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

[TATrisha]

Welcome back and congratulations!!!

I'm so glad to hear that your wedding went so perfectly!

[shellee]

Originally Posted by adriennej 

 

I'm wondering how much the private poolside reception costs? My wedding isn't until April and Maria said we won't start planning until December/January (which naturally stresses me out... I would love to start planning now!!! I'm sure a lot of brides feel the same way.) But  if someone could tell me what the total cost of the private reception is... including DJ and any other cost associated with the private reception. Also if they offer a location outside for a private reception other then pool side? or is that not a good idea?

Would love to have some feedback, really appreciate it ladies!!

Adrienne

 

the pool side recetion for us was after the dinner so just dancing and drinks. we chose the resort dj and got the special cocktail.

the DJ was $420 for two hours and the open bar was $8 per person for the two hours ($5 for the first hour and $3 for every hour after)

 

so in total for the 52 guests we paid $836 but it was WELL worth it!!

Originally Posted by AndreaandAaron 

 

Beautiful wedding!  CONGRATS!  Might be a silly question, but what is the 'special cocktail'- an extra add on to the pool side reception?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

the "speacial cocktail" is the choice of booze. its the lowest option they offer but with honestly you can still get all of the top shelf booze

[adriennej]

I'm wondering if you know how much the outdoor grill would cost ? And what type of food that would include? Thanks ladies wedding isn't until April and (as I'm sure you experienced) they won't start planning until December/January, I'm just trying to get an idea about our options and pricing thanks!

[TATrisha]

I had the grill option in April, best idea ever

 

The food was $20 per person, however I budgeted for the $46 option, just in case that's what they charged me.

The food was amazing.  There were SO many options.  I think six different hot food options, then fresh fruit, and a bunch of side dishes and pastas.  Very good and a TON of food.  I had 35 people, and there was basically an option for each person!  It was insane. 

 

Then the cocktails are $8 per person

[claruickie]

Shellee Congrats on your wedding.

 

What a great review a gorgeous photos.

 

Ladies

thanks for your replies about flowers and cake - its gerbera and roses I would like are they in the options?  I have emailed (again) asking for the flower options to be sent to me . . . . drummign my fingers LOL  x

[gettingwed12]

Hi everyone, just a quick pop in to say we are back today, I will post a review in the next few days but our wedding and the resort were amazing!! I will actually be posting kind of a double review as as our best friends also married here during the same holiday, both weddings we're amazing and Jazmin is fantastic! Wish we could go back and do it all over again! Xx

[TATrisha]

Claruickie, gerbera and roses are included, so you should be okay.

 

gettingwed12, I cannot wait to hear all about the double weddings!!

[gettingwed12]

Hi so here's my review of our wedding and our friends wedding too, both amazing and everything we could have wanted...

 

Arrival

 

After a 10.5hr flight with 3 kids I was dreading Cancun airport after some of the things I've read so was pleasantly suprised when we arrived, straight off the plane, que for passport control wasn't too long and baggage was already waiting on the carousel when we got through, then about another 15mins in the queue for the baggage scan and all 32 of us managed to get through without a red light too which was a bonus, only downside was that our wedding case was cracked and damaged when it arrived although this could have happened at either airport and luckily everything in side was in tact so nothing too major, then straight out and on to the coach, I wasn't paying attention to how long it took to the resort but most people said it only took about an hour and 10 mins so again was quicker than expected. All of our group except us were dropped at Tulum for check in then we were taken to Coba, no queue for check in, welcome cocktail was lovely and we we're given gold bands and free safe (both couple's), I'm not exactly sure what extra perks we got for getting these as most people seemed to have the same things such as bath robes etc as we did and we weren't given any extra a la carte's??

