kunrau

Thanks Kat, they don't we got married on Saturday it was amazing!!! Thank you for all your help. We're still here enjoying the sunshine.

So glad it went well hun!!! Wishing you all the happiness in the world

Hi,

 

Just thought I'd Share if anyone is having any doubts my wedding on Saturday was absolutely amazing! It went just as planned no trials required really well organised. I'm still her in Mexico for another week enjoying the sun so will write a review when I get back.

Congrats!!! How exciting! So glad it went well - looking forward to seeing your review

Thanks Kat for the quick response, also sorry for got to say do they add Vat (tax) onto the final bill? Just so I work out how much to pre load the card with

No I don't think they do honey! I think they just charged us exactly what was on the form. Thanks,

Kat

Hi Kat thank you for all you help on this you have been great. One final question when you paid the bill for all the wedding charges did they present this in USD and could you pay in USD or did they convert to pesos? I am taking a Thomas Cook travel card which would be loaded with dollers however wasn't sure if the final bill was in pesos.

Kind regards

Hi they calculate it all in USD, from the package price to the add ons to the spa services but then when you pay it all at reception it all gets exchange into pesos at the awful rate they give you at the reception desk. If you can get around this some how you can save some money, we tried to fight it but had no luck. They also only let you pay for a certain amount of cash per room.

Hope that helps

Kat

Thank you Kat for your detailed review and photos, I have 6 weeks left before we depart to Mexico to get married, and your review has really helped! on the little things like a cake topper, and favor ideas not that I have much room left on my weight allowance. My main concern is my make up, I'm not very good at this myself did you make your appointment once you got there? I am so glad I changed my date to get the Gazebo it looks amazing it meant I couldn't have my 1st choice resturant (grand tourga) but the ceremony photos you have posted just confirmed I definitely have done the right thing. Just one final question do you know if you get VIP bands (so you can eat and drink at all 4 resorts) as a wedding couple for any of the packages or was that included in your Romantica package.

 

Thank you in advance

Georgina

Hi Georgina,

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!! I'm so jealous that yours is yet to come, it's sad when it's all over. I hope you have the best wedding holiday!!

I booked the appointment for makeup and hair when I got to the resort (at the spa). The trial for hair and makeup is included and she has a book to pick different styles from and can try several different things on you. The trial is free but the hair and makeup on the day are not (I think it was about $150 for both) but if you do the trial before you decide to get it done with them. The girl that did my hair and makeup was good, I think her name was Norma. Don't worry, they do Wedding all the time  

I think the VIP wristbands to let you access all the resorts are included for the bride and groom in any package but I'm not 100% sure. I know there was a couple getting married a few days after us and they chose a lower package than us and they had the same wristbands as us but I don't know which lower package they chose. I remember talking to them about costs and they paid less for their package. I was trying to find the PDF for 2017 packages in my email but I can't find it. I know in the 2015/2016 packages you got VIP wristbands for the bride and groom and their parents for any package but 2017 it has changed to just bride and groom. Parents seem to get fewer perks now.

I hope that helps and I hope you have a wonderful Wedding!!

Kat

Hey Georgina congrats on the upcoming wedding! Hope you share your story and review after which resort are you staying at? I know if any guest is at akumal or sian kaan they automatically get privilege to all 4 resorts but I believe I also remember reading that about the wedding packages for at least the bride and groom. I think the increase package means more access to family of the bride and groom.

 

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Thanks again kat I'm just in convo with the resort to do a set appetizer and dessert with the meat swords. I just got the options for the set appetizer and I have a funny question, what is a Russian salad? Lol when I Google it soo many different pictures pop up mainly a chopped salad with a creamy dressing is this what it is?

 

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Russian Salad in this case, is a creamy mayo potato salad with smoked salmon and it's delicious!! I don't know what the exact recipe is but I think it has peas and carrots and maybe pickles?. It is very nice! Everyone kept saying how good it was. 

Hope that helps!

Kat

Costs

Costs on the Wedding are quite complicated! So many options and different things you can add so let me give you some key points about mine and what we paid in total to give you an idea.

Total guests: 50

Package: Romantic Extravaganza (package only includes 30 guests so if you have more you pay $40 per person)

Reception: Privatised tent at Grand Tortuga

Post Reception: Poolside dancing

Music: Sound equipment only (no dj or band)

The total Wedding cost us about $8K in USD. 

We paid almost $4K for the Romantic Extravaganza package (which includes 30 people) and then paid per person for he extra people above 30.

We paid $2.5K to privatize the restaurant the restaurant (this is based on how many people you have so if you have less than 50 it won't cost you as much). 

