Wedding at Hola Grand Faro / Crowne Plaza

[Cassalynn]

Hey Jessica,

 

I am having my wedding at Hola Grand Faro and using Baja weddings, at first I was not impressed with Baja weddings, but than my original planner " no longer works for the company" and therefore I have a new planner who is on it!! She always getting back to me in a timely manner. She also sends me ideas for flowers, center pieces and what not and ensures that I am staying with in my budget. The only thing for you is that you are planning on 50 people with a budget of 6K so a wedding planner may not be an extra expense that you might want to do. For me it is going to cost me around $2,000 for 50-60 people for the wedding planner. Maybe you could talk them down? But so far its been pretty good and worth it...

[mrssuzuki87]

I am booking this week at Hola (May 19, 2012!!) and decided to just got with the hotel WC.  I got a quote from Baja and it was for $2,300 and over $10,000 for my whole wedding...way over budget. I am an event planner here in the states, so I don't think it will be hard for me to contact the vendors, ect since I do this for a living! I have been talking with Larisa at Hola and she has been great so far.

 

Haven't gotten the vendors yet from the WC (since not final yet technically), but I have been looking at vendors ppl have been recommending.  What vendors have you booked so far? 
 

Originally Posted by Cassalynn 

Hey Jessica,

 

I am having my wedding at Hola Grand Faro and using Baja weddings, at first I was not impressed with Baja weddings, but than my original planner " no longer works for the company" and therefore I have a new planner who is on it!! She always getting back to me in a timely manner. She also sends me ideas for flowers, center pieces and what not and ensures that I am staying with in my budget. The only thing for you is that you are planning on 50 people with a budget of 6K so a wedding planner may not be an extra expense that you might want to do. For me it is going to cost me around $2,000 for 50-60 people for the wedding planner. Maybe you could talk them down? But so far its been pretty good and worth it...

 

[Cassalynn]

As for vendors I am still working on a few. So far my DJ is Aidan and that will be around $1000, I actually contacted him before my planner did and he quoted me slightly cheaper than my planner quoted me to use him.

 

We are having a Mariachi band for my cocktail hour, they are a little pricey, around $500 for the hour. The is suppose to be 12 of them ( so they better be good for that price!!).

 

I am still picking out flowers so I will have to get back to you on that one

 

As for my make up a friend of mine is doing it, and as for my hair I am still searching. The person my planner recommended may not work because my bridesmaids will probably all do their own hair so therefore they wont come out to my hotel if its just to do my hair, so again I will have to get back to you.

 

As for a photographer we are bringing are own... I was considering I think his last name was Fraiser... He was about $500 an hour.

[mrssuzuki87]

I am using all the same vendors! So cool!  Did anyone rent linens or use what the hotel has?
 

Originally Posted by docadri 

I will let you know! Yes I am sad Maria is leaving as she has been great with planning! 

 

I am using Miguel Ventura for photography--- Maria had great things to say about him and his work is awesome. (Also much cheaper than Mango)

 

We chose Cabo Flowers after I contacted many florists and they were the most on top of everything. A little expensive, but again, Maria had nothing but good things to say of them. 

 

DJ - we spoke with a few, and chose DJ Ricardo. 

 

Hope this helps  

 

[mrssuzuki87]

Hey girls!

 

Was wondering if you heard anything great about the hair and makeup Hola offers with at their spa??

 

Anyone have any place to recommend?

 

Happy Planning!

 

Thanks!

Jessica

[jenjosh2012]

Hey Ladies, how did everyones weddings/plannings go? I am planning to marry at Hola and have been (attempting) to deal with the WC there, Larisa...she doesnt get back for days, never calls, only emails and I have been waiting for a contract for over 10days!! We were going to go with the Splendour Under the Stars but I am def going to downgrade due to the way I have been treated...

Does anyone know if you can use their chuppa and chiars/linens if you do not use the wedding packages/wc from the hotel, or do they charge you for it if you use an outside wedding planner?

Also, has anyone checked out EMWeddings? Thanks!

[mrssuzuki87]

Hey Jen!

 

I don't know if the other brides are on here anymore, because I get no response when I post on here.  But I can help you!

 

So far everything has been great dealing with Larisa.  Yes it does take some time to get a response, but it is what it is when you aren't paying for an actual coordinator to help. She deals with other events besides weddings so she is super swapped I would say.

 

In regards to your contract, re-email her about this.  If it takes longer than a week for me to get a response, I just resend so its at the top of her emails lol

 

The "Splendour Under the Stars" package they have is actually something that is new...the package is pretty much the same as I am getting but it wasn't sold to me as a package...just a per person cost then if I get 10 rooms booked I get the $500 package for free.  So I don't know how to answer that questions for you.  I would guess that everything is still included.

