Photoshootsvallarta

HI,

Here is a good mariachi, they are 8 or 10 persons. They charge around 5000 or 6000 pesos per hour. The name of the person in charge is Eric, his cell phone number is 322 146 9358. If you call from the USA you need to dial 00 52 1 before the number. We had various weddings with them and they are very good.

Pierre

You are very welcome! You could check out La Mansion and Villa Celeste; they do many weddings. Casa China Blanca is one of my favorite ones, north of Puerto Vallarta. And Casa Yvoneka has an amazing view. Hacienda palo maria is also beautiful but somewhat expensive...
 

Hi jenna,

We took a few photos there. It is a lovely place. Thay have a terrace on the top floor which can be very nice for ceremonies and a big living room that opens on an other terrace which is lovely for receptions. it is also only 10 minutes from downtwon Puerto Vallarta.

PIerre

Thank you! The hotel has 18 rooms and a few 2 or 3 bedroom villas that you can rent as well. In total around 60 guests can stay at the hotel. There are a few hotel in Sayulita, 5 minutes away or Bucerias, 20 minutes away.
 

Hi Girls,

The weddings at the Four Seasons are beautiful. here is a video we did of a wedding there.

pierre

Hi, there are much less vendors in Punta de Mita. Some of the beaches are rocky, but you can swimm on a lot of them without any trouble.

The Royal Suites is a somewhat big resort. La tranquila has very nice gardens and pools but has many buildings in construction.

A very nice, very private (also very expensive) hotel is Imanta. In Punta de Mita. http://www.imantaresorts.com/ I think it is perfect for a honeymoon.
 

Hi,

I got married in San Pancho, my wife is the wedding coordinator at Garza Blanca and I have shot weddings in all of the other hotels except for the Hacienda San Angel. All of those hotels are very nice and very different from each others so I am sure you will find the one for you. You can send me a message if you would like to see some of our wedding galleries to see what their weddings look like!

Pierre
 

My wife and I got married last May in the little town called San Pancho, 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. Me being French and my wife being Mexican, we wanted to do something very Mexican and very different for my family and all of my friends who were coming to Mexico for the first time.

The Hotel :

The Hacienda San Pancho opened last year and is a boutique hotel specializing in weddings. It is just outside of the town called San Pancho, has 18 rooms and a few 3 bedroom villas. All of the rooms are very spacious and some of them have mini-swimming pools on their terrace.

The hotel is very private, since it closes for every wedding, we had no intruders or persons outside of the wedding at any point of the day. The staff was absolutely amazing, they all worked very hard to make everything we wanted possible. Gretel, who is the hotel manager helped us all along the way, she never said no to any of our crazy ideas (such as having a donkey in the beach club), you can see that she has a lot of experience coordinating weddings.

The hotel offers the possibility to host your wedding on its private beach, in the beach club with an amazing view to the beach or in the gardens inside the hacienda. We decided to use all 3 of those areas ! We had our cocktail in the Beach Club, our civil ceremony on the beach and the reception in the gardens. Since the hotel hosts only your guests, it allows you to have the party going much later than other hotels would. We decided to stop at 3am but I am sure that Gretel would have allowed us to go much later, if our feet could have handled it !

The Cocktail  and Ceremony:

We wanted something very relaxed with a vintage look to it. Gretel helped us find some old furnitures like a red Corona bar or an old bathtub. We filled the tub with bottles of beer, sodas, water and many coconuts which one of the hotels employee would then cut and prepare for us. Details Vallarta provided us with a few « seats Â» made out of straw and all of the little pieces of decoration that would bring more of a Mexican flavor. To add to this relaxed/fun atmosphere, we decided to create a photo-booth out of a donkey, a couple of sombreros and a poncho. It was a big hit ! Our Mariachi band was playing with its back to the ocean, and they would « shake their booty ! Â» while playing, which only added to the relaxed atmosphere we were looking for.

From there, you could see the beach where we were going to have our ceremony. For the ceremony, we wanted something very simple and minimalist. We used an other of the old furniture Gretel helped us find as well as 2 big Agaves, which looked great!

The Reception :

The decoration at the reception was, again, very Mexican and simple. We had bought many small statues of little mariachis, little Katrinas, little pigs... Every table had a different set of statues. As centerpieces, we decided to create our owns and bought many little cactuses. We had 2 lounge areas with bonfires where our guests could relax when they were not eating or dancing.

Since we wanted a relaxed atmosphere throughout the wedding, we decided to have a buffet for dinner, and what best way to have a mexican buffet than to have Tacos ! Our favorite Taco stand from Puerto Vallarta came and cooked Fish and Shrimp Ceviche as well as Fish – Shrimp – Pork or Beef tacos or quesadillas. Mexicans always love tacos and our French and American guests found the food amazing and very fresh ! You can never go wrong with tacos !

