Playa Del Carmen The Royal Resorts

[chrystal87]

The Royal-Playa del Carmen

June 18th 2014

We arrived to Playa Sunday and spent one week there. Our wedding was sincerely perfect. Of course we hit some bumps and I hope I can help any upcoming Playa brides. I like being as detailed as I can so this may be long  Alvin and I were engaged 12-21-12 and I reached out to The Royal website mid-January. Our flights were booked in May 2013, court wedding was 6-28-14, invitations out Fall of 2013 and we put the RSVP at 1-31-14

Peach Travels/Pleasant Holiday Travel Agent

PROS- Sheila Peach was a sweetheart and communicated very well. She was found on the Royal website and lives less than ten minutes away from me. She helped inform me with what I needed to do for a smooth wedding planning. I did not deal with her too much since we were booking our flights and room with Pleasant Holiday. Our guest and I dealt with Brianna. She was very easy to communicate with until a month before our wedding. She was out of her office a lot and not responding to us. We were very happy that she found us direct flights from LAX to Cancun for $381. Close to departure we all received a neat booklet to organize our boarding passes, itinerary, and passport. We also received luggage tags and some discount coupons.

 

CONS- Some guests complained that Brianna was not responding to them. I had a hand full of guests contact another coworker or her boss due to the lack of responding back quickly. I personally did not deal with that but some guest did.

There were issued the day we arrived to The Royal and after an hour of arguments, sweat, and walking back and forth we finally received the room we paid for. We received our room 2 days later and had to sign a contract stating we could not complain about The Royal, Peach Travels and Pleasant Holiday. PLEASE be aware that the new wedding packages at The Royal may include an upgrade. You may or may not get it so do not worry too much about the room you stay in. All rooms are beautiful. I also do not recommend the swim up suites. Yes, you feel like a famous artist in a music video with your own pool but you can only be in it until 9 pm. Personally I do not think it is worth the price.

 

Invitations

After lots of research I found beautiful and affordable passport/boarding pass invitations. We originally saw the idea on Pinterest. Here is the website https://weddingpassports.com/passport-gallery/

Vanessa and Dave were so awesome! They sent me the template for The Royal and I went to a local printing company to personalize and print them. I paid $25 for the template and Stella Graphix from Hawthorne, CA charged me $200 for personalizing the template and printing 75 invitations and boarding passes. We LOVE our invitations. We were so excited and noticed we put a wrong contact email so I ordered business cards on Vistaprint for about $8 and added the business cards in the invitations. I also made address labels on Vistaprint with a photo of us from our court house wedding. I also bought the paper and transparent envelopes on ebay.

 

Dress

I was always one to say I was going with a simple silk wedding dress but after trying on dresses at boutiques and David’s Bridal my mind was confused on with what I wanted. I was able to narrow it down to two dresses from David’s Bridal Galina Signature SWG 400 and Beaded Lace Sheath with Godet Inserts Style VW9340. Again, after lots of searching the web I found my size on ebay and bought both. One for the wedding and one for trash the dress. The dresses were very comfortable. I spent $400 for both dresses, used. I also bought my veil on ebay for $120. My veil had lace trim.

 

Jewelry

I am lucky to know a very talented jewelry maker. I met her through my husband. She is a counselor in San Diego but makes amazing jewerly. I bought my bridesmaids and moms necklaces and my maid of honor an awesome cuff. I wore a slave bracelet and statement necklace. http://waterthelove.com/

I also bought a necklace and earrings from ebay for our ceremony. I loved that this necklace had a teardrop falling from my back.

