Dear past and future brides,
Thanks for all your input along my wedding planning journey. We had our wedding at Paradisus on April 26, 2015 and it was amazing. We had 107 guests in total. My husband and I didn't want to leave! We were having such a wonderful time with all of our friends and family. After reading a lot of mishaps that brides had with their weddings, I was very nervous. However, I thoroughly planned each detail not to leave any room for error. There were a few mishaps but all very minor and didn’t ruin anything. Overall the staff was great and really helped us pull off a great wedding. I'd like review the vendors we used:
I'll start with the resorts wedding department. It was stressful dealing with planning through the romance office, but everything was done. Our romance coordinator was Bianca. She was helpful and always answered me quickly. Our on-site coordinator was Lucero (and Araceli was helping also). Both of them were a pleasure to work with. They were willing to help with everything. Very sweet girls!
Florist/décor: Alquimia
Working with Perla was excellent! Yes, in the beginning she took a long time to respond to emails, but that's just how it works there. They deal with you in order of priority - if your wedding is in 6 months, you're not a priority. When it is closer to your wedding date, everything will get done, so don't worry! Perla created exactly what I envisioned, and she worked with the budget we gave her. On the day of the wedding, everything looked 10 times more beautiful than I expected. The resort now switched to another vendor, Planner 1, but I requested to continue working with Perla and I highly recommend you request to work with her as well. She's the best!
Audio/DJ/lighting: JSAV
We used JSAV for audio equipment rental, TV rental and lighting. Steve was very quick to reply to emails and very fair in his pricing as well. We flew down our DJ/musicians so we didn’t need those services from Steve. Our musicians brought their own laptops and wireless microphones, and Steve provided the speakers and some other things. Steve helped our musicians set up their equipment for the welcome party and wedding. One of our musicians later complained to us that they were having a sound issue and Steve wasn’t helpful. I wish I knew this at the wedding so that I would approach him myself and have it fixed. Overall he was easy to work with and I'd recommend him.
Photo/video: Sweet Caribbean Photo
We used an outside vendor – Sweet Caribbean Photo. One word – AMAZING! We were going to use Blue Lens at first (now called Wedding Day Story), but we switched to Sweet Caribbean about 3 months ago. The main photographer is Dani, she is super friendly and talented. The rest of her team consists of her husband Guillermo and his brother and best friend. They are all extremely creative. They flew a drone with a camera attached to it over our ceremony and recorded the whole thing. They used GoPro's to get some really cool images as well. I'm waiting to receive all pictures and videos from them (should get it by the end of the month), but I'm confident that it will all be amazing. I'll update my review when I receive everything. Their prices are very reasonable as well. With the vendor fee, we spent the same amount we would have spent on Blue Lens. Highly recommend!!!
Hair/makeup: Tania Tagle
This was super important to me. I wasn’t completely happy with the hair & makeup I had done for our engagement photos during our site visit at YHI Spa, so I searched for a different option. Tania Tagle does amazing work! She has a studio in Cancun but I didn't want to travel so far, and the resort charges a huge vendor fee, so Tania gave me a great idea – we booked a room in a nearby hotel (City Express Playa del Carmen). It was a 10 min ride from the resort. Tania and her team met us there. She uses high quality products and provides airbrush makeup. My hair and makeup were just perfect and lasted all day!
Rabbi: Steve Spiegel
Rabbi Steve was great! We had a Jewish interfaith ceremony incorporating Christian and Muslim prayers. Our guests loved how he was so spiritual and open minded. The ceremony was truly beautfiful thanks to him. He's funny and charismatic and we highly recommend him. He also took some time to respond in the beginning, but like I mentioned before, everything gets done closer to the wedding so don't worry.
YHI Spa
I used the spa for a manicure and we also had massages at the spa. A lot of our guests had their hair & makeup done there and they were happy as well. If you're not too picky with makeup and don't need airbrush, then I think YHI should be fine.
If I think of anything else I'll add on!
Good luck with future planning 
I'll be happy to help!