Any Grand Palladium brides?

[JennyPenny]

Hi

I am planning to get married at the Palladium in early December. I've emailed Erika for over a week and still have not even heard a response yet. Does anyone know if we pay for the bow on the chair, does that include the dinner reception at the a la carte too or only at the ceremony? It would look nice with the covered chairs at reception.

BrideNov2009, I'm also from Ontario. Are you leaving from Pearson airport? How much does your package cost? I tried to look for it online but only Oct 2009 is showing. Did you go with any particular TA? Look forward to hearing from you.

[gemstone]

Hi Jenny,

 

I had the same issue last year. It was Feb 08 and I was looking for pricing for a December 08 wedding and there was none online. Some T.A`s advised it wouldn`t be available till May 08. I found a really great TA in Toronto though and she was able to get pricing from most Tour Operators. She specializes in DW and actually lived in Mexico for awhile. She REALLY enjoys her job and found her to be very helpful and knowledgeable helping me plan my own DW. If you PM me or post your e-mail, I can send you her info and website link too.

 

Gen

[BrideNov2009]

Hello Jenny! I have read somewhere $2.00 or $4.00 for covers for the reception per chair. I am not to sure on bows though if they are included in that price.

I went with a Uniglobe Travel agent out of Guelph.

Her name is:

Dawn Fairbanks

Senior Travel Planner

Destination Wedding/

Honeymoon Specialist

Tahiti Specialist

GI Vacation Consultant

Uniglobe Discover Travel

The Mindful Traveller Inc.

304 Stone Road West

Guelph ON N1G 3C4

519 821-2136

1 877 224-9947

dawn@uniglobediscover.com

 

 

Dawn was great about getting us pricing. We are departing from Pearson on Nov 14th.

I had the same problem not being able to look at pricing on line that far out. Dawn was able to go to the charter company and get us pricing from them. We are booked in the Grand Palladium Riviera Section. Junior Deluxe Suite comes with Jacuzzi, king or two doubles, table chairs couch all in same living space. The cost our guest are paying is just under $1500.00. If guest want a Suite (which is just the same as the junior but only thing is it has a seperate livinging room). Not too sure what the pricing is on this but our guest can ask Dawn when they call up to book and if they are interested she can look into the cost for them. Same goes for the Royal Suites.

Dawn has great contacts with these wedding coordinators at the resorts down there. Which is a huge bonus!!!

We were not picky on the day or week we just knew we wanted midddle to end of November if possible but also the week with the best rates for our guests. Once we picked a week we immediately emailed the resort to get a date and time for our wedding. Within 12 hours I had a response from the resort and they confirmed our CIVIL wedding (not too sure if you are doing that). I was so suprised to hear back so soon as the wedding coordinators at the resort Ericka and Rocio have to contact city hall there to get a time. We were happy to get 4 PM as reqeusted. Once we had this confirmed we went back to Dawn and put our deposit down.

 

 

Let me know if you need anything else.

[BrideNov2009]

Hi JO,

 

What week in November are you getting married? Maybe I will see you down there as we are there the week of Nov 14th to Nov 21st.

 

We are planning on doing a private reception right now as the numbers we are getting back are around 40 people. I think you need 25 people at least to do a private reception.

 

I know the a lacarte is included in the wedding package up to 40 people which is nice because you do not have to pay additional per person if under 40 people and in an alacarte.

This is great if you do not want to do a private reception but you will have other guests in there as well but at least you will have an area for your group. It really is up to you and your fiance and want you want to do. It sounds like you guys are going with the private reception like us.

 

I know you have to pay 20.00 per person for the ceremony part on top of the wedding package you pick if you have over 8 or 10 people.

 

For the private reception I have the menu and costs of each dinner option. They do not have any $45.00 dinner options on there...which is to bad. Looks like they upped the pricing this year. Last year there use to be $45.00 per person option. I can email you the menu if you like.

 

I am surprised to hear for a private reception only 2 1/2 hours. I wonder if that is because it is in an alacarte restaurant. I read on here somewhere that someone else is having a private reception from 7 to 11pm. I think at either the Gran Anzul or Lalaguna?? not 100%. If anyone knows that would be great : )

 

I thought when you have private you could bring a cd and play music or even a DJ. I am now wondering if this is for certain sections when doing a private reception now. I have heard that you can rent even mics for speaches under $100.00 too.

I still need to find all this out as well.

 

My fiance and I even said that to guarantee we get our first dance in maybe we do it right after we get married on the gazebo as they will be able to play music there. Ideally we would like to have the first dance right before dinner.

 

I think for the cake we may have it down by the gazebo by the champagne and cut it there. Reason is we do not want a professional photographer for more than 2 hours and this way we can get a photo of cutting the cake.

