Paradisus Riviera Brides - POST HERE!

[avong1228]

No, thanks. I will definitely be pulling that same card if they won't let me have a buffet option. We want to be very informal and plus I don't want to have to do menu cards, etc.

[avong1228]

How are you bringing all your stuff down? We are thinking about just a big box that we can throw away with all of our OOT bag stuff, decorations, favors, etc.

 

Thoughts?

[MayanLily]

I also have a photographer already. We are bringing one with us from here and the only reason we chose that is because the vendor fee was so damn expensive and none of the packages included a photog. So I will definatly be saying something to them about that! In the end, I'm actually happy that we'll have her there for the whole week but if the packages had included one in the first place, I probably would have just gone with that.

 

Angie, have you heard ANYTHING from the resort at all? I haven't and I'm now getting a little concerned.

[avong1228]

Yes, Daniela sent me an email yesterday but it didn't really say much.

 

She said no swapping of items in the package but something like "the complementary package Your Moments can not be discounted of the other wedding packages." I'm not sure if that means the cost of that package can go towards the other ones or what that means.

 

I asked her about the golf and snorkeling trips but she still hasn't given me anything on the meals plans, extra for drinks, decoration costs, etc. I've asked her for all that again in my reply email.

[avong1228]

Ladies ... where are you? Having a good Memorial Day weekend?

 

Ktchi, two more weeks!!! How exciting!

[amyschmidt85]

PARADISUS/NOW SAPPHIRE REVIEW

 

I had my wedding at Paradisus/Now Sapphire May 5, 2010. We arrived May 1 the day it switched from Paradisus to Now Sapphire and knew nothing about the change. At first we were a little bit worried but there was no problems at all; nothing really changed except that we didn't have to wear wrist bands and didn't have to make dinner reservations. All the staff were still the same.

 

Arrival -We arrived in Cancun on Sat May 1st in the evening. There was 27 people in our group and when we got off the plane and walked downstairs to the customs area we could hear people yelling and screaming, it sounded as if there was a party going on. We guessed wrong......there was about 1000 people crowded into several different lineups waiting to get through Customs. Anytime another Customs window was opended up or shut down the crowd would start yelling. It was chaos. We waited in line for 3 1/2 hours!!!! When we finally left the airport the trip to the resort was fairly quick, 25mins.

 

Check-In - Check In went pretty quick but by the time we got settled in it was about 10pm. We were starved but no restaurants were open. Most of the group ordered room services that night and it was really slow, 50-60mins per order.

 

Resort - The resort is absolutely beautiful! The gardens are always being worked on by staff, they are immaculate! The lobby area is stunning, it's a great place to sit down and relax. There are a few pools throughout the resort but we only ever used the main pool. It was the perfect temperature but the bottom was very sandy from the wind constantly blowing the sand up from the beach. The beach was always kept very clean, no garbage. The sand is very soft and very few rocks. When we were there it was very windy so the beach had a lot of thatching on it from the Palapas. The buffet was good but not the best i've seen at an all-inclusive resort. It always had a variety of food to choose from but I didn't find that it changed much from day to day. All the restaurants were fabulous, I think our favorite was Teppanyaki.

 

Wedding - Originally Cecilia was my wedding coordinator and I found her to be very slow. It usually took 3 weeks to get a response back from her. When I had one month to go and still hadn't finalized anything with Cecilia I got a bit worried. I e-mailed her one day and within minutes I had received an e-mail from Adriana saying that she was taking over my wedding and would be helping me with the rest of the planning. Adriana was fantastic!!! She was quick at responding to e-mails and always answered all my questions. I e-mailed her pictures of what I liked and wanted and she made it happen. When we got to the resort we met with Adriana and she had everything under control. She was absolutely wonderful to work with and truly made my wedding perfect!!

 

Timeline

4:30-5:00 - Ceremony (Beach)

5:00-7:00 - Toast/Cocktail Party (Beach)

5:00-7:15 - Wedding party photos & Couple Photos (Beach & around resort)

7:00-8:00 - Dinner (Tequila Terrace)

8:00-8:10 - First Dance & Father/Daughter Dance (Tequila Terrace)

8:10-9:00 - Speeches, Cake Cutting, Bouquet Toss, Garter Toss (Tequila Terrace)

9:00-11:00 - Dancing (Tequila Terrace)

 

It was absolutely gorgeous the day of our wedding, sunny and next to no clouds but just enough of a breeze to keep you from dying. We did the Fantasy package and added a few extra things to it. The golf cart was suppose to come and pick us girls up from our room at 4:15. At 4:20 it still wasn't there so we just walked over to the ceremony location through the backway. Turns out, she doesn't send the cart until the boys show up at the ceremony and they were late. So it wasn't Adriana's fault. The ceremony went off without a hitch. Right after the ceremony we had a toast and then while we were off getting picutres done everyone else was enjoying the Cocktail party. We had the cocktail party on the beach and paid extra money to get the bali beds and tiki torches set up. It was fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone.

