Now Sapphire Weddings Formerly Paradisus Riviera

[shannonmarie]

Originally Posted by cmoreno 

 

Hello brides! I am in (almost) panic mode... we went from wanting only 40 people  in our guest list, to having 60! My FIL went nuts with the invitations to his friends (without asking us for our permission!, and my fiance and I are the ones paying for our wedding!). Argh! Could any of you share with me the budget sheet for the Divine package? I promise not to tell Ramon or Anel I got it from you! Please please? 

 

Thanks!

Cecilia

This sounds like I wrote this! I'm a Now Jade Bride, but I just read your post and I am in the EXACT same boat. We only expected 40 and right now we have 69 booked. When's your wedding date? I don't have a official budget sheet from the resort but I made a very detailed one myself and if my estimations are right, we are at around $9700! This includes centerpieces through the resort, extra photography, extending the reception and hour and the DJ. We were NOT expecting it to be this much! I'm honored that some many people are coming to celebrate, but I don't even know half of them!

[maallgood]

My daughter's wedding is January 10, 2014. We will all be there January 5-12, 2014.

Let the fun begin!!

[amandab563]

The price per person for the divine package dinner over 25 guests is $66.78 per person with the tax and service charge. That is just the dinner, that is not including the cocktail hour, champagne, cake, or chairs but their are ways to cut costs with all of that.

[cmoreno]

Quite funny, uh? I never dreamed about having a wedding (a happy marriage, yes, but not a wedding). However, it is my fiance the one who is absolutely excited about having a ceremony and reception with our loved ones. Since it is so important for him, I am on board! Since it is a destination wedding, we didn't think we would attract that many people Boy, we were wrong. And yes, we are very excited and honored to have this many people coming! But the financial aspect of it is scary.  We have a rough budget for the entire trip: hotel, flight, wedding, photographer, invitations, favors, etc. Our goal is to stay within our 15K goal; if you compare this with the cost of having a wedding in the US (as opposed to in Mexico), we are in a very good place! 

[zeman321]

How exciting! We are getting ready to book my daughter's wedding for June 2014! I think I'm more excited than she is!

[DinaQtobe]

I am loving how many moms are on this thread! 

[DinaQtobe]

Hi Fellow brides!

 

I was wondering if any past brides can help me out with something.  I've spent quite a bit of time on the Now Jade thread reading all of the posts (thought it would be helpful as the resorts are sister properties).  I know that at the Jade, included with the divine package the gazebo is decorated with flower medallions.  I am curious if this is the same with the Sapphire.  In the divine package for the Sapphire, the brochure says "Canopy décor - chairs with white covers, ceremonial table and carpeted walkway".  Does anyone know if that includes any kind of flowers, or is it just the white material?  If it's included I would like to use the flowers from the gazebo as centerpieces after the ceremony.  I am sorry if this was asked previously.

 

Thanks,

 

Dina

[DinaQtobe]

Hi Fellow brides!

 

I was wondering if any past brides can help me out with something.  I've spent quite a bit of time on the Now Jade thread reading all of the posts (thought it would be helpful as the resorts are sister properties).  I know that at the Jade, included with the divine package the gazebo is decorated with flower medallions.  I am curious if this is the same with the Sapphire.  In the divine package for the Sapphire, the brochure says "Canopy décor - chairs with white covers, ceremonial table and carpeted walkway".  Does anyone know if that includes any kind of flowers, or is it just the white material?  If it's included I would like to use the flowers from the gazebo as centerpieces after the ceremony.  I am sorry if this was asked previously.

 

Thanks,

 

Dina

[Noxx]

Hello Fellow Brides,

I just got back yesterday and I thought i would share some info on our wedding with you all since this site has helped me out so much. I'm sorry for the length of it.

