kunrau

We got schedules from the Wedding planner earlier in the week to hand out to our guests. This way everyone knew were to meet the day of the Wedding. Everyone got picked up at the Tullum Lobby along with Groom and Groomsmen at 12:30 to go to the venue together. As the Gazebo is a bit of a drive from the lobby and it was very hot so this all worked well. The Wedding planner then came and picked me and my bridesmaids up at 12:50 to start the wedding at 1pm. We had cheap sunglasses made with our names and the wedding date on the side and Mike took these along with him and handed them out to all the guest. This was PERFECT as it was hot and we were in the sun and lots of people forgot their sunglasses. Everyone loved them and they were so practical Andres arrived and we got into the golf card, the blasted some tunes in the golf cart and we all happily sang along. We got to the Gazebo and the photographer and guests and wedding co-ordinators were there. We were hidden around the corner from the walkway up to the Gazebo behind big bushes which was perfect. Someone queued the music and my bridesmaids starting walking down. Then my flower girl and then followed by me. I walked down to '1000 Years' the acoustic version it was wonderful My husband to be was tearing up and my bridesmaids and everyone else really. Super nice. I had my friend do the ceremony because we were just doing a symbolic ceremony and he did a wonderful job, talking about each of us and then again as a couple, telling us we needed to be patient (which he pointed out isn't my strong suit) lol It was light and funny and tear jerking at the same time. So so nice! Loved it!!! We chose our own vows which we just found online and had my friend say them while we repeated (we didn't use the traditional ones). It worked out great. He then pronounced us husband and wife and we walked down the aisle together. There was hotel staff waiting for us at the end of the aisle handing out champane or some brut alternative.

We got to the resort on Monday and we were getting married on that Friday. When you arrive and check in you're meant to have a letter from your planner telling you when to meet him to plan the Wedding. We didn't have a letter so we went down and saw the Wedding department and found out our appointment was the next day. We were a bit nervous and worried about how it was all going to go but the appointment was GREAT!! My planner was Andres (he is EXCELLENT!) so caring and detailed, everything I need in a planner! When we sat down with him we went through every detail including exactly the schedule we were going to follow, what the flowers were going to look like, even to the colour of the ribbon around the flowers. He printed some schedules for us too so we can hand them out to guests the days before the wedding which was handy! TIP: I read a review on this website that said make sure you get a rehearsal ceremony with your bridal party and whoever else is involved because the bride thought her bridal party didn't know where exactly to go and there was some confusion. I asked the planner for a run through and we did one and it was very helpful for everyone involved, I WOULD HUGELY RECOMMEND DOING THIS, you can discuss where you want everyone to stand or sit and how to walk in for photos, how fast everyone should walk, etc etc. This was huge for us! I think if we didn't have it people wouldn't have been as comfortable and wouldn't have really known what to do. Extremely helpful! I had one of my friends doing the ceremony so it was double helpful as he needed to lead us. Doing the rehearsal also made us change the location of the canapes and cocktails after the ceremony as we realised the spot we chose was far too hot!! The Wedding Day I arranged to stay in my maid of honour's room the night before the wedding and Mike and I arranged to have breakfast at separate places in the morning (which didn't really work out but we managed to avoid each other anyway. This was also helpful for getting ready as all my stuff was in one place and I could hang my dress out. The Wedding started at 1pm and I went down to the spa at 10am to get my hair and makeup done. Please note that I don't think any of the packages have hair and makeup included for the bride altho it says hair and makeup trial included which I think is a bit misleading and I was upset to find out that all that was extra. The hair as $96 and the makeup $65 (something like that) so it's not cheap but Normal at the spa did a good job. She tried 2 different hair styles and I chose a side curl. I also brought my own flower clip and little pearls pins to add some detail. She did my makeup too and altho I've had better makeup done at MAC at home I do think she did a good job. TIP: The Wedding package I chose had a mani/Pedi included for the bride so I got one (also with Norma). The mani/Pedi was ok but nowhere near amazing, It was coated too thick and even after an hour of drying the nail polish was still soft as it was so thick. In the salt water it also just doesn't' last and it took more than 2 hours for the Mani/Pedi so I would hugely recommend and even if it is included just skip it! Get shellac done at home before you go and then it'll last your whole holiday and you won't have to spend 2+ hours in a spa getting your nails done when all you want to do is see your guests. We got to the resort 4 days before we got married and we spent the first 4 days running around planning things and arranging things and it was exhausting. I could have done without that 2 hour appointment for sure!!

