Akumal Bride

Maybe check out Ana Y Jose. El Pez is pretty cool. I've heard good things about Nueva vida de Ramiro. Most places around there aren't luxury per se. Most of the area is off the electrical grid, so only a couple of them have a/c. Mezzanine might be the most upscale option. Any of those places will offer you a very different experience from an AI though.

I second Tlseege. Tulum seems like it would fit your bill. It's just about a half hour down the road from Grand Bahia Principe and there are a ton of small 'Eco resorts' right on Tulum's gorgeous stretch of beach. Most are basically cabanas on the beach, so it's sort of the anti all-inclusive mega-resort deal. They vary in price, but you can find some more affordable options if you don't need luxury. Once there, you can hang on the beach or check out the Mayan ruins either in Tulum or at Coba, which is only about a 30 minute drive away. Or you can visit the sian ka'an biosphere, which is pretty cool. Tulum is way more low key that Playa Del Carmen, Cozumel or Cancun. If you're looking for clubs or things like that, it's probably not your place.

As far as activities in the Riviera Maya, you can't go wrong with a snorkeling excursion. There are a number of catamarans that operate out of the marina at Puerto Aventuras that go out on day trips, and take you to good snorkel spots. Akumal has good snorkeling right off the beach. As others have mentioned, both x-plor and Hidden Worlds are really cool. X-plor is a slicker operation with various different activities. Hidden Worlds is a bit more down home, but their caves are unbelievable. Truly spectacular. If your looking for a more tradition bachelorette, I would highly recommend Playa crawl. http://www.playacrawl.com we did that a few days before our wedding. It's basically a guided club crawl through Playa where you don't have to wait in lines or for drinks. some of the clubs are kind of cheesy, but our group of 15 had a blast. They will also come pick you up at your resort.

I can't help you picking a resort, but I can tell you from experience that Al Cielo puts on a great wedding, and as you know, it's really gorgeous. Since there are only a few rooms there, our guests stayed at a condo building called Playa Caribe in nearby Akumal, which they really loved. Condos might be a better option if your guests are adventurous or at least somewhat comfortable being In a new country, though.

Hi Laura, you may need to look outside of PDC proper and outside of an all inclusive resort if you really want to prioritize having a private beach ceremony with no gawkers. All the beaches in Mexico are open to the public and the stretch of beach in Playa is very well travelled. The resorts also aren't going to close off a section of thier beach to thier other guests for a wedding ( which they can't do legally anyway) though I would hope other resort guests would keep a respectful distance. I might look at some of the smaller resorts outside of town. People on this forum have had nice things to say about La Reve and Esencia, which look nice if a bit expensive. I got married last year at a small hotel called Al Cielo, that is south of PDC. It was really great, on a gorgeous and pretty secluded stretch of a beach called Xpu Ha. We didn't have any gawkers. Just a few ideas. Also, I'm sure that your fiancé will find plenty of Coronas, but there's not much surfing to be had in the RM, at least around PDC. Waves are too small. Lots of kiteboarding, though.

Hi Yzzel. I would suggest contacting Aida Tantadell. She did my makeup in May, and was really great. She has a salon in downtown PDC, but will also come to you for weddings. it was $200, and she didn't require any other people to get there makeup done. She is really sweet, though the only challenge is that her English is pretty limited. That said, we had no problem between her English and my broken Spanish. She's a real pro and knows what she's doing. She uses MAC makeup, and I know she does airbrush as well. ( that might cost more than the $200, but I didn't get that.) Her number is: (52) 984 873 3910 Her salon is constitutuyentes and Ave. 10 Good luck!

Originally Posted by Jenntim311 

 

 

Wow!! Beautiful centerpieces!! Was it hard to travel to MX with the tissue paper flowers? How do you make them? They are beautiful!

Good question. I looked at a couple video tutorials online. Just Google Mexican Tissue Paper Flowers and there are lots of instructions. Making the flowers was actually pretty easy, if a bit time consuming. Figuring out how to get them to Mexico was a bit trickier. 

Basically, there are two steps to making the flowers: Cutting them out and assembling them, and fluffing them out. I did the cutting and assembling at home, and was able to carefully pack them up in bundles when they were still flat so the traveled in my luggage. I puffed the flowers up once we were in Mexico. This worked well because we were in Mexico for a week before the wedding and enlisted some friends to help in the fluffing, which took awhile. I'm not sure I'd go the paper flower route if I only had a few days before the wedding, since it takes some time to do a large quantity.I'd rather be hanging by the pool. 

I also brought some floral foam from home to help with arranging the flowers in the vases. They have wire stems, so arranging them was pretty easy. 

