Any other Riu brides out there?

[tp11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mexicobride I have had some frustrations communicating with them as well. I recently did get a direct email address and phone number from someone there to speak with. I want to be sure I know what to ask before I call. I feel like I have so many questions and yet don't have a clue what to ask! Thank you, Tammy. I will let you know if I have any problems. Tara: have you gone down to the resort before? How did you pick it? I have never been to the area, but we wanted something beautiful and beachy and affordable. Plus our guests are from all over so this was sort of central. When is your wedding?

Hi Melanie,
I haven't been down to this resort before, although I have been to one of the RIU resort before and had a great time. Basically, I knew that I wanted to go to Cancun, since it was the first vacation that my fiance and I took 10 years ago. Once I had the location narrowed down, I narrowed it down to a couple of resorts, either one of the RIU's (there are 3 and all look pretty nice) or the Dreams. I loved the look of the RIU Palace Las Americas and liked how it was central to everything, so my guests would have lots of options to fill their week. I was very impressed with the hotel and the fact that it is a fairly new resort. A little on the pricier (is that a word) side but still pretty affordable for our guests. Although I haven't been to the RPLA before, I have talked to a couple of people that I know that have been down, and they have said that it was a beautiful resort and they had a fantastic time. I've heard great things, so I really hope that my experience is as wonderful! Our trip is planned for the week of February 3-10 2007. And the actual date of our wedding is February 8, 2007. Hope this answers some of your questions. As I get more information I'll pass it along.

Tara

[KACENGG]

Hi Girls,

 

I am also getting married at the RIU but the Palace in Cabo San Lucas. I haven't been too active on this site since my wedding is still 11 months away but it would be great for each of us to guide eachother along and offer advice, confusions (as I'm sure there will be lots), etc. So far I have my date booked for a legal ceremony, after some miscommunication, but am still working on changing our time from 4:00 to 3:00. This could be a challenge but I am thrilled to see so many other brides that have booked at the RIU!

[Joy]

Hi Melanie-

 

I visited the RIU palace in August when i was there and i'm going back this January and planned to stop by one more time. My wedding is FEb of 2008 and i hope to have the final decision of the location made after that trip. i can tell you that the RIU palance is beautiful!! it's one of my top choices. we are most likely going to have around 100 people. the hotel is big and they usually have 2 weddings a day. are you having children at the wedding? if you are looking for something more intimate, did you check out the Royal HIdeway. i absolutely LOVED this hotel when i saw it. it's right down the street from RIU but they do not allow children. we are going to have at least 7 children and we want all of our guest to stay at the same place. one other thing i can mention, is that we went to the RIU palace every day for an entire week before someone would meet with us or just give us a tour.

[BEACHBRIDEMA]

Hi

I am getting married at Riu in May. I have some info that Adrianne the new WC sent me. I have some pictures and info on the hair salon. I am not really sure how to post them on here, but you can send me your email and I will forward them to you. Have you booked the time and location?

Best of luck

Sarah

[mexicobride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BEACHBRIDEMA Hi I am getting married at Riu in May. I have some info that Adrianne the new WC sent me. I have some pictures and info on the hair salon. I am not really sure how to post them on here, but you can send me your email and I will forward them to you. Have you booked the time and location? Best of luck Sarah

I sent you a private message with my email address. I'd love to see the pics!

[mexicobride]

This is great! I love hearing from all the Riu brides and what they're going through. We also started at the Riu, then changed our minds and spent weeks researching other places only to end up back there. It just seemed to have the most to offer people for the money and for the date we wanted. My first choice was the Azul Beach Hotel because of its intimacy, but it's too expensive for our guests. I would love to go to the Royal Hideaway, but we are expecting a few children and it is also too expensive for the guests. I like that at the Riu Palace, guests can choose to stay at another (less expensive) Riu property. There is a $35 charge for them to attend the wedding, but my fiance and I are going to pay for it. Our travel agent gives us $25 for every guests who books through her so it will all work out in the wash. As of now most ppl have booked at the Palace anyway. We are expecting about 40 people, immed family and some friends. We are doing AHRs in our home towns when we get back.

I'm so relieved to hear that the Palace is beautiful. It gets great reviews on tripadvisor.com.

Just out of curiosity, Kim, why do you prefer the 3:00 time? We are booked for a legal ceremony at 3pm too, because we couldn't get the 4. I just thought the 4:00 would be better so we could do ceremony right into pics right into cocktails right into reception. I'm afraid 3:00 might give us too much of a lull between ceremony and reception.

We are leaning toward the courtyard for the ceremony. We thought about the beach, but I read so many reviews that said it's not very private. Plus, I received pictures from a past Riu Palace bride who had her ceremony there and it looked beautiful. I was hoping to at least have ocean view during ceremony, but I guess you can't have everything. I'd like to have the reception set up on the beach but I'm not sure if they allow it or even if it's practical. I don't want to be eaten alive by bugs, and I'm not sure if they can set up music, etc. In fact, I'm not really clear on how the receptions work there. Can you have dancing? What are the table set-ups like? Can you bring your own decor? Do they have candles (we want tons)? Does anyone know these things?

[mexicobride]

Frustration: I tried to go to the Mexican Consulate in my city yesterday to figure out what I needed to get done for the legal ceremony, and the lines were a mile long. Plus all the signs were in Spanish so I had no idea what line to be in or who to talk to. For some reason I expected that the signs would be in English and Spanish. No one in the lines spoke English and I didn't have time to wait to get to a person behind the windows. Guess I'll try again next week! Grrrr...

[KACENGG]

Hi mexicobride,

 

I do understand that the 4:00 timeslot is usually the most popular but my concern was due to the early sunset in November. I found two different websites that said the sunset ranged from 5:07 to 5:40. Assuming that if our ceremony starts a half hour late (ie. Mexico time), we may not finish til close to 5:00 which wouldn't give us much time for photos with guests and just ourselves before sunset. I'm still unsure of the ceremony time and what we should do but for now we're still booked for 4:00!

[Lindsey16]

I am getting married at the RIU in Cabo and it has been very frustrating getting a hold of the wedding coordinator. it usually takes at least a week to hear back from them. However, i have talked to a few people who have gotten married there and they have all said in the end everything comes together and its been perfect. From what i hear, you make a lot of the decisions once you get down there. Good luck with everything and congratulations!

 

Lindsey

[KACENGG]

Hi Lindsey16,

 

You are not alone as I have heard many people having difficulties getting ahold of the wc at the Palace in Cabo (and all over likely). I know that there was a change of wedding coordinators a little while ago and the new lady was much, much better. I am pretty much leaving everything up to my travel agent until we get to the planning portion of it. If you have a TA, maybe get them to contact the resort wc as I believe they are usually more receptive to TA's. Just a suggestion. Hopefully soon they will make some more adjustments and the communication will be much better. Either way, we are going to have awesome weddings!