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Cabo Wedding Coordinator: Yarai / Memories
AshleyBickford posted a blog entry in Cabo San Lucas Wedding Blog
Hello Cabo Brides: I was married in Cabo San Lucas on 1/18/15 and wanted to write a review of how amazing and wonderful our planner, Yarai (Memories Events and Planning) was! I interviewed many planners over Skype and even did reference checks on the planners I liked (I am a bit of a Type-A neurotic personality), and Yarai sounded the best by far. My fiancé, mom, and I then scheduled a trip down to Cabo to check out venues, and Yarai met us at our hotel and spent all day driving us around to 5 different venues. It was so wonderful to have someone who knew all the in's and outs and was able to seamlessly guide us through our options. She also clearly had a great relationship with all of the event planners at each of the locations. Throughout the rest of the process, she was truly amazing. She was responsive to emails at all hours of the day and night, would facetime with me pretty regularly, and set me up with all the right vendors (DJ, flowers, Hair/makeup, transportation, hotel, photo booth, cake, venue, etc.). She even worked with my mother in law to plan the entire rehearsal dinner and would facetime with her. Her style is very calm and laid back, but she is not afraid to voice her opinion when needed, which I really appreciated. She is also just a pleasant person to be around. She also went well above and beyond just the planning of the wedding! Yarai set up so many events for us and our 85 guests, including: Rehearsal walk through Friday at our hotel (Villa La Estancia) Rehearsal dinner at Hacienda Cocina Friday (Beautiful venue, highly recommended!) A table at Cabo Wabo Friday night Tables at Nowhere Bar Saturday night (as a side note, Sammy Hagar actually made a surprise appearance, which was really cool) The entire wedding Sunday at Cabo Del Sol (AMAZING location and food!) Brunch Monday at Villa La Estancia (also a fantastic hotel - close enough to town but still very classy, high end, and relaxing! you can also get great deals if you book through VRBO or private owners). Message me if you would like some contacts here. Yarai not only planned every event, but she personally came to everything and was on point - she did not pass us off to her staff. She even came over and spent a few hours with us in our hotel room Wednesday night (after we landed), and the next day, drove me to my 3 hour trial hair and makeup appointment and waited with me! Honestly, she was like a second mother to me (and my mom!) and we had a completely stress-free weekend. If there are any brides that are considering using Yarai, please don't hesitate to reach out to me and I can tell you all about my experiences! She really is the best and I already miss working with her!!! -Ashley-
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Hi everyone! After endless research into different areas of Mexico, my fiance and I decided on Cabo for our destination wedding ! We're mostly likely set on Cabo Surf Hotel which looks like the perfect small, boutique hotel for our wedding and the casual vibe we're looking for. We have a trip to Cabo booked for Labor Day to triple check the venue/hotel (although all reviews are amazing) and meet with Martha, the hotel's coordinator, and local vendors. If anyone has any tips or suggestions regarding Cabo Surf Hotel, please share & post here! There seems to be a wedding there every weekend, so I know brides and soon to be brides are out there Also, any vendors I must meet with while in town? We need everything - flowers, music/band/DJ, photography, video, hair/make-up, etc. Any great rehearsal dinner locations? We've been in contact with Flora Farms which looks amazing! Thanks!! xx
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Hi All!! I just got engaged 2 days ago!! We want to have our wedding at an all inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas in June 2015. There will prob. be close to 30-40 guests. Do you experts have any recommendations that will be affordable yet classy for my guests. Any tip are highly encouraged please!!! Thanks Luna
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My Husband and I recently had our wedding in Cabo San Jose at The Hyatt Ziva Resort. It was the BEST day of our lives! This was in part due to the fact that we had such an incredible DJ, Marcia Castro! Marcia helped our through out the planning process, easing the difficulties of organizing a destination wedding and absolutely delivered on wedding day. During our ceremony she sang (which was such a wonderful touch - she has a great voice), played the piano and played songs we had planned in advance. Our reception was a blast! She has great energy and has a way of getting people involved and out dancing. She brought maracas, hats, fun props and encouraged everyone to do a tunnel and Congo line. She really personalized our wedding spending a great deal of time planning and preparing playlists and arranged in advance with my husband to surprise everyone with a song he sang. One thing that stands our with Marcia is how much she cares, she wanted our wedding to be special and the time of our lives. She has a huge heart and felt more like a guest at our wedding from the US than a DJ we hired.
