CluelessBride

It's been awhile but I thought I'd update this post with what we ended up going with. We just sent one invitation. Here is the wording we used: Bride's Name and Groom's Name Will begin their lives as husband and wife on March 21, 2008 along the shores of the Mayan Riviera in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico They request the honor of your presence to share in the celebration of their marriage Saturday, April 5, 2008 at 8:00 pm Venue Name Venue address Pretty simple but it worked for us..

Quote: Originally Posted by Elisa Candi , Thanks so much for the info. I am getting married at the Riu Palace Mexico and am clueless as to how it will turn out . I orginally booked the Riu Palace Riviera Maya , but they moved the ceremony to the Palace Mexico because all by guests are staying there ** Gulp ** Thanks again . I look forward to seeing your pics ! CandiB helped me prior to my marriage, we were married on March 21st. I had spoken to three other couples who had gotten married at the RIU Palace Mexico. They all said it was amazing, wonderful, couldn't have been better... I didn't quite believe them fully since I had no idea what to anticipate. But the truth of the matter is, they were 100% right. It was amazing and wonderful and beautiful and I am so thankful we were able to get married there. I'm not really sure how to post pictures but we got married in the courtyard and then witnessed a beach renewal ceremony and got pictures of that, it was crazy. There was speedo boy, people sitting as close to the AISLE as possible! There's no way the photographer got a shot of just the couple w/o onlookers in the way...The courtyard felt sooo private even though our guests said that onlookers from their balconies were taking pictures, and people would walk along side of the buildings rather than in the middle of the courtyard and we didn't even notice them! We had a trio playing rather than a cd or ipod and it just completed the atmosphere for us. It was perfect. We traveled to the Riveria Maya a few times and it was great, but our guests repeatedly said they liked the RIU Palace Mexico better they couldn't quite explain why other than they thought it was prettier colors. They're both great but I don't think you'll be disappointed with the move in wedding location.

One more thing I should mention, we walked up and down the beaches in the Playacar area. None of them were that great, mainly because of errosion. There were large large sandbags in the water that looked like beached whales, in front of pretty much every resort in that area. But, the beach at the RIU Palace Mexico had soft marvelous sand, plenty of beach chairs, and plenty of areas to swim, it wasn't rough, or dangerous or rocky like I've read. On your way from the resort to the beach area you walk through a grove of palm trees in the sand, it's very lovely and very nice, then the sand goes downhill a little bit and then you get the view of the sand bags. I can share pictures once I get them downloaded to anyone who's interested.

We just got back last Saturday from our beautiful wedding at the RIU Palace Mexico. I'm working on a review along with pictures. We initially wanted the wedding on the beach, the wedding coordinator advised us against it but left it up to us. We went ahead with the courtyard...it was great. Even though it wasn't entirely private we didn't notice had no clue other people were watching us and taking pictures of us all around because everyone stayed a respectful distance away. On the beach however, we witnessed a renewal ceremony and people gathered as close as possible, there were beach chairs so close to the aisle, and yes there was speedo boy and topless girl in the vicinity... We took pictures of the differences and were soooo thrilled with our decision. The resort was awesome, we had 11 guests ranging from 21 to 50s in age. EVERYONE loved the resort and the fact that they could roam to the other neighboring RIU's and take advantage of those facilities as well. It's within walking distance to town, it's a cheap cab ride to town, and you do not want to miss the Playa Del Carmen town experience for sure! The food was surprisingly good at the resort, I've been to Dreams in Puerto Vallarta and Sandals in Ocho Rios Jamaica and the RIU resort was by far the most flavorful and best food I've had at an all inclusive. We saw lots of families there too so kids were definitely welcomed and accommodated. I'm the happiest happiest girl in the world right now and so thankful that everything turned out so perfect with soo little planning!

Thank you all for your help! I am now worried...my man isn't going to like all this tipping. He is not much of a tipper unless someone goes out of their way or just does a great job. I'm the opposite I tip because my mom used to be a waitress and her tips meant lunch money... What kind of gifts do people bring their WC??

We are paying for the wedding package offered by the RIU Palace Mexico resort, we will have a wedding coordinator, and hire an expensive trio to play music during the ceremony. So, is it common to tip the coordinator and the band? What have other brides done in the past? Thanks for any help you can provide!