First of all i want to say this resort is beautiful!!! The staff are all amazing. They go out of their way to help you out as much as they can. The food was fantastic. We kept hearing compliments on the food all week. I travel quite a bit and it was the small details that made this resort for me. Now Sapphire has a no wristband policy so you don't have to have those derided tan lines and horrible bands in all your wedding pictures. They also don't have towel cards so you don't have to worry about handing in your towels every day. Also they don't have reservations for the a la carte dinners but get there early if you would like to eat at a half descent time if your having dinner in  a large group. 

OK back to the wedding stuff, I purchased the devine package. We had 48 people in our group. So as you know this can add up quite quickly. We decided to get married on the beach in front of tequila terrace and had our reception and cocktail hour at the tequila terrace. In my opinion this is the best spot on the resort. I found the beach terrace to be to open for those walking by and if the resort was having their beach night you would b drowned out by their live band ( we saw this happen to one wedding)ally lucked out because the Cold water grill was closed the night we had our wedding and it was so private. Brides, please remember your whole wedding is only 4 hours. Something to think about when planning your time. Our ceremony begun at 6 and the wedding ended at 11..  Ramon was fantastic and did everything we asked for they do make sure that you did nothing but relax on your wedding day. We dropped off a suitcase with all the wedding stuff in it the day of our meeting with Ramon and he had it back to our room the following day with all of our stuff packed back in it.  We did manage to save some money by renting the i pod equipment i was expecting just a small speaker but there were lights set up, a bubble machine and a guy was there to man the i pod the whole time. It was far better than i expected. If i were to do it again i would still go with the i pod station. I ordered my flowers from an outside vendor and had the groomsmen meet the florist outside the hotel so i didn't have to pay the vendor fee. i used Cancun flowers [email protected]. She can be difficult to get a hold of but she was priced fantastic and came through i did find it difficult communicating with Liz but pictures helped out big time.

I decided to save money and bring down my own chair sashes and organza for the canopy. In the devine package you only get the gazebo but no linen or decor. My aunt brought down fake flowers and placed them on the canopy i was very pleased with the look. I also brought down paper lantern to be hung on the roof of the terrace. Ramon will set up everything for you no problem.

We also booked out own photographer we used Sweet Caribbean Photography. We met with Jose 2 days prior to our wedding to discuss what kind of photos we would like he was open to suggestions and he actually did every photo idea we wanted. This was the best decision i made yet. I found him to have a great price and they were very quick in responding to any questions we had. Jose's girlfriend Kim handles the bookings. She is Canadian so no worries on any communication issues there. Jose made us all feel so comfortable. I am waiting for the pictures to come back. I did get a sneak peak on his camera and fell in love! I strongly recommend them. We did not have to pay the vendor fee for them however we did pay for a day pass and meals for them. 

The spa was nice, Please bring pictures of what you would like done! some of the ladies have a hard time understanding what you would like.

We decided not to use the hotel photographer that was included in the package on our wedding day but we did use Andrik for a casual photo shoot after the wedding and i was extremely happy with those pictures. They just begun using their new cameras and the quality is pretty good. 

Our dinner on the beach was nice. Very slow though so don't plan anything after wards unless you are meeting people in the lobby  we had our dinner at 7 and finished at 9.

The a la carte restaurants were fa-nominal. You must go to the Japanese one! get a seat at the grill. These Chefs are fantastic and save some room for the deep fried ice cream!!!!!

There was at least 2 weddings every day we were there. I did get all the attention and devotion needed by the staff and Ramon.

I cant tell you how please i was with the hotel. We had tons of compliments from our guests.

My only suggestion to you brides other than please don't stress, is stay a few days longer than 7 if you can.

We found that we had no time to our selves. With 48 people traveling to see your wedding we tried our best to spend time with each and every one of them. This was exhausting and i don't feel like i got to relax at all. I wish we had stayed at least 10 days.

I think that is all for now.

I hope this helps you ladies out.

I would not have changed a thing. I was very pleased with my wedding and would do it again in a heart beat! 

[Noxx]

Hello Fellow Brides,

I just got back yesterday and I thought i would share some info on our wedding with you all since this site has helped me out so much. I'm sorry for the length of it.