We paid $70 per hour for the sound equipment and didn't get a DJ or anything to save on costs, we just played our own music off Spotify and stuff. (6 hours)

We upgraded a few hours of the bar to international bar to have nicer alcohol which cost just over $500 usd.

We did not pay for any extra photos - the packages with the onsite photographer are very expensive! I just have some talented friends take photos and we have 20 photos included.

We also paid for bridesmaids bouquets and groomsmen boutonnieres and a few additional things

Photos - Tropic One Studios (on site photographer)

Tropic one studios is the onsite photography company and they have an 'exclusive' contract with the resort which means if you want to bring your own photographer you will need to pay Tropic One Studios between $500 - $1000 which is very annoying and ridiculous.

I unfortunately don't have many good things to say about Tropic One Studios. I looked them up on facebook after we booked the wedding and really didn't like their work. Not really very good photography, especially for a Wedding photography. I emailed them to find out prices for bringing someone external on site and the manager emailed me back immediately with their extremely high costs. I then emailed back letting them know that I would not be doing this as it was far too expensive so I instead asked them for their photo package costs and they didn't reply at all. Then my husband emailed to chase this up and we got no response. Funny how they respond immediately when they see an opportunity to get money for doing nothing but as soon as you ask them costs on their work prices they ignore you. I found some package costs online but wasn't sure how up to date they were. It was crazy expensive anyway so I just asked some of my talented guests with nice cameras to step in for me. I have about 4 friends taking pictures (luckily they're talented and I have some wonderful photos which I haven't posted as they're not finished editiing yet).

With our package we have 25 photos included with Tropic One Studios from the Ceremony, if you want them for any other part of the day you have to pay extra and it seemed like a lot more (such as getting ready photos, reception, etc etc,) As I didn't like their pictures on fb I didn't want to pay all that money and be disappointed. At the ceremony the photographer was there and took some pictures as I was walking down the aisle and stuff but I didn't think he looked very professioal, he was a bigger guy, and wore all white which I thought was a bit weird as white should be bride only really and he was wearing a baseball cap which looked super unprofessional Some friends took some videos of me walking down the aisle and all you can see is this guy running from behind me to ahead of me to take pictures and it just doesn't make the video as nice. 

After the Wedding we went to their offices to take a look at the photos and surprisingly we didn't mind the photos they're actually nice so don't be too worried Grand Bahia brides!!!! I've posted an album below to show what the pictures we got looked like

We didn't struggle too much to cut the 70 photos he had down to 25 to keep. Some of the photos weren't great, someone face would be cut in half on the edge and some of the editing was questionable. After the 25 included each picture was $50 per digital copy!!! He tried to upsell us on extra photos but we said no. There was a few photos that were black and white and I asked if I could have them in colour. (I can change a photo to black and white myself I'd prefer to have a coloured copy so I can choose) and he said NO which I thought was ridiculous.

He then loaded up the pictures on a CD for us (old school). We took the CD home just to find it was blank!!!!! I emailed them right away asking to get the pictures and waited a few days - no response. I then emailed my wonderful wedding coordinator to help me with this and he chased her on getting me my pictures and she finally sent a google drive link with the pictures!!! Thank god! When I opened it tho - one of the pictures was corrupt and we couldn't open it so that took another 6 days to sort out. Such bad service. 

We also told them we weren't impressed that they never replied to our email about package costs ahead and the manager came and told us that she apparently never received the emails asking for this (either of them! lol that old chestnut!). She also accused us of bring a professional photographer onsite and told us they would contact them and get them to pay but no one ever heard from her. She was just annoying.

Don't want to end the review on that note! lol It was a wonderful day and I wouldn't have changed where i did it or anything it was lovely and everyone had a great holdiay

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review
I have a few questions,
What did you play your music on for the ceremony I saw a few brides talking about an app or something?
Where did you order your personalized sunglasses from?
I am also privatizing the grand tortuga restaurant, don't really want people to have to go up to the buffet so I'm talking to them about a set menu but would also
like the swords.
I was just planning on using the alloted time (4 hours) plus maybe adding on an hour and doing all of the dancing in the tent, I do like the idea of the pool side dance but don't really want to pay more.. I really like that you said they included some decorations in this option as I was thinking of renting some from a local vendor.
I was wondering how much you paid for the pool reception after?

Do you have pictures of your tent set up? Your picture you attached looks lovely but I can't seem to open the rest

Thank you again!


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Hi Honey - right I've posted a few extra things such as decorations and costs as I meant to do this and forgot. I hope that helps you get a better idea

As per music at the Ceremony they had all the sound equipment there and had an iphone cable so we just downloaded a few songs onto a phone and played it. Make sure this is downloaded and not playing off wifi in case you have spotty wifi you don't want your music to stop or anything. You want to have some extra songs for people to listen to while they wait for you to arrive There is someone there to cue the music at the right times as well so you're looked after don't worry!

