antonia321

My wedding was in March which is high season and the busiest month so the resort was completely booked. Also, there were some airline issues so some of my guests arrived late and lost their rooms. BUT they ended up get free upgrades! The Royal is a 5 start resort, all my guests were very happy and extremely comfortable. The location of the Royal is so perfect, too. Its not like all the guests stay trapped at the resort, too. They wonder into town during the day, etc.

my pleasure! they said we could only have the reception on the beach and music until midnight. That part of the beach wasn't next to people's rooms. Maybe it just looked that way in the pictures??

thanks! the bridesmaids dresses are from JCrew and the MOH dress is from Nicole Miller

I say, just send it! That's what I did. The less said the better. And now a days people know about the A and B list, right? Weddings are so expensive now and especially in this economy!

i love Bare Escentuals! I have been using the foundation for 6 years. my mom recommended it to me and I have recommended it to many friends who are very happy. I have sensitive skin, too. I have broken out using their primer so I just stick to the powders now.

I love the show! Alexis is the cutest and just brightens my day! My mom loves the show, too and my sister just started watching. My family had 3 kids but some of our cousins came from families from 6, 9 and 13 kids! But my mom says to have 6 kids at all the same age is tough. When you have a big family, like our cousins, the older kids end up helping with the younger ones to keep the parents sane. My mom owns a daycare now in her retirement (I think secretly to get ready for my babies - talk about pressure!) and she has no more than 6 kids at one time with two caretakers. Its fun to go visit but its exhausting!

if your fiance is a good dresser then you can just say, "my dress is ivory" and he'll do his best. my husband is a good dresser, too and I gave him free reign on what he wanted to wear. In the end, I went with him and gave him input with his linen suit that he had made. I would worry if your fiance didn't really care about clothes and wanted to wear a tank top and cut offs! Its sounds like he's not that guy!

I picked a 5 star all-inclusive for my wedding. My dad had brought up that some family member had time shares in the area, would probably stay there to save money. Some friends told me the same. When it came down to it, we negotiated such a good deal with our resort that it was hard to pass up staying with us. There were still a small handful of people that didn't stay at ours but we payed for them. They are our guests and traveled a long way to celebrate with us. That's like, if we were getting married in our hometown and they stayed with a relative or friend to save money instead of our designated hotel, I wouldn't make them pay for their own dinner. It ended up being a smaller fee than the day pass so the damage was not as bad as expected. I'm sure you can negotiate that, too.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kits55 Antonia: I loved reading your review, thank you so much for posting it. I do have a couple of questions that I'm not sure if you'll know the answers to or not. 1: do they only perform one ceremony per day at The Royal? I know you had yours off the resort but thought you might know in speaking with the wedding coordinators 2: If a couple had their ceremony on the beach, is it roped off or separated in any way so that randoms won't show in the picture? Thanks! Kelly Hi Kelly, Thanks! I know they can have more than one ceremony a day but I don't remember actually seeing it happen. There aren't really that many weddings at The Royal in general, you can probably even see that from this forum. They don't have a one wedding a day policy but at the same time, I have never seen more than one wedding, if there even is a wedding, per day. There is a really nice Royal bride on here named Becky. She was a bride before me and got married on the beach. She even has pictures on here. I'm sure if you found her and asked her she could probably give you the best advice about a beach wedding ceremony at The Royal. I messaged her a couple times before my wedding and she was super nice. a

my wedding dress was silk and silk chiffon. PERFECT for the beach. my bridesmaids were also all in silk chiffon. Light, breezy and comfortable. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by msam007562 Antonia, first off your pictures are amazing!! You and your husband make such a beautiful couple and its so easy to see how joyous you both were on your special day ~ congrats!! I am also a Filipina bride so looking at your pictures totally resonates with me - seeing the men with barongs (spelling?) on and all the Philippine made dresses ~ its wonderful!! And of course it seems like with all Filipino families, we really know how to enjoy a party I wanted to ask you...where did you get your wedding dress and your bridesmaids dresses, including your maid of honor's which I noticed was a little different? They are all really beautiful and look perfect for a beach atmosphere. And, where did you get those wonderful little lanterns? I love the idea of doubling up candlelight with place cards!! Congrats again and many blessings for a lifetime of happiness together Thank you for the super nice comments! It was hard not having my filipino side dominate everything but I think by now my husband has gotten used to it! I got my dress at this funky bridal store in the DC area called Promise...for the Savvy bride Promise...for the savvy bride Its a Carolina Herrera from her spring 2006 collection. I LOVED wearing it. It was so light and flowy yet to me, still sexy and classy. BM dresses were a steal on sale from JCrew wedding collection. I think they were only $89-$99. MOH's dress was a Nicole Miller from her Spring 2007 Mayan collection. All of our dresses were silk chiffon which I think looks and feels perfect for beach weddings. The laterns are from here : Jamali Garden Supplies The guests took them home as favors, too. Good luck and congratulations!!

3 of my girls got their dresses from JCrew on sale. No need for fitting if you know your sizes in JCrew and the have great sales. Women's Wedding Dresses - Bridesmaid Dresses & Women's Shoes - J.Crew J.Crew - Search and my MOH/sister got hers from Nicole Miller. good luck!

if you don't have organic at your grocery store or a farmer's market nearby, check out this site Community Supported Agriculture - LocalHarvest you can support local farmers that grow organic food.

YAY!!!! Great review, Heidi and FABULOUS pictures!!! Thanks for mentioning me, too! he he Your review and pictures took me back to March when we got married and further confirmed that we both made such a great decision with The Royal! Isn't Zulma just the sweetest? All the staff there is so wonderful and very accommodating. They really just make you feel so special there. I just read my husband that part where you mentioned the Mango Tangos. And we started laughing. That was the popular drink at our wedding, too and I think some of our guests had them for breakfast daily! The lounge furniture looked great and your pictures are amazing. Go del Sol photography!! Wasn't the location so perfect? You can be lounging at a 5 star resort then just a block away is downtown Playa del Carmen. Our guests loved it. Anyway, congratulations and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review. Hopefully, we can help out more future "Royal" brides!! antonia

hi Shay, my reception was on-site but the ceremony was off-site. The Royal is really helpful and doesn't have those strict outside vendor policies that other places have. You can use their people or not, they won't give you a hard time at all! I saw pictures from the company that the resort used and its just not what I wanted. They weren't bad but I wanted something extraordinary. I used the videographer that they provided though!