sashloz

Yes me too! Getting me in wedding mode! Your wedding is so soon, must be so exciting. I asked how much the set up would be for the lights as well, they said they would have to 'decide when we get there' but I doubt it'll be very pricey. Heck my parents even said they would hop on some ladders and set it up themselves lol! Doubt we can do that but we are just total DIY-ers. I'm thinking the day everyone arrives I'm just telling them to meet at one of the bars for a drink together as well, keeping it low key. I want to do a welcome bag as well. Etsy has some really cute affordable ones. I have some that have been sitting in my cart forever by the shop becollective

Are you getting pricing from your Royalton Planner? I have Randi and while she's great and answers all my emails same day, she told me she can't give me ANY pricing for decor/florals/add ons for May until January rolls around! Grrrrr I'm using my semi private dinner for a post wedding brunch instead We are renting a private catamaran for the day before the wedding and I'll probably have around 30 ppl TOPS at the wedding so I don't feel pressured for a rehearsal dinner and like the idea of brunch. Planning on bringing a few boxes of string lights from home. I've heard its about $150-200 per string to rent which is soooo not happening. I asked if I could bring my own and they said I totally can and would just have to pay a small set up fee. Target has 20 feet long lights for $12 a box so I'm waiting for Randi to send me the dimensions of the beach bar to find out how many boxes to buy! She also sent me dimensions to all the table shapes and sizes. I think I want to go with rectangular tables for the reception and long greenery garlands with tealight candles spread throughout for our 'centerpieces'. I think I'm going with faux flowers for the wedding/reception. It kills me a little inside but most of the flowers I have my heart set on (peonies, ranunculus, eucalyptus - I love that lots of greenery and fluffy white flower boho look) aren't easily available in the area. I've found alot of sellers of real touch flowers on Etsy but some of the prices are even more expensive than fresh florals.... I'm still back and forth with it. We hired Kape Photography for our photos! The contracted photographer was soooo not our style. She is charging us $2400 for 8 hours. Then there's the outside vendor fee... She says there is ways around it or we can negotiate it down with the hotel (she has shot at the Royalton before) but I'm a total chicken about having her just show up at the wedding with a day pass and hope no one says anything I think we will just pay for her room for 3 nights under our room block. It works out cheaper than the $850 vendor fee. Hoping to negotiate it down to 2 nights though lol. BUT last week we took engagement photos with Hideki of Button Up photography in NYC!! He held a contest on his IG for a free shoot while he was in NYC and I happened to win. We considered him for the wedding as well but he was alittle pricier and him and Kape Photography had very similar styles so we went with the cheaper obviously (He charges around $3500 for 8 hours, still not bad). If anyone is looking for a photographer I'd highly recommend him! The sneak peaks of our pictures have been gorgeous so far and he was the sweetest guy ever. Even my fiance said he wishes he could go back and higher him for the wedding. But I'm super happy with Karla's work as well and know she'll do an awesome job for the wedding! Glad we're able to work with both photographer's we liked

@@ljgray1989 I know I can add her on to my room block for $246 per night (single occupancy) so even if I book her in for the 3 nights they want it'll be cheaper than the outside vendor fee. But I'd still prefer to save a few bucks and haggle them down to 1-2 nights. You guys should really contact the Royalton wedding planners directly to get confirmation. May was pretty booked up already when I put my deposit down last month and I received my confirmation within 2 hours. Their planners are very quick to respond. It's worth trying at least!

So I sent my WC a list of a few questions I had in mind. One being that I know the sound system is included in the wedding package for the ceremony but what about the reception... I figured they'd charge additional for this but holey moley I was not expecting the pricing she sent over! Below is her response. Does our package include a sound system for the reception or only the ceremony? If not, how much is it for the reception? It includes the sound system for the ceremony! The sound system for the reception is $441 USD for 2 hours and $315 USD for additional hours(tax included) Now is it me or is that pricing RIDICULOUS!? For a speaker and microphone?? Future hubs wants a DJ but for the fairly small number of people we are expecting (about 20 max) I don't think it's worth it. I figured we would just have the Wedding DJ app and a sound system and call it a night. Now I'm honestly considering bringing my own little speaker and having everyone speak up during speeches LOL. Anyone else do that? I also tried to get a little idea of pricing for decor but she said that the prices could change so we'll have to just wait for 2017 and the 'planning phase' to get all those quotes. This stresses me out because I want to budget accordingly. I've heard the decor vendor charge like $150 per string light. I might just wait for the end of summer and buy a bunch of boxes on clearance at Target and haul them down. Also the photography outside vendor fee..... UGH still working on that $850 charge. I've booked Kape Photography. If any of you ladies love photojournalism photography you will adore her work and she has been a DREAM to work with. She said that usually it can be negotiated down and here were the options Karla sent over.... The past weddings, we've avoided the vendor fee by paying a 2 night stay for me at the resort. They usually ask for 3 nights for me in order to avoid this fee, but we normally negotiate for it to be only 1 or 2 nights and that always works good. The other option is not tell them anything and for me to book a 1 night stay separately and just show up for the wedding with my camera as a guest who takes pictures, this shouldn't be a problem. Remember they will always want to "punish" you for getting someone from outside, but there are ways to go around it. The other option is paying a daypass or adding us in the list of your guests and just paying for us to be at the wedding (and we can stay outside the resort). I can help you arrange all of this! But I'm just too chicken to not tell Royalton and have her as a guest! I don't want to get down there and then have them hit me with an $850 charge because they saw her taking pics during the ceremony and reception. What do you guys think??

