Mrs. Martin

QUOTE=Lenchika;591163] Was it bothersome to bring decorations/flowers in? Didn't they get rumpled in luggage? Either way - thanks. I'll be contacting WC at RPLA as soon as I book my travel arrangements. So, bringing the items with me was the most stressful part of the trip! I was a bridezilla for sure the entire time! We took 11 boxes with us, plus his suit and my dress. Lucky for us, we were traveling with 22 other guests, so we had each guest carry a box. Those poor guests, I was watching them like a hawk making sure no one mishandled my boxes (I don't think people were liking me much at that time )! I padded these boxes with lots of bubble wrap. Most of my larger shells were invidually padded with bubble wrap as well as the glass centerpieces. I did bring extras of everything (centerpieces, coral, etc.) incase I needed them, but nothing broke so it worked out just fine. The raffia rans, OOT bags and items were placed in one of my suitcases and those made it just fine. I took my bouquet and the rest of the flowers in my backpack, each one padded. They arrived perfect.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lenchika Mrs. Martin - I have a question about decorations (provided as part of the package). We're thinking of having the ceremony on the beach - We would really like the 4-post arch with flowers/tulle. Looks gorgeous in pics - would you happen to know what decorations exactly are provided as part of the package? The flowers in the package depend on where you plan on having your ceremony. So, since I had mine on the gazebo, besides the bouquet and bout (which I didn't use, I brought my own), two flowers arrangements on the pillars were included in my package. Now, since you are getting married at the beach, only one flower arrangment for the table is included. But, if you are on having the 4-pst arch, I'm not sure if you were still planning on having a table. I really didn't see the table flower arrangment options either since they weren't included in my package. I did ask the WC ahead of time what flowers were in season during the time of my wedding so I can get an idea of the availability they would have. Quote: Originally Posted by GinalynL What a great review!! How was the WC as far as keeping in line with your planned colors/theme? I know you went through the resort for your flowers (which were very pretty!) but did you end up bringng alot of your own decorations (like for centerpieces and such) or did you go through the resort for those too? As far as the colors go, for the ceremony I was trying to have pink and orange as my accent colors and for the dinner, I was keeping everything beach and earth tones (browns, tans) because I incorporated a lot beach items like shells and starfish. For the ceremony, all the shades of pink and orange varied so much between my flowers, the petals on the floor and the flowers on the pillars, they didn't look as close to one another as I would hav liked them to be. But, I didn't really end up caring too much when I saw the pics because it didn't look bad at all. Since my friends were the ones who set up the decor in the reception, they set it up how I wanted it, so the WC didn't do anything there. I'm sure the WC overlooked the set up in the ceremony, which I thougtht looked pretty. The only thing she didn't do in the ceremony was place my raffia fans. I hope this answered your first question a little! I didn't use the hotel's flowers for my bouquet, flower in my hair, hubby's bout or corsages the moms wore; I brought those myself. The only things I used from the hotel were flower petals (which I had to purchase), the flowers on the gazebo pillars (included in package), chair covers plus ribbon (part of package) and I brought my own raffia fans to place on the chairs for the ceremony. For the dinner, I brought my own centerpieces and were very simple and easy to set up. I also brougtht my own table runners and I made my own place cards with sand dollars. So to sum it up, I brought most of my own stull with me. Here are some pics of the decor. Like I said, I brougth very simple decorations incase we had to set them up ourselves (which we ended up having to do anyway!): ceremony: dinner:

Quote: Originally Posted by BachataBride Great review!!! It was just today that I was going through your pictures again...they are beautiful! I could watch them over & over!! I think my fav (or one of them!) is when you are first coming out of the building about to walk down the aisle & you're crying! It's so moving!!!!! Ahh, you're too sweet! Thanks! That's one of my favorite pics too. It's funny because when I got out of the hotel to start walking down the aisle, the "wedding" really wasn't what was making me cry, it was the fact that there were soooo many people starring at me and I started to get really nervous and scared. So, I began crying and the entire way down the aisle my dad was cracking me up to relax me and thank goodness it worked!

That's what I think, any sort of baked-goodies with a Halloween theme would be good!

