Just Got Married At The Riu Palace, Cabo San Lucas 04/26/14

[moethomas8]

Hello everyone!  I followed these forums religiously before I got married so I wanted to contribute since I found everything so helpful.  First of all, our wedding was EPIC!!  An epic fairytale to be exact, it was really perfection.  We had 40 people total and everyone is STILL talking about what a wonderful time they had.  We orginally choose the most expensive package, but then downgraded to the middle package and paid the per person fee.  It worked out better for us that way. So here is my break down:

 

Check-in-  A breeze.  We arrived the day before the majority of the guests arrived.  We had a lovely ocean-front junior suite (but our friends later upgraded us to an ocean-front suite which I highly recommend).  We provided welcome bags for all of our guests.  They had the guests names on them and the staff set them out right behind the Reception Desk and handed them to guests as they checked in.  *I had given the guests a heads up to make sure they got their bag when they checked in.  This was no issue at all.

 

Welcome Bags-Our welcome bags had a welcome note, agenda, Mad lib and I SPY sheets, lip balm, advil, toothpaste etc...

 

Rooms-Perfection, a little loud in the hallways, but who cares?  You will most likely not get upgraded.  Our friends were nice enough to upgrade us to a Suite as a wedding present, which was great, but honestly, we didn't spend that much time in the room.   There were a lot of mosquitos which I had never noticed before on my 3 previous trips to the resort, so bring lots of bug spray.  Better yet....include them in your gift bags, your guest will love them!  The rooms could be updated, but we didn't mind, they were very clean.

 

Wedding Coordinator-We worked with Jazriti and she was a dream!  She takes awhile to get back to you via email...but don't worry, as your wedding gets closer she will be on point.  Trust me!  We met with her the Thursday before the wedding.  I showed her pictures of how I wanted the Ceremony space and the Reception space decorated.  I also gave her all of my decorations and she set them up EXACTLY how I wanted them.  I hope to be able to post pictures of both.  She also arranged for our welcome reception and rehearsal dinner.  We had to do a few follow up phone calls and she was very accomodating.

 

Photographer/Vidographer-We used the resort's photographer/videographer.  We also met with them during our meeting with Jazriti.  I have not recieved the video yet, but the Wedding photographs are STUNNING!!  AND you get them before you leave, so you can do all of your editing at home on your own computer.  They were great. 

 

Welcome Reception-Most of our guests came in Thursday evening, so we had a welcome reception in the main bar.  They sectioned off an area and we just got drinks from the bar.

 

Rehearsal Dinner-We had the rehearsal dinner at the Steak House.  It was lovely.  We had two long tables and they served Surf and Turf.  We were able to give speeches and hand out gifts.  We then walked all the guests over to the ceremoney area so they knew where to go for the Wedding (this was great, no one was late)!

 

Hair-I used Susan Morel and it was just ok.  My hair was in a half up do with curls, but the curls totally fell by the time the ceremony took place.  It stil looked great though.  My makeup was ok. 

 

Ceremony- We had our ceremony at the San Jose Gazebo and it was the most beautiful location I could have imagined.  I will say that it is a very loooong walk to get to the groom, but I got to really take it all in as I walked down.  We were going to do a beach ceremony but it's difficult to walk in the sand and I wanted to wear heels.  

 

Reveren Marco Archiega officiated our ceremony and he was GREAT!  He was funny and heartfelt!  My mom read a passage and my husband and I also recited our own vows.  You willl be able to choose the ceremony that you want and he will work with you to make sure that the ceremony is exactly the mood and the tone that you want.  Our guests cried and laughed througout the whole thing.  It was a LOT of fun.

 

Flowers-We used the hotel Vendor, Alina, and the flowers were just what I wanted.  I used the flowers that came with the package as well as 4 bouquets for my bridesmaids which I believe were $60 each.  There were also two large arrangements on the gazebo and petals on the ground (which they will later use on the tables for your reception).  Alina is very pleasant to work with and will get back to you via email right away.  I changed my mind about a few things and she was very gracioius about it. 

 

Reception-We had the reception at the San Jose Mexican Restaurant Terrace.  We rented the whole space out for $1200 for four hours.  It was so beautiful!!  And convenient!  The guests went to the reception area while we took pictures.  We had one long table and that worked out very well for us (we sat in the middle).  We did toasts and speeches and the bouquet/garter toss, father/daughter dance, mother son/dance.  The space fit our group very well! 

