Grand Sunset Princess Resort

[stbKeras]

Hi MrsShoreytobe! We got married at GSP in May and it was amazing! Our day went soo smoothly and everyone had a great time! I put my responses below in black. 

 

Originally Posted by MrsShoreytobe 

 

Another "process" question for those of you experienced here at the GSP

 

So our wedding is March 8th at the sunset gazebo (yahoo!) at 4pm.

 

I am wondering if I can get any of you takes on our hopes for the wedding day.

 

Firstly, our photographer will be Gonzalo Nunez and we have him for 7 hrs that day. My q relates to the whole getting ready process - I see many brides getting ready even before noon, and with a 7 hr photography, doesn't the photograpoher end up sitting around doing nothing for a lot of this time? I don't see myself needing 5 hrs to prepare, but I just wanted to see how other ladies handled that and how they HANDLED THE PHOTOGRAPHER. I believe Gonzalo will be completely cool with waiting around if need be, whereas a lot of other photographers seem to be like "its 7 consecutive hours and that's IT!".

 

Thoughts? We had our photographer come 1 hour before the ceremony. He went to the guys room first and took pics of them getting ready, then took pics of them outside after they were dressed. Then he came to the girls room and got pics of me getting my dress done up, pics with my mom and some pics of just me.  Our hair and make up were already done when he showed up. 

 

We had him booked from 1pm until 10:30ish. Even on the "off" times, he just hung around with all of us. 

 

Next, we understand there are 3 weddings the same day as us, so we have to figure out reception ideas asap.

 

Our wedding planner, Guillermo, has been wonderful, but has given us back the typical pdf of SET PRICES for things like a beach reception, etc. I was hoping we could negotiate some different ideas, but it seems pretty set.

 

 

My Q is: What restaurant would you all choose for your dinner (presumably free with wedding package)...I've heard good things about Vaqueria but we have 40 ppl about and it technically can only do 25.

 

We had 50 people and the only restaurant they allowed for that many people was La Fondue. You will probably have to ask what restaurant will allow 40 people. 

 

 

My other inquiry: We definitely feel its silly to have to pay for ANY LIQUOR at ALL at an all inclusive. However, since we CANNOT DO CAKE CUTTING, FIRST DANCES, AND SPEECHES in the restaurants, we are seeking an alternate location.

We had a private beach reception for 3 hours (8-11pm). And I thought the same thing - Paying for liquor at an All Inclusive?!? But in all reality, its not just the alcohol you are paying for. That price includes:

-the use of the private beach area 

-the bar & bartenders

-the set up

-the chairs & tables with white covers (they also added green bows to the chair to go with our colour scheme. Which we didn't even ask for and it is usually an extra charge).

 

I would definitely recommend the private beach reception. We also had the dance floor (which was amazing!), it was pricey, but I am soooo glad we went with it! We also went with the DJ and I'm also glad we went with that as well. We didn't have to worry about anything but having a good time at the reception. We asked an uncle to be our MC - gave him a timeline for the 3 hours and he dealt with the dj. The dj also included a microphone. 

 

 

 

 

Based on emails etc we seem to have the option of a BEACH RECEPTION (WITHOUT FOOD) FOR $25 pp.

 

I saw one bride indicate they had to pay to rent audio equipment for this reception, so I asked my WC about this.

You can chose from DJ or audio equipment rental - as far as I can remember, I don't think there is a huge price difference between the two.

 

Essentially, if any of you have similar plans or had similar hopes for your wedding, can you share what was the most economical way of making this happen? We really don't need a place to dance ALL night, as we will likely head to disco.

We had 3 hours on the beach which was perfect. It was enough time to get speeches (5 people), first dances, cake cutting and a good amount of dance time. All of our guests loved it. By the time the end of the beach reception a few people went back to their rooms and the rest of us went to the disco. Disco was fun, but only because we were a large group. 

 

but what WE ARE LOOKING FOR IS AN ECONOMICAL IDEA FOR A PLACE TO ENJOY CAKE CUTTING, SPEECHES, AND THE FIRST DANCES.

All together (ceremony, flowers, beach reception, dj, dance floor and the resort fee for our photographer) it cost us just a little over $5000 for 50 people. 

 

We inquired about this "entertainment area" that is open to the public in the resort, but because it's part of the inclusive services to everyone, they can't reserve it exclusively for a wedding.

