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

[sarahcox]

hi ladies i am knew to this forum getting married July 23rd 2013 at gbp tulum there is 41 of us traveling from the UK for 2 weeks just wondered how much people had already pre booked things for there big day thought i was all organized but its approaching quicker and quicker lol xx

[lgerry]

Well, still no response back from the resort, but we went ahead and booked with our travel agent and payed our deposits today! So we are officially booked with Akumal for the week of January 11-18 2014! Yay...so excited!!! )))

[TATrisha]

Congratulations lgerry!!!!

[worstbride]

Originally Posted by swocanadianbride 

 

Hi Gals... Havnt been here for awhile. Just came back home yesterday. Everything was 100%. The wedding coordinator, Karla was superb. Same as the the resort photographer, pictures that he captured on our wedding day are beautiful and prices are not that bad...Dont worry about tables, flowers and all those little things... Just think about it, your going to a different country, culture. The mexican culture will out do us at any given time, as they sure know how to set up a wedding. Right from the beginning of ur wedding day, until the end...

 

In the end, think about what matters... your getting married in a beautiful country with beautiful people...

I seriously try and remember this every time something happens that upsets me. I wish I was better at being consistant with remembering this.

[worstbride]

Originally Posted by Tlseege 

 

I try

 

Portofino and the Coba poolside reception are easy  

 

95 guests sounds like one hell of a party!  That's going to be SO awesome!!! 

 

Here is the jacuzzi bar as it was set up for Kristi's wedding.  This was at about 4:30, so clearly they aren't done getting set up yet, but you get an idea and it's set up differently than Cheryl's wedding.

 

Here is Cheryl's wedding at night.  You can see the lights around the sides and the DJ is next to the bar.

 

 

For Portofino, here is the outside, half naked man comes included:

 

The inside:

 

One of the long tables from the wedding:

 

 

And the cute little menus they make for your guests (chicken was delicious!):

 

I am not really excited, just stressed and irrtaed until I see these pics... and then I get so excited I feel like I could puke!

[worstbride]

Coco Bongo definitly a must for us... anyone have any additional info or reviews?

[futuremrswarner]

Anyone know if a Tulum bride can have her poolside reception at the jacuzzi pool? Cause those pictures I just saw are AWESOME! Looks a lot nicer than the Tulum pool pictures I've seen so far. And how does it work? If there's 4 brides getting married in Tulum that day, and all 4 brides want to do poolside reception... wouldn't it be first come first serve?

[worstbride]

Originally Posted by futuremrswarner 

 

Anyone know if a Tulum bride can have her poolside reception at the jacuzzi pool? Cause those pictures I just saw are AWESOME! Looks a lot nicer than the Tulum pool pictures I've seen so far. And how does it work? If there's 4 brides getting married in Tulum that day, and all 4 brides want to do poolside reception... wouldn't it be first come first serve?

I feel like I am losing my mind trying to do/ book/ plan anything. This forum just seems to spin me out even more lol.

 

I sent Eugenia a huge list of questions a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as she answers she's gettin bombarded.

[claruickie]

Quote:Originally Posted by christy12 

Hey..we've been home for a week now and are definitely ready to go back! Its weird not coming on here to check this forum every couple of days! I honestly don't think our wedding would have been the same without this amazing resource!

 

Anyways, i have been working at my review for the past week and have finally finished it. So here it is!

 

The resort

Our entire group stayed in the royal golden section in the buildings closest to the beach (mostly 65 and 67). We were in building 65 on the 3^rd floor with a view of the ocean as well as the wedding site. The rooms were nothing special but were always clean. When in the bathroom you could hear conversations going on in other bathrooms (we constantly heard a couple giving their child a bath). The bed was surprisingly comfortable. The resort is huge, however we managed to randomly run into almost everyone in our group of 30 everyday. We spent most of our time by the pool and on the beach closest to our rooms (MUCH quieter here and there is a bar). We ate at 4 of the a la carte restaurants while we were there. I am a vegetarian so I typically ate the one thing on the menu I could eat. I found the Mediterranean restaurant the best of the ones I went to. Our wedding dinner was at the Frutos Del Mar restaurant which a lot of our group said was the best a la carte restaurant they had been to. My favourite thing I ate all week was the 7 peppers soup at this restaurant (minus the shrimp floating in it). The Tequila restaurant was a huge disappointment. My veggie fajitas looked like a Chinese stir-fry (with carrots, sprouts and zucchini) and had no flavouring. The buffet was okay but nothing special. There was not a huge selection of vegetarian food and by the end of the week I was sick of chips and guacamole. Our entire group was in agreement that the Coba buffet was the biggest and the best. Overall, it is a large, very nice resort.