Quote: Originally Posted by Lenchika I love the rose petals! Great colors. Did you get them from the hotel? I noticed your hubby wearing flipflops on the rocks! That's too cute peaking from under the suit I'm a future bride at RPLA in October 2009 - just in the beginning of the process. Kind of nerve wracking hearing about Pamela's lack of response. It took her 1.5 weeks to reply to one email so far. I think I'm ok with that...what bothered me in your review - her total lack of accountability during the wedding Maybe she'll improve?? Or...not I'm really excited - I feel that I am a few steps closer to my wedding after reading your review! Thank you for posting it. Lenchika Thanks, yes the rose petals were purchased from the florist that the hotel deals with directly. I'm shocked they stayed because it was windy that day! Yeah, my hubby wore flip flops for the TTD. But for the wedding he wore regular suit-type shoes. I'm glad he wore flip flops that day because he kept stepping on me and my dress the entire time of our TTD shoot! As for as Pamela goes, I really hope she does improve! She is very sweet, but I don't need sweet to plan a wedding, I need consistancy and some trust there and I for sure didn't trust her all that much. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED my wedding and everything looked great, but I felt that the other RIU employees and my friends did more work than she did that day. But, when it comes down to it, it won't matter at the end. RPLA is such a beautiful place and whatever location you choose to have your ceremony at is going to give you beautiful pics of you and your hubby and your guests will have a great time there! Quote: Originally Posted by Kara&Ryan Hi! Your pictures are great! I am a future bride at a RIU resort next May. The WC keeps telling me that there is a strict policy about outside photographers and that I cannot hire one. Is that true?? Was it an issue for you?? Thanks! Kara That's odd about the photog rule. I asked in the beginning stages of my planning regarding outside vendors and the hotel was fine with it as long as I paid for day passes. I ended up bringing two photographers, one videographer and a mariachi of six people that were all outside vendors. I wonder why the rules would be different in the RM RIU's from the ones in Cancun?! Have you talked to the supervisor that overlooks the wedding department about this? Quote: Originally Posted by ErikDaGenErik wow, sorry to hear about that horrible WC!!! Great pictures!!!! which one of the del sol photographer took you photos? Do you have any TTD as well? Thanks! We hired Vincent to do both our wedding and TTD pics, but he was sick the day of our wedding, so Diego took the pics. Vincent was there to take our our TTD pics and we thought he did a great job. Here's the link to the thread where I posted the pics. It's only a few, but he took some amazing pics that aren't even on the slideshow that I'm totally in love with! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t30112

Quote: Originally Posted by cdc0427 Thanks for all the info. I'm a Riu Caribe Bride. Did you happen to go there? I have so many questions to ask you. I guess I will be asking you as I plan. How did your guest make reservations, through a TA or through riu? That's one thing I'm concerned about. Before I confirmed with Riu I was asking them about entertainment for guests after the wedding. They only kept saying you may be able to rent disco at Riu Cancun. No Prices! If you don't mind me asking, what was the addt'l cost? -Cachet I have not been inside there, I've only seen the outside and the lobby area. At the time (this was before all the airlines raised their prices), we had a better rate reserving through Travelocity than through Riu or a TA. We provided our guests with plenty of info, so there wasn't any confusion when it came to them reserving the trip through the Travelocity site. As far as the disco, your hotel isn't that close to Riu Cancun, so that's one thing that you may want to consider. It's too far to walk so you may have to get a shuttle for everyone. If you don't mind that, I think the disco would be a great idea in order for you to be able to continue the party! The fees are broken down as is: $300 to rent the club and $220 and hour for the DJ (you can only use their DJ). So we spent $740 on the club and were suppose to have it only up to 10:30. Well, no one said a word to us and we kept dancing until it opened to the public, which was at 11:00. So, we didn't have to pay the DJ for extra time which was great considering how much we paid already! But, I thought this was totally worth it and for sure the best thing we did for our guests. Good luck and I hope this helped! Feel free to contact me with any other questions.

