RIU RM Palace Brides??

[Paige2010]

Wow after reading Samira's review I don't think mine is that good :/- I covered the big pic but if you need any details at all I'd be happy to give them to you!

 

First of all thank you so much BDW forum for all the great info and ideas! Here is my review for our wedding at Riu Palace Riviera Maya…

Travel: A+ We used Hayley with Beach Bum Vacations Travel agency- She was great! She was extremely easy to get in touch with, quick to respond to any questions and very patient when people wanted to change rooms, book, and back out at the last minute. She was on top of everything and was able to re- book our entire group at a cheaper rate 2 months before we left. I highly recommend her.

Resort: A We chose the gazebo at the Riu Palcae Riviera Maya. Overall this resort was perfect for our group of 55. It is kid friendly, has friendly staff, a beautiful beach and the food is OK . I say not great but due to our big group we were at the buffets almost every night instead of the specialty restaurants. But that would be my only complaint for the resort. We ended up most nights having drinks at the theatre bar listening to the shows and then staying in the sports bar since it was open till 4AM.

Our wedding coordinator was Pamela, she comes across as not too friendly but she got the job done.

We did a grooms/rehersal dinner the night before at Don Manolos. They had the back room set up and it was perfect. After we headed into downtown Playa to the Blue Parrot ($5 cab ride). We had reserved a private area right on the beach- we paid $30.00 cover for each of our guests which included all their drinks. Our group loved it- It was so nice we had our own area and weren’t all just roaming in the crowd & they had an amazing fire show.

The wedding was at 3:00- It was pretty hot! I had made raffia fans (and the Riu staff had set them on each guests chair) & when I looked out at the guests they were all fanning themselves like crazy- Which reminds me- having the cocktail hour inside at the lobby bar was the best idea- it gave the guests a chance to cool off and they had it set up really nicely. I also walked into town and bought really cute maracas that were hand painted- they were $3.00 for a pair- and had these set out on the chairs as well with a tag that read “ Please embrace the bride & grooms wish and shake me at their first kiss”. You can ask the spa if you can wait in there b/f the wedding begins to keep you from walking a mile in the heat to get to the altar.

Renova Spa- I had an appointment to get my hair and makeup done. I took a picture of my hair style- I feel like she got the general idea of it, but I was having trouble communicating with her just the little changes I wanted, needless to say I ended up taking it all down and doing it myself. I also decided then that I was gonna do my own makeup too- I mainly wanted her to apply false lashes but she didn’t know how to. I would suggest spending the money on your own make up and doing it yourself. But I think she is probably ok for a hair style- just don’t let her hair spray till you are sure you like it.

We had wedding dinner & reception at Chilis from 7-11:30. Chilis is an open air restaurant near the beach. We got lucky that it was a pretty windy night otherwise it would have been too hot to dance & be comfortable, however it is bigger than Boto Fogo & the way to go if you have more than 50 guests & want a dance floor. If you choose this restaurant b/t June and Sept. I recommend having a reception dress that you could change into.

 

I did make OOT bags for the guests- they included a drinking mug which I ordered through a seller on ebay- these were a huge hit at the pool. A hangover kit with a few of the essentials (motrin, alka-seltzer,spf chapstick, emergen-C, cristal light, ), welcome letter and schedule for weekend events. I ended up handing these to guests as I saw them instead of paying the hotels $2 per bag delivery fee.

Negatives: When planning the wedding the Riu was somewhat annoying because unless you have 60 people they only offer you dinner/reception from 8:45 till 11pm- which is the same price as if you had 60 people and could choose the 7-11. Also with an early wedding waiting till 6 is fine- it allows you to take all the bridal party and wedding grp pics but 8:45 is not as convenient. And even though I had booked a yr ago they upped their prices and changed several of their ‘fees’ b/f the wedding took place- so just have everything in writing and take all your emails with you.

Photographer: A+ We used an outside photographer- Dennis with Blue Lens Caribe. I really cannot say enough good stuff about him, or the amazing pictures he took. He went above and beyond our expectations to provide great service from our first email months in advance, to driving to our honeymoon resort days after the wedding to do a TTD session. Dennis captured every aspect of our wedding day. I am still amazed at how the pictures seem like he was a million different places at once. Dennis gave us exceptional quality prints and DVD’s of all of our photos- and even though we were a 90 minute drive away, he made sure we had them in hand before we left Mexico. He was absolutely worth his price.

I feel like this is a very scattered review- but there is so much I could go on forever. If I have left anything out please feel free to ask!

[Paige2010]

& lots of our wedding pics are on facebook- Paige Chumley

[JNagan2011]

Thanks for your great review Paige!!! I was just thinking about what I was going to do for makeup, and now I know that its is best to do it yourself. My little sister is pretty good with hers, so I might make her practice over the next 6 months so she can do mine lol ...

 

Taking a break from doing homework, so no questions right now! I am sure I will have some soon though

[Whiteheadwedding]

Samira and Paige

Great Reviews!!! Thanks so much for all the helpful information

[JNagan2011]

Oh yea, I fb'ed you Paige

[samira26]

Paige - great review thanks! I wish I knew that we could do the cocktail hr at the lobby bar, I would have done that too because of the heat :-)

 

ladies, one more thing which I forgot to add in my review. we had a "Thank You" dinner at Carboncitos in downtown Playa Del carmen.

 

They had the rooftop set up for us, I worked with Russsell the owner everything was beautiful and the food was delicious! our guests appreciated it a lot! we paid 300 pesos per person which is like $25 (USD) this included a 3 course meal plus two drinks. Ofcourse ppl ended up having more than two drinks at the end of the day our bill was 12000 pesos for 35 ppl which is equivalent to a $1000 USD.

 

Other than our ceremony I must say this was one of my fav part of the wedding weekend. The rooftop/decoration/music everything was great. You can see the pics in my FB :-)

 

If you want Russell's info or anything else let me know.

[jetsbride]

Great review Paige and Samira, thanks for sharing!!

[Nicyx]

Thanks Paige :-) I love love love the reviews, thay get me more and more excited by the day...

 

I said to FI today when i got back from work.... I think it "finally" hit me today that we have booked our wedding... (only 6 weeks later) OMG!!! We've booked our wedding, i cant believe it!!! x LOL xox

[JNagan2011]

Jannae- Yay, got the pails today!! They are so cute and will be perfect ... Thanks so much. Want to message me your address so I can send ya some money (I think I have the address from the package, but don't have a last name)

[Whiteheadwedding]

Hello Ladies ! I am 11 days away and I still haven't found a dress I love that is reasonably priced for the TTD ! Any ideas?