almah

Hi! Sorry for the delayed reply. Here are some pix of the ballrooms. When are you getting married? Cause mine was end of June and it rained so we had to move everything inside. But originally we had ceremony set for 6 pm on the beach, with a 2 hour cocktail hour on the beach and then move into the ballroom for dancing. We figured after 3 hours on the beach our guests would be done with sand. However, in the end everything had to be inside and it still worked out well. BTW, if you go with all white for your wedding, like in my pix, that is included so you don't have to pay extra. Whatever q's you may have feel free to private message me.

Hi, I just got married at the Royal in June, and I had 60 peopel attend my wedding. Out of those 60, 15 inlcuding my family stayed at the Gran Caribe. It was stressful for me. Mostly because my husband's family was at the Royal, and mine was at Caribe and everyone was on different schedules. it's easy to meet up on the beach or have the others go over to the other hotel cause they're right next to each other. But if the others didn't go over to the other hotel, or one family was napping while the other was having lunch, it was just a pain. Also, to be honest, people who end up staying at the Royal dont' feel the need to go to Caribe so what ended up happening is I would spend half days with my family at Caribe, but then I'd miss out on seeing anyone else until I got back to Royal. In the end it still all worked out fine, but I wish I only picked one hotel or at least got my family a room at the Caribe where they would have privileges to cross over and have dinner with us at Royal. Sorry to add to your stress but I'm just being honest. What we tried to do to make it a little better is make dinner reservations for everyone at Caribe one night, and we met up for drinks at Caribe in the lobby bar the other night. Both of those worked out well, cause we then made everyone come over to the other hotel and hang out. But the overall ease of having everyone be able to hang out together on daily basis without you having to worry about if everyone is able to hang out together still didn't end up working out that well even if the hotels are right next to each other. In regards to having my wedding at the Royal, I wouldn't change it for a thing. They did a fantastic job and it was amazing. You can see my earlier post after my wedding. Let me know if you have any more questions in regards to this issue or if you need me to elaborate.

Congrats! Soo happy to hear everything went perfect. It truly is an amazing place.

Hi all! i got married there on June 25th and I just wanted to say if you're stressing about anything, stop right now. Confirm the location that you want, count and food, and the rest will be just fine. I am super high maintenance and when I met with my on site WC Diana, she had everything taken care of I was blown away. We forget they do this twice a day every day! I had DJ Doremixx as well and he was AMAZING. I gave him a list of all the songs i wanted played and it was up to him in what order and what not. He rocked it! No one set down the entire time. Also, the turtle nesting.... get over it. When you're there and you witness one give birth you won't care. It's good that the hotel care for the nature. We should appreciate that. Have the beach wedding and cocktail on the beach, and then move to the ballroom...your guests will appreciate the break from the sand and air conditioning. Few tips: 1) There are two beach locations. One is right in front of Pelicanos, the other is to the right of the Royal Gazebo, not Gran Caribe. If you want privacy and no beach chairs, choose the beach location by the Gazebo. It is soooo much better! 2) If you're having a small wedding, there is a room on the 2nd floor that is beautiful and it can be used for a small reception. It has a deck too. Ask you WC about it if you're not feeling the ballrooms. 3) Use the hotel's florist, they did a fantastic job. I had peonies and 12 bridesmaid roses bouquets and they were stunning. No need to go with outside vendor. 4) I used Fernando for my makeup and he was amazing. The best make up and hair I've ever had done. 5) I used Sascha Gluck as my photographer. He was worth the outside vendor fee. The guy is beyond cool and awesome and creative. Hire him, you won't regret it! That's it. The food, the staff, the WC, everything was amazing. So stop stressing and enjoy the thought that you'll be getting married in Mexico. I wish someone told me that. Also, we had a full on storm on our wedding day. Lighting, floods, all of it. So I didn't get my beach wedding. But the hotel still came thru and created this beautiful wedding ceremony in front of the ballrooms. It was beautiful and I'm so thankful I picked the Royal who had everything worked out for emergencies like that. Happy wedding to you all!

I just got back from my wedding in Cancun and I hired Fernando Fuentes. Hands down the best make up I've ever had done in my life. His partner Ariel did my hair and I couldn't have been happier. Don't think twice, just hire them and don't even worry about this aspect of your wedding. Trust me! http://the-makeup-pros.com/

Adrian with Stylist Trio? I got quoted $385.

