Sarah's Riu Palace Wedding Review!

Hi girls, sorry it has taken so long, but here is my review. If I missed anything or you have any specific questions feel free to ask!

Hope this is helpful!

RIU PALACE RESORT: A+++++++This resort is amazing! The grounds are beautiful and the hotel is super clean. The staff are amazing, they are totally accomadating and willing to do anything to make your stay enjoyable. The pool areas areas are beautiful and the view of lands end is breath taking! It is a big resort,but it didnt feel overly big to me. The people were super friendly. I didnt find this a "party resort" at all. It could have been the time of year, but there was a big mix of age ranges and the resort was very good to catering to all ages. There is a disco which was really fun if you are with a group of people. They played okay music, but we had a lot of fun when we went. The resort was not overly loud a nightime at all. There was always a quite spot you could find if you just wanted to relax and talk over a drink.

The night entertainment was okay, nothing special but still it was fun to watch it everynight.

The food was amazing. I have travelled alot and this was by far the best food I have ever had. For it being such a large resort I was surpised we never once had to wait to get a table and had no problem making reservations at the a la carte restuarants

There is a Japanese restuarant which was sooo good, I reccomend trying to get a spot in the outdoor zen garden area

The Steak house was amazing if you like meat! They do have a chicken and seafood dish for vegaterains. We held our welcome dinner here and were extremely pleased. The service we recieved was amazing, it was like we were the only people in the restaurant

The gourment restaurant was very good aswell. They had some different, more fancy foods which I am not really into, but the chicken dish was amazing

The Mexican restaurant was our fav! The terrance area is beautiful, it over looks the beach and has a great view

The rooms were okay. I would reccomend getting rooms on the left hand side of the resort. Most of the guests were on the right hand side and this is where they are doing construction, so it was loud in the morning and did smell of sewage occasionally

SPA: B++The spa was very busy and overall I was very pleased with our hair. The only thing that really made me mad was I had prebooked our appts over 3 months ago, and when I called the night before the wedding they did not have our appts. I had printed the voucher as proof of payment, so luckly they were able to fit us in. The spa manager was not very apolagetic which made me a bit upset. In the end it worked out fine and they ended up finding a another stylest to help out. They had champange and strawberry's for us while we got our hair done, so that was nice. I would recommend bringing a pic. They don't all speak that great of english so it may be difficult to communicate what you want!

Also do not pay for the Champagne toast, this is listed as an extra but it is included. They set up a table with glasses and serve it right after the ceremony which was very nice!

Adrianna (WC): A++She was amazing! Honestly this girl works so hard and is so busy, so cut her some slack if she doesnt respond to you right away!!! She was very organized and to the point. She gave me lots of helpful pointers and was very accomadating. She would not budge on prices, but she also did not charge me for a couple of things, like the day pass for the photographer.

She made sure everything for the ceremony and reception were set up just the way I wanted.

Flowers: AAll of the flowers were through Adrianna. I was extremely pleased with my bouquet, It was pale pink roses and orchids. It was exactly what I wanted. This was included in the package. I was also very pleased with the flowers on the arch. I then used these for the centerpieces on the 2 long tables I had for the reception I loved the colours of the roses and she matched them with decorations I had brought for the reception which was very nice of her. They were 120 for both, which I thought was reasonable. I was not overly happy with the BM bouquets. They were 50 each and were not at all like the pic I had given to her. I liked the colour of the roses, but I was expecting something different

Ceremony: A++++

We were originally going to do the ceremony at the gazebo and am sooo glad we switched it to the beach. The gazebo we wanted was on the side the construction was on, so that was out of the question ( constuction does not stop until well after 5pm)

The other gazebo was not as nice and I really wanted to walk down the isle and there is no isle to walk down. Also in the back ground was some not so pretty horse stall things. Adrianne let us change to the beach, with no problems at all. Juan was very happy we changed to the beach it makes for much nicer pics.

The beach was beautiful, it wa hot, but the ceremony is only 15mins so it went fast. I also had my cousin do the translation which I felt added a really nice personal touch, it felt like she married us. The vows the minister said were actually very nice. We just change a few things on the english translation, since nobody knows spanish they had no idea!

We also downloaded the music we wanted onto our IPOD. I just wrote down which songs I wanted and the hotel took care of the rest. They played all the music for us and provided the speakers at no extra cost. Adrianna also provided rose petals for the isle at no extra cost.

Photographer:A+++++We had Juan Carlos for 4 hrs, which was more then enough time for us. He came 1 hr before and then we did group shots and some family shots right after the ceremony all on the beach. Then he did shots of Ricky and I for 2.5 hrs which was plenty of time. He came for about 1 hr to the reception, which in all honesty I could have done with out. Those pics were not as important to me. He was fantastic. He is such a perfectionist and is so professional yet so friendly. I know they will be great!!!

