2013 Paradisus Palma Real

[MrsEVGarcia]

I was told 1-2  weddings a day and right now I am beyond livid because I just fund out the location we requested is booked for a "pre-planned" event which I think is their way of avoiding telling me there is another wedding. When I booked my date- there was NO other wedding on that date- so I do not understand why the Olympus Terrace which is the space I requested is already booked. I specifically asked when I booked my date if there was another wedding and they told me no. I chose my date so that even if another bride booked, I would have dibs on everything since I booked first.

 

I understand another bride could have booked after me but if that's the case, our request should have been honored first. I asked for it a long time ago. 

 

And the possibilities for locations are very limited. If you don't want to pay to privatize Gabi, your only other option is the beach. The ballrooms are for large groups.

 

I was offered the family pool terrace which is a joke. Its a glorified walkway.

 

I have no choice but to have my reception at the beach.

 

My advice is ladies- when you send your deposits- request your locations as soon as you confirm your date because they are trying to say I requested after her. I have no way of proving this since I do not have access to the correspondence, but I know we did wait a small window of time, about a week to decide on a location, since we didn't have access to pictures etc. 

 

I'm really upset. This is my first Bridezilla moment! I sent a nicely worded email about my upset but know it won't change anything. This was one of my fears and it being realized is of no comfort. 

[EVKnowsitall]

Well I got them to admit there's another wedding on our date- a date I picked bc there were no weddings scheduled that day. I'm thrilled. That's why we went with Paradisus to avoid this. It was even one of my non-negotiables when we thought of getting married stateside. I refused to look at steering halls that hosted multiple weddings no matter how beautiful they were. And now a day I wanted to be my own will be shared. On top of that- even though I booked first, the other wedding apparently chose their reception location and it was the same I requested and they are claiming though I booked first, they requested it first. So I don't even get a consolation. Not a good day in the wedding world for me.

[EVKnowsitall]

Catering hall* not steering hall- damn you auto correct hahaha

 

Also- my previous post before this one is in moderation so this post might not make sense because it's out of sequence.

 

I will say this- Bianca my wedding coordinator handled a very irate email from me professionally. She tried to assure me that I wouldn't see the other bride and that despite my disappointment with Olympus Terrace being booked, there were other spaces we could use. I knew it was always a possibility that 2 weddings could be booked per day, but hoped against all hopes, no one would request our date after I booked. Summer brides beware- May-July are busy seasons and you need to prepare mentally for another wedding to be booked on the same day.  but I'll get over it, because I'm marrying my love, we have the photographer we wanted, we have the DJ we wanted, we were able to book the priest so we could have a traditional Catholic wedding which was non-negotiable, and there are bigger fish to fry than where our reception will take place.

 

I will try to play nice lol

[angelnjewels]

Hi all, LL117 thanks for the price list. It really puts things into perspective. Some things seem to be a bit pricey. Oh goodness I'm thinking about all of the additional things I want but I don't know. Has anyone thought of doing the crazy hour and violiniist.? Evknowsitall, I'm sorry to hear there is another wedding on your date. It sucks that you were not able to pick the Olympus terrace for your reception. I am wishing that everything goes well. Good luck brides!!!!

[MissyBee]

I;m sorry about your date! did you end up going with Arrcife as your photographer or are you going with someone else?
 

[Sarah W]

I think the Aqua package with the upgrades will still end up being cheaper than the Tailor Made.  The Entice Me rate starts at 4K and with the welcome dinner at $35.00 a head, including many upgrades, still ends up only being about 10k.  

 

Has anyone discussed the centerpiece options/decor and pricing with the on-site WC? 

 

One thing I feel this resort lacks is a "Whole Package" approach.  How many differrent lists, calculators, packages, prices are out there?

 

Does anyone have the budget calculator to share? 

[EVKnowsitall]

Originally Posted by MissyBee 

 

I;m sorry about your date! did you end up going with Arrcife as your photographer or are you going with someone else?

 

It's ok. Comes with a destination wedding. I work as a HS teacher and I am the senior advisor and we went prom venue touring today and I had a slight tinge of destination regret- but thats because for prom a catering hall gives hugely different minimum guest counts and ppp. Example- The top notch nicest hall we saw is allowing my school a 50 person minimum because we agreed to a Monday and is charging 75 pp with service charge already in price for 5 hour plated dinner or buffet, use of beach and terrace. For a wedding- they want 150 person guarantee, $175 a person. Proof that weddings really have become wedding all about the business and less about the experience. 

 

We are not using Arrecife- Phil Steingard aka Photophil will be our photographer and yes- we are paying the obnoxious $1,000 fee plus a $140 day pass. Ridiculous.com but worth it to us for good photos. 

[EVKnowsitall]

Originally Posted by Sarah W 

 

I think the Aqua package with the upgrades will still end up being cheaper than the Tailor Made.  The Entice Me rate starts at 4K and with the welcome dinner at $35.00 a head, including many upgrades, still ends up only being about 10k.  

 

Has anyone discussed the centerpiece options/decor and pricing with the on-site WC? 

 

One thing I feel this resort lacks is a "Whole Package" approach.  How many differrent lists, calculators, packages, prices are out there?

 

Does anyone have the budget calculator to share? 