One benefit to the paper flowers is that we were able to making matching poof decorations (I don't know what they are really called) with our extra tissue. You can see them hanging here:

Seeing as our wedding was in Mexico, I decided to make tissue paper flowers for our centerpieces and napkin rings (people ended up wearing the flowers as the night wore on and the tequila flowed). I'm sure I saved some money, but it was pretty time consuming to make the flowers in the months before the wedding. I bought some cheap vases and margarita pitchers at an awesome glass store in Playa Del Carmen, then picked up limes at a local farmers market.

I bet your quests would appreciate even a non-private cruise. 

Hey Cara, we used a company called Paradise Catamarans http://www.paradisecatamarans.com and they were really awesome. Easy to work with and the crew was so accommodating. The boat is very nice, I think it holds up to 50 people, and we had an open bar and snacks. They sail out of the marina at Puerto Aventuras, which isn't far from Playacar. They picked all our guests up in vans from Akumal.

We did something similar, albeit in Mexico and not in the Bahamas. We chartered a catamaran for a 4-hour sail and snorkel trip for 45 people, and I have to say it was really awesome and I'm so glad we did it. It wasn't cheap, but it gave everyone a chance to get to know each other, and it was really unique. Our guests loved it (except for the one who got really, really seasick even though we provided Dramamine beforehand) and I know they really appreciated us doing that, considering they spent a lot of vacation time and money to attend our wedding. I say go for it.

I know a lot of people get exciting about putting together gift bags and giving presents to their guests, but we skipped all that and did the catamaran instead. I think it was a better use of our limited funds.

So, at the risk of being the massive downer here, I actually disagree with the prevailing wisdom on this thread.

I think that destination wedding etiquette is different in this situation, in that it's sort of rude on the part of the bride and groom to not give their guests a plus one right off the bat. Think about it from your guest's perspective: They are spending hundreds—if not a thousand or more—dollars, not to mention using up precious vacation time etc. to attend your wedding. Sure, some guests probably do know a handful or more of the other attendees, but that doesn't necessarily mean they want to spend their entire vacation with those people. I think most people want to spend their vacation time with a person of their choosing, and not giving them a plus one basically forces them to go on vacation solo. That is probably enough to make some people rethinking coming at all. I think guests tend to be more excited to travel to a wedding if they have someone of their choosing to pal around with. It seems pretty awkward to tell your guests that they can bring someone to the resort, but they have to ditch that person for the actual wedding, especially given the investment your guests are making to be there.

I totally get the concern over costs and wanting a small event. But for me, this was one of those areas where we sucked up the cost and try to find ways to save money elsewhere. We had some people bring +1s to our wedding who we didn't know beforehand, but after a few days of partying together beforehand, they seemed like old friends and it was fun to have them at the wedding. Just my two cents

I' m going to second the other posters. We were in PDC last November, and they had a massive stage erected on the beach. Personally, I'd avoid that time frame or choose a different location.

I can't weigh in on those places in Jamaica or DR, but I've spent a fair amount of time in Tulum. It's a gorgeous place for a wedding. I would just caution that the Eco-resorts you are looking at are fairly rustic cabanas on the beach without A/C. Depending on the time of year, it could be tough on elderly guests or people with young kids. Great for most adults, though. Tulum is definetly laid back and not spring break-ish.

I'd check out Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal. Www.turtlebaycafe.com It's not too far from Tulum. I think they have cake photos on the website

Hi Melissa, congrats on your wedding. Soliman Bay is so pretty and secluded. It's a great spot for a wedding. I believe that if you search Jennifer Smith on here, you'll find some info from brides who have used her services. Some positive, some negative. I considered using her back before we decided on a location, based in part on the fact that we love the restaurant she runs in Akumal and the food is great. My impression after meeting her is that she is very nice and very competent. She knows the area very well and she has done a ton of events. (I know people who have attended her events who said they were great.) I also get the impression that she has a lot going on, and if you need to have your hand held and be involved in all the small details, it might not be the perfect fit. If you are OK with sitting back and just letting her do her thing, she might be for you. We ultimately did not hire her only because we settled on a location that had their own coordinator. But I personally would have felt comfortable hiring her. Hope that helps.

Glad I could help. One more quick thought if you do end up taking your group to Tulum. There are a ton of fun beach restaurants on the road just south of the ruins, which would be a nice way to cap off your visit. La Zebra and Zamas are two of my favorites, but the beach is literally lined with them, and it's an absolutely stunning beach. 

We used the wedding as an opportunity to have a frank discussion about our finances and draw up a spending budget, which I'm embarrassed to say we hadn't done despite living together for years. We took a hard look at our spending habits and set monthly allowances for things like food, housing and entertainment. Getting a solid handle on what we were actually spending was a great wake up call and helped us to recognize where we were spending too much. Now, we each make monthly automatic deposits into our wedding account, and we got that big pre-marriage money talk that everyone recommends out of the way. We also started saving very early in the process, which paying off. Good luck!