 

Sorry for the long blab. I've definitely followed things in here since our engagement in April, but any feedback on my specific questions would be much appreciated!!!

 

I hope that helps you out a bit, let me know if you have any other questions!

 

Robynn 

 

[ashofswed]

Originally Posted by alanadzinck 

 

 

Hi I am getting married oct 28th 2013, we might be at the resort at the same time

What place are you having you ceremony at? We are going to sunset gazebo . And I am not sure what to do for our first dance and to have music after the dinner at the a la carte, what are you doing?

 

Sorry for the late reply, been so busy at work.

Exciting!! You'll be getting married the day before I do. Congratulations!!! We are having the ceremony at the Riviera Gazebo, I know is not really that private but we like that one, I know is not really private but is all about having a great time being surrounded by family and friends, we were thinking on doing the Cocktail beach party after supper at the restaurant we have chosen but it is quite expensive if you have 40+ people coming... plus the alcohol is free at the resort so there is no point on doing it. We have decided to keep it very casual as we are having a big reception when we go back to Canada for the rest of the family and friends. so, we will be double spending lol.

 

[Steitzer23]

We got married at GSP on Monday and it was spectacular!! I'll provide a rundown of things:

 

- The resort: It is massive and one of the biggest difficulties is finding your people, especially if there are a lot of them (we had 46 guests). I strongly recommend using a travel agent to book for you and your guests as he can generally keep folks somewhat close.

 

We stayed in a Platinum Suite and I DO NOT recommend this for several reasons: They are far away from practically everything except for the beach. It's a solid 10-12 minute walk to the front of the resort and we were secluded from our guests in the junior suites. The other BIG problem is their rule that you cannot bring non-Platinum guests up to your room, even if you are escorting them. They reluctantly and rudely made and exception for the day before and day of our wedding, but this really ticked me off. You can stay in a junior deluxe suite with jacuzzi for cheaper, closer to other guests and less hassle and it is the exact same room layout.

 

If you expect some special treatment because you are the bride and groom and are bringing tens of thousands of dollars in business to the resort -- well don't. In fact, the wedding planners don't even tell the Platinum concierge that you are bride and groom, so we were hassled by them when we needed to bring our mother in law to the room to steam dresses and suites. Further, on our wedding night we got a knock on the door from security telling us there was a noise complaint on our room and a nasty note from a guest in a room below us. We hadn't been making any noise and believe the room next to us was the one being noisy. This didn't stop the security from banging on our door on our WEDDING NIGHT without first standing outside the room for a minute to listen and verify whether the complaint was legitimate. Overall I felt like we were treated very poorly for being in Platinum and bringing so many guests to the resort.

 

The food is not great, the service is good and the shuttles are worthless. It's very beautiful but I guess because of the size the resort just doesn't have the laid-back feel that a lot of others in Riviera Maya have.

 

The wedding - Jackye was good, although she did not tell the front desk that we had paid the penalty to bring an external videographer on site, so we lost about 30 minutes of video because he couldn't clear the front desk. That should not have happened. Also, she kinda tried to push us to change the ceremony venue because of the chance of rain. Their backup location stinks and I'm glad we rolled the dice because the weather was spectacular by 4 p.m. The Riviera Gazebo is a great location and in my opinion is better than Sunset Gazebo. Sunset is more private but not nearly as beautiful. I thought it was sort of fun to have a few beach spectators watch the wedding.

We took photos after the ceremony and the time between ceremony and dinner was just perfect for getting all the pics we wanted.

 

Dinner was at La Fondue. They allowed us to have 48 total there. It was the BEST meal we had all week, they allowed us to set up the cake and do toasts. They don't permit you to have AV equipment so unfortunately some of our guests couldn't hear the toasts, but our videographers miked up our people.

 

We originally planned the beach party but changed the venue to the Ibiza room because of the fear of storms. The room was PERFECT and I'm glad we chose it over the beach because the sand is too soft to really dance well and some of our guests can't take the heat for that long. The Ibiza room is gorgeous, they set up a bar, etc. I strongly recommend it over the beach for the party.

 

We used a local videography company called Indigo. Matias was super nice and his equipment is high quality. We haven't seen the video yet but are optimistic it will be really good.