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My fiance and I were originally scheduled to have our wedding of ~100 guests at the Hilton Los Cabos on October 25, 2014. Unfortunately Hurricane Odile hit 5 weeks before our wedding date, and we were forced to cancel it. As added insult to injury, we found out our wedding was officially cancelled from our guests who had received cancellation emails from the Hilton, before we were even notified. After much deliberation, we decided to keep everything the same and just push out the date. We did this both to ease the burden on us as well as the people of Cabo who were displaced and their livelihoods largely compromised from the impact of the hurricane. We worked with the Hilton to schedule a new date: May 9th, 2015. We had all of our vendors switch the dates, informed our guests and had a new reservations site for them to book their stay, which many of them already have along with their flights. Today, we just received an email that now the reopening of the hotel won't be until June 1st, 2015, meaning they can not host our wedding. We're beyond devastated and heartbroken, a second time around. What was supposed to be a lovely, quiet Christmas is now a somber scramble to figure out how to put the pieces back together. I'm still reeling from shock and completely at a loss for what to do next, so I wanted to post here to hopefully get some feedback and advice from others who can probably think more clearly right now. Our thinking is we have to keep the same date and location of Cabo, since so many guests have already booked their flights, and unlike previously with the Hurricane, will not be able to get refunds for their tickets, and many of our wedding party also has had to make huge sacrifices to be available on these dates. Also, we expect now that this cancellation is the result of the resort and not a natural disaster, people are going to be much less flexible in terms of moving things around. I'm hoping for the advice of all / any of you on some of the following: We had chosen the Hilton because it was elegant, but the cost / room was still reasonable for our guests. We had a group rate of $169/night. Does anyone have any advice for other resorts that are of a similar standard? Looking online it seems that any other resort that is on par with the Hilton as far as quality and and beauty costs at least $300/night. (We're also very aware that many of the Cabo resorts will likely be booked already for a Spring wedding, which only adds to our complication) We have all of the vendors booked (and rebooked) but I'm concerned that alternative resorts may not allow us to keep the same vendors because they have 'vendor lists'. Has anyone had a similar experience as this? Are resorts willing to waive these types of constraints in the face of extenuating circumstances? I'm concerned a lot of the money we've put down for deposits may be lost for good, but am hoping that's not the case Though previously I wasn't planning on using one, I'm entertaining the thought of hiring a wedding planner to help us navigate some of the ambiguity. Any thoughts / experiences with this? If you think it's a good idea, any recommendations? Any alternative thoughts / ideas / etc. of what we can or should do? Any ideas are welcome Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer, and my apologies for any typos as my eyes are swollen half shut from all the crying :-(
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Hi ladies, I live in Los angeles and am in need of a travel agent that can help with my wedding set for October 2015. If anyone has any good recommendations I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
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Our Cabo wedding was just over a week ago and I'm still floating on a cloud! Everything was perfect and in fact exceeded all my expectations! By far the most crucial part was the efforts of our Wedding Planner, Illeana Reyes-Romantic Cabo Weddings and Jose Pineda, events coordinator with the Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar! We were in Cabo in November of 2013 to meet with a wedding planner I had talked with over the phone, a well known, high-end planner; well, I cannot tell you how disappointed we were upon meeting her, and how unprofessional her staff was. Lucky for us, we became friendly with a musician at Hacienda Del Mar, and while chatting it up with him we discovered his wife, Illeana, was a wedding planner! Illeana knows her stuff and she works tirelessly to make everything perfect and she is literally there with you every step of the way! We were completely and utterly happy with all her recommended vendors......Blanc Bridal Salon for hair and make-up, Gilda Badillo-photography, Florenta Florist for flowers, the Mariachis, the cigar roller, Impala Cabo-transportation, Picante-fishing charter, Rissaleana-sunset dinner cruise, etc.....with regard to the Hacienda Del Mar(we are timeshare owners there and our guest stayed at the hotel); truly amazing how perfect everything was in just under 2 months after Hurrican Odile hit......truly amazing! Jose Pineda work closely with us to make everything perfect and just the way we wanted it! Honestly, it's not easy to exceed my expectations, but I am still pinching myself.........my fairytale wedding was made a reality!!! I cannot thank Illeana and Jose enough!! Oh, and of course I need to mention Daryl, Illeana husband, who is a wonderful muscian, who performed at our wedding and well into the night at our after party/bonfire on the beach.......he's awesome, but she doesn't get credit for him, because we found him first!
