My husband Ryan and I agonized for a long time over where we would have our Wedding.  We always knew that we wanted a destination wedding, we just had to figure out how to execute it!

Honestly, the hardest part for us was finding a resort to accommodate our large group!  Our friends and family were vocal in telling us right after the engagement that they were all wanting to attend our wedding away from home, so we knew instantly that our group would exceed 50 people. 

While the thought of having so many loved ones all together at a resort for your special day was thrilling, it was also quite daunting because very few resorts could guarantee that they would have the space to accommodate such a large group; and even fewer could give us a good price.

When we found the Grand Sunset Princess Resort, we were beside ourselves because it is a 4.5-5 Star resort (depending on where you look), in the location we wanted, that looked amazing in the pictures and they could actually guarantee availability for our large wedding group.  Not only that, but they were affordable!!! (well under $2000 a person)

So in that aspect, it was great. 

They also have two dedicated wedding coordinators.  They helped to make the day seemless as the bulk of the wedding is planned from very far away.

The flowers provided in the wedding package were quite lovely, but only the bride's bouquet and the groom's boutineer were included in the wedding package. (I highly recommend checking out other florists for your additional flowers as I found someone to copy those provided by the resort at half the cost--Marvin at Maya Diseno Floral was FABULOUS).

All in all, we were happy with all the extras that came with the wedding package (such as brides' hair and makeup--which I was able to transfer to my mom and the mother of the groom because I elected to do my own).

They have more than one location for weddings--on a nice day, you can choose either the beach, or the wedding paviliion.  The pavillion only holds a maximum of 50 people, so that was out for us, but we were happy to have our wedding on the beach. 

The beach was fabulous, fairly secluded (but of course, we still had a few drifters coming to spy :))  So if you're worried about being right in the main section of the beach, don't be!

Our wedding photographers of  del Sol Photography  caught some fabulous shots not only of our actual wedding in the beach, but a few in the pavillion and through out the hotel grounds as well. (here is the link to our slideshow http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=270)

We were extremely lucky that our wedding day was a gorgeous one weather wise, because we heard horror stories from other wedding parties who had inclement weather and had to decide by 11 am on their day where they wanted to have their wedding.  One couple had their wedding in the internet cafe near the hotel lobby.  So in that regard, their 'back-up' wedding sites do leave a little to be desired.

Our biggest complaint about this venue for our large group was the lack of communication.  Many times they came to us with issues that should have been communicated to us much earlier than they were.  On one occasion, they told us only a month before our wedding, that because our group was so large, we would have to pay for a private reception because they couldn't accommodate us at one of their a la carte restaurants.  This was shocking!!!  This was not a problem thenumerous other times I had spoken to them.  And, the price difference was huge--it would have jumped from roughly $12 /person for dinner to a minimum of $40!!!!  We were outraged.  That was something that they should have communicated to us much earlier on because we had our group booked in months ahead of time. 

Fortunately, everything worked out okay and we didn't have to spend another fortune on our reception there.

All in all, we had a fabulous experience and would not change a thing.  We have so many amazing memories of our two weeks spent at the Grand Sunset Princess Resort!!