mlynnea

I agree with ReeRee, the Hacienda is a bit dusty and dirty, but you can't tell in the photos. (Though I would definitly recommend you wear shoes). The building is really amazing and most of my favorite wedding photos were taken there. I would recommend all future brides at least check it out before your wedding day to see if you want to use it for pictures.

Also - another note to that.. Unfortunately you can't decide the night of that you want to extend your reception, we had to decide 2 days prior so she could make sure there was sufficient staffing, so that definitely played a part in my decision as well.

 I asked Cecilia about extending our reception time, and she gave me the following quote: "...the package include 3 hrs service, in this case from 6:00 to 9 :00 pm, in case you want to add additional time the cost is $10 usd +11% tax +15% service per person per hr. We can do outside events until 11:00 pm."  We were also using the sound system (for Ipod), which she said would be an additional $180/hr +tax.  We decided not to increase the time of our reception, and I'm actually really glad we didn't. My groom and I were so exhausted by 900pm, that we went to the lobby for one more drink with all of our guests, and then retired to our room. You always have the option of using the other bars or the disco to extend your party with your guests, or whoever wants to stay out. My groom and I went to bed, as did the parents, but some of our guests stayed out at the disco all night long. The final decision was just that the price it would cost us for an additional hour wasn't worth it to me. Just didn't make sense when the other bars were available for free. Â

 She is really really nice, and speaks English perfectly, so it was easy to feel comfortable. She told me during the photos, that if anything she asked me to do felt uncomfortable, not to do it, because you'd be able to tell in the pictures. She had a lot of direction on posing and places to take photos. Which was really good for me, because I don't have an eye for that. I only had one location that I really wanted to do photos (At the abandoned mansion down the beach), but other than that, everything else was her suggestion. She had been to Secrets Maroma before, so she knew her way around. Good Luck with everything! You'll love her! Â

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! With all of the people on here that helped me, I had to make sure I did my own review to help future brides. Good Luck with your planning!

 Hi ReeRee, They do not have ANY music for your ceremony. Depending on the package you chose, you have the option of chosing a musician, and I'm sure they have some typical songs they could suggest. I ended up renting the sound equipment and brought an Ipod for our ceremony music. I picked 5 songs to play while people were sitting/waiting for the ceremony to start (background music). One song for the processional and one for the recessional. I did a legal ceremony, so there was a period of time in the middle of the ceremony where 4 witnesses and me and my groom had to each sign 5 pieces of paper....so if I would've known that, I would've had music for that as well. (That takes about 3-5 minutes).  I didn't have a religious ceremony, so we had a judge. She stuck to the script (which can be provided to you by Cecilia). She spoke English fairly well, but had a strong accent. I would make sure that you clarify with Cecilia that it is important that the minister/judge speak English, or that you at least have a translator.  Here is my full review if you want details/pictures: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/59235/secrets-maroma-beach-resort-lynnea-s-wedding-review-feb-26-2010 Good Luck! ~Lynnea

ReeRee. My mom bought our bags either at Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics (which are local craft stores), They were like $8.00 for 3. They were canvas solid colored bags, and were about 4"X16"X12". I'll see if I can find/take a pic for an example. We gave one bag per couple, and had different colors for each one ( so they didn't match our wedding colors), so that people wouldn't get confused about which one was theirs. I actually customized the bag myself. I found a cool graphic of a large hibiscus flower, and created my own stencil, and painted it on the bags with fabric paint. I also had stencil lettering and added my groom's and my initials and our wedding year to the bag. I didn't want to make it too detailed about our wedding, because I wanted people to use them again. I thought that if it had our full names and wedding date on it, or something corny, that no one would want to use it ever again. So most of the bag was an image of a large hibiscus flower, and then under neath I did "LK * 2010". Most people thought I had purchased them and were surprised that I did it myself. It kinda looked like a screenprinted T-shirt would. The wedding schedule I did myself also. Just printed it on nice paper and put it on the top of the welcome bag to be sure that every saw it. The cost of the bag, decorating the bags, and the stuff in side was probably $150-200 total (we did 8 bags for 16 people). I know there are plenty of options out there for ordering them custom, but I kinda enjoyed knowing that it was my own handiwork.