Re restaurant - they might be able to do the meat off the swords and then have a starter and a dessert - I'm not sure. Talk to the manager Adriane! He is excellent and will try to accommodate you!

We got the sunglasses from this website! Turned out great!

http://go-personalised.co.uk/login.html

You could definitely do dancing in the tent! It is big! I don't think we paid to privatise the pool but we paid for alcohol upgrade and for the sound equipment. You can alternatively pay for a DJ or band but I don't think there is much of an extra cost to be around the pool! Find out about this!!

I posted the albums again and added some extra photos. I hope you can see these. Strange about the others I definitely added more than 1 photo. Sorry I hardly have any photos so far so I don't have that many to share and the ones I've shared are just random ones from guests (other than the Ceremony ones that are from the onsite photographer).

I hope that helps Let me know if you have any other questions.

Kat

Decorations

The hotel does not provide any decorations other than the flowers from the ceremony brought over, white table cloths and chairs, cutlery, menus printed out. AND they only provide this and let you decorate tables if you privatise the area!!! If you don't then I don't think you even get to have sound equipment or anything there.  Please keep this in mind!

If you want anything decorated, you have to bring it with you (I think they may let you rent things as well but I'm not sure what the cost is and no one offered this to me). 

We had 50 guests so I wanted table numbers, table plans, name place cards, favours on each table etc. So I brought all that along, I split it between guests coming, everyone was really good about leaving space for me in their luggage! (lol my luggage was still overweight tho!)

Because I couldn't really bring a full table plan or anything (as this would be too big for my luggage I instead decided to make straws with flags on them and had them on a table for the bridesmaids to hand out as people entered the reception. The straw flags had the name of the person and the table they were sitting at. I also had table numbers made and my mother in law brought me shell from the beach they live near and cut slits into them to hold the table numbers on each table - I thought this was fitting to the beach theme. 

Once everyone grabbed their drinks with their straws, everyone found their table with the table number (we didn't do number for tables but table names which were Thai islands as that's where we met ) When they got to the table I had little hearts that got clung to each wine glass as name place holders so people would know where to sit at the table. As we privatised the restaurant I got to choose how many tables of how many people - which was good. I went for 4 big tables (5 including the head table) which made the wedding more fun I think!

I had favours on the table which were brass wine bottle stoppers in little sand colours bags and put a little tag on them saying "Thank you for being part of our day". The planner had all the instructions on where to put everything but I got my bridesmaids to go in and check everything and make changes as necessary. Everything looked beautiful.

The cake was nice, lots and lots of cream. I chose chocolate and it was nice. My dad absolutely loved it. I brought my own cake topper because it comes without one so if you want one bring one

After dinner, we went outside to the pool and they had decorated the area with fairy lights and little tables and chairs and tall tables you could stand at. We didn't add any decoration here it was all perfect Really didn't need anything else.

Great review @@deecol - I have just written my own review everyone! You're welcome to come read it, link in signature below  

Funny as my story is similar to yours!! 

Let me know if you have any questions anyone

Resorts on the complex

Grand Bahia Tulum – This is the resort we stayed in, it’s huge, and is located on the beach. The pool area connects with the beach. It doesn’t have free wifi. It has a nice main lobby and a couple of a la carte restaurants (you can also use Coba’s restaurants when you stay here) and the main bar is just off the reception in a huge open building. Was fairly young crowd when I was there. Saw some kids but not a huge amount.

Grand Bahia Coba – This is the other regular (not luxury) resort in the complex, it is not located on the beach but further inland from Tulum. You can use Tulum’s beach but you have to take a gold card there. I believe this one has a huge kids program and therefore has more young families. It has a lot of restaurants and you can also book restaurants at Tulum if you stay here. The bar is located right in the lobby so when you walk in it is very busy and seems noisy because the bar isn’t split off. Due to the busyness it has a buzz about it.

Grand Bahia Akumal (luxury) – This is one of the luxury resorts and it beautiful, it is just down the beach from Tulum and located right on the beach. It has a nicer beach, nicer pools, nicer pool chairs, a nicer buffet (although it is smaller), nice cocktails and free wifi. Lovely resort but the crowd is older. Kids are allowed on the resort but I didn’t see many. If you stay here you have access to all 4 resorts in the complex.

Grand Bahia Sia'an Kan (luxury -adult only) – This is located further into the jungle and on the other side of the highway to the other resorts (nowhere near the beach). No kids allowed in this one and the crowd was much older. I’m guessing they also have free wifi and perks. The buffet there was nice but also smaller. Entertainment seemed better as well. All the buildings are very modern looking and it makes it feels like you’re in the secluded jungle, not Mexico. If you stay here you have access to all 4 resorts in the complex.

