Official PV Riu Thread (Discussion here for Riu Vallarta, Jalisco & Pacifico Palace)

[Celina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heatherbean Thanks ladies, this helped a lot. I think we are giong to do the IPOD thing as well and just get a good set of speakers. How long did you guys rent the poolside bar for? I am having my wedding at 4:00 pm followed by pictures afterwards. I was thinking of having a later dinner about 7:30 - 8:00 ish and than head over to the poolside bar from about 10:00 - midnight. There are certainly a lot of night owls with my group, so I"m wondering if maybe I should rent it until 1:00 Anyways, This is just a very draft timeline as I know that it most likely won't follow a definate one once we are there. Does this sounds realistic to you? As I mentioned I have about 30 guests coming and am going with the mid grade package (The royal wedding package). Did you guys go with the basic photography package that comes with the wedding pakcage, or did you pay for additions? What should I budget for this to get decent pics? Also, what did you think of the bouquet that is included with the package? Did you order flowers for the arch at an additional cost? I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for what additional costs are worth it and what are not. If you could offer any more tips or suggestions (do's and don'ts), it would be so much appreciated. Thanks,

Hi Heather,

We had our wedding scheduled at 5 - but I was late and so it didn't start till 5:30. We used the photog that came with the package and we ended up just buying the disk. Please be specific with them about which pics you want or you may not get what you want. We paid $300 or so for the disk. Like Mel said, the flowers are absolutely beautiful. I did the flowers on the arch and had them do six table centerpieces, three BM bouquets, my bouquet, boutoneers and flowers on the cake. I had white calas and white roses on my bouquet and the girls had yellow calas and white roses on theirs. I think they used some orange calas on the arch as well. All came out goregous. After the wedding I had them take the flowers off the arch and put them on the book table at the restaurant and after dinner we took the flowers with us to the tables at the pool bar and put them on our cake table. After it was all over, we had all the flowers sent to our room and we enjoyed them the rest of the week. I love flowers so to me it was worth it.

We had dinner at the Flamingo at the first seating which was at 6:30pm and dinner ran long after toasts and the waitstaff was very slow. We had three tables of 10-11 people and by the time we finished one course our last table was barely getting theirs. We rented the pool bar from 9pm-12pm and didn't get there till 9:30. We stayed till midnight and could have stayed a few more hours we were having such a good time. At midnight they pretty much told us we were done and wouldnt' extend the time.

[Heatherbean]

Wow, thanks ladies, I am definately taking notes, this has all been very helpful.

 

Ava, I used Melanie at Marlin Travel (Spruce Grove) 1 866 302 4587. She has been absolutely fantastic and is very quick to reply to all my questions.

 

Helen, thank you very much for sharing your pictures, what a fantastic looking family you have, your daugher makes a beautiful bride!!

 

Another quick question for you all, what did you guys tip the Wedding Coordinator? Did you tip the photographer seperately? What is standard for this?

 

I have sent a couple of emails to the wedding coordinator asking her similar questions that I have asked you ladies, but I have not heard anything back. I've read that it is quite common for them to take quite some time getting back to you. What has been your ladies experience with this?

 

Thanks again ladies

[Helen_S81]

You're welcome Heather!

 

I know that Katie & Chris tipped the wedding co-ordinator. There were two girls. The main one Erica (?) and she had an assistant at the time, who was from Germany, and I think her name was Nicole. I think they gave them around $100 between the two of them, but with more to Erica.

 

I don't know about tipping the photographer.

 

I do know they tipped the wait staff and the bar staff the night of the wedding. They tipped the bar tender who was assigned to us at the pool bar the night of the reception too. I don't know how much though.

 

I don't know about time for responses from the wedding co-ordinator.

 

Have you booked spa appointments yet? You can do that all in advance online. You do have to pay a deposit though. Once we were at the resort we went into the spa to confirm times and they changed the times. Renovaspa - Beauty, Health and Spirit

[Celina]

Since my husband is in the service industry we tend to overtip. We tipped everyone at the hotel daily - housekeepers, bartenders, waitresses, servers at breakfast, lunch and dinner. IMHO A little tipping goes a long way and by the end of our trip we weren't asking for drinks, they were bringing them to us. We had our same table every night for dinner, our drinks were at our table immediately when we sat down, and the staff even helped with our kids as we sat in the same section every day during breakfast, lunch and dinner. The staff was amazing. For a couple of bucks here and there it was WELL worth it.

 

With that being said, yes we did tip Erika and Jessica I think $100 each. We also gave them each an OOT bag and some music CD's. We tipped the bartenders the night of the wedding either $100 or $50 each and gave them some cake to take with them.

 

We did not tip the photographer because I thought he did a terrible job and he missed a lot of important pictures - plus he was too concerned with making his money on sunset pictures and therefore did a crappy job with our pics. We bought the CD and moved on. I tipped the hairdresser $30 and we tipped $25 each on our massages.

 

We did not tip the servers for the wedding dinner.

 

One thing to note about Erika, she is a sweet girl and wouldn't outright ask for a tip or give you suggestions on what to give her as a gift. A lot of that has to do with culture. I asked and asked and she never responded. She seemed thrilled with what we did give her. Hope that helps!

[Celina]

DH just said he tipped the waitstaff who served us our wedding dinner $50-$100. Oh yeah...we also tipped the minister $50

 

DAMN....we spent a lot on tipping! We are going back for a mini-honeymoon in April...they better remember us! LOL!

 

In the end it was all worth it. We had a beautiful wedding. I couldn't have asked for more, (with the exception of the photographer)

[Heatherbean]

Great advice from all of you. Thanks once again. As I mentioned, we have decided to rent the poolside bar and our travel agent suggested emailing the wedding coordinator to inform them of this so that they can ensure that we have it for the evening; however, I haven't gotten a reply to the emails I have been sending to the wedding coordinators at the resort. Was this something that you booked during your initial onsite meeting with the coordinator once you were at the resort or something that you booked ahead of time?

[jmiranda]

I reserved our location when we went to our site visit. I would email the wedding coordinator again but they do take awhile to answer.

 

Did anyone use the RenoSpa to do their hair? Howabout for the bridesmaids? What are your thoughts on them?

[Ava]

Heatherbean, I reserved the pool bar at the Jalisco by email to Erika.

 

Thanks for letting me know about your travel agent - I had a very, very unhappy experience with mine, but I guess now is a little late to change!

[Celina]

I used Renova Spa at RIU Vallarta for my hair only. I gave them pics and told them what I wanted and I thought she did a great job. She used 6,398 bobby pins to hold my hair up, but it was perfect! I think the lady who did my hair's name was Celia or Cecilia.

 

I did not have her wash and dry my hair, I went down with my hair already washed and air dried because I wanted a better hold (if that makes sense). You have to put a deposit down before the wedding and you have to pay with the same credit card when you get there. I had to open a paypal account to do this.

 

BTW - I am going back down for a mini-honeymoon at the end of April if anyone needs anything. We decided to go back and stay at the RIU Vallarta. Just let me know!

[Ava]

I just got sent the booking information for the Renova spa - they want $110 USD just to style my hair! Anyone have any suggestions for hairdressers outside the resort?