Any Grand Palladium brides?

[rachelw29]

We are also doing our own playlist and not a Dj, Play the music you want and save lots of $$$$ !!

[Manda123]

 

Okay, I'm back! I think I need a vacation from my vacation! A week long party really does a number on your system. We got back on Saturday night and I had to work all week. My first piece of adivce to all of you is try to take some time off AFTER the wedding! I'll answer the questions you guys had then I will post my review. I'm still waiting on my pro pics from Sascha Gluck, but I will post a few unprofessional pics in the mean time.

 

Originally Posted by 87shayla 

Hi there,

I'm new to this site and planning to get married at the palladium in 2013!!

I have read through almost all the posts in this thread and they have been VERY helpful. I did not realize we would be paying so much for each person after 40 at our supper...

 

I was just wondering if anyone happened to have a fairly recent copy of the supper menu/costs?? I would really appreciate it. My e-mail is [email protected].

 

Also curious if they gave you any deals for bringing alot of guests with you for your wedding, possibly a deal on your room or flight...maybe that depends on the company you fly through??

 

Thanks ladies

 

 

Hi Shayla

I can't find my copy of the menu, but I can tell you that the options were 50-65 per person. We went with option 13, which was soup - (we substituted for asparagus), salad, main course was chicken, veggies and potatoes, and desert was some sort of chocolate cake. It was the best meal I had at the resort all week. When you take a quick look at the menu, you will notice that most of the options are pretty exotic or have seafood. We have too many people who have allergies, so we went with the simplist. I don't regret it!
 

 

Originally Posted by JND2012 

Manda - don't want to rush you as you're obviously busy and basking in the glow, but I have a few Q's!  (We leave in ELEVEN days!).

 

-  How long did it take you guys to get to the resort from the airport?  What were the buses like!?!

-  How were your excursions?  Were they worth it?

-  Did you write your own vows?  How did the ceremony go?  What music did you use?

 

 

Anything else you have time for would be awesome!  How was your hair!?!?!  haha, I'm so nervous.

Hey!

We had 2 buses waiting for our group to take us to the resort. When you get outside the airport there will be people holding up signs with your names from your trip provider. Ours was Transat. This was pretty hectic for us. SOmeone mistakingly took my friends luggage inside the airport so we were running around looking for the guy at this point. It all ended well, found him outside the airport. He had realized what he had done, and she had his. Coincidently, we ran into the guy at the lobby a couple of nights later at our resort!

The buses are nice coach buses, air conditioned with a bathroom. It took just over an hour I think.

 

Excursions - on your second day there, you'll likely be asked to attend a meeting with the tour rep for your group. Air Transat's was a guy named Christian. At the meeting the reps will give you information about the resort, excursions, and information about your return flight. Prior to the trip we had booked an excursion for our group to Tulum through Edventure tours. They were recommended by girls on this site, and had good reviews on Trip Advisor. DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THEM!  They were super disorganized when we arrived at Tulum and people were paying. They gave everyone bracelets to get in THEN asked them to pay cash. They just "ticked" off the number of people who had paid and at the end said that 2 people didnt pay. Well, we trust everyone in our group - they are our friends and family! - and we KNOW that everyone did pay. Basically, my FI - who roganized the trip - slipped the guy the "missing money", because he'd rather do that then have a big scene. Once people caught wind of that, some people gave him some extra cash to cover. I know that they ripped us off. They set it up so that they could do that .

The other excursion we went on was to Coco Bongo. This was set up through Christian at the resort. He arranged for a bus to pick us up one night at 10 to take us to Playa Del BCarmen. At Coco Bongo we had a private section. It was AMAZING! High recommend this.

Other friends and family went on different excursions - swimming with sea turtles, cave diving in the cenotes, shopping in playa del carmen, checking out the new ruins that were just discovered, chichen itza, etc. Anyone who did an excursion loved it. My biggest recommendation is to book your excursions through your rep at the resort. It may be a little more expensive, but you can trust them, and if anything goes wrong, your rep will look after it.

 

Ceremony - we did not write our own vows. The ceremony was nice - short and simple. There were some problems with the sound system. The sound cut out at some point but they worked quickly to fix it. I don't think people could really understand what our translator was saying, so it didnt make much of a difference! LOL!

For music, we sent one of the GMs with an iPod to give to the guy running the sound at the ceremony. IT had music for when people were being seated - acoustic version of imagine, this year's love, and something else.... My BMs walked down the aisle to the hawaiian version of Somewhere over the Rainbow. I walked with my dad to Canon in D - guitar version. When we signed papers, we had an acoustic version of Going to California. The recessional was Beautiful Day by U2.

 

My hair turned out really great. It only took the girl at the spa 30 mins to do! I even had her use hair extensions! She knew what she was doing. All of the girls were happy with their up-dos. Make sure you bring pictures of what you want. There is definitely a language barrier. 

 

 

Originally Posted by vpiche01 

Hello Ladies,

 

I am also new to this forum and found tons of useful information. I am getting married on May 4th 2012. We have a total of 32 guests confirmed. I was curious to find out what you are doing for the reception. I was told the latest you can have a private cocktail outside is 11pm... I would hate to have to break the party at that time. What are you ladies planning on doing??

We had a private reception at La Laguna until 11:15 or 11:30 - they didn't mind that  we were a little late We made sure to tip the servers and our WC well! Then we went to the Disco! I've read on here that sometimes people ended the night after the private reception, but that wasn't the case with us. ALL 68 of our guests went to the disco and partied until it closed at 2:00.