Thank you for the responses...but YIKES! I don't think I can come up with something that nice in this short of time, plus I don't have a mac. Anyone else have anything a lil less elaborate? I want to thank the guests for coming and then also give a schedule of events. Any suggestions for this very non-creative person??

Is there anywhere else where there are Welcome letters posted? I want to welcome our guests and then do a schedule of events. I'm not going to have the time nor the creativity to put together an elaborate thing, I was hoping for some additional sample letters if anyone has them?

Thank you so much for clarifying everything! Your pictures are gorgeous!!

Oh yay! Here's your review. Well done!!! So here are my questions so that other brides may benefit from the questions as well... Did you do any extras such as musicians or just your own ipod selections? We have an MP3 rather than IPod do you think that will work? We are thinking of getting a 3 piece band for after the ceremony, take pictures, and between the ceremony and dinner the guests can hang out at a bar for "cocktail hour" is there a perfect spot there for that? Did you find that you needed to do anything like that? What did you guys do in between your ceremony and dinner? With the restaurant choice, did you feel like the atmosphere was nice and that it was a good spot for your reception? Other than the hunk o meat on your plate was there other food available salads, rolls, etc? Did they make it seem extra special for you? Do you think that the other restaurant El Patio (I think that's what it's called) would have been a better location? With the weddings you witnessed on the beach, do you think with us having our wedding at 5:00 pm with 11 guests, that we will feel as though it was crowded? Was it pretty? I'm afraid to do the gazebo wedding with only 11 guests it feels too big for our small intimate party. I think that is all the questions for now (sorry it's a lot!) Thank you, and I'm so thrilled for you that everything went so smoothly and that you are pleased with the results!!

Wow your wedding looked just absolutely beautiful. I'm so happy to hear that it went so well and that you were genuinely pleased afterwards. I am interested in finding out about the guest trip to Chichen Itza. How many of your guests went and how was it? We're contemplating a dinner at Ajua or a trip for our guests. We don't want to plan their entire vacation for them but want to do something as a group to show our appreciation for their attendance.

If you email the wedding department with questions, they'll email you back, they're really kind. So far I've had good luck with them and also with the different people who've given me feedback, no one has been unhappy or given any negative feedback whatsoever. It makes me feel more confident in my decision to get married there.

We are having an AHR and those are the only invitations we are sending out, we want to send them out prior to our wedding so it will be an announcement / invitation. My parents are not involved so they will not be mentioned in the invitation. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to word it in a creative way? We will probably go really cheap on these invitations since our funds are limited. But I don't want it to seem cheap, most of the invitation kits available at Walmart, Target, craft stores have been used by our close friends recently and we don't want to duplicate. We don't have access to any power points or photoshop so we don't have the ability to do any of the others I've seen when doing a search on here. Any suggestions or ideas? Thank you!

yes!! Can you tell me more details? What did you pick what was your total cost, what kind of ceremony you had? Oh my gosh I'm so happy to find a fellow RIU Palace Mexico bride!!

Thank you very much that just calmed me down a few notches.. the lack of sleep worrying about this thing is killin me! Thank you again!

In March, they've contacted me but they don't really help much.

I kept waiting for someone to respond to your post, if you're still around can you give me an update on how your wedding turned out?

The only Riu Palace I have really been able to find, is the RIU Palace Riviera. I guess I'll try for the fifth time.

I'm getting really worried, I didn't do enough research prior to picking out the our resort/place for our wedding but it's too late now. I have heard very little concerning this particular resort and I've searched many different websites. We couldn't get someone to legally marry us there so we're going to do a symbolic ceremony. I don't know what a symbolic ceremony will encompass, will they allow us to add perhaps the Hand Ceremony? I don't want the ceremony to ultimately be something you'd find in a courthouse for the few friends who've forked over the money to join us. How can I make it personal when I don't know what the ceremony itself entails? We are paying for the wedding and at home reception, none of my family will be joining me but all of my fiance's family will be there, I feel like a failure of a bride since we have very little money, I have no family coming to support, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just in that panic mode I think. I want to relax and look forward to this but I am afraid the ceremony is going to be lame and comical (and not in a good way). Does/did anyone else feel like this? Has anyone seen or been to a wedding at the RIU Palace Mexico? Thanks, From the Clueless Lame Bride!

