VeronicaLane's Review - Royal Playa del Carmen 3.20.09

[VeronicaLane]

March 20, 2009

The Royal Playa Del Carmen

Ceremony @ Royal Beachside Gazebo

Reception @ Beach

 

The Destination Wedding

Will and I are not formal people. We feel our best in t-shirts and flip-flops. We love Jimmy Buffett, anything that involves the beach, and casual settings with our close friends. When we got engaged, we knew we wanted a beach wedding in a fun, yet romantic setting. Mexico was the obvious choice. We are from to different states. Had we had a traditional wedding party, we would have asked our guests to spend money on travel, formal wear, hotels, etc. We knew that our guests would rather spend the money to go to a beautiful AI resort in Mexico, than on traditional wedding expenses and travel to my small hometown in Texas.

 

Playa del Carmen

What an amazing little city! This quaint Mexican town is filled with traditional Mexican culture, as well as lively tourist flavor. It is surrounded by beautiful white beaches, and clear waters. It is far enough from Cancun to feel “grown up,†yet close enough to still have a fun feel. We always felt safe and secure when walking through the streets of Playa. Don’t spend your entire time in the resort. Go explore!

 

 

The Royal Playa del Carmen

I loved this resort!!! The Royal was the perfect location. It was close to 5th Ave, which I highly recommend. The Royal beach is big and beautiful. Service was phenomenal. The rooms are spacious and lovely. And, the pools are great.

The food was delicious. Spice (the buffet) was awesome for breakfast (featuring fresh fruit, made to order omelets, crepes, etc.) We loved Asiana. It’s a beautiful restaurant with Asian-fusion choices (sushi, tempura, Japanese, and Thai entrées.) Pelicano’s was great. It is the beachside café. It had the best guacamole! It also had amazing breakfast. The tapas bar was really good. We ordered several of everything on the menu, and tried it all. It was fabulous. Maria Marie’s was really great. We wish we had discovered it sooner. I had scallops and steak that were excellent. Room service was great! And, the bars were so fun (Lobby bar, poolside swing bar, and swim-up bar).

 

[VeronicaLane]

Zulma Dominguez, WC & Royal Wedding

She was wonderful, sweet, and very professional. We knew she was an expert on making wedding dreams come true. We brought her a big beach bag (with our guestbook, cake boxes, favors, etc.) She had everything set up beautifully. She is so kind and warm. If you marry at the Royal, KNOW that everything is under control. We went with a very basic package. The Royal’s standard wedding and reception set-up is gorgeous, simple, and classy. We didn’t feel the need for extra flowers, a bigger dance floor, or toile hanging everywhere. Trust me when I say that the beach and ocean make a beautiful backdrop!

 

 

Wedding Events/OOT Bags:

Wednesday Night: We had a Welcome Reception at the Lobby Bar, which was perfect. There was live music and great seating and tables. We moved the party to the Tapas Bar, were we made a welcome toast, and handed out the OOT Bags. *** Everyone LOVED the OOT Bags and Who’s Who Guide. We made a decision to buy useful things like beach towels and nice flip flops for everyone, rather than little swag items (like hand sanitizer, sun screen, crosswords, etc.) This was a great decision. Little items add up in price. We ended up spending the same amount, and our guests will actually use the gifts we gave. After drinks and dinner, the girls and guys separated for Bachelor/Bachelorette night. This was so fun! The boys went to the cigar bar, then to Blue Parrot off of 5th Ave. The girls went to the Lobby Bar, then to the Beer Bucket off of 5th Ave. We had such a fun and crazy time!

Thursday night - “Rehearsal” Dinner. There wasn’t actually a rehearsal. But, we all met up at Asiana for dinner. The Royal Staff was so awesome about helping us seat our large group together. We always tipped well to the host or hostess for their extra efforts to help us with large-party seating. Some mariachis off the street came into the restaurant and serenaded my FI and me at dinner. This was absolutely perfect.

Friday 11:00 AM - Will and I went to Veronica’s and got massages. This was fabulous! An hour massage was $30. It was so relaxing and wonderful. This was the best way to start the wedding day.

1:00 PM – Had lunch with girls at Pelicano’s. So nice and light. Then, I got ready. I did my makeup, and my mom did my hair.

3:30 PM – Cecilia Dumas (our photographer) arrived to take pics of me in the room getting ready. I made sure the girls were there so they could be in the pics. I’m so glad we did this! Then, Will and I walked through Playa del Carmen with Cecilia and took pics around town. These are gorgeous and creative. And, I LOVE our pics. A note on Cecilia: She is a pleasure to work with. She is fun, yet professional. She made us feel so comfortable. She went above and beyond. We love our pics that received less than two weeks later---which is super fast for wedding pics!

5:00 PM – Ceremony. This was so sweet and beautiful in the beachside gazebo. There were bikini-clad onlookers watching us say our vows. But, it didn’t matter. Everything was so warm and sweet and perfect. Roberto was our Minister. He was precious. He had a few problems with some of the English. But, it added to the charm of our Mexican wedding!

6:00 PM – Reception. Before I describe the reception, let me say that we were torn about having a cocktail hour. I’m so glad that we did not! We saved $1500 dollars. While we took a few extra beach pics, our guests were served drinks outside of the gazebo, where the Royal had set up a “small” bar area. The transition to the reception was seamless. Guests trickled toward the tables on the beach as we took a few final pics…. The Reception was perfect! We chose the standard set-up, which was lovely. We chose the surf and turf entrée, which our guests loved. (BTW: the Reception dinner was phenomenal. The best food all week!) The lit-up dance floor was perfect and fun. We used our iPod for the music, which was awesome! We had tres-leches cake, which most guests took “to go” in our cake boxes, simply because we were served a great dessert at dinner. The night was beautiful and festive. And, it was, hands-down, the best night of my life!

 

In Summary… We had guests who were reluctant to go to Mexico. They returned home with a new perspective. Several of our friends now want destination weddings. Everyone had an amazing time. They loved PDC and the Royal. Our wedding was beyond my dreams, and I wish so badly that I could relive it all again. It was perfect. I wish you the best in your wedding planning. Soak it all in and try not to sweat the small stuff---it goes by too fast. You’ll know what I mean the morning after your wedding! ;-)

 

 

You can see my planning thread here:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t38503

[Jen_S]

Wow your wedding looked amazing! You looked very beautiful! Congrats glad you had a great time!

[Corvette79]

great review! congrats you looked amazing!

[YaelM]

Wow I loooooooooooove your dress! You look amazing!! Congrats!

[~*Kathy*~]

Great review and congrats Mrs!! You looked so amazing and I'm glad that everything went so well, congrats again!!

[kiki317]

Congratulations!! I love your dress- you looked gorgeous!!!

[Andi]

wow everything looks like it turned out great! CONGRATS Mrs.!

[~Stephanie~]

Hey V, I've been waiting for your review! Outstanding! I have some questions for you but I'll PM them later or ask you over in the Royal thread. I'm so happy for you! You look truly stunning, as I said before your dress is gorgeous! I love the flowers you ended up going with. I hope you stick around now that you are a Mrs. and hang out with the rest of the Royal brides!

[~*petals*~]

Everything looks beautiful! Congratulations! I love your reception setup-- how many people did you have?