Quote: Originally Posted by ReeRee I need your opinion ladies. I have a friend who is a photographer and I asked him to be my photographer for our wedding. Now do I need to pay for his hotel and flight plus for his service?? If that is the case, I think I want to use Cecilia Dumas instead. I think a couple people from this thread used her and I like her style as far as I've seen on her website. Even if I bring my friend to shoot our wedding, I am also thinking about meeting with Cecilia Dumas the next day in Isla Mujeres where all the colorful buildings are and take photos there as well. I'm just brainstorming right now, but I was just wondering if I have to pay for the room/flight, then it will be just cheaper to get a local photographer... If you were hiring a photog that had to travel that wasn't your friend, you would be expected to pay for the travel and lodging as well as the photography package, which understandably can be very expensive. If you were going to invite your friend to attend the wedding anyways (or even if you weren't), discuss with them what they think would be fair. Maybe you pay for a portion of your travel. Or if they're a good friend. Maybe they wouldn't even consider asking you to pay for travel and lodging. As for Cecilia Dumas - Someone mentioned to be careful about having to pay for her travel and lodging. I used her and can confirm that all we had to pay (besides the photography package) was for her day pass to the resort, no travel and expenses for her. ~Lynnea

Quote: Originally Posted by knitgirl13 I got the questionnaire today and it's confusing me!! How am I supposed to know the number of guests and where they'd be staying before we secure a place to send out invitations?? Is it okay to send it back without that part filled in yet? Also has anyone had a small wedding here? We'll have under 20 guests so we can't do the beach reception. Where is a good option for a smaller party? Does anyone have pictures of the different reception locations? We definitely want our ceremony to be on the beach. I only had 13 people at my wedding and reception. It was a bit chilly the evenings we were there, so we had our ceremony & cocktail hour on the beach, and dinner and dancing in the marble room next to the ballroom. It was plenty big, and was really well done. If you want an outdoor option that is away from the action (besides the gazebo), there is a terrace outside the ballroom that is very nice. For either of the locations I mentioned, you'd need to make sure there isn't another event in the ballroom, otherwise they will disturb your party. And don't worry about finalizing the numbers of people right now. Just estimate. Pricing isn't really final on your contract until the day of the wedding, or at least it wasn't for me. I have pics of my reception site on my review if you want to see them: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-2010-a-59235/

Quote: Originally Posted by JamieLynn2011 This review has been so helpful, I am just getting started with my planning at Secrets Silversands. Nothing is for sure yet, but it is looking good. My question for you is that did you feel there were a lot of hidden fees after you got the wedding package?? I am afraid that the $2700 is going to keep getting higher and I am just talking the resort itself not extra photos and such. Also, did all of your guests stay at the hotel? I am curious to see how strict there are on the day passes and how much extra it is per person to have the dinner that is included in the package. Thanks in advance! Jamie There weren't any hidden fees for me. Everything was listed out in the itemized contract. If I made any changes to it, or asked to add or substitute anything, I made sure she told me how much it would cost, or how much the substitution was worth. All of my guests stayed at the resort so I didn't have to deal with guest passes, but in my opinion, u shouldn't be charged any extra for it wedding package if u have outside guests, because they're already being charged the guest fee of $100. If u are having a legal ceremony, there is about $400 in extra charges on top of the package price, so make sure u get that itemized by the resort's planner so u know exactly what u will be charged.

Quote: Originally Posted by knitgirl13 I can't find the SMB thread that had the attached documents of bouquet options, etc. Anyone know? We've just decided that we'd like to try to book this location for our wedding/honeymoon. Yay!! I don't know where that thread is, but you can always email Cecilia and ask for the file. It's in a PowerPoint format.

