Planning my Big Day at The Royal in Playa del Carmen

[Lizrmt]

Everything looks beautiful. You've done a great job, can't wait to see pics of the big day!

[LuckyGal4]

Hey ladies!! Ok I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to do my review... We took off for 3 weeks and so I have only been back to work for a week now and of course I have been sooo busy trying to catch up. Anyways I am ready to start my review and I am gonna try to be a detailed as possible so I hope yall enjoy!!

 

So the reason that we choose The Royal was bc my sister and Trey's sister have kids so we wanted them to come but we didnt want to stay in a resort where there were kids. So The Royal was the perfect place cause there is the sister hotel The Gran Porto Real next door!! It was nice but I felt like all I did was always running back and forth betweeen the 2 hotels trying to entertain everyone so that was a little stressful! Plus once the guests at The Gran Porto saw The Royal they were kinda upset that they didnt spedn more money to stay at the nicer resort. I mean dont get me wrong The Gran Porto is nice but The Royal is absolutley stunning, I never seen a more perfect place! OK so just wanted to give everyone a heads up on that.

 

Aiport/American Airlines: A

We left out of DFW and it was just fine. Trey and I went ahead and boarded whenever they called the "preferred" memebers bc I was carrying my dress and wanted to make sure that I had a spot to put it. They didnt say anything to us and I was able to hang my dress at the front of the plane in the coat closet. Nobody messed with it and I just picked it up on my way out. Now we all flew out on the same flight which was SOOOO much fun! Including us there was 40 people so we had some drinks at the airport that morning and continued the party on the plane. Also, I had matching shirts for everyone and those came in sooooo handy!! It was easy to find peopleand no one ever got lost! I def think that matching t-shirts are a must

Cancun Airport: A

OK so the Cancun airport has changed a bit since the last time that I was there... We had no real problems getting thru just took about an hour and a half to get everyone thru all the lines and get to our bus! I had one big suitcase that had all my OOT bag items in it and they stopped the belt after that suitcase had gone thur the xray machine and opened my bag. They dug just a little bit and then asked how much everything cost. I told the man $250.00 and he said ok, shut my suitcase and let us go on our way! After that we pushed the button and got the green light so we were good to go! If you can try to get a early flight as the airport is not as crowded early in the morning. we didnt get there till like 1:30 PM. Up above is a pic of all of us on the bus. It was sooo nice to have the bus to ourselves, only problem is they didnt sell beer on the bus. Not a big deal tho we just all stocked up at the airport (kinda exspensive tho) So other people we talked to said that they will stop on the way to the resort. We were all so ready to get there that we didnt want to waste time!

Check In/Room: A-

Ok so as soon as we got off the bus there was someone there to greet us and take our luggage and my dress. Trey and I got a provate check in which was nice! The man asked us if we wanted something to drink and Trey said you got Coors Light (I started to laugh) but then the man said yes we do! He came back with 4 cans of Coors Light like 2 mins later! Laura checked us in she was very nice and told us that we would be in room 258 which was an Ocean Front View that we had payed for. I asked for the upgrade that came with the package but of course they didnt have any available so she said that we could get the Pres Suite the last 3 days gfor only $450.00 we said yes! Now here is my advice... I would look at your room before you decdide to do the upgrade. We got to our room and we loved it so therefore we didnt want to move! Room 258 is kinda on the side of the resort but the cool things is that it is on top of the Pelicanos restaurant so therefore we had really really big rooftop balcony. It was really great cause we actaully invited some friends over one night and had a party up there Anyways so we called Laura back and canceled our upgrade we thought everything was good until we got back and Trey got his CC bill. He had to wait 2 weeks for it to go off his bill. It wasnt that they were mean or rude it just takes a while to find the right person to talk to!