 

Resort

All of our guests loved the resort! The staffs have such huge hearts, so caring and always welcoming us with a big smile and the Mayan welcome. We had 51 guests and about 16 stayed at The Royal and the rest at their sister resort The Gran Porto. We loved how simple the walk was to The Gran Porto. Our rooms were always cleaned quickly and left surprises like candy, candles lit, or cool towel origami animals. We usually ate at Spice and we also recommend the Italian restaurant and Maria’s at The Gran Porto. The Royal had the best beach. Beach was not dirty and it was not congested. If you are facing the beach, you can walk to you left and find watersport things that you can rent for a good price. They also have $35 hour massages on the beach. Much cheaper than the resort’s massages. Ohhh and don’t forget about room services. It is soooo good. The night before our wedding we stayed in my room and after being kicked out of our swim up pool we went into the hot tub and ordered every dessert on the menu. Resort is def an A+. The entertainment is also great! My friends did the water aerobics and we did the zumba one day too. Super fun

 

Wedding

My coordinator was Lorena and she was my favorite person to deal with! Working with her was perfect. She is a very loving person and her calmness helped me out so much. I met with her about three times before the wedding and she was constantly checking in with me during the wedding. While I was getting ready I was able to email her any concerns and she responded quickly. She even came down to the spa to check in with me and ensure I was all good. My entire family was so thankful for Lorena and all the workers. We tipped everyone because we were so so happy. I told the workers mu favorite drink was their electric lemonade and they did such a great time making sure I always has one in front of me. My wedding started at 4:30 and the weather was so perfect. We did have some wedding crashers who were very rude to our best man but Lorena quickly went to help and called for security to stand around our wedding to ensure no other person came to grab champagne the bar set up was also great. We had our table set up so we had the view of the ocean and our family all in front of us. Words cannot express how perfect our beach wedding was. Perfect music by DJ doremixx has us dancing the entire night. We had a wedding of 51 people and the dance floor was a little small but you have the entire beach to dance on 

 

Photographer

I was so fortunate to find Ione Photography!!! Ione was so good and communicating. We exchanged emails throughout the planning process and we even had a pinterest page to exchange what type of photos we had in vision to take. As we got closer to the date we exchanged information for an app called WhatsApp on our phones which made it even quicker for us to communicate. The day of the weddings Ione sent me a text on WhatsApp and let me know he was on his way. At that moment I realized our wedding was getting closer  Ione met me in my room and our second photographer met my husband in his best man’s room. His work was done so calm and captured so many great shots. I didn’t think I wanted photos of me getting ready but I’m so glad he did. He captured funny moments like zipping up my dress ( dress was a bit tight lol ) and my cousin blowing air on my neck as I was sweating . As we walked down to the beach Ione helped take more photos and then departed as it was time to walk down the aisle. My family also fell in love with our photographers. They captured not only precious moments of Alvin and I but also amazing photos of our niece, cousins, family and friends. Alvin and I had moments where we went off and took photos on the beach and I love them! He also did a great job and reminding our excited family that they were creating a shadow in our wedding pictures as they as rushed and gathered around them to snap photos of their own. They took great photos that we will treasure forever. Every photo was so beautiful. Their creativity was so unique and so perfect.

 

The day after the wedding we met again for trash the dress. We went to Cenote Cristalino. I had my makeup done with Cecilia Hernandez which is Ione’s friend. I sincerely wish I would have gone with her to get my makeup done for the wedding, she was fabulous and the makeup lasted ALL DAY. I jumped off a cliff into the water, dunked my head under water multiple times and after the photo shoot still went swimming in the pool with friends and not an eyelash fell or make up smear. I was so happy that Ione referred me to her because her makeup was the best I have ever had. I even emailed her after the wedding to get information on the makeup she used because it was so good. She does have a Facebook and informed me you can search her there or here is her information [email protected] or phone 9848765152. Between her awesome work on my face and Ione’s work with the cameras it was heaven  trash the dress was so much fun and tiring. I never realized all the techniques needed to look pretty underwater. Luckily we has such good support and patience from ione. We didn’t have specific poses which worked out well! Some of our photos you can see and feel the nature happiness we had glowing the day after our beautiful wedding.

