Oilersbride

Yes I think it is prudent to be aware of your safety at any resort. Unfortunately the media can put a spin on anything. That being said the flooring in the lobby bars and at the theater are extremely slippery the moment they get wet and are a fall hazard.

We sent most of the stuff to the coordinator before hand - Some of the info was staggered - one of the songs we didn't confirm until we were there. We sent the flower choices and info about the cake before - it was all re confirmed when we went there - they made us pick a second option on kind of flowers - we started sending info from spreadsheet around 3 month mark but they can't confirm a lot of things like spa appointments until a week before (rehearsal dinner etc). I think it's so you have more of an idea of some things. I think as long as you know for sure you want the palapa or your restaurant choice for your wedding itself helps you get those items confirmed ahead of time. I am assuming you are doing the presidential package - the ten people you are taking to the spa - names don't need to be confirmed. My grooms mom couldn't fly last minute so our names completely changed from when we originally sent the request to the day of the spa services for the water treatment. Our coordinator told us they usually meet for 45 min to an hour while you are there but our meeting was 4 hours... I don't think we really had to choose a lot of stuff there (it was a blur really) but the coordinator kept having to answer her radio and the phone in the office. This may have been Because November is their busiest wedding month. I would definitely add If you could skype with someone to get any major questions out of the way.

From what I can remember of the sand I think it was firm where the ceremony is - probably from being packed down from the ceremonies they hold there all the time - it's got a permanent wooden structure that they put cloth on so it's not like the move it around. I would say flip flops for palapa - it's a wooden floor and would think risking a splinter wouldn't be worth it.

I think the 300 us is just a penalty for not using their photographer. You need To purchase a day pass for your Photographer and that's 650 pesos a person.... And if they stay for your reception you will have to pay their food. You may get told it's a 1000 pesos a person (we were for two guests staying off site) but that's 650 pesos for the resort pass and then 350 pesos for their food as we had the BBQ menu (buffet)

Hi June The booze won't start flowing until after ceremony. We opted for open national bar starting at 230 for our cocktail hour(s). We had people take pics with us from 230-300ish and then a Mexican trio came and played to keep guests entertained. We had the DJ play music after this. We had reception start at 6. We had the wedding coordinator arrange to have extra Tiffany chairs at no cost so people could sit. I think having that much time between ceremony and reception probably sucked for the guests since we didn't want to shuttle them back and forth before the reception. We got extra appetizers for the cocktail hour and I think open bar is better then paying for extra wine / champagne since not everyone drinks that. Also you get the golf cart for 8 hours / if you don't pay for the extra one that they offer for 1000 pesos for 5 hours. Ours was available from 1-9 leaving people stranded (only because it was raining buckets that night) at the palapa till the disco shuttle ran. Because you will have a shorter time between ceremony and reception I don't think you need to worry about open bar until start of reception itself. Do you know when sunset is while you are there? We spent from 315ish till prob 530 when we lost the light. Depends what kind of pics and how far you want to go away from ceremony site. Oh and I highly recommend people go check out the ceremony site. The wedding coordinator does not take you there (at least ours didn't) and we walked there fairly easily during the day... It's right behind the disco and there is a path from building 24 (I think it was 24) that you can follow. This is where the private beach ceremony is and not the public one. And you might get talked about how awesome the ruins are to take pics on but I didn't find it very easy to get up to it just walking around let alone in a dress! Sorry I rambled!!!!!