 

We chose to bring our own photographer from the states. We paid for his airfare and 2 nights and it was a way better deal than paying for the resort photog. I wasn't a fan of the resort photog or videog work.

 

We used Paradise Catamarans to rent a 50-person catamaran for 4 hours the day before the wedding. It was AWESOME. A great opportunity to bring all our guests together in one spot.

 

The day after the wedding we rented a 20-person bus and driver for 4 hours. He took us to the Azul cenote, a public cenote, where we did trash the dress. Some of our guests joined us and played in the cenotes while we did photos, including a 12-foot cliff dive. I HIGHLY recommend doing this!!!!

 

The only stuff we brought with us were framed photos of our grandparents, a cake topper and ribbon for the cake, a photo matte for guests to sign and mini hand fans that we placed on chairs at the ceremony. I wouldn't have wanted to bring any other decorations. It's just not necessary.

 

Overall I was extremely pleased with the wedding day, but the resort isn't my favorite. 

[MrsShoreytobe]

We got married at GSP on Monday and it was spectacular!! I'll provide a rundown of things: - The resort: It is massive and one of the biggest difficulties is finding your people, especially if there are a lot of them (we had 46 guests). I strongly recommend using a travel agent to book for you and your guests as he can generally keep folks somewhat close. We stayed in a Platinum Suite and I DO NOT recommend this for several reasons: They are far away from practically everything except for the beach. It's a solid 10-12 minute walk to the front of the resort and we were secluded from our guests in the junior suites. The other BIG problem is their rule that you cannot bring non-Platinum guests up to your room, even if you are escorting them. They reluctantly and rudely made and exception for the day before and day of our wedding, but this really ticked me off. You can stay in a junior deluxe suite with jacuzzi for cheaper, closer to other guests and less hassle and it is the exact same room layout. If you expect some special treatment because you are the bride and groom and are bringing tens of thousands of dollars in business to the resort -- well don't. In fact, the wedding planners don't even tell the Platinum concierge that you are bride and groom, so we were hassled by them when we needed to bring our mother in law to the room to steam dresses and suites. Further, on our wedding night we got a knock on the door from security telling us there was a noise complaint on our room and a nasty note from a guest in a room below us. We hadn't been making any noise and believe the room next to us was the one being noisy. This didn't stop the security from banging on our door on our WEDDING NIGHT without first standing outside the room for a minute to listen and verify whether the complaint was legitimate. Overall I felt like we were treated very poorly for being in Platinum and bringing so many guests to the resort. The food is not great, the service is good and the shuttles are worthless. It's very beautiful but I guess because of the size the resort just doesn't have the laid-back feel that a lot of others in Riviera Maya have. The wedding - Jackye was good, although she did not tell the front desk that we had paid the penalty to bring an external videographer on site, so we lost about 30 minutes of video because he couldn't clear the front desk. That should not have happened. Also, she kinda tried to push us to change the ceremony venue because of the chance of rain. Their backup location stinks and I'm glad we rolled the dice because the weather was spectacular by 4 p.m. The Riviera Gazebo is a great location and in my opinion is better than Sunset Gazebo. Sunset is more private but not nearly as beautiful. I thought it was sort of fun to have a few beach spectators watch the wedding. We took photos after the ceremony and the time between ceremony and dinner was just perfect for getting all the pics we wanted. Dinner was at La Fondue. They allowed us to have 48 total there. It was the BEST meal we had all week, they allowed us to set up the cake and do toasts. They don't permit you to have AV equipment so unfortunately some of our guests couldn't hear the toasts, but our videographers miked up our people. We originally planned the beach party but changed the venue to the Ibiza room because of the fear of storms. The room was PERFECT and I'm glad we chose it over the beach because the sand is too soft to really dance well and some of our guests can't take the heat for that long. The Ibiza room is gorgeous, they set up a bar, etc. I strongly recommend it over the beach for the party. We used a local videography company called Indigo. Matias was super nice and his equipment is high quality. We haven't seen the video yet but are optimistic it will be really good. We chose to bring our own photographer from the states. We paid for his airfare and 2 nights and it was a way better deal than paying for the resort photog. I wasn't a fan of the resort photog or videog work. We used Paradise Catamarans to rent a 50-person catamaran for 4 hours the day before the wedding. It was AWESOME. A great opportunity to bring all our guests together in one spot. The day after the wedding we rented a 20-person bus and driver for 4 hours. He took us to the Azul cenote, a public cenote, where we did trash the dress. Some of our guests joined us and played in the cenotes while we did photos, including a 12-foot cliff dive. I HIGHLY recommend doing this!!!! The only stuff we brought with us were framed photos of our grandparents, a cake topper and ribbon for the cake, a photo matte for guests to sign and mini hand fans that we placed on chairs at the ceremony. I wouldn't have wanted to bring any other decorations. It's just not necessary. Overall I was extremely pleased with the wedding day, but the resort isn't my favorite. 