*As the bridal couple you are treated as VIP and can go on and eat and drink on every resort.

Thank you kat that's awesome information I hope you had a great day I'm following your other review can't wait to hear more and maybe pictures!

This may sound strange but I think I met your father in law when I was in Mexico (feb 25-march 6) at the tulum round bar I was on my way from my meeting with the wedding coordinator who was yours as well he seems so nice.

He told me about his new daughter in law that has Russian family so they had a nice Russian salad appetizer at the grand tortuga. That's why I started thinking about this restaurant! Lol

Anyways small world he said your wedding was wonderful

 

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HAHAHAHAHA!! Of course you did! I swear he met the whole resort on that trip lol

Lovely glad the info was helpful. Happy to help more with anything you need. 

I have updated my review on this and have added some pictures have a look!! 

Post ceremony cocktails and canapes

After the ceremony and the champagne we walked down the beach to the redwood structure (you can also get married here) and we had our cocktails and canapes here. We were planning to have the canapes and cocktails by the gazebo but I'm glad we move down to this structure as there was more shade and space for eveyrone. The cocktails were great and the little bar they set up was cute. They also set up canapes that were self-help on the side. These weren't amazing but good as a little snack. Everyone mingled and our mariachi band arrived and started playing Mexican songs! It was very cool, they were very good and everyone enjoyed them. We took more group shots between mingling and just had cocktails with our guests. Canapes and cocktails get scheduled for about an hour or 2 - I can't remember but it was great!! After this everyone has a couple hours of break time before the reception dinner.

Most people went to the bar for more drinks, some went to their rooms to freshen up. 

My new husband and I went to our rooms, changed into our bathing suits and went to the pool. I was very hot from wearing my dress in +29 heat and I was starting to feel swollen. The pool was lovely to cool down, I then went back to shower and changed back into my dress Refreshed and perfect  

The Reception

We had our wedding at the Grand Tortuga which is a Brazilian sword restaurant. If you go there on a normal night you get a buffet appetiser and then you get some vegetables and potato delivered to your table to share and then they come around with swords of cooked meat (steak, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage, even pineapple) and you have a red and green card so they will come around and give you some if your card says green. So much meat, you can just keep eating and eating! It's lovely.

As I didn't want people to have the same thing on our Wedding day as they would have at that restaurant any other day we chose the plated option. You choose a starter, main and dessert and everyone has to have the same thing (except vegetarians and allergies of course). We went Russian salad as a starter with smoked salmon (this was amazing - everyone loved it). We then had a plated pork main and a cheesecake dessert. I wouldn't recommend going with the pork (it was dry) but one of my friends who doesn't eat pork had the chicken and she said it was excellent.  We ate at that restaurant several times during our stay and it was great. The Grand Tortuga is great for Weddings they have a lovely outdoor tent thing that works great and the manager Adrian (the one with the piercing blue eyes) is amazing, he will go out of your way to make your day special and was just terrific! We paid to privatize the restaurant area we were in instead of just getting a semi-private table. This costs a couple thousand dollars I think which is steep however with that you get decorations and they set it up how you want and it feels more like a Wedding so I thought it was worth it. It was so lovely and we had our own space for speeches and games.

I wanted the BBQ option too but I didn't want to pay per plate either it's crazy. I did not regret not getting that option. The tent is a lovely setting.

After dinner, cake and games we moved to the pool right outside the tent for dancing. We again paid for privatisation and upgraded the bar to international so they dressed it all up in fairy lights and had a little lantern path to the pool from the tent set up with a dance floor and a bit bar. It was amazing!! We paid for sound equipment instead of a dj so we could control our own music and we paid for wifi so we could just play playlist off spotify. It was a wonderful day and evening  It all ended at 11pm as you have to pay for staff per hour per person after that so that would have been too expensive. Andres our fantastic wedding planner arranged for transport to take us and all our guests to the disco in golf carts. We went back to our room to change first as my dress was completely black at the bottom. We kept dancing till about 1am in the disco and then went to bed.  

We got schedules from the Wedding planner earlier in the week to hand out to our guests. This way everyone knew were to meet the day of the Wedding. Everyone got picked up at the Tullum Lobby along with Groom and Groomsmen at 12:30 to go to the venue together. As the Gazebo is a bit of a drive from the lobby and it was very hot so this all worked well. The Wedding planner then came and picked me and my bridesmaids up at 12:50 to start the wedding at 1pm.

