Cj1053

I was one of the few who were selected when going through Mexico customs. They made my fiancé and the rest if my family keep going. They opened my decorations bags and I told them that I was getting married. I showed them my dress that was in a bag and explained it was all table decorations and they let us move on. I lucked out and didn't have to show receipts or anything.

You don't have to be staying in the adults only section to go over to that side....but obviously no kids allowed in adult only pool. We had many guests stay on the family friendly side but come over to the adult only pool to hang out. My parents stayed on the premier side with a swim up. We went to their room and hung out with them at their pool one day even though we were not in premier. However if you don't know someone in premier I wouldn't go get in their pool as it is more private. As for what room...we booked a basic room but were notified that we were being upgraded to the honeymoon suite for the whole stay. We were there 6 nights I believe. We didn't have to pay a difference and it wasn't based on how many nights our guests were staying. The suite was gorgeous with a beach front view!!!! While we lucked out and were upgraded, my understanding is that upgrades depend on availability. We actually had many of our guests upgraded. I had a friend upgraded to another honeymoon suite and many to swim ups on the adult side. Hope this helps Thank you! We are so happy with how it turned out. We did our photos and video as a package with Sarani Photography. I want to say the video was originally $1,000 but I'm not 100% sure as we did a package. Also, Sarani was great and gave us a discount to try and off set the vendor fee.

I used the on site salon and I felt that she did a good job. I did a trial with her as well a few days before.

No worries. I stressed over this and bought so many different colors to see what I liked before finally deciding. (Side note...we brought fishing line so they could hang the lanterns) I bought pink, mint and white. 12in, 16in, 20in. If I remember correctly I think we decided to not use all of the 20 inch as they were pretty big. I would not go smaller than 12 in. We bought 28 lanterns but I think we only used 24 of them. Sorry it's been a few months so hard to remember. We did not buy lights for the lanterns. The center lantern they put up was on a light, so it lit up. @@lauralc Thank you! We were so happy with how it turned out. We bought the regular paper lanterns. We used icicle lights to wrap around the poles.

@@carrieandsam We went with DJ All Music. Ahead of time our WC provided us with a packet and we filled out songs we wanted for entrance, first dance, cutting cake, during dinner, after dinner, etc. I also told him he could add songs if needed. He did a great job.

Thank you so much! We got the lanterns from http://m.paperlanternstore.com We also went with the DJ. He did a great job. During our first dance he had the bubble machine and it turned out really nice.

I am so sorry I am just seeing this. Haven't been on the site in a while. We let the wedding planners know that we wanted to go there after the reception. We had no idea a live band would be playing. There was not a live band there every night of the week so I guess we lucked out. Yes, they played fun dance music. My brother requested a song when we came in but not sure if other people were requesting songs. It was a blast though! Hello ladies We got our wedding photos and video back and we love them. We went through Sarani but used a photographer from her team. I would highly recommend them. I would also suggest getting a video. I didn't realize how much the video would mean to us until we saw it. I was amazed by how good of a job they did. It did cost more to add the video, but it was worth every penny. Thank you Sarani for this amazing video. It's the perfect way for us to look back on our wedding day. If you ladies want to check out the video Sarani photography did, here is the link...

We didn't do seating place cards at the rehearsal dinner but we did at the reception and I highly recommend it. I heard many stories about people holding seats for others and not having enough seats and couples being split up. We assigned the seats and it worked out great and no issues or complaints with the seating. For the rehearsal we brought hand painted maracas that said Mexico on them and one was at every seat. We brought icicle lights for reception. We had 20 something paper lanterns at different sizes and 3 different colors. Different decorations for each table (they were simple). Vases for tables that we put the bridesmaids flowers in. The only thing I feel like we missed out on was we forgot to do the drinking of the champagne together after we cut the cake. We did the introduction of bridal party and groom/bride, traditional first dance, father daughter/mother son dances, speeches/toasts, cutting the cake, garter, tossing of bouquet...etc. I think the time you do things will depend on what time your ceremony is. Our ceremony was at 6 and sunset was shortly after. The reception started at 7 and went to 11. It has to be done at 11. By 11 a lot of people were done. I feel like it was good timing. My husband and I stayed and did 1 last slow dance by ourselves while everyone else who wanted to keep the party going went up to mojito bar to meet us. It was so nice at the end of the night to do a dance all alone and soak it all in. (Picture attached) We then went to mojito bar and there was a live band. They played a song and we entered and everyone blew bubbles and rang bells. It was a blast. We stayed for an hour or so and danced to the band. quote name="Kimmyc22" post="1871973" timestamp="1410887136"]Did you do any type of seating placecards or decorations? Did you feel like you missed out on any of the traditional receptions stuff? I was thinking dinner at cocktails from 5-6 and dinner at 6:30. What did you have your group do for the rest of the evening?

