StephyD

Turtle Bay Bakery made my cake and I would not recommend them at all. Althought the cake was delicious, the communication up until the wedding day was just horrible. The cake did not look anything like the pictures I sent and anything like she had promised. I've never heard of the other two bakeries you mention but I wouldn't go with Turtle Bay...

At the time of planning, I was told that you could have dinner at one of the a-la-carte restaurants and have a ''dance reception'' at another location (like Las Rocas) afterwards. I remember a past bride saying that she had done it before too... maybe I've read it in a different thread? I'm assuming you'd still have to pay a cocktail fee per person if you want drinks and service available. I believe that the cocktail fee is about 5$ per person (without appetizers).

Everything was picked before hand. I had external vendors for the flowers and cake, but Rocio had sent me pictures of the flowers they offered at the resort.

We had our reception at La Laguna and just loved it. I was happy with my choice when I got there. La Laguna is a bit more secluded and (maybe it was just a slower time when we were there) but just seemed quieter. It is surrounded by pools... while Gran Azul is surrounded more by jungle than pools. We were staying at the Colonial and it wasn't a problem to make it there and back. They will arrange for transportation for you and your guests on the wedding day.

We had a hard time finding suits at a decent price here in Montreal too... We got our suits at Gaudi (they are located in various shopping malls) and they weren't linen but they were a light grey and we paid 275$ for each suit. Other than that... no idea, sorry

You can have your cocktail reception at any time you'd like... Bars open to all of the resort's guests at 6PM (and some are open all day) so depending on what time you have your reception, it might not be private. The bar by the salt water pool won't allow you to have a private reception as guests have access to it throughout the day. We had our cocktail reception at the Sport's bar terasse (go back in the thread to see my review) and it was private since none of the guests ever hang out at that bar. We held it from 4PM to 6PM and had our dinner reception from 7PM to 11PM at the White Sand.

5th avenue in Playa del Carmen is very crowded. Obviously, there are some locals so you need to be careful anywhere you go in Mexico but Playa del Carmen is very touristy. I wouldn't wander in the connecting streets, but it is safe on 5th avenue. Coco Bongo isn't right on 5th avenue, but very close. The bus drops you off a corner down from the club itself but I felt very secure the whole time we were there. None of us (there were 18 of us... 7 girls and 11 guys) brought purses with us, but I'd be careful what you bring in case of theft or whatever. I'll be going to Coco Bongo again for sure! It was SO worth it and SO much fun!! The bus picked us up around 10PM at the resort (we had a party bus!!) and came back to pick us up after the show around 3:30AM. The guide said she would come with us but didn't. I guess she had went a few nights before and didn't feel like going again... She promised we wouldn't have to wait in line when we'd get there, which didn't happen... we had to wait about 30 minutes and made it in just in time for the show to start. I did argue with the staff a bit so they gave us an awesome spot for the show. Alcohol is included in the ticket price, so it's all you can drink. Make sure to give good tips if you want good service... the guy was on our side for most of the evening and brought regular rounds of drinks remembering what everyone had even without us asking for it.

Not to rain on your parade, but we had 70 guests stay at the resort and we never got a free room. They wouldn't even let us have a room for the day of the wedding so that my now-husband could get ready in while I got ready in our own room... You can get deals through your travel agency... you get rebates when you have a certain amount of guests book through them, which we did... but they have all kinds of rules you need to respect. Everyone usually has to leave on the exact same day, with the exact same flight and have the exact same kind of room at the resort. But Grand Palladium itself won't offer you anything... you'd have to get it through your travel agent, from my experience. Maybe some other brides had different a different experience.

We had a welcome dinner at one of the buffet restaurants (if you want an a-la-carte restaurant, you'll have to have a set menu for over 10 guests... which we didn't want). Rocio reserved a section of the restaurant for us, which was nice. No extra charge. I'm assuming you could do it for a brunch as well. For our rehearsal dinner, since there was once again more than 10 people and we didn't want to force a set menu on everyone, we had it at the Beach BBQ. It just so happened that the BBQ was the evening before the wedding, and worked out perfect since we did a quick run-through rehearsal before heading to the BBQ. The food was good too... BUT, it was extremely windy and we couldn't wait to get out of there. It's hit or miss... the BBQ that was 2 days later was better, now wind. We only went to Coco Bongo's in Playa del Carmen. We had a bunch of guests that went to Delphinus to swim with the dolphins... some went to visit the ruins... other went on various excursions. There is something for everyone

You need the long form birth certificate. A copy of your regular birth certificate won't do. It needs to have both of your parents' names on it, etc. I also found out a few days before leaving from Rocio that I didn't have the right birth certificate. You need an original copy. I was lucky enough to receive it within a day, 100$ later. You need the Apostile. We got ours about 6 weeks after the wedding. Then, ,you'll have to have it translated and do whatever paperwork you need to do with your province. It all depends where you live. In Quebec, we have to add it to the province's wedding's registry or whatever they call it. We still need to get it done... I can't change my name (the province doesn't allow it) so, no rush I guess...

We used Claudia Rodriguez for our photography. I haven't done my review yet since we're not fully done dealing with her yet. It's a bit hard for me to recommend her since she lost some of our pictures (memory card failure, apparently) and refuses to send us her memory card. If you want me to be honest, I believe she is lying about it... Anyways! I would recommend Citali Rico from Claudia's team. She's really good. DelSol are also amazing, though a big more expensive. Elizabeth Medina is also good, Fer Juaristi as well... La Luna is DelSol's sister company and is a bit cheaper but also has amazing photographers. If you ask Rocio, she will probably recommend Claudia. She seems pretty close to her and even called her when I told her we had problems with our pictures and wrote me back telling me how good Claudia is and yadayadayada...

Congrats to all the new mommies-to-be! How exciting We found out last Friday that we are also expecting!!! I am 6 weeks and 4 days exactly today. I had blood work done to confirm it all and I'm meeting with my family doctor tomorrow. It came much sooner than expected but we are just so excited about it all, it just seems surreal. My due date would be around February 10th.

Power outlets are the same in Canada and in Mexico. It makes it so much easier!

My dress was diamond-white. It's not white and it's not ivory either, it's somewhere in between. I think it's a matter of personal taste. When I tried white dresses on, I thought I looked sick, it didn't go well at all with my skin tone. I'd say go with what you feel best in

Here is a picture of my bridesmaid's bouquets and one of my bouquet as well, done by Vanessa Jaimes in Cancun:

Here are some pictures of our centerpieces, done by Vanessa Jaimes in Cancun:

We had our cake made by Turtle Bay Bakery in Tulum. I would NOT recommend them at all. Communication throughout the whole planning process was really bad. I explained about a million times what I wanted and Jen, the owner, promised she understood. Althought it was delicious (tres leche, vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam between the layers), it wasn't white (as requested) and the detailing on the cake just looked childish and not professional at all. I feel I could have done a better job myself. 1st picture: inspiration I found on the forum somewhere. The only change: I wanted real orchids instead of sugar flowers. 2nd picture: our actual cake. The color was an ugly beige, yellow orangey color. The dots on the top and bottom tier were absolutely ugly and not even aligned. Still, it's not a bad looking cake, just not what I expected from a profesionnal bakery.

Glad to know it went well today! We'll just keep sending positive vibes your way!

We had a bunch of external vendors and Rocio gave us the choice of paying for a day-pass or paying for their food at the reception. For the photographers (4 of them) and videographer (2 of them), we paid for their food. As for the DJ, Mariachis, Hair+Makeup team, Florist, Singer+Guitarist for ceremony... we didn't have to pay for a day-pass. She said it wasn't necessary. We brought some food to the room for lunch and brought some for the hair + makeup artisit and they were pretty happy about it. I booked Adrian and his team (the styling trio in Playa del Carmen) for hair + makeup. They were great! At first, I wasn't liking my hair at all (I didn't have time for a trial) and they quickly fixed it and made sure I loved it. In total, it cost 920$: 270$ bridal, 130$ for each bridesmaid and both mothers (X5). They came right to my room and had a great energy about them and we just had a lot of fun. I didn't want to walk around the resort to the spa and bump into my fiancé and any of the guests, so having them come to my room was the best idea for me. Plus, Adrian has traveled the world and has lots of skills. To be honest, I was scared of dealing with the staff at the spa because of the language barrier and I was afraid they wouldn't be as skilled.

This is our first month of TTC. I was on Micronor, a mini-pill that works differently than a regular pill. Basically, I had to take the pill everyday, no sugar pills for me. Each pack had 28 regular pills with the same amount of hormone in it. (I have really bad migraines, this is why I had to switch to this stupid pill...) So, my periods were very irregular for the last 5 years. I'd go months without any, then have them twice in the same month, etc, etc, etc. Now, I have no idea how long my cycle is! I went 27 days after stopping the pill before getting my periods. (I came off the pill at the begining of April). And now it's day 29 of cycle #2... and I didn't notice an ovulation this past month (and no, I'm not pregnant, I did a test yesterday morning)... Anyways! That's my story so far Glad to see this thread is finally getting some posts

Thank you We got the suits at a local store here in Montreal. They were hard to find as we really wanted a light grey and all the stores had during winter were black suits. I'd say you'd be better off shopping at this time of year, there are plenty of grey suits everywhere

Yes, I got a DVD with 3000 pictures. After going through it, we got about 1100 (including TTD) excellent pictures... althought, we also noticed that all our cocktail hour was missing and plenty of reception pictures. That's when she told us she had lost them... She's trying to recover some, but I'm still waiting. She picked the pictures herself for the online slideshow. I'm not 100% satisfied with the outcome, I'd say 50% of the pictures I wouldn't have chosen, but it's okay and doesn't really matter as I'm picking the pictures for the DVD slideshow.

Hi everyone! Here is the slideshow of our wedding photos: http://www.claudiarodriguezblog.com/ (We are the first ones on the page). I won't go into details right now, but Claudia has lost some of our photos. I will do a complete review once I find out the final outcome of the situation. Let's just say I'm a bit frustrated at this point.

It was at the Riviera, on the right side of the lobby. So not worth going... Yuk! We stayed at the Colonial and there was music and animation every night of the week we were there. Not sure about the other lobbies, but I know there wasn't anything happening at the Kantenah when I walked by 2 nights in a row.

Most of our guests went back to their room as well after the wedding. We went to our room to change and it was 12:15, so I guess everyone were just exhausted from the day. (So were we, but we still had to entertain some of our guests). We went to the disco... Oh my... worst place ever. It stinks, isn't really nice and had a bunch of 16 years old, not adults what so ever. If we were to do it again, we would just go to the lobby bar and hang out. The disco isn't worth it and no fun at all, IMO. Maybe you'd want to check it out beforehand, which we didn't do. We never made it to the disco all week and had written on our welcome letter that we would all meet at the disco following the reception. Maybe it was just a bad night? Not sure... but I wouldn't recommend it.