 

I am getting their chuppah for free (decorated by Cabo Flowers) and using all their tables & linens.  I am getting tiffany chairs, wicker chargers and color napkins brought in for the reception (through Larisa's vendor that only speaks spanish)...she is taking care of that for me.  I bought my own color runners since they are really expensive to rent and way cheaper to just buy!

 

Don't know anything about EMWeddings...I requested a list of vendors she recommends and researched off that list.

 

Hope this helps...just keep emailing!!  That's what I do! lol

 

[jenjosh2012]

Thanks for your reply!

Did you contact Cabo Flowers yourself? I emailed them and they gave me what i think is very reasonible pricing - i am getting 4 small arrangements for the chuppha legs for 100, bag of colored petals $50, flower arrangements for chairs along the aisle $25/each and $12 for flowers for hair. delivery is 75 and then tax. 

The judge she said she booked for 6pm for us which we are praying is true (not sure if that was the only time avail or if she just thought that would be the best time for us...we never got any other option), judge/paperwork/bloodwork $600.

Hair and make-up $235 - not sure who she uses but have heard suzzane morel is the only way to go and worth the extra money (do not know how much extra she is).

We were going to go with "thepictureguy" as per larisa's advice however I speake with another wedding planner in the area who said that we should go with someone more experienced to get quality pictures rather than quantity.

I had asked her if the $500 free package could be applied towards the other packages if we had a lot of guests and she said no, which is fine because we wont have near as many people as planned.

If you have any other tips or any suggestions that would rock! Thanks!!

[mrssuzuki87]

Yes I have contact everyone myself beside the chair/napkin/charger rental place.  I got quotes for a few people...from photographer/videographer, flowers, DJ, Reverend...

 

These are who I am using:

-Cabo Flowers (Donna has been AWESOME), quick reply and very helping with pics, ect.

-Miguel Ventura (Super nice and quick reply as well)

-DJ Ricardo (great to work with..has great reviews...quick reply)

-Reverend Marco (we are getting just a symbolic ceremony..easier for us) Can't help you with that

 

Hair and Makeup I am going to be using their spa most likely...they don't have a salon but they come to your room..I have to get more info on that.  it was wayyyy cheaper than Susanne Moral....I looked her up too but I can't imagine spending $200 on my hair.  The spa was only $60+ for hair & $80 for makeup.

 

These are who she sent me for photographers back in July...search photographers on this site too...I wouldn't just pick them because Larissa said too

Photographers:

 

Ariel Campos

http://www.arielphotographer.com/

 

Tomas Barron

 http://www.tomasbarron.com/

 

Jerome Dieu

http://www.mangoweddings.net/

 

Miguel Ventura

http://www.caboimage.com/

 

The only suggestion I would say is to ask questions!  I always write down my questions as they come and send her an email with everything...then she replies with responses to each!  Better to get everything out while she is reading your email! lol

 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me I am happy to help! mrssuzuki87@gmail.com

 

This site is great so if you can't talk to her about vendors ect...use this forum!! My life saver!

 

Happy Planning!

[Ducker]

Hello Everyone,

 

I apologize for not posting earlier. We got married at the Hola Grand Faro in Oct and it was amazing. This is who we used:

 

1) Wedding planner - Maye Cortinas (very reasonably priced...like 1/3 of what Baja Weddings quoted us)

She was great. Did everything we asked and took care of organizing everything on the wedding day...we had no worries. We did find our own vendors because originally we weren't going to hire an outside coordinator and we had already booked some of the vendors prior to signing an agreement with Maye (I'll note this info below). We decided to have an additional outside coordinator because we had around 60+ guests and we thought it was worth the extra $1000 to have the peace of mind. It was definitely worth it! Larisa was very nice, but I think if we just had Larisa and not Maye as well, it would have been chaotic. If you have fewer guests though, maybe you can just go with Larisa.

 

2) DJ Fradal - We booked him ahead of time. Was a good DJ. Did what we asked. Couldn't have expected anything more from him.

 

3) Cabo Flowers - We booked them with Maye. They were fine. We brought a lot of decor ourselves (i.e. silk flowers), so only used Cabo Flowers for bouquets, corsages, etc.

 

4) Photographer - Mango Weddings, Jerome Dieu. We booked him ahead of time. This guy was awesome. Very professional. Had our pics to us on time. Excellent quality, excellent photographer. Very reasonably priced. Think he charged us around $4000 for everything, which included video, book, 1 hour engagement session a few days before the wedding.

 

5) Lighting, audio/video equipment for slideshow, etc - Ambar - got them through Larisa before hiring Maye. They were fine. All equipment and lighting for rehearsal dinner and reception were great. No problems.

 

6) Table decor / tiffany chairs - We booked through Maye. She got us a better price than Larisa could get us. For table centerpieces we used large glass vases, filled them with silk flowers and had floating candles. This saved us a ton of money on flowers and looked so much nicer than if had flower centerpieces.

 

Hope this helps!