stephygirl

@@jj575757 - We used the ipod set up with JSAV. You might be able to see the table they set up for that in the first picture in my album - they have 2 JSAV technicians there to help you in case anything goes wrong. I basically just gave them my iPhone and they played my dinner & then dancing playlists. I also made sure to 1. change my phone to airplane mode so I wasn't getting text/call notifications during the reception, and 2. to change my iPhone settings so that my iTunes would play all songs at the same volume. I loved having the freedom to play our playlists; we had full control if we wanted to skip a song and whatnot. For example, we put a very specific song on the playlist for the groom to dance with his sister to, but when it came on she was putting her youngins to bed. So, I just went up to my iphone, skipped that song, and then we put it back on again later once she was back at the reception!

@@jj575757 - For the rehearsal dinner, BP set up the tables with white tablecloths. If I recall correctly our WC (Zaray) gave us the option of different table napkin colors, but we just went with the standard white. I'm sorry to say we don't have any pictures of the tables from the rehearsal dinner. For our wedding reception, we ordered the "Metallic Sands" decoration package. BP set everything up on our behalf and we did NOTHING other than drop off our favors (we had multiple favors) and guest book with the WC. We also emailed our WC telling her how and where we wanted everything set up. She did it all perfectly. See some pictures below! I have a lot more pictures but am having a hard time figuring out which ones to post! This is also the first time I've ever posted pictures so I hope it works - but here was our reception!

@@jj575757 - French menu sounds good! We had our rehearsal dinner on the Infinity Terrace. Not my favorite spot. It's RIGHT by the pool and the showers where people wash off sand after coming up from the beach. There is basically a big row of chaise lounges and umbrellas there during the day that they clear out for the event at night. If you HAVE to do your rehearsal dinner there, try to do it NO EARLIER than 7pm...because people were typically still in the pool until it got dark out. We made the resort take down the pool volleyball net and basketball net so that people wouldn't be hitting us with balls during the dinner! The spot I'd recommend is probably the Sky Bar South - it's more private. We weren't able to get that spot because there was another event going on that night...and we didn't want the Palenque Terrace since we wanted that to be special for our wedding reception. Overall the rehearsal dinner on the Infinity Terrace worked out great - it just could have been a bit more private. No real complaints though - it still ended up being a lovely event with a beautiful view! It could be cool to do an event on the beach, too, but I think they charge more per person to bring the food out there. Our cost was $55/person!

@@acw271011 - Thank you! I will definitely be posting a wedding review in the near future. The wedding was a total dream...I want to do it again and again! I miss Cancun... @@jj575757 - We chose the Italian buffet for the reception dinner. It was pretty decent. My (SUPER PICKY) husband liked the lasagna, and our guests liked the chicken and fish. The desserts were underwhelming. For the wedding day, we had the BBQ buffet. The BBQ chicken was GREAT, the shrimp kebabs were pretty good, the pork ribs were okay, and the fruit salad was lovely. I definitely liked the BBQ buffet better than the Italian. I wouldn't recommend doing a Mexican buffet. Your guests will be having enough Mexican-themed food during their stay. One thing I wish I'd considered looking into is having the rehearsal off-resort. There is a "mall" called the Flamingo mall about a 3-5 walk away. There is an Outback Steakhouse, a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, and a Bubba-Gump Shrimp. I wondered if they had private rooms there - it might have been nice to go off resort for dinner one night. Our cake was a round chocolate cake with vanilla chantilly frosting - and it was seriously the best wedding cake I've ever had. I normally don't even like cake that much. When you get married there please cut off a few pieces and refrigerated-mail them to me .

@@mj12102016 I'm sure it will be great! The Zuniga stuff we rented was perfect. No issues with that vendor whatsoever! We only ordered a few things though (votive LED candles, under the table white lights, and 4 column with 2 sets of string lanterns).