OOT BAGS: OK so I am gonna do an enitre entry on my OOT bags but I wanted to let everyone know how I did it. On the bus ride to the resort I told everyone to meet in the lobby at The Gran Porto at 7:30 PM as we had some gifts for them. Since there was a bunch of us, we kinda just took over the lobby area and we handed out the bags that we had made. It worked out well for us and there is alittle bar and snack area so that was nice. Now I will tell you that if you dont have any guests at the Gran Porto and there is a smaller group of you, there is a really neat balcony off the front of The Royal. It is in the 24 hour snack lounge. We went out there one night and it was so nice, anyways like I said I will do a more indepth review of that later.

Wedding Stuff: OK so my off-site wedding coordinator was Maritza, I didnt have any problems with her at all! She always responded to my email within a day or 2. Once I had made my final payment she put me in touch with Zulma who was my on-site wedding coordinator. I only talked to her once before the wedding but I wasnt stressed cause I had done most of the planning with Maritza. So before we had left for Playa, Zulma emailed me and we set up an appt time to meet. WE got married on Sat so we meet on that Fri before. I took her everything that I wanted to be at the wedding and reception. I brought pics of how I wanted the bows to be tied, gave her my cake topper, IPOD, sashes, and some other things. We literally went over everything. The problem we were facing was the rain... It had rained all day thurs and fri so I was soooo scared that we werent gonna be able to do it outside. Zulma said that we would just have to wait and see and if it did rain everything would be moved inside to the ball room. Anyways so moving on, we got everything lined up and we left. Fri night it was STILL raining so I did a dance in the ocean that night lol and low and behold we woke up Sat morning and the sun was SHINING so bright with not one cloud in the sky!!! OMG I was sooo happy Ok so I had breakfast with the bridesmaids hung around the pool for a bit then we to get my hair done at 12:00 PM (ceremony was at 4:00PM) I had Zupita do my hair and she was wonderful!!! I showed her a pic and she made my hair look exactly like it. She also used a can of hairspray which was fine with me cause I didnt want my hair to fall! I have long hair so I just wanted it curled and half way up. I dont have any close ups so this is as good as it gets (sry) OK so I had 1 bridesmaid get her hair done at 1:00 PM and then the other 4 at 2:00 PM we cut it close BTW.. Actually were ran about 20 mins late. The girls just were so rushed getting everything together so my suggestion would be to give your girls at least 3 hours before the wedding. Flowers: Marvin A++ I ordered flowers from Marvin bc the resorts flowers are sooo exspensive. He did such a great job. I paid him a week before we left thru PayPal and he said they would deliver the flowers at 1:00 PM on Sat. I sent my cousin and a friend down to the lobby and they meet them with no problems what so ever! They even brough a flower for my hair which I thought was very nice! I go 5 BM bouquets of white Gerbre Daisy's 6 boutineres for the GM and minister and then 2 crosages for my mom and my MIL. After a $50 delivery fee I paid like $480.00 oh and he threw in 2 bags of rose petals for my flower girls! Here is me and my girls. I actually ended up giving my sister my MOH my bouquet that came with the wedding package and then the other 4 carried the Gerbre Daisys and then I had my brooch bouquet. I threw the other white one for the "single ladies" The guys just had a pink rose as their boutineres.

Ok so moving on with more wedding stuff...I had the wedding on the beach, the cocktail hour in the little grassy area behind the gazebo and then the reception at the gazebo. The wedding part went fine all my songs were played in the correct order. Zulma was there for everything, if there was a problem she was on it!!! We had brought our own "minister" if you will to do the ceremony. He is a friend of ours and he did a great job! I put the ceremony together and then he just read everything. The ceremony was only like 20 mins which was fine with me They played our exit song and were were greeted at the end of the asile with some beers (as we suggested!!) Here are some pics of the wedding.

OK so after the ceremony, we all went up to where the cocktail hour was. This is when it got stressful cause I got the cocktail hour so that we could go take pics and have everyone else stay there and munch and get some drinks. This was no the case as everyone wanted to come down to the beach and watch us. I wish I would have been more stern with everyone by telling them to stay up there while we go take out pics! Oh also be prepared for ladies and gents to come up to you in theie swimsuits and ask to take pics of you. I thought I wouldnt mind when I was reading everyones reviews but you are hot, stressed and the last thing you want is to be wasting time and taking pics with people you dont even know! Anways so we spent an hour taking some bride and grrom pics and then BM and GM pics. Here are some for you to see!

