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

Ok thanks ladies for the positive replies! That makes me feel better.

Hm.. I didn't know the Royal had changed their policy to no outside vendors either! Yikes.. however, I know when i started conversations with them, they still allowed outside vendors if I payed the $100 fee. Luckily - I've been keeping all of my email conversations with the hotel.. I have a feeling i'm going to need to have them put everything in writing here on out in case there are anymore policy/pricing changes.

I would DEFINITELY do this. If you're not planning on bringing a laptop with you (I doubt I will), print all your emails so you can pull them out and show them as proof. It can never hurt to play it safe! LOL

wow! I am really bummed about the no outside vendors rule! we are planning on getting married at the Royal in October 2009. We expect to have 20-30 guests.

 

what are the differences between getting married at the resort versus not getting married at the resort? Where else would you get married? Who would cater? Who would bartend?

 

Is the gazebo on the resort grounds? and can you only get married there through the royal (or one of their other resorts)?

OK, we want to have our ceremony on the gazebo (which is in the resort), but our reception on the beach. The beach is not private, so how can the Royal regulate & enforce the vendor rule?

 

And I know you guys said it is $50/person for food at the reception...but does this include alcohol? If not, how much does that normally run?

The Royal's beach (somewhat sectioned off) IS private to hotel patrons ONLY...no loitering. The beach area closest to the water is public, but from what I understand, the area used for weddings is technically, the Royal Property.

The $50 fee does include alcohol and a private bartender. If you wish to have a cocktail hour, outside of a wedding package, then it is $10/person/hour for drinks and $20/person/hour for Hors d'oeuvres.

HTH!

I guess it would depend on what time you had the reception on the beach that would determine how crowded it is. We were given two options for reception sites... Right in front of the gazebo (this was subject to how high the tide came up that day) or the beach in front of pelicanos right by the pier. We chose to be by the pier. Our reception was at 7pm. We had some onlookers from the pier but nobody intruded on our reception. It was kind of fun. I felt very special that day! The spot in front of the gazebo is much less private though. You are really in the middle of the action on the beach. I would imagine that even if you had a later reception like we did, it would not be very intimate. When we were having our pictures done between 5:30 and 7:00 people were incredibly rude. They didn't really care about what you had going on. They would not walk around the photographer to be nice, they would walk through the photo because it was easier. Just a few tidbits of info!

I would really like to believe that people have some courtesy, but I suppose that's too much to ask for. This would be the downside of the beach...but, hopefully, the photographers will be good enough to eliminate those obnoxious people from the background. I know it's not hard to do it in Photoshop...just time consuming to have to fix it in many pictures. I've noticed some of the pictures I've seen on these boards have had background people!!! It just makes me cringe. But, if it was me, I'd demand for them to fix it. I don't want people walking in bathing suits in the background of my wedding pics!!!

Does the $50 include a dance floor too? I thought I read that somewhere..
if not, how much extra is it for one?

Yes. Although I can't find the written confirmation of it at the moment...

I think Shay sent me this info in a Word doc (can't get it to copy and paste, but I'll email it to you if you'd like). The reception fee covers the site, set up (white table cloths, chair covers, candles), tiki torches, lights under the tables, decorations with plants (and balloons?), four course meal, open bar (set up at your site), wait staff, and taxes and service fees.