 

We received a webpage with all photos. Ione had a small issue with his laptop but communicated that immediately which I highly respect him for his great communication. My package came in so quickly! He added a tablet with an amazing slideshow

Ione photography is so professional and so caring about the type of work he will do for your destination wedding. I recommend him to all Playa del Carmen brides

[acw271011]

What a great review!! Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on being a Mrs!!

[Sammiegirl66]

Great review. Thank you! I am getting married at the Royal Playa del Carmen in 2 months  

[Stephieee]

Thanks for the review! I plan on looking into your vendors

 

I just contacted Shelia from Peach Tree, I found her on the Royal's website. I thought she would be a good contact because she is in Southern California and I live in the Los Angeles area. Was there any reason you didnt book your rooms and flights with her? 

 

Did you have the beach reception? I just got engaged NYE and am looking at a March 2016 wedding. 

 

Also, were your married at the Gran Porto or Royal. I want to stay at the Royal and I have a few family members with children who Shelia mentioned could stay at the Gran Porto. I just want to make sure it wont be a hassle come wedding day.

 

Thanks for any help! 

[Stephieee]

The Royal-Playa del Carmen

June 18th 2014

We arrived to Playa Sunday and spent one week there. Our wedding was sincerely perfect. Of course we hit some bumps and I hope I can help any upcoming Playa brides. I like being as detailed as I can so this may be long  Alvin and I were engaged 12-21-12 and I reached out to The Royal website mid-January. Our flights were booked in May 2013, court wedding was 6-28-14, invitations out Fall of 2013 and we put the RSVP at 1-31-14

Peach Travels/Pleasant Holiday Travel Agent

PROS- Sheila Peach was a sweetheart and communicated very well. She was found on the Royal website and lives less than ten minutes away from me. She helped inform me with what I needed to do for a smooth wedding planning. I did not deal with her too much since we were booking our flights and room with Pleasant Holiday. Our guest and I dealt with Brianna. She was very easy to communicate with until a month before our wedding. She was out of her office a lot and not responding to us. We were very happy that she found us direct flights from LAX to Cancun for $381. Close to departure we all received a neat booklet to organize our boarding passes, itinerary, and passport. We also received luggage tags and some discount coupons.

 

CONS- Some guests complained that Brianna was not responding to them. I had a hand full of guests contact another coworker or her boss due to the lack of responding back quickly. I personally did not deal with that but some guest did.

There were issued the day we arrived to The Royal and after an hour of arguments, sweat, and walking back and forth we finally received the room we paid for. We received our room 2 days later and had to sign a contract stating we could not complain about The Royal, Peach Travels and Pleasant Holiday. PLEASE be aware that the new wedding packages at The Royal may include an upgrade. You may or may not get it so do not worry too much about the room you stay in. All rooms are beautiful. I also do not recommend the swim up suites. Yes, you feel like a famous artist in a music video with your own pool but you can only be in it until 9 pm. Personally I do not think it is worth the price.

 

Invitations

After lots of research I found beautiful and affordable passport/boarding pass invitations. We originally saw the idea on Pinterest. Here is the website https://weddingpassports.com/passport-gallery/

Vanessa and Dave were so awesome! They sent me the template for The Royal and I went to a local printing company to personalize and print them. I paid $25 for the template and Stella Graphix from Hawthorne, CA charged me $200 for personalizing the template and printing 75 invitations and boarding passes. We LOVE our invitations. We were so excited and noticed we put a wrong contact email so I ordered business cards on Vistaprint for about $8 and added the business cards in the invitations. I also made address labels on Vistaprint with a photo of us from our court house wedding. I also bought the paper and transparent envelopes on ebay.

 

Dress

I was always one to say I was going with a simple silk wedding dress but after trying on dresses at boutiques and David’s Bridal my mind was confused on with what I wanted. I was able to narrow it down to two dresses from David’s Bridal Galina Signature SWG 400 and Beaded Lace Sheath with Godet Inserts Style VW9340. Again, after lots of searching the web I found my size on ebay and bought both. One for the wedding and one for trash the dress. The dresses were very comfortable. I spent $400 for both dresses, used. I also bought my veil on ebay for $120. My veil had lace trim.