SOOOO HAPPY FOR U! U and I had been discussing things a while back, can't believe your day has already come!! Your review here so far has been VERY informative. I plan on now pressuring our coordinator lol, to allow us to do speeches in the restaurant. I believe ALL of us here had been told no cake cutting or speeches in the restaurants bc of other guests, but f you guys got to do it, I plan on pushing for it too! We also decided to nix the cake, but had wondered about doing indoor reception like u did instead of beach! Was urs still 25/32/38 per person for the reception set up? Did u have to ask/push for them to allow speeches and cake cutting at dinner? La fondu is gorgeous and it was great to hear u enjoyed it. We will be having a slightly smaller # than ur wedding, but so great to see someone who had similar -#s as us!!! You made my day lol. So happy for u and your new HUBBY!!! Ps- I can already tell the resort ties your hands and doesn't really give "special treatment" to wedding parties. I am going to keep positive that things go well when we get there. Also interesting point about the platinum sites! So far 95% are staying in regular junior suites, we shall see!!!!

[MrsShoreytobe]

Originally Posted by jovn28 

 

Thanks!

mixed canapes with drinks + extra hour  so its $840 for 20 ppl

Hey you! I ditto the thanks people have offered you so far Sounds like the day was a blast. 

 

Hubby to be and I are really trying to nail down what is most important to us and what we believe is worth paying for...The beach reception, however, seems quite feasibly at 25 pp, even without the food you got *although it looked awesome!*. 

 

I wasn't quite sure if I could tell the set up of the reception, but our coordinator, Guillermo (aka Memo) showed us a pic that looks like the seats are all lined up one after another, and when I asked if we could simply have circular tables, he said a different set up would be extra (what the heck isn't extra anyways...grr)...Anyways, with that said, do you have any more pics of the set up for guests?  

 

Also, I saw you hired a DJ, and from my queries about audio equipment, this is definitely extra, at like 560 for 2 hrs. Is this what you paid for your audio equipment or was the equipment automatic with your DJ? 

 

Basically, if we could have a private area for just a few hrs to do speeches and dance on the beach, with liquor in hand, that's what we'd like to do. Even if it was inside. Point being, the Chill Out looks fantastic, but the cost is astronomical to me. 

 

If you have any input on my above ramble and questions, that would be MUCH appreciated!

[mandabear80]

I just booked the beach reception, it was $280 per hour which included the audio equipment with a DJ, so $560 for 2 hours (there was a bit of a break on the 3hrs, she quoted me $650.00). I was advised I could not book just the audio equipment for my reception, it has to come with the DJ to run it....which I am fine with, just going to have a MC to help make sure the DJ is playing the right stuff for our group. So for us at this point we have book the open bar at $25 per person, and the DJ/Audio Equipment for $560 for a 2 hr beach reception (we may up it to 3hrs still deciding). Just thought I would jump in with my recent booking details... lol

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsShoreytobe 

Hey you! I ditto the thanks people have offered you so far Sounds like the day was a blast. 

 

Hubby to be and I are really trying to nail down what is most important to us and what we believe is worth paying for...The beach reception, however, seems quite feasibly at 25 pp, even without the food you got *although it looked awesome!*. 

 

I wasn't quite sure if I could tell the set up of the reception, but our coordinator, Guillermo (aka Memo) showed us a pic that looks like the seats are all lined up one after another, and when I asked if we could simply have circular tables, he said a different set up would be extra (what the heck isn't extra anyways...grr)...Anyways, with that said, do you have any more pics of the set up for guests?  

 

Also, I saw you hired a DJ, and from my queries about audio equipment, this is definitely extra, at like 560 for 2 hrs. Is this what you paid for your audio equipment or was the equipment automatic with your DJ? 