@@Danielle1 - You're welcome! We did not rent anything (lighting/ipod) for our rehearsal dinner. We didn't have music - and we were at the Infinity Terrace (not my favorite spot) which was relatively lit up by the hotel and pool area. Dinner music at the rehearsal dinner would have been nice, we just wanted people to talk and get to know each other better instead! The votive candles were LED votives, so not actual candles...but they still looked pretty! We rented them from Zuniga. Any decorations you bring will be set up by your WC. For example - we had favors to go at each table setting, table numbers and table number holders, a wedding sign, a guest book, place cards, and flip flop favors - all of which our WC set up. We just dropped everything off at her office a day before the wedding and sent an email with clear instructions on how we want things set up...and it turned out exactly how we wanted!

@@zoeknight20 - Thanks so much! We had Zaray and she was AMAZING as you said! The whole ipod playlist went great as well. It was a total blast! @@Danielle1 - I think you had asked about who runs the music and I said I'd update you on that once I was back, so here goes: during the ceremony, your WC will coordinate and play the music for you. I had 3 songs (processional, bridal processional, recessional) on one playlist and everything was played to perfection. For the reception, I had a dinner playlist, a bride & groom first dance playlist, a bride & father playlist, a groom & mom playlist, and a reception dancing playlist. There is an ipod technician that sits at the table the whole night in case of any problems. He was the one that started the dinner playlist. When you are ready for the first dances, your WC will play those playlists for you...and she asked that someone in our wedding party "announce" the dances. Worked out fine! Then, our WC started our reception dancing playlist. If there was ever a song I wanted to skip then I had full access to go to the ipod and make any changes! One small thing to note - I used my iphone 5 as my "ipod" and you have to make sure to 1. change the settings on your itunes so that all songs play at the same volume, and 2. if you have a password on your iphone, take it off for the day, or change it to something easy like "0000" and tape a piece of paper to the back of your iphone with what the code is. I think I also was supposed to report to you on lighting! Our ceremony was at 4, and ended around 4:25 or 4:30. It was hot as HECK on the sky deck, but everyone survived. Cocktail hour was on the sky bar south from 5 to 6 and we didn't need any lighting whatsoever. The sun didn't start setting until about 7ish. Since you're getting married in February maybe check to see what time the sun typically sets, because you definitely don't need lighting until after that time! Our reception was on the Palenque from 6-10. We had the Zuniga 4 column string lanterns, 2 votive LED gold candles at each table, and under the table lighting and it was PERFECT. The Zuniga 4 column lighting was perfectly bright. At some point (around 9ish) the resort lights on the terrace kick in and make it even more bright. I can send you some pictures of what it looked like when I get the pictures more organized! @@mj12102016 - Reporting back to you on the wind! We had our reception on the Palenque terrace and it wasn't that windy overall...but I think it had the 2nd most wind out of any place. We had some table numbers on light cardstock that tipped over a few times, but it was more of a NICE light breeze than anything. I never thought to myself "wow, it's windy out here!". I think the windiest spot at the hotel is probably at the beach. If you want tall centerpieces, I'm sure you could do it - just try to weight them down with sand at the bottom or something like that. As long as they're heavy, you'll be good to go! Also, we spent almost every night at the Sky Bar, and that wasn't very windy as well. Not sure if the wind weather changes during different times of year though. If possible, I'd recommend the Palenque Terrace for your wedding. It's extremely private and beautiful. The receptions at the Sky Bar South seem a little less private, because the other side of it is open to the general public (although there is a good distance separating the two). The only problem is, the women's bathroom is on the side in which they hold private events. So you'll have women from the general public side sneaking over to your event to use the bathroom. Last place I forgot to mention was the Infinity Terrace, where we held our rehearsal dinner at 7pm. Again, I didn't notice the wind all that much, but there was some. I don't love the Infinity Terrace since it's right up against the pool. I made the resort take down the pool volleyball net and basketball net because otherwise balls would have been flying into our tables. This is also where they have the showers where you rinse off - so you'll get some people coming up from the beach rinsing off nearby. Overall it was fine, but not my most favorite place. We probably would have chosen the Sky Bar South for this instead, but it was booked for another event that night. LET ME KNOW IF ANYONE HAS ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS!!!