We had cheap sunglasses made with our names and the wedding date on the side and Mike took these along with him and handed them out to all the guest. This was PERFECT as it was hot and we were in the sun and lots of people forgot their sunglasses. Everyone loved them and they were so practical  

Andres arrived and we got into the golf card, the blasted some tunes in the golf cart and we all happily sang along. We got to the Gazebo and the photographer and guests and wedding co-ordinators were there. We were hidden around the corner from the walkway up to the Gazebo behind big bushes which was perfect. Someone queued the music and my bridesmaids starting walking down. Then my flower girl and then followed by me.

I walked down to '1000 Years' the acoustic version it was wonderful My husband to be was tearing up and my bridesmaids and everyone else really. Super nice. I had my friend do the ceremony because we were just doing a symbolic ceremony and he did a wonderful job, talking about each of us and then again as a couple, telling us we needed to be patient (which he pointed out isn't my strong suit) lol It was light and funny and tear jerking at the same time. So so nice! Loved it!!! We chose our own vows which we just found online and had my friend say them while we repeated (we didn't use the traditional ones). It worked out great. 

He then pronounced us husband and wife and we walked down the aisle together. There was hotel staff waiting for us at the end of the aisle handing out champane or some brut alternative. 

We got to the resort on Monday and we were getting married on that Friday. When you arrive and check in you're meant to have a letter from your planner telling you when to meet him to plan the Wedding. We didn't have a letter so we went down and saw the Wedding department and found out our appointment was the next day. We were a bit nervous and worried about how it was all going to go but the appointment was GREAT!! My planner was Andres (he is EXCELLENT!) so caring and detailed, everything I need in a planner! When we sat down with him we went through every detail including exactly the schedule we were going to follow, what the flowers were going to look like, even to the colour of the ribbon around the flowers. He printed some schedules for us too so we can hand them out to guests the days before the wedding which was handy! 

TIP: I read a review on this website that said make sure you get a rehearsal ceremony with your bridal party and whoever else is involved because the bride thought her bridal party didn't know where exactly to go and there was some confusion. I asked the planner for a run through and we did one and it was very helpful for everyone involved, I WOULD HUGELY RECOMMEND DOING THIS, you can discuss where you want everyone to stand or sit and how to walk in for photos, how fast everyone should walk, etc etc. This was huge for us! I think if we didn't have it people wouldn't have been as comfortable and wouldn't have really known what to do. Extremely helpful! I had one of my friends doing the ceremony so it was double helpful as he needed to lead us. Doing the rehearsal also made us change the location of the canapes and cocktails after the ceremony as we realised the spot we chose was far too hot!! 

The Wedding Day

I arranged to stay in my maid of honour's room the night before the wedding and Mike and I arranged to have breakfast at separate places in the morning (which didn't really work out but we managed to avoid each other anyway. This was also helpful for getting ready as all my stuff was in one place and I could hang my dress out.

The Wedding started at 1pm and I went down to the spa at 10am to get my hair and makeup done. Please note that I don't think any of the packages have hair and makeup included for the bride altho it says hair and makeup trial included which I think is a bit misleading and I was upset to find out that all that was extra. The hair as $96 and the makeup $65 (something like that) so it's not cheap but Normal at the spa did a good job. She tried 2 different hair styles and I chose a side curl. I also brought my own flower clip and little pearls pins to add some detail. She did my makeup too and altho I've had better makeup done at MAC at home I do think she did a good job. 

TIP: The Wedding package I chose had a mani/Pedi included for the bride so I got one (also with Norma). The mani/Pedi was ok but nowhere near amazing, It was coated too thick and even after an hour of drying the nail polish was still soft as it was so thick. In the salt water it also just doesn't' last and it took more than 2 hours for the Mani/Pedi so I would hugely recommend and even if it is included just skip it! Get shellac done at home before you go and then it'll last your whole holiday and you won't have to spend 2+ hours in a spa getting your nails done when all you want to do is see your guests. We got to the resort 4 days before we got married and we spent the first 4 days running around planning things and arranging things and it was exhausting. I could have done without that 2 hour appointment for sure!!

Looking for advice on wedding dinner choices. I am staying in akumal for my wedding in November and was recently provided with the menus to choose my dinner. My fiance is a pretty picky meat and potatoes kind of guy and I'm kinda disappointed in the options available. Thinking of using the Brazilian, la grand tortuga but wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for a group of about 30-35.

I would love the BBQ options but can't wrap my head around paying that much money at an all inclusive resort

 

Thanks!

 

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We had our wedding at the Grand Tortuga which is a Brazilian sword restaurant. If you go there on a normal night you get a buffet appetiser and then you get some vegetables and potato delivered to your table to share and then they come around with swords of cooked meat (steak, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage, even pineapple) and you have a red and green card so they will come around and give you some if your card says green. So much meat, you can just keep eating and eating! It's lovely.