Me being french, the only concession I could not make was on the cakes... I had to have french cakes for dessert, and I had to have many of them ! So our friend Eric, from the Paris Cafe in Puerto Vallarta made us many, many... many cakes ! Not only did they look good, they were amazing !

Vendor Impressions :

All of our guests told us they had an amazing time at our wedding and my family went back to France in love with Mexico ! They all thought the hotel was amazing and the staff even better. There could not have been a better place for our wedding than the Hacienda San Pancho and it would not have been the same without the help of Gretel.

Details Vallarta rented us all of the tables, chairs … We had put them in charge of setting up everything for us. They understood the concept we were going for and surprised us with many little details that made the decorations even better.

The food was amazing, fresh and very affordable. We bought all of the alcohol in Costco and it was also less expensive then through any catering company.

Our photographer Eva Sica is my business associate, I do not need to write a review on her, I think the photos speak for themselves.

My wife was extremely happy with her flowers and we were extremely happy with the DJ. We had given him some instructions on what kind of music we liked and he played only songs we loved (until 3am!) the quality of the speakers were very good.

The donkey was extremely polite, and smiled for all of the photos !

Hotel : Hacienda San Pancho

Photographer : Eva Sica

Coordinator and Decorations: Gretel from Hacienda San Pancho and Herriberto from Details Vallarta

Flowers : Sandra Lucia

Tacos : Mariscos Cisneros

Deserts : Eric Lenoir from the Paris Cafe

Mariachi : El Mariachi Loco

DJ : Watussy

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like a more detailed review of any of our vendors or if you need help with anything for your wedding!

Pierre

Hi,

It almost never rains the entire day in Vallarta, even during the rainy season. The weather in July, during the day is always very hot, humid and without any clouds! However around 7 or 8pm it will start raining very hard for a few hours. It rains 2 out of 3 evenings in general. This July we shot 6 weddings, and it rained for just 2 of them.

So it could rain for your wedding, but that would be after the ceremony, during the reception, which a lot of hotel/villas can offer to have inside or you can rent a tent.
 

Pierre

You should check the Hacienda where I got married, it is a small hotel/large villa, which, if rented for a wedding, you will have all by yourself. They fit 200 people easily and we had our wedding until 3am but could have gone later if we wanted to. It is called Hacienda San Pancho.

Almost all of the private villas will have a noise ordinance, but an other choice of a very nice villa who can accomodate that many people would be Casa China Blanca.
 

I did buy a few bouquets for my wife at flowers to go in the past and they were all very pretty! But I have never seen any bridal bouquet from them.
 

Hi Alicia,

We do a lot of weddings here so now we know many of the vendors! I also just got married in Vallarta and here are the ones we used for my wedding.

Florist, she is somewhat expensive but extremely talented!

Iris Maldonado – Iris Design 

Cell Phone + (52) 1 322-109-9610

[email protected]

http://www.irisdesign.com/Inicio.html

DJ, we used Francisco from Watussy. He also has bands working with him.

[email protected]

http://www.watussy.com/

Cell phone: + (52) 1 322 108 7905

I also have heard good things about them http://curielproducciones.com/

My wife used Irene Guerediaga, Here is her website: http://www.ireneguerediaga.com/english/index.html

My associate Eva took our photos, you can see some of them on our website www.photoshootsvallarta.com

Dont hesitate to contact me if you would like more info, other vendor options or need help with anything else!

Pierre

Here is what Casa China Blanca was charging, when I asked for my May 2012 wedding:

June 1st through September 30th: $1500usd per night

October 1st through December 14th and April 16th through May 31st: $1800 usd per night

January 16th through March 14th: $2000 usd per night

December 15th through January 15th and March 15th through April 15th: $2500 usd per night.

There was a 1 night minimum stay for Events, and the Event fee varied from $2000 usd for 15 to 30 guests in the low season to $11500 usd for 201 to 250 guests in the High Seasons.

The Villa fist 10 guests.

The house is amazing for weddings but was a little expensive for us.

It wont rain in May but it is almost certain it would rain in September...

Pierre
 

Thank you!

Of course i will write a detailed review, I have just been extremely busy lately but I will do it before the end of the month!

Pierre
 

Many bad things happened with Casa Valerie and in the end it did not happen there... Feel free to send me a message if you would like some details!
 

They do not charge me a coordination fee. They rented me everything I needed and will set everything up for me, decorations included. Herriberto loves to decorate and play with lights. They have a lot of pre-established concepts but for me, we created a new one since I want a very mexican and rustic wedding.

Hi Kasey,

You could contact Herriberto and Rebeca from Details Vallarta. They organize and find everything for you. They will do it for my wedding which is in less than a month and make it very easy for me. Here is his email if you would like to contact him: [email protected] Here is their website http://www.detailsvallarta.com/

They are not expensive and have contacts with everybody!

Pierre

Hi AShley, you can check our webpage and see if you like our work. www.photoshootsvallarta.com we have shot over 70 weddings in Vallarta. You can also read a lot of review about us in the vendor reviews.