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Hello! I wanted to put a post on here because I know when I started planning my destination wedding last year, I had so many questions and concerns and I found it so helpful to read reviews on here. I just got married on November 11, 2014 in Cabo, and I am still in Cabo San Lucas enjoying our mini honeymoon now. It was such a scare for everyone when hurricane Odile hit Cabo, especially for bride to be's and the uncertainty of flying here, but the saying is true that Cabo is unstoppable and you would never know it happened other than some cosmetic damage. Here is all of our vendors that we used, our budget, guest count, etc. I cannot wait to receive all of my photos so that I can post just how beautiful everything was. Cabo wedding Budget: $30,000 USD Wedding Size: 55 people Wedding Coordinator: Illeana Reyes at Romantic Cabo Weddings – 10/10 A+ Our first and foremost, and most important review goes to our wedding coordinator Illeana Reyes at Romantic Cabo Weddings. We researched a lot of coordinators and her website was not the most up to date, but she was quick to respond, she was very detail oriented, and she makes you feel very comfortable so I knew right away she was the one, do not let the website fool you! She recommended every single one of our vendors, and the team she brought together for our day was absolutely OUTSTANDING. I cannot give her enough credit for how unbelievably attentive she was from day one and how she made all of our dreams become a reality. I must start by saying, I am a very A type personality, so it was very hard for me to just leave things up to chance. I needed constant assurance and I would (annoyingly I know lol) send endless emails and photos as to what I wanted. We planned for just under one year and she was always available via email, she phoned to check in constantly, she offered many different options to choose from, and closer to the date she kept solidifying plans, getting vendor contracts, etc, she thought of every last detail. Illeana also assured us that she only recommends vendors that she has worked with in the past, and I am so glad we put all our faith in her because not a single thing went wrong, every vendor was on time, made it to rehearsals, kept in contact, no issues with payment, and the whole day went as planned with ZERO glitches! I hope everyone can use her out of all of the vendors because she was just a blessing. Jack & Jill/Bachelor & Bachelorette/Stag & Stagette Party: Pirate Cruise Ship: 9/10 A- Illeana even helped put together our jack & jill/bachelor & bachelorette party when we super last minute asked her when we arrived to Cabo. It was a sunset cruise open bar on a pirate ship, and it was such a hilarious and great time, our guests really enjoyed this and she made it all happen and confirmed in one hour for only $50USD per person! Talk about above and beyond service. We bought those Cabo San Lucas bandanas on the beach for everyone to wear, plus glow sticks, and it was a ball! This is the only picture I have so far that I attached. It was definately a fun experience for our whole group to bond together on night one and there were so many costumes that made for great photos. Venue: Cabo Del Sol: 10/10 A+ The photos do not do the venue justice; it is even more stunning in person and I cried as soon as we went to visit the venue and saw the beach and another wedding was being set up it was so beautiful. The wedding coordinator there, Luzma, is so welcoming and makes you feel so special and as if you are the only person she is concentrating on at all times. We did our ceremony on the beach, cocktail hour on the golf greens, and the reception in the clubhouse. I highly recommend this. There was a huge bridal lounge and a groom’s lounge to get ready in for the daytime, with our own personal waiter. Everyone had their own lockers and Luzma set up all of our dresses, suits, and accessories for photos. Our guests were shuttled straight to the ocean golf course greens when they initially arrived, and greeted with special flavored water. We did a sunset ceremony at 4pm, it was not too hot and not too windy either because the beach is privately enclosed in a semi circle space by the rocks, the waves were crashing down and it was such a romantic setting. Our guests had a shoe valet to remove their shoes before walking on the beach, and brushes to brush of the sand when they were coming off. The cocktail hour on the golf greens was set up with our signature drinks, open bar started, and popsicles were being handed out to cool off our guests and was such a nice touch. All of our guests were then shuttled to the clubhouse via their golf cart limos! So cute! The dance floor overlooked the ocean, had an open ceiling, and it was right next to the bar. The dinner service was in their clubhouse. All of our guests were floored at how many servers there were and how the staff was at everyone’s side at any given moment. We did a plated dinner service and every course was absolutely delicious. For example, between courses there was a raspberry sorbet that was served on a large ice block to keep the sorbet cold. Very impressed! We did 7 hours of open bar, which is charged per person, and it was definitely worth doing so we knew upfront how much we were paying. This venue is definitely a must! Photographer: Gilda Badillo: 10/10 A+ We met Gilda before the wedding at Cabo Del Sol so she could take us around and go over all the shots she recommended, and she wrote down all of the pictures we wanted. We did the first look and also did our family photos first before the ceremony. She was a total professional, nailed every shot and kept us on time. She also was not afraid to break a sweat! She would get on her elbows and knees to get the perfect picture and she would show us some photos as the night went on and I am so excited to see the final results. Her assistant was always where she could not be, to assure they both got every photo together. Our guests said the two of them were taking photos of our set up before we got there, and also of all our guests interacting. We could not be more thankful of those moments we did not see! Videographer: Jorge Ibarra: 10/10 A+ Gilda recommended Jorge, and she said they always work together on weddings. When we looked at Jorge’s website and saw his vimeos, we were sold! We also met him before the wedding at Cabo Del Sol and he went over the timeline and filmed our first look, all the way to our dinner service speeches. We could tell his team and Gilda’s team had worked together often because their communication and chemistry worked so great together and they made us feel so relaxed. The video cameras were never in the way, and Jorge would remove the microphones whenever Gilda was taking photos and he remembered the little details that we would not know about. We can’t wait to see our video! Floral: Sergio Ferras at Flowers & Events Décor: 10/10 A+ We sent Illeana our photos of exactly everything we wanted and she passed on a message to her floral recommendation. I wanted all white flowers, the white urn pedestals with pomanders at the entrance, the aisle chairs to be lined with bouquets and rose petals down the aisle, as well as the ribbon tied off at the entrance, a bamboo chuppah with white fabric and bouquets tied to all 4 corners; I sent a photo of the bride bouquet and the maids bouquet and grooms boutonnières, and I am not kidding