@@Danielle1 - I'm getting wrist corsages for the mothers, and a boutonniere for the dads. @@zoeknight20 - Congrats on your wedding!!! Also, thanks for the info! So you had all the songs on the same playlist for the ceremony? Did you play your iPod for the reception as well? I'm curious if they have someone that helps coordinate playing your reception playlist (i.e. dinner playlist versus dancing playlist).

@@Danielle1 - You're welcome - I'll try to help answer any questions I can while everything is still fresh in my mind ! The timeline went as follows: May 4th - We finalized our count and the "Wedding Information" excel spreadsheet and sent to our WC May 5th to May 26th - Some back and forth regarding questions on the excel spreadsheet, additional lighting, and rehearsal dinner May 27th - Received copy of the purchase order May 28th to June 1st - Back and forth on certain charges on the purchase order, and additional lighting we ordered June 2nd - Signed the final copy and the $$$ went on my credit card The vendors included on our bill were JSAV and Zuniga. The only vendor not included on the purchase order was DreamArts photography. We paid for the photographer separately some time in early May.

@@Danielle1 From what I understand your WC handles it (or has someone from BP handle it). I can definitely come back and update you in a few weeks!

@@jj575757 I just asked my WC about this, since I wasn't sure whether you needed to bring your ceremony songs on a CD or if an ipod works. The WC actually said they prefer the songs on an ipod!

@@Danielle1 Oh my goodness I know, I'm getting so nervous and excited! So honestly my original wedding coordinator was not very responsive at all until the past couple of weeks. Part of it may have been that we didn't have a final count until April 28th (for our June 28th wedding) so I didn't finalize the "wedding information" excel spreadsheet until the beginning of May. But things have really started to come together over the past few weeks. My guess is that they tend to focus more on your wedding when it's 1-2 months out. I can't remember if our wedding contract mentioned anything about having everything scheduled/paid for x days in advance, but we literally just paid for our purchase order yesterday! Also, just yesterday my onsite wedding coordinator was assigned to me. My original WC basically just cc'd the onsite WC on an email and said the onsite WC would contact me shortly to schedule an appointment during the first day of my stay at the resort. Haven't heard from the new onsite WC yet, but it's only been a day so I'll cut her some slack

@@Danielle1 I received my final purchase order and for my Zuniga lighting there was only a labor in/out and transportation fee for a total of $200. There was no event decor planning fee! We ended up going with 2 gold LED votive candles at each table, white under the table lights, and then the 4 columns with 2 string lanterns. The whole thing (including the $200 fee) ended up being about $1,115. @@mj12102016 Hi Jamella - welcome and congrats! I'm heading to Beach Palace at the end of the month and can let you know about the wind! My fiance and I are having an event on the Infinity Terrace, the Sky Deck, the Sky Bar South, and the Palenque Terrace - so I should be able to give you a good idea of the least windy spot! I'll provide an update once we return in the beginning of July! @@jj575757 - we are using DreamArts photography, which is BP's preferred vendor at the resort. They've been great so far, and very responsive. Prices are pretty much equivalent to what'd you'd find in the US, but DreamArts gets good reviews and it ended up being cheaper for us than outside vendors we liked. I've googled "Beach Palace Cancun Wedding Photo" and have seen people use a variety of different outside vendors if you want to compare prices and photo quality. Also an update on TraficTours - they've been extra-responsive lately and we've gotten everyone's transfers booked. Very happy now!

