Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[mekanabr]

I'm surprised your cake went missing! They brought us ours along with a bottle if champagne and left it in our room after the wedding.. They didn't give us our cake topper but as we were leaving chandlyn returned it to us, so you just have to ask to make sure you get everything back. If you are really concerned about losing things, I wouldn't take things with you that you will be upset over not trying back bc it's just not with the stress, not to mention everything is so beautiful there, you won't even notice that you didn't bring a certain decoration...just a thought! Dont start over stressing now ladies, just go prepared (Ibrought drawings of the table set up and had everything labeled when I gave it to her, maybe that helped it go smoothly?) bc you will just spend the next x amount of days worrying yourself to death! You are all going to have amazing weddings!! plus hiccups asking the way just make for memories later on...did I ever mention that bc of the humidity and rain, my fiance ripped his pants minutes before our first dance? I'm taking knee to xx along the inseam but nothing we could do about it so we just laughed and kept on having a great time!

[mekanabr]

Hi Ladies,

 

For those of you who have already experienced GBP, do you think it's a good venue for a large group (i.e. 150 people). If so, what are your suggestions for where the reception should be held.  Also, is there a back up plan in case it rains on your weddng day? Thanks for any information you can provide.

Yes The resort is definitely big enough for a huge group, but your only reception option Would be to rent out a restaurant which is $2500 plus additional for bar setup (I think $22 per person)

[mekanabr]

I forgot, your back up plan I think is to get married in the lobby or on the terrace but not positive about that.

[acw271011]

Chandlyn told me last Saturday when I spoke to her that back up rain plan is the wedding in the foyer, which I think means the lobby. They're forecasting a "higher than normal" number of hurricanes so I asked just in case since we're October... heaven forbid!! but hey us happy canucks are sending helicopters and troops just in case they get hit!! go canucks. what other country would be nice enough to send their troops on a just in case mission to a country that MIGHT get hit by a hurricane. least they can work on their tan!

 

Originally Posted by FoxyRoxy30 

Hi Ladies,

 

For those of you who have already experienced GBP, do you think it's a good venue for a large group (i.e. 150 people). If so, what are your suggestions for where the reception should be held.  Also, is there a back up plan in case it rains on your weddng day? Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[missmeliss]

Firstly, Congrats on becoming a MRS!!! Second I am so sorry to hear about all the obstacles you faced.  I am planning to bring somethings with me and do a sand ceremony so I will defintely recruit someone to handle those things. 

 

I like your pro and con listed! I am not going to bother booking the dj or bar. 

We were planning on doing the steel drums as well but I am a little nervous that we will run into the same troubles as you did.  Did you have to pay in advance??
 

Originally Posted by 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!!

 

[JayKay]

Yay Canucks!!

 

Originally Posted by acw271011 

Chandlyn told me last Saturday when I spoke to her that back up rain plan is the wedding in the foyer, which I think means the lobby. They're forecasting a "higher than normal" number of hurricanes so I asked just in case since we're October... heaven forbid!! but hey us happy canucks are sending helicopters and troops just in case they get hit!! go canucks. what other country would be nice enough to send their troops on a just in case mission to a country that MIGHT get hit by a hurricane. least they can work on their tan!

 

 

 

[Tekeya Thompson]

For those who did dolce as their restaurant, which menu or entree would you recommend.

[mekanabr]

We had the squash and thyme soup, caprese salad, chicken, and tirimisu.  It was all really good and our guests enjoyed it a lot.  The only disapointing part was prob the caprese salad, when I think of a mozzarella and tomato salad I think of fresh mozz...this was alternating slices of tomatoe and mozz (like sandwich cheese...not fresh) on top of really thinly sliced lettuce, like the kind you would again put on a sandwich.  It all tasted really good, it just looked kind've...cheap I guess compared to how nicely everything else was presented.  Guests told me they wanted to eat that soup every day and they were really impressed with the chicken.  My husband had the beef and it was amazing, it came on top of essentially a tater tot lol..it was like a breaded mashed potato thing...omg it was so tasty.  And I had the vegetarian Mousaka which was amazing, I wanted to take my leftovers home with me in a to-go box!  The tirimisu was soo creamy and good and the way it was presented was so pretty.  Hope that helps!

 

Originally Posted by Tekeya Thompson 

For those who did dolce as their restaurant, which menu or entree would you recommend.

[cupcake1382]

I'm a little confused... So everyone doesn't get the same thing or the bride and groom only have the option of other choices and all your guests get chicjpken?!?

We had the squash and thyme soup, caprese salad, chicken, and tirimisu.  It was all really good and our guests enjoyed it a lot.  The only disapointing part was prob the caprese salad, when I think of a mozzarella and tomato salad I think of fresh mozz...this was alternating slices of tomatoe and mozz (like sandwich cheese...not fresh) on top of really thinly sliced lettuce, like the kind you would again put on a sandwich.  It all tasted really good, it just looked kind've...cheap I guess compared to how nicely everything else was presented.  Guests told me they wanted to eat that soup every day and they were really impressed with the chicken.  My husband had the beef and it was amazing, it came on top of essentially a tater tot lol..it was like a breaded mashed potato thing...omg it was so tasty.  And I had the vegetarian Mousaka which was amazing, I wanted to take my leftovers home with me in a to-go box!  The tirimisu was soo creamy and good and the way it was presented was so pretty.  Hope that helps!

 

 

[cupcake1382]

Chicken* lol...I hit submit before I re-read and noticed my typo, lol.