veryvalentine

What an adventure! I love that you had the David's bag out for street cred! You sound like such a positive person to turn it into a fun story.

Our photographer just had a skype session with us and showed of 800 pictures of our wedding! So many good ones, not sure where to start. I don't have them all yet as he's narrowing it down to 100 for our wedding album. I'm going to eventually finish off my review but here are a few pics til then.

I'll be there!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! 1. wow, you guys a super photogenic. 2. Love that you were lavender and the dress is so pretty 3. The venue is just perfect. I love those clouds that your photographer was able to capture. 4. It must have been so cool to have a private session there - I'm sure pricey but totally worth it. It makes me wish we had invested some money on an engagement session at least for me to get comfortable in front of the camera. I'm such a "Chandler" (friends reference) when it comes to photo taking so I'm not very photogenic or comfortable with the cam. Bravo!!! I love them. They totally set the mood for your wedding in paradise!

Absolutely! It is worth a second trip!! Their last weekend of operations is Labour day weekend and then they reopen for a Thanksgiving event and Christmas event which would be so cute. Makes me want to be a farmer. haha

@@snswedding2016 Awww no way!!!! What a small world. We were there from about 2:30 until about just after close at 4pm. We had the lavender lemonade and it was amazing!! It's such a beautiful place. I also bought their essential oil. The ice cream was sold out so we didn't get to try it. So crazy that you were there yesterday too!! I cannot wait to see your shots. Please tag me so that I can see them. Ahhhh amazing!

Hiiii ! I wanted to let you know that I checked out Terre Bleu. Did you have your photoshoot there yet? We went yesterday just to get away a little. Such a beautiful place and a well run family business. We took the tour and learned soooo much. Great place for your engagement shots! Can't wait to see them we took a few pics, the field isn't quite purple, purple like in the pictures from last year on their website but i'm sure it happens more towards the end of August thanks to you we were able to learn about this amazing venue! Cheers

Hi ladies, I like the location -very convenient as I commute to Oakville. As a second favourite location, I am curious to see the Beverly Hotel rooftop. I'm definitely good with Front though if the majority picks it. Very excited!

Double the congrats on your engagement and motherhood! Very exciting times

@deecol Awww - I started it but I am waiting for our photographer to send us the pictures. He is sending us double the agreed upon number of photos so I'm waiting patiently. Stay tuned ....

Hi @@deecol We actually ended up hiring a DJ. We weren't going to but we just didn't want to worry about anything music related or any technical difficulties. For us it was one thing off our plate and it was worth the extra money.

Looking forward to meeting everyone! Have we decided on a location?

@@streelbride I'm pretty sure you can open up a US account with any Canadian bank. I am with RBC and TD and we are able to open up a U.S account. It's basically an account where you can save up some American money that if the exchange rate goes up you don't really lose money on having to buy it later because you have it saved in your us account. People often just deposit their US monies after they come back from vacation instead of converting and withdraw in U.S when they need it again. I should probably open mine as we will be travelling for sure in the next few years. lol

Omg -1 in July! That's just not fair! @streelbride Our group rate was $1250pp for June which is pretty great! Our travel agent was also able to get us land only group rates (Hotel only) for $800 pp. I can totally see how your rate for march would be $1750 and it seems good considering it's a popular time of year to get away...especially if you have -1 weather in July. I did notice that prices were more expensive this year compared to the year before...I guess it's normal since the airport taxes went up etc etc...probably a good idea to lock down your group rate as I could see prices going up even more with the Canadian dollar not doing so great. One thing we didn't do, but I recommend doing, is opening up a US account so that you try to buy some US money when it's a little more on the reasonable side. When we signed our contract the Canadian and US were at par...a year later and we had to add 20% to our budget just to account for the US dollar...it kinda screwed us a little with our budget but what can you do. It was still great!

@@streelbride I also didn't want the red carpet at the Gazebo and we mentioned something to our wedding coordinator. In the end we ended up getting something that wasn't a carpet and the colour was a little bit more subdued. Not sure how we ended up with it...but it looked great with our décor and didn't appear to be tacky. We needed something because I could see one of my BMs taking a fall with their heels. For the most part my BMs wore either flats or wedges. We are so excited! We are going back to the Princess this fall for a little R&R - yay!!!!!!!!!!

