Secrets Maroma Brides

[LillyMD]

Hello Everyone! I am excited to see this thread. I am getting married at Secrets Maroma Beach on June 5th! So far, we've decided on the Ultimate wedding package and that's about it! We are adding a violinist for the ceremony (any experience with that?) and will have the Mexican trio play during the cocktail hour and just use our IPOD music for the reception. I'll probably upgrade my bouquet. Can anyone tell me what the decor is like that is included in the package? Any other tips and tidbits welcome!! Thanks!

[Simistar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits55 For whatever package you pick be advised ahead of time that for us the "late check-out" based upon availability got us an extra hour and we had to fight tooth and nail for it. I know the resort was not filling up because it was during the swine flu epidemic and people were actually LEAVING the resort. They were just being stingy. Also, we weren't given a groom's room for the night before the wedding even though we asked twice about it. My husband pretended to be sad when I asked for the room so I didn't push for it. I think Simistar maybe had to fight tooth and nail to get a room for her man the night before?

Yep -- our "late-checkout" was also only an extra hour! L-A-M-E...especially b/c not only was that part of our wedding package (we got the Secrets of Love) but b/c I think that is also offered as being part of the preferred club, which we were b/c we stayed in an ocean-front room!

As for the "groom's room" the night before that they offer...we asked twice for it and it never happened! It wasn't a HUGE deal for us, we more wanted a room where my DH could get ready the day-of so we wouldn't be getting ready in the same room...
So Cecilia suggested giving my DH a room for the next day to get ready in...we asked twice about that (afterall, SHE offered!) and you guessed it, it never happened:-)

MAYBE this has improved in the past year? :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by LillyMD Hello Everyone! I am excited to see this thread. I am getting married at Secrets Maroma Beach on June 5th! So far, we've decided on the Ultimate wedding package and that's about it! We are adding a violinist for the ceremony (any experience with that?) and will have the Mexican trio play during the cocktail hour and just use our IPOD music for the reception. I'll probably upgrade my bouquet. Can anyone tell me what the decor is like that is included in the package? Any other tips and tidbits welcome!! Thanks!

Welcome -- and congrats!

As far as upgrading your bouquet, my advice is to just go with what's included...
I payed an extra $130 to upgrade and my bouquet was crap... The flowers were all half-dead, drooping, and the stems were mushy.
All the girls who just went with what was included had gorgeous bouquets though! I guess they get those flowers fresh or something, and the upgraded ones they fly in? Cecilia said something like that to me anyway...

The decor that's included with the packages is pretty basic...
For the wedding ceremony, they decorate the beach wedding arch with tulle and will put down a white satin aisle runner if you want...
It includes chairs and I *think* chair covers, but not chair sashes/bows...
They will also line the aisle with starfish.
There's a table inside the arch that will be covered with a white table cloth, and I think your package should include some flowers to be placed on that table...

For the reception, it includes table cloths (I think they only offer white?) and chairs with chair covers...Again, does not include chair bows/sashes, so if you want those for both the reception and the ceremony, buy/bring enough for BOTH... They won't move them from one location to the other.
No centerpieces, you have to buy theirs or bring your own...

They do decorate the wedding gazebo by the pool (whether you have your reception near there or ceremony there) with tulle -- it looks really nice!

That's all I can think of for now... Perhaps other girls can think of more/something else

Good luck!:-)

[Kits55]

I did not use the package bouquet as my bouquet but I did use it (I think as a centerpiece). By the time I got to SMB they had different flower options available to me and I actually wished I had used the live flowers instead of paying for a silk bouquet. The flowers in the centerpieces were very fresh and GORGEOUS. I'm not sure I have any pictures but I'll check and post them if I have some.

[lauraereed]

I was married at SMB on 12/19/09. I have tried to attach a couple of photos of our ceremony set up and reception set up. We got the middle package and had our own outside photographer. Instead of using SMB's photographer we asked to have a violinist play for the ceremony. She was wonderful and we used our IPOD for music at the reception.

 

Email me if you'd like any additional pictures. I hope to complete my review shortly. As a side note, we LOVED our photographer Rafa Ibanez. You can see some pictures from the wedding and of the bouquet on Rafa's blog. Laura & Alex @Riviera Maya Rafa Ibáñez BLOG

[Boo]

deleted

[mlynnea]

Hi Ladies...So I tried to upload pics to this site, but kept getting an error that my computer couldn't find a server. Frustrating! I have pics that Cecilia sent me of what the cocktail hour looks like when setup on the beach, reception table, and gazebo ceremony setup, and beach ceremony setup. Shoot me an email if you'd like to see 'em. ([email protected])

[Simistar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lauraereed Email me if you'd like any additional pictures. I hope to complete my review shortly. As a side note, we LOVED our photographer Rafa Ibanez. You can see some pictures from the wedding and of the bouquet on Rafa's blog. Laura & Alex @Riviera Maya Rafa Ibáñez BLOG

Congratulations! You look FABULOUS! And I LOVE your pictures!
Out of curiosity, did you pay to upgrade your bouquet or was the one "included" in your package...?
Just wondering whether they've improved the "upgraded" flowers so future SMB brides know whether it's worth it...(and your bouquet looked
gorgeous BTW:-))

[Simistar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlynnea Hi Ladies...So I tried to upload pics to this site, but kept getting an error that my computer couldn't find a server. Frustrating! I have pics that Cecilia sent me of what the cocktail hour looks like when setup on the beach, reception table, and gazebo ceremony setup, and beach ceremony setup. Shoot me an email if you'd like to see 'em. ([email protected])

You need to create an account and upload them to photobucket.com...
then copy and paste the image code (IMG) on here and the picture(s) will show up!
Unless you already did that and it still wasn't working...

[Simistar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boo 1. you guys used the small beach structure then and moved it? I actually think I like the look of it better, hmmm

I'm not sure, but I don't think they moved it?
Looks like it's in the same place it was for us...
But obviously she can say for sure, lol:-)

[mlynnea]

Thanks simistar. I haven't tried the photobucket.com solution. I'll give that a try..I just went to the Advanced reply page and tried to use the paperclip attachment function, which obviuosly didn't work for me at all.

 

 

Laura - I would love to know if your flowers were included in your package or not. I have to pick my flowers soon, and whatever you had in your photos wasn't on the powerpoint of flower options that Cecilia sent me. I loved them! Was there a hint of blue from hydrangea in there?