mitzy7

I went to Suzanne Morel and was very pleased! They did both my hair and makeup there and I loved it! I booked a trial a few days before for my hair and they did 3 different styles for me, and I loved them all!! They will not let you leave her salon until you are 100% satisfied. I would highly recommend Suzanne Morel!

Quote: Originally Posted by murphie310 thank you for the insight! I will be getting married next door at the Riu Santa Fe...hear anything good about them? tips? I never made it to the Sante Fe, but it is the resort with more action for sure! The only thing I heard was they are really good for breakfast and lunch, but the Palace was a little better for dinner. And I know the Sante Fe had a bigger swim up bar! hehe As for your wedding, I assume you will be using the same wedding coorinator, so I am sure everything will be great:)

Quote: Originally Posted by gettingmarried Great review, put some of my nervous to rest!! What kind of cake did you get? I'm getting married there in July. I was nervous too.. especially with the change in Wedding Coordiator, but I promise it will go great! You will have a beautiful wedding:) As for the cake, we had two tiers. Both were marble and each had a different filling. One was hazelnut and the other was tiramisu. But, talking to other brides, it doesn't seem like you can go wrong with any flavour. Everyone I talked to seemed to really enjoy what they had, so I would go with your favourite flavour:)

Quote: Originally Posted by Lolita29 Great review, definitely sets my mind at peace as i'm getting married here too, May 14, 2011!! Did you do center pieces?? Do you have any pictures you can share with us?? I did not do center pieces. The table was really full without them. Plus at the steak house they place several serving platters throughout the table which they placed their seafood platters on. One of the sprays of flowers was placed by the bride and groom and the other was placed on the cake table. If you were to do a centerpiece, I would keep it small, or maybe candles would be nice. I don't think you can go wrong either way:)

