Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[Kristo]

 We didn't ask for semi-private, its just what they give you at the Dolce, so you should be fine!  Enjoy!

 

 

Originally Posted by SarahJ 

Hi Kristo - brilliant...thanks for replying. I was amazed that was a pic of the cake supplied by the resort it was beautiful...I thought we would just be given a simple one tier sponge/fruit cake! I hope I receive the same kind of treatment that you obviously received. I will make sure I tell my guests to eat it all otherwise we lose it or smuggle it back to our room! haha....I have booked the Dolce Vita for our reception so i'm really pleased I did now seeing your pics and reading your reviews etc. Although I havent booked it as a private reception its just whats included in my wedding package and I had a choice of restaurants. I'm getting so excited now - I cant wait. Thank you ) I hope your enjoying married life...x

[Kristo]

 Not sure what colours the resort offers in terms of chair ties, but the covers are white.  You could always send them an email and see what colours they offer, or you might even luck out while down there and get chummy with another bride that is using the same colour as you.  You could share!

 

We used a wedding travel planner as well.  So all my guests from Canada booked with them, and then our friends from England booked themselves.  I just informed my wedding planner of the others confirmation numbers and arrival dates and asked if we could all be put together once we arrived.  It worked out perfectly and there was no problem with it.    And in terms of quoting the number of guests you have, you don't actually need to do that until you meet with Donnalee.  She will ask you then how many guests you have with you and you can firm up numbers then (adults vs kids).

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

Originally Posted by leannesmith 

Hi Brides and Brides to be!!

 

We are getting married at the Bahia on Sept 30th, 2013 and i am super excited and nervous. 

 

Has anyone had luck confirming what colors the resort offers for chair covers and decor?  i am looking for a deep red coral color (guava) but i am not sure if they will have this.

 

I am also using a wedding travel planner who will coordinate the bookings, etc.  But what happens if some guest book on their own and not through the wedding planner....has anyone had the same experience?  is it difficult to confirm the total number of guests?  what is the latest time you have to confirm this with the resort?

 

Has anyone used the piscus snack bar as the reception?  I am thinking of using this location as it is outside and can fit up to 150 guests.

 

Did anyone pay extra for the on site photographer to shoot for the entire day?  I am looking to see what the cost difference is to see if it is wort paying the vendor fee of $800!!!

 

Anyone with some useful information would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Leanne

[JayKay]

Congrats on booking your wedding!

 

The chair covers are  white and I highly recommend them.  The chairs are ugly without them.  In regards to chair ties I asked the wedding planners before our wedding and they said they have lots of different colors, but to be sure I just brought my own.  The resort staff on our wedding day set them up for the ceremony and then transfered them to the reception site with no problems at all.  If you are really set on a specific color I would probably bring your own so you arent disappointed that they dont have the exact color.

 

We just had to confirm our final numbers once we met with the wedding planners.  We were able to give them a rough estimate of how many but had a more exact number when we met with them for our pre wedding meeting.

 

When I got married there was no fee for photographers so I can't offer you insight into the cost of that if its worth it.  I can say that we were given 5 free photos from the onsite photographers as part of our package were not bad.  They were not spectacular by any means and we had a hard time choosing 5.  Others who have used the on site photographers say they have had better luck, maybe it depends on which one it is that you choose to take your photos. 

Originally Posted by leannesmith 

Hi Brides and Brides to be!!

 

We are getting married at the Bahia on Sept 30th, 2013 and i am super excited and nervous. 

 

Has anyone had luck confirming what colors the resort offers for chair covers and decor?  i am looking for a deep red coral color (guava) but i am not sure if they will have this.

 

I am also using a wedding travel planner who will coordinate the bookings, etc.  But what happens if some guest book on their own and not through the wedding planner....has anyone had the same experience?  is it difficult to confirm the total number of guests?  what is the latest time you have to confirm this with the resort?

 

Has anyone used the piscus snack bar as the reception?  I am thinking of using this location as it is outside and can fit up to 150 guests.

 

Did anyone pay extra for the on site photographer to shoot for the entire day?  I am looking to see what the cost difference is to see if it is wort paying the vendor fee of $800!!!

 

Anyone with some useful information would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Leanne

[pask454]

My sister is a travel agent, and she booked my wedding for my guests and us. What she did was book through a specific company....Transat I beleive. So she called that company and told them to hold 40 spots (locked in at a specific price)...then I put the word out everywhere, that who ever wanted to attend, to go talk to my TA and book with her. (provided phone # , etc). This way anyone who comes to my wedding and books through my sister is booked as a group. We are on the same flight there and back, have a shuttle from airport to hotel and back, and are booked in rooms close to each other. It worked out great....we still have a couple people who may book last minute, they wont be part of the "group" though, they will pay a seperate price, but probably be on the same flight as long as there is room.