 

DJ-We used the Resort's DJ.  I gave him a playlist and he mostly stuck to those songs but he added songs of his own too and kept all of our guests dancing ALL NIGHT. He was great!  I forgot to mention that I also brought my IPOD, they have a music guy that will use your ipod to play the pre-ceremony music, precessional and recessional music.  He didn't miss beat!

 

Post wedding Brunch-we had a brunch the next day at the Main Buffett,  we all gathered outside at the English Garden at 10:30, we all looked like a hot mess (most of us partied in a suite for the afterparty until 3 a.m.) but it's  great way to bond afterwards and some of our guests were leaving that day.

 

Post wedding dinner-We made reservations at "The Office" for our post wedding dinner that Sunday evening.  What a fun place!!  You eat right on the water, incredible views and great food and service.

 

The resort itself is beautiful.  Our guests all did different things but we all managed to spend a great amount of time together.  It was just what I imagined...a vacation with our closest family and friends with no formalities.  Let me know if anyone has any questions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lynsey92714]

Thanks for the update! Sounds like your wedding was beautiful. I am so glad you had such a good experience. It makes me feel really good about it. I have a few questions. I was going to choose the caprice package because were expecting about 45 people and do the private beach reception. If I downgraded to the royal package how does that work? I know the royal is up to 20 people and then $27 a person. However if your already paying per person for the private reception, do you still pay the $27 for everyone over 20? Or do they just add the extra chairs? I hope this makes sense lol

 

For your gift bags, how did you get them to Mexico? Did you fly everything down ahead of time or did you pack it in your flight bag?

 

As far as the welcome reception, was that included on your itinerary? I am new to this site and my wedding is in September. Wish I would of joined sooner so I would already have my 150 posts. If you post pictures can you please send them to me via email? I really appreciate any advice

 

[email protected]

Also, you mentioned you brought your own decorations? Does the resort not have any good decorations they provide with the package?

[moethomas8]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding, you will have an amazing time!!  Hmmm...I do understand your question about the private reception but I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that because our reception was at the San Jose Terrace and the food was included already.  I would check with you wedding coordinator about that.   Who are you working with?  It may take a few days to get back to you, but she will within a few days.  For the gift bags and table decorations I had a separate carry on suitcase.  I didn't put anything together until I got there.  I did include the welcome reception as part of the Agenda/itinerary, just ask your wedding coordinator and she will arrange it for you.  The resort itself did not have decorations, I brought my own...which was kind of a pain to pack...HOWEVER, there is a walmart across the street where you can buy decorations.  Hope this helps!! 

[Lynsey92714]

That's good to know about the walmart. What kind of decorations did you bring? I must have misread the paperwork because I assumed the resort decorated the ceremony and reception. Oops glad you informed me. I am working with jatziri. I heard she was really good. Could you send me a copy of your itinerary so I can get a better idea how to word everything. My email is [email protected]

 

Thanks for your help!!

[hyoungquist]

Thank you for such an indepth review! I am heading down on Sunday and will be doing a few site visits.

[moethomas8]

Lynsey, I brought Mason jars, tons of led lights for the jars and the table, as well as glass beads and crystals for inside of the jars and on the table.  I also brought 6 plastic vases that I glued "bling" around and placed the bridesmaids bouquets in them. It turned out really pretty, and all of the guests took the decorations as souveniers so I didn't have to bring any back!  I got almost everything from the dollar store. We also brought a custom cake topper for the cake and a wedding guest book that Jaz displayed at the reception. I'll email you the Agenda that I included in the welcome bag if I can find a picture of it!  @@hyoungquist, how fun!!  There were a lot of people getting married when we were there that weekend, lots of beautiful places, it will be hard to choose one i'm sure!

[Lynsey92714]

Thanks for your advice. I look forward to receiving your email. Did you have a lot of tables? We are having about 50 people come. Did the hotel have any decorations they use as well?

[moethomas8]

I don't think the hotel has decorations, but you could check with Jaz.   We had one long table and we had a total of 42 people including us.  

[JanelleMcLeod]

Moe did you do the semi-private dinner or did you pay for the additional reception? 

[moethomas8]

Janelle, we paid for the San Jose Terrace for 4 hours ($1200).  That was better for us, because then the best man and maid of honor and parents got to give toasts...plus we had the first dance, mother/son and father/daughter dance, bouquet toss...and of course the dj and dancing the rest of the night.  I don't think you can do that with the semi-private.  Instead we used the semi-private part of our package for our rehearsal dinner, which we had at the Steak House the night before.