Trinas79

Your slideshow was great - it looks like everyone had a blast! Love your dress! Congrats! Kerri

Thanks for the review, it sounds like everything went great and you had a wonderful time! Congrats!!

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan HAHAAH - still this is so unfair to other brides. This is not the first time I have heard this. We are currently looking into other options and possibly doing a non-resort wedding. I am waiting for quote from a baker, florist, musicians ect.. It will be interesting to see how the rates differ. After all the hupala with DJ Ivan and the rate changes I e-mailed Angie. I sent her over an excel sheet with everything itemized with the prices. I basically did her job for her. All I asked was for her to cofirm the prices for me and have them to me by today. That was four days ago, I re-emailed her again, guess what nada. I am beyond frusterated and fed up with the Royal at this point. I will keep everyone posted on what we end up doing and how the prices differ if you book everything your self and do a non-resort wedding. Best Jess I am getting quite frustrated, as well. When I spoke with Angie a week ago, about this whole DJ stuff, she was supposed to get back to me - I sent her 2 emails and she was going to call me, haven't heard anything. I also haven't heard from my WC at the resort since I put the deposit down, I have sent her a few emails as well. At this point, all I want to know is the price that we were hopefully locked in at when we put down the deposit to reserve our day, and what is happening with other DJ vendors besides Ivan. It feels like once we put our deposit down, the communication became horrific - I know that November was their busy season, but still....

Quote: Originally Posted by Trinas79 To add more specifics to that, I just spoke with Zulma, who is one of the WC's. I don't want to make any brides who have booked with him nervous, and I don't know what they are doing if you have an upcoming wedding but I would DEFINTELY check with you WC. Kerri Ok Ladies, in addition to what Ivan has said I have received more clarification. I spoke with Angie (US WC thru Real Resorts who btw also said that I should have been assigned a US WC instead of working directly thru Michelle down in MX) who explained everything. She said that there have been some complaints about discrepancies in dj services pricing and the resort has decided, instead of getting rid of Ivan altogether (since so many brides love him), to have him work directly for the resort and therefore brides must book throgh them (hence the price-set of 1100 for 3 hrs). Angie, as of right now, is not sure whether they will cut-off brides from using another other outside dj vendor, and make us go only with them 2 who work for the resort, or whether this change will only affect Ivan. It is apparent that Zulma gave me the wrong information and Angie told me directly that she should not have told me what she did. Angie will be getting back to me in the next few days with updated information; I am truly hoping that the resort does not decide to set prices for all vendors, things could get a little pricey if they do ($1100 for 3 hrs is crazy as it is)...Glad I could get more to the bottom of this but it is still confusing and unfortunate for us brides who are trying to plan these things right in the middle of all this!! Sorry if I sparked any worry! Kerri

Quote: Originally Posted by IvanG Hola! Kerri, I am really sorry if you misunderstanding something, but that is not true, if they told you that I am doing "bad things" with money, is because they realizing that they are not getting money for my services in their hotels, now if you book my services or any other DJ company they will get this commission, that I am agree they need to get some, but not that ridiculous price $1100 USD per 3 hours of DJ Service. I am still as a preferred vendor with them It is just I have to respect this new policy, and If I send you the quotation was because your request was done long time ago before this new policy applied and this way you can save money. For all the brides that already booked my services directly with me I want to let you know that you don´t have to worry about it, I will be allowed for all the weddings booked directly before this new policy started. Please if you have any questions e-mail and will be a pleasure for me respond you. Have a nice day! I am sorry if that sounded so critical but, at this point, I am VERY VERY confused. That is what Zulma told me and I'm not sure why she would have said it if it wasn't exactly the policy. I am trying to get the information straightened out, for myself, because I need to know what the facts are.

Quote: Originally Posted by olsontco We had our welcome dinner at The Royal in the garden. I was worried that it was going to be too similar to the reception, but we ended up doing a buffet at the welcome dinner and then did a sit down dinner at the reception on the beach. The Welcome Dinner was fabulous. People had a wonderful time. Also, it is a lot more inexpensive to have it there at The Royal if most of your guest are staying there. Let me know if you have anyother questions. teri Teri - What was the pricing like for that? Is it per person or a general fee? Kerri

To add more specifics to that, I just spoke with Zulma, who is one of the WC's. I don't want to make any brides who have booked with him nervous, and I don't know what they are doing if you have an upcoming wedding but I would DEFINTELY check with you WC. Kerri