LOL feel free to snoop! We will definitely be meeting for a drink. We haven't booked our room yet but right now it looks like we'll be arriving on the 4th and leaving on the 9th or 10th and then heading down to Secrets Akumal for a little 3 night "minimoon" away from the fam.

Yikes! I dealt the wedding planners directly. I emailed them over all my documents and deposit. It was confirmed within the hour. I'd recommend dealing with the wedding planning team directly! They always respond same day or next day in the AM and are all very friendly. I'm sure communication will slow alittle bit now that everything is confirmed - they said we'll start finalizing all the small details 4 months prior to the wedding.

Heyyy NJ in the house! Yes she offers two packages $2600 for 6-8 hours/1 photographer or $2900 for full day/2 photographers. I think it's pretty fair pricing considering the price of wedding photography here on the east coast but I'm sure it will be a hard pill to swallow for the future hubs with the outside vendor fee hahaha. Photography is one thing I don't mind splurging on - well have those pictures forever. I'll just have to figure out a way to convince mr. man LOL

Wow the hidden fees are just nuts. Why are they still sending outdated info for 2017 (AND telling it on the phone - i spoke to a WC three weeks ago and was told the deposit was $200 for 2017) Speaking of which, the WC i was working with never got back to me after weeks - steer clear of Jazmin. I made the utmost decision to book with Royalton. The Hyatt is a beautiful property, great location, but i can't deal with the stress of dealing with their wedding department for another year haha. I'd definitely go on vacation there though LOL!

I put my deposit down for May 7th (first two weeks were almost totally booked for the beach bar and my preferred ceremony time on the beach! - we chose to just pay the extra $ and do a Sunday wedding) so we will definitely be running into each other, ahhhh! ONE YEAR! I'm working on a room block this week, waiting to hear back from the TA about the rates. I think I'm just going to block 10 rooms to be safe since I have to send out STDs now and I want my immediate family to get their deposits down early. What type of credit do you get for each 7 guests? I can't find the Royalton's group booking perks anywhere! I know! congrats - May seems to be a popular month!

I am considering using an outside vendor for photos as well. Not too impressed with the contracted one (even though their prices are fair). I found Kape Photography under the #royaltonrivieracancun on Insta and she did a wedding there in Feb. Love her work it's much more my style, going to try to find out if there's a way to get around the fee. $850 is just crazy!!

For sure we definitely will! I'm from NJ here in the states so I'll probably be flying out of NYC. My guests are from all over the east coast so figured it would be easy for them to find affordable nonstop flights into CUN. We're still tossed up between extending our stay in the resort we get married at or flying across Mexico to Puerto Vallarta after the wedding and having a 3-4 day "mini-moon" away from the family LOL Btw did you block rooms out yet or are you having everyone make their own arrangements? I'm a TA myself and I'm so up in the air about this because I don't want to have to book all my family and friends myself.

Ahhh okay. I remember seeing a location fee of $300 on my paperwork but now that I look again you only have to pay that for events without food. Those colors sound gorgeous together! I'm opting for an all baby's breath wedding with pops of coral and gold. I like rustic simple decor. I'm looking at the first and second week of May right now! Just waiting to hear back from the planner about what date the beach is available for a 5pm ceremony and beach bar available for the reception (I originally wanted May 5 but the beach is only available for 3pm and I don't want my guests to wait 4 hours for dinner!). So we might be crossing paths depending on our wedding date!!

I'm considering doing the same line up - beach ceremony and reception at the beach bar. How much was the location fees for the beach and beach bar? You have to pay the location fee plus the per person private dinner menu plus any decor/setup right? I think the beach bar would look beautiful with some string lights over head and some long farmer tables depending on how many people you're expecting - or at least that's my vision haha!

Perhaps the package PDFs they sent me had outdated pricing?? So annoying. Love the hotel but I just hate the wedding dept there so far haha

Yes I figure at $69 per person for the private wedding reception and the extra charge for the cake/champagne for additional guests it only works out to be about $1500 give or take for the amount of people I'm having. Makes so much more sense for me! I'm just so turned off by the lack of response.... I'm also considering the Royalton Riviera and their wedding coordinators are so friendly and quick to send info. Not to mention the hotel is more affordable. I just hate that it's in the middle of nowhere LOL! I like to be able to walk off the resort and have shopping/nightlife.