Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya Brides??

[Chantel]

Originally Posted by Janelle0308 

 

We are thinking of doing a welcome night kind of thing too but haven't thought so far ahead as to look at bar locations - maybe just tell everyone meet at a certain place at a certain time. I was also wondering about the rehersal dinner - when is that booked? Also when do you know for sure that you have the palapa booked? we have about 35 people attending.

 

Hi Janelle!

 

We booked the Palapa and Presidential package as soon as we booked our wedding date with the resort. You can definitely work this out with your wedding coordinator.

 

Chantel

[Chantel]

Originally Posted by yasminlkerr 

 

Hi Chantelle,

 

I think its because we're getting married at the Palapa location (the one included in the presidential package) as its about 5/6 mins on golf cart from the resort it doesn't get WIFI. Marcela has been helpful though and offered her phone if needed, but my step-dad is going to log his work iPad onto 3G (I'm not sure about you but this costs a fortune from the UK - but he'll be charging it back to work hopefully!)

 

Anyway we fly out tomorrow, and the wedding is this time next week so I will let you know how we manage to get around it!

 

I will also scope out the bars and let you know.

 

We just got confirmation today that we have the Mexican restaurant for our rehersal dinner, we gave our top 3 (about 2 months ago) and this was our number one, thought we'd keep it authentic as it will be our first night there!

 

Will get some piccies up and full review when I return!!

 

Yasmin

 

Thanks for the update on the WiFi, Yasmin! Hope you have a wonderful wedding week!

[Chantel]

Originally Posted by Oilersbride 

 

Hi Chantel

 

There are two lobby bars. We primarily were in the one on the riveria maya side - it doesn't have a lot of seating - big chairs mainly. I don't recognize that bar - but it is possibly from the beach side. I think the beach bar might only be open during the day but the lobby bars were definitely open in the evenings. They generally had music playing - live - and they didn't have food (I have never figured out where serves snacks after hours but the buffet serves until like 10 pm.) Sorry can't be of more help.

 

Hi Shelley,

 

This feedback is really helpful - I figured that Bar #1 was one of the lobby bars, but I had no idea which one, so you've definitely helped me narrow it down. So I think I will just plan the welcome night for the lobby bar on the beach side and we should be good to go!

 

How's your planning coming along?

 

Chantel

[Oilersbride]

Originally Posted by Chantel 

 

 

Hi Shelley,

 

This feedback is really helpful - I figured that Bar #1 was one of the lobby bars, but I had no idea which one, so you've definitely helped me narrow it down. So I think I will just plan the welcome night for the lobby bar on the beach side and we should be good to go!

 

How's your planning coming along?

 

Chantel

Planning is in it's final stages.  We are going to try and connect with Fernanda regarding some serious confusion over the golf cart situation. First of all we didn't realize we had to pay extra for the use of the golf carts. In the paperwork where we marked in what we wanted when it states that if we have guests of 30 or more we should rent a private golf cart that can accommodate 14 people at a time for 1000 pesos an hour for 5 hours. When I asked Fernanda about the cost of the golf cart she told me it holds 7 people for the price of 1000 pesos for 5 hours.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone know how the golf cart works?

---

[yasminlkerr]

Hi girls,

 

Just back and what a fantastic holiday and amazing wedding. Full review (with some pics) to follow shortly but just in response to some questions -

 

DJ: I had read the reviews and so came VERY prepared, I had asked each of our guests for their favourite song (that could be danced to) - I sent the full list to Marcela (my wedding coordinator) to pass on to the DJ, and had all the songs on CD which I brought with me just in case. The DJ did not follow our list, and apparently the CDs did not work! To be honest, this didn't ruin anything for us, I sent word round to the guests who started a requests list of their songs, although he did not have quite a few of them. But between us we managed to keep the songs to what he wanted (despite a few techno attempts from the DJ which I quickly put a stop to!). I must admit, the 2DJ was VERY grumpy and unimpressed by us and our drunk guests taking over (which we literally had by the end when he couldn't find our songs we took control of his laptop and started to choose for ourselves). We managed to have 3 hours of pretty good music, which kept everyone happy and dancing, and honestly I was so happy and just enjoying myself too much (helped by a few glasses of bubbly) that I couldn't have cared less, but, if it is a big deal to you then it might be worth thinking about hiring a DJ, he certainly wouldn't have been worth paying for!

 

Oliersbride - we had a party of 34, I had also read this about the golf carts and was a little concerned not wanting to pay any more, but it wasn't mentioned once. We had our ceremony on the beach and reception at the palapa and the golf cart did a few trips without concern (you just have to plan our timings). We had a designated golf buggy, and a driving (whose name I can't remember but he was great!!). I do know the resort change their rules from time to time, but we had a fairly large group and one buggy served us absolutely fine!

