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We did have a reception dinner. We had the ceremony at 4:00 pm, a cocktail hour on the beach from 4:30-6:30 with appetizers and drinks and the dinner reception from 6:30-10:30. We choose to do the pick and choose dinner with a choice of an entree of Mahi-Mahi or roasted chicken. The food was great and also came with a choice of soup or salad and a dessert, so there was plenty of food! You are going to be so happy having your wedding here, we are already planning a trip back for our first wedding anniversary!!

Hi! The cigar roller we used was hired through Lomas travel. When we chose all of the extras for the wedding the resort directed us to Lomas website to choose all of our decorations ect. and that was one of the options. Kat here are some answers to your questions. The resort and all the staff are magnificent I can't tell you in words how amazing it was to have our wedding here! We will be back for sure! Did you have a rehersal? And afterwards a rehersal dinner? We didn't have a rehearsal before the ceremony, it really wasn't needed. You meet with the wedding coordinators a few days before the wedding. This is where we talked to them about how everything was going to be set up and the script for the wedding official (who was amazing!) They talk to you about how the ceremony will be played out and we let them know which songs we wanted to play when. But in terms of an actual rehearsal, we didn't have one. After the Welcome cocktail hour we did have a private dinner with just the immediate family and wedding party. (this dinner was included in the wedding package and was not an extra charge) the resort is very intimate so when you do go to dinner you are surrounded by all your guests anyway. This dinner was set up so we could all sit at the same table. With the welcome party, is that something you thought of or does the wedding coordinator help and give ideas on things like that? We chose to do this, but our lomas wedding coordinator helped us with the details of what food we wanted to serve and gave us a list of all the options and the places on the resort we could have it. How long was the ceremony and what time did you have it? We had it at 4 pm and it was over in about 20 minutes Did you do a cocktail hour? We did do a cocktail hour after the ceremony and I'm glad we did. We spent most of the time taking pictures with the photographer after the ceremony and this gave our guests a way to all stay together on the beach during sunset and be part of some of the pictures. Did you bring any of your decorations? I brought quite a few extras to be set up. Lanterns for centerpieces, place cards, guest book, maracas for the ceremony, gift bags to be given out. There was an extra charge to have them set up all the extras, but it was easier than having to do it myself that day and they did a great job! Were the tables in the reception round or sqaure? We had the reception in Sabores because we had over 50 people. These table were square. But I saw an event on the beach the first day we were there and those tables were round. My TA was just there and mentioned the new restaurant as a place to hold the reception. I like the openess it offers but was concerned with size. The new restaurant would be a perfect place. It's right on the beach it has a little outdoor patio that walks right onto the beach. They said the maximum number of people it could hold is 50, so we weren't able to do it there. I would say it would be perfect for any group under 50. Did you have someone controlling the ipod or did you just have a playlist? I had a playlist set up, but one of the wedding coordinators controlled the volume and turned it on when it was needed ect. We did have one of our guests play guitar and sing for some of the reception. So the coordinator would turn on the ipod when he took breaks and such. And one last questions, did you use their photographer and video? I used Citlalli Rico with Claudia Photo. It was one of the options they provided on their website. She was wonderful to work with and the pictures on her website were exactly what we were looking for!

Thank you! I will post some pictures as soon as I receive them! Playa Del Carmen is about a 25-30 minute cab ride form the resort. They have bar, clubs restaurants and shopping in town and the cost of the cab is around $30. The welcome cocktail was about $12 per person and we had around 50 people, so it wasn't free but it was the most affordable option we found. It was semi-private. we had it around one of the smaller pools so it wasn't sectioned off from the other guests. However I did not see one guest that wasn't with us around the pool area the entire time. To tell you the truth the whole trip we felt like our group of people were the only people at the resort, which made it a really unique experience for us. We were going to have a rehearsal dinner, but we were doing a dinner reception after the wedding so we wanted to mix it up a bit and do something different. It was about a 2 hour cocktail party the first day people arrived, so everyone could meet and get to know each other. But you also have the option to do a large dinner reservation with the wedding package. You can do a reservation for 20 people at no additional cost and every person over 20 is $25. We chose to take advantage of this one night by just having a dinner with the immediate family which was about 15 people.