I saw these too and they are so cute, but what will you do with them?

hmmm, that's interesting... are the in-laws paying for this so they have the ability to veto dancing? If that's something you guys enjoy and your guests/friends enjoy there's always the option of starting the dancing later in the evening so if the in-laws don't want to stick around for that time it's their choice. If it's a religious reason then I can understand honoring that completely. If dancing isn't an option at all... depending on how casual it is what about karaoke? or having someone you know perform a song like they would at a wedding, or maybe have a quiz at each table how well people know the couple... just some ideas that rumbled through my brain real quick. As you can tell I'm not the most classiest of class, I prefer fun over the tradition I guess. Good luck! Most of all have fun and enjoy this special time!

um sorry I just wrote a book didn't I!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by jmhein I'm so glad I found this thread! I am dealing with the same questions right now. Our wedding is in February and we are doing our AHR in April. (Better weather in Northern Alberta in April so more of a chance some people will travel a couple of hours to make it!) We just booked a hall for April 19th and we meet with the hall coordinators this Wednesday! AAGH! And I haven't put much thought into this! We want to have a fun party for all of our friends who couldnt make it. I also want to wear my dress again (tee hee!) and show the DVD of our wedding. We plan on just doing a cold buffet at some point, showing the DVD, thanking everyone for coming, and then cranking the music and dancing the night away! I dont have a clue what order to do things in, how do we ensure people come at the start? Do we serve the cold buffet at the beginning of the evening, and THEN show the DVD, and then dance? Or do we show the DVD, dance and have a midnight buffet? I dont know what will work best and I want everyone to just have a good time and be happy to be there! Any suggestions for timing of everything are welcome! p.s. Dragonfly, I totally think you can do an AHR in December!! Let us know if you do! We have our reception site booked for only 3 hrs so I'm also worried about making sure everyone comes on time! I decided that I would have it at 8pm on a Saturday, because I figured if I say 7:30 people will be getting done with dinner (reception location is downtown and many people go out to dinner there and I have a feeling they will make it a date night or special evening) and would show up anywhere from 7:30-8pm. I know there's always late people but 8 seems to be a realistic time. We'll have light food out probably right away for people to eat and get drinks while light music is playing. Then maybe 20 mins later our dj will announce us we'll get champagne going we'll thank everyone for coming, possibly at this point cut cake, then do our first dance thing real quick, and then get the dj to play somethin funky that'll make everyone get out on the dance floor and shake their thangs We don't have any attendants, his parents are going to Mexico with us but won't make it to the reception since they live in Wisconsin, my parents don't approve of the marriage due to religious differences so we'll have a cousin of his and some crazy aunts, uncles, and cousins of mine and friends there to celebrate with. So most of the traditional reception stuff we'll bypass. There are tvs placed in the corners of the room, so we're going to play a dvd slideshow of pictures of us (kinda sounds conceited huh haha), then after we're announced it'll go to pictures of the wedding and everything they hadn't seen of the actual wedding. Ending with dancing is usually a good bet, but as far as your dvd goes, is it going to be something where everyone has to sit, watch and be quiet? That may be enjoyable to start after everyone's sat down with their food so they can watch and eat perhaps, or maybe as they're arriving? I personally am disappointed once the dancing and music stops so if I were somewhere and they stopped the fun to watch a dvd I'd be bummed. I think basically you'll figure out what makes the most sense for you. I was overwhelmed thinking about it all myself. Have fun!!

I'm totally excited we booked the place we wanted for our AHR! It's a unique shaped building used to be a restaurant, with brick walls and a cool modern atmosphere. All I'm going to do is flowers on the table not a big deal thing, and since we're not getting a photographer we'll put the disposable cameras on the tables and that's about it. It will be an evening thing, we're going to have beer and wine available plus light finger food plus a cake! We're thinking about having a dj since we don't have any attendants or anything we think he could kinda direct the thing and plus I freakin love to dance hehe. The typical amount of time to rent the facility is 3 hours for a reception, do you think that's long enough? Would 7:30pm - 10:30pm be better than 8pm to 11pm? I would love to hear some thoughts!

Oh okay! Thank you the mystery is solved!