LiznSergio's Cabo Wedding Review/Sheraton & Cabo del Sol 6/12/10

liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Hello to all future and past brides. As many of these reviews start, I also would like to start mine by thanking everybody on this forum and of course, especially Tammy for hosting such a great forum! That being said, we had the most amazing wedding! Our special day was everything I dreamed of and so much more! We enjoyed every minute of our wedding events, and the wedding day will forever be a wonderful memory! On to the goods………

My first review will be of the most vital person to my wedding from day 1 of my planning….

Wedding Coordinator/Karla Casillas: A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (Literally off the charts!!!!!!!)
I met Karla via email a little over one year ago. After endless hours of research for wedding planners in Cabo, she is the one that met all my needs and stood out the most. I am a very visual type of person and need to see things, images, samples, etc. and Karla’s website and blog did just that. Before calling her, I studied her work ethic through past weddings on her blog, testimonials of past couples, and her ideas and style were fresh, modern, chic, elegant….a mixture of everything.

After a few emails I finally placed my call to her to hire her, we instantly hit it off and I knew right then and there that if I was going to place my most important day of my life in someone’s hands, it would be her! We did our site visit in June ’09 and Karla spent at least three days with us doing site visits and meeting vendors. She suggested venues that we didn’t even have in mind and I’m glad she did because one of those venues is were we decided to have our wedding, and could not have been happier with the results! She always listened to my ideas and what I wanted and elaborated from that. She was never pushy and I never got the impression that she did not understand what I envisioned for my wedding.

We were fortunate to have been able to make two trips to Cabo before the wedding, but honestly if it wasn’t for the fact that my DH and I are in love with Cabo, after seeing the end result, everything would have turned out just as fine if we had made zero trips to Cabo before the wedding. That is how detailed and amazing Karla is. Karla is bilingual and communicating with her via email was a huge weight off my shoulders. I was sure to get a reply to my emails that same day, if not with in a very reasonable time. Which I think is very important for all destination wedding brides!

Our wedding day was everything I envisioned….and MORE! If Karla had already outdone herself way before the wedding….the day of the wedding Karla and her staff proved what outstanding professionals they are! DH and I were able to enjoy absolutely every single second of our wedding because Karla and her team literally had everything under control. Never did I have to worry about timelines, vendors arriving, set up, etc. She took care of every single dynamic of the wedding and now that it’s over, I can say that my best investment for the wedding was to have made the call to Karla!

If you are looking to get married anywhere in the Cabo area and are looking for a Wedding Planner you can rely on, and one who is extremely knowledgeable and has a great relationship with sooooooo many vendors, you can not go wrong with Karla Casillas. You will have the best wedding ever, and be able to enjoy it from beginning to end thanks to her and her team!

Contact Info:
Karla Casillas
Blog: Los Cabos Wedding
Website: A Baja Romance Wedding... By Karla Casillas © 2009-Los Cabos Wedding planner-Cabo San Lucas Wedding Planner-Destination Wedding Planner-wedding coordinator
Email: karla.casillas@karlacasillas.com

American Airlines: A
We frequently fly American Airlines, and they are always pretty consistent with their customer service. I called the airline the night before we headed to Cabo to see If I would be able to hang my dress as opposed to putting in an overhead compartment. I was told I could hang it up, but it would count as my carry-on piece of luggage. Which was totally fine with me because we ended up checking in most of our bags. The morning of our flight I was able to hang my dresses in the front closet of the airplane ïŠ

SJD Airport- Customs Check: A
During our packing we made sure to distribute wedding related items that we were taking to Cabo so that no luggage (per person) had more than $300 worth of merchandise and I made sure to bring our receipts. Luckily we did not need the receipts since we got the green light. A piece of advice that my Wedding Planner suggested was to remove any “made in china” stickers/labels off any merchandise you bring for your wedding because you run the risk of them confiscating it if your bags get checked. In any event, just make sure to have your receipts and you should be fine.

Sheraton Hacienda del Mar: Various Grades
Welcome Dinner- De’ Cortez Terrace Restaurant: A+
This venue was excellent minus the high winds we had that day! Hahahaha, everybody’s hair was flying everywhere, but overall it was great night! We had a Mexican style buffet dinner…the food was delicious and desserts were even better!

Salon del Arco/After Party (day of the wedding): A+
All music in an outdoor venue needs to end at 11pm, and since we knew our family and friends are big party people we decided to have an after party after the reception. So when I mentioned this to Karla, she suggested we have an after party with a midnight buffet. I thought to myself….who the hek will want to eat at midnight? Well it was one of the many fabulous ideas Karla suggested to us. We had a DJ and a midnight buffet after the reception that went on til 3am….and to my surprise, everybody ate again at midnight and throughout the night since it was a buffet!!!!! We had a “make-your-own-taco” buffet which included a variety of tacos, rice, beans, etc. They were deeeeeeelish and definitely hit the spot after all the dancing at the reception.