As I didn't want people to have the same thing on our Wedding day as they would have at that restaurant any other day we chose the plated option. You choose a starter, main and dessert and everyone has to have the same thing (except vegetarians and allergies of course). We went Russian salad as a starter with smoked salmon (this was amazing - everyone loved it). We then had a plated pork main and a cheesecake dessert. I wouldn't recommend going with the pork (it was dry) but one of my friends who doesn't eat pork had the chicken and she said it was excellent.  We ate at that restaurant several times during our stay and it was great. The Grand Tortuga is great for Weddings they have a lovely outdoor tent thing that works great and the manager Adrian (the one with the piercing blue eyes) is amazing, he will go out of your way to make your day special and was just terrific! 

I wanted the BBQ option too but I didn't want to pay per plate either it's crazy. I did not regret not getting that option. The tent is a lovely setting and we move around the pool for dancing and it was perfect  

Let me know if you have any questions. I am going to work on my wedding review now as well, hopefully that will be helpful to some of you

Resort and where to stay

I found the complex very confusing as I felt we kept getting incorrect and inaccurate information so here is some detail that I hope you will find helpful.

The complex is absolutely huge and has a golf card bus system to get you around. There are 4 hotels in the complex:

Grand Bahia Tulum

Grand Bahia Coba

Grand Bahia Akumal (luxury)

Grand Bahia Sia'an Kan (luxury -adult only)

The way it works really is that anyone staying at Tulum or Coba can access those 2 resorts only. You cannot access the luxury resorts. However if you stay in one of the luxury resorts you can go to any of the 4 resorts in the complex.

If you get married at one of the luxury resort wedding locations the people staying at Tulum and Coba will not be able to attend without paying a day rate (about 90USD) to come on to the luxury resort for the day. We chose a Tulum Wedding location and told people they could stay at any of the 4 resorts in the complex. 

We were told that if we stayed at one of the luxury resorts that all our guests would have to as well to come to the Wedding but this isn't true. You can stay at the luxury hotel and have your guests stay where they want as long as you choose a wedding location in Tulum or Coba (one of the non-luxury resort). We wish we had known that and may have splurged to stay at Akumall (luxury) as it is very nice however this creates the issue of not being near your guests and isnt' great so I'm glad we stayed in Tulum with our guests as that's key.

Look out as well that some travel agents only book some of the resorts so they may give you incorrect info. For example, Thomas cook only books Grand Bahia Tulum and Grand Bahia Sia'an kan but won't give you options for Coba and Akumal (luxury). Thompson's on the other hand books Coba and Akumal but the other I think. (side note: Thomas Cook and Thompsons are UK travel agents, if you're from elsewhere int he world you may not know these).

Some details about all the resorts

Grand Bahia Tulum

Grand Bahia Coba

Grand Bahia Akumal (luxury)

Grand Bahia Sia'an Kan (luxury -adult only)

Invites and Website

We got the save dates made and sent them about a year before the wedding. The website was easy we just went on 'the knot' website and made a site for free. Really easy. We added info on the site about what resort took etc and the dates and dress code etc. Then we included the website on the save the date card we sent out so that made it easy for everyone to get info and RSVP right on the site

www.theknot.com/us/mikeandkat

We sent the invites out about 6 months before the wedding and included the website again in case people had lsot the save the date slip.

Hi All,

I just got back from getting married at the Grand Bahia Tulum a few days ago and wanted to write a review of our experience. 

Please feel free to ask me questions, happy to help you arrange, I know how frustrating it can be trying to plan the wedding from out of the country. I will post TIPS throughout the review of things I wish I had been told before the day. I hope you guys will find these helpful

Let's start with some background.

Mike and I met in Thailand on a backpacking trip. He was travelling from the UK where he lived and was travelling with some friends of his. I was living in Canada and was backpacking around Thailand with one of my best friends. One night we got to a beach bar and my friend started making eyes at this guy on the beach who ended up coming over to chat with us. His friends later joined and my now husband was in that group. We can't piece a lot of the night together as we both has a bit to drink but I just remember how funny he was and how charming he came across. That night on the walk home I stepped off the sidewalk to let a bike pass and stepped in a hole (sidewalks are not very well lit in Thailand) and sprained my ankle. Mike was with me and as the carrying man that he is, looked after me and carried me home. The next few days he stuck around and helped us move rooms, helped me get around etc. My ankle was extremely swollen which made it hard to walk. Luckily my friend that I was travelling with is a nurse so she also took excellent care of me. Best possible situation for spraining your ankle on a backpacking holiday really. So Mike stuck around us the rest of our trip, always in contact with me! It was just so easy being with him, it's like we'd always been together.

