brianne799

i got married at the chapel in july so i can answer a few of your questions! if you have your reception on the beach, it is over at 9pm (they blame it on the turtles laying eggs...they actually released turtles that had just hatched into the ocean right next to my reception). you can always move the party to the inside bar. i had my reception at the beach at the royal though, and at 9pm all my guests from the caribe were sent back over to the caribe. kind of rude i thought, but they made no exceptions. i loved having my reception on the beach. i would recommend it to all of you! i had to have my cocktail hour in the ballroom at the royal because it had started raining and it was hot in there. on the beach, i had the light up dance floor and they had lights in the sand and it was just beautiful and everyone kept saying how cool it was. the backup plan was to have it in the ballroom at the royal. i would highly suggest planning your reception at the royal. the prices are the same for the wedding reception, the only difference is that you need to be spending your wedding night there in order for it to be scheduled there. the alcohol is better at the royal, and the ballrooms are way nicer than the caribe. it will cost you maybe $200 to upgrade your room for the night and by doing that your entire wedding will be upgraded. your caribe guests will be allowed to the reception at the royal, but like i said, they will be asked to leave when it ends. i was worried about the church rules as well. my bridesmaids and i all wore strapless dresses, as well as many guests, and no one cared. no need to bring shawls. i will attempt to link my facebook pics to this site for those of you who wanted to see how the chapel was decorated. i paid $900 for them to decorate it like that but i think it was worth it. you can get it cheaper from outside vendors but then have to set it up yourself. dont worry too much about the centerpieces...nobody cared about them. http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10103498231233454.3976024.9321263&type=3

I believe $10 per guest ($25 if they are not staying at the royal or gran caribe). It included drinks, hot and cold appetizers, servers, and music. It is a little annoying to pay for food and alcohol at an all inclusive, but I considered this paying a few hundred for a private event.

Don't stress it, it's your wedding and while I'm sure your guests would love to spend time with you, they will understand that you have other guests to spend time with too. One thing I recommend is a welcome cocktail hour a few days before your wedding. I had one in the Caribe's gazebo, but they used the better alcohol from the Royal because the bride and groom were staying there. We had some really good hor'dourves and a few drinks and they supplied music for us. Service was amazing. Everyone kept commenting on how nice it was to get everyone together before the wedding and had a really good time. It was fairly cheap too! Then you can also consider that time that you got to spend with everyone!

I had about half of my guests stay in the Gran Caribe and the other half in the Royal. Some of them without children actually upgraded to the Royal when they arrived, as they offer the option if they have open rooms at the Royal, and it is cheaper than initially booking the Royal. I believe it was $70-$80 for 2 people to upgrade for a night. If anyone is on the fence about which hotel to stay at, encourage them to upgrade, we all thought it was well worth it. It was kind of a pain to visit the other guests, because it meant leaving the beautiful Royal! The facilities and food at the Royal made it hard to leave. One way around this was that we would wake up early on most days and put our beach stuff in the large canaba on the Royal's beach. All the cabanas on the beach were reserved for the presidential and penthouse suites, but there was one really large one that wasn't reserved, and it was great to have for shade. Some of our Caribe guests would come hang out in the gazebo with us, and we'd get their drinks, and we never had a problem with them being told to leave. However, that was the only time they were allowed over. RIGHT after my wedding they were all kicked out of the Royal! I wanted to continue the party at the lobby bar for a bit, but they would not allow anyone to stay, not even for a half hour. I'd recommend having an after party at one of the bars accross the street, such as Margaritaville, because the weddings end so early and it is HOT in the Caribe lobby bar area. It's definitely do-able for you to see your guests staying at the Caribe, but it will most likely have to be you sacrificing time at the Royal to visit them at the Caribe.

i just got married at the chapel with a strapless dress, bridesmaids dresses also strapless. i had also signed the paper acknowledging the rules. no one said anything. the only rule they seemed strict on was that you cant take the flowers out of the chapel after. also, keep in mind that a veil technically "covers" your shoulders. i hope you didnt change it based on that!

My wedding is 7/20/12 in the chapel. I received an email about the chapel guidelines and it says that everyone's shoulders must be covered. My bridesmaids' dresses are strapless, and I know many of my guests have strapless dresses too. Did anyone run into a problem with this? It seems a little ridiculous to expect people to cover their shoulders in Mexico in July, but I want to be sure that they will allow them to come to the ceremony! Any ideas?