Hi All, I had my wedding at El Dorado Maroma a few weeks ago and it turned out amazing. The on site coordinators were extremely helpful and made sure everything was set up and put together better than I could have thought to do it myself. The resort is small about 72 rooms. I had visited it before about three years ago and knew it was the perfect place for what we were looking for. We had a group of 50 and because of the resorts size we were able to enjoy our wedding and vacation with our family and friends without having to deal with the large groups of people and distractions of a larger resort. Our group was mostly 20-30 year olds and it worked out perfectly. There is a bar open at night that will have nightly entertainment on the weekends, but it only last about 45 min to an hour. Our group was always the only ones at the bar and each night they let us plug in our ipod to their sound system and have our own dance party. The drinks are all top shelf liquor and they will make you whatever you ask for. The food is by far the best food I have had at an all inclusive resort and far exceeded all of our expectations. The rooms are beautiful, the pools and grounds are the perfect back drop and the beach is one of the prettiest I have ever seen. We had a Mexican Donkey Bar cocktail hour as a welcome event which was a good way to start off the weekend. We had the ceremony on the beach (the minister they used was amazing and made the ceremony feel very special and personal) We had a dinner reception at Sabores Restaurant. I chose this because although the beach is beautiful, I did not want to risk it being the end of October and having to deal with wind/rain/cold. But the beach would have worked just as well. We chose to use their Amplifiers with our IPOD instead of the DJ. This worked out perfectly and we were able to play exactly what we wanted. The coordinators introduced us when we walked in and their was a microphone for speeches as well. We also had the cigar roller at the end of the night which ended up being a great addition to the reception. The one thing that sets this resort apart from others I have been to is the customer service and personal attention you get from the staff. It says a lot when you have a large wedding group and the staff makes a point to get to know everyone's name and makes them feel at home. Even though we had our wedding in Mexico it felt very personal and we were able to spend time together as a group instead of being part of a larger resort. The general manager and head chef both introduced themselves the first day and told us how much they appreciated us having our wedding at their resort. They made you feel like part of their family at EDM not just another guest. EDM only has one wedding a day, we were the only wedding that weekend. There was never a question of being able to have the ceremony on the beach because of another wedding group, this gave you the feeling that your event was given all the care and attention you could ask for. This is truly an incredible place for a destination wedding and I wouldn't have changed a thing! We also use Citlalli Rico as our photographer who was incredible. She was so kind and great to work with. If you get a chance to look at her website and photos they are amazing!

HI Brianna, I would say it is def possible to do a reception that way at Maroma. I have been there before and they do have 1 bar that is open later called "Ricks Bar" One night we went there they had a band playing popular cover songs, and another night they just had music playing and a few people were dancing. It was nothing crazy but could def be a place you could bring your guests after dinner for some drinks and music. I'm sure you could ask the resort before hand if they had anything planned for that night. I have heard recently they sometimes have different shows that are performed. As far as dinner goes you could use the group reservation that is included in one of the wedding packages and have all your guests at one restaurant. Or, I went to one destination wedding, where everyone did dinner on their own and met up afterwards for drinks. I would say do whatever your comfortable with doing. The resort is small enough where your guests will always be together.

HI Brianna! Congratulations on your engagement! El Dorado Maroma is the perfect place to have a wedding! my Wedding is in October and I just nailed down the final plans for the reception part of the wedding. it ended up being around 800 for the food portion of the private dinner (but that is for 52 people) We could have done the private dinner that is included in the package instead but that was for a maximum of 20 people and any over that would have been 25 a person, so it ended up being about the same. We might use that dinner earlier in the week for just the wedding party one night. NO pictures yet, but I will after October!!! It's funny my travel agent just got back from EDM too, maybe we have the same one!

Hi Karla, Our weddings are so close! Mine is in October too. I'm starting to get nervous about the planning stages. I think I have everything squared away but it's so hard to tell because so much of it you can't see until your actually down there. For the make-up I decided to go to a local Bobbi Brown counter and have them show me how to do it, and buy what they recommend. (As long as I like how it comes out!) I've heard of a lot of other brides doing that and it work's out well. My hair is another story, I wouldn't trust myself do do that alone. My only option though is to do a trial with the resort and have them do it for the wedding as well. I haven't seen ANY reviews on EDM"S salon or make-up (have you?) so it's so hard to tell what to expect!

HI Ladies, My TA is going to El Dorado Maroma this week and said she could take some pictures for me while she's there, especially of the new beach restaurant! I hope there is a wedding while she's there. I have been searching for pictures of weddings at EDM but can't seem to find very many. I did find this one photographer who had a recent post on his blog: http://www.erichegwer.com/wedding-stuff/destination_weddings/el-dorado-maroma-wedding-part-1 Â I LOVE the simple beach wedding set-up!

