ChicagoBride2011

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Hi CHaicago bride - I am working with Samuel Luna and he is going to be our photographer. He has been wonderfula nd very responsive. I am not sure what his pricing looks like these days. When i booked he was running a special but even with that his prices were amazing. I think everywhere in the world the photographer is a big expense but in my eyes the most important. You want someone to capture all those memories for you We our doing our welcome party at Wickys a restaurant beach club in Playa. However the $15 a person is the cheapiest you are going to find. Anywhere off the resort you are looking from between $35 to $70 a person. Its the open bar that kill the prices. I know it sucks because it is an AI but I guess they get you with the "its private and has to be set up" line. Glad to hear that. I have a couple more to contact but right now we are leaning towards him. His prices are very reasonable. The pictures are VERY important to be as well, and from the start I told my fiance it would be one of the biggest expenses. Wicky's is great. We actaully considered there for our reception, but the bar prices is what stopped us.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di I know! Photographers are expensive but are worth it. I so love del Sol and Elizabeth Medina but they were not in my price range. That is why we are not doing a welcome dinner but doing a welcome get together at a bar at Gran Porto. haha, it's funny the two photographers that you mentioned are the ones I was talking about. Their work is amazing thought and you get what you pay for. But unfortunately they are not in our budget. My future father in law suggested just setting a time for everyone to meet at the Lobby Bar too instead of doing a "private" function.

So I started contacting photographers and I'm in shock at how expensive some of them are!! I knew it was going to be a huge expense but come on! Anyways waiting for repsonses from a couple others, but right now leaning towards Samuel Luna. Has anybody worked with him? Also, what is everybody doing for welcome parties?? I think that it's ridiculous that in order to reserve at one of the restaurants that it's $15 a person. It's an all-inclusive so I don't understand that at all! Sorry I had to vent.

Quote: Originally Posted by LynnieS I was thinking, who's gonna kick them out if they go to one of the guest's rooms or something. Or a royal guest could just order drinks for them, right Yeah that's a good point! Also, town is a block away with a bunch of bars that people can hang out at. Workers at the resort may say something to them if they try to drink there. When I was down there I saw a worker confront an older couple who were walking through the pool area without a bracelet and asked them to leave and escorted them back to the beach area.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di BOo, i was hoping that the beach would clear out around 4pm. Ah, that's fine. Question, how do we handle it for our guests that don't have anything to do between the cocktail and reception? I think I read something that a bride almost had to pay for her guests getting food/drinks from the royal when they weren't guests. Are they supposed to tell if the person is a guest of the royal or not?? I would hate to tell the guests to not go to a bar/restaurant to get something in between the cocktail/reception. There is probably a 30 min window between cocktail/reception for my wedding. If they are a non Royal guest then they will have to pay for a guest pass if they want to eat or drink at any bars or restaurants. Can you extend your cocktail hour or start your reception a half hour earlier?

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa DSO Poop. I knew they had several weddings a day, but I didnt think they would be inconsiderate enough to stagger them over each other! that is super lame Yes it was a HUGE surprise to us! You would think that if someone reserved a beach reception then it would be off limits to everyone else. I'm glad that we did the site visit and witnessed everything first hand instead of being surpsied on our wedding day. At least this way I'll be mentally prepared!

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Well this was the very reason for us why we made the decision to not have our reception at the royal. But what about if you want to go to the beach are there weddings taking up the whole beach area? Also was it a pain to get beach chairs or pool chairs because it was so crowded? Sorry last questions I swear lol any recommendation on the best times to go to dinner? With such a big group I would like to be able to recommend all these thing to all our guests. We actually are very late eaters so how are the restaurants around 8pm? Well we never saw daytime weddings on the beach. The earleist we saw anything was the 4pm ceremony times, and the beach clears out around 6pm. Yes, it was difficult to get beach and pool chairs. What we did was put a pair of flip flops and a towel on chairs on our way to breakfast so we had them. We only were on the beach one day because there was never any chairs and were at the pool the rest of the week. As long as you secure chairs by 10am you should be fine for the pool. Also around 4 pm you can snag pool chairs, it seems around that time the morning people leave and new people come for the last couple hours of sunlight. We went to dinner at different times and never had an issue with getting a table which we were really surprised about, we usually ate between 7 and 8:30. Asiana seems to be one of the more popular ones and it is delicious! We ate there 3 times! Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me anymore questions that you have.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady_Di wow, 84 weddings this month! The Royal is THAT popular. I guess I am going to have some strangers standing around for my ceremony on the beach. I am not going to stress about it! Our reception is at the garden so wonder how much traffic in that area. Does anyone know what cocktail hour consist? I know it includes the cold cocktails but what about drinks? Is it open bar? ChicagoBride, can you tell me why you don't recommend Gran Porto? The majority of our guests are staying there. Yeah 84! That's why they can do whatever they want! I wouldn't stress, it is what it is and it's not going to ruin your day. There are 2 gardens, the gazebo garden is more quiet but I really like the main garden, it is the center of the resort though. I wouldn't recommend it based on the restaurant experiences that we had. Our famly can be quite critical so I don't want to be the one to tell them to stay there and then then have a bad experience. We are only recommending The Royal..which was fabulous I really don't have one bad thing to say about it from a vacation standpoint.

Quote: Originally Posted by msglave I thought they only had one wedding/reception at a time? Yeah you would think! If you're getting married on the gazebo at 4pm then another couple on the beach at 4pm then there is a chance of both reception being on hte beach at the same time. Or if a couple is getting married at 6pm and you at 4 then you might have the beach for a couple hours by yourself until the other reception starts. It is three different sections, but they are fairly close to each other. Like you this is something i was not told and when my fiance and i saw it we were a little disappointed. April, May, June, and November are their busiest months so during those times you're probably going to run into it. Zulma said they are doing 84 weddings this April.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Don't be sorry well I was told that I had the choice and it would not cost extra. However you know with the Royal, they might to that for me but it may be a different story now lol By the way I had the exact same experience on my site visit as yours. One thing I did not think about is the constant weddings going on. Was that annoying in any way? Does it affect anything for the guests? I hope it's not extra, that's one thing I forgot to ask Zulma when we met with her. I saw them set-up on the gazebo for a ceremony and they looked really nice. I'll email my WC in Michigan and see what she says. I think the only time other weddings are an annoyance is if they interfere with your own, for example more than 1 wedding on the beach at the same time. When we saw the 2 on the beach at the same time the 1 wedding was already at the dancing stage and the other was still eating dinner and the music of the other wedding was clearly heard during their dinner.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenny310 thanks for the info!! No Problem!

Quote: Originally Posted by msglave Gotcha...food for thought...Thanks! Sorry if you already answered this question, but are the Tiffany chairs extra money?

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenny310 Hi ChicagoBride2011 What is your opinion of the weddings on the beach? I see you said that there can be up to 3 weddings at 1 time. I'm having about 50 guests at the wedding and am wondering if there is another wedding going on if it would be close to ours. Any chance you took pictures of the beach areas? As of now we are have the wedding and reception on the beach because my FI really wants the beach wedding and the beach reception. I'm not 100% in love with everything being on the beach. My WC told me that the 2 things will be on 2 different parts of the beach. In your opinion what was your fav location on the site? Thanks!! I'm personally not doing the ceremony on the beach for privacy reasons. The one ceremony that we saw on the beach was in the middle of people, the ceremony was set-up betwen lounge chairs/cabanas. People were on lounge chairs 5 feet away from the cermony, strangers were gathered around the ceremony as if they were apart of the wedding etc. Granted the later the cermony the less crowded the beach will be, the ceremony that I'm referring to was a 4 pm ceremony and the beach was still very crowded. The 3 sections are pretty close. The one section is behind Pelicanos, the other is the middle (where the main walk way is to the beach) and the other is behind the Gazebo. My only concern with that is the music of other receptions is going to interfere with mine. Also the section of beach that you use also varies on the number of people you have having. We were told that Pelicanos was the biggest and that's what we chose, my fiance liked that location the best as well. By having your reception on the beach you are taking a chance of having up to 2 other wedding receptions on the beach with you. Which we were pretty shocked about, so I'm glad we saw it and asked about it. We are choosing to do the ceremony at the gazebo and reception on the beach ( there is no-one on the beach at night therefore it it pretty private), and keeping our fingers crossed that their won't be any other reception on the beach at the same time as ours. Let me know if you have any other questions! I'd be happy to help.

Hi a couple of people have asked me to share how my site inspection went. We just got back from a 5 night stay at The Royal. First of all, the resort is great. The service is unbeleiveable and the food amazing, especially Asiana. We ate at the Mexican restaurant across the street at the Gran Porto one night and it was not good. We tried to eat at the italian restaurant there as well and there was always a line of people waiting. Based on these 2 things, we are not going to recommend the Gran Porto to our guests. We saw quite a few weddings while we were there, did a food tasting, and met with Zulma. The food tasting went really well, everything was really good. We tried 3 salads, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts. However you have to pick only 1 and we were hoping that we'd be able to give our guests an option of 2 entrees. We do have a couple of concerns though. First, there is a definite lack of privacy, which I expected but we both thought it was going to be better than what it actually was. Also, they have 3 beach "sections" and all three sections can be used at the same time. Overall the pros out-weigh the cons. Feel free to ask me any questions you have, I saw about 5 weddings while I was there. This is just a basic summary of the site visit, I didn't want to bore anybody or repeat things that everyone already knows!

Quote: Originally Posted by jenconrad I meant geting mugged or something haha..f.amily people were freaking me out Don't worry about getting mugged or your ring stolen. I just got back from site visit and never once did I feel unsafe. I actaully felt safer there then in Chicago, lol.

Quote: Originally Posted by dianep ok, thanks for the info. and i can certainly understand the hassle if you do get stopped. personally, i think i'll risk it or maybe just take a picture of the receipt with my phone so i'll always have it with me if i need it. i definitely want to have my rings with me for my wedding/honeymoon! I just came back from The Royal 2 days ago and traveled with my ring. You don't have to do anything with customs regarding it.

Quote: Originally Posted by StephanieandMichael We are getting married there in 4 weeks!!I will let you know how it goes I would love to hear how everything turns out! and see pictures! We're going for a site visit next week, so I'm sure I'll feel better once i see the place in person. Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by duprk452 I heard from her today. I think she was out of the office, not sure. But I had sent her two e-mails a couple of days apart and she actually responded to both of them today. So I think she was playing catch up. She's usually very prompt by sending emails a day or two later, though. Ohhhh good, glad to hear that! I guess I'll give her until tomorrow . She has been very prompt, that's what made me ask. Thanks!

Has anyone been in contact with Aja since Friday? I've been trying to contact her. After Suzanna leaving with no notice I'm nervous the same thing is going to happen!

Quote: Originally Posted by duprk452 I agree. I would stick with Aja. She hasn't let me down, yet. Thanks ladies, have been in contact with Aja the past week and so far so good, what a relief!

Hey ladies, so going down to do a site visit and food tasting in 2 weeks for The Royal!! Our wedding won't be until April next year but I'm looking forward to seeing everything in person and making a final decision. Since we were having issues with Suzanna we also scheduled a site visit for Wicky's, just in case The Royal does not work out. We've been in contact with Aja now and she's been great! I'm hoping no more communicatin issues arise and The Royal works out for us . I sent in the $200 depsoit today to secure our date. When I get back I'm sure I'll have plenty of information to share.

Hi, I'll be visiting Wicky's and The Royal Playa Del Carmen in 2 weeks as possible ceremony/reception site. Can you send me the pictures you have of Wicky's? [email protected] THANK YOU!

Hi ladies, My fiance and I have had a very stressful week and was looking into other resorts as a result of the lack of communication from Suzanna. I just read on here that she's gone, and I'm willing to give The Royal another chance. Does anybody have email addresses from other US WC's? I would like to get everything in writing opped to calling them!

Wow your wedding is coming up soon! How exciting! I would love to hear how everything turns out. Right now we are considering other properties for our wedding due to communication issues with The Royal, or should i say lack of communication. We sent an email to them a week and a half ago with a couple final questions and as of right now no response yet. I'm not sure I'm willing to deal with this the next 12 months. Other properties get back to us within an hour, some within a few minutes.

Hi ladies, I'm new to the site and just started planning my Royal Playa Del Carmen wedding for April 2011. Does anybody have any experience working with Suzanna? How was she? We've been waiting a couple days for a response to an email and we're gettting frustrated! We're planning on going for a site inspection next month and waiting to final travel plans until our final questions are answered.