I did have an agenda set up (optional) for the guests for the first two days we arrived. I made "welcome brochures" with an itinerary of the first 2 days and a time line of the wedding day. Plus some extras like facts about the water, currency, etc. Let me know if you want the template. I also have a template for the "info brochure" that contains info on RPLA (just basic info from its website). Back to the agenda, a lot of guests went on excursions, so they weren't there for a lot the other activities we had planned. Half of our guests were missing at the welcome dinner because they had not arrived yet from Xcaret. But, everyone always met up at night. The hotel is not as large as others in Cancun, so you will usually run in to your guests. I had the photographer stay for 4 hours. At first I thought that wouldn't be enough, but it worked out perfect. He was there taking pics of us getting ready up to the end of dinner. I didn't really want the photographer to be at the club because I knew the lighting would be terrible. Our friend's took so many pics of us in the club anyway, it worked out perfect. The one thing we did do at our cocktail hours in order to have pics is our first dance. Plus the mariachi was playing, so it worked out just fine. You pay for the day passes when you meet the WC. We ended up paying for the entire mariachi (6 people), photographers (2), and videographer at $75 each pass. We were hoping they would cut us some slack considering many of the vendors were going to be there for a short amount of time, but they didn't budge. They were very strict about this policy. I did give out OOT bags. Half of the guests arrived with us to Cancun, so we simply gave them their bags at our dinner. The rest came in the following day, so I had their flight schedules already and estimated their time of arrival to greet them in the lobby and hand them the bags. I was right on time for all of them so I didn't have to waste any time waiting around. For the guests that I knew we weren't going to be able to greet, I tipped the receptionist that checks you in and she handed the bags to the guests. She wrote down their names on the bags and she posted a comment on their itinerary to ensure whom ever checked them in would know their was a package for them. Everyone got their bags, so we were very happy they were able to accomodate us with that. As far as the cake, that's totally up to you! To be honest, if I can do it over I would save the $130 we spent on the upgrade and simply would have had the dessert that they usually give out at the steak house. Plus, they light the dessert on fire there, so it would have been kind of cool for the guests to see that. But, if you really just want the cake for pics, just stay with the one that's included in the package. Hope this all helps!

To update you all- I didn't go. I didn't want to be there feeling uncomfortable and not really speaking to anyone. I don't really have much to say to them right now, so why even go?! As for the future, I think they've proved to me that they just don't care for me that much and I'm ok with that. I'm sad, but why would I want friends that aren't there for me through out the ups and downs of my life. Thanks girls for the input!

I'm so happy I found this thread! I know exactly how you all feel because I'm going through the same problem and my so-called "friends" want to meet up today and I don't know what to do! The issue I'm having is that I have two sets of friends, and one of the sets is the single, party-all-the-time group that never involved themselves in my wedding festivities. Most of them stopped talking to me when I even announced my engagement! Like most of you all, they didn't RSVP or even call me when they received the invitation. I had friend's of my hubby that I had only met a few times call to tell me how much they loved my invitation, but nothing from my friends! During the time of by bach party planning, apperently they all backed out from the Vegas trip because my other set of "real" friends were taking over...WTF? One of my friends didn't want to tell me at the time, but I guess the other "friends" were getting bothered at the fact that my "real" friends were making most of the decisions about the festivities. Knowing how my "friends" are, they wouldn't have been able to plan crap if it weren't for my "real" friends that paid for everything, planned it perfectly, and made sure I had an amazing time! During this planning process, none of my "friends" acknowledged my bach party and until a week before we left to Vegas I didn't even know they weren't attending. None of the "friends" that didn't attend ever mention the bach when I got back. One of them did tell me she couldn't go because of $$ issues, but funny that since then she has gone to Vegas over 6 times with the rest of those girls, they took a San Francsico trip, and some of the girls even went to Cabo a few weeks before my wedding! Must be tough to have no $ yet travel all the time!?! So, to the nice thing they were going to do to make up for the fact they weren't attending the wedding, they planned a dinner for me a few days before I left to cancun. To tell you the truth, I knew deep down inside it was more out of pity and they pretty much confirmed it that night. Not that I was expecting it to be like a shower or anything, but none of them gave me gifts (and still haven't), no one bothered to pick me up (I had to drive on my own even though they live not too far from me), I had to pay my bill, and only four girls showed up out of 10. I sent them wedding pics when I got back, only 3 replied but still haven't even called me! Anyway, today one of my "friend's" is here from out-of-town and the rest of the girls want to meet up for dinner tonight. I really don't want to go because I'm really hurt by them. I'm the first to be married from that side of the "friend's" so maybe it's jealousy, but I don't want to think that because I thought they cared about me and all they have done is turned their backs on me during the most important time of my life. I keep thinking it's maybe because I'm in such a different place in my life compared to them, but that's still not reason enough for them to do all this to me. I'm so confused, I don't know what to do...

