Choosing the location for our destination wedding was the hardest part for us as a couple when it came down to planning. We got very lucky with the travel agent we decided to go with and Gran Caribe Real Cancun was one of the places she suggested. It fit our budget, it was an intimate resort where you didn’t have to walk too far for anything really, had a beautiful beach and was family friendly. Our destination wedding week was from April 21 to the 28^th. This review will be quite long, but I want to ensure I cover everything as I found it very helpful when past brides went in great detail with every single item that is important for their destination weddings!

Pre-wedding arrangements/communications:

Elsa Torres was assigned to us and I’m not going to lie…this was the most difficult part of the planning process. A lot of it had to do with communication barriers. And a lot of it had to do with surprises that they didn’t communicate in the original documents that you would read before you book your wedding there. My advice would be to stand your ground and fight for whatever you have and don’t have documented! Don’t take no for an answer the first time round. I saved a lot of money by doing so and you can do yourself a favour by doing the same. However, a phone call was the best way for us to resolve any disagreements we had. Elsa is was better on the phone than via email. Before you book, be sure you clarify all questions you have. This site is great because I was prepared for any surprises from reading all the past experiences of other brides. It got me mentally prepared for conversations I would have to have and clarified how certain things would work. Do your homework! It will make for a much more pleasant experience…which it did in my case.

Hotel:

I really do recommend this resort if you are the type of person who is looking for a small and intimate resort. I really liked the fact that you didn’t have to walk long distances to get to places and you generally found everyone from the wedding group and hung out with them pretty much the entire time. Considering a lot of our guests came from all over the world to be there for our wedding, this was a very important piece when we decided which resort we wanted to stay at. There are a lot of activities for all age groups which was great. Customer service overall was great! Antonio, Flora (our wedding coordinator), Oliver, Pablo, Angel and Natividad were just some of the people that just made that customer service experience even more enjoyable. The resort was very clean and well maintained. Arriving at the hotel was a pleasant experience. They took our whole group to a room and did all of our check in and paperwork all together and in decent time. We all went for lunch, went to front desk to get our keys and everything was ready. They were very accommodating if there were problems with the rooms, and were pleasant for the most part…as long as you were nice about it ofcourse. Try and be patient and respectful when talking to people, and that goes a long way I find.

Beach:

the beach is not too far away from the lobby, your rooms, etc. Everything is close enough which I found really nice. If I needed to get something from our room, it was a short walk. Beautiful beach- clear waters and white sand. They raked the beach everyday as well- there can be some seashells along which can hurt your feet but it’s a beach! What can you expect! Waters were a bit rough on certain days- definitely need supervision if you have young children playing along the beach.

Wedding:

our wedding happened on April 23^rd which was the 3^rd day into our stay in Cancun. We met with Flora de La Garza on April 22^nd at 11am. We brought all the items and details we needed for the wedding when we met her. We were very impressed with the level of detail that went into the meeting. Flora took very detailed notes and went by each and every event for the day of the wedding. We showed her all the décor items, scripts, and even music that we wanted for the wedding and she accommodated everything. There wasn’t anything that she said she couldn’t do for us. I was expecting some kind of resistance with the amount of stuff we asked of her, but she smiled and nodded and said “no problem, I will look after it”. She explained the times and how everything would work. And she fulfilled everything we asked of her when it came to the actual wedding day! There wasn’t anything that we had a complaint on. She did everything according to how I imagined it and in some cases, exceeded our expectations. My friend who is musician was also provided with a plug for his guitar at the reception so the sound was amplified. It was a great touch. We went with the free wedding package by the way. So we did pay extra to upgrade our room and we had access to the Royal which was nice as the a la carte’s on the Gran Caribe side booked up really fast. So it was nice for us to have more of a selection in terms of food. I am not picky about flowers and décor and all that, so the free wedding was just what we needed. Ceremony was at 4pm- perfect time since it get really hot when you are wearing a wedding dress and reception went from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. We did not do a cocktail hour and we fought hard during the pre-wedding conversation to avoid paying that $400 break charge- absolutely ridiculous! We paid extra for entertainment and went with the Fire Dancers. SO WORTH THE $600 WE SPENT FOR THAT!!! It was for about 25 minutes and it was a very cool show. It was unique for our guests because none of them had seen that at a wedding ever. So we felt pretty cool to be the first to do that! We had a sweetheart table setup and a long table for our guests. We provided place cards on our wedding favours which were bottles with mini chocolates in it. We distinguished the meals with the colour of the cards we used and notified them in advance what would be for what. I have pictures to give you an idea of the décor. Food was amazing. They even accommodated my guests who came from India and were strict vegetarian and even gave a really good Indian Vegetarian meal to them. Everyone loved the cake. Drinks were great.

Here is a video my friend made with pictures for you to get an idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIbZgjF2jhI&feature=youtu.be

Overall, the wedding was a hit and we couldn't have been more happier with our choice to go with the Gran Caribe Real Cancun for an amazing destination wedding week which we will be sure to remember forever and ever! All the pre-wedding headaches were worth it because it was the PERFECT day and wedding for us!

For photography services, I brought over my photographer friend Tony Di Lorenzo who I’ve always wanted to do my wedding photos, even when I was still single and working as a model! For videography, we hired Mike Cantarell films and loved their customer service! Hire these guys if you want quality work! As for makeup and hair, I am a hair and makeup artist so I did my own. For DJ service, we actually used the Wedding Dj app and saved lots of money that way…we didn’t spend too much time dancing at the reception and ended the party around 8:15pm as we made plans to go to Coco Bongo that night to party the night away.

I will try to post more pro pics from the wedding once I get them, but I wanted to get this out before I forget details.

Overall 2 thumbs up! We are very happy newlyweds J