Since this website was so helpful to me in my planning, I wanted to give my feedback on my wedding experience at the Riu Palace in hopes to help future brides. I warn you in advance that this may be long, but I will use sub headings so hopefully you can skim through for what areas you are interested. Here we go! Customs Please read this if you are thinking of bringing welcome bags for your guests. We brought all the components to make up our welcome bags in one suitcase and of course got search. They can tell right away when they x-ray your bags if you are bringing in goods, so it may cause a red flag. BRING YOUR RECEPITS!! Thankfully I read on this website from another bride to bring my receipts and they let us go through. They told us they wouldn’t have let us bring in our goods if we didn’t have them. You are allowed $300 per person that you are travelling with. The Resort I am so happy we were there in May. The Palace was only 1/3 full so we had the run of place. Always room by the pool, we could get into any of the a la cart restaurants whenever we wanted and the service was fantastic. I swear they cleaned our rooms twice a day. And someone was always calling you from the front desk to make sure everything was ok, or to see if there was anything else you needed. I have been to numerous all-inclusive resorts before, but have never received the attention and service like we did at this resort. Wedding Coordinator So I originally started my correspondence with Daniella, who if you don’t know, has been promoted to work at another resort. I then started to receive emails from a new coordinator named Karla, who always took forever to get back to me (and for the record I never met). Then I received a new contact by the name of Monse a few weeks before my wedding. All I can say is she was fabulous. She took care of everything we needed and even went above and beyond. We had our private reception at the steakhouse terrace and she even cleared all the chairs from the beach so we could have a dance on the sand if we wanted too. We had our first dance in the sand and it was so beautiful. As long as you have your reception booked, the rest of the details can be done closer to your wedding date, so no need to stress! Wedding Location We had our wedding at the San Jose Gazebo. If you are going to get married at one of the gazebos, this is definitely the one to choose. The other one is exactly the same, but located right next to the pool and swim up bar of the Sante Fe resort (which is busy). The San Jose gazebo is way more private and at the other end of the resort. Really the only on-lookers you will have over there are maybe a few people in their rooms. The beach is nice as well for a ceremony, but I guarantee that you will have numerous on-lookers. The set up was right in front of the infinity pool, so there was at least 50-100 people watching each beach wedding. Another thing to note is the sand on the beach is not the soft white sand. It has more of grit to it. So remember your guests will have to walk across the sand to get to their chairs. But I am sure the photos would be beautiful from this location. Ceremony Time We got married at 6pm, which was perfect! All over guests were very thankful that we didn’t get married sooner, as it is very hot. We saw a wedding at 2pm and 4pm, and you could see how much everyone was sweating. Especially if your poor groom is in a suit! We still had tons of time for pics, as the sun didn’t set until around 7:30. And our reception started at 8pm. The only downfall of having a later reception is that the restaurants all close at 11pm. So if you were getting married at 4pm, you could start your reception at like 6 till 11pm. But honestly, we had more than enough time for everyone to eat, speeches, cake cutting, a first dance, and bridal party dance. At 11pm, we moved the party up to the lobby bar, which over looked the ocean. I think our guests welcomed the change in scenery. Hair & Make Up I went off the resort to get my hair and makeup done, as I had heard mixed reviews about the resort spa. I went to Suzanne Morel, which is no more than a 5 minute cab ride away. They were fantastic there. I absolutely loved both my hair and makeup. I have pin straight hair, so it is hard for people to get my hair to do anything. They did such an incredible job and are very professional there. They will not let you leave the spa until you are 100% satisfied with everything. They may cost a little more than the resort, but honestly it is worth the extra money to ensure you love your hair and makeup. I would highly recommend them! Sound System I know I was very nervous how the music would work if I was brining my own iPod or CD. They will have a sound technician there for you to fade in and out your songs that you walk down the aisle too. The groomsmen, bridesmaids and I all had different songs and he blended them flawlessly. I also had a sand ceremony and brought a song for that as well. I just made a play list of the songs for the ceremony and he followed it. They will also set up a sound system for your reception. They will give you full control of the system so you can play whatever you like, whenever you like. We just put one of the groomsmen in charge of music and everything was great. They also will give you a wireless mic for speeches. Flowers All I can say is that they were beautiful. I had a mixture of calla lillies and roses. I didn’t see a single bride the entire week I was there that didn’t have beautiful flowers. The flowers they use on your gazebo for your ceremony will also be used at your reception. Wedding Cake I didn’t get the fondant icing, so of course the cake didn’t look as pretty as a traditional cake. But what is was lacking in looks, it sure made up for in taste. Everyone was talking about the cake. I was very pleasantly surprised how good it was. We added fresh flowers on ours to match our ceremony flowers, which was a nice touch. Food The food at the Palace was much better than most all inclusive resorts. My fav restaurant at the Palace was the Japanese. It was fantastic. Our reception dinner at the steakhouse was great as well. I think my least fav was the Mexican, which I am kind of shocked about since so many people have raved about it on here. Maybe I just went on an off night. But it does have the most stunning view of all the restaurants. You can’t even go wrong with the buffet. I think there was only one night there that I found it kind of blah. The rest of the nights were great. Photographer We used the resort photographer (Mango Productions). We had a fabulous photographer. As soon as we were finished one shot, she had already planned her next shot for us. We got so many photos taken during our time with her. We left before we could get our photos from her, but one week to the day of our wedding, the photos arrived by courier at my house. Very impressed! And they provide a website to all of your guests where they can view all the photos online. Over all, our wedding was a great experience. I must say that I think it actually exceeded my expectations, as I didn't know what to expect planning most our of destination wedding via email. I really don’t think you can go wrong by having your wedding at such a beautiful location. If I have missed anything or anyone has any other questions about anything at the Riu Palace, please let me know. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Good Luck with your wedding planning!

Quote: Originally Posted by Lolita29 Glad to hear!! You got married at the hotel i will be getting married at!!! How did you like it I'm so excited!!! Loved it! Everything went picture pefect! I wouldn't have changed a thing:)

Quote: Originally Posted by Lolita29 LOL i went on there earlier, i decided to stick with my 6pm ceremony. It'll look beautiful to have the sun start setting during the ceremony. I just got married on May 13, and 6pm is a perfect time! Your guests will thank you! We met a couple who got married at 4pm and they said they were dying of heat!

