Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Brides post here

Hi Ladies,

I can't tell you how happy I am to have found this forum. I am getting married at BBGE on June 12, and have been anxiously awaiting some answers on things as well. I am having about 60guests, which sounds somewhere in between what most of you have. I have hired an outside planning company, which I thought would make things much more seamless than they have been, but that is not the case. It has only added a third party in the mix, making my wait time for answers even longer.

At his point, I am just wondering about reception places and also rehearsal restaurants as well. We are planning to do the private party for the reception, but just want to do something at one of the restaurants for the rehearsal so it is cheap. Does anyone know if they will allow you to make reservations at one of the restaurants for a group like that? I have a feeling they are going to want to charge us for a group reservation even if it is not a private party....

pribrzl, would you mind sending me any photos from your site visit if you have time. I am particularly interested in any places where they will let you have an outdoors reception if you have any pics.

Thanks! Look forward to trading info with all of you!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you know that we need to do something about the prices being quoted for rooms. I just found on hotels.com rooms for 2 adults, at the weekend of my wedding (May 23rd) for $149 for two people - that's $60 less than the quote I got and I am bringing 110 people to the resort! I cannot believe it!

I am planning on calling Candy this weekend to discuss and also Dario, the reservation manager. Cecilia originally gave me the prices for the rooms, but she is no longer there.

Also, I'm SO SORRY for all of you that have been asking for pics from the hotel - I have some and tried a few times to post them but was unable to. I PROMISE to email you them this weekend (at a business trip this week). In the meantime, you can check out Our Story - this is someone that I know that got married there. There are quite a few pictures of the ceremony and reception.

Amc83 - there are many different areas you can use for the reception and rehearsal. We arte doing a cocktail hour for the rehearsal, so we don't have to pay again for the private dinner party. The two hours of cocktail ended up being less expensive than a private dinner and everyone can have dinner afterwards. We are doing ours in an area right outside the italian restaurant - SUPER nice, with contemporary furniture - it's great!!! As far as putside areas, you can do it on the beach (an area wright outside the buffet restaurant), by the pool (but can only serve buffet style dinner - they can't do a formal dinner there because there is no kitchen around it), or in the sushi restaurant, which is where I am doing mine, it's an open type of restaurant, next to the pool.

Candy had sent me some pics also, I will make sure to include all of them on my email this weekend.

I'm asking again, does anyone know how to post pictures directly here, on the thread?

pribzl.... You need to call the resort and talk to them about the prices... I'm not sure how you booked, but we were able to get a much cheaper rate for some of our guests, the ones that booked through an agent paid more, but the few that are flying down on their own all got good rates, they were all different, however still less than what your guests are paying. It always works like this everywhere you go, I travel more than I would like to think I do, and I can go to the same place everyweekend and get a different quote from a different person everytime.... Give them a call and talk to a manager!

Ladies,

I have a call schedule with Candy next eek and will try negotiate a better rate with them. Amc83, I had to put a lot of money down with the resort as well, so I guess it's all the same. If guests book on their own, do you think the resort will still count as part of our block? I am trying to have everyone in the same buidlings....

On another note ladies, did you hear about all the bad stuff happening in Cancun? i knew the West Coast of Mexico was really bad with the drug cartels, but this week, I just saw it on Good Morning America about Cancun - they were encouraging people not to go there....really sucks! I am hoping that since it's all inclusive, people will decide to stay at the resort and chill......

Yes this drug stuff is very scary, I saw it on the local news the other night, their travel expert guy said that he would still travel, but to make sure you tell your guests to stay in the resort at night and for woman to never leave alone and a group of two is too small. We just have to be smart, I live in Vancouver and all of a sudden we have a major drug war here?? However you still live your life and do the things you always do, you are just a little more careful. Mexico will be awesome! I can't wait to hear about the site visit.

Hi Ladies,

pribrzl, thanks, that makes me feel a little better that I am not totally getting ripped off with the room situation. The drug stuff is definitely something to be cautious about, but don't stress too much about it. One other thing to be careful about though would be to make sure your guests schedule their transportation to and from the airport with either a car service or a marked cab, and that they don't just hop in a random car when they get there...you know those ones standing outside the airport asking if you need a taxi. Who knows where you could end up.

I am supposed to be getting some more information from my planning lady this week with details of things, so if I get any pics or info I will definitely pass them along!

Hey ladies!

I'm getting married at the BBGE May 3 2009 and had a few questions.

-Are any of you having a band? I can't decide between a band or a DJ.

-Also, where will you have your reception? Right now we have about 85 people coming so I've gone with the Affair to Remember package with a private reception in the Steakhouse.

-Where will you have your rehearsal dinner? I'm hoping to do an outdoor buffet style rehearsal dinner but I'm worried about the mosquitoes in the evening. Another bride who had her reception outside said the mosquitoes at sunset are problematic.

Anyway- would love to share my experiences as well. Some of my wedding guests are getting nervous about all the news in Mexico and a few people aren't coming just for this reason! It's such bad timing but I've heard it's primarily in the news now that Spring Break is coming up.

And we've had the same issue with signing a contract for one 'discounted' room rate and then guests discovering the online rate is cheaper which is rather embarrassing. I've just told people to book whichever way is cheaper!

Thanks!

Heather

Hi,

The danger is around the border to US, there are drug problems there, but we will be south east and away from all of that. Just be safe and use good judgment like don't walk alone in a deserted area at night and don't accept drinks from strangers in a bar off the resort. Sorry about your guests being scared.

Pribrzl - do you happen to have any pictures of the sushi/oriental restaurant in the area you are talking about outside of the pool? I am interested in having our reception there, but Candy didn't have any pictures to send me. If you have one and have a second to email it to me, that would be amazing! My email is [email protected].

If anyone needs pictures of the other restaurants, i.e. the French one, the Mexican one, the Steakhouse, I have some. Not sure how to post them, but let me know your email and I can send them.