Quote: Originally Posted by randi.renstrom i don't know if anyone else has experienced this....but my travel agent contacted the royal on monday, to double check that it is ok i use ivan (i was just about to sign my contract with him to hold the date). at first, they said yes, that they go through him and he is a 'preferred dj'. then they responded with a 'new policy' saying that you cannot book him directly, and you must go through the royal, otherwise he won't be allowed to even enter. i emailed ivan and he told me the same thing, and i must book through the royal. so my travel agent got it figured out where he is booked through the royal, for $1100, but that includes the music AND the light up floor (on his site he had quoted me the same price for both). but i just wanted to let you know, incase he says he can't book you directly. you can book him through the royal for pretty much the same price. i was worried at first....but now i'm very excited! Randi (and others)- I read this post and called the Royal just now because I had also been in contact with Ivan about services (looks like we were neck-and-neck for our day!). Ivan had never said anything about this to me and I was prepared to send him my money today. The person I spoke with at the Royal, a WC, said hat the resort has made a decision to no longer allow Ivan's services because he was doing "bad things" with money between the brides and the resort. ALthough I have heard many wonderful things on here about him, so I find it strange, I find it even more weird that he was willing to take my money/contract if he knew about this. The WC is emailing names of other dj's in the area, which I can give to you as well. I would be careful... Kerri

Thank you so much Jesmcam!! VERY helpful! I am confused about one thing though, you mentioned the pricing from guests staying at the Gran Porto, for the half day or full day - they are allowed over for the wedding without having to pay, right??

Adriana - We are thinking around 10-14 days. We figure that we will want to get there a good 3-4 days before the wedding and then have a bit of time after, more so after friends and family leave! As of right now we aren't counting this as our true honeymoon but more of an extended stay! Kerri

Beautiful wedding Tracey! Where did you get your dress, I love it!

I'm wondering how much cheaper it is to have the reception at the Gran vs the Royal. I can't remember the exact price of our package but for the Luxury pkg it was somewhere in the high 2 to low 3 range....is the gran even cheaper than that??

congrats!!

We've been thinking about this too. Our wedding is in November and I'm really not keen on having an AHR during the winter, I would ideally love a casual, backyard reception in the warm weather. The idea of a bon voyage reception/party is ok to me, but I really wanted to have pictures from the wedding and a slideshow to show at the party, for the people who aren't able to make it. That way they can see what went on a feel a little bit more like they were there. So, not quite sure what we are going to do but those are my thoughts!

That''s great. I'm still deciding but let us know how it goes! Kerri

Congrats Allison! Thanks Courtney for the opportunity!

Hi everyone.... I've heard Samuel's name floated around here (first by Adriana) but I'm wondering if anyone has used him and has feedback. His pics are beautiful and prices VERY reasonable, so I'm just curious as to what he is like in person and the end results. ~Kerri

Jen - His packages range from 2350-5600 and include ALL travel costs. He is on the top of our list right now, he pictures are beautiful and is completely affordable! I would love to know if anyone on here has worked with him, though.... Kerri

Adriana - Have you met with Samuel yet?? His pricing is GREAT, I am wondering what he is like in person!! Kerri

Thanks so much for the info, Adriana. I actually just came on the forum to research photographers, the one I had planned on using just informed me that's it not going to work out for her. I am going to look into him.....

My actual date is 11/11/10 - Looks like JESSCAM and I will be a day apart!!!

Angie - I love those!!! Did you do them yourself or go through a printing company?? Kerri

Hi Jess - I am fairly new to here too and am also from Boston, we are getting married at the Royal in PDC. All the info here has been very helpful - best of luck! Kerri

I'm a fairly newbie to the forum and also haven't seen a whole lot of reviews for the Royal or Gran Porto, there are some out there though. We are planning on having our wedding at the Royal but the Gran is literally right next door so guests will be staying there as well. We had a site visit on a trip to Mexico in March and they are both BEAUTIFUL!!! If I knew how to put pics up, I would share them with you as we took many of the grounds!! And, as a plus, the WC at the Royal is so easy to get in touch with and she responds by e-mail very quickly....

Hi ScottishBride, I am also getting married at Real (in Playa) and plan on going thru a travel agent. As far as I can tell, the resort doesn't do packages (hotel/air) so if you went through them you would have to pay seperate - which I can imagine would get expensive. My sense is that not only can a TA get better deals, but they would be package deals. That's my plan, although I need to find a TA!! Kerri