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Valerie, Â Your photos are amazing! I love your dress... you looked like a mermaid... how practical! Your cake design was very nice. It looked like it had crisp cut-out lines and the fondant looked smoothed out too from the pictures but I noticed you gave the cake rating a 3/10 for its bland taste. So now you got my attention! Was this an in-house cake? What flavor did you choose? Was this the cake that was included in your free wedding package? Did the resort cut and serve the cake to your guests? Were you able to order a cake of the right size for your intimate guest party or did they just give you a really big cake??? Â I have several reasons to be concerned about the cake: Presentation / Size: I have seen a photo of a cake that was served at one of their weddings last June at the Royal in Cancun and it was ordered to serve 50 guests. The bride said it looked like it could feed 200 people!!! Not only that but the fondant was not smooth. It had some rather large wrinkles and this was the 1st thing I noticed in her pics... Ouch! Service: The bride also told me that as soon as she cut into the cake, it disappeared and no one got to eat her cake! They told her that as a Mexican tradition, the couple cuts and serves their guests and it is not the responsibility of the kitchen! Taste: Bland you say? I have chosen to go with vanilla sponge and vanilla filling. When I did my site inspection, the WC said that vanilla was the most popular of them all. What flavor did you have? Â

Thank you for the recommendation Nan! I will check out her website. Â Has anyone heard of DJ Mannia? I've seen that both Dorremix & DJ Mannia have the light up dance floors but I'm not so sure I wanna go with that. Does anyone think it's too 70's or club-ish???

Congratulations fellow May 2011 Brides I'm happy I found you all to chat with. I'm a newbie & I wanna share my info: I have booked my wedding at the Royal in Cancun for May 23, 2011. Got the photog and the dress. Waiting to get group rates from the resort to send out the passport invites - check out Ana de Roux's Passport Invitations... she's sooo creative! Can anyone tell me who they're using as a DJ and videographer and what you're doing for centerpieces? Gosh, I'd rather not spend $100 per floral centerpiece to have it go to waste at night... know what I'm saying????

I did a site inspection at the resort and the gazebo is gorgeous. I honestly don't think they would set up 2 weddings near each other. Everyone is reeeeally nice so it's hard to believe that they would treat you or any other bride for that matter in a bad way on your special day. I wouldn't worry about it.

Hi Ladies,  I'm a newbie and I just reserved my wedding date for May 23, 2011. I'd like to say that fortunately for me, I haven't had any issues with communication since they have now developed their new communication system called BaseCamp. My Wedding Consultant is Ana Perez and she is very knowledgeable and professional. BaseCamp is similar to this forum but communication is strictly limited to you (the Bride & Fiance) and the WC. It basically keeps track of all messages and is easier for them to work with than sending e-mails back & forth. I find it convenient  I have been having difficulties getting a block of rooms for our guests of approximately 75 - 100 (so far we have 150 invites including 2 flower girls). I am currently working with an agency at www.TheWeddingHoliday.com to get these group rates. They are based in Canada (unfortunately for me since I live in NY), but Michelle has been extremely helpful and is currently in touch with Real Resorts. The rates that Ana provided me are "Individual Rates" only and therefore can change at any given time without notice and can only be confirmed with 1 nights deposit. I believe they must receive a commission because she's not giving me an alternative to booking these rooms, which is not practical since my guests won't start making reservations until perhaps December 2010 (6 months before my wedding) and by then those rates will change, oh I can only imagine! So if you are having trouble getting group rates, I recommend going through an agency because they will be able to get the group rates and not you, the Bride. Keep in mind that getting quotes on "Group Rates" does take a little longer than "Individual Rates" so be patient. I will still work with Ana for everything else because she's more knowledgeable on the resort and packages.  I also did a site inspection at THE ROYAL Cancun & Gran Caribe on July 2010, and we fell in love with the Chapel. The food tasting was amazing. They offer generous portions for a sit-down dinner at the reception (gourmet salads, 6 racks of lamb for me & 2 10 oz. medallions for him & decadent fruit desserts is what we had). Our waiter was a bit annoying or just trying really hard to make sure we had everything cuz I seriously couldn't get a quiet moment with my hubby-to-be and enjoy our meal. Hopefully it was just this one waiter. I have to add though that I did not stay there although I should have because EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL. The beach is in one word.... Breathtaking.... and as soon as we saw that we knew we finally found the right place. In July we inspected 12 resorts and interviewed 2 Mexican photographers so to finally sit down and enjoy a good meal was well deserved! The Wedding Coordinator who gave us the tour was Diana Rodriguez. She was very pleasant. I got a good vibe from her and felt pretty confident in that she will be on top of things come the Big Day! She showed us photos of their onsite photographer and the album looked like something you pick up at Walgreens and fill up with 4X6 photos.... really! If you're like me and value photography, then you should go with an outside photographer and pay the $350.00 vendor fee (yikes!) or register them as a guest and then the fee will be waived. I'm considering flying down a photographer from the states who offers an amazing package, but after seeing photos from Del Sol, I'm really torn because now I love their style! I also interviewed Rafa Ibanez, a photographer based in Mexico, and met with him once I returned to NY. I really liked his style and his personality. The only drawback is that you'd have to fly him in from Mexico City too but at least he doesn't use Mexican album manufacturers like the others that I interviewed! Besides how can you have a really good product and put it in a really crappy package? Not the case with Rafa  The ROYAL Cancun suites are nice and all your guests will love it because they have the view of the new gorgeous reconstructed beach! The swim-up suites I have to say were tempting and the fact that you have a separate pool from the main pool is a plus, but the rooms are rather small and you actually share the pool with other swim-up suites (not really my idea of a romantic honeymoon) but still it looked relaxing. I would probably go with the Presidential Suite so my girls can get ready with me. The rooms at Gran Caribe looked a tad bit dated but I've spoken to another bride who got married there in June 2009 and her guests didn't have anything negative to say about it so I guess it wasn't much of a disappointment, ha especially since they couldn't compare the 2 resorts unless they purchased a day pass to step foot on ROYAL's property --- yes, a day pass!  I just have a few questions if anyone can help: The Cake: Why is it that I'm limited to purchasing a couture cake (a $260.00 value) that only feeds up to 80 people max and then told to get a sheet cake at $5 p/person for additional guests above that number? My cake is gonna cost me anywhere from $500 - $600! They won't offer just 1 cake large enough to feed 150 guests. Can anyone relate? The DJ: Other than the hotel's recommendation, Ivan with Dorremix, has anyone heard of another DJ with a good reputation?  I know I listed a lot of information and if anyone would like to see photos from the site inspection, I'll be posting them soon!   Â