Gran Bahia Principe Akumal/Tulum/Coba - POST HERE!

[TATrisha]

Book your time directly with the salon.

[shellee]

I know that this has probably already been asked but do you know if they will allow a ''head table'' at any of the resturants?? i have noticed in peoples pics that there is a main table for the wedding party but its not a traditional head table. and we have asked for the Arliquin or the meditiranio... do you know if they offer round tables????

[LaurenLuv]

 

I'm excited! I booked my group spot for my wedding from Nov 24th the Dec 2 2012 at the Akumal location! (My new husband and I will stay an extra week after).  I have yet to speak to the wedding coordinator there, but I should on Monday.

 

The website shows a few wedding packages but unfortunatly it doesn't have any of the add on's/extras!  I will be reading on here, and hopefully I can get to know some other brides and share some ideas! 

 

Has anyone put together a really nice package for around 25 guests? If so, how much did it cost?

I also wanted to know if anyone knew anything about the photographer there and the hair and makeup artists, are they good? 

 

Happy Planning!

 

Lauren

[andrea2006]

We just arrived back form a great two weeks at the GBP Tulum. The wedding was at 2 at the tulum gazebo, reception at 6:30 (I think, can't remember exact dinner time)

The wedding was a perfect day. I just thought I would give my quick review:
 

My Mom and I had the spa at 10 for French tip manicures (lasted a few days, usually when I get them done I am lucky if they last 24 hours!) My Mom's hair looked great; I was a bit on the fence about mine. She pulled too much of it back and I had a hard time explaining that I wanted more down. I also thought the curls were a bit too tight..in the end once I made it back to my room the wind and humidity got a hold of it and relaxed the curls enough for me. Lots of people on here suggested putting your hair up because of the wind...I know I never would be happy with my hair up so I just did half up, it was crazy windy but my hair survived and I think the hair should be out of my face for most pictures.
 

We had the dinner at Gran Tortuga. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was fantastic. The food was delicious, and the presentation is different and a really fun dinner. We went back with a smaller group for our last al la carte dinner we loved it so much. I had given Jazmin my table favors and they were set up at everyone's plate, she didn't seem completely sure about setting them up when I brought them to the meeting but they were set up nicely.
 

The poolside reception was lots of fun; they even added some bright pink chair and table bows without me requesting it. I had brought paper lanterns and they were tied off some trees around the pool area. We paid for just the minimum bar but they had everything there for us. We had brought an iPod with our first dance song plus 3 other slow songs, I asked the DJ to just play our extra songs at anytime, not all right away, there must have been miscommunication though because right after our first dance he played all of our songs on the iPod. Other than that little mix up I thought he was great, there wasn’t any songs I didn’t love, I honestly feel that if I had made the entire playlist myself, it would have turned out the same! He played a lot of current dance music, then some awesome older songs. Near the end he played one or two slow songs then played our first dance song again as the last song of the night, Husband and I were finishing our last dance of the evening the fireworks from the fiesta were shot off; it was as if they had timed it just for us it was such a perfect end to the dance!
 

I was really happy with the day, but by the end of the week I did have some issues.
 

First off the personalized napkins I gave Jazmin weren’t put at everyone’s plate...they showed up at the cake table later in the dinner, no one noticed thought because the waiters delivered the cake with no napkins. I also did notice them at the bar (still in the box so no one noticed them, I figured I would just give one to people later in the week because I was having too much fun to start handing out napkins) at the reception. On my last day in Mexico I realized no one had given me back my extra napkins (I brought 90, there was 26 people and I know most people didn’t even see them) or my paper lanterns from the reception. When I asked Jazmin about it she informed that the couple is responsible for cleanup of the pool party area because Jazmin and her assistants are no longer working, so my stuff was likely thrown out. This really upset me because no one told me I needed to clean up my own stuff, If they had just simply told me I had to do that it would have taken us less than 5 minutes to gather it and I wouldn’t have had all of my decorations thrown out. So to warn future brides, if you want anything saved from the pool party, make sure you take it with you right then because the hotel just throws it out.
 

The next problem was the cake. Really it was beautiful and tasted delicious, it just wasn’t what I asked for. I bought 8 roses, and told Jazmin I wanted 2 on the top, and 2 at the bottom of each tier, staggered (like one tier flowers to the right, next tier to the left) I had emailed her a picture and she had it printed at our meeting and we confirmed how I wanted the roses placed on the cake. When the cake came out all of the roses were placed in a line down the middle of the cake. It might sound a bit picky but it just bugs me because either Jazmin didn’t give the chef the picture or she did and he just ignored it. It was just such a simple request, and they ignored it.
 