Chapel: A+
This chapel is just simply timeless and beautiful. We could not have been happier with the way the chapel looked the day of our wedding. It has an amazing atrium through which the sunlight come through and sheds a beautiful light making it for a very romantic feeling.

Continued....

liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Sheraton Grades Continued...
Property: A+
The Sheraton is simply breathtaking from the minute you come through the security gate. The resort had many, many pools to choose from throughout the property and they are all very clean and have plenty of lounge chairs. Downtown Cabo is only about a ten minute cab ride and San Jose is about a 20 minute cab drive. We stayed in an ocean front room and it was very spacious and nice. When we did our site visit, viewed a garden view room and that was also a very nice and spacious room.

Restaurants at the Hotel: Food: B-/Prices: D
There were many restaurants to choose from at the hotel, we only ate at the hotel a few times during our stay, but several of our guests commented on how incredibly expensive it was. Example, the bill for three guests who each ordered a plate of two shrimp tacos, two beers and one soft drink came out to $80 plus tip. That’s a bit ridiculous considering they just ate tacos.

My recommendation is to take a cab ride into town or to San Jose for meals. You get to explore and have an excellent meal for a fraction of what you would pay at the hotel. There was also a restaurant at the hotel which we discovered the day before we left named Girasoles…it is located on the “timeshare” side of the resort….$15 all you can eat buffet style and the food was delicious.

Oscar Alcocer/Sheraton Group Coordinator: A+++++
Oscar was the event coordinator from the Sheraton whom I worked with up until about one month before my wedding, until he decided to relocate to Mexico City. Oscar was exceptional! He would always joke “not to worry, that he would take care of me and treat me like a princess”…and he lived up to his word. Any questions I had in regards to the Sheraton and our events at the location he would answer almost instantly! He was adorable!

Anne Vanolande/Groups & Conventions Manager: A+++++
After Oscar left the Sheraton, Anne was assigned to our events at the Sheraton. Oscar assured me we had nothing to worry about and he was right! Anne was just as fabulous. There were a few days were we went to the lobby looking for her because we had questions about our events and she would drop what she was doing and come from wherever she was on the property to address our questions. She was extremely professional and made sure that we were well taken care of.

Rehearsal Dinner/Sunset DaMona Lisa Restaurant: A+++++
Kalra suggested this restaurant during our first site visit, so DH and I went to have dinner there. We instantly fell in love with this restaurant…..the views from anywhere in the restaurant are bar none, breathtaking! The food is delicious and service is excellent! So we knew we wanted to somehow incorporate SDML into our wedding events and decided to have our Rehearsal Dinner there the night before the wedding. Our guests LOVED it! We had a set menu with about four options for our guests to choose from and we were able to take our own wine ($20 corkage fee per bottle) which was great because we are big wine drinkers. Los Cabo Wedding Planner, Best Italian Restaurant Cabo San Lucas, Sport Fishing East Cape Baja - sunsetmonalisa

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liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Cabo del Sol
Cocktail Hour/Cabo del Sol Fountain Hallway: A+
Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour from 6-7pm while we were taking pictures. We had an open bar which started with the cocktail hour and went on til 10pm. During the cocktail hour they also had our signature drink, tiffany blue lemon drop, served in a beautiful clear Mexican martini glass with a beautiful royal blue rim. Although we did not attend the cocktail hour, our guests were very happy and said it was great and it also gave them time to mingle before dinner.

Cabo del Sol Clubhouse: A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ok, so I know I’ve been giving out a lot A++++ in my review, but trust me, they are all very worthy of it and Cabo del Sol is no exception! During our first site visit, we were determined to have our wedding at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, but were open to looking at other places. Cabo de Sol was suggested to us by our fabulous coordinator, Karla. It was the second place we saw, and we still had about five other venues on our list that we wanted to see, or “thought” we wanted to see. When we walked onto the ground of CDS we instantly looked at each other and said “this is it….We don’t want to look any further!”…and we didn’t!

CDS is a clubhouse at one of the stunning Jack Nicklaus golf courses. Everything about this clubhouse and property will make you think of Cabo, beach, villa, romance and elegance! One of the things we fell in love with was that the clubhouse is exclusively open to one wedding per day….so it’s like having this mini mansion (literally) only for you and your guests! It was perfect!!!!!!

