shmanderz

Yes I only had to pay day pass for Del Sol

I found a pic that sort of shows the table they had the cake on for us. We were laughing because the cake wasnt cutting and the fondant was just pressing down under the knife. It was pretty funny.

The cake was on tall small square table that had wheels and they rolled it out to the center area when the cake was being cut. As for the table layout, I was told they only had round tables by the coordinator but I asked Mario, my on-site planner about the Imperial table set up (1 long table) and he was able to confirm it for us and we had it for the welcome dinner on the palenque terrace. When I was planning, my Palace Resorts wedding coordinator was not much help at all and took forever to get back to me but as soon as I was put in contact with Mario my on-site planner who was actually based out of Beach Palace, he was able to give me confirmation on everything super quickly. The Palace Resort coordinators are kind of useless for anything Beach Palace specific because they basically have to contact someone at Beach Palace to get answers to questions since they dont actually work at the hotel...but dont worry too much, when the 90 days to event time comes, your on-site coordinator gives you their full attention and things start happening much faster and you wil find you are able to get them to be more flexible with stuff. The first coordinator made it sound like "no they only have round tables' but then after talking with Mario he gave me a bunch of different options for table layouts and stuff. He even threw in colored napkins for the welcome dinner when I was told they only had white linens. There is lots of wiggle room so just make sure you talk with your on-site planner to get the real answer

I just used the cake with the complimentary package. We chose the marble cake option with fondant icing...and you know what? It was so delicious. Fondant usually is really nasty but this version of it was so awesome. All the guests were raving about the cake! The fondant was rolled nicely on it and it looked super cute with our flowers and cake topper. The only thing I would change was for them to leave off the icing decoration detail they added to the sides. In the heat and humidity the side icing detail slid down and looked really bad in photos but honestly at the time I didnt even notice it and no body else did either. Personally I would not spend a ton of money on a cake because the whole evening just flys by and the cake cutting was such a minor moment and then they wisk it away and cut it all up to serve. I am really glad I did not upgrade the cake like I was planning on doing.

The Sky Deck is where the ceremony is held and it is accessed by a staircase located on the rooftop Sky Terrace pool area. The Sky Deck for the ceremony is completely private and has amazing 360 degree views of the ocean. Now as for the The Rooftop Sky Terraces, they split into two areas: The north pool is open to the public all day and night while the other south rooftop pool area is used for events. We had our cocktail hour on the ocean side of the south pool and then moved over to the lagoon side of the pool for the dinner. The dance floor was in the middle area between the two spaces. As for privacy during the reception, we did have one or two people looking into the event during dinner and stuff but we had no trouble with people crashing the party. The ladies bathroom is actually on the south pool private event side so they cannot completely block off the area because of the people using the North pool/bar area in the evening. But honestly i never saw anyone at our event that we didnt know. You could definitely tell it was a private event. Hope that answers your question! They flowers in the bouquets are from Maya Floral and I had also asked for extra flowers for our hair which Marvin included complimentary. I decided to order fake hair flowers from Esty at the last minute just incase and I am so glad that I did because the flowers provided by Maya floral for the hair were beautiful but very small. The fake orchids I ordered for our hair from Etsy were so awesome and nice and large and they were glued to hair clips so they stayed in all night without wilting like real flowers. I ended up using the hair flowers from Maya on the cake so it worked out great!

Hi ladies, I got some of my photos back from Del Sol and I thought I would share! It took about 8 weeks but it was definitely worth the wait. The photos turned out amazing!! The USB drive with all the other photos is being couriered this week so I am excited to see all the rest. Sol and Jorge were our photographers and they were so great. I would highly reccomend Del Sol when choosing a photographer. They are a little more expensive but I am so happy we decided to splurge on the photographs because my memory of the day is not very good due to excitement and adrenaline and Del Sol was able to capture moments and things that I had forgot about or missed. Here is the link to my album:

PM me and I will give you his email address. I dont want to post his email in a public forum for spam reasons As for the reception, once 10:00 came around they basically just started packing stuff away. Mario said they had to shut everything down. Maybe if you pre arrange for the extra time they extend it. We only had arranged to extend it 2 hours (Originally the 2 hours reception was from 6:00-8:00 and we extended it until 10:00)

