wanda

I forgot about Flora and the Chapel. I was asked to stay in my room until she picked me up. For no reason (according to my guests) she waited a while before she came to get me. I thought they weren't ready for me and my guests were wondering what was taking me so long. I'm not sure why but she picked me up late. I thought she was going to help with the seating too but she didn't. I'm not sure if that's part of her job. She also didn't have the stereo ready. You have to make sure you ask for that in advance. I had the harpist play but also played one song for the unity candle ceremony. For all brides, I recommend you do a proper rehearsal (find a time when everyone is sober) and have an usher. Make sure the usher knows how many seats to reserve (for immediate families). Our BM and GM stood up the whole time with us ( to the left and to the right of the altar) which we liked because we could see them which made us a little less nervous. Also another tip, I was asked if I wanted to walk down the stairs and my dad would be waiting there or if I wanted to come through the kids pool area, I chose the stairs. I had my brother come up and open the door for me. I mean you can open the door yourself put when you're nervous and your holding your bouquet and worried about tripping, it's nice to have the door opened for you. I just wished that I had someone to keep me company while I was up there by myself. It might have only been 15 minutes but it felt like forever. The downfall is if someone did stay up there with you they would miss seeing you walk down the aisle.

I really hope you don't have her. She was terrible! I really mean it. She doesn't listen to anything you say but pretends she does, she denies everything, and when I complained about her to her manager, she didn't seem to be too surprised. I'll give you examples of what she did: 1. She asked when we arrive into Mexico. I advised 5:30 at the airport. She asked to meet at 6. I explained that's not possible considering we have to clear customs and take the shuttle. After 4 emails of disagreeing, she agreed to 7. The morning of our flight we found out our flight was going to be delayed. I emailed her immediately advising her. She said no problem I will wait. We arrived at 7:20, she was already gone. The next day she had 5 weddings, so she said she was really busy and would squeeze us in. She claims that she waited until 7:45 for us and was upset that we didn't make it on time because she had a 14 hour shift (the day we met). We had the front desk call her office in front of us at check-in and they said she was gone for the day. She denied it and called me a liar. 2. We ordered chair sashes the day we met her. She had samples in her office. The day of the wedding, she used a different shade that what we ordered. 3. She agreed to pick up our stuff (unity candle, favors, etc) from our room the day of the wedding. Her and I walked back from the spa and she said she would be back for them. She never showed up. My guests had to do it. 4. She lost our table seating chart. We bought starfish that I asked her to place in a chest I brought. The starfish had escort cards attached. She decided to put the starfish on each table rather than the guest pick them up themselves. This took forever because she didn't know who was seating where. My husband's aunts had to guess. 5. I asked for a head table for 10 of us. She set up a rectangular table (as requested) but put chairs around it. When I asked her why she didn't have us all facing one direction, she blamed me for not specifying that. Then an hour later suggested we move my parents to the back so she can set the table the way we wanted. Of course I didn't do that. 6. Not sure if it was her job to coordinate or not, but the cake wasn't served. My husband served it to everyone. 7. The day we met her to go over everything, I asked her what happens if it rains and can we see the ballrooms, she said not to worry about it because the weather looked fine (which no one can predict) but she decided to ask me what ballroom I wanted while I was getting my hair done the day of the wedding since there was a slight chance of rain. That's not something a bride should stress about the day of. It was my responsibility to have looked at the ballrooms in advance. I recommend everyone do that regardless of the expected weather but she didn't know how to talk to a bride. She approached me in a stressful way- hard to explain I guess. 8. She packed up my unity candle and taper candles right after the chapel. I had some family members in charge of collecting our stuff (which I recommend you do). However no one (including the hotel) knew where they were. The hotel ended up finding them somewhere and we got them back during our second week. 8. She was overall very unpleasant, never smiled, didn't seem to like her job. She was very disorganized. If you do end up with her just keep in mind that she won't do much for you and have some guest (of course not a BM or your mom because they'll be busy) do the little details and touches you want. Print out instructions for any little detail you want her to follow. Keep a copy for yourself and give that to someone else who can manage. We had 54 guests and 3 of them helped her. Really you shouldn't have to do that but for piece of mind, I suggest you do if you're having a big wedding. Also, I suggest you choose someone who can make decisions for you the day of. She asked me so many questions that day and it was really stressful. I had my cousin take charge because I got fed up with her. It was like nothing I said the day we met went through her head. I hope things work out for you (and all brides) the most important thing is to be organized and have back up plans.

We ordered two entrees and created place cards to be put on the tables. Just be sure to print off a table seating chart to give to whoever is pacing those cards down for you. Flora (our co ordinator) lost our table seating paper so it made it difficult for my husband's aunts (who pretty much did all the work instead of Flora) to determine where to put the cards. Just be organized and make sure you have a few people you trust to to help with little details that you care about.