The last issue made me thankful our ceremony was the symbolic one. During the symbolic ceremony you sign a certificate, then Jazmin brings it to her office, you can pick it up between 9:30-11:30 a day after the wedding. Every time I tried to get it I was asked to come back because Jazmin was busy, finally on the 3^rd time I said no I just want to pick up my stuff, so they sent her assistant Carla. Carla came out and showed me my marriage certificate with proper spelling (which made me very confused, because there were no signatures on it..)....then the one we all signed during the ceremony in which they apparently spelt my name wrong. It was nice of them to notice and request a new certificate with proper spelling, except I wish they had tried to notify me right away since by the time I finally found out both our witnesses had left Mexico and they don’t live in the same city as us, we know have to mail it for them to sign the new copy, so I am hoping it doesn’t get lost or bent in the mail now!
 

This ended up being longer than I planned. Also I hope this doesn’t come off as overly negative. The Wedding day went very smoothly, the ceremony wording from the minister was beautiful and short (what we wanted). I enjoyed everything so much. One tip would be try getting married on a Thursday (fiesta night) We got soo lucky with the timing of the fireworks, it was such a perfect ending.

We brought a photographer so I will post pictures once she has them ready for me! Ask any questions, I will try my best to answer!

 

 

[Sunshine2680]

Thanks for sharing Andrea! Don't worry it wasn't too negative. You pointed out the issues you had which is what we all want pointed out so we can possibly prevent them from happening on our day(s).
Thats very good to know about the decorations. I was thinking about bringing lanterns too and I would be upset also if they ended up getting thrown out. But I also think its ridiculous to have to stay after your own wedding to clean up! May have to designate a couple of people to do this for me. Especially if we carry on to the Hacienda after we finish poolside.
Very good to know that your iPod worked for the DJ..even though he didn't understand your request. I was worried Id have to put all my music on CD's to make sure they worked! ha!
Very dissapointing to hear about the cake. Even tho its a small detail...you gave them a picture so there should have been no room for error. You're allowed to be picky! Its your wedding day!
I'm also glad we're doing only a symbolic ceremony aswell. Good to know about the pick-up...we're supposed to be doing TTD the next day so not sure how that will work .I suppose I could pick it up the day after that.
Cant wait to see pictures! Post LOTS pleeeaaaase!
 

Originally Posted by andrea2006 

We just arrived back form a great two weeks at the GBP Tulum. The wedding was at 2 at the tulum gazebo, reception at 6:30 (I think, can't remember exact dinner time)

The wedding was a perfect day. I just thought I would give my quick review:
 

My Mom and I had the spa at 10 for French tip manicures (lasted a few days, usually when I get them done I am lucky if they last 24 hours!) My Mom's hair looked great; I was a bit on the fence about mine. She pulled too much of it back and I had a hard time explaining that I wanted more down. I also thought the curls were a bit too tight..in the end once I made it back to my room the wind and humidity got a hold of it and relaxed the curls enough for me. Lots of people on here suggested putting your hair up because of the wind...I know I never would be happy with my hair up so I just did half up, it was crazy windy but my hair survived and I think the hair should be out of my face for most pictures.
 

We had the dinner at Gran Tortuga. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was fantastic. The food was delicious, and the presentation is different and a really fun dinner. We went back with a smaller group for our last al la carte dinner we loved it so much. I had given Jazmin my table favors and they were set up at everyone's plate, she didn't seem completely sure about setting them up when I brought them to the meeting but they were set up nicely.
 

The poolside reception was lots of fun; they even added some bright pink chair and table bows without me requesting it. I had brought paper lanterns and they were tied off some trees around the pool area. We paid for just the minimum bar but they had everything there for us. We had brought an iPod with our first dance song plus 3 other slow songs, I asked the DJ to just play our extra songs at anytime, not all right away, there must have been miscommunication though because right after our first dance he played all of our songs on the iPod. Other than that little mix up I thought he was great, there wasn’t any songs I didn’t love, I honestly feel that if I had made the entire playlist myself, it would have turned out the same! He played a lot of current dance music, then some awesome older songs. Near the end he played one or two slow songs then played our first dance song again as the last song of the night, Husband and I were finishing our last dance of the evening the fireworks from the fiesta were shot off; it was as if they had timed it just for us it was such a perfect end to the dance!
 

I was really happy with the day, but by the end of the week I did have some issues.
 

