Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[JayKay]

Wow, amazing pictures!!!

 

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

I couldn't wait to share this with you girls! It's a preview from our photographer, I love it!!! I keep looking at them over and over lol

http://www.laurietennentstudio.com/shows/trevorandmegan

 

[JayKay]

I noticed that during your ceremony you stood on the closer level rather then going into the middle of the gazebo.  Did you choose to do that?

 

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

I couldn't wait to share this with you girls! It's a preview from our photographer, I love it!!! I keep looking at them over and over lol

http://www.laurietennentstudio.com/shows/trevorandmegan

 

[cupcake1382]

Loooove your pics!!! Where was that little town? I love the picture with you guys with the boat and the kids. 

[mekanabr]

Thanks everyone! I am so thrilled with them..can't wait to see the rest

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayKay 

I noticed that during your ceremony you stood on the closer level rather then going into the middle of the gazebo.  Did you choose to do that?

 

 

yes, I Think we had the option to stand wherever, either on the step, below the step, or possibly I think in the middle of the gazebo.  We figured this would be better bc everyone would be able to see and hear everything and we were worried that we would be too far away and ppl wouldn't be able to hear us.

 

Originally Posted by cupcake1382 

Loooove your pics!!! Where was that little town? I love the picture with you guys with the boat and the kids. 

Thanks! That's one of my favorites too.  I honestly don't know where exactly it was, it was just this little row of pretty much shacks alongside the road right on the ocean and my photographer had noticed when she drove by the day before that they had boats on the ocean so it was like a little fishing village.  They sold conch shells out front and we just walked around to the ocean.  We had a cab driver named Michael at the resort, if you can get him he might be able to take you there.  It was maybe 10 mins west of the resort.  When we were getting pics near the boat all of sudden all of those kids came running up the coast in the ocean towards us, and then we asked them to come get a pic with us.  It was so cute!!
 

 

[BusyBee123]

Congrats!!! Your pics are stunning! I especially love the ones of you guys in front of the ruins in the village! Amazing! 

 

Did you find a taxi driver at the resort, or did you pre-arrange one?  We're planning on doing a full day trash the dress and driving out to the Dunn's River/horse ranch/villages/etc, so I'm trying to decide if I should find someone external for the day, or just grab whoever is in front of the resort.

 

Only 150 days exactly today!
 

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

I couldn't wait to share this with you girls! It's a preview from our photographer, I love it!!! I keep looking at them over and over lol

http://www.laurietennentstudio.com/shows/trevorandmegan

 

[missmeliss]

mekanabr everything looks so beautiful! Congrats!!  I am glad everything went so well. Thank you for all your feedback and pictures.

 

I was wondering if you had to bring all your own chair sashes and fabric to decorate the gazebo?  My colours are exactly the same and I wanted to know if I needed to bring these things with me or if the resort had those colours.

 

thanks!

[BusyBee123]

Hey all...hope your planning is going well!  Just a quick question for those who have already been to the resort/have read a ton of reviews!  

 

We're going to try to request that all of our guests (we're a smaller party) all be put in the same room section for convenience.  I've heard that Section 23 is newer and has nicer rooms, but that Section 16-18 is right in the middle of everything and really convenient.  Just wondering if anyone on here has any options about where the best place to stay might be?  I may not be guaranteed, but its worth a shot requesting it!

 

Thanks a bunch!

[acw271011]

Megan your pics are spectacular! Really breathtaking. And it looks like everyone had a great time! Thanks for letting us have a sneak peak...

 

Originally Posted by mekanabr 

I couldn't wait to share this with you girls! It's a preview from our photographer, I love it!!! I keep looking at them over and over lol

http://www.laurietennentstudio.com/shows/trevorandmegan

 

[acw271011]

Chandlyn confirmed our date on Friday so we leave 2 months from today! We fly Oct 15th and get married Oct 20th at 1:00 pm. Please wish us luck that nothing else goes wrong. I so hope that even though we have nobody there except us that we still get good pics and have a good time!

[Espejo2be]

Hey Girls,
I'm Back!!   So i just wrote a big long message and some how exited out of the screen and lost it all. So i'm going to make this one short and sweet.

Pros:
Gorgeous Resort, and huge

Friendly staff

Spacious bedroom

DELICIOUS FOOD

Very Nice and sweet wedding coordinator (Chandlyn)

#1 pool bartender = Henry

 

Cons:

Guests had to bring towels because of a consistent towel shortage

No upgraded room (even though we were the bride and groom)

Bartender for wedding reception = total waste of money

DJ for ceremony and wedding reception = total dummy and total waste of money

Donnalee = WORST wedding coordinator i've ever come across

Wedding rehersal = total waste of your groups time because nothing goes as planned

Outside the resort your bombarded with locals telling you stuff is free, giving it to you and then asking you for money for it?!

