Grand Sunset Princess Resort

[smiles33]

RivieraMayaBum:

 

Hi there!!

 

First of all, congratulations!!  How was it?!?!?!?

 

Second of all, thank-you so much for offering to share & for your advice!  The pictures are the most important part of the wedding to me, so I will make sure to go and see them ASAP after the wedding.  

 

I would love to see all of your photos, but that's probably not possible lol.  I think what I'd like to see most are the photos taken with you and your husband on the beach after the ceremony, and trash the dress if you did those photos.  

[sunbride2be]

Hello, I am looking at the GSP for our wedding in jan 2014. I have a lot of info from the wc but having a really hard time deciding.... I love the riviera gazebo but have no clue where it is located on the premises, anyone would be able to she'd some light ascot the location? Also heard that it is not very private....as in people in their swim suits gawking? If we wanted to have drinks & apps after the ceremony, would it be set up right by the gazebo? I like the idea of having the reception at the beach but really haven't seen many posts here regarding beach receptions, mostly chill out lounge (I assume its outdoors) on a deck.. Has anyone had a beach reception and if so, what was your experience? Lastly, would anyone know options for dancing/DJ for the reception if it was on the beach? Any info would be really appreciated

[RivieraMayaBum]

Hi smiles33,

 

Everything went great!  Here are a lot of the pics for you to see.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leroyangelawed/

[RivieraMayaBum]

Hi sunBride2be,

 

I thought i answered you, but i must have forgotten to post.  Anyways the riviera gazebo is on the beach at the end of the Riviera platinum rooms.  Its a good distance from the center main bar and beach bbq, so a little more secluded, but you will never get rid of all the beach people.  Your question on drinks being setup is probably a question for the wc.  I'm sure she can do whatever you like for the price.

 

We did have a beach reception, but we had it offsite at a beach club in Playa Del Carmen.  I did see them setup for another wedding while we were there and it was outside the Chill Out Lounge (which is an outdoor beach club with covered section).

 

We had a DJ that i could recommend to you, but GSP usually doesn't allow outside vendors.  They want you to use their people.  You would have to as wc about that.  I do recommend that if you do a beach reception, get the lighted dance floor.  It's awesome and a must!

 

Later...

[sunbride2be]

Hi sunBride2be, I thought i answered you, but i must have forgotten to post.  Anyways the riviera gazebo is on the beach at the end of the Riviera platinum rooms.  Its a good distance from the center main bar and beach bbq, so a little more secluded, but you will never get rid of all the beach people.  Your question on drinks being setup is probably a question for the wc.  I'm sure she can do whatever you like for the price. We did have a beach reception, but we had it offsite at a beach club in Playa Del Carmen.  I did see them setup for another wedding while we were there and it was outside the Chill Out Lounge (which is an outdoor beach club with covered section). We had a DJ that i could recommend to you, but GSP usually doesn't allow outside vendors.  They want you to use their people.  You would have to as wc about that.  I do recommend that if you do a beach reception, get the lighted dance floor.  It's awesome and a must! Later...

Thank you so much for the reply! Yes we would definitely like to have a dj and the dance floor. I am guessing the price is much higher through the resort? Any one you can recommend? Also, anything that you would recommend doing or not doing?

[JillTran]

The Grand Riviera/Sunset Princess is a great resort, not too big but not too small. I was there 2 years ago and we were able to watch a whole wedding ceremony from afar, so it's not too private as their beach gets pretty busy especially during the busy season.

 

The Chill out lounge would be a great place to have either a reception or even a post reception cocktail party.

 

Good luck and happy planning ladies!

 

-Jill Tran

[sunbride2be]

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!!

Hello, would you be able to share the price of the DJ and the dance floor? Also, was it from the hotel or an outside vendor....any info would be really appreciated.

[smiles33]

RivieraMayaBum:

 

Those are beautiful!! Thank-you so much for sharing them with me!! 

[ckl22]

Hi Everyone! I am trying to narrow down my venue choice for a February 2014 wedding and came across this hotel. It seems amazing. I am having trouble finding all of the wedding packages pricing. Do they offer an ala carte wedding option? Does anyone have an "extras" price sheet they are willing to share?  I havent been able to read all the posts on here yet.. but it sounds like their are two gazebos you can get married in .. can you also just have a beach wedding? And how is the beach - i had saw a few pictures where it looked like their may be a rockey section that you cannot swim in - is this true?  If we have over 40 guests is the only option for a private dinner the Chill out Lounge? I am a little worried it will be colder at night in February.. anyone have any issues with an outdoor dinner?  Has anyone opted to go to the disco to dance and continue the party instead of a dj? Sorry for all the questions - thanks for any help in advance

[zev lavender]

how did you find this photographer? is he the regular resort guy? can i please have his contact info.

the pics are fantastic