Playacar Palace Bride - November 2013 - Lots of Questions!!

[MrsCripps]

Hello all!!!

 

I am getting married in November 2013 at Playacar Palace.  We went with the Pearl Shimmer option but haven't made any official plans for the reception yet.  I am hoping that any brides that have gotten married at Playacar Palace can provide any tips/advice about getting married at this resort.  I have a bunch of difference questions right now:

 

1. Did/Are any of you hiring an outside photographers or are you going with the photographer offered by the resort?

 

2. I am wondering if anyone has any advice about the reception locations on the resort?

 

3. Did people do fresh flowers outside of the resort from a local florist or bring down fake floral arrangements?

 

Basically any advice that anyone can give would be really really awesome!!!

[dreamweddings]

Originally Posted by MrsCripps 

 

Hello all!!!

 

I am getting married in November 2013 at Playacar Palace.  We went with the Pearl Shimmer option but haven't made any official plans for the reception yet.  I am hoping that any brides that have gotten married at Playacar Palace can provide any tips/advice about getting married at this resort.  I have a bunch of difference questions right now:

 

1. Did/Are any of you hiring an outside photographers or are you going with the photographer offered by the resort?

 

2. I am wondering if anyone has any advice about the reception locations on the resort?

 

3. Did people do fresh flowers outside of the resort from a local florist or bring down fake floral arrangements?

 

Basically any advice that anyone can give would be really really awesome!!!

Hey MrsCripps,

 

As a wedding planner here in the Riviera Maya and also have worked with Playacar Palace.

 

What I know is that you can bring an outside photographer but there is a fee. just do the numbers and see what works for your budget. 

 

Depending on the number of guests you will have and with weather permitting I would suggest the beach area that comes with deck floor if you choose not to sink your feet in the sand. 

 

The pool area is surrounded by palm trees, this is good especially if you will not want to have your guests in the sand the entire night. the down side here is that the party will have to end earlier because its closer to the hotel rooms.

 

The indoor option I love is the Terrace restaurant with a wine cellar and view to the beach.

 

I know from the past was that they prefer using their preferred vendors. I must point out that flowers are not expensive here, but if you looking to cut out costs of coarse you can bring your own artificial arrangements.

 

Hope this information was helpful.

 

Feel to ask anything and we will be happy to help.

 

Happy Planning

Joyce

[peony2013]

Hi Mrs. Cripps, 

I'm getting married too. Any luck with your vendors? I've hired Del Sol and DJ Doremixx, but am on the hunt for florists and someone to make cupcakes. I found an amazing baker- Zaida Marcos, but unfortunately the price was out of our budget. Please share any information you can!

[photoisforever]

Congrats peony2013!!! and welcome to the forum

 

Here's hoping you find the answers you need to make the most amazing plans for your Big Day all the best with your plans!!!

 

 

Photography Is Forever office mgr

[gsj224]

Hello, While I don't have an answer for you, I can try to help you offset your cost (even if a little bit). I am looking for a room at Playacar from the 7th to the 11th (or any variation) to attend a friends wedding. If you have a room block within that time period, can you please share with me your travel agent. I will be willing to pay for the use of that reservation, but we can talk about that offline. We are unable to get any addition rooms in our block so I am hoping someone has an extra, thanks!

 

Cheers

gsj224

[Moments That Matter]

Congrats MrsCripps + peony2013, and Congrats!!! on your upcoming Playacar Palace weddings ! hope your plans go smoothly and your weddings are totally Awesome !

 

 

 

 

Here's sending you wishes to Have the Best Day of your Lives!!!

 

team MTM asst, Lynda

[lynz797]

We are getting married Nov 18, 2013  

I have been doing lots of research we should touch base and swap ideas....pm me

LIndsey

[MrsCripps]

Hello Peony!!

 

I am now 31 days out from departure day!! I was having issues with bridesmaids flowers...the resorts prices for bouquets was just too much!  I was going to go with fresh flowers once I got down to Mexico but have just recently decided that I do not want to have to worry about finding a florist down there and then hoping that they can put together something I like once I get there.  I have purchased some really pretty pearl shimmery fake flowers from Michaels along with some glittery ribbon and will be putting together all of my bouquets and bringing them down with us.  I have also figured out a photographer that works with Playacar Palace...thus avoiding having to pay an additional Vendor's fee.  I have hired Sarani Photography and instantly fell in love with her videos (she has some sample's posted on her website that brought tears to my eyes!).  We initially contemplated using the resorts first recommendation of Ocean Photography but did not have very good interactions with Mauricio from Ocean...just did not get a good feeling with him and really did not like the samples that they sent to us.  I have "Liked" Sarani's FB page and have to say the photo's are amazing!!!

 

We decided not to use the Pearl Shimmer Package for our reception dinner.  We are still doing a private event on the terrace but I will be bringing some of my own décor down to put on the tables (along with the flowers from all the maids!).  I will try and get back on here after the wedding to let you all know how it went and to possibly upload some pics.

 

We went with a travel agent here in Vancouver and they have been pretty good.  However, all of the wedding planning has been done between us and the staff at Playacar Palace.  They have been really great about getting back to us in a timely fashion.  We are getting a free cocktail hour based on the amount of room nights we have booked.  We also get a number of 2 hour reservations each night at the resort restaurants if we want to book those in advance.  Very handy!!

