Sandos Playacar Brides!

[nmoreau]

We did have the 4 poster arch. 

I am way behind on my review of Sandos and my wedding, things have just been crazy.

 

First I want to say we went really simple with the wedding as far as decorations, etc.

We had 50 guests so the basic wedding was free and we just added a la carte to there.

 

We had the 4 poster gazebo with no flowers (the flowers is the majority of that cost). 

Then we had just natural greens on th aisle that I paid $30 to the grounds crew to collect and put in that day (thru Maria of course)

Then we had 2 flower girls and I ordered 2 bags of petals which they dropped on their way down... (then later ran out and picked up which I joked with Maria I should get a break for them cleaning up)...

I ordered flowers for me, the 2 bridesmaids, and corsages for the 2 moms.  The guys didn't wear flowers b/c they wouldn't have held up on their light weight linen shirts.

We just used the champagne toast that they provide as part of the package and I put some tunes on our ipod that we used for the cermony that we played while we danced and just hung out in the little wedding hut until dinner.

We did a few pictures on the beach while the guest stayed in the hut or went to the bar. 

Then we had dinner in the Italian restaurant, which we set up really nice and since it was a buffet we all ran into each other.

After that we moved into the bar by the meeting point and the enclosed sports bar area and just sort of took it over.

There was a band playing at the meeting place and when we walked out to head to the disco they played a few songs just for us, so we did a really impromptu father/daughter dance and bride/groom dance and the rest of the guests joined in...

 

We were pretty laid back about the actual wedding day and chose to spend the money on the catamaran ride where we were all together for the whole day, etc.

We also randomly organized wedding group days, so one day we all met up at the swim up bar in the Riveria section and one day we met down by the beach to play volleyball, etc.

Since we provided everyone with these great orange mugs, the guests always knew were people were and even guests at the resort kept saying you are with that wedding group.

 

It was only $450 because we didn't go over the top on the actual resort items.  We spent the money (which we spent more of) on mugs, invites, dress and wedding attire, and mostly the catamaran.

 

This resort is great for people who want to have a little bit more control over their ceremony and wedding set up.  As most resorts I found were very cookie cutter and you didn't have much room to make it your own.  If you want the fancy, super swanky stuff, I think they get you with all their per person fees, etc. 

I was so happy with the wedding and the hotel they made our guests feel really welcome and everyone had a TON of fun!

 

If you want to see pictures then just private message me, I have some on facebook and shutterfly I can send you of the ceremony and the hotel.  I just need to get on here and load them into the computer....

[hwilley218]

Nmoreau- Thanks for posting this, your wedding sounds great, very relaxing.  How did you let your guests know what your plans were for the wedding?  ie dinner at the italian buffet, then moving to the bar, then moving to the disco? 

[nmoreau]

Before I left for Mexico I mailed out to everyone a sort of Welcome Letter with the agenda in it.  Not detailed just what time the ceremony was most likely going to be, what to pack, what to expect at Cancun airport, etc.

 

At our welcome / meet & greet happy hour we talked a little more about things and then the catamaran was the day before so on that we announced the final details.

Really though it seemed like we would tell a few key guests and they sort of took it upon themselves to be our messengers, which was really nice of them.

I think we made an announcement about dinner in the wedding hut, then at dinner we made the announcement about moving to the bar and the disco was sort of just how the night flowed that wasn't planned at all.

 

The resort isn't that big so you typically run into your guests a lot.... honestly at times we found it hard to be outside our room and get any down time.  Which was the point of the destination wedding so I couldn't complain.

 

Also through the week we just planned impromptu meeting places so we could hang out with people, or to have dinner with different groups.

 

I forgot to post in my review before that we got married legally at home, so we didn't have the costs of the minister (family friend did our ceremony in Mexico) which is the largest part of your wedding costs.  We just didn't want to take the chance that we forgot to do something so we were married in the US about 5 days before we left for Mexico.  Then we had our beach ceremony a week later.  It is sort of fun to have 2 dates to celebrate.... sort of a Anniversary week!

[JLMS]

Yay, as of yesterday my fiance and I are officially getting married at Sandos Playacar on Nov 24, 2011! We will be staying at the resort with approx. 25 friends and family from Nov 19-26! We are so excited and can't wait!

 

nmoreau - I love your review and laid back attitude! I only hope that I can embrace the Mexican spirit and "go-with-the-flow". Great idea on the bright coloured mugs for guest too - I just may have to steal that one!

 

Same as you, we will get legally married at home a few days before heading to Mexico so the cermony will be symbolic.