A villa is a great idea. We considered that before opting instead to take over a small condo building in Akumal. I would recommend getting familiar with some of the towns in the area to get a sense of what fills your needs, then start looking at specific properties after that. On my list would be Puerto Morelas, Akumal, Soliman Bay and Tulum. Playa del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras are also good options.

Hi there. I don't have any helpful suggestions for where to go to arrange your trip (sorry.) But I do have a suggestion about choosing your destination. I haven't been to Chichen Itza myself (plan to go after the wedding) but I have been to the ruins at Coba and Tulum and know lots of people who have done the trip to Chichen. I think if my guests were staying in the Riviera Maya, I'd opt for either Tulum or Coba only because it's about a three hour trip to Chichen Itza each way (depending on where your resort is). That means you spend a huge amount of time on a bus, and by the time you get there, it's already crowded with all the other tour buses (plus you don't get to stay for the nighttime laser show because you have to get back to your hotel). It just seems like a very intensive, all-day excursion for your guests. I like Tulum because the ruins are on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and there is a gorgeous beach below that you can hang out on. Plus it's doesn't take as long to get there. The downside is that the ruins are less impressive than Coba, and much less impressive than Chichen Itza. But the ambiance of the place is amazing. Coba takes a bit longer to get to than Tulum, but the really cool thing is that the ruins are fairly intact, and there is even one temple that you can climb up. There's not beach, of course, so that's a tradeoff. The grounds at Coba are also quite large compared to Tulum. To me, the benefit of the closer places is that if you go early, you can beat the crowds. Depending on the time of year, it can be way too many people for my taste. Just my two cents.

Hi, I'm not a golfer myself but this site has a helpful overview of area courses

If you are staying in PDC, the Playacar course is probably closest. I know people who have played the new course at Gran Bahia Principe and really liked it, but that's a bit further south. I'd recommend an early tee time. It can get pretty hot and humid when you leave the immediate beach area.

If it were me, I'd stick with the dress I had and try to stop watching those wedding TV shows and looking in bridal stores (which seem designed to separate us from our sanity). I don't buy the "there's only one perfect dress out there for you" line. Plus, trying to find something new with five months to go and convincing the original store to take your other dress back sounds like too much stress. In the end, it's just a dress. Your commitment to your fiancee is what matters most...Just my two cents.

Yep, you can rent the restaurant out without renting all the rooms. The catch is that you end up paying a higher site fee than you would if you take all the rooms up. (there's really only four or six rooms) The cost of the site fee depends on how many people you have coming, but you can contact the owner, Andres, at [email protected] and get better info. The web site can be a little confusing. I have no idea how much weddings at the AIs run so I don't have anything to compare it to. I don't think Al Cielo is on the the cheapest end of things (most of their menu options are $70 a person), but the place is stunning and I've heard the food is excellent. I'll be down there next week to taste it myself but I have no worries on that front. 
 

Dear Akumal Bride,

 

I had no idea you could have the reception at Al Cielo unless you stayed in the Hotel. Are you doing that then?. Can you give me some info on prices and who to contact?. I like Al Cielo and heard good things about the place and restaurant. I've also been considering Akiin Beach Club, I'll contact them soon to find out prices. As you said, the only problem is the driving to Tulum but I guess we will end up hiring transportation for our guests (only concern is that guests with kids might find the trip a little bit long to handle and I hope it will be fine for them).

 

 

You might want to check out Al Cielo, which is a small hotel with a beachfront restaurant about 15 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen. We are doing a similar thing, staying in condos in Akumal but having the ceremony and reception at Al Cielo. There are a number of places you could check out in Tulum, like Akiin, Ana y Jose, La Zebra and El Pez.  I would just mention that Tulum is a bit of a haul from PDC if you do end up staying there. It takes about an hour to drive between the two.

Hey Leia, welcome to the forum. I'm also a New York bride getting married in the Mayan Riviera. I love the villa idea (we're doing a similar thing, but taking over a couple of condo buildings) and wanted to suggest a place to check out in Akumal, which is a gorgeous village south of Playa del Carmen. There is an amazing lagoon (it's called Yal Ku) in Akumal that is lined with great villas for rent. I've seen a few ladies here who have been married at one in particular called Casa Romero, but the houses are all close by and different sizes. I'd search Casa Romero here for better info. There are some photos at this site as well: http://www.locogringo.com/akumal/casaromero.html?name=Casa%20Romero

We seriously considered doing this, but ultimately opted for something else. Puerto Morelos, Tulum or Soliman Bay might be some other good places to look for a villa. I plead ignorance about Costa Rica, thought it sounds wonderful.