 

I would love to hear of any other advice any other PP brides have!!!

[lynz797]

Cherry Blossom flowers..shes great I sent her pics and she showed me how she could match them....she has been wonderful

[calially18]

Hi I just got back from our wedding at  Playacar Palace and thought my review would be helpful to everyone who may be planning a wedding there in the future.  As there is a lot of info I have that I couldn't find before I go.  I will post pictures later Let me start off by saying it was absolutely amazing!

 

We arrived on a Tues.  We had a welcome party on Thurs, (we did not do private) we gathered in the lobby bar very open and nice, for drinks and then had a dinner reservation at the Asian restaurant for the hibachi. Afterwards we moved to the karaoke bar as well as the outdoor part of the lobby bar.  Where a server still brought us drinks.

 

We had our rehearsal dinner at the Italian restaurant we were a group of 22 so we had two tables but it wasn't that crowded so we were able to get up and mingle during dinner. After dinner we moved to the Karaoke bar and outside to the lobby bar as well as the chess area.

 

Wedding day we did hair appts. starting at 11, the hair salon did an excellent job and had an ipad with photos if you didn't know what you wanted to do.  I was going to wear my hair down, but it was too hot, so I did a last minute updo and it looked amazing.

Wedding started at 3 pm on the beach, we chose the side away from the pool bar, I think it was called north solarium but I'm not sure.  It was on Senor frogs side.  I strongly recommend having your ceremony on this side, it's away from the crowds and way more private and less people will be in the background of your pictures.  Afterwards we had a private cocktail hr. on the beach, and the private  reception on the deck.  (we had enough rooms for the private cocktail hr, however we paid for the reception). There were lights around the edges of the deck, and around the trees that were on the resort side which provided enough lighting.  We brought our own battery operated candles instead of center pieces and tea lights for luminary bags around the edges of the deck. This also was nice because some of the girls took a candle that I had decorated with a shell as a gift. The wedding was truly amazing.  There was nothing I could say badly about it.  The staff was superb, our speakers died and they found their own personal stereo from the office that we could use that saved the day. Effron was wonderful he was a staff member that truly went out of his way for us.  He even took our photos at one point.  Yasmin was good as well, just be clear with her what you want.  We almost walked all the way through the pool part of the resort instead of around for our entrance.  Our bridal party went through the pool part, which wasn't a big deal.  But I'm glad my Dad made the suggestion to go around so everyone wasn't staring at us.  Gifts we went to town to get maracas, some stores were way over priced, but look around I found some for about $1 each and some for about $2 each. I want to point out this was a huge hit.  I found the idea on this forum, but everyone loved it.  Whenever they shook it we kissed, and they were super fun for dancing! and good souvenirs for the guests kids that didn't come.

 

Resort credits you should let your guests know before hand about them, because a lot of our guests didn't have time to use them and were unaware of how they worked.  We had an onsite travel planner Abigail, however it always took forever to book your tours.  So I would try to pre plan what you want to do, and what days, and try to get your group on board so you can do things together. OR book your things right when you get there so you do it one day and get it out of the way. Just to give you an idea on how these work, you can use 20% of your total credits at the spa, unlimited amount on tours, however it's not for all of the tours, you can use it for dolphin swim, Tulum, Coba, and a few other tours.  You can use it for upgraded wine, which was actually really worth it but we didn't think about it until the last night.  And you can upgrade your room, which we didn't feel like repacking so we only used about $1000 of our $2000.  Oh and you have to pay tax on the credits not a big amount 11% but some people didn't know that.  We went into it anticipating to spend around $220 if we spent our entire credit so didn't mind, since the actual costs of the tours were quite expensive if we didn't have the credits. But they were really a great bonus.

 

If anyone does spa treatments go an hr. early she didn't tell us this so we missed out on the pools and hot tubs, etc because we had a tour booked right after.  It was still amazing though best massage ever! And very beautiful, relaxing spa.

The wedding, staff, food, drinks, resort, everything was perfect.  Check with your travel agent though, because she booked a lot of our couples in rooms with two beds, and a lot of rooms that were supposed to have two beds only had one.  Not sure if this was travel agent or resorts, fault.  None of our guests really minded though, they either switched or just left it as is.  Also best rooms away from the noise are in the 440's.  We were in room 331 and right above the pool.  However we loved our room,  because we had an amazing view, and it was kinda part of the action.   However if you want to get ready in your room with all of the girls, I would suggest getting a sand suite or a room higher up on concierge lever.  Just because they are way bigger rooms. We couldn't get late check out so we were able to rent a sand suite for 15 minutes on our last day so we could shower before we left and it was huge.   But I'm not complaining our room was perfect and anyone would be happy with it. I strongly recommend this resort.  Everything was amazing.  Everyone was amazing, food was amazing, wedding was amazing and more than we could have ever dreamt of. I have been to a Sandals all inclusive and this by far beats that hands down.  I would rate Playaar palace resort a 10 and sandals a 5, but that's just my opinion.  Oh and be sure to take the ferry to Cozumel to snorkel.  But make sure you check the times, we were told it ran every 30 minutes but it's ever hour in the morning and then every couple hrs. in the afternoon.  If anyone has any questions feel free to message me. I am glad to answer anything.