 

I would love to see some of your pitures if you don't mind?!?

 

Did you find that your group had enough privacy in the Italian restaurant?

[beach.rani]

nmoreau - thanks for posting!  It's great to hear that everything went so well for you!  I am getting married there on Friday and so am trying to wrap up last minute preparations.  Just wondering - how do people pay there?  Do you use a credit card or take travelers cheques?  Our credit cards are charging a foreign transaction fee so just trying to figure it out before hand...

 

Also, anyone been there lately?  Did it rain?  I'm so worried it is going to rain the day I am supposed to get married!

[BCbride11]

 

 

Originally Posted by nmoreau 

 

We did have the 4 poster arch. 

I am way behind on my review of Sandos and my wedding, things have just been crazy.

 

First I want to say we went really simple with the wedding as far as decorations, etc.

We had 50 guests so the basic wedding was free and we just added a la carte to there.

 

We had the 4 poster gazebo with no flowers (the flowers is the majority of that cost). 

Then we had just natural greens on th aisle that I paid $30 to the grounds crew to collect and put in that day (thru Maria of course)

Then we had 2 flower girls and I ordered 2 bags of petals which they dropped on their way down... (then later ran out and picked up which I joked with Maria I should get a break for them cleaning up)...

I ordered flowers for me, the 2 bridesmaids, and corsages for the 2 moms.  The guys didn't wear flowers b/c they wouldn't have held up on their light weight linen shirts.

We just used the champagne toast that they provide as part of the package and I put some tunes on our ipod that we used for the cermony that we played while we danced and just hung out in the little wedding hut until dinner.

We did a few pictures on the beach while the guest stayed in the hut or went to the bar. 

Then we had dinner in the Italian restaurant, which we set up really nice and since it was a buffet we all ran into each other.

After that we moved into the bar by the meeting point and the enclosed sports bar area and just sort of took it over.

There was a band playing at the meeting place and when we walked out to head to the disco they played a few songs just for us, so we did a really impromptu father/daughter dance and bride/groom dance and the rest of the guests joined in...

 

We were pretty laid back about the actual wedding day and chose to spend the money on the catamaran ride where we were all together for the whole day, etc.

We also randomly organized wedding group days, so one day we all met up at the swim up bar in the Riveria section and one day we met down by the beach to play volleyball, etc.

Since we provided everyone with these great orange mugs, the guests always knew were people were and even guests at the resort kept saying you are with that wedding group.

 

It was only $450 because we didn't go over the top on the actual resort items.  We spent the money (which we spent more of) on mugs, invites, dress and wedding attire, and mostly the catamaran.

 

This resort is great for people who want to have a little bit more control over their ceremony and wedding set up.  As most resorts I found were very cookie cutter and you didn't have much room to make it your own.  If you want the fancy, super swanky stuff, I think they get you with all their per person fees, etc. 

I was so happy with the wedding and the hotel they made our guests feel really welcome and everyone had a TON of fun!

 

If you want to see pictures then just private message me, I have some on facebook and shutterfly I can send you of the ceremony and the hotel.  I just need to get on here and load them into the computer....

 

 

Thanks so much for posting your review. Im just in the final stages of booking my date and I would love to see your pictures ! Did you use the resort photographer? Did you plan things with the resort wedding coordinator when you got there or did you do everything via email before the trip ?

 

Thank you for any info you can help me with. Im feeling really over whelmed trying to understand all the pkgs.

My email is julia.marlow1@gmail.com

[BCbride11]

 

 

Originally Posted by JLMS 

 

Yay, as of yesterday my fiance and I are officially getting married at Sandos Playacar on Nov 24, 2011! We will be staying at the resort with approx. 25 friends and family from Nov 19-26! We are so excited and can't wait!

 

nmoreau - I love your review and laid back attitude! I only hope that I can embrace the Mexican spirit and "go-with-the-flow". Great idea on the bright coloured mugs for guest too - I just may have to steal that one!

 

Same as you, we will get legally married at home a few days before heading to Mexico so the cermony will be symbolic.

 

I would love to see some of your pitures if you don't mind?!?

 

Did you find that your group had enough privacy in the Italian restaurant?

 

 

JLMS thats the day we were planning for ! LOL I guess I'll be seeing you that week

[leasexy24]

hi your wedding day sounds how i want mine chilled & relaxed.. would love to see your photos my email is leasexy24@yahoo.co.uk. x x

[Ali12]

Thanks for sharing your review. I just started looking for resorts for my April 2012 wedding, this is a definite possibiltiy, it has everything we are looking for.  May I ask how much the extra a la carte was?? That is something we would be interested in. 

 

Ali
 

Originally Posted by nmoreau 

We did have the 4 poster arch. 

I am way behind on my review of Sandos and my wedding, things have just been crazy.

 

First I want to say we went really simple with the wedding as far as decorations, etc.

We had 50 guests so the basic wedding was free and we just added a la carte to there.

 

We had the 4 poster gazebo with no flowers (the flowers is the majority of that cost). 

Then we had just natural greens on th aisle that I paid $30 to the grounds crew to collect and put in that day (thru Maria of course)

Then we had 2 flower girls and I ordered 2 bags of petals which they dropped on their way down... (then later ran out and picked up which I joked with Maria I should get a break for them cleaning up)...

I ordered flowers for me, the 2 bridesmaids, and corsages for the 2 moms.  The guys didn't wear flowers b/c they wouldn't have held up on their light weight linen shirts.

We just used the champagne toast that they provide as part of the package and I put some tunes on our ipod that we used for the cermony that we played while we danced and just hung out in the little wedding hut until dinner.

We did a few pictures on the beach while the guest stayed in the hut or went to the bar. 

Then we had dinner in the Italian restaurant, which we set up really nice and since it was a buffet we all ran into each other.

After that we moved into the bar by the meeting point and the enclosed sports bar area and just sort of took it over.

There was a band playing at the meeting place and when we walked out to head to the disco they played a few songs just for us, so we did a really impromptu father/daughter dance and bride/groom dance and the rest of the guests joined in...

 

We were pretty laid back about the actual wedding day and chose to spend the money on the catamaran ride where we were all together for the whole day, etc.

We also randomly organized wedding group days, so one day we all met up at the swim up bar in the Riveria section and one day we met down by the beach to play volleyball, etc.

Since we provided everyone with these great orange mugs, the guests always knew were people were and even guests at the resort kept saying you are with that wedding group.

 

It was only $450 because we didn't go over the top on the actual resort items.  We spent the money (which we spent more of) on mugs, invites, dress and wedding attire, and mostly the catamaran.

 

This resort is great for people who want to have a little bit more control over their ceremony and wedding set up.  As most resorts I found were very cookie cutter and you didn't have much room to make it your own.  If you want the fancy, super swanky stuff, I think they get you with all their per person fees, etc. 

I was so happy with the wedding and the hotel they made our guests feel really welcome and everyone had a TON of fun!

 

If you want to see pictures then just private message me, I have some on facebook and shutterfly I can send you of the ceremony and the hotel.  I just need to get on here and load them into the computer....

[nmoreau]

I posted some pictures in the album section of our wedding.

Sandos Playacar Wedding by Joshua Albanese Photography... then I posted some from our site visit.

 

I did find the are in the Italian Buffet to be private, they announced us as we walked in, and it is a buffet so it isn't totally private but there were a lot of guests that were saying congrats, etc.

 

Most of our guests and us paid by credit card, but you can pay cash, they have a cash machine that gives out US dollars.

 

We did not use the resort photographer we hired Joshua Albanese out of Chicago, since we were looking for someone to capture our whole trip.  He did a good job for us and what we were looking for. 

 

The packages are pretty straight forward.  I think if you want to do a big reception type event you might end up cheaper just paying for what you want.  Also depending on how many guests you have, then you get certain things free.  So they assign a dollar value to those packages and if you decide to just buy what pieces you want then you get a credit for that dollar amount (if you had enough guests to get it free).  They calculate the guests by 7 days.  So for each guest that stays for 7 days that is one, then she took people staying for partial days to add them into one guests at 7 days. (hopefully that makes sense). 

 

I think where they really get you is when you want a private service, there is a per person bar fee and per person food fee, depending on what you want.

Since we didn't do that it wasn't a factor for us, but we considered it but that added up fast.

 

I have a lot of pictures on face book, just look for Natalie Moreau Ysker and tell me you are from this forum and I can friend you if you want to see more pictures than what is posted on here

nathistle@hotmail.com if you have specific questions, I would be happy to try and help out.

 

Just remember that it is Mexico time and because there are so many weddings, it seems that they try to focus on the current ones and then work on the rest.  I decided as much as I could before hand, but the majority of it we finalized once we got there.  Again we were pretty laid back and Maria answered most of our questions via email before we got there and during our site visit.  Maria will make sure that your wedding is very special, she really was great.

 

Hopefully I got to everyone's questions.   I will try to do a full review on here later.  Let me know if you can't find the pictures on here.