Hey brides who have gotten married at Caribe/Royal & brides are who are still planning! I have another one.... If you didn't use or are not planning on using services of the spa for make up and hair, how did you get out of paying a vendor fee for make up and hair? I've been talking to Styling Trio Riviera, and they seem not interested to help out at all. They suggested I drive down to their salon in Playa....there's no way I am driving down to Playa on my wedding day. Since make up/hair is about $385, there's no way I'm paying another $350 on top of that. I have read in old forums that some brides sneaked the make up/hair people in, but I really don't want to deal with that. If I really have to I will, but how will my wedding coordinator not notice them? Also, since I want to do a trial run, and the day off, I need to pull this off twice. Any suggestions or advice from what you have done? Thank you! Alma

Hey brides who have gotten married at Caribe/Royal & brides are who are still planning! I have another one.... If you didn't use or are not planning on using services of the spa for make up and hair, how did you get out of paying a vendor fee for make up and hair? I've been talking to Styling Trio Riviera, and they seem not interested to help out at all. They suggested I drive down to their salon in Playa....there's no way I am driving down to Playa on my wedding day. Since make up/hair is about $385, there's no way I'm paying another $350 on top of that. I have read in old forums that some brides sneaked the make up/hair people in, but I really don't want to deal with that. If I really have to I will, but how will my wedding coordinator not notice them? Also, since I want to do a trial run, and the day off, I need to pull this off twice. Any suggestions or advice from what you have done? Thank you! Alma

I've learned that any day Thurs-Sunday is considered a weekend, and there's an extra $400 charge. We have to be off the beach by 9pm in Cancun cause of the turtle nesting period.

Thank you both for your honesty and feedback. I will put the worrying about the hotel to rest now. Thx so much!

That makes no sense at all! They have some of the craziest policies ever. Now, I know what people meant when they advised to choose a hotel who lets you bring in outside vendors without fees. Sorry!

How exciting! You're getting married a month before I do. I picked a classic wedding and adding on top of it. I felt that the other packages had too many items in it that i wasn't going to need, and it made sense to just add it. I have no idea if there is a fabric store near by, but why don't you just ask one of your bridesmaids to bring them and share the "load" so you don't have to run errands and worry when you're there. So are you taking that route and bringing decorations on your own? I haven't even thought about that, I guess i'll just have "naked" chairs. Who are you working with? I feel like I don't know what all my options are in regards to decorations, or the "look" of the wedding. Besides, food, flowers and location, no one has asked me anything else. The joys of planning a destination wedding.

I forgot to "qoute" reply. My response was for both Emily11386 and Twoego! Thank you both for helping us out since we weren't able to do a site visit.

Thank you for commenting and letting SparksFly know. I recommended to her as well that she should change it, because i wasn't impressed with how it looked in the pictures as well. If you don't mind me asking, which hotel did you stay at and what did you think of the overal wedding how it turned out? Was the hotel good, clean, how was the food? I have half my guests staying at the Royal, and half at Caribe. I know the Royal guests will have nothing to complain about, but i'm hoping Caribe delivers a great experience as well.

It sounds like I will see you around the pool. I hired DJ Doremixx. He's actually a preferred vendor which is a miracle. Don't even hesitate to hire him, he is the best in Cancun area. And your WC can book him for you. I got the Classic package and then I'll add on what I need onto that. Haven't decided on a photographer yet, still working on that. Will prob go with Gonzalo Nunez if you want to check him out.

I haven't stayed at either hotel yet, and didn't go down for a site visit. I'm pretty sure Royal is tamer but still super fun. I am hoping Caribe won't be crazy with kids cause my parents are staying there. Sorry to hear that you can't use the lanterns anymore. I am currently arguing with my WC about outside vendor fee. I am broadcasting my wedding over the internet, and the service is only going to be done on the beach for 1 hour. So, she is forcing me to pay a $350 vendor fee for 1 hour, on a public beach! Ridicilous. If you're interested in doing the same....I am using http://www.cancunliveweddings.com. But good luck dealing with the WC on the fees.

Thank you all for making me feel better about the guests visiting Royal. I should get a few passes for my family at least. Also, SparksFly, peeps totally could try and cross over and who knows we might get lucky and no one will notice.

Hey SparksFly, if you're not happy with your location, and you're able to move the date around, I would. I saw pix of the green terrace and I didn't care for it either. It would be great, despite the size, but the green turf is horrible. However, not that the carper in the ballroom is any prettier and I'm stuck in there.

Hi all! I'm getting married at the Royal on 6/25/12. So excited! My only concern is I feel like I shouldn't have had my guests stay at both hotels: Royal & Caribe. My family is staying at Caribe and my fiance's at Royal. The rest of our guests are at both as well. Now, i'm worried that we won't be able to hang out together because guests at Caribe can't come over to the Royal. Has anyone had this at their wedding? Was it a problem for all the guests to socialize during the day? I know day passes are available but those are $100 a day to come over to Royal and that's too expensive. I don't need them to come over and hang out by the pool, but how is the beach set up? Is it public? Thank you for your feedback, Alma

Thank you very much Lincoln! I will "try" and listen to you words of advice.

Hi Melissa! Oh, so fun to find someone who is also getting married at the Royal! Congrats! Your wedding is on that Saturday then...I'll be there already, we're arriving Thursday, the 21st. Who is your wedding coordinator that you have been working with? How have you organized your day? My WC is Maritza...We're doing 6pm wedding on the beach, 2 hour cocktail after, and then move into the ballroom cause of the turtles. I hope we can help each other out..this is quite an experience planning a wedding over e-mail. Alma