@@jj575757 - my quotes for a cocktail hour (for the wedding) were as follows: From 10 to 20 guests - $400 USD From 21 to 30 guests - $600 USD From 31 to 40 guests - $800 USD From 41 to 50 guests - $1,000 USD I assume it would be the same for a cocktail hour "welcome" event. My fiance and I are doing a rehearsal dinner at 6pm on the Infinity Terrace the night before the wedding. We were quoted $55/person since we didn't meet the 75 room nights private event requirement (we only have 62 room nights). As Danielle mentioned, they charge more for service to place such as the beach where they have to haul the food. Has anyone used the free airport transfer with Trafic Tours as part of your Beach Palace Package? This company is AWFUL. They're so unresponsive. I originally booked my transfer with them in February with no issues. Then, my family ended up changing our flights (because American changed its flight times). I emailed Trafic Tours to tell them our updated flight information, and didn't hear back for a week. I followed up again via email, and still didn't hear back for another few weeks. Then, once I finallllllllllyyyyy heard back, they told me they'd send me a confirmation within 72 hours. It's been a week and still nothing. I just emailed the company again today - but am getting super frustrated. I also emailed my WC multiple times talking about how unresponsive Trafic Tours is. I don't want my guests to have to hound this company in order to get their "free" transfers. I no longer consider it free if you have to spend a ton of your time trying to book transport. *RANT OVER*

