Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya Brides??

[Kelly Olson]

oops!  I meant 2012 not 2011!!!

[Kelly Olson]

Have you had any one reply to you with a quote etc?  I am in the same situation.  Trying to plan our wedding for first week of May 2012.

[Shahlo]

Hey Kelly PM me your email address and I'll email you the GS catalogue (flowers, centerpieces, decor ...) and wedding package list that I've got from the WC.
 

Originally Posted by Kelly Olson 

Hi ladies,  I also am looking at this resort for our wedding end of April early May 2011.  I found a great review on Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g499445-d599193-r79801266-Grand_Sirenis_Riviera_Maya-Akumal_Yucatan_Peninsula.html   That maybe helpful.  Any other information that you have obtained on this resort and wedding packages I would greatly appreciate you passing on to me   I received a great quote for the resort side of things but have not heard back from the hotel yet for the wedding package pricing.  Kileelain, when is your big day?  Would be awesome to keep in touch with you and maybe exchange notes etc?

 

[siobhane]

Thanks Kelly - that was a great review and very helpful.

I have an email from my TA with flowers, cakes, prices, etc. - I can email it to you if you PM me. 

It may be the same one that Shahlo is sending you...

[linds0128]

@janette34 I believe thats the menu for the 3 course dinner.. I got the info pack from aracely that had 3 options for the dinner at the  palapa... 3 course, surf and turf and bbq... and the bbq is more expensive per person than the surf and turf so I'm wondering whats included in it.

[jennalee1985]

I would love to see pictures as well. [email protected]

[jennalee1985]

Thank you for posting the photos. They look great!

[Lesleyf]

41 of us travelled with Thomas cook to Grand sirenis on 6^th July for two weeks holiday and for my daughters wedding which was on the 15^th.  As a few of us had previously been to Grand Sirenis before we pretty much new what to expect and I have to say we were not disappointed the second time around

The rooms were large and kept very clean.  The bathroom had Jacuzzi bath ,separate shower and toilet, but as mentioned in other reviews the bath did take a while to fill. The consierge who were located on the ground floor of your building were fantastic and would like to mention Agnes and Edwardo who were our consierges in Building 18.  They were extremely helpful and even knew you by name.

 

Food – we found the food to be very good.  The buffet always had a good choice and had different theme nights i.e. Mexican, Chinese, Italian .. We didn’t manage to do all the ala carte’s  but the one’s we did do were all very good.  Cajun was our favourite as was the Japanese , The Mediteranean was our least favourite.

 

 The pools – were kept immaculately clean. Had great fun in the lazy river.  The younger members of our party spent most of their time at the swim up bar pool where all the entertainment programmes took place. Whilst the others spent time at the beach and the quieter pool which had a lovely bar that served fruit smoothies.

 

The beach – we loved the beach and yes it was a little rocky to get in but we all remembered our beach shoes so wasn’t a problem.  There was always sunbeds available and the breeze made the heat at least bearable.  The waitresses came round to your beds and took your drinks orders fairly frequently although sometimes did have a bit of a wait – but again no probs.

 

 

Scuba Diving – As me and my husband are divers we booked a package of dives with the onsite Dive shop. We did 2 ocean dives , 2 Cenote dives and a day trip to Cozumel with 2 dives. Although we enjoyed all these dives we would recommend if you have your own kit – take it!  Their kit didn’t seem very well looked after and definitely needed servicing.  My brother used their equipment and had an inflator hose go on him mid dive .... he was fine but obviously had to abort the dive and made him a little weary doing subsequent dives.

 

The Spa  / gym – The gym was fairly good – had a room of cardio equipment including running machines and cross trainers, the rowing machine was not working when I was there. There was also a room with weight machines and free weights.  Did the water circuit at the spa – well worth doing – thoroughly enjoyed this.

As my daughter used her own hairdresser (one of her friends who came over with us) she did not use the spa for her hair and make-up which was included in her wedding package.  I was allowed to use this instead and was fantastic.  I had a lady called MARITZA  she did both my hair and make up and made me look and feel like a  million dollars.  I would highly recommend her.

 

Now to the Wedding..... where to  begin.... AMAZING, AMAZING ,AMAZING... I started e-mailing Araceli – the wedding co-ordinator a few months before the wedding .  We  booked the Presidential Wedding Package and after seeing pictures decided on having the reception in the Palapa.  This was booked prior to us arriving. Can I say that all of our dealings were primarily with Araceli and she was extremely helpful and always replied to my e-mails with a few days.  With the Presidential package the Bride and Groom were given a room upgrade to the Presidential Suite.  I did confirm this with Araceli a few months before as apparently there are only 3 of these rooms so think it a first come first serve basis and she did confirm that they would have this room.  The room was amazing – huge and came with a sitting area with plazma t.v., bedroom area with another plazma t.v. Jacuzzi bath, had a full bar area along with fridge, touch screen computer with free, unlimited internet, huge dressing area and then a huge shower with separate toilet and b-day.  All other details for the wedding was sorted out the day after we arrived.  We spent quite a few hours with Araceli and she went through everything that our wedding package included  from flowers to the dj at the evening reception.  I obviously wont list everything but am happy to answer any questions any brides to be may have. A few of us then went off and visited the Palapa and then to choose the location for the ceremony. There was a choice of 2. The beach immediately infront of the palapa which was fairly rocky or the beach located between Building 19 and the Spa. We chose the latter