Hi We used the spoon dinner and it was actually up to 40 ppl. It was then $25pp over 40. The food was wonderful. It was a set menu. Not the same food that is served during the normal spoon dinner. Had a soup, salad, chicken or steak and then dessert. They also made a signature drink for the dinner to serve people as they came in. We got married on a Sunday and did the dinner the night before as a rehearsal dinner.

We did symbolic and the WC sent us a few different versions that are popular and we chose one and slightly changed it. Not sure on whether you can change the legal one or not.

We just had it on the plate it came on and it looked nice. They also provided us with a cutting set.

We didn't use LED lights and I thought it turned out very nice. However, I bet LED lights would look pretty too. We had 20ish lanterns that were 3 different colors and different sizes.

We brought regular plug ones. At the top of the poles they have plugs. We brought 7 strands in case one broke on the way or didn't work.

We got vanilla rum! The flavor was good. Hi Alison, Tres Leches is my husband's favorite and they didn't have it as an option.

Our reception was also at Plaza Zavas and it was more than enough light. They have lights they turn on. The DJ also had some lighting and then we added icicle lights on the poles of the plaza. I would highly suggest adding the Xmas lights on the poles as it looked amazing.

We got the smallest one because our dinner came with a dessert. We didn't get to taste the cake ahead of time. At our meeting with the WC they said we could do round or heart. We said round and it came out heart shaped. It honestly wasn't a big deal bc it was small and just gave us something to cut and do pictures with. We were both very happy that we did it this way. By the time dessert came after dinner, everyone was so full. As far as taste, it was good but had a thick layer of fondant that was a little too much for me. Honestly, we were so full we cut the cake, fed each other a bite, and didn't eat anymore of it.

Hello, They are stairs down to the beach. Hi Alison,I had a really great experience with them. I went through Sarani but chose her associate photographer as the prices fit our budget more. Even though we went with her associate we did the communication with her and she was VERY fast about responding. No more than 24 hours to respond. Typically within the hour if it was during the week. We did the photography and the video. I won't get my pictures until late September but I think they will turn out great! My only complaint is that during group photos there wasn't a lot of direction and I felt like I was having to tell ppl where to stand and the group photos were not very creative. I had some friends taking pics at the same time so I was able to see their pics and on my side the bridesmaids are posing and look really cute, but on the guys side they were spread out, one had hands in pocket..one to his side, one w hands in front and it looked really bad. It was our bridal party pic which is a little disappointing, but not end of the world. The pics my husband and I were doing seemed so creative and fun! At one point I looked down and the photographer was laying upside down on the sand to get a creative angle for the pic. They were extremely nice! Because we did a video there were a total of 3 staff members. I would recommend them to any bride!!! Also all our pics will be edited and the resort ones don't always offer all the pics edited. I know it's a hard decision. I stressed over it as I wanted really good pictures and having a video was important to us. We both feel we made the right decision by going with this photographer. Hope this helps

There is a garden terrace that is really pretty. I know they use that area as a back up in case of rain for the ceremony but maybe see if that is an option.

We went with James through Sarani. Won't get pics for 60 days but here is a pic my brother took with his camera while we were doing our photos.I can't remember if I discussed this in a post or personal message to a bride, but he had us stand on tables under palm trees.

I heard good things about the BBQ. I truly did enjoy our meal though. We got the salad with shrimp on it and the shrimp was seasoned perfectly with a delicious dressing. Yes, we had to give them the numbers on lobster or salmon ahead of time. In our invites we just said something like please let us know your entree preference and listed the 2. We provided our email address for people to respond to. There is a slight price difference between the entrees so thats another reason you have to provide numbers ahead of time. It was also nice to be seated at the wedding and be served.

