2011 & 2012 PLAYACAR PALACE BRIDES!!!!!!

GenieBelle · December 4, 2012

Hi DWBride2014

Thank you for your comments! So so sweet

The green space is as your exit the resort by the main lobby go left behind it down the frontage road and keep walking until it ends along the back side of the resort and past another set of small condo rental and you will hit some Ruins!! Its a part and small site of Mayan ruins right there, its pefect and its really close, you can also get to the park if you walk down the beach opposite way from the peir, past PP and past two more small resorts you will see a clearing of green and trees and you can get through to it that way.

There is also a lot of trees and tropical folliage around the resort to get photos of different scenarios.

Cecilia will find all the spots. She took 1000 pics or so!!

You are going to have such a great time its an awesome area, really safe and fun and so much to do.

Let me know if you have any questions I can try and help

I would go out and about one morning after breakfast and walk around and get an idea of photo op areas because 2 hour or less photo session between ceremony and reception goes fast!! Maybe have a kind of mental game plan.

I dont know if you already booked PP but its so amazing.

pacificarol · December 16, 2012

Hi all,

Just back from our wedding in Playacar. I've included below a bit of info for all future PP brides but feel free to email me directly through BDW if you want any more details:

Wedding Coordinator: Ours was Yazmin and she was fantastic. She was very organized and was able to really quickly find solutions to any glitches. Ex. It rained for one of our pre-wedding events we were hosting outside and Yazmin quickly organized the banquet staff and moved it to the ballroom and looked great. She had everything well under control and never said no to any requests.

Photos: We decided to go for the resort photographer to save some money as we had over spent everywhere else. This is my only regret. Although the photographer was really nice, he didn't seem to know what he was doing. We haven't received the pics yet so fingers crossed.

DJ: We went through the hotel and were great. Four guys came with tons of equipment including lights and did a great job. We gave the a few songs we really wanted but other than that, they picked the song list.

Ceremony: We had ours on the beach and was stunning! We used the huppa from the hotel which was beautiful and had the ocean as the background. I walked down barefoot as did my two bridesmaids but did order petate mats for the walk down and had rose petals cover it (my flower girls held parasols). We held ours in the north side so had more privacy. TIP: Try to get a ground level governor's suite so you can walk from the room into the ceremony.

Flowers: Went with an external company as Zuniga's flowers were super expensive. Got mine for about a third of the price. Didn't turn out exactly as I had asked but still looked great (although they delivered an hour late...yikes!)

Cocktail Hour: They do a great job hear with an outdoor cocktail reception before dinner. Lots of great appies and two bars were set up with music playing in the background. Guests sat in their outdoor lounged chairs and was a great follow up to the ceremony.

Other receptions: Because we had more than the minimum 75, we held 3 other events so ended up using most of the venues. Cielo lounge for the cocktail hour and the Italian restaurant for brunch were the best ones.

Decorations: I brought most of my decorations from home and bought most of them at Luna Bazaar (great prices and really nice stuff). For tables I used mercury glass candle holders and instead of table numbers I created my own numbered guest books (one per table). For party favours which doubled as seating cards I made bottles filled with sand from Playa and from a beach a block down from where I live back home. Kids got a little box filled with candy and toys.

Spa: This was the only area where I experienced problems (and major ones). Their booking system is not very organized. If you book by email before you leave then you have to deal with their central booking people. The staff on-site don't have access to the bookings. They screwed up some of my friends bookings and also had a really hard time getting decent hours from mine and my bridesmaids bookings despite try to book with weeks in advance. It was a mess! Also learned that the fine print reads that any changes/cancellations must be made 7 days before the date of service. Let your guests know so they don't end up having to pay for a service they decide to cancel when they arrive.

The hotel is nice although a bit worn (needs a bit of a reno and new furniture) but overall was really nice. We picked it for its size, beach and location near 5th which was great for our guests. Service is fantastic throughout and our guests were treated extremely well. They loved the resort credits! We organized a golf game which also went really well.

happy wedding planning!
Carol

Lindsey Marie · December 17, 2012

So great to hear that you had a great time! We have our wedding there on the beach in February! Would you mind sending me pics?

pacificarol · December 18, 2012

Hi all,

Check out the resort review section for a more complete review (and others).

Lindsey Marie, here is a pic of the huppa by the beach. The huppa from the resort was beautiful!

Carol

AnnieMarie · December 19, 2012

Just returned from our wedding this past weekend and I can't say enough wonderful things about our experience. The resort and beach are beautiful. Playacar Palace has by far the nicest beach among most of the resorts we saw there. Laura was our onsite coordinator and was great to work with. With just a quick 1 hour meeting after our arrival we had everything finalized and she told us to just relax/enjoy the experience and she would take care of the details. Talk about stress free wedding planning! Everything went perfectly. We used the resort DJ and they were great. They played all the songs we asked for and kept everyone dancing all night. All of our guests really enjoyed their stays. We had a big golf outing organized one morning and people raved about the course. The resort credits were a little hard to use, but we looked at them as an added bonus and were able to use most of them. The wedding coordinators onsite and all of the staff at Playacar Palace made our wedding and vacation truly unforgettable!! Here are a few pics of our wedding on the beach: 400 400

Lindsey Marie · December 26, 2012

The pictures are beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing

alanak · January 8, 2013

Hi!

Do you have any pictures of your table decor? I am also thinking of buying gold mercury glass on luna bazaar and I would love to see some of your pics. Was it hard to bring it down with you?

Thanks in advance!

pacificarol · January 9, 2013

Hi Alana,

I don't have a great pic but gives you an idea of what it looked like. I also brought my own tea lights.

It was no problem bringing them. They come in packages of 6 from luna bazaar so I ended up putting them in a carry-on suitcase (I brought 54) and my parents brought some in theirs. The table number in the pic is a white bound book that I used as a message book (one per table rather than one for all) and I drew the table number on the cover. Pretty easy.

Happy planning!
C

PPBride1013 · January 9, 2013

Hi ladies!

I have spent the past hour reading the threads of all of your (soon-to-be) weddings! I am still in the process of trying to decide WHERE to get married, but I keep coming back to PP! For those that have already gotten married, could you help me a bit?

We will have about 75 people, guest will range in age from 5-95..most of the friends are fun NYers and Floridians in their 30's, as well as family members and kids. I want there to be enough for everyone to do, but I fear PP is too small. Thoughts?

Many many thanks in advance!!

Matt Adcock · January 9, 2013

Originally Posted by PPBride1013

Hi ladies!

I have spent the past hour reading the threads of all of your (soon-to-be) weddings! I am still in the process of trying to decide WHERE to get married, but I keep coming back to PP! For those that have already gotten married, could you help me a bit?

We will have about 75 people, guest will range in age from 5-95..most of the friends are fun NYers and Floridians in their 30's, as well as family members and kids. I want there to be enough for everyone to do, but I fear PP is too small. Thoughts?

Many many thanks in advance!!

Hi PPBride1013,

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!!!!!

The Playacar Palace is one of our favorite venues and it's within walking distance to the heart of Playa del Carmen so if your guests run out of stuff to do at the hotel, all they need to do is take a short walk to the colorful 5th Ave filled with tons of stores, great restaurants and local fun bars!!!

Need some inspiration? Check out our most recent Playacar Palace Weddings:

Abby + Charles - Photos by Melissa