Any Grand Palladium brides?

[samanthamontoya]

Hi ladies,

I'll be having my wedding November 8th 2012 at the grand palladium white sands resort. I'm excited and stressed all at the same time. Everyone's posts seem very helpful.

I'm getting nervous about how much this is going to cost. I'm for sure having a private reception/ dinner but it seems a little crazy to me that they want to charge me $50-$65 per person for this dinner, especially since all my guests will be staying at the hotel and it's all inclusive. can anyone who has had their wedding there or will be having their wedding there and know the information, please tell me what was included with this $50-$65 pp price, does that include a open bar, and was the food amazing?

I'm currently working with destinationweddings.com to help me plan this. The prices they quoted me for rooms seem ok, but I'm not receiving a group discount although I have about 20 rooms I'm ready to block. Does anyone know if the prices were cheaper through the hotel its self? did the hotel give any extras or discounts for a certain amount of rooms booked? for comparison reasoning the price I was quoted (with double occupancy) for a basic junior suite for 4 nights was $748 pp. does this sound about right? or should I be getting a better deal for my guests? Any other tips and tricks for planning one of the most important days of my life at the GP white sands are greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Samantha

 

[Caroline1110]

Manda, you may want to double check on how many carry ons you can take. I also flew Air Transat, and was told by our TA that the wedding dress counts as your one and only carry on, aside from a personal item like a purse or backpack. It was the check baggage where we were able to bring as many bags as long as it did not go over our total allowed weight, which I think is an extra 20kg per bride/groom couple. 

[Manda123]

Thanks for the heads up! It looks like I'm okay to bring it in addition to my carry on. Here is what the website says:

 

Exceptionally, a wedding dress in a non-rigid garment bag, with measurements not to exceed 135 cm x 60 cm (53 x 23.5 in), may be carried on board, and can be laid out or gently rolled up in the overhead bin. There are no closet facilities on board our aircraft.

The dress may be carried in addition to a regular sized carry-on bag.

 

Originally Posted by Caroline1110 

Manda, you may want to double check on how many carry ons you can take. I also flew Air Transat, and was told by our TA that the wedding dress counts as your one and only carry on, aside from a personal item like a purse or backpack. It was the check baggage where we were able to bring as many bags as long as it did not go over our total allowed weight, which I think is an extra 20kg per bride/groom couple. 

 

[Manda123]

Hi Samantha,

I am leaving tomorrow morning for my wedding at the GP, so I will be able to give you more info when I return, but yes, it is pretty expensive to have a private reception. My FI and I figured that out AFTER we booked at the GP. All in all, our wedding day alone - for the legal ceremony and our private reception for 70 people - is costing about $7000 USD. There are certainly other resorts where packages are much less expensive. I can't really comment on your trip cost since in Canada the packages work a little differently. My guests are paying 1560 for a week, but that includes their flight and transfer to the airport. We also received a free trip for every 21st person who booked. This was helpful as we were able to give away two trips to people in our families who couldnt afford it otherwise. It seems like you should be getting some sort of discount.
 

Originally Posted by samanthamontoya 

Hi ladies,

I'll be having my wedding November 8th 2012 at the grand palladium white sands resort. I'm excited and stressed all at the same time. Everyone's posts seem very helpful.

I'm getting nervous about how much this is going to cost. I'm for sure having a private reception/ dinner but it seems a little crazy to me that they want to charge me $50-$65 per person for this dinner, especially since all my guests will be staying at the hotel and it's all inclusive. can anyone who has had their wedding there or will be having their wedding there and know the information, please tell me what was included with this $50-$65 pp price, does that include a open bar, and was the food amazing?

I'm currently working with destinationweddings.com to help me plan this. The prices they quoted me for rooms seem ok, but I'm not receiving a group discount although I have about 20 rooms I'm ready to block. Does anyone know if the prices were cheaper through the hotel its self? did the hotel give any extras or discounts for a certain amount of rooms booked? for comparison reasoning the price I was quoted (with double occupancy) for a basic junior suite for 4 nights was $748 pp. does this sound about right? or should I be getting a better deal for my guests? Any other tips and tricks for planning one of the most important days of my life at the GP white sands are greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Samantha

 

 

[samanthamontoya]

How exciting! aaawww well congratulations on your soon to be nuptials! I hope you have a great time and a beautifully special wedding day! Please report back when you get home and share pictures. I'm so excited to hear and see how it went. Yeah I do feel like I should be getting a little bit of a discount with as many rooms that are being blocked, I'll have to look into that. My fiance and I did the same thing, we booked the wedding gave our deposit then I saw that the wedding package was only for 8 people and every additional person going to the ceremony was an extra $20 a head! and I had no idea how much the reception was going to cost, and was surprised when I saw that too. From what I can tell I think it'll be worth it though!

