corbeil

Sorry ladies, I haven't been on this site for a little while. I ordered the mugs from Discount Mugs.com I just created the art work for the mugs myself and sent it in. You get to proof it before you order. We ended up with a few extras too I think because the art work was off centre. Just watch for discounts on the site, you can definitely save some money or free shipping. I just slightly changed the artwork for the shot glasses. I was really nice having the mugs because everyone used them and you could alway find the members of your group because you looked for the mugs!

In the Palapa you get different entree options. I gave everyone a menu for the dinner with out "Welcome to Mexico" booklets that I made and asked them to pick an entree. We just had to give the list to the coordinator before the wedding day (I think a day before was ok). Everyone could pick steak, surf n' turf or salmon and they even had a vegetarian option that had 3 choices as well. The coordinator made name tags with everyone's dinner choice (small print in the corner) so the waiters knew who ordered which dinner. You could even get your guests to pick before you get there if you wanted. There were 4 choices of cake: strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and cheesecake. We had strawberry and it was very good; white cake with strawberry filling. I just let them decorate the cake with ribbon (can choose from colours that she has) and flowers. If you wanted something specific I am sure you can ask. Quote: Originally Posted by MRS2012 Oh that would be great...so guests could just select between the surf and turf, steak OR salmon that night...or do they have to decide ahead of time? I thought for sure we'd all have to have the same thing! I got a super deal on some stationary that I could use as menu cards...and pre-print them before we leave...as long as I was fairly certain what the options would be. From what I've read, the wedding cake is always the same flavour. Did anyone take pics along of how they wanted it decorated...or do you just go with whatever the chef feels like doing with it?

We had a couple of kids at our reception in the palapa. We just ordered them chicken fingers for dinner and they even brought them ketchup. Everyone was allowed to choose their entree for the dinner and we only paid the upgrade for the people that choose the surf n turf. We had to have the same salad and soup for everyone, but we got both desserts 50/50. Everyone really liked their meals, no complaints. We didn't do anything special for the kids, but there would definitely be enough room if you wanted to. We found that there wasn't a whole lot of extra time either; we had cocktail hour 1st then the dinner and wedding cake a while after the dinner. We just brought our ipod and a speaker for it and had it playing the whole time we were in the palapa. It worked very well. We weren't worried about a dance though, so you might want a DJ for that.

My biggest advise would be to bring all of your correspondence from the coordinator and photographer. This helped me a lot and there was no question what was included. You will have a wonderful time; we had a wonderful wedding.

@Kbodchill: yes overall I really enjoyed the wedding. I was really happy that we rented the palapa, I think that really made the experience for us. All of our guests really enjoyed the wedding location and the palapa as well and the dinner was great. Personally I wondered if I could have done things differently (like an outside photographer or rented the palapa for 1 more hour), but that is always hindsight. I really did think that it was beautiful! I am sure you will have a wonderful experice!

@DianaKeelon - the palapa is $11050 to rent and $350 per person for the menu and you get open bar for 4 hours. There is an additional upgrade if you want the surf n' turf or the lobster but I can't remember what it is. I though it was expensive expecially because we are in an all inclusive restaurant, but we were really happy that did it. We had a wonderful time.

I actually saw you at your dinner in the itallian restaurant and you looked beautiful! I would have said hi, but some random stranger banging on the window might not have gone over so well!

I also added some templates for the welcome book and other stuff that I did if you are interested. Hopefully this link will work. http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/70887/templates-for-mexico-wedding#post_1567119

Hi everyone. I just wanted to share the templates that I used for my Mayan Riveria wedding. I got a lot of great ideas from this website so I wanted to share. I ordered the mugs from Discount mugs and was very happy with them. The shot glasses where from a company in Ontairo and they are very nice. I sent the newsletter out about a month before we left. I made some simple luggage tags with our guests name and the hotel on the back. I got the laminating kit from Staples and printed them on business card paper. I forgot to take photos of some of the other stuff that I made, but here are the templates. I made a welcome book for when people arrived at the hotel. I just hole punched one corner and put a flipflop brad in the coner. I made small travel kits. They had dish soap (for the mugs) bandaids, immodium, tylenol and aloe. There were a couple of kids so I threw a coulouring book together really quick. I think that is all I have, but if you have any questions please ask! Pre-Trip Newsletter.pdf Luggage Tags.pptx Welcome Book.docx Kit Label.ppt colouring.docx