First off the personalized napkins I gave Jazmin weren’t put at everyone’s plate...they showed up at the cake table later in the dinner, no one noticed thought because the waiters delivered the cake with no napkins. I also did notice them at the bar (still in the box so no one noticed them, I figured I would just give one to people later in the week because I was having too much fun to start handing out napkins) at the reception. On my last day in Mexico I realized no one had given me back my extra napkins (I brought 90, there was 26 people and I know most people didn’t even see them) or my paper lanterns from the reception. When I asked Jazmin about it she informed that the couple is responsible for cleanup of the pool party area because Jazmin and her assistants are no longer working, so my stuff was likely thrown out. This really upset me because no one told me I needed to clean up my own stuff, If they had just simply told me I had to do that it would have taken us less than 5 minutes to gather it and I wouldn’t have had all of my decorations thrown out. So to warn future brides, if you want anything saved from the pool party, make sure you take it with you right then because the hotel just throws it out.
 

The next problem was the cake. Really it was beautiful and tasted delicious, it just wasn’t what I asked for. I bought 8 roses, and told Jazmin I wanted 2 on the top, and 2 at the bottom of each tier, staggered (like one tier flowers to the right, next tier to the left) I had emailed her a picture and she had it printed at our meeting and we confirmed how I wanted the roses placed on the cake. When the cake came out all of the roses were placed in a line down the middle of the cake. It might sound a bit picky but it just bugs me because either Jazmin didn’t give the chef the picture or she did and he just ignored it. It was just such a simple request, and they ignored it.
 

The last issue made me thankful our ceremony was the symbolic one. During the symbolic ceremony you sign a certificate, then Jazmin brings it to her office, you can pick it up between 9:30-11:30 a day after the wedding. Every time I tried to get it I was asked to come back because Jazmin was busy, finally on the 3^rd time I said no I just want to pick up my stuff, so they sent her assistant Carla. Carla came out and showed me my marriage certificate with proper spelling (which made me very confused, because there were no signatures on it..)....then the one we all signed during the ceremony in which they apparently spelt my name wrong. It was nice of them to notice and request a new certificate with proper spelling, except I wish they had tried to notify me right away since by the time I finally found out both our witnesses had left Mexico and they don’t live in the same city as us, we know have to mail it for them to sign the new copy, so I am hoping it doesn’t get lost or bent in the mail now!
 

This ended up being longer than I planned. Also I hope this doesn’t come off as overly negative. The Wedding day went very smoothly, the ceremony wording from the minister was beautiful and short (what we wanted). I enjoyed everything so much. One tip would be try getting married on a Thursday (fiesta night) We got soo lucky with the timing of the fireworks, it was such a perfect ending.

We brought a photographer so I will post pictures once she has them ready for me! Ask any questions, I will try my best to answer!

 

 

 

[katiemac]

Thanks for the review Andrea! Sounds like an overall wondful day and night. I am happy that you mentioned the Thursday Fiesta night thing. My FI and I are getting married ONE year tomorrow, and I think it falls on the Thursday. If not, we will make sure to watch the fireworks. Thanks again. Katie.

[fraggle42]

Hi Andrea,

 

Congratulations. I have booked the same as you. Tulum Gazebo wedding at 2pm and Gran Tortuga at 6:30 so glad to hear you recommend the restaurant. It is a shame that you have problems with the details. Previous brides have always been complementery about the Wc's and how they carry out your wishes. I am a bit worried now as Jazmin is our WC.

 

What table arrangements did you have for the dinner i.e was there a head table etc?

 

Did you have upgraded rooms? Were you in a good spot?
 

Originally Posted by andrea2006 

We just arrived back form a great two weeks at the GBP Tulum. The wedding was at 2 at the tulum gazebo, reception at 6:30 (I think, can't remember exact dinner time)

The wedding was a perfect day. I just thought I would give my quick review:
 

My Mom and I had the spa at 10 for French tip manicures (lasted a few days, usually when I get them done I am lucky if they last 24 hours!) My Mom's hair looked great; I was a bit on the fence about mine. She pulled too much of it back and I had a hard time explaining that I wanted more down. I also thought the curls were a bit too tight..in the end once I made it back to my room the wind and humidity got a hold of it and relaxed the curls enough for me. Lots of people on here suggested putting your hair up because of the wind...I know I never would be happy with my hair up so I just did half up, it was crazy windy but my hair survived and I think the hair should be out of my face for most pictures.
 

We had the dinner at Gran Tortuga. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was fantastic. The food was delicious, and the presentation is different and a really fun dinner. We went back with a smaller group for our last al la carte dinner we loved it so much. I had given Jazmin my table favors and they were set up at everyone's plate, she didn't seem completely sure about setting them up when I brought them to the meeting but they were set up nicely.
 

