navarrabrooke

Hi Girls - I haven't checked in for awhile. I got married at the Paradisus on November 13th, 2009. Friday the 13th! Great date! At any rate, I read through some the last few pages of this forum and wanted to offer my insight. Someone asked about the beach, though I had also read some negative things, the beach was beautiful. I had no complaints there. Also for our welcome dinner, we arranged to have it at the Caribbean Marketplace at no cost. Perla had reserved 50 spots and closed off a portion of the restaurant. For those who don't know, the Caribbean Marketplace is the buffet. This suited us and our 50 guests (including children) quite well. I also agree with appointing someone not in your wedding party to ensure that everything is how you want it. On the day of your wedding, you won't want to be burdened with decor and other arrangements. You'll be too busy drinking champagne and getting ready with your bridal party! Playa del Carmen is a must do! Lots of great shopping and fun beach bars. Include it among your lists of things to do in Riviera Maya in your welcome letter, email to guests, etc. It's about a 45 minute drive south. You can arrange a shuttle with the Paradisus bellhops. My review also covers a lot of the questions I'm reading on here. Check it out - links below. I also included some other helpful tips. Happy Planning! Brooke

Quote: Originally Posted by avong1228 Need some advice on ceremony time. We are getting married in mid October and everything I find online says sun goes down around 6:20 so my initial thought was a 4:30 ceremony, cocktail hour from 5-6 and reception 6-9 but Perla told me I should do 3:30 or 4 ... seems early to me and I don't want to have dinner at 5 either. Any thoughts? Also, anyone changing hotels after for their honeymoon? I know its super early for me to think about but when we book our travel we want to book it all together. Thinking about Excellence, Royal Hideaway or Le Blanc. Anyone ever been? One last question for anyone that's been to the Paradisus ... When we were in Punta Cana, the Palma Real did not have elevators, only steps to get from each floor. Does anyone know if this one is the same way? We have family on his side that are a little over weight that would have to be on the first floor if this is the case. Thanks! We had our ceremony at 4:30pm with the sunset at 5:15pm, but I do wish it was at 4pm instead. We had lost a lot of light for pictures after the ceremony. If you're sure the sun sets at 6:20pm in mid-October, you should be fine with a 4:30pm ceremony. There are no elevators at this one too. We just requested first floor suites for our guests who required them.

Quote: Originally Posted by avong1228 I finally talked to Perla and thankfully I did call as she said she never received my emails. She sent me the wedding calculator and now I am thoroughly confused! Wish brides, if I go with that option which I hear is the least expensive if you want to add on, does the arch not come decorated at all? Also, for the rose petal aisle ... will they let me spread my own if I buy a bag of fake ones?? Seems really expensive. I guess I need to put it all in a spreadsheet but not seeing how the Wish vs the other packages are less expensive if you want to have a cocktail hour and dinner. Did anyone do a day after brunch? Any advice? I completely agree with Kelly. We switched gears mid-way through the planning and went the a la carte route still using most of the elements of the chill-out package and it was significantly cheaper. Your best bet is compiling an organized list of numbered questions (at times mine were 20+ questions long) and try to send it a week before you actually need the answers. Such as when you're gathering details for your invitations, etc. We also did not do a brunch, but you could probably arrange one at the Caribbean Marketplace, which is what we did for the Welcome Dinner.

Quote: Originally Posted by biehnbag Thanks so much for the detailed review! We've got this resort set as our top choice. The only thing I'm being picky about is the ceremony location. I love a destination wedding on the beach, but it just isn't for me. So I am patiently waiting on more pictures of alternate areas. We wanted to see more pictures because on our quick site visit with the sales manager last month, she wasn't able to show us "creative" options. They say there is a garden area where they mostly do Mayan ceremonies and we've seen a tiny picture, but atmosphere is so important to me so I was hoping that anyone out there can send me or post pictures here?! I'm still a noob too so it's frustrationg not being able to see atatched files on here. P.s. How are the drinks? I know this is the last on my worries, but I keep reading bad reviews. Did you or our party have trouble? Thanks for any info! Carly Hi Carly - There is a gorgeous gazebo positioned sorta in the middle of the pool, though it's only ideal for a small wedding - I think 20 or under. There's also a small garden area with a fountain, but also only good for a small group. There are pictures of both on the Paradisus website in their photo gallery. You could also have the ceremony on the terrace overlooking the beach. Were you able to view my pictures? There are some nice ones of the terrace. As for drinks, it's not top shelf, but no one really complained. It was free/all included! Sure you could order and pay for a nicer bottle of wine than the AI wine which we did at times, but for the most part, it did the trick - we got drunk! LOL! Mango Tango and Sexy Banana were big hits!