My dress is by Robert bullock of Birnbaum and Bullock. Thanks!!

My mom wrote her check to: "Hotels del Caribe Holdings Inc.", and then in the memo section she put my name, my hubby's name and our wedding date. The address on the envelope was: Ms Cecily Diaz-Arauzo Laredo National Bank 5085 Westheimer Ste 4700 Houston TX 77056 It's weird to me that the address and "Attn" are the same as the address you posted, but the bank name is different...?? For reference, our deposit was paid July 2009 for our Feb 2010 wedding.

Quote: Originally Posted by jaccat15 I have a question about the "Honeymoon package" included in the Ultimate package - does anyone know what this consists of? We are thinking of staying for a few days more after the weddign so I'm thinking we would take advantage of that. any info is helpful! Here is what comes with the honeymoon package. It's straight from the SMB website. If you purchase a wedding package, this is included: Champagne on arrival Fresh flowers and exotic fruit platter in room upon arrival Champagne breakfast in bed the first morning after arrival Tension Release Massage for two in our couple massage suite (25 minutes) Choice of either a European Facial or a Salt Glow Scrub body treatment for two (25 minutes) Private beachfront dinner one evening- upon return from dinner you will find a romantic candlelit bath. (includes a bottle of wine and dinner for two) Private petit fours each evening at turn down service Earn Free Nights towards a first anniversary return stay I don't know if this has changed, or if you have to talk to someone to set this up once you're there, but we didn't get all of the stuff listed above when we were there.

Sound System - For the ceremony it was $180 plus tax, I don't remember exactly what it was for the reception, but it was an hourly charge, and I know it was over $100/hr. It was definitely worth it both for the ceremony and reception. It was quite windy on the day of our ceremony, so I don't think our guests would've been able to hear us without it. We didn't hire a DJ for our reception, we just had an Ipod, so we had to rent the speakers to play our music then as well. Photo locations - (Boo) We didn't use anything else for our photos besides the hacienda down the beach and the resort. I really liked the colorful buildings on Isla Mujeres as well, but it just wasn't going to work out with timing and money. There are actually quite a few different locations within the resort that can be nice backgrounds. We used the hammocks, the stairs to the lobby, the coffee cafe, the lobby - we made the rounds ;-) Videographer microphone - Our videographer did have a separate microphone that he used to capture the sound from the ceremony. He actually taped it to the sound system microphone. If you're not going to use the sound system, he'll probably either clip it to someone's shirt, or just have you guys hold it.

Quote: Originally Posted by saza175 Lynnea, thanks for the awesome review! I have a question for you, did you receive your photos and video while you were there in Mexico? The reason I ask is because we are having our AHR 2 weeks after we return from our trip, and I want to share the video and photos with everyone. Thanks! Saza - Yes, I got my photos while I was still there with my hubby on our "honeymoon". Our wedding was on Friday, and we received our pictures on Tuesday. If you are leaving soon after your wedding, they may need to mail them. But make sure they know when you're flying out, and they may be able to accomodate a quicker turnaround time if needed. Boo - I loved Elizabeth Medina's portfolio too! I think she required for the client to pay for one night's stay at the resort since she lives so far away, and there just wasn't enough in our budget for that. She's going to be amazing!

Quote: Originally Posted by Boo Wow what a great review, thank you so much for taking the time to write it all, all these reviews are such great help for all of us brides that are still in planning stages! I must say we splurged on photography to get Elizabeth Medina but Cecilia's photos are just stunning! I must find that hacienda now, what a great great space!!! (would love to hear directions of how to get there - we will be there one day prior to and I am looking forward to running around and finding such quint spots, how marvelous!) thanks again. To get to the hacienda, stand on the beach and face the water. Walk to your right (South) along the beach about 200-300 yards, and you can't miss it. It's right on the beach. It's a large two story concrete building. Looks like someone started to build it and never finished. Make sure you bring shoes so you can explore safely. Enjoy!!

