I want to begin by saying that we have been to the Royal 4 times in the past and look forward to sharing more memories there. Generally speaking, their service and accommodations are fantastic. Not only will you be happy, but your guests will also be impressed. The reason we actually wanted a destination wedding is because of The Royal. The first time we went there, we had an amazing time, but we knew the real test was going back a second to see if it could be just as spectacular and it was (and that was when we began dreaming about our wedding..pre-engagement). My full review is below by category:

PLANNING/COORDINATING

Once we got engaged, I immediately contacted The Royal and began planning. At this time the wedding planning department was based in the United States. Communication was horrible and I was switched from planner to planner 3 different times. Of course, this scared me but knowing how great The Royal is, I was not deterred. Then, we went for our site inspection. We stayed for 4 days and our appointment was on the last day. Unfortunately, during the interim they closed down there US office and created a Cancun office. My appointment got lost somewhere in between and they were not ready for me. We were shocked, disappointed (and angry). They felt terrible for it and compensated us for their mistake (with a credit for the room, free massages, and an impromptu site inspection in which they had canapés prepared and set up and decorated the gazebo for our inspection with our name on it…it was actually really cute and what made me forgive them)! :) Alan del Campo (a member of the management staff) was the main person who helped resolve this issue for us. Without that, we would not have had our wedding there (thank you Alan)!

When we returned from the inspection, we were still a little weary but we were contacted immediately by Jael who helped re-gain our confidence.  Jael is very sweet and was as helpful as possible. I think that it was at the beginning of them implementing new systems which for future brides are fantastic but they were not fully laid out for me. Hopefully The Royal reads these and if so, my advice would be to be more thorough on providing the details (provide something that includes the names, photos, size, location, etc. of the different site locations) without having the bride ask for them. This would also be great if you could do that for food options. Advice to brides, as for those details. You can also ask me and I am more than happy to help with information/questions as much as I can. :)

The reason I say this is because when we arrived at the resort for the wedding, it turns out that they had the wrong site location for our reception (ahh). I do not put the blame of this on Jael, I think it was linked to the original communication gap from the offices switching over and just not being as detailed as they could/should be with the venue names/descriptions. Essentially, we when Jael and I communicated, we referred to the “terrace” but there are more than one terraces…and we were referring to 2 different ones. What she must have not known is that at the site inspection, I emphatically said that I did not want it at the Albatros rooftop terrace at the site inspection, which is what they had planned for me.  At the end of the day, Paty (manager of wedding coordinators, Alan and another member of their management staff (I cannot remember his name right now, though my husband probably does) resolved the issue and made our dream wedding come true (THANK YOU)! My husband dealt with this issue so luckily, Bridezilla (or Cry-zilla :)) did not have to make her presence (at least not for very long). The Royal did help resolve this issue quickly and kindly, given the circumstances.

From here on out, everything was magical and flawless.

REHEARSAL DINNER ON THE BEACH

We had our rehearsal dinner 2 days before the wedding, on Thanksgiving Day.  I did very little planning for this….and The Royal went above and beyond. Jael worked with me to plan a traditional-ish American Thanksgiving (turkey, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin cheesecake) menu. The Royal set up a path of wired/string lights along the path of the stairs from the pool to the beach and greeted us by helping us removing our shoes and having a large shoe storage/holder which was really nice. The table was actually a bunch of tables put together to make an oval-ish rectangle table (rather than one long rectangle table) which was perfect so everyone could see each other still (18 people). The table was decorated with a few candles and rose petals. They had under table lights and was outlined by more wire string lights, tiki torches and large flags.  It was honestly spectacular. The service was excellent, the food was great, it was incredible. They also had some light background music (good music though, not elevator music) for us. One of my guests even asked if she could have a copy of the play list (she thought I planned it). The only thing I would change if I could is I would have a photographer for this as well. We took our own pictures but it was dark outside and with all of the different lights/glows, they really didn't turn out that well. One of the waiters did take my camera around for me and took of everyone around the table which was really nice. Another wedding must have been going on at The Gran Caribe because we were lucky enough to enjoy their fireworks. Some pictures are below that we took from our room (how awesome to walk outside the balcony and see that…and know it was for us!) and once we approached the table.