First of all i want to say this resort is beautiful!!! The staff are all amazing. They go out of their way to help you out as much as they can. The food was fantastic. We kept hearing compliments on the food all week. I travel quite a bit and it was the small details that made this resort for me. Now Sapphire has a no wristband policy so you don't have to have those derided tan lines and horrible bands in all your wedding pictures. They also don't have towel cards so you don't have to worry about handing in your towels every day. Also they don't have reservations for the a la carte dinners but get there early if you would like to eat at a half descent time if your having dinner in  a large group. 

OK back to the wedding stuff, I purchased the devine package. We had 48 people in our group. So as you know this can add up quite quickly. We decided to get married on the beach in front of tequila terrace and had our reception and cocktail hour at the tequila terrace. In my opinion this is the best spot on the resort. I found the beach terrace to be to open for those walking by and if the resort was having their beach night you would b drowned out by their live band ( we saw this happen to one wedding)ally lucked out because the Cold water grill was closed the night we had our wedding and it was so private. Brides, please remember your whole wedding is only 4 hours. Something to think about when planning your time. Our ceremony begun at 6 and the wedding ended at 11..  Ramon was fantastic and did everything we asked for they do make sure that you did nothing but relax on your wedding day. We dropped off a suitcase with all the wedding stuff in it the day of our meeting with Ramon and he had it back to our room the following day with all of our stuff packed back in it.  We did manage to save some money by renting the i pod equipment i was expecting just a small speaker but there were lights set up, a bubble machine and a guy was there to man the i pod the whole time. It was far better than i expected. If i were to do it again i would still go with the i pod station. I ordered my flowers from an outside vendor and had the groomsmen meet the florist outside the hotel so i didn't have to pay the vendor fee. i used Cancun flowers [email protected]. She can be difficult to get a hold of but she was priced fantastic and came through i did find it difficult communicating with Liz but pictures helped out big time.

I decided to save money and bring down my own chair sashes and organza for the canopy. In the devine package you only get the gazebo but no linen or decor. My aunt brought down fake flowers and placed them on the canopy i was very pleased with the look. I also brought down paper lantern to be hung on the roof of the terrace. Ramon will set up everything for you no problem.

We also booked out own photographer we used Sweet Caribbean Photography. We met with Jose 2 days prior to our wedding to discuss what kind of photos we would like he was open to suggestions and he actually did every photo idea we wanted. This was the best decision i made yet. I found him to have a great price and they were very quick in responding to any questions we had. Jose's girlfriend Kim handles the bookings. She is Canadian so no worries on any communication issues there. Jose made us all feel so comfortable. I am waiting for the pictures to come back. I did get a sneak peak on his camera and fell in love! I strongly recommend them. We did not have to pay the vendor fee for them however we did pay for a day pass and meals for them. 

The spa was nice, Please bring pictures of what you would like done! some of the ladies have a hard time understanding what you would like.

We decided not to use the hotel photographer that was included in the package on our wedding day but we did use Andrik for a casual photo shoot after the wedding and i was extremely happy with those pictures. They just begun using their new cameras and the quality is pretty good. 

Our dinner on the beach was nice. Very slow though so don't plan anything after wards unless you are meeting people in the lobby  we had our dinner at 7 and finished at 9.

The a la carte restaurants were fa-nominal. You must go to the Japanese one! get a seat at the grill. These Chefs are fantastic and save some room for the deep fried ice cream!!!!!

There was at least 2 weddings every day we were there. I did get all the attention and devotion needed by the staff and Ramon.

I cant tell you how please i was with the hotel. We had tons of compliments from our guests.

My only suggestion to you brides other than please don't stress, is stay a few days longer than 7 if you can.

We found that we had no time to our selves. With 48 people traveling to see your wedding we tried our best to spend time with each and every one of them. This was exhausting and i don't feel like i got to relax at all. I wish we had stayed at least 10 days.

I think that is all for now.

I hope this helps you ladies out.

I would not have changed a thing. I was very pleased with my wedding and would do it again in a heart beat!