boston and I'm in Texas, she was amazing. She coordinated everything, my guests all loved her cuz she's quick with responses and very knowledgeable and not to mention hilarious. She tracked down Nancy for things when I couldn't get ahold of her and basically did all the dirty work that I would've been annoyed with having to do. No, she didn't save us any money but then again she didnt cost any extra either. She locked in the price of the rooms so it didnt go up later when guests finally reserved. They also didn't have to pay everything up front like they would've with another agent we talked to. I can't say enough about how helpful Debbie was throughout the 6 month process of planning. Call her if you're overwhelmed! Resort: A++ This resort is breathtaking. From the lobby to the courtyard to the BEAUTIFUL beach, I felt like I was in a luxury palace the whole time. There are people working on the yard, pool, beach, ect at all times of the day to keep up with the flawless appearance. The people who work at the resort are just as amazing, they work hard and they are friendly. I wish I had brushed up on my spanish though because there were occassional employees who couldn't speak ANY english. Restaurants: A+ You MUST make reservations for the nice restaurants at least a day in advance. The day we arrived we just made one for every day we were there and I'm glad we did. Agave (Mexican) and Krystal (Fusion) were my favorite. But Don Manolo's (the buffet) is really good too so if you don't have a reservation its really no big deal. You dont always want to do a nice sit down meal. And guys can wear nice jeans to the nice restaurants... I wasn't sure until we got there but as long as they're not shorts, any pants will fly. Rooms: A I know you've probably seen pics of the rooms, and they are just like they look in the pictures. High ceilings, beautiful big balconies. There is the unlimited access liquor dispenser and beer, and of course you can order more beer/mimosas/ect bc room service is free!! Anyway the only problem with the room is the sheets are often damp. The best way to deal with this is to turn the AC up when you leave the room so the humidity doesn't have a chance to seep in. Other than that, loved the rooms. We got an upgrade like we were supposed to, but it was the same room just a better view. Right out to the courtyard, which I loved. We actually forked out some extra money on our last night to get the jacuzzi suite which was AMAZING. But in the end, it wouldn't have been necessary to get that room the whole stay since we were never in the room til the last days. Also, we asked the front desk to distribute our gift bags to our guests and they did so with no problem. No charge, they acted like they do it everyday. Welcome Dinner: A They set up our welcome dinner for free at Don Manolo's the day before the wedding, just like they do for pretty much anyone. It was very nice. They had us separated from the rest of the restaurant and it felt like we had our own servers. Not much else to say, it went well and I'd recommend it! Hair: A++ I can't tell you how nervous I was about the hair. I never like my hair when it gets done. But I read on this site that if you have a picture it turns out well. I brought one picture, the hairdresser looked at it for a few seconds, and proceeded to make me look EXACTLY like the model in the picture! It was great. I had thought I needed to do the hair trial but it would have just been a waste of $50 or whatever it costs. I can't remember her name bc it was long, but it started with an A. Would TOTALLY recommend her to anyone. Ceremony: A++ The ceremony was gorgeous. The very best part was the minister. We actually got legally married in the US, so it was a symbolic ceremony, but our minister treated it as though it was our actual day of marraige (Which is how we will celebrate it). His name was Patrick and if you can request him I would! He didn't even know us but said the most beautiful words and made us both cry, along with everyone in the bridal party! We gave Nancy our ipod with songs picked out for the processional, sand ceremony (We added that to our ceremony), and the end of the ceremony. They actually bring down these huge speakers and the whole thing becomes a very big scene for everyone who is at the pool. But I didn't mind at all. It felt like just a big wedding. Its pretty private but there will be people watching for sure. Also we did a rehearsal the night before, but we had 6 bridesmaids and 5 groomsmen so it seemed good that we went over it a little. It only takes like 20 mins to have a rehearsal so I'd recommend it. Also I did bring turqoise chair sashes and Nancy just had me drop off anything like that at the front desk and she had it all set up for us. It was beautiful. Photographer: A- I wish I was better at remembering names, but we used the Kalypso photography and had a female photographer. I didn't meet her until I was walking to the gazebo in my wedding dress and she met me in the courtyard. She was very nice, but things were very difficult when it came to understanding her directions for poses. The candid pics from the ceremony turned out well but when we went down to the beach for pics she would tell us things without moving the camera from her face and half the people were doing what she said and half didn't hear it. Somehow though, the pics turned out great. We ended up ordering 36 pics in an album and got all the negatives on a CD for $600. We only had her for an hour bc they were so expensive and we had a lot of people with us with nice cameras. I have more than enough pics though so I'm overall satisfied with the whole thing. Cocktail Hour: A We had cocktail hour at the lobby bar from 5:30 to 7. In the past people said they had to pay extra for appetizers, but Nancy gave us appetizers for free and acted like that's how its always been... it was great. I mean it was really just a time for people to sit and chat in between the ceremony and reception. I guess we could have done some dancing if we had brought music, but me and Tyler just wanted to relax and socialize a bit. And since we had paid for the private reception, the restaurant let us come early to dinner since they were shut down anyway. But, if you want to know the difference between the lobby bar and lyrico bar for cocktail hour, I would DEFINETLY recommend lobby bar. I just think its nicer. I guess if you want to sit outside the lyrico bar would be good for that, but I didn't like how dark the lyrico bar was so I wouldn't have wanted to sit inside there. Reception: A+++ Everything went really well at the reception. We chose the private dinner at Chili's steakhouse. The food was wonderful. Everyone raved about it. We paid $300 to have a slideshow and then paid $1200 for the DJ. These purchases were well worth it in the end to us. I can't tell you how great the DJ was. He played great song followed by even better song all night. he has almost all the hits, except we did have our ipod which he used to play our favorite texas country and school fight songs. I can't say enough about him. I would recommend it, unless you have a wedding party that isn't really interested in dancing. But we never left the dance floor for 3 hours. It was from 7-11 and it seemed like the perfect amount of time. We did not pay extra to have liquor, and I forgot all about it anyway. Until later, when people ordered liquor, they gave it to us anyway! I would say dont waste your money! You get wine and beer for free anyway. Flowers: A I had the bouquet included in the package and it turned out great. I had sent Nancy a picture of fuschia roses and they replicated it very well. The flowers on the gazebo were pretty too, and I just dont think its necessary to get any extra but they do have pretty flowers. Cake: A+ SEND NANCY A PICTURE!!! She said the baker loves to do different cakes so I just sent a swirly aqua and white pattern cake and they did exactly what I sent. It was delicious too. We had the Royal package, which only included cake for 15 people. Well we had 40 people, but to order more cake was $300. Guess what, I'm so happy I didnt pay that. There was plenty of cake for those who wanted it and we had extra left over! It was really delicious too. Other advice: Definetly get your guests some cute cups for the pool. We got 22 oz cups and EVERYONE used them. The cups you get at the pool are only like 8 ounces. We also had them steam my dress and Tyler's linen suit, but it was like $32. They picked it up one day and dropped it off the next. So you don't really have to worry if your dress gets wrinkled on the plane! Basically, everything went perfectly, even better than I thought it would. I would recommend reading a lot on this site about what to expect and you will be able to relax and enjoy your time. They Plan everything for you! So have fun with planning and relax! I'm jealous of those of you who get to do this soon, I wish I was still there! Let me know if you have questions!