The day its self was perfect  -The flowers were beautiful and exactly what my daughter wanted. The ceremony was wonderful – we chose to have a Christian minister take the service which cost an extra $200 USD but felt this was totally worth the money – he made the service extremely personal and the Sand Ceremony was very moving. The ceremony took place at 4pm and the reception was to start at 6pm. This worked very well as gave enough time for all the photo’s and for us to get from the beach to the Palapa which was the other side of the resort.  We were all taken by the buggy over to the palapa but as there were so many of us it took quite a few trips to get us all over there. If there was one thing that we could moan about it would be that – it would have been great if there had been at least two  buggies.  We all had a great time at the reception – the Palapa looked stunning and Araceli and her team worked extremely hard in setting up all the tables for us and decorating them as we had asked.  The food was lovely and the wait staff were extremely efficient. The wedding cake – was lovely but as they use this very soft cream filling and topping – where it was soo hot the cake did look a little wonky and so they had to cut the cake as soon as it came out as I don’t think it would have lasted . The DJ – well it was ok but I would advise you to take your own cd’s as we did .  We were all on the dance floor all night.  We did pay for the extra hour for the bar which enabled us to party until 11pm and then most went on to the disco afterwards. Would like to say a huge thankyou to all of the staff and to Araceli , Pamela and Cecilia who were around for pretty much the whole wedding making sure everything ran smoothly.  Cant thank them enough for making my daughters wedding day a day we will remember for ever.

Photographer – we did get an outside photographer as I had read many reviews that were not happy with the onsite one.  We used Ashley at Blue Lens Caribe – she was absolutely brilliant and the photographs are stunning. I cant recommend her enough.  We also opted for the video which again we were really glad we did. 

All in All we all had a fantastic holiday and a wedding we will all remember – Thank you Grand Sirenis for making this all possible.

Well  I thnk thats about it – sorry for the rather long review but if anyone has any questions am happy to answer – if I can.

  

[CanadaBride2011]

My husband and I also got married at the Grand Sirenis over the summer. We chose the presidential package but made that decision too late to actually get the proper suite. Instead, they gave us a fantastic room that was the same size as the normal ones but with much nicer amenities and decor. They set up the bar and computer in the room and we had all of the extras that usually come with the presidential package, so it wasn't a problem at all.

 

As many have mentioned, it can be a bit tough to get email answers. I was finding this a bit frustrating, but once we arrived and met with Araceli everything was fine. We met the morning after our arrival and covered all of the possible options, made the decisions, signed some forms, and were done within an hour or so. One of the other wedding coordinators actually came to meet us on arrival and took my wedding dress to have it pressed right away, which was great. It was delivered to my room a day or two later in perfect shape, and it only cost 25 dollars or so (added to our room bill). At our meeting with Araceli, we set up a time for the rehearsal the day before the wedding. The rehearsal was a bit of a joke; we went out to the ceremony site - the beach in front of the palapa - and Araceli showed us where we would walk out, then said she didn't know yet whether the ceremony would be in English or Spanish, translated to English, and wouldn't know until the judge arrived the next day. This wasn't an issue for us, but might be something to request ahead of time if possible. Following that, she showed us the palapa, then took us back to the main resort. We decided then to change the reception time to 5:00 PM instead of 6:00, since there wouldn't be much for the guests to do between the 4:00 PM ceremony and the start of the reception. This worked out fine, as we had some time in the palapa for drinks before dinner actually started so it didn't feel too early.

 

The morning of the wedding, all the women did the water circuit, which was hysterical. I don't think any of us have laughed that hard in years - some of the jets are in a bit of weird spot, so prepare yourself! After that, my MOH and I went for hair and makeup at the spa. It took quite a while, as there's only one woman who does it, but she did a lovely job and we were both quite happy once we made some tiny adjustments ourselves. Araceli came to pick us up for the ceremony once we finished up and the photographer had taken a few getting-ready shots, and everything went really smoothly from there. The ceremony site was perfectly decorated, the ceremony went off without any trouble, and the reception was absolutely gorgeous. They do a fantastic job of setting everything up, and we were all thrilled. In retrospect, we should have paid for an extra hour at the palapa, as we had to wrap up around 10 and the disco was pretty much empty still at that point. We ended up leaving there and heading to the lobby bar for some drinks and having a great time anyway. The marriage certificate was dropped off in our room a day after the wedding.

 

One thing future brides should consider is hiring an external photographer. We hired Sascha Gluck (cancunphotos.net) for two hours and were incredibly happy that we did, especially once we saw the quality of the resort photographer's work. He had taken around 100 shots, and we were able to choose 10 as part of the wedding package. Narrowing it down was NOT a hard job, unfortunately. He did get a few photos worth keeping, but I would have been devastated if that was all we had. Sascha, on the other hand, did fantastic work and actually worked out to be cheaper than buying the resort photographer's basic package.

 

The resort itself was great. We all had a great time, and I would go back to the Grand Sirenis in a heartbeat. I found the BDW thread to be a great resource when I was planning, so I thought I should chip in here. Feel free to message me with questions.

[siobhane]

How much did you have to pay for the extra hour of service for the reception?  I am having mine in the restaurant, but having the restaurant private - I feel like 4 hours won't be enough time to do everything I want to like speeches and dance.