 

I have been advised to send off a few questions at a time to the coordinators. Also, untill we have the #'s which the resort needs to know a month before that is when you start picking your location for reception.

 

I am hoping to hear back from the bride that is down there right now who would have been married yesterday to see how her wedding went and what she reccomends as well.

[BrideNov2009]

Mexicobride2009!

 

When you read this you will be now be a "Mrs"!! Congratulations to you and your fiance.

 

I would love to hear all about the chain of events on your wedding day as well as what you reccomend and any advice at all.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you

[JennyPenny]

Gemstones... my email address is jenny4m@hotmail.com. Thank you!

BrideNov2009, that sounds like a pretty good deal. I was only able to check up to October and it was more expensive than that (considering it's closer to hurricane season).

That sounds like a really good idea to do your first dance at the gazebo. In addition to all the benefits of the photographer, the pictures at the gazebo will look really nice.

 

Have you guys thought about taking your group to an excursion as an extra thank you gift yet? I read on one of the post that it was only like $14 to get them to coba and a cenote. Sounds like a good deal. I've been to Mayan Riviera before but haven't been to Coba yet so it may be a good idea.

 

Does anyone have any pictures of their centrepieces yet? I wonder if it looks nice. If not I'm planning on doing my own and bringing it over. I've asked my fiance and challenged him to creatively assemble his own idea of a centrepiece. I'm so excited at what he's going to come up with.

[Jojo]

Jennypenny,

 

It cost $4 for bow and chair covers for the reception be it an ala carte or private reception.

 

I've seen a picture of a wedding reception in GP where I think that the bride brought her own chair bows.

[Jojo]

BrideNov2009,

 

Yeah...I'd love to meet up if we were there at the same time. I don't have a date yet. Like you, we're not picky about the date as long as it's the cheapest week in Nov. We feel bad requesting that our guest spend so much money.

 

You've got such a great rate for the stay at Rivera. I guess, it's always abit more from western Canada. We're looking into the Colonial as it's cheaper.

 

I was hoping to have the reception at one of the ala carte, Portofino but we can only get 2 1/2 hours at the ala carte. Whereas, we do get 4 hours at a private reception at either La Laguna or Gran Azul. Unfortunately, the 2009 rates are higher...I was honestly assuming that it'd be cheaper to have a reception in Mexico compared to Calgary but it turned out to be the same. I'm surprised that the economy outlook for 2009 didn't affect the wedding pricing at these resorts. Oh well...gotta bite the bullet I guess.

[BrideNov2009]

Hi Jenny and Jo!

 

Jenny, we are looking at doing a trip for our wedding party. The guys are going to go off and do a fishing trip. You can charter a boat for around 600 to 800 dollars that holds 12 people. You are out there for the day and get booze and food as well. For the girls not too sure what I am going to do while the guys are out on the fishing trip. Your suggestion about Coba and cenote sounds good to look into.

When is your wedding date?

 

 

JO, I agree it does all seem to add up and quickly too but it is so worth it. The reception pictures look amazing and I am very happy with the reviews of brides that have been married at this resort. My finace and I have sit down and narrow down all the extra's of what we want, don't want or need. I myself am not too concerned with the flowers or the cake. I am happy picking it out when we arrive down there. I do know a girl who is getting married in Cuba this April that ended up getting her flowers done by someone in Calgary. I seen a picture and what an amazing job! If you like I could email this girl and ask her to send me the contact information for you : )

I hope that you get a price you are happy for for your guests! I found that to be the most stressful thing. I spent a lot of time reading reviews on trip advisor and going back and forth with the travel agent as well trying to get good pricing.

One of the resorts that 1st came back to us was a new 5 star Grand Riviera Princess for a good price but the reviews really turned us off for the money our guest were paying to the comparison of quality and serive at the Grand Palladium. The Grand Palladium was for sure the one in the end for my fiance and I and a great price for our guests. I understand coming from Calgary is more. My cousin lives out there and all taxes in for her was 1800.00 to come to ours. Not too sure if she will come. This is for the Grand Palladium Rivieria.

[Noveau]

Hi all!

 

Question: aside from the three photographers mentioned a few pages back (I think on page 13?), do you know of any other good ones? (I didn't like any of them except Claudia.)

 

I will be down at Grand Palladium in early August because I'm actually a wedding photographer myself, and will be shooting a wedding. But here's the catch- I'm actually a recent bride myself, and would love to do a Trash the Dress with my husband while we are down there. It's a bit hard to do your own pictures, you know?

 

Also, those of you that have been there, if you have any fantastic locations that you know of for weddings, I'd love to hear it! I'll be doing a private session with my couple, plus looking for a location for my session (if we find a photographer!) I don't mind traveling off the resort if needed, but if there is a place on the resort, that's all the better!

 

Thanks in advance! I can't wait to go down!