Beach Palace Cancun Brides

[shmanderz]

@@NicoleLV
Good choice.  The hotel salon actually did a really nice job of all our hair styles.  Just be sure to bring photos of what you want.  I was really happy with how mine turned out and using the resort credit was great.  My makeup wasnt amazing but i was able to fix a few things about it and I liked the result.  I would definitely recommend booking your appointment early in the day to give yourself tons of time.  I was in there at 12:00pm for hair and makeup and I didnt get back to my room until 2:45!!! I was getting so stressed because the photographer was arriving at 3:00 and I had wanted to chill out a bit and relax with my bridesmaids before the crazyness started but I literally had 5 minutes to fix my makeup and then the photographer arrived and then everything was kicking off...photos in room, getting dress on, group photos on the patio, then all the sudden it was 3:45 and the wedding planner coming in to bring us up stairs for the 4:00 ceremony....It all happened SO fast and I didnt even have a moment to breathe and center myself.  Everything went perfect with the wedding and reception but I felt very flustered at the start and I just wished I had a few seconds to myself to take a few deep breaths and relax before getting things started.

[tygrrlily]

Head's up to the other BP ladies. This was posted on the FB Palace resort brides page. They've lowered their vendor fees for photographers and videographers to $400!! My WC has confirmed this in an email to me . 

Edited May 30, 2014 by tygrrlily

[kokobellaa]

Hi everyone,

 

What is everyone doing for centerpieces for reception? Any pictures of centerpieces for past brides? my colors are soft, gold, blush, coral

 

Thank you,

Renal

WebRep

 

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@@tygrrlily (and anyone else who is interested),

 

Here is an album with some decor/setup pictures my dad took. We went pretty minimal with decor since it would keep the cost down (and the lagoon/ocean really should be the star). The overhead lanterns, and the lanterns in the pool really made for an elegant reception.

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/111685510399941930123/BeachPalaceDecor?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJWG7qWf073JQA&feat=directlink

 

@@chrisandcassie,

 

Wow, beautiful pictures and wedding! It looks amazing!! Did you get your centerpieces from zuniga? How many strings of lights did you get for the reception? I have 80 people so trying to sketch out a layout of the setup.. Did you have a dance floor? 

 

Thanks for sharing!

Renal

[tygrrlily]

@@kokobellaa - We have almost the same colours! I'm just adding fuchsia in the mix, but also coral, gold and blush. I'm still trying to figure this out but I need to see how many tables I'll have first. I LOVE the tall centrepieces but I'm worried about how much they will cost

[tygrrlily]

Question from one of my friends to any of the past BP ladies. What type of beer is offered at BP? He's hoping for Corona haha

[kokobellaa]

@@kokobellaa - We have almost the same colours! I'm just adding fuchsia in the mix, but also coral, gold and blush. I'm still trying to figure this out but I need to see how many tables I'll have first. I LOVE the tall centrepieces but I'm worried about how much they will cost

@@tygrrlily

 

Nice, I love fuchsia! We have about 80 people and the centerpieces are pretty expensive. I think Zuniga does flowers as well as maya flowers. I haven't compared prices yet.

[shmanderz]

Question from one of my friends to any of the past BP ladies. What type of beer is offered at BP? He's hoping for Corona haha

 

It was always Sol when ordering beer by the pool, beach, or rooftop bars.  They also had cans of Sol, Coors and Dos Equis in the mini bar fridge in the room. 

[tygrrlily]

Thanks!

[shmanderz]

Hello!  I have finally found time to write this review.  It has been a whirlwind month and I can’t believe after over a year of planning the wedding has now come and gone! It has been so much fun planning and yes at times very stressful, but I am just thrilled with how it all turned out and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.  So…let start from the begging:

 

Basics:  Travel/Flights/Hotel Transfers, etc:

We had 27 guests and we all booked through a travel agent which made things very easy!  I would highly recommend this.  For anyone in Canada, we used Tricia at Marlin Travel in Calgary and we booked flights & hotel through Sunwing.  We reached the 75 room nights and were able to make use of the free welcome dinner, free cocktail hour and free reception (We extended the reception by 2 hours)

Our departure flights were perfect, leaving Calgary at 7:00am and arriving direct to Cancun around 1:50pm. I was able to bring my wedding dress on board with me as a carry on and it made it to Mexico with no issues.

Once we landed in Cancun we were shocked and happy to see that the security line was totally empty and we literally made it to the baggage carousel within 5 minutes of stepping off the plane!  Soon we all made it outside with our bags and we had a private air conditioned bus waiting for us to take us to Beach Palace! Our hotel transfer was arranged for us with Sunwing which made things easy.  Soon we were heading for the hotel and everyone was extremely excited!