The videographer's site is Cancunweddingvideo.com - I love my video and I got it within days of our wedding. Check out their site. It might be cheaper to contract with them directly, rather than going through Secrets. Sorry I don't know how much it costs, because it was included in my wedding package. Our particular guy's name was Jerry.

We paid $1600 for four hours. That was kinda the middle of the road package. There were cheaper packages with less time, and longer ones as well. I think we paid $200 additional for the DVD negatives. I don't regret one penny of that. Photography was really important to me, and I LOVE our photos! ~Lynnea

Quote: Originally Posted by Kits55 Hey Bellajovie: I was married April 2009 at SMB in a legal wedding ceremony. We had our ceremony on the beach as well as the cocktail hour. It was a horrible experience but you DO have to be more organized as far as paperwork, blood tests, etc go. I only needed my passport in order to get married but there is A LOT of conflicting info on the forum regarding the documents you need for a legal wedding in Mexico. If you're thinking of a legal ceremony contact Cecilia well in advance for confirmation on what you will need. We had to pay a fee for the blood tests and it wasn't quite as fast as we thought it would be. There was a hold up with the doctor in the clinic (They did our blood test in our room) so he was over an hour late and we were waiting around to get to the beach and by then all the chairs were taken. We had my family (4 members) as our witnesses and luckily they arrived when we did so they "qualified" as witnesses. If you don't have people in MX early enough to qualify then you have to use resort witnesses and they each cost $20. Our judge was good, even in her red polyester vest suit. We had our Spanish license before we went back to the US but I think we waited for about 2-3 months for our English version license. Since then I've had issues with the US government accepting those licenses as valid (to change the name on my driver's license, new social security card, passport, etc). I even hired a translation company to translate the Spanish one and am still having issues. I don't know if it's just MN that won't accept them or if other states would give you a hard time as well. In MN they won't let me use the translation or any of the licenses for a new social security card or driver's license because our marriage license was not "approved" by the US Embassy in Mexico. It's a whole mess now and I do wish I had just done a symbolic ceremony and not told anyone!! Just my two cents I hope that helps. If you have any Qs send me a PM because I don't get the thread updates like I used to. I'm taking care of my name change in MN too. It might be more expensive than the route you're going, but I'm just going through the Legal Name Change process through Hennepin County. It costs $320, but it's kinda unrelated to the marriage paperwork. So you don't have to deal with the document translation, etc, as it relates to the name change. I've submitted the initial paperwork, and then the next steps are to bring my spouse and a witness to meet with a judge for a "hearing" for the judge to approve the name change. Once it's approved, you receive a document that you basically send out to SSN, and make copies of the document for credit cards and driver's license, etc. My mom thought that a money saving method might be to go to a local MN courthouse and get a MN marriage license, which would I think be cheaper and easier for the name change, but I wanted my legal ceremony in Mexico to be the true ceremony, so I opted to go the route of paying $320. Here is a link to the site with all of the documents and some FAQ: Name Changes Let me know if I can help. I'm not all the way through the process yet, but my husband is a lawyer and has been helping me.

I used mostly items from the Gold Menu, but I did downgrade for the soup in the silver menu. Ask Cecilia for the menu options and pick from any thing Gold or below. They just won't let you upgrade to "platinum" for free. ~Lynnea

Hey everyone, I got my review done!! Yippee! You can check it out here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-2010-a-59235/ ~Lynnea

