2013 Gran Caribe Real/ Royal Cancun Brides

[Emily11386]

That is something that has concerned us a little too.  We will be having guests staying at both resorts.  My fiance and I will be there for 2 weeks.  Originally we were going to move to another resort for the second week, but since we feel like we will spend a lot of time going back and forth the week leading up to the wedding we wanted to make sure we would have time to enjoy the Royal. 

Most of my family is staying at the Gran Caribe because quite a few of them have kids, and they all want to be together.  Atleast half of my bridemsaids are staying at the Gran Caribe.  All of my fiances groomsmen and his parents are staying at the Royal.  We are doing Sat-Sat (2 weeks). My family (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids) is doing Tues-Tues. I have some bridesmaids doing Wed-Sun or Thurs-Sun.  Fiances groomsmen and parents are mostly doing Sat-Sat, so there is some times where we will have only people at the Royal, but for the rest of the time we will be back and forth or on the beach....Should be interesting.

[Alicia415]

Thank you so much for your opinion and experience Brianne and Emily! From what I've read it didn't take away from the wedding weekend for anyone else, so I'm just hoping it is not too big of an issue! I feel like we can make it work, it's just when other people raise it as a concern it stresses me and my fiance out! Thank you again for your input

[brianne799]

Don't stress it, it's your wedding and while I'm sure your guests would love to spend time with you, they will understand that you have other guests to spend time with too.  One thing I recommend is a welcome cocktail hour a few days before your wedding.  I had one in the Caribe's gazebo, but they used the better alcohol from the Royal because the bride and groom were staying there.  We had some really good hor'dourves and a few drinks and they supplied music for us.  Service was amazing.  Everyone kept commenting on how nice it was to get everyone together before the wedding and had a really good time.  It was fairly cheap too!  Then you can also consider that time that you got to spend with everyone!

[Alicia415]

Yes, I definitely planned on doing something like that too!

[Emily11386]

Brianne- Do you remember how much the cocktail party was? I was considering this or a semi private dinner but fiancé thinks it's ridiculous to pay to eat or drink at an all inclusive, so I'm kind of torn. I see his point but think it would be nice to get everyone together in one place.

[brianne799]

I believe $10 per guest ($25 if they are not staying at the royal or gran caribe).  It included drinks, hot and cold appetizers, servers, and music.  It is a little annoying to pay for food and alcohol at an all inclusive, but I considered this paying a few hundred for a private event.

[Emily11386]

So we are considering doing a catamaran tour for our guests. The only problem is we don't want to do it the day before or after the wedding which is a Friday. So we were thinking of doing Wednesday, however my family, his parents, and his groomsmen will all be there but none of my 6 bridesmaids would be. It definitely wouldn't be as fun for me without them there and I don't want anyone to feel left out, so we are debating if it's worth doing it. What do you guys think? Should we still do it or maybe go for the private dinner the night before instead?

[Alicia415]

I would personally want to include my bridesmaids if it was sort of like a welcome event. Maybe do it on the Thursday but early so it doesn't end too late the night before your wedding. I realize that's when your bridesmaids would be getting in but if they are getting there early enough hopefully that could work out. But ultimately it's up to you! It sounds like a really fun idea!

[Emily11386]

JetBlue finally came out with airfare for May! I feel like I've been waiting for it for so long! We finally have all of our travel booked and its a big relief. Some family is waiting to see if ther rates go down and debating about doing connecting flights, but atleast now that option is out there. I was not willing to wait to see how the prices would fluctuate...I just wanted to get it done...lol.

[Emily11386]

I was wondering how many people are doing a rehearsal dinner or welcome dinner. Our wedding is on a Fri and we have quite a few guests coming in on Thurs., so a welcome dinner probably isn't an option for us, but a rehearsal dinner is. We got some quotes for outside restaurants but most were pretty pricey.  They offer a "semi private" dinner for $15pp, but we just found out it is for 30 people or less, and we have more. The private dinner is nice and can be on the beach, but the menu choices are the same as the menu choices for the wedding, which we already picked the 2 we like from that list for the wedding. There really aren't any other options on it that stick out to us. The other option we have is to do a buffet which looks great, but it is a min of 50 guests, which means we would have to pay for 50 guests @$40pp, bringing us to about $2,000. Do you think it's crazy to spend $2,000 on dinner at an all inclusive resort? FI kind of does, but will go along with whatever I want to do. Our only other option would be to just do a cocktail reception which would be $15pp. Just interested in getting some other opinions!