PaulSchrank

Maria speaks in Spanish and Charlie translate in English. It's really cool how they do this, it's almost rhythmic, like one voice speaking two languages. They work together so well, I've seen plenty of awkward translation ceremonies and it's not like that at all.

Hi, my wife and I are treveling in Europe now on our honeymoon. We had a Cosmic Ceremony performed by Maria and Charlie and we recommend them with all our hearts. Our ceremony was fantastic and everyone thought it was really intense. Some good friends of ours who are a couple came to us a few weeks later to tell us they were so much more in love with each other after our wedding, a wonderful compliment. Here are the photos: htttp://www.delsolphotography.com/weddings/paul&rachel Because we film weddings we've seen both the Cosmic and the Mayan ceremonies. The Mayan ceremonies are cool but sometimes a little hard to relate to. The Cosmic Ceremony is easier to connect to. Don't be put off by the silly name.

Here are some videos of TTD sessions with DelSol. Trash the Dress III on Vimeo Trash the Dress - Riviera Maya on Vimeo

You can get a private villa on the beach in Playacar Phase 1. There will be other houses and condos there for your guests. The villa may have a beach or you can get married at the public beach there, it's usually pretty empty. I think you wold need a wedding planner in Playa to arrange this. Playa del Secreto, north of Playa has two excellent locations, Villa Sol y Luna and Secret Jewel. They both have websites. Consider Casa Magna in Tulum. It's a very private hotel with a villa vibe. Apparently it was the private villa of Pablo Escobar. You can see wedding videos from several different venues here: PlayaWeddings' albums on Vimeo

Azul is 40 minutes away from both Cancun and Playa, keep in mind. I don't know Cancun but in Playa I would recommend Santanera on Calle 12 between 5th and 10th, it gets going after midnight so if you show up before then you can claim a nice lounge area upstairs for your group. Maybe you can even make a reservation. Fusion is a beach bar with live music on Calle 4 if you want a more rustic beach vibe.

Cancun has the brightest blue water, it's unique in this area. But the beaches are limited and small and it's crowded. Tulum has wider beaches and more natural beauty, but the water isn't that crazy bright blue that you get in Cancun.

They were both weddings that happened at Xcaret.

We've shot a couple of wedding videos there. It was all arranged in advance and we entered with all our equipment through the employee entrance. Same with the photographer. It can definitely be arranged. Trashing the dress may be different though, I think a professional photo shoot would attract attention and would be a bad idea if it is not arranged in advance. I would call it "Bridal Elegance" instead of "Trash the Dress" if I was asking for permission

I've been on the beach and in the reception area of the Tides but I haven't been through. It looks great and the area is great. I sent some clients who were scouting there and they loved it.

Just north of Playa is a beach called Xcalacoco. It's just 10 minutes away from town and much quieter, mas tranquilo. On this beach are some small hotels, Le Reve - Le Reve The Tides - The Tides Riviera Maya Resort, a Luxury Playa Del Carmen Resort & Spa Petit LaFitte - Petit Lafitte - family vacation hotel in Playa del Carmen There is also a rustic restaurant called Coco's. All of these have a beautiful beach for a wedding. Not such a great beach for swimming because it's rocky, but not crowded and super close to town. I think they would be happy to arrange a wedding there for you. We fell in love with this beach, we just bought a house there

Here's a wedding video from Zama Beach Club Daliene and Jeff's Wedding Day Edit on Vimeo Also another from Villa Rolandi, just up the street on Isla Mujeres: Liz & Adrian's Wedding Day on Vimeo Zama on this beach, was one of my favorite places to shoot. Excellent choice. Hope this helps your vision. Suerte!!!

Contact Federica or Jenny at Micas de Miralls Micas de Miralls weddings in Playa del Carmen and Riviera Maya They did our wedding in Tulum and it went really well. They know everything that everybody else knows. Nobody here has any special information or exclusive sites. You just need somebody that will talk to you in a frank and open way. Give them a try.

Quote: Originally Posted by nylalany Don't know if you remember me contacting you - but I got married on the same day as you (and thus you were unavailable haha). Your wife Rachel was right about the astrological stuff - what a perfect day for both of us! Congratulations!! Yes, thanks so much. it was a perfect day, and you were just minutes north of us. I'm looking forward to seeing Elizabeth's photos of your wedding.

Here's the secret. All the beaches in Mexico are Federal Lands, like a National Park. The first 25 meters of beach are open to everybody, you are free to do as you please there, including getting married. There are several public access points to the beach in Playa del Carmen. The road of Cueva del Chango (Calle Treinta Ocho) is one of these public access points, even though it goes right through Shangri-La. You can enter here and get married right in front of Shangri-La, or you can enter a block north and get married in front of a vacant lot. You're wedding coordinators may, or may not be into doing this since they want you to buy their package. One block north of Cueva del Chango is a public access point and to the left is a vacant lot. In the morning it will likely be empty. It would be a pleasant walk from here to Cueva, which is an awesome restaurant.