Quote: Originally Posted by yaker33 Brooke, congrats to you and your husband. You both look amazing! I love your pics. This resort is my top choice right now and I fell inlove with it again after seeing your pics. I was wondering who you used as your professional photographer? Was it from the resort or did you use someone outside? Also, if you did use someone outside, did the resort charge you a fee for this? Thanks and congrats again A friend of ours was our photog. We paid for her trip and photog expenses. and she shot us for 3 days! Since she was also a guest, they did not charge me an outside vendor fee. The professional shots at the very end of the web page (link below) were taken by Ernesto - he's with the resort. There's a "Photo Shop" desk near the lobby bar where you can inquire and make an appointment. Free photo shoot and only $10/picture - it was totally worth it for us. We love the pix!

Quote: Originally Posted by KimmieT Hello! I'm getting married at the Paradisus on January 7th.... YES i know - it's creeping up big time! We're getting a little nervous because of some of the negative reviews on TripAdvisor - however - i've been told to just ignore the site. I'm wondering how everyone else's experience was with the hotel. Are all the negative comments about justified? Some other questions; how is the DJ from SWANK? Do they play good / fun music? If you don't mind me asking... what did you choose for food? We've choosen the AQUA Package with the Chill Out Chic lounges on the beach. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated... we are extremely excited, but anxious at the same time. Our guests are spending all this money to stay at this hotel and we're hoping they are not disappointed - after-all we picked this hotel! Hi Kimmie - We loved the resort! I really didn't find any of the things mentioned on TripAdvisor to be true. As I mentioned in my review, the only complaint we had with the resort was the restaurant reservations situation, but hopefully that was an isolated incident for us because of the convention that overlapped our stay. Working with Luis from Swank was great! We did the iPod thing, but used their equipment and lighting. For food, we chose a variety and everyone loved the food - caprese salad, sushi, shrimp creole over pasta, beef medallions, BBQ pork ribs. For the cocktail hour, we chose the following hors d'oeuvres: fried shrimp and bacon (HUGE hit!), puff pastry sausages, taquitos, guacamole and sangrita shots. We were worried about that too, but our guests loved the resort. In fact, many of them want to go back (even despite the restaurant debacle). The place is gorgeous and the staff was great. Seriously, we wish we were still there! Your guests will love it! Congrats & good luck! Brooke

Hi avong1228 - I'm sending you the stuff that I have on file to your Yahoo email. Look out for it.

Hi - I just got married at the Paradisus in November. You can check out my pictures and review using the links below. Hopefully it will help answer many of your questions. We did the chill-out chic setup, but since we had 50 guests we opted to do a la carte which turned out to be cheaper. Also, since both Azul and Paradisus are on your list, I will say this...one of our guests actually attended a DW at Azul last year and was far more impressed with the Paradisus and our wedding. Welcome, to the forum! Congratulations and good luck with your planning. Brooke

Thanks, girls! Yep, my dress is Nicole Miller. I wish I could do it all over again! Congrats & good luck!

Thanks! My husband and his groomsmen got their suits from Express actually. We purchased them back in May/June. If they are not still in the stores, I believe they are still online.