 

Resort

 

Well I was expecting a big resort after reading all the reviews but it really is huge, even bigger than I was expecting and even after two weeks we still didn't manage to see it all. It's such a beautiful hotel, well kept and clean everywhere, lots of our group commented on how many people we saw maintaining the place all the time and the staff were so friendly, especially with our young children. As I mentioned before we left, we had been hoping and expecting to be staying in Tulum, mainly as these we're the wedding options we we're given and also because our travel agent's (Thomas Cook) had told us they only booked people in there, I had asked Jazmin if we would be upgraded so maybe that's why we were put in Tulum, I'm still not sure? We had intended on asking when we got there if we could be moved to Tulum but decided on the way that we would see what the room was like and decide the next morning as we were sooo tired after 14hrs+ travelling. We loved our room, we had a pool view, it was very spacious and the bathroom was big too, we had a junior suite so had a Jaccuzi bath too and after some thought decided it would be nice to be on our own sometimes so stayed put in the Coba. We thought (and most people in our group) that Coba was the "nicer" of the three hotels, obviously its newer so that's probably why but we just found it suited us as a family better too, most of our group were couple's with no children and young singles and after spending a day at Coba although they thought it was nicer they all prefered Tulum as it was more the "party" pool, but for us if we had the choice again we would choose Coba. We tipped the maid and mini fridge every couple of days and we we're well stocked and had some lovely towel art which the kids loved. During our stay we we're given champagne in our room on arrival, champagne and chocolates the night before the wedding, champagne the night of our wedding and again the next day with a chocolate cake, unfortunately I'm not a big champagne fan so we didn't drink them all so maybe the next guest got use of them if the maids didn't take them away.lol. We mainly ate at Tulum buffet with our family but they sometimes came to Coba, we found the Coba buffet to be the best of the three, we only ate in Akumal once for lunch though. We ate at the Brazillian (very nice but very filling so didn't actually try that much), the Mediterranean ( starter and soup was nice but nobody was very impressed with their main), the Mexican (for my stepdaughters birthday - I loved it, not many seemed impressed though, they said it wasn't spicy enough for them) and me and hubby ate at the Japanese the night after the wedding on our own, we had the show table, it was amazing and was the best a la carte we ate in. My dad and his wife ate in Le Gourmet for his wife's birthday and they said that was also really lovely and was the best one they ate in. The other group ate in some different a la cartes but their favourite seemed to also be the Japanese.

 

Spa

 

All of the women in the group (including my 11 year old step daughter and 11 year old cousin for pedicures) had an afternoon at the Spa, I had a Mayan Massage which was very relaxing and a pedicure which was good, most people had some sort of massage and either pedicure or manicure, everyone said it was nice and relaxing. 

 

Our Wedding Day

 

My friend stayed with me and the children the night before the wedding and my husband went to stay with his friend in their room, the boys went out for drinks but the girls all decided on an early night so we went back the room and ate the chocolates they had left.lol. We were up early next morning but as there were quite a few of us who needed hair doing and two young boys to organise we didn't have any time for sunbathing in the morning but it was still nice and laid back, my friend took my boys to their dad for a few hours whilst the girls got their hair done, my friends mum did all our our hairs for both weddings and she was brilliant, she's not a hairdresser or anything just quite creative and did some practice sessions before we left and everyone was very impressed. We ended up doing our own make up but I don't wear a lot anyway so wasn't a problem. At 2pm it started to rain and I started to panic, I was gutted but luckily it quickly passed over and Jazmin never made "the call" so it cleared up and everything went along as planned, we got married at the beach palapa's and paid for an arch which I'm so glad we did, it was expensive but well worth the money and I'm so glad we chose there as it was beautiful looking out over the beach and ocean while we got married. I was very nervous for months before but my nerves calmed down a lot on the day and I was quite chilled until just before walking down and I even managed to walk down the beach in my heels without falling which was a bonus.my mum walked me down the aisle and kept me steady.lol. The ceremony seemed to be over in a flash but I did my best to soak it all in, I didn't even hear the music for walking down etc as I was so overwhelmed but my husband said it was all played fine (we took two discs, one with mp3 on and one with wav files on and Jazmin took the wav file one). We had the resort photograper and went with the basic package which had 50 included, our photograper was Luis and he was fab, we managed to only order an extra 3 photo's but god knows how as all the one's they showed us we're lovely. We had been meant to have our meal in La Gran Tortuga but the week before Jazmin emailed to say it was having renovations whilst we we're there and so we we're offered the outdoor grill for free. We did manage to eat in the Brazillian the week before and they said it was closing on the Friday before our wedding but I never noticed any damage or if it did close in the end, however the outdoor grill was great, it was at the hibiscus pool at Coba and the set up was lovely. We paid for the special bar and we're given everything and just made sure we tipped well. We hired DJ Bijan who was really good, he listened to the type of music we liked when I emailed him and had most peoples requests through the night, after we headed on to the hacienda nightclub (which was the only time we went due to having young children) to be honest I didn't really rate the night club, we had fun but I wasn't convinced we'd missed out on much by not been able to go there before, we snuck off and left our group dancing around 1ish. The room was decorated lovely with swans, petals and heart balloons.

