Secrets Maroma Brides

[Melissa Francis]

Okay, one more question.

Did anyone use an offsite hair and makeup place?  I emailed my concerns to Valeria and Carla in the Spa proceeds to tell me they have dealt with African American hair, and with extensions but they wanted to see a picture of my hair.  I emailed her a picture of my hair and I still have yet to get a response.  I did find someone who can deal with natural type 3C-4A curly hair and didn't need a picture to know what I was talking about when I discussed my curly hair and the type it is.  Did you pay a fee to have hair and makeup to come to your room?  Also, did anyone go with a different photographer than what SMB has to offer.  It seems like you should get more for your money so I wanted to look into that too.

 

Thanks Again!

P.S. tigerkels, I sent you a private email, but if you still want to talk about our wedding on the same day you can email me at FrancisHinesWedding@gmail.com

[emme1976]

Originally Posted by lorcas 

 

Mine's in May too! Mat 23rd, when is yours?

 

I am having my ceremony at the gazebo at 3pm. My reception was a long process due to the space I wanted being given away in email mix-ups so I settled on the Oceana Terrace. I want to arrive a few days early to scope out any other potential places to move the reception if I feel the need to. The Oceana Terrace is pretty though, as I assume all the places on the resort are. 

Mine's on May 2 in the morning. The afternoon time was already taken, so I'm thinking of having a bonfire and DJ/dancing on the beach after everyone gets dinner on their own. Not thrilled about it, and it's costing me a lot more, but I don't think everyone will dance when it's still bright out! I'm arriving 3 days early to scope some locations out too. Do you have any pictures of the locations? I only saw the few on the SM brochure and website.

If I'm having 30-40 people, do you think going with the Ultimate Package is the better way to go, instead of paying per person for food? Everything's adding up so quickly, it's killing me! Lol

[gallardo films]

Hi brides! We're Gallardo Films wedding cinematographers at Mayan Riviera. We're a passionate and experienced enterprise, we love make films with beautiful love's stories! 

 

We would like invite you to watch next video about us, what we do and how we do it! Have a good planning!

 

[Melissa Francis]

If there is anyone here who did their wedding last minute(3 months out) and they had issues with the quota issue(that 80% of your guests must stay at SMB or else you cannot have your wedding there) and they were able to get around it, please let me know.  I am so angry right now because this was brought to my attention yesterday.  I don't have an issue with the $100.00 fee for the people coming from off site, I have an issue with the quota.  My father decided to stay next door because it's $500 per person cheaper for 4 days/3 nights so he could actually make it.  I need him to be able to walk me down the aisle, I've been waiting over 30 years for this moment!

 

Did anyone get a travel agent and get a group rate?  Just trying to find a way to keep my wedding at SMB and not be forced to move over to Grand Velas where we are owners.  SMB is my current dream beach and resort.  Any advice would be super helpful.

 

Thank You

[CriCri]

I would love to see that too. Did anyone bring their own aisle or decorations for the gazebo?

I would love to see that too. Did anyone bring their own aisle or decorations for the gazebo?

I have taken sashes, fans and bubbles from home for the canopy decorations and Cecilia set them for me.

[un4gitabl]

Originally Posted by Melissa Francis 

 

If there is anyone here who did their wedding last minute(3 months out) and they had issues with the quota issue(that 80% of your guests must stay at SMB or else you cannot have your wedding there) and they were able to get around it, please let me know.  I am so angry right now because this was brought to my attention yesterday.  I don't have an issue with the $100.00 fee for the people coming from off site, I have an issue with the quota.  My father decided to stay next door because it's $500 per person cheaper for 4 days/3 nights so he could actually make it.  I need him to be able to walk me down the aisle, I've been waiting over 30 years for this moment!

 

Did anyone get a travel agent and get a group rate?  Just trying to find a way to keep my wedding at SMB and not be forced to move over to Grand Velas where we are owners.  SMB is my current dream beach and resort.  Any advice would be super helpful.

 

Thank You

 

Hi Melissa,

 

I am going to do my best to answer questions that I can.  So far I’ve had some guests say that they are staying off site and my understanding is that if there are more that 3 or 4 that SMB requires a CC to guarantee the price, but not that they couldn’t come.  That sounds silly and I’m sure that you could talk to them. I know that is easier said than done b/c they are super busy.  Also, if you select the Ultimate package then your guest fee is $70 per person as opposed to $100. 

