Grand Sunset Princess Resort

[DanielaP]

So far we have the Ibiza room. And now I'm having second thoughts about having a gala or at the Chill Out but I do think the Chill Out is a little pricey. Do you think we can take our own sound system to the reception with out an extra cost to avoid the DJ since apparently he is not all that great anyway? About your party at the beach after the reception, did you have a seating area is it lighted? Also where can I contact Paradise Catamaran for more information on the tours? What did you do as far as the photographer? And do you have any pictures you can upload yet?

[FranticBride2be]

Hey, 

The crystal room and gala menu was really good.  For me, I would do the Chill out club and not spend money on the DJ, but it really depends on you.  We bought a wireless bose sound system for about $300, and I really think that would have been good enough. 

 

The contact info for paradise catamarans is found on their website.  Just look up paradise catamarans on google and it comes up.  Our guests are still talking about it, we had so much fun:)

 

The 'beach party' was really informal.  We just sat on lawn chairs that were already down there, brought down tequila, rum and pop from our room, the bose sound system, and made our own party.  It wasn't anything pre planned or organized, and the hotel didn't help us organize that at all.  We had a really good time with it though. 

 

We did our pictures through Del Sol Photography.  I really liked them (I haven't seen the pictures yet), but they were really nice.  We had 2 photographers for 5 hours.  I would totally recommend them.  My first choice was actually Lincoln Photography, I really liked the stuff on his site, but he was already booked for that day:(   The pictures take about 8 weeks to be delivered, so I"ll post them as soon as we get them:)

 

Good luck!

[DanielaP]

Hi Again!! I was wondering how and when did you inform your guests about the catamaran? We wanted to surprise them ao thought it would be neat to leave a thank you note in their room for when they arrive and there tell them as an appreciation we have something special scheduled for them with the details of date and time, but I don't know if the hotel would help us with putting the Thank you cards in room before they check in.

[FranticBride2be]

Hey,

 

Our guests didn't know about the catamaran until the buses pulled up in front of them:) 

 

We had a website, and on it we asked people to RSVP to the event.  We told them it could be anything (and there were pictures on the site of  people skydiving, people swimming in cenotes, people on a huge boat up on its side going through the waves...)  We said that if anybody was clausterphobic, agoraphobic, afraid of flying, not a good swimmer... then they could email us and we would happily give away information.  We also told people to bring clothes people could go skydiving in (because the boat was windy) and swimming gear.  The boat provided snorkeling gear and I brought tons of gravol.    

 

We only had 2 people ask what the event was, and both decided to come.  We also had 4 people who decided not to come to the event, and 3 people who decided not to come on the day of.  We almost booked two boats because we were going to be over, but the company said that usually on the day of, a couple people will bail.  I'm really glad we listened to them because we had the perfect number of people on the boat with us.  

 

We asked people to meet in the Sunset lobby bar at 245, take off at 3.  We should have asked people to meet at 230, because everybody was late so we got to the boats late.  

 

When we arrived at the boats, we did a really informal speech before we got on the boat, just saying this is our thank you (we didn't do giveaways).  

 

Anyways, Paradise Catamaran was such an amazing company to work with.  We cut the cost by just providing beer for our guests.  We did the event on the night before the wedding to keep everybody under control a bit more, but also because it gave everybody a chance to meet before the wedding.  I think the timing was so great:)

 

Good luck 

[calgaryred]

Hi

 

Im thinking of looking into having a wedding at the Sunset. My fiance and I have been there many times ... so far the recommendations seem good. Does anyone have a good contact person at the hotel who I could contact? Any information would be very appreciated!!

 

thanks!

[SuperJdub]

Hi everyone!!

I just wanted to send you all an update and reassure all you nervous brides HOW AMAZING our wedding went at GSP!! We got married on April, 21 at the Chill Out Beach Club and it honestly couldn’t have been more perfect.  I had BIG worries about how the wedding would turn out after ALL the stress and bumps in the road that occurred during the planning stages, but I can honestly say, that EVERYTHING turned out even better than I could have ever dreamed (or planned). J I’ll try to summarize each part of the wedding, but feel free to ask any more questions that you have!

 

The wedding Coordinator Emma:   First of all, Emma was FANTASTIC!! You all know by now that I REALLY struggled with her over the many months prior to the wedding. She wouldn’t get back to me and things seemed to change every time I talked to her.  So needless to say, when I got down to the resort I had prepared myself for the worst.  Well I got the surprise of a lifetime when I finally met her and found out how WONDERFUL she is!! She was so nice, so organized, so all about making our wedding the best day possible.  Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for more from her. And..the wedding day went without a single hiccup!! AMAZING!

 

Wedding at the Chill Out Beach Club:   Of all the decisions I made, this was the best one!! Pictures DO NOT do this venue justice. It is an amazing place that is private, intimate, and literally glows after the sun goes down!! To get a Wedding location like this in San Diego, CA would have cost me WELL OVER $50,000 so even though the Chill Out location is the most pricey option at GSP it is still SOOO reasonable and IT IS WORTH EVERY DIME!! The cost is only $100 per person and that includes your food, all your alcohol from 6:30pm-10:30pm, the table setup, and your décor setup.  We did the Mixed Grill as our dinner option and all our guests said it was by far the best meal they had at GSP.  There was SOO much food!  They had this AMAZING shrimp, two different kinds of steaks, fish, awesome baked potatoes, veggies, fruit, a bunch of different salads, breads and more that I can’t even remember right now…and the set it up in such a gorgeous way!! They had flowers and these vegetable carvings that I didn’t pay a penny for and it made the whole buffet looks so extravagant.  This was VERY unexpected and so awesome!  If any of you are planning on having your wedding here, feel free to contact me if you want help with the table set up. We decided not to use the round tables with white tablecloths because we felt they didn’t go with the theme of the venue and REALLY detracted from the natural, organic look of the Club. Soo..we used the share tables that they already have in the club and then brought down our own table runners.  Obviously I am biased J…but I thought this looked sooo much better and really made the dinner look gorgeous.