when I say, they matched the floral IDENTICALLY. Everything was as planned and as pictured. They did not miss a single thing! Our cocktail hour had the floral bouquets, and our dinner service we reused a lot of our bouquets at centerpieces and table displays, and they supplied vases and cylinders, votives with tons of candles. It was stunning. Dj, sound & lighting: Victor and Teevan Entertainment: 10/10 A We sent Victor a list of songs that we wanted for the ceremony, wedding party entrance, first dances, etc. He got all of our songs except for the one that our wedding party walked down to, but it was okay because he played a good back up song. He supplied a sound system, the lighting for the dance floor, and one thing I really recommend for a beach wedding, is the white acrylic aisle board to walk down. This is because it was very difficult to walk on the beach even in bare feet, we looked like penguins during rehearsal ha ha, so it was a last minute splurge but well worth the incurred cost and just made the setting even that much more beautiful. The reason why we were so impressed was because for the actual dancing dj hours, we just told him a genre we liked and did not send him a list of songs, we just put our faith in him and it was as if he had our iPod playlist! They were all current up to date songs, and he kept the party going all night long. Minister: Rev Diego A Vidal: 10/10 A Illeana recommended Diego. He sent us an email with options for the ceremony, he checked in with us before the wedding to see if there was anything else we wanted to be said, he took our vows, and he said a special message to our guests and us. He was humorous, yet professional and kept the ceremony personal to us. He gave our coordinator our marriage certificate when he was done and it was easy as pie. Transportation: Leticia with Impala Cabo: 10/10 A Our transportation was perfect! They had shuttle service for our guests all night long and picked us up all day because we were all leaving the Riu at different times. They were all very professional, timely, and they had very nice vehicles. They also had a special private vehicle for us at the very end of the night. One of our guests became "sick" at the end of the night and they happily took her home and we were very grateful. Hotel Accommodations: Riu Sante Fe & Palace: 7/10 C+ We picked the Riu Sante Fe & the Palace because it was a very affordable option for such a large wedding party, and it was central to downtown Cabo. I will say, we were the very first group to arrive since Hurricane Odile on the grand opening on November 6, which we did not know, we thought it had been opened since October 9 for the Palace and October 16 for Sante Fe, and the Sante Fe was not yet ready to be open. The Palace was much better. We have stayed at both the Riu Sante Fe and the Palace before and have never had any problems, which is why we had our party stay here. It was really unfortunate the hurricane hit them so hard, but it was great that they had repaired the Riu to almost the exact same condition as before and the day-to-day staff really was trying their best. Our rooms were definitely very musty smelling, we all stayed in building 7, others at the Palace who could not stay at the Sante Fe, the first night was so unbearable we had to lay towels down to cover all the sheets and the smell, and we switched our room 3 times until one was decent enough to sleep in. A lot of our guests never received the opportunity to switch their rooms and had to sleep in the smell. Most of the safes were not working as of yet. And unfortunately, the staff that was never helpful was the front desk staff and several complaints were made. We had a group of 55 people, and they did not have any suite upgrades for the bride and groom and told us it was because they were still under maintenance. One of our groomsmen also paid a fee of $100USD to have our room filled with flowers, champagne and candles on the wedding night when we came home, and they forgot the champagne and candles. They also tried to charge all of us 630 pesos each for cutting off our wristbands on our wedding day, which we had to wait 1 hour to speak to a manager to get that sorted out and showed proof that we all still had our wristbands. It is an affordable option for what it is worth, but if you are looking for top notch quality this is not the place to be. Mini honeymoon hotel accomodation: Sandos Finisterra: 9/10 A- After our wedding and one week stay, all of our guests returned home and we transferred to the Sandos Finisterra. This place is 5 star and beautiful. They got hit really hard and they were still under maintenance and repairs, which is the only reason why we did not give them A+! We were immediately greeted with champagne, top notch service, upgraded to the honeymoon jacuzzi suite that over looked the entire beach and marina on the top floor, and they had premium liquor. It was very modern, a boutique style hotel, and all the staff were great. DIY Extras We did a lot of DIY projects for our day that we brought to Cabo with us and Illeana and Luzma set up for us. -We had the dinner menus printed on doilies for everyone’s individual plate and stamped in our wedding color (seafoam green) and gray (our other wedding color) table runners. -Instead of place cards, we had maracas made in our wedding color, with our guests name on the handle. We loved the maracas because it was multipurpose: it was a place card, a wedding favor, and our guests would shake their maracas if they wanted us to kiss instead of clinking glasses. -We placed disposable cameras on everyone’s table for party photos. -We brought down fans in our wedding colors, which were placed on everyone’s chair during the ceremony. -We printed reserved cards with the names for family members to sit at during the ceremony and Illeana taped them to their chairs. -We had a Go Pro on a selfie stick for people to pass around and take videos with wedding advice. -Our table numbers were in white picture frames with seafoam green centers. -At the entrance of our reception, Illeana and Luzma had a table set up. It had our seating chart, which was also in a large white picture frame with seafoam green centers, we had the letters L O V E in white wood blocks, we had the game JENGA as our guest book, and we used SCRABBLE to spell out “Please sign our Jenga guest book”. -We also made welcome out of town bags which consisted of a thank you card, invitations to rehearsals or parties, an itinerary for the week plus our wedding program on the other side, Advil, Pepto-Bismol, mints, chapstick, lubricant (for the single guests ha ha), Band-Aids, alcohol swabs, Emergen-C with a stir stick, sunglasses, and a Do Not Disturb door hanger. It was hard for me to settle on a destination wedding because it is an incurred cost for all of our family members and friends to have to pay for their flights and take vacation time. But ALL of our guests thanked us over and over again for having a destination wedding and said they woul love if we did this every year ha ha, and if you are from Canada like we are, November is the the best time of year to get away from the gloomy weather and get some sun! Aside from hurricane season. It is very rare for Cabo to experience such a hit like that. It was so much fun and we created memories to last a life time, so if you are unsure of whether or not a destination is a good idea, I would say it definately 1000% is!