Hi Amanda The resort photographer is the one that takes photos around the resort with the animals and stuff. We brought our own from home - a friend that does it kind of as a side job and we didn't have to pay the 300 USD fee for outside photographer since she was staying at resort as a guest for the week. We did however get the resort photographer to take pics of us for about a half an hour our second last day to get our 10 free photos. It was a female so I don't know that the name you have is who actually is guaranteed to take the photos. They didn't do the greatest job and in all honesty we had prob 20 pics to pick from in our quick shoot and there was only 7 or so that I truly liked. I don't know about outside photographers or if the site photographer would do a better job for the wedding day itself but in my opinion it isn't worth it to risk the photos not being good and I would look into the ones offered from playa or cancun. Shelley

Hey everyone ... I am still actually at the resort - our wedding was a couple days ago, There were no major snafus... Cake was wrong flavor and an iguana helped itself to a tray of appetizers during cocktails.... Those were the biggest boo boo of the day. Dj played songs fine for the ones we specified but definitely wished we pre loaded a iPod with songs for reception - luckily a couple guests provided their phones and the dj played the music from that which was more crowd appropriate. Resort photographers did not show up day of wedding - we brought our own and they offered to do a family session with us for our ten free pics - if the rain ever stops I hope we can do that in next couple days! I used the spa for my hair and make up as well as pre wedding manis and pedis - it all worked out well. Hair and make up took 2 hours and I just needed to remove the thick dark eye brows they filled in - but I was happy over all with how it turned out in general. We also did a ttd session the morning after - pool lazy river and down at the beach .... We had zero issues with bringing our friend in who was staying the whole week with us. More detailed review and pics to come!

Quote: Originally Posted by hayley82 Thank you both, That is great advice and has confirmed my thoughts on dealing directly with the hotel. I have received some basic info from Fernanda in resort who responded very quickly. Oh yes, any brochures would be great, especially any that give you the cake and flower options if you have them. (My email address is [email protected].) I am thinking of having the Italian restaurant for my reception meal - I love the black and white filmstar photos in there and I think everyone in my party will enjoy the cuisine. Did anyone else here have the Italian? What can you have? Is the meal a set menu? Hayley xx Hey Hayley I just sent an email to you with everything I have. Hope it helps! Shelley

Quote: Originally Posted by hayley82 Hi Ladies, I am also hoping to get married at GS next December but I haven't booked it yet. I stayed at this hotel 2 years ago and it's amazing (hence our return for this special occasion.) I was just wondering how you have found First Choice/Thomson? I emailed the wedding team over a week ago and I still haven't had a response from them so it's a bit of a disappointing start. I have heard that the resort have different names for the packages to Thomson, is this right? I am seriously wondering if it's easier to book the wedding directly with GS. What are your thoughts/experiences? Congratulations on your engagements and if you have questions about the resort itself/the surrounding areas, feel free to ask. Hayley xx Hi Hayley I think booking directly with the resort for the wedding package is the way to go. basically Thomson would be acting as a middle person for your communication back and forth with resort and that is ANNOYING. Best to find out the information directly. I have information regarding the packages if you want to give me your email address I can send you the information from the resort so you can see the difference. Plus the wedding coordinators thus far we have dealt with at the resort (there have been three and we are now with our official person) have all gotten back to us within a day or two at most on any questions we had. It has been awesome. Our travel agent that we booked our flights and hotel through said that when he got married in mexico it was days or over a week in some cases for the wedding coordinator to get back to them about information so I definitely feel like dealing with the resort (and in particular this one!) is probably for the best. You are only waiting on one person not the middle person waiting for information and then you waiting for that middle person to give you information!

Quote: Originally Posted by joannehunter Thank you for your responses and help Just to clarify, you pay for the bar in the Palapa by hour? anything outside of what is included in your package is additional charges by the hour. Because we have the presidential package we have four hours of bar service and food included in the package. Our reception is going to be from 6-11 pm so we have had to pay for the additional hour of bar service from 10-11pm. As well since we are having our ceremony at 2:00 pm we are paying for the bar service to start at 2:00 pm until 6:00 pm separately so our guests can drink while we are going to take pictures. I could send you an extras list if you don't have one already. it lists the items that cost in pesos per person or item or hour depending on what it is. i should clarify that our estimate of $180 /hr is based on 45 guests that we have to pay for (we only have 36 guests confirmed officially right now but that number is likely to go up).