Welcome to my planning thread! My fiance and I are getting married on Sunday, June 28, 2015 at Beach Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico. I love reading everyone else's ideas, so thought I'd post my own in case anyone was interested! Our Engagement My fiance and I got engaged on a beautiful day in September 2014 at our favorite spot in our home city! Choosing the Wedding Location We decided it would be extremely expensive for my fiance and I to have a wedding in our home city. We attended a friend's Cancun destination wedding in June 2014, and fell in love with the idea of a destination wedding! There was a lot of debate as far as wedding location. Original location ideas included Costa Rica (nixed because of lack of direct flights), Jamaica (nixed because not as many direct flight options), and Cancun. Cancun ended up winning because: 1. There are PLENTY of direct flight options! and 2. There are SO many hotels you're able to choose from, and 3. Because of the plentiful number of hotels, prices tended to be cheaper. Choosing the Hotel This one was surprisingly easy for us. My friend that got married in June 2014 had her wedding at Azul Fives in Riviera Maya. Her e-ring ended up being stolen while she was down there, and she had other issues that contributed to her "not wanting to ever stay at an Azul/Karisma hotel ever again". Plus, we didn't want to do the same exact wedding as her! The other options we were looking into One thing we KNEW we wanted was to get married on a rooftop (THE VIEWS!!) versus a beach. While at aforementioned friend's wedding last summer, we saw how crazy the beach can get, and knew we wanted something more private. This led us to looking at hotels with rooftop terraces - and our initial choice was Sandos Cancun. However, we started talking to my friend about her wedding, and she recommended either Moon Palace or Beach Palace - saying those were her backup options after Azul. Once we looked at Beach Palace's reviews and pictures on TripAdvisor, we were hooked! Moon Palace was second place, but Beach Palace seemed nicer. We immediately contacted the Beach Palace Wedding representatives from the website, and were assigned a wedding coordinator who helped us reserve a date and the locations for our ceremony and reception. We also worked with our coordinator to set up a Group Room block, so that we could get standard room rates and certain group benefits. Save the Dates Once we coordinated the Group Room block, we worked on our save-the-dates at the end of December 2014. We ended up doing our save-the-dates using one of the Walgreens cardstock templates online in order to save some cash! Along with the save-the-dates, we also sent all of our guests an email with additional details regarding location, booking, etc. The email contained both a link to our group room block, and also a link to our theknot.com wedding website. Invitations Invitations are the WORST. Don't get me wrong, they're VERY cute. But they're also extremely expensive and time-consuming. We ended up inviting about 75 couples (150 people), and the invitations we ordered off Etsy were freaking ADORABLE, but almost $1,000! That's not even including the postage stamps you need in order to mail them! These were mailed at the end of February 2015 if my memory serves me right. RSVP's As our RSVP's came in, we started to get a pretty good idea of who was coming and who wasn't. We asked that our guests RSVP by April 1st (as our room block needed to be closed by April 28th in order to avoid penalties). We wanted to leave a buffer of a few weeks since generally some people are late with RSVP's - and boy are we glad we did! We had to follow up with a few people closer to the deadline in order to make sure they booked through our block by the deadline. Some people booked outside of our block, which cost us dearly in missing out on certain benefits - but overall I'm more happy that they're able to come! The Dress and the Suit! I ordered my wedding dress in mid-November 2014. I believe it came in from the manufacturer sometime in March. I had my first fitting April 28, 2015 to try it on in my size for the first time and see what needed to be done as far as taking it in and hemming. Second fitting was on May 17th, and at this fitting the dress had been taken in and hemmed. During this second fitting we discussed taking it in more and how I wanted a 3 point bustle. The third fitting was May 26th. At this fitting we discussed taking it in even more, and how a 5 point bustle is more appropriate. More to come on the dress - I just suggest getting it earlier rather than later in the process! I also bought veil weights from Etsy since I'm worried about the wind blowing my veil too much in all the pictures! Accessories are TOM's ivory lace wedges, Marlosha (Etsy) pink and gold teardrop earrings, and a Nadri gold and silver teardrop bracelet. My fiance is wearing a light brown linen suit he purchased at Suit Up! (just kidding, it's called Suit Supply). Brown shoes, a brown belt, and a white shirt will accompany. Bridesmaids are wearing a Laundry Hibiscus (i.e. pink/purple) tulip maxi dress, with either white or nude shoes. I bought them Kate Spade multi-colored cluster earrings in pink/purple. Gold chain bracelets with amethyst will accompany. Groomsmen are wearing Brooks Brothers white linen short-sleeved dress shirts (un-tucked), and stone colored pants. Brown belt and shoes will accompany. Planning the Wedding As the wedding planning is still in process, I will just share my vision for the event and things I've purchased/organized along the way! Welcome to Beach Palace My lovely mother is going to organize welcome bags for each room. The welcome bags will include sunscreen, ibuprofen, a flip flop bottle opener, a "Get to Know the Guests" sheet, and an itinerary of the wedding events. I'm still toying with the idea of purchasing waterproof key card/ID holders. I think they'd be nice for people to not have to worry about getting their tip money wet at the pool bar! I've heard the Beach Palace wedding coordinator ("WC") will deliver the bags to each guest room for $3/bag. Not sure if we will do this, or just try to catch up with our guests each day they arrive. Night Out We would LOVE to do a night out on the town of Cancun with our guests on Friday, June 26th - two nights before the wedding! Rehearsal Dinner We will have 34 adults and 2 kids, and have booked the rehearsal dinner for 6 to 8pm on Saturday, June 27th - the night before the wedding. This will be on the Infinity Terrace and we will be having the Italian Buffet dinner option. The buffet is $55/person since we didn't have any resort promotion for the dinner. We are not using any sound system or additional lighting for this event. Morning of the Wedding My mother and I are getting our hair (only) done at the Beach Palace Salon at 10:30am. I've heard bridal hair takes almost 3 hours at the BP salon, so I wanted to get mine done early! I don't really wear makeup so I'm doing my own. Afterwards, my girl friends are going to do their own hair and makeup in my room while drinking mimosas (yum). Photographer We're using Dream Arts photography - the Beach Palace recommended vendor. We are doing 3 hours from 4 to 7pm, with a 15 minute mini-movie. We're doing our own "getting ready" and reception dancing photos. Ceremony The ceremony will be on the Sky Terrace at 4pm. Purchased the Metallic Sands ceremony package for decorations! Hoping to have regular chairs rather then the "pods". We are doing ring exchange and vow exchange in a symbolic ceremony. We are getting legally married upon our return back to the U.S. We are putting our ceremony programs in a basket (maybe from Crate & Barrel?) on a table as you walk in, and gluing the programs to a stick to turn them into fans since it will be quite warm out! After much debate on whether we use the BP officiant, or one of our guests, we decided on the BP officiant after hearing good things. One thing we want to make sure to do is have someone take a group picture of us and all our guests near the altar on the Sky Terrace! Cocktail Hour The cocktail hour is on the Sky Bar South from 5pm to 6pm. During this time, the wedding party will be doing photos on both the Sky Terrace and also at the beach. We ordered the Mexican appetizers for the rest of the guests enjoying the cocktail hour. Reception Ufffffff...so much info to list here! To start off, it's on the Palenque Terrace starting at 6pm! Entrance - we will have a basket of flip flops on a table for guests to take as dancing shoes. I ordered Navy Blue assorted size flip flops for the men and Lavender assorted size flip flops for the women from Dollar Tree. The basket will be the $29 fold-able bamboo basket from Crate & Barrel for luggage packing ease. On the table, there will also be everyone's table number assignments. We purchased Wilton ivory fold-able place cards. My fiance is going to tape washer to the inside of the cards to weight them down and combat the wind. Tables - 6 tables, with 6 people each. Using the Metallic Sands decoration package so we don't have to worry about much! We're printing the table numbers ourselves, and ordered some natural sea-shell table card holders from Etsy to display. Favors - At each table setting, there will be Mexican loteria matchboxes that we ordered on Etsy. Our favors also kind of include the flip flops and the glow sticks mentioned below. Lighting - We ordered necklace glow sticks from Amazon. The best man will be handing these out to guests as it gets dark. We also ordered Zuniga 4 column lighting with 2 string lights (via Beach Palace). Music - We ordered 2 speakers from JSAV (the Basic Package) and will be playing our iPod during the reception. Food/Drinks - Went with the BBQ buffet as it seems to be something that would appeal to everyone. We ordered a chocolate chantilly frosted cake. Possibly ordering additional champagne.