 

Wedding coordinator meeting

We met with Eugenia the day after we arrived. She had all of the information we had discussed over email for the past year compiled and everything was accurate. She was very sweet and extremely easy to work with. Her English is very good. We gave her all of the wedding stuff we had brought during the meeting (chair bows, fabric, fans, glow sticks) which were all set up perfectly on the wedding day. She had also arranged a welcome dinner for our group in the buffet for that same night.

 

 

Wedding day

Our ceremony was at the Akumal beach location at 3 p.m. All of our guests met at the snack bar at 2:30 and were brought down to the ceremony location shortly after. Eugenia delivered me my flowers just after 2 and came back to get me at 3. Even though I was only meters from where I needed to be (I could see the ceremony site from my balcony) they put me in a cart and drove me the 10 or so meters to where my dad was waiting. I posed for a picture with my dad and was off walking already (we did not have a bridal party). I walked down the aisle to Yiurmi’s River Flows in you, which was perfect. The officiant spoke good English and added a bit of humor. Our primary complaint (of the entire day) was that it was an extremely religious ceremony when we had specifically requested as little religious content as possible. He read from the bible and said “amen†more times than we could count. We ended up snickering a bit throughout as we found it funny just how religious it was. Our guests commented on this as well. After the ceremony we had champagne with all of our guests then moved on to photos. Our guests moved to the lobby bar to have some drinks before dinner while we took a few more pictures. We only used the resort photographer for the 10 free photos (and later bought another 20) as we had my dad and brother take photos.

 

Our dinner was at 5:30 pm at the Frutos Del Mar (seafood) restaurant. We had a springtime salad, 7 peppers soup, and the choice of either salmon or chicken. Myself and the other vegetarian had a pasta dish. Everyone said that the meal was good, and for many it was the best a la carte meal they had had all week. We opted to have the tres leche wedding cake for our desert, which was really good!

 

At 7:30 pm Eugenia came and picked up our group and brought us to our poolside reception that was beside the small pool. Our DJ (we hired DJ Bijan) was there waiting for us and we had our own bartender at the bar beside the pool. We paid for the cheapest bar option and were given most things. I think a few people had to walk ~20 feet to the snack bar to get wine. Eugenia had left the glow in the dark stuff (necklaces and bracelets) I had given her with the DJ, which I took and put on the tables. Our guests LOVED these (and they proved to be beneficial when we went in the ocean later!).  Our biggest complaint was how fast the 3 hours went by! Almost all of our guests danced for the entire 3 hours, and many (including us) were sore the next day! At one point about 10 people were standing and dancing on pillars in the pool (only 3 fell in!).

 

The original plan had been to go to the disco after the reception to continue dancing, however most of us were danced out. Instead about half of us went to the beach and went swimming in the ocean. We all still had our glow in the dark stuff on which looked pretty cool when that was all you could see in the ocean. After about 10 minutes though security came and told us we were not allowed swimming, so we ended up back at the snack bar. I think we all were in bed by midnight!

 

 

I cant stop looking at your photos they are gorgeous and make me giddy.com   Which Coco Bongo's did you go to - Playa del Carmen or Cancun ?  Kirstin x

[claruickie]

Originally Posted by worstbride 

 

I feel like I am losing my mind trying to do/ book/ plan anything. This forum just seems to spin me out even more lol.

 

I sent Eugenia a huge list of questions a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as she answers she's gettin bombarded.

 

Sorry dont know what your name is "worstbride" but I think you need to take a wee break from this as you seem soooooo stressed out - a caring opinion from reading your posts.   Enjoy the festive period and come back in the new year refreshed.

 

We are getting married on 20 June next year and have Eugenia as WC, I only heard back from her this week after emailing her in September so you have plenty time after me. 

 

QUOTE FROM HER EMAIL "For the moment I am in high season of wedding groups and I have just little access to my computer dont worry, your wedding is 100% confirmed and sorry for the delay in reply. I'm sending you some files that I need you to fill out and please send it back to me"

 

I have replied to her with all my questions and gave her the details she needed from us.

 

Wedding planing should be exciting and fun not stressful, take care I know it will come good

 

Kirstin x

 

QUOTE FROM HER EMAIL "For the moment I am in high season of wedding groups and I have just little access to my computer  dont worry, your wedding is 100% confirmed and sorry for the delay in reply.  I'm sending you some files that I need you to fill out and please send it back to me"