Hi all, I know I've been saying I was gonig to do a review for a while now, but better late than never! Here is the link below to take you to my review incase you haven't seen it.: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t31325 Even if you are not getting married at Las Americas but one of the other two Cancun Riu's, I have info regarding the WC. There may be multiple WC there, but I know they work for all 3 hotels in Cancun. So, incase you get my WC, you may want to read my review. Good luck with all your planning!

steak house: Beach: more beach from my first visit: Brazilian Restaurant: Here is the link to my wedding pics, they'll contain a few more pics from the hotel if you haven't seen them already: del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism

ceremony setup/location: inside lobby: cocktail hour location (terrace) dinner reception at steak house:

Gosh, I feel so bad I took this long to finally write a review, but here it is! Sorry it's so long, but there aren't any other RPLA reviews, so I thought it would be helpful for those considering it! Hotel- This hotel is beautiful! It's located in the heart of the hotel zone, so most of the bars, clubs, and shopping centers are walking distance. This was a plus for everyone because we all went out each night. All the guests liked their rooms. And the guests that didn't reserve an ocean view were upgraded any way because they were part of the wedding group. Our room was upgraded to a full suite and it was huge! I had a walk-in closet and it came in handy to hang my dress and change into it. The staff at this hotel is very nice and really do work hard to please you. After a week of us being there, the staff knew my husband and I and they would give us extra attention with anything we needed! The hotel, inside and out, is very clean. Outside there are two infinity pools which are also very clean. One of the pools is more of the party pool and during the day they play music, volleyball, drunk Jenga, ping pong, and lots more. Needless-to-say, their entertainment staff will keep your guests busy! Food- There are 5 restaurants plus a buffet. You are allowed 2 reservations for your entire group when you have a wedding there. For the welcome dinner, we reserved the Brazilian restaurant and for the wedding day we reserved the steak house. Both were delicious, but my favorite had to be the steak house!! All of our guests loved the food. It's also located on the terrace overlooking the ocean, so the view was great! We had buffet 5 days straight in a row because we kept forgetting to reserve another restaurant and we got so sick of it, it was good, just not for everyday dinners. The second best thing about this hotel is that you can have 24-hr room service, so we had breakfast in bed every morning! I loved waking up and having my pancakes and OJ ready for me, YUM! A few of our guests told us that their orders were incorrect when they had ordered breakfast, but it had only happend once to only 3 couples. They were just basic things like forgetting syrup, butter, or bread; things of that matter. So, it really wasn't that big of a deal. WC- I'm not sure if there are multiple WC's at the RIU, but I worked with Pamela. I originally started with someone else in the beginning of the year, and I never really had a problem getting an email response. Once Pamela took over my wedding plans, it would be days (sometimes over a week) before I heard back from her. I was very aware that I wasn't her only bride, but I think taking a week to reply to someone is rude, especially when that's your job! A lot of times, she wouldn't understand what I was trying to to explain. I thought maybe it was the language barrier since English is her second language, so I decided to start emailing her in Spanish- it didn't help. Perfect example: I told her we wanted our ceremony in Spanish, so she replys to me that she will let the minister know I want it in English. WTF?! Then, after knowing for months I wanted to get married at the gazebo, she tells me two weeks before the wedding that our party is too big for the gazebo area and we should have it at the beach. I was so upset that she told me this after months of confirmation that the ceremony would be taking place