ilovemypitbull

I'm getting married on June 19th at Zama Beach Club. The night life can be pretty decent, especially if you have your own group. You could all head over to Faynes or Chimbos and have a great time.

Quote: Originally Posted by ReidCapote Hi, we're also thinking of having our wedding at the Mayan Palace. We contacted the wedding coordinator, Arisale, and she sent us a price list, which we thought was pretty reasonable. We're also still looking into other resorts. Any possible way you could send that price list to me or post it? We're leaving for our site visit in one week and I'm still trying to find a couple more places to check out while we're there. Thanks! - Jen

Quote: Originally Posted by Malisa Hey Jen - how many people do you think you're wedding will have? I've put together a few lists of recommended places in Tulum if you're interested. Not sure yet how many guests we'll have but we're thinking around 30 to 50. I would love a list of places in Tulum! Thank you! Quote: Originally Posted by Jenna20 Jen, That is SO exciting!! Can wait to hear your feedback...Is Zama an all inclusive resort? Zama is not an all inclusive resort. It's a beach club actually. You can see pictures of it here: Zama Beach Club Photo Gallery by SunHorse Weddings at pbase.com It's absolutely gorgeous and completely private which is really important to us. It has a beach with a pier, 3 infinity pools, a large terrace/deck for dinner and a palapa with a dance floor. After looking over our budget, I fear it may end up being too expensive for us though. We need to keep the entire wedding under $15k and that has to include my parents' flights and hotel in addition to our own and when you add in photography (a good photographer is very important to us), my dress, open bar, etc, it's cutting it a little too close. So now I need to find a few cheaper places to check out while we're there. I'm probably going to have to sacrifice some privacy and maybe even go with an all-inclusive resort in order to pull this off. It's not exactly back to the drawing board, but I do need to come up with some alternative cheaper options and we're leaving in one week! Aaaah!!! Any suggestions would be appreciated! - Jen

I haven't posted much recently because I've been really busy but I'm so excited and have to share ... I'm leaving for my site visit in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll be in Cancun from Friday 8/14 through Thursday 8/20 and will be staying at the Hilton Golf and Spa resort for the bulk of our stay. My dad travels a lot on business and generously gave us 4 of his free reward nights! Monday night we're staying at a little hotel on Isla Mujeres because we have site visits booked on the island that day. We're meeting with Tiffany of Sunhorse Weddings to look at Zama Beach Club and a few other places. That leaves us with one night to stay somewhere else. We'd love to check out Ceiba del Mar but can't afford to stay there on this trip so we might find a cheaper hotel in Puerto Morelos, or we might go down to Playa del Carmen for a night. I want to be as well-prepared as possible to get the most out of this trip but I don't want to overdo it and visit a bunch of places for the sake of it. We really want a private, non-resort wedding that won't completely break the bank and there aren't that many options. Plus, we're kind of limited to places that we can check out during the day and still make it back to our hotel in Cancun at night. Any other places we should hit up? What are some important questions to ask or things to look for when we're checking places out? I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Jen

Hi Mandy! I think that if your photographer is a paying guest at the resort, it shouldn't be a problem. I mean, it's not like they're going to be patting everyone down looking for cameras at check in. The policy is in place to get you to use their photographer, so if you're still going to use theirs and your own photographer is staying at the resort, there's no way they could have a problem with that. - Jen

Thanks for all the advice ladies! We're hoping to go on a scouting trip in August and have decided that Tulum is too far. Since most of our guests will be coming from San Francisco, we don't want to ask them to travel all that additional distance on top of the already long flight(s). So now we're mainly considering Ceiba del Mar (although I have a feeling that may be a little out of our budget) and Zama Beach Club (on Isla Mujeres). We'll definitely check out other places though. Throughout this entire process, I've been going back and forth a lot, changing my mind, considering different places, going in different directions, etc. Yet I always keep on coming back to Zama Beach Club. It's funny because I was the same way when trying to choose a general location, and kept on coming back to the Riviera Maya. Once I finally decided that I had to stop second-guessing myself and just pick the Riviera Maya and stick with it, I felt sooooooooooo good. So I'm thinking it will probably end up being the same way with Zama. - Jen

Quote: Originally Posted by Madbride2009 Nope but trust me, it's fantastic! Hopefully I will be the first bride to share my story! The resort is perfection... private, secluded and totally customizable! Denise and staff will help you plan your dream wedding. They are also super fast at replying to emails which can be a pain in Mexico! Let me know if you want particulars. Quote: Originally Posted by ask9999 I am in the process of booking my wedding there and so far they have been great in answering questions and working with me. Thanks, this is all very reassuring! It's still so scary though to book a place without having read a review from someone who has actually gotten married there. It looks fantastic though! Hopefully it will be within my budget. - Jen

