Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[taminic]

I got married there May 25, 2016 u ladies need to send the coordinator pictures, bullet points, details details details of exactly it is what u want, cause otherwise trust me, they take their time!!

i did the free wedding package and added extras (still ended up spending about 4500$ + photographer and videographer). We did the beach location for ceremony and reception,  and rented the dj,so just the fact that it was a private location for both ceremony and reception, this hikes up the price. They already have a pace for the beach location where they do wedding so unfortunately, no you cannot choose. It is though a nice secluded section. Unfortunately it is not close to ANY bar (i had the same idea as u, but unfortunately it was impossible, as the closest bar is a good 10 minute walk!). So what i did to eliminate a bit of the bar price, was that i did the basic one which offered rhum, tequila and one more alcohol beverage. We didnt have a fancy long menu for drinks, but to me, that was enough.

 

As for the photographer, i absolutely love my pictures, the video's quality is not the greatest at all, BUT they have the edited video and pictures ready in one day, so that being said....the video caught every special moment, it is not the best quality (sometimes out of focus), but again, for doing all that work in 24 hours, we do have to give the guys a break, they did a pretty decent job! just dont expect a high quality video. hope this helps

[Speed90]

Thanks for responding and for the food recommendation! Haven't gotten the menu yet but now we know what's good!

 

As for the Pisces: did they offer you the old Pisces area (not the tented one)? One of the reasons we chose Pisces is for the feel of the restaurant - the palm leaves and wood. The tented area looks nice but it's really big and we will be a small group. We're not investing in a lot of decorations so it will look quite bare if we just have have the white on white. 

 

Another question: did you have a choice of tables : round vs rectangular? I'd rather have tables of 6 but can't get a straight answer from Sonae on some things. (did you work with her as the wedding coordinator). I feel like I'm playing broken telephone with her lol. I called her after she sent me details on how to pay my deposit to reserve my wedding date when I had already paid and confirmed my date almost a year ago. It freaked me out!!

 

Thanks again!

 

Ahhhh so is the bit of the snack bar still there with the leaves and palm tree style? I am the same as you and I don't want a small group of people in a massive space with loads of just white surroundings? I couldn't work out if that part had been taken down in the renovation? I'm so confused

 

Does it still look like this?...

 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9a/21/b8/9a21b8ea0fe4fac268a38ccc21ae7708.jpg

 

 

Thanks

[ebecks]

Ahhhh so is the bit of the snack bar still there with the leaves and palm tree style? I am the same as you and I don't want a small group of people in a massive space with loads of just white surroundings? I couldn't work out if that part had been taken down in the renovation? I'm so confused

 

Does it still look like this?...

 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9a/21/b8/9a21b8ea0fe4fac268a38ccc21ae7708.jpg

 

 

Thanks

I was there in December 2015 for my wedding and the snack bar was under renovations.  I don't think it would look like that anymore.

 

We did our dinner / dance a bit less traditional.  And it was perfect.   I didn't want to pay a fortune.  So we did a basic meal inside a restaurant that was free (for my 43 people) **the 30 people max wasn't there when i was married.

 

After the dinner we went to the gazebo where the ceremony was and it was amazing!   They had dancing and it was lite up right beside the beach.   Music and drinks were there.  You had to pay for a bar but the costs turned out to be way cheaper and it had a pretty back drop with the lite up resort.

Here is my Gallery:

 

http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/gallery/member/281864-ebecks/

[SareCooke]

Hey Girls!

So, my fiance and I have planned to have our wedding at the Grand Bahia in April 2018. SUPER EXCITED!

We anticipate about 30-50 guests.. really not sure at this time!

I have some questions..

 

1) Can we still do the semi private reception if say we have 50 guests? This is included in the package correct? From what I have read it costs big $$$$ to have a private reception.. So we would like to have semi private if possible! Especially since I plan on renting the gazebo after the reception dinner for a beach dance party! Do they just charge you extra for the guests past 30? Im totally okay with this just not to rent out an entire restaurant for 2 grand if i can avoid it!

 

2) Did you ladies use the resorts Tropic One for photos? Ive heard mixed reviews!

 

3) Where did you ladies have your reception? What is exactly included at the reception besides dinner obviously?

 

 

 How did everyones overall wedding day go! Im super curious!

[TraceyOates]

Hi, just booked to get married here at the end of November 2017 and expecting about 40 ppl. I am debating between the private dinner (extra cost) vs the semi private (included in the wedding packages).

 

Has anyone done the semi private dinner? Are you in the middle of the restaurant or somewhat segregated? Can you decorate the tables?