Hello! I have finally found time to write this review. It has been a whirlwind month and I can’t believe after over a year of planning the wedding has now come and gone! It has been so much fun planning and yes at times very stressful, but I am just thrilled with how it all turned out and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. So…let start from the begging: Basics: Travel/Flights/Hotel Transfers, etc: We had 27 guests and we all booked through a travel agent which made things very easy! I would highly recommend this. For anyone in Canada, we used Tricia at Marlin Travel in Calgary and we booked flights & hotel through Sunwing. We reached the 75 room nights and were able to make use of the free welcome dinner, free cocktail hour and free reception (We extended the reception by 2 hours) Our departure flights were perfect, leaving Calgary at 7:00am and arriving direct to Cancun around 1:50pm. I was able to bring my wedding dress on board with me as a carry on and it made it to Mexico with no issues. Once we landed in Cancun we were shocked and happy to see that the security line was totally empty and we literally made it to the baggage carousel within 5 minutes of stepping off the plane! Soon we all made it outside with our bags and we had a private air conditioned bus waiting for us to take us to Beach Palace! Our hotel transfer was arranged for us with Sunwing which made things easy. Soon we were heading for the hotel and everyone was extremely excited! Hotel Check in: When we arrived at Beach Palace we were greeted with a hot towel and a refreshing welcome drink. Check in went very smooth and the staff was so friendly. Mario the wedding planner and Luis the hotel manager came out to greet us which was a nice welcome. Mario told us we were going to love our room when we were given the keys to room 920. We had originally been booked into a regular ocean view room but when we opened the door we saw that we had been upgraded to one of the corner suites in the hotel and it was HUGE! We were beyond thrilled and very appreciative. It was one of the most beautiful hotels rooms I have ever stayed in and it just made our wedding week even more special. Welcome Dinner: When we finally got settled into the room after check in it was about 4:00pm and we had to get everything ready for the welcome dinner at 7:00pm on the Palenque Terrace. I put together the welcome bags and unpacked the décor that I brought for the event. The welcome bags included: 2 personalized beer Koozies, 2 personalized shot glasses, an “Oh Shit! Kit” with Tylenol, Band-Aids, pepto, and tums. There were also some snacks in the bag, a welcome letter, and bottle of hand sanitizer. We hung these bags on the back of the chairs at the welcome dinner (1 bag per couple). For the event décor I brought a bunch of electric candles to place on the table. I had ordered to strings of white paper lanterns from Zuniga as well as a sound system from JSAV. We had a musician friend of ours from Isla Mujeres come over for the event to play for us before and after dinner and it was absolutely perfect. His name is Ryan Rickman and if anyone is interested in having live music, he is such an awesome choice. PM me for contact details. The hotel day pass fee of $97 was the only thing I had to pay for him to get access for the event. Around 6:00pm we went down to meet Ryan and get him set up as well as place the Welcome Bags and the table décor. Mario the wedding planner did such an amazing job with the set up. We had 1 long imperial table setup with white linens. He had added these beautiful turquoise blue cloth napkins at each plate and he also included these cute nautical style fish bowl centerpieces filled with sand down the center of table. The whole décor setup looked so beautiful and the light of the setting sun behind the crisp white linens and paper lanterns was such a cool effect. We chose the Yucteca menu option for the buffet and it was so delicious! I actually wish I would have picked the same menu for the wedding dinner because it was that good. We swapped out a few things which made it even better (Swapped stewed pumpkin for roasted potatoes and we also added ceviche) and literally everyone today is still raving about the meal. The live music was so fun and it was funny to see all the people on the abck side of the hotel sitting on their patio enjoying the free show. Ryan has such a great stage presence and everyone in our group was up dancing and having a blast. The bartenders and waiters were amazing and we even had the hotel Sommelier there for the whole event suggesting wines for the wine drinkers in our group. The regular wine list at the hotel is great and the upgraded wine list also has some awesome options. At 10:00pm we had to shut it all down but it worked out well because everyone was pretty tired after the long day of travel. It was a perfect night and just set the stage for an amazing week of wedding festivities. Hotel/Food/Room Service: I usually go to Mexico 1-2 times per year and I don’t usually stay at all inclusive’s so this was a big change for us as well as a lot of the people in our group but I have to say, Beach Palace has completely changed my view about all inclusive’s! It was such an amazing hotel with outstanding service. Even the buffet was fantastic and had so much selection. It was crazy all the different food options. I also liked how the food was brought out in small quantities and refreshed often. Everything was cooked fresh and not sitting out in huge platters for hours under hot lamps. As for the restaurants, they were all great! Our favorite was Wok because my husband and I are huge sushi fans. The even had octopus nigiri and tuna sashimi which made my husband very happy lol!! I think the restaurant staff kinda groaned when they saw him coming because he can eat sooo much sushi. The steak house was also very good and it was nice to sit outside on a warm night under the stars and glowyness of the hotel lights and pool area. The best part about the hotel was the room service. Every night before we went to bed we would tick off what we wanted for breakfast and hang the sheet on the outside of the hotel room door for pickup that night and the next morning whatever time you requested on the sheet would be the time you breakfast arrived and they would bring it out to setup outside on the patio table. It was so relaxing to start the day by sitting out there in the morning, enjoying breakfast and drinking coffee (with Baileys! lol). It was very hard to come home and not have this lovely service every day!!! Wedding Day: Our wedding day was Saturday, May 10 and I spent the morning relaxing on our patio just taking it easy. Around 10:00am the flowers arrived from Maya Floral and I met them down in the lobby for pickup and to pay the remainder that was due. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and so vibrant! I was extremely happy with their service and would highly recommend them to anyone! I didn’t have to pay an outside vendor fee for them because it was just bouquets that they were dropping off in the lobby and no event set up. At 12:00pm my bridesmaids, my mom and myself had our hair/makeup appointments in the salon. All our hair turned out great. The makeup was just ok and I kind of wish I had just decided to do it myself because I ended up fixing a lot of it. I was also in the salon for almost 3 hours which was crazy and I was just trying to get her to hurry up. By the time I got back to the room I only had about 5 minutes before the photographer arrived and everything started happening. I mentioned this before in another post but for any future brides, be sure to take a moment to yourself and breathe. It all fly’s by so fast and I just wish I would have shut the bedroom door when I got back to the room, took a few deep breaths and centered myself before everything kicked off. I was running on pure adrenaline from being stressed about time and then all the sudden it was time to get married and my memory of a few things isn’t very good because of all the excitement! I am just glad we hired such a great photographer who I am sure has some amazing photo storytelling of the wedding day so I can relive it again and appreciate the small moments better J Just before 4:00 Mario came to the room to get us and bring us upstairs. As soon as we got off the elevator it was time to start the processional of the wedding party up the stairs. Me and my dad followed and it was as very emotional. Walking down the aisle is something every girl thinks about and it was really just surreal that it was actually happening. The ceremony was beautiful and it was just an amazing moment. One thing I can say is that the rooftop is VERY hot and I am glad I brought paper fans to put on everyone’s seats. And I am glad we kept the ceremony very short because holy crap, it is stinkin hot standing there in a wedding dress! It was a difficult choice having the ceremony at 4:00 and I think 6:00 might have been a better time for temperature, but I really wanted the sun on the turquoise water for photos and also to have the sun setting around dinner time. The soft sunset lighting during the speeches and the reception dinner was gorgeous and it was the only thing that made the heat during the ceremony worth it! After the ceremony we had arranged for a cocktail hour on the sky deck while the wedding party did photos. I didn’t get to even see the cocktail hour or try the food but everyone said it was great. Del Sol was our photographer and we had Sol and Jorge photographing the event. The were amazing!! Photo ninjas is was everyone was calling them because they were climbing on things and always searching for a unique angle for a shot. Sol was great at making things fun and easygoing and coaxing a shy group of people into getting some great shots. I cant wait to see the finished photos! The whole day went by in a blur so I am really happy we decided to splurge on the photography because Del Sol has such a way about capturing a wedding and all the details that made the day special! I would highly recommend Del Sol to any bride. Right from the moment of booking we knew we made the right choice. The package we chose was the 5 hour package from 3:00-8:00pm. It was a little more expensive than other photographers but I believe it is going to be well worth the money. I am so excited to see the photos and I will post them on here once they arrive J The rest of the wedding day went off without a hitch and everything looked beautiful. I was so happy with all the décor I ordered and the atmosphere it created was so cool. I would recommend renting the lounge palms from Zuniga and the lights to illuminate them from JSAV. It was a total showstopper and it really transformed the space! We rented two speakers and it was perfect, one might have been too quite. I also was happy with the choice to not rent a dance floor. It worked perfect having the lights aimed down on the floor and to be honest, since the reception had to end at 10:00 there wasn’t a ton of time for dancing. People jumped in the pool around 8:30 and dinner had just finished at 7:00. I would also not recommend the lounge seating from Zuniga. It looked really cool but didn’t really get used since it was placed on the other side of the dance floor away from the tables and it was pretty dimly lit over there. Lighting is definitely key to making the space usable! If you have a big group and are using both sides reception areas around the pool make sure you get tons of lighting. The Gobo from JSAV was also an amazing addition. Guests thought it was the coolest thing they have seen at a wedding! As for the noise curfew, I was hoping they would let us party a bit longer than 10:00 but they shut it down pretty much right at 10:00. Everyone probably would have partied in the pool until the wee morning hours but it was almost a blessing in disguise because the party was getting a bit crazy in the pool! Lol. When my husband and I got back to the room they had decorated the bed with rose petals and filled the Jacuzzi with bubbles. It was really cute. The next morning we had our honeymooner breakfast and mimosas delivered to the room and it was a great way to wake up and start our married life J I was pretty darn stressed out during the weeks leading up to the wedding and honestly as soon as I met with Mario at the hotel my worries melted away. They go above and beyond to take care of every detail. I was also worried about hidden costs or them tacking on costs for setting up stuff etc, but honestly they threw in so many extras and cute additional details free of charge. I had an extra $500 ready for hidden costs and I ended up giving it to the event staff as tips because the invoice upon checkout was exactly as quoted. Beach Palace was the absolute perfect choice for our wedding and it was everything I could have dreamed of. To all you brides out there, just breath and relax knowing that your wedding day is going to be perfect!

