lauraereed

Quote: Originally Posted by knitgirl13 What is everyone doing about music? Cecilia sent me the contract with ~$800 for sound system rental on there! There's no way I want to pay that, it's the cost of the whole wedding package! Can we use an Ipod dock? I'd rather just ask for one for my birthday and take it with me or something. We're having a very small, but outdoor, reception. We used an IPod Dock for our music at dinner and cocktail reception (held at the gazebo by the pool) and it was perfect. There was no reason to waste the money on speakers if you are not having a DJ. We used the flautist for the ceremony, any of their in house muscians are great! I would hire a muscian for the ceremony. We had a few issues before the ceremony and the muscian entertained our guests until everything was ready.

Boo, we actually didn't pay for the fire dancers. We chose to have our welcome dinner on Friday night found out that this particular Friday, the resort was hosting a Mexican themed dinner and fire dancing show. Cecilia arranged to have a huge table set up for our guests. It was set up so that we had perfect seats (at this table) for the fire show (and we were in comfortable patio style furniture while the other resort guests were on metal folding chairs). We also had several waiters who were dedicated to our guests and they also did a free tequila tasting in between dinner and the show. I think the resort has the fireshow once per week. I am not sure if I would have spent the extra money to hire them myself, but the resort made us feel like this was an exclusive event for our guests without the added cost. It was kind of nice to have the other resort guests there, (as the dancers weren't just focused on us) because if any of our group got bored, it didn't seem inappropriate for our group to talk to each other during the show. The dinner was held in the outdoor seating area of the world cafe the food was set up buffet stye (for all SMB guests) inside the world cafe. To be honest, there really were not tons of people at the dinner so it seemed like we had the restaurant to ourselves. If you choose to do something like this, work with cecilia...but when you get there, talk to the staff at the restaurants about set up. We found that the waiters and waitresses were very accomodating and had some better suggestions than Cecilia.

Regarding the beach bonfire, the pictures on Rafa Ibanez's website (http://www.rafaibanezblog.com/?p=829) were from our wedding this past December. We opted to only have alcohol, hot chocolate, and smores at the bonfire because it was held around 10pm. Cecilia will work with you to have any type of food you would like at the bonfire (depending on the size of your group). We opted not to do dinner down there because our group was only 14 people and the options offered to small groups were simply canapes and they didn't sound appetizing for the price. Instead we had a private table at the Mexican fiesta night and fire show. After the fire show our group walked to the beach where we had the bonfire. The only other reason I did not want to have dinner on the beach was because other brides had indicated that service on the beach was not as good as other areas of the resort. As for music, we didn't have any but I think an Ipod and Ihome speaker set would work well. The staff only served for an hour, and most people were pretty tired. We didn't want to pay extra for the resort to set up a speaker system for the bonfire. Please email me if you have any additional questions about the bonfire or SMB. Also, I highly recommend Rafa as a photographer if you are still looking for someone.

I was married at SMB on 12/19/09. I have tried to attach a couple of photos of our ceremony set up and reception set up. We got the middle package and had our own outside photographer. Instead of using SMB's photographer we asked to have a violinist play for the ceremony. She was wonderful and we used our IPOD for music at the reception. Email me if you'd like any additional pictures. I hope to complete my review shortly. As a side note, we LOVED our photographer Rafa Ibanez. You can see some pictures from the wedding and of the bouquet on Rafa's blog. Laura & Alex @Riviera Maya Rafa Ibáñez BLOG

Tracey, your wedding looked beautiful and your planning thread was so helpful. Congratulations.

Hi ladies, I am getting married on December 19th at SMB. Are there any other brides getting married here in the next few months? Hope everyone is doing well. I am so excited to see the resort for the first time. Laura

Big help, thank you.

For our ceremony we rented speakers (they were having a "sale" for $80 plus the 10% tax. We hooked up our Ipod and there was a guy (i think from the resort) that played the songs at the appropriate times. He actually did a great job and even took my requests afterward. Kits55 - Did you rent the speakers from the resort or from an outside vendor? Congratulations.

airampz, I am also interested in having a trio play during the ceremony, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I hoping to use Rafael Ibanez as my photographer. Good luck with your planning! Laura

I agree, there has been abit of a lull since the weddings late last year. I am excited to hear there are some weddings coming up soon! Cecilia has been pretty good with her responses. What are your plans for your weddings? We are having our symbolic ceremony on the beach and the reception near the pool. Are you guys having music during the ceremony or a DJ for the reception? Congratulations!

I'm getting married here on December 19, 2009...anyone else getting married at Secrets Maroma Beach soon? I am interested if things have gotten better over the past couple of months.

I am considering Secrets Maroma Beach and Secrets Capri for my December wedding. Has anyone compared these two resorts or have any thoughts about one being better than the other? I know Secrets Maroma opened more recently than Secrets Capri. Thanks for your help.

Meli 122, don't give up...I received two emails from Cecilia this week. Try emailing her again. Good luck! Laura

I am also considering Fives, if anyone has actual photos after it opens I would love to see them. Good luck to everyone with an upcoming wedding!

Quote: Originally Posted by amandalsu Well all I have done is target a date of late May 2009 if that makes you feel any better. I can't decide on a location much less a hotel so it is hard to move forward with too much other stuff. Now that I see how very, very far behind I am, maybe that will put me in gear! Why does airfare have to keep climbing so high!!!!!! Amanda, I am in the same boat as you, don't feel bad!!

Hi everyone, my name is Laura. I am looking to get married sometime between October and December 2008. My fiancee and I are still trying to decide where to have our destination wedding, we are considering Florida, Puerto Rico, Mexico, or USVI.