Oh ya! Thanks so much Matt for posting these. You describe it so well. We are so happy to have this documentation. I can't even imagine NOT having it. It's a pot of gold.

Rachel and I were married on May 4th at the Don Cafeto restaurant on the beach in Tulum. We are so blessed to have Matt and Sol as our good friends and to have them shoot our wedding. It was another amazing blessing to have Ben Chrisman in town who came and shot with Matt and Sol. Here's the slideshow: del Sol Photography Wedding Photojournalism Our wedding was arranged by Micas de Miralls Micas de Miralls weddings in Playa del Carmen and Riviera Maya We chose Don Cafeto because the beach there in Tulum has always been one of my favorites in the area. You can see the ruins from that point. Don Cafeto has excellent food and a humble, authentic feel to it. And, the price was right. It really gives us both a unique perspective about our work to have gone through it ourselves.

I missed this thread, wow, it's full of information. Here are some videos we shot at the Royal: PlayaWeddings' VENUE: The Royal Playa del Carmen album on Vimeo BTW: we are not the videographers that you book through the resort. We book all our weddings through our website.

The beaches at the resorts in Playacar are a mess because they've built right up to the edge of the ocean and ruined the natural protection. But Sandos is the last resort in Playacar and south of it is Xcaret EcoPark. It's an ecologic park surrounded by a large natural area. here the beaches are wide and smooth and naturally protected. When I was on the beach last I noticed that the Sandos staff was walking through the natural beach area of Xcaret and picking up trash. Clearly they realize what an awesome asset it is to be next door to a huge natural beach and they take care of it. Yes, north of Sandos is just ridiculously overbuilt and noisy with music blasting at the pool and the "animation" staff conducting games and activities through the PA all day. And the ugly sand bags.

The Sandos in Playacar has one of the most amazing beaches in all of Playa del Carmen to the south of it. The land is owned by Xcaret and there are some ruins on it, so I think it's protected from development. Here there is a long stretch of pristine undeveloped beach with soft sand beach for swimming. Just stunning and right next door if you are at Sandos. It really makes this a unique option.

There are several local restaurants around the entrance to Coba. It will be no problem.

I checked out the wedding and reception spot in Elizabeth's photos, the M.K. Blue the other day. We're moving to Xcalacoco just south of the Rosemont and I walked up the beach to MayaKoba (Rosemont). I walked through M.K. Blue and kept saying to myself, wow, wow, WOW what an awesome place for a wedding. It's really great to see the photos, just as great as imagined when I walked through the empty place in the afternoon. I'm really hoping we get an opportunity to shoot there. It's completely private with tons of little nooks and crannies where people can hang out, as well as a big central party area. The Rosemont is also an awesome resort. I looked at a package deal pricelist and was surprised to see the Rosemont in the middle of the list with much more ordinary resorts listed as more expensive.

Here are some wedding videos from the Royal Playa del Carmen: PlayaWeddings' VENUE: The Royal Playa del Carmen album on Vimeo You can also find several other videos categorized by venue and vendor here: PlayaWeddings' albums on Vimeo

Rachel and I were married on May 4th and we're still reeling from the event. We plan to type up a full account with photos but this is a good place to start with a couple tips. DO: plan to party right after the ceremony. We had a great band: Alebrijes (Victor Espinoza [email protected]) to play music for the ceremony. Then right after they kicked in and everyone was dancing on the beach. We had bought maracas, tambourines and wooden whistles on 5th street and passed them out and it was the highlight of the evening. Dancing to live Latin music on the beach as the sun went down and shaking tambourines and blowing whistles. We've got some great video of this. I've seen a lot of weddings and the energy builds during the ceremony and then afterwards there's nothing to do for an hour and the energy evaporates. DON'T: Forget to drink lots of water. I forgot and got dehydrated and had a bad cold for a week. DON'T: Plan too much. The end of the night snuck up on us and we never got to the iPod dancing playlist. It was fine though, it was such a great night and all the dancing happened on the beach. We were glad it was only an iPod and not a band or DJ that we hired. In our planning minds we thought we would have more time, but time flies when your having the time of your life. There's a few but we'll think of more.

We just got married on ther beach in Tulum last weekend and we had many of our guests stay at Shangri-La and everyone was very happy. We live right down the street and we walk through the public access point through Shangri-La all the time. So far nothing has changed and it's still a top-notch resort. We also had several guests at Pueblito Escondido right nest door and everyone was super happy there. It's on the public access point at the beach and they have two pools, one on the roof that is super amazing. Be sure to offer your guests this alternative. The rooms are huge with a full kitchen.

I'd like to change my username as well, but I can't figure out how. How do you do it?