Hola - I've finally posted my review and some pix, please read it here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...7/#post1084235 My pictures are here: Brooke & Andy Wedding | November 13, 2009 Enjoy! Brooke

Wedding Review – Friday, November 13, 2009 Hola! Our wedding ceremony and reception at the Paradisus Riveria Cancun was absolutely beautiful. Echoing what others have said, Perla did pull it off in the end and put on a fabulous event for us. And even despite the threat of Hurricane Ida (I was a wreck the week before), the weather was absolutely gorgeous. With that being said, there were still some frustrations leading up to our big day. I will first talk about the wedding itself and then about the resort. We arrived late afternoon on Tuesday the 10th and were extremely eager for our Wednesday morning meeting with Perla. We invited our parents and officiant (one of our best friends) to join us for the meeting. We were all ready at 10am. Perla comes out to introduce herself and tells us she will be ready in 20 more minutes. We all reconvened 20 minutes later and she was still not ready. In the end we waited for almost 2 hours. Our families were not pleased and my father-in-law ended up interrupting her in order to start our meeting. In this past year of planning, I’ve gotten used to the concept of “Caribbean time†– but I was hoping to be more of a priority once onsite. I do know she is incredibly overworked, but there are at least 3 other Romance staff members in her office. However, once the meeting was underway, things went fairly smoothly. I wish I hadn’t stressed out so much in the months preceding about furniture layout, colors, flowers, cake, etc, because though I had meticulously mapped out everything we wanted or thought we wanted, many of those decisions were made at that meeting…and were expertly carried out for the wedding. I‘d say my only real complaint about Perla aside from not being prompt would be the lack of confidence I felt before the wedding. Her slow response time worried me and often she would forget attachments and other details that I previously communicated to her. But, how do I begrudge her now? She delivered an amazing ceremony and reception and all of our guests (including us) were certainly wowed! Luis from Swank also dropped in on our meeting to make sure we were all set with equipment. He is great! I definitely recommend working with him. He was even at our wedding the entire time ensuring there were no technical problems. We did the iPod thing and it was perfect! I was initially worried about how it would all work out, but Luis was onsite as well as another person to “man†the iPod and equipment. He was able to fade each song in and out. It was like having a DJ, but only playing our music. We used the location on the far north end of the resort by the Tequila Restaurant. Our ceremony was on the beach and the chill-out chic lounge set up with white furniture and a Bali bed was set up next to it on the beach as well. It was very sexy - I highly recommend this set up! We had dinner on the terrace which overlooks the set up on the beach. And the dancing alternated between the terrace and the beach. We almost went with the dancefloor platform on the beach, but it was an additional $1000. Perla even said it wasn’t worth it. So glad we didn’t do it. The following is the timeline we followed and it worked really well for us: 4:30pm – 5pm > Ceremony 5pm – 6:30pm > Cocktail hour and wedding party pictures 6:30pm – 7:00pm > We were announced, then our first dance, then father-daughter dance and mother-son dance 7:00pm – 7:30pm > Buffet dinner 7:30 – 8:00pm > Speeches 8:00 – 10:00pm > Dance Party We actually added an hour on. Honestly, ending at 9pm is just too early. I suggest adding on that extra hour. Then afterward, a big group of us ended up at the Fun Club and danced until 2am. It was the first night it had been open since we arrived, so that worked out really well. I also wanted to mention that we did our Welcome Dinner at the Caribbean Marketplace buffet on Thursday evening. Perla reserved the space for us and this actually worked out really well. It was considered part of the all-inclusive; therefore, it did not cost us anything to host it there. Now on to the resort…the good stuff first. The resort is absolutely beautiful! It is very clean and the architecture and landscaping is gorgeous and lush. We had a second story ocean-front room with a balcony…A-MAZING! Seriously, upgrade if you can. It’s worth waking up to that view every morning and lounging in the hot tub in the evenings. We were pleasantly surprised by the nightly entertainment. Most nights there was a live band in the lobby bar - which is all open air. And the theatre performances included a Michael Jackson tribute and Cirque Du Soleil-style act. While the resort offered lots to do as far as entertainment, it was nice to leave campus and go party in Playa del Carmen. This place is FUN! Just arrange a shuttle with one of the bellhops and negotiate a price. Luckily, my husband speaks a little Spanish and is good at negotiating. We went down twice – it’s about a 35-45 minute