We had to put down $200 per room for a deposit and sign a contract with the resort in order to do the room block. But as guests book and put down their deposits we get the money we put down back. I guess the advantages of the room block would be to ensure that the resort doesn't sell out and guests who book last minute aren't without a room, it also made it easier because the rates were locked in and no matter when the guests booked their rooms they were all given the same discounted rates (3 nights for $570 in Mi Hotelito). The disadvantage to the room block was definitely the stress of getting everyone to put down there deposits through our travel agent so we were able to get the deposit back. If guests decided to book the rooms on their own through another agent or website it wouldn't have counted. I think the new restaurants name is "La Playa" I'm not sure though. The resorts facebook page has some good pictures of it: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/album.php?aid=195756&id=202264843689 The resorts website i don't think even mentions it yet, but I think that's because it's only a few months old. Valeria told me that 50 people is the most it can comfortably hold for a private reception.

Kat I've been to the resort before and LOVED it! Let me know if you have any questions about it. I went 2 1/2 years ago, and since then they have built a new beach restaurant that is open for lunch. They offered that space to me for the reception but the maximum number of people it could hold is 50. Since we had around 54 confirmed guests we were able to get Sabores which is the largest restaurant at the resort. Even though I feel like an outside reception would be fabulous I decided a reception inside would be more comfortable and since the wedding is in Oct that is the rainiest month, so less chance of us getting rained on if were inside!! My ceremony is at 4 pm so I'm not sure what to do with the time in between that and dinner? I guess we would be taking some photos but I'm not sure a cocktail hours would be worth it or not. We did want to do a welcome cocktail the day most people arrive. They have a Mexican Donkey bar where they have an actual donkey at your cocktail hour with barrels of beer and such. My Fiance loved that idea so I think that is what we are going to do the Thursday before. I really want to find a way to incorporate a cameraman cruise in the plans. Having it for just the family and bridal party is a great idea! I'm not sure what other excursions to do, any ideas? The dress I got was Watters and Watters. They had a lot of casual but elegant gowns that were light. I got it almost 6 months ago so I almost forget what it looks like!

HI Tila, How many people are you inviting/expecting?? Because we got so much feedback from guests early on that they would be able to come to the wedding we decided to do a "room block" at the resort to ensure we would have enough rooms. Because we did this we were able to take advantage of one of their promotions and get 20% off room rates for our guests. The promotion is still going on too! Most of our guests are staying 3 nights for $570 in the standard rooms plus airfare which depending on where they're flying from has ranged from $200-$400. Our goal was to try and keep it below $1000 total for 3 nights. We do have a few guests staying longer and a few that are staying as long as we are (I think two other couples)! But most of them choose to stay three nights. Whoa $500 for the gazebo over the water!!!!! I think I'll stick with the beach ceremony!

I feel the same way! I have a million questions and once I think I have something figured out, I have a million more!! AND I wonder after all this planning we go through how it will play out once we're down there? The music portion I think right now is what I'm struggling the most on trying to figure out. I go back and forth, i swear last week I was set on having a DJ and not worrying about Ipod hook-up speakers ect! Those are the amplifiers I was looking to get for the reception for $250, much better than $1500 and it does include a microphone too so that's a plus. I also heard the sound quality is good when hooked up to an IPOD. I read a review on the AZUL thread and those resorts all work through lomas as well. Valeria told me that a microphone and speakers are available at no additional charge for the ceremony too. Have you ladies decided on what your doing between your ceremony and reception or dinner or whatever you might have planned after? our ceremony starts at 4 pm and they told me it lasts about 30 minutes, so from 4:30 till about 6 I don't know if I could have people just hangout somewhere at the resort or if I need to do a cocktail hour or something to keep everyone together? Also have you ladies decided where your having your ceremony?? beach , chapel?? They have the massage hut over the water but i'm not sure how many people it holds? Love the idea of silk flowers, I need to look into that! Anyone doing any excursion or anything with their guests when their down there? I'm so glad there are some other Maroma brides on this website!!!

the sand bags aren't my fav, but honestly when I was there it didn't ruin the view at all. The water is crystal blue and gorgeous and the bags don't stick out as bad as they do in pictures. But they really do help in keeping the water right in front of the resort VERY calm! We spent hours in the ocean just wading around and floating on our rafts. We stayed at Secret Maroma last year and couldn't even imagine doing something like that because the water was so rough and wavey so you couldn't just relax in the ocean. Also you can walk just past the marina right next to EDM and there is at least 2 miles of untouched beautiful beach with no other resorts in sight.

Welcome Kat!! Maroma is beautiful, no brown water in sight!!! So I have gone back and forth between getting a DJ and using their speakers with our IPOD and have decided on the IPOD. We are having about 55 guests so I thought for sure we needed a DJ but the more I thought about it the more I realized my ideal DJ would be someone I could hand a list of songs that I wanted played and they would play them. I just couldn't justify paying someone $1500 when I could just make a playlist on my ipod and have have someone who wants to help out be in charge of it. We also have one of our guests who sings and plays guitar who said he would love to play some songs at the reception and during the ceremony, and Valeria said it was no problem to provide him with the speakers to do that! I think that's the music I'll use during the ceremony, otherwise an IPOD could be used (no idea what songs i'm going to play during the ceremony though, any suggestions). I have read a few reviews from people who used an IPOD during their ceremony and said it worked out great so that helps! Our reception will be inside Sabores so that saved us from having to get a dance floor. I would love to have it on the beach but I was just concerned with it being too hot or too windy, and the costs for getting a tent or dance floor were more $$$ out of the budget that I would rather spend on other things. We put a deposit down on one of the infinity pool suites. The swim up suite would be great, but we wanted to have a little bit of privacy from our guests and all the swim ups are on the first floor overlooking the main pool, so you can pretty much see everyone that walks by if your on your balcony. That was the only reason for choosing that one. Last time we went we stayed in one of the Mi Hotelito rooms and LOVED it! The Infinity pool suites are just as nice just much bigger so we thought we could use the extra space this time around. We didn't speak with the WC Valeria till after we signed the contract either, i think it was within a day that she contacted us and has been great at getting back to us with answers to all of our questions ever since.

Tila, I actually got the "free wedding package" with one of the promotions they have going on (Marry Free on a Top Ten Beach | Karisma Hotels & Resorts) If you book 5 rooms for 3 or more nights you can take advantage of it. It doesn't include too much, but i just added the extra amenities that I wanted later on. Here is what the free wedding package includes: * Filing of all documents * Justice of the Peace or non-denominational Minister * Professional services of an onsite wedding coordinator * Complimentary online bridal registry and Wedding Website * Wedding Ceremony location including wooden plank aisle runner, chairs for 12 People and table with white linen * Romantically decorated room on wedding night * Breakfast in bed on first honeymoon day * Dinner Reservations for wedding group in Wine Room (maximum 20 persons) * Plus amenities of the Honeymoon & Anniversary Package

HI Tila!! The plan is still to have the reception and dinner at Sabores. We needed a minimum of 50 people for the resort to agree to close down the restaurant for a private reception. We have 53 confirmed guests so we just made the cut off. The other option was their new beach front lunch restaurant, but Valeria said 50 people would be too many people for that area. Our ceremony is at 4, and we are going to have a cocktail hour from 4:30-6 and start the reception around 6. This is how it is planned in my head so far, so hopefully it will work out that way, or somewhere close to it! The sunset catamaran cruise was something I REALLY wanted to do, but it is $55 per person and our list of confirmed guests is way bigger than we thought so it just became too much money to spend for an hour and a half. Valeria was the one who sent me all the details of the sunset cruise, but here is a link to the marina right next to EDM which offers a bunch of different excursions Marina Maroma Paradise. It's really convenient because no one has to mess with getting shuttles and so forth because the marina is right next door! We still might do a catamaran, snorkeling cruise if people want to go and just pay there way, it just won't be a private cruise. The photographer was a hard decision. We went back and forth about picking one of the photographers approved by the resort (there is only 4) or paying the $500 outside vendor fee and choosing someone else. We ended up choosing Citlalli Rico from Claudia Rodriquez photo, who is an approved photographer. Her photos on her blog are gorgeous and I really liked her style and she was available for my wedding date so i'm really excited to have her photograph the wedding.

Welcome Tila!! My wedding is in less than 4 months, I'm making a lot of the final decisions now (ie. reception extras, ceremony extras, music, food ect) I'm also working with Valeria who has been extremely responsive and helpful throughout the process. Maroma is a beautiful and one of a kind resort. My fiance and I went on an amazing vacation together there two years ago and fell in love with the resort, it seemed like the perfect place for a wedding. let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything!! I'm glad to see another EDM bride on this forum!!!

