Universal Orlando Resort has always held a special place in our hearts as a couple. Before we even started dating, while still friends in grad school, we took a trip to Universal to visit Hogsmeade and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for the first time. Years later, after moving to Orlando together, the first annual pass we bought was for Universal Orlando Resort.

It only made sense that our love for Universal would lead us to get married there.

We chose to get married at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort because of its beautiful theming, perfect wedding ceremony/reception location and its proximity to Universal.

We’ll give a little insight into our journey of getting married at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in case someone out there needs a venue for their perfect day. 

Loews Royal Pacific Resort as a Venue

Jessica grew up with bi-yearly trips to Hawaii, so the Polynesian atmosphere at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort immediately spoke to her. We actually ended up basing the aesthetics of our wedding around a Hawaiian theme. Our centerpieces were tropical leaves, our flowers all had a tropical feel to them and our seating chart and table cards were cities on the island of Kauai.

The Loews Royal Pacific Resort has a few different options for both the ceremony and reception. There are a few indoor options, but we really wanted to be outside as much as possible. The outside options are the Wedding Lawn next to the Wantilan Pavilion and the Pacific Beach located just beyond the pool area. 

The beach was really pretty, but it wouldn’t work with some of our guests (plus, it was within listening distance to The Incredible Hulk Coaster so we could hear a faint “RAWWWRRR!” sound). However, the Wantilan Pavilion was the perfect spot for our reception. This is the same spot used for the resort’s weekly luau, so it’s a great size and has everything you need for an event including fans, a speaker system, close restrooms and even curtains in case it rains.  

Wedding Logistics

In retrospect, one of the best things about having our wedding at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort was how many pieces of our wedding the hotel provided. Not only did we have the location of our ceremony and reception, but our food, alcohol and cake were taken care of as well. 

Since we wanted to get married in the Wantilan Pavilion on a Saturday – the same day as the luau – we had to be a little flexible and do an early reception. Just because we were getting married didn’t mean they canceled the luau! We needed to be done with the pavilion by 3 p.m., which meant we started our reception at 11 a.m. Normally, this early start would make finding a food option difficult, but lucky for us one of the Royal Pacific’s food options was a brunch buffet! Instead of chicken, fish or veggie options, our guests enjoyed french toast, fruit, eggs benedict and more (Tyler insisted we add on a carving station, so we did that too).

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We had a handful of options to choose from for our cake. There were lists for the cake, the filling and icing.  All we had to do was pick our options, show a picture of a frosting design we wanted and it was done.

Vendors 

While this post was not sponsored, we wanted to give a shout out to our amazing vendors. If you are planning a wedding in the Orlando area, we highly recommend checking them out.

Corner House Photography — Samatha was super friendly and had some great ideas for the engagement photos we took at CityWalk.

Our DJ Rocks — An all female-owned company that also provided our photo booth. 

Pixies & Petals — We were the first tropical wedding she’d ever done and she tackled her challenge head-on! Our flowers were beautiful and worked so well with our venue and theme.

Once Upon a Beauty — They were so professional and efficient the morning of the wedding that Jessica was done early!

Our Wedding Day at Loews Royal Pacific Resort

Our wedding day went off without a hitch, but it was close. We secured our spot at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort about a year and a half before our date (we didn’t need to book that far in advance, we purposely waited a while) so we played a very risky game with the weather. October tends to be rainy and we had an outdoor wedding…needless to say we were worried! Our fears almost came true because it was rainy in the few days leading up to the wedding and even rained the night before. 

Lucky for us, the rain subsided and the sun came out on our big day. The only problem was the rain made the Wedding Lawn too soggy for our ceremony. So instead of having the ceremony outside and then walking to the pavilion, we simply did the entire thing in the pavilion.

Since we needed to be out of the pavilion so early, we offered our guests an open-ended invite to meet for dinner at the Lone Palm Bar just outside of Margaritaville.

Conclusion

When we met back in 2012 we never could have foreseen living in Orlando, going to the theme parks and starting our blog and Instagram. But once we came here we realized just how much we love it here and how Orlando would influence our lives. It was a bold choice getting married at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort but looking back on it, there was no better, more beautiful and more, well, “us.” place to get married than at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.