 

Our Best Friends Wedding

 

As mentioned this was a double celebration and our best friends also got married whilst on this holiday. Again another chilled morning, the bride spent the morning sunbathing and I met her about one to start getting ready, she was very relaxed and I was so proud of her, her dad was meant to walk her down the aisle but unfortunately at last minute couldn't make it, she didn't want to replace him with anyone else walking her down the aisle and so walked down herself, it was really hard for her and I was so proud that she managed it as she was very upset about the situation. Their wedding was also beautiful, they got married in the Gazebo and then also had an outdoor grill at the Tulum pool, the had the resort DJ who was just as good as Bijan to be honest and again they paid for the special bar and we're given everything They had a different photographer to us, not sure of his name but was also great and took different shots to ours which we were glad about. It started to rain around 9.30pm so we all made a dash to the Lobby bar and had a few drinks there before most of them headed off to the haceinda, however all of our children had fallen asleep so we went back to our room. It was a lovely day and I am so glad we got to share our weddings like we did, we did all our planning (and stressing) together and to see them both come together so lovely in the end was amazing. We were a little worried that our guests would be bored as the weddings were similar with us both ending up with the outdoor grill and poolside party just two days apart but actually even though they were similar they were also very different (if that makes sense!!) and everyone commented on how lovely they both were in there own way. 

 

Wedding Co-ordinator

 

We both had Jazmin as our wedding co-ordinator. She is great, so detailed and thorough with everything ( she even went to the trouble of putting me a flat board at the end of the aisle and covering it with sand so that i had something flat to stand on in my heels). I was so impressed, she was just so helpful and thought of everything, tables we're set up with our decorations and favours and bridesmaid/pageboy gifts just as I had hoped and her and Carla we're brilliant with organising my children walking down the ailse too. I really couldn't have asked for more.

 

Sorry I've ranted on for so long just wanted to cover everything, if there is anything I've missed just ask. Thank you so much for everyone's help on this forum without all your information I would have been lost, so thank you for helping make our days perfect. Hopefully this link will work for my photo's but if not let me know. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151139134274849.449426.612824848&type=3

 

 

Nic. X

[DanielleW]

Hello!

So I'm getting married on May 22, 2013 at the Tulum gazebo and I'm so excited! I'm not sure why but unlike a lot of others on here Jazmin has contacted me about reception options, restaurant choices, cake and flowers etc. already. I just wanted to know if anyone has  gotten flowers from outside the resort? And what do you think the best cake choice is? Should we pay for another tier, is it worth it? 

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Danielle

[gettingwed12]

Originally Posted by DanielleW 

 

Hello!

So I'm getting married on May 22, 2013 at the Tulum gazebo and I'm so excited! I'm not sure why but unlike a lot of others on here Jazmin has contacted me about reception options, restaurant choices, cake and flowers etc. already. I just wanted to know if anyone has  gotten flowers from outside the resort? And what do you think the best cake choice is? Should we pay for another tier, is it worth it? 

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Danielle

We just asked for a two tier cake, it didn't cost us anymore as we still had the same amount of cake just two smaller tiers instead of one big one. Our friends had one big cake and I'm glad we went with the two tier, I've put a link on for a pic of our cake. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152209577825554&set=t.612824848&type=3&theater

 

We had 27 guests and ourselves and they gave me and my hubby the top tier to share (we didn't manage it all) and then split up the bottom tier and there was still quite a bit left over. Xx