Hi, I wore sandals for beach and reception. They were super comfortable and easy to dance in. They were the same ones as my bridesmaids. It was hard to walk in the dress on the sand even in sandals, so I can picture heels in the sand being difficult. However it's much easier to move around once on the concrete and if you're wanting to switch to heels that would be best time. I would recommend photog for 6 hours. I had them for 5. They arrived at 5 pm (wedding was at 6) and they left at 10. Reception ended at 11. I will say our photog was very creative and I'm so anxious to seeing our pics. He had us stand on picnic tables within the palm trees as the sun was setting. He showed us some on his camera and you didn't see the picnic tables in the pics but our sillouettes as well as the palm trees. I hope that description made sense. Yes, that is correct regarding our plated meal. We had 42 ppl. It was so good. Because our meal had a dessert with it we didn't do a big cake. We got the $60 cake so we would have something to cut. During the cake cutting we had the DJ play the song 'I wanna grow old with you' by Adam Sandler from the Wedding Singer and it was too cute. The WC told me that you can have bridesmaids bouquets made the same as yours and pay $15 less and it will be just a tad smaller. I was worried they would be too small and they were the perfect size. I want to say they were $60 to $65 each. I ended up upgrading my bouquet last min to $100. The ribbon on each bridesmaids flowers were $10 and it looked very nice. Because my bouquet was $100 it included the ribbon. I had 5 tables with vases for 5 bridesmaid flowers to go into. I used the 6th bridesmaid one as my toss bouquet. There may be a different way to make them cheaper than $60 but I'm not sure. The only flowers we did at the wedding were the bouquets and I was worried it might look bare without more, but with the beach setting, less is more! I told my girls they didn't have to have their hair done at the salon. I knew I had appts so I just asked them to be in my room at 430 and one of my bridesmaids had a key to let everyone in Until I got there. I told them to come mostly ready but could put dress on and what not in room. When I came in they all had their hair up and it looked so good. Turns out one of my bridesmaids put everyone's hair up and I was super impressed. If all of us were getting dresses all at once in the room I could see where it would be too crowded. Something we did that I really enjoyed is that my FI and I got cards for each other to exchange before the ceremony. His best man brought me my card and it made my heart melt. It was special and so happy we did it. I found his card and the cards for our parents on etsy. The one I got they customized and I was able to figure it out exactly. The front said "I've loved you for 757 days". With the salon, you can book those appts now through your WC. They have to confirm them with salon, so takes a moment to get added to your detail sheet. If you have them come to your room it's an extra 10% fee. I think you could make the salon work and just go 3 girls at a time. If you book salon now and once you get there want to change it to your room I'm sure they will work with you on that. I think it would be nice to do it in the room that way you don't have to worry about going from salon to room with your hair and makeup done. I also had to wait until going to my room to do any other 'getting ready' tasks so I felt a bit rushed once I got back. So glad to hear this info is helping

Sorry about previous post. It's Le Chique. I have attached pics of food. 1. Dessert at Caribbean restaurant 2. Room service 3. The next few are pics at Le Chique. They are small portions as you try 15 different foods. 4. The last pic is an iPhone pic (will get prof photos in 60 days) of my bridesmaids and me. They wore short mint colored dresses with gold sandals. My gift to them was Kendra Scott earrings. I know a lot of people have asked questions about a DJ. I would highly recommend getting one. We had DJ All Music which was $1500. He played all the music we requested and made sure everyone was on the dance floor having a good time. I liked not having to worry about changing songs and the whole music situation. He also did the MC. One song on our song list we submitted ended up not being a good dance song and he picked up on it right away and made a good transition to keep the party going. It was well worth the money. Also during our special dances he had a bubble machine that gave us incredible pictures. Another reason I recommend a DJ is that the next day we saw a reception on the beach that had a DJ and the one at Plaza Zavas didn't, and surprisingly you could hear the music from the other wedding up at Plaza Zavas. From my understanding even if you have a speaker, a DJ from another wedding could still be heard. Sunscreen....I know it's an odd topic to bring up but it's important. We saw a bride that was very burned with lines on her back in her wedding dress. Make sure to wear lots of sunscreen as the sun is much stronger there. Again I'm a Texan and sun/heat is our everyday life but it got a few of our guests pretty good. The other reason I bring this up is to let brides know to bring extra bottles. I lost mine the first day and went to the store at resort to buy more and had to pay $31 for a bottle that I would have normally paid $7 for. Ouch! Spa/massages...DO THEM! We got the 2 for 1 sky massage with our wedding package and booked it for the morning after the wedding. Such a great idea. I thought it would be a little hot to do it outside, but it's in the shade and the location has a really nice breeze. Both my husband and I really enjoyed this and recommended that my parents get one. They called me the next day to say how amazing it was. My aunt and uncle ended up having 2 massages while they were there as they were so pleased with the first one...my brother and his wife also opted for 2. At night we usually went to the mojito bar. Some of the evenings they had a live band playing. We did our 'send off' at the mojito bar but it wasn't quite a send off as we stayed and danced with everyone. I had brought bubbles and bells with us and while my husband and I were doing our last dance at Plaza Zavas, everyone went up to the mojito bar. When we arrived they were in 2 lines right inside the entrance and my brother had the band introduce us and we came in as everyone cheered and blew bubbles. The band then played a sweet love song and everyone danced with us. It was a fun way to keep things going as the reception flew by. It was such an amazing night and I wish I could do it all over again. With our photography package we will be getting a video and I can't wait to see it. I'm very happy we paid the extra money for the video so we can go back and watch it throughout the years. We should have all our retouched pics and video within 60 days. Flowers...I got my bouquet and 6 bridesmaids ones through Lomas. I also added ribbon the the bridesmaids'. They were beautiful and I was very happy with the outcome. I believe mine was meant to have 24 flowers. I didn't actually count them, but it was the perfect size! The WC called me a few hours before the wedding and said the flowers had arrived and he personally delivered them to my room. Groomsmen room...with our package we got a room for the groomsmen the day of the wedding to get ready in. We opted to not have the room as they had to be out at 530 and they would then have to take all their belongings to their room. Instead one of the groomsmen offered his room for them to get ready in. The hotel brought a variety of appetizer and bottles of liquor to the room for the guys. Men's clothing...IMPORTANT. My FI wore dark dress pants, white button up, vest and tie. At the reception (after first dance) he took off vest and tie due to the heat. I think his outfit went well. He said that there is no way he could have worn a coat. Also, we saw another wedding where the groom was wearing lighter colored clothing. Because he had been sweating he had sweat marks on his bottom and other unfortunate places. I never thought about sweat marks on the clothing for the men, so keep this in mind Since our men had darker pants, I believe it hid all sweat marks. My dad did wear a coat for the ceremony as he was insistent on it, but wore a short sleeved shirt underneath. At the reception he took off the jacket and wore just the nice short sleeved shirt. I know many of us stressed over the time the Miami WC would get back to us, but I promise you it all comes together! They are more responsive as the closer it is to your wedding date. Also, the onsite WC can help fill in any gaps. Please let me know if you have any questions as we definitely relied on this site to plan the wedding and don't know what I would have done without all of you :)

