My fiance and I got married at the Gran Caribe Real Resort and Spa in September 2010. We did not do a site visit prior to booking the hotel. However I was really satisfied with this resort. The resort did an excellent job of catering to a large group of 46 people. The hotel is very kid friendly (kid pool/water park, kids club and babysitting available). Unlike many hotels in Mexico this hotel was busy which made for a great atmosphere.

I didn't really have any problems with the hotel communicating prior to the wedding. When I first booked the resort I asked a ton of questions and got answers within a couple days. I waited until about two months prior to the wedding to finalize things and ask the rest of my questions. Each time I emailed I wrote " XXXX and XXXX Luxury Wedding" in the subject heading." I think this helped them identify our wedding. All communication I had prior to the wedding was through email which I didn't mind because at least everything was in writing.

Upon arrival I was very impressed, the resort was very very clean and beautiful. We upgraded to a Master level suite overlooking the Gazebo, which is where our ceremony took place. I would definitely suggest upgrading your room (don't take their first offer though...they'll give you a deal if you ask). All Master level and higher suites gives you access to the Adult only Royal Resort next door and the food there is amazing!! If you don't have kids coming to the wedding I would suggest the Royal Resort. We had kids at the wedding so the Gran Caribe was perfect for us.

The day after our arrival we met with our wedding coordinator, Flora. She did a great job and her English was very good. We were told to bring our witnesses with us to the meeting. What we did not know was that for a civil ceremony these four witnesses actually sign during the ceremony. Picking people to witness the wedding because they happen to be at the resort early was not the best idea. During the ceremony the judge called each witness one at a time to sign the marriage certificate. Let's just say the grooms mother didn't understand why the step mom was signing.

Luxury Wedding Package

We got married at 4:00pm at the Gazebo. The Gazebo is very pretty and the Luxury Wedding Package comes with a decorated centerpiece at the front of the alter. They also tied white fabric inside the Gazebo and on the front of the Gazebo. The civil ceremony lasted about 25 minutes and this was mostly because we had 6 bridesmaids/groomsmen and 5 children. We picked the Spanish guitar for the ceremony music which was perfect for a beach wedding in Mexico. The Luxury wedding package comes with a photographer for the ceremony. I was not overly impressed. The photographer showed us 60 pictures and we had to pick 25 of these pictures. For any pictures beyond the 25 we had to pay $10 each, even for a digital copy. The photographer didn't even get a picture of my fiance putting my ring on me. I probably wouldn't have hired another photographer I would have just asked a few people to take pictures during the ceremony. Luckily my friend is a photographer so she came with us and took all the pictures before and after the ceremony.

After seeing all the possible sites for the cocktail and dinner I think the Villas Terrace is the best. It overlooks the beach and by the afternoon it is shaded so it's not as hot. It is also very close to the Gazebo. We could have had the cocktail hour and dinner in two separate locations but having it in the same location made it seem like a longer reception. They are pretty strict on time so if you want to go longer than a one hour cocktail and 3 hour dinner then you should probably just pay for the extra time.

Tall tables with white tablecloths were set up for the cocktail hour. My fiance and I were taking pictures so we didn't attend the cocktail hour but everyone said it was really nice.

Reception

For the reception all the tables had white table cloths and the chairs had with chair covers. The center of the tables were decorated with a square wooden box with sand in it and a candle. It doesn't sound great but it looked really nice. I thought about buying and making a bunch of stuff but I am so glad I didn't. We had sandalwood fans engraved with our name and wedding date placed on each plate. I purchased metal table number holders for each table which held card stock that I printed the guests names on one side and the menu on the other side. I also used this to mark if they were Vegetarian.

I didn't really care for the menu items suggested so I used their Mexican menu. We had shrimp salad, chicken mole with rice and beans for the entree and tres leches cake for desert. We didn't upgrade the cake we just picked from their signature cakes that came with the Luxury package. I was very pleased. The cake was bigger than I thought it would be and we had a lot left over. I chose lemon for the cake and it was the best lemon cake I have ever had.

We didn't hire a DJ and I am so glad we didn't. A trusted friend of ours worked on a long list of songs including our first dance and father daughter dance and he set up a laptop/ipod during the cocktail hour and reception. The hotel charges a pretty big fee to have outside vendors such as DJ's and photographers come in. This fee does not apply if they are a wedding guest.

My only complaint about this resort is that I felt like they tried to charge fees for everything. It was fine for us because we pretty much just stuck to the Luxury Wedding Package, which honestly has everything you would need. The fees that I thought were a little steep included a $300 fee to have a 15 minute rehearsal. We ended up just having everyone meet at the Gazebo really early in the morning the day before the wedding which worked out fine. It would have been nice to have the coordinator there but not $300 for a 15 minute rehearsal.

We also discussed adding an hour to the reception but the resort wanted to charge $10 per person per hour. So it would have been $460 for an extra hour. We ended at 9:00pm and just went to the lobby bar where they were doing Karaoke...which my fiance loved. The bouquets and boutonnieres were priced pretty high too and you can't use outside vendors for flowers. I ended up going to Michael's and buying a branch of orchids and making my own bouquets and boutonnieres which turned out really great and only cost maybe $20. The bouquet that came with the wedding package was so beautiful...definitely pick tropical flowers they look and photograph so much better than roses.

Travel Accommodations

We used a travel agent from destinationweddings.com. If I had it to do over again I would have just had people make their own travel arrangements. It's too much of a headache when the agent makes an error when booking a guests travel accommodations and then you have to hear about it.

Overall we had such an amazing experience with the resort. I honestly would not have changed a thing. We had so many guests comment on much they liked both the resort and the wedding. Even our guests that don't usually like all inclusive resorts were impressed.

Hope this helps...happy planning!!

Here is a picture of the reception table on the Villas Terrace.

Here is a picture of the wedding Gazebo decorated for our wedding.