Our PV trip

Our trip was a blast. We had an incredible time out there and we accomplished alot.

Riu Jalisco

We stayed at the Riu Jalisco for 8 days 7 nights. It is an absolutely beautiful resort. Although, there rooms are a little on the older side there great service makes up for it. They have great food, entertainment and drinks.

Iglesia Senora Reina de la Paz

The church is so beautiful that I cant wait to get married there next year. The father is a very nice person. He gave us two booklets. The first one contains all the information needed to have a ceremony there. The second one contains all the prayers and readings that we can chose from.

The total cost for the church beginning January 2009 will be $6000 pesos. The price includes the church, officiant fee and decorations.

The decorations are white fresh flowers on the aisles and the white coverings on the alter.

Riu Vallarta

It is an extremely beautiful resort. I have been working with Denise Cano from the Groups Department and she is great. Since we are not having the ceremony in the beach, we cant go with the Riu's wedding packages. So that is why we have been dealing with the groups department. I think that going as a group works out better because there are less restrictions.

We are having a private reception in their ballroom. We can have it at whatever time we want for as long as we want and whatever menu we like.

We are going to do it from 7 to 12 and if we want it for a longer time it is fine because it is indoors and will not bother other guests in the hotel.

Originally, we were told that we can only have the mexican buffet if we did the reception on the beach but after talking to them and telling them what we want they agreed to let us have the mexican buffet.

I know that many resorts do not allow outside vendors and if they do, you need to purchase a day pass. Well, at the Riu when its a group event you can hire outside vendors and their is no need to purchase day pass.

Mariachi

I have been working with an event coordinator in PV and she passed down the information for the mariachi. She told us that it would be $900 USD per hour for the mariachi. I told her that it was an outrageous price. Well, we went to El Andariego restaurant in PV to go and hear them. They are amazing. FI spoke to the manager and guess what They quoted us a price of $400 USD per hour!!!! I was so mad and happy at the same time. Its unbelievable how people are out there to try and get you for your money.

Im happy though to have gone to see them because we seriously where not going to go because of the price that the coordinator had given us.

Alfonso Lepe

We met with him and his pictures are amazing. FI and I really liked his work and we are going to go with him.

I was trying to upload some pictures but its not letting me. I will keep trying. I know how much everyone loves to see pictures.

If any has any questions just let me know.

Glad to here that your trip went well. I wish I could go there in person so I can make better deals!

Great to hear you had a good time at both the Riu resorts. I think their grounds and the details are which make these resort so beautiful. Looks like you did your homework too and got the finances worked out. $900 per hour!?! That's crazy!!! I bet you could talk them down even lower than $400 depending on how many hours you book them for.

Great info....

How many mariachi members are there in the band for $400 an hour. That is a great deal. I have a 10 piece booked for $700, but would love to save $300. That would give me money to put on something else for the wedding, say additional open bar hour, hee hee..

Thanks again for the info.

Can you say more about staying as a group? It is different than getting a wedding package? If it is more flexible, why don't more people do it? Thanks!

Hi Jessica,

I'm sorry I missed you! That is wonderful that you are working with the groups dept! What a deal on the mariachi's too. My dad spoke to the mariachi's at the RIU Vallarta and got them down to $500. Needless to say we didn't have the mariachi entrance that I wanted, but our wedding still turned out amazing!