Bride2B: They gave me a price for having the reception on the beach, but it was almost twice as much money. It depends on what time of year you are going I guess, but we were just there end of January and a beach reception would have been a little chilly/windy. We had ours at Chili's, which was a mostly outdoor restaurant anyway, but it was the perfect temperature at night and the wind was blocked. We decided to pay the $20 per person to have a private reception which meant we got Chili's to ourselves from 7-11. We also had the DJ, and unless you pay to have it private, you cannot have dancing at your reception. The reason we paid the $1200 for a DJ is because if you want to use your own ipod they still charge $500 (i think that was the price) to use their hook up for speakers and all that. So instead of worrying about what music we were playing, the DJ played music for us. We didn't have to tell him anything about what to play except our first dance, mother/son and father/daughter, and no one left the dance floor all night because the music he played was AWESOME. I think he was the same DJ Dana had in November and she loved him too. As for the photographer, their prices were pretty high, and we didn't really love her when she was directing us because she was kind of rude and quiet so we couldnt all hear what she was telling us to do. BUT when we got our pics they were great. So, I would still recommend the resort photographer. From other girls on the forum I think they said when you bring an outside photographer, you just have to pay for them to get into the resort, either get them a night stay or the day pass, which was $65 per day for us. Also, we did take our wristbands off for pictures and I lost mine, but the front desk just gave me another wristband when I showed them my photo ID. The point I want to stress is PLEASE Don't stress too much, because they really do it all for you. You will all love it!!

