Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[missy&eric2011]

I am not sure if it is available for Canada, but we booked through a travel agent, but she used FunJet Vacations...and she comes up with the same price as I can...only difference is she is taking care of the communication with the resort and got an additional $100 wedding discount...but if it would save the headaches for you and your guests...the $100 discount isn't that big of a deal!!

[mekanabr]

We used a local travel agent who booked everyone's resort accomodations through Apple Vacations.  You can go to www.applevacations.com to search for reps in your area.  That's how I found my travel agent and she has been amazing!  And we are getting every 26th person booked for free!  

 

Congrats to the Brides who are getting married SOON!!!!  So excited for you and can't wait to hear all about it!!!!

[akua420]

 

 

Originally Posted by AshleyL 

 

 

 

Waterproof spray? Where can I find this? That is awesome, I didn't know such a thing existed.

 

http://www.skindinavia.com  Is where I got it from!  I just got the original 2 ounce bottle, its supposed to be amazing.  So heres to hoping!

 

Aren't you SO EXCITED!!!  I can't wait!  Its sneaking up so fast its crazy. I decided I"m going to do my own make-up, so I went to Mac this weekend, got them to do me up and bought the whole lot, hahaha.  So at least my face is ready!  I'm getting butterflies thinking of it!!!  And so excited to get away from all this stupid snow.  Still need to find lingerie for the wedding night, and a white cocktail dress to change into, in case my dress is too hot.  I'm running out of time!!!

 

 

 

And for the travel agent, I went through AMA, and she called the hotels to get prices, it was a little more then other places, I think in the end I paid $500 more then my relatives that didn't go through them, but quite frankly it was worth it having her do everything, so I didn't care too much about the $500 and I just wanted to lock in my prices.  We have a small group going, but I still qualified for a free upgraded room at our honeymoon resort, but thats abuot all I got free except for a bottle of wine from her, hahaha. 

[missy&eric2011]

Okay ladies...I need your opinions...as I mentioned...my dad and I are huge Journey fans and I am a total daddy's girl... so I have been trying to find an appropriate Journey song that would fit a father daughter dance...I found one and posted the lyrics below...Do you think it can be interpreted appropriately or does it sound creapy!?

 

In my life I see where I've been
I said that I'd never fall again
Within myself I was wrong
My searchin' ain't over... over
I know that

When you love a woman
You see your world inside her eyes
When you love a woman
You know she's standin' by your side
A joy that lasts forever
There's a band of gold that shines waiting
Somewhere... oh oh yeah

If I can't believe that someone is true
To fall in love is so hard to do
I hope and pray tonight
Somewhere you're thinking of me girl
Yes I know I... I know that

When you love a woman
You see your world inside her eyes
When you love a woman
You know she's standin' by your side
A joy that lasts forever
There's a band of gold that shines, waiting
Somewhere... oh..oh

It's enough to make you cry.
When you see her walkin' by
And you look into her eyes

Oh...oh...oh

When you love a woman
You see your world inside her eyes
When you love a woman
Well you know she's standin' by your side
A joy that lasts forever

There's a band of gold that shines... whoa
When you love a woman...
When you love, love, love
When you love a woman
You see your world inside her eyes.

[lsmith211]

Missy - I don' really think people are going to pay too much attention to the lyrics of the song - Plus, you'd have to listen really closely to determine that it isn't really father/daughter love, and even still, there is nothing actually creepy in there.  If it's meaningful to both you and your father I say go for it! 

 

 

 

So, I was originally planning to just have 1 song for me and the bridal party to walk down the aisle to (3 BMs, a flower girl and a ring bearer), but looking at pictures, that aisle looks LONG - are you ladies having different songs for you and the bridesmaids to walk down to?  Any input from the brides that were already married there???

[lmarie]

You must be so excited !! I hope you have a great time. Best of luck
 

Originally Posted by jennypenny23 

Bon voyage AshleyL!!!... we leave on friday (3 more days....ahhh!)

[lmarie]

They do have a CD, not sure what kinds of songs they normally use. But you can bring your own music if you like. I am!
 

Originally Posted by AliciaP 

Hello

Does the resort provide a soundsystem at the ceremony?  Do we bring our own ceremony music?  Hope all the planning is going well!

[soontobemrsdow]

 

Well ladies my time has come and gone and boy has it looked like ive missed a lot in the last few weeks. Let me be the clichéd bride who comes back to say don’t stress everything will be perfect! I know its so hard to do but trust me Beverly is amazing and will make your day perfect.

