Holly24

Hi ladies, So it's been 7 months since I was married at the RIU Vallarta and was thinking about it as my friend wants to have a destination wedding, so I thought I'd write what I thought. Definately get everything in writing! The WC gave us a book to choose what we wanted in terms of food, cake, flowers, champagne, music etc............ and all went wrong. I mean everything. The toast was supposed to be on the beach, I had the list of songs to play as the girls, then myself walked down the aisle, my cake was supposed to be 2 tiers, white and chocolate, instead I got a half melted ice cream cake from the buffet, the ceremony was 1/2 hour late because the WC forgot my flowers, I had some vegetarian guests in my group, and even though thats what was ordered, they all got meat. To say the least it was very disappointing, I would not recommend booking a wedding here. The only 2 pluses were they upgraded us to an amazing suite and the photographer was excellent. My husband and I stayed at the Palace for our honeymoon, much much nicer. Hope this helps for future brides, Holly

FYI Sunquest brides, I will never ever ever book through Sunquest again! Our wedding is 4 weeks away and I just found out our flight got cancelled because not enough of the plane seats were sold! We have been booked since Aug 09 and this crap happens now......... So they have made us take the Thursday flight which messes up everything and we don't even get a discount for it!!!!!!! Just thought future DW brides out there should be aware and cautious of Skyservice/Sunquest. And FYI, Skyservice is going bankrupt this year so if you have a wedding booked, I would think again. Royally angry bride, Holly

Ooooooh, one more question! For the brides who brought their ipods, did you have a guest take care of it for the night or did the WC do this for you?

Thank you so much to everyone giving their experiences! Sometimes I feel that I've got it all figured out, just to find out I haven't thought of something else! Did the WC have a rehearsal the day of or the night before? I remember the layout of the resort but am unsure of where I will be coming in as it is on the beach. Speaking of WC's, my last response from Kay showed that there is a new WC Daniela there...... Anyone know where Jessica went to? And is it the proper thing to give a money gift to the WC's? Did anyone give one to the photographer or anyone else? I'm sure our bartenders will be at their limit with our family so we plan on tipping them quite a bit. I'm still trying to figure out who much money we really need for this shindig. It says in the Sunquest book that if you book the wedding 90 days prior you get a 10% discount on the wedding itself. Did anyone have problems with this? Did anyone have issues at the spa Goodness my head is racing! 7 weeks to go and I feel unprepared!!! Thanks again ladies, much appreciated! Holly

Hi Celina, Lol, that is true... The stupid things I worry about this close to leaving.... I am still quite worried though about the reception dinner at the Flamingo steak house. We have been there before and I ended up serving our table drinks and the steak really did suck. Hopefully being on the 2nd floor we won't have to deal with the starving kitties... I tried to get Sir George with no avail. They won't do a reception dinner there Celina, do you by chance have any reception photos? While we stayed at the Vallarta Dec 08 we never had to go upstairs to the 2nd floor to have lunch so I've never seen it! Do you have any advice about wedding stuff at the Vallarta? Things you would have done differently, things you would have added etc? There are so many "extras" and I don't want to go overboard but would like your opinion pleaseeeeeeeeeee? Thanks a bunch, 65 days left! Holly

Hey Ava! What time did you get married at in April? We are debating either all of us going barefoot or going out and buying everyone sandals. Someone has mentioned it may be too hot at 4pm to walk barefoot. Still not quite sure... If anyone has their weddings pix and would like to share, that would be awesome Cheers!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I am very excited to leave this snow behind! 108 days until we leave!!!

Hi and congrats on your wedding!!! You'll have to tell me all about it once your back! For weddings at the steakhouse, as far as I was told weddings happen on the 2nd floor. I also got another tip that you could have your reception there but you can't stay as late as 11pm I think. I don't want to spend the money on renting the pool bar so we are just going to have the reception right after dinner. We are renting the speakers and a mic for our speech and dancing, then once they kick us out we'll head to the disco. But again as far as I know there are only 2 seatings for the dinner, and because our wedding is at 4pm, we want to be able to take all the pictures and go for dinner right away. I'm sorry I cannot be of more help The WC told me that she does not have to get back to me until 2 months before the wedding... After that comment I was ready to bail on the RIU altogether but unfortunately our party has already booked. Hopefully everything turns out okay for both of us!!!! Is your photographer a friend or family member? I don't know who to book with... Anyways, if you have never been to this resort it is very nice. We chose to get married on the beach as the gazebo is in between the adult and kid pools and we didn't want a constant flow of people walking by. (I'm sure it's going to happen on the beach too, just hope not so many of them!) We really enjoyed our stay and I hope the trend continues Take care, Holly

Hello Everyone, Glad to finally find a good website for destination weddings! I am getting married April 28th/10 at the RIU Vallarta. Just over 4 months to go! Very excited and can't wait to get into the warmth cause it's freezing here!!!! Have a great weekend! Holly from Waterloo

Hello to all the PV Brides out there! I am happily getting married at the RIU Vallarta April 28th 2010. I've read many posts that say the WC Jessica takes a long time to get back to you, and I've found that Tristan really helps get her moving with getting back to us. We are having our ceremony at 4pm on the beach and dinner at the Flamingo steak house. I have been to this resort Dec 08 (where we got engaged) and found the steak house to be slow. I hope this will not be the case for our wedding! I do have a question in regards to photography if anyone out there is reading this. Threads here say that we cannot book one from off of the resort. Does anyone know if this has changed now that the RIU wedding packages no longer have photos? I don't want to spend 1,000's of dollars on photography but would like to have a few nice pictures to frame. Anyone have any ideas? Also for any RIU brides out there, the spa that is on site, does the Jalisco and the Palace have different spas or will I have to travel to another hotel? If anyone has gotten married at the Vallarta I would LOVE some pictures just so I can actually place everything in my head! Thanks to all and happy shoveling to all the US/Canadians that just got hit with the storm yesterday ~Holly from Waterloo