delauren

I was just down there the last week in April and we found candles at the Wal-Mart in Playa...

jesmcan, your ring is gorgeous!!!

I got married May 1 and although my hotel provided a wedding coordinator, I decided I needed some extra help. I was originally just going to hire someone for the "day of" but ultimately realized I needed someone for the month before - we used Yazmin de la Mora Yazmin De La Mora - Weddings & Catering

I couldn't say enough good things about her!

I used Euforia for my wedding May 1, 2010 and I thought they did an amazing job - I sent them specific pictures to copy and not only did they do that, they helped me bring the prices down when I told them EXACTLY how much I had to spend. Lucrecia is the name of the designer we worked with at Euforia and she was awesome!!

When I was planning my wedding, Hotel Esencia (on Xpu-Ha Beach) didn’t have any reviews or comments so I thought I would post one to help out. We got married there two weeks ago! I’m ready to go back!!!

For those of you who haven’t been to Esencia, you’re missing out! It is a gorgeous property, very private and quiet. The staff was truly wonderful and helpful and all of our guests commented on the service they received while at the wedding events. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the property or the staff. In addition, the food is spectacular and so are the drinks : ) I think many of our guests will continue to go back to this property for their vacations.

Just wonderful!

We did a buy-out of Esencia for our wedding weekend (so it was only our guests on the property) but since the hotel only has 29 rooms, about 20 of our guests stayed at the nearby Catalonia Royal Tulum. Those guests could walk to Esencia in about five minutes and for the events, we had Balam (a transportation company, review below) take a van back and forth for everyone’s convenience. The guests who stayed at Catalonia said the front desk/concierge there were rude and that the property had a very “spring break†feel – lots of people partying. That being said, they all had a great time at Catalonia, the price was right and the food/drinks were solid. It was a perfect option for our guests who chose not to stay at Esencia.

All our wedding events took place at Esencia –

Thursday Night: We hosted a cocktail hour from 9-10pm at my parents’ cottage. The staff did an amazing job making the cottage look beautiful and they even hung up a banner we’d brought along for decoration. We had margaritas, caipirinhas and mojitos and they threw in some delicious desserts for free. It was very casual and a great way to start off the wedding weekend.

Friday Night: We had a Welcome Fiesta that started with a traditional Mayan Wedding Ceremony (a gift from the hotel). Since it was also my birthday, Yazmin de la Mora (our wedding coordinator, review below) arranged for there to be a piñata for me to hit, filled with Mexican candies. It was SO fun! My mother-in-law made beautiful paper flower centerpieces in lots of bright colors and we had mariachis and a delicious authentic Mexican food buffet.

Saturday Night: The wedding/reception! Review below : )

Sunday: We did a farewell brunch in Esencia’s main restaurant. We picked a special menu filled with some American favorites and some Mexican.

Wedding Details:

For those of you wondering about our ceremony, we had a civil one and Esencia handled those details – they had a lab technician come to the hotel on the Wednesday morning we got there to draw our blood and it was very easy and professional.

For all our planning, we dealt with Esencia’s on-site wedding coordinator who is no longer there (she got let go right after our wedding). Even though she was truly a lovely woman, she was not very helpful in planning our wedding. Once we realized that we needed some additional help, we hired Yazmin de la Mora to be our additional coordinator and she was great. Our photographer (Elizabeth Medina, review below) recommended her to us.

The one thing I will say about Esencia is that you must be prepared to spend, spend, spend – they do not really allow outside wedding vendors and they add an additional service charge to everything. The vendors, I must say, were all very good so I guess you get what you pay for but if you’re thinking of the Riviera Maya to have your wedding because it will be CHEAP, Esencia is not your place. Just being honest.

I found that Esencia did not negotiate with us on anything – if we couldn’t afford a service, it had to be cut, not modified. Some of this may be due to the fact that the wedding coordinator was difficult but my word of advice is to make sure as much is figured out beforehand as possible in your contract. In Esencia’s defense, some of the difficulties we had with the hotel may have been due to the coordinator who was recently let go.

