Gran Bahia Principe Akumal/Tulum/Coba - POST HERE!

[sarah1108]

I am using this guy named Eduardo Machuca:

 

"eMac"

Eduardo Machuca-Torres

Eduardo Machuca - Fotografia|Photography -My general photography

Eduardo Machuca - Wedding Photography | Fotografia de Bodas -My wedding photography

| Eduardo Machuca | Photography -My photography blog

 

(That's the signature he uses for his email). We thought his prices were really reasonable, and he doesn't force you to buy a package, you just pay for photography hourly, and then pick which specific prints you want. Anyways, I really liked the editing style of Sol Tamargo, but if we used her we'd only be able to have her there for the ceremony, and with Eduardo we can have him there all day. That's what made us go this way.

[Sunsierra]

My Wedding Review - GBP Tulum

 

I’ll start from the beginning. We flew out of Winnipeg with Skyservice at 6:30am on Sat. Jan 5th (which was an hour late) but no biggie. Skyservice is a lil squishy, their breakfast sucked (you might want to bring your own eats), but their service was excellent.

 

We arrived in Cancun at around 11:30 am (I think – none of us had watches). No problems there, our whole group got the green light! Only one timeshare dude bugged us. It was an hour and a half long bus ride to the resort (with Corona’s for $3 – the guy took both American and then Canadian when my dad ran out of USD – already, haha).

 

We pulled up to our resort and let me tell you – it’s amazing!! The Tulum lobby is king of open air, it’s so nice. When you walk up, you can see straight through to the pools and ocean. Since check in wasn’t until three, the bellboys marked our luggage so we could claim it later. We changed into our bathing suits and headed to the beach, got some grub and waited until we could check in. Around 3:30 we got our room (which was Villa 3, room 321) and a little while later, the rest of the group got their rooms (Villa 33, rooms 3301-3315, I think). It was nice because they were all in the same building.

 

Our room was wonderful! The differences between our room and our guest’s rooms were minimal – our room was a little bigger with an ocean view. We really only have one complaint for the whole vacation – our clock kept going out (we think because of the room’s sensors, but we never got it fixed) which is really not any big deal at all – we just phoned the front desk anytime we really needed the time.

 

We had a note in our room asking us to meet Jazmin on Monday at 10:00 am. (I’m gonna skip to the wedding stuff now) When we met with her – I wasn’t feeling too well (yup, it was mostly self-inflicted so don’t feel too bad, haha) but the meeting isn’t that long. She showed us pictures of the locations again – we picked the beach location (I think it’s called the palapas). She showed us pictures of the flowers we could choose. We picked the Birds of Paradise – sooooo glad we did, they are gorgeous – our package included my bouquet, groom bout and centerpiece for the table. We ordered extras for the BM’s, GM, moms, dads, hair flower, rose petals for the aisle, etc.

 

We had already chosen “The Tequila†for supper, but we had to decide on if we wanted tables of 4, 6, 8, or 10. We chose two tables of 10. We gave Jazmin our music and our cake topper and that was it.

 

Oh, another thing. You think you have confirmed your wedding time right?? Wrong. We thought our planned wedding time of 3pm is a go for sure, until Jazmin tells us that she still has to wait for the JP to confirm. She told us we’d find out tomorrow.

 

Tuesday – we get another package from Jazmin – has all of our details in writing… we have to read over to make sure everything is right. It is. Wedding time is 3pm, whoo! And there’s photocopies of the wedding day events to hand out to our guests… she is one organized lady!

 

Wedding Day – Wednesday January 9th, 2008

 

We woke up and went to breakfast with a few family and friends – a few were MIA due to drinking the night before, haha. From there, hubby and I split up. My hair appointed was at the BahiaSpa (at the Akumal side) for 10:30. SIL’s appt was for 10:00 so we went together. We waited for a bit when we got there and then they started on us at the same time. ***Bring a picture*** of how you want your hair done. They speak little to no English so a pic makes things so much easier. **Be a little flexible** as both of our hair didn’t turn out ‘exactly’ as the picture, but was very close. We both loved our hair and we were back at our rooms by lunch.

 

FYI, anything done at the spa is charged to your room so remember to bring a little tip money.

 

We decided to grab a bite to eat. But the buffet doesn’t open until 12:30. So we wait (which seems like hours to me – but only end up being 10 minutes). At 12:10 I decided I couldn’t just sit around and wait anymore – I still had bubbles to fill, makeup to do, etc…

 

So I go back to the room – get the bubbles filled. Then my mom phoned… their room had no water… so I now have a group of girls (!!! they take the longest, haha) who have to use my room to shower and get ready… wedding is in two hours. Thankfully, it’s my mom - who can calm me down (rumbly tummy – still not sure if it was nerves or Mexican food, haha).

 

So all girls flowers got delivered to my room and the boys flowers delivered to their room. Not thinking that my dad is here with us, and hubby’s mom is there with them... not a huge problem, just one more thing to organize (thankfully a guest – awesome girl that she is) took control and handled the lil situation.

 

Okay, so one hour before the wedding and our room is full of frantic girls trying to get ready (I’m pretty much ready now, so I get to enjoy my beer and smoke – yup enjoy it, cause I know I’m quitting after Mexico – which I have done now – non-smoker me for four days, whoo!) Get our call from Citlalli (from Claudia Rodriguez Photography) She’s at the lobby…. Yeah! Citlalli gets there. She is such a gem! Very genuine! She starts snapping and we’re all doing the finishing touches.

