Carlota1981

Chrstena!! I almost forgot, sorry!! I love your shoes! I am also looking for sandals like yours with sparkly details and "open" just like this. Really beautiful!!

Hola chicas!! Yes I think I have found a good deal for my guests! Well in Spain we love the Caribbean and there are a lot of good offers for going to Republica Dominicana and Riviera Maya. The guests pay that for everything but Thomas (my fiance and I) have payed more. The guests will go with a different touroperator than us that has an offer to stay just 7 nights ar Palladuum. No possible one day less or more. Thomas and I will be there 3 weeks. We will arrive one week before because it will be a legal wedding and the other two for the honey moon as well as 3 days out in which we will rent a car for visiting mayan areas. We have got 2400 USD each one for the three weeks. Well girls about the newpackages. My experience is this: we have the Diamond package that is not possible to see anymore. We booked this because it is one that seemed us more complete. This has a cost of 2400 usd. The day before yesterday I saw on the website the Beach Party and I LOVE the idea! So I wrote to Vanessa. Yesterday she answed me that for having the beach party i would have to choose on on the new packages. I think it is not "fair" . So I started to read the new ones but i dont really like for the same reason: only one color. We have booked more flwers arrangements because we like more flowers that Diamond package offers. So i think i am going to ask Vanessa about the cheapest package and i will continue with my flower shop in Playa del Carmen. And pay the difference that other things that offers the Diamond Package so maybe if this are not ver expensive being payed by separetely we could have our party on the beach. I will let you know when Vanessa answers me. By the way, she has told me that the beach party can start at 7 pm or later... you choose th hour and has a duration of 2 hours. For other brides that ae asking. My wedding ceremony is starting at 4 pm at the gazebo beach. From 5 to 7 the cocktails and appetizers at the Sports Bar and from 7 to 11 pm the dinner at the Laguna restaurant. So the beach party would be from 11 pm to 1 am. Chrestena, my wedding is on 6 August and I am having a lot of my dreams about the wedding and i have a notebook with photos, phones, mails, and loads of information about the wedding!! I completely understand u!! ; )

Hello new brides Caseylynndais, Kstok and Brebuisson!! Welcome to the forum!! I am also pretty new here in BDW writing here for only one month and a half... Casey, when I booked my wedding at GP I received a mail from a GP sales rep informed me that they made a discount booking an important amount of rooms (I think 50 but I am not sure). As all the guests, my FI and I are coming from Europe (Italy and Spain), we had a better offer thourgh a travel agency. Here in Spain it goes a travel package to go to any destination of the Caribbean consisting on flight, hotel with all inclusive and bus shuttle from airport to the resort and return. For example we got an offer to our guests for 1080 euro (something like 1380 USD) for staying at Colonial during 7 nights. I think it is a pretty good deal!! I imagine that from Canada and the States the offers are better, dont you? ¡Que tengáis un buen día! (Have a nice day!)

Hello girls!! First of ally sorry for my English!! A Spanish bride marrying on August 6th at Grand Palladium Riviera Maya with an Italian guy!! Such a mix, eh? lol Time really flyes!! We engaged at the end of last August and in almost four months we are getting married!! I have alredy a lot of things to firm up such as: Flowers: i still have to decided the arragements for the appetizers area. And I am still having doubts with my bouquet. Wine: we would like to have Italian and Spanish wines but the cost of each bottle at the resort is sooooooooo expensive that for a moment we thought in just beer, lol!! So we have contacted two vendors in Cancún and Playa del Carmen with still high prices but nothing to see with the resort. To do: Decide the cake!! I am still having doubts about this because but I think we are going to choose the typical italian: the tiramisú. Shoes!! I am still without them... All that is at the stores now are winter shoes and i want something more like a sandal... With that hot and that environment, I dont want a "close" shoe. i dont want something without heel but nothing very tall. And this is harder to find now. Dress!! I have a dress. I choose a fresh style for the hot of August but just like it is it still seems me a little bit simple. So i am still thinking on a detail: a sparkly belt, a sparky or two arms... i do not know... This Saturday I am going to the store so lets see what the clerk advices me... Later i will upload a photo here so you could give me your opinion! But I have to confess that now I am alredy calmed... It was REALLY stress to get a good offer for our guests. Somes are coming from Spain and the others from Italy... We found the best offer on a travel agency of our cities. For Italian people was imposible to find something like that so we decided to tell them that in Spain it was half of the price than in Italy. So it was a nightmare phoning and mailing one by one to remember them to send the passports and the credit cards numbers for the payments to the travel agency. My fiance and I had to insist a lot with each of them because there were a specific date to send everything and most of them forgot things... Some of them are older so it was difficult for them to understand some things that we had to explain in most of the cases 5 times!! After that, they had to sign several documents for the final booking and again the same nightmare!! We made a mistake, we told them the real final day to pay for the booking. The second payment they will have to make to the agency is at the end of July. My FI and I are going to tell them all that they have to pay until the middle of July... lol We dont want to have the same stress that we had at the star of March thinking that some of them were going to loose their bookings... ¡Un saludo!!