 

 

JayKay -- thanks for answering! It helps a bunch, I was so nervous. Do you have to hire someone to play it? or are they there automatically? 

[JayKay]

They provided someone to play it.  They just asked for our music (which I made two different CDs incase one didn't work) and gave them to them at our meeting.  They had someone play it for us and we were able to pick up our CDs along with our decorations a day later.

 

And in regards to the cake I know some people said they don't know what happened to their cake but we never had that problem.  After we cut our cake and everyone had a peice they asked if we wanted it delivered to our room so when we returned from our night our cake was in our room.  Made for a great late night snack!  I would ask them if they could deliver the rest to your room so you can enjoy more of it!

Originally Posted by pask454 

My sister is a travel agent, and she booked my wedding for my guests and us. What she did was book through a specific company....Transat I beleive. So she called that company and told them to hold 40 spots (locked in at a specific price)...then I put the word out everywhere, that who ever wanted to attend, to go talk to my TA and book with her. (provided phone # , etc). This way anyone who comes to my wedding and books through my sister is booked as a group. We are on the same flight there and back, have a shuttle from airport to hotel and back, and are booked in rooms close to each other. It worked out great....we still have a couple people who may book last minute, they wont be part of the "group" though, they will pay a seperate price, but probably be on the same flight as long as there is room.

 

 

JayKay -- thanks for answering! It helps a bunch, I was so nervous. Do you have to hire someone to play it? or are they there automatically? 

[JennS]

Hi Girls, thank-you for the info...you guys are both so helpful and its great to have people like you on this forum, most people I'm sure get married and then never come back on the share advice with the Brides to Be, so again thank you both!!

 

I have spoken to Chandlyn and the only place available to have a semi-private is the Grill, so that it is what we've decided to do.  With the exception of you JayKay, it sounds like most have gone with the Dolce Vita as it overlooks the ocean, but its unavailable to hopefully the Grill will be good.  We are also going early January but it will be over the Christmas/New Years period.  I am glad to hear that you get to choose your menu...and I'm glad you mentioned about the Kids and Vegetarian meals Kristo, I never would have thought of that either.

 

As for decorations, Kristo you have mentioned flower centrepieces...did they provide those instead of the bouquets since you didnt use the free ones??

Originally Posted by JayKay 

We had the semi private reception dinner at the Grill.  We were in the restaurant for almost 3 hours.  They don't rush your dinner so you have lots of time for visiting and chatting.  We left after our dinner was done and we cut our cake and ate our cake.  I'm not sure if there is a time limit they allow you to stay in the restaurant for or not.  It didn't feel at all like we were eating with a room full of strangers.  At the Grill we were off to one side of the restaurant against the windows and there was no one even close to us.  Yes, you don't have your own private room, but we always felt like it was fairly private.  Also, because we were there in early January the resort wasn't to full capacity so the Grill wasn't very full.  I think if you go during peak time to restaurants might have more people in them.  You do get to choose your menu.  You can choose one option for each category: Soup, salad, main course, and dessert.  We didn't use any of our own table decor except for our own chair ties which they transferred from the ceremony to the dinner.  I'm sure you can use your own decor if you want though.  We didn't have table favors as we included them in our OOT bags.

 

Originally Posted by Kristo 

 We had our semi private dinner at the Dolce and it was very private.  We got a whole room to ourselves so we even did speeches in there (no mic needed).  They didn't rush us at all... we had plenty of time between each course to squeeze in visiting with our guests, a speech here or there and took loads of pictures too.  The menu was different than what you'd normally get if you just went there for the a la carte.  You get to pick that once you get down there.  I had even forgotten to get kids meals and vegetarian meals so last minute they whipped something up with no advance notice. 

 

You can use all your own decorations if you want.  We had the flower centerpieces they made us (we didn't use the free bouquets in our package) and we brought down our own centrepieces for each table.  We also had our wedding favours on each place setting.  They added extra candles, the personalized menus and our chair sashes as well. 

[JennS]

Forgot to ask...what did you guys so after dinner??  I looked into renting the Gazebo, and Chandlyn quoted me $500 for 2 hrs incl DJ and $23 pp for bar...not the $250 for 2 hrs w/o DJ and then just use your ipod dock w/ music like others in the forum had mentioned.