 

So at 2:55 – the trolley picks us up – it can hold 7 people – and takes us to the wedding location. Now this is cool, the pathway goes through shrubs and stuff on the beach so no one can see you until you’re out (so I’m really bad at explaining stuff, sorry!). Jazmin is there to let us know when to start walking… BM’s go, flower girl and ring carrier that’s what my son calls it) go. Now it’s my turn. My mom and dad both walk me there… so amazing!! Hubby looks gorgeous. Now I’m a little fuzzy on all the details. All I remember is looking at hubby and thinking I’m one lucky gal. Oh, and saying my vows, I remember that too. I also remember hubby’s emphasis on ‘poorer’, haha. Ane the waves, I can still hear those wonderful waves...

 

Then, it’s done… we’re MARRIED!!

 

We take pictures on the beach, in the jungle area, a few around the resort (not many, as we realized that the pictures didn’t quite matter as much to us as we thought they would… we just wanted to get back and join the party!) It was about 5pm anyway and that's all we booked Citlalli for.

 

We then met up with the rest of the group at the lobby bar until supper at 6:30. Supper was awesome! Very delicious - Mexican Appetizers, Azteca Soup, Chicken Breast Medallions, and Tres Leche Cake… there was hardly anyone else in the restaurant until about 7:30. We did the mandatory tequila shots… salt on my neck, on his nipples, shots between the legs and lime in the mouth… so much fun – still can’t believe we did that in front of our parents!!!

 

They brought out our wedding cake – it was huge for 20 people… but there’s no cake topper… they said they didn’t get it… no biggie for us, we’re having a great time. (We never did get the topper back).

 

Then back to our rooms to freshen up before the disco!! We rented it from 8:30 to 10:30 for $150 USD per hour… totally worth it… it was so much fun. We brought two CD’s from home with some music on it – but we really didn’t need to, the DJ played some pretty good tunes. Had the first dance and then boogied with our family and friends for the rest of the time. We managed to sneak off before everyone else at about 10:45pm….

 

 

So here’s the deal - The service (and the setting) is really what makes these weddings so much fun!! All week the staff was saying congrats… They are always so full of energy! Not everything went as planned, but that day, you really truly realize how much none of that crap matters. I am so happy for you gals that chose this resort… you are going to LOVE it!!

 

Sorry it’s so long…. If you have any questions at all, post em… and my pics will be posted as soon as I get em!

[TATrisha]

Ok, here come the questions!!!

 

Could you have gotten different flowers if you wanted then the ones shown?

How much extra were the BM’s, GM, moms, dads, hair flower, rose petals for the aisle, etc. that you got… specifically the rose petals!

How many rose petals did you get and did it completely cover the aisle?

When you say you gave her your music, was that for the ceremony? How does that work, you just hand her a CD with all the songs on it?

Did you guys do a rehearsal or did you just wing it on wedding day?

 

I’m so happy that you were pleased with your wedding. It’s always REALLY nice to hear that! It makes me very excited!

 

Oh yeah, were you guys able to cut off your wrist bands for the wedding?

[Sunsierra]

Here ya go:

 

Could you have gotten different flowers if you wanted then the ones shown? I'm not too sure... I'm not very picky so I just went with what they had. I'm sure you could bring a pic of what you want though (it will probably cost you though).

 

How much extra were the BM’s, GM, moms, dads, hair flower, rose petals for the aisle, etc. that you got… specifically the rose petals! The final bill didn't have everything broken down for us, but in the end we paid about $1500.00 USD. This included our $870 wedding package, $300 USD for the disco rental, $32 USD for the Mexican Fiesta that we attended, and $90 for the photographer (or $180 cause we don't know if they charged us for her assistant or not)

 

How many rose petals did you get and did it completely cover the aisle?I'm not really sure how many we got... they didn't have them down the aisle like I thought they would (I just assumed they would, you might want to specifically tell them how you want them arranged) They had they spread around where we said our vows.

 

When you say you gave her your music, was that for the ceremony? How does that work, you just hand her a CD with all the songs on it?Yup, just ceremony music. We gave her a CD that we burnt. She got us to write on it: 1. Guests be seated 2. Groom and GM 3. BM, flower girl, ring bearer 3. Bride 4. Bride and Groom

 

Did you guys do a rehearsal or did you just wing it on wedding day?No rehearsal, just wung it

 

Oh yeah, were you guys able to cut off your wrist bands for the wedding?Yes, but make sure you keep them (my mom took care of everyone's so they were all in one place). We had to put them back on for the supper (but I'm sure you could argue this and get them put back on later).

 

Hope that helps you out!

[TATrisha]

Thank you SO much! This helps a lot! Now I can't wait to see your pictures! I hope you get them shortly!

[CarrieRN]

Okay girls,

 

I just finished a newsletter/email to send out to my booked wedding guests and to those who are likely to attend. It has an overview of activities available at the hotel, plus some info of things nearby and day trips.

 

Hopefully this will attach without issue. I can email it to anyone who would like to use it for their peeps or to have it as a starting point.

 

Let me know what you think, por favor.

 

 

Excursion Info.doc

[Martha]

Thanks for the review!!! I am so excited!

 

 

Awesome, Carrie! I can't open the link at work, but will check it out when I get home!

[Martha]

Great info, Carrie!

[steph77]

Thank-you so much Carrie your newsletter has saved me so much time!!! It is extremely well done (and something wonderful to give to the monster-in-law to explain yet more reasons we want to get married somewhere awesome!).

I'll make sure to send you some pics or reviews on any of the activities because I plan to try them all, especially the zip lines, I did one in Australia and they're really cool.

THANKS!!!

[CarrieRN]

At my sister's destination wedding, we did the mayan encounter one through alltournative. You tour Coba, then go canoeing, zipline across a cenote and then rappel into a different cenote. It includes a lunch prepared by some of the local Maya. It was a ton of fun. We were exhausted at the end though. It is a long day.