The property has a Bride & Groom’s Lounge, which is were all the preparation, hair & make up took place! Both lounges have lockers, showers, sitting area, balcony facing the ocean….absolutely amazing!

The staff at CDS is incredibly professional and elegant! We first worked with Ana Guajardo, then Ana Jose, and lastly with Luz Maria Ornelas. Luz Maria was a sweetheart all the way! She answers your questions and is at your complete disposal for whatever you may need. It’s incredible the amount of attention the staff dedicates to your event. Miguel was another event manager at CDS who was exceptional with us! You are guaranteed to have an amazing event at CDS.

The wedding day could not have been more perfect! The clubhouse looked amazing and it was the perfect setting! The way the servers came out as they served and plated the different dinner courses was so elegant and artistic. The wedding dinner was delicious and it taste exactly the same as what we had during our tasting one year ago! The consistency of this venue was incredible! Cabo del Sol gave us the wedding of our dreams, in it we found absolutely everything we knew we wanted and lots more!

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liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Minister/Rev. Diego Vidal: A+++++
Hahhahaha, our story about our officiant is quite comical! As many brides on this forum take these reviews for face value and take past bride’s reviews and advice and treat them as gold, I of course wanted the minister (who shall remain nameless) that everyone raved about on this forum. I read about how this minister would take every ceremony and make it a very special and individual ceremony for the couple, so I of course wanted the same for the most important day of my life! I got in contact with the renowned Cabo minister and I was so happy he had our date available. This was the missing piece to the puzzle and now I felt like our wedding day was complete! Well a few weeks after I made a deposit for him to officiate our wedding, he calls me and tells me that it is with much regret that he needs to inform me that he cannot officiate my wedding because there is no way he was able to work alongside my wedding coordinator! WTF?? When I told Karla about this, she was floored!!!!!! I could not believe how unprofessional he was behaving. After I plead and begged for him to reconsider, he told me the only way he would officiate our wedding was if he could keep contact with Karla to a bare minimum. Totally confused about the situation, I agreed, only because I wanted our ceremony to be special and from all the reviews it seemed like he was the only one who accomplish that. Well about a week after he reconsidered and told me he would officiate the wedding, he calls me again only to tell me that he just can't do it and refunded my deposit.

As you can imagine, I was devastated! Here I was with everything in place and the only thing missing was the most important part of the ceremony…..the officiant! Till this day, I don’t know and don’t care what their history is and why he was so set on not being able work alongside with my coordinator, but my personal opinion is that he was quite unprofessional. In the business of event planning and weddings, I am positive that there are people and vendors you just can’t simply stand, but being a professional is being able to suck it up and continue doing your job regardless. After all, I had no idea of their past or what their animosity was about; I was paying him for his services he was to provide to me and my fiancé, not to my wedding coordinator.

Anyhow, as the cliché goes….everything happens for a reason! This entire situation was a blessing in disguise...because we found Rev. Diego Vidal. After Karla convinced me that everything would be fine and that she would find the perfect officiant for our wedding, she introduced us to Rev. Diego Vidal. Diego was heartfelt and sincere from the minute we met him. And like many things during our planning, we instantly knew that he was the perfect minister for us. Diego has such a great presence about him and he is so kind and genuine. He made our ceremony special and very personal, and best of all, he is bilingual! We had a bilingual ceremony and he made it flow perfectly! All our guests commented on what a beautiful ceremony we had. And we are happy to say that not only did Diego officiate and make our ceremony very memorable, but we now have a friend in him.
Contact info: loscabosminister@gmail.com

Flowers/Roger Bausan of Living Art Couture: A+++++
Roger is simply fabulous! At first I was a bit worried because he would not reply to emails in a timely manner. But in his defense, I probably confused the hek out of him because one thing I kept changing y mind about were the flowers! LOL! It seem like every other week I would come across something better than the last and I would email him the changes. By the end of the panning, I think I had confused myself and lost track of what I had told him! Well none of it mattered because the morning the flowers were delivered to the Bride’s Lounge at Cabo del Sol….all the girls stopped what they were doing and admired the gorgeous bouquets! My bouquet was flawless and EXACTLLY what I wanted….it was insanely beautiful! As were the rest of the arrangements, BM bouquets, boutonnieres, mother’s corsages, altar arrangement, centerpieces…..everything was just beautiful!
Contact Info: roger@karlacasillas.com

Trio Los Mosquitos: A+
The Trio played as guests arrived at the ceremony and during the ceremony. We listened to them during one of our site visits and were very pleased with them! They are able to play a variety of songs, but their rendition of Canon in D will send chills down your spine….beautiful! (no contact info; hired directly through wedding coordinator) $350/hr

Mariachi Jaliciense: A+
The mariachi played during the dinner hour and they were fabulous! I had given Karla a list of songs I wanted them to play/sing and every single song on the list was played and it was perfect! There were eight musicians in the mariachi, their voice carried very well throughout the clubhouse. They were great!!! (no contact info; hired directly through wedding coordinator) $600/hr

Band/De Ja Vu: A+
This band was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! They play absolutely everything….English, Spanish, rock, classic, cumbias, Mana, Kid Rock….everything!!!!!!....and even better, they had our guests dancing ALL NIGHT! I also provided Karla with a music list for the band, and they played everything on the list! This band is GREAT!
Contact Info:
Email: Joaquin De La Torre- jdtc@prodigy.net.mx
Web: Deja-Vu Cabo San Lucas Mexico Rock Band Versatile Perfect for Events
$700/hr

DJ Adan Mijares: A+
We only had a DJ at the after party, not at the reception and quite honestly after the reception I thought to myself “I am soooooo tired, there is no way I will make it to the after party, and I imagine the guests are just as exhausted.” Well, I was wrong, DJ Mijares knew exactly what to play and had our guests dancing till 2am! (no contact info; hired directly through wedding coordinator) $200/hr

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liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Cake/Jennifer Hatton: A++++++++++++++++++++++
I LOVED our cake!!!!! It looked so perfect I didn’t even want to cut it! We met with Jennifer for a cake testing during one of our site visits and fell in love with her Vanilla cake with the Orange tequila key lime filling with orange zest and Vanilla cake with Fresh raspberry paint, raspberry french cream sprinkled with raspberries, so naturally we had to have both flavors! We had two tiers of the raspberry and one tier of the orange flavor! All I did was email Jennifer a picture of the cake we wanted and told her what colors we wanted the frosting to be and she recreated the cake to the tee! It was just simply beautiful and it was heavenly delicious!

Video/Angel Zapien: A+++++
Angel will receive more +++++++’s when I get the video, and although I have not seen the final product we are certain that it will be amazing! Angel was one of the vendors we knew we wanted right off the bat! During the entire planning we followed him on his blog and would get incredibly excited every time he would post a new video! One look at his work and you will know he is the one!
Contact Info: Blog | Angel Zapien Video /$2,700 for 5hrs.

Photographer/Dino Gomez: A+++++
OMG Dino is so much fun and amazing!!! You will fall in love with his work the minute you see it! Just like Angel, Dino will definitely receive more ++++++’s when we receive the final product. Dino has the gift of capturing incredible shots! He loves what he does and you can see it as he is shooting throughout the day. Our TTD session was sooooooo much fun! We did it two day after the wedding and by then DH was sick and tired of taking pictures and was not looking forward to it….and till this day I’m sure he didn’t even know what I was talking about when I would say TTD session…lol. It turns out he said it was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the wedding events! Dino was able to show us a few shots that day, and all I can say is ….Priceless!!!!!!!!!

Contact Info:
Email: weddings@dinogomez.com
Web: www.dinogomez.com
$400/hr

Hair & Make Up/Suzanne Morel: B
We had four bridesmaids, two mothers, one flower girl and myself who got both hair and makeup done and although I was quite pleased with my hair and makeup, it seems like towards the end the girls were rushing to finish up and due to this one of my bridesmaids was unsatisfied with her hair and makeup, and there was zero time to fix it. Other than that, I would recommend Suzanne Morel to any bride. There were three staff members total who worked on our group and preparation began at 9am…..and literally finished up at 4:45pm with 15 minutes to spare for photos and video before the ceremony started at 5pm.

The End!
As you can see, I was extremely pleased with all our vendors! They are all definitely part of the A-List in my book! Thanks to every single vendor and venue mentioned, we had the wedding of our dreams and I would not change one single thing even if I could!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Erika J · July 5, 2010

EVERYTHING LOOKS AMAZING!!!

Congrats on a BEAUTIFUL and sucessful wedding

loved your cake.

Donie Jordan · July 5, 2010

Liz, You were such a gorgeous bride! Thank you so much for all your posts throughout your planning and for your review. Without your site visit post we would have never found Cabo del Sol! Congrats!! I'm so glad you were pleased with everything, it looks like you had the perfect wedding!!!!!

Cindy* · July 5, 2010

Everything looks and sounds fantastic. I absolutely love your cake, it is gorgeous. You were a beautiful bride, I love your hair and your dress. Congratulations on having such an amazing wedding.

liznsergio · July 5, 2010

Thanks Ladies )

Donie, I am certain your wedding will be just as perfect!...on a side note, CDS has a delicious sunday brunch...it was really nice to go back the following day and enjoy the clubhouse all over again with a delicious brunch )