All that icky stuff being said, once we arrived, the hotel couldn’t have been more accommodating or kind to us. They upgraded us and our parents and threw in the third hour of the bar for the Friday Dinner for free. They treated us and our guests like royalty and the moment we stepped onto the property two weeks ago, we forgot all our previous problems and had the BEST time!! As I said in the beginning of my review, I do think a lot of our guests (us included) will spend many a vacation at Esencia – it’s just that amazing!

Vendor Reviews:

**Just a note – all our vendors were Esencia’s preferred vendors except for Elizabeth Medina, whom I chose before we had finalized our plans with Esencia.

Yazmin de la Mora: As I said, we were recommended Yazmin by our photographer and got to meet her when my mom and I went down for a site visit. She has a great energy and is very knowledgeable and professional. She was so helpful in communicating with Esencia, as she spoke Spanish and we do not. Yazmin helped me survive a couple of meltdowns before we got down to Mexico and did a lot of work behind the scenes that I wasn’t even aware of until my mom told me!

At both the rehearsal and the wedding, she brought along two assistants and they were always there to help me and/or our guests. She was prepared for everything - we had such a windy night for the wedding, at one point Yazmin and her assistants fixed my hair with hairspray and new bobby pins. It was fantastic! Because she has done so many weddings, the Esencia coordinator looked to her to guide her in the itinerary for the wedding day/night. It is because of Yazmin that everything went so well.

Makeup/Hair: My mother, sister and I got our hair and makeup done by Fernando and his team from Makeup Pros. They were amazing. I live in Los Angeles and am used to professional hair and makeup and these guys more than impressed me. They were also fun to be around! They stayed until after the ceremony to touch me up for our photos (a service which, we paid for) and I think they did a really great job.

DJ: We used Mayansound as our DJ and for rental audio equipment at both our Friday night dinner and during the wedding/reception. They were fantastic. They were very professional and did a great job gauging the guests’ mood in terms of music at the reception. People were raving about how good they were and I’d recommend Mayansound over and over.

Photographer: We used Elizabeth Medina for our photos – she brought along her daughter as her assistant (who is an adult, don’t worry!). I haven’t seen any photos yet so I can’t really give her a review but she and her daughter were great the night of the wedding. If you’ve been to her website, you know how beautiful her work is. Hopefully, I’m not jinxing my photos by saying all this!

Lighting: We used Alex and AV Solutions for lighting at the reception – he was recommended by both Yazmin de la Mora and Esencia. A week before the wedding, they sent me a bunch of photos of lighting they’ve done and I chose a photo that they basically copied. I asked for all blue and lavender lighting and I thought they did a great job. I did notice our photographer had to have her assistant walk around with an extra lamp so I don’t know if it was enough for her but it looked beautiful to me on the night of – guess I’ll have to wait for the photos to find out. Alex was extremely easy to deal with and speaks perfect English.

Transportation: We organized transportation shuttles for most of our events and we used Balam transportation as our “preferred vendor†for this service. We also used him for our guests’ airport transfers. Javier, who owns the company, did a great job handling all our guests and when there was a mix-up with the Welcome Bag Delivery (which we had hired his company to deliver), he immediately sent a driver to pick up the bags and re-deliver them properly. He speaks great English so was easy for our guests to communicate with, as well. We did have some guests mention that their airport pick-up was 20 minutes late or the sign was wrong but I think in a foreign country, some things are bound not to go smoothly. Bottom line is, Javier always worked it out.

Flowers: We used Euforia and Lucrecia (who was the designer) did a spectacular job. She worked within our budget and let us go back and forth a couple times with changes. She sent us photos in order for us to better understand what she was going for with our design and she just did a great job. Even though there were things that didn’t get to be installed (because of the wind, our candles all blew out and they had to cut back on the amount of them), they did a beautiful job with what we could have. She had lots of good ideas and was very amenable to our suggestions.

Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have about our vendors and/or Esencia. Good luck with planning, hope this helps!

We got married two weeks ago and our hotel had a lab technician come and draw our blood at the hotel. We didn't have to do chest x-rays, I don't think they require that anymore. It was super easy and the guy was very quick!

