AnnieWeds

Cristina, your ceremony set up is absolutely beautiful! I love your choice of colors against the sand and ocean. Sorry we didn't get to see it in person. Husband and I were being good hosts and spending time with each guest before they left. It really is unforgettable. We were so nervous preparing, but in the end it all worked out and that's how I know everyone else will have an amazing wedding as well.

Hi Jenn, We used both the resort's decor and paid extra for items from an outside vendor (who was also referred by the resort). Everything was from the resort except for ceremony aisle runner, latterns during the reception, and flowers. I would say though, if you have more than 40 guests I would suggest using an outside vendor for the cake, because our cake was so tiny.. Hope that helps! Annie

Hi CriCri, It was so great to meet you and person, you and your husband look very cute together. You are right, I did luck out on the weather, it was gorgeous, but at least it was nice and cool on your wedding day, I was sweating bullets the whole time I wish you guys all the best! Happy wife, happy life.

All Bonitas! I recently tied the knot at SMB on 5/12/12 and let me tell you, it was so incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better setting, weather, people, and our coordinator (Cecilia). I am not a person of many words so let me share my photographers blog with you. The pictures on this post pretty much sums up the amazing time we had! Enjoy http://www.cameronleungphotoblog.com/2012/05/31/secrets-maroma-beach-riviera-cancun-mexico-wedding-annie-noah/

Hola Bonitas!! BDW helped me so much during the months that lead up to my wedding that I wanted to return the favor and just share my experience with everyone. I am not a person with a lot of words so here is our photographer's blog. The pictures on their post pretty much sums up the amazing experience we've had at SMB! IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE WEDDING and one of the best days in my life. I will elaborate on my experience there later.... but for now... picture time! -Annie http://www.cameronleungphotoblog.com/2012/05/31/secrets-maroma-beach-riviera-cancun-mexico-wedding-annie-noah/

Hi Ladies, We had our wedding on May 12, 2012 and it was wonderful. I am excited for all those that are there now and will be going. You will have a wonderful time. Cri, it was so nice to meet you. Receiving well wishes from you and your husband-to-be made us forget the little things and reminded us of the real reason we were there - to begin life together with the one we love and share that moment with our loving family/friends. I will try and get to a full review later, but for now here are a few quick tips: Concierge is very useful. We ordered maracas for the ceremony through the concierge who lives in Cancun City. Very authentic. Best food is the grilled dishes and from the steakhouse. If you are going to choose Gold or Platinum for your dinner reception entrees, I would try negotiating with Cecilia to ask for the steaks from the steakhouse. If it is included in the resort, why not make it available as a dinner reception item. If you are using the Sound System for your ceremony, just put all the songs in a single playlist on your iPod and go over it with the technician. It will go off without a hitch. The forum was so helpful and I will be posting more in days to come to help future brides. Please feel free to PM me with any specific questions.

beachbride2012: Our wedding is May 12, 2012. Literally days away! Excited, but so stressed ironing out the final details. Pretty sure it won't all be settled until we have our sit down in person. KCDawn: Yes, we are working with Laura and she's so helpful and says she is willing to do that to avoid the fee. The freight charges for getting things from outside vendors are an arm and a leg though! For decorations, are there anything that is provided from the Resort directly? It seems like they just refer you to an outside vendor - Planner1Events. And to get anything delivered to the Resort is a "freight" charge which in some cases is almost half the cost of the item itself! Anyone have experiences with this? I wish I could just go with decor selections provided by the Resort and not have to pay extra. Makes me wonder what the price of the Ultimate Wedding pays for? Sorry for all this negativity ladies. I'm trying my best to stay positive into the last week.

CriCri: That is beautiful! Is that included in the Ultimate Weddings Package? Or are you getting that from an outside vendor to set up?

Speaking of paying $100 for guests to just get in, am I the only one having a hard time understanding the external vendor fee? We are getting our flowers from an outside vendor and our outside vendor is charging us a delivery/set up fee which is understandable, but then SMB is charging us a external vendor fee. What is the point of the external vendor fee if the Resort is not even helping you set up the flowers - centerpieces, etc. Is anyone else using an external vendor for their flowers and running into this issue? I also agree it's hard to justify having to pay for a reception at an all inclusive, but our wedding group was too large to get any reservations so we had to. Hope the food they make available for the private reception are at least a slight difference from what they serve all other guests that night. It's getting a little frustrating now that it is coming down to the wire and we are working out the "money" details. =T

Ladies, regarding the additional $5/person fee for the cake, Cecilia said that if you upgrade the cake from the standard wedding package cake, then you are paying for the cake so there is NO additional $5/per person charge. I guess that makes sense since the upgrade cakes are all around $150 USD to $200 USD so depending on the number of people you have, it will come out to $5/person at least.

That's a great question. I'll let you know what I find out.

newloves1975, that is a great deal to upgrade the video package! Thank you so much for letting us know.

newloves1975, I'm not sure about the bouquets, but I just so happened to have asked Cecilia the same question about the cakes and she says yes those are the most up to date cakes to choose from. And the flavors are are vainilla, cheese cake and 3 milk cake. =) Anyone have experience and opinions on the different flavors? Did anyone use an outside vendor for their bouquets? We have the Ultimate Wedding package and were trying to apply the bouquet included in the package towards an outside vendor flower instead.

@chelle86: Our wedding is 4 weeks away as well! May 12 @ 5:30pm. When is yours? Cecilia has been great and only just this week when we emailed her did she tell us to give her a day to get back to us. And she did get back to us a day later. I think she priorities based on when your wedding date is. We try and batch our questions to her so she doesn't have to reply to many emails at a time. @KCDawn/@kristinalilly: We are also thinking of using a portable speaker. We will use it for our Welcome Bonfire. Are you guys using it for your Ceremony? I wasn't sure if it will be loud enough for the Ceremony. Here is the portable speaker we've been looking at: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-S715i-Rechargeable-Speaker-iPhone/dp/B003VANOI6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1334173199&sr=1-1 Have you guys considered this one? I'm mainly considering this one because it is much lighter.

@KCDawn/beachbride2012: Thanks for the information. But what about the dinner reception? If someone has their wedding ceremony in the morning or afternoon, that can still mean all 3 weddings can have their dinner reception on the same night. I guess if the dinner reception is around the Pool area - Gazebo Terrace, Poolside Terrace, Barracuda Terrace - then the wedding receptions will not be so "private". And it will be first come first serve for booking the indoor reception areas I suppose. @brideRN: The photobooth idea sounds great! We actually saw that option too from Cecilia. But I'm not sure if it is in our budget. =( We are also thinking of using an instant camera for our guest photos like KCDawn.