amberh1884

Hey Guys! I finally got settled into our new place after the wedding and I was able to post these pics as well! I wanted to show anyone who is using Juan Navarro or his team how great they are! We actually had Alex and Tony and we were very impressed with how wonderful they came out I was reading a couple of pages back and saw some people wondering about using dinner at one of the restaurants as their reception. We did the same thing and it was great, except for we did not care for the Italian restaurant. We had our ceremony at the gazebo and it was beautiful! We were on a budget so we opted not to do the cocktail hour, and honestly I feel like we made the right decision. We were still taking pictures after everyone in the ceremony and other guests had finished their pictures with us, so they all went up to the lobby and mingled and had drinks from the bar and there was plenty of seating and a nice ambiance! After dinner we still had too much time until the nightclub opened, and even though it was not in my plan everyone went to the Rock of Ages show until it opened. It was nice! I did change out of my wedding dress and into a short cocktail dress to dance because my dress was going to get so dirty! It already had dirt on the bottom of it from the sand on the beach. Trust me, you don't want to dance on your dress unless you don't care about that. All in all, the wedding turned out wonderful. There were just a few small things that did not go as planned, but I guess that is what you need to expect on a destination wedding.

Ok well I have tried adding some pictures by url and my computer and it is not working . I will keep trying to put some on here

Hey all! I got back from Secrets a couple of days ago, but now we are moving tomorrow so I won't be able to post my full review until we get settled in. But, everything was awesome! You guys are going to love the resort. All of our friends that stayed other places were so envious because theirs just did not compare. It is surreal at first how awesome it is, hahaha. Once you get there, you will see all of your worrying and stress is put to rest because everything will get taken care of. And for you guys that are worrying about using the resort photographer (Juan Navarro and his team), You do not need to worry!! We had Alex and Tony and our pictures were absolutely spectacular! I will post a few down below so you can see.

Hey everyone! We leave tonight at 1:45 a.m. to go to the airport !! I'm so excited I can't wait to get back and post my review and pictures. Thank you so much to all of you that answered my questions. It was such a great help

Thanks Lola! I am getting so excited. I can't believe we are leaving in 2 weeks. I got my chair sashes, fans, and bubbles in yesterday. I was very happy to see that the chair sashes are going to be very compact and fit in one of my suitcases without taking up much room, because I was worried about it. For the brides that have already gotten married, did any of you go to the disco at SMB? I was just wondering what it was like because that is where we were planning on going after dinner. Thanks! Amber

Hey Nicc80! I just wanted to tell you good luck before you leave! I am having my reception at the Italian restaurant so I hope it is good too! I have heard mixed reviews on here and tripadvisor so I hope I like it! How long are you staying? We are getting there the 17th so if you are still there maybe I will see you

Hi Ladies! I have a quick question for the brides that have already gotten married at SMB. I am bringing my chair sashes and fans with me to the resort. Did any of you do this as well? And, did you just have someone in your wedding party put the sashes on the chairs so you didn't have to pay a set-up charge? Also, if anyone has had a cocktail hour with appetizers can you let me know if it was worth it? We can not decide if we really want to have one or not. Thanks ladies!! Amber

Hi Kristinalilly! I notice that the resort was sold out of rooms for our dates about 3 1/2 months before our trip. But, I don't know if there is like a big convention or something on our dates because the only time there are no rooms are literally 2 days before and 2 days after! Other than that the entire month still has rooms. I think it was just bad luck