 

Chantel - I think there are just two bars in the evening, on in each side of the lobby (Riviera maya and Mayan Beach) very close by each other so we utilised both. We didn't venture too far into the Mayan Beach side but I don't think there was any other bar open late, the lobby bar was great as a meeting place for us and we always managed to get some tables / chairs. There is also a bar down by the theatre where the shows are, but not a good meeting place unless you are watching the shows which we never got round to. Also re the WIFI, it didn't work on the beach (even though we ended up changing the ceremony location from near the palapa to the main beach (because it was a nicer beach)) we didn't end up taking Marcela up on use of her phone as we had a chat with my grandma from our room where we were getting ready, but it might be worth asking her as internet pretty much dies when you venture outside the resort buildings.

 

Full review to follow soon.... :-)

[Leelou2000]

Hi! Thank you so much for the info! Did you put any songs on a USB key for the DJ? I'm wondering if perhaps that's the best route! I would even be willing to bring my own laptop if there's a chance the key wouldn't work on theirs. Look forward to reading your review!

[Oilersbride]

Sounds like it went pretty well despite the DJ! We were also planning on bringing CDs or a USB stick of songs. Good to know about the golf cart - we are going to hopefully be skyping with fernanda on Sunday so we are going to try and sort the golf cart and dj out. Did the dj start right at beginning of your meal or was it after you had eaten? We are debating on whether or not to extend the dj service - if it's at the start of meal we won't really get much use of him between speeches and cake cutting and letting everyone eat! That's interesting that you moved your ceremony from seclusion to public - Does that mean you got to actually toured both spots to decide? I am still hung up on how much to have for centerpieces - I am not interested in dragging a bunch of stuff down nor do I want to spend a lot on what they can provide - it might mean a trip to the good old Walmart down there and figure out something on the fly

Hi girls, Just back and what a fantastic holiday and amazing wedding. Full review (with some pics) to follow shortly but just in response to some questions - DJ: I had read the reviews and so came VERY prepared, I had asked each of our guests for their favourite song (that could be danced to) - I sent the full list to Marcela (my wedding coordinator) to pass on to the DJ, and had all the songs on CD which I brought with me just in case. The DJ did not follow our list, and apparently the CDs did not work! To be honest, this didn't ruin anything for us, I sent word round to the guests who started a requests list of their songs, although he did not have quite a few of them. But between us we managed to keep the songs to what he wanted (despite a few techno attempts from the DJ which I quickly put a stop to!). I must admit, the 2DJ was VERY grumpy and unimpressed by us and our drunk guests taking over (which we literally had by the end when he couldn't find our songs we took control of his laptop and started to choose for ourselves). We managed to have 3 hours of pretty good music, which kept everyone happy and dancing, and honestly I was so happy and just enjoying myself too much (helped by a few glasses of bubbly) that I couldn't have cared less, but, if it is a big deal to you then it might be worth thinking about hiring a DJ, he certainly wouldn't have been worth paying for! Oliersbride - we had a party of 34, I had also read this about the golf carts and was a little concerned not wanting to pay any more, but it wasn't mentioned once. We had our ceremony on the beach and reception at the palapa and the golf cart did a few trips without concern (you just have to plan our timings). We had a designated golf buggy, and a driving (whose name I can't remember but he was great!!). I do know the resort change their rules from time to time, but we had a fairly large group and one buggy served us absolutely fine! Chantel - I think there are just two bars in the evening, on in each side of the lobby (Riviera maya and Mayan Beach) very close by each other so we utilised both. We didn't venture too far into the Mayan Beach side but I don't think there was any other bar open late, the lobby bar was great as a meeting place for us and we always managed to get some tables / chairs. There is also a bar down by the theatre where the shows are, but not a good meeting place unless you are watching the shows which we never got round to. Also re the WIFI, it didn't work on the beach (even though we ended up changing the ceremony location from near the palapa to the main beach (because it was a nicer beach)) we didn't end up taking Marcela up on use of her phone as we had a chat with my grandma from our room where we were getting ready, but it might be worth asking her as internet pretty much dies when you venture outside the resort buildings. Full review to follow soon.... :-)

[ldmoss]

Hi Oilersbride,

 

We are getting married at the Grand Sirenis on Nov 7, 2013 and we are from Calgary. Hope your planning is going well. I believe we are skypeing with Fernanda on Sunday as well so she can help us answer some questions. I will pass along any important info that she shares.

[ldmoss]

Can't wait to read your review!

[Oilersbride]

Originally Posted by ldmoss 

 

Hi Oilersbride,

 

We are getting married at the Grand Sirenis on Nov 7, 2013 and we are from Calgary. Hope your planning is going well. I believe we are skypeing with Fernanda on Sunday as well so she can help us answer some questions. I will pass along any important info that she shares.

Hi Idmoss

 

We will be at the resort November 6-20 so maybe we will cross paths! i will definitely pass along any information I receive. Hopefully we will get the same story!