I'd love to see the wording as well! Thanks!!

Thanks NaM - I spoke to Fernando and he can bring someone for about $30 mani/$35 pedi. I'm checking with my hotel, though, to see if they'll charge me to let him bring the person!

Thank you pooshek. The manicure is 60 and the pedicure is 80! Seems a tad high especially for guests who want them done...

Hey ladies - I need your help!

My hotel charges an arm and a leg for a manicure/pedicure so I'm trying to find someone who can come to our hotel and do them in my room - have any of you ladies heard of someone who does this?

I am going to ask Fernando but would love to have a vague idea of pricing before going into it...

THANK YOU!!!

Does anyone know what Fernando charges for a manicure/pedicure? If he can bring someone to the hotel?

Thanks, Malisa! Can't wait

I'm getting married at Hotel Esencia in May - the hotel has 25 rooms, so it will fit about 60 people. There are two other hotels on the same beach though that can fit the overflow.

I've also heard great things about Maroma - which I think is about 80 rooms?

I know you didn't ask about the other side of Mexico but I've had friends go to weddings here - Welcome to Playa Fiesta - who said it was amazing and so much fun. And cheap!

I have been using Yazmin de la Mora for my May 1, 2010 wedding in the RM. I love her, she is so helpful and knowledgeable and has been great negotiating with my hotel (which I chose before finding her, which I DON'T recommend!). She has lots of great ideas and has helped us save a lot of money but by using high quality vendors.

Yazmin De La Mora - Weddings & Catering

Thank you so much for all this information - I assumed I would be able to ship everything down there in advance but I'm realizing from all of you ladies that this is not really possible!

I'm totally digging this look -

EXPRESS: 2-BUTTON COTTON SATEEN SUIT JACKET

And it's not too expensive!

I asked Fernando about using airbrush and he said he had recently ordered a machine but hadn't tried it out yet - maybe he has by now?

Definitely ask him and if anyone uses it, let me know! His make-up work is gorgeous and the guy he brought to do my hair did an amazing job!

Try Adagio Cancun

Do you know the company your wedding coordinator suggested? The guitar trio quotes I've been getting have been in the $1000 range for ceremony only - would love to know who has been suggested to you!

One more I'd like to throw on this thread - .:Adagio Cancn:.

They literally have a band for every style you can possibly think of and if they don't have what you're looking for, they will come up with it. Very professional, very talented.

At first, he was mixing the songs using "scratching" which feels old fashioned to me - I asked him to DJ just letting the songs flow from one to the other and he did immediately. It sounded really good.

He said I could give him a full PLAYLIST and a full DO NOT PLAYLIST, which I am definitely going to do with whatever DJ I hire. He does not speak a lot of English so make sure your coordinator is there to help communicate.

I also just hired Fernando, after using him this past weekend for my trial make-up (he brought someone else for hair). I live in Los Angeles and had someone do a trial here so I could get an idea of what I wanted and let me tell you, Fernando outdid the Los Angeles woman by ten-fold. He is amazing!! He also has a great energy that will be welcome on my wedding day in May 2010.

He is a bit pricey but hey, what's more important than looking your best on your wedding day?

I just met with Ivan this weekend when I was down in the RM doing my site visit - he made me a CD to take home on the spot, played me lots of great samples and told him I could give him a play list and a do-not play list. Was on time for our meeting too (which can't be said for everyone we met with!)

Hey all! Just returned from a site visit to my hotel and met Mayan Sound. Wanted to post a quick review for anyone else who is being recommended them by their coordinator.

They arrived on time for our meeting and were very professional. They set up two turntables, a Mac computer and some speakers. They were the only DJ's who actually PLAYED for us and they were the only DJ's we met who actually brought the DJ who is going to play at our wedding (if we hire them).

I made some comments about how he DJ'd and the guy took my notes immediately. My hotel has very high standards and they have used them for all their weddings - I am waiting for their pricing information but they seem really great and professional.

Hi ladies,

Just wanted to know if any of you have heard of FLEUR DECO FLORIST? Or better yet, used them? Just looking for recommendations, good or bad!

THANKS!