 

For our reception we chose the Italian Buffet. I think it's the best food that I have ever had. There was so much to choose from and there was enough to feed at least double the amount of people we had. The staff was outstanding!!! As soon as you finished dishing up they would offer to take your plate and walk it back to your table!! As soon as you got up for seconds they cleared your plate, your drink was never empty for more than a couple seconds becasue a second one was already on the way out.

 

We played all of our music off our iPod because we didn't want to pay the money for a DJ. The resort charged us $250 to use their sound equipment and speakers. They had all the cords on site to plug the iPod into the stereo. We were expecting that we would have to get my brother to take control of the music for the reception but we were pleasently surprised when they had someone to do that for us. He was fantastic!! He made sure that the music was running all night and would scan through the iPod for songs that people requested.

 

After the reception most people went to the Fun Pub which is located in the Hotel Lobby. It's open from 11pm-2am everynight and has music and dancing.

 

Photographer We did not use any of the photographers that the resort suggested as I didn't know what the quality of their work would be like. After looking at some photographers on the internet we decided to go with Moments That Matter Photography. They didn't come recommended to us by anyone, I just fell in love with their photographs that were posted on their website. They are a company based out of Playa Del Carmen and do weddings in the Cancun/Mayan Riviera area. MTMP were absolutely wonderful to work with! They had never been to Paradisus/Now Sapphire before. They arrived 45 mins ahead of time to tour the resort to pick out spots they thought would be a great place to take pictures. The photos are stunning, they look they belong in a magazine. We look like models and trust me, we are not very photogenic people. I would highly recommend them to anyone going to the Cancun area. You will not be dissappointed!!

 

Overall, I have no complaints about our wedding. It was everything I had visualized and more. Everyone at the resort did a fantastic job at pulling it all together and making our wedding perfect.

 

If you have any questions please ask. I can e-mail pictures if anyone wants to see.

 

Best of luck to all you ladies that are still planning!!!

[avong1228]

Great to hear that you had such a good experience, except for at the airport. A few questions...

 

Did you bring a lot with you and if so did they give you any problems at customs? Did you need receipts? What appetizer options did you choice for the cocktail party? What kind of cake did you get? Did you have a rehearsal dinner and if so where and did it cost extra?

 

Pictures would be fantastic! Do you they goo centerpiece options that aren't crazy expensive? How does the ceremony music work? Can you just bring a CD and tell them which songs are for what?

 

Sorry for all the questions but all of us have not received many answers lately and I'm getting antsy!

 

Thanks and congratulations on your wedding!

[amyschmidt85]

We had no issues going through customs. The 1st part of customs you don't have your luggage with you yet so I don't see there being any issues. Once you pick up your luggage from the carousel and go through the final screening process you have to hit a button which will go green to go ahead or red to stop and get searched. We hit a green so we didn't have any issues at all.

 

We never choose the appetizers, we just went with whatever they normally serve. I tried a few and they were absolutely delicious. Very fancy but easy to eat. Ex. Asparagus and cantaloupe wrapped in ham. Everyone got at least 5 or 6. We stuck with the non-alcholic cocktail party because we couldn't justify spending that amount of money for an hour or two of open bar. The servers that were bringing around appetizers also took drink orders. They just ran to the bar next door and brought the drinks over.

 

We got a chocolate cake with a white buttercream filling and white buttercream icing on the outside, no fondant. I sent Adriana a picture of cake that I like and they replicated it. It was a very easy design, 2 tier round cake with pink ribbon on the bottom of each tier and orange tiger lilys on top. The cake was delicious and almost everyone had a piece. We also had a table of mini-desserts that was included in our buffet menu.

 

Adriana asked if we wanted to do a rehersal and dinner but we felt that it wasn't necessary. We were really laid back and just hoped that everything would flow smoothly without the rehersal and it did.

 

Adriana showed us over 100 centerpiece options!! It was a little overwhelming. There are some cheaper options but we paid $90 for each centerpiece. They looked really beautiful but I don't think it was worth $90.

 

Yes, just bring the CD and give it to your wedding coordinator. Make sure you write down the track numbers and what they correspond with, ie. Track 2 Bride walks down isle. They took care of all the music from pressing play to fading it out at the appropriate times. The wedding coordinators also has a bunch of music to pick from in case your CD gets damaged or lost.

 

I hope this helps you a little. The resort is really bad at responding quickly but trust me they do a fantastic job!!! I can't figure out how to post pictures....

[avong1228]

You need a photobucket account to post pics.

 

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ok-here-16832/

 

If that doesn't work, feel free to email me at [email protected] with any pics you would like to share!

 

Thanks for all the info!

[PrincessGinger]

Hello ladies! I have not kept up on here nearly as much as I had hoped, the dang website doesn't work on my work computer, ugh. Anyway, so glad to hear your wedding went so well Amy as I know everyone is pretty concerned since the sale. My specialist from destination weddings suggested changing hotels, but I really would prefer to stay here, so I am glad to hear how well your wedding went. I have been working with cecilia and cannot seem to get a response from her for anything, we would like to plan a trip down there in Aug to finalize our wedding details, but she won't respond. Is it better to try and call? I don't even know a phone number, so if someone has that handy please let me know.

 

I am four months away now so I am going to try and participate on this forum more often here on out. Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend!