We were married on October 19, 2012 at Pelicanos Beach. My husband had only one request for the whole wedding, and that was that we get married on the sand. I started to think twice about it, and actually once we were there we considered moving it to the gazebo. The gazebo was already booked, but I’m so glad we got married on the sand after all! I should have written this review weeks ago while it was all still fresh in my mind, but I will try to remember all the details I can!

FLIGHT: We sprung for first class airline tickets there and back, this was extra money I am sooo glad we spent. Everything else is already so hectic and I was having anxiety like I’ve never experienced, so being able to relax in first class was so nice. With that being said, we flew with US Airways and that was kind of a disappointment. I thought I would be able to sit back and relax and watch a movie, but they had no tv’s on any of their flights! It’s such a tiny detail, but I was kind of looking forward to it for some unknown reason. I packed my dress in my suitcase because I was going to have steamed at the resort anyways and I wasn’t that scared about losing my luggage. Speaking of, another great thing about flying first class is you don’t pay for baggage fees! We would have had to pay about an extra $500 in baggage fees because we had two overweight bags and it was taken care of! Something to keep in mind if you are bringing a lot with you like I did.

Check-In: We arrived on a Monday so it actually wasn’t that bad. We stayed in a Master Suite so they had our concierge come and take us to a different area to check in. Once we got to his office he gave us both a cool wet towel and a glass of champagne. I wish they could have put more of our guests closer together because we were all spread so far across the resort, but that was something I didn’t think about until half way through the trip so I never said anything. Some people said that their concierge checked in with them periodically, but we never heard from ours again after check in.

Room: Our room was AWESOME! We were in room 759 which is an Oceanview Master Suite. We splurged for the upgrade because it qualified us for the free wedding. We went with the free wedding for a number of reasons which I will get into later. When we got to our room we had a full size refrigerator with a fully stocked bar with quality liquor (Grey Goose, Don Julio, etc.) On the table there was a little cake that said happy honeymoon, and a letter addressed to us from the resort welcoming us. Our bed was decorated with rose petals and swans. It was so fun and such a nice welcoming! Our guests all stayed in the Junior Suites and those rooms were equally amazing, there was nothing standard about those rooms. I would have been just equally impressed staying in one of those rooms as our Master Suite. They were large and spacious with a very inviting feeling to them. Like I said they are far from standard.

The Royal: The Royal was amazing all in itself. We had guests who were seasoned travelers and had been to many all inclusive resorts before, and they told us that The Royal was the nicest resort they had ever been to. I cannot stress how amazing this place is. Being at the Royal you can go to their sister resort next door which is the Gran Porto, and the difference in quality was astounding! I would never stay at the Gran Porto after staying at the Royal, but I will say more about that a little later.

FOOD! Oh the food J

SPICE: Spice was a good basic. Of the two buffet’s Spice was the larger one with more variety. We would go there for Breakfast or Lunch and never had a bad meal. I only had one complaint about Spice and it was a specific waiter Mateo. He was trying to be funny and joke with us which was fine, but I kept asking for water and he would jokingly say “okay” and not bring it. He told me I should have champagne instead, and I said no just water, so he brought me champagne. Then my dad ordered water, and when the waiter brought it my dad asked if I could have some and he would say “okay” and walk away. I think he was trying to be funny but I was getting mad, and I never did get that water.

TAPAS: We went there once but walked away because the menu looked so odd, nothing looked good. Then one of our guests told us the food was actually really good so we went back and they were right, it was soooo good. Great for a small lunch.

PELICANOS: One of our guests favorite breakfast spots because you can get some healthier food like fruit and yogurt and helped them not feel so full all the time. We went there when they did their Mayan Buffet for dinner and it was so good. I didn’t like going for breakfast there because it takes too long and I was usually in the mornings. The bar at Pelicanos was the guys’ favorite bar and that’s where the best margaritas were.

Coffee House: Was right at the bottom of our elevator so we stopped occasionally. Don’t think you are going to go in there and order your normal from Starbucks, lol. They have very basic coffee but lots of things you can add to it like syrups and liquors. It was good, but not consistent.

MEDITERANNEANO: Was basically the same thing as Spice with less to choose from. The only nice thing is that its quieter than Spice.

CHEFS PLATE: We didn’t eat there, and I don’t think any of our guests did either. Why pay extra when you have so much to choose from already?

MARIA MARIES: Was good, but slow. We were there for an hour and a half before we got our dinner. Our guests had better experiences, but I had hoped for more.