PIerre

Hi weliaslo,

I have been told that they had problems with their email and website. You should try to contact Jimmy directly, he is the owner. Here is his email. It worked this week!

james@martoca.com

Pierre

Hi Jamie,

We shot weddings at Casa Tres Vidas and Quinta Maria Cortez, right next to each others in the Conchas Chinas areas and right on the beach. I am not sure if they can fit 60 people but are great for pictures.

Casa Guillermo is a few steps away and can definitly fit 60 guests but is more expensive.

Casa Valerie and Azul Profundo are great and within walking distance of the Barcelo hotel but are not right n the beach, they have great views of Los Arcos.

You can also find many beautiful villas in Sayulita and San Pancho. Katy from Playa Bliss Weddings is a great wedding coordinator there. We shot many f her weddings and they are beautiful!

A wedding planner could help you find a villa since they will have more options. Let me know if you would like to know about more wedding planners for whm we have sot weddings and more villas.

Pierre

Hi Jamie,

I had heard a few things about Casa Valerie also but Valerie has been very kind to me, she let me redo the contract, rephrasing all of the things I did not like or understand, visit the house as many times as I wanted with all of the people who will help me for the wedding...

With my fiance we also liked Casa Azul Profundo, http://www.casaazulprofundo.com/ the owner was also very friendly and, even though the website is not very nice and the photos don't really do justice to the house, it is very charming and has a great view of Los Arcos. It has 11 rooms and the terace is big enough for more than 60 guests. It is also less expensive than 3000usd a night.

My familly and friends are French and they do not really like the big all inclusive hotels, they wanted to stay in small Mexican hotels downtown and go out to different restaurants everyday so that they would really enjoy and know Vallarta and the Mexican life. A lot of them will be staying at a very small hotel downtown called Los 4 Vientos. My friends coming from the USA will stay at the Garza Blanca (Beautiful hotel) and my Fiance's familly (she is Mexican) will stay at the Hotel Buenaventura, downtown (not the best hotel but very centrical and since she worked there they will give her prices). If your guests like All Inclusive but quite hotels, you can look at Villa Premier and Garza Blanca, if they like small traditional hotels you can also look at Casa Isabel and Hacienda San Angel. If they like big hotels with lots of things to do you can look at the Dreams Pueto Vallarta, they will give you grou deals.

Since I am French and my fiancee Mexican, the food will be a mix of both! My friends at La Cigale will do the apetizers for us. They are not specialized in weddings but the food is amazing and they have lots of ideas! My favorite Taco stand in Vallarta will do our main dish, shrimp tacos and quesadillas, fish tacos and quesadillas and octopus tacos as well as fish ceviche. And the desert will be done by my friend Eric from the Paris Cafe, it will be a french piece montee and lots of fruit tarts! I can't wait to eat all of those deserts! Eric is a very special guy but his deserts are the best!

Regarding the planing, i will plan everything myself with Eva, the photographer with whom I work, my fiancee, she is a wedding coordinator at the hotel Garza Blanca and our friend Herriberto from Details Vallarta, his company rents everything for weddings (and if he does not have it he will find it!). I know who will do what (flowers dj mariachis...) but have not gone deep into the planing yet. If you need any contact just let me know!

Pierre

Thank you!

I probably will post a few of them. I hope everything will come out as I picture it!

But feel free to ask me anything, until now I know who will do the food, the music, the flowers, have booked the church... So if you need tips I am here!

Congratulations on the Villa and wedding!

I myself am getting married in a Villa (Casa Valerie) in May 2012 and am planning everything myself. Much easier since I live here! Do not hesitate to ask me anything you want if you need help!

Pierre

Hi Ashley,

You can look at the Buenaventura Hotel, it is downtown, not expensive and very familly friendly. We have shot a few weddings there and they always came out very nice.

Pierre

Hi Lisa,

I thought of 2 places for you which are not hotels. The first one is Martoca Beach Garden, in Bucerias, 5 minutes away from Nuevo Vallarta. They have a big garden, right on the beach. I have been to various weddings there and it is very nice. I am sure you could ask them to do your ceremony in the garden. They have very big Palm Trees which could provide you with shadow. Here is a photo gallery of a wedding there. They had their ceremony on the beach but you can see if you like the place. http://foto.lamatas.lv/Wedding-Erin-Ulises/

The other one is a Restaurant called Oscar's, right downtown Puerto Vallarta on the Isla Cuale, it is a little island on the river. They have a very nice garden.  I have attached a picture where you can see their garden for you.

Regarding the tent, some of my very good friends are wedding coordinators and they told me that you could rent one starting around 5000 pesos, so around 400 usd. Of course those are the basic ones, not the prettiest ones, but it is not as expensive as you might think!

I hope this helps and I will let you know if I think of a resort with a very nice garden.

Pierre