 

I have a travel agent and she can definitely get better rates than what is on the SMB website!  I didn’t do a room block with her, but she is an Apple certified or specialist or whatever it is so that she works with Apple frequently (Apple is a parent company for SMB so a lot of times they get better rates).  All of our guests have just called her when they wanted to book & she gives them the current rate that day.  In my experience it has been significantly lower than those on the website.

 

We are using an offsite photographer b/c I felt like I was getting the run around with their photographer situation (I now understand that they were changing their relationship with Juan, but it was confusing a few months ago).  Plus I really liked the pictures of the photographer we went with (Sascha Gluck) and his pricing was simple and straight forward!

[un4gitabl]

Originally Posted by Melissa Francis 

 

I have a few questions I hope someone can answer.

 

My wedding is on Nov 7th, it's very last minute despite already having 15 years under our belt.  So we gave people only 3 months notice.  Because SMB isn't on the cheaper side of the spectrum, people are looking into staying at places with a lower price point.  I was just told by Valeria that there is a $100USD fee for guests coming off site and 80% of your guests must stay at SMB.  I['m sitting here like ????  So let me get this straight, we pay about $3000 USD for the week not including airfare and we have a wedding and pay for extras and you want to tell me that if my guests stay elsewhere they may not be able to come.  We all flew from either California or Texas and they can't come because basically they can't afford to stay at SMB but chose to stay next door at the Catalonia Privledged?  

 

Has anyone dealt with this situation?  How did it go for you?  So far it's just the parents of the groom and my father(my mother is no longer with us), so they did say if it stays that small, they are willing to make an exception.  But what if I end up with 10-20 guests and they're all next door or at the El Dorado?  Did anyone get so irritated that they cancelled the wedding and did it elsewhere?

 

Also, how hard is it to get pictures and prices of beach gazebo setups?  I don't seem to get a response when I ask about that.

 

Thank you!

 

P.S. the Beach Gazebo setup thing may be a language barrier because in my understanding they are two separate places?  Like you can get married on the beach or you can get married at the gazebo.  May not be it at all, but I thought I would throw it out there :-)  Good Luck!!!

[Melissa Francis]

You guys are so awesome, thank you so much for all of your tips.

[CriCri]

Originally Posted by emme1976 

 

Hi! I just sent out the invitations, and looks like guests who we didn't think would come are coming, and the guest list is growing fast = lots more $$!!! Plus, mine's in the morning ceremony slot, so I was going to have a DJ and bonfire in the evening after everyone's had dinner. That's a lot of $$ too.

If anyone can give me advice on how they kept costs down, etc. for a guest list of 40-60, please let me know. I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about all the additional food/drink costs!! I was going with the Complimentary Package, but is upgrading to the Ultimate better? Please feel free to PM as well. Any help, suggestions, ideas, is appreciated!

 

I had the same situation, at the beginning I was going with the complimentary but at the end the Ultimate worked much more better.

My suggestion to save money is exchange services included in the Ultimate package that you are not interested in, for other that you need and you would pay as an extra.

For example, I have exchange the massages for make up and hairdress trial. I didn't want bridemaid bouquet and I exchanged it for canopy decorations.

One more suggestion is to ask to move flowers decoration from the wedding site to the dinner site, in this case you haven't to pay 2 times flowers decorations.

They have moved for me centerpieces and flowers aisle decorations from the canopy to the gazebo and with the same flowers I have decorated the two sites.

Hope this can help you

Hugs!

[CriCri]

Originally Posted by Melissa Francis 

 

Okay, one more question.

Did anyone use an offsite hair and makeup place?  I emailed my concerns to Valeria and Carla in the Spa proceeds to tell me they have dealt with African American hair, and with extensions but they wanted to see a picture of my hair.  I emailed her a picture of my hair and I still have yet to get a response.  I did find someone who can deal with natural type 3C-4A curly hair and didn't need a picture to know what I was talking about when I discussed my curly hair and the type it is.  Did you pay a fee to have hair and makeup to come to your room?  Also, did anyone go with a different photographer than what SMB has to offer.  It seems like you should get more for your money so I wanted to look into that too.

 

Thanks Again!

P.S. tigerkels, I sent you a private email, but if you still want to talk about our wedding on the same day you can email me at FrancisHinesWedding@gmail.com

 

I had Juan Navarro collaborators and they was the alternative of Adventura photo that is the photographer that have the shop in the resort.

Juan Navarro collaboratos have been fantastic, I have tried also Adventura photo for an hour session some days after the wedding and I liked them but I prefere the first! For Juan Navarro I didn't pay any entry fee, they were welcome in the SMB resort.