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Hi everyone! I was trying to find a thread with more recent WC reviews and info, but couldn't find much. Some of the WCs I've contacted are: -Illeana from Romantic Cabo Weddings -Yarai Peregrino from Memories Weddings and Events Both whom I've read come highly recommended. I was also interested in Leslie from One Happenings, Suzanne Morel from Cabo Event and Christina Mattos from Cabo Beach Weddings, but could not find any reviews. Any brides out there that could share there experiences w/ these WCs? I've heard back from Christina M. (who btw responded to my email at 1am, after finishing a wedding that day - I was impressed!) and she answered all my questions, seemed very helpful and open about her process with vendors, fees, etc. I was quoted $1500 ($250 deposit) for a wedding of 30-40. I'm just hoping to get more feedback about this WC from others. Any reviews on these WCs would be great (or if there are any others I should email, let me know too). And also what is considered a reasonable fee for my wedding size? Thanks in advanced! MH
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Hi Everyone, I am newly engaged and already feel overwhelmed. Do you have pros and cons for going through an all inclusive? Or would you recommend having guests stay at an all inclusive resort and have the wedding at a different venue? Do you have any suggestions? Would it be worth hiring a wedding planner to help me figure out what would be best for us? We are trying to keep our budget as low as possible. Any information would be greatly appreciate. Thank you! Erin
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Hello Cabo brides- I was planning my wedding in Cabo on October 18th- but we had to move the location to Scottsdale which turned out amazing considering the quick switch. About 1/3 of our vendors in Cabo did not give our deposits back- which is somewhat understandable given the contracts we signed and the expenses they are incurring. Our photographer, Tomas Barron who does amazing work (http://tomasbarron.com/) offered a compromise to give our deposit of $1835 to another bride who would book with him. We are willing to give this $1835 credit to a Cabo wedding couple for $1250 (over $550 discount) to make this a win win situation. We would wait to get funds from you or we can work to get them through Tomas once you sign up with him. Our Cabo wedding planner (Christina Mattos- who is amazing) can verify all information if needed. If you are looking for a great photographer in Cabo with an amazing discount please PM me- Thanks and happy wedding planning. Tiffany
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If you are getting married in Cabo this November, and are interested in possibly being featured in Inside Weddings, please contact me. I handle the PR for BDW and a press contact wants to talk about how you managed to pull of the wedding after the hurricane. Call or message me! Amy: 503-869-2688.
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We are from the US and we decided to have our wedding in Cabo at Pueblo Bonito. The experience was beyond AMAZING! Our wedding planner, Denise Acosta, was wonderful! The hotel was clean, beautiful, and created a relaxing paradise for our guests. Everyone who stayed raved about how amazing the place was which was important to us because it was a long trip for many of them. The hotel was so accommodating to our needs and the entire staff went out of their way to make our guests and us feel taken care of and special. The big day truly went without error, which I am told can be quite rare. I am a very detail oriented person and Denise made sure all of the little details of the wedding were in place and that schedule was kept. Our wedding was on the beach- which was gorgeous. We had a cocktail hour at the firepit and a private dinner reception by the pool with dj Arturo Ortiz. He was fabulous and played all our requests as well as great dance music. Everyone had a blast and the event felt very private. People at the resort thanked us the day after the wedding for picking such a great dj because they were able to enjoy his music from the distance- which was funny. The food was absolutely amazing and far exceeds any typical wedding food or resort food. Overall, it was the perfect experience. I am grateful to the hotel for a breathtaking wedding and a great experience! Five stars out of five!
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I had my wedding at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica. I hired Blanc Salon as an outside vendor. They sent two girls to do my bridal hair and make-up as well as the hair of the mob and four bridesmaids' hair. It was humid, which was uncommon for June. I was very nervous because my naturally wavy, thick hair had been a mess in Cabo. The Blanc girls were miracle workers and made all of our hair gorgeous and frizz free. Ashley did my hair and make-up; she was phenomenal! The makeup was better than I imagined. The makeup was so well done- I had my share of happy tears but my makeup remained perfected (another miracle!) five stars out of five! They are the best!!