 

Jewelry

I am lucky to know a very talented jewelry maker. I met her through my husband. She is a counselor in San Diego but makes amazing jewerly. I bought my bridesmaids and moms necklaces and my maid of honor an awesome cuff. I wore a slave bracelet and statement necklace. http://waterthelove.com/

I also bought a necklace and earrings from ebay for our ceremony. I loved that this necklace had a teardrop falling from my back.

 

Resort

All of our guests loved the resort! The staffs have such huge hearts, so caring and always welcoming us with a big smile and the Mayan welcome. We had 51 guests and about 16 stayed at The Royal and the rest at their sister resort The Gran Porto. We loved how simple the walk was to The Gran Porto. Our rooms were always cleaned quickly and left surprises like candy, candles lit, or cool towel origami animals. We usually ate at Spice and we also recommend the Italian restaurant and Maria’s at The Gran Porto. The Royal had the best beach. Beach was not dirty and it was not congested. If you are facing the beach, you can walk to you left and find watersport things that you can rent for a good price. They also have $35 hour massages on the beach. Much cheaper than the resort’s massages. Ohhh and don’t forget about room services. It is soooo good. The night before our wedding we stayed in my room and after being kicked out of our swim up pool we went into the hot tub and ordered every dessert on the menu. Resort is def an A+. The entertainment is also great! My friends did the water aerobics and we did the zumba one day too. Super fun

 

Wedding

My coordinator was Lorena and she was my favorite person to deal with! Working with her was perfect. She is a very loving person and her calmness helped me out so much. I met with her about three times before the wedding and she was constantly checking in with me during the wedding. While I was getting ready I was able to email her any concerns and she responded quickly. She even came down to the spa to check in with me and ensure I was all good. My entire family was so thankful for Lorena and all the workers. We tipped everyone because we were so so happy. I told the workers mu favorite drink was their electric lemonade and they did such a great time making sure I always has one in front of me. My wedding started at 4:30 and the weather was so perfect. We did have some wedding crashers who were very rude to our best man but Lorena quickly went to help and called for security to stand around our wedding to ensure no other person came to grab champagne the bar set up was also great. We had our table set up so we had the view of the ocean and our family all in front of us. Words cannot express how perfect our beach wedding was. Perfect music by DJ doremixx has us dancing the entire night. We had a wedding of 51 people and the dance floor was a little small but you have the entire beach to dance on 

 

Photographer

I was so fortunate to find Ione Photography!!! Ione was so good and communicating. We exchanged emails throughout the planning process and we even had a pinterest page to exchange what type of photos we had in vision to take. As we got closer to the date we exchanged information for an app called WhatsApp on our phones which made it even quicker for us to communicate. The day of the weddings Ione sent me a text on WhatsApp and let me know he was on his way. At that moment I realized our wedding was getting closer  Ione met me in my room and our second photographer met my husband in his best man’s room. His work was done so calm and captured so many great shots. I didn’t think I wanted photos of me getting ready but I’m so glad he did. He captured funny moments like zipping up my dress ( dress was a bit tight lol ) and my cousin blowing air on my neck as I was sweating . As we walked down to the beach Ione helped take more photos and then departed as it was time to walk down the aisle. My family also fell in love with our photographers. They captured not only precious moments of Alvin and I but also amazing photos of our niece, cousins, family and friends. Alvin and I had moments where we went off and took photos on the beach and I love them! He also did a great job and reminding our excited family that they were creating a shadow in our wedding pictures as they as rushed and gathered around them to snap photos of their own. They took great photos that we will treasure forever. Every photo was so beautiful. Their creativity was so unique and so perfect.

