Mrsktobe's 11-11-2014 Wedding Review :)

[Mrsktobe]

 

 

Wow, what a trip! Can’t believe it came, went and is gone already – what an amazing time though with our friends and family in paradise, really enjoyed ourselves  It’s hard to believe all the planning and what not is over!
Anyway, onto the review:

Resort: Luxury Grand Bahia Principe Akumal
Length of trip: Wedding couple, 2 weeks. Everyone else, 7 days, 10 days or 2 weeks
Wedding Venue: Blue Venado Beach Club
Wedding date: November 11th, 2014.

The Resort:
We decided to stay at the Bahia Principe complex as we had stayed there a few times previous and love it there and wanted our guests to enjoy one of our favorite places  Also, as we had many different personalities on our trip and the fact that you could stay at one resort but play at all 4 was a big selling point for us.
The resort had changed over to Luxury status – I’m not sure if I would call it Luxury while we were there though. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing experience and we are pretty easy to please however they were still changing a lot of things over while we were there and there was confusion as a result for many of our guests or sub-par service. Like certain rooms not getting towels for days. But it is what it is.
We ended up being in villa 64, which was very close to the snack bar, pool & beach, perfect location. I would have liked ocean front but honestly, we aren’t too picky and it suited us just fine  As part of the luxury status, we had butler service, turn down service and deserts every night in our room. It was a nice added bonus, not that we used it very often but made our trip more special.
The resort, after staying at Coba three times previous, is just awesome. I loved being close to the ocean every step I took –it was just fantastic. The food was amazing, as part of the new branding to luxury, they had unlimited a la cartes and it was fantastic. I have medium grade IBS and the only thing that would make me sick was the snack bar food but honestly, I can’t eat that stuff here at home. So it was all good.
The only thing was the resort at times was too big – hard to run into everyone and hard to try and see everyone that we wanted. I found myself always spreading myself thin to people as it was almost too big to try and find everyone – but then again I had 50 people.  Maybe if you had a smaller number, it wouldn’t be as bad. But I still wouldn’t change it, I love the Bahia, I love the people – it was a wonderful time.
B-

The Wedding
What a perfect day. Honestly. I had prepared myself that something was going to go wrong as everyone says to do so but literally, besides my hippie nudist brother losing his 14 month old for a bit (he was found in the jungle mind you) nothing went wrong that was big stressor!

 

 

Makeup:
I used MVP Makeup and Artistry – all I can say Is WOW. Just amazing. Edgar was so wonderful to deal with and then meeting Melissa, she is the biggest sweetheart ever. And holy hell did she make all of us ladies look absolutely amazing. She is so good at what she does and takes such great pride in her work – I splurged to use her but I am so happy that I did – best investment that I made hands down. She is worth it! Her assistants are absolutely amazing as well – so talented, you can tell that she trained them extremely well. Even in the middle of her doing our hair and makeup, she would stop if something wasn’t right with one of the girls hair and advise them how to fix it or get them on the same page as her. Just awesome. If you are hesitating splurging and can do so, DO IT! You won’t regret it. I honestly have not felt more beautiful in my entire life.
A++++++ X 1000 lol

 


Getting Ready – Hotel Akumal Caribe
We weren’t able to bring Melissa and them on site as Bahia has these rules about vendors and such, so I ended up getting a room at the Hotel in Akumal bay and getting a taxi to take the ladies there that morning and back (as it was only a 5 minute drive) Best decision I made, the hotel is clean, spotless and has amazing views of the beach. It was the perfect place to get ready in and way more relaxing than being rushed and hiding from the husband that morning at the resort  My maid of honor went to Turtle bay Bakery and grabbed some muffins, croissants & other delicious stuff that was freshly made – just amazing. Even if you are not staying in Akumal, make sure you go there and get their baked goods or homemade ice cream! 
A+

 

Transportation
We used Rutas Hispanics and they were fantastic. Very clean, comfortable vans and very good service. A+
Blue Venado
Absolutely wonderful. Wow, what an amazing place to have a wedding. I had heard such good things from a few of the ladies on here about it but apart from seeing pictures of the venue online, I had not seen it in person. We went for our taste testing the Friday before the wedding and holy man, we were in awe. It’s on a private beach with nothing else close by – 100% private. When you come out from the jungle road and it opens to the beautiful ocean, you are just taken back.

