katrina's wedding review- riu yucatan

[katrina]

I admit, I’m a bad BDW member! Writing this review I realized that there really are a lot of things I didn’t take pictures of, or if I did, my guests are in the way! We didn’t really want to worry about carrying our camera everywhere, so sorry if I don’t have good pictures of everything!

 

Where: Riu Yucatan, Playa del Carmen, Mexico

When: 7/8-7/15

 

Arrival:

We flew out of Philly on American Airlines. We had 4 checked bags, 2 carryons, and a suit bag. For anyone in Jersey, we used Rapid Rover to get us to the airport and it was seriously a breeze. I recommend them.

Our awesome plane

 

Transfer:

We had a transfer with Olympus tours. It was pretty painless and we were on the van within 15 minutes, although a few of our guests waited almost 45 minutes for the van. The ride to the hotel takes 1 hour.

 

Hotel:

The hotel was really nice.. the décor was an old world Mexico kind of feel.. lots of terra cotta and tile. It was big enough to get lost in, but still small enough where we ran into our guests everywhere. That was nice most of the time. There was only one time we tried to get breakfast alone, but a bunch of our guests found us, and ruined that.

Of course the only picture I have of the lobby, is the ceiling

What I really like about the hotel was how lush it was

[katrina]

Room:

With the wedding package we booked, we received a free upgrade. Our suite was sweet!

The foyer

Yes, the bed is two beds pushed together… I don’t really get it. But one was plenty big enough for us to sleep one.

Living room/dining room. Came in very handy for assembling OOT bags!

[katrina]

Beach:

From my understanding, the whole area of Playacar in Mexico gets hit pretty bad with erosion. So there are these huge sandbags there which everyone calls whales. There are a lot of bad reviews for this hotel on trip advisor because of the whales, but honestly, we didn’t even notice them after the first day. They just kind of looked like rocks. The beach did get crowded though, but with a little maneuvering we were always able to get a bunch of chairs together.

 

Entertainment/Nightlife/Staff:

The entertainment was fun.. definitely a little corny, but still fun.

There were always games going on- our favorite was water polo

 

The nightlife on the resort was so-so. There were shows every night and they were always crowded, but I think mostly because that’s all there was. There was a disco in the neighboring resort but we didn’t bother to go.

Instead, we made our own fun

 

The staff was amazing! Most of the people who worked at the front desk remembered our name. They were so welcoming and accommodating to us and did a ton of extra work for our large party. The bartenders are awesome too.

[katrina]

Ceremony:

Two days before the wedding we walked over to the Palace hotel to meet up with the wedding coordinator. The whole process was very simple and we were done in about 45 minutes. We gave her a whole suitcase full of stuff. We also supplied our own vows (the ones from Las Caletas). I was blown away by our ceremony. I really had some reservations with the hotel and the wedding. I knew I just had such high expectation and I wasn’t sure if this resort would be able to fulfill them. We chose this resort because of price- not because of their weddings. Like I said, we were blown away!

This was the setup, although this isn’t from my wedding. This is what they sent me.

Here you can see one of the tiki torches they used to mark the aisle.

The mariachi band was GREAT! They started playing 15 minutes before the ceremony started and they stayed until we were finished the group pictures. I never worried about ceremony music, they just did their own thing.

 

Photographer/Videographer

I didn’t have a choice for these two because of budget reasons, and I didn’t want to deal with Riu and an outside photographer, but I am very happy with the decision. The photographer came an hour before the ceremony and photographed us getting ready and then stayed about an hour after the ceremony. He took a ton of pictures that we were able to view two days after the wedding. We picked the ones we wanted and they were ready the next day. Same goes for the videographer.

 

Cocktail Hour:

I don’t have any pictures of the actual location, of course, but it was located in a semi private bar in the lobby.

Here you can kind of see the décor. There were big couches and chairs everywhere.

The white table behind them is where to hor’dourves were located. You can kind of see more of the furniture behind them.

 

The day before the wedding we went into town and bought a bunch of Cubans for our guests. They really liked that.

[katrina]

Reception Dinner:

As I mentioned earlier, we gave the wc a big suitcase full of stuff and most of it was for the dinner. We had the dinner in the steakhouse- La Margarita. Everyone said their food was great and we agreed!

We did a U shaped setup so that it felt a little more intimate.

We did a postcard guestbook. While we were in Mexico we mailed them home for us to read when we got back from Belize.

The place settings were wood chargers with white plates and my diy menus and place cards.

The cake was pretty basic looking but I knew it would be. Check out our awesome cake topper though  Oh, and I’m dying laughing because our cake knife just snapped while we were cutting it… oops

It was vanilla and strawberries

 

Honestly, we are really happy with our resort choice. I do NOT recommend this resort if you want to get married on the beach. We watched a wedding on the beach and it was the most public thing I’ve ever seen. People had no respect for what was going on.. it was hot, it was loud and there were people everywhere.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot but the bottom line is all 28 of us had a really great time!

 

Now I have to start on that Belize review..

[Yari]

Great review! I just showed my FI the plane you flew in on, he was so jealous!

[misohapi]

Loved the pictures and review! Great job! Everything looked wonderful!

[Kat81]

It all looks amazing!

[FutureMrs.Neri]

Thanks for your review! The pics are awesome!! Can I ask you a few questions about the optional items?

1. What was the cost for the cocktail hour before dinner?

2. Did you purchase any other add-ons besides the musicians?

3. Did you use the salon services at all? How was it? How early did you make an appointment with them?

Thanks so much. I really appreciate your review

[katrina]

1. What was the cost for the cocktail hour before dinner? free! we added chips, salsa, and guacamole for $50

2. Did you purchase any other add-ons besides the musicians? nope

3. Did you use the salon services at all? How was it? How early did you make an appointment with them? no.. my parents own a salon so i had my own personal stylists. i was lucky