¡¡Hola chicas!! Me voy a casar en agosto de 2013 en Riviera Maya y me pregunto si hay alguna novia española que también irá hasta México para realizar su boda!! ¡¡Saludos a todas!!

Thanks RNtobe! I didnt Know it. Could any one copy and paste that diet on a post? or send it to me by email?

Hi girls, Well i have the same situation. The story is this: Thomas, my fiance, is Italian and I am from Spain. We met when I was living in Italy and four years ago we decided to move to my city. Thomas' parents divorced when he was 5 years old. His mom and he has a not good relationship and she did not even answer to the invitation... But Thomas has always had a very good relationship with his dad that 20 years ago remarried to other woman and now they have 2 kids. Well, we really expect that his dad and "new" family were going to come to our wedding in Riviera Maya. But surpresly for us they were really "hard" from the start. Since the first moment Thomas told them we were going to have a destination wedding they said they were not coming. THis is also very hard for us, of course, mainly for Thomas, since they travel every summer during three weeks with the kids, so it is not a fact of money... We were having doubts of continuing with the idea of getting married in Mexico. But then the Thomas dad's wife told him that we were crazy for making a DW and that they did not want to participate in sth like that... Well, you could imagine that Thomas was destroyed after that. The relationship with his dad is not the same since then but I gave Thomas the option to choose. And finally we decided to book our wedding on Riviera Maya and go ahead. The most of you have written here some months ago. So I hope to be helpful with the next future brides that could be in a situation like this. Of course, this is not the common things but of course in the Thomas' situation I am very proud of him. It was a very hard situation and of course a very hard thing to overcome. We are getting married in August and his aunt and uncle as well as his friends from Italy are coming to the wedding, so I am happy for this.

Hello Khunt 29!! I am getting married in 4 months and I really need to loose weight!! At least I would like to loose 8kg!! Your post seems really interesting but I have no permission to see the attached, can you copy and paste please? Thank you very much!!

Hello Jengullage, My wedding package is Diamond and it also includes some arragement flowers but very few. For example one bouttoniere, my flowers, the flowers to the table of the gazebo (just one arragement) and 4 flowers for 4 of the columns of the beach gazebo. At the beggining I was not thinking in going with an outside vendor, I just asked to Vanessa for more things like this: -More flowes arragements on the gazebo -Flowers on the chairs of the guests - Bouquet for bridesmade -Flowers on the head for me, the bridesmaid, mom and sisters - Other bouquet for my dad - Centerpieces on the table dinner of La Laguna as well as on the the Sports Bar where the appetizers will be served - Rose petals for the way to the gazebo So this depends on the quantity and the way you would like to decore with flowers and table centerpieces. So when I asked to Vanessa she gave the cost of the Grand Palladium florist and in the same mail she adviced me the flower shop on Playa del Carmen (Floreria Iris). I am very thanked to Vanessa because the difference of the cost is quite high. In case you want to contact the flowershop this is the information: Daniela [email protected] http://floreriairisplaya.com/ I have alredy booked with her and I am very happy with her. She has given me good advices and for me a very good point is that she perfectly knows Grand Palladium as she has decorated other weddings. There is only one "but": she normally takes some days to answer. And I think the website is only in Spanish, but try to write her in English, in case you want to look for more arrangements. I hope I have been helpful!! If you have more questions, do not hesitate in contacting me again

Hello brides!! Wow Karenk so few days for your big day!!! Congratulations and I wish you the best for your day. I have also booked with Paula Casas from Zentropia Spa a couple of months ago. I got the mail address from my wedding organizer (Vanessa). And I completely agree with you, the cost is not really cheap! You compare it with NorthAmerica... for me is more expensive as I compare it with my country! I think as well is also expensive for all the treatments. But well, this is for the big day! I booked a package for 200 usd that includes manicure and pedicure spa, make up and an upsweep hair. I have not decided yet what kind of gathering and I am looking for some photos. I have payed thourgh Paypal the 50% and the rest of the money the same day. Paula adviced me to go some days before to the Spa with a photo of the hairstyle I want to talk it directly with the hairstylers. I thought maybe they could make a proof of it (in Spain for example this is included on the cost) but it seems here is not included and the cost is 50usd... I have to think about it... So Karenk, please when you return from your honeymoon, tell us how was your experience on the Spa. These days I am quite busy deciding all the details of the flowers and arrangments for the gazebo, sports bar and la laguna. In case you have not yet a flowershop, I highly recommend you one that told me Vanessa: Floreria Iris. One month ago I sent mails to several flowershops in Playa del Carmen and Cancun but I found the costs quite expensives.... Ok I know they take advantage so I cannot expect real Mexican costs... but... well I told this to Vanessa and she adviced me Floreria Iris in Playa del Carmen since they have been a lot of times on GP for other weddings. The name of the florist is Daniela and she really have good costs and has given me good ideas. Girls, in case you are interested you can take a look on http://floreriairisplaya.com/ ¡Qué tengáis un buen día! (Have a nice day!)

