smspringer13

Unfortunately there really is no privacy during the ceremony on the beach. The ceremonies we saw were very beautiful and they did a great job on the set up, music, etc though - but everyone on the beach & at the pool will be watching. So for that, it is just a matter of personal opinion - but like I said, they were still beautiful weddings! I was married on the wedding terrace and highly recommend that location as well - it is a BEAUTIFUL view and very private.

Hi girls! I haven't posted on here in awhile, but I just got back from our wedding at the Playacar Palace - we were married on April 29 on the wedding terrace. Although I won't be checking the forum too much anymore, I was hoping to help some brides through their process and help settle some nerves/frustrations if possible! I know there were many people on here who were a great help to me along the way, so I'd like to return the favor! If you guys have any questions, please email me at [email protected] - I would be glad to answer any questions or share pictures of our special day to help you out! We had welcome cocktails on the Cielo Terrace on Friday night, rehearsal dinner at La Terrazza (the Italian restaurant) on Saturday night, and the wedding on the wedding terrace Sunday, followed by cocktails and reception in the North Solarium. We were also there for 6 nights so got to see a lot of different weddings on the beach, etc. We had Derek and Lorena from Photos in Cancun (photosincancun.com) for photography and they were absolutely wonderful - I have 3 discs of over 2000 pictures that they took and gave me that night! Plus they will be editing around 100 for me after I look through them all. DJ Temo from Doremixx was a GREAT DJ and I would highly recommend them! They were easy to work with and got everyone up and dancing! In other words - don't stress!! Everything at the Playacar Palace was absolutely AMAZING and they were so wonderful to work with. The resort is absolutely beautiful, the service is amazing and the wedding was perfect - it could not have gone any better. They are great at what they do, so let them guide you (especially Wilma). Congratulations and good luck to everyone, you will have the most wonderful wedding day!

I was wondering where everyone is planning their rehearsal dinners? We have about 30 guests, but 18 of those are family members or are in the wedding party - and since it is everyone's vacation, we were thinking of doing it with the family members/wedding party only. Are people planning this at the resort or a place outside on 5th Avenue? We were hoping to find a decently priced place along 5th Avenue to encourage everyone to get out and about a little... any recommendations/suggestions would be great!

Hi everyone! OK, I've come to the music portion of our planning! What is everyone doing for their music? We are getting married on the wedding terrace and have picked out a few songs to be played while people are arriving/sitting down. Is it ok to have music with lyrics for that and then instrumental for the actual ceremony? I am not sure how long the song should be for my walking down the aisle, etc. Hopefully there is someone to man the CD player to fade in/out? I am not sure how to figure it all out! Also, is/did anyone else have their reception in the North Solarium? Wilma suggested putting 8 people at each table, but we are only having around 30 guests, so I was hoping to break it up into groups of 6 so more space was filled - any insight into this would be GREATLY appreciated! And last but not least - what did everyone do about the arm bands? Wilma mentioned that my fiance and I can take ours off, but for anyone else it was a $10 fee to have them put back on the next day. I don't want people to have to worry about paying $10, but I also don't want a bunch of arm bands in my photos - eek!

I've been forgetting to ask a very important question! What kind of buffet or meal did everyone choose for their reception?! Also, the MOST important - what kind of cake?!

Hey Ladies! I love, love the OOT bags! I have just started working on mine for my April 29, 2012 wedding. I was hoping someone could email me some of the templates - I can't download them here. If someone wouldn't mind sending me a couple I'd really appreciate it! [email protected] Thank you!!

GREAT photos! I loved how they turned out. Your colors are beautiful and really pop against the white. Perfect. Who did you use for your photographer? We are using Derek and Lorena from Photos in Cancun - has anyone used them before? I love the Villa Suite! Was this overlooking the beach/ocean? It looks like surrounded by glass windows? Beautiful. We are planning on the North Solarium, but this might be a really good option too....

NovBride: I love, love your pics so far! The wedding terrace looks beautiful. Was it windy at all? We are hoping to do something similar to you guys as far as the guys' attire - khakis and white shirts, and my fiance will be wearing a sports jacket. Where did you have everyone get their pants so they are all matching? Did they just wear regular white shirts, or lighter linen shirts? I feel like the guys' outfits are going to be the hardest part! Also, if you wouldn't mind, could you message or email me (smspringer13 (at) yahoo.com ) a contact for your wedding coordinator? Thanks so much!

Wow, so much has been going on since I last looked! Thank you girls for all of your pics, tips & advice! Everything looked beautiful. NovBride, we are planning on getting married on the Wedding Terrace, too, so I am glad you had a good experience! We are also planning on doing the cocktail hour either in the Cielo Terrace and then moving to the North Solarium for the reception, or just doing cocktail hour and reception in the Solarium (Only because our DJ will set up in one place... so we thought it might be better just to do it all in one place!). Thanks for the compliment on the website! For any of you that are interested, my sister-in-law does great graphic design work. Her website is ekyllingstad.com. She did an awesome job on our website and we worked together to piece it all together. (Stephandjeff.com). I think it came out great!

Where is everyone?! Not much action on the Playacar board lately... is everyone off getting married? Just wanted to let you all know that my wedding website is up! Wanted to say thank you to Tanya for the activities information from her wedding website - it was very helpful! www.stephandjeff.com

Hola ladies, congrats on your weddings! I am excited to say we have officially booked Photos in Cancun for Photography and DJ Doremixx for recepton DJ! Excited, as there have been a lot of great reviews on here about both! We also finalized our contract with hotel and room blocks...moving forward! Save the dates go out this week and should have website finalized with travel info. I'll let you guys know when it is all up so you can look and use any info from there that you need!

