Generations Riviera Maya 2015 Weddings (And 2014 Too)

[ChiTiff]

AHH!  I just booked my 4.25.15 wedding at GRM today at the SkyDeck!  

 

I'm so excited.  Do you ladies know if you can customize the memorable moments packages?  None of the colors in those packages are really my thing.

@@AllieH thanks for your thoughts on the break! Your wedding thread is fantastic and inspiring. I think i will have to DIY some of the decorations.

 

Now I'm thinking we should have a reception since all of the guests are paying to come down for us. I think we could do the food for 60 guests for $3K and then the bar is included with the food for 3 hours.

 

I'm thinking about a 5 pm wedding and 6-10 pm reception, but I haven't seen any posts with the ceremony that late. Anyone have thoughts on a 5pm April ceremony? When I googled the sunset info I found conflicting info but i think the sun will set around 7:15 pm.

It looks like we are wedding day twins!  We are doing a 6:00-6:30pm wedding with a reception starting at 7:00 at the SkyDeck.  Good info about the sunset.  If you aren't doing a cocktail reception, I think 6 is the ideal time.  It won't be too hot, and then you have the evening to celebrate.

 

I'm not sure about the post-ceremony cocktail reception... is it worth it?  We're doing the Skydeck, so they will all be at the same location.  

[Christinagiovanni]

@@ChiTiff

 

You can customize everything. At the brides dress rehearsal they had tons of linens and different colors and patterns .. You don't have to go with the preselected themes

[ChiTiff]

@chistinagiovanni Do you know if doing customizations was worthwhile?  I was worried the costs would really add up by doing things that way.

[nicatella]

@@ChiTiff

 

Wow that's so exciting! You're right we are wedding day twins! Are you having your ceremony on the beach or the sky deck? I wonder if we are doing the ceremony in the same spot. We just booked the pier for our reception and the wedding is on the beach. I thought it would be a random spot but the WC said it's at the beach gazebo.

 

My FI and I are headed to the Brides Dress Rehearsal in November to plan the specifics. I don't think I'm going to do the memorable moments package because it's so expensive ($250 per table?), but I need to figure out the al la carte pricing for individual decorations. This is supposed to be less expensive than having a local wedding, but at this rate who knows. I'll probably bring some decorations from home but my wedding contract said they would charge me $5 per person to set up my decorations. I've read some threads and it seems better to deal with that price once we get there in cash.

 

Anyway I'm sure we will have a lot to discuss/compare notes on in the upcoming months!

[Christinagiovanni]

@@nicatella @@ChiTiff

 

Customizing is actually a whole lot cheaper. Are you going to the brides dress rehearsal? During the presentation in the ballroom you get to look at different linens and colors that you can choose.

 

It's actually a whole lot cheaper if you choose your own, my tables are $250+ centerpiece so in the memorable wedding packages they are about $400 a table ..

[rtscent]

I just read on trip advisor that someone had a large wedding there recently any brides in BDWF? Please write a review and give us the details!

 

I'm bringing some of my own decor. My wedding coordinator said to go to the goodwill and purchase and old suitcase and fill that one up all the wedding decorations and give it to the coordinator when you arrive in Mexico then discard after the wedding. I'm bringing my own reception table clothes, center pieces, vases, candles and cocktail table bows to name a few. We are also bringing our own sound system bc they charge $250 per event for sound. We qualify for the unlimited events so we are having a welcome cocktail party, rehearsal dinner, reception, wedding cocktail party, and farewell brunch.

 

 

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[lauralane]

Hey ladies! Jumping in on the forum fun I've been creeping around here for months and have so appreciated everyone's contributions to this board, so I thought it was time to contribute a bit, especially since I visited the resort in June. We stayed at El Dorado Royale and went to see the wedding set up at Generations.

 

So, here's my brain dump.

 

I'm getting married at GRM on March 7, 2015. We're doing the pier for the ceremony and cocktail hour, and the sky deck for our reception. 

 

We visited the hotel in June of this year and absolutely loved the set up for weddings -- the pier is insanely beautiful! I think I saw someone mention earlier on the forum that the pier looks like it could be claustrophobic - noooo way! It's so, so much bigger than I thought from the photos. This is a total guess, but I'd guess that the roof of the pier is 20' high so it feels really spacious. 

 

The sky deck wasn't done yet but based on the quality of the rest of the hotel, we left with no doubt that it would be amazing. All of the restaurants are in one tier of the hotel, and as you get higher and higher the view just gets more beautiful. So, the Sky Deck should be pretty good We're doing our wedding a little earlier to take advantage of that view - the ceremony at 4, so by the time we get to the reception up there, we're hoping to have the sunset for dinner so that we can still see the ocean. Our wedding planner is Marisol, and she said she'd send me pictures of the first reception at the skydeck after it happens in October - it didn't seem like there were any plans for it to be completed before then. (Mentally willing that girl to join this board!) Has anyone seen any renderings of it or anything?