Aww, thanks Anna! All I know is that taking my time and gradually crossing places off a list made me feel so much more in control and less overwhelmed (as opposed to contacting every single potential location I came across and then having to wade through tons and tons of disorganized and scattered information). Good luck! - Jen

While incredibly useful (thank you so much for sharing!), this thread is super dooper depressing! Especially given the fact that I stumbled across it on a Monday. I think a big old glass of wine is in order when I get home! - Jen

Has anyone heard from someone who has actually gotten married here? I searched but couldn't find anything ... my apologies if I inadvertently missed a thread containing some kind of first-hand account. It looks like a really good option for us since we're not into huge resorts and are looking for something more secluded and private. Anyone? Thanks! - Jen

Hi! Wow, I know EXACTLY how you feel!!! Like you, I'm a detail-oriented person (civil engineer - go figure) so I like all my information to be presented in tables, in an organized fashion where I can easily compare and sort different options. I felt the exact same way as you do, so much so that we got engaged in January and we still haven't picked an exact site yet, though we've narrowed the options down a lot. However, I do have some advice to help you filter everything in your head so you can focus in on what's important to you. It sounds as if you're suffering from information overload. When you get engaged, it's very tempting to immediately start contacting all the resorts you can and gather as much information as possible. However, this can cause a lot of confusion. It is so much easier, before you ever even think of specific resorts or locations, to start at the top and work your way down, eliminating options as you go. I suggest taking a deep breath, stepping away from your computer (I know ... gasp!) and curling up on the couch with your doggie and a good old-fashioned notebook and pencil. Write down everything that comes to mind when you think of your dream wedding. I mean, really, spend a lot of time and put down EVERYTHING you can think of. Write a story, jot down random words, whatever. Just get all your wishes onto paper. Then, using this, you can go through the following steps to narrow down your choices. 1. Decide whether a destination wedding is really right for you. If so: 2. Pick a country To do this, you need to decide a few things: a) How much do you want your guests to spend to get there? For us, we wanted our guests to spend as little as possible in order to have as many people join us as we could, so we picked Mexico because flights are cheapest from where we live. What kind of climate are you dreaming of? I've always dreamed of a tropical, Caribbean-like climate, with those balmy, sultry evenings and turquoise ocean ... this helped us decide on Cancun/Riviera Maya as opposed to Cabo or Puerto Vallarta. c) What time of year would you like to marry? You may have must-attend guests who can only make a certain time of year, or you may only be able to do a certain time. Google is the best way to find on- and off-seasons of different locations. This could help you rule out some countries. 3. Decide what style of wedding you would like Making this decision can help you eliminate a ton of potential locations. For example, we decided that we're really not all-inclusive resort type people and would prefer a more unique, intimate wedding. So right away, we were able to eliminate all of the big resorts and focus in on smaller hotels, restaurants, beach clubs, etc. This really helped to cut out a lot of the "chatter" in my head and clear my thoughts. a) Where would you like your ceremony and reception? If you've always dreamed of getting married on the sand, you can immediately eliminate those locations that don't offer beach ceremonies. Likewise, if you've always wanted your reception on an outdoor terrace overlooking the ocean, you don't even need to consider sites that can't provide that for you. What is your budget? You don't even need to contact resorts to find out approximate rates ... you can find a ton of info from real brides on here. Also, simply looking at room rates can help you out. If you want to keep your wedding under $5000, for example, you don't even need to consider those places where rooms run at $900/night. c) By now, you should have a relatively small list of potential options. Yet, you still don't even need to contact places yet! By reading reviews on here and seeing what other brides have to say about the various locations on your short list, you may find out that some of them may not be able to provide you with the wedding you want and you may be able to eliminate a few more. 4. Contact potential sites Now, only now, do you need to contact locations. By now, you should have a really good idea of what you want so that you can ask them specific questions and request specific information. I really hope this helps you a little bit. By figuring out exactly what you want and working from the top down, eliminating different options as you go, you can fairly easily come up with a pretty small list of places. This should help filter out some of the confusion, organize your thoughts, and avoid that dreaded information overload! Good luck! - Jen

Like Willeme said, the rates are cheap because the hotel is brand new and they're trying to promote the property and build a client base. Take advantage while you can! We're probably going to end up getting married at Zama Beach Club on Isla Mujeres and Privilege Aluxes is looking like a top choice for accomodations, for us and our guests. - Jen