Quote: Originally Posted by FtMacBride Just wondering how much it is costing to have the Palapa for an extra hour? Do you have to pay extra to have the dj as well for the last hour? I know we get the dj for 4 hours total. Does this include the ceremony if we have music or is it just the reception? i think we have the dj for three hours and the bar service for four. we figure it is around $50 an hour to have the DJ there longer and the open bar (national) is around $180/hr. the DJ at reception is separate from the ceremony to my understanding. i think you could choose to have the DJ stay and no bar or have the bar and no dj.... the palapa is near the disco so we wanted the DJ until it opened at 11:00 pm then everyone could go to the disco or use the cart service from the disco back to the main resort. i didn't inquire if there is additional charge if you just want to take up the space of the palapa without any additional services (bar/dj).

Quote: Originally Posted by joannehunter Hi all, Me and my Fiancé have had 0ctober 17th 2014 confirmed and around 30 quests have book and confirmed so far. We booked through Thomson in the UK and went for the Platinum package. We have had all of the documentation sent through as was thinking of upgrading to the presidential package as with this you automatically get the palapa and Presidential suite on your wedding night. Looking through the presidential package we already have a lot of the upgrades in our Platinum package through Thomson and the upgrade seems a lot of money to pay when we already have half of this. Has anyone else found this and did you find any way around paying two large amounts? Also has anyone gone against the Cocktail hour? Is there a bar in the Palapa or do we need to cater so that drinks do not run out? Sorry for all the questions. You get an open bar for your time at the palapa. it is a national open bar and you can upgrade it to international or premium. we are having an open national bar as part of the cocktail hour. the palapa is located fairly far from the rest of the resort and we are paying the extra to have the golf cart service for five hours (basically an hour before our wedding ceremony to the start of the reception to be able to take our guests to the wedding area and to have for us to go around to different places on resort for pictures). we have the presidential package so I am not sure what you have outlined in the platinum through the travel agency but you should clarify what you get included as far as drinks go. we are paying extra per hour to have them earlier than the start of our reception plus they are only there for four hours so we are extending it for an extra hour to have them until 11 pm.

Great to hear!

Our wedding coordinator is through the resort directly - we have been bounced around to three people - which is kind of annoying! BUT we have gotten immediate responses to our emailed questions. we dealt with Yeniza initially and then fernanda seemed to take over and now we officially have Marcela who is our confirmed coordinator for the day itself and the final planning. We were able to skype with fernanda and i totally recommend doing that. her mic and camera were broken the day we did it so we just had a chat session but it was good because now we have all the information and answers to our questions in writing vs. oh well we discussed that over the phone/skype but nothing to prove it.

Quote: Originally Posted by jypsejenny Oilersbride- that will be nice that you will have an extra week for just you and your hubby. We had thought about staying an extra week but decided we will go somewhere in the spring. We are legally getting married on 11/12/13 as well lol I thought it would be an easy date for hubby to remember lol. Shera Richer- Congrats to you as well :-) we are getting married in November not April :-) our travel agent had recommended November and told us we would have more options for ceremony dates ect, it turns out our travel agent didn't realize there are 2 Mexican holidays the week we are there so we didn't really have a choice on the date. We are flying out of Vancouver, with some guests flying from Edmonton. We went with a package thru Transat and then did another $2000 in upgrades with the resort. Did you just book with the resort? Idmoss- Did you get your wedding package thru westjet or just your flights and hotel? Also. How have you found dealing with the wedding coordinator down there? My parents are actually going to be staying with us the second week. we are legally getting married here September 29 (just confirmed the date yesterday actually) with a little ceremony for my fiance's grandma to attend since she can not travel. we figured the second week would be helpful to have us actually be able to relax without all the extra wedding stuff and visiting with the guests on the first week. Breaking it up would have been good too - We love to travel!! hope you are taking a few days off when you get back home to relax too!