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Hi All! So let me start off with how excited I am for our wedding in Nov 2014! Congrats to all of you as well! We've hit a bit of a snag as of today and my FI is trying to calm me down but I need some ladies perspective ! So we decided on Riu Palace back in Aug 2013, because we knew we wanted Cabo and had many recommendations from friends who have stayed there. We got a quote from Sunwing on multiple departure cities in Canada,,, the rate is awesome, but I also had to do all the legwork by getting passport names, DOB's and CC #'s for deposit. We originally assumed the trip from Vancouver & Victoria BC would be Thursday - Thursday because that is what their flight schedules were this year. We even went down in Dec 2013 to do a site check (and a vacay of course) and it was Thurs - Thurs. The resort was beautiful and I knew our guests would love it as well. So after we got back, we gave our deposit for the group rate and we were told the dates would be Sat - Sat from our gateway in Victoria. Since I had already reserved the Monday as our ceremony date there was an issue. The Riu has a strict policy that the bride and groom have to be at the resort for 2 business days before the ceremony. The wedding coordinator provided through Sunwing made me change the date to Wed, saying the resort would not allow us to have a ceremony as early as Monday. So here we are today at the deposit deadline, with 58 guests ready to book and I've organized all their legal names, DOBs and CC info. I get an email at 10am saying that the airline has changed the flights back to Thurs- Thurs. This means our ceremony would be the day before we leave. We are not down with that, so I get in touch with the WC to see if she can change it... however the Riu headquarters is in Cancun and they don't exactly reply to emails consistently or promptly. I didn't receive an email by the end of the day or as of yet. So before the end of business, I sent off our 58 person group booking deposit spreadsheet, without hearing whether we can have our Mon ceremony date back. I didn't want to lose the 50 spots we had reserved at that rate. You may think I'm being paranoid, but the RIU has an online wedding ceremony booking engine and literally every slot within the week we are there is filled, I'm either stuck with Wed, the day before we leave or looking at booking the actual wedding offsite. My question ladies: What would you do in this situation?? PLEASE HELP!!!
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I used Emporio Arte in Cabo and they were reasonably priced and AMAZING! Alina was the best. I sent her pics of what I liked and she made everything perfectly. She was always quick to respond to emails and gave great recommendations. We got a lot of positive comments from guests about how beautiful and fresh the flowers were. They did our corsages, boutioneres, all bouquets, centerpieces, candle decorations, huppah, hair flowers, and our cake decorations! They exceeded my expectations by far!
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Hi Everyone, My fiance and I are looking into Cabo resorts for a December 2015 destination wedding and Cabo Azul is one of the possible venues. We love the look of the place, but many of the contract details and policies are extremely concerning. Given the recent hurricane I haven't been able to speak to their wedding coordinator on the phone, but after reviewing the PDF's she sent, I'm worried booking here is a bad idea. Does anyone have any recent information and/or experience with booking a wedding here? I'm specifically looking for tips on the following items: Alcohol policies: has anyone negotiated an open bar or changes to the above and beyond wine/champagne/signature cocktail costs? Vendor Fees: are outside vendors allowed and if so, is there a fee? General Satisfaction: did you have a good experience with your wedding? What do you wish you knew before booking? Were there any hidden costs? How much was your total Cabo Azul costs? We will likely have 45-60 guests. Thanks for your help! Mandi
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Hello brides-to-be! I am getting married in January 2015 at Riu Palace Cabo (hopefully at this point). I had chose the hotel based on reviews of friends who have been, reviews I've read online, price, and one of the biggest - capacity. I read on multiple sites and even Riu Palace's "extras" sheet that they have venues that can accommodate 300 people. I had to wait until the date was even available and reserved the day it became an option. I'm working with a TA to help with this, too. I expect to have about 130 people fly to Cabo with us to celebrate our big day! HOWEVER, I received an email yesterday telling me that the maximum capacity for my date and time is 70 people and that I can move my date to the day before, at a much earlier time and have 100 people. I'm so frustrated because I chose the hotel based on the fact they can accommodate large groups, I am planning nearly a year in advance, and am at a loss for what I am supposed to do. I even printed out my invites after I put my deposit down on the ceremony. What is the most people you have heard of/read that has a wedding at Riu Palace Cabo? This is the first hiccup in my planning and certainly won't let it get me down! I'm hoping to learn something from this forum while I wait for a reply email from the hotel's wedding coordinator. Thanks!
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HELP! We'd like to get married July 2015 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We have narrowed the resorts down to Fiesta Americana and Pueblo Bonito Sunset. Initially we thought Dreams Los cabos was our place, but I do not like the gazebo for the ceremony site. The reviews on both hotels are very confusing and making it too hard to choose. We want a place with: -great management/wedding coordinator that we can rely on -yummy food for our guests to enjoy (all-inclusive for no worries) -beautiful backdrops for our pictures We signed up with destinationweddings.com, but patience is not my strong point and I am getting anxious to send out our save the dates. Any input/recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance =)
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We are looking to get married in Cabo, but want less beachy wedding and more Boho/rustic style. Looking online I have found it difficult to find none beachy weddings. We are open to anywhere on the peninsula. We want everyone to have a vacation, but we want to wedding to be our style. Any recommendations?
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My fiance & I are getting married at Flora Farms in San Jose Del cabo in December. Does anyone have any recommendations for restaurants that serve great traditional Mexican food in San Jose? Since Flora's is farm to table, we would live to give our guest a traditional Mexican experience at the rehearsal dinner. All our guests are staying at Hotel El Ganzo so we'd like to stick to somewhere close by... in Downtown San Jose or near by...
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i need help!! I've been reading lots of reviews and almost everyone talks about extra charges after 30-40 guest. We are estimating a big wedding. Maybe 80-100 guest. We wanted an all inclusive hotel to make it cheaper but seems that may not be the best bet. anyone had a big party?? what can you guys recommend?