That's a tough one. I have two heart-shaped diamonds, but they're sideways, on either side of my round brilliant center stone so I don't have the same problem you do. I would suggest having a band custom made. My engagement ring was custom made by an amazing local jeweler (I got to design it myself -- yay!) so I'll probably just go to her to have her make some kind of simple band. With your ring (which is gorgeous, by the way!) I think a very simple and dainty band would look good. You wouldn't want to overpower the delicate look of the point of the heart. Have you ever thought about not having a band at all? Or just having a symbolic one that you won't necessarily wear every day in tandem with your e ring? My sister suggested this after I had spend months designing my ring to make it perfect and then realized that when a band is added to the mix, everything changes. So as not to waste the ridiculous amount of money and time that went into making my ring perfect, I'm seriously thinking about doing this. Of course, I would have a band for the ceremony and wear it on certain occasions (either on the same finger as the e ring or switching the e ring to the other hand) but most of the time just keep it somewhere safe. Or wear it daily but on my right hand. This could be an option for you. That way, you can get any band that strikes your fancy, and you wouldn't have to worry about ruining the look of your engagement ring. - Jen

Quote: Originally Posted by hunniebee724 Congratulations! We're having a cruise wedding, so I have no tips, but I just *had* to say how much I love your name! Pitbulls are the best! Aren't they just? They're such sweet little goofy babies. Mine likes to crawl into my lap and snuggle ... she thinks she's 5 lbs, not 50! - Jen

Wow, that's great! Good job! - Jen

I'm so sorry, that is awful. Hopefully it will work out. And if not, try to stay positive and keep looking for other dresses. You never know, this could actually be a miracle in disguise and you could find another dress that you love even more!

Quote: Originally Posted by aqua32marine Hi Jen, I live in Santa Cruz but my fiance lives in Sunnyvale. We also have relatives coming from the midwest, and so Cancun works best time-wise for both groups (it's like an 8-hour flight to Cabo from Midwest). The flights were also the cheapest. Where in the Bay Area are you?? Tina Hey Tina, Cancun totally makes sense for you if you have relatives coming from the midwest. Plus, I mean, come one! The Mayan Riviera with its tropical climate, white sand beaches, and turquoise ocean is just SOOOOOO much more appealing than rocky, arid, plain old Cabo! That's so funny your fiance lives in Sunnyvale because that's where I grew up! I live in Santa Clara now though. It would be crazy if I knew your fiance... - Jen - Jen

Quote: Originally Posted by aqua32marine Hi Jen, I'm from the Bay Area and am considering getting married in Isla as well! I was bouncing between Isla Mujeres and Cabo San Lucas. What sealed it for me was finding Privilege Aluxes, it's a new hotel with an all-inclusive option that's super reasonable; it's in the North Beach/Town Beach area of Isla and really close to down-town. They're running a 40% discount off of rooms on their website right now and it's brand new. Also, a friend of mine said that the waters around Cabo weren't really easy to swim in, and we had really wanted swimmable waters. I haven't heard any first hand experience accounts of Privilege Aluxes, though, so if anyone knows anything please chime up!! Wow, that sounds awesome! Now I'm also curious to see if anyone has any experience with this hotel. Are you worried that since you're going with the Cancun area as opposed to Cabo that you'll have fewer people attend your wedding? I know there are some direct flights to Cancun from SFO, but they're so much more expensive than the ones with a stop. Assuming most people would opt for the cheaper flight, it's literally an entire day's travel as opposed to just a couple hours for Cabo. I'm still worried that we won't get enough guests now that we've chosen the Mayan Riviera to really make it a fun party. Where in the Bay Area do you live? And thank you so much for that suggestion! - Jen

I love that you asked this question Yael! I've been wondering the same thing. I think I'm going to go with the second option because I think that doing it before dinner is kind of stilted. I like the option of doing it after dinner to kick start the dancing. But then where does the father-daughter dance come in? Is it weird to do the father-daughter dance right after dinner and then have your new hubbie come and take you from your father for the first dance, and then open up the floor to dancing? To me that seems like the most seamless, logical, and non-awkward way to do it but I don't know if that's overdoing it for the guests, to make them watch two emotional dances in row. Curious to hear the opinions and experiences of others! - Jen

Thanks for the input! No, I haven't visited, just trying to get together a short list of places for my site visit in August. Due to your comments and the fact that it's a little too pricey, this one is off the list. Thank you so much! - Jen