It was wonderful! I had steak a few time while at the resort and it was amazing. Every dinner I had while we were there I loved. Our guests had many compliments about our wedding dinner....as well as the other dinners. I'll find someone that had pics and post them as I saw quite a few guests taking pics of their food. Sorry about previous post. It's Le Chique. I have some photos from my sister in law. First is pic of a dessert at Caribbean restaurant. 2nd is room Service. And the rest are Le Chique.

During the meeting with the WC I had a binder full of stuff. I felt very dorky but they said they prefer it this way so they know exactly what the couple is wanting. I made a diagram of the reception area and where and I wanted the tables and the table numbers. I then had a list of each table and who wa sitting at that table (for seating cards). We did the seated meal that had an appetizer and dessert with choice of either salmon/chicken or lobster/steak. I had provided the numbers to the Miami WC ahead of time and at the meeting I provided a list based on the break down of tables who had what meal and at the actual wedding. It went very smooth. I had taken pictures of table set ups and had written table numbers on the pics so they would know which table we wanted what at. Unfortunately, some of our decorations broke along the way. My dad had heavy duty wrapped and packed with bubble wrap and everything, so that was a bummer, but I made sure to bring some extras just in case. For the most part the tables looked how we wanted except for the small changes they had to make due to things breaking. The one thing I wished was different was that I had vases at the table for the bridesmaids flowers. My WC said they would cut the flowers to fit the vases but when I saw them they hadn't cut them and they looked too tall in the vases. In the end though there is so much other stuff going on that I really didn't care. Everyone thought things were beautiful. My favorite decorations by far were the paper lanterns hanging in the reception and the icicle lights on the poles. It really made a big difference as I saw another wedding without them. I provided pics of the ceremony and the sheers and they did it exactly the way I had pictured. I also provided the WC with a schedule of events. I thought at the actual wedding the WC would be around more but from what I saw he would come and go. The 2 things I wished he helped more on was-after the ceremony everyone was to go to the bar for drinks until reception. He didn't announce it and everyone was standing around in the way when we were trying to do photos. My husband had to try and make an announcement but still the guests hung around. This was slightly frustrating as the photog said we only had 20 min of good sunlight left to do pics and our guests were hanging around in the photog way. I had to end up asking guests to kindly leave so we could do the photos. This really cut into our photo time. I felt that the WC should have done a better job at handling this. Also at the end of the night we had planned to do a dance alone while everyone went to the send off. The WC wasn't around and so my husband had to announce everyone to go to send off location as we were doing one last dance alone. Yet we still had guests standing right next to us as we were dancing. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't the end of the world but we had discussed these things in the meeting and more assistance would have been helpful. As for everything else they did a really good job! You will get your decorations back. They pack everything back in the bag you provide them and they deliver them to your room on another day. I wouldn't worry about the food. Everyone literally raved about the food at every dinner. I heard so many things from our guests about how they loved the food. I even saw guests taking pictures of their food. I sent you a message about the spa. Let me know if you didn't get it. I was in love with my hair, but it took a few tries at the rehearsal to find the right look. Ao unwound recommend to every bride to do a rehearsal. But they will really do whatever to make you happy. My mom got her hair and makeup done by Macel and I was very impressed. If possible id specifically request him. We found a picture in a book for my mom and he did it just like it. My advice is make sure you do your appts with enough time. My hair was at 3 and make up 4 with the wedding at 6. My makeup took about 20 min but hair took much longer and I felt so rushed after. I got back to my room at 520 and had to be ready by 545. I know it sounds early but I would suggest hair at 2 and makeup 3 if you're getting married at 6. As for guest location...we were semi close to one another. A few people on family side but most were on adult side. In the end the resort isn't too big and everyone always ended up at the adult pool so it wasn't hard to find people. Let me know if you have more questions