Msop04- My Fiance's mom and her sister are staying at the Catalonia Priveleged because it is the closest resort to Secrets Maroma and she wanted to be able to walk there when she needs to because she is afraid to take a taxi, lol. I honestly don't know where everyone else is staying. I know that is weird, but all the people that didn't book at Secrets ended up being my fiance's friends and I have no clue. I also have no clue exactly how many of them are coming. I am getting a little frustrated. I feel like the wedding is turning into a free for all. It definitely is not what I imagined, I thought every person was going to stay at Secrets and we were all going to get to hang out the whole time. But, I guess it was not meant to be. On the other hand though, that will definitely mean that we will have the last of the trip to ourselves as our honeymoon and I was worried about that at the beginning too! If I were you, I would pin down the date first. Put out feelers to your close family and friends about your tentative date and see that they all would be able to do it mostly. That is what I did. Once, you get the date set then you can book it on expedia no problem. I found expedia to be the cheapest too! Only thing is, you need to make sure that if you are doing the "complementary ceremony" where you get it for free for having so many nights in a preferred club swimout our having 5 rooms with double occupancy that you book through a site that actually says that it honors the "free wedding" on the booking page. Expedia's did not so we had to book through Delta Vacations then Delta price matched the expedia price. It was kinda complicated, lol. But, if you are not doing the complentary one you don't have to worry about all that mess! Ckrn- Your wedding was absolutley beautiful and so were you!! Congratulations

msop04- I have the same situation as you. A lot of our guests waited too long and the rooms at Secrets sold out so they are all staying at other resorts. I asked Cecilia about if they stayed at another Secrets if they would be allowed to come to Secrets Maroma for the wedding or other events at night since they have that "dine around program" where you can eat dinner at another secrets for free. And she just said flat out no they have to pay the day pass every time they come to Secrets Maroma. I even double checked with the information email at Secrets and they waited a month before they even got back to me and told me to ask my wedding coordinator. Unfortunately, it looks like there is no way around it. So, since there was no benefit for them to stay at another Secrets, the guests booked elsewhere. Good luck with your planning!

CriCri-wow! Your set up was beautiful We are actually split up into two tables next to each other for the dinner. I wanted to be inside because since it is in July, I worried we would all be pretty hot after the ceremony and cocktail hour! BeachBride-Congrats! I am excited to see your review

CriCri-Well that is just my luck! Cecilia told me that it was one of the most popular. I don't know what to do.... LOL, I am about to not even care and just take my chances. Too much stuff is trying to go wrong. Hahaha, I have to remember DW are supposed to be care free! NewLoves- I am glad you had good luck with your first dress, hopefully the second one is good too. Maybe, it was just zarabridal.com that was terrible. And no, we are not having a reception because I did not want to pay to eat the food that is supposed to be free. I just could not do it! So, we are having just the immediate family and their spouses sit at the same table with us since we could not have more than 20 without paying. But, the other guests can come to the same restaurant and before that we are having a cocktail hour. Then, after dinner all meeting up at the disco after to dance! I think it will be fine. We have a pretty thin budget because my fiance is in the Air Force and we got PCS'd to Iowa right after the wedding! So, now we have to move and I won't have a job anymore at first and we have to buy a house. It is pretty crazy!

Hi NewLoves! I have booked Juan through Cecilia about 5 months ago. He responded to my initial question and then after that I sent him like 3 more emails and requested that he himself be our photographer and he never responded to any of my questions except that initial email. And that surprised me, but I dunno somebody from his team will be doing our pictures since we booked them. I agree with everyone about having a million things to and getting side tracked! And I have been having a lot of snafus! I ordered my bridesmaids dresses from zarabridal and it was the biggest mistake of my life. The first dress came and the skirt was literally a tutu! It was nothing like the picture. So, I emailed them to cancel the second dress because the girl had just ordered two days before and I had to email back 3 times to get confirmation that it was cancelled and she would be refunded her money. They finally said yes we will cancel it and refund all but $30 because we have already cut the fabric and we can not use it again. So, I said ok if that is the best you can do. Well, they shipped her dress anyway and never refunded her money! And, they refuse to respond to me now. So we are less than 2 months away from the wedding and now I have to buy new dresses for them. Whatever you do, do not buy from those sites that make the dresses themselves. They are HORRIBLE quality and you have absolutely no recourse once you order. I just thought I should warn some people, lol. CriCri- How did you like the italian restaurant, Portafina? We are having dinner there after the ceremony.

CriCri! Are you going to write a review of your experience? I would LOVE to see it and pictures of your big day!!