 

The day after the wedding we met again for trash the dress. We went to Cenote Cristalino. I had my makeup done with Cecilia Hernandez which is Ione’s friend. I sincerely wish I would have gone with her to get my makeup done for the wedding, she was fabulous and the makeup lasted ALL DAY. I jumped off a cliff into the water, dunked my head under water multiple times and after the photo shoot still went swimming in the pool with friends and not an eyelash fell or make up smear. I was so happy that Ione referred me to her because her makeup was the best I have ever had. I even emailed her after the wedding to get information on the makeup she used because it was so good. She does have a Facebook and informed me you can search her there or here is her information [email protected] or phone 9848765152. Between her awesome work on my face and Ione’s work with the cameras it was heaven  trash the dress was so much fun and tiring. I never realized all the techniques needed to look pretty underwater. Luckily we has such good support and patience from ione. We didn’t have specific poses which worked out well! Some of our photos you can see and feel the nature happiness we had glowing the day after our beautiful wedding.

 

We received a webpage with all photos. Ione had a small issue with his laptop but communicated that immediately which I highly respect him for his great communication. My package came in so quickly! He added a tablet with an amazing slideshow

Ione photography is so professional and so caring about the type of work he will do for your destination wedding. I recommend him to all Playa del Carmen brides

 

Hi, it seems like you and I have a lot in common in terms of our planning. Im getting married March 2016 at the Royal. I contacted Shelia Peach TA to help with my planning because she was close to home. Did any of your guest book directly with the hotel or use an online travel site like Expedia? I know she offers payment plans, which is my main reason for deciding to work with her. 

 

Also, I also found weddingpassports on line too. We paid $5 to order a sample and love them. Was it difficult getting Stella Graphix to re-produce them? Did they look like the wedding passport sample? Im in the Los Angeles area so heading over to Hawthorne wouldnt be an issue for me. What did you have to provide them with to make the invites for you? Did you bind them? sorry for all the questions  

 

Also, do you have a link for your photographer? I didnt find him on Google. 

 

Last question, did you do your wedding make up at Spa Azul? How did it last? 

 

Make up/ hair is included in my package and so is an hour or photography. I think getting my make up and at Spa Azul will be fine, but really curious about photography since these pictures are going to be with me for life. 

 

Thanks! 

[chrystal87]

Hi

Sorry it took a while I have not been on in a while and cannot remember howt o reply to your post.  

 

 

 

Yes, some guest used Sheila and loved the payments. Others found there own. It was not difficult. He let me know the type of paper to buy and I did and had them ready to go. I did not bind them. I did the hole punching and threading on my own.

 

 

Here is the photographers website and our photo website.

 

http://ionephotography.com/ Let him know Chrystal and Alvin referred you. We still talk here and there and he was super awesome to work with.

 

alvinchrystal.shutterfly.com

 

 

Yes, I had my make up done at Spazul. I did not like it very much but I can not complain becuase that is something so small. I had my makeup done by a reference from Ione and OMG she was super professional. My hair was flat and make up gone by the reception. The next day when Cecilia ( iones friend) did my make up I was so amazed on her work!

 

 

I also added my brochure. I dont think i wrote about that. I ordered them rush shipping from vistaprint on June 6th lol they were PERFECT for the welcome bags.   If you have any other questions I would love to help however I can !

I booked room and flight with her. We had the suite with private pool and do not recommend. It was so expensive and there were issues. I did have a beach reception. congrats on your engagement! 

 

 

I was married at the Royal but our family with children stayed at the Gran Porto. We were able to go visit them througout the week .  It will not be a hassle. they gave my dad issues the day of the wedding and he was very angry because they did not let him on the Royal side .  We were told it was a miscommunication with the security.  My mom, sister and aunt who all stayed at the Gran were able to stay with me in my room at the Royal the day of the wedding.

 

 

Seriously you may stress a little but when you are starring at that carribean sea with all your lovedd ones around you none of it will matter.  Time will freeze and you will have an amazing view and feeling!