woktor

Hi ladies, I am coming to this forum late but my wedding is in less than 5 weeks - Dec 4th - at La Amada. So soon! Wish I would have read this beforehand as I also live in NYC. : ) We have almost 90 people coming to the wedding. I have a had a great experience working with Ileana BUT I am a very laid back bride, and honestly there are still many details that need to be ironed out. I have a friend who planned a major corporate event with her at Excellence and she assures me that she is really on top of everything and once we get there, everything will be organized and set. I am trusting that is the case but TBD. Fingers crossed! We are using all vendors from the hotel for the most part - all food, flowers, etc. We didn't do a tasting but when we did a site visit in April, all the food there was great so I'm not too worried about that. I did not choose a cake, bouquets or centerpieces from the pictures they provided though. I found pictures of what I wanted online and sent them to Ileana so am hoping that what we get is as close to what I requested as possible. We are using the DJ the hotel recommended - DJ Mannia- but we are bringing a hard drive with music we want played just in case. We are flying in our own photographer from Puerto Vallarta - Elizabeth Lloyd- who is amazing! We are having a welcome dinner the night before at Lupita Lounge. We're doing a Mexican buffet and open bar, which is still pricey but will end up being about half the cost of what the reception will be. I considered having it on the beach but was nervous about the wind, plus I loved the feel of the lounge. We're not going to have formal seating or anything just the cocktail tables and seats that are already there. The ceremony will be on the beach, cocktail hour around the pool (with the Mariachi band) and reception at Isla Grill. I am still waiting on the layout of the tables for the reception though, including where the dance floor will be positioned. Hope to get that from Ileana in the next day or so so we can do the tables. Since we have so many people coming, we are not going to bring our own alcohol bc we'd rather pay extra to not have to deal with buying it all, determining how much we need, etc. However, there is a Sam's Club on the way to La Amada from the airport and we are going to get alcohol for our rooms there since we found the drinks at La Amada to be expensive (NYC prices!). The only thing I have not figured out yet is who is doing my hair, which I need to do THIS WEEK. Has anyone had their hair done at the spa/salon at La Amada? Can anyone recommend someone outside the hotel? Luckily, I have a friend who can do my makeup for me. Any questions for me or other suggestions I may not have thought of, let me know.

Rmarino222, we went back and forth on the all inclusive thing too but ultimately decided on La Amada. We are throwing a welcome dinner for all of our guests on the Friday night and the wedding is on Saturday. Like you said, since breakfast is included with the room everyday, that only leaves lunch and drinks by the pool that our guests have to pay for if they are just coming for the weekend. The rates at La Amada were so much less than those at the all inclusives we looked into, that I am not really sure how this couldn't be the most cost effective option for our guests. We do have some guests staying longer, some as long as a week, so for them an all inclusive may have been cheaper but the majority are only staying 2-3 nights. Tami

Uhleesa, I'm getting married at La Amada on December 4th. We've stayed at a lot of 5 star hotels and this hotel is just as nice as the best of them. Beautiful beach area and the room rates are less than half of everywhere else we looked during that time. When we did the site visit in April, we loved everything about it. The place is impeccably clean, amazingly friendly staff and service, great food including the free breakfast daily, rooms (even the lowest class room category) are suites, swim up bar at one of the pools (which was important to us), etc. As Theresa said, it has a very Miami in Mexico feel to it. The only negative we could think of is that the drinks are pricey (we live in NYC and they're New York prices) and the majority of our guests are big partiers. But since we are having a welcome dinner with an open bar as well as the wedding, we figure our guests will only have to pay for drinks for themselves at the pool during the day. I have heard that all Mexico WCs are slower than we are used to in the states so keeping that in mind, Ileana, our WC, has been great! Let me know if you have any more questions. I'm happy to help.

Hi Carrie, I am getting married at La Amada on December 4th, 2010. Can't wait to hear how planning is going for you. Tami

My fiance and I are sharing our room the night before the wedding. He thinks it's a ridiculous tradition not to and I don't care either way. I suggested he sleep in one of his single guy friends' rooms the night before but honestly since all of our friends are big partiers, that's probably not the best idea anyway. I will just have him leave our room as soon as we wake up and he can get ready in a friend's or his parents' room while I get ready in our room with my mom and sister.

These are the 3 resorts I liked best so far as well (that seem in our guests' price range). However, Ceiba doesn't have the dates we want (early Dec 2010) and EPM is adult only (2 or 3 of our guests may bring their kids and make a vaca out of it). We're going to do a site visit at La Amada April 3rd. Hoping to find a few more venues to see that weekend too. But yes, I agree...choosing the venue is so much harder than I thought! After our site visits, I'll post what we found. Good luck!