 

Our wedding day. we met Chandlyn (who rushed us) in the lobby to get into the golf cart which brought us to the beach.  After seeing her a couple days before to go over all the details and give her all of the decorations that we had brought with us and tell her how we wanted things laid out.  We got down to the gazebo and none of the pre-ceremony music was playing, the guys were all hanging out at the steps on the top of the isle right where we had arrived and my FI almost seen me, when they were supposed to be standing at the gazebo by that point.  The preist is awesome, he read the script we gave him because we wanted 2 reading incorperated as well as a sand cermeony.  Donnalee was present during our ceremony not Chandlyn (which if i had my time back i would have requested).  When it came to our sand ceremony, i noticed that our vases weren't set out. Donnalee came up in the middle of our sand ceremony and put the vases and sand in sandwich bags on our table and walked away!!!! Our wedding was being webcasted live so it was quite embarassing to be pouring sand from sandwich bags into the vases before we could pour it into the middle vase, all the while the DJ skipped a song and was playing the signing of the register song instead.  It had been hot, humid and gorgeous weather the WHOLE time we were down there, just as we signed the register, it down poured, BAD!!! all of our guests huddled in the gazebo around us and the webcasting cut out, the gazebo floor was flooded! the DJ put on our precessional song during the signing of the register.  it cleared up a little after about 10 minutes and the steel drum band started playing, only half of our guests were offered champagne after the ceremony.  It stayed clear for a little bit and while we were taking group shots I looked over and seen the steel drum band packing up and leaving about 15 minutes after they started playing (they were already paid $400) and there was a half naked man whole none of us knew videotaping our whole wedding and Donnalee was standing right next to time letting it happen. I had to go over and ask him to leave myself!!!!  We all got soaked in the showers and my hair went limp pretty fast.  My spirits were lifted after Merrick Cousley (our photographer) showed me a couple seek peeks on his camera and was saying we had the best weather because colors pop just after the rain (he was my saving grace!!) I would recommend him to anyone because we was fantastic!!!   We showed up to the Dolce Vita for our reception, it was decorated beautifully (better than i could have imagined).  Our guests all showed up at 6:30pm or earlier and had to sit and wait almost a half hour before they were even served wine alone their meal!! The food was great, service was horrible!  They brought out our cake without the cake topped and then didn't know how to put it on (hugging doves) so my FI had to go over and put it on himself in the middle of supper.  We cut our cake and ate a peice (we added an extra layer = so worth it) and got white raspberry, chocolate raspberry and coconut.  We served a couple of our guests some cake because nobody else was around to do it and then never saw the cake again, they didn't ask us what we wanted to do with it or if they should cut it up.  We also found out afterwards from one of our guests that he went to the bathroom in the middle of supper and when he flushed the toilet a rat sprang up out of the toilet and started running around the bathroom and then out through the resturant. He reported this to the manager and he said "yeah, we've been trying to catch that one for a while now!" needless to say, not too impressed!!

After supper we went to the gazebo where the bartender met us, he was nice and very friendly but he mixed the drinks pretty weak and wasn't really worth the $660 we paid for him.  The DJ had our ipod for the dance and hit play and spent the rest of the night surfing the internet with his headphones in. He just let the music play and when someone requested the next song, he looked and them and handed them the ipod.  If i had my time back I would have just got the speakers and done it ourselves and also had someone in charge of the music during our ceremony. 

We left the gazebo and went to the disco for a bit although some of our guests partied until early in the morning. 

We were told to meet with Chandlyn before we left the resort to get our things back and being sceptical I checked the bags right in front of them before leaving.  1/2 of our stuff was missing or broken and when we asked about the coupole specific things that we really wanted back, they said they were in the bag that they gave us and were not willing to do anything for us. So another recommendation, anything you want back, make sure someone is gathering it right after you finished with it!

Our stay was amazing, our wedding was a complete mess but in the end we'll have gorgeous pictures and we're married to each other Oh, and on another note, we did a TTD session with Merrick (which was AMAZING!!!) and when we were in the ocean splashing around my husband (hehe) lost his wedding band... yes, the day after our wedding!! We snorkeled for hours but didn't find it... our luck! So we had to buy him a new band when we got back to Newfoundland.

If you girls have any more questions, let me know, hope this helps a little!!