Ok so moving onto the reception... I had 7 table of 6 chairs. I had a pink sash tied onto the back of the chairs then I had purple and aqua shashes running down the middle of the table. There was a mix up with the center pieces that were supposed to come with the package so I ended up not having any center pieces which to be honest I didnt even notice till looking at the pics! The things that you think are a big deal while you are planning dont mean anything once you are there. There was so much going on I didnt have time to pay attention to the little details. We had a caesar salad, beef and mashed potatoes, and then chocolate cheesecake for the dessert. Everything was soooo good. I also got the Tres Leche for the cake and OMG it was amazing. Dont upgrade your cake as we had over half left over. The waiter brought it to our room and it just sat there for the rest of our trip lol. I wanted to speed thru dinner so we could get to the dancing!! BTW we got a DJ and the light up dance floor and it was SO SO SO worth it! DJ Ivan played everything song that I asked him to play plus it was so nice not having to mess with an IPOD. It seemed like everything just fell into place like it was suppsoed to Umm lets see Im trying to make sure I cover everything but there is so much!!! Here is a pic standing under the gazebo looking out onto the reception area and behind it over to the left was the cocktail hour area with the open bar. The DJ set their stuff up under the gazebo incase it started to rain!

This is the caesar salad and the beef with mashed potatoes. They were both really really good!! You have your own personal waiters that are there whenever you want or need anything. I always had a drink We danced to our songs which turned out great, the DJ knew what songs to play and what order. WE also did the cutting of the cake and the tossing of the bouqet and boutinere. After we did all that it was PARTY central... I stuck with the 3 hour reception only bc it was gonna cost way to much to add an extra hour. Plus 3 hours was a great time limit we were done by like 9:00PM then we met all our guests in the lobby and went out on the town for the rest of the night! It was really a lot of fun!! OK so I am sure there is things that I forgot so if you have any questions please feel free to ask me!! I am gonna post a some more pics then I will do another entry after lunch more about the resort cause lets be honest the wedding is one day and then the rest of time you are just hanging at the resort. We were there for 10 days so we had 1 day of wedding and then 9 days of pool, sand, excursions etc!! So I hope you enjoyed again please feel free to ask me any questions as I AM SURE that I have forgot somethings!

OK so we also did a TTD session the next day so I will get those pics uploaded soon. I am gonna submit this before I loose everything

[LuckyGal4]

OK so thought you might want to see a pic of the beach set up... The only thing in this pic that I brought for the ceremony was the pink sashes. Everything else was provided by the resort. This is a standard setup.

The next one is my precious niece and nephew!!Here are just a few more, sorry I just loved everything and wat everyone to see

I lost my dad a few years ago so I had my momma walk me down the asile!

[LuckyGal4]

OK so now onto the TTD... We did ours the next day which was Sunday, My photographers camera lens kept fogging up so we didnt get a whole lot of good shots but I still loved the way these came out!! Oh BTW my photographer is a friend of mine and Treys so we just paid for their trip to Mexico and then she took the pics for free. It was a win win deal for the both of us!! And I got my TTD at Davids Bridal fro $99.00 and we didnt go anywhere to take them, we just stayed on the beach between The Royal and The Gran Porto!

[safety75]

great review and great tips! Looks like you had a wonderful time!!!

[LuckyGal4]

OK so here are my OOT bags, I didnt want to spend a ton of money on them so I got the bags on sale at weddingkot.com for like $2 a piece. No they are not fancy but they did their job. I wish I would have figured out vista print cause it would have made my life a bit easier. Im not sure if I would even do OOT bags if I had to do it over again! They were a pain and I had to take a whole extra suitcase to carry all the stuff. I dunno the guests did enjoy getting something but I am think now that maybe I could have just given them a credit at the SPA or something. Nevertheless here are my OOT bags.

