2012 Riu Sante Fe Brides

[Melissa015]

When I first started my wedding planning, my planner at the Riu was wonderful but they changed planners two times. It did make a big difference.

[emk415]

Kerri85, I greatly appreciate your feedback on the spa at RIU Santa Fe! I am strongly considering booking Suzanne Morel. Do you have any other feedback on the wedding experience at this resort? Which package did you choose? We just booked our date for 2/14/14 so it's a ways off but can't help but start thinking of ideas

[kiska]

Hey ladies, So I'm getting married at the Riu Santa Fe on the 21st. I will let you know how it goes . I will say.. Planning over the phone/ internet makes it harder, my planner has also changed a couple of times. I have to keep reminding myself, this is Mexico and things are probably going to go wrong. I will try to post pictures and let you know things to bring or do differently.

[knelson]

We just got confirmation that our wedding date is submitted, march 31, 2014 at the RIU Santa Fe!

We love the RIU, it was our first trip together, I cannot wait till our special day BUT it seems like a headache talking to the people who cofirm your wedding, theres so many things that have changed! We have aprox 50-60 guest comming, we booked the royal package which is for 20 people and each extra person is 22 extra (which we were fine with) After i got my wedding confirmed she said if i have over 50 people I will have to book a private dinner event, Which looking at the 2013 pricing will be 600 for the venue and 26-60 dollars extra per person (for buffet). Am i the only one who thinks that is silly to pay extra at a all inclusive hotel? like 60 dollars a plate is ALOT

 

[emk415]

Kiska, that is so exciting, your big day is almost here!!!!! I would greatly appreciate any and all advice you can provide I am trying to keep in mind that a lot if things will be out of my control and to be somewhat laid back about the whole thing. I know that every little thing is not going to be perfect, but what could be better than getting married in paradise!! We only plan to have 25-30 guests, sounds like it is expensive once you get above 50.

[janellekrista]

Hey girls,

I have March 3rd, 2014 booked for a ceremony on the beach at 4 pm.  I booked the caprice package only because I thought it would satisfy my guests more as I am anticipating 55-70 people.  I want a private dinner/reception but I have not yet been able to get ahold of the coordinator.  It is helpful to know that anything over 50 is manatory to have a private reception but do you know if they have anything other than a buffet style- as I was really hoping to have a served dinner?  Knelson- I agree with you that it is crazy that they are expecting us to pay more and more for food as it is all inculsive. 

 

I was hoping that if someone had a private reception if they would be able to answer some of my questions.

Where is the private reception: indoors or outdoors?

Did you have the option of having buffet or served dinner?

What were the additional costs of having a private reception?

Has anyone had a private reception on the beach?

 

Any comments or advice would be so greatly appeciated!!

-Janelle

[knelson]

I talked to the person booking the riu again and she said something about you can book just the resturant for a fee and dont need to pay per plate (lets hope she is right)

remember that as soon as you go over the amount of people that is allowed in the wedding package you have to pay a extra 22 dollars per person, as we have the royal package so we get 20 people for free then pay for the other say 35 people attending.

she said the wedding planner wont contact us 2014 brides for a while as she is workin gon 2013 brides right now

[knelson]

also the private venues, one goes for 600$ and for buffet the plate is between 36-60 dollars the non buffet menu is more expensive

[Arla]

Good Afternoon Ladies,

I wanted to give you my review on the Riu Santa fe as I just got back from Cabo and was married there on February 11, 2013. We were all together in Cabo for 3 weeks which was great because the first week( wedding week) is crazy! I think we enjoyed the pools and the beach for maybe 4 out of the 7. So a tip would be to stay longer cause the wedding makes everything crazy. For this Wedding I did hire a wedding planner to deal with the planning.  This made it very easy for us not having to worry about the details as she had planned weddings here before.  She was a local from Vancouver Sarah from Mason Horvath travel.  Another godsent decision on our part!

 

Arrived Thursday the 7th everything was great Rooms are beautiful.  We Paid for an ocean view suite and got one on the Corner of building 7 which gave us a 180 view of the arches,beach and downtown Cabo.  We could actually lay in our bed and look at the arches through the window!  All my guests’ rooms, even though they did not pay for the ocean view rooms, got to be in building 7 and had a good view as well.  We did all book together and this could have been the factor in this because they put wedding guests and party together. 

 

Friday 8^th-  Had a meeting with our outside Photographer Gilda Billado, She is amazing! Great attitude and saw some of the pictures from the day on her camera and they were amazing!

Then a meeting with the wedding planner at the resort.  That meeting went well they go over how the day will go and all the details needed. We had a very simple ceremony so not much to go over.  The one problem was they did not book us a minister.  This was a problem.  We ended up calling our wedding planner in Vancouver after that meeting to figure things out.  Even thou my wedding planner in Vancouver had asked them about this in particular, they emailed her and said it was included! She thank god figured everything out for us which helped us enjoy a little bit our day in the sun! Otherwise we would have had that stress! We ended up paying the extra fee but my wedding planner is trying to get the $700 back because they had told her no cost!  With all the mix-up we got a free bottle of champagne that day in our room! And on the wedding day we got breakfast in bed which was great also.

 

Monday the 11^th – Wedding Day

Renvova Spa- all us girls got our hair and makeup done at the spa on site and it was great! We all had hair pictures of what we wanted.  They also had a book of hair designs in the studio.  Everything looked exactly how we wanted.  They use MAC makeup and did an excellent job no complaints at all.  And when you book in advance before you go you get an extra 10% off.  I ended up spending $596.00 to get 3 bridesmaids hair and makeup and the brides makeup and Hair.

 

Flowers- excellent, colorful absolutely worth the money.  Because we were there an extra 2.5 weeks after the wedding we brought them to our other hotel and they lasted till we left Mexico after keeping them watered!

Setup- everything was how we wanted it on the beach

Marachi band 3pc- we got this for 45 minutes for the ceremony was great for a mexican wedding!

Minister- Amazing even with the hiccup He said very kind words and just had a meeting for like 30 minutes prior to the ceremony to ask about us and it was perfect.

In between we got pictures done and all the guests just went to the pool bar and waited for us or till dinner.

 

Reception 630 semi private at the steakhouse.  –This was very private.  There is about 6 other tables in the restaurant but on the other side so it was absolutely perfect no need for a private dinner.  Everyone’s food was good and cake was good too! The only thing is there is a time limit and they defiantly got us out of there at 8.  We also played our Ipod dock right in the restaurant and there was no issue.  We did our first dance at that time too!

After dinner- we walked with all our guests back to the main square where all the restaurants , club, bars are and pulled some tables together right by the bar and did the bouquet and garter toss then played our ipod a little more until the club opened at 10 and then danced in there all night!  It was a great free alternative.

Basically the whole wedding was great exactly what we wanted.  We ended up paying $2630 for the "Free wedding" at the riu including flowers, mariachi, the extra 21 people setup, outside photographer cost and an extra 20 bottles of champagne.

I hope that helps some people decide on the riu. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[cg1227]

Congrats!  I would love to hear about your experience at the Santa Fe Resort and how your wedding went.  Also would love to see pictures!  I am getting married there April 22, next month.   Thank you!