It was always Sol when ordering beer by the pool, beach, or rooftop bars. They also had cans of Sol, Coors and Dos Equis in the mini bar fridge in the room.

@@NicoleLV Good choice. The hotel salon actually did a really nice job of all our hair styles. Just be sure to bring photos of what you want. I was really happy with how mine turned out and using the resort credit was great. My makeup wasnt amazing but i was able to fix a few things about it and I liked the result. I would definitely recommend booking your appointment early in the day to give yourself tons of time. I was in there at 12:00pm for hair and makeup and I didnt get back to my room until 2:45!!! I was getting so stressed because the photographer was arriving at 3:00 and I had wanted to chill out a bit and relax with my bridesmaids before the crazyness started but I literally had 5 minutes to fix my makeup and then the photographer arrived and then everything was kicking off...photos in room, getting dress on, group photos on the patio, then all the sudden it was 3:45 and the wedding planner coming in to bring us up stairs for the 4:00 ceremony....It all happened SO fast and I didnt even have a moment to breathe and center myself. Everything went perfect with the wedding and reception but I felt very flustered at the start and I just wished I had a few seconds to myself to take a few deep breaths and relax before getting things started.

Yup we rented them from Zuniga! We had to pay the two set up fees due to it being two seperate events on different days but I am sure you could negotiate the price. Everything has wiggleroom in mexico We got JSAV to knock off the $150 AV specialist charge for the sound system at the welcome party since it was just a basic set up for our guitar player but they ended up sending someone anyway to run the system at no charge which was cool. We added the sound system three days before we departed so it was awesome of them to give us such a great price with a last minute booking too

Hello!!! We are back home after an amazing honeymoon and the wedding week was absolutely perfect. Our guests are still talking about how it was the most memorable wedding they have ever been to. The welcome party was also so much fun and in such a beautiful location. Beach Palace did a fantastic job and I would not change a thing, it was perfect, I am working on a HUGE review right now but I just wanted to say hi and to post a few pics that have been trickeling in from friends and photos I took of the hotel. Our professional shots are not back yet but will also post those soon

Oh my gosh, 19 hours and 15 minutes until we leave for the airport!!! (Not that I am counting or anything! lol). We have to be at the airport at 4:00am which is crazy but we have a direct flight so we land in Cancun in the early afternoon which is awesome These last few days have been pretty stressful and I am SO ready to get to Mexico. I had some last minute changes and my wedding planner has been pretty slow responding which was really frustrating but he got back to me today and apologized and said they have been super busy with weddings. He sent me the all-inclusive package wine lists and the upgraded wine lists if anyone is interested (PM me and I can email to you). A lot of people in my group are big wine drinkers so everyone wanted to see the selection beforehand! I also added a last minute sound system from JSAV for the Welcome Dinner tomorrow night on the Palenque Terrace from 7:00pm-10:00pm. We have a musician friend coming over from Isla Mujeres and he was just going to play an acoustic guitar set but we decided to rent a speaker, amp, and microphone set up plus the function to attach the iPod music to the speakers when he is not playing. They originally wanted $450 which was crazy but I got them to remove the AV Tech Specialist because we didn’t need any help with the system and it dropped the price to $290 after taxes and set up fees. I thought I would share with you all if you are looking for a price break on your rental from them...if you don’t think you need the person there to help run the system it can be a good money saver! Packing has been a bit of a nightmare but I think we are going to make it work. If anyone is from Canada and is flying Sunwing it is definitely worth it to upgrade to Elite Plus (The bride and groom get a free upgrade if there is availability!). In the regular seats you are only allowed 20kg checked luggage which is only about 44lbs! (Not very much considering every additional kg that you are overweight costs an additional $20 and that can add up very fast!!) But in the Elite Plus seats you are allowed 30kg total which is almost 66lbs! Another good tip with Sunwing is when booking with a group, for every 10 people booked you get 1 additional 20kg checked bag. You have to contact Sunwing and get it added onto you file and they send you a voucher because you cannot add this on at the check in counter. This has been a life saver because we have all the extra wedding stuff packed into the free extra 20kg bag and then anything left over is packed in our regular checked bag which has the extra 10kg weight due to the Elite Plus upgrade. I know that probably sounds super confusing but anyone flying with Sunwing will understand J Anyways, if anyone has any questions about the hotel, PM me and let me know and I can respond to them when I get home! Our wedding date is May 10 and our group departs Beach Palace on May 14th. Me and my fiancé are Honeymooning on Isla Mujeres but I will be home and back online May 21 J Happy planning to you all!! -Amanda