Recent RIU Palace Mexico Bride (Feb 7, 2008)

[CandiB]

I just recently got back from our wedding at the RIU Palace Mexico on Feb 7th. It was amazing and so stress free! We were very happy with how everything went. In case anyone is planning or considering a wedding there, hopefully this will help.

 

Location: we chose the gazebo, and were very happy with our choice. We had only seen one other wedding htere in the two weeks of our stay the others were on the beach. The beaches are quite crowded as there isn't much left to them.

 

Flowers: We didn't get anything on top of the added fake flowers they set out for every wedding. For my and the bridemaid's bouquets I chose orchids. There was an extra charge but they were beautiful. I kept the smaller bouquet in my room for a week and a half after the wedding and it still looked great.

 

Reception: we chose La Bodega. I wouldn't recommend this if you have vegetarians because most of the meal is meat. They bring it out on large skewers and cut your portion directly onto your plate. It was a closed off room that we had mostly to ourselves. A few other tables were occupied by people we didn't know but they left before we were done dinner. We then had the room to ourselves to do the cake cutting, bouquet throwing and even a dance. We brought our iPod and stand and plugged it in the restaurant with a playlist we'd prepared for our wedding dance.

 

Cake: we chose chocolate with vanilla icing. The cake isn't anything special. We had a cake for 35 people (36 people came) and we had well over half left over. I wouldn't recommend paying extra for the cake. And I didn't reall ylike the chocolate cake at the resort either, it wasn't chocolatey enough for me! lol.

 

We got married in Canada prior to going to Mexico because we didn't want the extra hassle of vblood tests and paper work. We brought a copy of the ceremony we did at home and gave it to our wedding coodinator. You don't actually get to meet the minister until the ceremony begins and he did a wonderful job. His English was great as well. We used a playlist we'd prepared as well fo rthe ceremony and they hooked it up to their sound system, worked out really well.

 

Hope this info helps. I'm still trying to figure out how to add pictures, so they may soon follow.

 

Candace

[Leia78]

Hi Candace. Congratulations on your wedding! I'm glad everything went well...any pics?

[CluelessBride]

Oh yay! Here's your review. Well done!!! So here are my questions so that other brides may benefit from the questions as well...

 

Did you do any extras such as musicians or just your own ipod selections? We have an MP3 rather than IPod do you think that will work? We are thinking of getting a 3 piece band for after the ceremony, take pictures, and between the ceremony and dinner the guests can hang out at a bar for "cocktail hour" is there a perfect spot there for that? Did you find that you needed to do anything like that? What did you guys do in between your ceremony and dinner?

 

With the restaurant choice, did you feel like the atmosphere was nice and that it was a good spot for your reception? Other than the hunk o meat on your plate was there other food available salads, rolls, etc? Did they make it seem extra special for you? Do you think that the other restaurant El Patio (I think that's what it's called) would have been a better location?

 

With the weddings you witnessed on the beach, do you think with us having our wedding at 5:00 pm with 11 guests, that we will feel as though it was crowded? Was it pretty? I'm afraid to do the gazebo wedding with only 11 guests it feels too big for our small intimate party.

 

I think that is all the questions for now (sorry it's a lot!) Thank you, and I'm so thrilled for you that everything went so smoothly and that you are pleased with the results!!

[tlomlad]

you got married on my birthday, i hear thats good luckk!

 

CONGRATUALTIONS, cant wait to see pics

[Yari]

Thanks for sharing your review!

 

Exciting to see the pics.

[CandiB]

Here's the link to the photographer that we used: Weddings http://web.mac.com/image_life/Weddings

There's a bunch of albums on it with weddings at different locations so good to see if you are still considering that. As for the other questions, we didn't book any extra musicians, nor did I see any other wedding. I'm sure they can hook up any type of music player you bring. We'd brought a CD as well in case the iPod didn't work but didn't have to rely on it.

In between the ceremony and cocktails, the rest of the guests took pictures themselves and then had a drink (or a few) in the lobby bar which is right there as well. No one made any comments about there being too much down time.

The La Bodega restaurant has a salad bar to begin your meal with so there are a lot of other options. We didn't know what to expect for the meal so I think a lot of people were very conservative on the salad bar not knowing the rest would be pretty much meat only. El Patio is open so its less private. I was glad we had the privacy we had after the dinner.

[CluelessBride]

Thank you so much for clarifying everything! Your pictures are gorgeous!!

[Elisa]

Candi ,

Thanks so much for the info. I am getting married at the Riu Palace Mexico and am clueless as to how it will turn out . I orginally booked the Riu Palace Riviera Maya , but they moved the ceremony to the Palace Mexico because all by guests are staying there ** Gulp **

 

Thanks again . I look forward to seeing your pics !

[CluelessBride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elisa Candi , Thanks so much for the info. I am getting married at the Riu Palace Mexico and am clueless as to how it will turn out . I orginally booked the Riu Palace Riviera Maya , but they moved the ceremony to the Palace Mexico because all by guests are staying there ** Gulp ** Thanks again . I look forward to seeing your pics !

CandiB helped me prior to my marriage, we were married on March 21st. I had spoken to three other couples who had gotten married at the RIU Palace Mexico. They all said it was amazing, wonderful, couldn't have been better... I didn't quite believe them fully since I had no idea what to anticipate. But the truth of the matter is, they were 100% right. It was amazing and wonderful and beautiful and I am so thankful we were able to get married there.

I'm not really sure how to post pictures but we got married in the courtyard and then witnessed a beach renewal ceremony and got pictures of that, it was crazy. There was speedo boy, people sitting as close to the AISLE as possible! There's no way the photographer got a shot of just the couple w/o onlookers in the way...The courtyard felt sooo private even though our guests said that onlookers from their balconies were taking pictures, and people would walk along side of the buildings rather than in the middle of the courtyard and we didn't even notice them! We had a trio playing rather than a cd or ipod and it just completed the atmosphere for us. It was perfect.

We traveled to the Riveria Maya a few times and it was great, but our guests repeatedly said they liked the RIU Palace Mexico better they couldn't quite explain why other than they thought it was prettier colors. They're both great but I don't think you'll be disappointed with the move in wedding location.

[Elisa]

CluelessBride, you need to change your name , because um, YOU are not clueless at all !!! LOL !! Thanks so much for your post ...it made me smile and breathe a little easier .

Oh, and for some reason, I too, am having prblems downloading any pictures here to the forum !? LOL !!

 

Thanks again and thank you candi B for the feed back . Congrats once again