I just got back from Cabo yesterday and we totally had it planned to go to Lovers Beach to do a TTD session the day after the wedding. Since it is almost impossibe to get on at the Riu Palace without getting your dress wet, we decided to to a cab to the marina and then take a water taxi from there. You wont get wet by doing it this way! But...mother Nature was not on our side. The waves were the highest in like 5 years the day we went, and they woudn't let us get off the boat. No taxis were dropping people off that morning at lovers beach. It was too dangerous. I was very sad! I think I was looking forward to the TTD photos almost as much as my wedding day. So we took some shots from the water taxi and then walked into town and took some really fun shots downtown Cabo! Even got one with a baby lion:) I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Quote: Originally Posted by Boogies Do you have the direct email for Monse? Karla is not responding to my emails! The big day is next week?!? I can feel your worries and anxiety. Mine isnt until November but Im already losing sleeping and getting anxious...cant imagine how you feel. Im sure everything will turn out beautiful and perfect. Please keep me posted. Im going to need all tips and help I can get!! I hope you are right! All I keep telling myself is that everything is going to work out. As for the email address, it is the same one as Karla's. I think Monse if her assitant. All I can say is keep emailing them! I will keep you posted:)

wow..I can't believe how much info is on here. Such great suggestions. Now I am thinking about Somewhere over the rainbow for the bridesmaids and All I want is you - string quartet for my entrance. But I must say that Jonathan Cain's Wedding March is incredible. I just don't know if it goes with the other song, since it is not traditonal. I am completley stumped on our exit. I was thinking One Love by Bob Marley, but I'm not sure. Also, who runs the ipod, if you bring down your own music?

All great ideas! But what are you playing for your recessional after you are married? A-team is cute, but don't think it would work for me! hehe

Quote: Originally Posted by omsampad Did Karla get back to you yet? Still waiting with no response... Still waiting for my reception confirmation.. I did get a response back, but it was not from Karla. She has someone helping her by the name of of Monse. He/she (not sure if it is a male or female) has been pretty good at getting back to me next day. He/she has written me twice in the past 3 days, and answered all of my questions. I just hope this keeps up, so I can get everything taken care of before I leave next Saturday!!!

I am getting married in 14 days and I still haven't decided what to walk down the aisle too! I am not sure if I want something traditional or have something more of a tropical flare. What are other bride walking down too? And are you changing your music for your bridesmaids? Also, what song are you playing after you get married?? Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by omsampad mitzy.. I couldn't get any other time except 2pm... If your wedding will be at 6pm what time is your reception? I too am having my wedding at the Gazebo.. I didn't realize there were 2 gazebo's? Is there a difference? thanks! I switched to a 6pm ceremony time, with the advice from a bride on here who got married at the Riu. She got married at 4pm and said that it was very hot. Our reception begins at 8pm, which leaves us with an hour & 1/2 for pics after the ceremony. I have been told there is two gazebos. One is near the Sante Fe pool, but is closer to the beach, and the other is off the side and is more private (but a little further from the beach). I have heard that most weddings are held at the more private once from other brides, so I have picked that one. So hard making all these choices without being down there to actually see then venue!!!

Hi all! I am getting married on May 13th at the Riu Palace and lets just say that ever since Daniella has left, they have been very very slow in responding. I just got an email today saying that they got my wedding checklist, that I sent over two weeks ago! I have never been nervous about any part of the planning until now. I booked a private reception on the terrace of the SteakHouse back when Daniella was still there (thank god), so I didn't have that to worry about. I still have to pick my flowers, cake, etc. and we are two weeks away. I am getting my hair and makeup done by suzanne morel as well. So far she has been super professional to deal with and has even called me at home several times to answer my questions. Our ceremony is at 6pm at the Gazebo (not the one by the pool, the other one). We are using Mango for our photos, only cuz we really didn't have another choice. And I have decided on the ipod as well. I am hoping that since our day is only a couple of weeks away, they will start to respond sooner!! Fingers crossed all goes well!