Hello again girls! Claire, i cannot recommend any transfer as mine is included in the travel package from Spain. We will go with Pullmantur, a Spanish air company that has their own airplanes, cruises and buses so I do not know if you can look something with them... Chrestena, yes of course I do not mind if people is looking in the backgrounds, etc... I cannot find anymore that review. But that bride said that people were just beside of them around the gacebo and attached to the chairs of the wedding guests... and the photographer had big problems to make photos without that people. Well, I am going to assure with Vanessa this thing!! lol Yesterday Vanessa wrote me a mail to tell me that the 70 usd are included in the Diamond wedding package, but we have to pay this money the day of our meeting with her as well as the 220 usd for the blood analysis. She told me also that the Mexican government fee was cancelled (100 usd). Vanessa explained me in August, when we booked GP for our wedding, that there was a fee to pay. This fee was until that moment only payed for Mexican people marrying in Mexico. But last year the government decided that everybody had to pay that. And finally this has been cancelled. We also have booked this week our photographer and video. We will have Freddy Ku from Claudia Photo Studio for our photos. And for the video we have found one. We love his videos and fortunately he has really good prices. In case you want to look he is based in Playa del Carmen and this is his website: http://indigowedding.com/ ¡¡Un saludo!!

Hello Heather, I usually read a lot of reviews as you each time i go on holidays or in this moment, that I am preparing my wedding here. Everyone has her/his own tastes so you cannot believe each word is said... because things or food is gooos for you and for others not, or for you is excellent and the other heats it... so my advice is do not expect superb because this is an all inclusive resort. For me the food was normal-good.

Hello again!! Chrestena, fantastic!! Hola chicas is hello girls in Spanish! lol Well about the flavours Vanessa did not give me options, just the option to select whatever we want. So for this reason is more difficult. Thomas and I have the intention to look a bit of options this weekend. Claire, the Mexican wedding cake is the one of the 3 milks? Thanks about your words related to the wedding guests. Well some of them are hard to treat because they forgot that I have told them some details about the travel... and there are another that have written me 5-6 times to ask me the same things... a lot of patient!! hahaha... Each day I have something like ten emails to answer and the same whatsapp from the Italian guests.... I am agree with Chrestena as well. If you do not have the option of Punta Emilia then go for the Adelita. I do not know now but when I stayed at GP in july 2009 I did like the dinner there. The food was good and I like the restaurant. I also have a photo with a Spanish guitar and a huge Mexican hat! lol Girls, thanks about the idea for the tip. I know normal is to give it after but I was not sure about give her the tip the day after because maybe I am not going to see her. So, probably I will tell my dad to give it the same day. Some days ago I read a review on TripAdvisor about a girls that got married there. She wrote everything was perfectly organized and Rocio was her wedding organizer. But she wrote something I think is important to share with all of you. She wrote that during the ceremony there were hotel guests quite near from the beach gazebo so some of them appeared on the photos and that Rocio did not make anything with this. For me this is very important, so when I have the meeting with Vanessa, this is one of the first things I am going to tell her. I completely understand that guests want to see because they are curious but I also think that there is a limit. Do not watch the whole time and do not stay so near of them. Not onyl because this people can appear in our wedding photos but also because I would be disturbed for them knowing they are so close from us. So for this reason I think wedding organizers have to look after this, dont you think so? ¡Un saludo!