Ok so I got all my stuff from tons of different stores. I shopped at Wal-Mart, Target, Dollar General, Doller Tree, Big LOTS, and Sam's... The little white first aid kits were prob my favorite, I got them at Wal-Mart for .97 a piece!

This was just a rpough draft, it was before I reprinted them and had them laminated.

This was the mess I had in Mexico!! I was telling Trey just throw shit in bags and lets go!! lol we were running late so I was just trying to get them done and get out the door!

I took these before we left so the ziplocks looked a little different but you get the point!

This is how I carried them to Mexico I put everything in a ziplock and then put it inside one of those Fed-Ex envelops so they wouldnt mess up. It worked like a charm BTW.

Schedule of Events, attached to the bags.

Wedding Day timeline, attahced to bags.

Our welcome letter to show how much we really appreciated everyone coming so far to watch us get married!!! Oh also tied onto the bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guess that is everything that I have for the OOT bags. I really really really wished I had done the vista print thing but there again I was so busy at work at everything else that I just had to do it on my own. If you have any questions about the bags please let me know! Thanks

ohshitkitlabel.docx

OUR timeline.docx

[LuckyGal4]

Thank You!! Yes we had a blast already ready to go back!!!

[LuckyGal4]

OK so now that I have given my review on the wedding aspect of The Royal, I thought I would give a review about the resort itself! It is a beautiful place and the people there are SOOOO amazing!

Restaurants: We didnt eat at all the restaurants but I can still let you know about the ones that we did eat at. Let me just say that the food there was really good. I dont think I had one bad meal the whole 10 days we were there!!

Pelicano's:This is on the edge of the hotel closest to the boardwalk. We ate there for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast we had this grilled chicken with eggs and a pesto sauce, it was really good. For dinner we had fried calamari which is OMG delicious. We also had lobster which you have to pay like $20 extra but it was worth it.

This is Pelicano's, I would def put this on the list to try! Ok so with our wedding package we got a romantic dinner for 2 on the beach. You go here to meet and then they take you to the beach. WE got beef with mashed potatoes, clam chowder, ceasar salad, and chocolate cheesecake. I am so glad we did this!! It was very romantic and it was nice to sit down by    the beach and have your own personal waiter. Here are some pics of that. Sry the beef doesnt look that good cause I had already cut it up.The soup was good but a little fishy for me.

Spice:This was our favorite place!! WE would eat breakfast and lunch there almost everyday. Ate dinner there twice. it is more of a buffet but I like that cause I can pick and choose what I want. I am one of those people who like to see what I am puttin on my plate. Oh but we did get lobster there one night. On Wednesday's they do a lobster spexial and it is totally worth it. At lunch I would get the chicken penne with alfredo sauce and it was very yummy!! Sorry I dont have a pic of this place

TAPAS & PINTXOS: This is next to Pelicano's and the food is good but it is very very tiny portions. So I would suggest maybe getting a little meal there and then later doing an acutal dinner. I mean dont get me wrong I thought the food was good but I was hungry 30 mins later. We got steak and shrimp and it was good again just small portions!

24 HR. ALL INCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE: This place def came in handy for those late night cravings. It is not alot of food to choose from but the chips in there are so good. We would make nachos with meat and cheese. Pretty tasty esp after a day full of drinking

So believe it or not, those are the only places we ate at! lol we really didnt care about the food, we just wanted to hang out by the pools or beach all day and then head to the lobby at night to watch the shows. I did have some of my guests say that they DID NOT like MARIA MARIE but that the Chef's Plate and EL MEDITERRÃNEO were good. Sorry I cant tell you anything else about the restaurants.