The poolside reception was lots of fun; they even added some bright pink chair and table bows without me requesting it. I had brought paper lanterns and they were tied off some trees around the pool area. We paid for just the minimum bar but they had everything there for us. We had brought an iPod with our first dance song plus 3 other slow songs, I asked the DJ to just play our extra songs at anytime, not all right away, there must have been miscommunication though because right after our first dance he played all of our songs on the iPod. Other than that little mix up I thought he was great, there wasn’t any songs I didn’t love, I honestly feel that if I had made the entire playlist myself, it would have turned out the same! He played a lot of current dance music, then some awesome older songs. Near the end he played one or two slow songs then played our first dance song again as the last song of the night, Husband and I were finishing our last dance of the evening the fireworks from the fiesta were shot off; it was as if they had timed it just for us it was such a perfect end to the dance!
 

I was really happy with the day, but by the end of the week I did have some issues.
 

First off the personalized napkins I gave Jazmin weren’t put at everyone’s plate...they showed up at the cake table later in the dinner, no one noticed thought because the waiters delivered the cake with no napkins. I also did notice them at the bar (still in the box so no one noticed them, I figured I would just give one to people later in the week because I was having too much fun to start handing out napkins) at the reception. On my last day in Mexico I realized no one had given me back my extra napkins (I brought 90, there was 26 people and I know most people didn’t even see them) or my paper lanterns from the reception. When I asked Jazmin about it she informed that the couple is responsible for cleanup of the pool party area because Jazmin and her assistants are no longer working, so my stuff was likely thrown out. This really upset me because no one told me I needed to clean up my own stuff, If they had just simply told me I had to do that it would have taken us less than 5 minutes to gather it and I wouldn’t have had all of my decorations thrown out. So to warn future brides, if you want anything saved from the pool party, make sure you take it with you right then because the hotel just throws it out.
 

The next problem was the cake. Really it was beautiful and tasted delicious, it just wasn’t what I asked for. I bought 8 roses, and told Jazmin I wanted 2 on the top, and 2 at the bottom of each tier, staggered (like one tier flowers to the right, next tier to the left) I had emailed her a picture and she had it printed at our meeting and we confirmed how I wanted the roses placed on the cake. When the cake came out all of the roses were placed in a line down the middle of the cake. It might sound a bit picky but it just bugs me because either Jazmin didn’t give the chef the picture or she did and he just ignored it. It was just such a simple request, and they ignored it.
 

The last issue made me thankful our ceremony was the symbolic one. During the symbolic ceremony you sign a certificate, then Jazmin brings it to her office, you can pick it up between 9:30-11:30 a day after the wedding. Every time I tried to get it I was asked to come back because Jazmin was busy, finally on the 3^rd time I said no I just want to pick up my stuff, so they sent her assistant Carla. Carla came out and showed me my marriage certificate with proper spelling (which made me very confused, because there were no signatures on it..)....then the one we all signed during the ceremony in which they apparently spelt my name wrong. It was nice of them to notice and request a new certificate with proper spelling, except I wish they had tried to notify me right away since by the time I finally found out both our witnesses had left Mexico and they don’t live in the same city as us, we know have to mail it for them to sign the new copy, so I am hoping it doesn’t get lost or bent in the mail now!
 

This ended up being longer than I planned. Also I hope this doesn’t come off as overly negative. The Wedding day went very smoothly, the ceremony wording from the minister was beautiful and short (what we wanted). I enjoyed everything so much. One tip would be try getting married on a Thursday (fiesta night) We got soo lucky with the timing of the fireworks, it was such a perfect ending.

We brought a photographer so I will post pictures once she has them ready for me! Ask any questions, I will try my best to answer!

 

 

 

[AD2012]

Thanks for the review and all the tips Andrea!

 

Thank you for pointing out all the items you did, it's great information for future brides and didn't come across negative!
 

Originally Posted by andrea2006 

We just arrived back form a great two weeks at the GBP Tulum. The wedding was at 2 at the tulum gazebo, reception at 6:30 (I think, can't remember exact dinner time)

The wedding was a perfect day. I just thought I would give my quick review:
 

My Mom and I had the spa at 10 for French tip manicures (lasted a few days, usually when I get them done I am lucky if they last 24 hours!) My Mom's hair looked great; I was a bit on the fence about mine. She pulled too much of it back and I had a hard time explaining that I wanted more down. I also thought the curls were a bit too tight..in the end once I made it back to my room the wind and humidity got a hold of it and relaxed the curls enough for me. Lots of people on here suggested putting your hair up because of the wind...I know I never would be happy with my hair up so I just did half up, it was crazy windy but my hair survived and I think the hair should be out of my face for most pictures.
 