Hello girls!! From today is just 5 months to get married!! I am alredy starting to be nervous! ahahaha It seems like there are a lot of things to plan yet! This week I am being quite busy with the wedding guests. We found a good offer from Spain for the guests and I am all the day with the phone solving all the doubts they have. Chrestena, I think your dress is beautiful just as it is. I love sparkly belts or details on the dresses (in fact, I was about to take one with sparks) but yours has that details alredy and in my opinion is perfect. By another hand, I love the design of the maid dresses!! I am just going to have one maid of honor so she has decided to choose the design, although I am giving her details about the best colors, etc Claire, thanks for the clarify the paperwork staff. Anyway, I had an email to send to Vanessa and I asked her again. I had alredy planned to ask her one month before the wedding. Kmathes, to be honest it sounds weird what Rocio told you (she lost her computer??) but I think you also have another restaurants to make your supper. Which other options you have? Because I would highly recommend Punta Emilia if you have that option. Thanks everybody about the tip to Vanessa. Well, we have the Diamond package (2400 usd) so i do not really think in tipping her 200 usd or something. For us is too much to tip her with the 20% when we do not normally tip in Spain almost for nothing. I am agree with all of you, she is fantastic and nice. But my idea of tipping her is most related with the salaries of Mexico. What I know is that the minumum salary of a Mexican in Riviera Maya working in the tourism area is 60 usd per week. I am sure Vanessa earns more money for the kind of job she has and also because Grand Palladium is a Spanish hotel (Fiesta Group). Well, we have time to think yet! Now, other question about this is, when are you planning to give her the tip? During the meeting, the morning of the wedding or the day after? Mytye2B, Vanessa told me the balance is paid at the check out, so I do not know if it possible to pay something before. I imagine they prefer at the check out to be sure everything is paid... i do not know... Girls, one more question, which kind of wedding cake have you choosen? In Spain is not typical the wedding cakes, we have just the desserts, but we are introducing some typical American things to our wedding there and the cake is one of them. I alredy have the figurines and we wanted it also with some tropical flowers but we are completely lost about the flavour!! Vanessa told me that they can make any flavour so this is worst for me because I have loads to select!!! Well, another guest is phoning me!! ¡¡Un saludo chicas!!

¡¡¡Hola chicas!!! (Hello girls! -- You can practice some Spanish before arriving to Mexico, haha) So thanks Chrestena and Kimmathes for your messages. Chrestena-- I think tiping Vanessa with 400 usd is really really fair. Ok, before I told you that in Spain is not typical to tip, but I really think that 400 usd is a very good tip. You have to notice that the salaries in Mexico are low. For what I knew when I was there in 2009, the normal salary of a Mexican person working in tourism is 80 usd per week. I imagine Vanessa earns more (Grand Palladium is a Spanish company not a Mexican one) but for this reason I think she is going to be very happy with your tip. And here comes other doubt, when are you thinking to give her the tip? I do not know when is the best moment: before the wedding (the day of the appoinment), the morning of the wedding, the day before... many doubts about this! About the sparkly belt Chrestena, I really think your dress is beautiful just as it is, with all this details that alredy has, so in my opinion you do not need a belt. It is not like you see the dress and you miss sth (i do not know if I am explaining well). Anyway, I have seen a lot of dresses with a belt but the most I have seen here in Spain is because they do not have the details that has your dress. I alredy have my dress too... but not a photo! I have to make one next time I go to the store. I finally decided to buy one from the Spanish designer Rosa Clara. Kmmathes-- yes, it is a little odd that Rocio lose her computer... but anyway, I am making a private cocktail and dinner but I remember that the first time Vanessa wrote me she told me that the options for not privates dinner were besides Portofino, the Mexican restaurant (La Adelita) and the Brazilian one (El Dorado). I do not know if this still like this, as her mail with this information was written seven months ago. For my experience when I was at Palladium, I do not like a lot the Brazilian. Altough the food was good the waiters were veeeeery slow!! And here comes another question for you all former and future brides: the cake!! I alredy have the top figurine but I am still thinking about the flavour! In Spain is not typical the cake, we just give a dessert in the weddings, but I thought that I would like something also typical from America. This is my figurine, isnt it cute?

Hi again Claire, Which documents are you bringing to Riviera Maya? Vanessa has told me only to bring those I mentioned before. What did she tell you? Thanks, Carlota

Hello again everybody!! Thanks for all your messages. Well, I see that the question about the tip is being difficult, lol... Any opinion is welcome! I really have no idea because tiping is not "typical" at all in Spain. Claire, the stuff that Vanessa asks to me and Thomas for the legal wedding is: - Passports - Tourists Visa (the one that you get in the airplane) - Photocopies of birth certificate (not the original and translations are not needed). Our wedding is not religious.

Hello everybody, This is my first time in this website. My name is Carlota and I am from Spain. First of all, I would like to apologize for my English mistakes... I will marry on beach gazebo at Grand Palladium in Riviera Maya. This was my dream since I stayed at the resort in 2009 and saw the weddings there... from that moment i felt in love. so my dream is going to be real on August 6th!! My wedding organizer is Vanessa Roldan. We will have the wedding ceremony at 4pm, then the appetizers and drinks at the Sports Bar and finally the private dinner at La Laguna. I will have a small wedding, just family and closer friends. This is something that my fiancè (Thomas, he is Italian) and me wanted from the beggining. We will be at the moment 19 people, but there are some other friends that have not answered yet. I am very happy with Vanessa, she is really efficient, quickly answering my mails and very nice since I have had the opportunity to phone her to the resort twice. My big question from some weeks ago is the tip. I do not really know how many tip to give her. So I would like to have a help from the formers and future brides of Grand Palladium about this. Thanks a lot in advance!!