Thanks for the warm welcomes! @@MissAmber26 Okay that makes sense. They did apply the 2hr private function to the reception. I wish we had gotten the 75+ room nights, but quite a few of our guests choose to book through Southwest or Apple vacations when they had "holiday specials" rather than through our room block. Kind of sucks because now we have to pay for not only their dinners at the reception ($55/person), but we also now don't get the extra hour of free event! Although, overall I'm just happy and thankful they're attending our wedding. As far as vendors - we ended up doing the JSAV Basic Package to play our iPod song list, and Zuniga for additional lighting. Our purchase order includes the fees for both of these vendors. @@Danielle1 congrats on your upcoming wedding as well! After the wedding I can definitely update you on the lighting situation and overall thoughts on the Sky Bar and Palenque Terrace. Our ceremony is at 4pm and the cocktail hour is scheduled to be from 5 to 6pm. I think it will still be light enough during the cocktail hour so we're not doing any additional lighting during that. I believe the bar has its own lighting, so hopefully that will suffice. The reception lighting is a GREAT question. So far, we only have the Zuniga set of 4 columns with 2 string lanterns to outline the dance floor. Earlier today I asked my WC for a list of lighting options Zuniga offers, since she has never really provided us with anything regarding lighting! I happened to find the Zuniga column and string lantern lighting on my own by seeing someone else's photos from the Palenque Terrace. I'd also be interested in possibly purchasing some under-the-table lighting, and who knows what else based on the options we're given! Another thing we are doing that may help with the lighting is that once it gets dark out, we're having our best man pass out glow sticks to all our guests. We just purchased some glow stick necklaces from Amazon for that purpose. I'm having my WC make updates to the purchase order as it is, so I'm sure she'll be more than happy to add $$$ for the additional lighting we may get!

Hi everyone! First time poster here - I'm getting married at beach palace in about ONE MONTH! The ceremony will be on the Sky Terrace, the cocktail hour on the Sky Bar South, and the reception on the Palenque Terrace. I'm trying to set up a rehearsal dinner with my WC - but apparently it's $55/person even though we have 60+ room nights (36 attendees) and are purchasing the Metallic Sands Collection. I've heard of others getting their rehearsal dinner for free...not sure why we don't qualify. Does anyone have any insight? Also, I know some people were worried about the wind, so thought I'd share what I'm doing to combat it! I'm using veil weights (bought on Etsy) so my veil doesn't blow around too much. For the table name cards we're using Wilton ivory tent cards, and then my fiance is taping washers to the inside to weight them down. RIGHT AS I POSTED THIS WE RECEIVED OUR WEDDING PURCHASE ORDER - EEEEEK!