Hopefully this information will be helpful to someone Hotel There is wonderful snorkelling and diving right at the resort. There was always something to eat in the buffet and no one got sick, if anything people probably ate too much and felt off from that. Unfortunately the all of the heads in the shower don’t work anymore and the tub would have taken forever to fill if you tried. Did that ruin the stay, not at all but it was just some of the features that are missing now. This was our second trip there so we didn’t need to get acquainted with the resort; it was pretty much the same. Al a Carte Restaurants Surprisingly we really enjoyed the Steak House. I was born and raised in Alberta and I still enjoyed it! I don’t think that anyone had any real complains about the restaurants; most I heard was that the Mediterranean and Cajun were just OK. We were told by the concierge that we were only allowed to book 1 Japanese dinner for the 2 weeks that we were there. We pretty much told him too bad and to book it anyway. The people that were only staying for 1 week couldn’t even get a reservation here which was unfortunate because we always have a lot of fun. Spa This is the first time that I have been to the spa here. We really enjoyed the Water Circuit, some people even went multiple times. I had a manicure before the wedding and it was a bit scary for me. They were very quick with the scissors and cutting around the nail, enough that I had to actually look away because it was easier than watching! I had a manicure the week precious so I wasn’t sure why they were taking so much off. My husband booked a moonlight couples massage on the beach. It was really nice, but it was pretty pricey so I highly doubt that I would do it again. The one thing that they don’t tell you is that when you get a spa treatment you are able to eat lunch at the spa. They make you a custom stir fry and it was sure a nice change. If you don’t have an appointment you can eat there so make sure you give it a try. Sirenis VIP I personally feel like this is a waste of time. We weren’t treated any differently just because we had ‘gold’ wrist bands. We did get flowers in the room, but this might have been because of the wedding I am not 100% sure. You are supposed to get 10% discount on hotel charges, diving, shops, etc. but we didn’t receive any of this. I guess this is partly my fault for not pushing it, but if you are a VIP it would be nice not to have to ask for everything that you are promised. We didn’t get the beach towels in our rooms and the mini bar was refilled daily anyway so I am not sure why this is on the list. We didn’t get the option of room cleaning hours and definitely no personalized concierge service. My parents used the free Gourmet Restaurant dinner and they enjoyed it. The one thing that I did like was the free Water Circuit at the spa. I don’t think that we would have tried it if it wasn’t free, but we ended up going again because it was so nice. Wedding We booked the palapa and had the ceremony right on the beach in front. It was amazing. We really didn’t get any other location options, but I am sure that we would have chose this anyway because it was so private. We had the ceremony at 3:00pm and the palapa was open at 5:00pm for us with dinner at 6:00pm. That left time for photos after the ceremony but not too much time that people were looking for something to do. I booked the Bliss package with Air Transat and that had everything that I was looking for. The bouquet was a lot smaller that I was thinking, but it was still beautiful. The original flowers that I picked out were considered exotic so we just made something up in our meeting. It seemed that I still had a lot of unanswered questions and things that I forgot to ask when I left the meeting. I think because there is just so much stuff to go over I got overwhelmed. I would recommend writing stuff down and make sure you bring all of your emails when you go (not just the coordinator but photographer as well). There were quite a few incidents where the emails clarified things and I didn’t have to get upset. Araceli was always helpful when you spoke with her. I think that there were 3 wedding on the same day as mine so Cecilia was there in the evening if we needed anything. The dinner was great. We had to pay for the beach menu for everyone and then additionally for those that ordered the streak and shrimp. We didn’t know about that cost, but people already chose their menu so we just covered it. Araceli didn’t tell me that it was only the entree that people could choose, but we got it straightened out and I don’t think that anyone minded having the same soup. Photographer Well I didn’t speak with the photographer before the wedding which I guess I should of, but I didn’t know how it worked. He was only there for the ceremony and short period after (maybe 1hr total). We just took a few shots in the immediate area and that was it. There was no option of doing anything else. The photos were OK, but it wasn’t hard to just pick a few; we were definitely OK with not paying for all of them. Also make sure that you barter with them. They originally were only going to give us prints for the photos and we wanted the digital images. After negotiating we got the digital images and the addition images we wanted for a lower price then what was listed. We thought that the photos were very expensive and we told them as much. Blood Tests Well this was kind of interesting. We spoke with Cecilia as soon as we arrived and book the blood test for the next morning. When we went for our appointment and we were told that there was an emergency and they were not able to do it right now and we were told to come back in 1 hr. So we came back later and waited in line. When it was our turn we spoke to the lady there and she said that it was actually the paramedics that do the blood test and that there were not there and to come back later. So again we went back later and waited in line again (don’t worry it was air conditioned building) and the lady in line before us needed to be transferred somewhere and the paramedics were going to take her. So we spoke up and asked if blood work could be done quickly before they left. So we went to the back of the building in the ambulance to get the blood taken. It was all fine and sterile. They said to come back later to fill out the paperwork (aka pay them). Well we went back a couple of times and the right people were never there so we gave up. We figured that if they wanted our money that they could contact us because we were staying for 2 weeks. We never heard from them. I don’t know how this will affected the legality of our marriage because we do have the marriage licence, but you can only try for so long and I wanted to enjoy my holiday! Well I think that is all that I have for now. Please let me know if you have any specific questions.

Hi Ladies! We got back a couple of days ago from our wedding and 2 week stay here. I am working on a review right now to share so I can try to answer some of your questions. If you have anything specific let me know. We book the palapa for the wedding and it was wonderful. I am so glad that we splurged and got it!

Hey, does any one know how many locations there are for a beach ceremony? Araceli gave us the option of the palapa beach but she thought that we should have the ceremony time closer to the dinner so there wasn't too much of a gap (4:00 ceremony and 6:00 dinner). We would like to take pictures in between, but I kind of wanted an idea of where we would be having the ceremony to have a time frame.

I just filled out the Air Transast form that she sent me, it was only about 2.5 pages. Some of the stuff I don't know so I will leave it blank. I had a hair trial the other day so I think that I am good to go, my friend is being brave enough to give it a try for the weddding Work...who has time for that anymore. Only a couple of more days then we meet up with my family before we go. I can't believe how close it is now. YAY!

@Melaina - I will definitely look for the big hat. I am getting my form done today! Happy packing too, I am trying really hard not to leave it until the last minute.

Melaina we will definatley see you there. We leave a week on Sunday! I still have to fill out the forms too so don't feel bad