2012 Riu Palace Brides

[Laura 78IL]

I was just married on 1/14/12 at the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas.  The wedding coordinator, Kylene, was horrible.  She refused to start planning until 3 weeks before the wedding and then went on vacation immediately after she sent me the first email for 2 weeks and did not have an out of office assistant on.  She returned a week before the wedding and basically told me that everything was booked for private events (not weddings) and that my only option for my 65 person wedding was the San Jose Terrace and that we couldn't have a private cocktail hour.  (I later got her to give us the English Terrace for the cocktail party, which was a fanastic location).  She added a lot of stress for no reason.  She would tell me one thing one day and then the next day she would change her mind or forget that we had emailed about something.  She got the linen and bows colors wrong and screwed up the food order (even though it was all written on the checklist and discussed).  We were suppose to get dessert with the dinner plus the wedding cake.  She cancelled the dessert order that came with the dinner and so people could only have wedding cake (Willy showed me the paperwork).  We gave her placecards and instructions to give to the DJ, neither was delivered to the reception site.  She had some items of ours from the ceremony (sand ceremony items) and we had a tough time getting them back from her.  Kylene would email that everything was good to go but then didn't do half of the things that she said she was going to do.  I'm not even a picky bride but she was absurd to deal with.  Kylene told me that for the private plate dinners we could only pick one entree and everyone had to eat the same entree and that it was a new rule for 2012.  We didn't do the private plate dinner because of it.  We didn't pay extra for liquor at the reception but Willy set up a bar on the terrace of the San Jose restaurant and made us whatever we wanted.  We had the Caprice package and so I thought we would get a good room (we booked a oceanview room, but it said we would be upgraded if available).  NO upgrade and the room was in the middle of the resort.  They never did anything special for us either during the 7 days that we were there.  We used the Riu photographer from myweddinginloscabos, Laura.  She seemed really nice and kept telling us that the pictures were great!  We paid $1,000 for 3 hours and received 150 pictures, half of which people's eyes are closed or their heads are cut out of.  The pictures were all really far away and you can't even tell it is us in the picture.  The photo album (which they charge $60 shipping for) came from San Fran today and it was terrible.  They put 12 pictures on one page and so you can't even see what is in the picture.  Luckily, my friends and family all took a lot of pictures and they are way better than the pro photographer!  The DJ was fine, but we just had him play our playlist from an IPOD.  He didn't do any MCing.  I don't know if he spoke English.  We asked him to announce people for speeches, but he didn't.  Anyway enough complaining!  We all had a wonderful time and the resort staff was amazing (other than Kylene)!  The entertainment crew is so amusing!  And none of my guests knew that I was having problems with the WC.  They all had a blast.  We also rented out the Sunrider for a sunset whale watching, dinner, drink boat cruise on Friday night.  It was a awesome and Mario was a big help.  The Cabo Adventures ziplining cruise was amazing too!  Good luck to you all!      

 

 

 
 

[BPG027]

wow Laura I'm glad you had a great wedding despite all the drama with the WC. I am getting married at the

same resort this year in Oct, and I got chills reading your email. I'm just praying that things will go somewhat

smoothly with me. I actually hired a 3rd party, Blue Petal Destinations, to help me with the wedding planning. So

far things are going great with them. Right now they are doing all the travel & hotel arrangements for my guests.

What a relief that is for me.  Thanks again for sharing your experience with us. Its really helpful. Now I know for sure

I will hire an outside photographer for my event. 

[mrscantatore]

thank you!!! how are you doing with the planning? its coming so quickly!

[BPG027]

so far the planning is going well. I have 4 people that have officially booked so far. So i'm excited about that! I've already

picked out the dress so that should be ready for me by June/July. Formal invitations will be sent out w/n the next few days.

Right now my WC/TA is just coordinating all of the guests' travel arrangements. Again thank you for comments, it was so helpful to me.

Thank goodness for this forum.

 

I've decided on a local photographer, Juan Carlos Tapia photography. He came highly recommended on the forum. And his work

is gorgeous. It sucks that I have to pay a $300 outside vendor fee. But I think he's going to be worth it. 

http://www.juancarlostapia.com/

 

Keep you posted!

[mrscantatore]

YAY!!! That’s great that things are coming along so well and that you already have guests booked!!  So far we have 53 booked…were waiting on a couple of people to see if they want to go or not.  We know the expense and were so blessed we already have this many people coming!

 

We sent out our invitations wayyyy in advance.  I am a planner and this was the only thing I had “control†over lol.  I wanted to be able to at least know how many people wanted to come so I could see what category I would be in when it came to what restaurant/location we would use for the reception.  I will say I am not too happy with the RIU’s policy on waiting until the very end for booking the venue.  I feel like you should be able to whenever you have the guests booked and ready to go!! It’s silly and making me nervous!  I am already so scared on the details not coming together until I arrive, so this is just added stress L  But! I am hoping for the best and praying it all ends well!!

[BPG027]

I agree with you, I have no idea why they wait til the last minute to plan the intricate details for the wedding. It is stressful indeed.

I'm hoping for the best too. I'm sure stress or no stress our weddings will be great. I would like to have the reception either on the Beach, Baja Norte or the English Patio. I really want something private where we can eat, dance and have a great time all in the same place. So I shall see.

 

Good luck with the rest of your planning!

[mrscantatore]

thank you! you too. i would also like to have something private. seems like its the least I can do considering my guests came from all over to celebrate our wedding.  in retrospect, they are paying for half of it! lol

[Kristina26]

Hey Girls

 

Does anyone know about or have pictures of the set ups for the semi private receptions? I have some pics that they emailed me and its hard to tell if they are located by themselves or if their is other people who are eating with you.

 

Thanks

Kristina

 

[Kristina26]

Hey Girls

 

Does anyone know about or have pictures of the set ups for the semi private receptions? I have some pics that they emailed me and its hard to tell if they are located by themselves or if their is other people who are eating with you.

 

Thanks

Kristina

 

[brittmcfarlin]

Does anyone know if they allow sky lanterns at Riu Palace?