alison15

It sounds like your really loved both Carilis and Kalena, so what occurred that is making you cancel your wedding at MP? What was your bad experience if you don't mind me asking. Â

It really depends on what you want. With the collection and the Palace rewards, you can use the $1500 toward the package which makes it a great deal. However, with the package you get exactly what is in the package, there are no substitutions. With the free package you have to add everything separately but you get more options. Â

I think that would really depend on the time of your wedding. I think that the pools close at dark. At least when I was there, no one was in them after dark that I can recall. But maybe I just didn't notice.

If you book through Expedia, it will not count toward your group. You have to set up a group book link by signing a group contract. You may also want to see where those rooms are located at MP. I know with my group some found the "cheaper" room on Expedia however, those rooms were all 'obstructed view" rooms, which means they will be located in the Nizuc section, are sometimes smaller and the view is not a good view or no view from the room. My TA was able to add several of those rooms to our group and they ended up being $20 cheaper than what was on Expedia. To get a normal "garden view" room our rate was about $20 cheaper than Expedia as well. The obstructed view rooms were about $40 less per night than garden view rooms. We did have a few people who did choose that option, considering most of the time will be spent outside of the room anyway. I would recommend contacting a someone in the Miami office and getting a group rate quote. It never hurts and you don't have to sign the contract if you want to have everyone book through Expedia. Plus all the extra that comes with the group booking like cocktail hours and receptions make it worth it.

I used one of those transfer services to stay at Aventura Spa Palace back in Nov. The majority of the people in our van were staying at ASP (two couples everyone else was other various resorts). We had to wait for everyone to show up (7 total if I am remember correctly) for about 30-45 mins. We ended up being the last stop since our resort was the farthest away. It was a little annoying as our resort was already an 1+ drive and to make the stops added on about an hour and a half. Plus we were really antsy to get our of cold weather clothes and get a tan so it probably made it seem longer. On the way back we had to leave a minimum of 4 hours early to accommodate any stops or traffic on the way to the airport. Â I don't know the cost to set up your own shuttle but it might be worth it especially if you are further down in the Rivera Maya b/c that means more potential stops. Additionally, I get motion sickness very easily and with the driver whipping around to stop at each resort, I was starting to feel a bit ill. Â For my wedding we are at Moon Palace which is located very close to the airport so it should be the first stop. However, I may just get a taxi if I have to wait for the van to fill up again. The taxi drive is less than 15 mins so it doesn't make sense to wait for 30+ mins at the airport.

I bought mine from Venus Veils on Ebay. It was only $21 and looks great. There is a small amount of beading around the edge, it's a perfect accent for my dress. I would also recommend looking on craigstlist if you don't want to buy online, if the person lives close by you can see it before you buy it.

You can do an Ipod for the reception but you do have to rent speakers. There are 2 companies Palace resorts uses for this. It is around $400 for speaker, microphone for 4 hours. They have packages with a DJ which are more or you can add lighting. Â

It is very hard to choose from the menus as there are a ton. We are going with the Tex-Mex. We also like the BBQ Menu a lot. We wanted something that would have a lot of options our guests will like and we felt like this was the best. These are the things we took into consideration when deciding, 1. Mexican food is obviously their specialty, I really don't expect a Mexican resort to have the best Greek and Italian food, while it may be good, probably not the best. 2. Mexican is their specialty, which means for most of the buffet meals (breakfast and lunch, possibly dinner) there will be Mexican options for the guests all week, so guests may want a different option. 3. It's a buffet, not all foods that are offered work well on a buffet (i.e. one menu had soup or certain dishes that don't do well on a chafing burner). In the end we also considered, if they don't like it, it's not like it is hard for guests who are hungry to get food somewhere else. I don't know if this helps or not. Â Oh and don't decide while you are hungry, that makes it much more difficult Â

I have stayed at Aventura Spa Palace and it was nice. Smaller than MP but still lots of options for food, etc. When we went on our Zip Line excursion we stopped at Playacar Palace and it seemed really nice. A lot smaller so less food options, but I loved the location in Playa del Carmen, you are right in the city and within walking distance to stuff a little more culturally related to Mexico as the resorts are a little vanilla. I have also heard great things about Beach Palace.

It is a fairly large resort, depending on where your room is, it could be a long walk. I am staying in the Sunrise section but the catholic chapel is on the far end of the Nizuc section. It will be a long walk, in the heat, possibly windy. That is why I plan to have them take me over on a golf cart (passing on the horse). I will be hot enough in my dress that I don't want to walk 10-15 mins in heels sweating to death. Â If you go to google earth and look up the Moon Palace it will give you an idea of how large the resort really is. We measured it with the scale provided on the google earth map and from end to end it is close to a mile long. A walk to the gazebo could be close to a half mile walk depending on where you are staying at the resort.

One bride on here mentioned that her WC from Palace resorts said it was fine to purchase a day pass. Some photograhers require you get 2 nights for them, I believe Tamm's. As for check in at 3:00pm, that is technically the time your room will be ready but often it is available before and if the photograher isn't really using the room and just taking pictures it shouldn't be an issue getting in earlier.

 I emailed the photographer for MP as well. The prices did go up but the packages seem the same. The website she sent me is the same pictures that were up before. http://www.palacechannel.com/ To me it doesn't look like a new company but that they have just raised their prices.  Â

Congratulations!! I love the pic of you two saying your vows. So cute. Â I believe you were going to use Marvin at Mayan Floral. How were your flowers? Would you recommend using him?

I was having problems too. I have great communication with Carilis in the Miami office but she doesn't take care of the wedding details just booking. My WC in Cancun is Valeria and it took over 1 month for her to respond to emails and she only did so after I emailed her boss. I request a new WC but they wouldn't switch me. So I finally got to talk on the phone with Valeria and reserved my reception and cocktail party locations. She said that flowers and cake are not picked until we get there but that the food menus she will need 1 week in advance. Â They explained that they are very busy since they are coordinating weddings on site and need to tend to those brides. Which I completely understand, however, when I send and email and it takes a month to respond, that is a little ridculous. I would at least appreciate a follow up email saying it's been received. Â Also while on the phone with Valeria, she said all the photograhy through Moon Palace has changed and she was going to have the photography department contact me separtely and I still have not heard from them. She also said she would get a quote for me regarding table decorations, still nothing. And she said there are 2 companies with work with for sound/light packages (we are using an ipod) and she would email me that informtion and I still have nothing. Â When Valeria hadn't responded to my email after 3 weeks, I had resent it asking if it was received. One week after that my mother-in-law emailed and ask Carilis in the Miami office if she could have her contact us, and nothing. So I finally emailed [email protected] That is when my WC's boss responded saying she wouldn't switch and would have her contact me. Which she did with the wrong date of the wedding, which caused me to freak out even more. I then emailed [email protected] and ask to be switched. They did not switch me but had her call me. So my recommendation would be to email [email protected] and see if you get a response that way. Â

I paid for my BM dresses. I am already asking them to spend a ton of money to come, I didn't want them to have to purchase a dress on top of it. I found mine on sale at Target.com (some online dresses are not available in the store) and were only $20 each. I have 7 BM's but still was very cheap.

I am planning on asking Palace Resorts to change my WC. I am within my 90 days and it took her over a month to respond to an email and only did so after I emailed [email protected]. Then the email referred to Tuesday Nov. 2nd instead of my actually wedding day Saturday October 2nd. She also said she had already reserved my reception and cocktail hour locations (for the wrong day) even though I never requested any locations. I didn't even know what my options were. Have any other brides on here requested a new WC? If so what was your experience with them changing it? Mine has been horrible!.

oops wrong thread.

From the recent review I believe it is $6/pp for beach set up. If you want more additional such as a dance floor that is more too.

From what I understand in the complimentary package you only get to choose from roses or white calla lillies. I believe for the roses you do have color options but more basic colors such as pink, red, white, etc. I am getting the complementary package b/c you do get more choices. With the other packages, you have to go with what comes in that package, they do not do substitutions so if it says white roses, that is what you get. A lot easier to pick and choose with the complementary package. However, if you like the colors of one of the packages and are traveling while the Palace Rewards is still going on, you can use it toward that (which you have to mention at the time of booking) and it makes it really cheap. With the complementary package, you can't use the rewards for the wedding items.

Congratulations!! Welcome to the wedding planning process. I don't know too much about Dream Tulum however, I am getting married in Moon Palace in a little less than two months. One thing to consider, Moon Palace is really Cancun, not Riveria Maya. I don't know if that makes a huge difference to you or not. What we liked about Moon Palace is that it is only about 15 mins from the airport which is nice, b/c some of the resorts can take up to an hour and half to get to and when you get in, you just want to be there already! Moon Palace is a HUGE resort with a ton of options for restuarants, pools, golf, bars, etc. A lot of our guest are using this as their vacation, so I liked the idea that is was large so if they want to not hang out with the entire group, they can "get lost" and enjoy private time. The disadvantage of the large resort is A LOT more walking. Everything is very far apart and yes there are shuttles but you do have to wait for those which can be annoying. One thing we considered as well was the compliementary things Moon Palace gives you if you have a large group booking. Since we will have over 75 room nights booked amoung our guests, we get to stay 7 nights free and free unlimited events. Which means we can have a welcome cocktail party earlier in the week that we may not have paid separately. The downside of Moon Palace, the no vendor policy. There are ways around it though. However, their photographers are not that good but to get an outside photographer, you have to pay for a room night or two and that really adds on to the cost of a photographer. Additionally their flowers are outrageously priced as well as a few of their other "optional" services that you will need for a wedding. Hope this gives you some insight. Let me know if you have any MP questions. Sorry I can't answer much about Dreams. Happy planning!! -

Just a few questions Did you have a reception, if so where? Who was your WC? Where on the resort did you get married? And which section did you stay in?

In Catholic weddings there is the Lazo ceremony which is more beads than flowers here is some information on it along with an explanation of the tradition. http://www.weddinglazo.com/

Who is your WC? Mine will not respond and my wedding is 2 months away! I emailed her over a month ago and haven't heard back. I want to reserve spaces for my reception and she won't respond.

I think either way you go there are advantage and disadvantages. Obviously not everyone can make it to the destination which can be a huge disadvantage. What decided it for me, was going to another destination wedding (NaM) and seeing her 2 days before her wedding just relaxing by the pool and having fun her with friends. I have been a bridesmaid in 7 weddings and never seen a bride that relaxed and hassle-free so close to their wedding. I want a truly enjoyable day and this seemed the best way to do it. Also you get to spend more time with everyone at your wedding since they will be there for several days. Some weddings you barely get to say hello to the bride and groom so it makes it much more personal. Plus who can argue with the beautiful setting? We chose Mexico due to the cheap flights, many of the islands cost much more to fly to. Our resort was narrowed down by the ones that offer a Catholic wedding along with affordability. We also liked Cancun's proximity to the airport. I sort of wish we had a smaller resort but there are both advantages and disadvantages to that as well.

Love your invitations! So pretty!