@steelbride Any time!! I'm glad that you are finding them helpful. Feel free to ask anything - it's nice to be able to chat with GSP brides. In terms of vendor fees for your make up artist, it would probably be cheaper to pay for a day pass which is $95. You can just say that it is a friend that is coming in for the wedding. We brought in our own make up artists and photographers but since they were staying at the hotel there were no problems in terms of vendor fees. There are two Spas, one in the Platinum Yucatan and one at the GSP, I had a great experience at the Platinum Yucatan Spa. We also had our couples massage there which was included with our wedding package and it was epic. So relaxing. One thing, a little tip, if you are getting your hair done at the salon, it does include a hair trial. The spa employees were so friendly and made sure to inform me. For some reason it's not really advertised but if you book a wedding hair appointment you get a trial. I ended up making my appointments on the first day that we arrived. I wanted to check out the Spa and salon first. They also have a nice little area for all the bridesmaids to get ready and do their own makeup if they so wish to do that. My room was super big, so everyone gathered there, but it is a nice option to have everyone in that little bridal room too. Cheers

Hi! Are you referring to the Grand Bahia in Runaway Bay? I close friend of mine had a her wedding there and I attended as a guest and it was amazing! She had a private dinner and the wedding out on the gazebo. congrats!!

Hi @@streelbride congrats on your upcoming wedding!! It's always so nice to meet other Princess brides! We had our wedding at 4pm and I honestly can't remember if there were people around. My sister said that there were a few people that were watching our wedding but they were very respectful and just really in awe of the wedding. They were loving it. It really didn't bother me or become an issue with our photos at all. The Italian Restaurant and the Steakhouse are part of the the main building. You would need to take the trolly down to either restaurants. Mama Mia and La Vaqueria are both great restaurants by the way!

I love your engagement picture location! Makes me wish we had a done an engagement session. Terre Bleu is so beautiful - can't wait to see the pictures yay

I know @Pottswedding2015 !! Having there so many times I agree that the Riviera Gazebo is much more stunning and beautiful, even with a very simple décor it is so beautiful. The only advantage that I see with the Sunset Gazebo is that if you are having the Chill out Reception, your guests will already know where to go and won't have to walk to far. Most of our guests figured out where the Chiill out was however apparently some of my family assumed we were having the reception right beside the Riviera GAzebo where I guess they have beach reception setup if you are not doing the chill out so they almost wedding crashed. lol I wouldn't change a thing about how we designed our wedding ! Who is your WC? I have never heard of the excursion credit! that's so great!!

Sunwing! I am so impressed with Sunwing and our travel agent! Not only did our travel agent save our wallets with the extra baggage kg ($400) they also sent us $500 voucher for our next vacation with Sunwing! I am so pleased - especially since our entire wedding group is already planning #BesosInParadise2016 Yay!!!!

Hi @@Pottswedding2015 thank you!! Agreed, I saw some of the options and I just felt they were a little "tropical tacky". They had a lot of bright colour options and I'm more of a soft colour palette kinda girl. I spoke with our wedding coordinator and ask about outside vendors and I did mention in our back and forth emails that I would be putting together the bm bouquets. I don't know if they didn't consider me going to a shop a "vendor" since I was putting them together. Either way, I didn't have any issues bringing them into the resort. I came prepared with all my tools and burlap. I put them together the night before. I had the time to do it, and they turned out nice. I made 8 bouquets and 7 centerpieces. I didn't bother to make the boutonnieres, and my bouquet and gazebo flowers were included in our package. You booked the same gazebo that we did. I really think it is a stunning gazebo and the chillout is so pretty. We didn't order the light up dancefloor. It was wayyy to expensive. They have the dancefloor on the beach and it is sooooooo nice. They have tiki torches all around and chairs for those who want to sit down. The staff comes around with drinks for everyone. We did hire a dj and that worked out nice. We did have the option of having the dance floor in the wooden part of the chill out but it was so epic on the beach. Everyone had their shoes off and was just dancing away. We flew in our own photographer and he stayed at the princess so we didn't have to pay an outside vendor fee. His name is Willy Sanjuan http://www.willysanjuan.photos/#!/index/G0000oUB_qBW563E I had my hair done at the salon at the Platinum Yucatan Hotel and make up was done by one of our weddings guests who is also a makeup artist. I asked for a very natural look and I loved it! This site was very helpful even though there weren't many Grand Sunset brides online when I was planning. It did help to read previous reviews. I will have my pictures in a few weeks so you'll be able to see it all !

Our photographer said that he is still working on our 5000 pictures that he took....poor guy, he worked so hard! A few more weeks and we'll get to see them!! yay!! Here is a picture of the bridesmaid bouquets that I made and I found a nice photo of our reception area as well!

awwww - then that will be a pleasant surprise for him!!

That's a cute idea!! My gift to my husband was adding a Sapphire to his band...I realized after I did this though that he would think he wasn't getting a gift ( until he would see his ring up at the alter and he actually got the ring)...so hubster got double lucky and I wrote him a card and gifted him a wallet by his favourite designer Ted Baker. I didn't think about the whole dynamics until after and I didn't want him to think I didn't get him a gift especially since I was the one that was introducing this idea and tradition. haha oh boy looking back...lol