at the gazebo. The day before the wedding, we met with her and went over the final details of the wedding. Everything went fine and we confirmed the ceremony details and the cake. The cake she ordered turned out horrible looking! It was suppose to have fresh flowers and instead it had whipped cream flowers and some other whipped cream decoration crap on it. It tasted ok, but I wouldn't have paid for the cake upgrade if I knew it was going to look like that. The day of the wedding, I saw her twice, that's it. She wasn't there to take my guests to the cocktail hour or to the dinner, my friend's had to do that. Also, she told me the day of our meeting that she will set up my decorations (which were all ready to go, all she had to do was place them), just to have them ready at the lobby 1 1/2 hrs before the wedding. Well, she didn't do any of it. When my friends brought down the decor to her she asked my friends to do it. So, one of my friends had to place all the raffia fans on the chairs for the ceremony and my other two friends had to place the decorations on the tables for dinner. I was furious when I found this out!!! The last thing I wanted was for my friends to be working that day! Needless-to-say, I didn't give her a tip, gift, NADA! Wedding Day- Obviously the whole WC thing upset me, so I wasn't as relaxed as I wanted to be. But, I still had a great time and everything was beautiful! The ceremony started on time and the set up of the ceremony was very pretty. Even though we got married next to the pool, no one was inside of it and that side of the pool area was blocked off. There were a lot of people watching the wedding from their rooms or on the other side of the pool, but they were all very respectful and so quiet, you would have thought we were the only one's there. At the very end of the ceremony, as we started walking to the hotel, all the guests started screaming and cheering and that became one of my favorite parts of the day! So, if you are concerned with others viewing your wedding, the gazebo wouldn't be a great option. We paid extra for appetizers for the cocktail hour and the guests finished them all, so I'm guessing they enjoyed them. The WC was suppose to block off that section where the cocktail hour was-well, she didn't so there were a few hotel guests (not many, only about 6) there listening to the mariachi were hired, but they weren't eating our food so I guess it shouldn't have been a big deal, but it still bothered me. The dinner was very good and we had our tacky cake served there instead of the dessert they usually serve there. It wasn't private, however the terrace has two levels and we were on the bottom level, so no one else but the wedding party was there. Other hotel guests weren't bothering us and to tell you the truth, none of us even noticed them. So, if this is a concern for you, maybe try reserving your dinner at a smaller restaurant to ensure you don't have many hotel guests (if any) at your dinner location. We rented La Pacha, which is the club next door at Riu Cancun, for a private party. This was the best investment we made for the entire wedding. We had it until 11:00, then it opened to the rest of the RIU guests. All of our family and friends love to dance, so we danced and drank until 2:00 am. If you've been there, it doesn't look like much because it's dark and hot. But, when we got there, they had lighting in there, so it wasn't too dark but not too bright either, we had our own waitress, bartender, and a DJ. The DJ was great, we didn't even give him a list of songs we liked, we just told him the type of music we wanted and he played the perfect songs. We seriously all had the best time dancing and drinking there!! Overall, I loved how everything turned out, minus the issues with the WC. RIU isn't very flexible with certain things when planning a wedding (like day passes, reservation times), so just make sure you ask about these things ahead of time so you won't have any issues later. If anyone has any questions that I may not have answered, feel free to PM me! I didn't put a lot of pics, but if you need pics of anything specific, let me know! View from our room: The best thing ever: One of the infiniti pools: ceremony location more pics coming...

