Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya Brides??

[Prometida]

Congratulations! Yes I'll be arriving May 19 and wedding will be the following weekend. We might see each other there!!! P

[janette34]

Here's a link to a short video from my wedding last month

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfPLtTey3a4&feature=share

[LJMedic]

So 4 days before we leave for the wedding Cecelai sends me an email to tell me my reception restaraunt needs maintenance so we cant have our dinner there but we can have one of the buffet restaraunts...the steak house or cajun. Any suggestions ladies which to pick. So disappointed but going to try and make best of it;)

[MJKH]

Personally, I would pick the steak house. I think overall it's the more popular of the two...we ate there twice (over the two weeks we were there) and had really good experiences both times. If I remember correctly, we had french onion soup both times, the appie buffet had veggie crudities (sp?) with two different cheese sauce fountains, chili, onion rings, salads...and I had the filet both times...it was perfectly cooked. I'm pretty sure my MIL had salmon there and really enjoyed it. We ate at the Cajun restaurant two years ago and it didn't do much for us so we didn't go back our last trip. Maybe someone who was at both recently can fill you in. Good luck...it'll all work out!!! : )

Originally Posted by LJMedic 

So 4 days before we leave for the wedding Cecelai sends me an email to tell me my reception restaraunt needs maintenance so we cant have our dinner there but we can have one of the buffet restaraunts...the steak house or cajun. Any suggestions ladies which to pick. So disappointed but going to try and make best of it;)

[Selina Newman]

Hello

 

I wondering if anybody has any costings for the  presidential suite, cold fireworks costings and DJ? 

 

Thank you

 

Selina

[ashk]

We're officially booked at Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach! Countdown to January 20, 2013 begins   We're leaving Jan 17, and will be travelling with my fiance's brother & sis-in-law and a brand-new baby!!

[linds0128]

We just got back from our wedding down there, and I wanted to do a review for everyone before I forget all the details.

 

It really was a fantastic place to get married, after our week there we stayed at a different resort in Playacar and am so happy that we had Grand Sirenis as our venue. It was a lot more private with no one except our guests around for the ceremony and the reception and the wedding coordinators were amazing!!!

 

We had 100 guests and our wedding coordinator was Marcela, I had never heard of her from this blog and she was amazing!!!! Both her and Elizabeth were around on the wedding day to make sure everything ran smoothly.

 

I know there's a couple people on here that mentioned how bad the communication was between the coordinators prior to leaving, I had experienced the same thing until 2-3 weeks before leaving, Marcela took over the emails and got back to me about everything either that day or the next. She was able to send me diagrams of the set up for the palapa, reserve us the rehearsal dinner, etc. I had also given her a welcome note that I had wanted to be given out when people checked in, she had no problem printing it up for me but we had people coming to both sides of the resort and they were arriving on different days so some people did get missed, it was ok though we just had to track them down. 

 

Our meeting with the wedding coordinators was the morning of the second day. It went through everything. I brought down quite a bit of stuff and they were great about just leaving it with them and they would take care of it all. There were fans for the chairs, seating cards, a candy bar, table numbers, our sand frame, our puzzle guestbook and the dvd for our screen show. Everything was kept in their office and set up perfectly the day of.

Some of the extras we got from the meeting were:

Palapa, projector screen, surf and turf menu (AMAZING!!!!), flower petal bags, center pieces for the tables and rental of the sound system.

We opted to get 2 pick up carts to get people to and from the palapa because people were on both sides of the resort, it was an extra $100 but well worth it as the cart only fits 7 people at a time. The meeting did take a couple hours from our morning, but I felt great leaving it knowing that everything would be taken care of exactly how I wanted it to be. 

 

 

Wedding Day:

 

I went to the spa with my mom which was the best decision I made, it was so relaxing and by the time I was done it was time to get ready!

I had my hair and makeup done by one of my friends, but I did get my nail polish redone at the spa by Gero and she was great.

My dress arrived from getting it steamed while i was still getting ready, and the flowers came about 15 minutes before we needed to leave. Everything did seem a bit rushed right before we left, but the carts had picked everyone else up so when we got there everything was on time. (which my husband was very happy about because of how hot it was!)

I had the mariachi band play for our ceremony, so I was quite excited to hear them when I got out of the golf cart. You get dropped off behind the palapa so no one can see you until you come around the corner which is perfect for last minute adjustments. My hair flower didn't arrive until after the rest of the flowers so my friend put it in while we were waiting for everything to start. 

The minister was amazing, she was funny and light yet kept the ceremony focused on love and us. It was perfect. 

I had brought my own photographer friend down so I didnt want the resort guy there, unfortunately they said it would cause more of a fuss to not have him so he was there beside the minster which I kind of hated but what can you do. Once the ceremony was done instead of having a celebratory line he kept trying to get us to pose, thats where I finally told him 'thanks for coming but I want you to leave now'  

we picked out our 13 photos from him the next day and Im so happy I brought my friend for real photos!

Right after the ceremony we did family formal pics while everyone else had champagne and snacks, I didn't try any but heard they were good. It was really hot so everyone was trying to find shade, the set up for the palapa took a bit longer than it was supposed to so people weren't allowed into it, when my husband went to check on what the delay was they were trying to put together out puzzle piece guest book.. so sweet, but the pieces were going to be handed out to guests to sign so not neccessary! Once that was figured out people were able to start finding their seats, and I was able to rip off the bottom of my dress!!!! If i can recommend anything it would be this: my dress was so hot it was fantastic to be able to take the bottom off and have a shorter dress. 