I think I might have seen you walk through the lobby on your wedding day I know what you mean about the sweat, lol we had the same problem! You know the hotel made me feel that the AC broke THAT day (we got married on the 17th) and they said they couldn't fix it at such short notice but it sounds like it was never fixed and who knows how long it's been broken for. I have to say you were lucky that they let you have your wedding on the terrace to begin with. I wasn't given that option. I was asked while getting my hair done whether I wanted the terrace or the ballroom. Flora said if it rains or sprinkles at all, my wedding gets cancelled! They would not move our wedding as set up is time consuming (which I understand). The shitty thing is it only rained for a few minutes ( I didn't even notice the rain because it happened right when we were being introduced at the reception).

What day was your wedding? Did you have the ballroom next to the lobby washrooms by guest services? That's where we were and it was SUPER HOT!

Hi happygal, You're right about the room upgrade- it's not guaranteed. I just want you all to be prepared in case you don't get yours. They don't care about how many people you've brought down, they'll still try to make more money off of you. Our initial offer was to pay $160 extra per night. We argued for an hour until finally they brought down the price. I hope you guys don't go through this because it's stressful considering you're wedding is in a matter of days. The room we upgraded to was great though. It was one of the beach rooms. As soon as you walk outside of your room, you are within a few steps to the beach. So you don't have to take an elevator or walk to the lobby to get to your room. It was really convenient. Those rooms are located right next to the Villa Terrace. If you have your reception there it's perfect!

Hi Vchan, We had to pay the outside vendor fee and for the photographer's dinners, however we had them for 8 hours. It was worth it for us because we're big on photography. I have to say the Funever (the hotel photographers) are not very good (if you're really into photography). We also had our ceremony filmed by them and it was terrible! The videographer simply had the video on a tripod and didn't move it much. You can't even see me walking down the isle because one of our guest was blocking the camera. You'd think the videographer would move or ask the guest to move. In our opinion the video was poorly done. We used a different videographer for the reception (same company that took our photos) but didn't for the ceremony since it was included. It's too bad we didn't use them throughout the whole wedding. Also, they didn't take many pictures. Only 24 were included-usually a photographer will take at least double the amount so you have some to choose from. They chose the 24 for us. We had to ask to see the rest in case we wanted different pictures. I recommend you ask in advance to see all pictures if you decide to use them that way YOU get to choose the ones YOU like.

Hi Bride2B22, We expect to get our pro pics in about 6 weeks, I will post some then In the room we had our reception, I found the sound system pretty good in the dance floor area. It wasn't clear when we were sitting at our head table (during dinner music) but it's no big deal. If you're comfortable having your own playlist, I would save the money rather then getting a DJ. Although I do recommend having one of your guests as an MC and having someone else monitor the iPod. I created several playlist so the "dj" would know when a break was needed for the MC to announce for example First Dance, Cake Cutting, Garter Toss, etc. I also created a "Filler" playlist in case the playlist ended before we were ready to move on to the next song (in the next playlist) if you know what I mean. Getting the playlist together was a bit time consuming but it was fun because you get to choose all the songs you want that are meaningful to you and your FI.