 

Before I get into the wedding day part of it let me just give you a heads up on the actual hotel itself. It is beautiful…but like we all know large. I guess I had my head in the clouds when I expected all 40 of us to be put into the same section of the hotel, luckily I had planned ahead for this and I highly recommend you do the same, even if it’s not a large group of you. I went to Martha Stewarts website and she has a template you can download where you can input your guests names who are rooming together and print them off and then when you get down there give them to everyone (I put mine in our oot bags) and they fill in the room number accordingly. I got many thanks for thinking of this because instead of walking halfway across the resort to knock on someone’s door to find out they weren’t even there all you had to do was pick up the phone and call.

 

Now for the wedding stuff:

I know everyone worries about Beverly taking 1 month and 3 emails to reply, but once you are down there and meet her, you know everything will be fine. She was waiting for me and my now husband (weird! Lol) when we arrived to greet us and introduce herself. She told us to get settled into our room which she personally checked to make sure was ready for us because we arrived about an hour and a half before scheduled check in time, then meet her to discuss the wedding whenever we were ready that afternoon. Just like everyone else says you decide everything within 10-20 minutes of meeting her. She asks if there is anything specific you want so if you have a specific look you want for your cake or something bring a printout, if not she has a big book with a bunch of different options.

 

We brought our own photographers so we didn’t want the resort ones so instead she gave us a $150 credit to use towards something else. We chose to get flower arrangements for the gazebo but whatever you want she will try to do for you. Now we somehow got lucky and weren’t charged for the chair covers or ties but you can use the credit towards that as well if you wish but since the total was only like $100 we said we would pay for them but it never showed up on the bill so it ended up working in our favour!!

 

Now I know I’ve read a lot about 2 weddings per day concerns and yes there are. There was another wedding earlier in the day of my wedding and out of the 7 days we were there maybe only like 2 days did we see no wedding at all. But let me assure you, Beverly does a very good job and is there on your day before and after if you need it. I actually didn’t even know there was another wedding until my hairdresser was telling me she had been there since 7am for the other brides 11am wedding. I didn’t even see them once. Beverly keeps her cool and didn’t get anything mixed up between mine and the other couples wedding so even if there is another wedding on your day, don’t worry!!

 

We hired the steel drum band and honestly I probably heard them for like 5 minutes, but everyone else said they were good. We had them play while the guests were being seated then we brought our own cd for the ceremony and then they played for our recessional and what was left of the hour we had paid them for. It actually ended up being longer than an hour though because 10 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start it started raining a bit and Beverly held everything off until it blew over, which I didn’t think it would but she knew it was going to and low and behold it was gone just as fast as it came and then we were blessed with a beautiful rainbow. But just a heads up the aisle is loooong! Pick 2 songs or one really long one because if it stops they will just repeat it.

 

We paid the $2500 to close out Dolce Vita (the Italian) for the night and ladies it is soooooooo worth it to pay the money for a private reception. I know it’s a lot of money but we could have our grand entrance, speeches, music, dancing etc We got to do our first/parents dances, bouquet & garter toss and cake cutting all there instead of it on the beach right after the ceremony which made me really glad in the end because people could come up and congratulate us and we were free to walk around instead of everyone standing on the side waiting another 20 minutes for that stuff to finish as well even though they just watched the ceremony. People really complimented how much fun they had. One of my guests had been to another DW where it was semi-private dinner and she said it was still very nice but the fact that people weren’t watching you, that you could get up and speak (we left the mic open for anyone) that she was more comfortable and ended up having more fun. Obviously I can’t comment on the Gazebo afterwards which I’m sure is very fun as well, but I just really feel if you have a larger group and can afford it to go for it because I really feel like it made the wedding that much more memorable for not only the guests but my husband and myself.

 

I do remember before I left someone was asking about the table set up. I don’t know if it’s the same set-up for semi-private dinners but for ours we had rounds of 8’s  and our head table was rectangular.

 

I’m sure there are other things you guys are wondering and I will do my best to help so ask away but just remember try not to stress too much, and know that Beverly will do an amazing job even if she doesn’t email regularly. there computer are soooo slow btw. When she was printing our bill it took about 10 minutes

 

You will all have amazing beautiful weddings. It's no problem mon!

[JayKay]

Congrats soontobemrsdow!!!  Thanks so much for your thoughts and opinions, just makes me feel so much better that I chose this resort!!

[AshleyL]

Many thanks ladies! To Akua thanks I will definitely check out that spray, and I did the exact same thing; went to Mac and just bought everything they used. Expensive but it should be worth it. And yes I am so excited! Stressing a bit about my dress alterations which STILL aren't finished, but I just can't wait to get on that plane! Soontobemrsdow: thanks for the review. It eases my mind to hear how smoothly everything went for you. We didn't use the Martha Stewart room template but I did the same kind of thing on the back of our vista welcome brochures. Glad to hear it was so useful.