WEDDING CEREMONY & COCKTAIL HOUR

Our ceremony was inside of the gazebo (technically on the Gran Caribe side). The ceremony itself was short and sweet, just the way we wanted it. We did not use the aisle runner but put down rose petals instead which surprisingly did not blow away. The on site coordinator (Paty) took care of all of this for us. The cocktail hour was on the terrace right behind the gazebo. It looked amazing. Great food spread, great bar, great service. We did spend much of this time taking pictures but it was nice to walk out right after and get food, champagne, drinks, etc. Our guests said the food was good. We also had a harpist play for an hour. He was good. When the hour ran out (he started before the ceremony while guests were seating), they played music on a sound system. I do not remember the music and we did not specify anything in particular but it was nice and our guests liked it. 

RECEPTION & DJ

Our reception was on the Villas Terrace. It was AMAZING. We had 20 guests and had 2 tables of 10 (over 40 and under 40 ;)) and we had our own private table, which I loved. We had a light up dance floor which I think looks really great in photos. We gave the DJ a list of song requests. He covered them all and included other music which we loved. We were very impressed with him.  We had cold fireworks after our first dance which are a nice touch.  The DJ also includes balloons they had out (which also look good in pictures and are fun props to dance with) and mini glow sticks.

FOOD, FLOWERS & DECOR

The food was great (as is all of the food at the resort). We had the spring salad with goat cheese, for the main course we had 2 options, salmon with bernaise sauce or beef valentino with pepper sauce and shrimp and cheesecake for dessert. We brought our own place settings to differentiate between the menu options (salmon or beef). These were also all given to the coordinator along with a seat chart and they put them out. Everything we gave them to set up was set up flawlessly. We had 2 medallions on the gazebo, one on the table during the ceremony (which they moved to the reception after the ceremony), and centerpieces on the tables for the reception. That's it! It's such beautiful natural scenery I skimped on flowers (and did not miss them). I brought my own bouquet, place settings (which were candles), cake stand, cake jewelry and cake boxes (see my page for links to all of my DIY projects).

CAKE

We choose the vanilla cake with white frosting. The free wedding package (which is what we did and added a la carte options) includes a cake for the bride and groom. We had this delivered to our room when we arrived in Cancun to taste test. We tried it and…hated it (it had good consistency but tasted  marshmellowy...just very bland). My mother-in-law is a really good cake baker so we had her try it and she told us to tell them to add 4 tsps of vanilla extract and 4 tsps of butter extract to the cake and to the icing. We did, and they did. …WAHLA - the cake on the wedding day was fantastic! :)

VIDEOGRAPHER

We used Royal's Funever Photos for the Video. We had them there for the entire time. We were impressed with the video. We have already watched it several times and cannot wait to be able to watch it down the line when the memories aren’t so fresh in our head. This was also great to share with those who couldn't make it.

PHOTOGRAPHER

This was the only outside vendor we used…Del Sol Photography. If you haven’t already done your research…they are the best! Of course their pictures are fantastic but really stuck out to us about them is that they have an unparalleled way of capturing all of the emotion of the wedding...in still shots. They just seemed to capture the moment at just the right time.  Here is a link to our slideshow. I'm sure you will agree! :) http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=368

Besides great photos, Del Sol also provided great communication. They are very professional and have a tremendous amount of pride in their work. Looking back at it, this “upgrade” was one of the best decisions we made. As the wedding passes and memories fade, the pictures don't. Spend a little extra on them (or on any great photographer in your location/area), you won’t regret it! I wrote a more detailed review of them on their vendor page: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/del-sol-photography

OVERALL

Looking back at the wedding, I do not even think about the communication hiccups. I think about the great memories and the excellent customer service The Royal provides. They really do go above and beyond in their accommodations.  If I could do it all over again, I would and I wouldn't change a thing (except that I would do less worrying before the wedding because it ended up being fantastic). We stayed 10 days total and were there for a full 7 days before the wedding. This was great because by the wedding day, I was so relaxed that the minor details really didn't matter. More importantly, being there ahead of time really gave our families (and friends) a chance to bond and come together as one big happy family. I know that sounds cliché and unrealistic but it is seriously what happened. I swear our families are still on a high from it. They all bought the ingredients to make Mango Tangos (our drink of choice at the resort) and send picture messages to each other when they make them at home to continue to bask in and share the bliss. Of course having great video & photos has helped our “wedding/Cancun high” to continue into February (our wedding was in November).  If you have any questions about anything feel free to private message me and I will do my best to help answer your question. Good luck, happy planning and congratulations! :)

**I wrote a review on The Royal Cancun on Tripadvisor.com of my first trip there in 2008 http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g150807-d642781-r14354589-The_Royal_Cancun-Cancun_Yucatan_Peninsula.html To update the one con, this time around their internet was faster! :) Trip advisor is my go-to for any vacation planning!