Well, I am sad to say we are back from Mexico. It was so amazing! We didn't want to leave. Arriving, check in was smooth and they truly do everything possible to make this a wonderful experience for you. They gave me my letter with the time to meet with the wedding planners and I had a trial hair appt at that time. They said "you're the bride, we will get this changed". We knew ahead of time that we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite and oh-my-goodness! The room is a beachfront suite with a wrap around balcony with the most beautiful views at the resort. We were both in awe. I don't want to ruin any surprises, but they do some very sweet and romantic things for you throughout your stay. Def enhanced the experience. We got to pick the type of pillows we wanted and the scents for the bed and for the room. The pictures I've seen of the resort don't do it justice. It's incredible. I'm a big traveler and this is by far one of my best experiences at a resort or hotel. Every staff member is kind, helpful, smiling and willing to go above and beyond. Restaurants: we tried Spoon, Tapaz, Le Chic, the Mexican restaurant and Caribbean restaurant. I will fill you in on Le Chic in a moment. As for the regular restaurants, Tapaz was our favorite. So delicious with a great vibe and atmosphere. We went there the first night with a group of 13 and sat at 2 big tables and had a BLAST! We didn't get to try the Italian restaurant but heard good things about it. I would suggest doing Spoon for just breakfast or if you're in a hurry..not so much for dinner...we didn't make it there for lunch. The Caribbean restaurant (for dinner) was our other favorite behind the Tapaz one. This was a big hit with the group. They also do breakfast and lunch. Lunch is strictly burgers. We did the private candlelit dinner on the beach....DO IT! The food was delicious and it was a moment for my husband and I to have alone time after a crazy week..and obviously it was romantic. We did this the day after the wedding. My parents also did it and had an amazing time. They said it was their favorite meal and recommended my aunt/uncle to do it and they ended up booking it as well. Now to Le Chic....WOW. If you are in the honeymoon suite or premium this is free. You can upgrade and pay for the wine pairings or the extended meal but the basic meal was MORE than enough. They will seat at most parties of 2 or 4, so you can't go with a group. This is similar dining experience as a Tapaz restaurant where you get small portions of different foods. We tried a total of 15 and it took 3 hours. I know it sounds long, but the time flew and we had such a great time and I tried some of the most amazing/unusual/creative/ tasteful food. To eat here you have to make reservations through the concierge in building 5. You will regret it if you don't try it. We did our rehearsal dinner at Spoon. They sectioned off an area with curtains specifically for our group. We had arranged for maracas to be placed at everyone plate for when they arrived. The maracas were a big hit and into the dinner guests would start shaking them for us to kiss. When we arrived the wait staff was serving a signature cocktail to everyone in our wedding colors which I liked. The meal was not the regular food they serve for dinner. It was a 4 course plated dinner. They provided a printed menu with our names on it. There was a Cesar salad, soup, choice of chicken or steak, and then a dessert. I had the steak and was very impressed! While tipping is not required, it is appreciated. We would tip at meals, but one time we didn't have cash on us and it was no big deal. We did tip decently at the rehearsal dinner and the reception. I will talk more about the reception later, but I literally had a wait staff member show up with a new drink for me any time my drink got below half full. They worked their tails off and we wanted to show our appreciation. More to come shortly....