bryonandkiuana

Quote: Originally Posted by MayBride2010 Hey ladies, did any of you not stay in the riviera section? If so, did the regular rooms have 24 hour room service? yes, my entire party (66) stayed on the Riviera said and loved it! The rooms are really really nice & they upgraded us to the master suite. HOWEVER, let me warn you...the room service is 24 hours for the entire resort but the food absolutely SUCKS!! ALL OF IT EXCEPT THE FRUIT!

Quote: Originally Posted by Bride-chill-a Hey Everyone! I can't believe my wedding is in 81 days!!!!!! Am I the next one, on this forum? Or is anyone in January? I'm beginning to get quite frustrated with Paola because I've emailed her all of my answers to the questions that we will discuss 'in our appointment' and she's emailed me all of those questions again! Based on what Kuyana said, I'm not even going to worry about getting her all that info, since she apparently won't have it when we get there anyways! As far as room upgrades go, we really want to have a special room during our stay since it's our wedding but it sucks they can't guarantee that especially since we are bringing 34 people to their resort! Throw me a bone! LOL. We are going during peak season which is why i was hoping to secure that ahead of time. Kuyana, did you guys get an upgrade? If not, how was your room? Sorry to be negative! I really needed to vent to someone who understands! Any feedback or suggestions would be welcome! Thanks! Jennifer OMG!! The big day is coming up!!! Good luck, have fun...you will have a blast! We were able to get the upgrade & it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo beautiful! But all of the rooms are really nice...but the upgrade was really really sweet! Sandos will treat you well. I'm so excited for you. If you have any other questions, please email me...I'm not on the forum as often as I used to be... bryonandkiuana@comcast.net I can't wait to see the pictures!! Enjoy! Pictures: http://www.sephphoto.com/client/bnkpdc/ the wedding video: Kiuana & Bryon Wedding Day Edit on Vimeo

Quote: Originally Posted by Bride-chill-a Thank you, thank you, thank you Kiuana for posting that very useful info! I'm taking notes on your do's and dont's! I'm glad it all worked out for you...you looked so pretty!!!! No problem. Don't hesitate to contact me any more questions...big or small. this forum helped me out so much! I'm glad to return the favor.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jennybell1 So what pictures exactly are you talking about? I would have no idea as to what to show her for my wedding....I thought you picked everything when you were there?? just to clarify, you can pick everything while you're there...but you'll be picking from what she's offering. if you want something specific, bring a picture of it. she has a book full of decorations, flowers, etc. but if you want anything specific, its better to bring an actual picture vs. description. for example, I brought pictures of my inspiration bouquet, grooms flower, the wedding cake, how I wanted the guestbook table to be set-up; a picture of a hair flower; and the pictures of past Sandos weddings which mocked the exact decoration which I was looking for; and its an added bonus if you have some type of fabric with you that shows your actual colors; we had out passport invitation so she was able to see the actual hues of pink and blue that we were after...hope that helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by Bride-chill-a Hey Everyone! For anyone who has been to the resort or to PDC before...can you make any recommendations for nightclubs nearby? We are looking for some spots to have a girls night/boys night out as well as possibly for our wedding night! we had girls night out at Sandos. we had a welcome reception on wedding eve, followed by girls night out @ Sandos (my maid of honor had worked this out with Paola). Paola let them have a conference room & all the ladies got together to have some friendly fun! Afterward, we let the resort to go ride a mechanical bull. that was a blast. but at the club in PDC, the only patrons were us...me & my 20 girlfriends. so I wouldn't recommend that place unless your only mission is to ride a mechanical bull.