Hi ssantos78, I know exactly how you feel. I had similar problems with my wedding. We just got married last week too. We stayed at the Gran Caribe for a week then moved to the Royal for our honeymoon. I also don't recommend this hotel for weddings because I agree the service was terrible! I agree with you the location is great and we loved the chapel as well. Our reception had to be changed indoor as well due to the chance of rain. It ended up raining for only a few minutes but I was glad we moved it indoors because our WC said if it rains while we’re outdoors, the wedding gets cancelled. They will not move you indoors due to the time it takes to set everything up (understandable). I recommend all brides who are getting married there to view all ballrooms ahead of time even if you don’t think it’s going to rain. I didn’t do that so when I was asked on the day of our wedding (while getting my hair done) I didn’t know what room to choose. I ended up getting a family member to choose one for us. So I saw the ballroom for the first time when we walked into the reception. I agree the food is excellent at The Royal. We had really good service there. I have no complaints about the Royal. 1. I was also told from the very beginning certain things by our WC Angie that later were not fulfilled. 2. We also didn’t get a free upgrade at check in. We ended up paying extra to get into a decent room. They also told us that our suite category was not available. I wonder if they do that to ALL brides. We were pretty upset considering we brought 50 guests down (25 rooms booked under our wedding code). Most of our guests had to switch rooms too because they were unhappy with what they got. My parents and aunt had bunk beds! 4. We also had a problem with the AC during our reception. They said it was broken and there’s nothing they can do about it. It was so hot that day. Every one of us went outside at least a couple of times to get fresh air. Some guests went to their rooms to change. It’s pretty annoying for a bride to be sweaty and have your hair and makeup messed up so quickly. 5. You mentioned, “Most of the time people/wedding party did not know what to do as the coordinator did not do a good job of letting people know what was needed and what to expect. The whole time we were going based on our own assumptions.†We had the exact same problem. I brought our WC Flora to our room to show her and go over everything with her in detail. I even left her notes to explain everything. But on the day of the wedding, she didn’t do anything I asked. I even had 3 family members leave the cocktail hour to help her but she was a complete idiot! For example, I asked for a head table for 10 of us. She ended up putting us around the table rather than have all of us facing our guests. So those who were facing us (the bride and groom) had their backs to our guests. Which also means they won’t be in most of the pictures. As soon as we arrived at the reception, I asked Flora to change it, and it took her an hour to say she could do it but would have to move my parent’s table to the back! So we just left it as is. She said it was my fault for not specifying how we wanted the head table. I thought it was self explanatory (but not to an idiot). 7. We also paid for an extra hour for the reception and had to pay for it before the wedding. We weren’t too surprised about that but I know what you mean. My other comments about the wedding… We didn’t get the cake we ordered from their catalog. The design was way off. The service for the most part at the reception was good except when we got the cake. They didn’t serve it to everyone. They missed a few tables. My husband ended up cutting it. Although I have to say it was delicious! We also got different color chair ribbons then what we ordered. Funny thing is we ordered them the day before. She even showed us a sample. I don’t know how she messed that up. Flora didn’t really do much with setting things up for us like she promised. We had my husband’s aunts do all the work. They missed out on the cocktail hour and were rushing all day to finish things up. The photography (the 24 pictures included with the Luxury package) was not good. Thank God we brought our own. We used Claudiaphoto.com. We had Citalli Rico who brought 2 of her assistants as our photographers. They were excellent! We haven’t seen our pictures yet but the service we got was more than I could ever ask for. I will write a separate review on them soon. We had Funever video our ceremony since it’s included with our package. I hope no one uses them because they were terrible! The videographer didn’t make any effort in moving around. When I was walking down the isle, you couldn’t see me because of a guest who got in front of the camera to take pictures. I’m sure that happens often when a guest gets in the way. But I think the videographer should’ve moved the camera instead of filming that person’s back. One thing that really upset us was meeting Flora. She asked us to meet her the day we arrived at 6pm. We were scheduled to arrive at the airport at 5:30pm. We advised her that there’s no way we can make it in time with airport security and travel time. So after 4 emails, we agreed on 7pm. The morning of, we found out our flight was going to be delayed due to a snowstorm. We emailed Flora immediately advising we were going to be late. She agreed to wait. We ended up arriving 20 minutes later and she was already gone. Front desk called looking for her while we were checking in. The next day she said that she waited until 7:45 for us. She denied she had left and pretty called us the liars. If you’re not having a DJ, I recommend you create playlists (for example, dinner songs, entrance song(s), party song, cake cutting, etc) it makes it a lot easier. We had a guest monitor it. If you have a bunch of playlist then at least the music will pause when you want it to ( ie for the cake). I hope this helps. If anyone has any questions, please ask. I’m sorry to report such negative feedback. Our experience wasn’t the greatest. In the end, our wedding was a blast. We had a lot of fun because of our company. It’s not the wedding I’m complaining about, it’s the service we received from the wedding centre. I wanted to post this so other brides can learn from my mistakes and I hope no one else goes through this. I’m a very detailed person and I worked really hard at putting in little details for our wedding. If any of you are like me, I suggest you have someone you trust set up your wedding rather than rely on your WC.

Hello, I have pictures of the Villa Terrace if you'd like to see them. I haven't figured out how to post pictures on this forum yet but if you send me a PM with your email address, I can email them to you I've had my bouquets made by Enchanting Memories Flowers: http://enchantingmemoriesstore.com/3.html. They're located in Ontario, Canada (not sure where you are but maybe there is a store near you that sells real touch flowers). Real touch flowers look and feel somewhat real compared to traditionally fake flowers. I also found the hotel flowers very expensive and thought at least with these flowers you can keep them as souvenirs and so can your BM, etc. Good luck with everything

Thanks for posting that pic Maria. I had no idea the hotel included those CP. My WC didn't tell me that. So they will put them on each table at no charge? Also, are the table number holders included? Thanks!

Hello! For those who have the Luxury wedding package, any opinion on what you chose for the menu? You have to chose one option per course for all of your guests. I"m having a hard time choosing for everyone. Thanks! Wanda

Hi ladies, Just wondering if anyone is ordering the The Hanging Terrace Ribbons. My WC quoted them at $250 usd ( 2 pieces) and they come in white, gold and champagne. I thought they are a nice touch but I'm not sure how many to order if decided to do that. These would be used at the Villa Terrace.

Good question vchan! I'd like to know that too. We chose the harpist. I asked if they have a list of songs to chose from and they said no. They will play whatever they normally do unless you send in a request.

I will for sure No, I haven't been able to change the ceremony time I've left my WC two msg with other coordinators and posted 3 msgs and she hasn't responded yet.