Also, we got the glow dance floor (which again, WORTH EVERY PENNY!! It make our pics incredible) and we had them put the dance floor on the sand in front of the beach club and have them move all the small circular loungers around the dance floor so people could sit to take a break from dancing but still feel like they were a part of the party. It gave the dancing part of the reception almost a club feel which was SOOO awesome!!! I have pics if anyone wants them . 

We actually got DJ Doremixx to DJ our Wedding and he was absolutely incredible.  Unfortunately GSP does NOT allow outside DJ’s anymore, but since I had contracted with DJ Doremixx before they changed their policy, I was able to get them. This caused MANY MANY months of stress and struggle but in the end it was worth it. He was awesome and made the whole event sooo much fun!!

 

Cocktail Hour:   the open bar that comes with the Chill Out package didn’t start until 6:30 and our wedding ceremony was at 5:00, we decided to pay for a cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 so the party could begin right after our ceremony ended. We thought they would just open up the small bar that is inside of the Chill Out Club , but they ended up setting up a whole different bar outside on the sand directly in front of the ocean!! The set up was GORGEOUS and our guests (including myself) were BLOWN AWAY by it!! The bar was probably almost 20 feet long and they displayed glasses of champagne and tequila shots in such a beautiful way so our guests could easily grab drinks. They decorated the bar in all white and it came with two bar tenders.  SOO surprised that they set up this separate station for us and we so very very pleased.  It really separated the events of our wedding so people weren’t all in one location for the dinner and cocktail hour.  Yes, the cocktail hour was pricey (I think it was around $600-$700) for only one hour, but honestly it was worth it.  The pictures of guest enjoying cocktails on the sand in front of the ocean are beautiful and it is such a great memory.

 

 

Videographer:   This is the one aspect of our wedding that we had such LOW expectations for and we were FLOORED by how AMAZING our wedding video was!!!  Seriously, the video was AMAZING and even after watching over a dozen times already, I am still moved to tears.  We paid for 4 hours of taping so they could capture the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, speeches, cake cutting and some dancing.  We figured the finished product would be really raw, kind of grainy, and hard to hear, but BOY were we surprised. The video was edited down to about an hour and was meticulously paired to music. They did about a 3 song montage of shots of our location and my new husband and I dancing on the sand by the ocean which was sooo beautiful I get tears in my easy just thinking about it. Not only that the sounds was AMAZING!! You could hear our ENTIRE ceremony perfectly and ALL of our speeches.  This video seemed pricy at the time and I almost didn’t get it…but THANKGOODNESS my best friend pushed me to get the video because it is a memory I will cherish for a life time. I think we spent almost a $1000 for the video and honestly, I would have spent $5000. If you are on the fence about getting the video GO FOR IT!! Cut out the extra flowers, or décor, or go cheaper on the invites if you need to fit it in your budget…because after everything is said and done, it’s the one memory you have left of your wedding that TRULY captures the look, feel and events of your Big Day.

 

Photographers:   We are VERY picky about photography so we researched for MONTHS to find the best photographers around…and we did!! Unfortunately they were located in Arizona so we had to fly them, over to Mexico. But it was WORTH IT!! We chose Jason+Anna Ball Photography and they are the two most talented photographers I have ever seen! And not only that, they are soo much fun and became our close friends by the end of the wedding weekend.  If you have it in our budget to splurge a little on Photography, look up Jason and Anna Ball. They specialize in destination Weddings and have flown all over the world to capture all different types of ceremonies so they are experienced, talented and oh so amazing!! If you want to see the work they did on our wedding, let me know and I will send you the link to their blog. 

 

Anyways…I think that mostly covers it.  As you can tell from my review, I couldn’t be happier with how our wedding turned out, so I want to reassure you nervous brides that everything will turn out fine!! GSP is AMAZING so sit back and enjoy and be confident that everything will work out just the way you want it to.

 

Feel free to message me if you have any questions!!

[DanielaP]

Hello SuperJdub,

 

I am so happy to hear your wedding was AMAZING!!! It always makes me feel a lot better when I hear that. My wedding is coming up in July and I am so nervous. I am still deciding on the last details and even though it is going to be a smaller group of around 20 I am so scared my guests are going to be bored . Please, I would LOOOOVE to see all your pictures please do share them ASAP!!! 

[SuperJdub]

Originally Posted by DanielaP 

 

Hello SuperJdub,

 

I am so happy to hear your wedding was AMAZING!!! It always makes me feel a lot better when I hear that. My wedding is coming up in July and I am so nervous. I am still deciding on the last details and even though it is going to be a smaller group of around 20 I am so scared my guests are going to be bored . Please, I would LOOOOVE to see all your pictures please do share them ASAP!!! 

 Ohh my goodness! There is NO WAY they will be bored!!! GSP is fantastic and there are a MILLION things to do!!  I just sent you some pics via PM, let me know if you have problems getting them.  If you want more pics, just let me know and I will send them your way.

[MissGinaMarie]

I'm still deciding on which area, could you please send me some pictures of the Chill Out Bar set up and coctail hour set up? Thank you!!

[FranksJewel]

Hi Everyone-

I love this site...I am getting married at Grand Sunset Princess  November 2012.

Any other November brides?

How is the planning going?