Just wanted to say that we are planning on using DJ Doremixx for our wedding on April 29, 2012 and I couldn't be more excited after reading these posts and the reviews on BDW. Thanks everyone for your great reviews!

Congrats Lola! It is very exciting Did one of the Miami people put this in your contract or an on-site coordinator? I want to make sure this gets in mine as well! And interesting that they will be having new packages - I guess I will have to wait and see what they do. I am planning on Navy with lots of brights like pink, orange, green.. so I was going with the complimentary package and then bringing my own decor. Thanks for the update!

Thanks Sharky! And thanks for the heads up on the $250 fee - what is all of that about - it is the resort charging you? Eek. I am having 2 DJ's as well as 2 photographers come from outside...who did you talk to/how did you wheel and deal them to waive the $88/pp guest pass fees? I will definitely have to look into that ! Good luck on your wedding - I know it will be great, can't wait to see pictures!

Woohoo! Just got our contract (finally!) for the new ceremony time for 5pm on April 29, 2012! Very, very excited! Janina from the Miami office and Wilma the on-site coordinator have been REALLY helpful. I was getting nervous about the communication back and forth (as I'm sure everyone is!) but it is all going smoothly so far. Now I just have to work on getting the "outside vendor" guest pass stuff in writing... Anyone going to the Playacar Palace soon... I would really, really appreciate more photos of the wedding terrace! The actual terrace and where you would be walking up from, etc:) It is really hard to vision without getting a full look at it. Is anyone else planning on getting married on the terrace? Hope everyone's wedding planning is coming along well

Thanks Tanya, I hadn't seen this picture from you before on any of the forums - so glad to see it! The new pictures they have sent me from the Playacar Palace don't show much - but in the pictures they sent me the roof didn't look thatched like this, it was a white roof. I wonder if they've changed it? Also...it seems kind of dark. Has anyone had pictures taken here for their ceremony...? I am a little worried about the amount of light coming in and getting good pics for during the ceremony! Thanks again for the picture!

Congrats on all of your upcoming weddings! Where are you girls having your ceremonies? We wanted to do the Terrace but there are very limited pictures on this location... would any of you mind posting some pictures if you have them, or taking them when you are there? It would definitely help with our decision!

Hi ladies!! We are getting married April 29, 2012 at the Playacar Palace. We actually just got engaged 2 weeks ago and have just started planning...ah! Seems so soon! We wanted good weather in the Riviera Maya and didn't want to have to wait a year and a half...so April it is! What are you guys doing for your welcome bags? Would love any tips!

@Lola2012 - Yes.. The 75 room nights is the total number of nights at the resort that your guests have booked. So if you have say 20 guests coming and they all stay in their own room for 4 nights each, you have 80 "room nights" and qualify for the unlimited private functions! This means you and your groom-to-be also get 7 nights free at the hotel, which is a great perk! There are also different perks or 60 "room nights" and so on. All of the info is on the Palace Resorts website, too! If you scroll up a bit, Tanya posted the information for the costs of private functions (based on how many guests) if you do not qualify for the unlimited.

@sharkyak - Any photos are always welcome! :) Congratulations on your wedding, I bet it is so surreal that it's getting so close. I'm sure it will be beautiful! Where are you getting married? We are hoping not to do a wedding directly on the beach but overlooking the ocean - I think the terrace is really the only place for this? So any pictures of the terrace, solariums, cielo bar/terrace, are greatly appreciated!

Woohoo - I am officially getting my ceremony time change so we can have our reception outside! This is the timeline I am hoping for... 5pm-5:30pm - Ceremony 5:30pm-6:30pm - Cocktail hour 6:30pm-10:30pm - Reception Does this sound pretty reasonable, or what is everyone else doing?

Hey Tanya, thank you for the info - I hope they will let me move my ceremony, as I've been trying to get this corrected for some time and haven't had any luck! Are the prices you listed for the cocktail hour and private reception the same even if you have the "unlimited private functions" for booking 75 room nights, do you know? Or how exactly does that work? We will want to be accomodating about 40 people and are anticipating getting the 75 room nights, so I am wondering if you have to pay the above amounts regardless? Thanks so much, you've been a great help ! Stephanie

Hey Lola! Thanks for that info - maybe in that case they'll let me move my ceremony up to 5:30 or something like that, since 5pm seems to be booked! As far as the private events - if you have 75 room nights booked for your wedding, you get unlimited private events. I am not sure about the cost beyond that - maybe someone else does? If you have 60 room nights booked, you get one free private event. There is information on the wedding website for that, I believe!

Hey everyone! I have read through the entire thread (again) and still not quite finding answers to a couple of questions I had... I was also wondering about the cost for cocktail hour/reception per person. I know we will most likely be qualifying for the unlimited private events - does anyone know what the cost is per person above the 35 guests that are included, or how this works? I am also really disappointed because we booked our ceremony for 6pm. I thought we would be able to have a cocktail hour plus a 4 hour reception, taking us to around 11:30pm - but I just read that outdoor receptions cannot go past 10:30pm. Has anyone had this issue? The 5pm slot is booked so I am not sure if they will let me change it or make an exception for us to have the reception until 11:30pm, but I cannot get ahold of ANYONE and it is very frustrating!! Thanks for any info ladies! Stephanie

Hi everyone! I am new to the forum and was looking into the Jade Riviera for our wedding - we are trying to plan for April/May - yikes! What package did you all use and do you know what the total cost of the wedding came to? We are planning on around 30-40 guests, so wanted to get an idea of what we would be spending. We want to do a ceremony overlooking the ocean (at the Jade it would be that wooden gazebo I think?) and a cocktail hour and private reception. Do you all know who the resort photographer and DJ are, and would you recommend them? Any tips and info you could give would be great- I am getting anxious to finally choose a place! Stephanie