My Mayan Wedding Review.

[SandalGirl]

I hope I'm putting this in the right place.  It's been five months since our AMAZING day, and I've been a little tardy about my review. It will be pretty short and sweet.

 

Resort:  Occidental Grand Xcaret - B+

 

This resort was pretty good.  We chose it because it fit our guests budget (and ours) and it had the disco we wanted (party crowd), pools and location.  People all had a great week there, and overall everyone was happy.  The food was only so-so, but the service was good, pools were good and a good time was had.

We had Marialma as our wedding planner and she was fantastic.  We met with her a few days ahead of time, did our blood work for a our legal ceremony, and I gave her the pictures of the flowers/cake I wanted.  Everything turned out exactly as I wanted the day of - all due to her! We had our ceremony at the gazebo, and a semi-private reception/dinner at the Steak restaurant.  The day was more beautiful and amazing than we had imagined, and our guests repeated this sentiment often.

 

Photographer - Dean Sanderson Wedding Photography - A+

 

Dean was amazing to work with, and the easiest decision to make in our process.  We met him ahead of time in Vancouver, BC, and we did engagement photos, which we were THRILLED with.  Dean met us at our resort the day of, and we had another blast with him.  He is easygoing, and it was as if we had a good friend shooting our wedding (and, we kind of did). We also did a trash the dress with him a few days later, at our second resort.  We have the most amazing wedding photos EVER, and have gotten more compliments from friends than I could have imagined.  In a word, they are STUNNING.  He captured every look, smile, and feeling on our day.  I could NOT be happier with Dean and his service.

 

Hair/Make-up - Doranna Botelli - B

 

Doranna actually did a really good job of everyone's hair, especially mine.  Everyone was happy, my hair was fantastic. (Not exactly as I had pictured, but still gorgeous.) What made me go with a B on this one is price.  I just can't believe how much it cost.  I did it because I didn't want to take the risk of the resort spa, but I will never pay that much on myself again.  I used Doranna's make-up lady as well (I forget her name) and she also did an amazing job.  They will make you look amazing, they just cost an arm and a leg!

 

2nd Resort/Honeymoon:  El Dorado Royale Resort - A

This resort was not as 'jungly' as our first, but it had the most amazing food I have EVER eaten.  There were no buffets, just restaurants, and all were fantastic.  The drinks were also much tastier than our first resort. Our swim-up suite was fantastic, we had our own little pool to lay in, which I HIGHLY recommend, as the beach beds/chairs and the beds/chairs at the pools were ALWAYS full, which was quite annoying.  People would leave their towels on them all day and I'm too much of a weenie to take them off. All in all, we were very happy with this resort.