FOOD
The food was amazing. We had our taste testing and tried the shrimp bisque, mixed greens salad, spinach and cheese ravioli, steak with foi gras sauce and truffle oil and cheesecake & Tiramusu.
We ended up going with the shrimp bisque, steak with foi gras sauce and truffle oil (with a potato and veggies on the side) and cheesecake for desert. EVERYONE was raving about how amazing the food was. The chef, Angel, is just a “angel” (lol corny I know) but he is absolutely amazing at what he does. There was literally no flaw with the food. They also supplied homemade bread with the meal – wow, everyone was raving about that. SOOO good. I just want to go back and eat the food, 6 weeks later I am still craving it 
We had cocktail hour after the ceremony and had prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe, cream cheese tarts, tempura shrimp, tuna sushi & blue cheese chicken. They were all delicious but everyone raved about how good the shrimp and blue cheese chicken was. In fact, we went back there for an excursion a week later and Angel made us some of the chicken for us, it was that good and they are that nice.
A+++++++++++ X 1000
 
DÉCOR
I’m not going to even describe it – here are some pictures. If you want to know everything I did, here is a link to my planning thread:

 

MUSIC
Part Planet - They were ok. We had sent them a list of what we wanted for our DJ list and they pretty much didn’t listen to what we had requested and played their own music, minus the Ukrainian music I had requested. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a fun time and people were up dancing but we had made our playlist with our guests in mind and as a result, a lot of the older folk didn’t even get up and dance. It was a little bit frustrating to pay them the money that we did and for them not to listen to us but it is what it is. I think maybe it was the language barrier or what not but I would not use them again. Also we had paid more money for the glass dance floor and ended up getting the acrylic one – it was what it was but just another frustration.
D-

Photographer
I’m a little bit biased because she is my sister in law but she is absolutely amazing at what she does – she does do destination weddings, so if you are looking for a good photographer with knowledge of the Mayan Riviera, look her up!
Captureitphotography.ca
We also had a second shooter, Laura McNaurma from Playa Loves Me Photography in PDC. She was so wonderful to communicate and work with, love the different angles and pictures that she took. 
A+++

Blue Venado Staff
Top notch. Amazing. Attentive and just plain awesome. Everyone was looked after, no one went without a drink for too long. They were just absolutely fantastic. I think they had a good time too, I heard from some of my guests that they got a few of the waitresses up dancing!


Wedding Coordinator
absolutely amazing. Joyce wsa just so wonderful to work with - attentive to detail and always responding to emails right away and being patient with me. I had a vision for our day and she worked with me to try and get it to come to life, which it did in the most amazing way I could of ever imagined. Day off she made everything run smoothly and took care of any issues that arose. Melanie was fantastic as well, we wanted to get pizza as our late snack and she went to PDC to go pick it up and bring it back for us.. so awesome. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Joyce for anything - she was the best wedding coordinator hands down. I am happy I had the chance to meet her and have now gained a life long friend

It was just a wonderful wonderful day. Looking back at our pictures now makes me want to relive it over and over!!

 

P.S - here are some trash the dress photos my sister in law took

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2014 by Mrsktobe

[AllieH]

love it!!!! thanks for sharing your experiences. 

[calgarybride2015]

Beautiful pictures. I'm

So happy it was the wedding of your dreams.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tygrrlily]

Love the review and pics -  You look gorgeous!

 

Blue Venado looks like an awesome off resort venue

[acw271011]

Great review! And congrats! You definitely looked amazing! The photos are gorgeous. My first question is always the dress! lol So who's the designer? It's beautiful!

 

I looked at Blue Venado but I don't want sand so I had to take it off the list. Otherwise it looks great and it sounds like they did a super job for you!

[Mrsktobe]

Great review! And congrats! You definitely looked amazing! The photos are gorgeous. My first question is always the dress! lol So who's the designer? It's beautiful!

 

I looked at Blue Venado but I don't want sand so I had to take it off the list. Otherwise it looks great and it sounds like they did a super job for you!

Thank you! It's Sophia Tolli and it's the Jillian style. It was the perfect dress and definitely easy to pee in

 

They definitely did - so impressed and happy with how everything turned out!