Hi Everyone! My wedding at Sandos was a real dream come true. Not because of Sandos, but because of my husband. Sandos just added to the wonderful day. There is nothing much to worry about unless you are a fussy bride. We had a total of 64 guests & everyone loved the resort. I've honestly been to better resorts but Sandos was great for the most part. I probably wouldn't visit again due to a couple of concerns but overall it was the right place for us due to the costs to our guests and the amenities offered. My concerns were the timeshare folks are out of control--they call your room, they are very slick & its a real turn off; the service could've been better--room service took forever; the golf carts around the resort were old & need of repair & didn't run as frequently as they say--more like every 20 minutes; the food was great but do not order room service...for some reason, room service food was awful!; and with restaurant reservations was a real challenge but then once you get to the restaurant, they're half empty (although they said they were booked for the night). I'd say go for your wedding if you are budget-minded & not trying to waste money on silly stuff. Paola was great to work with...I could tell that she wasn't used to handling such a huge party and was stressed the day of the wedding. Our wedding was held indoors due to Hurricane Ida. While it didn't hit Riviera Maya, it brought in spurts of heavy rainful followed by beautiful sunshine. The ceremony was still beautiful and I can't wait to get the video. We used Paul from this forum. we brought our own photographer. the professional pictures are not ready yet (of course) but you can check out candid photos of us on our website http://bryonandkiuana.shutterfly.com the password is bryonandkiuana here are a few pointers: bring as much US cash as you can; Paola will negotiate with you on pricing if you have cash; take advantage of this negotation! its likely that your total cost estimate will be higher than the actual final costs; we did a welcome reception (eve of the wedding); wedding day followed by italian buffet followed by disco; also negotiated for free upgrades to the golden bracelets and good prices for our guests as well. it's your day--ask & you may receive! go cheap--everything is nice & its not worth it for the extra upgrades--we didn't upgrade our cake ($3 extra pp) and it was plenty for all 64 guests. we did upgrade the champage for the ceremony but shouldn't have--most guests didn't even have champagne--it wasn't worth it; bring pictures of everything you want--if you're not fluent in English, it will kill you trying to explain what you want--i'm so glad that i was prepared; don't worry about communication with Paola--get the basics before you go and be prepared to finalize everything at the resort--I communicated with her so much and none of that mattered--she didn't have anything that I sent to her & we had to end up going over everything which I'd already sent to her--don't waste your time; she's super-fantastic with the weddings & she will make your dreams come true--you should be specific, have pictures & write/print everything. i brought a usb flash with all my communications with her; she simply took it, uploaded to her computer & we were good to do. we ate in the Italian Buffet--the food was awesome a menu card wouldn't do you any justice--its simply a buffet but all the food was really good afterwards, we rented the disco for 3 hours. this is most cost-effective and was a lot of fun--one things that I regret--do not trust the DJ to have the hits! make sure you create you own playlist & download all the songs to your ipod or to a CD. the DJ sucked! he didn't speak much English, I provided him with a playlist the day we arrived on tuesday--we got married friday and they had not downloaded my requested songs therefore we couldn't play them at the disco. that pissed me off! I should've had a playlist ready to go but Paola said, 'no worries...they will take care of it'. Well they didn't! if the afterparty is very important to you, hire an outside DJ. if you're prepared you will be fine..for example, we had a DVD & three songs: dvd was our love story (about 15 min long) & it was played before introductions. then one song for wedding party, one for us & our first dance song. of course we brought all of these along they were executed perfectly. as far the party...well, I should've been prepared as far as the spa--i wouldn't recommend the services to anyone. my hair stylist traveled with us so i was ok but my mom had her hair done at the spa and they it was ok not fantastic...i think she could've done a better job herself. now I'm Black so of course my hair texture is different than White women. they simply may not have been familiar with handling this hair texture. if you go with them, just have a backup-plan...just in case. they also did not do good manicures or pedicures or makeup. the facial was ok. I'd recommend you go offsite for these services. i was suppose to go to MAC on 5th ave for makeup but forgot one of my friends did makeup so I bought all the MAC at home, packed it up & she did it for me. the spa was good for the day of the wedding---we used all the facilities at the spa to get ready (hair & makeup). they have all the professional sinks, hair dryers, curling irons, etc. they charged $25 to use it & it was well worth it. I'd highly recommend you do this if you are a DIY bride. the hair dryers in the rooms suck! okay, let me know if you have any questions...net, net. I'd don't regret picking Sandos, the wedding packages are reasonable (we went with the free package & just added everything a la carte (it came out a lot cheaper), you get alot for the money at the resort, Paola will negotatie prices with you if you have cash, the wedding was perfect, the food was great (except room service). If you are not fussy, have back-up plans & bring pictures & everything else with you on a memory stick, you will be just fine. happy wedding planning & let me know if you have any specific questions!

welcome to the forum!

Hey ladies...I leave for Sandos is one week...can't wait. Here's the plan: thursday evening nov 5th welcome reception 7:30-9:30pm bachelorette festivities 9:30-until Friday/nov. 6th--The big Day! hair 9am- Sandos salon makeup noon- MAC on 5th ave ceremony 5:00pm (guests seated @ 4:30pm) 5:30pm-toasts and instant photo guestbook signing in wedding hut immediately following ceremony 5:30pm pictures dinner @ italian buffet 6:30pm dancing @ disco 7:30-until Paola has been great to work with...a bit slow to get back to you but she has picked it up her response as we've gotten closer to the wedding date! www.bryonandkiuana.com

Here's the info...this is what I plan to do! UltrafemmeAvenida 5a Norte Lt. 15 Loc. 1 Mza. 27 entre calle 12 y 16 Centro Playa del Carmen, 77710 Mexico +52 984 803 4661

It's your day...I say do whatever that you feel in your heart. Totally appropriate...it's your day! FI's usually don't have much to say about this planning stuff...so when he does have a wish, go ahead & fulfill it!

that is awesome. if you could send those menu's that would be greatly appreciated. In particular, I'm looking for the buffet menu for the Italian restaurant. Thanks for the review.

Beautiful pics! Can't wait to get mine. The Chicago shoot was great. If you can hold it in...have it delivered right before the ceremony. That's what I plan to do!

thanks for this! need to honor dad...

thanks for the review. I hope that things are better in November when I get married @ Sandos. Now I know what to look for!

does anyone have more pics of your party flops?