Alright so moving on... I am gonna tell you a little bit about the pool areas! This is where we hung out most of the trip. We love to just relax in the water and esp loved having people bring you drinks. Speaking of this I want to let everyone know that a few dollars goes along way down there. We took like $200 is one dollar bills so that we could make sure and tip. These people work so hard down there and dont get paid much. They all work 6 days on and 1 day off, and let me tell you they are hard workers. We had our 1 waitress that waited on us everyday, her name was ELIZABETH and she was amazing! She works all around the pool areas, if you can find her, order from her she is so great! Over at the swim up bar was my man Jeeyson!!! Oh he was so funny and had such a great personality. His birthday is this month so we made sure to give him early birthday present $$ from his friends Kelli and Trey from Texas! And then there was Tony, he was at the bar with the swings. He was so funny and always had the best toasts, not always appropraite but very very funny!

The area where the circle is, is where they do the daily pool activites too. They have a very fun team that gets out there everyday and has some sort of activity for everyone to try.

SEXY OMAR is super nice and kinda cute too They do water arobics, dancing lessons, superwomen and ironman competitons. If you want action this is def the place to be. If you look at the chairs to the right of where me and Trey are standing, those are the best!! They are little loungers that sit in the water so you can jump in the pool when you get hot or lay out and still be able to splash water on you!! Oh the activity team also has sign ups for nightly adventures to the Coco Bongo. We went one night and let me say it is an experience!! Im glad we went but will prob never go back, it is sooo crowded in there!

Nightlife: B   So the only reason that I give it a B is because I wish there was more than just the nightly show in the lobby. The shows that they put on are so much fun and entertaining but they are over at like 11ish and if you dont want to go downtown then you dont really have any other place to dance and party!! Friday night is the best, it is the decades show and it is just so fun to watch them fly thru the air! They do also have a bar in the lobby and a few waitresses but the service isnt as good as it is down by the pool. Here are a few pics.

We would get one of the couches and hang out and watch it. We went downtown a few more times at night. Once to The Blue Parrot always fun and then we went to a new one that I had never been to before call Coco Maya, it was a really neat place to. Our course we also went to Senor Frogs one day just because I love sitting there and being able to look out into the beautiful water.

Durnig the day in the lobby is where you book your adventures. We did the Xplorer and it was alot of fun. WE went ziplining, rafting and swimming thru caves and got to drive some ATV's. The park is only like 10 mins from the resort, so thats not too bad. This is the only adventure we did but that was fine with us as we really just wanted to relax.

Ok well I guess that is about all I have, I have a few more pics of when we where leaving but other than that I hope yall have enjoyed all the reviews. The Royal is such a great place for weddings, honeymoons, or just a vacation! I think we are planning on going back in Janurary Remeber not to stress out too much everything will be just fine. I dont even remeber the small things now and kinda think that it was a little ridiculous that I freaked out a few times haha oh well I guess all girls do!! Thanks for reading and remebber to pass on your reviews to help other brides!!

view from the lobby!

this is the ceiling in outside when you drive up to the resort.

The Asiana restaurant thats right out the front of the resort that we never got a chance to eat at!

Looking over to the sister resort The Gran Porto Real.

If you read earlier I was talking about a balcony off the front of the resort. Well that is it where the umbrellas are. It was such a cute little spot a perfect place for friends and family to meet for cocktails!

The Lobby, this is literally where you get out of the shuttles and walk up to. You can cdheck in on the left and the right. so prettty!

So sad, this was our last pic at the resort, lol the funny thing is that we were at the pool all morning/afternoon and we got out 20 mins before our shuttle cam and then changed in the bathroom!! We hated to leave but on a plus note they let us take our Coors Light with us Thanks again everone please let me know if you have any questions!!! HAPPY PLANNING FOR ALL YOU BRIDES OUT THERE!!

[clarissalu3]

Love your review! Makes me so excited for our wedding! It seems so far away but I know it will be here before I know it. One question, I noticed the star fish that lined the aisle for your ceremony...did you request those or was that just part of the standard set up?

[mae1564]

I see that you got married at 4, did you think that was too early or was it a good time? We are getting married at 3 (to avoid the $400 weekend fee) and part of me is worried that it is too early since our dinner won't be until 6. We are having our reception off-site at Wickys since we have a small group coming with us and heard from other brides that it is a better option for smaller groups, otherwise I had to pay for 20 plates minimum.