Flowers I used the flowers included in the wedding package, and only purchased an additional bouquet for my Maid of Honor. Cecilia sent me photos of the different bouquet options for me to choose from, and I ended up asking her to combine a few elements from a couple different bouquets on the list. I ended up with an all white bouquet with White Roses, Hydrangea and Lisianthus. It turned out beautifully! I loved it! Cecilia delivered my flowers to my room at 1:30pm as I requested, to ensure that I had them in time for photos at 2pm. Also included in the package were 2 centerpieces; one for the Ceremony table and one for the Bride/Groom Reception table. Cecilia suggested matching these to the bridal bouquet, which I thought was a great idea, and they were beautiful. They were exactly the same, and I had her move the ceremony bouquet to the reception table after the ceremony. The Groom, Best Man, and Maid of Honor’s flowers were excellent as well. They made them exactly as I asked. Legal Ceremony We decided to have a legal ceremony. I requested the script from Cecilia so that we could plan our additions to it. What is written for the judge is very basic and would probably only last about 5 minutes. However, if you do the legal ceremony, there is quite a bit of document signing that takes place during the ceremony. If I would’ve known, I probably would’ve added another song to play during this time. The Groom and I had to sign AND thumb print on 5 documents. Our 4 witnesses also had to come up during the ceremony and sign 5 pages as well. Probably took about 5-7 minutes total. In addition to the standard legal ceremony text, we added on a Sand Ceremony and a reading. If anyone is interested in doing a Sand Ceremony, you can Google it and find tons of text on suggested things to say. I did that and combined a few different versions, and added some things to personalize to include my family and friends as well. After the ceremony, I scheduled it to allow for 1 hour of photos with the whole group prior to beginning the cocktail hour. (Ceremony over at 4:30, cocktails started at 5:30). Group photos only took about 30 minutes, so Dumas suggested that the groom and I take some additional photos around the resort, since the lighting was so amazing right before sunset. We left to take photos and asked everyone to meet us back at the beach at 5:30 for cocktail hour. Cocktail Hour We arrived at Cocktail Hour at 5:30pm. The Caribbean Trio (actually a quartet) was there waiting for us, and started playing as soon as we arrived. They were awesome!! I think if you select a different type of music like the Mexican Trio or something, you’d get the same band; they’d just play different music and have different instruments. They setup the cocktail hour next to the lifeguard stand and volleyball court right in the middle of the beach. It worked out great, and there was no one else around at that time, since the sun was going down, so it was quite private. The setup included 3 high top tables covered in white linens. Large Ivory colored Votive holders in the center of each table, tiki torches (which they couldn’t light because it was too windy), and some other post lights that had the cords buried under the sand. There were also a few normal chairs (about 4) placed nearby in case anyone wanted to sit down. I thought there would’ve been a bar where everyone would go up and order a drink, but instead they had 3-4 servers come out with trays of various cocktails, margaritas, and beer. It worked out great, and no one was ever left empty-handed. We did have a few guests make drink requests that they weren’t bringing out on the cocktail trays, and they were accommodated swiftly, so you’re obviously not limited to what they bring out. I’m sure you could even ask them ahead of time to make a “specialty†cocktail to bring out if you wanted. We selected the Mexican tapas for the appetizers and it was a combination of veggies, chicken, fish, chips/salsa/guac, etc. Everything was very good and there was never a shortage of food. The service was amazing and very prompt, and I was impressed at the number of servers we had for our small group. Reception