Now Sapphire Weddings Formerly Paradisus Riviera

[sunnymylene]

Hi Ladies and Future brides,

I haven't been on here in 2 months, my apologies for that. Welcome to the new ladies on this thread.

You can go on my profile for pictures on the beach terrace, my detailed bill, wedding day timeline, links to our professional pictures. Each of my pictures on my profile has comments and input.

Don't be shy to ask questions.

Mylene

[cmoreno]

GORGEOUS dress, gorgeous bride!  Quick question: I am afraid 3 hours might not be enough for the reception. Any tips on this? Did the party continued in some bar at the hotel? I really want to extend the reception to add an extra hour, but my fiance says it is not necessary, since this is an all inclusive hotel, we could just move the party to some other area in the hotel... any thoughts?

 

Thank you!

Cecilia 

[CancunBride2013]

There is a club that is open to 1am, so you can head there.  You can get special permission to extend your reception but you will pay per person for the open bar for the additional hour...

[sunnymylene]

Thanks Cecilia,

You fiance might be right on this one. I don't know if you're going to have your own DJ...maybe that could potentially be worth extending in that case.

I didn't have my own DJ, we rented the speakers and audio system and had our iphone music. We didn't try to get our guests to dance. For the 3 hours, it fitted well for 5 speeches from our guests and ours 2, in between courses, and sometimes during courses, a video of 3-5 minutes we made, our first dance, an unplanned father-daughter/son-mother song, the cake, a quick garter toss and a bouquet toss. Even though, with Ramon, you will pretty much have a meeting breaking down the reception by minutes, it takes longer. They were not going to kick us out. They simply told us that the waiting would end soon, and our open bar would end soon. But 3 hours for guests sitting down it could be long. They started to stand after the dessert to watch us dance and come closer to the cake cutting. There was a natural "move-on" somewhere else after the bouquet toss. People wanted to get more drinks, and get changed. This is where I guess having a DJ could come in to entertain. We didn't want to spend that money. We were content with going dancing to the club. Instead, people wanted to chill on the beach, we got brought over like 30 drinks, and chat. My husband and I live far away from all our guests, and my side and his side of the guests don't really know each other, so it was appropriate to catch up and mingle rather than dance. We had our mini speakers and played our music. The parents hung out together in the bar hall, and were happy with that.

Maybe other brides have other experiences they want to share, whether or not to extend...

[cmoreno]

Originally Posted by CancunBride2013 

 

There is a club that is open to 1am, so you can head there.  You can get special permission to extend your reception but you will pay per person for the open bar for the additional hour...

Thank you so much CancunBride2013!

[cmoreno]

Awesome tips, once again! Thank you! I am in the same situation: My family lives in Mexico, my fiance's family in the US, so we rather have the time to mingle, instead of dancing. Besides, as affordable as a wedding in Now Sapphire is, it gets expensive with all the extras! Especially if your list goes from 35 guests, to 70! Yikes! 

[TauruSmith]

The resort lends itself well to continuing the celebration after the 3 hours of reception. We weren't forced to leave the Tequila Terrace, but our DJ did start packing up. We all slowly moved to the lobby where people could sit and chat or get drinks at the bar and dance to the live music in the lobby. Several of the guys bought cigars from the booth they had set up in the lobby. A lot of our guests ended up in the nightclub or back at the buffet later on, so there is something for everyone. I would not spend the money on extending a reception.

[cmoreno]

Awesome tips! Thank you TauruSmith and all the sweet ladies that have given advice on this! I appreciate it!

[bbbride]

Can anyone tell me the DJ the resort uses? I don't want to pay an outside vendor fee but worry the DJ isn't good..

 

Does anyone know if they'll let us use the massage spa credit in the divine package to pay for bridesmaid hair?

 

Also, does anyone know if they'll let us use the room upgrade for a room for the groom the night before the wedding?

[TauruSmith]

@bbride: Our upgrade was upon arrival and for the length of the stay, but it may be worth asking about. They were very particular about what credits could be used where, but again, just ask, you never know. I was able to charge all of the bridesmaid's hair to my room because they were not allowed to use their spa credits (for spa services) for their hair, which was annoying, but I wasn't going to make them pay for it either. I'm not sure who their DJ is, so I can't help out there.