Sarah- I actually feel the opposite. I think the packages are great as is. I looked into a few other resorts and they were mostly a la carte. The Entice me packages are for certain dates only. Are you marrying during those times?

 

I agree the Tailor made is not a good investment. I'd rather start with a lower cost package and add extras if I am under budget. I think the welcome party is a cool idea but Paradisus is not an inexpensive resort. I don't think its a wise investment to pay per head for a welcome dinner when I can just make a group reservation at a restaurant. Obviously the welcome dinner would be much nicer but its an unnecessary expense. I can take that money and use it for other upgrades. The other lure of Tailor Made is the massages- but I don't care about that. It also allows for 36 people versus the 24 you get with the lower cost packages. So I guess its a matter of doing your math.

 

Paradisus only has one wedding calculator. They change the prices every year is all, but its one exhaustive 3 page xcel spreadsheet that has every cost under the moon on it haha. It was one of the things I liked- there seemed to be no hidden costs- everything upfront and honest and fully customizable. 

[lolanroxy]

Hello ladies,

 

I just got back from our wedding at PPR and everything was just perfect. I rarely post or leave feedback for anything but our wedding at Paradisus was so wonderful that i wanted to share our beach wedding experience.  The place is gorgeous and you can't go wrong picking this resort. When we arrived, our room was ready and we were upgraded to a larger suite.

 

Our romance coordinator was Veronica from the Miami office and she was really helpful and responds to any inquiry promptly. We were then put in touch with Lara from carribean celebrations to work out decoration details for our wedding.  

 

Although we were conversing with Massiel over email initially, when we arrived at the resort, 2 days before our wedding date we met with Rosa our wedding coordinator. She was excellent and executed everything perfectly.  The whole wedding went without a glitch thanks to Rosa and Massiel. They are such wonderful people and they were on top of things which made us feel we were in good hands.  The day before the wedding i had my hair a makeup trial with Eudice and she did a really good makeup job. I also brought my own make up to ensure i don't have any makeup mishaps. I also tried the massage at the YHI spa and it was just what i needed to relax before the wedding.

 

On the wedding day, i rented the bridal suite as a few people from my party including my bridesmaid wanted to get their hair done. Although i initially debated the additional cost it was definitely worth it.  It was nice to have everyone get ready together and the bridal suite was close to the beach so leaving from the suite to the ceremony was very convenient.  

 

We were lucky that the day of our wedding it was gorgeous and not too windy at the beach. Our wedding was at 5 pm and the ceremony was short and sweet. We knew we wanted to have our wedding and reception at the beach so we went with the Chil-out-Chic package as we weren't going to have a sit down dinner anyways for out guest of 30.  We went with the Buffet option and the food was great. We did however request hot appetizer upgrades for the cocktail hour as we felt the cold options to be limiting. We got the aqua package decoration upgrade instead as i liked the aqua decoration for the ceremony and the color schemes.  Lara was really sweet and helped with my custom bridal bouquet and centerpieces requests.   Everything came out exactly as I wanted them. We hired the Dominican Trio for the cocktail hour and they were a hit with my guests.  Definitely added to the romantic atmosphere at sunset for our cocktail hour.

 

Our reception was also at the beach and our guests loved it.  Although i was initially concerned about going barefoot for dancing, it was fine as we got a dancefloor upgrade for the dancing.  The ladies actually enjoyed the dancing even more barefoot as their feet were not hurting them. We hired DJ Mannia and the Perico Ripiao band.  My husband is Dominican so the traditional music was a nice touch to the wedding and his family really enjoyed it.  We all had such a blast at the reception. The food and cake were delicious and drinks were flowing as the bar is setup right on the beach.  We had so much fun that the wedding felt really short.  Our guests continued to party at Red lounge afterwards.

 

We went with Arrecife the in house photographer to avoid paying any additional outside fees. At first we were skeptical and were a bit annoyed at the hotel policy of not being able to choose our photographer but were very pleasantly surprised when we saw the pictures. Alvaro was our photographer and he did a fantastic job and what we liked most about him was that he really made us feel comfortable. The photos are a treasure!  Given that a lot of my family could not attend the wedding we also got the videographer through Arrecife for them to share the experience.  Florian the videographer did a good job. The video came out great once we requested that any shots that was not natural be taken out of the video.  Valeria coordinated everything for Arrecife and was very helpful.

 

As a token of appreciation for our family and guest who travelled for the wedding we booked the sunset cruise with La Barcaza.  This was one of the best decisions.  It was so worth it and was a perfect farewell.  They picked us up at the resort beach and stopped by a natural pool for swimming. It was one of the most memorable moments on the trip.  The food was excellent and the fun and party atmosphere continued as we watch the beautiful sunset.  If you can swing it, i definitely recommend the La Barcaza cruise.

 

Here are a few photos that Alvaro took.  Feel free to message me with any questions and i will try to help where i can

.  Congratulations again future brides and good luck with your wedding planning.

 

 

 

 

 

[Suzhen]

Hi girls! We just confirmed our wedding date at the paradisus Palma real for may 19 2013. We are leaning toward garden gazebo ceremony and beach reception. I wanted to find out what you all plan to do for your cocktail hour in terms of location? Also is anyone doing a rehearsal dinner? If so are you doing private and where? I would love to hear the details of your selections, I am a bit overwhelmed by all the selections... Thx! Suzanne