 

Basically, if we could have a private area for just a few hrs to do speeches and dance on the beach, with liquor in hand, that's what we'd like to do. Even if it was inside. Point being, the Chill Out looks fantastic, but the cost is astronomical to me. 

 

If you have any input on my above ramble and questions, that would be MUCH appreciated!

[Steitzer23]

Originally Posted by MrsShoreytobe 

 

 

SOOOO HAPPY FOR U! U and I had been discussing things a while back, can't believe your day has already come!! Your review here so far has been VERY informative. I plan on now pressuring our coordinator lol, to allow us to do speeches in the restaurant. I believe ALL of us here had been told no cake cutting or speeches in the restaurants bc of other guests, but f you guys got to do it, I plan on pushing for it too!

 

We also decided to nix the cake, but had wondered about doing indoor reception like u did instead of beach!

 

Was urs still 25/32/38 per person for the reception set up?

 

Did u have to ask/push for them to allow speeches and cake cutting at dinner?

 

La fondu is gorgeous and it was great to hear u enjoyed it.

 

We will be having a slightly smaller # than ur wedding, but so great to see someone who had similar -#s as us!!!

 

You made my day lol. So happy for u and your new HUBBY!!!

 

Ps- I can already tell the resort ties your hands and doesn't really give "special treatment" to wedding parties. I am going to keep positive that things go well when we get there. Also interesting point about the platinum sites! So far 95% are staying in regular junior suites, we shall see!!!!

She was fine with us doing speeches at dinner, we just couldn't use any AV equipment, which meant that some people couldn't hear the toasts. However, if you do go with the Ibiza reception and get a DJ, you will have a mic. I think we should've waited to do the speeches in there, especially because a bunch of bridal party people were so inspired they stood up to speak and we were 15 minutes late getting to the room with the DJ.

She allowed us to set up the cake in the restaurant and cut it there. They also then transported the cake to Ibiza because we were 15 minutes behind schedule and we were wasting time on the DJs clock.

Yes, it was still $25 per person for the Ibiza room. 

It was really a perfect day and everything went smoothly with the wedding planner. DJ was awesome and well worth the $560 for 2 hours (but know that he won't serve as emcee so pick someone in your group to do that). I think you will have an amazing wedding!

[MrsShoreytobe]

I just booked the beach reception, it was $280 per hour which included the audio equipment with a DJ, so $560 for 2 hours (there was a bit of a break on the 3hrs, she quoted me $650.00). I was advised I could not book just the audio equipment for my reception, it has to come with the DJ to run it....which I am fine with, just going to have a MC to help make sure the DJ is playing the right stuff for our group.So for us at this point we have book the open bar at $25 per person, and the DJ/Audio Equipment for $560 for a 2 hr beach reception (we may up it to 3hrs still deciding).Just thought I would jump in with my recent booking details... lol

Thank you VERY much! I really wish my coordinator would just say this stuff instead of me going back over and over again asking for more details. So appreciated, bringing this to my fiancé now!

[MrsShoreytobe]

She was fine with us doing speeches at dinner, we just couldn't use any AV equipment, which meant that some people couldn't hear the toasts. However, if you do go with the Ibiza reception and get a DJ, you will have a mic. I think we should've waited to do the speeches in there, especially because a bunch of bridal party people were so inspired they stood up to speak and we were 15 minutes late getting to the room with the DJ. She allowed us to set up the cake in the restaurant and cut it there. They also then transported the cake to Ibiza because we were 15 minutes behind schedule and we were wasting time on the DJs clock. Yes, it was still $25 per person for the Ibiza room.  It was really a perfect day and everything went smoothly with the wedding planner. DJ was awesome and well worth the $560 for 2 hours (but know that he won't serve as emcee so pick someone in your group to do that). I think you will have an amazing wedding!

Very nifty, thanks again to you as well!!! My poor fiancé and I are stuck hashing this stuff out so late at night because he works 10 days away, Etc.. Talking money and wedding At 11pm each night gets taxing lol!

[Lutke]

Hi Ladies!!

 

I just came across this site the other day.  My Fiance & I getting married @ GSP on May 15th, 2014.  Honestly I have not made many decisions yet.  This seems to be the place to look & chat with everyone for their opinions.  I am not very good at this "wedding planning."  Hopefully you all will be able to help me  Keep the updates & opinions coming ladies!!!

 

Lacy