Quote: Originally Posted by aqua32marine Hi Jen, I haven't had a wedding on Isla (yet!) but I was just here a couple of weeks ago. The ferry system is super easy, the boat ride takes like 15-20 minutes in an enclosed catamaran with additional seating on the exposed upper deck. It's actually quite a nice ride at night since they use these cool blue lights around the base of the boat and it reflects off the water. I didn't have to deal with ferry ticket purchases on the Cancun side (our hotel took care of that for us) but going back to Cancun, buying a ticket was really easy. I would recommend that, if you have a lot of guests, to get a shuttle or something because the ports are pretty far from the airport Thanks! I've actually been to Isla before, ridden the ferry, taken the shuttle, etc., so I know what it's like. And that's actually what made me worried because to me, it seemed like a lot of hassle. Or at least, a whole lot more than simply hopping in an airport transfer van and getting dropped off at your hotel. So I'm just concerned that if I do end up picking Isla Mujeres, when potential guests find out just how long the total trip is really, door-to-door, and how many legs there are to the journey, some of them may choose to not attend our wedding. So that's the one thing holding me back from booking. - Jen

Hi Danielle and welcome! It is so kind of you to do this and I'm especially appreciative since the #1 location on our list right now is Zama Beach Club on Isla Mujeres, using Sunhorse Weddings to coordinate. The only reservation I have about Isla Mujeres is the fact that, in addition to flying all the way to Cancun (we're in San Francisco) and taking an airport transfer, our guests will also have to take the ferry to the island, adding an extra amount of time and inconvenience. Did this seem to bother any of your guests, or even worse, dissuade any from attending your wedding? Because of this, we've been looking at other locations throughout the Riviera Maya but so far we haven't found anywhere that we like even half as much as Isla Mujeres. Thanks again and get ready because I'm going to be bugging you with a LOT of questions! - Jen

Wow, what a gorgeous wedding! Thanks for the detailed review! I'm thinking about the Gran Porto for my wedding and couldn't find very much information so this is really helpful. Be sure to post more pictures when you can! - Jen

Bumping this thread ... does anyone have any info about weddings at the Fairmont Mayakoba? Thanks, - Jen

I’ve been on this forum for a little while now but I’ve mainly been lurking and using it to research wedding locations. So much useful information here! We have FINALLY decided on a wedding location, after months and months of going back and forth and asking the advice of everyone we know (multiple times, which annoyed the crap out of a lot of people … oops!) and we couldn’t be more excited about it! We were originally thinking about the Riviera Maya but after considering the inconvenience for our guests (we live all the way in San Francisco), we thought Cabo or Puerto Vallarta would be more wise and considerate options because we were worried about people not attending if we hold it so far away. However, after a couple of months of research, we realized that we were slightly depressed about the location change because the Riviera Maya is literally our dream wedding location and we just couldn’t get excited for Cabo or PV. So we finally took the advice everyone had been giving us, namely that few, if any, people who would be willing to make the trip to Cabo or PV would be unwilling to fly to Cancun (so we probably wouldn’t lose any guests) and have decided to get married where WE want to get married, in the Riviera Maya. In fact, we think that possibly more people will come now that we’re having our wedding in a gorgeous, tropical location because the RM is so much more appealing to most people than Cabo or PV. We are obsessed with those balmy, tropical evenings where you can cruise around in shorts and a tank top and be completely comfortable (I’m ALWAYS cold) so now that we’ve decided on the Riviera Maya, we’re extremely excited about the whole planning process and plan to take a site visit sometime this month. We’re not really AI-type people because we would feel bad making our guests stay at a resort that we’ve picked … we’d rather give them a few options and let them pick whichever one works best for them. Also, we’re pretty low-key people who prefer things that are somewhat off the beaten path and more intimate and quiet. However, we’re not completely closed off to the idea. If we found a small AI resort that is very close to other hotels, that could work but I can’t seem to find any that fit that description. Our perfect situation would be to take over an entire hotel, somewhere small yet still classy and beautiful. Here are some places we’re considering for our site visit, after I do more research to make sure they would work for us and fit in our budget: - Le Reve (probably too expensive) - Ana y Jose (probably too expensive, plus we don’t really want to go as far as Tulum) - La Tortuga (I can’t find any info on La Tortuga weddings! Suggestions?) - Petite Lafitte (Can’t find any info on Petite Lafitte weddings either!) - Al Cielo (Could be a good option, need to look into it a little more) - Shangri-La Caribe (Also looks like a good option) - Zama Beach Club in Isla Mujeres (Not completely jazzed about the idea of being on the island though) Can you guys think of anywhere else I should be considering? Or where I can find some info on La Tortuga or Petite Lafitte weddings? I have found tons of extremely useful information and advice on this forum and it’s been my most indispensable wedding planning resource. Thank you all for contributing what you do and sharing your wisdom and knowledge! -Jen