 

Though we were staying at El Dorado Royale, they gave us tours of the rooms and we had dinner at the Asian restaurant at Generations, Jade. Generations reminds me of a really nice Vegas resort in Mexico - the rooms have to be seen to be believed - they are HUGE! And so nicely done. The restaurants literally made our jaws drop with the decor, food and views, and it's really cool how they light up the pool at night and all of the balconies. 

 

The only downsides:

1. I am not at at all confident that the bricks in the ocean will sink by next year. There's absolutely no control over that and we were asking some of the guys working on the project and they looked at us like we were nuts when we were like, "soo, are you thinking 6 months to a year?" 

2. The whole resort is oriented so that it faces the ocean, so this sort of does not matter -- BUT, good to have a heads up that the other side that you enter on is pretty much a swamp right now. And by pretty much, I mean 100% is. It's really jarring, especially because we entered through El Dorado, which is so nicely landscaped. We were told that they have plans to do a lot with that area, including adding walking paths and even kayaking. I'm not a landscaper so I have no idea how long that will take, but it seems.... ambitious This is another thing that I'm not holding my breath will be completed by the time I get married there in March and plan to let the guests know... the entrance is your first impression so I don't want them to have a huge WTF moment on the way in!

 

Eeeeeven with those two things though - the positives of the resort so far outweigh both of those that we're totally confident and so, so excited to bring all of our loved ones here to celebrate with us! 

 

So, all that said, we really liked the adults-only, romantic vibe at EDR/Casitas - it's quite different than Generations. So, we're having our cake and eating it too and staying at EDR with the wedding happening next door at Generations. I think our guests will be split between the two resorts. It could get a little tricky because EDR guests don't technically have access to the restaurants at Generations because it's a tier higher, but we're not anticipating that being a big problem. We've gotten the OK for the wedding and rehearsal dinner, of course, and we'll just plan the other group activities at EDR. We don't have many kids in our party, which would probably make this much more complicated if so. 

 

Here are links to the photos that we took at Generations of our dinner at Jade, the pier, and the weird swamp thing!

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDQ1RSSTE1RENfTUhIZEtJSmV2dVByclBDa2s4/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDVEtOSW1RZWE1YUJ3bk8tSXRJaGNiVmhGU0Vv/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDaTdZZjUxVkdNTC1ha0V2cHRLeEtYdFBJS1R3/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDak9EYl80anUwREdwdmpid3JOSDZWY0VFLVg0/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDbS0xd2VVbWhGY00zYjk3OXBRYVVCa1cxSHU0/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDclJoZHFUZld0MVNMaGJLYS1pejZFTzRjNndj/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSfznNcUxDclgxVGkzcWpMWEdVbmJ3RlluV3FIZHJobExZ/edit?usp=sharing

 

Hope this helps someone out there! Glad to "meet" all of you  

Now my turn for questions! 

 

@nicatella @ChiTiff @@Christinagiovanni - I'm with you guys on wanting to customize one of the decor packages. None of the Memorable Moments are quite right. I'm not planning on doing the Brides Dress Rehearsal, so any idea how I can see what the options are? A PDF floating around or anything? I found some of the stuff on the Lomas site but its hard to envision it all working together. 

 

Gracias

[rtscent]

@@lauralane this was a great contribution! Thank you for sharing your POV on the cons and the photos im trally hoping that bewch looks better next year. I'm doing my ceremony on the sky deck and reception on the pier. My cocktail party location is TBD bc it falls under one of my "free events" so I cannot specify where I want it.

 

My ceremony is at 6pm, maybe ill move it up to 5pm to capture more sunset during the reception. great idea.

 

 

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Sorry texting to fast "I'm really hoping the beach looks better next year"

 

 

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[kmk2016]

Hi! . I was at the BDR in June and saw the cement in the ocean, it solidified my decision to not get married here (as much as I loved it) and chose sensatori instead (which has it's own beach issues with it being an Eco-preserved reef and not as blue/green as I like). When talking to staff there, I heard that they did a similar thing at el dorado that are mostly under sand now (but still visible in some areas) and it took 3+ years to get there. It's a great concept- but it's not a quick fix. (They are simply waiting for the ocean, movement to push sand over them and recede the ocean making a deeper beach since it's where the cement is that they are hoping becomes the coastline.

 

I just want girls to be aware that they will likely be there for some time yet... And not to expect them to get covered quickly. It's a gorgeous resort though and the pier was pretty!!

Edited August 10, 2014 by kmk2016

[lauralane]

@@kmk2016 - totally understand where you're coming from. The hotel and wedding folks were pretty vague about the timing of it, but inferred it would be sooner than later... however, when we asked the workers, it was clear that it wasn't something I could count on. (mostly from the expressions on their faces  )

 

BUT - I was able to get on board anyway because from the pier, you can't really see the blocks  because it's so high and you're looking straight out instead of down. And also because as much as I like to think I'm an ocean baby, I spent prettyyyyyy much my entire visit there at one of the swim up bars  

 

@@rtscent - so excited for the Sky Deck! Have you seen any photos or anything from the hotel of what it's going to look like? I trust that it'll be amazing, but I'm so anxious to have a vision of what it'll look like!! I'm really into the hanging globe lights but don't know how they'd work on a roof!