The hotel photographer was included in the package so I had him just do the ceremony. He was really good about staying out of Juans way and he got some great shots. I got all his info for anyone who might want to use him. He said you can deal with him directly rather than through the hotel. He was very nice and had some great ideas, I think he would be fine to use.

Reception: A++

We had our reception on the Terrace at the Mexican restaurant. It was beautiful. We hired a Marachi band to play for 1 hour at the beginning of the reception. It was nice, but not really worth the $. They charged $600 per hour and looking back I cant believe we payed that! It was unique I guess and the guests really liked it. Juan got some cute pics of us with them! We played salsa music through out the dinner which went over really well with the guests. We had 3 speaches right after dinner and then did our first dance followed by the father daughter dance. It all ended at about 11pm. We were going to go out afterwards, but we were exhausted!!! We had 2 long tables of 15 and they set us another table for the cake. The provide the speakers, microphone and set up our IPOD for no exta cost. I had my flower arrangements in the centre of the tables and at both ends of the tables I had vases filled with shells. There were tea lights and shells scattered throughout the table. I also made shell napkin ring holders and printed out my own menus to match my colour theme. They did a really nice job of setting everything up, the tables looked beautiful. I also made about 20 luminers out of papers bags and scattered them around which looked nice. Bring your own tea lights and votives, they for some reason do not provide these. DO not pay for the cash bar if you have it at one of the restaurants. We got as much wine, beer, champage, soda and shots as we wanted. The only place where you would have to get a cash bar would be at the beach I guess. IMO the terrace was one of the nicest places for the reception. It fits 50 people comfortably. It has a great view, the food was great and they staff were amazing. You also dont have to pay extra for the bar or menue. The beach reception is also very nice, the only thing is, when we were there is was very very wind at night, so the guests would have frooze. Also for those having your reception on the beach some thing to warn you of is they set up the tables early in the day, so make sure they dont put the glasses/plates and cutlery on the tables until right before it starts. We watched one wedding where they had it all set up by 12 and the dinner was not until 7 and the glasses, and cutlery had sand all over them from the wind.

The cake was okay, personally this was not important to me at all. I gave Adrianna a picture of what I wanted and they did an okay job of replicating it. It was a 2 tiered cake, with a chocolate layer and a vanila layer, it had vanila icing and I make chocolate shells and brough fake flowers from home to put on it.

Overall, everything was amazing! There were no major hitches and the day went smoothly. The day goes so fast so just relax and enjoy it. I was so excited/nervous that I forgot about all the little details, so dont stress over them, they are so not important. Oh yeah for those getting married on Fridays. The cruise ships come in every Friday and dock right in front of the beautiful view of lands end. I almost had a heart attack when I looked out my window in the morning of our wedding and saw it. I was like great a figgen cruise ship is going to be in all our photos! But dont worry they leave by 3:30!

Hope this was helpful!

Sarah

this is so helpful- i know when i was planning my wedding i was torn between RIU and Dreams- at that time i had a hard time getting a response from their WC- but i know the newer girls will be so grateful to have a recent bride to go to for questions- thanks! and congrats again- cant wait to see your pics

Great review! Very detailed and organized, just the way we like it! I can't wait for your pics. When is Juan going to be done with them? I guess we should cut him some slack considering that he has been doing a million weddings in the past couple of weeks. I'm so glad everything worked out and that the RIU worked out. That is so comforting and exciting for all the RIU brides.

Great review Sarah! Thanks! I'm so glad everything was perfect! Congrats again!

awesome reivew sarah...i will pm you my list of questions over the weekend.. im so excited now... thanks

Thanks Sarah... You are making me darned excited. I really want it to hurry up and get here, but at the same time, I still have SO much to do.

Honestly, just enjoy it all and take in every moment, you will want the day to slow down when it comes!

Sarah

Sarah...amazing review...it all sounds so wonderful ---I of course have additional questions:

The gazebo on the side by the Mexican Restaurant - is that the one you opted not to use?

How was the privacy on the Mexican Terrace? Did it feel seperate from the restaurant?

Were your guests able to order liquor drinks at the reception or just beer, wine, champagne & shots?

Did you hire the Mariachi through Riu? We were thinking about hiring them for our ceremony but they are super expensive - and once you figure bringing in outside group will I have to pay the $70 per person cuz wowsers will that make it not affordable.

Were you able to request your room locations once you got there or did they just stick the guests wherever they wanted?

Ummmm....I think that is all for now but I will probably have more later...

Thank you thank you being our first and giving such an awesome review...YAY!!!! you're married!!!!!!