Hey everyone! We have been back from Mexico almost a week now, and everything was WONDERFUL! I honestly couldn't have asked for a better place to hold my wedding. The staff and wedding coordinators exceeded my expectations greatly. I have read through every single page in this forum and I feel that the kinks people have experienced in the past have been smoothed out now. Nancy went above and beyond to do everything for us, we didn't get any extra charges for things like putting up our decorations or anything like that. In fact the wedding ended up being cheaper than I thought... the prices Nancy gave me in the email were for 2011 but she ended up honoring the 2010 prices to be fair since its what I had signed up for originally. Anyway, I will write a full review when I get more time, but here are some of the pics!

Suitcases are packed and we leave in 2 days for Mexico! Thanks for all the info ladies, I'd be freaking out way more without this site. Will post a review and pics when we get back

Well we've got the suitcases almost packed and we'll be in Mexico in 2 days!! I actually feel really comfortable with everything because of all the info from this website- thank you girls! I can't believe how many times I came on here in the last week just to reread things like how to pay for the wedding, what people put in welcome bags, etc. I don't know what I'd have done without this site. I will post pics and a review when we get back! Good luck with planning everyone

Hey girls, Well I had been talking to Ana Hernandez over email for awhile too. But then about a month ago (3 months before the wedding) whenever I emailed Ana, she would forward the emails to Nancy, and now Nancy is the one contacting me and that's who I talked to on the phone about details of the wedding last week. So, I'm not sure if Ana is still there or what, but I get the feeling Ana isn't real experienced and so Nancy just kind of took over. Although she is pretty flaky sometimes too! The email she responds to is [email protected] Vletter, as for the private and semi-private reception, I also have 40 people exactly and she asked me whehter I wanted private or semi private and told me how much it is to make it private. I was actually going to go with semi until I found out I can't have my own music at all. But as far as I understand, I still could have had a semi-private with that many people. I could be wrong though. Just ask Nancy. And the funny thing is, she told me over the phone that the price for private dinner is $25 per person but then when I wrote to confirm things in an email she said $20. So I'm printing that out and handing it to her when we get there like Dana said! I had never heard $25 before.

Just had my phone meeting with Nancy the wedding coordinator yesterday. Shell, to answer your question, no you can't have your own music and dancing if you do the semi-private dinner reception. But I think you may be able to rent out the disco hall next door? I didn't ask about that. For that reason, we have decided to pay the extra $25 per person to have a private reception. It gets us the restaurant from 7-11 and you can choose to have a DJ for $1700 (have heard several prices actually) or rent their sound system and use your own CD or ipod for $4-500. I am not sure what to do about that, because this whole time I had thought bringing your own music was totally free. We chose to do our dinner at Chili's. The other added cost that I wasn't aware of is that they have changed the wedding packages for 2011, so the Royal Package which I had signed up for months ago, which included everything for 40 people, will only be for 15 people in 2011. So, I have exactly 40 people so I can either pay $300 for the extra people to have cake or upgrade to the Caprice package, which includes 40 people now. I just didn't know if a mani/pedi and hairstyle was worth an extra $800 for that package. In addition, Nancy keeps giving me different prices for the same things and on the phone she still isn't sure of herself. Other than that though, I am happy with our plan. I know from all the past brides on here I shouldnt sweat the small stuff and I'm mostly just sooo excited. 51 days for me! Does anyone know if the Lobby Bar or Lyrico Bar is better than the other for the cocktail hour? I am confused now because I think I've heard good things about both. I'm guessing either place would be fine. But if you have any input, please let me know!

Thanks guys! Good luck Lynn! JNagan, I am just starting to think of my wedding favor bags. I ordered personalized decks of cards but thats it so far. May do a hot sauce? I want to bring an ipod with songs too. I need to get on the song hunt. I wonder how normal or strange it would be to just use my own music for everything (ceremony, cocktail hour, reception) instead of spending extra money on mariachi, harp, DJ? I wanted to use their musicians but money is running a bit low.