After the Caribbean Trio was finished, we headed up to the main building for the reception. I chose to have my reception in the Marble Room located next to the ballroom. It was plenty big for our small group, and was protected from the elements. I was originally going to have the reception outdoors by the gazebo, but after having spent a few evenings there, decided that it was too chilly to keep it outside. I’m glad I did it that way, because it was especially windy on our wedding day too. The marble room was decorated beautifully. They had two large heart shaped candelabras on one end of the room, they had the speaker setup for the dinner and dancing music (we used iPod for this too), We put two large rectangular tables together so that our group of 13 could all sit together, and that was decorated with white linens, the same ivory candleholders as by the cocktail hour, our two flower centerpieces, and white chair covers. They had a table setup next to the candelabras with the wedding cake on it. (We didn’t do any extra decorations besides what included in the package, and I don’t regret that one bit. It wasn’t needed, and it was nice not to have to haul decorations to Mexico) Since our package photographer was only there for 1.5 hours, we did the cake cutting and first dances before sitting down for dinner. We selected the Tres Leche cake (which didn’t taste like Tres Leche I’ve had before, but it was still delicious). The cake is very simple, with white fondant and small white flower on top. I could’ve cared less what the cake looked like, so if you want anything special, you’ll have to upgrade. For dinner we selected the Secrets Salad, Tortilla Soup, Grouper with Poblano Chilly Sauce & Veggies, and Chocolate/Coconut Bread Pudding for our meal. Everything was delicious! Our package came with the Gold Menu items, but I actually “downgraded†with the Tortilla Soup from the Silver menu, because I didn’t like my other choices and wanted to keep the meal “Mexican†in nature. The Tortilla Soup was a hit!! So delicious, as was everything else! They also included small printed menus on each of my guest’s plates with what I had selected for dinner. That was a nice touch that I was surprised by. People may say that the serving sizes are small, but after all of the food and drinks at the cocktail hour, and with the 4 course meal, most people couldn’t finish what they were served. I promise your guests won’t go hungry for lack of food. One thing to remember (which I didn’t pay attention to on the contract), there are only 3 hours of service included for the reception. So, for us, our reception was from 6:30-9:30. If you wish to extend your reception to a later hour so that you can have more drinks and dancing, you have to pay an additional cost of $15.00 per person plus tax & gratuity for every additional hour. I was torn as to whether to extend our reception or not, because I thought 9:30 was an early ending to the party, but we decided it wasn’t worth the money and that if we wanted to keep going we could go to the lobby bar and/or disco. I’m glad we kept it to only 3 hours, because by 9:30 my groom and I were exhausted and everyone wasn’t as interested in dancing anymore… Overall, everything went very smoothly. I did have a list of things that I wanted to make sure Cecilia got done, but I'm not sure if she actually used it or not, but everything that I asked for was taken care of. I also had one of my guests assist with some of the ceremony stuff...making sure everything was setup correctly, etc, so I didn't have to deal with that at all. Cecilia Reyes (the wedding coordinator) was really nice and did a really good job with our wedding. I was honestly surprised at how easy everything was on our wedding day. It was very low stress and so beautiful. The staff and service were amazing and I would recommend this resort and this experience to everyone! I hope all of this helps. I probably went into more detail than necessary, but reading other people’s reviews really helped me in my planning, so I’m hoping this will help everyone else too. Feel free to post or message me with any questions, I’m happy to help. ~Lynnea

