courtyardbride

Hi Sapphire Bride, Before choosing my non-resort wedding destination in Riviera Maya (Hacienda del Mar, an oceanfront villa in Puerto Aventuras), I had mentally planned a wedding at the Rockhouse Hotel in the cliffs of Negril in Jamaica. It's quite a small boutique hotel and has a few normal rooms that are reasonably priced and private cabanas that are more luxurious with matching higher price tags. I've seen lovely wedding pics from there. Here's one wedding: http://www.stylemepretty.com/2011/06/15/jamaica-wedding-from-david-murray-weddings. Happy planning!

Hi Amberya, If you haven't already picked a place, I just wanted to throw out one more: Luna Maya Restaurant in Playa del Carmen (http://www.lunamayarestaurante.com). We got married at Hacienda del Mar, a beachfront villa in Puerto Aventuras, but wanted a completely different vibe for our rehearsal dinner. We had 36 people. The prices for a sit down dinner were out of our price range at Luna Maya (but seemingly the norm for a nice restaurant in the area). They actually proposed a passed hor douerves and cocktail reception on their rooftop to suit my budget. The rooftop is just as nice but more modern and partylike than the restaurant. It was an incredibly cool environment, the food (typical Yucatan dishes) was delicious, the drinks were good (to stay in our budget we only served sangria and margaritas) and best of all the service was remarkable. I was scared that it would not be top notch since we were taking a more affordable approach but even my picky NYer foodie friends noted the top-notch quality of the food and service. Some pics from our RD below. Good luck with your decision. Cheers!

We used DJ Bijan of Mayan Vibes for our July 2012 wedding, both the ceremony and reception We were scared that we would not be able to achieve the vibe that we wanted for our day since my experience with music at Mexican bars has typically included Pop and House/Dance. We wanted oldies/Motown and neo-soul (think Otis Redding and Maxwell) playing during our dinner and hip hop/Top 40 and some 90's favorites (pretty standard) during our dance party. He asked us for a list to represent dinner music and one to represent the party music and took it from there. He completely got our vibe and every age group at our wedding enjoyed the music. Everyone and I mean everyone (only 36 guests but still) was on the dance floor for the entire night. He did not play any cheesy Chicken Songs, etc. and I did not have the foresight to tell him not too. We did not have him make any announcements so I can't speak to that but I can say that he followed instruction pretty well. He played our ceremony music and did that flawlessly in response to my wedding planners instructions (which were not flawless, unfortunately). Of course, everyone being on the dance floor is the most important part but I should add that he was also great in terms of pricing and incredibly flexible. I got married in a Hacienda (Hacienda del Mar) and he stopped by the hacienda before I signed his contract to make sure that he could satisfy my wedding needs of having a courtyard dinner and a poolside dance party. Definitely recommended. I feel bad for not writing this recommendation much sooner.