In Bankok a couple of weeks later we said our goodbyes and flew home (me to Canada, and him to England). We didn't think we'd see each other again.

However, we stayed in touch messaging all day every day, with endless photos and showing a glimpse into each other's lives. This then escalated to facetiming all the time and phone calls. 6 weeks after we got home I flew to London to visit him and we decided to make it work. I quit my job in Canada and gave up my apartment there and move to the UK in June (less than 6 months after we met). Crazy I know! lol but I didn't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what if, so I just embraced the adventure.

Engagement

In November about 1.5 years later we got engaged Mike proposed on the Jubilee walking bridge in central London and hired a flash mob to sing 'All you need is Love' which was pretty cool. We had a lovely steak dinner that night as well and it was all wonderful.  

Since most of my family and friends live in Canada and his are obviously in England I thought Mexico would be a good place to have the Wedding. I always wanted a wedding on the beach so I thought this would be a good opportunity. Unfortunately, planning a wedding in Mexico from England isn't that easy, if you go see a travel agent for Weddings in Mexico there isn't many options, where as I know in Canada you can have about 20 places priced up no problem. My options were rather limited and a lot of the options I got didn't allow children which wasn't going to work as I have a couple of nieces. I ended up choosing Grand Bahia Tulum as the reviews for the Weddings were good and I looked at the cost of the package from Canada and it was about $1500 Canadian dollars per person which is fairly reasonable. By the time booking came around all my friends and family from Canada ended up paying about $1750 per person which was annoying and I'm not sure if it had to do with the dollar being weak or the prices having gone up but at least it wasn't $2000 per person like some of the other resorts. I felt guilty asking everyone to spend that money never the less.

TIP - I booked my wedding holiday through Thomas Cook and they weren't great if I'm honest, I did enquire about booking the Wedding through them. Which entailed my travel agent asking the Wedding coordinator at Thomas Cook and then coming back to me with answers which was extremely slow and not very helpful. No one seemed to be able to tell me the benefits of using a planner through Thomas Cook so I scrapped that whole thing and just booked the holiday through them and contacted the onsite Wedding planner instead. I would recommend this - the Wedding planners on site are excellent and really get into details of planning your Wedding with you about 3 months before so don't stress if you don't get tons of responses before then! They know what they're doing

Hi guys,

 

We're getting married in June this year. We are from Toronto, Canada, and we're planning to have a Symbolic wedding at the resort.

 

Wondering if there is a rule about the legal marriage here in Canada -- does it have to be done 3-5 months before the resort wedding? Or is the Friday just before flying to Mexico sufficient?

 

Thanks in advance.

Hi!

We got married at Grand Bahia a few weeks ago and we got married before we got there and just had a symbolic ceremony. I don't think it even matters if you're married or not (no one asked us for our marriage certificate or anything), never mind when you got married. We got married in London on Saturday and then flew out on the Monday, our wedding was on that Friday. You do need to arrive at least 3 days before your ceremony to allow for planning no matter if symbolic or real.

Hope that helps

Thanks

Kat

@TATasha is there anyway of getting updated prices for poolside reception options.

Hi! 

Has anyone replied to your comment yet? I can type out the packages for you if you still need them. There is several options however they are all very expensive as you pay per plate. The ones that looked really good like the BBQ option and stuff were all about $70-100 per plate. If you have a lot of guests it seems insane, I think it's also buffet style so everyone helps themselves.

I just got married a few weeks ago and will post a review shortly which you may find helpful.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Kat

There seems to be a fire that broke out in Grand Bahia Tulum, anyone there that can let us know what the damage is?

http://www.travelweek.ca/news/fire-breaks-grand-bahia-principe-tulum/

I'm getting married there in less than 6 weeks!!! 

Hello Bahia brides!

Has anyone gotten married recently who can give me some details and advice on DJ vs Band options and timing of the wedding and reception options.

I have questions such as are the bands any good? If so which one? if you have your reception at one of the restaurants do they give you a different menu then you'd get there on any other night? How much time is good to have between the ceremony and reception? 

I'd really appreciate advice if someone has just been through this process.

Thanks girls

Kat

The wedding packages have changed this year. In the 2017 packages the Romance Extravagenza is $3490USD for the legal and $3240USD for the symbolic. There's a package available above that one now that that one is called Emerald which is $1200USD more respectively but looks like it includes loads of perks such as the Moet for the toast which the extravaganza doesn't include anymore. These prices include food from one of the a la cart restaurants on site, you get a group menu. You can use the restaurants outdoor terraces or a semi private table inside. They can send you pictures of these sites. 

