Grand Riviera Princess & Grand Sunset Princess

Jen Wilson · April 15, 2011

we had our ceremony in the gazebo with no red runner. it was much prettier that way. we actually got married there less than a week before the explosion, so i am not sure what the platinum area looks like. I do know that even in the upgraded platinum suites, you still smell the watery mildew.

I highly recommend getting your makeup done there. they did a great job, better than i expected. be prepared too that the resort will set-up reservations for you for the restaraunts the first few days, you really should keep these reservations because changing anything is a pain in the rear. you have to walk all the way up to the front of the resort to change anythign & they will tell you all they have available isn't until 9:30pm.

we had 20 people at our ceremony & dinner afterwards. This way we didnt have to pay extra for more people. We had our dinner at La Fondue, which was fabulous. Tell them you want more than 1 option for the dinner & they will accomodate you. They say only 1 choice, but if you stress that you need more than one, they will be flexible.

If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to PM me. I would love to help any bride out.

Kelsey · April 17, 2011

Hi Everyone!! Back from the most amazing week of my life! I will post pics as soon as I get the professional ones.

Anyone having second thoughts about the resort because of the wedding coordinator DON'T!, Mara was so professional and organized it kind of blew me away. I also had a hard time getting a hold of her and was a little nervous how the day was all going to come together but she had everything under control. We met with her the day before and went over everything, (I actually changed my flowers to the big lilly and rose hanging bouquet but requested all the flowers be in white, and they were perfect!) we also requested to do a walk through the day before (make sure you ask) and they accommidated that. I was nervous about the new location since losing the gazebo and I actually like it better. Our music was perfectly on que, my bridesmaids walked down to "La Mar" by the Beautiful girls and I walked down to "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Jason Castro, everyone loved the songs!

We brought sand to do a sand ceremony and the minister made it very personal and the vows he prepared were beautiful.

Our ceremony was at 3, there was a light breeze (not very windy) that made pictures afterwards on the beach easy and enjoyable (no pit stains on the boys! lol)

We just did the infinity package for $800 (we got legally married in canada first but no body new)

We had 58 guests and had our reception and the Thai Beach Restaurant, worth EVERY penny. They way I saw it, is if we had a wedding at home it would have been 200 guests and like $30 000, so to have a reception for about 8500 was amazing! We got the DJ, he was awesome, played requests and kept everyone on the dance floor, also my brother made a video for us on his computer that we used the projector, his music wouldnt play so he worked it out with the DJ to play all the same songs on cue, No one even knew!!

My wedding favors I got from Kustomkoozie.com, they were drink koozies that read "To have and to hold, to keep your drink cold" with our names and date, a big hit among our guests!

We brought in 2 outside photographers costing $75 extra to bring them into the resort but they were so amazing I cannot wait to see the pictures. check out Rachel at www.lalunaphotography.com

We stayed in the platinum suites and I would highly recommend spending the extra, it was nice having the 24hour conceirge and room service.

Since we had so many guest upon their arrival I gave them an itinerary of where my fiance and I were going to be for every dinner, outline for day of the wedding and any excersions we were going on. Because we were in the platinum suites we were able to book all of our dinners the first night, any guests not staying in the platinum suites could only book 2 days in advance.

My one major complaint was of some of the staff, they were very strict on rules (example: you could never take food out of any of the restaurants, not even at 4am a hamburger out of the sports bar, some of the bartenders we very rude and all in all a lot of the staff we not that accommidating, which was weird to me bc when we were at this resort 3 yrs ago they couldnt have been sweeter...

If anyone has any questions at all let me know!! Happy planning and honestly don't worry if you don't get a response right away. There were 10 weddings our week and 17 the next, so they really know what they are doing!!

Kelsey · April 17, 2011