We had the dinner at Gran Tortuga. I highly recommend this restaurant, it was fantastic. The food was delicious, and the presentation is different and a really fun dinner. We went back with a smaller group for our last al la carte dinner we loved it so much. I had given Jazmin my table favors and they were set up at everyone's plate, she didn't seem completely sure about setting them up when I brought them to the meeting but they were set up nicely.
 

The poolside reception was lots of fun; they even added some bright pink chair and table bows without me requesting it. I had brought paper lanterns and they were tied off some trees around the pool area. We paid for just the minimum bar but they had everything there for us. We had brought an iPod with our first dance song plus 3 other slow songs, I asked the DJ to just play our extra songs at anytime, not all right away, there must have been miscommunication though because right after our first dance he played all of our songs on the iPod. Other than that little mix up I thought he was great, there wasn’t any songs I didn’t love, I honestly feel that if I had made the entire playlist myself, it would have turned out the same! He played a lot of current dance music, then some awesome older songs. Near the end he played one or two slow songs then played our first dance song again as the last song of the night, Husband and I were finishing our last dance of the evening the fireworks from the fiesta were shot off; it was as if they had timed it just for us it was such a perfect end to the dance!
 

I was really happy with the day, but by the end of the week I did have some issues.
 

First off the personalized napkins I gave Jazmin weren’t put at everyone’s plate...they showed up at the cake table later in the dinner, no one noticed thought because the waiters delivered the cake with no napkins. I also did notice them at the bar (still in the box so no one noticed them, I figured I would just give one to people later in the week because I was having too much fun to start handing out napkins) at the reception. On my last day in Mexico I realized no one had given me back my extra napkins (I brought 90, there was 26 people and I know most people didn’t even see them) or my paper lanterns from the reception. When I asked Jazmin about it she informed that the couple is responsible for cleanup of the pool party area because Jazmin and her assistants are no longer working, so my stuff was likely thrown out. This really upset me because no one told me I needed to clean up my own stuff, If they had just simply told me I had to do that it would have taken us less than 5 minutes to gather it and I wouldn’t have had all of my decorations thrown out. So to warn future brides, if you want anything saved from the pool party, make sure you take it with you right then because the hotel just throws it out.
 

The next problem was the cake. Really it was beautiful and tasted delicious, it just wasn’t what I asked for. I bought 8 roses, and told Jazmin I wanted 2 on the top, and 2 at the bottom of each tier, staggered (like one tier flowers to the right, next tier to the left) I had emailed her a picture and she had it printed at our meeting and we confirmed how I wanted the roses placed on the cake. When the cake came out all of the roses were placed in a line down the middle of the cake. It might sound a bit picky but it just bugs me because either Jazmin didn’t give the chef the picture or she did and he just ignored it. It was just such a simple request, and they ignored it.
 

The last issue made me thankful our ceremony was the symbolic one. During the symbolic ceremony you sign a certificate, then Jazmin brings it to her office, you can pick it up between 9:30-11:30 a day after the wedding. Every time I tried to get it I was asked to come back because Jazmin was busy, finally on the 3^rd time I said no I just want to pick up my stuff, so they sent her assistant Carla. Carla came out and showed me my marriage certificate with proper spelling (which made me very confused, because there were no signatures on it..)....then the one we all signed during the ceremony in which they apparently spelt my name wrong. It was nice of them to notice and request a new certificate with proper spelling, except I wish they had tried to notify me right away since by the time I finally found out both our witnesses had left Mexico and they don’t live in the same city as us, we know have to mail it for them to sign the new copy, so I am hoping it doesn’t get lost or bent in the mail now!
 

This ended up being longer than I planned. Also I hope this doesn’t come off as overly negative. The Wedding day went very smoothly, the ceremony wording from the minister was beautiful and short (what we wanted). I enjoyed everything so much. One tip would be try getting married on a Thursday (fiesta night) We got soo lucky with the timing of the fireworks, it was such a perfect ending.

We brought a photographer so I will post pictures once she has them ready for me! Ask any questions, I will try my best to answer!

 

 

 

[fraggle42]

Past brides have commented that they have had the musical trio ( included in some of the packages) can be had to play in the lobby bar for guests and bride & groom following photos and prior to being taken for dinner.

 

Jazmin has just emailed me though to say it is against hotel policy to have the trio play any where other than during or after the ceremony.

 

Is it me that has got it confused or have people had the trio play elsewhere other than the ceremony?

 

 

Also I asked how many tiers the cake would have for 36 guests but she has not answered my question. Can anyone help who has had a cake for this many before?

[Flowerchild23]

May wedding Day is May 8th and we're coming out from Fort McMurray! Perhaps we'll see you there