But if you're looking to have a poolside reception instead of food at one of the restaurant you have to pay for a private buffet dinner which is charged per plate. The menu ranges from $60USD-$95USD per plate. This ranges from hotdogs to steak. This includes food and 3 hours open bar for guests. If you chose this option you can use the a la cart restaurant with your guests another night. if you want more then 3 hours (like most people) you have to pay extra to extend your pool side reception and get a DJ and stuff. I've included those prices below from an email I got from the hotel.

"Kindly note that if you would like to extend the privatization of the area beyond the hours stablished, it will be the cost of drinks (Domestic, International, Cocktail) per person per hour+ the cost of music service hired. Please note that the operation of the hotel is until 11pm. For events after 11pm a fee may apply (300 usd) to cover the staff who stay after that time. All the locations (beach, poolside), restaurants & terraces are subject to availability.

In each case, you can add music options as follows:

- DJ: coloured lights, speakers, mic & mixer (210 USD per hour)

- Live Band: group playing International music (750 USD for a set of 45 min)

- Sound equipment: speakers, micro, device (75 USD per hour)

- Mariachi: 4 persons playing traditional Mexican music (370 USD per set)

- Live Music Trio: 3 persons playing romantic Mexican music with guitars (295 USD)

- Duet of guitars: 2 persons playing romantic Mexican music with guitars (272USD)

- Saxophone player: folkloric Mexican music (360 USD per set)

- Marimba: folkloric Mexican music (360 USD per set). "

I'm getting married in Feb 2017 and I haven't made my mind up yet as to what I'll have but if you get everything you want it gets very expensive! I also have almost 50 people coming which doesn't help the cost.

They won't reply to you much until 6 months before your Wedding date when you're meant to get special attention and you'll get a wedding coordinator assigned to you.

Let me know if you have any other question.

Thanks,

Kat

Hi All,

I haven't booked the hotel yet or anything. I've fairly certain I'll go with this hotel now and called them yesterday but they don't take 2017 bookings until January of 2016. I was hoping to book it in earlier as I wanted to send out my save the date cards more then a year ahead of time so people can start saving and can book well ahead of time.

i'm wondering if I should just send out save the dates with a ballpark date on it (2nd - 9th February 2017 for example) then people can book that week and we'll get married on a day that week.

Has anyone else had this issue? 

Thanks,

Kat

@Mention thank you so much for your help! The internet is so big but it can be so difficult to find anything.

Hi Brides,

Anyone who's gotten married at the Grand Bahia Principe Tullum do you have any pictures of what your reception looked like?

It doesn't list on the different packages what decorations are available so I'm not sure what i can ask for. How does all that work? I'm thinking either beach wedding or gazebo but I've seen the gazebo decorated with flowers and the aisle and stuff but it doesn't state if that costs extra or what. It also doesn't say if I can chose colours and layout as well.

For the reception I'd like to do it by the pool but I have the same questions. I didn't like the pictures I saw of the pool reception online as the chairs and table didn't match in colour. Can I chose these colours or do you just get what you get?

My other question is the bridal bouquet, it's included in the packages but does anyone have a picture of theirs? I'd like to know what they provide as standard. Is it any good?

I'd really appreciate anyone's input on this!!! Thank you girls!

Kat

Hello all brides past and future!

I live in the UK and am planning my wedding in early 2017, I'm also new to the site!! I'm currently trying to pick a date and resort.

I'm trying to find something affordable for my guests to come to as a lot of the resort I've looked at are 5+ stars and an absolute fortune for my guests which I'm uncomfortable with. I've got guest coming from Canada, UK, US and Germany. Does anyone have any experience as to how group packages could potentially work for me as eveyrone is coming from the different place?

With this in mind I'm currently mainly looking at Barcelo Tucancun and the Grand Bahia Pricipe.

Has anyone recently had a wedding at either of them? Does anyone know what the seaweed situation is at right now as well (are they cleaning it up so it's not an issue?, is still really bad?)

Barcelo Tucancun - has an absolutely beautiful beach so I thought it would be perfect for my beach wedding but I can't find any recent reviews on it which concerns me.

Grand Bahia Principe - is a beautiful complete with 4 different resorts I think. Tulum, Coba and Luxury Sian Ka'an and Luxury Akumal. How does this complex work? Can your guests stay at any of them and still attend the Wedding? There seem to be conflicting reports on tripadvisor in regards to this. My biggest concern with this complex is all the seaweed pictures of the beaches on tripadvisor, that's the last thing I want on the background of my pictures. 

If anyone can connect with me in regards to their experience I'd really appreciate it!!!

Thank you!!!!

Kat