I'm getting married at EDSS sister resort, El Dorado Maroma. The wedding coordinators and all the extras are very similar between the resorts. I am getting married October 2010 and have been extremely happy with the planning so far. Very easy to work with and they have some great options!

I love your custom tags you did for the place cards. I have been looking everywhere for custom place cards in that shape like that. Do you mind sharing how or where you got those from?? Love your planning ideas!

HI Karla, welcome back!! I haven't heard of any great make-up artists in Cancun, I decided to go to my favorite make-up counter where I live, have them show me a few things and just just buy what they use. I didn't want to waste my time down there doing a trial and then not even like it and be stuck with nothing!

Just curious, who is everyone using as a photographer?? I'm finding this to be one of the hardest decisions!

Laur13, I am getting married at El Dorado Maroma and have been dealing with Valeria at Lomas travel for all the wedding details, same company that does the wedding coordinating for El Dorado Royale. I was wondering the same thing about the DJ song selection. Valeria sent me a sample song list of the DJ's available music. I was thinking anything that isn't on the list that I really wanted played at the wedding I could just download to my IPOD and I'm sure they would be able to play it. I tried uploading the pdf file that Valeria sent me, hope it worked!!! DJ AUTHORIZED SONG LIST.pdf

Hi Karla! It's been forever since I have checked back on the forum! I would love to keep exchanging planning updates, it's so helpful having someone else to talk through these things to make sure we're not being led in the totally wrong direction! How's your planning coming? I've been back and forth with Valeria to finalize some of the details for the private dinner. I had to order my invitation last week and needed some of the details for dinner, time ect. My ceremony is set for 4 pm, so i have this pretty big gap of time to fill between that and dinner. I went with the "pick and choose dinner option" which seemed to be the most reasonably priced option considering it is an all inclusive resort. About $35-40 per person plus 20% off with the promotion. still hurts the budget a bit, but a better price than a reception at home will cost. I have read on other forums there is a "set menu option" that is more reasonably priced but was told this was the closest thing to it. Valeria confirmed Sobores could be used for our dinner reception, but they will need to re-evaluate if we can reserve it in a few months to see if the resort capacity goes up. Also talked to her about a sunset catermeran cruise for our guests. It's an hour and a half sunset cruise out of Marina Maroma for up to 100 people , completely private. Include drinks, appetizers, a mariachi band and a welcome cocktail. Waiting on the price for 40 people. Still gathering info on DJ and Photographer, it looks like there is only a few that they allow you to choose from regarding photographers, but I can't seem to find any reviews on any of them. For the DJ they give you only one option at $1500 for 4 hours. But I think Maroma is the perfect place for a wedding and even if all these details fall apart it would still be amazing. I don't think we could have picked a better resort!

HI Karla, Valarie is my wedding coordinator as well. She has been pretty good so far, I'm just having a hard time trying to get concrete and descriptive answers to my questions, especially on setting up the reception location. The Sabores restaurant is only available if we have 40 or more guests and if the resort has the availability to close it down for a night, so we won't know that until we have all the guests confirmed. Our other option is the beach, but like you said dancing in the sand isn't exactly ideal in heals! And if it rains I still haven't gotten an answer of if a back-up space is available. So i'm trying to find out what the other options are for a private reception.....still waiting to hear back. Is the Palapa Arrecife located at the Marina? I'm concerned about picking a DJ and photographer too without have some sort of contact before hand. I was hoping once I got to selecting one I could hopefully get an e-mail or something to contact them. For the DJ at least to give him a playlist of what we wanted. I guess I need to make sure we have the space to have a reception first! Gail

Hi Karla! Congratulations! El Dorado Maroma is the perfect place for a wedding. We are getting married in October too, on the 30th. I havn't picked the photographer yet.. The wedding coordinator from lomas just sent me the website with the extra amentities, photos, flowers, music ect. Are you having the reception at one of the palapas at the marina or on the resort? When we were there in 2008 it looked like they were building a large one right on the resorts beach. it looked perfect for a reception! I have asked our wedding coordinator what our options are for a reception site, but she said it depended on the resorts availability. I hope I don't have too wait too long to know what's available. Are you having a DJ for music for your reception?