[Kristo]

Yes, I didn't use the bouquets that they offered in our package (we brought our own), so they did up two centrepieces which we used on the table where you sign the marriage certificate during the ceremony and then they moved them to our head table for the reception.    But I had to provide centrepieces for the rest of the tables. 

 

And we rented the gazebo after dinner.  So it worked out nicely that we finished dinner, and walked right over to the gazebo.  I believe we only paid $250 though.  Email her back and tell her you were told by past brides that it was cheaper than what you were quoted.  I did that, and they gave it to me for that price.  Doesn't hurt to ask! 

 

We brought our own ipod dock and ipod and when we got to the gazebo, we put all our stuff down and we went and set off our sky lanterns and then did our first dance.  The ipod dock worked perfectly and we had put extra songs on there in case we got the gazebo till later.  Worked out better than expected because they didn't end up turning the lights out on us until about midnight!  At which point we moved over to the disco.

 

And we didn't use the bartender.  A few of the guys took it upon themselves to ask each of our guests for a small donation ($10 or so per couple) and they went into town and picked up a tonne of liquor for us.  So it was set up with pop, juice, ice, and cups when we got to the gazebo.  You can request that set up (ice, pop, juice, cups and a table) for free and they'll do it for you.  If you're not comfy asking the guests to give more money, just work it into your budget and get some bottles of rum, vodka, beer, and wine (and don't forget the rum punch - tip a bartender during the week for a couple jugs on your special night!) yourself during the week. 

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

 

Originally Posted by JennS 

Hi Girls, thank-you for the info...you guys are both so helpful and its great to have people like you on this forum, most people I'm sure get married and then never come back on the share advice with the Brides to Be, so again thank you both!!

 

I have spoken to Chandlyn and the only place available to have a semi-private is the Grill, so that it is what we've decided to do.  With the exception of you JayKay, it sounds like most have gone with the Dolce Vita as it overlooks the ocean, but its unavailable to hopefully the Grill will be good.  We are also going early January but it will be over the Christmas/New Years period.  I am glad to hear that you get to choose your menu...and I'm glad you mentioned about the Kids and Vegetarian meals Kristo, I never would have thought of that either.

 

As for decorations, Kristo you have mentioned flower centrepieces...did they provide those instead of the bouquets since you didnt use the free ones??

 

[JayKay]

Most people choose the Dolce because of the location and privacy but we really didn't care.  My family comes from Alberta and is a meat and potato type of people so the Grill suit our food tastes better.  We felt it was really private and I hope you have a great experience there because we loved the food, the waiters and the place. 

 

We didn't rent the gazebo after dinner.  We had a pretty small group (18 in total).  We had our dinner start at 630 and we were done probably about 9.  We went from there to the pool side bar and hung out there until 11 when it closed.  We were the only people around there so they played whatever music we asked and we danced and drank (way way to much!-shot after shot after shot!)  We then went over to the disco from there.  I was glad we didnt pay the money for the gazebo as we had way more fun at the pool side bar and the drinks were right at our finger tips instead of having to walk a fair distance to get drinks.

Originally Posted by JennS 

Hi Girls, thank-you for the info...you guys are both so helpful and its great to have people like you on this forum, most people I'm sure get married and then never come back on the share advice with the Brides to Be, so again thank you both!!

 

I have spoken to Chandlyn and the only place available to have a semi-private is the Grill, so that it is what we've decided to do.  With the exception of you JayKay, it sounds like most have gone with the Dolce Vita as it overlooks the ocean, but its unavailable to hopefully the Grill will be good.  We are also going early January but it will be over the Christmas/New Years period.  I am glad to hear that you get to choose your menu...and I'm glad you mentioned about the Kids and Vegetarian meals Kristo, I never would have thought of that either.

 

As for decorations, Kristo you have mentioned flower centrepieces...did they provide those instead of the bouquets since you didnt use the free ones??

 

[kailz23]

Hi ladies, how are you all? I have reading this thread ever since I planned my wedding for the Gran Bahia, getting married April 15th 2013. I have a couple of questions for the veteran bride

 

who did you all use for the florist? did you go with the in house florist or taiflora?

 

what is there place settings like for dinner? do they provide chargers? etc? if someone has a sample pic I would love that

 

do they provide a menu for the dinner?

 

did anybody get married on the beach instead of the gazebo? where abouts is the beach site... looks like maybe behind the gazebo there is room there?

 

thank guys. all the best to the future brides!

 

Kailey