jfuller

Is anyone planning a pre-wedding (Friday day/night) event NOT at La Amada? I'm looking for ideas......

Congrats!! Luckily now you have lots of time to plan In response to your prior question, I'm using Gabi at Planner 1 to do the decor, table setting, lighting etc. While Ileana has some inexpensive options, I was a little concerned about the execution (and thats the last thing I want to be worried about on my wedding day). Email Gabi and get info from her, you'll be happy I promise!

Hi! I'm glad you found this post -- it's been super helpful to see everyone's responses so far! We decided on La Amada for a couple reasons -- Cancun is a direct flight from NYC and LA, where most our guests are from. Playa Mujeres is close to the airport, and not in the insanely congested and cheesy/spring break-y/generic hotel zone. The hotels in Rivieria Maya are beautiful, but the ones that you would want to have your wedding at are insanely expensive (unless you're okay with your guests paying >$400/night for a hotel room). In Playa Mujeres there are two hotels - La Amada and Excellence, and Excellence is adults only. Considering that there will be kids at our wedding, and most importantly considering that La Amada is a beautiful, small boutiquey hotel with excellent service and pricing, we knew it was the place for us. For pricing -- December is a little more expensive, so room rates will likely be >$200/night -- if you decide to do your wedding there I'd lock in a group rate earlier than later. For the wedding, you could estimate that you'll probably be paying ~$50/person for food, ~$55/person for open bar, $3000 for a photographer, $2800 for music (this covers a musician for the ceremony, mariachis for cocktail hour, and DJ for the whole night), and there's a flat fee of $995 to have a wedding at La Amada (covers the minister, setup, etc). Does that give you a good idea? It's entirely feasible to have a really nice, affordable wedding at this incredible hotel What do the rest of you guys on the blog thing? Quote: Originally Posted by Rmarino222 I have been reading through posts on this website for 2 weeks and am thrilled to have found this one. I'm in NYC and am recently engaged and am in the process of trying to figure out where to have my wedding on Dec. 2, 2011. I didn't realize how overwhelming it would be to find the right hotel. Right now La Amada is top on my list, i'm just a little nervous about the cost of everything. Would you girls mind giving me an idea of how much the ceremony/reception is costing you and what the rate of the rooms you got for your guests? I'm expecting to have around 40-50 guests.

Uhleesa - Ileana was quoting the $18/person setup charge to me too -- I assume this is to cover the cost of the flowers, and it's actually pretty reasonable. Though -- I wasn't necessarily impressed w/ the flower/table setup pictures that she was sending me. The people through Tropical Wedding Experts (Denise/Gabi/Pablo) seem to be much better at actually styling the wedding, and providing more options on flowers, table setup, etc for a reasonable price. BUT I'm finding that the food pricing though them is much more expensive than La Amada! Thanks for the heads up on the alcohol -- I'm going to try and look into the $4/person corking fee further. I'm a little frustrated that Ileana didn't tell me about that options upfront!

dmarr and tilliepiper, are you guys both in NYC? It sounds like all three of us are planning weddings at La Amada next year -- we should all meet in person to discuss over drinks!! thanks for both of your responses. I DID talk to Denise at the bridal expo, I'm sure she was referring to me. After talking to her, I'm now seriously considering using the Villa. I think that 130 at Isla Grill is just way too packed. And it seems like Denise and her caterers can help to bring down the costs in other areas (we can buy our own alcohol wholesale instead of paying the hotel markup). And thanks for the warning about the wind -- in all the pictures I see of weddings on the beach it looks like everyone is blowing around. I have to do some serious brainstorming to figure out how to avoid that. And I'll have to get some sort of idea about how windy it is that time of year! I suspect it's more windy in the fall since its storm season. dmarr when are you headed down in November? I'll be there over Thanksgiving weekend! I'm definitely planning on doing a welcome dinner the night before, but I'm not sure on location yet -- perhaps since we're going to so stations, we'll do Isla Grill and the pool area?? I need to check w/ Ileana and Denise. Thank you both for all the suggestions/help! We definitely have to keep this dialogue going! Both of you guys let me know if you ever want to meet up in person. I live in downtown NYC and work in midtown, and my schedule is always pretty flexible.

HI! It's so good to know of someone else who's planning a wedding there! I really hadn't wanted to do Aroma -- I'm hoping that we can either have the option of fitting in and around Isla Grill, or perhaps doing tables on the beach.....I'm headed back there over Thanksgiving to do some more planning, so hopefully I'll have it figured out then! Are you using the minister supplied by the hotel? Are you using the florist they supply as well? Are you planning anything for the night before?' Sorry for all the questions! Thanks so much for your help

I'm planning my wedding for April 2011, and so far so good -- my only concern is whether there is anyone out there that's fit a party of 130+ for a sit down dinner at the hotel -- and if so which space was best? I'm headed down there for planning trip #2 in November, but I want to start thinking about these details now....let me know if anyone else is in planning mode! Thanks nervous bride