We used Best Day and they were very good. This was the second time we have used them and they were always on time, shuttles were clean, and the drivers were very friendly.

We also went with Del Sol and we hired Vincent. He was great to work with and we loved his work! He made my husband, who was not thrilled about doing this shoot, feel totally at ease while taking the pics. But like SunBride said, everyone's budget is so different, you will just have to choose according to what works for you. For example, I loved Sol's (from Del Sol) work, but I couldn't afford her. But, Vincent was in our price range and Sol edits the pics anyway, so we got a little of both. And like I said, he was great, so we were very pleased with our decision! Here are a few pics from our TTD:

Your pics are amazing!! Congrats, congrats, congrats! Everything looked so beautiful on your wedding day! I love the pics of everyone dancing in the water, that looked liked so much fun!

Quote: Originally Posted by amdecker Did you think it was worth it to hire the mariachi? I'm debating on that versus using recorded music on my ipod. Do you think you would you even be able to hear the recorded music on the beach? Hi, First off, I'm so sorry I haven't written my review of the wedding/hotel but I've been so busy! I'll try finishing it off next week because I have a lot to write! Honestly, it was really a big deal for me to have mariachi for the ceremony and cocktail hour because that's just part of our culture. I've always dreamed of walking down the aisle to mariachi music! But to tell you the truth, as I was walking down the aisle I was so nervous I don't even remember hearing them; just in the very beginning. I didn't even know what song they played until I watched our wedding video. Also, my family said that during cocktail hour, a few people requested songs and the mariachi didn't play them. I thought that was strange especially because the songs were very common in Mexico. My husband and I were only at our cocktail hour for 15 minutes because we were taking pics , so we didn't get to hear them for very long. But, I did like what I heard while we were there. I'm glad we hired them because I felt they entertained the guests before the ceremony started and during the cocktails. I'm sure, if you choose to use your ipod, you will be able to hear it on the beach. They set up a speaker system for you, so that shouldn't be issue. I would just ask the WC in advance just to be sure.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mrs D To Be! i love your dress - can i be really cheeky and ask where its from?! i'm on my quest to find the one! xxxxxxxx It's from Pronovias, the style is called Diamante. I loved it because it is super flattering, simple, yet dramatic too. The only thing is, I was pretty hot in it. But, I get hot easily, so it could have just been me. Either way, I would have picked this dress no matter what the weather was like. I LOVED it!

Quote: Originally Posted by can't wait! I love your smile! Congratulations! You are just beaming!!! And of course, beautiful dress. Where did you get the flower in your hair? Ha ha, I figured you might like this dress I got my flower from the same place I got my bouquet. I guess she just got banned from this forum, so I'm not sure if I can say her name/business?! Any way, I asked if she can send me an extra orchid, so it's just the flower and stem (no hairclip attached). I loved it and it looked so real!

These TTD pics were taken by Vincent from Del Sol. He is so sweet; we had a great time with him and his assistant. I was really sick this day because I had a stomach infection and I had not been able to eat in almost 24-hours. I was feeling very weak and I ended up almost passing out during the shoot. Vincent's assistant ran to Sol's car and found some ice tea. The sugar helped me get some energy back, but I was afraid to see what the pics will look like because I didn't feel good at all. Even though I think I look pale and sick, I think the pics came out so good!!! Vincent did a wonderful job! I hope you all enjoy them! del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism

I looooove your pics! You all look adorable in all the pics! I love how your dog is posing and looking at the camera! Too cute!

Hi all, I know for those of you getting married at RPLA you have been waiting on my comments/review. I promice I will get to that soon, I have just been so busy since I have came back. I have my AHR next weekend, so I'm getting ready for that too! Here's a link to some of my pics incase you didn't see them ( I posted them where the wedding pics go ) and want to see pics of the hotel. del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism Regarding the mariachi, I actually hired an outside mariachi because RIU charges $800 a set (45 minutes) to use their house mariachi. Even paying an outside mariachi plus day passes for each one was still cheaper than using RIU's.

Quote: Originally Posted by JUSTUSTWO BTW-the sand dollar placecard looked just fine! Ha ha, funny you mention the sand dollar! Everyone loved them! They all took them up to their rooms when dinner was finished and took them home! Everyone was shocked I was able to write on them and they all said it was a great idea! I'm glad I ended up writing on them myself, it was a lot more personal that way and everyone seemed touched by that. Quote: Originally Posted by Kat81 Welcome back!! You look amazing! Everything was so beautiful. Where did you get dressed? That closet looked like someones house. All the clothes hanging and shoes put away. Thanks! You looked beautiful too! RIU Las Americas upgraded us to a larger suite (that's part of their wedding package) and our room had a walk-in closet (plus a huge bathroom and two living rooms). I was changing in that closet so the photog wouldn't see me naked!! Quote: Originally Posted by lmg970 very beautiful, can't wait for the TTD pics Thanks! I can't wait for the TTD pics either! I keep checking my email to see if they have been sent!!

Welcome back! You look so beautiful! I love the dress you used for your TTD pics!

I'm back with some pics! Sol sent these to me while we were on our honeymoon; I was shocked to see them so soon. These are a few of her favorites she put together, so I hope you all enjoy them. We hired Vincent to take our wedding and TTD pics, but he was sick so Diego took these pictures. Diego was great to work with and he did an amazing job. Vincent took our TTD pics, but we haven't received those yet. He was wonderful to work with too. They are both sweethearts! del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism