happilyeveraftr

Hi imnotarunner, when is your wedding did you already put a deposit in with Paradisus. I did lose my $500 deposit but I didn't pay anything extra so I am mot sure what your situation is but if you have not committed then yes for sure consider other venue options. My venue you can book the wedding ceremony and reception and yes still have your guests stay at the Paradisus hotel. As I said I stayed there its a very nice resort I just didn't care to have my wedding there for the costs that they charged. I am very happy that I booked the Grand Coral Beach club instead. The beach club is right by the Paradisus I went for a food tasting and saw the venue before we had our wedding and it's literally a 5 minute cab ride from the hotel. I got married directly on the beach and had the 5 hour reception afterwards. The venue is so private and beautiful I have no regrets. I will email you some pics of my wedding we have not gotten back all the pictures yet.

I ended up cancelling a little more than a month before my wedding was booked at Paradisus La Perla and if it within 30 days I think you lose the $500 deposit but if it's more than that you get your refund I can check my papers for you if you like. I still have all the contracts that were sent to me. I feel like in the end I made the best decision by doing this not that I don't think brides shouldn't get married there as I said it's a beautiful resort and I wish all the brides the best in their wedding planning but for me it was the right decision for what I wanted. I found a place called the Grand Coral Beach club it's a private beach club and only 5 minutes from the Paradisus. The main reasons I changed my mind was that I felt like the wedding planning at Paradisus was overwhelming for me, that the place did not care they were getting my business and wanted to go above and beyond or at least meet me half way to ensure I had the best wedding day possible. I am not a overly picky bride but communication is key when organizing your big wedding day but it would take 3 days to a week at times to get a response I would have to email constantly just asking if someone could please respond to me. At times I would call and I would get their answering machine when I wanted to speak with someone. The other reasons I changed my mind had to do with all the extra added costs to have my wedding there. Everything that I wanted was adding up and I felt like I had no options at personalizing my wedding to get what I wanted. When I first started looking at getting married in Mexico I looked at Dreams Rivieria and a few other resorts and to be honest with you Paradisus was the only resort that charged $1000 for every vendor. It's a huge cost to eat up as a bride. They are not good with negotiating there if I asked other wedding planners at other hotels they would come back to me and offer solutions or even cut some costs down but Paradisus would not. I cannot say enough good thing about the Grand Coral Beach club. I hired a wedding planner and changed my venue there. We had the private beach which was great for our wedding day and we had the reception at the Beach club after. It was beautiful there at night all of my guests raved how they never attended a wedding such as ours they loved the venue. It was so private and secluded and we had a wonderful time. How many guests are you planning on having? Our wedding was more small and intimate so it worked out nicely for us. We had the venue until 11 PM and it was great. We got a 3 course meal, cocktails and appetizers, dessert and 5 hours open bar. The chef is great to play around with the menu as well. The great thing about picking a place like this is that you have no rules. You get to personalize your wedding how you like. So picking a florist, DJ, cake etc it can all be done if you want and there is no outside vendor fees to do so. I did not want to use Blue Lens from Paradisus and because it was an extra $1000 to bring my own photographer in so I considered using them but when I got the pricing back from them the costs per packages were not worth the cost of getting a photographer I wanted for my wedding. If you do book with Paradisus I would make sure I have everything in writing I am good with keeping my emails as a few times they would go back on something they already quoted me or promised me. Just be careful it's all about costs there to protect yourself just have everything in writing as a back up. It's hard to plan a wedding in Mexico and I don't usually take the time to come on here and write these messages but as a recent bride I REALLY want a bride to not go through the stress I did. I wish I had someone educate myself when I was planning mine. It's very stressful. If you want to see pictures of the Paradisus hotel let me know I did stay there for a week I just didn't get married there. I can email them to you.

Hi new brides, I just recently got married in Playa Del Carmen Feb 2013 and after a lot of researching I booked Jaimie Glez as my photographer. He is newer for wedding photography in Mexico but he is a very talented photography. I highly recommend him. Him and his wife take the photo's and they are a great team to work with. Jaimie has an eye for great picture taking and we just reviewed our preview pictures for our wedding and the pictures turned out stunning. If anyone would like to see pictures send me your email address and I will send you some. I know how important pictures are on your wedding day and as a recent married bride I am more then happy with the pictures Jaimie took. I think he will start being in high demand as soon as word of mouth spreads around I know being a bride from Canada it was very hard to choose a wedding photographer in Mexico and I thought of flying in my own but my expectations were met with booking Jaimie Glez. Please check out his website and for all you Canadian and USA brides out there he is worth booking he is truly a talented photographer and very easy going. I had lots of fun taking pictures on my wedding day because he is very humble but also very professional. I think sometimes we make decisions because some photographers mass advertise but its some that get over looked because they are not advertised everywhere and that's the great thing about this forum because I know as a bride stressing out for my big wedding day this forum helped a lot. Everyone who has seen our wedding photo's so far have all said that our photo's look like they should be in a magazine and if you are looking for someone who will make your wedding pictures elegant, modern and romantic book Jaimie! You won't regret it. http://jaimeglez.com/wedding-photography/

Congrats on your wedding. I just got married in Playa Del Carmen Feb 2013. I looked at photographers for a while and am very happy with my decision. Pictures were important to me but not my top priority as I needed to make sure it also fit in my budget. I found Jaimie Glez, he is newer for wedding photography in Mexico but he is very talented has an eye for amazing picture taking. I will email you some pictures I just received from him but him and his wife are a great team. I think the more wedding photography he does the more people will want to book him as I said he has natural talent for taking stunning photos. http://jaimeglez.com/wedding-photography/ is his website. I can't recommend him enough and I will email you my recent wedding photo's.

It was a decision I went back on forth on for awhile. The resort is beautiful don't get me wrong but the wedding planners and the additional cost especially vendor cost made my decision for me in the end and I went to a place close by the resort but it offered me more personal selection of what I wanted. I felt like the wedding planners wouldn't meet me half way on most things I asked so a month before my wedding I rebooked elsewhere. Something to consider you have any guests staying off resort there is a cost of $35 for a day pass and they are allowed 30 minutes before and after the wedding before they have to leave. I just got back a few weeks ago and the resort was beautiful, the food was great as well especially at the La palapa restaurant I would recommend it. If you don't have children attending the gazebo is beautiful at night time for a wedding reception. The hotel itself is very quiet which was hard for our wedding guests as they did not have any nightly entertainment but we went into town instead. Good luck with your planning

I tried to negotiate the wedding vendor fee as well when I was planning my wedding there and they would not budge. I advised them that other hotels had a fee ranging of $160-$600 max I did not understand why Paradisus charged so much. I emailed Blue Lens and after getting their package pricing cost I made the decision to have my wedding at a private beach club 5 minutes from the hotel instead. The money I would of paid to bring an inside photographer in the hotel for a day went to better use as I used it to pay the photographer I wanted elsewhere. Paradisus is a beautiful resort the only issue I found with them is they don't try to meet you half way when planning your wedding there all the outside vendor fees there are way too expensive. It's $1000 for all the outside vendor fees so even if you brought in your own make up artist/hair dresser it would cost you $1000, florist $1000 etc it just seemed way too high. Maybe they will learn just because they are a new resort they can't charge brides so much just to have a wedding there seems unfair.

Hi I just got back from Mexico a few weeks ago and stayed at the Paradisus La Perla. We originally planned to have our wedding there but the communication or lack of and not being able to work out the details with the wedding planner I switched venues last minute to a private Beach club not too far from the hotel. Do you have any kids attending the wedding? I requested to have the reception at the gazebo in the evening but they would not allow it since I had children attending. We had only less than 5 kids but they said they would not make any exceptions and said our only options were the Hadar ball room or poolside which is located on the family side. The gazebo is located on the adult side of the resort. The hotel was beautiful but very quiet there was not much happening there in the evening and it seemed most people were in bed by 10 PM. If you have not heard back from your wedding planner I would email them again I went days to a week not hearing from them I had to email them again to reply to me. Just something to consider when you are looking to book there. I looked for over a year at resorts Paradisus is beautiful. I loved staying at the resort don't get me wrong it was just the lack of assistance from the hotel/wedding planners I went elsewhere plus the additional fees like $1000 to bring in your own photographer made me rethink my decision.