continued... Outside Vendors (photography): We hired an outside photographer for our wedding photos. We found Cecilia Dumas online and fell in love with her portfolio. Her pricing seemed reasonable compared to other local photographers in our price range. She is from Buenos Aires, but I think she lives in Cancun, and she speaks English really well! Dumas arrived at 1:45pm and I had a friend greet her in the Lobby and ensure she was able to get in okay. Outside vendors are supposed to be charged a $90-100day pass fee (Cecilia at first quoted me $90, then changed it to $100 a couple months closer to our wedding). Dumas was escorted to my room by our friend, and she took a few solo shots of me getting ready. We then walked out to the beach where we had the big “reveal†with me and the groom. After a few shots on the beach, we walked to a nearby abandoned hacienda for photos. I had heard about this from this forum, and we checked it out the day before the ceremony to see if we wanted to take photos there. I’m so glad we did, because most of my favorite photos were taken there. It’s quite an amazing space! In addition to photos prior to the ceremony, she also took ceremony shots, group photos after the ceremony, more photos of the groom and I around the resort, and then about 15 minutes of the cocktail hour. We had contracted her for 4 hours, and we paid extra for her digital negatives. Her package stated that it would include around 350 digital negatives, but we got 820!!! Cecilia Dumas did an amazing job!! I get soo many compliments on the photos she took. I would recommend her to anyone and everyone! A few of my favs from Cecilia: Package Photographer: With the “Ultimate†Secrets wedding package, it included a photographer for 1.5 hours and 50 printed photos in an album. We asked the photographer that came with our package to come after Cecilia Dumas left. So he was there for cocktail hour, first dances, and cake cutting. Apparently the photographers all come from a company called "Juan Navarro". Our particular photographer's name was Alex. He was very nice, but to be honest, I felt like anyone could've captured the photos that he did if they had a nice camera. He did get some good ones of our guests and of me and my husband, but compared to Cecilia Dumas, there was quite a difference. I do want to share with you what I consider the "scam" related to the digital negatives. So, we got the "Ultimate" wedding package from Secrets, which included the photographer, and 50 printed photos in an album (we did also get a DVD of those 50 photos). We met Alex in the lobby of Secrets about 3-4days after our wedding to get our photos from him. He handed us the album of 50 photos to look through. Then after we saw the album, he told us that there was an additional DVD containing all 250 photos, that he would charge us $250 for (this is not included in the wedding package). What was frustrating was that he strategically decided not to include some of the more important photo events from the evening in the 50 photos he printed (You don't get to pick which photos are printed, the photographer chooses). We had photos from the cocktail hour, and photos of our First Dance, but he didn't include photos from the Father/Daughter Dance, the Mother/Son Dance, OR the Cake cutting. (Trust me, there were plenty of photos in the 50 that he selected that could've easily been traded for the more important events of the evening, it's all part of the "game"). So it's like they purposely set it up so that you feel like you need to spend the extra money on the full DVD. We were able to bargain and ended up getting the DVD for less that half what he was asking for, but the whole experience was frustrating in that they set it up to practically require you to purchase the extra DVD in order to have photos of your entire event. I don't mean to be a big "Debbie Downer" on this, but just wanted to tell you what we went through... I am really glad that we got the digital negatives from Alex, because there are a bunch of good photos that we will be printing and adding to our wedding album, and he was the only one to capture the Cake Cutting and dances. Videography: The videographer showed up to the ceremony site 30 minutes before it was scheduled to start. Our videographer’s name was Jerry. The company name is (Cancun Wedding Video by Mike Cantarell, Cancun Wedding Videos | Mayan Riviera Wedding Videographer | Mike Cantarell) We didn’t really talk to him much, except to introduce ourselves when he showed up. He just did his thing. Before we arrived in Mexico, we burned a CD of 5 songs that he could use on the DVD. Two of the songs we selected were our processional and recessional and he made them fit into the video appropriately. I gave the CD to a friend to make sure that it got to the videographer and he was able to incorporate 4 of the songs into the video. My dad was really impressed with the equipment he was using, he noticed that it was the best HD Video Camera that Sony makes for personal use (Obviously it wasn’t a huge cinematography camera).The video is a little less than 30 minutes long and captures our entire ceremony, and some fun shots of us taking pictures afterwards. We watched it recently with some of the friends that joined us on the trip and they were really impressed. It is amazing quality and I’m so happy to have that keepsake of our event. We’re having a reception back home for the rest of our family and friends so we’ll definitely be playing it there for everyone to see. continued... (yes, it's long) :-)

