Riviera Maya Bound

SunsetBride · January 15, 2007

Hello everyone! I am new to the forum and have found it to be very useful so far. I got engaged in November 06 and we want to get married in May 07. My fiance and I originally thought we would have a traditional wedding in Philadelphia but quickly decided to do the destination wedding thing after a painful month of checking out reception venues and finding that they did not have the dates available we wanted or that it was out of our budget or the food was aweful, etc. Since we have decided to have a short engagement, a destination wedding seemed like a great idea. Although I expect there to be some frustrations with a destination wedding, I am hopeful that it will be much less stressful and absolutely beautiful.

We have not chosen our final destination, but we are leaning toward Riu Palace Mexico right now. It seems to be a pretty good deal for the money and from the information I have read and the pics I have seen, it seems to be a great resort all around. The other resort we are considering is Iberostar Tucan. Has anyone had any experience with this resort or info they would like to share?

We plan on taking our parents and best friends with us and sending invites to another 80 guests or so. We are trying to keep the price of the vacation pretty reasonable so our invited guests are more like to join us. I am confused on how to negotiate rates for an unknown number of rooms though. What have other people done with this? Do the resorts block off a certain number of rooms for your potential guests?

I have 4 months to go, so any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Wish me luck!

EDYTA · January 15, 2007

don't worry u can plan all this in 4 months no problem my wedding is in 3 1/2 months and i still havent done anything other than picking the place....

I've stayed at Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus in la Romana Dominican republic and I was very impressed with the Iberostar chain....excellent service, food and impecible resort structure, o and their prices are awesome so I am certain that u will get the same quality in Mexico

good luck with the planning and let us know what else we can help you with

Nrvsbride · January 15, 2007

Welcome!! Congratulations on the engagement. You mentioned the RIU which is a lovely resort and an all-inclusive which is great for your guests but I am not sure as to which part in Mexico you are getting married. Are you doing Cancun, Mayan Riviera? I think you and your guests will defenitly enjoy the RIU and you should do a search of the RIU b/c there are lots of RIU brides out there who can help you and share useful information. As far as room blocking goes, you would have to contact the WC at the RIU to see what their policy is. I know usually some resorts will block x amount of rooms but you have to pay to have them blocked out. You don't have to pay the full rate of the room but you do have to pay a certain amount. I would also recommend working with Tammy (the host) b/c she is a travel agent who specializes in destination weddings and will be able to get you a great deal. A lot of the brides on this forum (including myself) are using her and she is absolutely wonderful!!

-Glenda