We had our wedding at the Grand Tortuga which is a Brazilian sword restaurant. If you go there on a normal night you get a buffet appetiser and then you get some vegetables and potato delivered to your table to share and then they come around with swords of cooked meat (steak, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage, even pineapple) and you have a red and green card so they will come around and give you some if your card says green. So much meat, you can just keep eating and eating! It's lovely. As I didn't want people to have the same thing on our Wedding day as they would have at that restaurant any other day we chose the plated option. You choose a starter, main and dessert and everyone has to have the same thing (except vegetarians and allergies of course). We went Russian salad as a starter with smoked salmon (this was amazing - everyone loved it). We then had a plated pork main and a cheesecake dessert. I wouldn't recommend going with the pork (it was dry) but one of my friends who doesn't eat pork had the chicken and she said it was excellent. We ate at that restaurant several times during our stay and it was great. The Grand Tortuga is great for Weddings they have a lovely outdoor tent thing that works great and the manager Adrian (the one with the piercing blue eyes) is amazing, he will go out of your way to make your day special and was just terrific! I wanted the BBQ option too but I didn't want to pay per plate either it's crazy. I did not regret not getting that option. The tent is a lovely setting and we move around the pool for dancing and it was perfect Let me know if you have any questions. I am going to work on my wedding review now as well, hopefully that will be helpful to some of you

Resort and where to stay I found the complex very confusing as I felt we kept getting incorrect and inaccurate information so here is some detail that I hope you will find helpful. The complex is absolutely huge and has a golf card bus system to get you around. There are 4 hotels in the complex: Grand Bahia Tulum Grand Bahia Coba Grand Bahia Akumal (luxury) Grand Bahia Sia'an Kan (luxury -adult only) The way it works really is that anyone staying at Tulum or Coba can access those 2 resorts only. You cannot access the luxury resorts. However if you stay in one of the luxury resorts you can go to any of the 4 resorts in the complex. If you get married at one of the luxury resort wedding locations the people staying at Tulum and Coba will not be able to attend without paying a day rate (about 90USD) to come on to the luxury resort for the day. We chose a Tulum Wedding location and told people they could stay at any of the 4 resorts in the complex. We were told that if we stayed at one of the luxury resorts that all our guests would have to as well to come to the Wedding but this isn't true. You can stay at the luxury hotel and have your guests stay where they want as long as you choose a wedding location in Tulum or Coba (one of the non-luxury resort). We wish we had known that and may have splurged to stay at Akumall (luxury) as it is very nice however this creates the issue of not being near your guests and isnt' great so I'm glad we stayed in Tulum with our guests as that's key. Look out as well that some travel agents only book some of the resorts so they may give you incorrect info. For example, Thomas cook only books Grand Bahia Tulum and Grand Bahia Sia'an kan but won't give you options for Coba and Akumal (luxury). Thompson's on the other hand books Coba and Akumal but the other I think. (side note: Thomas Cook and Thompsons are UK travel agents, if you're from elsewhere int he world you may not know these). Some details about all the resorts Grand Bahia Tulum Grand Bahia Coba Grand Bahia Akumal (luxury) Grand Bahia Sia'an Kan (luxury -adult only)

Invites and Website We got the save dates made and sent them about a year before the wedding. The website was easy we just went on 'the knot' website and made a site for free. Really easy. We added info on the site about what resort took etc and the dates and dress code etc. Then we included the website on the save the date card we sent out so that made it easy for everyone to get info and RSVP right on the site www.theknot.com/us/mikeandkat We sent the invites out about 6 months before the wedding and included the website again in case people had lsot the save the date slip.

Hi All, I just got back from getting married at the Grand Bahia Tulum a few days ago and wanted to write a review of our experience. Please feel free to ask me questions, happy to help you arrange, I know how frustrating it can be trying to plan the wedding from out of the country. I will post TIPS throughout the review of things I wish I had been told before the day. I hope you guys will find these helpful Let's start with some background. Mike and I met in Thailand on a backpacking trip. He was travelling from the UK where he lived and was travelling with some friends of his. I was living in Canada and was backpacking around Thailand with one of my best friends. One night we got to a beach bar and my friend started making eyes at this guy on the beach who ended up coming over to chat with us. His friends later joined and my now husband was in that group. We can't piece a lot of the night together as we both has a bit to drink but I just remember how funny he was and how charming he came across. That night on the walk home I stepped off the sidewalk to let a bike pass and stepped in a hole (sidewalks are not very well lit in Thailand) and sprained my ankle. Mike was with me and as the carrying man that he is, looked after me and carried me home. The next few days he stuck around and helped us move rooms, helped me get around etc. My ankle was extremely swollen which made it hard to walk. Luckily my friend that I was travelling with is a nurse so she also took excellent care of me. Best possible situation for spraining your ankle on a backpacking holiday really. So Mike stuck around us the rest of our trip, always in contact with me! It was just so easy being with him, it's like we'd always been together. In Bankok a couple of weeks later we said our goodbyes and flew home (me to Canada, and him to England). We didn't think we'd see each other again. However, we stayed in touch messaging all day every day, with endless photos and showing a glimpse into each other's lives. This then escalated to facetiming all the time and phone calls. 6 weeks after we got home I flew to London to visit him and we decided to make it work. I quit my job in Canada and gave up my apartment there and move to the UK in June (less than 6 months after we met). Crazy I know! lol but I didn't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what if, so I just embraced the adventure. Engagement In November about 1.5 years later we got engaged Mike proposed on the Jubilee walking bridge in central London and hired a flash mob to sing 'All you need is Love' which was pretty cool. We had a lovely steak dinner that night as well and it was all wonderful. Since most of my family and friends live in Canada and his are obviously in England I thought Mexico would be a good place to have the Wedding. I always wanted a wedding on the beach so I thought this would be a good opportunity. Unfortunately, planning a wedding in Mexico from England isn't that easy, if you go see a travel agent for Weddings in Mexico there isn't many options, where as I know in Canada you can have about 20 places priced up no problem. My options were rather limited and a lot of the options I got didn't allow children which wasn't going to work as I have a couple of nieces. I ended up choosing Grand Bahia Tulum as the reviews for the Weddings were good and I looked at the cost of the package from Canada and it was about $1500 Canadian dollars per person which is fairly reasonable. By the time booking came around all my friends and family from Canada ended up paying about $1750 per person which was annoying and I'm not sure if it had to do with the dollar being weak or the prices having gone up but at least it wasn't $2000 per person like some of the other resorts. I felt guilty asking everyone to spend that money never the less. TIP - I booked my wedding holiday through Thomas Cook and they weren't great if I'm honest, I did enquire about booking the Wedding through them. Which entailed my travel agent asking the Wedding coordinator at Thomas Cook and then coming back to me with answers which was extremely slow and not very helpful. No one seemed to be able to tell me the benefits of using a planner through Thomas Cook so I scrapped that whole thing and just booked the holiday through them and contacted the onsite Wedding planner instead. I would recommend this - the Wedding planners on site are excellent and really get into details of planning your Wedding with you about 3 months before so don't stress if you don't get tons of responses before then! They know what they're doing

Hi! We got married at Grand Bahia a few weeks ago and we got married before we got there and just had a symbolic ceremony. I don't think it even matters if you're married or not (no one asked us for our marriage certificate or anything), never mind when you got married. We got married in London on Saturday and then flew out on the Monday, our wedding was on that Friday. You do need to arrive at least 3 days before your ceremony to allow for planning no matter if symbolic or real. Hope that helps Thanks Kat Hi! Has anyone replied to your comment yet? I can type out the packages for you if you still need them. There is several options however they are all very expensive as you pay per plate. The ones that looked really good like the BBQ option and stuff were all about $70-100 per plate. If you have a lot of guests it seems insane, I think it's also buffet style so everyone helps themselves. I just got married a few weeks ago and will post a review shortly which you may find helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Kat

There seems to be a fire that broke out in Grand Bahia Tulum, anyone there that can let us know what the damage is? http://www.travelweek.ca/news/fire-breaks-grand-bahia-principe-tulum/ I'm getting married there in less than 6 weeks!!!

Hello Bahia brides! Has anyone gotten married recently who can give me some details and advice on DJ vs Band options and timing of the wedding and reception options. I have questions such as are the bands any good? If so which one? if you have your reception at one of the restaurants do they give you a different menu then you'd get there on any other night? How much time is good to have between the ceremony and reception? I'd really appreciate advice if someone has just been through this process. Thanks girls Kat

@Siuc4me there's lots of different options. The wedding packages have changed this year. In the 2017 packages the Romance Extravagenza is $3490USD for the legal and $3240USD for the symbolic. There's a package available above that one now that that one is called Emerald which is $1200USD more respectively but looks like it includes loads of perks such as the Moet for the toast which the extravaganza doesn't include anymore. These prices include food from one of the a la cart restaurants on site, you get a group menu. You can use the restaurants outdoor terraces or a semi private table inside. They can send you pictures of these sites. But if you're looking to have a poolside reception instead of food at one of the restaurant you have to pay for a private buffet dinner which is charged per plate. The menu ranges from $60USD-$95USD per plate. This ranges from hotdogs to steak. This includes food and 3 hours open bar for guests. If you chose this option you can use the a la cart restaurant with your guests another night. if you want more then 3 hours (like most people) you have to pay extra to extend your pool side reception and get a DJ and stuff. I've included those prices below from an email I got from the hotel. "Kindly note that if you would like to extend the privatization of the area beyond the hours stablished, it will be the cost of drinks (Domestic, International, Cocktail) per person per hour+ the cost of music service hired. Please note that the operation of the hotel is until 11pm. For events after 11pm a fee may apply (300 usd) to cover the staff who stay after that time. All the locations (beach, poolside), restaurants & terraces are subject to availability. In each case, you can add music options as follows: - DJ: coloured lights, speakers, mic & mixer (210 USD per hour) - Live Band: group playing International music (750 USD for a set of 45 min) - Sound equipment: speakers, micro, device (75 USD per hour) - Mariachi: 4 persons playing traditional Mexican music (370 USD per set) - Live Music Trio: 3 persons playing romantic Mexican music with guitars (295 USD) - Duet of guitars: 2 persons playing romantic Mexican music with guitars (272USD) - Saxophone player: folkloric Mexican music (360 USD per set) - Marimba: folkloric Mexican music (360 USD per set). " I'm getting married in Feb 2017 and I haven't made my mind up yet as to what I'll have but if you get everything you want it gets very expensive! I also have almost 50 people coming which doesn't help the cost. They won't reply to you much until 6 months before your Wedding date when you're meant to get special attention and you'll get a wedding coordinator assigned to you. Let me know if you have any other question. Thanks, Kat

Hi All, I haven't booked the hotel yet or anything. I've fairly certain I'll go with this hotel now and called them yesterday but they don't take 2017 bookings until January of 2016. I was hoping to book it in earlier as I wanted to send out my save the date cards more then a year ahead of time so people can start saving and can book well ahead of time. i'm wondering if I should just send out save the dates with a ballpark date on it (2nd - 9th February 2017 for example) then people can book that week and we'll get married on a day that week. Has anyone else had this issue? Thanks, Kat

@Mention thank you so much for your help! The internet is so big but it can be so difficult to find anything.

Hi Brides, Anyone who's gotten married at the Grand Bahia Principe Tullum do you have any pictures of what your reception looked like? It doesn't list on the different packages what decorations are available so I'm not sure what i can ask for. How does all that work? I'm thinking either beach wedding or gazebo but I've seen the gazebo decorated with flowers and the aisle and stuff but it doesn't state if that costs extra or what. It also doesn't say if I can chose colours and layout as well. For the reception I'd like to do it by the pool but I have the same questions. I didn't like the pictures I saw of the pool reception online as the chairs and table didn't match in colour. Can I chose these colours or do you just get what you get? My other question is the bridal bouquet, it's included in the packages but does anyone have a picture of theirs? I'd like to know what they provide as standard. Is it any good? I'd really appreciate anyone's input on this!!! Thank you girls! Kat

Hello all brides past and future! I live in the UK and am planning my wedding in early 2017, I'm also new to the site!! I'm currently trying to pick a date and resort. I'm trying to find something affordable for my guests to come to as a lot of the resort I've looked at are 5+ stars and an absolute fortune for my guests which I'm uncomfortable with. I've got guest coming from Canada, UK, US and Germany. Does anyone have any experience as to how group packages could potentially work for me as eveyrone is coming from the different place? With this in mind I'm currently mainly looking at Barcelo Tucancun and the Grand Bahia Pricipe. Has anyone recently had a wedding at either of them? Does anyone know what the seaweed situation is at right now as well (are they cleaning it up so it's not an issue?, is still really bad?) Barcelo Tucancun - has an absolutely beautiful beach so I thought it would be perfect for my beach wedding but I can't find any recent reviews on it which concerns me. Grand Bahia Principe - is a beautiful complete with 4 different resorts I think. Tulum, Coba and Luxury Sian Ka'an and Luxury Akumal. How does this complex work? Can your guests stay at any of them and still attend the Wedding? There seem to be conflicting reports on tripadvisor in regards to this. My biggest concern with this complex is all the seaweed pictures of the beaches on tripadvisor, that's the last thing I want on the background of my pictures. If anyone can connect with me in regards to their experience I'd really appreciate it!!! Thank you!!!! Kat