 

We had more of a formal reception with our friends as MCs, speeches and a slideshow movie, the whole time marcela and elizabeth were around making sure that all the food was delivered at the right time to the right people. 

 

For the food we choose the surf and turf but had some people who wanted the salmon or veg. On the name cards I put a different colored flower based on what people were eating and the servers were able to give them exactly what they wanted. 

The salad was ok, nothing great.

The asparagus soup was awesome!

and the Surf and turf was incredible, the cut of meat was fantastic and the size of lobster was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. it was all grilled behind the palapa so it was fresh and great portions.

We didn't have dessert but had the cake instead. I had all each tier be a different flavour and they made it so big there was tons left over. It was really yummy, I thought the chocolate was the best. 

Our candy bar was a hit, I had brought down gummy candies (no chocolate) and sand buckets for the table but the girls made it look so much better, they added extra bins and put together some sample bags with ribbons, it looked fantastic. I did leave the buckets down there so for any future brides you can ask to use them!

The dj from the disco had showed up and was blending our songs from our ipad. We didnt have to pay extra and he let us choose the music.

After the dinner we had to take down tables to make room for a dance floor, there was about half of them taken down so people still had the option to sit at a table and put their drinks down. 

 

We headed to the disco afterwards where a lot of people didnt like the music selection and ended up leaving, but the dj got better as the night went on. After we got back to our room all of our things were back there, including 2 massive pieces of cake! and they did an amazing job in our room.

 

I have nothing but good things to say about the wedding day, our week stay and the wedding coordinators. All of the staff were telling us that they have not had a wedding of that size down there and they pulled it off with no problems. 

 

I will post some pics when I can if anyone wants specific pictures let me know, I can email them to you.

[maripier]

Congratulation We haved booked too at GS for jan arriving on 5 leaving on 19 th Wedding date is 7 th in the Chapel reception in palapas So we will cross each other probably I wish you a happy planning Feel free if you want to share information! Mp

[ashk]

Ooh, you're staying 2 weeks, nice We're also using the palapa, it's so nice! And having our ceremony on the beach.
 

[Jemma-Leigh]

Where do I start.... I got Married May 10th 2012 on the beach and had the Palalpa for the reception.

 

When we arrived we where put in a mini suite in block 24, the building was under maintenance lots of painters and my room looked like it has been slept it, it was no where near ready. But after a little complaining it was cleaned and looked ok. p.s a Mini suite is a regular room with an extra bedroom- which was ok, we needed the space to get ready in. As the wedding got closer i was concerned about the paint and it getting on my dress, so they moved us to an Executive suite! WOW! Canopy bed, table, 2 plasma TV's, PlayStation 3, computer with free Internet, full premium bar and a snack every night.

 

My meeting with Elizabeth was good, I'm pretty relaxed and wasn't bridezilla. When we where talking about petals for the flower girls, she asked me how big the baskets where...... what baskets, i totally forgot. Also she asked if i wanted a sand ceremony..... what sand. Elizabeth was great she went out of her way to find me sand and jars and even wen looking for flower girl baskets. She gave me recommendations on what looks good and helped me pick music for the ceremony. Couldn't ask for a better wedding co ordinator 

 

I was trying to be a little sneaky and not disclose i had an outside photographer because i didn't was to pay $300USD penalty or day passes for my photographer..... But i got drunk and they called me while i was napping and i fessed up. that being said i threw a huge tantrum about have to pay for day passes on top of the $300 USD and after 3 days on fighting with the manager he gave into me.

 

The morning of the wedding was peaceful and once my photographer showed up it was all hands on deck, the boys where suppose to get picked up at 3.30 in the lobby downstairs but they cant follow direction and where waiting upstairs so i got a call from Elizabeth worried where all my guests where, then i was freaking out but thank gosh she found them. I was getting ready to leave and realized i didn't have any flowers, but we are on Mexico so they only arrived 5 mins before the wedding. and they where beautiful!!!! 

 

The location is private and beautiful no one could see me as we arrived, there was a little breeze but the weather was perfect and the set up was just as i has imagined. There was a table for my favors ( purple sunglasses) a table with the champagne and glasses, another with canapes and then bar style table for guests to sit at. 

 

There was a shuttle reserved for us all day to drive me and my photographers around. 

 

As for the resort photographer i let her come and took my 10 free pictures, they where OK but nothing more.

 

I hired Photos in Cancun and they where amazing, they where on time, professional, friendly! They arrived about an hour early and went to scope out the hotel and look for perfect wedding shots, so armed with their map they found perfect locations, The botanical gardens next to the spa, the beach and the Mayan Ruin on the beach. Lorena did my make up and she was amazing, i felt hot and flustered at times and my face still looked flawless! They put all the images on the disks. They where amazing!!!! I would defiantly rec commend them to anyone!!!

 

The reception was great! the food was amazing, we had tropical salad, lobster bisk, steak and then wedding cake for desert. We gave a CD to the DJ but he had a good mix of music, everyone was dancing and having a great time, the capitan for the night had us play a game where my husband had to lick a little salt off my and take a shot with no hands and then i did the same. Fun time!!

 

When we got back to our room it was covered in rose petals, the bathtub was filled with petals and candles around the outside, our bed was turned down and had towel swans and a photo frame with congrats card. Champagne fruit. The next morning we had breakfast arrive it was an amazing experience. 

 

Feel free to ask me anything or of there are any pictures you want to see.