We are getting married November 12 - grooms idea for 11/12/13 - we didn't have problems getting the date... i think we had contacted them last year though. we will be at sirenis November 6-20 (our guests leave the 13 - air transat changed their flights on us and instead of having one more full day there our guests had to leave the day after our wedding!).

our ceremony is at 2 and our reception starts at 6 - we are kind of jerks and have lots of downtime between - but are providing an open national bar. which works out to be around $180/hour.

Hi Idmoss We will be at the resort November 6-20 so maybe we will cross paths! i will definitely pass along any information I receive. Hopefully we will get the same story!

Sounds like it went pretty well despite the DJ! We were also planning on bringing CDs or a USB stick of songs. Good to know about the golf cart - we are going to hopefully be skyping with fernanda on Sunday so we are going to try and sort the golf cart and dj out. Did the dj start right at beginning of your meal or was it after you had eaten? We are debating on whether or not to extend the dj service - if it's at the start of meal we won't really get much use of him between speeches and cake cutting and letting everyone eat! That's interesting that you moved your ceremony from seclusion to public - Does that mean you got to actually toured both spots to decide? I am still hung up on how much to have for centerpieces - I am not interested in dragging a bunch of stuff down nor do I want to spend a lot on what they can provide - it might mean a trip to the good old Walmart down there and figure out something on the fly

Planning is in it's final stages. We are going to try and connect with Fernanda regarding some serious confusion over the golf cart situation. First of all we didn't realize we had to pay extra for the use of the golf carts. In the paperwork where we marked in what we wanted when it states that if we have guests of 30 or more we should rent a private golf cart that can accommodate 14 people at a time for 1000 pesos an hour for 5 hours. When I asked Fernanda about the cost of the golf cart she told me it holds 7 people for the price of 1000 pesos for 5 hours. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone know how the golf cart works?

Hi Chantel There are two lobby bars. We primarily were in the one on the riveria maya side - it doesn't have a lot of seating - big chairs mainly. I don't recognize that bar - but it is possibly from the beach side. I think the beach bar might only be open during the day but the lobby bars were definitely open in the evenings. They generally had music playing - live - and they didn't have food (I have never figured out where serves snacks after hours but the buffet serves until like 10 pm.) Sorry can't be of more help.

I think it is such a crap shoot when trying to figure out when to organize the packages. if you do it too soon (because of the 90 day window for getting everyone booked with a great group rate) some people might not be able to figure out if they can go yet ... but if you wait you might get stuck with a high rate! When did you request that people RSVP by ? We are getting married November 12 (11/12/13 courtesy of my fiance) and we fly out November 6 - with our RSVP requests to be in by September 30. It's only giving us a month to order our wedding favors ordered and here before we leave (we want to do travel mugs) - does anyone know what kind of buffer might be good for ordering over and above who we have confirmed by our RSVP date? We are flexible with people coming down last minute as I completely understand someone might be able to score a wicked deal through an online sale or something the month before. Right now we have 33 confirmed guests including ourselves and the wedding party - I just don't want to be stuck with 10-15 extra mugs if no one books post RSVP date .... but I also don't want to look like a jerk saying you don't get a party favor because you decided to come after the RSVP date....

As well a day pass for a guest not staying on the property is 1000 pesos... but any other day it is 650 pesos for them to come for a day. and they are only allowed to come to the property 2 hours before the wedding and leave when it is done (reception) so not only do they get your money for the meal that you are paying per person the off site guest has to pay MORE to come to the wedding on a day pass than they would if they had just come to use their facilities!

Thanks for this info! We are going to be in the exact same boat - our friend is coming and we have hired her to do photos as it is her on the side hobby to make some extra money. She definitely doesn't have any extraordinary equipment as it will only be her taking photos but I will definitely be letting the WC know next month that we will not be requiring the use of the hotel photographers.

I plan on taking minimal decoration stuff with me. Don't plan on doing oot bags and will likely do travel mugs for our wedding favor. Not 100 percent sure but I believe they request things to be done 3 months ahead of time for picking stuff - we got a bunch of information and it was requested to be sent back 3 months prior but that the guest list can be altered up to a week before for those who decide last minute to come.