 

For anyone who has done the private, how much does it cost for a set menu? I saw a 1500-2500 fee plus an open bar fee per person per hour, and some buffet quotes but nothing about prices for set menus. The pricing for private dinners seems very vague and confusing as to what is and is not included :S

[ChristineL]

Hello future and past brides,

We are getting married at the Grand Bahia this June !! Time has flown by.. and planning goes by super quickly... still trying to finish up on some stuff.. I wanted to take a minute to say, as far as planning and communication goes, the wedding coordinator, I had Tasheka, was amazing so far, she answers all my questions within 24hours, she send me additional pictures when needed or asked, she respecte price quotes!! So far planning has been a pretty good process, a little stressful because I'm so far away, but overall good. I want to mention, if any future brides ask for price quotes, keep everything!! Sometimes they make mistakes, and you get some additional things... also don't be scared to bargain. I ended up getting about 550$ less, then original prices... if not more.

Send pictures, I suggest printing your own documents also, don't know how "up to date" My file will be when I arrive..

 

Aside from that, I was wondering if anyone booked the Pisces for dinner and dancing? If so, can someone suggest a good timeline for dinner, dances, speeches, etc..

Im having a hard time trying to decide this...

 

All in all, good experience so far, can't wait to see what it will be like once we land in Jamaica, and to all the future brides out there, enjoy the planning process cause it goes by faster than you could ever imagine.

Hi, just booked to get married here at the end of November 2017 and expecting about 40 ppl. I am debating between the private dinner (extra cost) vs the semi private (included in the wedding packages).

Has anyone done the semi private dinner? Are you in the middle of the restaurant or somewhat segregated? Can you decorate the tables?

For anyone who has done the private, how much does it cost for a set menu? I saw a 1500-2500 fee plus an open bar fee per person per hour, and some buffet quotes but nothing about prices for set menus. The pricing for private dinners seems very vague and confusing as to what is and is not included :S

 

@TracyOates

 

I am getting married here in a month!! We have chosen to do a private dinner 1500 for the Pisces location, where we will later have our dancing also.. the open bar is an add on, however they provide wine during the 2 hour dinner service so we're only doing drinks for the dancing after (2.5 hours)

I didn't try to negotiate the bar pricing, however if you calculate it for your whole group, you can mention the price being too much, and usually they offer something cheaper. You could also do like 1 hour cocktail (which costs less) and then open bar for another hour or somethin, theres always many options to this..

It took be about 4 months to actually ask all my questions and properly understand what is included, your right it is confusing, however you can send your wedding coordinator a million emails and they will answer and clarify everything, i would get a response within 24 hours or less, to everything I asked even if I sent like 4 emails in one day, I would also ask for additional pictures, her suggestions for certain things, because they know the location better than myself.

The price for the private restaurant included your meal, so it'll give you a 3 course meal, from either the Dolce vita, Garden grill or a mix of both... I couldn't tell you if buffets are included, but I don't think so..

if you get private dinner you get to pick your time slot, and then you get 2 hours for the dinner and depending on the case time, 2 hours for dancing if it's completely private.

You can decorate if completely private, however if you do semi private I believe they do table decorations only.. you should ask for pictures of reception locations, usually they send you an email with all the albums though..

 

Hope this helps !!

Christine

[ChristineL]

Just got back..

The bar seemed to be available for the whole evening however we did not know, so for future brides, you can always get drinks. Deals weren't so hard to come by,.. and wow.... i couldn't Ask for a better wedding, went smoothly everything was beautiful, and set up was amazing!!

@TracyOates

 

The private was worth it for us, We were 31 and it was intimate and we had that privacy we wanted for our wedding...

We only got centrepieces on tables, custom place cards that I brought and the coordinator placed them as I wanted, and I had added confetti and a mrs and mr sign, which I gave to the wedding coordinator and she took care of everything.

You can bring whatever, and tell them how you want it and they will deliver... I wasn't deceived at all.... everything was better than I expected and amazing to say the least.

[mcampbell]

Hi all,

 

We were happy to have found this blog while planning our wedding, and thought we should share our recent findings. Photography is extremely important to us and we wanted to hire someone external and native to avoid additional travel and accommodation costs, however we have been informed that this resort no longer allows their own local talent (outside of the resort) as an option.   

 

If you are happy with their onsite photo studio, go for it, it's a very nice venue, but I find the discrimination to be in bad taste - see attached contract. 

 

Needless to say we are booking somewhere else.

 

Best regards,

Mark