In terms of an "after party", another option is the colonial lobby. The lobbies at the other resorts - White Sands, Riviera and Kantenah are not as lively as the Colonial. There's always live music there at night and it's a decent alternative to the disco. I guess it depends on your crowd. Now, if you have a partying group, the place to go AFTER the disco and lobbies are closed is the beach bar. The beach bar is on the colonial side, in between the pool and the beach. It's open 24 hours. Most nights of our trip there were at least 10 people who partied at the beach bar until dawn. If you are looking for good, fried, unhealthy foods, this is the place to go. They have great wings, jalapeno poppers, nachos, quesidillas, fajitas, and they serve 24 hours.

 

Originally Posted by rachelw29 

We are doing the same, 7-11 at La Laguna, then to the colonial lobby.

 

Does anyone know exactly what kind of cord I need to hook up to their speaker system, usb cable or 3.5 mm jack or something else?

 

Still trying to find out if they have stereo system on the beach for ceremony or only for gazebo cause ours is on the beach.

Hi Rachel,

They have all the cords you need there to use your iPod. As I mentioned, the sound system is the only complaint that I had about the wedding day. It cut out duringthe ceremony and a couple of times during our dance. It was fine for the speeches, which is most important. No one cared though. Everyone was having a good time !

I'm not sure about the sound system for the beach, but I would bet that they do. This place does weddings every day, so they know what they are doing

 

[Manda123]

Full review is posted:

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/products/grand-palladium-colonial-resort-spa-all-inclusive/reviews

 

 

If you ladies have any more questions, ask away on here. I will check in every couple of days for the next while. I know how frustrating it is to have questions and not have answers. It is time for me to give back to all the help I got from this website

 

 

[rachelw29]

Manda,

Just read your full review, sounds like it was wonderful. Thank you so much for writing it, it really helps, I will do the same after our wedding because I have gotten so much info from here and it helps! cant wait to see the pics!!

 

As far as the sound system, you said they have all the cords, is that for any music device or just Ipod? We have a Samsung tablet that all our music is on so just want to make sure it doesnt have to be Ipod. Did they have someone look after it for ceremony and dance because I was going to get my friend to do that for me.

 

Great to know about the colonial lobby with music and the disco.

 

Did you ask for an upgrade or did they just do that? I was going to email and ask but maybe I will wait till we get there and see what is offered, hopefully we can upgrade to a mayan suite since we are bringing 80 people there, and 20 are for 2 weeks.

 

Thanks again for all your info and help

 

 

[87shayla]

Great review Manda,

 

Even though our wedding isnt for a year it is nice to have a heads up on everything that goes on!!

 

I was wondering if you had to pay extra for your bridesmaid and groomsmen flowers? Contemplating if it would be worth it/cheaper to make them myself with silk flowers.

 

Thanks for all your info :c)

[campbellk81]

Hi Everyone! I've been reading this thread for a while and getting lots of good information. vpiche01, my wedding is May 3, 2012. We'll be there the same time! I was wondering if you were having the reception at portofino? When you said you reserved la laguna from 7-11, was that for a cocktail reception after dinner? 

 

I was wondering if anyone has pictures of the beach ceremony location? I've seen a ton of the beach gazebo, but I can't find any good ones of the beach site. Is there an arch or arbor or something?

 

Thanks!

Originally Posted by vpiche01 

That's alot to think about I'm sure everything will go well. You just need to make it on that plane! The DJ option seems really expensive and probable not necessary! Are you doing the semi-private dinner? We reserved the Portofino it looks like alot of brides on this forum are doing the same thing! I am so excited for you! Your big day is almost here.

 

We are already paying 10$/pp for the La Laguna 7-11pm so I don't know if I want to pay any additional fees, I'll look at the budget for the 100 time.

 

What are you doing for the wedding favors... we decided to make little bags with trip essentials: toothpaste, scoop, hand sanitizers... and we are also giving our guest a flip flop luggage tag I thought it was a nice touch.

 

Did you take the Crystal or Diamond package? and which location did you pick for the ceremony.

 

It's a great idea to have a welcome brunch... get the group together I like that I may tried to reserve a restaurant to do the same.

 

Can't wait to see the pictures of your wedding... do you have any pictures for the Colonial Lobby  

 

[Caterina]

Hi, I'm new to this thread and I've been reading all of you and got a lot of information. I'm getting married June 12, 2012 having my reception at La Laguna and we're staying at the Grand Palladium Kantenah. I was just wondering what are the colors that you can chose for the bows... And what are the seating charts at La Laguna?  What favors did you give to your guests? Thanks in advance! Congrats to everyone who just got married and to those who are getting married soon!

[vpiche01]

Hi Campbelk81,

 

that's so exciting!!! We are having the dinner at the Portofino since we are under 40 people we can have the semi-private dinner and don't have to pay extra for that! We are having the reception at the Laguna afterwards we decided to go with a DJ after all!!! that way we won't have to worry about changing the songs everytime someone has a special request. I got the quote which is around 1000 but after reading quite a few reviews it sounds like they will do a good job at getting the group dancing and having fun! I don't have any pictures of the beach set-up be if I was you I would check out the Palladium Addict website I'm pretty sure I saw some on there! We are doing our ceremony at the Beach Gazebo I measure 5 feet so I want to have 4" heels at the wedding and I can't do that in the sand! Also, my wedding coordinator told me it's a little bit more private there. The picture of the Gazebo are very pretty! If you have any other questions let me know. 

 

[rachelw29]

 

 

 

 

 

[vpiche01]

A special request for all of our married friends:

 

I was wondering if you could post some pictures of your dinner and reception I would love to get a feel for what it will look like.

 

Also I am curious if any of you brought additional decorations for the “big day†or if you kept it simple.

 

Thank you ladies