kj1606

I will second that - it is not just your TA, mine called to, and I checked the webpage as well. The weekend of the 9th (our wedding) is also sold out at both resorts!

We are getting married Saturday (April 9). The extra hour of the reception was $10 per person. So to have cocktail hour and 4 hour private reception, it's $50 per head! What day is your wedding?

hey cappiegirl!! i'm so glad you were able to catch the sunset - how perfect!! yes, i did a lot of research on the sunset times and while it does show that the sun sets right now around 530, in april (which is when our wedding is) the sun sets closer to 7 pm! so hopefully if we are taking pics between 6 and 630 we will have some good lighting. there is some good historical sunrise/sunset time on wunderground.com if anyone is looking!

Jenny: We are also having ours on the north beach... originally the coordinator told me that the latest they could do it was 10 pm, but I had heard 11 so I pushed back and asked her to double check on that as I had read 11 online. She came back and said 11 was ok. So we are definitely pushing a tight time schedule, as we are having our wedding from 5:30-6:00, cocktail hour from 6:00-7:00, then the dinner reception 7:00-11:00 pm. The sun typically sets (on our wedding day) at a little after 7, and we really wanted to take our pictures as it was setting (i.e. 6:00ish). We also didn't want anyone to be too hot during cocktail hour! That is probably way too much detail for the question that you actually asked

hi wendy! one thing i am very interested in finding out about the gran porto real is whether or not there is an option for us for a "rehearsal dinner" of sorts. we have too many people (greater than 30) to do a semi-private dinner on the pool terrace or elsewhere, and we don't want to do a private event on the beach because that is what we are doing for our actual reception. additionally, many of our guests are terrified of all of the negative media attention that mexico is getting and i am not sure they'd be comfortable leaving the resort to do a dinner in playa del carmen. that is the only thing that i have not been able to figure out yet. if you find anything out, i'd love to know all about it! have a great trip and thanks for the offer!!

Great - thanks for the synopsis! I have heard great things about the royal, but we went with the gran porto for the same reasons as you guys. We did give our guests the option to stay at either and so far all have booked at the gran porto, so I think they really appreciate the cost break. Your description sounds wonderful though - I'm glad it's so small! I'm interested in answers to your question about after the reception. Our cocktail hour and reception will end at 11:30 pm and I know people will want to carry on... So many of our guests are terrified of Mexico, or else we would probably just wander out the front door of the resort and go out in PDC...

hi jenny! i'm glad to hear that you visited the resort, and, presumably since you are still a "gpr bride", liked it! did you meet with the wedding coordinators there? how were they? we are getting married 2 weeks before you (april 11)... i haven't visited the resort and have very little contact with the offiste coordinator, so just poking around to see if you learned anything on your visit that you think i should know! thanks

ginger, that sounds perfect!!! Â sometimes i wish we were having fewer people so we could do the semi-private dinner, etc., but, it is what it is. by the way, in response to the rehearsal dinner question earlier as to how many people we are having, the answer is 50-70. we decided though to skip the formal rehearsal and rehearsal dinner! i'm with you guys, i'm already spending $50 per person for the cocktail hour/4 hour reception on saturday, this could get out of hand fast. Â thanks for all the input

Hey everyone! I have a question.... Â Is anyone doing a rehearsal dinner or welcome reception of sorts, presumably the night before the wedding? We want to do a rehearsal, but will not be necessarily doing it at our wedding location as you have to pay $300 just to reserve the location for a rehearsal since they cannot have a wedding there during the time you are rehearsing. We are just going to wing it and rehearse in the "right spot" if we can and if not, we will just do it elsewhere on the beach. Â That being said, we'd still like to host at least some sort of welcome dinner for all of our guests... we have too many people to do a semi-private dinner, which would be ideal, and do not want to spend the full amount to have a private dinner which would basically cost the equivalent of another wedding reception. So, all we have so far is a "welcome cocktail hour", which will be $15 per person to have open bar and appetizers. Â There is also the possibility to go offsite and do a dinner in Playa del Carmen. Â What is everyone else doing?

ha - sorry that i repeated this post!! i didn't think it posted the first time...

that is how it happened for me too!! i was so stressed out and tired of looking at resort after resort and finding things wrong with them, and, in the end i just kept coming back to GPR. since i have booked it, i have been emailing some with photographers and other vendors and EVERYONE keeps telling me how lovely the hotel is. so, seems like it was a great choice! Â while i have no interest in pushing you towards one resort or another, primavera i WILL guarantee you that as soon as you decide, the planning process becomes generally much less stressful

i agree totally - it is very difficult to choose!! there are simply SO MANY. i got to a point where i was going in circles looking at all the resorts and i just kept coming back to the gran porto, so decided to go for it. also, our TA recommended the gran porto and they nixed a lot of resorts from our list for various reasons, so it was nice to know that the gran porto had passed their screening process. Â if it helps at all, i have been having discussions with vendors in the area, mainly photographers, and all of them keep emailing me back telling me how AMAZING the gran porto is as a resort and as a location. very affirming!

we are doing the "classic wedding" and then having to upgrade for a private reception... we are likely going to have between 60 and 90 guests. i don't think the gran porto does any group benefits though, unfortunately!

thanks for starting a thread!! i literally just booked our date yesterday for april 9, 2011. after doing a ton of research on a TON of resorts i just kept coming back to this one... it seems affordable without being crappy, small enough to be intimate and keep our group together but large enough that booking rooms shouldn't be an issue, and i'd heard that the wedding coordinators are great to deal with. plus the north beach location is beautiful!!

I'm getting married at the gran porto on April 9, 2011. Let me know if you all start a new thread!!