June7

I believe it is $100 for outside vendor and it isn't worth the worry of trying to pass them off as guest to save $30. Valeria threw in enough free and unasked for stuff for our ceremony to more than make up for paying the $100 so I wouldn't try and do that, it may end up costing more in the end.

we had our wedding June 7th at 6pm. It went smoothly. We worked with Valeria who did everything she said she would. It was a small wedding on the beach with just 4 guests. Our photographer was Alex from the Juan Navarro studio. He was okay. We paid for package 3 which was 2 hrs. He gave us 2 hrs. he also put some of the best pictures on an additional DVD then sold us that one for $250. I knew he was going to do it, warned him about doing it, and he did it anyway. He argued that the "mandatory pictures" were in the pictures he gave us with the package. I argued that I paid for 2 hrs and expected him to include the best pictures in the 50 pics we got.He was nice enough, and we got some good pictures but again, hate the extra DVD picture crap. The resort itself was impressive. The beach was awesome, the food was good, and the service outstanding.

Thanks for the information. We'll talk about the hair appt when we meet with Valeria on Monday. And we will take pictures after the ceremony, it just makes more sense. Guests will understand..

Thank you so much for the review. I can tell that you were unbiased as you had some good things to say too. I hope I get lucky like some of the other brides and grooms and have a better experience. We have 4 guests total plus us. I like your attitude about it being an amazing ceremony because of you and your husband. Great attitude to have!

Need some input. Here is the situation; We are scheduled to get married on the beach at 6pm. It is just us and 2 other couples. We have a cocktail hour afterwards. Hair appt for the bride is currently 3pm. The question is pictures. Currently we are scheduled for pictures after the ceremony. The pros are obviously it is prime light for shooting, we don't have to be concerned about the dress getting dirty when we use the abandoned hacienda type place down the beach etc etc. The cons are we will miss the cocktail hour with our guests, leaving them to entertain themselves, while waiting for us to return. They'll probably get hungry because we aren't eating until after the pictures... We are considering getting pictures taken before the ceremony which means moving the hair and make up to an earlier time. What are your thoughts..? Next, we are renting the sound system for an hour. We would like to have some music play while the guests are waiting for it to begin, and some music as she walks up to the podium area. But then if the ceremony takes 20 minutes this is 20 minutes we won't have towards the cocktail hr afterwards...any suggestions or insights?

We are getting married June 7th on the beach. It will be very simple, just us and two other people. We opted for the free ceremony (symbolic). We are using Alex from Juan Navarro as we liked his pictures best of all from that team. We booked for 2 hrs. I still can't get over the prices of everything. I think I will retire and move to that area as a professional photographer. We are bringing an iphone with music for the ceremony and cocktail hour. I've looked over this forum for a few months and feel pretty confident it will go smoothly. We'll be there June 4th through the 11th. Staying in a Ocean Front preferred. We've been to Riu Palace in Playa last year and loved it so we are pretty sure Secrets will be awesome.