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Hello all! I am a getting married at the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in June! On June 27th to be exact I have been in contact with our wedding coordinator for a little over a month now, but I'm not very happy. Our wedding coordinator is Guadalupe "Lupita." She hasn't been great and I'm not impressed. We've had a lot of problems, but what can I do? My fiancé and I have 25 guests so we picked the Royal package as the Caprice package had a lot of stuff we didn't want or need. I am not utilizing the salon for my hair or make-up, one of my bridesmaids is doing my hair for me and I will have my nails done before I go. We are not worried about the strawberries and Champaign in the room or breakfast in bed or any of that stuff, we are pretty simple. We have 5 children going to Mexico with us, one being our own son, so we expect this trip to be very family oriented as they always are! I am super excited. Do you know if we pay the $28 extra for each child since this is for the Champaign toast and seat? The children won't be in seats, they are all apart of the wedding. IF anything they will be sitting on grandparents/parents laps. I'm just wondering if we have to pay the money for them? From what I've read previously we can bring cake decorations and give them to the wedding coordinator and the bakery will put the decorations on the cake for us? I'm really hoping that's true. The wedding coordinator has said bring them and they will see what they can do. All of our friends have had destination weddings ranging from Las Vegas to Mexico to Belize and we wanted to make sure our guests really enjoyed themselves so we decided to do an offsite dinner cruise for our reception through the Cabo Mar. Since our wedding package includes a rehearsal dinner and a reception dinner we asked Lupita if we could utilize the reception dinner as our rehearsal dinner to include all our guests, but we didn't want to chose our guests meals. After all we are staying at an all inclusive resort so it's silly for us to pick their meals. The resort has agreed to let us utilize our reception dinner as our rehearsal dinner and is allowing our guests to pick their meals straight from the menu! (THANK GOODNESS!) My fiancé was not liking the idea of us picking everyone's food!! Also, I wanted to give brides a heads up when it comes to the ARCH for the beach ceremony (which is what we signed up for since we are traveling to Mexico for our wedding, we had to have the beach!). I've seen a picture of the arch the resort provides on this BDW website and I was not impressed. It was a wooden arch that was all white, looked super old. I would pay the extra $350 for a huppah and with the Royal package Alina (the flower lady) told me we get 2 medium size flower arrangements FREE! The flowers are definitely over priced so I have made my bridesmaids bouquets and the groomsmen boutonnieres for a fraction of the cost! I also was not a fan of paying all this money for real flowers just for them to die and be thrown away before we fly back to America. My bridesmaids will be able to keep their bouquets!! I can post pictures if anyone is interested. Oh, almost forgot, I did buy 2 boutonnieres and 2 wrist corsages for my mom, dad, step-mom and step-dad. BUT I believe it will be worth it. We are not using one of their photographers because my Uncle does photography and so we are just paying his way to the wedding! Pictures are the most important thing to us because we want to have these memories forever! Not only is my Uncle photographing the wedding, but he's also doing the videography as well! We paid a little more than $2000 to get him there (he's coming from Hawaii), but we were quoted $1900 for 4 hours of photography. We also have my Uncle for 4 days which means poolside pictures, hanging out pictures, etc. We are also bringing our own minister!! It just so happens that another one of my Uncles is an ordain minister and is willing to do our ceremony! We are going to be legally married before we go to Mexico so it will just be a symbolic wedding! Conducting a wedding just so happens to be one of those things on my Uncle's bucket list that's pretty high up there so I am so excited as is he!! We've also decided to bring our own music for the wedding ceremony and then for the Cabo Mar reception they suggested we bring our own music, which we don't mind doing! This post is pretty long!! I apologize, but feel free to leave questions and/or comments! Would love to see pictures of other Riu Palace weddings! - Amanda
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Overall a good wedding but a few major hiccups. We had a group of about 30 people all together at the wedding. 6 out of the 30 people could not stay at the Palace or the Santa Fe because it was "sold out" (tried to book about 3-4 weeks before wedding). They had to stay down the street at the Villa Del Palmar (not all inclusive). I later met a couple who booked their trip 2 weeks ago as a very discounted rate so I am a little upset that my husbands family had to stay off the resort when there were obviously rooms available. Check-in/Transportation: Since we worked with a travel agency we had transportation from the airport through Telemar. They were on time and very accommodating with our entire group. The cab ride took about 35 minutes to get to the resort from the airport. Check in was no problem, we were greeting with drinks and a map of the resort. Our room wasn't ready yet so we had some lunch at the great buffet and then some drinks at the lobby bar. We checked back early to see if the room was ready yet and they put a rush on cleaning it so that we could settle in. Cute towel decorations greeted us on the bed. Rooms: We were upgraded to an oceanview room on the 2nd floor because of our wedding package. I have to say, I wasn't too impressed with the rooms or hallways...they seemed a little outdated to me in comparison to some other hotels I stayed in. Just my preference. The oceanview room wasn't a true oceanview, more like a pool view and corner ocean view, still nice though. The room was cleaned and restocked every day and they made sure to ask if we wanted more towels every night. The cleaning crew work their butts off and do such a great job! Food: Food was pretty good, lots of