 

Hotel Check in:

When we arrived at Beach Palace we were greeted with a hot towel and a refreshing welcome drink.  Check in went very smooth and the staff was so friendly.  Mario the wedding planner and Luis the hotel manager came out to greet us which was a nice welcome.  Mario told us we were going to love our room when we were given the keys to room 920.  We had originally been booked into a regular ocean view room but when we opened the door we saw that we had been upgraded to one of the corner suites in the hotel and it was HUGE!  We were beyond thrilled and very appreciative.  It was one of the most beautiful hotels rooms I have ever stayed in and it just made our wedding week even more special. 

 

Welcome Dinner:

When we finally got settled into the room after check in it was about 4:00pm and we had to get everything ready for the welcome dinner at 7:00pm on the Palenque Terrace.  I put together the welcome bags and unpacked the décor that I brought for the event.  The welcome bags included:  2 personalized beer Koozies, 2 personalized shot glasses, an “Oh Shit! Kit” with Tylenol, Band-Aids, pepto, and tums.  There were also some snacks in the bag, a welcome letter, and bottle of hand sanitizer. We hung these bags on the back of the chairs at the welcome dinner (1 bag per couple).  For the event décor I brought a bunch of electric candles to place on the table.  I had ordered to strings of white paper lanterns from Zuniga as well as a sound system from JSAV.  We had a musician friend of ours from Isla Mujeres come over for the event to play for us before and after dinner and it was absolutely perfect.  His name is Ryan Rickman and if anyone is interested in having live music, he is such an awesome choice.  PM me for contact details.  The hotel day pass fee of $97 was the only thing I had to pay for him to get access for the event.

Around 6:00pm we went down to meet Ryan and get him set up as well as place the Welcome Bags and the table décor.  Mario the wedding planner did such an amazing job with the set up.  We had 1 long imperial table setup with white linens.  He had added these beautiful turquoise blue cloth napkins at each plate and he also included these cute nautical style fish bowl centerpieces filled with sand down the center of table.  The whole décor setup looked so beautiful and the light of the setting sun behind the crisp white linens and paper lanterns was such a cool effect. 

We chose the Yucteca menu option for the buffet and it was so delicious!  I actually wish I would have picked the same menu for the wedding dinner because it was that good.

We swapped out a few things which made it even better (Swapped stewed pumpkin for roasted potatoes and we also added ceviche) and literally everyone today is still raving about the meal.

The live music was so fun and it was funny to see all the people on the abck side of the hotel sitting on their patio enjoying the free show.  Ryan has such a great stage presence and everyone in our group was up dancing and having a blast.

The bartenders and waiters were amazing and we even had the hotel Sommelier there for the whole event suggesting wines for the wine drinkers in our group.  The regular wine list at the hotel is great and the upgraded wine list also has some awesome options.

At 10:00pm we had to shut it all down but it worked out well because everyone was pretty tired after the long day of travel.  It was a perfect night and just set the stage for an amazing week of wedding festivities.

 

Hotel/Food/Room Service:

I usually go to Mexico 1-2 times per year and I don’t usually stay at all inclusive’s so this was a big change for us as well as a lot of the people in our group but I have to say, Beach Palace has completely changed my view about all inclusive’s!  It was such an amazing hotel with outstanding service.  Even the buffet was fantastic and had so much selection.  It was crazy all the different food options.  I also liked how the food was brought out in small quantities and refreshed often.  Everything was cooked fresh and not sitting out in huge platters for hours under hot lamps.  As for the restaurants, they were all great!  Our favorite was Wok because my husband and I are huge sushi fans.  The even had octopus nigiri and tuna sashimi which made my husband very happy lol!! I think the restaurant staff kinda groaned when they saw him coming because he can eat sooo much sushi.  The steak house was also very good and it was nice to sit outside on a warm night under the stars and glowyness of the hotel lights and pool area.

The best part about the hotel was the room service.  Every night before we went to bed we would tick off what we wanted for breakfast and hang the sheet on the outside of the hotel room door for pickup that night and the next morning whatever time you requested on the sheet would be the time you breakfast arrived and they would bring it out to setup outside on the patio table.  It was so relaxing to start the day by sitting out there in the morning, enjoying breakfast and drinking coffee (with Baileys! lol).  It was very hard to come home and not have this lovely service every day!!!

 

Wedding Day:

Our wedding day was Saturday, May 10 and I spent the morning relaxing on our patio just taking it easy.  Around 10:00am the flowers arrived from Maya Floral and I met them down in the lobby for pickup and to pay the remainder that was due. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and so vibrant!  I was extremely happy with their service and would highly recommend them to anyone!  I didn’t have to pay an outside vendor fee for them because it was just bouquets that they were dropping off in the lobby and no event set up.

At 12:00pm my bridesmaids, my mom and myself had our hair/makeup appointments in the salon.  All our hair turned out great.  The makeup was just ok and I kind of wish I had just decided to do it myself because I ended up fixing a lot of it. I was also in the salon for almost 3 hours which was crazy and I was just trying to get her to hurry up.  By the time I got back to the room I only had about 5 minutes before the photographer arrived and everything started happening.  I mentioned this before in another post but for any future brides, be sure to take a moment to yourself and breathe.  It all fly’s by so fast and I just wish I would have shut the bedroom door when I got back to the room, took a few deep breaths and centered myself before everything kicked off.  I was running on pure adrenaline from being stressed about time and then all the sudden it was time to get married and my memory of a few things isn’t very good because of all the excitement!  I am just glad we hired such a  great photographer who I am sure has some amazing photo storytelling of the wedding day so I can relive it again and appreciate the small moments better J

Just before 4:00 Mario came to the room to get us and bring us upstairs.  As soon as we got off the elevator it was time to start the processional of the wedding party up the stairs.  Me and my dad followed and it was as very emotional.  Walking down the aisle is something every girl thinks about and it was really just surreal that it was actually happening.  The ceremony was beautiful and it was just an amazing moment. 

One thing I can say is that the rooftop is VERY hot and I am glad I brought paper fans to put on everyone’s seats.  And I am glad we kept the ceremony very short because holy crap, it is stinkin hot standing there in a wedding dress!  It was a difficult choice having the ceremony at 4:00 and I think 6:00 might have been a better time for temperature, but I really wanted the sun on the turquoise water for photos and also to have the sun setting around dinner time.  The soft sunset lighting during the speeches and the reception dinner was gorgeous and it was the only thing that made the heat during the ceremony worth it!

After the ceremony we had arranged for a cocktail hour on the sky deck while the wedding party did photos.  I didn’t get to even see the cocktail hour or try the food but everyone said it was great.

Del Sol was our photographer and we had Sol and Jorge photographing the event.  The were amazing!! Photo ninjas is was everyone was calling them because they were climbing on things and always searching for a unique angle for a shot.  Sol was great at making things fun and easygoing and coaxing a shy group of people into getting some great shots.  I cant wait to see the finished photos!  The whole day went by in a blur so I am really happy we decided to splurge on the photography because Del Sol has such a way about capturing a wedding and all the details that made the day special!  I would highly recommend Del Sol to any bride.  Right from the moment of booking we knew we made the right choice.  The package we chose was the 5 hour package from 3:00-8:00pm.  It was a little more expensive than other photographers but I believe it is going to be well worth the money.  I am so excited to see the photos and I will post them on here once they arrive J

 

The rest of the wedding day went off without a hitch and everything looked beautiful.  I was so happy with all the décor I ordered and the atmosphere it created was so cool.  I would recommend renting the lounge palms from Zuniga and the lights to illuminate them from JSAV.  It was a total showstopper and it really transformed the space!  We rented two speakers and it was perfect, one might have been too quite.  I also was happy with the choice to not rent a dance floor.  It worked perfect having the lights aimed down on the floor and to be honest, since the reception had to end at 10:00 there wasn’t a ton of time for dancing.  People jumped in the pool around 8:30 and dinner had just finished at 7:00.  I would also not recommend the lounge seating from Zuniga.  It looked really cool but didn’t really get used since it was placed on the other side of the dance floor away from the tables and it was pretty dimly lit over there.  Lighting is definitely key to making the space usable!  If you have a big group and are using both sides reception areas around the pool make sure you get tons of lighting.  The Gobo from JSAV was also an amazing addition.  Guests thought it was the coolest thing they have seen at a wedding!

As for the noise curfew, I was hoping they would let us party a bit longer than 10:00 but they shut it down pretty much right at 10:00.  Everyone probably would have partied in the pool until the wee morning hours but it was almost a blessing in disguise because the party was getting a bit crazy in the pool! Lol. 

 

When my husband and I got back to the room they had decorated the bed with rose petals and filled the Jacuzzi with bubbles.  It was really cute.

The next morning we had our honeymooner breakfast and mimosas delivered to the room and it was a great way to wake up and start our married life J

 

I was pretty darn stressed out during the weeks leading up to the wedding and honestly as soon as I met with Mario at the hotel my worries melted away.  They go above and beyond to take care of every detail.  I was also worried about hidden costs or them tacking on costs for setting up stuff etc, but honestly they threw in so many extras and cute additional details free of charge.  I had an extra $500 ready for hidden costs and I ended up giving it to the event staff as tips because the invoice upon checkout was exactly as quoted.  Beach Palace was the absolute perfect choice for our wedding and it was everything I could have dreamed of. To all you brides out there, just breath and relax knowing that your wedding day is going to be perfect!

Edited June 2, 2014 by shmanderz

[jlo0821]

Thanks for the review Shmanderz! I leave 2 weeks from tomorrow, so excited! I am interested in getting some infor about your friend from Isla Mujeres. Can you please email me ? [email protected]

Also, what menu did you choose for dinner?

Can't wait to see pics!