Catalonia Riviera Maya

Hi Girls

 

Just returned from 2 weeks at the Cat for our wedding, you are going to love it!

 

I’m sure most of what I am about to say is a repeat of what’s already in here somewhere but I thought you might appreciate a fresh take on things.

 

We were met by Elena on day 2 to go through a few things and finalise what we wanted, took about 30 minutes including choosing flowers. She has a book with photos you can choose from. We had a centrepiece, bouquet and button hole free as part of the package then added on some pillar flowers for the entrance to the walkway and 3 extra bouquets for my bridesmaids. It came to about $100 which I thought was really good. We then had to go back another day for our blood tests, they were $100 each and it’s done in Elena’s office by the doctor.

 

If you are having a private reception at the Pure Chill Out Bar (highly recommend this!) It’s not organised by Elena but by the restaurant, my contact was Myriam Vater [email protected]. Elena new nothing about my reception plans but as soon as I mentioned Myriam they liaised with each other.

 

The ceremony was at 3pm so I started getting ready with my bridesmaids about 11.30am. I used Freelance Italian Hair Stylist in Mexico - Doranna Hair Stylist - Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya - Cancun - Tulum for our hair and makeup and she did an amazing job, very pricey though but to me this was important. Our photographer came to my room about 2pm to take some photos of us getting ready, we used Michael from Mexican Wedding Photos & Videos | Wedding photographers he was just fantastic; we also used them for a videographer. Michael then met us at the airport to give us our photos and video.

 

The ceremony was only about 15 minutes, the registrar we had was very nice and funny however I think there are a few so you wont know who you get until the day. After the ceremony we had champagne at the ceremony site with our guests then had our photos done. Our guests went to the lobby bar for an hour or so.

 

At 5.30pm all our guests made there way to the chill out bar and then we made our entrance. It was so amazing, the place looked great, I can not tell you enough how hard the staff there work. We had 8 staff waiting on us and there were only 23 of us!

 

I had given Elena a box with some decorations in, shells, fairy lights, name places, menus etc and they did such a great job.

 

We had the grill menu which was basically a BBQ with pasta, salad, potatoes etc, there was enough food for about 50 and it was delicious.

 

Anyway I don’t want to ramble on too much so if you have any questions please ask.

 

Take a look at our photos here http://www.sajoalbums.uk.tt/Wedding

 

I also have loads more photos taken by guests at the pure chill out bar on my facebook page, feel free to add me if you want to take a look. ‘Sally Upson’

 

I hope you enjoy your day as much as we did; it really was the best day of my life!!

 

Sally

Hello

We have just returned from our wedding, I'm not 100% sure but i believe the DJ is just a member of staff. They have a big music box with a tazmanian devil on it that gets used around the pool during the day. Personally i wouldnt waste money on a DJ at $100 and hour. We took an ipod with loads of music on and they set up a large speaker in the chill out bar which the ipod plugged straight into, that way we could control what music was playing. That was $200 from 5.30pm til 10.30pm

You definately wont regret a private function in the chill out bar.

Good luck with you planning :-)

Sally

Sally--your pictures are beautiful. I was excited to see the color blue you used because that's what I am going with as well. Did you bring the blue tulle along with the names and menus, etc, for the decorating? I'm trying to figure out what I need to bring.

 

Thanks,

Kari

Hi

I took the chair sashes with me which i got from ebay. The names and menus were done by a friend on mine then i took some battery operated fairy lights. They made it look amazing.

Happy planning, you are going to love it :-)

WOW, Thank you for all your info Sally I was dead set on having the DJ but now that you mention you guys used an ipod i think that is a better idea. Thank you for posting your pics, the ones of the reception set up really help !

Hi Everyone

 

Thanks on the advice for DJ. I think we might just go for the Ipod. Thus far we have 65 people coming to the wedding which was a bit more than we originally planned so I just wanted to make sure people have a fun time during the reception.

 

I also wanted to inquire about the food menu for the private reception. They sent me the menu with the options and they all looked fine to me. I was wonering for people that had the private reception which menu choice you picked and what you thought of the food.

 

Thanks

 

Maya

hey girls!!!

 

I am getting married on.... well i'm not sure yet!!!

i'm getting stressed to the max!

We're arriving on march 30th, 2010.

 

I have been trying to contact Elena and haven't received any confirmation on anything yet!

She has told me she will try to get my "requested" wedding date (which is march 31st - btw, we are doing the renewal of vows) and will try to accomodate our 23 people in one of the a-la-carte restaurants.

 

I see some of you who are getting married in early 2010 have already known your ceremony times since october!!

 

Does anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Also, any advise for Catalonia?

We do love the resort and went there in March 2009, but not knowing the details with less than 3 months is a little stressfull!!

 

Amanda

Hey Amanda. I was lucky that alot of the planning and wedding date issues went through my travel agent, then once my date was confirmed (which took 7 months due to us booking so far ahead) I was in contact Elena, who got me in contact with Myriam (to plan our private reception), Once i was in contact with them I was told to get ahold of them approx a month to 3 weeks before my wedding to actually start planning. lol. We leave in a month and we still haven't really finalized anything. I am getting a little anxious but i know things will work out. My travel agent deals alot with this resort for weddings and says once they are on top of it they are wonderful. Just think, 3 months are you are on vacation....awwwwww away from the cold...lol

Leanne

Thanks for the insight Leanne.

 

I feel a little better that they do this with everyone. I'm just going to have to keep dreaming about the beautiful sun and sand to ease my anxiety for the next 3 months

Here is something to hold you over... this will be your exact beach view in 3 short months!!!