selection even for vegetarians (my whole family are vegetarians). The specialty restaurants were not my favorite because I am a picky eater. My favorite was the Italian lunch restaurant, San Jose (Mexican restaurant at night). Japanese restaurant entrees were good but all the restaurants have a very limited selection, you can choose from like 3 things. My husband enjoyed the steak restaurant. Neither of us liked the Krystal restaurant, too weird and hard to get into for a reservation. Pool side fajitas were bomb. We walked over to spend the day at the Santa Fe one day and the food was no where near as good. The pool side servers were very attentive and constantly asking if we wanted anything. Rehearsal Dinner: We had our rehearsal dinner at the San Jose Mexican restaurant. We were supposed to have a semi private dinner on the terrace over looking the beach which was including in our wedding package but we showed up for our reservation at 8:30pm and was told that we would be sitting in the restaurant with the other guests because someone else had the terrace. I was upset because there was nothing special about our dinner, we were just in the restaurant at a long table like everyone else and I paid good money to have that semi private dinner. The food options were suckling pig, mushroom ravioli, chick and steak fajitas, and prawns as well as the buffet. It was just okay. The BIGGEST complaint I have is that they would not allow my husband's family (sisters and mother) on to the resort for the rehearsal dinner even with guest passes because they said they were at full capacity!! They tried 3 separate times throughout the day to pay for guest passes and spend the day with us and the security at the gate would not allow them in and would not even call the front desk to check and see if they were in the wedding party. They were extremely rude and difficult. Finally at 8:45pm after 4 attempts they got in but were told they could not come back to the resort the next day until after 12:30pm even though they paid a full day pass and it was the wedding day! Spa: Ok....this is not a spa. I decided to have my hair and makeup done at the resort because I didn't want to travel to a salon on my wedding day and the resort requires a $300 outside vendor fee if you bring someone in (bogus). My hair and makeup turned out good but not great...I know I could of looked better and that is not feeling you want on your wedding day. The hairdresser/makeup artist (same person) did not speak any English so it was very difficult to communicate what I wanted even with lots of pictures. I showed up for my appointment expecting a full salon with a lot of hair and makeup gadgets that a normal person wouldn't have to make me look fabulous and what I got was 1 chair, 1 lady, 1 curling iron, and 1 can of hairspray. That's it. It turned out alright after several times of correcting what I wanted. I would not recommend getting you hair and makeup done at the RIU Palace salon. Ceremony: Ceremony was at the San Jose gazebo. The ceremony was beautiful, music and everything went off without a hitch. The wedding coordinator (Jazz) did a good job. Reverend Marco did a great job, personal and funny at the same time. It lasted about 25-30 minutes. Everything was set up just like I instructed the wedding coordinator. NOTE: We went to see the ceremony space the day before the wedding and were SHOCKED when we saw a huge trashy massage tent and white van in plain view of the gazebo that would obviously be seen in all the pictures. It is not part of the resort and is technically on the next property so there is nothing that can be done about it but it would have been nice to know a head of time to prepare or bring something to hide the hideous eyesore. I am not exaggerating...it's bad. Reception: We paid the extra money to have a private reception at the Baja Norte. This is by far the best decision we made. It was beautiful. There were 3 other weddings that night at the steakhouse terrace, beach, and mexican terrace...so many people commented how they were so thankful we paid the extra money because the other areas were just simply not as nice. I have to note something else that was very upsetting, we missed about an hour of our reception because the coordinators never told our guests when they could come down to the reception space from our cocktail hour in the lobby. The guests were supposed to be seated at 6:30pm and when we came to the reception to be announced as a new couple, there was not a soul in sight. It wasn't until about 7:20pm that I found my sister-in-law who told everyone to come down. Very upsetting. The wedding coordinator claimed she told everyone to come down but they were just having too good of a time sitting in the lobby at cocktail hour. Yeah right. Maybe I would believe that if there were some people down at the reception site, but not a single person including my mom was there. I really wish I had that hour back. The food at the reception was ok/good. As I said, my whole family are vegetarians so the wedding coordinator gave us 2 veggie options and 1 beef options which was nice (usually it's just 1 and 1). We had the stuffed eggplant, vegetable lasagna, and beef fillet. Asparagus soup was the best part. The resort DJ was good, I gave him a playlist to stick to and he did for the most part so no real complaints there. I did not use the resort photogprapher because I did not like their work I saw online. I paid the $300 outside vendor fee and got Gilda Badillo Photography. Phenomenal. Worth every penny. The cake cutting was another bust. First of all, they had nothing for us to cut the cake with when it came time. Our photographer had to find a mini pearing knife to cut the cake. We had no plates or forks either, we had to use our hands It was a disaster. We didn't get to eat a piece of the cake either. The head waiter said they would send 2 pieces up to our room but they never did so we never even got to eat out own wedding cake BUT everyone said it was very very tasty. The service was on point, drinks constantly flowing, shots being made, they made sure everyone was taken care of. The reception ended promptly at 11pm. We continued the party at the Pacho night club which was actually a ton of fun. Overall it was a great wedding and a great trip with 30 of our closest friends and family!