boutiquebride

Hi everyone, we're getting married at Marina Maroma (staying at El Dorado Maroma) in November of this year. Since there are a lot of people flying in for our wedding, we want to treat them to a bit of a different experience for our 'rehearsal' event. Could you please help with ideas? Here is what we're looking for: Preferably outside the marina and our hotel: so many people are staying at our hotel, not to mention that the marina is where our day-long wedding is. We are thinking of going off-site... a restaurant or a bar in Playa del Carmen/5th Avenue, perhaps? Fits within our budget: I can't spend more than an absolute maximum of $25 per person, all in. We are spending quite a bit on the wedding, not to mention our at-home reception, so money's tight. I'm open to not doing food (just a 'cocktail' is fine). Something unique and fun: No description needed I'm thinking of unique restaurants/bars/beach clubs/ beach bonfires, etc. Maybe even do something around an activity, rather than eating? Open to suggestions. Help, please! I have to send out my invites ASAP, on which rehearsal info needs to go... so this is a bit of an urgent decision-making situation. HELP!

Hello all, We finally picked a venue! We're getting married at El Dorado Maroma in November, but thinking of doing the reception at Marina Maroma (because we don't want an early cut-off time). I have seen pictures online and those on Elizabeth Medina's website. Has anyone been there? I'm concerned about the aesthetics of where my guests will be received and have to walk through to get to the reception site. If it's a place where water sports are played, the lobby doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful -- or maybe there's a separate entrance? Has anyone been to a reception there, or had their reception there? Any pictures of the areas other than the reception location will be greatly appreciated!

Hi there! Congratulations, and so happy to hear about your experience! I hope you can put up pictures soon! I had a couple of questions. How far is the resort from the bar strip? Just in case my friends want to go into town to party a couple of times... Also, did you have to pay for the welcome event, and was it private? I'm considering having a rehearsal dinner as a welcome event, but doubt I can afford it. What other welcome event options would you recommend?

Thanks a lot everyone. This is great. I'm getting such good insight through your responses! Nemmerz, since you've done all this research, do you know how far the 'clubs/bars' area in Playa is from the Maroma beach area? I think I have a top three list now: EDM, Azul Beach and Secrets Maroma. One of the things I'm concerned about is keeping my young guests entertained (and by entertainment, I don't mean Michael Jackson shows, etc. --- those resort acts are so cheesy!) I know at the end of the day, my guests would want to venture out into the town for partying at least 2 - 3 times during the week. Just want to know how much cab rides would cost to the nearest clubs district.

Are there any bars on site that are open at night? I can't seem to find any mention of that. We have a lot of young people in my group, and I know this isn't supposed to be a party resort, but I'd like to have the option to drink and dance at night without having to watch a Michael Jackson show. Nothing too crazy, but just a simple bar and a dancefloor would be nice. I don't want my guests to have to cab it to town every night...

Hi Nemmerz, Thanks for your reply! I was initially interested in EDM because they only do one wedding a day -- I don't think that's the case with Secrets Maroma, right? I actually started looking at Secrets today, and I'm pretty interested. The beach at EDM seems absolutely breath-taking though, but I guess you pay the premium for the prettier beach? How many guests do you have? And what's the best way to get their price breakdown? Their wedding package online is pretty detailed. I'm trying to find out how much it would be to get one of the packages (ultimate, I think?) for 50 guests instead of 20... Did you just e-mail them through their link online? Tell me a bit more about your experience with them, please. At this point, I'm seriously considering Secrets Maroma instead of EDM.

We got engaged early in the summer, and started thinking about a destination wedding right away. We had a few criteria, so it made it easier to know where to start: we wanted a small boutique hotel, all-inclusive and it didn't matter to us if it was adults-only or not. We also knew we wanted as luxurious as we could find, and hopefully no buffets or the large resort atmosphere with tons of tourists around. Authentic, but absolutely gorgeous, world's most beautiful beaches, clean and top-notch world-class service. As far as locations went, we knew we'd have guests from all over the world (US, Canada, Europe, Middle East), so it had to be easy to get to (no obscure Caribbean islands). Finally we zeroed in on the Mayan Riviera, and hired a TA. That's when our progress stopped. There are so so many options in Mexico! We first looked at Azul Beach, but then we found out how the most beautiful beach in Mexico is Maroma, and started looking at properties there. The first guess was El Dorado Maroma, which seemed to satisfy all of the above criteria. But when I got the price list of EDM, I was so surprised! $1500 for a DJ? My entire budget for the reception/ceremony/rehearsal is $10,000. There was no way I could have the experience of a lifetime with that budget being at EDM. Then I called up the main Sandals number, did a big phone consultation, and realized that for 50 guests (that's how many guests we expect), we could have a free private rehearsal dinner followed by two hours of open bar, an hour long cocktail session the next day, a two hour long reception dinner and then four hours of DJ and open bar, all for about $10,000. I know most brides here don't seem to talk about budgets too much, but the budgeting aspect really really matters to me. We just bought a house and fully furnished it, and it really doesn't make sense to us to spend too much money on the wedding. My total budget is $20,000 and half of that goes towards bridal/groom wear, our flights and hotel fees and our photographer (another aspect of the wedding that REALLY matters to us). I know I'm on a budget, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an absolutely amazing destination wedding experience for $10,000. When I saw the Sandals prices, I started reconsidering our most important criteria (small boutique hotel, most beautiful beaches in the world, etc.) Our TA suggested Negril and Whitehouse if I do decide to go the Sandals route (which aren't even in Mexico... so there goes the location decision too!) I'm so lost, and our wedding month is November 2011. The clock's ticking and people need to be sent STDs so they can start planning/budgeting. Help, please??!!

I am getting married in November 2011, but we don't have a resort yet. We don't want a large resort (nothing Dreams-like). We want a 5-star, luxury, boutique hotel, but something that also has all-inclusive options. We have zeroed in on Mayan Riviera, but we can't find a good collection of boutique all-inclusives. Anyone have any ideas? Please help a bride in need! My friends and family really need me to make a decision on a date and location, so they can start planning!