drive. Both times we went to the Parrot Club. Great spot right along the water – we danced in the sand all night. They even had fire dancers! Also lots of great shopping and the prices are much more reasonable than the booths set up in the evenings at the resort. Now the not so good…The reservations for the restaurants caused us and our 50 guests many headaches. When we first arrived, there was a large “Get Out of Debt†convention (the irony, I know!) at the resort which crowded the restaurants and made reservations nearly impossible to get. Since we were unable to get reservations on that first night, we complained to Perla and she arranged for David Gonzalez, the food and beverage manager, to attend our Wednesday morning meeting. We felt we had some leverage since we were bringing in 50 people – a pretty substantial number considering the size of the resort. He attended the meeting and arranged for reservations at several of the restaurants to accommodate all of our guests for both Wednesday night and Saturday night. However, both nights when we showed up at our respective restaurants, there were no reservations. I will say the restaurants did end up accommodating us each time, though we had to wait at times an extra 30 minutes. It was frustrating to us and to our guests who spent a lot of money to be there and were excited to try these <<cough>> “world-class†restaurants. (Food was good, but not “world-classâ€). To screw up one reservation for a few guests one of the nights, I can forgive. But to screw it up for 50 guests for two different nights – not cool. And David Gonzalez never did offer us an apology. The rest of the resort staff was AWESOME! The maids, the waiters, the bellhops, front desk - they were all incredibly friendly and helpful. To some degree, they made up for management’s incompetency, namely David Gonzalez. (My letter to corporate in regards to him is next!) A few other random things to note: 1. There is no ATM at the resort. We thought we had brought enough cash for tips, but of course we went through that within 3 days. We would have tipped a lot more had there been an ATM onsite, but instead we had to wait until we went to Playa Del Carmen to get money out. 2. On Saturday (the day after our wedding), there were two weddings. I had heard that they only do one a day. We saw two that day. 3. We loved that our wedding was on Friday night as opposed to Saturday night. If you have it on Saturday, your guests will most likely fly back home on Sunday. It was great to get to spend the entire next day recapping with all of our guests. 4. Bring insect repellent! 5. Felipe at the Lomas Travel desk is awesome! Seriously, he really impressed us. I’m still not sure how he could keep it all straight, but he knew everyone who was associated with our party and knew them all by name! He’s the person we all scheduled our excursions through. He hooked us up with a short trip down the road to Maroma Paradise for an afternoon of parasailing and couples messages on the beach. I highly recommend this!!! (I wish I had gotten Felipe’s contact info (last name, phone or email) to submit a thank you. If anyone thinks of it, please send it to me. Thanks!) 6. This is a must - schedule a photo shoot at the Photo Shop desk. It’s right next to the Lomas Travel desk with Felipe (to the right of the lobby bar). The photo shoot is free and the pictures are $10 each, though the more you order the better the deal. We shot with Ernesto on the beach and at the gazebo over the pool and our pictures are beautiful! We purchased 15 of them and we love them! It’s especially nice since we haven’t seen our professional ones from the wedding yet. Since I’m still considered a “Noob†on this forum – LOL - and unable to add attachments, I've posted pix to my website at: Brooke & Andy Wedding | November 13, 2009 I hope this information is helpful for the other Paradisus brides out there. I know I’ve relied heavily on the reviews and posts of the brides before me and it’s nice to finally offer mine. I do apologize for the length; brevity is not a strong suit of mine. But I figure in this case, it’s best to be as thorough and informative as possible! Please let me know if you have any questions that I could try to answer. Congratulations & Good luck! Brooke

Hi Girls!!! Our wedding was fabulous! Over Thanksgiving weekend I plan to post my review and some pix. Still putting it all together and gathering my favorite shots. I will say this...everyone was right, in the end, Perla comes through and puts on an amazing event. Everything was just the way I wanted it. Why do we all stress out so much?!?! LOL! Good luck, brides...I'm jealous...I wish I could do it all over again! XOXO- Brooke

I need help with tipping! A few more questions... Who needs to be tipped for the reception? Our officiant and our photog are both great friends of ours, so we don't plan on tipping them. Instead we've paid for their trip. I imagine that leaves the bartender and wait staff. How much do we tip them? Anyone else I'm forgetting Thanks! Brooke

We weren't charged a $300 outside fee with Swank - I think they are a preferred vendor.