 

 

[rachelw29]

Samantha,

 

We are the same as Manda as far as hotel and air goes, we are from Canada too so its the package deal.

I was shocked at the price for dinner being AI, so what we decided to do because we have 82 booked is have a family/wedding party dinner at the a la carte, they will reserve up to 40 people, everyone else will do their own thing for dinner, ( I asked a few of my friends what they thought of that and said for sure since its very expensive to have a private dinner) and then have a  private 4 hr cocktail party/reception from 7pm to 11 pm at La laguna, it is $5 pp for 2 hrs so $10 pp for our 4 hrs. We are usuing their sound system for music so there will be dancing.

 

This is both of ours second marriage so we arent too concerned about the private dinner, been there done that!!!!

 

 

Manda,

 

Have a fantastic time, enjoy every moment of it!!

[samanthamontoya]

That's a great Idea Rachel although it won't work for us because we'll be having a total of 50 people there and I'd hate to single out just 10 for dinner.

 

Does anyone know what the additional $20 pp (after 8 ppl) for the ceremony site goes to? I hope its not to just put up an extra chair and bow, that seems a little crazy to me. And please forgive me, I'm really not a cheap person hahahahah I know I probably seem as so from my postings. I'm just in the beginning stages of planning and need to figure out a budget

[ariannehenion]

Hi Guys,

 

I was on this site a while ago for planning but our wedding is coming up in May (5.11.12), so I figured I would check in. The $20/pp at the ceremony is for the set up of chairs, bows, etc as well as cake and champage. If you tell them you only want the set up, they will drop it down to $4/pp. We want to do the cake at the reception and there is a beach bar really close so we didn't see the point. I also found out that you don't have to get the cake for everyone, we are getting cheesecake with the meal so we just wanted something small to do the "cake cutting" so we are get a 12' tres leches cake. Hope that helps, I've been down there and meet with Ericka and am now working with Elizabeth over email so let me know if you have more questions.

 

Arianne

[JND2012]

 

 

Originally Posted by samanthamontoya 

 

That's a great Idea Rachel although it won't work for us because we'll be having a total of 50 people there and I'd hate to single out just 10 for dinner.

 

Does anyone know what the additional $20 pp (after 8 ppl) for the ceremony site goes to? I hope its not to just put up an extra chair and bow, that seems a little crazy to me. And please forgive me, I'm really not a cheap person hahahahah I know I probably seem as so from my postings. I'm just in the beginning stages of planning and need to figure out a budget

 

Welcome Samantha!

 

The extra $20 also goes towards a bigger cake, champagne after the ceremony...  I think that's it?

 

Manda!!!  You must be SO EXCITED!!!  (and nervous haha).  Good luck, can't wait to hear!  Congratulations!

 

 

[canadiangirl]

beautiful pics, thanx for sharing.... the gazeboo is more beautiful than i remember....so excited
 

Originally Posted by Caroline1110 

 

 

I thought I had more pictures on this computer. I will try to upolad some more. This at least gives you an idea of what the beach gazebo looks like. In the second picture, the flower arrangement on the table was included in the package. My bouquet and BM bouquets were made by the resort and I absolutely loved them. All the pink ribbon on the pillars in the gazebo was provided by them, including the chair covers in the third picture. Also, I did not want the red carpet that they offered, so I asked for rose petals instead. They included them for no extra charge, and in my opinion, looked a 100 times better than a red carpet. In the third picture, the flowers on the pillars were also included in the package. We didn't pay any extra for flowers and I don't regret that. I think what was included in the package was enough. For dinner, they brought the rose petals and all the flower arrangements and put them on the table for us. I also asked for 5 vases and I put all the BM flowers and my bouquet in the vases and used them as centre pieces.