ROYAL PLAYA DEL CARMEN BRIDES: were kids allowed for the day? ...and other questions

You girls are awesome!!! thanks for all the suggestions about the fans and letting me know about the chairs.

My BM's are actually having parasols so I think your right it may be very cute to have those out. By any chance LynnieS what size parasols did you go with?

Thanks to bridetobe1515 and candicemarie for your emails!

Just another bit of advice to those who are panicking over the "rules" that The Royal has. They are actually extremely open to whatever you want within reason. So for set up or layout or what you bring with you they will do whatever you want. I was expecting to hear no a lot, but all I really heard is "no problem". It was so easy I thought maybe they would mess it all up, but it turned out perfectly. Just a little something to ease your minds.

BridetoBe

Awesome siggy pic. . . I love love love your colors!

jesmcan

my advice if you are still deciding on a cocktail hour. . . only do it if you can run your ceremony straight into a cocktail hour then right into your reception. I had a break and lost a lot of people during the cocktail hour, then most of them were late to dinner. . . boo!

Hey all, I know I found this forum late and haven't really posted much but just wanted to mention a few things that will hopefully help as these were the things I was worried about...

Cocktail hour - our ceremony was on the Pelicanos beach, and we had a cocktail hour immediately afterward, which worked out PERFECT because it gave our guests a place to sit, eat, and champagne to drink while watching us take our photos on the beach. Everyone stuck around because they wanted to watch and take pictures. I didn't taste the food, but we upgraded to the hot canapes and my bridesmaids who SWORE honesty about the food said that they were about half and half - half were amazing half were "blah". We had the Mexican trio at the cocktail hour and got a lot of good comments, people thought that was awesome.

And we won't get our professional pix for a couple of weeks but here is a link to our "not professional at all" pix in case anyone is interested!! These are all just pix taken by guests.

http://julieandparkermetz.shutterfly.com/

We did the beach ceremony at 5, cocktail hour immediately following, and 7pm reception in the garden. Perfect, perfect and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. It worked out sooo smoothly.

Zulma is amazing, we had our meeting and she just did it all. I dropped off all the stuff I wanted to use and she just did it! She also added some things I forgot about...like a centerpiece for the ceremony table and then she took it down for the "bride and groom" table at the reception. We didn't order it or pay for it! But it was there. The civil ceremony was actually really nice for a strictly legal ceremony, everyone said nice things about what was said. Short and sweet, just how we wanted it! The guitarist was awesome, perfect. The guitarist and judge ran off immediately afterward before we could tip them!

We ordered flowers through the resort because I just didn't have time to deal with it or go looking for vendors, and we made changes to all of them. I was nervous because there was no way to see them and approve of them before wedding day, but they turned out just as I wanted them in my head! We chose the CP72 which is all purple in the photo and asked them to do it in all white flowers and match the bridesmaid bouquets B7, and requested mine BO26 be done in all white, and just make matching bouts and corsages and they turned out awesome. I was seriously worried about the flowers but they put it all together really well. They're a lot better than in the catalog pix! Huge relief when I saw them.

As for the cake, we ordered the WCUG15 cake from the couture cake catalog, and asked Zulma at our meeting if they could use matching flowers. She said sure, no prob and it was done and we never had to pay for more flowers or anything. (That cake has frosting flowers, not real flowers, so I thought we'd be charged, but nope!)

Also, we used DJ Doremixx...not sure who the actual DJ was, but they were alright. Kept everyone dancing, so that's all that matters. Didn't blow me outta the water or anything, but I'm a huge music nut so...depends how picky you are. They did throw in the lighted dance floor though which we did not order or pay for!!!!! So I was totally happy with that and so were the guests! I definitely recommend that if you have dancers/partiers.

One thing, nobody ever cut the cake or passed it out. We didn't notice it until the end because everyone was dancing like crazy, but that's one thing I was kinda confused about! Maybe ask and make sure someone is going to do that! I assumed they would just do it but maybe not... We had the cake in our room the next morning with 1 piece out of it...the one we cut together. What a waste of $140! Oh well.

The bartenders and servers were awesome, took amazing care of us...made whatever people wanted...but I will say when the clock struck 10pm they just shut it all down, started tearing the tables apart and basically kicked us out... I even asked for a parting shot at the bar and they said NO. Um....excuse me!? It was JUST 10pm, no later not even by a minute I checked because I was like WTF see the dress? But oh well. It was kinda obnoxious how they were tearing it all down before we could even leave the premises.

But those were my only complaints, and they weren't even enough to be upset about. Everyone had an amazing time, I heard a million "Best wedding evers" from the guests, and anything that wasn't perfect totally didn't matter because there was so much that WAS perfect. I have no complaints about the ceremony or the cocktail hour, and only those couple little things about the reception. The food was what it was, but the food at the resort is SO GOOD that nobody complained if they didn't like it because we ate like royalty all week long. I will say for the Rehearsal dinner and Reception dinner people liked the salad/soup/dessert...but not the entrees. I hated both entrees. I will have to look up the food later and post specifics on food if anyone is interested.

ALSO, if you stay in a master suite I HIGHLY recommend going to the Chefs Plate. Awesome experience, and you can only go if you're in a master suite. Speaking of master suite, we booked the basic junior suite and they upgraded us to a master suite for $50 a day which we GLADLY paid and was SO worth it.

We took our after party to the Blue Parrot, and I totally owe this forum JUST for that suggestion. Had a BLAST there, everyone raved about it. Fire show was short, but worth it. We missed the 10pm show, then dance and drink until the 1pm show then left. They also let us all in without cover, and the girls got bracelets for free drinks all night... But I did wear my dress out and all the girls were still dressed up, haha.

Also just for reference we did the Luxury package...and didn't use half the stuff. I would probably have chosen a lesser package and made upgrades or even a la carte if we could do it again.

We moved our "romantic dinner for 2 on the beach" to a breakfast in the gazebo, and Zulma laughed and said 90% of people do this because they don't want to miss out on dinners with all their guests. It was a good move!

I didn't use my hair appt as my sister-in-law is a hairdresser and did my hair, and all the girls did their own because well...they all hate updo's. And so do I! Can't believe my hair was up, but it was for the best as the wind was nuts! My dress turned into a parachute! Which was awkward at the time, but looks awesome in pix!

We did fans for the ceremony, but they were not necessary. However, people did use them at the reception because there is barely a breeze in the garden. So I would recommend parasols for anything on the beach during sun hours, and fans for anything in the garden or gazebo.

Well, I think that's it for now but feel free to browse our guest pix and ask any questions! I really wish I would have found this website sooner...but I did find some really useful info right before we left so thanks for that!! Hope this helps.

Also, whoever the other bride was who high-fived me near beach when I started to walk with my dad...thanks, you kept me from crying!!! Haha.

jujeemd - thank you so much for your review!!! you looked so beautiful I love your necklace. Thank you so much for all the great advice on everything. Everything looked wonderful so it really put my mind at ease.

LynnieS that will be perfect for us than. We have our ceremony at the gazebo with the cocktail hour right after in the garden right there and than everyone is walking over to Kool with the mariachi band for the reception. So I think the cocktail hour will definitely work for us. Mine only thing is FI and I hate champagne we both get really bad headaches from it I wonder if they have prosecco instead? and what the extra cost would be for beer, wine etc.

Hi ladies, what is everyone's feelings on the parents and bridal party entrance?

jujeemd - Thanks for posting the photos are great! Where the blue flags on the beach how they marked off the ceremony area? If you don't mind me asking where did you get your necklace and the bridesmaids ones? Did you contact blue parrot before going?

Thanks!