ASIANA: All I can say is OMG. It was sooooo good! I wish we would have eaten there more, but we at least ate there twice. The California roll was to die for, and so was so many of their other dishes. Don’t be afraid to order everything you want, because don’t forget its paid for!

24 hour: What a great place to stop and snack. We would stop in there and get some chips and guacamole or other little snacks. It probably also has some of the best A/C in the entire resort so sometimes we would just go hang out in there to cool off.

Tequileria / Cigar Bar: We ended almost every day hanging out at this bar. We would grab a table and just hang out while the boys smoked their cigars. You can usually catch a nice breeze through there and was just a great spot to hang out.

 And yes, those would be margaritas we are holding :) It was f'in hot and I needed a drink!

Beach / Pool

The beach was nice, and our room came with a private cabana. That sounds fancy, except that there were three rows of private cabanas in front of ours so our view was of other people L Not that great. The pools were great. The main pool always had things going on with activities and volleyball. If you want to really relax, go to the quiet pool. Once the shade set in at the quiet pool, I could stay there forever and really relax. That is where a good portion of group was normally found.

This was our super "fancy" cabana, and my husband being... him :)

Olympus: We traveled with Olympus as our transportation, but they were so much more than transportation! Those guys were so great, you could go and talk to them about excursions and they always gave honest suggestions and found ways to get you the best deals. We had one person come with Best Day and they couldn’t even get near the deals we were getting with Olympus. We ended up being able to take a private shuttle to all of our excursions and it was CHEAPER than getting on a standard tour bus. So thanks to Olympus we had a private bus, with a private tour guide, and we could come and go as we pleased and do whatever we wanted. If you are going to do excursions, go with Olympus!

***Wedding Day***

Talk about hectic. Sometimes I look back and don’t know how I held it together, actually scratch that, I held it together because I was determined to have a great day and to keep smiling. Nothing was going my way that day in the sense that all the timing was off. I was trying to be in a million places at once and it was not working.  By the time I got back to my room I had enough time to jump in the shower to rinse off the sweat but not enough time to shave my legs or anything else. My advice is to just stay as calm as possible and go with the flow. I didn’t get to shave my legs but all I could say at the time was just oh well, because panicking over little things like that wasn’t going to help.

SPA Hair and Makeup : My advice is DO IT! My hair was amazing! I brought a picture I had found and she just said “ok” and did it, and it looked spectacular! My makeup was equally amazing, and the poor girl who got stuck with me had a lot of patience thank goodness. I had never had my makeup done before and I kept wincing when she was trying to do my eyeliner and mascara. She would just smile and take a deep breath, thank goodness she was patient with me because she did an awesome job.

Here are some pictures of their beautiful work:

Flowers: We went through Marvin and I’m so glad I did, I left my full review under his vendor page.

Ceremony: Our ceremony was at Pelicanos Beach at 3pm. I didn’t bring any extra decorations and I’m glad I didn’t. It was so simple with all the white linens that they provided, I didn’t feel like I needed to add anything extra. One thing I worried about is that, the beaches down there are public beaches. Any one and their mother can walk by. They had staff around us to help keep people from stopping and watching but sometimes there is nothing they can do. It was a little annoying at the time, but now it’s just funny. When we were in our ceremony two girls came and posed for a picture in front of us… seriously? I can see you! Oh well, sometimes you just have to breathe. Other than that, it was gorgeous and I am so glad that I have the gorgeous ocean as the backdrop of my wedding photos.

To give you an idea of exactly how close the sunbathers are, they are that close:

Oh and then there was this hunk of man love, he shows up quite frequently in a lot of my pictures like this:

Reception: I decided not to do my reception at the Resort, so I moved it to a restaurant nearby called Wicky’s. Holy cow, I’m glad I did. It’s about 4 blocks away and it was just nice to get a change of scenery and also a different meal.  They were just as accommodating as the resort and were so great to work with. We hired a mariachi band off the street to walk with us from the resort to Wicky’s and it was so fun. It made it into more of an event and everyone was walking and dancing and it just kicked off the evening on the right foot. The other nice thing about Wickys is that they allow you to light off the wishing lanterns on the beach which you are not allowed to do at the resort.

I think that about covers the resort, I will most likely also do a planning thread to cover more of the details J I received so much help from other brides and all of their advice, so if anyone has any questions I am so happy to tell you anything that I can! Just PM me J