continued... Welcome Bags: We put together welcome bags for each couple joining us in Mexico. I purchased canvas “beach bags†in various bright colors and personalized them with our logo, initials and wedding year. In each of the bags I put personalized insulated mugs, Sunscreen, bug spray, hand sanitizer, aloe, Tide laundry soap travel packet, fruit snacks, mixed nuts, gum, and a schedule including the time and location for a Welcome Dinner, as well as what time and where to be for the Ceremony. I thought the insulated mugs would be a huge hit, because when I went to an all-inclusive a couple years ago, it was great to keep our drinks cold. Most people didn’t use them. The fruit snacks and mixed nuts were very popular however. It was kinda hard to get your hands on snack foods at the resort. Obviously there is no shortage of food, but sometimes you didn’t want to order a full meal. We packed all the welcome bags and goodies in one suitcase and my mom carried the receipt in case there were issues with customs. (They may think you’re bringing it there to sell it). We didn’t even get asked about it. All of our guests were arriving on various days. We might’ve been able to leave all of the bags with the front desk staff together, but to be on the safe side, I decided to deliver the bags to the front desk each day we had someone arriving. We had to walk up there to get breakfast anyways, so it wasn’t a huge deal to walk upstairs. All we did was stop at the reception desk and provided them with the guest’s names. They actually looked up their room numbers for us when we did that, which was nice to have. They didn’t charge us anything to do this and were happy to help. Having the reception desk provide something to your guests might be safer than having items delivered to their rooms ahead of time. Just in case any of your guests upgrade their rooms upon arrival. You don’t want the wrong people getting your welcome package! Welcome Dinner It wasn’t in our budget to have a private welcome dinner, so we decided to reserve the Teppenyaki table at Himitsu (where they cook in front of you). The table seats 16 people, so it was perfect for our group of 13. This was the only place where they were willing to do reservations for our whole group. I asked Cecilia ahead of time, and she wasn’t willing to help us set anything up at any of the other restaurants. The large table at Himitsu was fun, but I think I would’ve liked a normal dinner table better, as it wasn’t really conducive to talking to anyone that isn’t sitting right next to you. My parents ended up at the far end of the table, and I kinda felt bad that they were so far away from me. Maybe I just needed to be more aggressive in insisting that they help us reserve a table, but who knows. I’m pretty sure we could’ve had a table provided in the World Café (which was the buffet restaurant), but I wasn’t really excited to eat there. Package changes/substitutions (hair/makeup, steaming/ironing) After hearing another bride’s experience with the hair and makeup at the spa for her wedding, I decided to pass on these services. We ended up putting the value of these items towards the speaker system for the ceremony and reception. I did my hair and makeup on my own, with the help of my MOH, and it worked out just great. We also didn’t use the steaming/ironing services, only because I was paranoid about them melting my dress. It was a little wrinkled from being in the travel bag, but no one noticed, and you can’t tell in any pictures. We tried steaming it with the iron in the room, but I don’t think it worked very well. The groom’s suit actually traveled quite well, without any wrinkles. He also carried his suit onto the plane, and was allowed to hang it in the first class closet. (My parents carried their wedding clothes on the plane too) We did other substitutions with the extra corsages/boutonnieres included in the package as well. We only needed 2 boutonnieres, so the extra cost went towards a bouquet for my maid of honor, which was $60. I was told the value of the boutonnieres/corsages was $10 a piece. Ceremony: Friday, February 26th, 2010. (Ultimate Wedding Package) We had our ceremony on the beach. We used the temporary structure that is wrapped in white tulle. They set it up on the South end of the property, at the end of all of the beach lounge chairs, in front of Building 27. It looked like they moved the chairs on the end away from the ceremony site. Included in the setup is the tulle wrapped around the structure, a small round table to hold the centerpiece, chairs with white chair covers, and I was also offered complimentary chair bows (either ivory or turquoise). I choose the ivory chair bows, and they looked really good and matched the color of my dress. The table is located directly under the tulle wrapped structure, is covered in white table linens and the ceremony centerpiece was placed there. I also had a friend setup the Sand Ceremony items on the table there as well. We paid for a sound system during the ceremony, and the speaker was placed to the side of the ceremony setup. The quality of the sound system was very good, and was plenty loud! I’m very glad we paid for that because I don’t think anyone would have heard us over the sound of the waves (it was a really windy day), and we hooked an iPod up to it for the processional and recessional music. FYI on the iPod hookup: I brought every kind of cable I had at home, because I wasn’t sure what they used to hook it up, and I didn’t end up needing any of them. They had what they needed. I would, however, recommend bringing a power cable that you can use to plug your iPod into the wall. We used our iPod for the reception music as well, and it died at the end of the night (luckily it was only about 15 minutes short of our reception end time anyways).